Page 14 of The Prince's Curse

Setting her jaw, she backed away a step. “That is none of your business.”

His nostrils flared, and he dabbed at his lip with one bloody hand. The ripped wound in his chest didn’t seem to faze him. “And what exactly has she done to you? That magic is a neat trick, isn’t it?”

“What are you?—”

“Everything all right?” Kova’s voice rang out, louder than necessary.

Shea’s eyes snapped up, and his expression twisted into another cruel smile. “Another whipped dog. For someone who hates vampires, she surely has an impressive…well, at least an extensive collection.”

“Fuck off,” Kova said. His nose wrinkled as he looked at Shea’s chest. “You should get that patched up.”

“Your concern is appreciated,” Shea said. Then he bared a toothy smile. “He’s going to kill you, little hunter. But under the circumstances, I rather hope you win.”

“Leave,” Kova said, taking Scarlett’s arm and walking her across the lawn. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, still shaken. Behind them, Shea was just standing there with blood running from his fingers and watching them go. “Just a training run. I heard you’re going to Atlanta to kill the witch.”

His mouth set in a grim expression. “Yes. I should be back in a few days. Just…please be careful while I’m gone.”

“You too. She’s very powerful,” Scarlett said.

Kova nodded, then turned on his heel to walk away. She found herself wanting to go after him, give him a hug, ask him to come back safely. But instead, she held her head high, limped across the lawn, and locked herself in her little cottage.

She winced as she swiped a scratch on her cheek. Had her aunt really given orders for Shea to chase her for training? Surely her aunt’s judgment wasn’t that poor. Then again, the bindings had held him back.

But was that it? What happened to Shea was nothing like Kova’s reactions when Mina’s magic took hold. Then again, Kova had never tried to hurt her like Shea had. Still, she couldn’t shake the memory of those black threads tangling over his skin, so like what she’d seen in her room earlier that evening.

After tending to her wounds with a quick shower, she lay down in bed again. But her covers were still rucked up from where she’d been tossing and turning, and she could still smell that lovely vanilla scent.

His voice echoed in her mind.

Come home. Come with me. Come find me. Come home. Come home.

She was home, but why did it feel like there was somewhere to go?

Don’t trust it, Mina had said.

She let out a growl, climbed out of bed, and made the bed neatly. Then she grabbed one of the pillows and went into her tiny living room, switching on the TV for some background noise, and curled up on the couch.

And as soon as she closed her eyes, she saw him there. First he smiled, with pure warmth radiating from his ruby-red eyes. And when she opened her arms for him, he leaned in and ripped into her throat. Then he was making love to her again, her arms wrapped around him even as he drank until she went limp, still crying out in pleasure and pain as death took her.

She snapped her eyes open and glared at the ceiling. “Get out of my head!”

But when she closed her eyes again, there he was.

Soon it would be over. Soon.

Chapter 4

KOVA

Dense trees hugged the lovely mansion in Midnight Springs, encasing it in walls of foliage and spring-rich bark. And a hundred feet from him sat Alistair Thorne, one leg propped up as he sipped a glass of wine and spoke to the pretty human at his side. In the low light of a lantern, her skin was warm, rich brown, sliding in a lovely contrast against Alistair’s paler skin. Their fingers twined together now and again, as if they occasionally reached out to remind themselves that they were not alone in the night.

Using the arcane toolkit Armina had made for him years ago, he’d detected the edge of the witch’s protective barriers. She’d told him to expect weaker spells at the farther reaches, with stronger spells close to the house. That’s the way the Grand Guild teaches, she’d said with the tiniest curl of her lip. The glass globe on his compass-like device had lit up bright when he neared the trees, with another twenty feet or so of forest before the clearing began to their yard.

Vampire hearing let him hear the conversation clearly even from fifty yards away. The couple talked for a while about Shoshanna’s health; whatever she’d done last night to reach Scarlett had taken quite a lot of energy out of her. Alistair was concerned, making her promise to be careful and let Misha help her.

Misha?

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