CHAPTER 10
DANI WATCHED AS THE room erupted into chaos.
“Don’t touch him.” Sera elbowed her way through the crowd. “We can’t be sure what he ingested. Did anyone see what he took? Hang on, I need my medical kit.”
She vanished in a swirl of smoke.
Dani exchanged a look with Alex, neither of them looking in Giselle’s direction. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the other sanguine working her way towards the back of the room, where a door led to the kitchens.
What was her extraction plan? Surely the resistance hadn’t inserted her into the palace with no plan to get her out in the event things went sideways.
Sera reappeared, black medical bag in hand. “I need everyone to back up.”
She and Dante snapped on gloves and knelt beside the man, who had turned a horrible shade of red and was going stiff.
Suddenly, Isabella gasped. “That server is trying to run! I saw her. She’s the one who gave Garrett the champagne.”
There was a loud crash as a tray of crystal flutes shattered against the floor. Dani turned with the others in time to see Giselle bolt for the servant’s entry. Her heart sank as two guards stepped before the door, blocking her path.
Her escape cut off, Giselle turned back to the room, extending her hands out before her. “Don’t come any closer.”
Screams filled the room. Partygoers began to ghost away. The ones that weren’t strong enough to transform darted for the exits.
Dante vanished from Sera’s side in a swirl of smoke, reappearing across the room a second later and slamming into Giselle. Dani registered only a blur of smoke before they both vanished from the room.
“Do you think she had time to poison the entire room?” someone whispered, sounding a bit faint.
“We’re all going to die.”
“Is that Garrett? Oh my gods. I was just talking to him a second ago—"
“Everyone is to remain calm.” Alex stepped forward, voice cold and commanding.
“No one is to consume anything. We don’t know what the assassin touched or what could be tainted.
Please bring any plates or glasses over to the bar and make an orderly row, so that we can submit them for testing to determine what type of toxin was used. ”
Using a napkin, Dani helped collect the water glasses and champagne flutes.
She pressed a hand to her heart and whispered a silent prayer, watching as Sera worked over Garrett.
Given the stricken expressions of people standing around and the speed at which the arriving medics hustled them away, the prognosis seemed grim.
“I think mine was poisoned, too.” Beside her, Lara began to hyperventilate.
“You look very pale.” Lord Cavalieri hurried to her side. He whirled, shouting to no one in particular, “My daughter needs medical attention!”
Dani noted that pale wasn’t at all how the confirmed poisoning victim appeared, but said nothing.
Instead, she went to fetch one of the ornate chairs that were standing against the wall, though they looked rather fancy and like they weren’t meant to be shifted about.
When Isabella grimaced and shook her head subtly as if to warn her, she guessed she was right. Oh well. It was too late, in any case.
Lara collapsed into the chair anyway, gasping for breath. “Alex, where are you?”
“I think he’s overseeing the poisoned flutes being collected,” Dani offered.
“No one asked you.” Lara shot her a venomous look.
Her breathing had certainly improved, now hadn’t it? Rolling her eyes, Dani made her way to Alex’s side.
“Alexander,” Luciano called sharply.
Conversation around them abruptly ceased as people turned to stare. He’d not only failed to address the prince by his title, Dani noted, but his tone wasn’t exactly winning any points either.
Not that she was an expert on royal protocol.
“Is there something urgent you needed?” Alex didn’t bother to hide the note of irritation in his voice. “We’re dealing with a bit of an emergency at the moment.”
“Yes, actually. Your—”
Lord Cavalieri’s face reddened, and Dani realized his close slip-up, that he’d nearly called Lara Alex’s fiancée, or perhaps his mate, neither titles that Alex himself had bestowed.
He pursed his lips. “My daughter needs you. She’s doing very poorly.”
Face carefully composed, Alexander crossed the room. Serafina rose from where she and the two medics had been working over the king’s assistant, expressions grave.
“Alex,” Lara said in a small, whiny voice that even Ava, at ten, knew was extremely tedious. “I need you.”
She clawed for him as soon as he came within arm’s reach, grasping at the lapels of his jacket.
“You seem okay.” Alex took a quick step back, refusing to come any closer. “Take some deep breaths and try to calm down.”
Lara’s voice grew even more pitiful. “But I need to feed.”
Alex started to shake his head. “I don’t think that’s such a good—”
Before he could finish, Lara was launching herself from the chair, arms outstretched, head angling towards his throat.
He caught her by the shoulders, stiffly holding her at arm’s length.
