Hey readers!. So, back in July, I decided I was going to work simultaneously on Blood Lust and editing Dragon Blood. I had a schedule, and I didn't really have a direction with Blood Lust so that monthly timeline would give me plenty of time to figure things out.

That plan has gone to shit and back. I got hired at a new hospital, there are staffing shortages so I'm working overtime, the fourth wave hit, the election happened here in Canada, and now my province is hopefully firing it's premier.

So here's the new plan. I'm taking a break from Dragon Blood. I'm not giving up on it, I plan on editing it fully and making it more cohesive and better. But I'm getting way more invested into Blood Lust now, and I guess I can only work on one project at a time. So Dragon Blood is going on the back burner for now, and the release schedule for Blood Lust is being moved up to weekly. Every Wednesday around 6:30 am MST (ish). 

I'm really excited for you guys to keep reading, I'm sorry that I have to make this compromise, but I don't want to burn out on writing as a whole.

So enjoy Chapter 5 and don't forget to vote and comment!

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Danika collapsed on her backside and tried to take deep, steadying breaths while her heart slammed against her chest. She hadn't had to work this hard since she was human. Actually, she wasn't sure if she ever had to work this hard.

Her fellow trainees weren't doing much better. Three others had collapsed before her, and the one remaining was only still on his feet because he was leaning over a low stone wall and puking from the intense training. "Corporal Greene!" their lieutenant barked, looking at the male on the wall with a curled lip. "That was pathetic!"

"I'm sorry, lieu-"

"Just look at Corporal Volkov! He didn't have the advantage of the wall, and he still managed to blow chunks a full three feet!" Greene heaved again, and the lieutenant nodded approvingly. "That's better! I want to see a better effort from all of you!"

Danika and the others started to laugh. The effort, the motion against her stomach, and the stench reaching her sensitive nose and very quickly became too much for her to handle. She rolled to her knees and vomited, managing to set a new record for the group at four feet.

Military life. It wasn't for everyone.

In a matter of minutes, the group was back on their feet and running sprints again. Not regular sprints done on a human level, but the type of sprints that used their magic and superior strength to practically teleport the distances.

It was one of those things that movies and television always got wrong about vampires. Yes, they could run faster and longer than humans, but using that level of magic that many times in a row took a lot of time and a lot of blood to do more than two or three times in a row. So soldiers in the Royal Vampiric Special Forces needed to be able to perform the action as many times as they needed to get the job done, and they couldn't risk collapsing from exhaustion in the middle of a situation that would otherwise get them killed.

Time for training, they had. Blood, however, was an issue. Every vampire in Europe was on rations, and the military was no different. If anything, since her promotion to corporal and the move two weeks ago, Danika was getting even less than she used to. A gnawing ache of hunger had become a persistent distraction in her life.

Was this what Kate had been feeling for five years? How did she do it?

Distracted by her hunger and oldest friend, Danika stumbled and slammed into the low wall. Her momentum forced her to do an awkward front flip midair before landing hard on her face. The rest of her group was laughing, and she felt the heat of embarrassment crawl up her face. They were never going to let her live that one down.

"Corporal Schell," the lieutenant barked. "Report!"

Mentally preparing herself for a verbal smackdown, she jogged towards the superior officer. Another officer dressed in an admin uniform stood beside him. She snapped a salute, fighting against the trembling in her arms. "Corporal Danika Schell?" the woman asked.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Lord Wes has requested your presence as soon as..." the woman blinked and took a noticeable step away from Danika. "As soon as you are presentable."

"Yes, ma'am."

The lieutenant excused her, and she ran for her housing unit, a thrill of excitement feeding new energy into her tired muscles. She was finally going to meet him! Two weeks and she had done litter more than wonder when she was going to meet the man who chose her out of a thousand other applicants. She hadn't even technically applied to work with him. It had simply been chance that he came back and dismissed the other three generals.

She prayed it was worth it. She left everything for this. Sure, it would leap-frog her career by several decades, something that a twenty-year-old newborn vampire could only dream of... but she left Kate behind. Danika loved her more than she loved her own blood-related sister. She was so excited to hear about the promotion, but Danika knew she was hurting.

Maybe that was why she didn't bother saying goodbye. Kate was a jack-of-all-trades sort of girl, but her best skill was running away. Avoiding conflict and hurt. It was just easier for her to turn off her phone and clear out her room before Danika got home. It was going to be a while before she got any short-term leave. The moment she did, the first thing she would do was find that bar and make sure Kate was okay.

Half an hour later, dressed in a fresh uniform and her still-wet hair pulled back in a tight bun, Danika stood outside the office of Nolan Wes, right-hand-vampire to the king, lord of the Counsel, and a legend among the vampires. Since she arrived, she had been told so many stories that she didn't know which ones to believe.

Some of the rumors were simply too outrageous to believe, like the one that claimed he was as old as the king. That was simply impossible. No vampire could live that long. Furthermore, she had strong doubts that the king was even that old. It was far more likely that when the time came for the king to be replaced, they simply gave him the same name and continued the legacy of Constantine Moureaux.

