Prologue

*If you think you know the story of Cinderella of how she attended the ball and captured the attention of the prince… think again.

There were no fairy godmothers, no pumpkin carriages, and no glass slippers.

There was only blood.*

A very long time ago, humans were at war with supernatural forces.

To the north, vampires won the war against men through persecution and bloodshed. Their enhanced, half-living anatomies made them impenetrable to weapons of any kind, and they outlived their enemies by decades.

When the mortal king succumbed to the living dead, a vampire claimed the throne and was crowned. Those who refused to bow before him were fed to his armies or suffered the consequences of their defiance by his own hand.

Yet half-living, vampires can’t populate the world by means of humans, and the king had to find a way of siring an heir.

And so, the Centurial Ball was announced.

Every hundred years, when a new vampire king is crowned, a kingdom-wide ball is held where he is to choose a mortal woman to sire an heir. A new law was raised: Every noble human family is to send one of their daughters to attend the ball or suffer the consequences.

Only one daughter was required.

One of nobility and status.

So, for years, this cycle repeated itself, thus ensuring the legacy of each newly crowned vampire king.