This is Part One of a serialized Fantasy Romance story with a novelette length (13,000). Madeline would never risk another life by falling in love again, not with what happened last time...at least not until she found some answers. Unfortunately answers sometimes come in rather strange packages, and the knowledge of the Vaetir comes with a steep price. Now she must make a choice between the life she thought she wanted, and a life among others like her. The only catch is that the others like her, including the flirtatious yet dangerous Alaric, expect her to do their dirty work.

Revised Edition: Previously Bitter Ashes Acts 1-4Madeline knew her life was strange, and not just because she could sense the emotions of others. Having people die by your hand on two separate occasions can make a girl question her very existence. Still, she never thought she'd wake up in a world straight out of Norse myth. A world where corpses reanimate all on their own . . . and she's supposed to be their executioner. A normal person would run screaming into the night, but there's something about dark and alluring Alaric that's giving Madeline pause, and it's not the fact that he turns a little feline from time to time.

I never wanted to hurt anyone. I know, that's what the worst type of people say, but hey, maybe I'm the worst type of person. I'd been brought into the middle of an underground war. In-fighting had begun amongst the Vaettir as each clan strove to be the greatest power, and things were only escalating. Politics are a real pain.