Dani had the distinct impression of a particularly mean snapping turtle she’d witnessed a work crew dredging from the river the previous summer and almost felt sorry for Lara in that moment.
Almost.
“I think you should sit back down,” he said loudly, as if speaking to someone who’d had far too much to drink. “You’re clearly not yourself right now.”
Her face reddened.
“If you’re having a panic attack, feeding isn’t the best idea anyway.” Sera came over and reached for Lara’s wrist. “It will only increase your heartrate. I would suggest you stay seated and take calming breaths.”
Just then, Dante reformed in a swirl of smoke. He collapsed to his knees in the center of the room. His coat was torn and one of his eyes was starting to swell shut. There were gasps as people clustered closer to see.
“What happened?” Judas asked sharply. “Where is the assassin?”
“Father, please.” Serafina hurried over and checked her brother’s pulse. “Give him a moment.”
Lara, clearly frustrated the attention had turned away from her, crossed her arms and assumed a sulky expression.
“I didn’t have a chance to reform when she reached for my throat,” Dante said hoarsely.
“There’s bruising, but no permanent damage,” Sera said. “Your eye looks worse.”
“She could interact with you in the space between jumps?” Alex knelt beside his brother. “How is that possible? She looked to be human.”
“It’s not unheard of for a rebel fighter with advanced training,” Judas said. “They use the vampires they’ve turned to train their insurgents, according to our reports. Go on. What happened then?”
“I was scared she was going to poison me.” Dante accepted the bottle of water Dani handed him. “So I took her as high above the mountains as I could and dropped her from the sky.”
“It would have been better if you’d allowed the guards to detain her. Now there’s no way to interrogate her.”
“Respectfully, Your Majesty, I must disagree.” Alex shook his head. “We all saw what that aberrant was about to do. She poisoned Garrett. Had Dante not acted quickly, she could have released an aerosol toxin that might have killed everyone in the room.”
Hushed murmurs broke out. The tension in the room was so thick that Dani flinched at the sound of her phone vibrating in her clutch. Pulling it out, she read the text from Evan.
Evan: I need you to come home.
Heart pounding, she quickly typed.
Dani: Bad time. Can it wait?
Evan: Nadine is back.
It seemed to take forever for the chaos and questions at the party to wind down. What had she seen? Which drink had been hers? What was her impression of the aberrant from the brief interaction she’d witnessed?
Eventually, she’d been allowed to go upstairs to change out of her formal gown into jeans and a hoodie, citing a family emergency. When Alexander dropped her outside her apartment, it was well over an hour later, and they could hear the sounds of a fight raging from inside.
Dani pressed fingers to her temples, feeling a migraine coming on.
“Do you want me to come in with you?” Alex pressed a kiss to her neck. “I can stay.”
Except she knew he couldn’t. With the investigation still ongoing, he was needed back at the castle. She also suspected having him here with her stepmother would only make things worse.
“I’ll be okay.” She stood on her toes to quickly kiss him. “I’ll text you as soon as I can.”
Steeling herself, she unlocked the door.
Inside, she found Ava in tears.
Evan and Nadine were squared off across the kitchen island.
Her stepmother looked much the way she had the last time she’d walked out of their lives four months ago.
Her blonde hair was perhaps a little grayer, the hollows in her cheeks slightly more pronounced.
As always, the sight of her made Dani’s heart ache.
“But I don’t understand why I can’t go out,” Ava cried. “Just for a little while. You’re being so unfair.”
“Because it’s late, and it’s a school night,” Evan said through her teeth. “Not to mention, we’re under an early curfew, and there’s been rioting.”
“But curfew isn’t for another hour. And I checked. There are no reports of anything happening by the coffee and dessert shop Mom wants to take me to.”
“So, what are you planning to order there?” Evan pinched the bridge of her nose. “Did you check your blood sugar?”
Ava’s face fell. “Why do you always have to ruin everything for me? Mom just got back and you won’t even let me enjoy one special outing with her?”
“No, that’s not it. I just think you need to be careful not to—”
“Dani,” Ava interrupted, spying her. “You’re back from the castle. We saw the pictures of you and Prince Alexander all over the media feeds.”
Wonderful. Sighing, Dani wrapped her youngest sister in a tight hug. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine. I finished all my homework. And I got an A on my math test.”
Behind her, Evan rolled her eyes.
“Okay.” She smoothed wisps of her blonde hair. “Go find a sweater. Evan and I need to talk to your mother for a minute.”
Her face brightened. “So I can go?”
“That’s still up for discussion.”