Kissed by a Dark Prince (Volume 1) (25 page)

“What will happen if Bleu goes too far? You didn’t mean that as ‘don’t wander off now’ did you? It was a warning.”

“We can permanently take on the abilities of a host if we kill them. It is dangerous because we do not know the full list of abilities a host might have. All fae and demon vary, with only a base set of abilities in each species. Each individual has differing strengths in their key abilities, and can also have abilities that others do not. If we are not careful, we could end up negating some of our own abilities with those we took from a host we had killed, and there is no way to reverse the effect.” He lowered his hand from her face and thought about all the elves who had been foolish enough to go too far, and those who had become addicted to stealing the abilities of others by drinking them to death.

There were many corrupted souls in his kingdom, spreading their poisonous ways and encouraging others to follow their lead. He and the council had been trying to extinguish the practice of such a dark art for centuries with little effect. It seemed every year more of his people succumbed to an addiction to power.

“You don’t kill people then?” Olivia said, her soft voice bringing him away from the darkness that awaited him back in his own world to her in this one. Her world.

Would she ever consent to leave this place and live with him? She lived for her studies and her science. She wouldn’t want to leave it and her mission at Archangel behind. Perhaps he could convince her by offering to allow her to study his world.

“I have never killed a host.”

“Have you had many... forget it... you must have had thousands, probably hundreds of thousands in your life.” Her voice took on a bitter edge and he frowned at her, and the feelings that flooded the link between them.

She turned her profile to him and stared at the feet of the crowd to her right.

Her pain beat in his heart, telling him what she was thinking.

Loren gently cupped her cheek and brought her eyes back to him. “I am a prince, and as a youth I was given donors but I also needed to be protected. I have survived for the most part on donated blood, not from the vein. I will not lie and say I have never bitten someone. There have been times when I have had to take blood from the vein... when I have bitten humans and some other species... but only when I had to replenish my body and had no other choice.”

“Like me?” She held his gaze, hers as steely as her tone had been.

He sighed. He didn’t like where this was going. She was trying to drive a wedge between them again and force them apart. She was searching for a reason not to trust him and not to fall for him.

“I am sorry for what I did to you, Olivia. I was sick and weak from blood loss, and I had little control over myself. It is no excuse for my actions though, and I wish you would see how sorry I am that I hurt you.” He lowered his hand from her face and turned away, pressing his back against the bar top and resting his elbows on it as he stared out into the crowd, searching for Bleu.

Olivia’s gaze burned into the side of his face.

Males flicked glances at her as they passed, running daring eyes down the length of her body and lingering in places they shouldn’t.

He clenched his fists, his fingers becoming claws again, and gave up trying to keep himself in check. These males needed to learn whose female they dared to look at. They would learn not to gaze upon his ki’ara.

His eyes changed, his ears altered to their normal appearance, and his fangs lengthened. He shirked the mortal clothing Bleu had given him, revealing his armour beneath. The males looked at him then rather than Olivia, their gazes losing the dark taint of desire and picking up one of aggression.

Whispers went through the club and before long, almost everyone had glanced at him at least once.

“What are you doing?” Olivia whispered and tugged on his arm.

He didn’t look at her.

He grabbed her around the waist as he mentally commanded his armour to complete itself, forming his helm that swept back into jagged spikes on top of his head, dragged her against his body, and kissed her.

She wriggled against him at first, her hands pushing at his chest, and then she yielded, going soft in his arms and lifting her hands to grasp his shoulders, clutching him so hard that he felt it through the black scales of his armour. The murmurs running through the crowd grew in volume.

Mad elf prince.

That one had him growling against his female’s lips.

Others hit the right mark.

Not the mad elf prince.

The sane one.

Someone dared to grab his shoulder and he turned on them with a vicious snarl, and then froze when he saw it was Bleu who gripped him. His second in command scowled at him.

“And you had the audacity to warn me not to go too far?” he said in their language.

