Tempted by a Rogue Prince (39 page)

Vail saw red.

He roared and launched himself at the three demons, taking them all on at once. Darkness welled up inside him and he welcomed it, goading the mad beast into rising, sure that he would retain control this time and not harm Rosalind, because every part of him wanted to protect her.

More demons appeared and he welcomed them too, relished the pain as they rained blows on him and the scent of blood as it filled the air. He took two out with ease, cutting them down at the same time with thrusts straight through their chests. Two more appeared to take their place and Vail killed them too, spinning on his heel to decapitate one before he had even finished teleporting and slashing the black wings of the other one, hobbling him before skewering him in the chest with both blades.

Pain erupted in his side and across the back of his skull, and Vail growled, the sound low and feral as his temper turned, the darkness within him rising to the fore. He teleported out of the centre of the fray and reappeared at the edge. His gaze darted to Rosalind and a momentary flicker of light illuminated his heart as he saw she was safe, nestled against the tree and protecting herself again, her wound no longer bleeding.

He stared into her wide eyes and then averted his when he saw the pain in them and knew she experienced it because of him. Not only because she could feel every blow he received, but because he was killing in front of her.

He didn’t want her to see more death.

“I am sorry, Little Wild Rose. Close your eyes,” he whispered and felt her gaze leave him. “This will all be over soon.”

King Bruan laughed.

Vail fixed him with a deadly glare, narrowing his violet and black eyes on the demon male, and readied his weapons.

The wretched demon had five escorts now, but three were injured.

Vail bared his fangs and targeted them. He dropped his left blade and it buried itself point down in the grass just as he threw that hand forwards, scattering the demons with a telekinetic blast. One took the brunt of the blow and screamed in agony as a branch impaled him through the chest. Two more ended up sprawled out in the woods, battered and bruised from crashing through the trees. Nature turned her glare on Vail and he mentally apologised, vowing he would heal all that he harmed.

King Bruan teleported.

The other two demons followed his lead.

Vail pulled his second blade free of the earth and turned in the glade, his senses reaching in all directions, scouring the air for any trace of them. Darkness shimmered off to his right. He teleported there, appearing barely seconds after the demon began to emerge.

He slashed down the male’s back between his wings. The demon battered him with them, each blow bruising him to his bones, and Vail backed off, gaining the space he needed. The second demon appeared right behind him and struck him hard across the back of his head. Vail teleported.

The demon grabbed him and went with him. Vail clawed at his hand, forcing the male to release him mid-teleport, and reappeared without him. The demon would live, but there was a high chance he would appear many miles from this place.

Something slammed into Vail’s stomach, knocking him back several steps into a tree, and then struck his throat, pinning him to the trunk. Bruan. The demon king’s claws pressed into Vail’s neck as he clutched it, the scent of his own blood joining that of the demons’ in the air.

King Bruan grinned and began to squeeze. Vail tried to teleport and failed. The last demon had drained his strength by forcing him to teleport with him. He growled and cursed the demon, and then cursed Bruan when he squeezed harder, the crushing force of his grip stealing Vail’s breath and making his vision wobble.

“Let him go, you bloody bastard!” Bright red light filled the glade.

King Bruan slammed into him and they both growled. Bruan hauled him away from the tree by his throat and hurled him across the glade at Rosalind where she stood in the centre of it, twin dark purple orbs suspended above her palms. She ducked to avoid him and he hit the tree and slid down it, landing in a heap at its base.

“You fight him… then you have to fight me too.” She threw her hands forwards, unleashing the spell.

King Bruan dodged both orbs but his comrades weren’t as lucky. The two orbs split and struck them all, exploding on impact and filling the air with clouds of black ash and the stench of death.

Bruan looked over his shoulder at the places where his men had been and were now little more than dust, and then looked back at Rosalind, rage burning in his green eyes.

His painted horns curled around, flaring forwards, and his body began to expand, his muscles growing as he doubled in size. He flared his enormous black wings out, filling the glade with them, and swung his blade at Little Wild Rose.

