Opening her eyes, she frowned. Instead of feeling the hard, frozen earth on her backside, she felt cold, hard, muscled arms gripping around her waist, keeping her body from meeting the earth. Turning her head back behind her, she found the Prince, his hands secured around her.

Slowly, he lowered her down until her feet met the ground, her boots crunching in the snow. Evelyn spun around to face him, finding her face inches from his chest. This close to him, she realized the staggering height difference. She was always teased growing up about how abnormally tall she was for her sex, but standing before him with over a foot in height difference, she swallowed hard, feeling slightly intimidated in his shadow.

Vampires were known for their towering frames. Something about the demon venom altering their bodies in order to support the demon soul. She wasn’t sure what that had to do with height, but it was always the explanation she had been given.

Alexi pulled his hands from her waist, leaving her feeling oddly empty and colder than she imagined was possible. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying her best to contain the heat within her body.

“Thank you, Prince Alexi,” Evelyn said, her teeth chattering despite her best efforts of clamping her jaw shut.

“Come,” he commanded. His voice crisp and cool like the weather that surrounded them. “Sit by the fire before you freeze to death.”

Evelyn nodded her head once, not bothering to fight him on it, but she definitely did not like his annoyed tone. As though she was no more than a petulant child. She was freezing, her reserves were depleted and she honestly wasn’t sure how much longer she’d be able to keep her eyes open.

The fire in the center of the camp was already burning. The heat around the wooden pile was dry and laced with ash as the fire devoured the dry tinder.

Evelyn glanced around at the men that surrounded her. The King was already tucked away in his tent with a Kingsguard that surrounded the structure. Addition guards could be seen walking the perimeter, weaving in and out of the trees that seemed to encase them.

Just at the edge of the camp, his tall frame leaning against the trunk of a long dead tree, his golden eyes glowing in the firelight, was Alexi, looking squarely at her.

Something deep inside of her stirred as his eyes locked on her. The demon within the Prince was awakening something inside of her that she had tried for over a decade to repress, buried deep inside of herself in hopes of snuffing out its light. She felt her skin crawl under such intense scrutiny.

To her left, a small tent had been erected with a bed roll already laid out for her. Quickly eating the breed and cheese she had packed away, she got up from her seat near the fire and headed towards her own tent.

Stepping inside, she found her pack already perched against the small bed roll laid upon a wooden cot to keep her warm blooded body off the frozen earth. Her tent was close enough to the large fire in the center of camp that she could still feel its heat but it was no longer oppressive as when she had just been sitting in front of it.

Making sure the flaps were secured closed, tying the ends together tightly, she removed her coat, laying it down on the earth. Luckily she had opted against wearing the standard petticoats on their long trek through the mountains. She wasn’t sure she’d have been able to get out of the stays on her own. Instead, she chose comfortable, form fitting leggings and a top that were easy to remove.

Leaving herself in just her thin linen shirt, Evelyn climbed into her bed roll, tucking herself in as tightly as she could, trying to trap in her own body heat. The fire outside wouldn’t last all night and she could easily freeze to death in the dead of night. With no one realizing what had happened until it was too late.

The minute her head laid back against the pillow, the lids of her eyes closed heavily. No sense in fighting the impending darkness, she sank further into the cot and drifted off to sleep.