Page 20 of Prince with a Chance of Darkness

“Lucian wanted me to tell you that the white wolf is finally eating,” said Radmila. She entered the cell more, eyeing Ponytail Girl from head to toe. “It looks less feral tonight. Now it looks as if it might cry.”

Ponytail Girl jutted out her chin.

Vlad stepped in Radmila’s path, blocking her view of Ponytail Girl. “What is it you want?”

“Teya is being stranger than usual,” said Radmila, her voice hard, yet her eyes holding concern for her sister. “She is insisting our prisoners?—”

“Guests,” corrected Vlad.

Radmila glanced around the cell before meeting Vlad’s gaze, making her point—guests weren’t kept in cells. She shrugged. “Very well, our guests cannot remain. That they are not safe here—within these walls. Still within easy manipulation distance fromthe cave. From Dragos. Teya says the longer they remain here, where he can influence the wolf sister, the greater the chance their minds will break for if one falls, so do they both. Her words. Not mine.”

Teya’s grasp on reality had been lost many centuries ago but that didn’t change the fact the vampire’s gifts included foresight. Her ways of getting her message across were often bizarre to most but there were glimpses of brilliance in her madness. If she was concerned for the twins, it wasn’t something to be taken lightly.

“And you, being the bleeding heart that you are, thought it best to bring me this information?” asked Vlad, knowing Radmila had ulterior motives.

“Master, I have made many hearts bleed,” she said, a slow grin touching her lips. “None of which were my own. I do not understand the need you have to see to their safety when so little is known about that. What is known is that they are slayers. Born to hunt our kind. To destroy us, yet you bring them here—to our home—as if they are cute little pets. Ones you can housebreak and keep. If it were me, I would have never assisted to begin with. I would have let the other hunters do as they wished with them so long as it did not release Dragos in the end.”

Kill her and be done with her, his demon pressed.Do not accept such blatant disregard for our authority.

Ponytail Girl stepped closer to Vlad, putting a hand on his back. She said nothing but remained there, calming him with but a touch.

“Radmila, was there not a time in our past, when another spoke of you as you speak of them? As if you, Katarina and Teya were beyond saving? Pets? Something to be broken and kept for entertainment purposes only?” he prodded, knowing the answer already.

She hissed, her eyes flashing red. “I am no man’s pet!”

Ponytail Girl reacted, moving around Vlad so fast she was a blur—even to him. She stiff-armed Radmila, sending the vampire hurtling into the stone wall with a sickening thud. Ponytail Girl tried to go at her again, but Vlad caught her around the waist and lifted her off her feet, holding her to him. He readied himself to protect her from Radmila’s wrath.

Radmila pushed up from the floor, dusted off her gown and smiled—a real smile, not a calculating one.

It was unnerving.

“I like her,” said Radmila. “She has bite to her after all. Good. It means she can hold her own with—” She stopped speaking but stared directly at Vlad.

“Me?”

She cleared her throat and dusted off her gown once more. “Master, she cannot remain. Neither can her sister. All but you seem to know this. The others fear telling you. They fear what you will do.”

No one will take her from us!shouted his demon.

Vlad craned his neck and tensed, doing his best to cage the demon while still holding Ponytail Girl off her feet.

She stopped struggling.

He put his mouth to her ear. “I will release you if you promise to behave yourself.”

Radmila snorted. “She was protecting you, Master. She saw me as a threat—to you.”

He huffed only to realize Radmila was correct. Ponytail Girl had been protecting him.

Vlad set Ponytail Girl down and drew her to his side before touching her chin, forcing her gaze upward. “Lumini?a mea, never put yourself in harm’s way for me again. Do you understand?”

She stared at him, seeming lost, the black returning to her eyes little by little.

Vlad didn’t want to admit that Radmila might be right. That here might not be the best place for Ponytail Girl or her sister.

“Master, Dragos is evil. I did not like being so near tothe others,” she whispered, facing the cell door. “Katarina and I do not permit Teya to be so close tothatcave. To him. And we do not let her wander so far into the woods, into the forest witch’s territory. It does something to her—to us.”

“The cave has no power over you. Neither does the witch.” Vlad watched her closely.

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