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I let out a growl. The anger still fresh and threatening to tear apart my insides. I grabbed the pitcher and turned, ready to slam it into the reinforced window, when my eyes met two black, needy ones.

In a golden cage, much like the one I imagined myself in, sat the only true friend I had in this palace. I dropped the pitcher onto the bed, forcing myself away from the mess.

Something else tugged at my chest. Something more painful. Something that felt similar to the time I found my mother dying on the stone-cold ground, gasping for breath, and holding her hand out for me to save her.

The gray and orange bird inside chirped as I jostled its cage, but it didn’t attempt to bat its wings at me. It had seen one too many of these tantrums, but it was not out of its care for me that it stayed regardless.

There was no doubt in my mind that, if given the chance, it would fly as far from here as possible and not once look back. That’s why I had its wings clipped long ago. An awful and torturous procedure, but I did what I had to to keep her with me.

We were so similar, the caged bird and me. It had learned how to remain calm in the face of a much more powerful, threatening source. Its non-reaction only served to save it.

But it was okay.I understood.

“I’ll have the cleaning staff fix it later,” I promised her, as if the creature in its once tidy cage gave two shits about what the room looked like.

I took a deep breath, centering myself and looking at the anger deep inside me. It would remain there until I needed it the most. No matter what Father or that bitch tried, they wouldn’t take it from me. Because no matter how much they tried, no matter how hard they beat me, the rage would still be there. And as long as I had that rage, I hadme.

Vesper

Vampires. Once, a millennia ago, thought to be cursed, they had somehow changed society in a way that left them at the top and all thoseweakerthan them beneath them.

They looked down on humans like me. Saw us as blood bags with no use other than food and fucking. The time I spent preparing for this mission at Prince Icas’s house only made me resent them more.

I had seen too many of them. Especially the spoiled and rich ones. Seen them as they tore apart their victim’s neck as others watched for sport and then laughed when their limp body fell to the ground. Seen them as they forced themselves onto humans while they were in that lustful haze the venom left on them.

That’s why people employed families like mine. Hate ran deep throughout this world. Humans hated vampires. Vampires took them down a peg whenever they thought they’d gotten too cocky. Humans fought back through people like me.

It was a cycle, repeated over and over again. Job after job. There was never an end.

The prince was merely a stepping stone for my bigger plans, but a necessary one that would open a door for me. But once the door was open, I would be on my own.

“I heard the princess gets her pick of us,” one of the guards seated next to me whispered to his companion. He had been relatively quiet the entire ride until that moment. I remember him vaguely from the time at the prince’s palace. In one of the training groups.

Before they even allowed us to apply for jobs as the prince’s guards, they had us go through rigorous training. Over half the people who applied didn’t make it through the three required rounds.

And even if you did, a person was not guaranteed a good position. Though it wouldn’t do me any good to gain too much attention. I had to strike the right balance—high enough in the ranks to save me a spot near the princess without making them suspicious.

The travel van they had packed us into had looked large from the outside, but when all of the princess’s new hand-picked guards had been forced into it, there wasn’t even enough room to breathe without brushing against someone.

The covered tattoo on my neck itched, but the magic was surprisingly quite strong. Not a vampire or human had noticed its presence…yet.

“Do you think she’ll feed on us?” another asked, his voice sounding a bit too excited. “I heard she’s pretty feisty, and you know how those feedings get.”

There were a few jeers and laughter throughout, none of the words appropriate for a lady of her status.

“Settle!” came the head guard’s voice as he opened the metal window that separated us from those in the driver’s cabin. “Keep it up, and I’ll personally deliver your tongues to her feet.”

His threat shut them up really quick, and the rest of the ride was relatively silent.

It was a gift I didn’t take for granted. I leaned back against the cold metal, my hands gripping the vest of my all-black uniform.

Calm down. They can hear your heart.Most of the humans were nervous. Sweat dripping down their forehead, their hands shaking. That’s all the jokes were. An attempt to put them back on equal footing with those who awaited us inside the walls of the Castle family palace.

We were being used as fodder disguised as a well-meaning gift from one rich family to another. Even if any of us got close to the princess, chances were they would end up drained before my mission was completed.

I closed my eyes and walked through the layout of the palace for the hundredth time since becoming a guard for the Solei family. My whole life had been spent prepping. Months of grueling training to fit into these ranks for the chance of being handed off to the Castle family.

All of it leading up to the very moment where he would hand us over to her.