“Dinner? Whose dinner exactly?” I hugged the gown to my chest.
Avianna smirked. “Yours and mine,” she assured me. “We eat regular food as well, it just doesn’t…nourish us in the way blood does.”
I blew out a breath, thankful I wouldn’t have to sit before an empty spot and watch a bunch of royal vampires feed on humans all evening.
“Go,” she prompted, and I obeyed.
An hour of Avianna fussing over my hair and make-up later, I followed her through the estate, Hawke—Alek’s appointed babysitter for me this evening—trailed behind us silently. Brutality rolled off him in waves, strength and power and a stealthiness that had cold chills rising on my skin. He was icy calculation with a deadly sense of mischief in his eyes that dared anyone to fuck with him. Almost as if he wanted it, lived for a fight. I swallowed hard, wondering why Avianna and I merited such a guard.
My heart raced with each step we took toward the ballroom where the dinner would be served, and I smoothed my hands self-consciously over the gown. Sleeveless, with midnight blue beading along the seams of the plunging neckline, the gown fanned out after my waist in ripples of delicate blue fabric, like a waterfall. The bottom of the skirts melted into a creamy white, the contrast in colors creating an almost mythical effect that swished with each of my steps. The back left my skin bare in a plunging V, but Avianna had been right. The dress fit me like a glove, hugging my curves and accentuating my chest. She’d curled my hair into a cascade of blonde waves, leaving my face bare except for a little kohl around my eyes. She left my lips as they were despite me asking if I needed lipstick.
“You look like a dream,” she whispered in my ear, taking my arm and hooking it through hers. “Don’t for one second think otherwise,” she continued as we turned down another long corridor.
“Dream or dinner?” I asked, surprised that I could joke with my nerves tangled in knots. And the messed up thing? I was more worried about what Alek would think as opposed to what he could or would do to me. Silly human indeed.
A low grunt that almost sounded like a laugh came from behind us, and Avianna glanced over her shoulder, shock coloring her eyes as she looked at Hawke. By the time I followed her gaze, he’d schooled his features back to a lethal sort of stare.
“Definitely dinner, too,” Avianna said, returning her attention to me. “Which reminds me,” she said, and slowed our pace to a stop just outside a giant set of wooden double doors. “Stay sharp in here,” she warned. “There are certain female nobility who’ve been dying for a seat at my brother’s side for centuries. One in particular, Cassandra, won’t hesitate to cut anything or anyone who stands in her way.”
Cold trickled down my spine. Cold and that damn twisting irrational jealousy. Of course, gorgeous vampires wanted Alek. “I’m nothing,” I said, shrugging. “To Alek,” I explained. “Why would Cassandra or any of them come after me?” The truth coiled in my stomach. He’d said he’d wipe my memory, make all of this a barely recognized dream. Why should it matter if I was here right now or not? And why did I feel so...disheartened by that truth? The sooner I was set free the better...right?
Avianna flashed me another pitiful look, and I tilted my head, prepared to push her further on the subject, but my senses heightened to the spot just behind us—like someone had taken a living flame to my spine. The heat curled and caressed every inch of my skin, a tug of need turning me around before I could even think.
“Alek.” His name left my lips in a breathy whisper.
Holy vampire King.
A suit of black covered his body like a midnight storm—beautiful, terrifying, and utterly powerful. His eyes nearly glowed with their blue-gray tone, his dark hair swept back to expose every devastatingly gorgeous angle of his face. The strong jaw, his lips that parted as he took in every inch of me as well. He visibly swallowed, focusing a glare on his sister whose arm was still linked with mine.
“I see you’ve found a new doll to play with, sister,” he said, his tone low and colder than I’d ever heard it. I stood up straighter, willing strength into my features where his words had stung.
“Does that mean she’s mine, dear brother?” she challenged, and Hawke groaned behind us.
Alek’s eyes flared for the briefest of moments, his power radiating and filling the corridor so much I could barely breathe.
But it wasn’t terror that filled my veins at his primal display. It was curiosity and challenge and want and all things I couldn’t fathom but were there nonetheless. I should run the opposite direction. I knew that in my bones, but my soul begged to differ. It didn’t matter that I was surrounded by three ancient and insanely powerful vampires, one of which seemed to be having a silent argument with his sister at the moment. I didn’t cower, didn’t tremble.
And maybe it made me a human idiot, but I stepped out of Avianna’s gentle hold and stopped an inch before Alek.
King.
Whatever.
“I’m hungry,” I said, my voice only cracking slightly. I arched a brow at Alek’s surprised gaze and told my body to stop aching to lessen the distance between us. When he made no move, I glanced over my shoulder and pointed toward the double doors. “Food this way?”
Avianna chuckled, covering her lips with her gloved fingers. She nodded.
“Brilliant,” I said and shifted to push open the doors myself, but Alek moved faster than I could follow. Stepping before me, he opened the doors, and I swore Avianna and Hawke wore identical looks of shock.
“Thank you,” I said, wondering if I should technically bow now that I knew he was the King of the vampires. I decided to simply walk past him. I hadn’t bowed when he’d brought me to his dark palace, and I suppose it would be awkward to do it now.
I barely swallowed my gasp as the room unfolded before me—a grand ballroom bedecked in crystal and filled with creatures so stunningly beautiful my shoulders drooped. They moved with an ethereal grace I’d never master, and some spoke in hushed conversations in languages I couldn’t fully understand. Flames flickered from iron sconces decorated along the stone walls, and tables draped in black linens were positioned all throughout the massive room. A dais had been erected at the farthest wall of the room, a long table empty, waiting.
For royalty.
For Alek and his sister and his Assassins.
Warmth flushed my cheeks as I scanned the room, searching for where a mere human would sit among the power in this room. I spotted an empty round table in the far corner and stepped toward that direction.
Alek’s hand darted out, gentle and warm on my bare elbow. I paused at his touch, and the entire room fell silent. Hundreds of eyes turned their gaze on us, on that familiar touch on my arm.
“I will feed you,” he said, his voice not harboring any of that cold he had moments ago.
“I’m fully capable of handling that myself,” I said, pointing toward that empty table. “I wouldn’t want to keep you from your guests.”
“If that is where you’d like to sit for the evening, then by all means, we will sit there. But I go where you go,” he said, his eyes widening almost as if his words had surprised even himself.
I swallowed hard, my heart racing against my chest. His eyes fell to my bare neck, and I saw the hunger there, the need. I stepped closer to him, an instinct flaring in the very depths of my soul to provide for him, take care of him.