Kissed by Death - Book three of the Trueborn Heirs Series

by Queen, Nyna

  Blinking her irritated eyes, Alex pitched forward and leaned over Darken’s limp form. A gray film of dust turned his face into an ashen mask. His eyes were closed. He still wasn’t moving.

  Alex nudged his shoulder. “Darken?”

  No response. She nudged him again, harder this time, but his limbs just dangled lifelessly like that of a shaken puppet. Panic speared Alex right through the chest, white-hot and sharp.

  “Darken!” She grabbed two handful of his jacket and shook him violently. Still, nothing.

  Alex’s face turned white-hot while her fingers became ice cold. Acid flooded her mouth.

  No! Sweet Jester, please, no!

  Hot, angry tears pricked at her eyes. The idiot! Just why did he have to try and protect her. She was a shaper. He wasn’t. If he hadn’t held on so tightly, maybe he wouldn’t have fallen…

  Her trembling hands frantically moved down his throat, under his shirt, desperately searching for a pulse, a hint of life that wasn’t there.

  Come on, sugar! Come-on-come-on-come-on!

  Nausea expanded inside her stomach, blurring the world around her into a brittle, crystalline smudge.

  Shouting his name, Alex punched Darken’s chest. To no effect.

  No! No-no-no-no-no! Doubling over, Alex curled herself together and pressed her forehead against his chest, tears burning her eyes. Don’t leave me. Sweet Jester, please, don’t leave me.

  The ground vibrated beneath her, the soft movement tugging on the sensitive chords of her sensory threads. Alex tensed, thinking for a sharp instance it was the mountain getting ready to disgorge another torrent of earth onto them, only to realize that the vibrations weren’t coming from the ground. They were coming from Darken.

  She froze, holding completely still, not even daring to breathe.

  There! A heartbeat. Extremely faint, but real. His chest was moving, too, rising and falling very, very subtly.

  Alive. He was alive.

  Relief washed over Alex and left her clammy and shivering in the night air. She braced herself against the mountain side, head bent. Her entire body was shaking. Cold sweat slicked her neck and shoulders. Her fingertips prickled.

  Darken stirred, a low groan escaping his lips. Alarm whipped through Alex, and she bent over him again. His eyelashes trembled, and she was looking into the well-known depths of his dark brown eyes. She almost wept at the sight of them.

  He raised his head a little and winced.

  Alex bent closer, feverishly searching his body for injuries. “Are you okay? Is anything broken?” She sampled the air. She didn’t smell an excessive amount of fresh blood, but if he had any inner wounds…

  Darken shook his head and grimaced. “No, I don’t think so.” His deep voice was roughened from the dust. “Just feeling as though a mountain collapsed on top of me.”

  Hah-hah! Very funny. If his capacity for bad jokes was any measure to go by, he had to be alright.

  Darken pushed himself up on his elbows, slowly taking in the overhang, the ledge and her hovering over him. His eyebrows arched upward. “That would be the second time you saved me tonight.”

  Alex felt the ridiculous urge to cry, and at the same time she wanted to slap him so hard he heard the gates of hell rattle.

  “It’s the second time you almost got yourself killed today!” she snapped, her fear converting into something she could handle much better: anger. “Don’t make a fucking habit of it. I might not always be there to safe your royal ass!”

  Darken chuckled softly and flinched. “Ow.”

  Served him right for frightening her so badly!

  Suddenly worry darkened his eyes. “You’re bleeding.”

  Alex blinked. “What?”

  Darken’s hand reached up. Alex jerked a little when his rough fingertips grazed her forehead. She shivered under his touch and pulled back. “It’s fine. It’s just a scratch. I must have snagged on a rock or something during the tumble. No big deal.”

  Darken frowned at her with distinct male irritation. “At least let me have a look at it.”

  He reached for her again, but she leaned away, avoiding his touch. “I said: it’s fine!”

  Rolling backward, she pushed herself to her feet and took a few wobbly steps away from Darken on stiff, aching legs, turning her back on him.

  It was simply too much. The gentle worry in his eyes, the velvet softness of his voice, the feeling of his skin on hers… As if she mattered to him in ways that, deep down, she knew, she never would. The pain of that realization was so sharp she wanted to scream.