Vail shoved to his feet. “Rosalind, run!”

She swept her hands forwards and a bright blue-white shimmering dome formed before her. Bruan’s sword struck it and bounced off, but it didn’t deter the demon. He drew up to his full height and swung again.

Vail grabbed Rosalind and teleported with her, moving her to the other side of the glade. He growled when she tried to get past him to fight, called his swords to him and turned on the demon king. His knees wobbled, his grip loosening as the effort of teleporting Rosalind took its toll on his remaining strength. He clenched his jaw and tightened his grip on his swords, forcing himself to stand tall and refusing to fall to Bruan’s blade.

A slow smile spread across Bruan’s face.

The wretch thought he had won.

Vail narrowed his eyes on the demon.

He would taste defeat this day.

The Fifth Realm would need a new king when this battle was through.

Vail’s knees weakened again.

Bruan grinned and launched himself at Vail. The wretched demon had been waiting for him to show his weakness again, biding his time until Vail was at his most vulnerable.

He reached behind him to push Rosalind back and a chill bolted through him.

She wasn’t there.

He turned took look over his shoulder at the place where she should have been and then swung his gaze back to Bruan and froze right down to his heart and marrow as she appeared between them, swinging her hands forwards to unleash the two black orbs she held.

“Rosalind!” Vail sent his blades away and reached for her but everything seemed to slow, his movements sluggish and his muscles stiff, refusing to respond as his heart burst into action, sprinting at a million miles per hour against his ribs and hurting with each beat.

Rosalind’s spells flew and struck true, slamming straight into Bruan’s broad bare chest and turning his skin black and strewn with bright orange cracks that glowed like fire.

Vail stretched and managed to grasp the back of her dress. He focused and light traced over his body as he pulled her back into his arms. She gasped and darkness swallowed them.

Together with pain.

Pain so fierce that it burned him to ashes inside, blazing like an inferno in the left side of his ribs but also in his right, duller there.

He reappeared on the other side of the glade and stared down at Rosalind.

She lay slumped in his arms, her blonde hair red with the blood that pumped from the deep wound in the left side of her chest. Crimson flowed over her skin, stark against its pale beauty.

Tears stung his eyes, burning as fiercely as his heart.

Darkness descended.

He laid Rosalind down and snarled as he turned on King Bruan. He didn’t give the demon a chance to defend himself. He teleported above the demon, dropped onto his back with his legs around his waist, and twisted hard, sending the large male slamming into the ground. He bared his fangs and growled as he raked his black claws down the bases of the demon’s wings, severing tendon and slicing through bones.

Bruan roared and bucked. Vail dug the claws of his left hand into the demon’s wing and anchored himself. He grabbed the other wing with his right hand, pressed his feet into Bruan’s back and pulled with all of his might until the wing snapped free. Bruan’s pained cry was music to Vail’s ears. He bared his fangs on a hiss and ripped the male’s other wing away. Blood cascaded from the ragged wounds on the demon’s back, staining all of him red.

Vail needed more.

Rosalind’s heart laboured in his ears.

Her pain and fear flowed through him.

This demon would experience the same pain and the same fear.

He would die for what he had done to Vail’s mate.

Vail growled and grasped the demon’s horns. The male bucked again, almost throwing him this time. He pressed his knees into the demon’s broken shoulders, pinning him down with his weight and pulled hard on the horns, yanking the male’s head back. They refused to give.

He pressed one clawed hand against the back of Bruan’s head and snarled as heat scalded him. The black caused by Rosalind’s spells was spreading, creating fiery cracks in the male’s skin. Incinerating him. The darkness within him purred in approval of her magic and commanded him to finish the male, to bathe in his blood and bask in his victory.

