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Sean
THREE WEEKS AGO, I never would’ve believed that I would end up handcuffed in a dungeon, held captive by vampires. And yet, here I was.
To say that I was angry would have been an understatement. I’d never been more pissed off in my life.
Nothing had worked out according to plan. Sure, part of the plan had been successful. I had made it to Deadwood and I’d found Lila. I’d even saved her from that thing—that rabid-like thing that reminded me of the zombies on The Walking Dead but that I could only assume had been one of the bloodthirsty vampires Peter had warned me about.
But after I saved Lila is where the plan completely fell apart. Instead of making it back home with her, I’d ended up in this dungeon. I’d been made a prisoner.
I had no idea what fate had in store for me at this point. I didn’t even want to know. To get to Deadwood, I’d needed to come through the portal, which was, essentially, a hole in Peter’s closet. Except now I knew I had fallen into more than just a hole.
What I had really fallen into was a nightmare.
I tried to look at the silver lining, which was that Lila was alive. At least, she was alive for now. I wasn’t sure how much longer either of us would survive in Deadwood.
Then again, what was the point in our survival? I would have rather died than remained a prisoner.
Except I knew I couldn’t let myself look at it that way.
I needed to live. As much as I may have wanted to give up, I needed to survive. I needed to find a way to get Lila out of here and back home, back where she belonged—where we bothbelonged.
At that moment, I glanced up to see Lila walk past me. The vampire who owned her—Prince Sebastian, she’d called him—stood behind her.
“Troy, I need to speak to you,” the prince said.
The redheaded guard walked over to him. “What is it, Your Highness?”
“Please do not allow any other vampire to enter the Chambers. It’s very important to me that no one else gets anywhere near Julia, my slave,” he said, placing his hand on Lila’s back.
Julia? Why was he calling her that? Did he not know what her real name was?
“Of course. Anything you say, Your Highness,” Troy said with a nod.
“She’s not in here as punishment, Troy,” the prince continued. “The reason I’ve brought her here is for her own protection.”
“Who are you trying to protect her from?”
Prince Sebastian seemed to hesitate for a moment before saying, “Princess Alessandra.”
“Isn’t Princess Alessandra your fiancée?” The guard looked a little surprised.
“Don’t ask questions,” Sebastian replied. “All I need you to do is ensure Julia’s safety.”
Troy nodded. “Of course. Should we place her into solitary confinement?”
Prince Sebastian glanced over at me. As his eyes locked on mine, they flashed with anger.
He turned back to the guard. “As long as you keep every vampire out of here besides me, solitary confinement won’t be necessary. In fact, that cell right there will do.” The prince motioned to the empty cell right next to mine.
It surprised me that he was allowing me to be so close to her. After all, the moment he had laid eyes on me with her, he’d had me carried off to the dungeon. While there was a possibility that he may have made me a prisoner because I was a human intruding on his territory, I knew there was a good chance that it had more to do with me being Lila’s boyfriend than anything else. It was as though I’d committed some sort of crime by kissing my own girlfriend.
Lila glanced over at me. The surprise I felt was reflected in her eyes.
Prince Sebastian moved to stand in front of her. “Like I said, this is only temporary. I will get you out of here the moment I can figure out where to put you.”
She nodded, but she didn’t say anything. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that she wasn’t happy with him.
I watched as he cupped her chin and leaned in closer until his lips brushed gently against hers.
So, apparently, I was wrong. Being made a prisoner wasn’t the angriest I’d been in my life. Watching that asshole kiss my girlfriend from behind the bars that confined me pissed me off even more. Who the hell did he think he was to touch my girlfriend like that?
When he pulled away from her, he stared at her for a moment longer. Then, without saying another word, he walked past her and headed back up the stairs.
Lila turned to face the guard. “So, since I’m not actually being punished for anything, that means I don’t have to wear handcuffs this time around, right?”
He considered it for a moment before shaking his head. “No, I suppose not. Not unless you give me a reason to put you in handcuffs, that is.”
“Oh, I won’t,” she assured him.
“I do want you out of that dress, though,” Troy said, motioning to the light pink gown that she had been wearing when I’d found her getting attacked in the woods.
The dress reminded me of the one she’d worn to our prom. It was stained with dirt and what I was certain was blood, but it still looked beautiful on her.
“I don’t want to change out of the dress,” Lila insisted.
“Well, that’s too bad for you, isn’t it?” He folded his arms over his chest and stared her down.
“Okay. I’ll change out of the dress, but I’m keeping my necklace on.” She tightly gripped the pendant that she wore around her neck.
I’d never known her to wear a necklace before, especially not one she was so attached to that she refused to take it off. Of course, it only made me wonder one thing.
Had Prince Sebastian given it to her?
“Fine.” Troy nodded.
“Can you undo the zipper?” Lila asked, turning for the guard.
He unzipped the dress and she stepped out of it, revealing the lacy pink panties and matching bra that she was wearing.
Rage soared through me.
The guard had made me change out of my clothes and into these silky black boxers, but there was a difference. Lila was a girl. Shit, she was almost a woman. Didn’t they have a changing room for them down here?
She didn’t look in my direction as she slid out of the panties and tossed them to the floor. Then she unclipped her bra and threw that to the side, too.
It felt like I was violating her privacy, but I couldn’t stop myself from staring at her naked body.
I had known Lila my whole life, but I’d never actually seen her without her clothes on before.
Of course, I had always been curious. That was part of the reason I’d pushed her to have sex the night she’d disappeared, which had, without a doubt, been the biggest mistake of my life.
Well, now I knew. Now I knew how soft yet firm her ass looked. Now I knew how round and full her breasts were. She was just as beautiful naked as I’d always thought she would be, but I hated seeing her that way.
It wasn’t even because she wasn’t showing me willingly or because this wasn’t the way I’d ever envisioned myself seeing her without any clothes on.
It was because I noticed the way this girl, who had once been so shy and too self-conscious to even wear a bikini, stood there in front of the guard, baring her body to him, to me, and to all of the other prisoners in the dungeon. And I noticed that way she seemed to be entirely unaffected by it, as though this was just what her life had become.
It made me realize how much Deadwood had changed everything about the girl I loved.