With my hand stationed securely on Kinley's lower back, I guide her trembling form down the hallway toward my room. It's somewhat annoying the slow pace I have to maintain for this human to keep up. Her short stature doesn't help either.

"Here we are." I remove my hand from Kinley and push open the double doors.

I walk in first, leaving Kinley in the doorway to test her level of obedience.

She forces the lump that is caught in her throat down and exhales a ragged breath. She steps over the threshold into my room as if she thinks the moment her foot lands on the other side the floor will reach up and swallow her whole.

Kinley's tightly squeezed shut eyes confirm that she indeed must feel something is about to reach out, grab her, and then pull her under. When nothing happens, Kinley opens one eye, then the other. The tension caged in her lungs gets released, riding out on a wobbly puff of air that matches her unsteady legs.

"Have a seat," I say heading to the joint bathroom to wash the blood from my arm.

Kinley does exactly what I ask. She starts to sit right there on the floor.

"No, not on the floor. Anywhere you like." I gesture to the entirety of my room where she has a choice of a chair, chaise lounge, or my bed. I highly doubt she will choose that last option.

I leave the door to the bathroom open as I wash the dried, crusted red off my forearm and wrist. As the clear water tints pink, I find I'm unable to fully digest everything that took place less than ten minutes ago: Kinley's episode, Dorian's cryptic behavior, but most notably what I cannot wrap my mind around is that in six months I'm to be paired with a vampire who referred to me as a starving mutt.

How could my parents agree to such a union? They know I vowed to take no mate as my own. Can things be so bad for the Vondarrie that they truly believe my union to the princess is a viable solution?

Damn you, Alekos for being too cautious over the years.

I shut off the water after soaking a clean rag and ringing it out. Kinley's posture goes from slumped to board straight when I emerge from the bathroom. She chose the chaise lounge.

Walking over to where she sits, her complexion grows paler as if all the blood is draining from her. She doesn't look up when I am right in front of her. Instead, she cast her gaze down like a submissive animal. I grab her chin roughly and force her to look at me.

Kinley flinches away, pulling her head back from the sudden movement of my hand. Her gaze falls onto the damp rag I have paused inches away from her face.

"My kind may bite, but the rag is just a rag." A lopsided grin eases onto my face.

Kinley sucks in a sharp intake of air when the damp cotton in my hand touches her face. She stays still while I drag the rag from her nose down to her lips, following the trail of dried blood her nosebleed left.

Being this close to her makes it feel like my heart is beating as my chest soaks in the vibrations of Kinley's pounding heart as if it were my own.

"How often does passing out like that happen to you?" I flick my gaze to her eyes, worried if it stays fixated on the task at hand I may be tempted to lean in and let my tongue help remove the crimson sweet particles stuck to her.

Kinley shrugs. "Maybe three times a year. The nosebleeds have been more frequent lately. Usually, I only get them once a month."

"Are you aware that your heart stops right before you pass out?" I mash my teeth together, wishing her heart would stop right now for its beating is driving the beast in me insane with hunger.

Kinley shakes her head. "I just feel pain in my chest, then the pain stops and I wake up on the ground sometime later. Maya said I was out of it for almost an hour once before I came to." Kinley's meek voice fades, her thoughts turning inward.

"What happened to you that night your parents died?" I ask, removing the rag from her face as I stand tall.

Kinley shrugs again, dropping her gaze from mine. "I don't know. The demon with the angel's face bit me, and I couldn't move. I felt cold, so cold. It was like ice slithering through my veins, freezing everything it touched. Everything was shutting down in me. Then, I blacked out."

A tear lands on Kinley's forearm, followed by another. There are no loud, ugly sobs that rock her this time, just a silent storm of pain she can't hold back.

She must be picturing the sight of her parents torn apart on the floor in front of her. I let her have this moment to grieve and collect herself.

"Next thing I knew, I was waking up in an ambulance," Kinley continues, hastily wiping at the tears trickling down her cheeks with the back of her hand as she clears the emotions bundling in her throat. "I could feel something inside me and my body wanted it out. The rest is a little fuzzy. There was a lot of blood and more kept coming out of me. I'm pretty sure the blood was mine, but I should have been dead if that were the case. Nothing about that night makes sense. Nothing anymore makes sense to me." Distress leaks into Kinley's unsteady voice.

"It won't matter in six months from now if things don't make sense," I state harsher than intended.

