Rosalind’s blood began a slow boil as she took in the scene.
The women fawning over the king were close to Vail on the day bed, their legs brushing his at times, and he showed no adverse reaction to them, not as he always did to her. Her heart ached and she squashed it, refusing to let the sight of him with several nude beauties affect her.
The demon guard dragged Rosalind forwards and dumped her on the dark stone floor in front of Vail, as if she was a piece of garbage.
“You have seen her now. Satisfied?” the king said in English, tossed her a bored and uninterested look, and went back to palming one of the women’s breasts.
“No.” Vail raked cold eyes over her. “I have need of the female.”
The demon king lifted his head from the brunette’s neck. “What need?”
Vail smirked at him. “I need to fuck her.”
Rosalind’s cheeks burned and she spluttered, torn between finding her feet and punching him, and swearing at him from where she knelt like a servant before him. She didn’t have a damn clue what had gotten into him but the man before her was nothing like the one she had left in the cell.
The one she had protected.
Swearing won.
“You bloody son of a bitch.” Rosalind shot to her feet.
The demon guard backhanded her so hard she flew several feet across the room and hit the flagstones with enough force that it knocked the wind from her. Pain burned in her right elbow and spread up her arm.
“Strike her again, and I will kill you,” Vail said in a thick, dark growl and the aura of danger he always emanated grew stronger, pulling her magic to the fore to protect her.
Rosalind pressed her hands into the floor and breathed slowly as she pushed herself onto her knees. The world spun and rocked around her, but the pain in her arm began to fade as her senses stopped reeling.
The demon king laughed. “Have your female.”
The male waved Vail away as one of the women kissed down his bare chest towards his stomach.
Vail stood in a graceful and effortless move, stormed across the room to Rosalind and grabbed her arm, hauling her onto her feet.
Her heart pounded wildly as she met his gaze. Desire darkened it, the black abyss of his pupils devouring the purple of his irises as he stared down into her eyes, holding her immobile.
Mother earth. Fear beat through her veins, making her head spin violently. He wouldn’t. She swallowed her heart down from her throat and tried to back away from him, afraid he would take her right here in front of the demon, as the king wanted and expected.
Vail growled. “None other than me can see my female. I will take her to a private room.”
King Bruan’s face fell and he eyed her, and then Vail.
Her heart quickened and she tried to twist her arm free of Vail’s grip. What the hell was wrong with him? She wasn’t going to sleep with him, not here and not in private. She was done with him and if he tried anything, she was hitting him with the biggest healing spell she had and letting it tear him apart.
“We have a deal,” Vail said in a low, dangerous tone. “I have offered my assistance, but I will not be of much use to you if I am not at full strength. You have surely noticed the effect a drop of this female’s blood has had on me?”
The king nodded.
“In order to defeat my brother, I need what this female will give to me. I need her blood and her body.” Vail pulled her with him, towards the demon king, and she ignored the hot shivery ache that coursed through her in response to his words. He didn’t need her. He was up to something. He was using her. He bloody well wouldn’t get the chance. “Now, do you desire my assistance or not?”
Rosalind couldn’t believe him. Fenix had told her that he had been at war with his brother, his own flesh and blood, for forever but she had been foolish enough to think that perhaps that was over now. She hadn’t realised that he still desired to kill the other elf prince.
She couldn’t allow it.
She knew Loren in a way. He had helped King Thorne in the war against these demons. She had met the prince’s woman, Olivia, and had formed the beginnings of a friendship with her and her friend Sable. She wouldn’t let Vail snatch Olivia’s man from her or help these demons in their fight against Thorne.
Rosalind twisted her arm in Vail’s grip and came close to breaking free. His fingers tightened against her, his short claws pressing into her bare flesh, and he turned cold eyes on her.
“Do not fight me unless you want to do this the hard way… with an audience.”
She froze, heart going wild and throat closing. He wouldn’t. He hated being touched.
He had let those women brush against him though. He only hated her touching him.
Was he really going to do this?
She stared up into his eyes, trying to see the answer in them and feel it in him. She couldn’t sense anything. It was as if he had closed the connection between them or had severed the bond. His eyes remained blank and unreadable, giving her no answer.
Was this all an act or was he working for the king now?
“Very well,” the demon king said as one of the women nibbled his throat and rubbed herself against his thigh. He palmed her backside and grinned at Vail. “You may have the cell she occupied, and a guard will be outside the door at all times.”
Vail nodded and dragged her with him towards the door, following the demon guard. She clawed at Vail’s hand, trying to prise it off her, a weight crushing her chest and her knees wobbling with each swift step he forced her to take.
She had to get away.
She had to escape this madness.
The journey back to the cell passed quickly and was over before she could get Vail’s hand off her arm. He pushed her into the black cell and the door closed behind him, leaving only a chink of light until the guard slid a panel on the door open, revealing a small barred section, throwing light across Vail.
Rosalind couldn’t breathe.
She backed away as he advanced on her, unsure what to expect.
Was he really going to take her blood and use her?
