The second story in the anthology is "A Bloody Beginning" by Laurencia Hoffman. It's a companion short featuring Melina, a vampire whose secretive sire and mate is killed by a hooded assassin. It starts withe a bloody beginning and has an equally blood-soaked ending, but we get a glimpse at the strange love between the two vampires and what has brought them to this violent reckoning.
It's well written and an interesting glimpse at one of Hoffman's characters.
