Kissed by a Dark Prince (Volume 1) Read online

  “Stop thinking about her,” Bleu snapped.

  Loren smiled an apology at his friend and dragged himself back to the hunt. They entered an area with many humans, some of them rather inebriated. Easy prey. If he were hunting for blood, he would look for such a place.

  Bleu sniffed again. “You smell that?”

  Loren closed his eyes and inhaled through his nose, taking the stale city air down into his lungs. One scent stood out amongst the thousands of others.

  Blood.

  Vampire blood.

  He opened his eyes and looked at Bleu. Bleu took off, sprinting down an alley to their left, away from the humans. Loren tried to keep up with him but he still hadn’t regained his strength after the torturous thirty minutes of running Olivia had put him through. When he lost Bleu, he tracked his familiar scent. It led him back to the park. The Archangel building towered in the distance off to his left. The park was larger than he had believed, a long rectangular tract of land in the middle of the buildings.

  Loren followed Bleu’s scent, vaulting the cast iron fence and landing silently in a crouch on the other side. A thick layer of leaf litter cushioned his steps as he wove through the trees surrounding the park.

  Bleu cursed in their native tongue and Loren broke through the trees and stopped dead when he saw why.

  Someone had beaten them to the vampire.

  The male hung from the branches of a large oak tree, broken and lifeless, his clothes and flesh shredded. Blood dripped from his bare feet to land in a pool on the grass and path beneath him. He hadn’t been there long judging by the fact that his blood hadn’t coagulated yet. Whoever had done this atrocious act was still in the vicinity.

  Loren knew who had committed it.

  The male’s flesh and clothes had been cleaved open, the method of the attack all too familiar to him.

  Loren raised his right hand and called his armour. The scales swept over his hand, forming long serrated claws over his fingers.

  Vail had been here.

  He had left this vampire on display for the humans to find. It was a message. Vail was showing him that he had no qualms about exposing demon and faekind to the mortals, just as Loren and the council had feared.

  A shiver skittered across the back of his neck and he turned, scouring the darkness for his brother.

  “He’s here, isn’t he?” Bleu whispered from the shadows of the night.

  Loren nodded, his heightened vision cutting through the darkness, revealing everything to him.

  His gaze caught on something and snapped back to it. Vail. He stood in the middle of the park, as still as a statue, facing him.

  Loren drew his sword and ran at his brother. Bleu followed suit, racing past him to engage Vail before him. Vail pulled his two shorter blades out of the air, his eyes flashed brilliant purple, and he slashed at Bleu. Bleu leaped back but it was exactly what Vail wanted him to do.

  Vail grinned and flicked one hand out, using a blast of telekinesis to knock Bleu flying. Bleu sailed through the air and landed hard, rolling to a halt just in front of Loren. Loren crouched to check him.

  “Son of a bitch,” Bleu muttered and swept his hand over his blade, transforming it into a long double-ended spear. “I’m going to kill him.”

  For once, Loren didn’t tell him that he couldn’t. He caught the surprise in his friend’s eyes and rose to his feet, coming to face Vail.

  “Brother.” Loren flexed his fingers around the hilt of his blade and drew in a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for the fight that lay ahead.

  Vail grinned, a wild glint in his purple eyes, and disappeared in a flash of violet and pale blue light.

  Loren easily predicted the move, bringing his sword over his shoulder to defend his back. Vail’s blades clashed with it, the sound ringing out in the darkness. Bleu got to his feet and thrust his spear at Vail, catching him on the shoulder. Vail hissed and bared his fangs at Bleu, and knocked him back with a blast of power.

  “Stay out of this, Lapdog.” Vail threw another blast at Bleu, but Bleu teleported in a blaze of violet and green light, easily evading the attack. He reappeared behind Vail and Loren used the momentary distraction to attack his brother.

  Vail growled at him, exposing his fangs again. Bloodied. He had fed on the vampire before butchering him.

