The Day Human Prince
The Day Human Trilogy
Book 1
By B. Kristin McMichael
Copyright © 2014 B. Kristin McMichael
ISBN 978-0-9891218-8-0
The Day Human Prince
Copyright © 2014 by B. Kristin McMichael
www.bkristinmcmichael.com
All rights reserved.
April, 2014 Edition
Lexia Press
P.O. Box 982
Worthington, OH 43085
www.lexiapress.com
eBook ISBN-10: 0989121887
eBook ISBN-13: 978-0-9891218-8-0
Cover design: Ravven, http://www.ravven.com
Editor: Kathie Middlemiss of Kat’s Eye Editing
Proofing: Ashton M. Brammer
This book is licensed for your personal use only. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means without written permission of the author. All names, characters, and places are fiction and any resemblance to real, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Summary: Devin follows Nessa home to the sidhe people to undo the binding between them. Along the way he has to decide if he really wants to be free of the girl that drives him nuts or not.
Books By This AUTHOR
To Stand Beside Her
The Blue Eyes Trilogy
The Legend of the Blue Eyes
Becoming a Legend
Winning the Legend
The Day Human Trilogy
The Day Human Prince
The Day Human King (2014)
Chalcedony Chronicles
Carnelian
Chrysoprase (2014)
Aventurine (2015)
TWO WEEKS PREVIOUS…
Vanessa McKinny stood and reflected her brother’s second blow toward the small blonde-haired girl who had offered to change the world. Luckily, the girl’s guard had sensed Nessa’s brother Rhys before Nessa had, and he had taken the first blow. The second blow bounced off Nessa and back at Rhys, ending his life. Years ago, Nessa had secretly cast a spell on her brother that would reflect any death blow toward her back upon him, but she never thought it would come to that. Rhys was the ideal older brother and king of her people. He was fair and kind and devoted to the sidhe night humans. While Nessa had her own qualms with the night human tribes, she didn’t have to worry about her brother. That was until they arrived at the competition for Arianna Grace’s hand in marriage. Something about seeing the possibility in the girl brought a different person out in Rhys. He was no longer the brother she adored, but just another power-hungry night human bent on getting his way. Rhys had broken all night human protocols when he tried to end Arianna’s life. What Nessa did by stepping in was the only way to save her family and their honor. It also may have been the only way to save the young guard who was now lying on the ground, bleeding to death.
Nessa kneeled by the young man’s body as the blood continued to flow. It was coming too fast. He smelled appetizing, being that he was a day human, but it wasn’t hunger crossing her mind now. One thing night humans knew a lot about was blood, and Nessa knew that this would be too much loss for the man to live through.
“Save him,” Nessa demanded to the people around him. Nessa was still unsure how she felt about Devin Alexander, but she knew two things. She needed more time to figure it out, and she wouldn’t be getting more time if he died.
“I can’t,” the blonde-haired girl, Arianna replied. “I can’t use my blood because I promised him.”
“You let him save your life, and now won’t save his?” Nessa was angry, yet ready to beg if needed. Night human blood was powerful, and Arianna had the most powerful blood of all. Nessa had seen, only moments before, how Arianna’s blood could heal even the worst wound on a day or night human.
“Devin doesn’t want to be one of us,” the man behind her replied as Arianna could no longer talk. Arianna was weeping with a sorrow as strong as Nessa felt inside at the deathly-hurt Devin.
Most of the people present on the field had one thing in common. They were all night humans who lived on the blood of day humans. Devin was the only one there that wasn’t a night human. He was just a day human. He was fragile, and yet he fought beside everyone. Even being a day human with no extra abilities or strength, he could fight toe-to-toe with night humans. Devin was a truly amazing day human, and he didn’t deserve to die at the age of nineteen.
“What do you mean?” Nessa knew precious moments were fading away. Soon Devin would be dead. It didn’t take much to kill a day human, even one as strong as Devin.
“Arianna is a pureblood, and purebloods can create another by feeding on a day human and then giving them their blood. If Arianna gives her blood to Devin now, he will turn into one of us. He asked us never to allow that,” the dark-haired man beside Arianna replied, watching only Arianna now.
“Then you save him. You did it before,” Nessa replied. She wanted to slap sense into Arianna and her mate, Andrew, to save Devin. How could they just let him die? Devin had done everything he ever could to be there for Arianna. He had been her right-hand man for the past few years, and he had been the one who offered himself to her on the day of her turning, even though he knew it would end his life. He was prepared to die for her then, and was about to now.
“So that’s it? You’ll just let him die?” Nessa was shocked. She stood up and wanted to scream, but she didn’t. They were doing what Devin wanted, yet it seemed wrong. His life was slowly fading. She had to be able to do something. Nessa wanted to run, jump up and down, or just fly away. It was too unreal to comprehend. Even as all-powerful as Arianna was, she couldn’t save one day human. The one that mattered the most right now—Devin.
“It’s okay,” Arianna whispered. Nessa couldn’t tell if her words were meant for her or for Devin. “He says to tell you he will be fine. He’s been waiting for this day for over ten years.”
