Page 131 of The Stars are Dying

My stomach churned at the grim notion.

Nyte took my hand. “I wish there were any fucking person close by but him,” he muttered darkly.

I was about to ask what he meant when a new voice, a true voice, came toward me.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Drystan.

A sigh of relief left me. Even with everything I knew about him, Drystan was safer in this moment.

The nightcrawler’s irises flashed with fear. He didn’t get the chance to stand fully before the prince was upon him. I fell back in horror watching how fast he moved, then without hesitation, Drystan didn’t just snap the vampire’s neck, he tore it from his body that hit the ground before his head followed lazily from the prince’s hands.

I didn’t realize I’d shuffled back in my numb state until I gasped touching something solid. My heart choked in my throat peering up at blood-red irises of sinful amusement.

“We happened to find a little mouse,” the vampire behind me said.

“Get away from her before I make an example out of all of you,” Drystan snarled.

He dropped down to my level, tilting my head with a hand under my chin. “You look awful.”

“I need—” My speech faltered.

Witnessing the cold murder he was capable of exposed so much more of him I had refused to see. My sickness fogged my mind beyond being able to be anything but relieved I wasn’t at the mercy of these nightcrawlers anymore because of him.

Steps shuffled away, and as I swayed, an arm curled around me, and I was lifted.

“Tarran thinks you’re hiding something,” the same vampire said.

“Tarran had better watch his accusations before I come for him,” Drystan replied.

My head came to rest on his firm shoulder, and it was the first time I’d come close enough without a racing mind to notice his scent of leather and something earthy, maybe even faintly familiar. I managed to steal one last glance at the nightcrawler whose blood-red eyes lingered on me, narrowing before they returned to Drystan. Whatever he read on the prince’s face made him decide it wasn’t a confrontation worth provoking. I wasn’t sure of the control the king had on the nightcrawlers, but I could make out five of them and knew they could have challenged Drystan.

Until I remembered the sinister alter name that turned me stone-cold in his arms. Had now seen a glimpse of what could have attached such a reputation to him. Perhaps it wasn’t the prince they feared, nor the king, butNightsdeath.

“This would all be rather anticlimactic if we lost you this way.”

“Are you locked out too?” I asked sleepily.

“Yes. Looks we have each other’s company for the night.”

“I need…” I couldn’t get the words out. They became lead on my tongue as I lost all sense of myself.

“Shh,” he said. “You’re going to be fine.”

39

My consciousness returned in waves. I didn’t know how much time had passed.

Giggling was the first thing to make my senses trickle back in. My mind was foggy. Cracking my lips and trying to swallow, I winced at the painful dryness and peeled open my lids to find the source of the feminine voice.

Several things moved. Severalpeople.

Then I remembered the last face before I’d fallen unconscious.

Mercifully, my headache had dulled and wasn’t punishing me for the luminance that flooded my vision. It adjusted, and I wished I hadn’t bothered to try to enter my surroundings at what I saw.

There was a beautiful red-haired woman straddling the prince. Another dark-skinned woman with stunning large eyes cast seductive looks at him from his side, and a handsome man with a pale complexion trailed a seductive hand over his shoulder to his nape. Drystan reclined casually, the top of his shirt undone, but thankfully everyone was clothed to some scandalous capacity. Their wears were light and elegant, reminding me of those from Hektor’s establishment, only far sultrier.

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