Kordula’s eyes burned red around the edges and ribbons of crimson and black rushed up her arms towards Olivia’s throat. Her heart leaped in her chest, pounding wildly, and she grabbed Kordula’s arms and kicked with all of her might, trying to break free before the magic could touch her.
Olivia cried out as the first thread burrowed into her flesh, searing her, the pain so intense that darkness crowded her mind and she could no longer feel even a hazy connection to Loren.
She screwed her eyes shut and tears streamed down her cheeks as another spear of Kordula’s power penetrated her skin and whipped through her, the pain debilitating, stealing all of her strength and leaving her unable to fight back.
Kordula’s voice broke through the darkness pulling Olivia under.
“Imagine my joy when I make you bleed before your bastard prince and watch him suffer.”
Olivia desperately clung to consciousness as fear of what might happen if she succumbed to Kordula’s terrible power rushed through her and focused everything she had on Loren and her love for him, determined to re-establish the link between them.
It was hazy but she felt him.
He was in pain too.
Vail had found him.
Before she could figure out a way to strengthen the link, another barb pierced her skin and darkness flooded her mind.
CHAPTER 21
Loren led Bleu and the demon king, Thorne, away from the Archangel facility where Vail had snatched Olivia, concerned that his brother would attack again and kill the hunters and staff. Archangel had no part in his battle with his brother and didn’t deserve to end up dragged into it because Loren had lingered there. He would lead his brother somewhere away from humans and take him down.
Although, escaping one human had proved impossible.
Sable had insisted that she come with them, pointing out that Olivia was her friend and a member of Archangel, and someone from their company should be with them to act on her behalf. Loren considered himself as acting on Olivia’s behalf, but Sable had refused to listen. She had practically forced him to agree to bring her with them by turning to Bleu and demanding he teleport her.
That had sent Thorne into a dark rage that had simmered below the surface of his red eyes, but hadn’t gone unnoticed by Loren. The male felt protective and possessive of Sable. It was not a good sign.
Demons were notoriously violent and aggressive when it came to their fated females, worse than elves, and with good reason.
There were no female demons in the world and a demon could only produce offspring with his mate.
It was a method born of a blood curse placed on the heads of all demons by the Devil when the demons had dared to rise up against him, claiming a large expanse of land in Hell for their own and forming kingdoms. The Devil had made them pay for their insubordination by wiping out all female demons and making it difficult for the males to keep up their numbers because they would have to seek out their fated female in order to procreate, and it was hard for demons to move around in the mortal world. Their horns, fangs, claws and size tended to draw attention.
Loren still wasn’t sure whether Sable was Bleu’s fated female, meaning there was a possibility she was one of the rare fabled females who potentially had two eternal mates. The last thing Loren needed right now was Bleu ending up in a competition with Thorne for her affection.
He had a brother to kill, a mate to rescue, and had agreed to side with Thorne in a war against another demon kingdom. That alone meant that Thorne and Bleu would be around each other for days or weeks. Loren didn’t want to imagine how dire things would be should they both be Sable’s mate.
Thorne stood opposite him and Sable, his eyes glowing faintly in the near-darkness of the rectangular park, the wrecked Archangel building where Loren had met Olivia as his backdrop.
Bleu stood a short distance away, close to the larger male, his gaze on Sable as she checked her crossbow and the assortment of blades and other weapons strapped to her body over her black combat clothing.
Loren wanted to remind both males that the huntress was not the reason they were here and felt like warning them that if they allowed Olivia to come to harm because of their mutual desire for Sable had led them to bicker over her, he would murder them both.
Sable finished checking her weapons and kept her crossbow handy, the loaded bolt gleaming wickedly in the light from the surrounding buildings.
“You think he’ll show?” she said, her black eyebrows pinned high on her forehead as she looked up at Loren and her golden eyes a dark shade of amber.
He nodded and formed his armour over his fingers, arming himself with his claws, and then held his hand out before him. The air shimmered and his black blade appeared in his grip.
Bleu did the same with his sword and then swept his hand over it, his purple gaze focused on the blade. It transformed into his favoured double-ended spear and Sable stared in fascination. It was probably the first time she had seen Bleu perform that trick.
Thorne snorted and held his hand out, his palm facing the grass. The glowing red pommel of a sword rose out of the ground, followed by a long leather-bound hilt, and a wide steel blade. It edged upwards towards the demon king’s hand and seemed endless as it rose. Bleu arched an eyebrow. Sable looked stunned.
Loren wondered just how big the demon’s sword was.
The blade showed no sign of tapering to a point.
The pommel reached Thorne’s large hand and he turned it, running his palm down the length of the black hilt, and then pulled the point free of the earth. The broadsword stood almost as tall as Thorne’s shoulder, the height of Sable. A formidable weapon.
Bleu did not look impressed when Thorne grinned at him, revealing fangs, a cocky edge to it.
Loren could almost see the mood between the two deteriorating and turning into a competition to gain Sable’s attention.
The Third King shoved the tip of the huge sword into the ground and casually leaned on the guard, his grin holding.
