Secret Mate: Night Circus Series

Prologue I didn’t know where I was. I couldn’t even be sure that I’d opened my eyes because the darkness was so complete. A solid wall of blackness seemed to press into my body on all sides, so thick and solid that I could practically feel it brushing against my skin. Featherlight touches made me shiver. I didn’t want the darkness touching me. I didn’t, and yet I was powerless to stop it, powerless to even move my body an inch, even when I knew it was my body that I was feeling. It was the only thing I knew for certain. I was trapped in my own body. My mind sped a million miles an hour as I tried to make sense of what was happening to me. And there it was again. That touch. Not as light as the others. This one was firmer, like fingers running up my arm and sliding across my collarbone. I shivered, and it felt as if it was the first time I had felt my body move in God knows how long. “Time to wake up.” The featherlight touch skimmed down over the swell of my breasts. “Time to wake up, my love.” I blinked, and the darkness was as solid as it had been before, but it wasn’t the darkness that was touching me. It was a man, his form difficult to make out in the shadows. No. Not a man. A vampire. An honest-to-God vampire? Or a looney toon who thought he was one of the undead? It didn’t really matter at the end of the day. I remembered his face. I remembered the blur of it as he had rushed towards me at Desir Du Cirque. I didn’t need to see it again. Not ever again. It felt like I was waking up in a living nightmare, and I couldn’t get out of it. I was unable to move, unable to do anything but try to piece together what had happened to me and desperately try not to fall under the spell of his almost obscene voice. But I was powerless. “It’s time for you to remember. Remember who you are.” Something cool and wet touched my mouth. The smallest of kisses. “It’s time to remember me, Thana.”