Ch. paid to leave pregnant with the vampire king heirs 2 paid to leave pregnant with the vampire king heirs 2

Chapter 2 Chapter 2 

The pain hit the moment the plane left the ground. 

A severed blood bond is supposed to go numb. Mine didn’t go numb. It went hungry. 

+45 Coins 

I pressed my forehead against the window and breathed through it while New York shrank into a gray smear. Somewhere over Colorado, the burning in my neck faded to a low ache. Survivable. 

I didn’t fly to Los Angeles. I flew to Santa Barbara, rented a car, and drove south along the coast to the one place on earth //knew no vampire would follow. 

Montecito. Ocean, palm trees, and sunshine three hundred days a year. 

No Court territory within five hundred miles. Too much sun. 

The realtor took one look at my single suitcase and gave me the smile people give women who are wasting their time. 

“Do you have an appointment?” 

“No.” I pointed at the photo behind his desk. White stone, glass walls, a terrace hanging over the Pacific, flooded with light. “That one. If it’s right, I’ll buy it today.” 

His smile flickered. 

I turned my phone around and showed him the balance. 

His spine physically changed shape. “Of course. Right this way. That property is called Sunhaven, and the light in the studio is absolutely-” 

Ninety minutes later, it was mine. 

I moved in that night with a mattress, a kettle, and three heartbeats. 

The next morning, I opened every curtain in the house. 

For a year I had lived in a mansion where the windows were tinted black and the clocks ran backward, where breakfast was served at midnight and nobody ever said the word sunrise. I hadn’t felt sunlight on my skin in twelve months. 

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Chapter 2 

I stood on that terrace in my socks and cried like an idiot while the sun climbed over the water. 

I put my hand on my stomach. 

“You’re going to grow up in the light,” I whispered. “I promise.” 

Then I called Felix. 

+45 Coins 

He picked up on the first ring. “Sloane Hart. I assumed those bloodsuckers had drained you and buried you in a crypt.” 

Felix Laurent. Master jeweler, Paris legend, the man who taught me to see the fire hiding inside a rough stone. Before the contract, I had spent six years at his bench. He was the closest thing to family I had that wasn’t a business arrangement. 

“Felix,” I said, and my voice cracked. 

“Who made you cry? Give me the name. I am extremely rich and extremely petty.” 

“Nobody made me cry.” 

“Try again.” 

I sat down on the floor of my empty house. “The bond is severed. It’s done. It’s filed.” 

Four seconds of silence. 

“Did he lose his mind,” Felix said slowly, “or did you finally find yours?” 

“The second one. I hope.” 

“Good. I said it at your ceremony and I’ll say it now. That family was a very expensive coffin. Literally. Where are you?” 

“California. I bought a house. I’m starting over. My own studio. My own name.” 

“With what money?” 

“His.” 

A delighted gasp. “Then the bastard finally paid for something useful. I’m flying out next week and you 

Chapter 2 

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cannot stop me.” 

I hung up feeling lighter than I had in a year. 

Three thousand miles away, in a house I would never enter again, things were going very badly. 

Marlow, the estate’s steward, knocked on the study door just after sunset. 

“Sir. Mrs. Vale has gone.” 

Augustus Vale/didn’t look up from his ledger. “Good. The empty cup finally emptied herself out. Is the suite cleared?” 

“Yes, sir. She took one suitcase. The same one she arrived with.” 

Nothing. Not a flicker. 

Marlow hesitated. “Sir, the jewels. The Vale rubies. The black card.” 

Augustus turned a page. 

“She left all of it,” Marlow said. “Every piece. And there was a note.” 

The page stopped turning. 

Augustus looked up, and for the first time in three hundred years, the old vampire’s eyes showed something that looked almost like fear. 

“Say that again.”