Devin looked up to Nessa briefly before closing his eyes. He didn’t even acknowledge the pain he was in. It had to be tremendous, but then again, Devin was tough. He was a warrior; he wouldn’t show pain. Nessa knew warriors. The elite sidhe families were always warriors. She was raised as a warrior. A warrior wouldn’t fail in the end, and Devin had not failed. He had saved Arianna. Nessa looked back down at him. It wouldn’t be long now before he was dead. She didn’t want to cry. She was a warrior, but her tears were already forming.
Devin rested and looked like he was sleeping as his life slowly slid away. For once in her life, Nessa cursed her sidhe blood. The sidhe couldn’t make another with just an exchange of blood. Nessa’s blood was safe for Devin, but it wasn’t strong enough to save a day human from a fatal wound. Devin deserved to be saved. Nessa never really cared what happened in the night human world she was raised in, and couldn’t wait to get out. But Devin cared about this world, and he wasn’t even one of them. He deserved to live.
One of the sidhe warriors who had come with Rhys moved from Rhys’ dead body to Nessa.
“Can you bear to be with him forever?” the older man, Candor, asked.
“What?” Nessa asked, she was snapped back from her sorrow.
“If you bind a human, you will bear the weight of the wound with him. Together, you can both survive, but alone he will die,” the man replied before moving back to Rhys’ body.
Nessa looked up at the man. He wasn’t even from her family, bu
t he was offering advice. Was he telling the truth? Could Nessa deal with Devin forever? Forever was a long time, but it wasn’t much of a choice if Candor was correct. She could bind her life to Devin’s, and he would live. Or she could choose not to, and watch him die. Devin could be a bit hard to deal with, but he deserved to live. He deserved to watch the world change. He was still needed here.
“Devin,” Nessa said quietly, and looked to Arianna for a response. “You need to be willing for this to work.” Nessa had been the one to give the book to Arianna about how night humans could bind their lives to another, which led to Arianna binding to her mate. Nessa knew exactly how it worked.
Arianna looked down to Devin and had a silent conversation with him. Devin didn’t open his eyes or even twitch as the blood seeped from him, but he must have been responding from the look on Arianna’s face. Nessa wanted to listen in, but she didn’t have that kind of power. That was unique to Arianna.
“He agrees,” Arianna told Nessa.
Nessa had read the bonding book she had given Arianna only days ago, and knew it was easy to bond to someone. Perhaps she should have taken more time to think about it, but Nessa knew that time was running out. Devin wouldn’t live much longer. Nessa immediately wiped the fresh blood off Devin’s chest before feeding him her own. It was a simple, yet powerful, motion that changed her life.
Nessa hadn’t been expecting the instant pain that seared across her chest as it split open. The deep cut began to close on Devin as the matching cut broke open on her. She gritted her teeth as her own night human blood began to knit the skin back together. It was a lot more painful than she had been expecting. The cut was deep, and tissue and muscle were torn. The pain filled her body. She couldn’t help but drop to her knees, even if it was a sign of weakness. It was too much to feel. She gaped in awe of Devin. He was much stronger than she ever expected, and now they were bonded.
CHAPTER 1
Devin Alexander concentrated on the road as he drove and tried not to look across the seat to his passenger. She was clearly uncomfortable in the car. In fifteen minutes she had opened and closed her window over twenty times, rearranged the vents, and changed the temp another fifteen times. Now she was busy trying to find the best way to sit in a car while she wiggled around. He had tried to convince her to ride in a plane, as it would be quicker than driving from the upper Midwest to the Appalachian Mountains on the East Coast, but she refused. Consequently, they were stuck riding across the middle of the US in his 1970s era black Pontiac GTO. Devin would’ve much rather preferred a shorter trip, especially now. It was only just the start, but she was driving him nuts. It was bad enough that Devin and Vanessa McKinny could barely stand each other. Now there was a whole new tension to deal with because of the car.
“No matter what you say, traveling in a dead metal box is unnatural,” Nessa complained for at least the tenth time in the past five minutes.
Devin concentrated on the road. He had dealt with more difficult obstacles over his nineteen years than a seventeen-year-old girl. In the past he had dealt with much more stress at one time. This should have been easy. He was used to fighting large night human monsters that drank blood to survive. It didn’t matter in the least that the girl he wanted to get back to, Arianna Grace, was one of those monsters. She wasn’t the scary kind. Nessa really wasn’t the scary kind, either; she was the more annoying kind of night human. Devin sighed. Yes, he thought as her window went down another time, she really was the annoying kind.
He had one mission now. Get Nessa home to her family and break the bond she had placed on him to heal him. Once the bond was broken, he would be free to go home to his normal life. It wasn’t that he wasn’t grateful for the bond she used that saved his life; he just had to get back to where he was needed. His life had one goal, and that was to keep Arianna Grace, the girl that saved his life when he was seven, safe. He should have felt that same bond to Nessa after they were connected, as she also saved his life, but he did not. He only wanted to be free of her and her complaining.
“How much longer is this going to take?” Nessa complained. Her window was now down and the cool spring air traveled across the car to Devin. He enjoyed the breeze and wished it came with silence.
