Kissed by a Dark Prince (Volume 1) Read online

  Olivia sagged against the wall, conflicting emotions colliding inside her, leaving her in disarray.

  Sable came to stand in front of her and huffed. “I thought you said he wasn’t a vampire.”

  Olivia shook her head, eyes fixed on the ceiling in a thousand yard stare as she struggled to piece the barrier around her heart back together and cope with the sudden emptiness inside her that Loren’s disappearance had caused. The more time she spent with him, the stranger she felt when they were apart.

  The stronger she ached for him to come to her and hold her close to him.

  “He isn’t a vampire,” she whispered, adrift on the turbulent sea of her emotions, riding the storm and wondering when Loren would return.

  Sable pointed at her. “Then explain that bite mark on your throat.”

  Olivia’s hand shot to her neck, her fingers going straight for the healing puncture wounds on the left side, and her eyes dropped to meet Sable’s thunderous glare.

  Olivia swallowed hard.

  She was in trouble now.

  CHAPTER 9

  Loren’s apartments in the castle appeared around him. For once, he was glad that Bleu couldn’t teleport into them as he could and had to use the single access point in the courtyard like everyone else. He needed a moment to get his feelings back under control, crushing the ones that had ruled him back in the Archangel facility. A fierce physical need had come over him the moment he had felt Olivia’s feelings through their bond, sensing her jealousy and then her desire, and then he had lost control when Bleu had mentioned the vampire.

  The thought of biting Olivia, the memory of her sweet blood and the intense pleasure that had invaded every cell of his body when he had tasted it, had sent him careening over the edge. He had lost his mind and had been on her before he had been aware of what he was doing. It had been too late then. The feel of her body pressing into his and her soft flesh beneath his lips had triggered an explosive combination of desire, need and a dark hunger within him, driving him to taste her again and take pleasure from her, and give her pleasure too.

  He had wanted to please his female.

  Nothing else had mattered.

  The whole of his focus had been on showing her that he was able to satisfy her every need, and that together they could experience the ultimate bliss reserved for only mated couples.

  She had reacted so sweetly to him too, her body heating beneath his fingers and mouth, arching wantonly into his. Her hips had ground against his in a feral, desperate way, her actions beyond her control. She had been a slave to her desire too, unable to do anything except seek the pleasure she needed and embrace their mutual hungers to find it.

  Gods, he wanted to return to her and finish what they had started.

  Loren spat out a dark curse and paced his rooms. His armour bit into his groin with each stride. He palmed his hard length through the black scales and fire flashed through his veins. A groan left his lips and he dragged his hand away. Bleu would be here any second to give him hell about what he had done with Olivia. He would hardly be able to deflect Bleu’s observations about him desiring the female if he was sporting an erection.

  He turned on his heel and halted, his gaze on his bed. Images of Olivia laying naked and waiting for him there burst in his mind, taunting him. She would look divine tangled in the rich purple sheets, their colour contrasting perfectly against her pale smooth skin and her glossy chestnut hair. He groaned again, dug the heels of his palms in his eyes and rubbed them. He needed to get a grip.

  He had thought he could handle being around her, but they had barely been together a few hours and he had attacked Bleu several times and had come close to biting her again.

  Someone knocked at the door.

  Bleu was being polite. That was never a good sign. Whenever Bleu was polite, it was because he was figuring out a way to berate him about something without overstepping the mark.

  “Enter,” Loren said and paced back across the room, buying himself time to get his body under control.

  The arched wooden doors opened and closed. When he turned to pace back towards them, Bleu was leaning against the closed doors, looking casual. Also not a good sign.

  “Do not start.” Loren swept his hand out in front of him for emphasis. He didn’t need Bleu pushing him right now, not when he was having difficulty locking down his emotions.

  The distance between him and Olivia meant that they were less affected by each other, but he could still sense a fragment of her feelings. They were there in the background, drowned out by his own, but still there. If Olivia focused, she would be able to feel his too.

  She felt as confused as he did, and as torn up by the distance between them. He hadn’t anticipated this. He had thought only completed bonds would awaken this sort of connection, a link that tied them together so deeply that it felt as though part of him was missing now that he was away from her.

  Bleu’s steely purple gaze tracked him as he paced.

  Loren could sense he wanted to say something about Olivia and how Loren had behaved tonight, acting very differently from the man he was used to being around.

  He ached to return to her.

  He couldn’t give in to that need though, not until he felt less on edge and more like his normal collected and composed self. The time apart might weaken the growing bond between them too, keeping it under control. If it worked, then he would endeavour to spend short amounts of time in Olivia’s company before retreating to be alone, stopping the bond from growing stronger.

  Part of him rebelled against that plan, railing at him and crying out for Olivia.

  Loren curled his fingers into fists, clenching his hands so tightly that the claws of his armour dug into his palms.

  “You need to kill something.” Bleu’s deep voice lacked emotion.

  He was right. He needed to kill something, and there was a rogue vampire on the prowl in London.

  Loren had a deep dislike of all vampires. They were wretched, evil, cruel and an abomination. They were a constant reminder of the dark and terrible path an elf could tread, one that ultimately led to the destruction of everything noble, good and beautiful in them.

