Their Vicious Darling (Vicious Lost Boys #3)(4)

She has that look on her face—a promise that I’ll see her later.

Not tonight. Not if I can help it.

I start for the door.

“Wait.”

My stomach churns and it takes everything I have not to lose my fucking mind.

I turn back to the dining hall.

Holt says, “We’ll be on the island soon. I’ll expect you to be ready to disembark.”

“Of course, Your Highness.”

I need to get the fuck out of here or I’m eating Holt for dinner.

“You’re dismissed,” he says and I bow to the room and push through the swinging door.

I have my watch in hand as I barrel down the hallway, then use the railing on the stairwell to slide down to the lower decks.

I find a servant girl and take her hand. “Come with me,” I tell her and she tries to object but there is no try with me.

The clock ticks louder in my head.

Sweat breaks out along the back of my neck.

Too close.

Too fucking close.

I yank the girl into my cabin and slam and lock the door behind us.

“My lord,” she says and wrings her hands.

They all know my reputation. But I don’t need to fuck.

I need to eat.

“Apologies, little girl,” I tell her as the shift hammers behind my eyes and I catch sight of my glowing irises in the mirror over the desk.

The girl gasps, lower lip trembling.

“This will only take a moment.”

And then I wrap my hand around the back of her neck and drag her to me.





1





PETER PAN


How long until the sun rises?

The thought comes to me as we follow the Neverland road back to the treehouse, drenched in blood, steeped in victory and covered in darkness.

It is an old thought that still causes a thread of panic to travel its way up my spine and seize me by the ribcage.

Because if I am caught in the sunlight, I will turn to ash.

It takes me a few seconds to realize that I no longer have to worry about the light.

I have my shadow.

Neverland is mine again and I am hers.

The twins surge ahead on the path, but Vane is by my side. I can feel his questions hanging between us.

"What is it?" I ask, keeping my gaze on the twins. They’re cajoling one another despite the fact that we’re returning from a battle with their sister, the fae queen. One where she clearly drew the lines for them and they clearly chose a side—mine.

We will have to face the queen again and if I get my way, she’ll be usurped and the twins will be crowned kings of the fae court and everything will be as it should be.

That is my preferred outcome—that I will return to what I was and Neverland will be at peace.

Captain Hook is still a wild card though and I don’t like card games.

He’ll have to be dealt with eventually. Cherry too.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

"How do you feel?" Vane asks. He’s no longer looking at me but I can still feel the weight of his attention.

"I..."

How do you sum up being whole again? How do you sum up the feeling of being alive where once you were dead? Maybe not literally, but spiritually, magically? I was a walking, talking man missing a soul.

How do I feel?

I thought once I had my shadow, I would return to whatever version of myself existed when I lost it. But that’s impossible. I realize that now.

I am changed.

Peter Pan, the infamous Never King, has been transformed by a Darling girl, a Dark One, and two fae princes.

How do I feel?

It’s an impossible question to answer.

"I'm fine," I tell Vane and he scoffs so I amend. "I'm looking forward to returning to our Darling girl,” I add. “She will be screaming my name by sunrise.”

I glance over at him. I have the side of him with his good eye, but I still can’t tell what he’s thinking. “Will you fuck her too? Fill her up so I can watch the pleasure on her face.”

I’m already hard just thinking about it.

I can’t remember the last time I fucked with my shadow intact. How many centuries has it been? Too many. So many I’ve lost count.



But a pinch of discomfort appears in the fine lines around Vane’s eye. "I still have to give her pain to give her pleasure.”

The twins laugh and then Bash roughly wraps his arm around Kas's neck and yanks him into his side.

"Darling knows what the cost is," I tell Vane.

"Yes, but what is my cost? Have you considered that?"

“No, I haven’t,” I admit, because there’s no sense lying about it. “Tell me then.”

“When she bleeds…it’s not the shadow…” He curses and then pulls a cigarette from the steel case in his pocket. There's pirate blood crusted around his fingernails and dried in the grooves of his first knuckles. More of it is splattered across his face.

I like Vane the most when he is covered in carnage. It reminds me that I am not alone in my thirst for destruction.

I wait for him to light the cigarette and fill his lungs with smoke.

“Go on,” I tell him.

“The shadow doesn’t care if Darling girls bleed,” he says. “But what I am beyond the shadow…that does.”