Kissed by a Dark Prince(14)

“We are not extinct. We merely left the mortal realm and for good reason. Mankind had become increasingly violent, waging war against demonkind and the fae.” His expression blackened, as if he were recalling the bloodshed he spoke of. “They hungered for violence, butchering our kind until many of the weaker harmless and defenceless species were extinct. We withdrew from the world, fearing the cruel acts would taint our souls.”

And turn them wicked no doubt. Had the vampires stemmed from the elves who had remained behind, their souls blackened by the violent nature of mankind?

“How long ago was that?” she said, her curiosity getting the better of her again.

“Close to fifty centuries have passed since I lost my father and withdrew my people from the mortal realm. I have not set foot in that world since forty-two centuries ago, when I went to war with Vail.”

Olivia couldn’t take that in. Almost five thousand years since he had moved his people and over four thousand two hundred years since he had been in her world. He was old. Very old. Damn ancient. Was Vail the name of his enemy?

“Why were you here this time?” she said with a frown.

“I did not consciously move from my realm to yours.” He averted his gaze and it picked up that conflicted edge it had whenever he was thinking about his enemy.

The man had injured him, rendered him unconscious, and then dropped him into her world.

Olivia paused. “Wait... what realm is this?”

“It is not your world.” His smile was wicked.

It did a funny thing to her insides that should have been illegal.

Olivia’s gaze slid off to her left, towards the tall arched doors and the flowing curtains. Not her world. Her eyes slowly widened.

The scientist in her found that fascinating.

Beyond the walls of this building, there was another world, one filled with creatures she might never have heard of before.

The woman in her was petrified.

“I want to go home now.”

“I cannot allow that.”

Olivia snapped her attention back to him and fixed him with a scowl. “Why not?”

“Because you are bound to me... my mate.”

He didn’t have to say it like that, in a deep husky voice that sent another unwanted hot shiver dancing over her skin, making it ache for his touch. It didn’t matter what had happened. She was not staying here and she was not being his mate.

“Why did he do this?” There had to be a reason. The prince had said his enemy had done it to make him suffer.

“Vail sought to bond us to weaken me and make me vulnerable, and therefore grant him a shot at killing me.”

That wasn’t right. His logic was screwy and he was hiding something.

Olivia folded her arms across her chest. “Your enemy could have killed you rather than dump you at my door. I still don’t get why you haven’t just killed him before. You’ve been at war for four thousand years. There must have been opportunities.”

“I almost succeeded once.” He began pacing again, long strides eating up the stone floor with ease. The man couldn’t keep still whenever he felt agitated and watching him pace only served to agitate her. It showed off his body in far too good a light and gave her a terrible excuse to stare. “I came close to killing Vail’s ki’ara... it would have given me a chance to capture him.”

Olivia didn’t miss that he had said capture him. Not kill him. Now she knew why they had been fighting for so long. The prince couldn’t bring himself to kill this psychopath. Why not?

“What’s a ki’ara?” She figured it was safer than probing about his reasons for not killing his enemy.

He glanced across at her. “It is our term for our fated female... our eternal mate. You are my ki’ara. The dark witch named Kordula is Vail’s ki’ara.”

So his enemy was another elf, and he had a fated female too, and the prince had tried to kill her.

“Do you get like a harem of them... or is it a one-time deal?” She hoped he didn’t say that each elf only got one ki’ara, but the solemn edge to his purple eyes warned that he was going to shatter that hope the moment he spoke.

“We have one fated female.” He looked away from her again, his head lowered now, his focus on his knee-high black boots.

Whatever this ki’ara thing was, she had the impression that elves placed a lot of value on it and it wasn’t something they gave up lightly. She couldn’t imagine having just one shot at true love. The prince was five thousand years old and now he had found his ki’ara, in her, and he didn’t need to say it aloud for her to know that he was thinking about giving her up. He didn’t act or look like a man who was happy to have found his soul mate and was going to fight to keep her.