Page 17 of Kiss of a Hellish Prince

He looked over at me, then around me to Vivi, still curled up in a ball. He lifted his hand, offering to use his powers. Remembering how he’d taken fear from me earlier, I nodded.

Murmur came and sat down next to me. He laid his hand on Vivi. “Hey, little mouse. It’s okay. We are the good guys, and we totally kicked bad guy ass,” Murmur said in a soothing voice.

When Vivi’s shoulders relaxed a little, I relaxed, too.

“I’m Murmur. Can you tell me your name, little mouse?” he asked.

Vivi peeked her head up a little. Seeing the tears falling down her cheeks broke my heart. She might’ve been fifteen and smart as a whip, but she looked closer to twelve, and I think emotionally she was very young.

She sniffed. “Vivi.”

“Hi, Vivi. I am going to go check on my friend in the kitchen. But I wanted to make sure you knew you were safe first.”

Vivi gazed at Murmur for a moment and nodded. When he let her go and stood up, she crawled into my lap and wrapped her arms and legs around me. I rocked my body back and forth to help soothe her while looking over at Sarah. She was staring wide-eyed at the door Murmur had just gone through.

“You good?” I asked Sarah.

She shook her head. “What the actual fuck?” she mouthed.

“It’s a long story, but they are here to help. I trust them.”

Sarah leveled a look at me. “Yeah, but you make dumb life choices, so excuse me for not taking your trust as gospel.”

“I mean, fair. But are you hurt?”

“No, I could keep him off of me with the knife,” Sarah answered, holding the blade so tight her knuckles were white. “You want to explain why these guys broke into our home, and who the other two are?”

Murmur came back through the door with Prison Tat unconscious and slung over his shoulder, saving me from having to answer Sarah. Or at least buying me a little time. He slung him down on the floor next to Snaggle Mouth. Murmur then pulled zip ties out of his back pocket and secured Prison Tattoo’s hands and feet together behind his back. He took out his phone, took a few pics of the men, and then made a call, stepping towards what was left of the front door.

Vivi’s breathing finally calmed back to a normal rhythm. Her tears were slowing, and she wasn’t shaking anymore.

“Can you take her?” I asked Sarah. “I want to go check on Rune in the kitchen, make sure he is okay and see if the kitchen survived.”

Sarah nodded. She dropped the knife on a table and opened her arms for Vivi. Vivi moved over to Sarah easily. Sarah wasn’t related by blood, but she was just as much Vivi’s older and overly protective sister as I was. Once Vivi settled on Sarah’s lap, I headed into the kitchen.

They’d broken the kitchen table in half, and blood smeared across the top. Chairs were all over the place. Rune was standing in the middle of everything with his head down, shoulders tensed, and his hands braced on the kitchen island. His wings and horns were gone .

I moved around him, stepping over broken plates and lemon wedges and a raw chicken that Sarah was probably about to roast for dinner. Now it was scattered across the floor. Once I made it to the fridge, I grabbed two bottles of water, opened one, and set it in front of Rune without a word.

“Thanks. I just need a moment to calm down.” His voice sounded a little off. I guessed his fangs hadn’t fully retracted yet.

“Do you want me to leave?” I put my bottle of water down next to his.

He reached out and grabbed my hand, holding it for a moment. “No, stay. It helps to know you are all right.” He looked up at me. “Are you all right?”

“Just a bit more banged up than before. I’ll be fine,” I answered, offering a smile.

“Good.” He pulled me into his arms and hugged me. “Gods, I hated seeing his hands on you.”

The hug surprised me, but after a moment, I let the warmth of his arms comfort me. “Yeah, I wasn’t a fan of it either.”

He stepped back, rubbing the back of his neck, like he’d just remembered we didn’t really know each other well enough to be hugging. Which was a shame. I enjoyed being in his arms.

“What were you thinking?” His voice turned icy. The intense anger in his gaze made me want to squirm.

“What?” I couldn’t just stand there doing nothing while he looked at me like that, so I started picking up broken plates from the floor and throwing them in the trash.

“I told you to hide!”

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