Kissed by a Dark Prince (Volume 1) (30 page)

Loren felt drawn to her as she stared out at their world, her beauty hitting him hard and stealing his breath. He didn’t resist the pull of her, never would be able to, and drifted towards her, coming to stand behind her.

He wrapped his arms around her and an incredible sense of bliss and contentment filled him, tugging a sigh up from his heart.

He had lost faith that he would ever find his fated female and now his ki’ara was in his arms, her back nestling softly against his front, warming him.

Loren lowered his head and pressed a kiss to her throat, on the marks he had made last night during their bonding.

Olivia reached over her shoulder and fondly tangled her fingers in his hair, and then dropped her hand to the left side of his neck and stroked the marks there. Marks she had made to take his blood into her body, completing their bond and triggering a change in her that would make her immortal like him, granting them an eternity together.

Loren sighed again, feeling at peace for the first time in countless centuries. Whole at last.

“Can I see your world, when all this is over?” She stroked the nape of his neck, sending a shiver down his spine that turned from hot to cold as her words sank in.

They brought him down, reality closing in again to crush the peace inside him, setting him on edge. He had to deal with Vail, because he couldn’t let his brother take Olivia from him. His brother’s revenge would be brutal, unbearable. He couldn’t lose Olivia.

Loren kissed her cheek and drew her closer, needing to feel her in his arms and know she was safe for now at least. “Our world... and I will show this realm to you, when all this is over.”

She smiled. “It’s beautiful here.”

He could hear the wonder in her voice and feel it inside her. He looked out at the vista before them. The grounds extended for almost a mile, dotted with dark stone garrisons for the section of the army stationed permanently at the castle, but leafy and green too, with pale stone paths running between all of the buildings and the main gates. The dark stone walls were high, designed to protect everyone within the grounds. He and Vail had wanted a fortress that would prove difficult to penetrate in a battle, and that could house all of the elves from the nearby villages beyond the walls.

His gaze drifted there, to the collections of buildings scattered around the undulating landscape, paler patches in a sea of green and bright jewel colours. Beyond the walls were farms and woods, and rivers of crystal clear water that fed the land and were as necessary to its life as the sun filtering down from the darkness above.

Olivia leaned into his chest and he could feel her desire simmering in her veins, her need to explore this world and see everything with her own eyes. She wanted to explore it with him, studying it like the scientist she was. He could easily imagine her poring over every plant and animal, and marvelling at their use of what she probably deemed magic.

Loren tipped his head back and stared up at the dazzling light that shone down on his realm.

“There’s darkness in the distance, but your world is full of beauty and light. How is it possible?” She turned in his arms, her gaze on his face.

Loren looked down at her and then beyond her to the distance. The reach of his lands were limited in several directions, and he could see the black lands beyond, glowing orange from the rivers of lava that flowed through them.

“You know how I travel via portals?” he said, trying to find a way to explain what they had done without making it either too complicated or too simple. If he went too simple, she would be angry with him, feeling as though he was treating her like a child when she had a brilliant mind. She nodded and looked up, and his gaze dropped to the marks on her throat, a bolt of heat striking like lightning in his veins. Her lips curled into a smile.

“I can feel you staring.” There was a teasing note in her voice that he liked. His female knew him well. She caught his chin and raised his head, bringing his eyes away from her throat and up to the artificial sky. “Back to the portals.”

“It is possible for us to project portals away from our bodies, but it uses a vast amount of energy to do such a thing. We constructed a permanent portal to bring light to our land from above... from your world. Every elf in my kingdom works in cycles to keep it functional, focusing all of their power on it from a special room within the west tower of the castle, the highest point in my lands.” He glanced towards that tower, barely able to make out the top of the conical roof through the blossoming flowers shading the balcony. “When they tire, new elves take their place. The cycle allows for everyone to have long periods of rest between the times when they must help with the portal, meaning they can live their lives and attend to their farms or their businesses. All of the kingdom works to bring light into the darkness of Hell, so our land can thrive and grow, bearing life as our lands back in the mortal world had before we had to leave. We do the same to bring clean water into the land. It flows in via one portal and then out via another, re-joining the same undiscovered river in the mortal world.”

