She took in the information, her brow furrowing. "That means you and Malcolm and everyone� You�re House Redthorne?"

"Precisely."

"One of the vampires who attacked me� He said something about the Royal Redthornes. Are you guys�" She swallowed hard, shaking her head as if the word had gotten stuck inside. "Are you royalty?"

Dorian folded his arms over his chest, impatience flaring. "Yes, the Redthornes are the ruling vampire royal family. But that�s hardly the crucial�"

"You�re a prince, then?"

Silently he held her gaze, the muscles in his jaw ticking as he waited for her to figure it out.

"King?" Charley pressed a hand to her throat, her voice notching up a few octaves. "You�re a fucking vampire king?"

Dorian closed his eyes, the reality of the situation descending upon him like a storm.

Charlotte had somehow broken his compulsion, shattering even his previously successful attempts. It was a nearly impossible feat for a human�one that had even eluded hunters trained for centuries to resist vampire magic.

Yet here she was, a woman who�d entered his life like a tempest, unravelling every spell, reclaiming every memory he�d stolen, turning his entire world upside down.

And now, she�d be immune to all future attempts at compulsion�from Dorian or any other vampire. Within the walls of Ravenswood and without, anything she heard, anything she witnessed would remain lodged in her memories until the day she died.

To say she was a risk was a gross understatement. She had the power to expose him, to destroy his family and their kind. To destroy everything his father�for good and for ill�had built and protected.

Now, it was Dorian�s responsibility to keep this family safe. To keep their secrets buried, no matter how much his brothers despised him.

By all means, he should end her life. Take care of it, just like Gabriel had demanded.

But for Dorian, it was too late. His heart would not allow it, no matter how great a risk she posed.

Charlotte was nearly murdered by the beasts of House Duchanes�a near-miss that had filled him with a terror darker than any he�d ever known, even in his bleakest hours.

Tonight, as Dorian carried her unconscious body up the hill, he�d made a solemn vow to protect her.

And he intended to keep it� or die trying.

But he wasn�t about to share that with Charlotte.

"Not a vampire king, Ms. D�Amico." He blurred into her space and wrenched the fire poker from her hands, hurling it into the wall with a force that splintered the oak wainscoting. "The vampire king. So unless you�re eager to find out just how much power a two-and-a-half-centuries-old royal vampire whose already developed a taste for your blood possesses, never threaten me again."

A fresh string of profanities gathered on Charley�s tongue, but before she could let �em rip, Dorian folded her into his arms, lifted her off the ground, and tipped the whole world sideways.

Charley�s stomach dropped right down to her feet, and she dug her fingers into his shoulders, squeezing her eyes shut to stem the tide of nausea. When she finally opened them again, she and her captor were no longer in the study.

"What the hell did you do?" she breathed.

"It�s called a blur."

"Yeah? I�m pretty sure you left my internal organs behind." JrNovels.com