Previously: Newly-turned vampire Elliot Marshall and his vampire offspring, Lexi Cramer, have been challenged by Vladislaus Straud to build a clan consisting of members from the most powerful families around. Among others, he has named the Landgraabs, the Goths, and the Fengs as ideal candidates. Lexi knew Lily Feng from working as her cleaner and has reluctantly agreed to talk to her. Unfortunately, the date of the meeting falls on one of her less favorite holidays.

—

It was one of Lexi’s truly most detested days–a rare occurrence but a dreaded one. Love Day had fallen on the same day as the San Myshuno romance festival.

Lexi had nothing against others enjoying Love Day or the festival, for that matter. But rarely did her friends and acquaintances seem content to enjoy the events on their own. No, their lives simply were not complete until they tried to convince Lexi of the error of her unflirty ways, attempt to fill her with sakura tea, and set her up with the next single person who passed by looking remotely her age.

And Lexi’s previous employer Lily Feng was one of the absolute worst offenders.

Unfortunately, there was no way around it. She’d agreed to meet with Lily and while on any other day, the schedule-stuffed businesswoman might have turned her down, it was inconceivable she would pass up one more opportunity to cast Lexi down the road of the hopeless romantic.

As long as Lexi stuck to the right script, things would probably be okay. Probably.

Lexi proceeded to Planet Honey Pop. Which sounded exactly like the type of place Love Day would hang out. Sure enough, Lily Feng was already waiting there, despite the fact that Lexi had arrived ten minutes early. She took a deep breath and put on her most convincing (though not at all genuine) smile.

The two women walked inside to the bar, while meanwhile in the midst of the festival, the subjects of their gossip threw a small celebration.

Inside Planet Honey Pop, Lexi chose a small table away from the crowd. She quickly and convincingly whipped up a story about the Landgraabs with just enough facts in it to sound legitimate. After all, Mr. Landgraab had been on Vladislaus’s list. Surely another vampire had at least mentioned the possibility of turning to the man.

Lily listened intently, looking more furious with Lexi’s every word.

Lexi and Lily spoke for several hours until the bartender finally requested they leave. A legitimate request, as they had not actually purchased anything, and the festival was long over. It had been too much to hope that a powerful business woman would make a snap decision to become a vampire. Choices like that were more Lexi’s territory. People like her didn’t have too much to loose.

Even so, Lexi felt confident as she arrived home at almost two in the morning, exhausted and not at all on normal creature-of-the-night hours. She crawled into the extra coffin Elliot had stashed in the basement and immediately fell asleep.

The next morning, Lexi and Elliot both woke to startling news. The entire Landgraab family, it seemed, had been found dead in their mansion the previous night, all from pufferfish poisoning. Though Lexi could never have called herself friends with the family, she still found the announcement quite saddening to hear. Elliot, though, seemed oddly proud of himself for some reason.