Kissed by a Dark Prince (Volume 1) Read online

He wanted to slice into this male like that, rending his flesh, spilling his blood.

  Loren’s fangs emerged and he felt his ears shift, the points extending beneath his helmet. He fought the change, aware that if he allowed it to continue his eyes would change next, switching from a normal shade of blue to a colour no other fae or demon had.

  He felt Bleu’s gaze on him and then his second in command moved towards the doors, no doubt to see what had disturbed him. The doctor glanced towards Bleu and left. Bleu looked over his shoulder at Loren, his green gaze dark again, speaking volumes about his dislike of this place, the people here, and Loren’s predicament.

  “Loren?” Olivia’s soft voice coaxed his eyes away from Bleu and the door, drawing his attention back to her. The world faded away again, a sense of calm washing over him, startling in its intensity. He was falling deeper into the bond already, when he was meant to be clawing his way out of it. He was coming to rely on Olivia’s voice, scent and presence to soothe him.

  She smiled and his heart thudded.

  “Can I draw some blood?” She held up a needle attached to some sort of cup and a glass vial that looked as though it might fit into it.

  Loren nodded and focused, mentally commanding his armour to recede. Olivia gasped as it raced down his head and his neck, the helmet and scales disappearing, and cleared his chest and back, and then his arms. He halted it there, keeping it in place from his stomach downwards. It was hard to hold it like this, but he wanted it partially out so it would be quicker to come if he needed it. Besides, elves wore nothing beneath their armour.

  “How does it do that?” Olivia absently touched the black scales across his stomach. He sucked down a sharp breath when her fingers accidentally brushed his skin too, sending a wave of sparks skittering across his flesh and causing his markings to flash.

  Bleu drew his sword. Olivia yanked her hand back, turning fearful eyes on his friend. Loren held his hand up to stop him and turned back to her.

  “I issue a mental command and it obeys,” Loren said and she looked even more curious. He focused to materialise his trousers from his wardrobe onto his body, covering his legs beneath the armour. Everything an elf owned became connected to them, giving them the ability to call it to them via the teleportation side of their psychic gifts, no matter how great the distance between them and that possession. He stood. “I will show you.”

  He issued the command and the remaining scales of his armour shifted, swiftly rising up his body and down his arms, disappearing into the black and silver bands of metal around his wrists.

  “Fascinating.” Olivia stared at them and he held his hands out, allowing her to inspect the bands. The brush of her fingertips across his flesh was too much, stirring his body, and he withdrew from her touch.

  Loren used another mental command to bring his armour out again, so it covered him from the waist down, and took his seat.

  “It’s incredible.” She looked from him to Bleu. “Yours is the same?”

  Bleu shifted uncomfortably. Loren tossed him a look designed to warn him to answer whenever Olivia spoke to him. The last thing Loren needed was Bleu treating Olivia in the same manner as the other humans. Loren could allow Bleu’s behaviour where they were concerned, but he wouldn’t tolerate it towards Olivia. Bleu nodded.

  Olivia took a strip of rubber from the table and wrapped it around Loren’s right upper arm. The feel of her hands on him was pleasurable until she tied the material and tugged it tight. He raised an eyebrow at the sensation of numbness that crept upwards from his fingertips. She tapped the inside of his elbow and then eased the needle into his vein and slotted the glass vial into place. Loren jerked in response to the feel of his blood flowing from him and filling the vial.

  Strange.

  It was almost pleasurable.

  He had never allowed another to take blood from him, but all elves knew that it was an intense experience, one that could be used to heighten sex, bringing it close to a level of pleasure enjoyed by bonded mates.

  His head turned hazy. His gaze drifted to Olivia. It slowly dropped to her lips. Soft. Rosy. Begging for a kiss. He wanted to kiss them.

  He wanted to taste her.

  Someone moved on his senses and they focused on the intruder. Bleu. The feel of his eyes on him, studying him, brought Loren out of the haze of lust and his desire to kiss Olivia.

