Dark Seduction (Vampire Royals of New York #2) - Sarah Piper Page 0,25

sideboard, the chairs, the art, all of it. Back then, there were only ships. Can you imagine?”

“Really?” It was all she could manage, the apparent shift in topics giving her whiplash.

“This room is a mirror image of the dining room we shared in England. It’s where we held our engagement dinner—an intimate gathering, just the family and Aiden. My mother sat where you’re sitting now, as proud and happy as I’d ever seen her, the fire crackling behind her. Colin, Gabriel, Malcolm—all of us toasted with fine wine and a decadent meal, revisiting family stories from our childhood, sharing our hopes for the future. The twins were there too—William and Fiona, the youngest Redthorne siblings, sixteen years of age. They’d always been enamored of Evie. And though she was in one of her low moods that night, I was still so happy, Charlotte. I truly thought it would be a turning point for us. For all of us.” He glanced up at her again, pain swimming in his eyes. “And it was.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, unsure what else to say. The torment in his eyes made her ache, her own eyes burning with fresh tears.

“Toward the end of the evening, when the staff had served the cake and we’d just opened the brandy I’d been saving for the occasion, there came a knock at the door. Father answered, promising us we were in for a rare surprise. The moment he ushered in the new guests, Evie bolted from the table in terror.”

“Her father?” Charley guessed.

“Along with his three sons. They’d come to honor the agreement—four royal vampires promising to sire the noble Redthornes, swiftly and thoroughly. It was a slaughter, Charlotte. A brutal, horrifying slaughter that forever altered the course of our lives. Yet for House Kendrick and its king, it was no more than a business transaction, over and done in a matter of minutes.”

Tears spilled unbidden down Charley’s cheeks, splashing onto her jeans. “What about Evie? She didn’t try to… to stop it, or change her father’s mind, or… anything?”

A dark look crossed Dorian’s face, and again his head dipped low. “In her father’s eyes, Evie’s desire for a normal life was an insult to her family and a dereliction of her royal duties. For the crime of falling in love with a mortal man, he ordered his eldest son to behead her. She turned to ash before her head even hit the floor.”

Charley gasped in horror.

“My mother and the twins did not survive. William succumbed to his wounds almost immediately. Fiona held on a bit longer. Long enough for me to go to her. Her last words, as she lay dying in my arms, her blood spilling through my fingers like bathwater… Those words haunt me still. Why didn’t you help us, Dori?”

Charley couldn’t sit there another minute. She rose and crossed the room, joining Dorian at the glass doors and reaching for his hand.

He stiffened at her touch, but she laced their fingers together anyway, holding tight. Eventually, he relaxed and leaned in close, his cheek brushing the top of her head, his body trembling with sorrow and rage and a bitterness that had been festering for two-and-a-half centuries.

God, she broke for him. Her heart and mind were shattered, his story hollowing her out inside. How had he lived for so long with so much pain? So much anguish? How had he not succumbed?

“I despise this room,” he said softly, his breath warm in her hair. “Before today, I can’t even recall the last time I set foot in here. Many times, I thought to burn it down, but I knew my father would only rebuild it. He always said it was a monument. To me, it’s nothing but a tomb.”

He pulled away from her touch and met her eyes.

“You absolutely enchant me, Charlotte,” he whispered, cupping her cheek. “You have from the very start. Even now, it’s all I can do not to strip you bare, bend you over the table, and fuck you until it breaks beneath us.”

“Dorian…” She swallowed hard and closed her eyes, tears still streaking her face. Despite the darkness hanging in the wake of his confession, her body warmed at his sudden closeness, his seductive words slipping beneath her skin.

“Evie’s deception destroyed me,” he said. “Destroyed my family. And though she died in the slaughter alongside my mother and siblings, hers is a betrayal I will never forgive.”

Charley opened her eyes and searched his gaze for a lifeline, a faint