Tempted by a Rogue Prince Read Online Free PDF Page A

her. He needed his strength and was using what he had to keep his veil in place while she healed him. It was difficult to maintain mortal eye colour and the human appearance of his ears while she was funnelling power into him, causing spasms in parts of his body, making him twitch and sending pain ricocheting along his nerves.
    “Did you serve on King Thorne’s side in the war?”
    He stared blankly at her as memories swirled together in his mind, a mixed up replay of that battle. He had seen Olivia in danger and had lost his head, had slipped into a killing rage and destroyed any who had dared to come near her.
    He would have killed King Thorne too if Loren hadn’t appeared.
    The sound of his brother’s voice had grounded him together with his presence, the comforting sense of him standing nearby. Loren had brought him back from the abyss, giving him a reprieve, like a shaft of purest sunlight penetrating the blackest boiling storm clouds.
    His silence didn’t deter the female.
    “Did you fight there and were captured like me?”
    His eyes narrowed in suspicion on her. “You are no warrior.”
    She was too slender. Too weak and fragile. Captivity hadn’t stripped her of muscle and physical strength. She had always been this way. Slender. Delicate. Not a warrior.
    The effort of lifting a sword would most likely see her falling flat on her face from the weight of it.
    She shook her head, her blonde locks dancing across her shoulders. “I drove the witches back. I was taking down a few demons with my spells when they grabbed me.”
    Vail batted her hands away from him and growled at her.
    His head swam, the cell turning with it, and he blinked hard, trying to focus on her as pain tore through his body, her healing spell going haywire inside him without her to control it. Witches. Spells.
    “
Witch
.” He flexed his fingers, filled with a black need to wrap his hands around her throat.
    The sharp sound of metal on metal shattered the thick silence and two demon males prowled into the cell. Vail fought the agony eating away at him as he lay on the stone slab and silently bared his fangs at the witch. A stay of execution. When she next crossed his path, he would kill her.
    The males grabbed her and he took satisfaction from her gasp and the frightened looks she cast at the demons towering over her.
    “Time is up. You did not manage your task,” one male said, a grim smile tugging at his lips as he raked his gaze over her. “You must be punished.”
    She immediately reached for Vail, abject fear in her round blue eyes. It drove the darkness from him and something compelled him to rise from the hard slab and punish the demons who meant to harm her. He tried to move, wanted to snag her wrist and pull her to him, needed to protect her but every cell in his body screamed in agony. He was too weak.
    He had been too weak to stop these vile creatures from stealing his armour and now he was too weak to protect the female. He was the vile one. Despicable. Pathetic. He had given up and now he needed to fight.
    He wouldn’t let them take her from him.
    The two males roughly dragged her past him.
    “Leave her,” Vail yelled and tried to move again.
    He managed to fall from the slab this time, landing on his belly, and fumbled for one of the demon’s ankles. The male was too strong for him and easily broke free of his grip on his boot.
    The female fought them, a wild feral creature as she clawed and kicked, and even attempted to bite them. She flailed in their grip, fear etched on her delicate features, terror that dug sharp claws into Vail’s heart and tore at it. They chuckled at her futile attempts to harm them.
    They would pay for that.
    Vail forced himself to move, refusing to let pain cripple him and stop him from reaching her. He would fight the limits of his body and his mind and wouldn’t stop until he passed out or death embraced him. He would bleed himself dry and destroy himself if only it would save her.
    He