Kissed by a Dark Prince (Volume 1) (17 page)

Sable smiled viciously at Bleu. “There’s only one room I want to see and only two questions I have.”

Bleu straightened, his eyes flashing dangerously as Sable sauntered up to him.

She prodded his chest. “Where’s your sparring room and do you want me to whip your butt in it?”

She tossed Olivia a good-luck wink and dragged Bleu from the room. Loren stared at the closed arched doors.

“Your friend is trouble. It is not wise to challenge Bleu.” Loren slowly looked across at her and Olivia forgot her pain and her anger for a moment as she smiled at the thought of Sable taking on Bleu. That was the huntress she knew. She was sporting an injured arm but she just couldn’t resist the opportunity to fight a new species.

“I think Bleu will find it’s not wise to challenge Sable,” Olivia said and then her smile faded and she looked down at her ruined dirty white coat and her ripped jeans. Blood had soaked through the bandages around her lower right leg. Here in Loren’s castle, she felt as if she were thousands of miles away from what had happened tonight and it would be so easy for her to just shove it aside and forget what she had lived through, and why.

She looked up at Loren and his expression turned sombre, the light that had been in his purple eyes fading to reveal the sorrow she had witnessed often in them.

“Who was he and how did he plant the bombs in Archangel?” she whispered. “No more dancing around this... Loren... I need to know what I’m dealing with. He’s not just your enemy anymore. He’s our enemy now.”

Loren sighed, sat on the edge of the bed and scrubbed a hand through his black hair, tousling the longer lengths on top and revealing the pointed tips of his ears.

“Vail is... my younger brother.”

Olivia stared at him, waiting for that to sink in. Loren had been at war for all these centuries with his younger brother.

That was why he had talked of containing him and capturing him. That was why he hadn’t killed him before.

Ice formed in her veins, engulfing her heart, dragging up memories she had fought hard to suppress. She drew her left leg up and held on to it, resting her chin on it as she realised that she and Loren weren’t so different after all. They came from different worlds but both of them wanted to save their brother. She had lost hers. Loren still had a chance with his.

“Olivia?” Loren whispered and she dashed away the tears lining her lashes. “Are you feeling unwell?”

She nodded. She hadn’t felt right since the night she had fallen into a parallel world full of monsters and mayhem.

She didn’t want to think about it so she focused on Loren and his brother, locking away the memories of her one.

Loren moved closer to her, his proximity comforting her, stealing away some of her pain.

“Tell me... what happened to make you go to war with your own brother?” She stared down at his hands on the bed, pale against the purple sheets, afraid to look at him because she feared she would give in to her need to feel his arms around her if she did. She wanted to lose herself in him and forget everything, even if it could only be for a handful of hours.

Her gaze betrayed her and drifted up his arms, and she pulled it back to his hands. It was strange to see him in a shirt and jeans, and the long coat. They didn’t suit him at all.

He shifted again and heaved a sigh.

“Vail had been away with his legion of our army, scouting the borders of our lands that join it to the area we know as the free realm. Many different species live there, with no one king or queen to rule them. He sent back word stating that he had found something and he couldn’t wait to show me.” Loren’s deep voice held a sombre note and Olivia felt his pain. She reached out and placed her hand over his, hoping to give him some comfort, knowing what it was like to think back to happier times that were now tainted by one terrible moment of darkness. Loren shifted his hand beneath hers, moving it so their palms pressed together and his fingertips grazed her wrist. “Months later, the remains of the legion returned, a young Bleu amongst them. Many of them were savagely injured and I feared my brother dead until Bleu and other men had the courage to speak out, revealing that it was Vail who had turned on them. They said he had become crazed by the presence of a magic bearer.”

“Kordula,” Olivia said. “His ki’ara.”

Loren nodded. “I believe their completed bond triggered this change within him.”

She lifted her eyes to his and saw in them that he also believed that if he completed his bond with her, that he would follow his brother into madness.