Some of the other things she had been told were just as crazy but could at least be backed up with proof, like the fact that he married into the infamous Dracula family. She had been told that he left in the first place because of his wife's death. Not only was there a marriage license, death certificate, and a damn statue in Romania honoring the woman, but his granddaughter had very recently been named heir of the Dracula family at the ripe old age of seventeen.

And then the craziest of them all. Something that was so recent and had blown up in every form of media, she didn't know how she didn't hear about it... he was dating a goddamn dragon. One of the many dragons that the world didn't even know about until recently. Seriously, how the hell do you hide one dragon, let alone five?! And the humans had it way worse. She grew up thinking there were only three until she was turned and was given access to a whole new world of information.

All of the news and the stories and everything she had read up about the man, she didn't know what to expect from him when the secretary finally told her she could go in. A man larger than life? Maybe grey-haired and full of wisdom? A middle-aged bureaucrat who used his privilege to get ahead and knew nothing about the real world? Or just an extremely lucky old vampire living out the last few years of service until he could retire.

Whatever she was thinking, it all vanished when she laid eyes on him for the first time.

He was so young! There was no way he was any older than thirty when he had been turned, and there were no signs of aging beyond that. Not a single grey hair to be seen, not even a wrinkle. Forget tens of thousands of years old, there was no way in heaven, hell, or the veil that this man was any older than a century or two.

It was only thanks to her training that she remembered to greet him with a salute and not stand there staring like an idiot. Although she wasn't sure if he even noticed. He was turned towards the window, so most of his back faced her, staring intently at some report in his hands.

And then he looked at her. It was a simple sideways glance, but it was enough for her to see the intense blue color of his irises. The look speared through her, and for the first time since joining the vampiric military, she was terrified. There wasn't a drop of emotion in those eyes, almost like staring into the eyes of a corpse.

"At ease, Corporal," he said in a much warmer tone than she expected. "Take a seat."

She did, perching on the edge of the chair. He turned to sit on the other side of the desk and never broke eye contact. The intense pressure and the ice in his eyes made her feel like she was trapped in a glacier.

"I apologize for making you wait so long for this meeting," he continued. "I hope you have taken the time to settle in."

"Yes, sir," she kept her answer short, so she wouldn't betray her fear.

"Then let's get straight into it. Your record is quite impressive for someone so young. Born human, applied to the consulate at sixteen, turned three days after your eighteenth birthday and immediately enrolled in the military after transitional training. Accelerated to the VSF within your first year. Your superior officers have nothing but glowing commendations about your service thus far. There is no doubt that you are on the path to a very successful career."

"Thank you, sir."

With slow, deliberate movements, he placed the report back in the file next to his elbow before lacing his fingers together and hitting her with the full intensity of his glare, and she flinched.

She had learned a little about recognizing magical signatures from Kate. She wasn't very good at it, and it wasn't a skill taught to the military... But she was able to feel that there was something extraordinary about this man and the power that radiated off him. There was a dangerous, volatile, and almost primal feel to his magic.

She didn't like it. Every instinct in her body told her to turn and run. But, once again, she had her training to thank that kept her ass firmly planted in that chair.

"What do you know about Tentation?"

The temperature in the room dropped to freezing. This was a test. He knew all the answers, and he was giving her an opportunity to make it easier on herself and confess. But how? She had been so careful and made sure that Tentation wasn't on the list of operations under observation for that night. It had been the full moon. There were more significant concerns than nightclubs that night.

He asked a question. She needed to answer. Just answer the question he asked, nothing more. "It's a night stalker club in the Fourth Arrondissement of Paris," she was careful to keep her voice even and light. "By the books and on the surface, it is a completely legal operation, but it has been investigated several times over the years due to suspicion of illicit feeding activity."

"Is that all you know?"

He was fishing for a specific answer. She had seen privates crack under this same tactic. He knew she had been there... but he didn't know what she had done there. He didn't know. "I have heard rumors, sir."

"What rumors?"

She swallowed to moisten her dry throat. "I have heard that the Counsel has turned a blind eye to the operation. Something about knowing that the law is going to be broken anyway, better they do it all in one place where the Counsel can keep an eye on it."

He nodded once, but his eyes continued to watch her with cold calculation. "Given its reputation, did you think it was wise for a recently promoted member of the VSF to go to such a place."

"Sir, in all honesty-"

"Corporal," He snapped, his voice finally matching the ice in his eyes. "If you have to declare your honesty, believing anything immediately after that becomes significantly more difficult."

Danika clenched her teeth together to keep her temper under control. She had an exemplary record as a part of a team, but one-on-one, her mouth got her in trouble. "Frankly, sir, I was off duty," she said shortly. "I was a civilian at the time. Therefore it is none of the military's business where I went or what I did. I was not given any written or verbal instruction to avoid Tentation, and it is not illegal for vampires to go there. So, I am wondering what exactly you are expecting me to say."

