Kissed by a Dark Prince (Volume 1) Read online

  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?

  CHAPTER 11

  Loren 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.

  Loren only wished he knew why Olivia punished him so cruelly. He could understand it if she lashed out at him, or shouted at him and laid the blame at his feet. He couldn’t understand this torment though. What did she expect of him?

  Did she want him to hurt his friend?

  “Here you are,” the soft female voice cut through the silence of the night and he brought his gaze down from the stars and looked over his shoulder at Sable.

  She stood near the roof exit, her black combat trousers and t-shirt causing her to blend into the darkness and the breeze blowing her black ponytail across her shoulder. She could be an elf with hair like that.

  “Here I am,” he countered and turned to face her. “Is there a problem with Bleu?”

  “Oh, hell no.” She waved her hand dismissively. “He’s resting from the latest can of whoop-ass I opened on him.”

  Loren smiled indulgently. Bleu was most likely giving the human female time to catch her breath, feigning tiredness to save her from having to swallow her pride and admit she was beaten. He had come to understand Sable at least. The female had an admirable sense of determination about her. She refused to let anyone best her. If someone beat her, she got right back up and tried again to defeat them.

  “I am sure he will be ready to lose to you again soon enough.” Loren had wondered often over the past few days whether Bleu was interested in Sable in an intimate way. His second in command seemed content with sparring with the female, but sometimes he had a look in his eyes that said he wanted more than an exchange of physical blows with her.

  Sable shrugged. “It’s not the reason I fight him. I’ve been trying to give you two time together to talk but all you do is mope around and all she does is hide in her work. So let’s get to business.”

  “Business?” Loren didn’t recall desiring to discuss any business with the female and he certainly didn’t recall moping at any point over the past few days.

  She nodded and crossed the roof to him, peered over the edge towards the street several storeys below, and then up at the stars.

  “It sure is quiet tonight. If I was your psycho brother, I’d be busy plotting something bad. It’s a good night for bad shit to happen.”

  Loren scowled at her, his fangs descending and his ears changing, the pointed tips appearing.

  “Dial it back a notch, big guy. Your brother is a special case.” She tapped the blade sheathed at her waist. “Liv told me about him. I can see why you want to break things off with her. It’s not because this whole bond thing weakens you now, is it?”

  Loren looked away from her.

  “Yeah, you’ve got that noble thing pegged, but don’t pretend you haven’t thought about being with her. What’s the difference? You break the bond and you get stronger... you complete it and the same thing happens. Right?” Sable leaned into his line of sight. “Right?”

  Irritating and interfering little mortal. She had been playing with him and Olivia, distracting Bleu so they would be alone together, and now she was annoyed because her plan to push them together hadn’t worked. Olivia didn’t want him. Couldn’t her friend see that?

  “The same things happen, but the consequences
are vastly different.” Loren shifted his gaze to meet her golden one. “If I complete the bond with Olivia, she is still a target. If Vail captured her, or killed her... I could not bear it. He would seek to do just that. Breaking the bond will free her. She will be safe.”

  She frowned. “But I don’t get it... I see the way you look at her, Loren. You can’t bear not having her.”

  “This is not true.” He turned to face her fully and she peered over the edge of the building again, the light from the street below softly illuminating her face but casting shadows around her eyes.

  “Liv has a tendency to work late... she’s always working... and when she gets like that, you have to understand she does it for a reason.” Sable stared down at the people walking along the street below them, her tone distant. “You can deny your feelings if you want... but if you decide to admit to them... everyone at Archangel has a reason they’re here, even Olivia. If you want to get to know the real her, the one she hides behind the white coat, then ask her about the scars on her right inside forearm. Maybe then you’ll understand her behaviour... and both of you will stop dancing around your feelings.”

  Loren stared at her in disbelief. Sable was matchmaking? She glanced at him, shrugged and smiled, and took off towards the roof exit, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

  Why would Sable want to give him a shot at winning her friend? Olivia couldn’t stand him. Her behaviour the past few days had made that painfully clear.

  His eyes widened.

  She had a reason she was treating him like this and Sable’s words gave him the feeling that he was wrong about Olivia. Olivia did want him. She was trying to push him away to protect herself for some reason. She was trying to make him jealous not because she wanted him to hurt Bleu.

  She wanted him to drop his guard again and show her that she didn’t have to be afraid because whatever she was feeling, he was feeling it too.

  He wanted her.

  Loren focused on her and discovered she was still in the laboratory. He closed his eyes and teleported there.

  Olivia sat on the high stool where he had left her an hour ago, her microscope in front of her with the slide still in place, and her body twisted at an angle so she could lay her head on the long white table top. She had her cheek pressed against her notepad and right hand tucked under her temple.

  Some of the glossy waves of her chestnut hair had fallen down and snaked across the white top or brushed her pale face.

  Her left hand rested on the table beside her, her little and ring fingers still wrapped in bandages and tape.

  Sleeping here wasn’t going to do her any good. She needed to rest in a bed and for longer than a few snatched minutes.

  Loren approached her silently and carefully lifted her into his arms. She murmured in her sleep but didn’t wake. He held her close, staring down at her beauty as she slumbered in his arms. His female. He wanted to stroke the strands of hair from her face and take care of her, doing all he could for her. She was his to claim, destined for him, and he had waited too long for her to give up now. Sable was right. He couldn’t stop thinking about Olivia and he had never felt anything as strongly as he did this desire to have her.

  Olivia belonged to him.

  His gaze lowered to her right forearm. Would she tell him if he asked about the scars her white coat concealed? Would it give him the insight into Olivia that Sable believed it would, explaining her reasons for keeping her distance from him and giving him a chance with his ki’ara?

