Page 13 of Sold to the Dark Vampire Prince

Dani stared at the knife, hands shaking.

It made no sense. A human fighting off a vampire would have created far more of a struggle, and they never would have left something as valuable as a silver dagger behind. Silver was toxic to wolf shifters, which was why it was a metal commonly used in vampire weaponry. In the unlikely event her savior had been a shifter, they would never have allowed her to go free, not when young women of breeding age were being captured off the streets at night. A second vampire might have killed the first, hoping to drain her himself, but then… why allow her to escape?

She scanned the street, but other than her and the dead vampire, the alley was now deserted.

No, it made no sense at all.

Heart pounding, Dani removed her scarf and wrapped it around the hilt of the dagger. If she didn’t take it, someone else would, and weapons were hard to come by, carefully regulated and restricted unless you were conscripted and sent to fight at the front against the wolves.

By the time she got home, her hands were shaking and she wanted nothing more than to curl up in front of the fire with a cup of hot tea and get warm. But one look at Evan’s expression and Ava’s tear-streaked face when she stepped inside told her something was terribly wrong.

“What happened?” Quickly, she bolted the door.

“I finished my homework,” Ava began, voice wobbly. “I was across the hall at Kayra’s showing her the latest ballet videos I found. We were practicing and my foot slipped.”

Ava loved dancing in all forms, from the ice dancing they watched in media clips, to the ballet Nadine taught her during her sporadic visits.

“Are you okay?” Toeing off her wet boots at the door, Dani hurried to her sister’s side. “Did you sprain your ankle?”

“Maybe a little.” Ava swiped at her damp cheeks. “Everything was okay. I felt so good. We were practicing pirouettes and dancing to the Nutcracker. And then, it was like my foot collapsed out from under me.”

Realizing she was still clutching her bag and the scarf containing the bloody knife, Dani set them down and went to the sink to wash her hands.

Cinder padded over to sniff the scarf, no doubt smelling the enticing scent of blood.

“Keep her away from there,” Dani said sharply.

Evan frowned but scooped up the cat. “What’s going on?”

Ignoring the question, she turned her attention to Ava. “Have you noticed any weakness or had any difficulty walking the past two days, or did it just start tonight?”

“I don’t know.” Ava blew out a breath. “It’s been so cold, you know? My toes feel like they go numb at the start of winter every year and I can’t feel them properly again until spring.”

“Sure.” Her sister had always been cold-natured. They both were.

“You said the burning pain is back though?” Evan said, putting the cat down and scraping a hand through her hair. She threw a worried look Dani’s way.

“It’s more like tingling, maybe? My feet feel kind of numb, if I’m being honest.” Seeing their expressions, Ava sighed. “Don’t freak out. It’s just the cold. I’ve probably been practicing too much.”

“We should be keeping the room warmer,” Dani said, refusing to look at the stack of trash and broken crates in the corner that they fed to the fire. They had to get more heating oil somehow, but how, when it was always something else, rent coming due, food they had to find, and always the search for Ava’s insulin?

Food was another area that was a constant struggle. The diet Ava was supposed to be following that would keep her blood sugar from spiking and cratering throughout the day required careful balance, a certain number of carbohydrates, proteins, fats and vegetables, all the right nutrients in certain amounts. Like most families who’d lost two parents, their meals consisted of whatever she and Evan could manage to trade for on a good day, a loaf of bread, vegetables and meat trimmings they could turn into a stew if they were lucky. And now her sister was experiencing the extremity pain and loss of sensation the healers had warned them could happen if her diabetes wasn’t strictly controlled.

“What’s this?” Evan said sharply, holding up the knife. “Please tell me you didn’t—"

Dani rubbed her temples. “Of course not.”

Evan paced the length of the room while she explained about taking a back route home to try to avoid the cameras, the feeling she was being followed, and finally, coming upon the dead vampire.

“He had that knife stuck through his throat,” Dani finished. “But I can’t work out why I was able to get away. The more I think about it, I wonder if the person who saved me could have been another aberrant. It would explain how they were able to overpower a vampire, and why they let me go.”

“Why leave the knife, though?” Evan had clearly come to the same conclusion she had. Taking the blade over to the sink, she washed the blood away, then dried it on a clean cloth. “Look at this marking at the bottom of the hilt. See the crown with blood dripping from it? That’s the royal crest. No other blacksmiths are allowed to forge pieces using that crest.”

A shiver skated up her spine. “You think it was a guard?”

“Not likely.” Evan tapped her lips, clearly thinking. “An aberrant in the king’s security detail would be easily discovered. More likely some guard had their blade taken. We still need to get rid of it. It’s too risky to keep it here. I’ll take it to one of my contacts. They’ll be able to get the seal removed.”

“I wonder why they didn’t get that done themselves.”