  “Come to kill me, Brother?” Vail smiled at him, cold and emotionless, countering each strike of Loren’s sword with his twin blades. He led the dance, luring Loren forwards, always defending.

  Buying himself time?

  Loren withdrew when he realised that wasn’t the case. Vail was trying to wear him out. Bleu leaped in and attacked in his place, the length of his spear giving him an advantage over Vail if he could dodge his telekinetic blows. Loren was glad all over again that Bleu had demanded to accompany him. Bleu could keep up with his brother, attacking and defending at incredible speed, landing several blows on Vail.

  Loren couldn’t.

  He was already tiring and he was weak. It would be easy for Vail to injure him when he was in this condition. He had to rely on Bleu to weaken Vail and only then could he attack.

  With a weapon.

  He had other abilities at his disposal though, ones that could help Bleu.

  Bleu growled and thrust his spear at Vail. Vail deflected it with one blade and attacked with the other, slashing at Bleu’s chest. Bleu arched backwards, evading the tip of the blade, and swung his spear, smashing it into the side of Vail’s head. Vail staggered left and bared his fangs, his ears flattening against the sides of his head. Blood crept down his right temple, black in the low light.

  Vail roared and brought both short swords down in a swift arc towards Bleu. Loren flung his hand out and hit him with everything he had, sending him shooting across the grass. Vail slammed into the thick trunk of the tree he had hung the vampire in, splinters of bark and wood exploding outwards under the force of the impact. Everything was silent and still for a few long seconds and then his brother clawed his way out of the tree and snarled at him, blood covering the entire side of his face now.

  His armour had borne the brunt of the damage though, protecting Vail.

  Bleu rushed him, not giving him a chance to shake off the effects of the blow. He leaped at Vail, holding his spear in both hands and bringing it down hard. Vail clumsily blocked with his right forearm and the impact sent him to his knees. Loren’s breath left him when Vail’s gaze snapped to his and fear flooded the link his brother had long ago closed between them.

  “Vail,” Loren whispered and reached for him, unable to ignore his need to protect his flesh and blood.

  Vail reached for him and disappeared in a bright flash of colourful light.

  Bleu’s spear hit the dirt and he growled. He swung around to face Loren, breathing hard, and Loren could sense his fatigue and frustration. The tree creaked ominously.

  “Bleu, move!” Loren stared in horror as the huge oak began to fall towards his friend.

  Bleu looked over his shoulder.

  Loren used the last of his strength to teleport, grab Bleu and disappear again just as the tree crashed to the grass, the sound of branches snapping a cacophony in the night.

  He landed hard with Bleu a short distance away and looked back at the tree as it settled on the grass, limbs swaying and swishing.

  “You were foolish to leave your ki’ara alone, Brother.” Vail’s cold voice drew Loren’s gaze up the height of the fallen tree.

  His brother stood on one of the broken branches near the top, perfectly balanced in a low crouch, his feet together and knees splayed. He rested his elbows on his knees and cocked his head to one side, his wild black hair falling down over one eye.

  Loren opened his mouth to say that she wasn’t his female and she wasn’t alone, but stopped himself when Vail casually checked his armoured wrist as if checking a watch that wasn’t there.

  “Time is up.” Vail lifted his head and smiled down at him. “Boom.”

  A huge
explosion rocked the ground, the shockwave from the blast sending Loren and Bleu to their knees on the grass. Leaves swept past them and Loren instantly pushed back onto his feet and turned away from the fallen oak, towards the other end of the park.

  Fire rained down from the middle of the Archangel building and swallowed several of the floors in flame and billowing white smoke.

  A chill ran down Loren’s spine and his arms, and incredible pain engulfed him and then he felt nothing.

  “Olivia.”

  CHAPTER 10

  Olivia’s ears rang as she clawed herself out from underneath a section of ceiling tiles. Red lights flashed and thick smoke swelled from fires dotted around the large open-plan room. She covered her mouth with the bottom of her white coat and squinted, her eyes stinging. She sat in the middle of chaos, struggling to take it all in, staring at those less fortunate than her as their lifeless eyes looked off into eternity and unable to hear anything above the ringing in her mind.

