Page 94 of Sold to the Dark Vampire Prince

“If Luciano Cavalieri is sick, it would explain why he’s so desperate that he’d resort to kidnapping fae off the streets,” Evan said. “Can they actually synthesize a drug using fae blood?”

“It’s been tried,” Sera said grimly. “More than once, by biochemists and dark magic users alike, all willing to do anything immoral for a price. There are plenty of desperate people on the dark web willing to pay for such a thing, whether or not it’s effective. To my knowledge, they’ve never been able to get it to work. The fae are immortal in the sense that they don’t get sick, and they have enhanced healing abilities, just like vampires, but they can still be killed by conventional means. Wolf shifters have the fastest regenerative abilities, but as far as I know, no one has been able to synthesize a drug from their blood that is therapeutic, but doesn’t also infect the patient with lycanthropy.”

Sirens began to wail in the distance.

“Time to go,” Evan said grimly. “If the werewolves are advancing into the sector tonight, we don’t want to be around when they get here.”

CHAPTER 14

THE SIRENS WERE STILL sounding in the distance when Sera left them outside their apartment, apologizing as she hurried off to answer a medical call. As Evan fumbled with the key, Dani slumped beside the door.

“You okay?” Evan looked up sharply.

“I can’t get my heart to stop racing.” Dani rubbed her chest. “I’ve never liked the feeling of scatter-forming across town. I know vampires do it all the time, but it makes me sick to my stomach.”

“It was a long jump to get all the way to the borderlands. I’m a little queasy, too. Come inside and I’ll make some tea.”

Inside, the kitchen was dark. While Evan put the kettle on, Dani took out the loaf of fresh sourdough bread she’d picked up from the bakery earlier that afternoon and began cutting thick slices. It was well after midnight, far too late to be gorging themselves on toast with butter and jam, but after the events of the evening, she didn’t care. They could both do with a bit of comfort food right now.

But as she started to cut the second slice, the knife began wobbling uncontrollably in her hand.

Dani stared down at her shaking wrist.

Surely she just needed to eat something?

Setting the knife down, she rubbed her fingers. They’d just been out in the cold. She needed to get her circulation going. And still, she couldn’t help the knot of worry that formed in her stomach as her hand continued to shake.

“You’re just now getting back?” Nadine appeared in the doorway, arms crossed. “I was expecting you hours ago.”

“Go back to bed, Nadine,” Evan said crossly. “This doesn’t concern you.”

Their stepmother’s eyes zeroed in on Dani’s shaking hand. “How long have you been having the tremors?”

“They’re not tremors.” She dropped her hands into her lap. “And this is none of your concern.”

“Sure looked like it to me.”

“It’s cold out and we just climbed the stairs,” Dani lied. “It’s the adrenaline. That’s all.”

But now Evan, too, was watching her with an expression she didn’t like.

“That’s how it starts, you know.” Nadine looked at her pityingly. “Tremors that come and go. At first, you dismiss them as being hungry or tired or cold. Then you start getting headaches that become more frequent with time. You’ve probably been letting your vampire feed from you more and more, am I right?”

“No,” Dani snapped, ready to be done with this conversation.

But of course, Nadine plowed on.

“Because you have those marks on your wrists? What did I tell you about the other girls who thought those mating marks to a vampire meant they were destined for a happily ever after? The mark binds you both. It increases his thirst for you, speeds the rate in which you’ll develop blood addiction because he’ll crave you so much he can never get enough. Those marks are a death sentence for the human girls because the vampire males never follow through and change them, making them their true mates.”

“It’s different with us.”

When Evan shot a worried glance her way, their stepmother nodded sagely.

“He’s probably been promising you it won’t matter because he’ll turn you eventually¸ but keeps making excuses when you press for when. It isn’t enough when a vampire and a human are mates. Even with that bond, addiction still eventually forms. From what I’ve seen, it happens even faster. Your body grows addicted to his venom and suddenly, he needs your blood every day, then twice a day. The only way to protect you once that happens is to make you into a vampire. That will sate the urges. But I’m guessing Prince Alexander has his reasons for why that can’t happen.”

Dani pressed fingers to her temples. Fingers that, yes, were shaking harder than ever. But of course they were. She was upset. And for the love of all that was fanged and holy, where was Evan’s tea?

“He lost his mother,” she said through gritted teeth. “She never fully recovered from being changed. He has a lot of anxiety about putting me through that.”