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“Yes.”

“Why?”

“The King values me.”

“The King is a weakling.”

“Careful, princess.” He could justly snap her fragile neck for such a treasonous statement. It would take no effort to pulverize her delicate bones into dust, despite his reluctance to do so.

Her lips, dark and wet like the seeds of a pomegranate, quirked to one side. “You won’t hurt me, Cerberus Maddox XI.”

He was a loyal guard and gatekeeper of His Royal Majesty’s guests, protector of the crown, yet she could disarm him by simply using his name. In a short time, she also mastered the King and adopted a regalradiance that enchanted even the eunuchs of the kingdom.

Charles had been delighted with his new possession. She was intended only to serve him with vitality, but Lilias quickly became a coveted object of His Majesty’s affection. He was set on not only having Lilias’s blood but also winning her heart. Every day the King attempted to speak to her, but she remained stoically silent in his presence, providing only her submission and her vein.

When she kneeled before His Majesty and offered her vein, Cerberus sometimes caught glimpses of her reflection in the polished vases around the King’s chambers. Those visions haunted him more than he wanted to admit.

Cerberus dreamed of her kneeling at his feet, not to offer her vein but in an act of carnal loyalty, an act of love. Such fantasies plagued him during the day, especially on the days when the King’s addiction to her blood left her too depleted to walk, and Cerberus had to carry her wilted body back to the tower. Seeing her in such a state tempted him to steal her away and keep her as a prize for himself.

“You should not let him take so much.” He gently placed her in her bed and brushed back her faded curls.

Under the weight of His Majesty’s greed, her radiance and youthful glow dulled. Her veins frequently collapsed at the cost of the ailing King’s vitality, but her beauty somehow remained.

She turned her face into his calming touch. “If I asked you to let me go, Cerberus, would you?”

His heart jolted at the thought of never seeing her again. He could not protect her if she left this place alone. At that moment, he made a silent vow to conjure a plan of escape, at which point they could both leave.

“I will see to it that life becomes more bearable for you.”

A tear rolled from the corner of her eye. “My soul is dying here.”

“I will not let you die, Lilias. But you must rest so you can heal. You need your strength before circumstances can improve.”

Her eyes closed, forming crescent shadows under her copper lashes. “My mate needs me.”

Cerberus stiffened, his hand curling around the hilt of his sword. “What mate?”

She licked her dry lips. “I sense him trying to find me, but he can’t get past the Royal Guard.”

Cerberus drew back and fanned out his senses, scanning the palace walls and the surrounding woods for any trace of an immortal male. He sensed nothing nearby.

His fingers gently traced over her brow and she sighed. She’d become prone to fainting spells of late. Perhaps her weakness was causing visions.

“Take my blood, Lilias. It will restore your strength and clear your head.”

The shower shut off,and his mind jolted to the present. The mortal woman moved about the bathroom clumsily. He could hear the rapidthrum of her heartbeat and the quick clip of her shallow breaths. In another hour, it would all be over.

The blow dryer clicked on and his mind returned to Lilias, recalling the sweet decadence of her mouth drawing from his vein.

The delicate caressof her tongue teased his soul, tugging parts of him no female had touched before. “That’s it, princess. My blood will make you strong again.”

He cherished those moments when he could cradle her close, always keeping his body under control by a fraying thread, ignoring the hardening of his cock and the tremble in his chest.

He was a slave to her beauty and honor-bound to protect her. The thought of anyone else touching her so intimately threw him into a murderous rage. Even the weak King was wearing on his nerves.

He’d been such a fool to trust her…

His hands curledinto fists as he eyed the bathroom door. When he lay in the earth, dying a million deaths as he waited for his body to heal, he suffered those intimate memories of her again and again, bitterly aware that her kindness had all been a lie.