Page 27 of Wedlock (Vampire Bachelor Games #3)

It’s been two days since Falcon returned to the castle and six days now since Eleanor has visited, and I’m going stir-crazy wondering what the fuck is going on.

Why haven’t either of them come to me and studied my wrist? Why haven’t they acted at all on the information they’ve received?

It’s bad enough that I’m stuck in a room that looks like a cross between a gypsy vardo and a Vegas showgirl’s change room. But to be in here with nothing but my thoughts and a television I refuse to watch, while the castle inhabitants are scurrying around like ants, is maddening.

‘Could it be they plan to protect Viper from his own actions? No! Surely not? Falcon would never condone such a thing, cover up such a thing…would he?’

Walking to the window now, my son asleep on our vast bed, I wrap my arms around myself and shake my head.

It’s night and the baby will wake again soon for another feed; my breasts barely repaired from his last. Having the wetnurse has been sweet relief, because although I do heal very fast, his bites are pleasure/pain, mostly pain.

I enjoy feeding him, bonding with him, but he’s too little yet to have the chemical adult vampires have that makes being bitten a euphoric feeling.

Seeing my bra stained with milk and blood is an everyday thing now, something I’m used to, and I can’t help but wonder how Yin is dealing with my daughter.

Is my little girl getting the sustenance she needs?

The love she needs? Is Yin holding her when she’s asleep like I do with my boy?

What does she look like? Is she identical to her brother, a miniature fanged angel?

And these thoughts bring with them others that crowd my head when I think of my daughter, some of which had come to the fore only recently after a discussion with the nanny when I’d made a comment about my baby hopefully learning to sleep through the night soon.

“Oh, he’ll never do that, Lady Dragonspur,” she’d laughed, “he’s a vampire.”

I’d literally stopped and stared at her as the words sank in.

Yes, it was true that during The Games and after my marriage I’d needed to alter my schedule to sleep during the day and be awake at night.

But once I’d escaped the castle I’d settled back into my old human routine.

Since my return to the castle, this was still true.

I mostly slept at night, although I stayed up longer than usual and felt tired all the time because the baby hadn’t worked out the difference between night and day.

Somehow, in the back of my mind, I’d thought he’d grow like every other baby to figure out the difference and sleep through the night.

I’d literally forgotten this was not how things would go.

He’d want to be up at night, and me with him. I’d have to become nocturnal again.

The nanny had laughed kindly at my expression and patted my shoulder.

“Don’t worry, My Lady, you’ll get your beauty sleep as he’s weaned. The little lord will have lots of vampire friends to play with under the stars. There’s night-care and play-dates, and you’ll have all the staff in the world to keep him occupied.”

But if she thought this comforted me, she was wrong. Because with this realisation came another, more painful one. My little girl was also a vampire. She’d also want to be up and playing at night. Only she’d have no one.

‘I took her twin, her other half, and I’ve left her all alone. A tiny vampire in a world of humans. I have to get them back together if it’s the last thing I do.’

Now, staring out the window, I shake my head and lean in to press my nose to the glass as I see a sleek, black limousine slide down the drive like a quiet, black shark and park at the castle steps.

Two squat black SUVs flank it, one in front, one behind, and a small army of vampires pile out and line the steps while others circle to stand around the limo.

Only royalty use this entrance, and I frown and focus on the passenger door as the driver steps out, waits until two guards are in place on either side of it, and opens it.

“What now?” I murmur as a long, white leg with high, high heels is extended from the door, and a beautiful blonde woman seems to slink out of the car.

She’s wearing a royal blue, velvet, knee-length wrap dress.

The diamond collar around her slender neck sparkles in the moonlight, as does the wide diamond bracelet gracing her left wrist. The jewellery is reminiscent of the type Falcon gave Giselle in the games, although obviously ten million times bigger and better.

She glances up and meets my eyes, holding my gaze for a long, long minute before walking up the steps and out of my line of sight.

“Tell me this isn’t the fucking princess,” I growl.

But I know, without knowing how I know, that it is. She’s everything and more of what Falcon looked for in a woman; she was his type with a capital T.

‘And if she’s here, my time is running out.’

Gritting my teeth, I decide to, once more, do the only thing I can think of that might give me some information, any information, to help me understand and navigate what’s going on right now. As disgusting as I find it, and difficult, I reach out.

Shivering, I connect with his mind.

He’s on the same grounds he was the first time I’d sensed him.

There’s a forest, the scent of pine trees.

I can’t help but wonder if he gets his meals delivered here so he can hunt them before murdering them.

It’s the kind of thing a sick fuck like Viper would do — chase children and terrify them before sucking them dry.

Trying to relax, I open myself up more to him and focus on his surroundings. It’s night, but the stars are barely visible through the canopy of the trees. He’s feeling, what? I frown. He’s feeling annoyed, but at the same time, he’s gloating.

I press my fingers to my temples in an effort to try and glean more, but gasp as a terrible pain grips my brain, a pain more awful than anything I’ve ever felt, like a blade twisting inside my head.

Falling to the floor, I writhe in agony, the torture so terrible my mouth is open, but no sound is coming out.

I feel like a worm on a hook, twisting and turning in terror, suffering in forced silence.

Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, a loud crack, like ten people clicking their fingers right against my ears all at once, explodes in my mind.

And I’m free.