Hell.

This woman …

I exhaled through my nose, trying to regain some control. I almost snapped at her. I almost threw her against a wall and bit her, for hell’s sake. What was wrong with me?

What was wrong with her?

I glanced around the storage behind my bedroom, accounting for all my things. My family’s things. The little I had here was all I could save from their lives. Everything in here was over five hundred years old. Everything in here was my treasure, one I had never shared with anyone.

How did she find it? And why was she snooping around?

A new wave of rage rolled over my muscles, but I released another long breath. This wasn’t the time to be angry with her. I had scared her, really scared her, and she had fled my chambers in a rush.

I should go after her before she found trouble.

After placing the painting of my family on top of all the others, I turned and sped from my room, following her sweet, sweet scent to find her.

I navigated through the corridors, and as her scent become stronger, his scent hit me too.

I faltered, then sped some more.

“Get off her!” I boomed as Alex leaned down, ready to sink his teeth into Thea’s neck. Welcoming the rage back, I pushed him off to the side. Alex grasped Thea’s arm and pulled her with him.

A laugh rolled out of Alex’s mouth as he turned Thea in his arms, pressing her back to his chest. He stared at me, a challenging glint in his eyes. “Lost your blood slave? Finders keepers.” He leaned down and licked her neck. Thea whimpered. Her heart beat too damn fast.

“Let her go,” I said with a low growl.

“But she smells so good,” Alex said. “I don’t remember her smelling this good when you first claimed her.” He sniffed her neck and she flinched. “I bet her blood will be like heaven.”

“Let. Her. Go,” I repeated, fighting so I wouldn’t lose my patience right here and murder Alex.

Alex made a show of splaying his fingers on Thea’s stomach, grinding her against him, then showing me his fangs.

I lost it.

Fangs bared, I lunged at him. With careful movements, I pried Alex’s hands from around Thea, grabbed her arm and spun her to stand behind me, and went for Alex’s throat. Pressing him against the wall, I lifted him up and pressed my fingers tight, choking him.

He simply laughed. “Is that supposed to hurt?”

I pressed some more and his neck cracked. “How about now?”

His eyes went wide. A little more and I would break his neck. That wouldn’t kill him, but he would be out for a while.

“What’s going on here?” Dorian’s voice was like a bucket of cold water over my head.

I let go of Alex and stepped back, purposely putting myself in front of a shaking Thea.

“My dear brother Drake was offering me his blood slave,” Alex said with a wide smile. “Such a nice offer from him.”

A growl rumbled in my chest.

Dorian wasn’t fooled, though. He knew how much of an ass Alex could be, and he knew I wouldn’t offer a blood slave to anyone.

Dorian turned to me. “Drake? Anything to add?”

“Alex is to stay away from my blood slaves,” I snapped, making sure he heard the bite in my tone.

“But she just threw herself in my arms,” Alex quipped. “There wasn’t much I could do.”

Fury swept through me and I advanced toward him.

Dorian raised a hand. “If you two insist on fighting, then make it a duel. We all know it was bound to happen one of these centuries. But out of respect, wait until the mourning period is over.”

Alex turned his vicious smile at me. “What do you say, brother? Want to duel?”

I wanted to crush his head between my hands right here, right now. I pressed my mouth tight, making my jaw hurt. “Just … stay away from my blood slave,” I repeated.

Alex tsked. “I would prefer a duel.”

“It is set, then,” Dorian announced as if he would simply write duel on a long to-do list. “You two will duel after the mourning period.”

I grunted in response, not trusting myself to say anything non-threatening if I opened my mouth.

Without taking my eyes from the devil in front of me, I reached for Thea behind my back. I found her shaking hands and tugged her closer. Then, I spun around, taking her under my arm and hurrying her away.

I practically carried her all the way back to my chambers, and once we were behind locked doors, I let go of her. She plopped down on the couch. I paced in front of her, trying to calm down before I growled at her and spewed more threats I didn’t mean.

This woman …

She would be death of me.

“What …?” she whispered. I halted and turned to her, surprised to find she was staring at me with big, vulnerable eyes. Her hands, folded over her legs, still shook and her heart still beat too fast. “What does the duel mean?”

“It means Alex is challenging me for you.”

Her face paled even more. “But … why?”

“Alex likes irking me. He knows stealing you from me will definitely irk me.”

Her delicate brows turned down, as if the explanation didn’t make sense. Besides irritating me, Alex knew Thea was pretty. Beautiful even. He had smelled her blood. He had been close to her—my insides burned at the image of her pressed against him. Alex knew I wouldn’t drink her blood and abuse her, and that was exactly what he planned to do to her.

A new rush of anger coiled around my muscles, and I clenched and unclenched my hands.

She looked down at her lap. “I’m sorry.”

Empathy invaded my chest, and I couldn’t stop myself. I knelt in front of her. “That was why I told you to stay inside my chambers. That was what I was trying to protect you from.” She lifted her gaze to me, locking her pretty eyes on mine, as if searching for the answer to a burning question in them. “He isn’t the only one that would use you to get to me. There are other dangerous and reckless vampires in this castle. They would see you out alone, and they wouldn’t care about my claim on you. They would take you for themselves.” Her shoulders curled and she became smaller and more fragile right in front of me. “You understand now?”

