Page 10 of Desired By her Alien Prince

"You're hurt," I blurted out, realizing I cared more than I would have a minute ago for anybody besides my family. I actually worried. Who was this alien making me feel things I had never felt before? Especially not for a stranger.

There had always been a coldness inside me, an uncaring side for others, one I fought against all my life in order to fit in. And suddenly, I was not only horny for this… alien-vampire, but I also cared deeply about his injury.

"It's nothing a little blood can't fix, come."

He held out his hand, and my mind reeled. This man was an alien, an alien who spoke Sumerian, a language that was deader than Latin and one my parents had forced me not only to learn, but we had conversed in it during many shared dinners. Those dinners had always confused the hell out of me, and I never understood why we were conversing in a dead foreign language. Now I wondered if they had been preparing me all along.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

For a moment he looked as startled as I felt over discovering a new side to me, as if he too was discovering things about himself he hadn't felt before.

"To theAsphodel," he said as if that explained it all.

Which, in a way, it did, because doubtless theAsphodelwas the alien spaceship I saw hovering over New York.

I hesitated, following this man onto a spaceship seemed like a bad idea, no matter what feelings he caused inside me, but strangely, there was no part of me that was scared or even wary of the man in front of me. Where I should have run screaming for my life, I took his hand with a smile, fighting the urge to draghimto the ship.

"Fay," Alex's weak voice brought me back to reality.

"We need to help him," I said, more from moral obligation than an actual urge to do so. What the hell was wrong with me? Every normal person on Earth would havewantedto help him, even more so considering what he had done for me or tried to do.

"He will be fine. He has Nayphyllym blood in him and he is a male, no gargoyle or Daemon will dare touch him."

"They touched me," I pointed out, thinking back to the alley and the alien who attacked me.

His features hardened. "He has been dealt with, and I doubt anyone else will be as stupid as him."

Alex tried to get to his feet. "Leave her be, Daemon. You have your seven maidens waiting for you. She isn't yours."

The alien narrowed his eyes at Alex, and I felt his anger surge. I put a calming hand on his upper arm. "He's hurt."

This time when the alien looked at me, his eyes were cold. "He will be dead if you don't come with me. Now."

With one last look toward Alex, who had done nothing but try to help me get home, I allowed the alien to pull me along, back out onto the streets. Alex called my name from inside the store, his voice laced with anguish, but I didn't turn or falter.

For a little while inside the shop, I hadn't heard the steady gunfire and the occasional screams, which had considerably lessened from what it had been like before, but outside, they could still be heard, bringing me back to reality. Reminding me of what was happening, who this man was whose hand I was holding.

"Who are you?" I finally managed, stopping, forcing him to stop if he didn't want to drag me across the street.

"I am Prince Azazel, son of the King of Darkness," he said.

A prince? Of darkness? What kind of helly-tale was I stuck in?

"What is happening? What do you want from me?" I peppered him with questions.

"You are a Nayphyllym," he said, slightly moving his head to the side, regarding me curiously, "and you don't know?"

"No."

"I will tell you onboard theAsphodel."

A gargoyle weaved by, and I jerked. Azazel put an arm around me, pulling me against him. "They won't harm you; they can scent who you are."

I was still having a hard time wrapping my head around all of this when another thought struck me. Azazel was the name of a demon. I might not have been very schooled in history and all that, but I read enough books to recognize his name, and a shudder moved through me.The son of the King of Darknessechoed in my mind, and I shuddered again.

"You're cold. Let me take you to the ship," Azazel said in a deep, luring voice.

I stared up at him. Was he a demon hypnotizing me? I had never believed in heaven or hell. Same with aliens—who turned out to be very real—so was it possible these aliens were actually creatures from hell? Who came on a spaceship?

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