Loren looked down at Olivia as she panted in his arms, and then beyond her to Sable who stood in a puddle of glass and liquid with a shocked look on her face and her empty hands held in front of her, and then around him.

Bleu was right, and he had gone too far, and it hadn’t stopped the males from staring at his sweet Olivia.

Darkness curled through him, rage burning up his blood like an inferno, and he unleashed a roar in their direction.

“Newly mated?” A male voice came from behind him, calm and cool, not a trace of fear coming from his scent.

Loren scowled over at the owner of the voice.

The male jaguar shifter set a shot glass down on the black bar top and grinned to reveal short fangs. “On the house. You need it.”

Loren drew in a deep breath to stop himself from killing the male and sent his helmet away, keeping the rest of his armour in place. He released Olivia and lifted the proffered drink to his nose, and sniffed. It burned all the way down to his lungs.

“What is this?” he said with a frown and the male scrubbed a hand over dirty blond tousled hair, his bright golden eyes filled with amusement. The colourful club lights flashed over him, changing his white shirt to match each hue.

“Hellfire,” the male said with another grin and winked at him. “The only known cure for the bitch of a bond.”

This male didn’t seem to place much importance on a sacred bond and it irked Loren. An eternal mate was something to seek out and cherish.

“I am expected to drink this?” Loren raised an eyebrow at the black liquid in the small glass.

“It would be rude not to drink it and it will stop you from scaring customers away from my club.” The jaguar’s expression turned serious.

Bleu’s black blade was against his throat a heartbeat later and Bleu was growling at the male. “You seek to poison my prince?”

Several males of different species melted out of the crowd behind Loren, triggering his senses to high alert. They formed a loose crescent around Bleu and Loren. Come to protect their boss, presumably. The jaguar wielded more power than Loren had given him credit for. Loren calmly placed the glass down on the bar and pushed it across to the jaguar male.

“So you are an elf prince then?” The jaguar casually placed two fingers against the razor-sharp edge of Bleu’s sword and eased it away from his throat. The heavy scent of his blood filled the air around them and he placed his fingers into his mouth and sucked thoughtfully. He pulled them out with a pop and quirked both sandy eyebrows. “Not the crazy one, I hope.”

Loren lost his patience again. “I remind you that is my brother you speak of in such a foul, disrespectful way. I am in no mood for this. Tell me what you know of Vail, or you will have no customers in need of service. I will kill them all.”

Olivia tensed and he thought she would say something, but she remained mute beside him.

The jaguar waved around him and Loren sensed the gathered males backing away and blending into the crowd. He pushed the shot glass back across the tacky bar top to Loren. “You really need to drink this. It will take the edge off your temper if nothing else. Drink enough and you won’t even remember that collar around your neck.”

“I do not desire a cure for my predicament.” Loren pushed it away again.

“I’ll take it.” Sable leaped in before he could stop her, grabbed the glass and drank it down in one go. She gasped and her eyes watered, and then she was coughing and smashing her fists against the bar top.

“Poison,” Bleu muttered and was beside Sable in an instant, one arm around her and the other clearing her black hair from her face as she wheezed. “You dare poison the female.”

“Human?” The jaguar glanced at Olivia, his voice weak. Loren snarled at him for daring to look at his female, grabbed the collar of his white shirt, and dragged him over the bar.

He growled at the male, his face mere centimetres from his and his black claws shredding the male’s shirt.

The jaguar growled back at him, the sound feral and strange, and his fangs lengthened. Fur rippled over his body.

“Water,” the male spat out.

He wanted water? Loren frowned, confused by his request considering his predicament.

“Water!” Olivia called out and one of the female bartenders rushed over to her with a glass. She helped Sable drink the liquid down, Bleu holding her steady in his arms.

Loren released the male shifter.

The jaguar backed off beyond arm’s reach and straightened out his ruined shirt. “You need to leash that temper if you want to stay in this club.”

“Do not look at my female then.” Loren was trying to keep a ‘leash’ on his temper but it was hard when there were so many males in the club and he viewed all of them as a threat.