The hungry, dark edge to his eyes said he might.
CHAPTER 11
Rosalind wasn’t sure whether to back away or stand her ground as Vail advanced on her. Towering at least a foot taller than her and with the honed, powerful muscles of his torso on show, he was a sight to behold but it wasn’t his impressive physique or the knowledge that he was stronger than she was and could easily overpower her that frightened her.
It was how she reacted to him. It was the desire that flickered within her like an eternal flame, small right now but growing, steadily becoming a wildfire that she feared would consumed her.
She told herself on repeat that she couldn’t succumb to him, no matter how tempting this dark elf prince was to her.
She didn’t know all the details of her prediction and giving herself to him or falling for him might be the instrument of her downfall and death.
Vail closed the gap between them, his powerful presence commanding all of her focus, luring every shred of her attention to him even as she fought to retain some distance between them. Her skin hummed from his proximity, begging for the feel of his caress despite her best efforts to clamp a lid on the arousal spiralling to dazzling heights inside her.
He stood over her, his intense violet eyes locked on hers, holding her under their spell.
She breathed hard, her chest heaving against the confines of her black dress, anticipation stripping her strength as she trembled before him, awaiting his next move.
He inched closer, until she swore she felt his heat and his power engulfing her, drugging her into a haze that she was powerless to resist.
His lips parted, revealing a hint of fangs, and her knees threatened to buckle.
“Do you have a good level of healing power right now?” he whispered and it took her a moment to take in what he had said.
He wanted to talk about her power? He wanted her to
use it around him?
What had happened to the man who had threatened to kill her because she was a witch and had tried to attack her whenever she used her power near him?
She stared blankly at him, wondering if she had lost her mind during her punishment and this was all some twisted fantasy. It would explain why she had found herself fully healed on coming around and why her eyes kept betraying her and falling to his firm lips, silently begging them for a kiss she felt sure would spell her doom.
“Well?” he husked, his deep voice doing strange things to her insides, scrambling them until she found it hard to think and even harder to drag her gaze away from his sinful mouth.
Mother earth, he was beautiful.
She looked up at him, drowning in his dark beauty, in the allure of her grim reaper.
His left eyebrow arched. His rich violet eyes turned dark with impatience.
Rosalind looked him over, cursed herself for taking her time about it, studying every lithe and seductive inch of his body. She had to snap out of it. He wanted to kill his brother and she wouldn’t allow that to happen.
“You don’t look hurt, so why do you need to know?” she snapped in a low voice, not wanting to alert the guard but not willing to let Vail order her around either.
His other eyebrow shot up. “Because we are going to escape.”
She would have laughed at that suggestion had her heart not leaped into her throat and her hope not soared. He couldn’t be joking. Mother earth, he just couldn’t be. She had ached for escape ever since she had awoken in her cell all those weeks ago. She searched his eyes, trying to see the truth in them. They showed her only darkness and desire, hunger that sent a shiver racing through her body and stoked her temperature up another notch or five.
She glanced beyond him to the door, aware of the demon waiting there.
“There’s no way to break these dampening bonds and we need them off in order to escape,” she hissed at Vail and his expression didn’t alter from one of desire mixed with determination.
“I can handle that,” he whispered and she frowned at him.
He truly had lost his mind.
“How?” She jerked her chin towards his solid metal cuffs. “Yours are the strongest. I’ve seen you give them hell, with all of your strength, and you haven’t made a bloody dent in them so I don’t see how you think you’re going to open them.”
“I do not plan to open them.” He eyed her warily and hesitated, and her stomach plummeted into her feet. He was up to something and she had a terrible feeling she wasn’t going to like it. “Do not watch.”
The sinking feeling grew worse and she automatically reached out to grab his arm, but stopped short when he flicked a glare at her hand.
“I don’t like the sound of that,” she whispered. “What do you intend to do?”
He hesitated again, his arm near her hand twitched forwards, as if he wanted the contact between them, and then he backed off a step.
“Do you have a good level of healing power right now?” he asked again, his tone firmer this time.
Her eyes widened as it dawned on her. “No. No, you are not going to do that. You’re bloody insane… you know what happens if you hurt yourself.”
She reached for him and he backed off another step and shook his head, his eyes darkening dangerously. She stood her ground, needing to spell things out for him because he had to be crazy to be considering this course of action.
“No. I mean it. It’s too dangerous. The pain and me using my powers will send you to that dark place and you’ll kill me.”
She expected him to placate her by lying and saying he wouldn’t kill her.
He didn’t. He just turned his back on her.
“Very well,” he said in a low voice. “If you cannot heal what I intend to do, it will not stop me. I am stronger now and will eventually heal it.”
Rosalind did grab his arm now. She snagged his wrist and pulled him back to face her, expecting him to snarl and swat her hand away. He didn’t. He stared down at her hand on his arm, emotions she couldn’t decipher crossing his face, and then raised his eyes to meet hers. The elf was full of surprises today and she didn’t like any of them.