  Behind her, she heard Darken working himself to his feet. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. The last thing she wanted was for him to see her like this.

  “Why, Alex?”

  Startled by the pained sound of his voice, Alex turned on the spot. “Why what?”

  Her eyes widened at the tormented expression on his face.

  “Just tell me why, okay?” Darken closed his eyes, looking as if every word was tearing strips of flesh from his chest. “You don’t want me, fine, I get it! But why do you keep behaving as if I have hurt you? As if my touch is painful to you…”

  The entire world reeled to a stop. Alex stared at him, trying to make sense of his words. You don’t want me, fine, I get it… Could that possibly mean—? No, she was raving. She had to be raving. But hope, that deceitful temptress, made her heart race inside her chest.

  “You”—she swallowed, hardly daring to believe it—“you want me?”

  Darken dragged a hand through his dusty, tousled, raven hair, looking at her like she was plain crazy. “Damn it, Alex, I’ve wanted you since you punched me on that riverbank at the foot of Gomorrah.” He said it as though it was obvious. “Do you have any idea how much torture it is to be so close to you, knowing I cannot have you…?”

  Something on her face made him stop. His voice faded out and his expression sharpened, gaining an intense, predatory focus. When he spoke again, his voice was husky and hesitant, almost … hopeful. “Do you want me, Alex?”

  This couldn’t be real. It just couldn’t. But if there was even the slightest chance that this was real…

  Alex licked her lips which had gone bone-dry. “Yes,” she whispered. “I want you. I’ve wanted you this whole time.”

  She wasn’t sure whom of them moved first. One moment six feet separated them, the next Darken was right in front of her, cupping her face with both hands and pressing his mouth to hers.

  Their lips crushed together in an explosion of pent up desire. Alex opened her mouth for him and his tongue darted in, arousing, playing, seducing. He tasted like hell, wild and reckless, and a bit of dust, and she couldn’t get enough of it.

  Darken’s hands closed upon her upper arms and pulled her to him with a jerk. He let out a deep, possessive snarl that sent her hackles up and yet completely thrilled her.

  “Alex.” He sounded hoarse next to her ear, close to desperate, as though he was breaking up inside and her touch was the only thing that could fix him.

  Alex molded herself against his large frame, her hands tangling in his tousled hair. They kissed again and again, eager, demanding, insatiable.

  Darken’s eyes glazed with a red sheen, and Alex knew he was on the edge of losing it. His magic was raging through him, burning his skin from the inside. She felt its hot, black tendrils shivering over her body, but she wasn’t afraid. He would never hurt her.

  Leaning forward, she looked straight into his glowing red eyes and ran the tip of her tongue along his lower lip. Teasing. Inviting.

  Darken’s control snapped. With a growl, he lunged for her, pushing her against the mountain side. He was on her immediately, trapping her with his big body, kissing her, ravenous and passionate, as if kissing her was the only reason for his existence.

  Alex gasped into his mouth and pressed herself against him, digging her fingers into his shoulder blades.

  Darken’s teeth grazed her neck and his hands slid under her fleece jacke
t and tank top, caressing her lower back. The touch of his rough fingertips on her sensitive skin sent a thrilling wave of heat through her. Alex moaned.

  She pulled at his jacket. She wanted him naked, wanted to feel his hot skin against hers. All of it. Now.

  Darken shrugged out of his jacket, taking his t-shirt right off with it. His glorious golden chest was covered in scratches and bruises, but he still looked like an artwork. Carved from sleek skin and defined muscle. So beautiful.

  Excitement spiked through Alex, making her giddy and wanton. She worked her hands up the hard ridges of muscle on his back, kissing his chest, his jaw, the corner of his mouth. She was too hot and too eager and too impatient and she wanted him so much it almost hurt.

  Darken slid his hands up her body. One quick zipping movement, and her fleece jacket was on the ground. Her tank top followed, leaving her naked except for the black bra still caging her aching breasts. Darken took a moment to marvel at her body, his hot gaze sliding over her, drinking her in, the male need in his eyes reaching something close to madness.

