Oath of Blood and Joy

Missing girls in New Orleans have one fate: they’re never found alive. I’m about to join their ranks. Unless the vampire enforcer tracking me can shatter every rule—and every precedent.
My name is Joy, and I’ve always lived up to it—smiling through problems, finding silver linings, believing tomorrow will be better. But over a month ago, my optimism met its match when I was kidnapped while searching for my missing best friend.
Now I’m a prisoner of New Orleans’ most dangerous crime lord, thrust into a world I never knew existed. Vampires are real. Vampire mafia? Also real. And something is stirring inside me—a power I can’t explain that’s the only reason I’m still alive.
They say he’s coming for me. Enzo. The vampire mafia’s most feared enforcer. Cold. Ruthless. Merciless. The man leaves a trail of bodies wherever he goes. The whispers about him terrify even my captors.
But when his dark eyes find mine in the chaos of my prison, I see something impossible. Recognition. Possession. As if I belong to him. As if I’ve always belonged to him.
I don’t know this vampire. Don’t trust him. And I absolutely refuse to accept his ridiculous claim that I’m his “fated mate”—whatever that means. I didn’t even believe vampires existed, and now this terrifying man with perpetually furrowed brows thinks he owns me? I’ve spent weeks fighting my captors at every turn—I’m not about to stop now.
But when his cold eyes find mine, something deep inside me responds. No matter how loudly I tell myself this brooding, dangerous creature is my enemy, my stubborn heart won’t listen. And as my mysterious powers grow stronger, I’m running out of options for allies in a world I never knew was real.
The human mafia won’t let me go without bloodshed. And as ancient power awakens within me, I find myself caught between two worlds with ties to both.
My captor thinks I’m leverage. My would-be savior thinks I’m his. But neither of them knows what I’m becoming—or how my relentless optimism and newfound power might be the most dangerous weapon of all.