Damned Desire

Everyone thinks being a vampire is easy: cool fangs, impossible strength, endless youth. ‎ ‎They’re wrong. ‎ ‎It’s a thousand little burdens: the hunger that never quits, the hiding, the rules, and having the Maestra as your mother. Mum—the one who keeps a list of expectations like commandments, thought I was an embarrassment. A mistake. She had Rick, her golden boy, the perfect son and the next Maestro-to-be. Her bright and sunny world. I was her dark, gloomy storm cloud. She loved what Rick was and hated what I represented: rebellion, carelessness. Except Rick wasn’t as spotless as she believed. Everyone hides something. ‎ ‎Then there’s the worst thing of all: soulmates. ‎ ‎Fated by the Great Deity, bound for eternity. For most, a blessing. For me—a curse. One hundred and fifteen years trapped in the same life is enough to make anyone pray for a quick end. ‎ ‎Worse, me and my brother Rick's fate wasn’t with a human or a witch—tolerable or useful respectively, but with a werewolf. The one creature our kind despises most. ‎ ‎Everything changed when we moved to New Jersey and started human school. It started in a classroom, in an ordinary moment that wasn’t ordinary at all. We couldn’t tell anyone. If anyone learned, our titles, our family's honor. Everything, could be at risk. Our mother would be humiliated. We could be exiled. Killed. ‎ ‎Everything was on the line, and we weren’t ready to lose it. ‎ ‎This is the story of how it began: how we fought the world to be together, how I believed I couldn’t sacrifice everything for someone, and how I convinced myself I couldn’t change. ‎ ‎I was wrong. ‎ ‎He changed me. ‎ ‎They changed us. ‎