I didn't hesitate. Neither did Selena.
We moved like shadows—quick, silent, flanking them from either side. I caught mine by the collar and pulled him into the narrow alley beside the tavern. His bleary eyes widened for half a second before I locked his gaze with mine and his body went limp. Compliant. The glamour took hold instantly—his mind fogging over, his resistance dissolving like smoke.
I sank my fangs into his neck. His blood was warm, rich, flooding my mouth with copper and heat. It wasn't the ancient, intoxicating pull of Sanguis Keep—this was ordinary. Human. But my starving body didn't care. I drank deep, feeling my strength return with every swallow, the hollow ache in my veins finally easing.
His heartbeat slowed beneath my lips. His body sagged heavier against the wall. One more pull and he'd cross the line.
I stopped.
Every vampire swore an oath to Dracula. The first law. The oldest law. We do not kill when we feed. I'd broken a lot of promises in my life, shattered more oaths than I cared to count. But not this one. Never this one. It was the only thing that separated us from the monsters humans believed us to be.
I retracted my fangs and pressed my thumb against the puncture wounds, sealing them. Then I held his glazed eyes with mine.
"You had too much to drink. You came outside for air. Nothing happened."
He blinked slowly, nodded, and I propped him against the wall like a man sleeping off one too many.
Beside me, Selena pulled back from her own feed, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. She murmured something to her man—the same kind of quiet command, rewriting his memory with a few careful words—then stepped away, letting him slide down the wall next to his friend.
Two drunks sleeping it off in an alley. Nothing to see. Nothing to remember.
The color had returned to Selena's cheeks, her eyes brighter, her body steadier. She caught me looking and raised an eyebrow.
"Better?" I asked.
"Better." She glanced at the two slumped men. "They'll have a hell of a hangover tomorrow."
"They were going to have that anyway."
The ghost of a smile crossed her face. The first one I'd seen since the castle.
I needed that smile. Needed it more than the blood I'd just taken. I needed her to forget—even for a few hours—the altar, the blade, the baby's screams echoing off stone walls. Tomorrowwe'd deal with the fallout—a furious demon without his shard, and whatever hell was waiting for us.
But tonight, I just needed her.
And I needed to find a damn bed.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Selena
The man’s blood coursed through me, warming my veins, satisfying the hollow ache that had been clawing at me for hours. I was refreshed, steadier on my feet, my senses sharper. But Rocco was right. Weariness weighed on me like a second skin, pressing down on my shoulders and settling deep into my bones. My body was begging for sleep, and I didn’t have the strength to argue with it anymore.
Darius waved his arm in front of a small brick building tucked along the main street—a bed and breakfast with window boxes and a hand-painted sign swinging gently in the night breeze. Warm light glowed behind lace curtains.
Rocco escorted me over, his hand on my lower back.
“We found rooms for all of us,” Darius said.
“Good.” Rocco reached for his pocket. “How much?—“
Darius shook his head. “Don’t worry about it.”
I felt Rocco stiffen beside me. It was subtle—a slight squaring of his shoulders—but I caught it. His gaze shifted away from Darius, fixing on some point in the distance. Pride. That old,stubborn, princely pride that he couldn’t quite shed no matter how far he’d fallen.
Darius was still a prince. Still had wealth, status, resources. He could cover a few rooms without blinking. Meanwhile Rocco had spent the last two years flipping burgers and sleeping in apartments that probably didn’t have working heat.
Or at least he had.
