Page 47 of The Depraved Prince

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I could have racedhome with her in my arms. I thought about running the five miles she travelled, but I didn’t want to wake her. Returning to the Cathedral would only take me minutes. But the look on the Valkyries face, when she slept, would be the ruin of me.

What the fuck am I doing?

Why did I grant everyone at the festival mercy?

I wanted to keep killing. I wanted to dismember my enemies myself while I wear the happiest smile of revenge on my face. But instead…I’m here withher.

I watched the moonlight shine on her glowing face as we drove home. The journey took around forty minutes due to the number of turns up and down the mountain. My father built the cathedral when he moved from Europe to the United States, painting it to look like a church with an elegant structure and engineering.

She passed out from exhaustion, finally reaching some sort of solace to rest on my chest as Kingsguard Charles drove us home. I couldn’t tear my eyes off her the entire journey home. I’m afraid she’d wake up and try and leave me again.

She’s sadly mistaken if she thinks I’ll ever let her go. She’s mine again—all mine.

My plans for us were to use and prolong her taste, mark her all over until she bled for me and me only.

But now?

The way I just slaughtered and dismembered southern vampires would give her nightmares for the rest of her remaining life, most likely replacing the ones she already has about her mother, father, and a dreadful man named Santiago.

We’re back in the Cathedral, in her bedroom. What I really want to do is throw her in for a bath, but I don’t. Instead, I’ve removed all her torn clothes and replaced them with clean pajamas. She sleeps deeply and doesn’t wake as I tuck her into bed.

I’m covered in blood. In Davenport’s sent assassins blood. It’s likely they’ve been tracking her since I went to that meeting. I don’t think it was some strange coincidence that they were at the concert when my little Bambi was going to be there. They conjured up a plan and followed her, waiting for the perfect moment to take her from me. I know it wasn’t a coincidence because this is something I would have done. It’s genius to watch someone you hate implode on the heartbreak you inflicted. To watch them die without even laying a finger on them by taking their purpose to live away from them while they watch, defenselessly. They wanted to watch me fold…break, penetrate the steel of armor I’ve been in since King Davenport murdered my uncle.

His only crime?

Trying to marry a Valkyrie. He wanted to marry a woman from Texas, and in the Immortal Law, it’s forbidden. We have to leave them alone if we find one. However, King Davenport found out about his crime, and their secret attempted elopement.And sent him to the inferno, where he was executed like entertainment.

I looked up to him like a father figure, building a stronger bond with him than my own father. Ever since then, I’ve been out for revenge. I’ve been wanting to take something from him, like he took from me.

And what sweet revenge it will be to steal his Valkyrie and obliterate his plan to rule all the kingdoms. My plan for revenge is sweet, and I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to hurt him like he hurt me. Millie is my first-class ticket to do that.

I stare at Millie, and watching her breathe peacefully makes me enchanted. She has a few minor cuts, but the deepest wound of all is my bite on her neck. I smile as I stare at it. Every drop of dried blood has been washed off her body.

I almost killed her when I bit her. I wanted to so badly, but I wanted to take my time with her. I cringe at my own demons wanting to possess me. Shaking my head, I let an unfamiliar emotion coil into my chest at the thought of her not being here anymore.

I’m not fond of it.

I’m attached to her, no doubt. I convince myself that once I suck her dry, I’ll move on with time. I’ve got all the time in the world, after all. There’s no way I’d miss her.

I kiss the top of her head with a tightened jaw. It’s such a simple gesture, yet its significance is more profound than ever. It’s deeper than the depths of the Earth, and the emotions that simmer in my cold bones are longer than time itself. Every time I tell myself I’m not capable of tying myself to someone, every time I try to deny these sickening emotions that my uncle felt for his human,it’s more painful.

Look where it got my uncle. Perished. Sent to hell. Leaving me alone with parents who care more about the crown than the interests of my brother and me. Instead of following in hisfootsteps, I should be more focused on avenging his death. But when Millie stirs in her sleep, she murmurs something pulling at the soul I thought I didn’t have anymore.

“Don’t…leave.” A soft breath leaves her lips as her brown eyes stay hidden. A slow flash of her lashes flutter, and she grabs my hand. It’s the first time she’s yearned for me with her words. I’m paralyzed like a man seeing a shooting star for the first time. This is a moment, the beginning of a path I’m unsure of, with an ending I cannot see.

“Stay with me tonight,” she whispers. “I’m scared. I only feel safe when you’re here.”

I don’t know how to respond.

When she does things like this, it’s distracting. Chipping away my plan bit by bit, and I’m letting her. I should just kill her and get it over with like Holland has been encouraging me to do. But just to spite him, I wanted to drag it out.

She grabs my hand and squeezes it gently in her warm palm.

My dick twitches with dark desire and pulses when she pushes her back to my chest, asking me to hold her.

So, I do.

“Prince Drago. Your father needs you, he—” Kingsguard Charles reminds me of my duties outside her door, and I despise it. Not now, not when I just almost lost her.