Page 57 of Sold to the Dark Vampire Prince

Actually, she could very well imagine herself and Evan throwing said bastard out of their apartment, naked and without his clothes in the snow, for daring to take advantage of the both of them. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

“It took me a few minutes to make myself presentable after the state we’d been caught in. I tried to talk to Isabella. I wanted to explain that I truly hadn’t known. But by then, she’d already gone to our father.”

“Oh no.”

Sera nodded grimly. “Isabella has always been his favorite, the golden child, even more so after our mother died. I can only assume she thought that if she simply tattled on my misdeeds, the king would forbid me from seeing Micah again, clearing the way for them to be together. I truly believe she thought he would propose. You have to understand, she was only eighteen and very inexperienced when it came to men. I have to assume he was her first. And of course, that’s not how things worked out.”

“The king had him killed?” Dani touched her throat. Suddenly, she couldn’t stop shivering.

“Not so directly. But he also couldn’t have a common bodyguard interfering with the royal marriage contract he wanted to sign with the fae king and queen. I was to marry their son, Finneas, who was taking control of half the fae lands. Nor, for that matter, did he consider a bodyguard with no prospects to be a suitable partner for his eighteen-year-old daughter.”

Sera looked away. “Micah was reassigned to the front lines, sent to fight the wolves up in the mountains that very week. We received word within the month that his unit had been ambushed and he’d been killed.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“I’ve had to accept that my choices cost someone their life. They also cost me my relationship with my sister.”

“He was seeing you both, lying to you both.” Dani shook her head. “He bears fault in this, a great deal of it, by my estimation.”

“Isabella doesn’t see it that way. In her head, I already had a match arranged to the fae king. The fact that I had no choice in the matter and didn’t want to marry him was irrelevant. She believed since I was as good as betrothed on paper to Finneas, I had no valid claim on the bodyguard we’d both been sleeping with.”

Sera rubbed her temples. “My sister was at a vulnerable age when we lost our mother, and it has led to her being far too sheltered when it comes to men. No matter how many times I tried to reason with her, to point out Micah was a bastard for sleeping with two sisters, and that he was probably bragging about it to every soldier who would listen down at the pubs, she refused to listen. She truly believed Micah would come back for her. She’s thrown herself into her research the past few years and rarely comes out of her lab except at meals.”

Sera’s phone buzzed. “Ah yes. That reminds me.” She extracted a small vial from her coat pocket. “You need to drink this.”

“What is it?” Dani uncapped the vial and sniffed it.

“It’s a blocking drug, created by a skilled chemist working underground for the resistance. The king is perhaps the most powerful aberrant alive, and he’s drained countless other aberrants. It’s why no one has been able to stop him. If he touches you, he may try to drain your life force. If he takes too much, he can eventually stop your heart.”

“How long will this last?”

“You’ll need another dose within a week. The drug won’t stop him completely, but it will slow him down, and the side effects will sicken you both. If the contact goes on for too long, he’ll probably stop.”

Dani exhaled. But after a minute, she swallowed the vial back. “One week, then.”

Sera held her eyes. “The king won’t hesitate to make you or your sisters disappear if it suits his purposes. Right now, you are useful to him. One day you won’t be.”

Alexander was just knotting his tie for dinner when a knock sounded at the door to his apartment. Sighing, he stalked out through the living room to the front hall. He’d already instructed Henri’s temporary replacement that he wasn’t to be disturbed unless it was Daniela or one of his siblings.

But when he opened the door, Lara Cavalieri strode inside without bothering to wait for an invitation. She wore a black evening gown that looked like it was strangling her, and heels that were so high he was surprised she hadn’t twisted an ankle.

He glared thunderously at the guard, watching the man shrivel in place.

“I just thought,” the guard stammered. “Since you said that…”

“We will discuss this later,” Alex said coldly. “If you’re still employed here, that is.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Alexander shut the door, counted to ten, and made a bored show of checking his cufflinks. “What do you want, Lara?”

“Oh, come now, was that really necessary?” Lara leaned back against the edge of his sofa, allowing her skirt to fall open so he could see her legs. When he refused to look, she pouted and followed him over to the mirror in the hall. “Your tie is crooked. Here, let me—”

She reached for it. When he neatly sidestepped her, brushing her hands away, her eyes flashed dark with anger.

“I think you should go.”

“This doesn’t have to be difficult, Alex. We both know how this will end. Why fight it?” Her lips twisted up into a coy smirk as she trailed fingers down his arm. “Unless you secretly like playing hard to get?”