“Ten minutes less than the last time you asked,” Devin replied and kept his eyes on the road. It was going to be a very long trip.
“And that would be?” Nessa asked, tapping her fingers on the car.
“Don’t they teach math where you’re from?” Devin asked in reply, suspiciously eyeing her long fingernails as they tapped. He didn’t need her using any abnormal night human abilities to ruin his car.
Nessa stuck her tongue out at him and then turned back to the window to watch the passing scenery. It wasn’t a very mature response, but better than the eye roll he got ten minutes ago when she asked.
Devin focused on the afternoon breeze as he continued to drive. The sidhe night humans were not as sensitive to sunlight as the dearg-dul, the vampire-like humans, that Devin had been raised with, but they were still sensitive to it. He had planned every detail of the trip, including when they were to leave. It was close to dusk, and the sun would be setting in a few hours. Devin had calculated the trip to allow them to arrive at their destination by the next morning, if he didn’t stop to strangle Nessa first. Now he was regretting his plans and realized he should have driven during the day when she would’ve been forced to be hidden, preferably in the trunk.
Devin’s thoughts drifted as she continued to wiggle uncomfortably. His life had changed too much in the past year. He was happy the way it had been when Lord Randolph, the man who took him in and raised him, was alive. Randolph was a scary night human with a skewed sense of right and wrong where there was no middle ground, but he was always fair. Devin knew what to expect. Insubordination wasn’t acceptable, and Devin had been the perfect child. When Randolph died, Devin’s world changed. Everything that he thought was constant no longer was. He hated to be in a state of flux. He needed stability, and it wasn’t there anymore. The last stable thing in his life was no longer his. Arianna wasn’t there anymore. She was given a choice between Devin and someone else. She had chosen someone else.
Devin had been a child the day he first met Arianna, but his life changed forever. Arianna found him. She rescued him from the nightmare that was his life after his parents were murdered. Arianna, with her bright blonde hair, was the one light in the world of darkness he’d entered. He had been kicking himself for over a month now that he so easily gave Arianna to Andrew. He had to make a choice, either choose to love her as she needed, or choose to protect her. Devin couldn’t do both. He didn’t have it in him to do both, and Andrew did. Andrew was different than Devin. Even after being raised in the harsh night human world where death was always around the corner, Andrew was still able to love and protect. He knew that Andrew was the better choice for Arianna, but that didn’t mean he was happy about stepping down and giving her away. The only thing that made it worthwhile was that Devin knew she was happy.
“Are you thinking about her?” Nessa asked. She had been watching him for over an hour.
Devin didn’t respond, choosing instead to continue concentrating on the road. Reaching over, he turned on the radio for a bit of distraction. Just mentioning Arianna made Devin’s mind wander more.
Arianna Grace had turned into a night human just over a year ago, but Devin had been following her, and protecting her, most of his life. He attended her high school, watching her in the hallways and in a few classes. He kept his eyes on the other night humans in her school, and made sure she was safe. He rode the same city buses as her, and hid in the shadows to watch over her. His job was to keep her safe, but he found himself falling for her instead. When she turned into a night human on her birthday, Devin was the one holding her, and he was the one willing to give his life for her need of day human blood. When she was forced into a competition for her hand in marriage, Devin entered the competition against thirteen ni
ght humans. There was about nothing that Devin would not do for Arianna. The petite, golden-haired girl was everything he ever wanted, and he owed his life to her. Without her in that first week after his parents were killed, he would have never left his room in the Randolph estate. Devin was more than grateful to her grandfather for saving him physically, but it was Arianna that saved him mentally. Arianna was his light, but now she belonged to someone else. Devin always knew it couldn’t be him. She had made her choice. He could never be what she needed, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.
Nessa looked through the clear window in the black box in front of her. She recognized some of the foods, but it was still strange to see it all packaged up in a machine. Shaking the coins in her hand, she counted out the correct change. Devin had given her enough to get several items from the vending machine, but she didn’t find much that seemed that appetizing. Packaged food wasn’t the most enticing when you were used to everything being fresh. Nessa came from a world that was much less complicated than the one she was standing in now. She couldn’t wait to get back to what was familiar, even though she dreaded returning home, and to the possible exile she faced for her brother’s death.
Pressing the letter B and the number 7, some sort of candy bar fell out of the machine. The picture had nuts on it, and Nessa knew at least no one could screw up nuts. She had discovered at the last stop that just because the picture had berries on it, it didn’t mean the food that came out had real berries in it. Nessa didn’t spend too much time in the day human world, and it was all new and exciting for the first five minutes. After that, she just wanted to go home. She wasn’t looking forward to what was left there for her, she had just killed her brother and king, but she was glad to be going back to the familiar, less complicated, sidhe world. All she ever wanted to do was get out, and now that she’d experienced the outside world, she was even more confused as to where she belonged. She didn’t like the sidhe ways and traditions that had dictated everything in her life thus far, but she didn’t like the outside world too much either. All the metal and manmade objects were scary, and the lack of nature was unnerving.