If the Council, Alekos, and my parents are in agreement, my attempts to fight this will be futile. They are my elders and many of them ancients. I am supposed to submit to them without question. It is the way it works in the vampire world. Order is everything.

"Tristan?"

My head snaps in Kinley's direction, the way she timidly forced her lips and vocal cords to sound my name striking a chord deep in me.

"That's your name? Tristan...Tristan Darkos?" Kinley asks, unsure if it is okay for her to be speaking.

"What? Were you expecting it to be Dracula or something hideous like Nosferatu?"

"No." Kinley looks away, this time the faintest color flushing her cheeks. She may not have been expecting those, but she was expecting something like Damon or Lestat probably.

"If I am to be a chalice, does that mean Maya no longer is required to be a house meirru?" Kinley's statement slides into me like a sword through the abdomen, for it indirectly brings Kalista to the forefront of my mind.

"Those two things have nothing to do with each other," I state coldly.

"But a chalice is a cup, correct? I will gladly be that female vampire's cup if it means Maya is freed from being a house meirru and you relinquish the compulsion you placed her under." Kinley pushes to her feet in a manner reminiscent of a human who is knowingly walking toward the gallows.

"No, human. You would not just be the princess's cup. You would be our cup, and we would share you until we conceive offspring. Then you would be sacrificed along with the firstborn. Is that what you wish? To be fed upon by us until you are released from your miserable life by a death that is agonizingly slow?" Kinley gulps hard as I close the distance between us, towering over her as I await her reply.

"I am going to die anyway." She barely gets the words out due to her semi-paralyzed vocal cords.

"As you wish." In a blink I have Kinley locked to me, her back pressed against my torso and chest as I tilt her face so that her neck is lengthened before me.

Her muscles tense when she feels my icy breath and the wetness of my mouth against her warm flesh. When I scrape my teeth along the hollow of her neck, she gasps and closes her eyes in nervous anticipation of the pain my fangs will inflict when they pierce her flesh. The very second I apply pressure, her legs give out.

I squeeze her tighter to me, soothing the sting my nip caused her as a rumbling chuckle resonates in the rear of my throat.

"I didn't even break your skin, human. You want to be a chalice, and yet the mere thought of my teeth lodged in your neck nearly caused you to faint."

"I'll do whatever it takes to protect Maya. She's all that I have."

Kinley yelps as I clamp my mouth down on her neck and pull her even tighter against me. She squirms as I assault her neck, sucking hard on her fragile human flesh. I alternate between sucking and using the flat of my tongue against her.

A sinister smirk hinders my assault marginally when my skilled mouth orchestrates a gasp of not pain but pleasure from Kinley.

She may have been fine with my biting her, but she is not okay with it feeling good. Perhaps that is because a demon is the one who is giving her pleasure.

Fearing Kinley's struggle to get free may result in me snapping her bones if I am not careful, I release her. She stumbles forward, catching herself as she whirls around to look at me, one hand clasped around her neck. I match her wide-eyed look of horror with a dashing smile.

Kinley uses her hand to search through the wetness covering her skin for the tear I tore in her neck or signs of warm blood spilling out. When she doesn't find any of either, she races over to the mirror.

"You...you didn't bite me?" The pitch in her voice heightens in disbelief. "You...you gave me a...a hickey?" She surveys the angry red flesh on the side of her neck.

"I gave you a lesson. You should not volunteer yourself for things you do not comprehend. I have no desire to be paired with the princess, nor for you to be her chalice. I'd rather break your neck than allow you to fulfill the wishes of that overindulged, royal fledgling."

I stride over to Kinley, stopping behind her so that she sees my reflection in the mirror. Ever so gently, I brush the backside of my knuckles over the mark I created as I bend down to speak directly into her ear. "I have things I must attend to. You will stay here until I come back. Remember if you harm yourself, Maya will still have to pay the price. Your death does not relinquish her, only your obedience will do that."

I leave a speechless, immobilized Kinley to stare at the mark I left on her as I make my way to find the others. I need to set ground rules for them as well.

"Where are the others?" I ask when Dorian is the only one in the living room.

He points to the hallway that leads to the rooms on the other side of the house.

I need them all present for what I have to say. My steps halt when I reach the edge of the living room and am about to enter the hallway.

"When I return, I better find that your butt hasn't moved from that spot and that your feet are still kicked up on the sofa table."

A sly grin seeps onto Dorian's face. "Now, Tristan. Do you really think I would move my lazy butt off the couch to go mess with that poor, frightened soul you brought into this home?"

