Page 17 of Sold to the Dark Vampire Prince

But two years after she’d left, Dante was more withdrawn than ever. Their youngest sister Isabella rarely left her research lab. And in one month’s time, he would be forced into a marriage alliance with the Cavalieri family, handing his father unlimited wealth that he would use to crush any last traces of the human resistance.

And he was powerless to stop any of it.

CHAPTER 4

THE AUCTION HOUSE WAS located in an old money neighborhood only a few miles over on the train from their apartment block.

Dani hurried down the dark streets, conscious of the vampires she could sense lurking in the shadows, waiting until it was time for bidding to begin. She knew security was good. Probably, she was safer on this street than anywhere else in the city. Matching sanguines to wealthy vampire buyers was a profitable business and the auction house wouldn’t risk losing out on their cut because some rogue vampire decided to snatch a girl off the streets.

The knots in her stomach twisted tighter as she read off the gold lettering at the end of each gate until finally coming to the address she’d once found on a slip of paper in Nadine’s coat. The mansion that lay beyond the iron bars was old and gothic with multiple towers rising towards the night sky. The hair at the back of her neck stood on end as she made her way up the walk and stared up at the imposing door, its dark red paint the color of blood.

Dani bent over double, sure she would be sick. She was terrified of what awaited her on the other side of that door. And yet, she had to do this.

It was only going to be one time.

Just once that she had to let one of them feed from her.

Blood addiction happened after repeated feedings. She was selling her blood one time and that was all. It would buy them enough time for Zander to get her approved as Ava’s guardian through the courts and then maybe her insulin would be covered by insurance.

An icy wind swirled across the sidewalk. Dani pulled her wool coat tighter around her mother’s dress. Before she could stop herself, she hurried up the steps and rapped the brass knocker with shaking fingers.

“Identification?” A small slit beside the door slid open.

Quickly, she pulled out her phone and swiped to the QR code that would allow her information to be uploaded. From inside, she could hear the sound of typing. She tapped her toes, trying to keep her feet from freezing in place.

“Do you have a referral?”

“What? Um, no. I… a friend used to come here. That’s how I got the address.”

She thought better of giving them Nadine’s name, unsure what her status with the auction house was. Once someone’s blood tested positive for street drugs, their name was blacklisted at the official houses.

“I’m sorry.” The woman peered out the crack in the door, scrutinizing Dani with reproachful eyes. “But our house takes on new sanguines by referral only.”

“Please, can’t you make an exception?”

Dani wrapped her coat tighter around her shoulders, feeling the folds of her mother’s red silk dress whisper against her ankles. The snow was coming down heavier now. She thought of Ava back at home, her sister growing weaker every day from lack of proper food and medicine. She hadn’t come this far to fail now.

“Our clientele has very specific tastes.”

“And what makes you so sure I’m not what they’re looking for? My blood is clean. I’ve never been fed from.” She extended her wrist, showing it was unmarked.

“You should go home to your family. You’re just like the other girls who knock on my door with dreams of silvers in their eyes, only to panic at the last second when they realize they can’t go through with it.”

Dani bent so they were eye to eye. “My sister is sick. I’m not leaving here until you let me in, and I swear to you, I won’t turn back, no matter what I find beyond that door.”

The woman sighed, but Dani could tell she was weakening. “I’m not supposed to let in first timers without a sponsor.”

“And that’s why she has me,” said a voice from behind her.

Dani turned to find Giselle from the legal aid center standing on the stoop. Her dark hair was arranged on top of her head and pinned in place with a pair of chopsticks. Her gray eyes were outlined with the smoky winged eye Dani could never get right, Evan couldn’t care less about, and Ava at ten, was somehow the master in the family at applying whenever Evan managed to snatch a bag that contained cosmetics.

“Sorry I missed our meeting time.” Giselle hooked an arm through hers. “The trains were running late in my neighborhood.”

“That’s right,” Dani said brightly. “My sponsor. Now will you let me in?”

Sighing, the woman pushed a button, buzzing the door open. Giselle led her into a spacious foyer. A sweeping staircase curved along the far side of the room. She found her gaze drawn to the artwork. There were rich oil paintings of manicured estate gardens. In another, orange poppies danced lightly in the wind. She wished she could step into the painting of the girl in a rowboat, floating on a pond on a sunny day.

She’d always been desperately curious to see glimpses of life from before, how the world had once been so very different before humanity had slowly driven itself to a breaking point with its own insatiable thirst for wealth and power.