CHAPTER 10 #3
“And you won’t have any luck bribing a guard to carry an assassin in,” Sera added.
“Judas is very careful not to hire people who have nothing to lose. Everyone on his staff has wives and children, siblings and aging parents they’re supporting, all of whom they understand will be executed if they betray him.
Someone close to the king will have to take him out.
But who that someone is, remains to be seen. ”
“Sorry that I’m a bit useless on that front,” Alex said dryly. “Despite you stabbing me every chance you got with your practice sword when we were kids.”
Sera studied him thoughtfully. “I could be wrong, but I’ve suspected for a while now that your blood serves as a weak amplifier.
It would explain why Dani’s ability to erase memories has gotten stronger since she was exposed to your venom.
And also, why the guards holding you the other night might have been overcome by the king’s attempt to drain you.
They felt his power, but amplified through you.
It’s why they lost consciousness so quickly. ”
“Which makes me responsible for their deaths.”
“You’re not,” Dani said softly. “None of this is your fault.”
Alex drew his arm around her, and instinctively, she stepped into his embrace. But where before, the gesture would have drawn only comfort, now she couldn’t ignore Nadine’s words.
Has he proposed? Put a ring on your finger? Make no mistake, he will move that aristocratic bitch into his castle by the end of the month. She will be his queen. And where will that leave you?
“Speaking of Alex and Dani,” Sera said, setting the cat down. “I think I found a way to break the binding.”
Dani froze. Alex’s fingers tightened imperceptibly at her hip. As the silence stretched and they failed to answer, Evan and Sera began exchanging worried looks.
Alex coughed. “Sorry. Of course, that’s good news. What did you learn?”
Dani touched her throat, tears pricking her eyes. She blinked them away. “Yes, can you break it?”
Sera smiled sympathetically, as if understanding how deep her feelings ran on the subject. She didn’t want to sever the last thing tying her to Alexander. But how could they stay linked, knowing the blood addiction would eventually destroy them both?
“We have to go to the fae. Only a high-born fae can sever these types of bonds.”
“You’re referring to Finneas?” Alex raised an eyebrow.
“Yes.” Sera frowned. Dani didn’t miss the way her cheeks picked up color at the mention of the fae king. “Is that a problem?”
“Only because there are probably wanted posters with you making that exact expression on every tree at the edge of the fae kingdom.”
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous.” She waved a hand. “I’m pretty sure those were just rumors.”
“Are you sure? Because you two have this weird hate-hate thing going on.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“Am I?”
Evan smirked. “Sounds like there’s a story.”
“I don’t like this,” Sera said, pointedly ignoring the remark, “but I’m not entirely sure Finneas will agree to meet with us unless I ask for an audience with him. The resistance has tried to get him to come to the negotiating table countless times. He won’t even send a delegation.”
Alex rubbed his lip. “I just think that given the way you left things with him last time—”
“We’re not getting married this time, so we’ll have nothing to fight about,” she said sharply. “And I don’t want to hear any more about Finneas Hawthorne.”
Shooting her brother a dark look, she stalked to the door. Evan followed.
“Dare I ask?” Dani tilted her head up.
Alex sighed. “I’d better let her tell you. The funny thing is, I never got the real sense that they objected to each other. Oh, my sister could have named off a long list of his faults without stopping for breath, and once did over the cheese course, no less.”
“Oh dear.”
“It was… something.” He smirked. “Except, Finneas just seemed sort of… amused? Meeting her point for point. And they were sitting very close together while they whisper-shouted their little character assassination, almost like—”
“Like they hated each other a little too much?” Dani bit back a smile.
“Exactly. And like if we’d left them alone for ten minutes, rather than father and the fae king and queen trying to force them to wed, we might have caught them together in the coat closet, rather than Sera and her bodyguard.”
Dani chose her next words carefully. “Do you think, had things turned out differently, that Sera would ever have chosen Micah?”
Alex considered the question. “I think that their situation was complicated, not just on Sera’s side, or because Micah turned out to be an ass who seduced Isabella as well. Do you know many families that are mixed, human and vampire?”
“Of course.” While such matings were now outlawed, the pandemics thirty years before had torn through families indiscriminately, the virus killing some, sparing others, and triggering the genetic cataclysmic storm that resulted in vampirism.
