Free Possessed by a Dark Warrior by Felicity Heaton Page B

eyes darkened dangerously.
    Bleu waited for him to explode. If seeing Fuery again had caused Bleu shock, even when he had crossed paths with the male just months ago, then he couldn’t imagine what it was doing to Vail, and on today of all days.
    They both had awful timing.
    Fuery lifted his head again, his face twisted in pain, a broken male that Bleu wasn’t sure was quite with the world. The darkness was strong in him, his tainted soul showing in his black eyes, barely a sliver of violet remaining in them.
    Vail stepped towards him.
    Bleu held his breath, convinced that Vail was about to turn violent because of the day they had all chosen to invade his life.
    Fuery clawed at the ground. Even Bleu could see how shattered he was, only a fragment of the male he had once been, and that he was adrift, a lost little thing floating on an endless sea of pain.
    Suffering.
    Gods, he was about to suffer a lot more.
    Vail stopped right in front of Fuery, slowly crouched and raised his right hand.
    Not in a vicious strike, but in a soft touch, a gentle cupping of Fuery’s ashen cheek in his palm.
    Bleu’s breath rushed from him and he could only stare at Vail and Fuery, marvelling at how different Vail was as the corners of his lips pulled into a very strained and forced smile. He was trying to master the darkness inside him, the hunger that Bleu knew had to be filling him, urging him to lash out at those who might hurt him and his mate. Bleu could see it all in his eyes as the black fought the violet, the darkness pushing for control.
    He was trying to be a better male.
    Rosalind’s smile said it all as she watched him interacting with Fuery.
    “I am glad you are alive,” Vail whispered in a low voice, one filled with a tone meant to be calming and soothing. “But you are not well.”
    Fuery closed his eyes, hiding his black irises, and lowered his head. Bleu had been shocked by the extent of the darkness in him, the hold it had on him, when he had met Fuery again in the nightclub. He had seen it control Fuery, driving him into a rage, and had seen another elf, Hartt, bring him back from the abyss.
    Not the damned edge, but the black abyss itself.
    Fuery was more than tainted.
    He was lost.
    They had squads who hunted his kind and dealt with them in the only way the kingdom condoned.
    Killing them.
    The tainted were viewed as black marks on the name of the elves, spoken about in fearful whispers among the population and used as a constant reminder to do good and hold back the seed of darkness that lived within the souls of all elves.
    No one spoke of the lost.
    No one was brave enough.
    “This garden seems to work miracles,” Vail continued and lifted Fuery’s head, silently commanding the male to look at him. Fuery’s near-black eyes darted between his and he swallowed hard, a look on his face that was somewhere between imploring and astonished, as if Fuery craved Vail’s attention and affection but couldn’t believe he was being given it or deserved it. “It has given me back much of my light… it holds back the darkness for me. Perhaps it might do the same for you?”
    Fuery looked as if he might pass out.
    Bleu willed the poor bastard to breathe, to just open himself up and believe that Vail wanted to help him, accepting it as real.
    Vail looked over his shoulder at Rosalind, seeking her permission.
    Bleu wanted to bite out a warning to her.
    Fuery was dangerous and Bleu didn’t think there was any way of bringing him back to the light. He was too far gone. Vail was tainted by darkness, but not to this degree. Bleu could see the hope in Vail’s eyes though, the need to believe that it was possible to completely erase the black stains from an elf’s soul. He needed to help Fuery, and not only because he probably felt responsible for what had happened to him. He needed it because it would help him too. It would strengthen his belief that he could be saved.
    “We have room for a guest,” Rosalind said with a