  Her heart thundered, spreading acid through her veins. Her left hand rested limp in her lap, the burning in her fingers telling her at least two of them had suffered severe trauma, possibly broken.

  Sable.

  She had been talking with Sable away from the lab when the explosion had happened.

  Olivia tried to move and cried out as her right leg blazed with white-hot pain. She dropped the cloth from her nose and mouth and clutched her shin with her good hand.

  “Olivia!” Sable’s voice cut through the damned ringing and relief surged through her when she spotted her friend coming towards her, nursing her arm. A huge gash down her forearm oozed blood in thick rivulets.

  “Sable.” Olivia pushed the word out, alerting her friend to her location. Sable’s golden eyes shot to her and she hobbled over, struggling to keep her footing on the debris.

  “We have to get out of here. The whole place might come down.” Sable released her arm and held her bloodied hand out to Olivia.

  She shook her head. She couldn’t leave. There were injured here who needed her help. Sable included.

  She grimaced and used her teeth and her good hand to tear a strip of material from her jacket.

  “We have to help as many as we can. Starting with you,” Olivia said and held the white material out to Sable. “Help me with this.”

  Sable nodded and crouched before her, and together they managed to bandage her forearm, tying it tightly to slow the bleeding.

  “What happened?” Sable helped her to her feet.

  Olivia didn’t dare put any weight on her injured leg and she didn’t want to look down to see what sort of state it was in. She had to help the others first. She would worry about her own injuries later.

  “Don’t know.” Olivia thanked her friend with a smile when she slung her arm around Olivia’s waist and helped her over a section of the ceiling.

  More doctors came through the thick black smoke. Among them was one of the smug doctors from the meeting. He looked like hell. Blood coated the left side of his face and saturated his white coat.

  “What happened?” Olivia said to him and he lowered his hand from his mouth.

  “The whole laboratory is gone. Wiped out in the blast. God knows what happened up there. We’re taking the injured down to the square.” He covered his mouth again and moved on, pausing to check the vitals of everyone he came across. The other two doctors did the same. Judging by the fact that only smoke and blood dirtied their skin and coats, and they showed no sign of injury, they must have been on the lower floors at the time of the explosion.

  “I’m getting you out of here,” Sable said and Olivia wasn’t in a position to argue with her. “You’ll get these wounds checked out and then you can help anyone waiting in the square. This place is a death trap.”

  Just as she said that, the floor shook and a second explosion rocked the building, this one feeling more distant than the first. Higher up?

  The laboratory levels were towards the centre of the building. If only those levels had blown up, that meant hundreds of Archangel staff were trapped above them.

  Mark’s office was up there, and so were all the staff quarters for those who lived in the building.

  Sable had tried to convince her to go up to her apartment in order to spill the beans about the situation with Loren, but Olivia had refused. If she hadn’t, they would have been trapped up there too.

  Sable helped her to the emergency stairwell and down to the next level. It was a different world. No fire or smoke touched the rooms on the other side of the glass wall. Sable pulled her away and they continued down to the bottom floor of the building, and out into the square.

  Glass and debris from the building covered the stone slabs. Sable adjusted her grip on Olivia and they hobbled together away from the building and towards the park. Doctors were working on the injured there, using whatever they had on hand to patch up their wounds, and there were already Archangel ambulances on site, ferrying the worst affected staff members to one of the other facilities in the area. How long had she been unconscious?

  Olivia took in the chaos and the carnage, the fifty plus victims of the explosion as doctors fought to save them, and the bodies that lined the square just metres away from them. Who had done this to them?

  She looked back up at the building and covered her mouth, biting back a sob as she saw the state of it. The floors above the laboratory levels were in darkness until around three from the top. The second explosion had destroyed those levels and they burned, sending smoke and sparks of fire high into the night sky.

