A Taste of Dawn

Mercedes Sevarus, the illegitimate daughter of an autocratic vampire and an alien, has been an outcast her entire life. Her only attempt at evading the rules designed to "protect" her ended disastrously. Now she lives her life as a veritable prisoner, music her only retreat. Desperate enough to barter her creativity for a few hours of tenderness, she reaches out to Eric King.

When Eric, the acclaimed songwriter for the rock band Pyrite, gets writer's block, someone emails him the first verse of a song. The message is simple. "If you want the rest, you must spend one night in my bed." The song is brilliant, achingly poetic, and so similar in style to Eric's own work he knows no one will suspect he didn't write it. But is he really willing to sleep with a stranger for the song?