“Eventually.” She couldn’t help pointing out the critical word in what he had said. “Until then, you’ll be in tremendous pain and you’ll need blood, and that will make you dangerous too. You’ll probably still kill me. Mother earth, I really am doomed to die.”
He cocked an eyebrow at that.
She didn’t give him a chance to ask about it, or let her down by not asking.
“Better to take the quicker route and hope you can control yourself, than allow you to hurt yourself and draw out your pain. I won’t let you do it. I won’t let you suffer like that.” She planted her hands on her hips and ignored the flicker of surprise that lit his purple eyes. “So yes, I have power.”
Before she could turn away, he clutched his right hand and viciously twisted it. Pain screamed through her hand in response, every finger burning violently, the agony almost blinding her. She held it to her chest, gritting her teeth to stop herself from crying out. She hadn’t realised that she would experience an echo of his pain.
Vail made no sound as he shattered his bones in strategic places, each crack and snap forcing bile up her throat and tearing a grunt from her. When he squeezed his broken hand and pushed it through the steel cuff, she clutched the wall and barely stopped herself from vomiting from the pain.
How could he do such a thing without making a single sound, without showing a flicker of the agony he had to be experiencing? She only felt a shadow of what he was going through, and it was enough to have her breaking out in a sweat and on the verge of passing out.
He looked down at her and his violet eyes glimmered with the agony he was holding inside.
Rosalind pulled herself together and rushed forwards to help him.
His demeanour changed in an instant, his expression twisting into a dark snarl as he flashed his long fangs at her. His ears flattened against the sides of his head, his warning hiss sending her magic spiking and wanting to protect her. She squashed that desire and focused on him instead. She had to help him right now or she was going to pass out from the pain.
“I need to heal you,” she whispered and held her throbbing right hand to her chest. “Please. It hurts so much.”
His gaze dropped to her hand and softened. He swallowed hard and she risked reaching out to him, sure he would allow her to heal his hand now that he knew she felt his pain and was suffering too.
The moment her fingers connected with his broken right hand, he snarled at her.
“Witch.”
The manacle hitting the floor was the only warning she had before his left hand shot out and his fingers closed around her throat. Light flashed over his body. Cold darkness engulfed her, sending her head spinning, and she cried out as her back slammed into the stone wall metres behind her. His bare chest heaved from the exertion of using his partially bound powers and she prayed to mother earth that he didn’t teleport her again. She didn’t think she would remain conscious if he did and she needed to heal him.
Healing him suddenly became a non-issue when his fingers tightened against her throat and he shoved her harder against the rough stones, pinning her off the floor by her neck. She struggled to breathe as the force of his grip crushed her windpipe. Cold weight pressed down on her chest, squeezing her heart as tightly as his grip squeezed her throat.
“Vail. Release me,” she wheezed but he only tightened his grip, pressing his short claws into either side of her neck.
The demon looked in on them and she tossed him a hopeless but pleading look. He quirked an eyebrow but didn’t make a move to help her. The bastard probably thought it was sex play. He turned away again.
Rosalind mustered all of her strength as black spots winked across her vision and grasped Vail’s left arm with both of her hands. Big mistake.
He flashed fangs at her and growled
in her face, and squeezed her throat so hard that she almost blacked out.
Her gaze dropped to his broken right hand, her own aching in response, each bone on fire. She let her hands fall from his arm and hung from his grip, slowly gathering her strength as she fought the black wave threatening to pull her under. Speaking to him wasn’t going to get her anywhere. She had to heal him. If she could just heal him, she might be able to bring him back from the dark place he had gone.
She inched her left hand forwards and used her remaining strength to call up a healing spell, the strongest one she could manage in her current condition.
Darkness swept through her, bringing a chilling cold in its wake, and she paused and stared into Vail’s eyes. Black spots coloured his purple irises, darkness that she could feel within him. It spread through her, a vile hunger for violence and blood, a terrible desire to tear into flesh with her teeth and snap bones.
A burning need to destroy.
All of it aimed at her.
Because she was a witch.
He was going to kill her.
The second her fingers made contact with his wrist, she grabbed his hand and unleashed the spell, channelling it into him so quickly that all of her strength rushed out of her, leaving her with only enough to cling to his hand and keep the spell working. Her heart laboured and the darkness encroached, swallowing the edges of her vision.
Vail growled at her, flashing dangerous daggers, but she kept going, refusing to die here and clinging to the hope that he would come back to her when he was healed and his pain no longer rode him, driving him into the dark embrace of his sickness.
His grip on her neck loosened and air scraped over her sore throat and burned her lungs.
His violet eyes widened, fixed on his hand where it still grasped her throat, his claws pressing into her flesh. He shook his head and stumbled backwards, blinking hard as he released her.
Rosalind hit the ground in a heap and coughed as she tried to breathe normally. She looked up at Vail and he stared down at her, his eyes locked on her throat. She lifted her hand and touched it, feeling the bruises he had caused.
Tempted by a Rogue Prince Page 12
