Page 47 of The Vampire Court

Her head whips around, fangs flashing. “Who do you think sent me?”

Ignoring her irritation, I close the door then follow as ordered. Della’s heels clack against the stone as she mumbles under her breath nearly the whole way. I tune her out and allow myself to be led.

Cassius arranged for me to stay somewhere else. He understood I don’t want to be alone with him. I hadn’t expected that level of respect from him.

Eventually, the halls narrow and all decor fades away to nothing more than dull gray the texture of the stone. We are heading to the humans’ quarters.

We finally enter a passage with dozens of doors on either side. I haven’t ventured this far with Alaric when we came this way.

Della stops before a door that looks exactly like all the others we’ve passed. “This is your room.”

The door sticks a little when I turn the doorknob. I have to hit it with my shoulder to open it. Della doesn’t follow me inside.

The entire space is less than half the size of Alaric’s bathing room, with nothing more than essentials. The bed would struggle to fit an average-sized man. Across from the door is a single window, tall and thin like an archer’s slit. The opening is only as wide as my hand from the heel of my palm to the tips of my fingers. The only other thing in the room is a rickety dresser with two drawers that looks as if it was pieced together with rejected wood scraps.

I wonder if my possessions will be brought down here or if all I have now are the clothes on my back. I suppose it doesn’t matter. This isn’t the dungeon, and it isn’t torture.

Once I’ve taken in what will be my new room, I turn back to Della.

“Why weren’t you there during the…” I trail off, not sure what to call what happened in the room when I was taken from Alaric. Despite what they call it,trialdoesn’t fit what happened.

“I was sired by one of the court, but that doesn’t make me part of it,” she says dryly.

I immediately feel bad for asking the question. “Thank you for not… speaking against me. I know you could—”

Della holds up a hand, cutting me off. “If you don’t need anything, I’ll be going.” She turns her back to me. Then, glancing over her shoulder, she says, “I know you might be tempted to, but I would recommend against leaving this room without Cassius.”

Her eyes narrow as if she wants to say more, but she doesn’t. Instead, she shakes her head. Then, she closes the door quietly behind her.

Blowing out a breath, I plop down on the bed. A small cloud of dust plumes up. The dust particles dance in the thin shaft of light coming in from the window. The smell tickles my nose.

I pull my knees up to my chest. There’s not enough room to pace. This won’t be as comfortable as Alaric’s rooms, but I feel better putting space between Cassius and me.

How has everything gone so wrong?

I think I eventually fall asleep, only to be startled awake by the door banging open. Lawrence steps inside and kicks it closed with his booted foot without missing a stride. Silently, he approaches me where I sit, until I can see the red that rings his irises.

Demon shit.He’s furious.

I’m afraid of the anger in his eyes, but annoyance at the rude entrance wins out. It seems every vampire I have ever met will be paying me a visit today.

Every vampire except the one I want to see.

He stops a few feet from my bed and scowls.

“Why are you here?” I ask. I scrunch my mouth to the side. “How did you even know where I was?”

“Alaric asked me to check on you when you were in the dungeon—”

A laugh, loud and sharp, bursts out before I can swallow it back down. I spread my arms to indicate the room. “As you can see, you’re a little too late for that.” I raise a brow then add, “You were at the sentencing. You even offered to be my guardian. Was that because you wanted to kill me yourself?”

The queen scoffed at his request. At the time, I couldn’t have cared less. I want to ask him about it but not as much as I want to ask him about Alaric.

“You lied to me,” he states, ignoring my question.

I’m taken aback by the sudden accusation that comes out of nowhere. Did he come here to argue?

“What are you talking about?”