Tempted by a Rogue Prince (41 page)

“Not all of them,” Olivia put in. “They’re too severe. It might kill you. You just need to share the burden.”

Vail nodded, more than willing to bear the pain to spare Rosalind and cursing himself for not having known that he could do such a thing. He could have helped her in the glade.

“Lay down next to her and change into something a little more comfortable while I take care of Rosalind.” Olivia pointed to the bed and he did as instructed, laying on his back beside Rosalind and looking over at her.

Her chest rose and fell at a slow rhythm, her raspy breaths loud in his ears as her heart struggled.

He sent his armour away, replacing it with his trousers. Olivia tore Rosalind’s dress down the middle, exposing her underwear, and Vail growled at Loren, warning him not to look at her.

“Mated… and was meant to be married by now,” Loren bit out and took the ruined clothes from his female.

The door burst open and Bleu entered, his spear at the ready and his violet eyes flashing with a hunger for violence.

Loren held his hand up, halting the elf commander. “Bring medicine and blood.”

Bleu cast him a frown and then looked back at Vail, and his eyes drifted to Rosalind and widened. Vail growled again, warning the unmated male to take his eyes off his female, her words about Bleu instantly filling his head. This male had looked upon her with an appreciative eye before, believing her skilled and as impressive as he knew her to be, and no doubt desiring her because of it.

“Rosalind.” Bleu turned a black glare on Vail. “What did you do to her, you bastard?”

Loren grabbed the male’s shoulders and shoved him back against the arched wooden door, slamming it shut.

“Rosalind is Vail’s mate. We are trying to save her. You are slowing us down. Bring medicine and blood, Bleu. I will not ask again,” Loren snarled and Bleu flicked his brother a glance, and then looked at him properly, disbelief in his eyes.

“I will not leave you alone with this fiend, My Prince.” Bleu tossed a glare at Vail, and amidst the fury in it was pain that had Vail looking away.

He vividly remembered the night he had slaughtered most of the legion that he had been leading at the time he had met Kordula. Bleu had lost countless friends that one dark night and had come close to losing his life too, and the male couldn’t forgive Vail for what he had done then, or through the centuries that had followed.

Vail couldn’t blame him.

He regretted the night he had turned on his own men, killing many before they fled him, but it had been the only way of sparing the others, and sparing the kingdom the wrath and reign of Kordula.

He slipped his fingers into Rosalind’s, clutched her hand and looked at her, focusing on her.

His brave little female.

She had fought for him. She had given her life for him. He would take her pain away. He would save her.

He closed his eyes and focused on their bond. Loren’s presence grew stronger and his hand on Vail’s shoulder was a welcomed comfort.

“Just think about taking away her pain and drawing it into you. Only take a little at a time. Do not try to take it all, Brother.”

He squeezed his eyes against the tears that rose into them on hearing that softly spoken word, laced with affection that touched him deeply.

Vail focused and did as his brother had instructed, the opposite to what he had attempted to do in the glade. Rather than trying to channel his power into her, he focused on drawing her into him through their bond.

He opened his eyes and stared at her profile, willing her to come back to him.

The link between them opened and he flowed into it, felt himself becoming part of her and marvelled at how he could pinpoint her injuries, feeling them echo on his body. He breathed slowly and sought the first one, coaxing it to him.

He flinched with the first stab of pain close to his heart and tried to distance himself from it and what was to come, focusing on Rosalind instead of his own body. He bore the pain in silence as his organs ruptured and bones shattered where the blade had pierced her.

His flesh split open and blood pumped from the wound and clogged his throat. He kept his eyes on Rosalind, aware of only her as Loren and Olivia raced around him, sewing wounds on both him and Rosalind and bandaging them.

“Drink.” Loren offered a canister of blood.

Vail refused to take his eyes from Rosalind. He couldn’t. He needed to see her as colour began to spread across her ashen skin again and her heart grew stronger. He was healing her.

Saving her.

Just as she had saved him.

