Vail had done all he could to stop Kordula from fulfilling her plan to seize the elf kingdom for her own.
“Now you want to use me to make Loren suffer because he almost killed you.” Olivia pushed herself up and got to her feet, coming to face Kordula.
“Not just Loren.”
Olivia frowned at that admission. She wanted Vail to suffer too, and he would if Kordula made him hurt Olivia and in turn destroy his brother.
“Why?” Olivia said and wondered if Vail was with Loren now, fighting him or fighting Kordula’s command to kill him. “Loren told me you attacked the kingdom after he almost killed you, and you caused vast devastation and a huge death toll. Isn’t that vengeance enough?”
Kordula’s red lips compressed. “I used the power of the blood of almost forty warlocks to give me the strength to bring hell down on the elves and your bastard prince, and it would have worked but the battle left me depleted, and Vail used that as his chance to teleport me away. He sacrificed much of his power to seal the access points in the elf realm to me and he learned his lesson... he paid in blood for what he had done to me.”
Olivia repeated everything Kordula had said in her head, piecing it together with what she had read about sorcery. Kordula could gain power through drinking blood. How much of Vail’s blood had she drunk in order to restore her strength and punish him for daring to seal the elf kingdom to her?
No wonder Loren hadn’t seen his brother for centuries before the night that had brought them together.
“It was your idea to find me.” Olivia stared at Kordula, reading the fluctuations in her expression and her body language, and using her new super senses to detect even the most minute change in her heartbeat.
“I had wanted to find you but had thought it impossible, as there was every chance you were an elf, locked in a kingdom I could not enter.” Kordula moved a step forwards and then she was right in front of Olivia, her hands closing around Olivia’s throat. Kordula drove her backwards, into the pale blue wall behind her, pinning her against it. “Imagine my joy when Vail discovered your location.”
Kordula’s eyes burned red around the edges and ribbons of crimson and black rushed up her arms towards Olivia’s throat. Her heart leaped in her chest, pounding wildly, and she grabbed Kordula’s arms and kicked with all of her might, trying to break free before the magic could touch her.
Olivia cried out as the first thread burrowed into her flesh, searing her, the pain so intense that darkness crowded her mind and she could no longer feel even a hazy connection to Loren.
She screwed her eyes shut and tears streamed down her cheeks as another spear of Kordula’s power penetrated her skin and whipped through her, the pain debilitating, stealing all of her strength and leaving her unable to fight back.
Kordula’s voice broke through the darkness pulling Olivia under.
“Imagine my joy when I make you bleed before your bastard prince and watch him suffer.”
Olivia desperately clung to consciousness as fear of what might happen if she succumbed to Kordula’s terrible power rushed through her and focused everything she had on Loren and her love for him, determined to re-establish the link between them.
It was hazy but she felt him.
He was in pain too.
Vail had found him.
Before she could figure out a way to strengthen the link, another barb pierced her skin and darkness flooded her mind.
CHAPTER 21
Loren led Bleu and the demon king, Thorne, away from the Archangel facility where Vail had snatched Olivia, concerned that his brother would attack again and kill the hunters and staff. Archangel had no part in his battle with his brother and didn’t deserve to end up dragged into it because Loren had lingered there. He would lead his brother somewhere away from humans and take him down.
Although, escaping one human had proved impossible.
Sable had insisted that she come with them, pointing out that Olivia was her friend and a member of Archangel, and someone from their company should be with them to act on her behalf. Loren considered himself as acting on Olivia’s behalf, but Sable had refused to listen. She had practically forced him to agree to bring her with them by turning to Bleu and demanding he teleport her.
That had sent Thorne into a dark rage that had simmered below the surface of his red eyes, but hadn’t gone unnoticed by Loren. The male felt protective and possessive of Sable. It was not a good sign.
Demons were notoriously violent and aggressive when it came to their fated females, worse than elves, and with good reason.
There were no female demons in the world and a demon could only produce offspring with his mate.
It was a method born of a blood curse placed on the heads of all demons by the Devil when the demons had dared to rise up against him, claiming a large expanse of land in Hell for their own and forming kingdoms. The Devil had made them pay for their insubordination by wiping out all female demons and making it difficult for the males to keep up their numbers because they would have to seek out their fated female in order to procreate, and it was hard for demons to move around in the mortal world. Their horns, fangs, claws and size tended to draw attention.