Page 201 of Dark Souls

He shook it firmly.

“My sister has a habit of throwing herself into deadly situations with no fear for her life. And I seem to have a habit of saving her ass,” Leif answered, his lips twisting wider into an amused smile. “I’ll be happy to hand that job over to you now, demon.”

Ruby walked over to us and placed her hand on my shoulder. I peered down at it and then at her elegant face as she gave me a smile, still refusing to put Ilaria down.

“Now you are officially family and a royal,” she said, causing my eyes to widen. “You have the final vote. We all agree that there is no need for a trial. These two should be sentenced to death for their crimes. But the final vote rests with you.”

’Did you hear that, fucker? We are royal! Prince of Darkness has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?’

’Focus! The queen asked us a fucking question.’

We ran our gaze over Mitchell Morton as he whimpered pathetically, pleading for mercy. He didn’t want to die at my hands because he knew just how merciless I would be when it came to killing him. That much was certain. He was shitting his fucking designer pants. We moved our gaze to Belladonna. Her soulless eyes were fixed on us without a trace of fear. She was accepting her death. Giving me the satisfaction of seeing her scared would never happen. We clicked our tongue over our fangs, and then I let Luka speak for us.

“I’ve spent years planning their deaths,” he answered, before turning to face Ruby. “But I think I need a little more time to make sure they’re how I always envisioned them. Lock them up until I come for them.”

A flicker of her own darkness, an understanding of what I needed, passed across the Queen’s face and a sinister smile appeared, showing me a glimpse of just how scary this woman could be if she was crossed.

“Okay, you heard him,” Ruby said. “Lock them up separately, make sure not a soul can find them and ensure they cannot escape.”

Ilaria’s family disappeared one after the other, Mitchell and Belladonna, along with them. Ruby kissed Ilaria on the cheek and looked between the two of us. “We will give you two some time. Just tell us when you are ready for your revenge. In the meantime, we will interrogate them to make sure they were alone in their crimes and there was no other involvement.”

I nodded, and she vanished behind her own cloud of purple smoke.

“Luka.” Hana’s voice behind us made us turn around to find her standing with our newly formed vampire, Ronnie. We owe a lot to him. Not only had he agreed to our plan to turn him, but he had done everything we had requested of him. He’d played his part in saving my sister. But as our gaze travelled down to the arm he had curled tightly around her hip and her hand that was resting against his chest, that gratitude quickly dispersed. Hana’s smile faltered as our eyes narrowed.

“Luka. Heathen.” Ilaria’s voice was full of warning as we slowly let go of her body and allowed it to slide down our front, turning all our attention to the muscular giant of a man who dared to touch our sister so intimately.

We raised our sharpened fingernail, pointing towards Ronnie’s face as we growled together. “No. Step away from her. Right fucking now.” Ronnie did so immediately, the sire bond giving him no choice.

“Calm down. Don’t lose your shit. They’re mates. Ronnie is Hana’s soulmate,” Ilaria said, grabbing our biceps and trying to force our attention back to her as Hana’s green eyes widened with concern.

Our head whipped around to our mate as we stared down at her, unable to believe what she just said was true. She nodded, confirming it. “Ronnie was the one who found her. You should be thanking him.”

“I’ll thank him after I’ve killed him. Again,” we growled, our protectiveness and refusal to accept that our little sister was all grown up, enough to even have a mate, taking control. Which was ridiculous. Hana was older than everyone who had been in this room, except me. But try telling that to our irrational brain.

“At least wait until I’ve given her my soul before you kill me,” Ronnie said quickly, lifting his hands to his head in surrender when he saw the rage written on our face. Hana’s mouth dropped open, and she glared up at Ronnie in disbelief before taking a step forwards and standing between us.

“Lukas Heathen Nezera!” she shouted, placing her hands on her hips, showing her own anger. Our black eyes cast down to her furious face, and we couldn’t fight the little smile that tickled the corners of our lips because we had missed that bossy little girl who used to think she could stamp her feet at us and get anything she wanted. She could, of course. But not this.

“Not him, Hana,” Luka growled, shaking our head. “Not my mate’s fucking ex. No. It was bad enough that I had to allow him to live, knowing he fucked my mate but to know he will be fucking my sister–”

“Wait!” Hana’s face was a picture of confusion as she held up her hand. Her eyes ran over Ilaria’s body, and then she turned to look at Ronnie over her shoulder. “You and Ilaria?”

Ronnie looked like he was about to faint. Or beg me to kill him just so he doesn’t have to suffer my sister’s wrath. He’s lucky she can’t shift into her demon. That would be a game changer.

Oh, this is brilliant.We folded our arms over our chest and smirked, widening our stance to get comfortable as we waited to see how this played out. Hana was sweet and innocent on the surface, but she was a little firecracker underneath. Ilaria hit my bicep, glaring up at me for causing drama.

“It meant nothing and was before any of this! We were just–” Ronnie started but Ilaria cut him off.

“Hana, trust me when I say there is absolutely nothing between Ronnie and me except friendship. There isn’t even the slightest attraction there anymore.”

“She’s right. Looking at her makes me feel sick!” Ronnie shouted in panic.

“Alright, dickhead!” Ilaria snapped just as Luka shouted, “Watch your fucking mouth!” Poor bloke couldn’t win. I chuckled internally. Both Luka and I enjoyed this far more than we should.

“No! I just mean, I feel physically sick even thinking about the fact that I slept with anyone, because now I don’t want anyone else. I only want you, Hana.”

We stepped forward, hissing at Ronnie. “Not happening, fucker. Why? Because I am your sire. If I tell you that you will never touch her, you fucking won’t. Understand?”