Loren growled and the next thing shoved in front of Vail’s face was a bloodied wrist. His brother pressed it to his mouth and Vail wrapped his lips around the puncture wounds and drank, drawing Loren’s strength into him.

Rosalind writhed on the purple covers, the hand that clutched his turning cold and clammy. She moaned and her face screwed up as fresh pain tore at his chest. He could take more for her. All of it. He would take all her pain away. Every last drop.

“Vail, stop.” Olivia’s voice swam in his ears.

He ignored her.

He needed to save Little Wild Rose.

He tried to take more of her injuries and cried out as his heart clenched in his chest and stuttered. Loren’s blood spilled down his cheek and onto the covers beneath him.

“Enough,” Loren snapped and tore Vail’s hand away from Rosalind’s.

Vail wanted to protest, wanted to growl and attack his brother for stopping him, but he had already gone too far.

Darkness swallowed him, his gaze still fixed on Rosalind and his heart filled with hope that he had saved her.

Because he didn’t want to live in a world without her.

E
very inch of her hurt. Rosalind grimaced and tried to recall what she had done to deserve so much pain. Her chest was on fire. Her mind swam, dark ripples chasing through it, her thoughts colliding and denying her. Whatever she had done, it had been stupid and dangerous, that much she was sure.

Something flexed against her left hand.

She focused there and the numbness infesting her body slowly gave way, allowing her to feel the press of fingers against the back of her hand.

She knew that soft grip, that gentle tenderness, and that warmth that now chased up her arm and through her body, bringing it back to life and pushing the pain away.

She swallowed to wet her parched throat and tilted her head towards him, becoming aware of the softness beneath her and the silky feel of fine fabric against her skin.

Her very bare skin.

Why was she only wearing her underwear?

Rosalind opened her eyes, squinting at first to allow them to become accustomed to the light. It was too bright, stinging her eyes and making them water. Where were they? Not in the woods. This was somewhere else.

Voices drifted around her, quiet and soft. One male and one female.

One familiar female.

She fluttered her eyes open and gasped as she saw Vail.

Bloody gashes covered his bare shoulders and his face, dark and scabbed, but still red raw around the edges. His skin was too pale, drawn of colour and life, stark against his dishevelled blue-black hair. She tried to roll onto her side to face him so she could brush her fingers across his cheek without releasing his hand and pain tore through her left side.

“Whoa there!” Gentle hands grasped her right shoulder and pinned her back to the bed.

She looked up at the woman.

Strands of her dark hair hung forwards as she leaned over Rosalind, slipped from a rather elaborate hairstyle that seemed out of place on the woman she knew to be very neat and plain.

“No moving,” Olivia said with a slight smile. “You’re lucky to be alive.”

Rosalind tried to swallow again but couldn’t shift the lump in her throat. Olivia’s smile widened and she reached towards something beside Rosalind’s head and came back with a delicate blue glass goblet.

“Drink.” Olivia offered it to her with one hand and helped her into a sitting position with her other, supporting her back.

Rosalind opened her mouth and bit back a sigh as cool water poured into her mouth and down through her body, quenching the flames. She drank the entire glass and Olivia’s smile only widened.

“You’re a better patient than he is.”

Rosalind looked down at Vail. “What happened?”

“Vail took your injuries into himself to save you.” The deep male voice drew her gaze to the owner and she gasped.

Mother earth, he looked frighteningly like Vail. If she had risked peeking at Prince Loren when she had helped Thorne with his war, she would have instantly recognised Vail as a prince of elves on meeting him.

Loren strode silently across the room, his violet eyes locked on his younger brother, and ran a hand through his shorter black hair, pushing it back from the pointed tips of his ears as he sighed.

“I am afraid he overdid it. I warned him not to attempt to take all of your injuries, but he has always had a propensity to ignore my warnings.”

Rosalind brushed her thumb across Vail’s and stared down at him. Bandages covered his chest and stomach, and wrapped around his left thigh too. All places where she had been wounded. She could remember it now. She had done something terribly dangerous, but not stupid. She had wanted to protect Vail from the demon king.