  He reached for her, but Alex put a hand against his chest, holding him off.

  She felt him tense, saw the alarm flickering across his face, a twinge of fear that she might yet change her mind.

  “Wait,” she whispered, taking a small step back and catching her breath. She didn’t want to stop, didn’t want to destroy the moment, but if she hoped for them to have a real chance, she didn’t want anything to stand between them. No more secrets.

  She took a deep breath, too aware that she might destroy everything before it even started. But she wanted more than just one night of scorching sex. She wanted him. All of him. So she had to do this. Now, before she got completely swept off her feet.

  “If we’re going to do … this, I need you to understand something.”

  He was watching her cautiously, warily. “Yes?”

  Alex raised her chin. “I’m a shaper, Darken. It’s part of my nature. It’s not a sickness. It can’t be cured and it will never get better.” Suddenly, breathing was becoming difficult. Heat flooded her eyes and her voice became hoarse. “My sire … he loved me in his own way, but he always secretly wished he were able to train it out of me. He was convinced if only I practiced hard enough, if I just put in enough effort, I would finally conquer it…” Alex swallowed the pain of the memories, but still after all those years, they cut right through her skin like hundreds of tiny, vicious blades through brittle paper. Sweet Jester, why did it still have to hurt so much? “He wanted me to deny that part of myself, but the spider is part of my soul and it is nothing that I can—or want—to tame or deny.”

  Alex exhaled softly, wishing she could exhale the terrible crushing feeling inside her with it. “I don’t want to lead you on. I will always be like this and when my emotions run wild, the spider will always surface.” She pressed her lips together. “I know it’s freakish as hell, and I can understand if it’s too much to deal with—” The words caught in her throat, burning like hot glue.

  Darken’s face was unreadable. It was pure torture.

  You wanted no more secrets, sugar. It’s all or nothing now.

  Exhaling slowly, Alex let her true skin rise to the surface, replacing the shell of her human flesh. “This is what I am.”

  Her true eyes pushed upward, staring at the world in their solid blackness, a demon’s eyes, sharp and feral. The pattern of her shaper skin wound along her limbs, lines and dots of brown and black curling over snowy white flesh, so reminiscent of the markings on the back of certain spiders, right to the subtle cross between her shoulder blades. Her black claws slipped out of their beds, wickedly sharp and gleaming in the moonlight, as did her true teeth, completing the flesh-made nightmare that was her true self.

  Alex closed her eyes, too afraid of what she would find on Darken’s face. Not sure she would be able to handle seeing the same disgust on his face she’d seen on Tristan’s so many years ago. She remembered it so clearly now, the shock, the revulsion, the horror of having dated something so monstrous.

  Sure, Darken had seen flashes of her true skin before, but he’d never had the experience of the full freak show.

  Holding her breath, Alex braced herself for his rejection.

  Soft vibrations tugged at her. A hot finger touched her chin, ran along her jaw and down her neck. Alex shivered as it followed the pattern on her shoulder, stopping at the centre of the cross on her back.

  “Beautiful,” Darken whispered.

  Alex opened her eyes and blinked, wide-eyed, sure she must have misheard.

  Darken was standing beside her, watching her with a look full of admiration and wistful longing. “You’re beautiful, Alex. Human skin, shaper skin … every part of you is beautiful.” He shook his head and his throat vibrated with a soft snarl. “Your father was an idiot.”

  Tears pricked at Alex’s eyes. Dropping all caution, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, feeling the hard proof of his words pressing against her. He wanted her. He’d seen her true skin, and he still wanted her.

  She kissed him with aching desire. Kissed him until their bodies melted into each other. Until the wish to feel him inside her became an almost painful throbbing need.

  She reached for his pants and slid his hard shaft free. There was no mistaking how much he wanted her.

  Alex rubbed him, spiking the need in him even further. Darken groaned, a rough, predatory growl that rumbled deep in his throat. The muscles on his entire body snapped taut, straining like hard steel cables under his skin.

  The rest of their clothes joined the pile on the ground in a hurry. Darken pounced on her, and she met him halfway, kissing, rubbing, stoking the fire in both of them. Darken brushed a finger over her right nipple, sending an unexpected jolt of pleasure through her. She jerked back, just to quickly lean back in, eager for more.