  Olivia was staring at him too. More specifically, she stared at the vial, her eyebrows pinned high on her forehead.

  “Is something wrong?” Loren said and she shook her head, her eyes shooting wide as she quickly lifted them away from the vial and her cheeks flushing with colour.

  She glanced away. “I was just thinking your blood is red like mine... which is stupid because you were covered in it when I met you. I was wondering what else is the same.”

  “I would imagine our physical composition is very much the same, with only a few key differences.” He looked down at the vial. It was almost full. Olivia removed it from the contraption and then pressed a wad of white material to the point where it entered his flesh and slid the needle from his vein.

  “Hold this,” she said and he did as she had instructed, replacing her fingers with his, keeping the soft material in place. She took the rubber strip from his arm and feeling returned to his fingers. “Thanks.”

  She scribbled something on a label, stuck it on the glass vial, and placed it in a rack. Her gaze roamed back to him and down to his legs.

  “If it’s metal, I’m afraid it’s going to have to come off. The machine I would like to use to scan your body doesn’t like metal. It will interfere with it.” She sounded nervous and felt it too. Loren could understand her apprehension. Bleu was already on the verge of issuing a protest.

  Loren held his hand up. “Very well.”

  The piece of material fell off his arm, revealing the dark hole in his skin. Olivia had taken his blood. What would it be like to have her take his blood properly, as a mate should? He knew how to complete a bond. She would need to take his blood into her body, drinking from him. Just the thought of her wrapping her lips around a wound on his flesh and sucking had him hard beneath his armour.

  He shifted uncomfortably and Bleu raised an eyebrow at him again and then looked over to Olivia where she stood beside a large white ring-shaped machine, pressing buttons on it.

  Loren spoke with him in their tongue. “Are you concerned about the tests?”

  Bleu shook his head. “I am concerned that for a male who claims to desire to be free of this bond, you are enjoying the female’s attention rather too much.”

  A very blunt and very Bleu response.

  “I am intent on undoing the bond, Bleu,” Loren said, keeping to their language so Olivia couldn’t understand their exchange. “You need not be concerned. My mission is still the apprehension of my brother.”

  Bleu’s expression twisted into darkness. “Vail deserves death for the things he has done, not containment. You swore to the council that you would end your brother.”

  Loren closed his eyes and scrubbed a hand over his face. “I know. I will do what I must for my people... even if it will kill me.”

  “My prince...” Bleu started and Loren looked up at him, hiding none of the weariness invading his body, pressing down on him and crushing his heart. “I spoke out of turn without thought for your feelings. I apologise. It was cruel of me.”

  Loren shook his head. “No need to apologise, Bleu. I know what I must do. I have put it off for too long, giving my brother too many chances to hurt our people and those I care about, all because I cling to a ridiculous ideal that I can save him.”

  “It is because your brother is one of the people you care about that you desire such a thing.”

  Loren supposed that was true. He loved his brother, even after everything that had happened, and he didn’t want to imagine a world without him, let alone make it real.

  The hard edge to Bleu’s expression softened. “I am glad I never had a brothe
r.”

  Loren managed to smile but there was no trace of feeling behind it. “Your sister is trouble enough.”

  Bleu’s face fell. “Do not remind me. She is off in the second kingdom of the demons, intent on uncovering some artefact that was lost millennia ago. She will get herself into trouble one day.”

  “One day?” Loren smiled properly now. “When is she not in trouble, and when is her big brother not having to go to her rescue?”

  Bleu smiled too and Loren was glad to see his second in command relaxing again.

  Olivia ruined it by speaking. “Our linguistics department would love to study your language, if you would let them? I’m sure they would find it fascinating.”

  Bleu scowled at her and then at Loren, keeping to their language. “The female seeks to allow her comrades to learn our language so they might infiltrate our species and bring them harm.”

  Loren shook his head. “She does no such thing. She is merely curious. It is the way of her species, and our own. Did we not seek to learn the mortal languages as they entered an age of great civilisations? We did not do so to find a way to bring them to their knees or harm them. We did so because we were curious and wished to communicate with them and understand them.”