“Micah was the only vampire in his family. His mother was human. I’m not sure what happened to his biological father, if he was still around when the pandemics struck. She remarried, maybe nine or ten years after, and had another son.”
Dani frowned. “I’m surprised he was allowed to work in such a high-profile position, as bodyguard to the future queen.”
Alex shrugged. “His mother worked as a maid for years. The family was considered thoroughly vetted. It’s why Micah was so comfortable around Sera.
They grew up together, played in the palace gardens as kids.
What Sera did…” He chewed his lip. “How can I fault my sister for following her heart? Perhaps she truly thought there was somewhere they could run that my father’s power and influence couldn’t reach.
But in the end, that choice, that gamble, doomed the man she loved to death, along with everyone in his family. ”
Dani felt a cold iciness grip her chest. “They killed his mother and brother, too?”
“Officially, they disappeared, but of course no one believes this. After Micah was sent to the front, his mother spoke out against my father, and Sera as well, asking why her son was being sent to die so they could pretend Sera hadn’t exploited a subordinate on her protection detail, then abandoned him when it threatened her arranged marriage to Finneas Hawthorne.
She refused to believe her precious boy, who was well over thirty at the time, mind you, had been sleeping with Isabella as well.
Micah’s mother and brother disappeared in the middle of the night. No one has heard from them since.”
“You seem to cast the blame at your sister’s feet when it was your father’s doing.”
“I don’t,” he said softly, reaching over to cup her cheek.
“My father is a monster. I have hated and feared him since I was a small boy. And yet, I tell you this only so that you will understand why the media has branded me Cruel Prince Alexander, why I have allowed no one to get close to me. It isn’t safe for me to care for anyone, to form attachments, to have friendships.
Not when anyone I become close to will only become a pawn for the king to use against me.
I won’t be responsible for the death of someone I care for, not after seeing the way Micah’s loss has destroyed my sisters’ relationship. ”
“And if Judas were gone?” Tears shimmered in her eyes.
“Surely you must know the answer to that question.” Alex brushed them away with the pads of his thumbs, bending to kiss her lips.
“You have stolen my heart, bewitched me entirely. If I had been lucky enough to have been born a man and not a cursed prince, I would have asked for your hand at our first meeting.”
“Which would have been utterly ridiculous.” Smiling, Dani poked his chest.
“Our second meeting, then.”
“When I hit you with my frying pan?”
“You were just warming up to me.” He tucked her hair over one shoulder, kissing up her jaw until she sighed and lifted her chin.
“I knew then that there was no stopping what was building between us. That I would have done anything to protect you. That I couldn’t breathe for constantly thinking about the next time I would be able to see you. ”
He traced her cheekbones, and Daniela closed her eyes. “That I was falling hopelessly in love with you.”
“Alexander,” she whispered, starting to cry again. “We both know how this ends. Why did I have to fall in love with you, only to lose you?”
“You never asked to be sentenced to my fate. I was born a prince. I may not be able to be with you, not without risking your safety and that of your sisters, but I swear to you, Daniela, I will fight every day of my life until this kingdom is rid of corruption. I will remake this sector into a place where children are not starving, and where we are no longer divided between the rich who hold their money and power over the workers who can barely afford to buy bread. Somehow, I will find a way to end my father’s reign of tyranny. ”
“I’m so proud of you, Alexander.” She pressed a hand to his heart.
“Daniela,” he whispered, and she lifted her chin, drawing his mouth down to hers. He pushed her up onto the counter, wrapping her legs around his hips. She nipped at his bottom lip, and he growled.
“Your sister—”
“Evan already thinks you’re fucking me,” she breathed. “I need you to bite me. Quickly. Before she comes back in.”
Alex ran his hands up the length of her thighs, his long fingers warm through the worn denim of her jeans. “You think about me fucking you, Dani?”
He whispered it against her throat, a dark promise as he pulled her forward on the counter, grinding into her center.
“You know it will be my first time.” Her fingers dug into the soft fabric of his shirt. “And I don’t want it to be with anyone but you.”
Even as she said it, the inevitability of what they were hurtling towards made her stomach hurt. A single night together might be more than they could hope for. They were on borrowed time, even now.
Just as her tears began to fall, Alex’s teeth sank into her vein.