WAIF

Paris has been a killer for 135 years.

As an operative for the Valensi-an ancient society the world mistakes for vampires-she has ended lives across three continents with precision and purpose. She rose through their ranks, earned their trust, became one of their most capable agents. A weapon. A guardian. An assassin when the situation required.

But she has never taken an innocent life. Not once in 135 years.

That was her line. Her code. The single thread of humanity she refused to surrender, no matter what they asked of her. She killed predators, abusers, monsters who had forfeited their right to breathe. The world was full of such people. She never had trouble finding them.

Now that code has cost her everything.

A single act of conscience-a refusal to cross the one line she swore she'd never cross-has made Paris a fugitive. The society that transformed her, trained her, and commanded her loyalty for over a century now wants her dead. And they have the resources, the reach, and the patience of immortals.

She flees to Florida with nothing but the clothes on her back and a lifetime of hard-won skills. She finds unexpected connections: a teenage runaway who reminds her too much of herself, a group of survivors carrying their own impossible secrets. She discovers that the conspiracy she stumbled into runs deeper than she imagined-and that the past she thought she'd escaped is closer than she knows.

Because Paris remembers everything. The Victorian streets where she learned that survival requires sacrifice. The brutal training that forged her into a weapon. The moment she decided what kind of monster she would be.

They made her. They just never understood what they created.

She's been surviving her whole damn life. She's not about to stop now.