Renegade (The Captive Series Book 2) (20 page)

He grabbed hold of her, pulling her
against him. A small gasp of surprise escaped her. He fell to his
knees before her, wrapping his arms around her waist. He clung to
her as he rested his head against her stomach. “You humble me
Arianna. I do not deserve you; I did nothing to earn your love, or
the gift of light that your presence has brought back to my life.”
Arianna was frozen, shocked at the sight of the most powerful
creature she had ever known, her prince, on his knees before her,
broken by the anguish pouring from him. Anguish she did not
understand.

Tears spilled from her, her chest
constricted in pain. She buried her hands in his hair as a soft cry
escaped her. She bowed over him, cradling him against her, trying
hard not to give into the powerful sobs that wanted to escape her.
He was humbled by her, he felt that he did not deserve her, and yet
if it had not been for him she would still be dead and lost inside.
She may well be dead if he hadn’t been there to intervene. If it
wasn’t for him, she never would have known the joy of love, the
wonder of things that she had never understood and never wanted to,
until he walked into her life. If it wasn’t for him, she never
would have learned what life was truly about, she would have lost
out on so much without his love to save her.

She slid to her knees before him,
clinging to him as he enveloped her, rocking her against him,
holding her, and touching her so reverently that she could barely
breathe through the love swirling and building throughout her. His
presence overwhelmed her; it floored her, and rocked her with its
intensity and need. His hands were in her hair; his mouth was hard
on hers, passionate, burning with a need that left her shaken. For
the first time she realized that though he did not pressure her,
did not push her toward anything, there was something else that he
wanted even more than her blood.

He also wanted her body.

Aria shuddered, desire pooled through
her. It was something that she had not been ready for, something
she had not given because circumstances always seemed to separate
them. But even though they were on the run, adrift in a world that
provided no security, there were no barriers between them anymore.
She didn’t even care that they were kneeling on a kitchen floor
right now; she was so swept up in both of their needs and
desires.

He pulled away from her, shaking as he
held her tight. “Arianna,” he moaned.

“I understand. I know what you need.”
But though she said the words, she wasn’t sure they were right. She
knew he wanted this as badly as she did, but she wasn’t entirely
certain that it would be enough. She sensed that he may need more
than just her blood and her body. He already had her heart and
soul; she didn’t know what else she could give him to ease the
distress she sensed growing within him.

“Arianna.” His voice was a low groan of
pain and need. “You are so innocent. So sweet…”

“I am not that sweet.”

His smile was wan, his eyes dark and
tortured. “True,” he agreed softly. She grinned at him, sensing the
lightening in his mood that she had been hoping for. “There is so
much you don’t know about me though. So much that you could never
understand. There are things that I have done…”

She placed her fingers over his mouth,
silencing him. “Don’t Braith. You’re not going to scare me away;
you are not going to drive me away. You are not your father, you
are not Caleb.”

“I am a killer.”

“I have killed also,” she managed to
choke out.

“In self-defense. I killed for
pleasure, for joy.” She tried to turn away from him; she didn’t
want to hear this. She knew what he was, knew what he was capable
of; she had witnessed the full force of his brutality earlier. He
grabbed hold of her though, pulling her back toward him. “You need
to hear this Arianna.”

“I understand Braith; you don’t have to
do this.”

“I do, because you don’t understand.”
She frowned fiercely at him, her hands clenching tight on her legs.
“I never killed for pleasure, never killed for the joy of it.” She
didn’t understand where he was going with this. “Until Jack took
you from the palace.”

Aria recoiled, the color drained from
her face. He was right, she didn’t understand this. He had told her
about the blood slaves he had taken after her escape, and though
she hadn’t asked, she had assumed that he had not killed them. The
Braith she knew was kind, caring, overly protective of her, and as
willing to die for her as he was willing to kill for her, but he
was not vicious. And this conversation was taking a turn toward
cruelty that she had not expected from him.

“And then I lost myself to the pleasure
of the blood, the pleasure of sex, and the pleasure of the death.”
She felt nauseous. She was going to throw up. He was a killer, she
understood that. There were other women before her, she knew that,
he was over nine hundred years old for crying out loud, she’d be a
fool to think there hadn’t been other women, but she didn’t want to
hear about them. And she didn’t want to hear about him glutting
himself on them, on thriving on destroying them. He leaned closer
to her, his eyes burned with a strange fire. “I did not enjoy it
for long Arianna.”

She shook her head, forcing herself not
to recoil from him. She loved him but how did she assimilate the
monster he was describing to the man before her. “Then why?” she
managed to croak out.

“Because I wanted to forget you and I
thought that it would help.”

She stifled a moan as she closed her
eyes. Guilt stained her soul and twisted in her stomach. It was not
her fault that he had done those things. He had chosen to kill, but
her absence had been the catalyst that sent him spiraling over the
edge. “Why are you telling me this?” she whispered.

He sighed softly; his hand was gentle
as he gripped her chin. “Because you need to know.”

She shook her head in denial. She loved
him, she truly did, but now she felt wounded and raw. He had
starkly reminded her of things that she did not want to recall,
reminded her of the fact that though she had no one to compare him
to, there were probably hundreds, if not thousands, that he would
be comparing her to. He had also harshly reminded her of the fact
that he was a monster, or at least had the potential to be. He
would never hurt her, but what would he do to someone else that
stood in his way? What would he do if her family stood in his
way?

She knew the answer to that, and though
she wanted to deny it, she knew that it would be something swift,
and vicious.

