Page 209 of Collared by the Vampire Prince

Susie makes an offended noise behind me.

She can spare me the outrage. Law or no law, curse or no curse, Arken has given her his blood often enough, and in no small doses. A private perversion, or perhaps a secret rebellion.

It was Arken who first asked me to have Barbara brew the counteragent. I had been appalled when he explained why he wanted it. More appalled still when I realised he was not merely enjoying the thrill of courting death with his wolf, but was completely smitten with her.

“You needn’t be so worried,” Arken says calmly. “Kira is hardly an ordinary wolf.”

“But I am worried, Arken.” The words come out harsher than I intend, but I cannot soften them. “I am beyond worried.”

He doesn’t know this will work. Not for certain.

Susie’s mouth opens. She had been preparing, I suspect, to remind me that this is entirely my fault. She’s right, of course, but whatever she sees in my face makes her close it again.

We look at Kira.

Arken withdraws the vial at last and checks her pulse once more. A frown creases his forehead before he looks at me. “You know what she needs now.”

Yes. I do.

But an icy memory opens inside me all the same. A vampire kneeling in the throne room before my father. Blood trickled from his mouth where his fangs had been removed. His crime: he had given his blood to a wolf. A wolf he claimed to love. He refused to renounce her, despite countless opportunities.

Brave, brave, fool.

My father should have been content to have his fangs torn out. Instead, he found the wolf and made a whore of her. It was the day I promised myself I would never love anyone.

It was also the day my father laid the curse upon our blood, ensuring no vampire could ever again save a wolf by giving back what we had taken.

“My father mustn’t know.” The words escape me before I can stop them.

Arken looks at me with such profound pity that, for one humiliating instant, I feel like a child again.

Susie mistakes my brief fear for hesitation. “And which one of us would tell him? Me?”

“You are hardly the soul of discretion.”

She glares at me, her eyes glistening with tears as she bites back whatever retort she wants to make. “Just do it! Save her.”

As though there were any question.

“Get her out,” I hiss.

Arken takes her by the elbow. “We will watch the door. Call me if you need anything.” He leads her from the room and closes it behind them.

I’m already climbing onto the bed beside Kira.

The ironleaf is in her blood. The curse is suppressed.

It has to be.

If I kill her…I’ll never forgive myself.

I tear my fangs through my wrist, blood spraying across the sheets. With my back against the headboard, I slide one arm beneath her shoulders and lift her against me, cradling her head in the crook of my elbow. Her body slumps heavily into my hold, loose and entirely unresponsive.

I press my bleeding wrist to her mouth. “Drink,” I murmur.

Blood gathers against her lips and slips between them. I tilt her head higher, trying to coax it down her throat without choking her.

“Come on, Kira.”