Be'lah is a sorceress, and prophesy foretold her part in freeing Prince Ehd'Wyrd and his family from their curse.  She failed.  Now Ehd'Wyrd and J'spurr are no longer human, but fully dragon.  Be'lah died to destroy the dragon gateway, and she was reborn as the fiery fi'nyx.  

Again she is wrapped up in prophesy, as the displaced dragons need her to lead them home.  There is another gateway in the Faen realm, and Alyss is herself a fairy.  It should be a simple quest to map a pathway through Faen, and take the dragons back home.

Nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

I have become complacent and bored with my existence.  Even long philosophical discussions with my housemate and friend, Vladmir no longer fire my passions.  This is my excuse for why I did not end it sooner, as I should have.  She interests me.  She comes with a mystery unlike any I have seen in centuries.  She is female, an insignificant mouse in my cage.  No one will miss her, and no one will stop me.  I shall do with her whatever I wish.   

There were so many secrets people carried in their minds.  For this reason I told them the mind often whispered and I didn't hear it unless I listened closely.  I lied.  Lying is part of who I am: A vampire pretending to be human, a mind reader pretending I don't know the things I know, an old lover pretending to be a novice.  When she asked if I'd ever been interested in the beautiful Rosalie--I lied.   

A stand-alone outtake from Cold Fragile Hearts.  It would be best to read that story first.  Aro is a wiley, conniving little blood-sucker who can't be trusted.  But behind his machinations, there are reasons for everything he does.  

Bella is a divorced English teacher, who doesn't know she has a vampire in her class.

"Please don't push me away, Bella. Isn't it my choice if I want to be with you? I'm not a child in the way I feel."

"I'm not the older woman who's going to spend a season educating a teenage boy so he can go off and remember me fondly. I'm looking for forever."

"How do you know I couldn't..."

" Because you're a boy, Edward, a beautiful, sweet, confused, boy! You've got your whole life ahead of you. This kind of thing doesn't work out."