“Arianna, you need to understand what
it is that I am saying to you.” She blinked, her eyes burned with
tears, but she was confused as to why he kept pushing this. “I
can’t lose you again Arianna; it sent me into a dark spiral. It
snapped something inside of me, turned me into something evil and
twisted. I upheld my promise, I did not reclaim any blood slaves
after the last time I saw you. I couldn’t, the thought of them was
disgusting to me. But I cannot lose you from my life again, many
will not survive it.”

Her eyes were wide, her mouth parted in
disbelief. “You’re not going to,” she promised softly.

His hands were on her face, his eyes
forceful and smoldering. “Whatever this is between us, it’s
something that I don’t understand, it’s something strong, intense,
pure, and yet consuming. It is something wonderful and precious,
but it can also turn me into something horrendous. Losing you will
also drive me mad. I am one of the strongest of our kind, I am a
prince, and my blood is strong, old, untainted. If I snap, if I go
on a rampage, I will destroy many people before I am stopped. If I
am stopped.”

“Braith I will never leave you,” she
promised.

“You are human Arianna. As long as you
stay human you will be mortal, at risk of death.”

“Braith…”

“I cannot take the chance of you being
killed. I cannot risk that.”

Realization was cold and vile as it hit
her with the force of a hard slap. He did want more than just her
blood; he wanted more than just her body even.

He wanted her life. He wanted the only
thing she couldn’t give him right now, if ever, but seeing the
stress in him now she wasn’t sure she would be able to stop him
from taking it by force.

CHAPTER 13

Arianna was still pale, and shaken. She
had not spoken since he had made his revelation to her, she had
barely even moved. Every once in awhile, she would stare at him,
her eyes would darken slightly, and her hands would begin to
tremble in her lap once more. She was the strongest human he had
ever encountered, perhaps even the strongest being he had ever come
into contact with, but his confession, his openness, had rattled
her completely.

As had his intention to take her
humanity from her.

It was not something he wanted to do,
not something he looked forward to doing, but it was something he
had to do. Something he was going to do. He realized that now, he
just hoped that eventually she would come around to be willing. He
didn’t know how he would handle it if she wasn’t, didn’t know how
he would handle it if she remained human for much longer. But he
could not take the chance of losing her again. When he thought back
to the things he had done after she left him, he was repulsed by
his actions. He was shocked by the depths of his depravity, shocked
by his fervent need to lose himself in blood, sex, and death in
order to try and forget her. He had never experienced that ravenous
hunger and brutality that had encompassed him. It had ensnared him
within a web of death that had done little to ease the tortured
pain residing within his soul.

A pain that she had inflicted and only
she had eased. And he had come to realize that it would only ever
be her that could pull him from that dark place. A place he had
entered a few times today, slaughtering and killing anyone that had
posed any kind of threat to her life. She could pull him back from
the brink of madness; she gave him some kind of control over
himself. But it was a control that was unraveling
rapidly.

He knew that, he could feel it within
the marrow of his bones. She would be his undoing, as he would be
hers.

She was everything to him; she was his
light in a world that had been black before her. In a world that he
had not seen for so long before her. She could not stay human, and
he was not sure that he could change her. He’d heard of it being
done before, but had never witnessed it, and had never attempted
such a feat himself. It was dangerous, many did not
survive.

He was determined that she
would.

“Braith.” Ashby was watching him
wearily, his eyes narrowed and distrustful. Yet, there was
something in his eyes, something almost knowing. Braith stopped
pacing, tilting his head as he studied his enemy. “What have you
gotten yourself into?”

Braith strode toward the window. He
pulled the curtain back, peering out on the lightening day. He
didn’t expect Jack to make it today, but perhaps by nightfall.
“Have you forsaken your right to the throne?”

He turned as the young girl gasped in
shock. He had tightened her bonds, making it almost impossible for
her to move. Arianna’s soft pleas had saved the woman’s life; it
would not take much for him to change his mind though. “You are the
prince?” she inquired in awe.

“I am no prince,” Braith growled at
her.

The girl’s eyes were wide, fearful. She
squiggled against her tight ropes, struggling to break free.
Arianna watched her in wide eyed fascination, but he could see the
deep turmoil churning behind her eyes. She didn’t like what he’d
done to the girl, but she didn’t protest it either. She seemed
resigned to the fact that the woman would remain tied tightly, she
was not resigned to this situation though as her eyes came wearily
back to him.

“So the son has turned his back on his
father. Caleb must be thrilled,” Ashby purred. “What must Jericho
think?” Braith remained silent; Ashby would learn soon enough that
Jericho had abandoned his place in the palace long before Braith
had. “The palace streets will run red with blood if Caleb ever
ascends the throne.”

Braith snorted in disgust as he shook
his head at Ashby. “Do you really think my father is ready to hand
over his rule?”

“I think that Caleb will try to take it
from him, when he is ready to.”

“You may be right.”

“It will be horrific and
violent.”

“It will,” Braith agreed.

Frustration flashed across Ashby’s
handsome features. “You know what will happen with Caleb in charge
Braith. You know what he will do. This pretty little thing that
you’ve brought in here, you know what Caleb would do to
her!”

“He’ll have to find her
first.”

Ashby’s eyes widened, he climbed slowly
to his feet. Stepping forward, he came up against the tight bonds
wrapped around him. “Braith, this is Caleb we are talking about. He
will raze every town in order to find you, in order to make sure
that you do not come back and try to reclaim your birthright. You
think your father is a sadistic son of a bitch, he has nothing on
Caleb.”