  When the first elves had become tainted, their souls twisted towards the darkness so deeply that they had begun to lose much of their powers and their ability to withstand the light, Loren and his father had despaired.

  His father had searched for a way to save them, to bring them back into the light, in harmony with nature, restoring their goodness and eradicating the evil in their souls. It had been impossible and they had lost so many elves to the darkness by the time his father had passed on that Loren had done the only thing he could to protect his people. He had withdrawn them from the mortal world.

  The tainted elves had continued to lose their powers, gaining terrible new ones in their place, and for centuries they had ravaged the mortal world, spreading their wretched blood to others.

  Loren, Vail and the council had discussed sending their legions to the mortal world to destroy the creatures they had termed vampires, but the vampires had bought themselves a stay of execution without ever knowing it. They had begun to form a society, complete with rules and a hierarchy.

  The presence of this social structure and rules tempered his desire to eradicate them like the vicious pests they were and had saved them from his wrath over the past four thousand years. Vampire society didn’t condone killing humans during a feed because it increased the risk of the general population becoming aware of them. Instead, those vampires chose to use their remaining psychic gift to place the host under a thrall, giving them pleasure through a mental link while they took only enough blood to satisfy their hunger. If a mortal were accidentally killed, they disposed of the body in a discreet way, keeping their kind under the radar of the mortal population.

  There were other vampires though, a dangerous subset of the species, who didn’t care about the rules and often drained humans to the point of death and left the body wher
e it fell, or turned them and invariably left them to handle the transition from human to vampire alone, without instruction or support. Those vampires were a menace to mortal and vampire society alike, and had been present ever since the vampires and elves had evolved into two separate species.

  Loren despised the vampires who sought to murder mortals, making them suffer and feeding off their fear and distress, eventually killing them or turning them against their will.

  A long time ago, he had taken great pleasure in tracking and destroying such vampires. Perhaps it was time he rekindled that passion.

  Loren focused and called his weapon to him from the Archangel facility. The air before him shimmered and his black blade materialised in his hand.

  “Let us hunt.” Loren tied the belt around his waist and settled the sword at his side.

  Bleu smiled darkly. “May the best elf win.”

  He teleported. Loren followed him, appearing outside the Archangel facility. Bleu stood a short distance away across the wide square in front of the tall curved glass building.

  Loren looked up at the towering height of it and then at his surroundings. There were other buildings similar to it nearby, and smaller buildings beyond them in a mixture of styles. Many of the lights in the buildings were still on, but others were off, speaking of the late hour. The square was empty too, not a single human moving around.

  The city hummed around him, a thousand noises blended together, from vehicles, to electricity wires, to humans socialising. He could hear it all but couldn’t discern anything from the jumbled sounds.

  A gated park stood beyond a road, the Archangel building facing straight onto it. Tall trees swayed in the darkness on a gentle breeze and animals moved around in the safety of the night, free to roam without fear of humans.

  Loren felt drawn to the green swath of land tucked amongst the tall harsh glass, steel and concrete buildings. A small slice of paradise amongst so much cold soulless architecture. Did Olivia visit the park? Did she enjoy nature and the feel of sunshine on her skin?

  He had caught her look of fascination when he had announced that he had taken her from her world to his. She had wanted to see beyond his walls and take in the beauty of his kingdom. It was a small slice of paradise amongst so much fiery black unforgiving terrain. Vail had seen to that. It had been his ingenious idea, but together they had made it real, bringing light into Hell and allowing their barren land to bear seed and grow green and beautiful.

  Vail.

  Loren stared at the trees. Vail had been here. He had brought him to this place, unconscious and weakened, leaving him in this very square for Olivia. He had known she was Loren’s fated female and had planned for Loren to bond them. Both Loren and Olivia had played their parts to perfection, doing exactly as Vail had expected, giving him a chance to have his revenge.

  His brother wanted him to suffer as he had, bearing the pain felt by his ki’ara, and he couldn’t allow that. He wouldn’t allow it.

  He would find a way to protect Olivia from his brother’s sadistic game.

  “Come. It has been many years since you’ve hunted in this world. Let me reintroduce you to the fun of slaying vampires.” Bleu beckoned him and Loren shook his dark thoughts away and crossed the square to him.

  Bleu led the way, no doubt tracking Sable’s scent to discover her hunting route.

  “We should not kill him immediately.” Loren palmed the hilt of his sword and stretched his senses out to monitor his surroundings, unwilling to give a vampire any chance to sneak up on them. They were wily creatures, bent on killing, and often preferred to track their prey from the shadows before swiftly attacking, using speed to their advantage.

  “You desire to toy with him?” Bleu glanced over his shoulder at him and Loren shook his head. He wasn’t interested in playing with the vampire.

  “I desire to speak with him.” Loren scanned the lower brick buildings around them. Cars passed along a road ahead, little more than blurs of white and red lights. He had seen reports on everything of importance in the modern world, although sometimes those reports were lacking to a certain degree. For example, he had not known about computers and their importance in modern mortal society. When he had time, he would speak with those in charge of keeping him informed and would request they do a better job. It was imperative that he keep up to date on things, in case situations like this arose and he had to venture out into this realm.

