Chapter 1 Prologue

• The third rule of hunting was to keep the prey closer, but not too close. Evana knew this. She had kept to this rule till a while ago, now it seemed like the most impossible rule to keep when it involved a Vampire. Most especially him.
• His scent evaded her nose, Cinnamon and mint? She never knew such mixture would be so calming, intriguing and masculine till she met him.
• What was he doing here? She closed the creaking door shut behind her as her eyes roamed around the long rows of shelves. She had usually been the only person around here by this time of the day, this was her safe haven. Well... Not until he discovered her spot.
• He shouldn't be her.
• Liar. Her mind taunted her. She knew he was going to be here.
• Evana knew the best thing to do was to turn around and leave the Library. She could always come back to find the book she was looking for. She could always come back, when he wasn't around.
• Keep your prey closer, but not too close. Alarm bells went off in her head.
• But her legs had other plans
• Moonlight bled through the clear glass windows of the library, it casted a cascading light on his shadow.
• Lucien.
• There he was. Leaning casually on a bookshelf with a thick book in his hand.
• Breathtaking. No! Dangerous. He was Dangerous. She definitely was not going to take notice of his shirt which was open at the collar and trailing down midway through his chest, the ridges of his collar bone catching the light like a dare and his chiseled chest... No. She was not going to look!
• His hair was tousled like he had ran his hand through it, a habit of his. She noticed. Speaking of his hands...His biceps shredded and firm through his shirt which hugged them tightly. Her throat suddenly went dry.
• "There you are." His deep and raspy voice trailed to her, "took you long enough." He looked up from the book in his hand, clapping it shut.
• She swore she could listen to him talk all day just to hear the melodious baritone rumble out of his chest and through her ears
• Focus Evana! She chided herself for the umpteenth time.
• "What are you doing here?" She asked coldly. She walked past him and to the shelf where her favorite books were. Her favorite spot.
• "You shouldn't be here either." He called. She could hear his feathery footsteps trailing behind her.
• "You promised not to tell, didn't you?" Evana busied herself with looking through the shelves for the book she had come to find.
• Oh. There it was! She glanced high up on the shelf. An annoyance rose in her chest. She had read it yesterday and had kept it at an arm's length. Someone must have read it too and had dropped it at the top of the shelf.
• She was a tall lady, but not so tall to reach the top shelf.
• "Yeah, I said I was not going to tell, didn't say I wasn't going to come around." His voice was closer. He was now behind her, she was sure.
• Annoyed by both the distance of her book and the effect his voice was having on her, she snorted, "Suit yourself, D'Aragon.
• She tipped her toes and stretched her hand to grab the book. Close. Closer. And..
• A long and fine hand grabbed the book with ease right behind her.
• No, he didn't!
• She turned around, ready to give him the piece of her mind only to see him staring right down at her. Too close. Way too close for comfort.
• "The Blood hunt." He looked down at the book and back at her, "Interesting choice."
• He did not know half of it. She evaded his eyes.
• "Give it back." She said in a controlled voice. She had found a book detailing the Vampire raid, and she was so interested. She was this close to finding her answer, but with it sitting pretty in the hands of the man whose parents were the potential murderers and bloodsuckers of her parents and with whom she had a weird sexual tension, she was having a hard time.
• "You were saying?" He asked, bringing the book down to his side and stepping even closer.
• Evana took a quick step back, only that her back hit gently against the shelf. There was nowhere to run.
• "I was saying I want to be left alone." She did not sound as apathetic as she wanted to sound. Her voice was almost breaking.
• "Is that so?" His Silver eyes glistened down at her. She was more aware of his well-formed and pointed nose, his sabre-like brows that arched upward in question and a knife-like scar that cut through his left brow. Her eyes trailed down to his lips.
• She wanted to run. She did not like the way her legs felt like jelly. They couldn't move. She did not know how long she was going to hold up. This man had a way of getting under her skin in a way she did not like. A way she knew would ruin her.
• A humorless laughter rumbled through his chest, sending chills down her spine. His eyes narrowed dangerously,
• He trailed his fingers around her chin, making Evana tremble in her shoes." You follow me around like a little pet, you cause me a whole lot of trouble and force yourself into my heart, now you want to be left alone?"
• Well... That was one way to put it.
• "I didn't force my way to your heart." Evana swallowed hard.
• Evana saw an opening. She could kill him now, end him, his neck was bare to her. His weakness. He had told her the other day. She could do it right now and declare mission complète.
• But her hands were limp by her sides.
• "Say you don't feel it?" He asked. His eyes searched her face.
• "I don't." She ground her teeth and clenched her hand.
• She wanted to evade him so bad. The heat emanating from his body was too comforting; she felt alarmed. If she was not going to eliminate him, she was to be on her heels, bolting away from him till she could muster every bone in her to kill him, that was if she could.
• "Lies." He leaned down, his lips brushing the shell of her ear.
• She hated the surety in his voice and even more the truth in it. She hated him so much. Hated the complexities that came with him, hated him for making her feel the way she did.
• For making her ache for his touch.
• "Eve, you are ruining me." His voice breathed down on her neck. She wanted to scream, 'Likewise!' But instead, she said, "Don't call me that, you know I hate it."
• His eyes trailed down to her lips, "Do you?"
• There. She could see the vulnerability holding still in his eyes, mirroring hers.
• Maybe that was what made her snap. To ghost her lips over his and trail her tongue over his fangs.
• He was right after all. Calling her Eve. She had a knack for forbidden fruits, didn't she?
• As she heard him growl under her lips, that was when it became clear to her... She was no longer the hunter, she had long become the prey.