“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 ti
me 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.”
She loosened her grip on him and relaxed again, but sombre feelings flowed through their bond and her eyes reflected them. “It sounds romantic... and I feel sorry for Bleu then.”
Loren brushed the backs of his knuckles across her cheek. “Bleu will find his mate one day. He is not in any rush though. He is a male born for battle and war, not tending to a mate.”
“A devoted bachelor and a player.” Olivia sighed. “We should definitely get back before he tries to seduce his way into Sable’s pants then, because if he hurts her, she will probably kill him.”
Loren couldn’t help smiling at that, easily able to picture such an event occurring. Sable would certainly go to war with any male who dared to hurt her, and Loren had the feeling that Olivia would be there fighting at her side.
He gathered her to him and she tiptoed and kissed him. They would return to Archangel and find out if Bleu had discovered anything about Vail at the club, but first he had another pressing matter to attend to.
He wanted to turn his bathing pool fantasy into a reality.
CHAPTER 19
The portal shimmered in multi-coloured hues before Loren, as tall as he was and twice as broad, slowly draining his energy. It took a lot of power to teleport in this way, forcing his ability to manifest itself away from his body, but Olivia had asked to see a portal like the one they used to bring light into his kingdom.
He took Olivia’s hand and guided her towards it. Her wide eyes darted around as they approached, her curiosity bouncing through their bond to him. She reached out with her free hand and gasped when it made contact with the portal and then disappeared. Loren smiled and led her into it and the moment they appeared in her apartment at Archangel, she turned to look back and frowned.
“Where did it go?” She glanced at him.
“Portals do not show on the other side. It would rather give away our approach.” It wasn’t just a matter of stealth either. While portals could be used for sneak attacks, they were more readily used as an easy method of transportation between his realm and this one. If a portal was visible at the destination, there was a chance that someone there could use it to cross over into his realm, or they could ambush him.
A shiver went through him and he tightened his grip on Olivia’s hand, his fingers pressing into the back of it.
“Something is wrong.” He cast his blue eyes around the room, his senses stretching beyond the walls of the small apartment, spreading through the building as he tried to pinpoint what had him suddenly on edge.
Was it Vail?
His heart rate picked up and he sent a mental command to his armour. It rippled over his skin beneath his formal black coat and trousers, and he was careful not to cover his hands so he didn’t hurt Olivia with his claws.
“What is it?” Olivia curled her free hand around his arm, drawing closer to him.
Her fear trickled through the link, but she was experiencing other emotions too. Fight and not flight. She felt her friends were threatened again and she wanted to seek out and eradicate the source of that threat.
“I do not know.” Just as he said that, alarms wailed and the lights dropped. Red flashing lights replaced them, hurting his sensitive eyes.
Olivia flinched, pressing her face against his arm. “Bloody unholy sound!”
She was still growing accustomed to the changes in her body and her heightened hearing and vision was probably causing her pain.
“Come,” he said and pulled her with him. He broke out into the corridor and several hunters rushed past, Sable and Bleu among them.
Olivia’s friend stopped and stared at her. Olivia blushed deeply, awkwardness written across her face as well as her emotions.
“What is it?” Olivia said over the constant screech of the alarm system.
Sable loaded her compact crossbow, a vision of dark menace in her combat gear and with her hair tied back into a long ponytail. “Something just popped into the cafeteria, and it is big. Like huge.”
Loren’s heart pounded now. “Take us there.”
Sable ran on ahead and Loren followed with Olivia, struggling to maintain the slower pace. It was good to have his full strength back. If he wanted to, he could be down at the cafeteria in a heartbeat. He didn’t know where it was though and it was quicker to follow Sable than it was to follow his senses.
Olivia kept pace beside him and Loren dared not look at her. She still wore her sexy halter-top and tight jeans, and he needed to concentrate. If he set eyes on her running in that dark purple top, he was liable to forget what he had been doing and want to kiss her, and more.
Evidently completing the bond did not lessen the ferocity of his need for her.
They ran down several flights of steps and along another pale corridor, and then he spotted the cafeteria ahead. The doors were jammed open, held in place by a broken table on one side and a collapsed hunter on the other.
Sable rushed forwards and checked the condition of her comrade.
Loren burst into the room and froze, pulling Olivia behind him to shield her. His armour completed itself, forming claws over his fingers and his spiked black helmet, but leaving his face mask open.
He growled and drew his black blade out of the air, bringing it to him from his rooms in the castle, and mentally commanded the alarms to cease. The lights in the room came back up, startlingly bright, hurting his eyes and those of the enormous male battling in the middle of the room. The male growled at the lights and continued his fight against the hunters.
Bleu teleported to the other side of the room, his black armour in place and his eyes bright purple in the slits left open on his horned helmet.
The immense demon battling between them paid them no heed and lashed out with one meaty muscled arm, sending half a dozen hunters flying across the room. He took the human males down with ease but he wasn’t killing them. Had his brother sent the male to harm Archangel and increase the unease between Loren and the hunters?
The male was enormous, broad and thickly muscled, his torso bare and his lower half clad in tight leather trousers that matched the colour of his wild russet-brown hair. Blood streaked his dark golden skin from several wounds on his torso, some of which still had the crossbow bolts sticking out of them. He snarled, flashing large fangs at the hunters, and swung wildly again, bashing several of them together and sending them crashing into a heap on the floor.
Other hunters called out commands and the demon turned crazed red eyes on them. The dark brown ridged horns that curled from behind his ears grew and the tips of his ears began to grow pointed.
This was not good.
As it was, the male stood taller than Loren and Bleu, his formidable strength making him a threat to both of them. If the male went fully demonic, he would grow several feet taller and become infinitely more dangerous. Loren had to stop him before it happened.
Loren moved forwards, his blade at the ready.
The demon swung to face him and, rather disturbingly, the wild look in his eyes grew clear when they settled on Loren.
No, not Loren.
Sable.
She stood beside him, her crossbow held at the ready, looking tiny compared with the male but furious too. She wouldn’t back down. She would take on this demon who stood almost a foot taller and two foot wider than she was.
The demon’s horns shrank and he was savage as he shoved his way towards them, snarling and growling at any hunter who dared to get in his way. Bleu skirted the edge of the room, his gaze locked on the demon, his blade ready. Three arrows stuck out of the demon’s left shoulder, and the itchy trigger finger of a young female hunter embedded a fourth in his deltoid. It didn’t even slow the demon.
He halted two metres from Loren, straightened and preened his horns as if nothing out of the ordinary had just been happening.
“You are a hard man to find,” the male’s deep voice rumbled through the room, a dark growl, his thick accent making it difficult to understand his English.
Strange that a demon would choose to speak that language to him. It was almost as if he wanted these hunters to know that Loren was the reason he was here.
Had Vail sent the demon to kill him after all?
“State your business.” Loren swept his blade out, aiming it at the male’s throat, and tipped his head back, holding his gaze. With his other hand, he kept Olivia close behind him. She refused to remain hidden, but at least she only moved far enough to peer past him, and ended up between him and Sable.
The demon grinned. It might have been a smile. It was always hard to tell with demons. They had rough masculine features and fangs that didn’t fully retract. A smile looked like a grin most of the time.
“I was not sent by your brother.”
That didn’t ease Loren at all and he only grew more unsettled when three other demons appeared behind the male.
Bleu eased forwards and Loren could sense the arrival of more demons had set him firmly on edge. Loren held his hand out to Bleu.
“All is good here,” he said to him and then turned to the demon. “Is it not?”
Kissed by a Dark Prince (Volume 1) Page 24