  Loren rose to his feet and turned to Olivia, speaking in her tongue now. “I am sorry but that is not a good idea. No species outside of ours can speak our language and that is how we wish to keep things. Not even the demons can speak our tongue.”

  She looked crestfallen but rebounded quickly. “Their loss. At least I get to study you.”

  The glimmer in her brown eyes spoke of how much she was enjoying his presence for reasons other than merely studying him. It was a dangerous feeling, and one he shared too. He liked being around her, felt drawn to her even when he knew no good would come of it and that he could never allow his guard to slip. He had to resist her and couldn’t get involved with her. He had to maintain his rigid control and his distance.

  “Speaking of studying.” She pointed to the ring-shaped machine and the bench that had slid out of it.

  Loren called his trousers back to him and sent his armour away. He looked down at the two metal bands around his wrists.

  “I do not think it wise to remove my armour completely. Will it be necessary?” He didn’t think it wise because Bleu would probably try to remove Olivia’s head if she attempted to force him to remove the bands containing his armour, leaving him completely vulnerable.

  Olivia looked as though she wanted to say yes and then flicked a glance at Bleu and shook her head. Loren looked across at Bleu, catching his grim look and the way his fingers were curling around the hilt of his sword again, ready to draw it.

  Loren went to her and followed her instructions, lying with his head at one end of the bench, closest to the entrance of the machine.

  “It will make funny sounds but it won’t harm you. We use it all the time. It’s just going to give me a complete image of the inside of your body and then I’ll do the same with Bleu and we can see if there are any physical differences.” She smiled down at him and he had the sense that she was trying to reassure him. “Just keep your head straight, looking up at the top of the machine, and try not to move.”

  Loren nodded and she moved away, revealing Bleu. He didn’t look pleased, or at all convinced that the machine wouldn’t harm him. Loren wasn’t either, but he trusted Olivia. If placing him into this strange machine would assist her in finding a way to break the bond between them, then he would place himself into it, proving to Bleu that it was safe so he would do the same.

  Bleu moved closer, his clawed fingers flexing around the hilt of his black blade, his gaze tracking every move Olivia made.

  “We’ll need to leave the room,” Olivia said and Loren realised she was speaking to Bleu.

  “Why?” Loren looked down at her and then at Bleu.

  “The machine uses radiation to take pictures of your insides. It’s necessary for the operator to move to a safe room to avoid a dose of radiation themselves.” She flicked a nervous glance at Bleu when he growled.

  “I will not allow my prince to be poisoned by this machine.” Bleu held his hand out to Loren. “Please leave the machine.”

  Loren shook his head and then looked at Olivia. “The scan is necessary?”

  She nodded. “It would help me a great deal. I swear, it’s a tiny dose of radiation. Harmless, really.”

  “Not harmless enough that you do not have to leave the room,” Bleu snapped and his hand went to the hilt of his sword, his gaze darting back to Loren. “Please, my prince. Leave the machine.”

  “No, Bleu.” Loren shook his head again. “If Olivia says it will not harm me, then it will not harm me. I am happy to place my trust in her.”

  Bleu grumbled in their language, “I am not.”

  Loren knew that, and knew that Bleu only desired to protect him. He sighed and turned to Olivia.

  “Please proceed. Bleu will do as you ask and leave the room with you. Won’t you, Bleu?”

  Bleu huffed.

  Olivia smiled shakily and pointed towards a door with a yellow and black triangle on it. Next to it was a thick glass window. She led the way through the door, appearing in the window with a very grim-looking Bleu, and began working on a computer. Loren settled himself again, trying to relax but finding it difficult now that he knew the machine was about to give him a dose of radiation.

  He had heard of it and the devastating effect it could have. The mortals had built bombs that utilised radioactive substances in order to severely harm other mortals. He couldn’t understand why a species was so intent on destroying itself.