Until Sable went back to checking her weapons, a disinterested look on her face.
“I’m bored of waiting.” Sable scowled at Loren. “Isn’t there something you can do to make your brother show up?”
“Not really. He will come, and when he does, I will make him pay for taking Olivia.”
“Not until we have her, big guy. Remember that. If Vail pops in for a chat, we have to find out where she is before we cut off his head. Okay?”
Loren didn’t need the reminder, not the one about his need to find Olivia’s location because he could no longer sense her, and certainly not the one about the fact he was about to kill his only brother. He had finally lost all hope and desire of saving him. Vail would pay for what he had done and if he had harmed Olivia in any way, Loren would extract that payment slowly and painfully.
A familiar shiver went down Loren’s spine.
“He comes.” Loren readied his blade and turned on his heel, his gaze seeking Vail.
Vail stood where the oak tree had fallen during their last fight, dressed in his black armour, a crazed glimmer in his purple eyes. He crouched and touched the sawdust-littered scarred earth, a frown on his face. Loren felt the pain too. It echoed within him, a thousand hot needles that pricked his bones and dulled his senses. They had both harmed nature in this park and she still bore her teeth at them, her wrath yet to fade. The oak had been ancient, several hundred years old. It would be a long time before nature forgave them for their sin of felling it.
His brother rose to his feet and met his gaze across the tract of dewy grass.
“Where is my ki’ara, Vail?” Loren bit out, unable to keep his anger and pain from his voice.
Vail looked away, a sombre air about him, a marked difference from how savage he had looked when he had taken Olivia from the Archangel cafeteria.
It was times like this, when Vail looked much as he had done before meeting Kordula, that Loren felt he stood a chance of getting through to his younger brother.<
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“I need her back, Vail. Please. What I did was wrong, but it does not make what you do now right.” Loren flexed his fingers around his blade, preparing himself.
“Speaking with him isn’t going to solve anything,” Sable spat, aimed her compact crossbow and loosed the bolt.
It flew directly at Vail’s head.
Loren’s heart hitched.
Vail calmly raised a hand and deflected it at the last second, using his telekinesis to divert its course. The bolt zipped into the bushes and trees lining the edge of the park.
“Give me my friend back you bastard!” Sable drew two vicious-looking long knives from the harness around her shoulders and ran at Vail.
Fool.
Vail gave her a bored look, flicked his wrist and sent her flying through the air. She shrieked and flailed, dropping her blades. Bleu growled and sprinted, moving in a blur of speed. He pressed down hard on his final step and pushed off, leaping high into the air and catching Sable. He landed safely and Sable stopped shrieking, and instantly pushed out of his arms.
“I’ll kill him for that,” she barked and Loren signalled Bleu, silently instructing him to hold her back before she got herself killed. Olivia would never forgive him if that happened, and she would never forgive herself either.
Loren looked over his shoulder at Thorne. Would the Third King’s plan really work? There was only one way of finding out.
Thorne nodded, his wild dark chestnut hair shifting with the action and falling down to caress his brow. His irises glowed red around the edges, he pulled his sword free of the earth, and wielded it with both hands. He roared, the sound shaking the earth and drawing Vail’s focus to him.
Vail scowled at the demon, snarled and held his hands out. The air before them shimmered and his two shorter blades appeared in his grasp.
Thorne charged him, each heavy footfall rocking the ground beneath Loren’s feet, his sword held at his side, pointed behind him, ready for him to swing when he was close enough.
Vail hissed, his ears flattening against the side of his head.
Thorne lashed out in the demon tongue. “You will pay for what you did, little wretch.”
Those words confirmed the rumours. Vail and Kordula had been the ones to kill the previous Third King and his queen. Thorne’s father and mother.
Thorne swung hard and Vail blocked with both of his swords. The demon king’s broadsword crashed into them and Vail grunted as the force of the blow drove him backwards, his footing slipping on the damp grass, leaving long muddy tracts in it.
Vail shoved forwards and Loren didn’t give him a chance to recover or attack Thorne. He launched himself towards his brother, throwing his free hand forwards at the same time, using a telekinetic blow to send him tumbling across the grass. Vail lost his weapons and eventually came to a halt over twenty metres away, covered in grass and mud. He shakily pushed himself up and growled as he came to his feet.
Vail called his blades and they whipped into his hands. He stared across the dimly lit park to Loren, breathing hard, his eyes laced with pain that Loren could feel in him as the connection they shared via blood grew stronger again.
Loren held his head high, completely unaffected by the expenditure of psychic power it had taken to toss Vail that far.
Vail wrapped one arm around his middle and spat blood out onto the grass. He looked back at Loren and Loren swore that he smiled before he came blazing towards him. Vail flipped his two swords in his hands so they pointed downwards from his grip and growled as he attacked.
Loren matched him blow for blow, easily predicting his brother’s attacks. Vail was holding back. Why?
Was his brother toying with him?
Did he want to give him hope of saving Olivia only to take it away, increasing his suffering?