Loren looked away, turning his noble profile to her and staring at one of the arched windows lining the dark stone wall behind her. “I dispatched my finest soldiers to track and capture Vail, but he fought and slew them all before disappearing. Over the centuries after that, he attacked other kingdoms, mainly the demon ones, bringing their wrath down upon my kingdom and my people. The number of my kind dwindled, our might diminished, and I was kept busy trying to carve out peace with the kingdoms who wanted to see me dead and my people destroyed.”

“That’s terrible.” Olivia brushed her fingers against his palm and felt his shiver race through her. “You never stopped trying to save him though.”

He shook his head. “No. I searched for him whenever I could, and fought him close to every other century, always failing to capture him. The council grew weary of my desire to imprison Vail rather than kill him, and I reluctantly agreed to seek my brother’s head in our next battle. I have to put the safety and wellbeing of my people before my own desires.”

Loren’s purple gaze filled with weariness that she could feel in him. The constant war against his brother had drained him and now all he had were tainted memories and a heart filled with regrets.

He didn’t even have his fated female.

He was giving her up too. She could see it now. He was placing his people before his own desires, and that meant sacrificing his one ki’ara and his brother.

Her heart ached for him and she curled her fingers around his hand, squeezing it gently, trying to show him that she was here even if she couldn’t understand what he was going through. He was giving it all up for his people. It made her feel cold, and sorry for him.

He had been alone for millennia and now this council of his and his own sense of duty to his people had him cementing that loneliness, seeking to shatter the bond with her and destroy his brother.

“Loren,” she started but he slipped his hand from under hers and stood.

“Rest, Olivia. I will take you home by nightfall.” He turned his back on her, blue and purple light flashed over his body and he disappeared.

She was beginning to tire of his tendency to do that but she couldn’t blame him for running away from her whenever things got too intense for him. He was trying to save himself from suffering more than he already was.

Olivia pulled her leg closer and stared at the spot where he had sat beside her, holding her hand and taking her comfort, until she had dared to voice the feeling in her heart.

He shouldn’t have to give up everything.

It wasn’t right.

He had already been through so much pain because of what had happened with Vail and now he was supposed to kill his only brother.

She hadn’t been able to kill hers.

She had wanted to save him too.

She hadn’t wanted to be alone.

And neither did Loren.

Olivia touched the marks on her throat, focusing on them, seeking Loren through their connection. He felt agitated, upset, and in pain. She ached to go to him and take that hurt away, to tell him that just because he was a prince, it didn’t mean he should have to live his life alone.

What was she doing?

She was supposed to be mad at Loren but she couldn’t blame him for wanting to save his brother, and she couldn’t blame him for what had happened at Archangel. She had demanded he let her stay there, even though he had told her it would be dangerous. She had ignored his warning and Vail had done exactly what Loren had said he would, targeting her in order to make him suffer.

Punishing him for the attempt he had made on Kordula’s life.

Olivia was as much to blame for the explosion as Loren was, but the true culprit was Vail. Vail was to blame for everything. He had turned on Loren and his people. He had driven his brother to war with him when all Loren wanted to do was save him and his people. He had forced this bond between Loren and her, all for the sake of revenge, stealing his brother’s only ki’ara because Loren felt too damned guilty about desiring her above the safety of his people and was too damned noble to say screw his duty and take a shot at winning her.

Olivia groaned. Did she want Loren to win her? She vaguely recalled feeling offended at one point by the fact that he wanted to break the bond, but that was before she had come to know him and know how attracted he was to her. He craved her as much as she craved him, and she was too tired and hurt to lie to herself anymore. It wasn’t the bond. Loren was six-feet-six of gorgeous with a heart of solid gold. Any woman in her right mind would want him and she was not certifiably crazy yet.

Did she want to win Loren?

Her heart tore her in too many directions until she wasn’t sure which one was the one she wanted most of all. There was one thing she kept coming back to though.