  “Then we kill him?” Darkness tainted Bleu’s voice. Elves never had liked vampires, but vampires were related to them whether they liked it or not, born of elf blood and darkness. His second in command would do well to remember that, if only to guide him on his path through life and stop him from becoming a shadow of that creature.

  “If we can get him to talk, then perhaps we could gain access to the demons and fae who live in this world. We could infiltrate the social places they have in this city and question people there about recent activity in the area.”

  Bleu looked back at him again, his dark eyebrows knitted together. “You mean to track your brother using this vampire?”

  “I do.” He wanted to question the local fae about Vail and whether they had seen him. Most fae travelled between this world and Hell, and many would know of his brother.

  The mad elf prince.

  Bleu nodded. “A good plan. I like it.”

  He stopped at the end of the road where it joined the busy four-lane affair that had cars whizzing along it and sniffed the air. People moved around on this street and those that passed eyed them with curiosity.

  Perhaps armour was not the best choice of clothing for blending into this world.

  “Bleu,” Loren said and his second in command looked across at him. “We are not blending. How do we blend in this world?”

  “Easy.” Bleu closed his eyes and mortal clothing appeared over his body. Dark jeans like those Olivia wore covered the armour on his legs and a black t-shirt concealed that on his chest. He completed the ensemble with a long black coat that reached down to his ankles, loose enough that it hid the sword hanging at his side.

  Loren owned no such clothing, therefore he couldn’t call it from his apartments to him as Bleu could.

  Bleu’s green gaze gained an amused glimmer. “I swear they are clean.”

  Before Loren could ask what he meant, black jeans hugged his legs and an equally dark button down shirt covered his upper body. A long black coat similar to Bleu’s flowed over him, falling down to just above his ankles. Loren had never worn anything so common.

  “The clothing of a mortal barbarian suits you,” Bleu teased and Loren pinned him with a warning glare. “Come. I think I know where our prey will be.”

  Bleu crossed the quiet road, heading left towards what appeared to be a neighbourhood still busy with people even at this time of night. Loren caught the sound of music coming from some of the illuminated establishments in the distance. He followed Bleu but paused before leaving the quiet road behind and looked back along it towards the Archangel facility, his gaze drawn there as well as his heart. It told him to return to Olivia.

  It demanded it.

  He had to find out everything he could about his brother though and needed time for the bond between them to fade in strength, and that meant leaving her alone for a few hours. Not alone. She had Archangel and her friend, Sable, to protect her. They were a powerful organisation whose hunters had proven themselves determined to take on any demon or fae they viewed as a threat, aiming their weapons at him several times in only a few short hours. Olivia would be safe with them.

  Loren turned away and found Bleu watching him. He caught up with him and Bleu fell into step with him. Loren could feel him building up to saying something. His friend had been quiet too long, not mentioning everything that had happened. It wasn’t like him.

  “Spit it out.” Loren couldn’t stand the tense silence anymore.

  Bleu raked his eyes over Loren. “What was that all about?”

  Loren wasn’t
sure what to tell him. He wasn’t sure what it had been all about. Was it a product of the bond? Or was it something else?

  “Do you desire the female?” Bleu’s light tone didn’t lessen the gravity of what he had asked.

  Loren sent his armour away from his hands and scrubbed one over his face. It was no use lying to himself, or to Bleu.

  “Yes. I do desire Olivia.” There, it was out in the open now. Bleu could talk some sense into him, reminding him of his duty and his mission, and he could get his head and heart straight.

  “It’s the bond,” Bleu stated flatly.

  Loren sighed. If only it were that simple. “It is not the bond.”

  “It’s the bond,” Bleu said it again, as though if he said it enough it would be the truth.

  “No... it is not the bond. It is her... she is...”

  Bleu growled. “Don’t say it. I don’t want to hear it. I just want to kill something.”

  Loren smiled at him, amused by his black scowl and the frustration flashing in his eyes. Loren’s gaze shifted a few centimetres back, to the concealed tips of his ears.

  “Are you sure that is all you want?” Loren’s smile turned wicked.

  Bleu shot him a black look. “What’s that meant to mean?”

  Loren lifted his shoulders in an easy shrug and then grinned. “I saw your reaction to the female slayer.”

  Bleu huffed. “I’m not interested in her in particular... but it’s been a long time since I’ve been in this world, and with a female... and I know it’s been ridiculously longer for you... so that’s why you were all over that female today. Celibacy and a bond. A ticking bomb.”

  Loren let it go because he knew it was more than that. He hadn’t been with a woman in four thousand plus years, but that wasn’t why he desired this one so fiercely, and neither was the bond between them.

  He had thought Olivia beautiful when he had come around to find her watching over him like a true angel.

  Just thinking about her had his blood pumping and filled him with a dark need to return to her and sample her mouth, and taste her flesh again. He wanted to run his lips down her throat to the marks he had placed on her smooth flawless skin and sink his fangs into her, drawing her blood into his body, strengthening the connection between them.