Page 119 of Sold to the Dark Vampire Prince

A second passed.

Sweat trickled down his back as he waited for the cuffs to fall free.

Nothing happened.

He glanced to Finneas, who stood several yards away, frowning. When he shook his head, Finneas swore under his breath. Maybe the cuffs had drained all his energy, or maybe he’d just said the spell wrong. Whatever the case, it hadn’t worked.

Flicking a glance towards Judas and Cavalieri, who were now arguing, Finneas started slowly towards him. Alex held Dani’s eyes from across the room, trying to take deep breaths, to do anything to keep his heartrate even and avoid drawing Lara’s notice.

Finneas was nearly to him when Lara whirled. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Alexander looks unwell.” The fae king put his hands up. “I thought I should check on him.”

“I don’t like this.” Eyes wild, Lara turned to her guards. “Get rid of him.”

Alex saw the gun a second before Sera did.

“Finn, get down,” she screamed.

Time seemed to blur. Finneas slammed into him, shoving him to the ground. The air was knocked from his lungs.

Gunshots rang out. He was fighting then, struggling to get free, the damned cuffs suddenly back on his wrists, his only thoughts of getting to Dani. If anything had happened to her—

“Hold still,” Finneas hissed in his ear. He felt the dagger ripped from his hand, and then a second later, the indescribable relief as the cuffs fell away. “Can you dematerialize?”

“I’m not leaving her.”

The room was chaos. Sera had dematerialized to the gunman, ripping the firearm away from him, but they were still outnumbered by Cavalieri’s guards. Dante and Evan, the two guards who’d escorted Sera and Dani in under glamour, were in a standoff with two of Cavalieri’s men, no one willing to lower their weapons.

Judas had two guards holding Sera. And—

His breath froze when he saw that Luciano had a knife pressed to Dani’s throat.

“It’s over Alex. Unless you want her to die right now.”

“Do it, Daddy,” Lara pleaded. “Please.”

It was that same feeling of helplessness he’d experienced the day she’d fallen to her knees in the auction house, dress in tatters around her, vampire males swarming like sharks, hungry to use and dispose of her. When just like now, he’d been convinced he was powerless to help without cursing her to a far worse fate.

“Let her go,” he said, voice one he barely recognized. “Lara, please. This… has always been about you and me. Let them all go, and I’ll consent willingly to whatever you want. We can finally be together.”

The words burned like acid in his stomach as he said them, but if it was the only way to save Dani, to save his family and friends—

Lara’s expression changed, eyes going soft and hopeful, and for just a second, he thought it might have worked. But then her chin began to quiver.

“Never once have you shown even a fraction of that same worry about my safety. You’ve never once even pretended to care about my feelings. It’s always, always about Dani Girard.” Tears filled her eyes. “You will never let her go. Not as long as she’s alive. Not as long as any of them are alive.”

“Lara,” he began, but she cut him off with a slash of her hand.

“I’m through with this. You will stop fixating on her and humiliating me. Sadly, if that means your family and all the prisoners we were set to release must be executed as punishment for your act of defiance, then you’re leaving me no choice.”

“You could have chosen this family.” Judas shook his head. “Instead, you get to watch your whore and your sister die.”

He crossed the room to Sera and yanked her arm behind her back, twisting it cruelly until she screamed in pain.

“Please don’t do this.” She kicked, but the guards held her fast.

Alex steadied his breathing. Two guards had guns trained on him and Finneas, but if he could summon the energy to dematerialize, just once, he could get to Dani—