  Loren hoped that it would.

  He focused on the small two room apartment that had become Olivia’s quarters in the building and took them there.

  She stirred as they reappeared, her lashes lifting to reveal sleep-filled brown eyes that lit upon his, their softness awakening his desire to keep her safe.

  “What happened?” she whispered and blinked slowly, fighting the fatigue he could sense in her.

  “You fell asleep at your desk again. I thought it would be better you sleep in your bed.” He carried her to the double bed and gently laid her down on the pale blue covers.

  Olivia sat up, rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around her. “No. I can’t be here. I have work to do.”

  Loren shook his head. “You will rest, Olivia. You were asleep at your desk. I do not think that constitutes working.”

  She frowned at him and went to leave the bed. Loren caught her shoulders and held her in place.

  “Please, Olivia. Rest.” He could see what she was going to say. “I do not desire this because I hurt or am tired because of our bond. I desire this because I am worried about you.”

  She blinked at him, her eyes lingering on his, a distant look in them, and then relaxed. She dropped her gaze to her hands where they rested in her lap and picked at the bandage around the two injured fingers on her left one.

  “Do they still hurt?” He sat beside her on the pale covers and she went to shake her head and then nodded. At least she was learning that there was little point in lying to him when he could sense things in her.

  Loren took her hand, closed his eyes, and focused on their bond. He had read all about the link between eternal mates and the benefits, but knowledge was vastly different to experience, and he wasn’t sure this would work when the bond was incomplete.

  He let himself fall into the connection and experienced a strange sense of flowing through his body and into hers, travelling from her heart to the broken fingers of her left hand. He willed the bones to fuse, his own aching in response as he transferred the injury to himself. Olivia gasped and Loren grimaced as the bones in his fingers shattered.

  “Stop it! You’re hurting yourself.” Olivia pulled her hand free of his but her act of compassion came too late.

  Loren looked down at his fingers. “I may need to borrow your cradling device until I can source some blood.”

  Her right hand went to her throat, her eyes wide.

  “I will not take yours, Olivia. I have done enough to hurt you already.” Loren straightened his two broken fingers, biting down on his tongue to hide his pain from Olivia. She gave him a dark look that reminded him that there was little point in him lying to her about this sort of thing too. She could feel his pain echoing in her own fingers.

  “Why did you do it?” She removed the bandage and plastic cradle from her left hand, marvelled as she flexed her healed fingers, and then frowned as she moved closer to him.

  A hot shiver bolted up his arm when she took hold of his hand and it had absolutely nothing to do with pain.

  “I naturally heal faster than you. What would have taken you weeks to heal, will take me barely a day. A day of discomfort is preferable to weeks of watching you suffer in silence. That pains me more.” He studied her hands as she set about bandaging his fingers, her actions gentle, and slowing.

  Her hands lingered on his. “You didn’t have to do this.”

  “I would take all your pain if I could.” He lifted his head and looked at her as she stared at their joined hands, her brown eyes reflecting the hurt he could feel in her. He didn’t know the source of her feelings and suspected he never would unless he did as Sable had suggested and asked her. “Olivia?”

  “Hmm?” She looked up at him, her gaze distant again. She was miles away from him, as lost in thought as he had been on the roof. He wanted to divine her thoughts. He wanted to know the woman behind the white coat.

  He kept hold of her hands with his injured one and used his other one to push back the right sleeve of her white coat. She started, trying to pull away from him, but he caught her bare wrist, refusing to let her hide anymore.

  He would know his female.

  She would not deny him this.

  He carefully turned her arm so he could see the underside.

  His blue eyes widened and turned purple, his fangs descending at the sight of the marks on her wrist.

  “Who bit you?” They were unmistakable. Twin puncture wounds, ragged and vicious, as if someone had ruthlessl
y torn at her flesh with fangs. Further up her arm was a long thick ridge of scar tissue that cut diagonally from inside her elbow down towards her wrist. His gaze locked on the bite mark though, fury burning through his blood, causing the points of his ears to extend.

  Olivia tried to pull her arm back and cover the scars.

  “Who did this, Olivia? Tell me.” He wouldn’t let her go and he couldn’t take his eyes off the marks on her pale skin.

  Sable’s words echoed in his head, taunting him. Everyone at Archangel had a reason they were there. Olivia’s was branded on her wrist, a vicious scar from an attack that had no doubt left her wounded psychologically as well as physically.

  And he had bitten her.

  Olivia managed to twist her hand free of his grasp and held it against her chest, shrinking away from him.

  He stared at his empty hand, reeling from what he had seen and the knowledge of what he had done.

  “Olivia, I...” He wasn’t sure what he wanted to say to her, or whether she would even listen to him. He met her eyes, losing himself in their rich dark depths and cursing himself as he noticed the tears that lined her lashes. He had hurt her. “I am sorry... I bit you against your will... I did not know—”

  “You couldn’t have known,” she interjected softly and cast her gaze down at the pale blue bedclothes beside her.

  “That is why you fought me so... because you thought I would kill you. Like this vampire tried to kill you?”

  She refused to look at him but she nodded.

  Loren reached over and settled his palm against her cheek, hoping to reassure her. She didn’t flinch away from his touch and he took it as a good sign.

  “I would not have killed you, Olivia. I was hungry, but I was in control. I knew how much to take without hurting you... but it is no excuse for what I did. It is no wonder that you despise me. I am no better than the vampire who attacked you.” He lowered his hand away from her face and she surprised him by catching it before he could fully withdraw.

  “I don’t despise you, Loren... and I don’t hate the vampire who did this to me.”