Page 15 of Dark Prince's Captive

I’m not taking any chances.She’s not leaving my quarters until I say so.I have a very good reason for detaining her, and she knows it.

Her shoulders slump and then lift as she inhales deeply.A moment later, two portals open on either side of the room.

Kian steps through the one on the right, his mind already probing mine in search of answers as to why I summoned him.

“You called for me, brother?”he says as he fully materializes, his tall frame dwarfing the pillar at his back.

When he notices me with my clothes in the water holding a woman in my arms, he freezes.

Like Gaia, he knows immediately.Like her, he can feel it.

Panic washes over his usually stoic expression.He opens his mouth, but before he can question me, Vitai appears on the other side of the room.

Despite being the youngest of my siblings, Vitai displays the empathy and wisdom that normally only comes with very advanced age.Slender and leaner than Kian, he moves closer with eloquent and lithe agility, his expression guarded but his slate-gray eyes ablaze with alarm.

“What the dragon?”Kian mumbles.

I look at my miraculous find, making sure the opalescent water still covers her up to her chin.Just the thought that one of my brothers could catch a glimpse of her pearly naked skin is enough to unleash my wrath again.

As if sensing the pending catastrophe, Vitai stops a safe distance away.

The column of his throat ripples as he swallows.“Is that…?”

“Yes,” Kian says, both surprised and resigned.“It’s exactly what you think.”

Gaia comes forward, hovering at the far end of the bath.“How?”

How, indeed?

I’ll get my answers.

First, I need to tend to the injuries I feel so viscerally they may as well be my own.The pain in her mouth where the Phaelix knocked out her teeth throbs in mine.The cracks in her ribs mirror in my perfectly healthy bones.The rest of her vitals are normal.

The command I direct at Vitai is brusque.“Fix her.”

He’s an expert when it comes to dismantling and reassembling living matter.For that reason, we often use him as a healer.

Moved by his inborn need to repair anything that’s broken, Vitai is already inching toward the edge of the bath.The healing water has reviving as well as purifying properties, but it’s more suited for soothing aching muscles and disinfecting scrapes.Its most useful feature is its anesthetic property.I’d need a much stronger dose to knock me out cold, but the woman floating in my embrace is so tiny that the miniscule amount of medicinal salts added to the bath water was enough.

As Vitai heals her injuries, starting with her surface scrapes and bruises, I study her more closely.Throughout my life, even after I thought her dead, I’d see her in my dreams like this, all grown up and beautiful.Long after I could no longer sense her, I could still see her in my mind’s eye, the mysterious connection that exists between mates leading me to picture her first as a child, then as an adolescent, and then as a young woman.

And the bond proved true.Face-wise, she’s almost exactly the way my mind painted her for me, from the tip of her small, upturned nose to the long, reddish-brown lashes fanning over her pale cheeks.Her delicate chin is sharp and stubborn, her pouty lips pink and infinitely kissable.Her eyes are closed now, but their unique color, that of the tropical sea shimmering in the summer sun, is imprinted on my vision, as it has been for so many years.

What’s different is that she’s small and frail.Much smaller than she’d appeared in my dreams.More like a child than the fully grown adult she should be.

A blazing wave of protectiveness rolls through me, followed by a rush of uncontrollable tenderness.I’ll have to be careful with her.I can easily hurt her by forgetting my own strength.

Sweat runs down Vitai’s temples as he concentrates.Healing takes a lot of mental as well as physical energy.His body trembles by the time he’s done.He doesn’t have to tell me he’s succeeded.I can feel it.The throbbing pain and brokenness are gone.In their place, vitality and a healthy appetite beat in my chest.

A smile pulls at my mouth.The automatic gesture is foreign and stiff on my unpracticed lips.I can’t remember the last time I smiled spontaneously.My grin widens as I sense her hunger for food.Even unconscious, she’s demanding.I’ll take great joy in feeding her.Soon.

When I look up, Gaia and Vitai are staring at me with slack jaws.

I guess a smile on my face frightens them as much as a grimace or growl.Maybe more.And for good reason.

Only Kian observes me with a bland expression that gives nothing away.

“What do you need from me?”he asks, carefully studying me.

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