  Darken’s fiery eyes raked over her, hungry, caressing. “Sweet Jester, you’re beautiful.”

  Cupping her left breast with one hand, Darken bent down and suckled the other, his tongue playing on her heated skin, licking the sensitive bud. Ohhhh, dear Jester! Every inch of Alex tightened in the exact right way. It was bliss and torture woven into one.

  “Great Mother, I want you so much.”

  Darken’s mouth curved with sharp male satisfaction. “You have no idea how long I waited for you to say this.”

  “About as long as I waited for it?”

  He chuckled lowly in reply and pulled her up as if she weighed nothing, cupping her butt. She wrapped her legs around his waist. Her back hit the mountain wall. Exactly the leverage she needed.

  Alex braced her hands on top of his shoulders and arched her back.

  Holding her aloft with one hand and the pressure of his taut body, Darken slid his other hand down her belly, between her legs. Alex gasped when his fingers found the center of her aching need. She cried out as shocking bursts of lightning rippled through her body, nearly driving her out of her skin. Darken laughed, a sound ripe with dark, delicious pleasure and shifted her a little, reaching for his hard cock.

  Alex jerked up and glared at his face. “Darken, wait,” she panted, almost too dizzy to form a coherent thought. “It shouldn’t be my fertile time, but…” They had already done it once without protection, lost in the heat of the moment. Sure, it was mostly in books and cheesy romance movies that a woman instantly got pregnant that one time she slept with her oh-so virile dream guy, but doing it twice was playing with fire.

  “Don’t worry,” Darken rasped into her ear, almost too aroused to speak, the words a ragged growl as his breath trailed a burning path down her neck. “At the Order, we are regularly injected with an anti-fertility serum that keeps us from being able to reproduce for several month at a time. I got my last when I was a the convent in Lancaester last month.”

  Ah well, in that case…

  Alex’s lips found his, and she opened her mouth for him, welcoming him in. It was all the invitation he needed.
Lifting her hips up a little, Darken thrust into her. Alex moaned and ground against him, her fingers clawing at his back.

  Darken smiled and thrust again and again, and Alex moved with him, her entire body resonating with pleasure. Her head was spinning. She never wanted it to stop.

  A sharp wave of amusement rippled off Darken, his eyes gleaming with wicked mirth. “And here I thought you didn’t like to ride.”

  “Oh, shut up,”Alex snarled, almost too out of breath to speak, but she still curled her arms tighter around him and kissed him with even more force, showing him that, while she’d never become a friend of horses, with the right incentive, she could be an excellent rider.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “ALEX?”

  “Mhhhm?”

  Alex didn’t open her eyes, just snuggled a little closer to Darken. They were stretched out on the rough ground close to the precipice on a crazy quilt comprised of their clothing, Darken on his back with Alex nestled up against his side. Her head rested on his chest while his fingers idly stroked her naked upper arm.

  Both of them were battered and bruised and scratched up from the fall, but at the moment, Alex couldn’t be bothered to care. The mellow night air was slowly drying the sweat off their overheated bodies, and she felt comfortably warm and drowsy and so ridiculously happy, there were no words for it.

  She didn’t remember ever being this happy in her life.

  Darken’s stroking fingers stopped their caress for a second and gently squeezed her shoulder.

  “Alex?”

  She cracked one eye open and raised her head an inch. “Hm?”

  Darken’s bottomless eyes—gold-brown, like old, seasoned whiskey, spiced with a hint of liquid hellfire—were drinking her in, possessive and at the same time tender and soft. The rough tips of his fingers rubbed her arm.

  “I hate to be the one to disrupt this, but we need to get moving.”

  Alex dropped her head back to his chest and groaned. Beneath her, Darken’s body shook with silent laughter.

  Prick!

  “Let’s just stay here,” she mumbled against his skin. It smelled of untamed fire and endless night and scorching sex. Hot. Delicious. The spider inside her purred softly and licked its lips, eager for another taste. Alex tilted her head a little and watched Darken through her lashes. “Just you, and me, and the night…”