He didn't blink, and she never looked away. She fought to keep her focus on the matter at hand and keep a level head. Unfortunately, her anger was quickly souring into frustration and bitterness. She knew if she were male, no one would ever question what she was doing at a club the night after getting a major promotion.

After a long moment, Lord Wes finally blinked, and with it, his eyes softened into a warm sky blue. "You're right," his voice had softened again as well. "It is none of my business. I can make assumptions, of course, but without any verifiable proof, those assumptions are useless." He unfolded his hands and slid the file across the desk towards her. "We weren't following you. We weren't watching Tentation. This is who we were following."

She took the file and flipped open to the first page to the picture of the target. Her whole body went hot, and she wasn't able to stop it from creeping up her face. She recognized the male in the picture. He had become the subject of her dreams during the day and every unoccupied moment at night.

She had been drawn to him like a moth to a flame. He stuck out in the crowded bar over everyone else. Tall and broad-shouldered, with dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyes. He was the only thing in the world she could focus on. When he touched her... kissed her... fireworks had gone off in her chest. Spending the rest of the night and the following day in his arms had been...

Feeling sick, she closed the file again and pushed it away. "Who is he?" she asked, unable to meet Lord Wes's gaze.

"His name is Aarón Guerrero. Although, you may know him by what his people call him. The Alpha King."

Her eyes widened in horror. Bile welled up in her throat at the idea that she had been sexually involved with one of the mutts. A swell of heat in her nether regions followed as memories of that night flooded her mind. And then it hit her. "Alpha King?" she breathed, her eyes narrowing. "As in... He's a lycanthrope? That's... impossible. There was a full moon that night."

"Precisely. He should have been locked up in a vault. He was already a person of interest, but now we may have an..." He cast his eyes downward and heaved a sigh. "Opportunity to inject an operative to directly... observe him."

She stiffened. "I'm sorry, sir. I don't quite know what you mean."

His grimaced. Whatever he was suggesting, and she was pretty sure she knew what it was, he didn't like it any more than she did. "Danika,"

Oh, gods... he was using her first name. That was not a good sign.

"This is a... complicated situation. I do not like asking this... I will not ask this as your superior officer of the military or as your lord of the Counsel. I need you to know that you can refuse, and there will be no repercussions. You will still have a place on my team, and this will never be brought up again. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

His mouth twitched up in a weary smile. "You are the only vampire we know of who has ever gotten close to Guerrero without getting their head ripped off. If you are willing, I would like you to approach him again. Wait," he held up a hand to stop her from answering. "I cannot, in good conscience, let you make a decision without knowing exactly what you're getting into. You have to know that I cannot guarantee your safety. He may kill you. He may do much, much worse than that. If he accepts you into his circle, it could be years before we can make a move on him or extract you safely."

"I... sir, I don't have any training in covert operations."

"We will have to cram in as much training as possible with the black ops team in the next two weeks before the next full moon. I have full confidence in your ability to absorb it all."

"But you don't have confidence in my ability to execute it?"

"I don't have confidence in my, or anyone's, ability to predict what Guerrero or the other lycanthrope will do now. For centuries, lycan society has been stagnant. They don't evolve. A pack in Siberia, who has had no contact with a pack in Brazil, will have a nearly identical hierarchy. They are violent, they are dangerous, but they are predictable. Guerrero has ripped that rug out from under us."

Danika took a deep breath, trying to absorb everything she had been told in this meeting. "Sir," she started slowly. "I mean no offense, but shouldn't our focus be on the rebellion? Our people are suffering from this civil war, and you're trying to put a leash on a werewolf?"

"I can only deal with one crisis at a time," It was his turn to sigh. It was a heavy, world-weary sigh, and for a moment, he looked as old as everyone said he was. His eyes flicked up to the bookshelf, and she followed his gaze to a framed picture of a red-headed woman. "The generals are focusing solely on the blood shortage and finding Raphaël Laurent. They don't need me or my team looking over their shoulder. This werewolf that doesn't shift on a full moon... that is our current crisis. Even if you are unwilling to approach him, this is what you will be brought up to speed on. You don't have to make the decision now. You have-"

"I'll do it." His eyebrows rose, and she quickly added, "Sir."

"Are you sure? Danika, this decision should not be made lightly. The risk to your health and safety is significant."

"Sir, if I wasn't prepared to give my life for the vampires, I never would have made it through basic training. I can do this."

He studied her for a long time. His facial features hardened, and the ice was back in his eyes. Gone was the concerned, almost fatherly figure. All she saw now was Lord Nolan Wes. "Very well, Corporal. Let's begin."

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Nolan makes a reappearance! Except he's not Nolan, he's Lord Wes, so he's not exactly the loveable cuddlebug from Dragon Blood. What did you guys think? 

Don't forget to vote and comment, it really helps me out!

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