Page 97 of Collared by the Vampire Prince

My whole body jerks at the sight.

Felix barely looks at her face. He watches where their bodies join, one hand braced beside her head, the other gripping her thigh as he moves over her with casual entitlement. Jane keeps her eyes squeezed shut.

Every time he moves harder, she flinches.

Eliza captures both my trembling hands in hers.

“Kira,” she murmurs. “Look at me.”

I cannot. My gaze remains fixed on Jane’s flushed face, on the tears she refuses to let fall while Felix moves over her, jostling her body as he fucks her. Hard.

Is he punishing her?

“I made it worse,” I whisper.

“Perhaps.”

I finally turn on Eliza. “Perhaps?”

“If you did, I think Jane will still be glad that someone tried.”

“Will she?” I ask, unconvinced.

Jane turns her face away from Felix. Away from us too.

“Come on.” Eliza leads me up two shallow steps into a raised window alcove set within the curve of the tower wall. For a moment, the view almost feels like a reprieve, the Academy grounds spreading below us in the sunlight, tall hedges and pathways giving way to the distant iron fence.

Then I notice the walls of the alcove. Whips hang from hooks beside lengths of chain, leather muzzles, collars and leashes arranged around the window.

Eliza rubs her thumbs soothingly across my knuckles. “You are new to all of this, aren’t you?”

“It’s my second day,” I mutter, my gaze lingering on a ridged black implement hanging from the wall. It is far too long and gnarled for anyone to reasonably expect it to fit inside another person.

Surely not.

“I don’t mean the Academy.” Her voice remains gentle. “I mean this. Sex.”

Heat flashes across my face despite everything.

I give the smallest nod.

“It was new to me too,” she says. “I had only just turned eighteen when the semester began. Celebrated my birthday two days before the carriage arrived. But I was fortunate. I already had a Master.”

My gaze drops to the blue leather collar at her throat.

“The mayor of the Capital,” she adds, and there is unmistakable pride in her voice. “He is a good man.”

I stare at her. “A good…vampire?”

A soft laugh escapes her. “Yes. I know how that sounds. Believe me, I was so nervous. But since I started at the Academy, he has visited often. And, well. I should start at the beginning, shouldn’t I? My parents helped arrange the match. Or rather, their Masters did. They knew the mayor and made certain I was invited to the right parties, where he might see me.” Her fingers drift towards the diamonds at her throat, and I strain to hear every word—anything to block out what is happening to Jane and the others in the rest of the classroom. “I was very fortunate to catch his attention last year. At a ball. We had to wait until I turned eighteen, of course. But he sent me letters. It was…quite romantic, in a way.”

Behind her, Jane gives another muffled cry.

Eliza does not turn.

Neither do I.

I cannot bear to. And that feels like a kind of betrayal, too. The only thing worse than watching it happen…is pretending that it isn’t.