“Yes,” she said, her voice weak.

An invisible hand closed around my dead heart and squeezed. “Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?”

She shook her head. “No, no. I’m fine. Shocked, but fine. I think.”

“That’s good.” I ran a hand through my hair. “I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to frighten you. It’s just … I never go inside that storage room. The things in there, they are a part of me I don’t like to remember. Old memories bring back too much pain.”

“I’m sorry,” she said again.

“It’s okay. Just promise me you won’t snoop around anymore, and that you won’t leave my chambers alone again.” She stared at me as if I was asking her to hand me one part of her soul. “Thea, you have to promise.”

She let out a shaky breath. “I promise.”

I sat in an armchair and sighed. Maybe if I gave her some random information, she wouldn’t want to snoop around so much. Was that worth it, though? Why did she have to know more about me? But for some reason, I wanted her to know more about me. I had scared her and now I needed to gain her trust again.

“What do you want to know?” I asked.

Surprise flashed in her eyes. “Hm, I don’t know. How about … how old are?”

One corner of my lips tugged up. “I was twenty-five when I was turned, and I’ve been a vampire for a little over five hundred years.”

Her jaw popped open, but she closed it. “Was it Lord Reynard who turned you?”

A pang ran through my chest at the mention of my father’s name. “Yes, and I’ve been with him ever since.”

“When did you become a prince?”

That was a strange question. She was new here. Unless she had thoroughly questioned Thomas and he had answered her, which I doubted, she couldn’t know much about how things worked here. “What do you know about being a prince?”

“Nothing,” she said. “I just … I’m basing my discoveries on folklore here, but aren’t vampires sterile? So you and the other princes aren’t really Lord Reynard’s sons.”

“Well, not all vampires are sterile. It’s rare, but male vampires can have children with human females.” Sarki was an example of that, though she didn’t know who her parents were. All we knew was that Reynard had found her and brought her to our household. “But you’re right. The other princes and I aren’t Lord Reynard’s sons. We were chosen after proving our worth in his army and in this castle. And to answer your question, I became a prince a few years after being turned.” I paused. “Any more questions?”

She bit her lower lip. Something primal, something hungry twisted in my stomach, and I had to avert my gaze. “Tell me more about vampires. What can you do? Super strength? Super healing? Turn to dust with the sun? Garlic repels you?”

Of course, she would ask those things. “We have superior strength, healing, speed, hearing, and scent among other things. Garlic and holy objects don’t do anything to us.” I gestured to the brooch pinned to the lapel of my shirt. “When Reynard was a young vampire, there was a group of priests hunting vampires, and they used crosses to scare vampires away. It didn’t work, of course, so when Reynard became powerful and created his own coven, he adopted this symbol as a joke.”

“It’s not that funny,” she mumbled, as if she were offended by it.

I suppressed a grin. “What else? We don’t need to eat anything other than blood, though sometimes we do because we miss some things, some tastes. We don’t exactly turn to dust in the sun, but it burns our skins, and if we’re exposed to it for too long, yes, it can kill us. We need sleep, but not as much as humans do. We have hearts, but they do not beat anymore, and we don’t need to breathe, but we do it out of habit.”

“How about compulsion?”

“Yes, we have compulsion.”

“Does it work on other vampires?”

“Yes, if you are stronger than them.”

“And how do you kill a vampire?”

From her tone, I knew her question was innocent, curiosity, but I couldn’t help grin at her. “Trying to plot how to kill me and escape the castle?”

Her face blanched again. “No, no, I would never—”

“I know, don’t worry,” I assured her. “Killing us isn’t easy because of all our abilities, but a stake to the heart or cutting off our heads usually does the trick. Best if you do both.”

She swallowed hard. “That sounds gruesome.”

“When you live for five hundred years and are in charge of a brutal army, gruesome gets a new definition.” I watched her for a minute. Though she was still shaken, she looked better, calmer. “Are you okay now?”

“I … I don’t know.” She frowned. “There’s still too much to process, too much to accept.” She glanced around the living room. “And I have to get used to the idea that I’ll never leave this place again.”

The sadness in her voice …

I let out a long breath. “We can make a deal.”

Thea sat up straighter in anticipation. “Like what?”

I almost smiled at her. “I’ll let you walk around certain parts of the castle and the back garden, but you have to do it during the times I allow you to, and you have to take Thomas with you.” I could make sure Alex and the other malicious vampires in the castle were busy before telling her she was free to go out. As for Thomas, he wouldn’t like the idea, but he was an expert on avoiding the other vampires when needed. “Is that okay? Do we have a deal?”

Her eyes sparked with hope and her lips turned up in a faint smile. I felt a punch in my stomach and the air fled my lungs. She was too beautiful, and when she was somewhat happy? She was stunning.

“We have a deal.”