Vail grasped Bruan’s head and bashed it against the ground, tugging on his right horn on the up and shoving it forwards on the down. Bruan struggled beneath him, writhing and trying to claw at him. His actions turned sluggish as Vail kept up his assault. The horn finally cracked and Vail grinned, satisfaction humming in his veins, and snapped it free. Bruan roared in agony.

Vail silenced him with his claws, running them deep across his throat, severing tendons and cutting through his vocal cords.

Blood drenched his hand and he still needed more. He needed to make the demon pay for what he had done to Rosalind. He would make the demon pay.

He grabbed Bruan’s head and the male didn’t resist.

Vail looked down at him, cocked his head to one side, and frowned.

He growled and shoved to his feet, and scoured the glade for more demons. There would be more. He would kill them too.

There were no demons for him to fight.

He stood in the middle of the glade, darkness running through his veins, demanding satisfaction. There were more demons in the forest. He would hunt them and toy with them before killing them. They would all pay for trying to control him.

They would all pay for harming his Little Wild Rose.

Little Wild Rose.

He stilled, the darkness in him fading as he recalled why it had taken him, and turned slowly on the spot to face her.

Tears burned the back of his eyes and his strength left him, sending him to his knees.

She lay across the glade, the grass around her stained red with her blood, her skin ashen like starlight.

“Rosalind,” he whispered and dragged himself to her, fighting back the tears as he reached out to her through their bond.

Her pain tore at him, cutting him to pieces inside.

Her heart stuttered.

“No,” he murmured and shook his head, sending tears spilling down his cheeks. He pulled her into his arms and rocked her as she stared up at him with dull blue eyes.

Her fingers flexed and he took hold of her hand, clutched it to his lips and breathed in her comforting scent of wild blooms.

Her heart stuttered again.

She smiled weakly.

“No,” he snarled as he sensed the link between them fading and pulled her closer, squeezing her to his chest. “Do not leave me, Little Wild Rose.”

He drew back again and looked her over. She was immortal now, but the blade had pierced her heart. Even an immortal couldn’t survive such a wound. She had magic though.

“You cannot leave me. I will not let you. You promised me forever.” He kissed her hand again and then released it and pressed his palm to her chest, trying to remember how to slow bleeding so he could give her a chance to live. “You have magic. You can heal yourself.”

She shook her head and tears streamed down her temples.

Her fear flowed over him and he took her hand again, sensing her need for him to comfort her.

“Do not leave me,” he whispered and pressed his forehead against hers. “I cannot live without you. You promised me forever.”

She slowly tipped her head back, brought her mouth to his and softly kissed him.

He kissed her, pouring every ounce of his love for her into it, and then broke away from her. “I will not let you die. I will save you.”

She smiled again, love shining in her dull eyes but no trace of hope. He wiped her tears away and then dealt with his own, scrubbing his bloodied hands across his face.

“It’s alright, Vail,” she murmured, her soft voice quiet and weak. “I knew this was coming. I could never promise to be with you forever… but I can promise I will love you forever.”

It wasn’t enough for him. He needed forever with her. Not forever with a memory of her.

Tears lined her blue eyes again.

Blood lined her lips.

“I wanted it so much,” she whispered, her voice fading more with each word she spoke. “Even when I knew I could never have forever with you.”

Her heart stopped.

Vail threw his head back and roared.

V
ail laid Rosalind down on the soft short grass in the centre of the glade she had loved so much, having removed the demon king’s body from its boundaries, purifying it for her and returning it to how it had been when they had been here together.

The blossoms in the trees began to glow again, their faint light casting a pure white glow over Rosalind.

Little Wild Rose.

She would have that forever with him that she wanted and he would have forever with her.

His mate.

He kneeled beside her and held her hands, staring down at her beautiful face.

Vail drew in a deep breath, exhaled it, and closed his eyes. He focused on his connection to nature, mentally apologising to her for all the harm they had done to her beloved trees and plants as he fostered it, slowly pouring all of his strength into forging a strong link between them. It had to work.

Rosalind had asked him once if he could heal people as he healed nature.

Rosalind was nature.