The last non-human she had trusted with her heart had broken it and her trust, and had destroyed the world she had carefully constructed for herself after her brother’s death.

She couldn’t go through that again. She couldn’t risk her heart. She wasn’t brave enough to do it, and that left her with only one direction.

She wanted this bond broken.

Didn’t she?

L
oren stood on the rooftop of the large complex of sandstone buildings in central London, his gaze on the night sky, studying the stars but not really seeing them. His thoughts were elsewhere, two floors down and five rooms to his left, where Olivia worked in her new laboratory in the Archangel headquarters.

Things had been tense between them since the attack on Archangel and he could understand why she was keeping her distance from him, and why Archangel were blaming him for what had happened. The deaths of many of their people were his fault. He should have ended Vail centuries ago, before things had gotten this far. He could have met Olivia under different circumstances and as a different man from the one who had left her open to attack, and had brought death and suffering to her people. All because he had panicked. His guard had slipped and he had realised it too late to stop Olivia from capturing his heart.

She had stated her feelings quite clearly to her friend.

Olivia didn’t want to be his mate.

So there was little point in considering what his life would be like if she were his, yet thoughts of a future together had plagued him for the past two days, and fear she would reject him stole his voice whenever they were alone.

Olivia’s friend Sable had taken to sparring with Bleu whenever Olivia didn’t need him for the tests she had needed to run again due to losing all of her data in the fire. Loren thought that Sable was doing it to keep Bleu occupied, giving Loren time alone with Olivia, but he couldn’t understand why she would do such a thing. It didn’t make sense. She had offered to kill both him and Bleu several times since they had met. Sable would never desire to help him with Olivia.

It was a lost cause anyway.

Olivia was working harder than ever to find a way to break their bond and had demanded he order his men to do the same. She wanted it broken.

That left him hollow inside.

A cold space opened behind his breastbone whenever he thought about Olivia succeeding in finding a way to undo what had happened and parting ways with him.

What future awaited him if that happened and if he killed Vail?

A colourless, cold and empty one.

Loren had the terrible feeling that Olivia would take his heart with her, leaving him hollow and dead, drifting through his existence without feeling anything ever again.

He pressed his bare hand to his chest, the black scales of his armour cold beneath his palm, and focused there, using his abilities to strengthen the connection between him and Olivia so he could feel her clearly.

She was still on his senses, her heartbeat level and her emotions stable. Sleeping. She had probably worked herself too hard again and had fallen asleep on her desk. It had happened last night too, after she had worked for almost two days solid on gathering the data she needed from him and Bleu, refusing to take even five minutes to rest.

Her injuries still hadn’t healed yet.

He could feel them as a dull ache on his body, something he took as a sign that despite the current distance between them, they were growing closer and their bond was growing stronger. He could sense her more easily too, pinpointing her location with more accuracy without expending as much psychic energy.

When he had offered to heal her injuries for her, she had refused. He had pressed her for a reason why but she had given him none. Did she feel as though she should suffer the pain of her injuries as payment for what had happened? Or was she clinging to them as a reminder of what had happened so she could hold on to her anger?

She was angry with him, and with herself.

Loren could distinguish the difference between the two emotions if he focused when he was around her. He didn’t need to focus to know she was angry with him though. She made that perfectly clear whenever she had to take blood from him or go anywhere near him. She had stabbed, jabbed, prodded and poked him, all with gusto that warned her rough treatment of him was meant as a form of punishment.

She had also taken to touching Bleu, placing the pads on his bare body with deliberate care and lingering a second too long with her fingers on his skin.

She was doing it on purpose. He had warned her several times not to push him but she didn’t listen. Whenever she had an opportunity, she did something that wound him tight inside and drove him close to attacking Bleu. It took every ounce of his willpower to stop himself. Bleu didn’t deserve his wrath when he had done nothing wrong.