Loren shoved his questions away and focused on the fight, not giving Vail a chance to best him. He could keep up with him now that he was back at full strength, his bond with Olivia completed. Vail flipped his blades again and attacked with both, forcing Loren to defend.
Bleu came out of nowhere and thrust forwards with his spear, catching Vail in his side and cutting through his armour but only nicking his flesh, barely drawing blood. His aim had been off. Not good, but not a disaster.
Only a weapon made of the same material as the armour could cut through it, negating its effect. Vail could heal his armour but that meant sending it back into the bands around his wrists, leaving himself vulnerable.
Or more vulnerable than he already was anyway.
Vail turned on Bleu and hissed.
Loren seized his chance and swung at Vail. Vail desperately lashed out with a blast of power, forcing Loren to teleport to avoid it. He landed a short distance behind Vail and continued his attack, aiming for his brother’s back.
Vail swung one sword over his back, blocking Loren’s blade, and deflected Bleu’s spear with his other blade.
He couldn’t defend against three blades though.
Thorne’s aim was impeccable. He drove his sword through the slash in Vail’s armour and deep into his flesh.
Vail bellowed, dropped his blades and grabbed Thorne’s broadsword. He yanked it from him and staggered backwards, towards Loren. Blood pumped from the wound in Vail’s side, the scales of his black armour glistening with it as it ran down to his thigh.
Loren stared at his brother, hesitating when he should have struck a vicious blow, injuring him further.
He couldn’t move.
All he could do was breathe hard, battling the debilitating pain that seared every inch of him and blazed in his heart like an inferno, threatening to burn it to ashes in his chest.
Vail.
The link between them was wide open for the first time in forty-two centuries and all that flowed through it was crippling pain, dark and devastating, born not of his injury but of something else.
A red and black vortex appeared behind Vail and pulled him into it.
Loren collapsed to his knees and Bleu raced to him, coming to a crouch beside him.
“My prince, are you injured?” Bleu’s concerned expression turned to one of relief when Loren shook his head.
Loren grasped his knees, his hands shaking. Vail’s pain faded, the connection between them severing again, but it left him weakened.
A different feeling surfaced in his heart and he closed his eyes and pressed his hands to his chest, focusing on the faint link, nurturing it. Olivia. He could feel her and she was hurting. He had to find her before Kordula and Vail could have their revenge on him.
Loren lifted his head and looked up at Thorne. The immense male stood before him, his eyes shining bright like coals in the near-darkness. Bleu helped Loren to his feet and Sable joined them, flipping one of her knives, a black look on her face.
Thorne raised his broadsword with one hand and rested the blade on his free palm. He closed his eyes, licked the blood from the end that had punctured Vail’s side and swallowed it.
Loren’s heart pounded. This had to work.
“Well?” he said, his patience leaving him as fierce need to find Olivia claimed his heart. “Can you track him?”
Thorne opened his red eyes and they met Loren’s. “I have him.”
Relief beat swift and fierce through Loren. Only a few demon species could track someone via their blood and he was thankful that Thorne was the king of one of them.
He would be with Olivia again soon enough.
All they had to do was follow Thorne’s senses and Loren would see her again, and he would stop at nothing to save her from his brother’s grasp. He couldn’t save both of them, no matter how much he desired it deep in his heart. He had to sacrifice one dream to achieve another.
“Take us to them,” Loren said to Thorne and the demon king nodded, turned on his heel and stalked towards the Archangel building at the other end of the park, his bare muscular back shifting with each heavy step that pounded the earth.
Sable started after him, muttering dar
k things to herself about taking Vail apart when she next saw him. Loren took a deep breath.
He had felt Vail’s pain.
What had happened to his brother to make him hurt that much? There had been so much darkness in the link between them, when once there had always been light. Vail had always had a zest for life, had been outgoing and compassionate, forever in search of fun. That part of his brother was gone now and Loren was no longer sure that it was his bond to Kordula that had turned him mad and crushed his spirit.
“Is something wrong?” Bleu said in their language and Loren stared ahead at Sable and Thorne, and the Archangel building beyond.
He shook his head, shaking away his thoughts at the same time. It was too late now to consider what had happened to his brother. It was too late to save him. His brother had taken Olivia. His brother had brought death down upon his people. He had made thousands suffer and he would pay for it.
Vail was no longer his brother.
He was just another enemy to kill.
Loren moved off and Bleu fell into step beside him, his spear held down at his side, his gaze fixed ahead on Sable. Loren lost himself in thought as they followed Thorne, unable to completely shut out Vail and his suffering, torn between wondering what had happened to him and focusing on Olivia to keep the hazy connection between them alive.
Thorne left the park, crossed the road to the wrecked Archangel building, and turned around to face him.
“Have you lost him?” Loren feared that the demon had and he would fail to save Olivia.
Thorne shook his head and spoke in his demon tongue. “Still tracking. It was strange. He moved closer. I wondered if he was coming back, but he has returned to where the portal took him now.”
Erratic behaviour, but Loren didn’t have time to ponder why his brother had been returning to them before he had gone back to wherever they were holding Olivia.
Kissed by a Dark Prince (Volume 1) Page 27