CHAPTER 5 #2
“A little tip about women?” His sister raised an eyebrow. “We don’t like being lied to, even when you think it’s for our own good. In fact, it makes us especially angry.”
Alex sighed. “Noted.”
Sera tucked a strand of auburn hair behind one ear. “Not for nothing, but Mom would have been proud of you in there. That was a fucking stupid thing you did. But also brave.”
“Look at this place,” he said quietly, “Is it any wonder they despise us? The richest men in the sector line up to buy vulnerable young girls as if they’re blood bags, to be sucked dry and discarded.
The shifters want to breed them. The fae want free labor for their fields.
We keep the human underclass alive solely to be exploited, living under constant threat of war from beyond the walls and terror from within. ”
“Mercy is a thing of the past,” Sera said grimly. “Have you talked to Dante in the past few weeks? He’s been pretty upset about something.”
“So what else is new?”
“He won’t talk to me. I need you to check in with him.”
Alex sighed. “He’s always been temperamental. Up one minute, down the next. He’ll talk when he’s ready.”
“And I’m telling you, something’s wrong this time. He’s been… extra distant. Avoiding my texts. I’m worried.”
“If he won’t talk to you, I highly doubt I’ll have any luck.”
“Well, you certainly won’t if you don’t even try.” His sister frowned. “Dante gets like this every winter. Maybe he’s not getting enough sun. I should check his vitamin D levels.”
“He’s twenty-five and an ICU nurse. He doesn’t need you to run labs for him like he’s five.”
“Maybe not, but a conversation with his older brother might help,” she snapped back.
“You’re right.” Alex rubbed his temples. “I’ll make the time to talk to him.”
“Thank you.” Sera looked away. “Have you heard from Isabella?”
“You should try messaging her.”
“I do, every day. She still won’t return my calls.” His sister shouldered her bag. “Be careful when you feed from Dani. She faints at the sight of blood.”
The suites on the upper floors of the estate had been remodeled with an eye for discretion and elegance.
Alex got off the elevator at the top floor and made his way down the hallway.
Soft recessed lighting gave the warm gold walls a honeyed glow.
He hesitated outside the door to his room, tapping the keycard against the handle.
Pocketing it, he knocked softly.
Silence followed. He would have bet anything Dani was creeping closer to the door. Or possibly looking for something in the room to stake him with.
“It’s Zander.” He shoved both hands in his pockets, doing his best to appear non-threatening.
A beat passed, one where he definitely heard the pad of footsteps on the other side of the threshold. The scent of her blood, faint, but there, whispered through the ventilation system.
The raw ache at the back of his throat roared back with a vengeance. Alex swallowed as his hands started to shake, his fangs descending.
It had been three years since he’d last fed from anyone.
Had he naively believed that time had earned him mastery over the monstrous side of his mind, the part of him that wanted to hunt and feed?
Now, he wasn’t so sure if just that faint trace of her blood was enough to flip the switch, make him feel so wholly vampire in the things he suddenly craved to do to her.
Balling his hands into fists, he leaned against the wall, trying to force his head to clear.
That was Daniela on the other side of that door.
Daniela, who was terrified and alone. Daniela, who needed the friend she trusted, not a savage monster who thirsted for her like every single other man in the room she’d just escaped.
Even if he would be forced to drink from her whether he wanted to or not.
After a beat, the door opened. Dani peered out cautiously at him. She wore a black hoodie that he recognized as Sera’s over a white camisole and yoga pants that hugged her legs in a way he really shouldn’t be thinking about.
When he took a cautious step forward, she glared at the wall next to his head, hugging herself like she feared she’d never stop her arms from shaking.
“I thought I’m not allowed to call you that anymore, Your Highness.”
Turning on her heel, she stalked back into the room.
Wordlessly, Alex followed.
She was furious at him, and rightfully so. He’d lied to her. Correction, Zander had lied to her. She was also no doubt angry and frightened to find herself alone with him now that she knew who he really was, and even more terrified of the idea of actually feeding not only a vampire, but a prince.
He had to focus on the first part, the part of her no matter how small that once saw him not as Prince Alexander, but Zander, whose hockey team had no shot at ever winning the sector cup.
The friend who’d betrayed her, but who perhaps could earn her trust again with time.
Closing the door, he looked around the room.
