Page 2 of Fated to the Vampire Prince
“I have to go,” I told my sister.
My attention drifted over her shoulder to the dais. If I impressed him during the interview, I’d be summoned before the court to complete the sanguination ritual.Whatever that meant.Mama was scant on the details. All I knew was that there was no turning back once the contract was made.
I would be his for the next year. And he would be mine to spy on.
I took one step forward, and Seraphina blocked my path, hands planted on her hips. She looked so different without her white hair, which she’d charmed to match my lilac hue as a disguise before arriving.
“Why are you acting so weird? You can’t start freaking out now. You vowed?—”
“Shh!” I said, silencing her before she could say something to give us away. I opened the fan and held it between us, blocking our faces from the vampire. “I can’t explain what just happened, but he spoke inside my head and invited me to the balcony.”
“He spoke inside your head?” she repeated.
I could feel the Duke’s attention through the thin black paper fan. Something told me he wasn’t accustom to waiting. “I think he wants to interview me.” Her bow-shaped lips parted. Clearly, she was just as surprised as I was. “Wait here for me, okay?”
She gently took the fan and folded it, then playfully tapped the side of my cheek. “You can do this, Claire. I know you can. Just be confident.”
I offered her a wry smile. “Thanks, Sera.”
My little sister was everything I wasn’t. A witch born with the Magick of the Light in her veins. One of Diana’s chosen daughters. Trained to hunt the sources of dark magick on earth and destroy them. She’d take over our family coven when Mama stepped aside.
I wanted to protect her from the Dark Witches. The same ones our vampire monarchs had never held accountable for murdering innocent Witches of the Light.
I hated Prince Bastien Allard and his brothers for what they were and what they failed to do. But if I wanted to learn his secrets, I had to pretend that I was entranced by him, like the rest of these soft humans fawning for the right to be his pincushion. Straightening my spine and rolling my shoulders back, I strode across the ballroom with slow, deliberate strides, trying not to trip over the hem of the black lace gown.
At my approach, the vampire opened one of the doors and held it for me. I lingered at the threshold just long enough to meet his curious gaze. Like the other vampires, he wore a ceremonial black frock coat with gold trim that made him appear dark and severe. But the Duke added something extra—a black leather holster that cut across his muscled chest. Nestled against it was a jeweled dagger.
It was the kind of weapon you wore not for battle, but as astatement. A promise. I found myself wondering what kind of promise he meant to keep with it here, at a ball thrown in his honor.
Before I lost my nerve, I dipped my chin and stepped out into the cool night air. Wind kissed the exposed skin on my cheeks and arms, and I resisted the urge to wrap myself in a hug as I walked to the stone railing that overlooked Château Corbin’s famous hanging gardens. They were surely beautiful in the light of day, but now, in the dark, the bushes and trees looked as monstrous as the gargoyles sitting atop the buttresses.
As monstrous as my midnight companion.
I didn’t hear his approaching steps, but I felt him standing behind me. It was as unsettling as walking in a graveyard at night.If the gravestones intended to drain your blood.
On the weeklong voyage to the capital, I’d devoured every scrap of information Mama had packed on the vampires, but didn’t learn much. Rumors more than facts. Save for the bit about their diet. I’d never seen one up close before, much less been interviewed by one, but I imagined that a vampire would want someone soft and sweet to feed from.
Unfortunately, I’d never been either of those things, preferring plants and books to people. But I supposed there was a first time for everything.
Steeling my nerve and fighting against every reflex in my body screaming to run, I turned around, coming face to face with the Duke of Roselyn. The moon was a spotlight on him, bathing him in an eerie glow. What I knew about him I didn’t like, but what I didn’t know held my curiosity.
“Your Grace,” I said, dipping into a curtsy.
When I lifted my chin, I found him contemplating me with a strange look. He shifted his weight, leaning heavily on thehead of his cane, which looked much more ornamental than functional. I held my breath in my chest.
“I make you uneasy,” the vampire said.
It wasn’t a question, and he wasn’t wrong. He did make me uneasy. Everything from his devastating beauty to his stillness to the fact that he could talk to me without moving his lips from across a ballroom gave me pause.
Instead of trying to lie, I stayed silent.
After a long moment, he asked, “Why are you here?”
There was no hint of accusation in his tone. Still, I had the unnerving suspicion that he knew exactly why I was here. A bolt of terror struck me in the stomach. The old me would’ve started to cry. I never took well to Mama’s sharp questioning. But I couldn’t be that girl anymore. Now that I’d left Prideaux Hill, I had to be stronger.
I swallowed the hot press of tears and breathed through the terror, then told him the only truth I had. “I came,” I said, finding my voice, “foryou.”
My hands trembled, and I clasped them together, refusing to look away from the cold depths of his eyes. A frozen moment passed between us. Him, unflinchingly still. Me, wearing a new kind of confidence as armor.
