Laura Wright - Eternal Sin

Balas —Vampire child.

Beast—Another, and far less derogatory, name for mutore .

Bloodletter—A Pureblood vampire with the ability to remove memory, emotion, and sickness from the mind of a Pureblood. According to their laws and beliefs, they will not touch an Impure for fear of tainting their gift.

The Breeding Male—A paven of purest blood whose genetic code and structure has been altered by the Eternal Order. He has the ability to impregnate at will and to decide the sex of the balas . He is brought in by Pureblood families to repopulate one sex or the other in times of dire necessity. He is uncontrollable, near to an animal, and must be caged.

Credenti —A vampire community, ruled and protected by the Eternal Order. Both Purebloods and Impures live here. There are many such communities all over the world, masked by the Order so that humans barely notice their existence.

Duro —Tender word for “brother.”

Eternal Order—The ten Pureblood vampires who have passed on to the middle world, yet make the laws, punish the lawbreakers, and govern every vampire credenti on Earth.

Eyes—The New York City street rats who run the sales of drugs, blood, and bodies to both human and vampire.

Factions—Areas within the Rain Forest community that shelter different types of shifters. The Rain Forest Factions are Avians, Mountain Beasts, Land Dwellers, and Water Lords.

Gemino —Twin.

Gravo —Poisoned vampire blood.

Imiti —An imitation vampire, one who can take on the characteristics of a vampire if he or she drinks blood regularly.

Impurebloods—Any combination of human and vampire. They have no powers, no heartbeat, and can live in the sun. They have fangs only when blood is consumed. Males are blood castrated, their sex drive removed through the blood by the Order. Females are blood sterilized and branded with an I on the inside of their thighs.

Impure Resistance—The rise of the Impures who wish for equality within the Eternal Breed.

Meta—The transition every Pureblood female makes into adulthood. Happens at fifty years of age. Though the female can still remain in sunlight, she needs and craves the blood and body of her true mate.

Mondrar—Vampire prison.

Morpho—The transition every Pureblood paven makes into adulthood. Happens at three hundred years of age. This state of being is as powerful as a paven can get. He is sunlight intolerant, and the need to find his true mate becomes impossible to deny.

Mutore —A Pureblood vampire shape-shifter. A Beast. A child of the Breeding Male gone wrong. Is considered less than trash, and a bad omen for the breed. Is usually killed right after birth when he or she shifts for the first time.

Paleo—The Order’s secret location where Impures are blood castrated.

Paven —A vampire male of pure blood.

Pureblood—Pure vampire. Powerful, no heartbeat. Will go through Morpho and Meta and find a Pureblood true mate.

Puritita —One who is chaste.

Rain Forest—Secret, magically protected home of the shifter community.

Sacro —Dirty.

Shifters—Humans with animal DNA, who can take the form of their animal counterpart at will.

Similis —The Impure guards of Mondrar.

Swell —Vampire pregnancy.

Tegga —Nursemaid/nanny/governess.

True Mate—The one each Pureblood veana and paven is destined for. True mates share an identical or complementary mark somewhere on their skin.

Veana —A vampire female of pure blood.

Veracou—The mating ceremony between two Pureblood vampires.

Virgini —Virgin.

Witte —Animal.

The hawk shifter flew overhead, circling Petra in the cloudless sky as she stumbled back and forth in front of the mouth of the cave—the same Rain Forest cave she’d pulled a burning, fiercely stubborn Synjon Wise into after he’d tried to follow his lover into the sun seven months ago.

Now it was Petra’s turn.

Not to burn, but to feel the constant aftershocks of a misery she couldn’t shake.

Tears ran down her cheeks, another great sob exiting her tight throat. She was in so much pain. Unimaginable and inescapable. Her body, her swollen belly, her mind, her heart . . .

No. She had no heart. It was silent. An empty, useless organ.

It was a realization that had once filled her with curiosity. She was a vampire. A veana . Not a shifter, like her adopted family. Gone were the perpetual feelings of being an outcast among a society who wanted nothing more than to embrace her. Now she had living proof of her own existence. Now her questions could truly be answered.

Whom did she belong to? Where were others like her? What could she expect from her life? How long would that life be?

He had gifted her with those answers. That male. The dark-haired, dark-eyed paven who’d come to the Rain Forest to bury his beloved, and himself if Petra hadn’t been there to stop him. Inside the shelter of her tree house so many months ago, Synjon Wise had told her everything, offered her a future. He’d just had to kill someone first. She could hear his voice in her head even now. That deep, rich accent.

“Vengeance before romance, love .”

But the one he’d had to kill, the one who had murdered his Juliet, well . . . he was Petra’s only connection with the outside world. Her only connection to her blood. He was her father.

Cruen.

Another pained cry wrenched from Petra’s lungs, from deep inside, from the place where the ache seemed to originate, and she stopped and gripped the cool, moist curve of the cave’s entrance.

She heard her mother’s voice somewhere behind her. “What can we do?” Not the mother who had given her life, but the one who had raised her. As part of her pride, a cub to be cherished.

The beautiful lion shifter Wen had been the best mother any creature, shifter or vampire, could hope for. Now she nearly wailed in pain at Petra’s distress.

“I don’t know,” said the other female, the one who had brought Petra to the Rain Forest a week ago. This was her biological mother, Celestine. A Pureblood vampire who was as desperate to make up for lost time and bond with her daughter as Petra was to push her away.

She didn’t need another parent. Especially not one who considered her part in creating Petra a grave mistake.

“You’re a vampire, like her,” Wen continued, her unsteady voice carrying on the breeze. “Surely you’ve seen this kind of—”