Read Online Pleasure of a Dark Prince by Kresley Cole - Free Book Online Page B

Annika hissed to them. “Both of you—”
    Ivo the Cruel materialized then, appearing directly in their living room, his red eyes surveying the scene.
    “Hello, Ivo,” Annika said gravely.
    “Valkyrie,” he responded with a bored sigh.
    When he sank onto their couch and carelessly kicked his boots up on their coffee table, Annika said, “You still have all the arrogance of a king. Though you aren’t one.” She shook her head. “Can never be one.”
    “Just a wittle wapdog,” Regin said with a snort. “Demestriu’s wittle bitch man—”
    Annika rapped the back of Regin’s head.
    “What?” Regin stomped her foot. “What’d I say?”
    “Enjoy your taunts, Valkyries—they’ll be your last.” Ivo turned to the demon vampire. “She isn’t here.”
    “Who?” Annika demanded.
    “The one I seek,” he answered cryptically. Which Valkyrie had he been searching for all over the world?
    Suddenly, Lucia spotted the faint outline of a figure wavering behind Ivo. Lothaire? He’d traced into the room, lurking in the shadows, as sinister as she remembered, with his red-tinged irises and menacing face.
    When Annika caught sight of him as well, the vampire put his finger to his lips. Why would he be hiding from Ivo, his cohort?
    Ivo rubbed the back of his neck, clearly sensing a presence behind him. But when he whipped his head around, he saw nothing; Lothaire had already disappeared. Why wasn’t the Enemy of Old standing shoulder to shoulder with Ivo, poised for a fight? Or shoulder to head—Lothaire was as big as the demon, and both towered over Ivo.
    Seeming to dismiss his apprehension, Ivo ordered his minion, “Kill these three.”
    At once, the demon vampire teleported behind Annika with mind-boggling speed. The other two vampires traced for Regin and Lucia before Lucia could get a shot off. Regin traded sword strikes with one, while Lucia kicked the other in the chest, sending him back so she could take a shot. But he traced forward too quickly. Lightning flashed with increasing furor.
    Out of the corner of her eye, Lucia spied Annika getting in some good hits on the demon vampire. As he yelled, spraying blood, Annika kicked him between his legs so hard he crashed into the ceiling.
    But when he landed, he grabbed her neck and hurled her across the entire great room into the fireplace forty feet away. Annika hit headfirst, with so much force that the first layer of bricks turned to dust from the impact.
    “Ah, gods! Annika!”
    Just as another layer of bricks dropped onto her limp body, Regin scrambled from the vampire she’d been fighting to guard their fallen sister. Lucia dashed to Regin’s side, finally garnering enough room for a shot.
    “Lucia, the big one,” Regin said between breaths. “As many arrows as you can. I’ll pry his head off.”
    She added two arrows to the pair she’d already nocked, pulling the bowstring so tight, intending a kill shot. She released her volley…
    The demon’s muscles went rigid. He brushed three arrows aside like they were gnats. He caught the fourth.
    Incomprehension. She’d… missed? No! How? Ivo’s laughter echoed as the pain assailed her. She dropped to the floor from the sudden onslaught.
    Too much! The remembered agony. Bones grinding… skin so tight.
    Her body twisted and her fingers clenched as a shriek was ripped from her chest, then another and another. Every window and light in the manor shattered all around them, raining daggers of glass, leaving them in darkness.
    Over the pain, she dimly heard a Lykae’s beastly roar answering in the distance….
    Annika unconscious. Regin fighting off two. Want to tell her to run. Ivo and the demon watching. Can’t move…
    Another roar, even closer. MacRieve? He’d heard her. Was he coming for her? Would he help her sisters?
    Through the chaos, she caught sight of movement across the murky room. White fangs and pale blue eyes stood out against the blackness, but she could barely see him through the dust