Page 100 of Sold to the Dark Vampire Prince

He could feel his heart threatening to hammer out of his chest. “I can feel something is wrong. Something bad.”

“Is she alive?”

“I think so. But barely. We have to get to her.”

“I’ll go.” When he started to object, she shook her head. “Your heartrate is way too high. No doubt it’s spiking in reaction to whatever is happening to her, but you’re not going to be able to dematerialize safely. If we get to wherever she is and we need to leave quickly, I may need to be able to grab her and scatter fast. If I can’t grab both of you—”

“I’m going,” he growled.

“Fine. But if we’re doing this, I’m taking you. No sense in your heart exploding on the way there.” His sister grabbed his hand. “Take deep breaths.”

“Just get us there, Sera,” he whispered, praying they wouldn’t be too late.

Dani hurried out of a newly constructed office building in the downtown district, stuffing a paper application form into her satchel. When she’d gotten the text notification that there was last-minute hiring for custodian positions, she’d hurried across town to fill out an application and do an interview that day in person.

Alex had said it could be weeks before she would be able to be out in public after the transformation process started, but they’d faced one delay after the next. Without her income at the distribution center, and with Evan only able to find sporadic hours, they needed a steady source of work. If nothing else, she’d grabbed an extra application so Evan could apply.

Reaching into her bag, she powered her phone back on. Half a dozen missed calls and messages filled the screen from when she’d been in the building, waiting to interview.

Alex: Change of plans. We need to postpone.

Her heart sank. Not again.

Alex: I’ll contact you as soon as it’s safe.

Which meant they’d somehow gotten the keys from Finneas and were moving forward with the plan to break the aberrant prisoners out of the castle. She sent up a silent prayer to whatever gods were listening to keep Alex safe as she read the next text.

Evan: Emergency at work. I can’t get to school to pick up Ava.

Dani swore. It was Evan’s day. Ava could walk home on her own. It was only a mile. But their neighborhood was rough on the best of days, and with the recent riots, there was no way she wanted their ten-year-old sister out on the streets alone.

She took off in a dead run, satchel thumping against her hip, the cold December air burning in her lungs as she raced down the sidewalk. At the corner, she slowed long enough to play the rest of her messages aloud.

Nadine’s voice came over the recorded message.

“Dani, where are you? Ava just got home. She’s in bad shape. She said she was followed on her way home by two men. She managed to outrun them, but she’s shaky and I don’t know what to do. Should I give her more insulin, or—”

“No!” Dani practically shouted into the phone.

That was exactly the wrong thing to do. Ava needed her emergency sugar tablets, or juice. Then a good snack. More insulin when her sugar was already low could kill her. She hit redial, but of course Nadine didn’t pick up. Desperate, she tried Ava, but her phone just rang and rang, the call going unanswered.

She ran faster, rounding the corner two blocks from home. She tried not to picture Ava lying unconscious in a diabetic coma on the bathroom floor, unable to reach for her phone, while Nadine stood helplessly by.

In desperation, she dialed Evan, and was unsurprised when the call went straight to voicemail. If Evan was preparing for a critical resistance operation, standard procedure was to go dark so she and the people she was trying to protect couldn’t be traced.

“Please don’t be dead,” she prayed as she reached their apartment building. Her heart pounded so hard it hurt as she ran up flight after flight of stairs, the adrenaline making her hands shake. She dropped her keys twice before managing to fit the right one into the lock.

“Nadine!” she screamed. “I’m here. Let me in!”

There was only silence from within.

Terror filled her. She tried not to picture Ava lying unconscious on the bathroom floor as she finally managed to force the door open. She burst inside, not questioning why the lights were off, the apartment eerily quiet.

“Ava,” she gasped, hurtling towards her sister’s room—

She didn’t make it more than a few steps before something cold and hard struck her on the back of the head.

Dani came to slumped on the couch. Her head hurt terribly. She tried to move and found her hands and feet had been bound with tape.