She wrapped her right arm tighter around herself, wincing as her ribs ached. Vail had stopped before taking all of her injuries, and she was glad of it. She didn’t want to lose him. She had been so afraid she was going to die and go into the afterlife without him by her side. She had been so afraid of being separated from him and leaving him behind when he needed her, just as she needed him.

“Here.” Olivia draped a purple robe around her, covering her.

She appreciated the kindness, even though she didn’t care that she was sitting in front of her mate’s brother in only her underwear. She only cared about Vail. He had risked everything by bringing her to this place, to Olivia, because he hadn’t wanted to lose her and now she feared she might still lose him.

“Will he be alright?” She looked to Loren for the answer, feeling he was the one most likely to know it.

He had a bond with Vail.

Her own bond with him said he was in incredible pain.

“I have given him blood and administered medicines. He will heal in time.”

She dropped her gaze back to Vail, leaned over and brushed her fingers across his damp cold forehead. “I can help. I can heal.”

“No.” Loren moved a step closer and Olivia claimed her shoulder again.

She looked at both of them, seeing in their eyes they weren’t going to allow her to use her magic on Vail, but for different reasons.

Rosalind fixed her focus on Loren, needing to allay his fears before Olivia’s.

“I’ve healed him before. He can take it. When I use magic around him, it doesn’t always trigger an episode. Please. Let me help him.” She held Loren’s gaze, wishing he didn’t look so much like his brother when he looked so healthy and Vail looked close to death. It hurt too much to look at him, so she looked away, pinning her focus back on Vail.

She caressed his cheek and decided that she didn’t care about gaining permission. Vail needed her help and she was going to give it to him. No one told her what to do where he was concerned. She would do whatever it took to make him better and bring him back to her.

Loren sighed. “Very well. But you must not hurt yourself. My brother would be upset if you did after everything he has done to help you.”

She nodded. He was right about that and she didn’t want the first thing Vail did on waking to be chastising her. She wanted him to wake and kiss her, and make her feel that everything was going to be alright.

They had escaped a nightmare and could be together.

Rosalind lowered her hand to Vail’s chest and closed her eyes. She muttered the strongest healing spell at her disposal and channelled it into him, seeking out wounds that were draining his strength and giving his natural healing abilities a shove to speed them along. She wavered, her strength draining as she struggled to heal a deeper wound.

“Enough,” Loren snapped and she nodded and withdrew.

The remnants of the spell would continue to heal what she couldn’t.

“You need to rest now.” Olivia took hold of her shoulders and Rosalind allowed her to guide her down onto the bed again.

She sank against it and stared across at Vail. She squeezed his hand and his eyelids fluttered. Her heart fluttered with them, nerves rising as she tried to shut out the two other occupants of the room and focus on him.

“If you don’t fight, I’m going to have to come into the afterlife and kick your behind. So, fight… okay?” She glanced at Loren, found him staring at her, and then back at Vail. A blush coloured her cheeks. “I don’t think your brother likes me very much.”

Loren cleared his throat and scrubbed the back of his neck.

“Come along, you.” Olivia grabbed Loren’s arm. “I think we should give them some peace and quiet now. Doctor’s orders.”

Rosalind smiled her thanks at Olivia as she pulled Loren away. He remained facing the bed as he walked backwards, his eyes glued to Vail, and she could understand his reluctance to leave his brother.

“I’ll call should he wake. I won’t let him leave without speaking with you. I swear it,” she said and he nodded, his eyes briefly meeting hers before going back to his brother.

“I will post someone outside the door, or I will be just across the hall in my rooms there if you need me.”

She nodded and Olivia opened the arched wooden door and dragged her elf prince out of it, closing it softly behind them.

Rosalind sagged against the dark purple covers and turned her face towards Vail again.

She shuffled closer to him, wincing as her ribs protested, and caressed his cheek, studying his face. The wounds on it looked better already, the surrounding skin no longer angry red. She dropped her hand to his bandaged chest and focused there, calling on her magic.

“Olivia told you to rest.” His deep gravelly voice shattering the silence tore a gasp from her and her heart leaped into her throat.