Chapter 7

  Harlow 

  

  I am unnerved, this has been a strange and unsettling day. The relief I feel at being shown to our chambers and getting away from those people is palpable. 

  

  Everything about Amelia makes me feel inadequate and yet I can not muster the desire to hate her. I watched her through that horrible lunch, she was so calm and composed.  If I had not been witness to her sacrifice with my own eyes I would have truly believed she had no love remaining for Erik. I do not envy the life she lives. 

  

  As we close the door behind us I run my hands over Erik’s back and around his waist but I feel him stiffen beneath my touch in a way he has not since before he had taken ill. He surprises me further by stepping out of my reach. My heart begins to ache. 

  

  She may have compelled his mind to believe he hated her but I am beginning to fear that compulsion can not reach the heart. I can not bear to loose him now. Desperately I close the distance between us and without words I wrap my arms around his neck pulling him to me. 

  

  His lips are hesitant as he meets mine, with need I press my own harder to his attempting to stir his reaction, instigating a force of passion but I do not feel it returned. It feels empty and hollow. I have to choke back the tears I want to let fall. If I react in the way my heart wants to he will question me and I do not have the resolve just now to hold my secrets. 

  

  I do not object as he places his hands on my wrists and pulls my arms from around his neck, watching silently as he steps back once more putting a distance between us. Stand frozen in space and time as he turns his back to me with a heavy sigh. 

  

  “It’s been a trying day Harls I’m sorry I just need some space to process it all” I walk over and sit on the edge of the bed staring aimlessly out of the huge window looking over the perfectly manicured lawns. My heart slowly falling apart. 

  

  Finally I find my voice but I try to keep my tone light, nonchalant “Did you really not know she was still alive?” A safe question surely. 

  

  His entire body stiffens and he does not turn to face me “No, I truly believed she was dead and I am lost as to how in a thousand years this has never come to light. I guess she was never the person I thought she was, that we were a lie, a joke to her” 

  

  My defence rises in my throat but selfishly I let it die there, what positive can I say without implicating myself and sending him straight into her arms and getting us all killed. 

  

  Since I was turned I had heard stories of how cruel and twisted the King was but somehow meeting him today I don’t believe the stories even do it justice. There is a malicious energy that rolls from him, one feels like they are in the presence of true evil. It baffles me that they are cousins, so far apart in heart and mind but so very alike in looks. 

  

  An unexpected knock sounds on the door and we both look at each other with trepidation. Too slowly I rise from the bed and cross the short distance to the door. Taking a deep breath I prepare myself and yank it open. I’m greeted by a pleasant enough looking vampire holding a plush gold envelope. 

  

  I hesitate but eventually take it from his offered hand. He smiles “Ma’am” and then turns on his heel. Erik and I exchange a concerned look and he gestures for me to open the envelope. 

  

  Curiously I break the seal which is the Kings own royal one. I read the contents in disbelief. 

  “What is it Harls?” He asks and I can hear the worry in his voice. I can’t quite articulate what I have just read so instead walk over to him and put the manilla paper in his hands. 

  

  I watch as his eyes widen and he balks at the words he reads “He can not be serious . . . “ his words trail off as shocked as I at what has been so casually proposed to us. 

  

  My mind races, it’s not like Erik and I haven’t enjoyed the odd orgy or two since we were together, it’s par for the course for vampires, monogamy is for the heart, pleasure is for the body. Yet this feels catastrophic, the beginning of the end. The thought of Erik fucking her, of watching him fuck her destroys my soul. 

  

  I can already feel the distance between us what will it be like once he tastes her, fills her, I will loose him forever. 

  

  Looking up at his eyes I see him study me intently “What do you want to do? We can leave now?” 

  

  I have to stifle a bitter laugh, we both know that’s not true. Damian has us backed into a corner. If we flee and leave now he can label us as uncooperative, unwilling to support our people in eradicating the hunters threat and issue a warrant of death. If we stay I have to sit by Damian’s side and watch my husband fuck the love of his life who he thinks he hates but is really in love with. 

  

  With a heavy heart I know my decision is made, torture is preferable to death after all. Perhaps, I hope with all of my heart her compulsion is stronger than I am giving credit for. 

  

  His voice cuts through my tragic thoughts “Harlow what will we do?” I mentally square my shoulders and make sure my voice is calm and level before I speak “We will go to this party and we will accept his invitation. Show him he can not make us run, treat it like any other party we have enjoyed. Take away his power by not letting him see he has affected us. He wants us to run to be able to use it against us” 

  

  I can see his mind working, mulling over every out come before he wraps his arms around me kissing my head “You’re right we can do this it’s only sex it means nothing” 

  

  I do not think anything has ever sounded more hollow to my ears than that statement but we have no choice.