Demon Blood

into writing this tale. The characters are deep, as is the world that is set up.”
    — The Romance Readers Connection

    “Brook . . . creates fantastic death-defying love . . . Extremely erotic . . . with a paranormal twist.”
    — Fresh Fiction

    “Intriguing . . . The sex is piping hot.”
    — Romance Reviews Today

    “I look forward to many more tales from Ms. Brook.”
    — Joyfully Reviewed

Titles by Meljean Brook
    DEMON ANGEL
DEMON MOON
DEMON NIGHT
DEMON BOUND
DEMON FORGED
DEMON BLOOD

    Anthologies

    HOT SPELL
(with Emma Holly, Lora Leigh, and Shiloh Walker)

    WILD THING
(with Maggie Shayne, Marjorie M. Liu, and Alyssa Day)

    FIRST BLOOD
(with Susan Sizemore, Erin McCarthy, and Chris Marie Green)

    MUST LOVE HELLHOUNDS
(with Charlaine Harris, Nalini Singh, and Ilona Andrews)

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    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

    DEMON BLOOD

    A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author

    PRINTING HISTORY
    Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / July 2010

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    eISBN : 978-1-101-44225-8

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To Charles and Lori Holbrook, with love

A BEDTIME STORY
    Three centuries ago, there lived in Florence a little girl beloved by her mother, father, and young brother. Though she was not a princess, as many girls in these stories are, the wealth and power of her family made such distinctions irrelevant.
    Unbeknownst to that happy family, their wealth and power also attracted a demon.
    When the girl was seven years of age, her father journeyed to Rome and returned a changed man, as if someone else inhabited his skin. The words of love he’d once whispered to her mother became whispers of another sort, until she could bear him no longer. But when he thwarted each assassin she hired and the wounds he received quickly healed, when she poured enough poison to kill an army into his wine and he did not sicken or die, she poisoned her own cup.
    Darkness settled over the household. Quiet and frightened, the girl and her brother went largely unnoticed by their father, except for when he subjected them to small torments for his amusement. They noticed him, however, watching his movements as mice will watch a cat until it has left the room, and they saw that he neither slept nor ate. In rare moments, they glimpsed the crimson glow of his eyes, the appearance of scales over his skin, and cloven hooves. They witnessed him move inhumanly fast and fly with bats’ wings; they saw him battle and behead a