“Noted.” The jaguar poured another shot of Hellfire and drank it down, following it with a second one.

Sable finally stopped choking but her eyes still watered, her face flushed red.

“You okay?” Olivia said and she nodded and then seemed to realise that Bleu was holding her.

Sable jerked out of his arms and buried her face in her hands. When she emerged, the dark mess her tears had created under her eyes was gone and she made a strange awed-sounding noise. “That was some drink. Can I have another?”

Olivia gave her an unimpressed look. “No.”

Bleu muttered something and returned to Loren. “I couldn’t find a siren.”

The jaguar male shook his head. “You won’t. Not around here. Too many nymphs. Those ladies hate them. The males mess with their mojo. I think they cancel out each other or some crazy shit like it.”

Bleu gave him a disinterested look but Loren could see that his second in command was already trying to figure out the best way to tap the shifter for information. They hadn’t gotten off to a good start but Loren would find a way to smooth over the rough beginning and convince the jaguar to talk more about his club and those who frequented it.

“Bathroom,” Olivia shouted just as the music faded to change songs and everyone nearby looked at her. A blush burned up her cheeks and she grabbed Sable and rushed away from him.

“Interesting female you have there.” The jaguar male stripped off his ruined shirt.

Loren was thankful that the male had waited until Olivia was out of sight before revealing his muscular bare chest. Scars slashed across his golden skin. Claw marks. He had fought a lot in his years. It was impossible for Loren to tell his age from his appearance though. Most shifter species could easily live to over a thousand years old without appearing beyond forty in mortal terms.

“Are all elves as aggressive when it comes to protecting their females?”

Loren nodded. The jaguar didn’t need to know that part of Loren’s aggression was because his bond with Olivia was incomplete. Until he convinced her to seal their bond, finalising it, he would be permanently on edge and convinced that all males were attempting to steal her from him.

He had heard rumours once, when leading a regiment of his army, that it was extremely rare but possible for a female to have two males as her fated ones, and that she could bear an incomplete bond with both until she completed it with one of them, at which point the bond to the other would shatter. He had never seen or heard any solid evidence to prove it was nothing more than the idle talk of marching soldiers trying to wind each other up, but the thought that Olivia might have another potential male in this crowd sent a shiver through him and chilled his blood, and he wanted her back with him.

The jaguar opened two slender brown bottles of something and set them down on the bar top in front of Loren, and then began mixing something in two glasses.

“Name’s Kyter.” He poured several different liquids into the two glasses and then tossed ice in with the mix, and glanced up at Loren. “I take it you came here looking for your brother?”

Loren nodded. “Vail. His name is Vail, and it would be wise you contact me should you see him. He is extremely dangerous. He may have a female with him, a dark witch known as Kordula.”

“We get a few witches in here and it can be hard to get a bead on them because of their spells, but I’ll keep an eye out. You got a number we can contact you on if your guy comes walking into the joint?” Kyter poured the mixes into a tall metal container, plugged the end with one of the glasses and shook it.

“Olivia will have a number for you.” Loren hoped Olivia didn’t return while he was mixing the drink. The action of shaking the contraption in his hands showed his muscles off and was drawing attention from several females lining the bar.

Kyter didn’t seem to notice them. He set the metal container down, cracked the glass off the end, and poured the mixed liquid out into two clean elegant glasses with long stems and a wide curved bowl.

The female bartender came over and handed a fresh shirt to the jaguar and he teasingly flexed his muscles, earning a roll of her eyes but gaining an eruption of giggles from the females waiting at the bar.

Kyter put the shirt on and buttoned it. Loren’s gaze followed the female bartender and then settled on the women at the bar. Did the jaguar male like the attention from all the women?

His earlier words about bonds left Loren feeling that he was a devoted bachelor like Bleu, determined to avoid finding his mate.

A prickle of awareness ran down Loren’s spine and a blast of anger followed it. He shifted his gaze away from the females at the bar, to the point behind them where Olivia stood staring at him.