AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As soon as she disappeared from view, I ran to the dungeons.
Eventually, I would have to choose between my family and my heart, but that moment was not now. The thought of Mother and Mira getting caught in the crossfire of my father’s war made me sick, but all I could do was forge ahead with the witch, who now held the keys to my salvation in her palm.
29
Alone in the dungeons, I allowed the tears I had been holding captive to fall. The deepest wounds on my body had started to heal, but it was a slow process. The physical pain tethered me to my body as the anguish in my heart threatened to explode out of me like a maelstrom.
The echoes of violence in the dungeons felt visceral. A macabre tapestry of pain and heartbreak lingered in the surrounding air. I feared I would drown in it.Only dim torchlight and the distant sound of dripping water and scurrying vermin sounded in the near-pitch blackness.
“Jade.”
I froze at Alexei’s voice, fearing I was imagining him. He approached me like an injured animal. Crimson fire flickered in his gaze that belied the emotion beneath his smooth mask.
My attention flickered behind him to Silas. The vampire’s arms crossed with indifference, but beneath his scowls and glares, I remembered the care he showed me when he thought Alistair wasn’t watching.
Alexei growled low at his second, and my eyes flitted back to his.
“Some privacy?” he snarled, but Silas was unmoved.
Running a hand over his short hair, he gritted out, “You know I can’t leave you unattended, but I’ll wait at the dungeon entrance. Don’t do anything foolish that will get you both killed.”
Alexei swallowed whatever scathing insult came to his lips the moment Silas disappeared up the staircase. The vampire prince seemed to cave in on himself, his powerful frame hunched as he dropped to his knees before me, dark hair falling across his forehead. A defeated god.
“Oh gods, Jade,” he whispered brokenly, his hands reaching through the bars to cup my cheek, before he hastily checked the rest of my body for wounds. With each new bloody discovery, pain flashed across his stony face as he let out groans of torment.
I watched it through a haze, my mind still faraway.
Licking my dry, chapped lips, I rasped, “My sisters—”
“My father won’t lay a finger on them, I swear,” he promised, returning his attention to my face and cradling my jaw. “I’m so sorry. If I could bring Trystan back to life, I would, only so I could make his death more prolonged. He deserved tosuffer.”
Never so much as now, Alexeilookedlike a vampire.
His pale skin glowed in the lowlight against the decrepit stone, contrasted starkly with his dark hair and eyes. He embodied beauty itself, all perfect symmetrical lines and curves that made my heartbeat quicken traitorously in my chest, tampered with a brutality that would make lesser creatures tremble with terror. If I had been a mere human seeing this male, I could never explain away the supernatural. Nor would I ever believe myself capable of surviving Alexei.
He suddenly tore his razor-sharp fangs into his wrist and forced it to my lips. I struggled, remembering the effects Silas’s blood had on me in Salem, forcing me into a dreamless sleep and awakening in Hell.
“N-no,” I mumbled, clamping my lips shut, but he used the opportunity to force his thick blood onto my tongue.
I swallowed it on my next breath and exhaled through my nose sharply.
For the first time since Alistair had thrown me down onto the dungeon floor, I felt something other than deadened sorrow. I feltfurious.
Whipping my head away from Alexei, I snarled. “Get the fuck away from me! I can’t be weakened at a time like this. You just doomed me and my sisters to death.”
“Weakened? I just ensured your survival,” Alexei promised earnestly, not running from my anger but absorbing it with grim intent. “Your injuries, while not fatal, would only slow you down, and you will need to be at your top strength.”
My mind tried to parcel out the meaning in his words, but then Alexei’s indifferent expression slid back into place. He watched my wounds slowly heal, the worst being my broken leg. I gritted my teeth as it mended itself, sweat dotting along my brow at the aching pain that lingered. As much as I hated to admit it, Alexei was right.
“Now for the next order of business,” Alexei said in that distant voice. “My father ordered me to drink from you. He will know if I haven’t fed and will no doubt be upon you as soon as I flee the dungeons to check for the puncture wounds.”
Icy fear ran down my spine.
“Please don’t,” I gasped, lurching away from him. Memories of Trystan’s teeth tearing into my neck and stealing my blood in fiery gulps flushed through my mind until I shook with panic.
Alexei watched me with rising horror but didn’t let me get far.
He held me against the bars, resolute determination and self-loathing etched into his face. “Please forgive me. It’s the only way to ensure you make it out of here alive, Jade,” he whispered.
