Page 26 of Our Sins in Shadows (Coven of Sin 2)

“Okay. Let’s say I trust you.” Because it’s not like I had a ton of other options at the moment. “What’s the plan?”

“We must wait until nightfall. Unfortunately, the demonstration will start only an hour after sundown, so I’m afraid there will be a rather narrow window of time that the two princes can meet us outside before people notice you’re gone.”

I looked out the window. An uneasy sensation settled in the pit of my stomach. “We’re pretty high up. Security is likely to be pretty tight the closer we get to the ground floor. How are we going to make it to the basement to free Eros and Vincent with no one noticing?”

“If we time everything right, most of the guards on duty will be human thralls. Almost every vampire will make their way to the dome room on the top floor to witness Lord Dagon’s wicked little show. Any human thralls we come across can be easily mesmerized. I’m quite good at it. We can use them to our advantage. I have codes to all the security doors and a trick up my sleeve that should clear out any vampires who are bound to patrol the ground floor.”

I glared at her, knowing full well the suspicion in my eyes was unguarded. “Wait. How do you know all this?”

There was an awkward beat of barbed silence.

“Lavinia, if you don’t tell me what’s going on, I can’t trust you.”

She blew out a sigh of concession, looking every bit a teen caught in a lie. “This isn’t my first time at BC headquarters.”

My nostrils flared with rage, and I had to struggle to keep my voice down. “So you knew Sharpe was a traitor? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“If you must know, I thought I was going to preserve my loyalty to my master.” Her voice warbled. “Plans changed.”

Damn. Lavinia had nearly betrayed us. My brows pulled together in confusion. “Why the change of heart?”

Fury flashed across the tiny vampire’s face like a lightning strike. ”Why?Prince Sterling was never supposed to get wrapped up in all this, that’s why! He had no interest in being king and he certainly had no desire for a mate. It was his detachment that was supposed to protect him. Somehow you broke through the ice encompassing his heart. He let you mark him.”

Tears filled her round eyes. “Now, if the old king returns from the true death, he’ll die with the others.”

“What was I supposed to do?Leaveit? That mark was torture for me to even look at. I can’t imagine the constant pain it brought Sterling. He wasn’t Thomas Knight’s mate by choice. He was raped, Lavinia!”

The girl’s lip peeled, revealing her dropped fangs. “Don’t you think I know that? I’ve lived with him for three centuries. I’ve seen the abuse firsthand. Thomas Knight liked to make public demonstrations of his ownership over Sterling.” She dried her eyes with an angry swipe of her lace sleeve.

I thought I might be sick. Lavinia Sharpe looked innocent in her girlish clothes and her ribbon-tied ringlets. But she too had been a victim of Thomas Knight’s cruelty, I realized. She might not have been a direct participant in his brutality like Sterling, but she had suffered with him in silence.

“Lavinia…”

I reached to touch her arm but she jerked away. “Don’t you dare pity me.”

“I don’t pity you. My heart breaks for you. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to watch the man you love be broken like that.”

“Is that what you think Thomas Knight did to Sterling? No. He didn’t break him. He tried and failed. I’ve seen his dignity and pride stripped away and I’ve glimpsed the aching soul beneath it all. He’s not broken, Princess. He’s like silver. Twist him all you want, he won’t break.”

A torrent of emotions I couldn’t even begin to untangle rose through me like the tide, swallowing me up. “Why are you telling me all this?”

“You said you didn’t trust me. I want you to know what drives me. My feelings for your mate run far deeper than that of a teenage crush. I’ll do anything to keep him safe.”

“Do you hate me for claiming him as my own?”

“You irritate me, as most mortals do. But I don’t hate you. I’m not so envious of his feelings for you to ignore the fact that you’re the first he’s allowed past his barriers. The dark path of a vampire is unkind to most of us. Especially Prince Sterling. It’s a path he’s walked alone for too long.”

“Oh, Lavinia.” Shit. Now I was crying.

“I wanted it to be me,” the little vampire said through a rueful smile streaked in fresh tears.

“I’ve dreamed about what I might look like as a fully grown woman countless times. But when he came to me begging for me to help him free his love, seeing the naked desperation in his eyes, I don’t think it would change things. Even if I wasn’t stuck in this damned body for all eternity, he’d never love me like he does you.”

My heart shattered into a million pieces for the vampire child. This wasn’t acting. The best actress couldn’t fake tears like these, ones filled with misery and love in equal parts. She wasn’t betraying her master for me, that much was clear.

She was doing this for Sterling. And that was enough for me.

Chapter eleven

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