A grand four-poster bed stood in the middle of the space, covered by a rich burgundy duvet and matching pillows.
His coat was draped across an armchair in the corner.
A selection of wine, juices and fruit were set out at the bar area by the window where he could see the snow falling softly out in the courtyard.
The glass atrium ceiling overhead was rumored to have been spelled by one of the fae to prevent snow buildup and to allow guests to watch winter storms.
Alex tried to decide where Sera would have advised he stand in order to make himself look less threatening to a frightened female who was shooting him nervous looks, even if she was trying to be subtle about it.
Not blocking the door, obviously. The bed was clearly out. Dani probably wouldn’t want him going near the food either, for fear he might somehow tamper with it.
“It’s just the two of us.” Moving slowly into the room, Alex leaned back against the wall, giving her as much space as possible. “It’s fine if you want to call me Zander. Or Alex.”
She released a sharp little laugh at this, still pacing the far side of the room. “I’m not entirely sure I can, Your Highness.”
“Fair enough.” He folded his arms. “If it would be helpful, I could provide a list of the choice names my sister calls me when I’m being an insufferable ass.”
“She needs an entire list?” Dani raised a pointed eyebrow. “Some brother you are.”
He bit back a smile. “My older sister Serafina suffers no fools, and can argue the entire vampire court into the ground, and often used to at dinner parties, much to our father’s mortification.
She should have become the lawyer in the family, but the sector had a critical shortage of doctors, and she’s always been called to those who needed help the most.”
“Sera is your sister,” Dani said quietly, her eyes widening in recognition. “There were rumors she’d left the sector entirely.”
Alex smiled faintly. “Yes, and my younger sister Isabella is a biochemist and medical researcher.”
“I would guess there’s no teasing her unless you want to constantly guard your tea.”
He laughed. “And now you understand our rather unusual family dynamic.”
Dani touched her throat, eyes suddenly cast downward. “I don’t know how all this is supposed to go. I mean, I’ve never done this before. Fed anyone.”
A faint flush rose in her cheeks. Their eyes met and held from across the room, and Alex noted what a lovely dark gray they were, not the pale silver glow that vampire irises got in the throes of bloodlust, but the deep pewter of the storm clouds he loved to watch over the mountains to the west in the winter just before it snowed.
“I wish I didn’t have to feed from you at all,” he said gently.
“That you weren’t being forced into this.
I know you didn’t freely choose it. But your blood will be tested before leaving.
If they don’t find traces of my venom in your bloodstream, my bid will be voided, and you’ll be resold to the next highest bidder. ”
Dani blanched at this. “I didn’t realize it worked that way.”
“The rule is to prevent sanguines from being resold without the auction house getting their cut of the profits.”
“No, that makes sense.” She rubbed her arms. “I haven’t thanked you, for what you did in there. If you hadn’t stepped in—”
He waved a hand. “It was nothing.”
“You tried to warn me.”
Alex looked down. “I tried to warn you, even knowing that every word I said came from a place of incredible arrogance and privilege. I would have told you, and so many others, not to go through with it, knowing you had no choice.”
“Yes,” she whispered, so quietly he barely heard it.
“That whether you were there to get your sister’s medicine or to keep the heat on in a drafty apartment during months of brutal winter storms, you’d been left without options due to a corrupt system my family has perpetuated and profited from. And for that, I am so wretchedly sorry.”
The lines in Dani’s face had only deepened as he talked. But she’d stopped pacing, and at last, she crossed the room towards him.
“I don’t know which one of you is the lie. The cold and distant prince I see on the media feeds, the radical I just heard, or Zander from the law office.”
“All of them.” He smiled, feeling a familiar knife twist in his heart. “Shall we begin?”
“Yes, of course. Where should I sit?”
But even as she said it, her voice wavered. One arm crossed over her chest, her fingers splaying nervously across her throat.
“Dani, please look at me,” he implored her.
She swiped at her eyes. “Sorry. I just need a minute. I know I’m being so stupid.
I literally signed up for this. I knew what was involved.
I’d much rather it be you taking my vein than some stranger who wouldn’t be the slightest bit careful not to hurt me.
I have no doubt they would have shoved me into a wall and taken what they wanted the moment they walked into the room, rather than taking the time to reassure me as you have. ”