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The issue wasn’t that I used more force than I would for a human—it was that she was avampireand still hurt by my movement. Their bodies were supposed to be superior to humans, yet such a little move hurt her?

She shook her head, but didn’t meet my eyes. “Forget it, please.”

I swallowed all the words on my tongue and, without another word, saw her to the front of the palace, where her car was already being piled high with trunks and trunks of what sounded like jewels and even coins.

Coins in this day and age?

The staff still had quite a few to load, so instead of turning straight back and returning to the princess, I lingered.

Maybe it was her frailness. Maybe it was the way she hid from my eyes. Maybe it was the way she let out a pained hiss at even the slightest touch. But there was something bothering me about the vampire at my side.

“That’s a big gift,” I commented, looking down at her. “Is Princess Aurelia always so generous?”

For the first time that day, Elora looked at me unflinching.

“I’ve been where you are,” she said, her eyes traveling back to the car. “It’s a disgusting amount of wealth to be flaunted, isn’t it?”

Shock burst through my system.Yes it is,I wanted to say, but instead I gritted my teeth. Something that was so alien to me was so normalized within the walls of the palace.Didn’t they have better things to do with their immortality?

“I used to think she was doing it on purpose,” she continued, a bitterness in her tone. Whatever she was showing me in those moments alone was nothing like the person that had been in that room. “I came from a poor family, married off to the highest bidder. I took her actions as a way to remind me how much more she had than I. But soon after, I learned what she was doing for me, and I couldn’t help but feel like an ungrateful bitch.”

There was a pause, long enough for me to take a good look at her. To realize just how weak she was. How pale her skin was. And just how many bruises were peeking out of the sleeves of her dress as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

What was the ice queen doing for you?

I had been too busy being annoyed with my situation to even notice the girl’s arms.

“Vampires are supposed to heal themselves,” I said, unable to keep the words inside.

Her eyes darted down to her arms before covering them up with a bitter sigh.

“Healthy vampires,” she said with a bit of venom in her tone. “Vampires who have enough blood to support the creation of their venom. Just like humans, our bodies can weaken. And when it does for long periods of time, it has to make some tough decisions on how to keep me alive. But even this is better than thecraze.”

The craze.I had heard of it but only saw it once when I was called to clean up a scene local law enforcement couldn’t handle.

The vampires weren’t themselves. Due to lack of blood, they turned into the monsters the myths made them out to be.

She paused before flipping her arm out to show me the slowly healing bruises on the underside of her forearm. What normally took a vampire seconds was taking her minutes. Starting from the outside of the bruise, the blackened skin was turning yellow before disappearing.

“Visiting Aurelia is the break I need to help me,” she sighed, a sort of crazed look spreading across her face. She was a vampire who had been pushed to her limits.

Dangerous.

“You shouldn’t be telling me this,” I said quickly, fixing my eyes on the staff loading the final trunk.I don’t need to get involved in this.

“No,” she whispered. “But everyone knows. You’ll understand soon. When you have more experience with the family. Things like this are usually the worst-kept secrets around.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but the staff called for her. I bowed my head to her as she left, and she spared me not one single glance.

She dropped all that on me and didn’t even blink.

Vampires are more fucked up than I thought.

“Princess!”

Chaos.

That’s the only thing that could describe the small room I had left not ten minutes before.