Page 7 of Prince of Never

I stood there for a moment as the events of the previous night played in my head.Just as the officer had said, there was no evidence that anything had happened.No blood stain where I’d hit my would-be attacker.My eyes lingered on the claw marks.Maybe I needed to call a shrink, though I shuddered at the thought.I’d never had a good experience with those.

Shaking off the sense of unease crawling down my spine, I unlocked the door and climbed into the car.Whatever had happened last night, I wasn’t going to risk a repeat of it just because I stood frozen until after the sun set.With my foot a little heavier on the accelerator than necessary, I headed home.

Chapter 4

Tarian

Justahumanwoman.I picked another book off her shelf, raising an eyebrow at the illustration of a small creature with pointed ears and wings on the cover.A human woman who had an interest in realms beyond her own, yes, but that was hardly unusual.Humans had been tapping at the boundaries of their perception since they had descended from the trees.And in typical human fashion, she seemed more interested in the creatures within her own realm than those outside it.Vampires, of all things.I would never understand humanity’s obsession with those parasites.

There was nothing unusual in her residence, nothing to suggest she was anything particularly special.Could she really be the one I was looking for?I slipped open a drawer and rifled through it, more out of idle curiosity than because I thought there was anything worth finding.Clothing, mostly, and a can that sprayed something sickly sweet and cloying into the air.I coughed and wafted it away, dropping it back into the drawer.

I’d wandered about all day, watching her and waiting to discover whether she was more than she appeared.She seemed a rigid, nervous creature, always fiddling with her clothes and guarding her expression.Except during her lecture, when she’d become animated and almost fervent, which had been an interesting contrast, and had lent something to her facial features that drew the eye and held attention.Held attention enough that I hadn’t killed her the moment she stepped out of the lecture theatre and walked the corridor alone, in fact.I was mostly being cautious; humans were skittish and killing one at the wrong place or time stirred them up like bees in a hive when it’s kicked.But my gaze had lingered on her hips as she’d walked, and I’d wondered if that fervour transferred into activities other than giving lectures.

Where she’d gone next—to meet with herfriends—had been another surprise, but likely just another coincidence.Plenty of lesser fae fled the High Courts into the human realm, and an open-minded human with an interest in vampires would be a draw for any number of them.But it was a strange coincidence, nonetheless.

Surprises aside, I couldn’t justify watching her any longer.While I hadn’t yet seen anything to confirm she was the one I was looking for, I needed to return before my absence was noticed.It was better to be safe than sorry.

She needed to die.

The sound of the door rattling made me close the lid on the jewellery box I’d been rifling through.My predicted downfall was about to walk through the door and find me, a complete stranger, in her apartment.As laughable as I found the idea that this human girl—thisImogen, as her friends had called her—might pose some sort of threat to me, there had to be some reason her fate had been cast with mine.It would be foolish not to be wary.

I trailed my fingers over the clothes hanging in the wardrobe, closing on a belt as the thud of someone kicking and pushing at the door in the other room intertwined with a string of muttered curse words that almost made me snort with amusement.What a foul mouth for such a demure little librarian.I’d met satyrs who wouldn’t use some of those words.

I wound the belt around my hands as the door finally thunked shut and she exhaled a loud sigh.Magic would leave a trace, so that was out of the question, but I could still make it clean and quick.

Peering around the door, I caught sight of her leaning against the wall, rubbing at her temples, her shoulders slumped.As I watched, she picked up a little jar from a table nearby, took a pinch of something and sprinkled it into a bowl holding a fluttering goldfish.She seemed tired.Unprepared to be set upon.An easy target.I took a step, and a floorboard creaked.Immediately, her back was ramrod straight, her eyes wide, and her hand was groping at the coat rack to her left.

‘I’m armed,’ she called as she pulled a bat from among the jackets and scarves and held it poised to take a swing.‘There’s a ladder off the balcony.If you leave that way, and leave now, the police won’t catch you.’The tremor in her voice spoiled the show of confidence.

I wasn’t going to draw this out.I stepped through the doorway and into the light.

She emitted a little squeak of fright and held the bat before her, like it was some sort of barrier.‘What are you doing in here?What do you want with me?’

I crossed the room, fast enough to make her shriek again, fast enough to get my hand on that bat before she could swing it.‘This isn’t personal,’ I said as I held it, bringing us face-to-face.She struggled for it, trying to yank it out of my hand, but with a brisk tug I pulled it from her grip and sent it clattering to the floor.‘Maybe it would have been if I let your fate play out.But right now, you’re just unlucky.’

She screamed in fury and threw a punch at me.I dropped the belt, dodged the punch.The missed swing sent her stumbling, and I ducked in behind her, grabbing at the back of her shirt to pull her against me, taking her in a choke hold.

The skin of my hand brushed the skin of her neck.

It was like a bolt of lightning shot through me, burning along every nerve in my body, knocking the breath from me and my knees from under me.Something ancient and feral rose in my chest, filling my skin, wiping my mind and taking control of my body.It was something that spoke the language of dark matter and dying stars, something that was bone and blood and soil and a part of me I’d never wanted to acknowledge existed.It was something beyond reason or language, something that didn’t care about politics or prophesies or that I was there to rid myself of the final obstacle that stood between me and my crown.It looked at that human girl pushing herself up from the floor and primed every instinct in my body to defend and protect her.

It looked at her and saidmine.

A growl tore from me as I pulled myself up from where I’d fallen and stared at that girl—that ordinary human woman—with a shock that was quickly being consumed by rage.She was blinking up at me, her expression confused, and I was hyperaware of every tousled lock of her blonde hair, every twitch of her fingers, every shift of her weight, every flutter of the pulse in her neck.Inexorably, I went to her, slinking over her until she was shrinking away from me, scrambling backwards on her hands and knees, trying to escape my hand as it darted out, snatched her chin, held her firm.I hissed at the aftershock that rocked me at the contact, wrestling with that force in me that wanted to lay claim to her body, to bury myself between her legs and take her as my own.

‘Who are you?’I snarled, jerking her chin upwards, leaning into my fury.‘What did you do?’

‘I didn’t do anything,’ she stammered, grappling with the hand that held her, digging her fingernails into my wrist.‘You’re the one in my damn house!Who the fuck areyou?’

I breathed heavily, air tearing in and out of my lungs as I stared into her eyes, black pupils swallowing irises green as deep forest, and tried to move a hand to her throat, tried to imagine squeezing her airway shut until her body was limp.But that thing that was growing in my chest, wrestling a portion of my consciousness into a shape I railed against, stilled the movement and twisted my stomach with nausea.

I shoved her away and my hands hit the floor.My body convulsed, dry retching, trying to expel the thought of harming her as she squirmed away, grappling with the legs of a chair to heave herself up.

A knock at the door ricocheted through the room, and we both froze.

‘Immy?’A voice rang through the sudden silence, sounding tremulous and unsure.‘Doll, I’m sure my smoky eye kit is on your basin.There’s a hottie I’m seeing tonight who needs these eyes sultry.’

‘Call the police!’she cried before I launched myself at her, taking hold of her arm and yanking her to her feet, clapping a hand across her mouth.

---