Page 87 of Dark Souls

“Don’t you want your phone back?”

“Keep it. I’ll get a new one. How else are you going to keep sending me shouty texts?”

I chanced one last glance over my shoulder to find him still kneeling in the mud, beaming at me from ear to ear, his red eyes illuminated against the blackness of the night. I took a mental picture in my mind before I zoomed away and transported myself back to my attic room.

Falling back onto my bed, I had never felt so proud of myself. I did it. I resisted him.Kinda.And I got him to agree to help me. To help Heathen. And maybe to even help himself. It was a huge step in the right direction and hope swelled in my chest.

Grandma’s phone pinged on my bedside table. I really needed to give it back to her, but she hadn’t even asked me to return it yet. I grabbed it to find my name appearing on the messages.

GET A NEW WIG AND CONTACTS. TAKE A PHOTO AND SEND IT TO ME. I’LL CREATE A NEW MEMBERSHIP WITH A FAKE ID FOR YOU. BUT DO NOT WEAR THAT OUTFIT TO THE PLEASURE DEN UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO MURDER EVERY MAN WHO SEES YOU IN IT.

I smiled.

Not a problem. I think my new ID is along the lines of a full dominatrix, anyway. PVC bodysuit? Whips? Bondage?

SEND ME PICTURES. IN CHARACTER.

Kinky. But I don’t think we are there yet.

I HAVE HAD MY DICK DOWN YOUR THROAT AND IN YOUR PUSSY. WE ARE THERE.

Deleting all these messages before my Grandma sees how romantic you are.

YOU WANT ROMANCE? I’LL LIGHT CANDLES NEXT TIME WE FUCK.

Please don’t. I’ll throw up. And also, next time? You’ll be waiting on your knees for a while before that happens.

SO BE IT.

Good night, Luka.

SLATKI SNOVI, MOJA BEYHA MYKA.

I sat bolt upright as I read the foreign words. Quickly, I copied and pasted them into the internet to find out what language it was and what it meant. My heart flipped.

Sweet dreams, my eternal torment.

I smiled so widely, knowing I was one, albeit small, step closer to finding out who he really was. My mate was from Serbia.

Be Nice!

“Nope.Nothappening,Princess.”My dad was in full Alpha mode as he paced around the large dining room table that most of my family were sitting at. How he wasn’t dizzy by now was beyond me. Frustratingly, my mother was still in Heroux with Lorcan and Leif, and she was the only person who could calm him when he was like this, but I had to at least try to make him see my point of view. “It was bad enough to find out you went to that first event without telling me and now this? You want to go again? Tomorrow night?”

“Dad, you need to trust me on this. The person I am trying to help works for the club, but he isn’t free. He is… trapped somehow. But he can make sure I stay safe at the events. And I will be in a disguise and I have a new ID.”

Luka had sent my new ID this morning. Tonight I would be Raven Darmont. I’d decided on my backstory already. An English orphaned vampire who had never belonged to a clan but had made millions as a dominatrix for submissive humans who liked to be tortured. It was perfect.

“You will never be completely safe inThe Underground, Princess.” My grandpapi just had to put in his two cents as I groaned and dropped my forehead on the table. “The type of people that are members there have no morals and wouldn’t think twice about ending someone’s life if they even looked at them the wrong way.”

“Bit like you then,” I mumbled, which earned me a glare.

“I have morals, Ilaria. They just become a little warped when it comes to protecting the people I love. I fight the darkness within me every day, so I can be better, but the members of that club thrive in theirs. Socialising with people like that will only—”

“What?” I snapped, daring him to finish his sentence. “You think I will become like them? Just say what you are all really afraid of. You think I will end up like Lucius, right? That I am not strong enough to stop myself from turning evil?”

“That’s not what I meant—” He tried to continue, but my dad interrupted, leaning his hands on the table opposite me to project his full dominance in the room.

“Then why this obsession with a club full of deranged and sadistic supernaturals, Ilaria? Because it sure seems like you are desperate to hang around with them. You are a royal princess! If people found out what you are up to, how do you think it would look?” My dad argued, his green eyes swirling with gold, showing his Alpha presence.

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