Page 92 of Sold to the Dark Vampire Prince

Her stepmother had been so wonderful back then, telling them she knew she could never replace the mother they’d lost, but that she hoped they would let her be a special part of their lives nonetheless. And she had. Up until the day she’d had no choice but to sell herself at the auctions to pay for the insulin Ava needed and addiction had slowly set in over time.

Dani pressed a hand to her throat, noticing only then that it was starting to shake. Her heartrate had been high all day, something she’d dismissed as a side effect of the attack by Lara’s men.

Now, looking at Nadine, she felt unsettled.

“Enough with the games,” Evan spat. “We all know what this is really about. You want money. Which isn’t happening. What’s your plan if you rat us out and we get picked up? You won’t get paid, and who’s going to watch Ava for you then while you whore yourself out to get high?”

Nadine’s eyes turned cold. “I just need a little to get me by until next month.”

“Ten silvers. That’s it.”

“You think I don’t know what Dani was paid for a single night spreading her legs at the auction house?”

Dani’s cheeks flamed. “I didn’t—”

“Lower your voice,” Evan growled. “You’re going to wake Ava.”

“I want a hundred transferred to my account tonight, and a recurring payment set up every two weeks after that.” Nadine lifted her chin. “That only seems fair after everything I’ve sacrificed for this family. Why should you two ungrateful brats get rich while I’m left with nothing?”

“That money is going to support your daughter.” Dani quickly lowered her voice, glancing towards Ava’s closed door. “It’s for Ava’s medicine. For food and rent.”

“Not so you can shoot it up your vein and party with other drunks you meet on the street,” Evan added. “Ten silvers. Take it or leave it.”

Nadine shrugged, pulling out her phone. “I guess a little call to child services is in order, then.”

Evan’s lip curled. “You’re bluffing. They’ll arrest you before me or Dani.”

But Dani wasn’t so sure, picturing Lara’s security detail breaking down their door, ripping her and Evan away from Ava without even giving them a chance to say goodbye. She couldn’t let that happen, had to keep her sisters together, no matter the cost.

“Please don’t do this,” she pleaded with Nadine. “There are shortages across the city. If we can’t get her next vial of insulin—”

“I’m sure your prince has friends who can get it for you,” Nadine said smugly. “Now stop stalling.”

Heart sinking, Dani took out her phone to make the transfer.

“She’s going to be a problem,” Evan said as they hurried to the pickup point ten minutes later. “And we could very well be walking into a trap the moment we get home.”

“What was I supposed to do, not transfer the money?” They hurried around a car that had been set on fire. The riots were getting increasingly bad with every passing night. “We both know she would have called it in for sure.”

“No, you did the right thing. I just hate this.”

Sera stepped out from the shadows, dressed all in black with slim gloves. She nodded to them. “Ready?”

Dani held her breath as Sera ghosted them across the sector to the borderlands. As soon as they resolidified, the shelling and gunfire, which were always audible in the distance, thundered overhead. Evan grabbed her arm, pulling her behind a building that was so cratered with old missile strikes, it was a wonder it was still standing.

“Let’s go,” her sister shouted. “It’s this way.”

They hurried between buildings until eventually the sounds of bombs falling quieted.

“Who are we meeting with?” Dani called into the dark.

“We have reason to believe Cavalieri may be running illegal medical experiments at one of his facilities nearby.” Sera motioned her down the next alley. “Two women recently escaped. The resistance has been hiding them ever since.”

“Escaped from where?”

They made their way up to a building that was even more run down than the rest. There was no glass left in any of the windows. One entire wall had been blown off.

Sera led the way inside. “They aren’t sure. They were picked up by a patrol after curfew, taken to an underground prison and drugged. One of the girls heard a guard talking, saying how the Cavalieri trials were performing better in the second stages, and that only five percent of the vaccinated females had gotten pregnant after being dosed.”