“Wait... Hell? We’re in Hell?” She stared at him in disbelief and he nodded.

“This realm is what many in your world would consider Hell. A place filled with demons and darker creatures, and even fallen angels in some areas.”

“You moved your people to Hell from the mortal realm... because it’s better here?” She frowned at that and he could see she was having difficulty grasping it.

“Here open warfare is rare and we do not come into contact with many dark species who would seek to harm us. In fact, since Vail went to war with me, many species living in this realm believe us to be the most violent and dangerous in all of Hell.” He had always hated that. His species were not warmongers, unlike many of the demon species who were always involved in a demonomachy with at least one of the other demon realms. “Most species in this realm prefer to remain within the borders of their own lands and only venture out to trade with another species in theirs.”

“I see. Like countries.”

He nodded. “If you would prefer that term. This country shares borders with two of the demon countries, and others. There are countries here run by gods and goddesses, and even the being you would know as the Devil.”

“Hell, no... he exists?” Her eyes shot wide and a tremor of fear went through her.

“I would never allow him near you, Olivia, and he has little interest in mortals. Mere speculation by your kind.” He drew her closer anyway, wanting to reassure his female that she was safe in this land with him. No one would dare harm her here. Well. No one except his brother.

Loren’s heart slowly sank, thoughts of Vail weighing it down in his chest, and Olivia raised her hand and smoothed her palm across his cheek, the action soothing him.

“What’s that look for?” she said softly and he tried to wipe it off his face and shut down his feelings, but it was hard when he was standing on the balcony in the spot where he had often stood with Vail, discussing matters and looking out over their kingdom.

“The portal was Vail’s idea,” Loren whispered, a twinge of sorrow causing his heart to clench. He missed Vail and how things had been once, and would have given anything to have his brother back, had tried so hard to achieve that, but he had finally realised that it was impossible. He couldn’t save Vail, just as Olivia hadn’t been able to save her brother.

Olivia’s eyebrows furrowed and she sighed as she stroked his cheek, looking up at him with her back pressed against the balustrade.

“Is there a king and a queen in your kingdom?” Nerves laced her voice.

Loren shook his head and her fear melted away. “There hasn’t been a king since my father died over forty-eight centuries ago. We moved to this world after that, and I ruled together with Vail.”

“What about your mother?” Olivia said.

Loren looked beyond her to the distant green lands, struggling to bring forth any memories of his mother. “She died giving birth to Vail. I was around a century old at the time, too young to remember her clearly. Our father died around fifty years after that.”

“How old would you have appeared in human terms?”

“I would have looked like a young teen, perhaps sixteen or seventeen in your terms. Vail had looked half my age.” He caught her frown, smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear, curling his fingers around it. His own ears were pointed, marking a difference between their species that he hoped wouldn’t come between them. He was sure his people would love Olivia, regardless of their differences. “Elves age quickly during their first two hundred years, reaching adulthood by the end of them. Our aging slows dramatically after that, until we reach a point where it halts completely. Your aging will do the same because of my blood in your body and the changes the bond has caused, granting you immortality and increased strength and senses.”

“You were very young when you took control of your kingdom then?” She cast her dark eyes out over the castle grounds below them, her gaze flickering around and following the people in the courtyard as they went about their business.

“Vail and I had good advisers, but we also had our father’s blood in our veins and had been raised with all the knowledge we needed to run our kingdom.” Loren’s smile faded again as he thought about how difficult things had been though. Many of their kind had broken away from them, unwilling to follow the lead of what they considered children. They had remained in the mortal world, their souls becoming increasingly corrupted until they had become something as dark and wretched as vampires, straddling the gap between the two species but belonging to neither.

