Mystery

by Amelie Locke

**At Renfield Academy, the syllabus is simple: Serve. Protect. Bleed.** For twenty-one years, Seraphina Gray has lived as a prisoner to her mother’s religious fervor and the chaotic noise of her own mind. Being a mind-reader isn't a gift; it's a migraine that never fades. Desperate for one night of normalcy and maybe a stolen kiss from her crush, she sneaks out to a beach party and walks straight into a slaughter. She survives the brutal vampire attack, but she doesn't escape. Instead, she is dragged to Renfield Academy, a gothic fortress hidden in the shadows. Here, she learns the terrifying truth: she isn't cursed. She’s a *familiar*, born to serve and protect the very monsters that attacked her. Now, she walks a razor’s edge between impossible loyalty and forbidden obsession. She clings to Nicholas, the man whose kiss at the beach tasted like salvation, but whose secret lineage as a Van Helsing makes him her natural enemy. But a darker instinct pulls her toward Henry. Brooding, violent, and newly turned, he is the very vampire who attacked her that first night. By all logic, she should hate him. Instead, the connection between them is deeper than blood. But Renfield Academy is no sanctuary. When drained bodies start showing up all over town, the sacred treaty between humans and vampires begins to fray. Someone is manufacturing new vampires and turning them into weapons against the humans. Now Seraphina is faced with an impossible choice: will she protect the monsters she’s been created to serve, or help the hunter intent on destroying them?