Page 75 of Sold to the Dark Vampire Prince

CHAPTER 11

TWILIGHT WAS FALLING BY the time they made it back to the sector. Dani released Alex’s arm as soon as they reformed inside the hallway outside her apartment, stomach sinking upon hearing the raised voices of her sisters from inside.

“You’re so unfair,” Ava shrieked. The muffled sound of a door slamming carried down the hall.

“I guess it was too much to hope Nadine might have gotten bored and decided to move on for a few months while we were away?” Wincing, Dani rubbed her temples.

“Do you want me to come in?” Alex squeezed her shoulder.

“That will only make things worse.” She took the draught Finneas had provided from the pocket of her hoodie. “I guess we start taking this tonight?”

“I suppose so.” He sounded anything but certain.

“Are you having second thoughts?”

“This is how we protect you,” Alex said firmly. “We also need to find information on the missing fae.”

“So where do we start? I can ask Evan what she knows, and also see if anyone at the factory has heard anything.”

“I’ll see what I can learn from skulking around the castle. The Cavalieris have a big plant that borders the fae lands at the southeast edge of the sector. Luciano has been pressuring Father to enforce harsher penalties after some of their buildings were swallowed up by a hill in the night.”

“Please tell me Finneas made sure the building was clear first.” Dani shivered. “Was it on the fae side? I know there have been disputes all along the sector borders. My father died while trying to make deliveries out in the borderlands in areas that the shifters keep trying to claw back.”

“How old were you?”

“Sixteen. Ava had just gotten sick. He knew the risks, but it was the best way to earn extra income and we needed some way to pay for her insulin.” She paused, considering. “If the incursions are happening on the sector side of the fence, it would explain why tensions are so high.”

“Also, the fae are none too happy about Cavalieri Industries ignoring emissions standards and pumping pollutants into the air just across the boundary line. Rather than bother with diplomatic envoys, which we all know would have been ignored, they just reclaimed the land.”

“You think Cavalieri may have abducted the people he believes were responsible for destroying his factories?”

“It’s a theory.” Alexander sighed. “Let me work on Lara. There’s some press event her people want me to do tomorrow. I’ll see what I can get out of her then.”

Dani looked away before her face could betray her emotions. She had to get used to this, much as it tore her heart in two. Lara would soon be queen. With time, Alex would forget she had ever meant anything to him, just like all the other girls who had come before her.

Her chest grew suddenly tight. She traced the mating mark at the inside of her wrist. In one week, it would be gone, and with it, the connection that had once bound them.

It was the cost of keeping her sisters safe.

“I wish there were another way.” Alexander pulled her into his arms. For a moment, they just held each other, no words needed, the fierce desperation with which they clung to one another saying everything.

That he hated this every bit as much as she did.

That it was unfair.

That in another lifetime, they would have lived a simple, unextraordinary life, one that she would never have taken for granted, because each imperfect, messy, joyous day would have been spent together, just the two of them.

When at last Alexander released her, she saw that his eyes were red-rimmed.

“I’ll text you tomorrow, after the press event.”

Dani touched his face. “I have my shift at the distribution center, but come by after. I’ll make soup and the Girard sisters can beat you handily at spades.”

“I look forward to it.” He kissed her gently. A second later, he was gone in a swirl of smoke.

Dani slumped against the door, swiping tears from her eyes.

It would all be over soon. Alexander Visconti would marry Lara, she would have Ava’s medicine, and life would be exactly as it had been before.