DARIUS
The girl's blood tasted like sand and disappointment.
I pulled back from her throat, the twin wounds sealing instantly under the brush of my thumb. She slumped against the velvet chaise in my private study, her eyes glazed with the artificial bliss of my venom. She was a pretty thing, a Common Ward who had been told that to be fed upon by a Sovereign was a holy honor.
To me, she was merely a means to dull the ache in my jaw.
"Leave," I said, my voice a low, jagged rasp.
She didn't move fast enough. I felt the growl before I heard it, a vibration in my chest that sent her scrambling for the door, clutching her silk robes to her chest.
I turned back to the window, the purple-black sky of the North reflecting the red that hadn't yet bled out of my irises. I was the Lord of this H
