Jane Kindred - Seducing The Dark Prince

A knee to Lucien’s groin ended any chance of regaining the upper hand.

Leo climbed on top of him, hands around Lucien’s throat, the shaft of the damn arrow still skewering his left shoulder. “Who are you? Who sent you? Was it that necrophiliac?”

The lack of oxygen to his brain as the large hands constricted his airway must be impairing his understanding. That couldn’t have been what the revenant said.

Lucien’s vision was going gray.

“Leo! What the hell are you doing?” Theia’s voice rang out as a car door slammed, and she was running toward them. “What’s going on?”

But it was Theia’s twin, not Theia herself—which made a lot more sense, Lucien realized before he lost consciousness.

Chapter 7

Rhea’s message was baffling.

That guy you pretend you don’t want just went rogue. Get over here. NOW.

Theia tried calling, but it went straight to voice mail, and her texts weren’t being read. That was unnerving. What was going on? She hopped into her car and drove straight to Rafe’s place, rattled enough to speed. Normally, according to Rhea, she drove like a granny.

A car Theia didn’t recognize was parked out front, so she had to park farther down the drive. As she approached the house, she tripped over what looked like a quiver of high-tech arrows among scattered gravel and broken cactus littering the normally immaculate walkway. Theia dashed to the door and burst in without knocking after seeing shattered glass around the front windowpane.

“Rhea? Are you okay? Are you here?” She hadn’t had any visions about Rhea being in danger, but her Spidey-sense was triggered like crazy.

“In here.”

Theia breathed a bit easier at the sound of Rhea’s voice. She hurried toward it and found her sister and Leo in the kitchen—with Lucien Smok tied to a chair. He looked like an angry bull had trampled him. Lucien glanced up at Theia out of one eye, the other swollen shut, and quickly looked down.

Leaning against the counter with his arms folded, Leo had a bandage around his shoulder and blood soaking his white T-shirt. And there were bruises on his knuckles.

Theia found her voice after a moment of what was becoming a familiar sense of breathlessness, except this was breathlessness of disbelief. “Lucien? What in the world is going on? What happened to you? What are you doing here?”

“That’s what we’ve been asking him, but he won’t talk.” Rhea kicked at the leg of Lucien’s chair. “He shot Leo with a goddamn arrow.” She indicated Rafe’s large oak table with her gaze. A crossbow with a high-powered scope attachment lay on it.

Theia rubbed her forehead. “Lucien?”

He didn’t glance up, but he finally spoke. “I’ll talk to Theia. But not with him in the room.”

Leo made an angry noise that sounded like a wolf growling, but Rhea took his hand. “Come on. Maybe she can get something out of him.” Reluctantly, he went with her, and Theia closed the kitchen door.

She took a breath and turned around to find Lucien staring at her, his one open eye bloodshot and defiant. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on? Did you really attack Leo with a...” She glanced at the table. “A crossbow?”

Lucien’s voice was calm and measured. “Your sister is living with a man who ought to have died a millennium ago.”

Theia crossed her arms. “I’m aware of that.”

“You’re aware.”

“How is this any of your business?”

“Because that’s my business. My real work. Putting unnatural creatures down. Demons. Revenants.”

“Revenants?”

“That’s what the reanimated dead are called.”

Theia laughed, but Lucien wasn’t kidding. “Leo is not a revenant. You can see that, can’t you? I mean, I know your vision is a little limited right now, but, seriously, Lucien.”

“He died over a thousand years ago.”

“He was supposed to die over a thousand years ago. I take it you’re aware of the Valkyrie’s bargain?”

“Dead is dead. The Valkyrie created a revenant in defiance of the Fates.”

“Even if she did, what does that have to do with you? Why do you care?”

“I told you—”

“Yeah, yeah. You said. It’s your job. Is this why you showed up at Phoebe’s wedding?”

Lucien inclined his head. “One of the reasons. The other reasons were a demon and a necromancer.”

Theia’s temper flared in the face of his calm composure. “So your bullshit job offer was just that. Something you made up on the spot as an excuse to get close to my family so you could go on some purity crusade against them. Are you working with Carter Hamilton?”

Lucien opened his mouth but paused as her words registered before he spoke. “Hamilton?”

“The actual necromancer who crashed the reception. The man who murdered Rafe’s father and apprentice along with at least two innocent women.”

“I’m aware of who he is. Why would I be working with him?”

“Because he’s made it his life’s work to destroy my family, and you seem to be very conveniently helping his cause.”

“I’m not trying to destroy your family. This isn’t about your family at all.”

“Could have fooled me.”

Lucien sighed, glancing down at the floor, where droplets of blood had dried around him. “First of all, my interest in having you join the genome project at Smok Biotech was genuine. Is genuine. That has nothing to do with any of this.”

“Any of this? You mean the trying-to-kill-members-of-my-family this? Did you think I’d just be like, ‘Oh, that’s okay, Mr. Smok, let me map these triggers for you. I don’t need time off for the funerals. Can I get you a coffee?’”

“I didn’t think you’d find out,” Lucien burst out.

Theia unfolded her arms and clenched her fists, tempted to add to his bruises.

He had the sense to look embarrassed. “I mean, this is what I do. It has nothing to do with anything else. I compartmentalize the Lucien I have to be for the company so I can do this. You have no idea how dangerous these inhuman abominations are. Revenants rip people limb from limb. They’re unstoppable. They’re not human, and they do not experience empathy or remorse. My work with Smok Consulting means letting creatures like these walk free, and I was tired of being the cause of it, so I decided to take matters into my own hands—unofficially. I’m sorry it happens to affect you personally, but I can’t let my feelings for you get in the way of what has to be done.”

Through the haze of anger, Theia’s airway did that funny tightening thing again. “Feelings for me?”

“I didn’t mean feelings, I just meant—I mean, of course I’m attracted to you, that’s not... Fuck.” Lucien threw back his head in frustration but clearly regretted the movement as soon as he’d made it, judging by the sharp cry.

“What was that? What’s wrong?”

Lucien looked a little green. “Nothing. I think I might have... I just have a little...” His eyes fluttered shut, and his head slumped forward.

“Lucien?” Theia tried to rouse him with a gentle shake, to no effect. She raised her voice as she turned her head toward the door. “You guys? I think I need some help in here.”

The door opened abruptly, Rhea’s palm flat against it as though she’d been standing just on the other side with her ear pressed against the wood. “What did he do now?”

“I think he passed out. He moved his head sharply and it jarred some injury.”

Leo grunted from the doorway. “Probably his broken arm.”

Theia whirled on him. “You broke his arm?”

“Arrow,” Rhea reminded her. She pointed at the table with a glare. “Crossbow.”

“I’m not saying it wasn’t warranted, but you don’t tie up a guy with a broken arm and torture him for information.”