  Loren tensed when the bench began to move, easing him into the machine. He kept still as it whirred and chugged, and then the bench was moving him out again. Painless. Fast. He wanted to know what image it would produce. He had spilled many of his enemies’ organs during battles, but had never seen any when they were in the right place. What did he look like inside? How similar was it to Olivia?

  Bleu still looked displeased as he entered the room with Olivia, even when Loren sat up and rose to his feet.

  “Nothing to be concerned about. It is painless and curious, and you will get to see what your insides look like,” Loren said and Bleu tossed a vicious glare at the machine.

  “It shows you?”

  Loren stifled a laugh at his friend’s horrified expression. “No. But I am sure Olivia will let us see the results.”

  He looked to her and she nodded.

  Bleu shuddered. “I don’t want to see my insides. I like not seeing them.”

  A soldier born and bred. If anyone had ever doubted it, they would have changed their mind on hearing and seeing Bleu as he pressed a hand to his stomach, the most vulnerable point on any elf. Bleu liked his insides hidden because it meant he wasn’t gutted and bleeding out on a battlefield.

  “Very well. You do not need to see them.” Loren touched his shoulder, squeezing it gently to reassure him that no one would force him to look at the results of the scan, but making it clear that Bleu would be going through the scanner whether he liked it or not.

  “I can take your blood now, Bleu,” Olivia said, a slight quiver in her voice, a sign of her nerves.

  Bleu took a deep breath and nodded. His armour receded, exposing his bare muscular chest, and he sat in the chair for Olivia.

  Olivia took the seat beside him and picked up the rubber strip.

  The moment she laid a hand on Bleu’s arm, Loren saw red.

  He flicked his armour back into place and launched himself at Bleu, slamming into the chair and him, and bending the stand. Bleu growled and called his armour back, but not before Loren had slashed at his exposed chest with his sharp black claws, cleaving into his flesh. Olivia shrieked and stumbled backwards, toppling her chair and landing in a heap on the floor.

  Loren snarled, exposing his fangs, and his ears extended, flattening against the sides of his head. Bleu’s eyes blazed purple and his
lips peeled back, revealing his own large fangs. He grappled with Loren but it didn’t stop him from hacking at the chest of his armour, trying to gouge through the tough black scales. His armour was weak against the same material. It was the only metal able to penetrate it. He would shred it with his claws and tear the male’s heart out for daring to go near his female.

  Bleu growled and bowed up against him, forcing Loren off him. Loren attacked again and Bleu evaded him, countering any strike he couldn’t dodge completely.

  “My prince,” Bleu snapped, his anger flowing from him, inciting Loren’s rage. The male was furious with him because he had dared to stop him from laying hands on the female. The female belonged to Loren. The male would pay for attempting to steal her from him.

  Loren threw himself at him again.

  Bleu smashed his right fist hard into Loren’s face, the blow connecting solidly with his left cheek. Loren staggered right, his head reeling and the taste of blood filling his mouth. He stumbled into the wall opposite the table with the computers on it.

  And his sword.

  Loren stared at it and then at Bleu.

  “You are not yourself. Do not do something you will regret.” Bleu flexed his claws.

  Loren would not regret removing this male’s head from his body because it would mean this male could not attempt to steal his female again.

  Loren reached for the weapon.

  “Loren, no!” Olivia appeared between them, her brown eyes enormous, the racing beat of her heart echoing in his chest. Her fear crawled through him, subduing his lust for violence and bloodshed. She paled and he did too. She could feel his dark twisted hungers. They rushed through her blood just as her fear filled his.

  Bleu stood a few feet behind her, his purple eyes locked on him and his armour still in place.

  Loren lowered his hand to his side and stood down, horrified by how strongly he had reacted to the sight of Olivia touching Bleu, and how badly he had wanted to hurt his friend because of it.

  Bleu cursed him in their tongue. “And you tell me that I have no reason to be concerned? Really? Because that little display of aggression had nothing to do with your ki’ara laying her hands on me, right?”