Olivia shifted around to face the courtyard, pressing her back into his front again. He wrapped his arms around her and held her as she studied his world, her feelings flickering through their link, entertaining him.

She was desperate to go down and interact with the elves she could see. He wasn’t sure they were ready to meet her. He needed to make a formal announcement and then give them time to become used to the fact that he was mated to a human, and then she could meet her people. If she went down now, they would notice her marks and the council would be demanding a meeting with him.

He didn’t have time for such matters, and he didn’t really have time to linger here at the castle with Olivia. Vail was still on the loose back in the mortal world and Loren wouldn’t be able to live with himself if something happened to Bleu or Archangel, and he knew Olivia wouldn’t be able to either.

He pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder, lingering with his lips against her warm skin, breathing in her soft scent. “We should return. Bleu will be worried... and he tends to end up scolding me if he is worried. I do not want to face an angry Bleu the moment I return. It would rather spoil the moment.”

She giggled. “He just cares about you. You must have been together a long time. I’ve never seen someone act so protective of someone as Bleu does of you.”

Loren smiled against her. “We have been together since Vail went to war with me. Bleu was in his regiment and one of the survivors. You should have seen him. A scrawny, reckless and disobedient two hundred year old. He had a fierce temper and set me to rights without caring who he was speaking to. I had never met a male like him.”

“Sounds like Bleu,” she said with a smile in her voice. “I bet he’s been setting you to rights ever since too.”

He chuckled now, the weight pressing on his heart lifting as he thought about Bleu and all the years they had shared. “He has learned a modicum of respect, or at least learned to show it around others for the most part. If we are alone it is a different matter... and I admit it is nice having someone who is unafraid to speak his mind to me and who treats me as a friend.”

Olivia looked across at him.

“He doesn’t treat you as a friend, Loren. He is your friend... I’m sure he will be able to find a way to occupy himself in your absence though... he hasn’t taken his eyes off Sable since he met her.” Olivia turned in his arms, her expression fading to one of concern and then seriousness. “Is Sable Bleu’s ki’ara?”

Loren shook his head. “I do not think so. I think Bleu desires Sable, but I am not sure she is his fated female. Bleu has had many females in his time and more than one at a time for some of those.”

Olivia’s right eyebrow arched. “He’s a player. No wonder he and Kyter seemed to get along. Sable can handle herself, but I don’t like the idea of Bleu trying to get into her knickers if he isn’t serious about her. Can fae and demons fall in love with people other than their mates?”

He nodded now. “It is possible. My parents were not fated.”

She looked relieved to hear that and he admired how much she cared about her friend, although he seriously doubted Bleu had any intention of falling for Sable. Bleu clearly desired her, wanted to bed her, but he had often spoken of his easy conquests in the mortal world, and Loren had the feeling that he saw Sable as a challenge and liked it. A female who hadn’t immediately thrown herself at his feet. Loren could almost guarantee that if Sable succumbed to Bleu’s charms, his friend would be content and then return to his bachelor life. He could be wrong though.

“Are you a player?” Olivia said, teasing him. She knew the truth about him, but the sparkle in her eyes said that she wanted to hear it again and liked knowing that he had been alone for a long time before he had met her.

“I am not a player... as you put it. I never have been. I began searching for you a very long time ago, Olivia, and now I have you.” He grasped her waist, pulled her against him and kissed her.

She leaned into it, her hands coming to settle against his bare chest, and then pushed back, breaking away.

“Is there a difference between a normal female and a ki’ara?” There was his little scientist, her eyes gleaming with interest and curiosity.

Loren stroked her sides and nodded. “A vast difference. Being with you... my ki’ara... is bliss, wonderful, like being complete for the first time in my life. What I have experienced with you is a thousand times more intense and satisfying than what I have experienced with other females.” He ignored the way she frowned and pressed her short nails into his chest, secretly enjoying the jealousy that coiled through her. “It is the reason many fae species and demons place such importance on our mates. Nothing compares to being with them. Everything else is a shadow of what we would have with our fated one.”