She looked away from him, her eyes turning glassy, and he moved closer to her, concerned the jumbled feelings he could detect in her were the result of fear of the demons, or perhaps something else.
“Olivia?” he whispered and touched her cheek, and she jerked her head up, her eyes meeting his.
What was his female thinking to make her look so sorrowful?
He brushed his fingers across her cheek, his black eyebrows furrowing as he stared down into her eyes, trying to discern the source of her feelings so he could remove it and make her smile again.
Her gaze darted away from his, fixing on the bar to her left, and she quietly said, “Why don’t you tap a siren too then... if it would help with the search for your brother?”
Loren frowned at her suggestion and then sighed and pulled her into his arms, gathering her close to his chest. “I have no interest in tapping a siren for blood, or anyone for that matter.”
She looked up at him. “Because you’re not hungry?”
An instant replay of taking Olivia’s blood caused an instant hardening in his trousers and Olivia’s eyes widened. He shifted his hips away from her.
“No, not because I took your blood.” He smoothed his palm across her cheek, holding it, and holding her gaze too. “I do not want to drink from another female. I only want you.”
“For blood?” Her voice shook, her uncertainty adding an edge to her shyness that warmed him.
She wanted reassurance. She wanted him to tell her things she had tried to stop him from voicing before. She desired to know his feelings. It was a good sign.
He shook his head. “For everything.”
Her blood had revitalised him though, restoring his strength. He felt more powerful now, and more like his former self. Was it because of the bond between them? Was there something special about her blood now?
She looked at his arms around her and her air turned awkward again, and he had the feeling she was desperately trying to change the subject when she next spoke.
“What will happen if Bleu goes too far? You didn’t mean that as ‘don’t wander off now’ did you? It was a warning.”
“We can permanently take on the abilities of a host if we kill them. It is dangerous because we do not know the full list of abilities a host might have. All fae and demon vary, with only a base set of abilities in each species. Each individual has differing strengths in their key abilities, and can also have abilities that others do not. If we are not careful, we could end up negating some of our own abilities with those we took from a host we had killed, and there is no way to reverse the effect.” He lowered his hand from her face and thought about all the elves who had been foolish enough to go too far, and those who had become addicted to stealing the abilities of others by drinking them to death.
There were many corrupted souls in his kingdom, spreading their poisonous ways and encouraging others to follow their lead. He and the council had been trying to extinguish the practice of such a dark art for centuries with little effect. It seemed every year more of his people succumbed to an addiction to power.
“You don’t kill people then?” Olivia said, her soft voice bringing him away from the darkness that awaited him back in his own world to her in this one. Her world.
Would she ever consent to leave this place and live with him? She lived for her studies and her science. She wouldn’t want to leave it and her mission at Archangel behind. Perhaps he could convince her by offering to allow her to study his world.
“I have never killed a host.”
“Have you had many... forget it... you must have had thousands, probably hundreds of thousands in your life.” Her voice took on a bitter edge and he frowned at her, and the feelings that flooded the link between them.
She turned her profile to him and stared at the feet of the crowd to her right.
Her pain beat in his heart, telling him what she was thinking.
Loren gently cupped her cheek and brought her eyes back to him. “I am a prince, and as a youth I was given donors but I also needed to be protected. I have survived for the most part on donated blood, not from the vein. I will not lie and say I have never bitten someone. There have been times when I have had to take blood from the vein... when I have bitten humans and some other species... but only when I had to replenish my body and had no other choice.”
“Like me?” She held his gaze, hers as steely as her tone had been.
He sighed. He didn’t like where this was going. She was trying to drive a wedge between them again and force them apart. She was searching for a reason not to trust him and not to fall for him.
“I am sorry for what I did to you, Olivia. I was sick and weak from blood loss, and I had little control over myself. It is no excuse for my actions though, and I wish you would see how sorry I am that I hurt you.” He lowered his hand from her face and turned away, pressing his back against the bar top and resting his elbows on it as he stared out into the crowd, searching for Bleu.