"Yes, that is exactly what I think you will do."

Dorian laughs and pushes to his feet. "I guess I better accompany you then, as the temptation of tasting the human's spiced candy blood is far too great."

"There will be no feeding from that human, by me or anyone else. She is off limits until I know what is wrong with her blood."

"I can tell you what's wrong with her blood." Dorian saunters his way over to me and places his hand on my shoulder. "It burns just a tad too low."

Dorian's arrogant grin expands into one full of mischief as I hold him against the wall, keeping my forearm buried in his throat.

"Tell me I'm wrong." He goads me.

"Stop playing around, and tell me what you know," I demand.

"So you feel it as well? How interesting."

"Interesting is not the word I would use to describe it," I hiss.

"Funny, because that is the word I would use to describe wanting to lay with prey."

"I promised your father I would watch out for Kalista. I made no promises about making sure you return home alive," I growl.

"Such a temper and over a human no less. I can see why you brought her here. But I can't tell you anything, as this would be a first for me as well."

I release Dorian, agitated I played right into his hand. He was fishing for information, and I gave it to him.

"You are not to breathe a word of this to my sisters or the princess. And since you find this situation so interesting, you can help me figure out what is causing it."

"It would be easier to just mate with her and see if that would decrease the potency of her virginal blood." Dorian flashes me a wicked grin.

He's testing me, but I can't deny the heat waves the notion sends crashing into me.

"Vampires don't mate with their prey. Even if they did, I wouldn't, for that would mean I would have to deal with Kalista's bickering that someone tainted her prized chalice for the duration of her stay."

"This is true." Dorian nods in agreement. "She'd complain for the entire six months non-stop. I'd be forced to find her a human just like Kinley. We both know the odds of that are one in a billion."

"That means fangs and hands off." I narrow my gaze at Dorian so he knows I'm not messing around.

"Good luck with that since the two of you will be sharing the same quarters." Dorian waves me off, walking toward the hallway where my sisters and Kalista must be.

I fall in step behind him, stopping when he does at the sound of a loud crash and a high-pitched feminine scream.

"He's impossible!" Kalista shouts. "I've done everything. I've dressed up. I've dressed down. I've been nice. I've been firm. Nothing I do works. Lessandra said Tristan would respect a female who is stern and unafraid to back down. The only thing that has done is make him hate me." Kalista's whine is followed by what I believe is a hard flop onto her bed.

"He doesn't hate you," Serena says, followed by the sound of someone sitting down.

"He does. He hates me. My future mate hates me. What he doesn't understand is I love him so much. I've loved him since I found out about him. Lessandra and Therrien would tell me all kinds of stories about him. He's perfect. He's the perfect vampire, and yet he despises me."

I shoot Dorian a look that says, if that laugh leaves your lips, I will rip out your damn throat.

"Our brother doesn't hate you. He...he just needs time to digest everything. He doesn't like to be told what he can and can't do," Sabrina says.

"You got that right," Dorian mumbles under his breath.

This is all worse than I could imagine. The spoiled brat is actually in love with me and has been trying to impress me by showing me she can stand up to me.

I blame my parents. This is their doing. How could they do this to me?

Someone come stake me, stake me hard and true so that I shall turn to stone and be left sleeping beside the Dark Prince.

"He will come around, just give him time." Serena tries to smooth things over.

"None of you get it. Six months may even be too long. There have already been attacks in Valderanna. This union is the only thing staving them off. Everyone loves this family and respects the warrior bloodline."

"It doesn't sound like he has a choice. You said the Council has decided." Sabrina attempts to ease the princess's worry.

"I lied. It is not him that doesn't have a choice. It's me. If Tristan refuses me, I will be paired to Kerrien Norvak instead. But I don't want to be paired to someone in that brutish family. Kerrien isn't my choice. Tristan is my choice. If I can't make this happen, war is going to break out and many will die. The Norvak are already standing by. If Tristan refuses me, they will wait until after the pairing ceremony between Kerrien and me, then they will strike. Everyone knows that."

Dorian casts a sideways glance in my direction, and I wish he hadn't. The seriousness and gloom of his features speaks volumes.

I may have told the princess I would sooner lead the uprising than be paired with the likes of her, but I honestly did not think things were that bad.

If I don't consent to becoming this fledgling's mate, war is inevitable.

"Tristan? Dorian calls after me.

I can turn my back now, but will I be able to turn my back on a war I could have stopped?