  A deliberate attack.

  They had taken out the laboratory and then they had taken out the roof so they couldn’t use helicopters to rescue everyone trapped in the upper part of the building.

  Olivia’s knees gave out and Sable crumpled with her to the ground.

  “Pull it together.” Sable gently shook her. “These people need you. I’m going for a doctor, we’re patching that leg and that hand, and then you get on your feet and you help these people. You hear me?”

  Olivia nodded, staring blankly at the burning building, numbed by the sight of it and the thought that someone had done this. It hadn’t been an accident.

  A female doctor she didn’t recognise came to her and bandaged her right calf up. She placed the little finger and ring finger of Olivia’s left hand in a plastic cast and bandaged them up too. Olivia took the meds she offered and swallowed them, her eyes still locked on the building, her vision blurred with hot tears.

  Awareness of her surroundings slowly dawned on her and a sense that she was being watched crawled over her skin.

  Olivia looked away from the building, over her shoulder towards the park.

  There was a man there.

  Loren.

  Olivia stood and corrected herself as her vision cleared. He looked like Loren, wore armour like Loren, but it wasn’t him.

  He stared at the blazing building with a wild look in his purple eyes.

  Four male hunters approached him and she gasped as two short blades appeared in his hands and he cut them down before they had a chance to draw their weapons or defend themselves. His gaze slid to her and he smiled, sending a chill tumbling through her, and disappeared in a burst of light.

  “Olivia!” Loren’s voice rang out over the noise of the building, the wail of sirens as the fire engines arrived, and the cries of the injured, and she hated the way it wrapped around her and warmed her, making her feel safe.

  She wasn’t safe.

  A homicidal maniac had blown up a building just to hurt her.

  Loren rushed towards her, dressed like a goth and looking like hell, his eyes gradually changing to blue but retaining a corona of purple around the outside of his irises, as if he wasn’t in full control of himself.

  She turned away from him, limped to the nearest person in need of medical assistance, and used what the female doctor had left with her to start patching them up. She diligently sewed the gash on the female hunter’s arm, igno
ring Loren as he ground to a halt right next to her, Bleu hot on his heels.

  Sable was right. She was going to do everything that she could for the injured and wasn’t going to flake out now that they needed her. This was her fault after all.

  No. This was Loren’s fault.

  Fury turned her blood to wildfire and she tried to be gentle with her patient, not wanting to take out her anger on her. She was going to store it up and unleash holy hell on Loren once she had made sure everyone who had a shot at survival did just that.

  “Olivia?” Loren said and she continued to pretend he didn’t exist, rage simmering in her veins.

  She cut the thread, covered the stitches with some steri-strips and then gave the huntress some painkillers.

  Olivia struggled to her feet, her right leg protesting as she put her weight on it. Loren caught her arm to help her and she smacked his hand away.

  “Don’t touch me!” She shoved him in the chest for good measure and hobbled off, heading to her next patient.

  Loren grabbed her arm again, his grip firmer this time, and pulled her to a stop.

  “Olivia,” he whispered and she couldn’t hold back her anger anymore. She turned on him.

  “Someone was here who looked a whole damned lot like you. He went through those hunters like...” She pointed towards the bodies that someone was taking care of near the park and closed her eyes, not wanting to remember just how easily the man had cut them down. “They hadn’t stood a chance, Loren. They hadn’t stood a chance. None of us had.”

  She pushed away from him again, shirking his grip, and eased down to kneel beside a young male doctor with a head injury. The gash was deep, cutting across his forehead and into his hairline, and bleeding profusely. She swabbed the blood away to reveal the extent of the wound.

  “This is going to hurt, but I have to stitch it,” she said softly, and he nodded and swallowed hard.

  Olivia took another needle, threaded it, and carefully began stitching the wound closed, occasionally pausing to give the young man a moment to gather himself. Loren hovered over her, Bleu his perpetual shadow.