Dreams of a Dark Warrior (16 page)

the way his eyes would crinkle when he grinned, could hear his laughter as if it were yesterday.

Remember when I vowed I would love you. …

“These mortals plan to exterminate us al ,” Natalya said. “And they actual y seem to be making strides.

Stil , the fey wil live on. But how many of you Valkyrie are left?”

Not enough.

Regin thought of Lucia, out there about to face her worse nightmare alone.
I’ve got to get to her
.

By hastening the death of a male I’ve mourned for centuries?

Behind them, the kid spoke for the first time, muttering, “You … glow.”

TWELVE

L
othaire the Enemy of Old woke strapped to a table in a blindingly white room, the bright artificial light paining his sensitive eyes.

He strained against his bindings, thoughts roiling.
Get to my ring. To get to her.
His master—the Endgame—commanded him. But Lothaire couldn’t break free.

For mil ennia, no enemy had held him. Now a mortal had somehow captured him, had been faster than

any human he’d ever encountered.

When Chase strode into the room, Lothaire’s fangs went sharp with aggression. Then his eyes

narrowed. Something was amiss with this male. Seething anger rol ed off him in waves.

“I have questions for you, vampire,” he said in a low, raspy voice. “Answer them and you wil be spared

any unnecessary pain—”

“Who is your commander?” Lothaire interrupted.

“What does that matter?” The man’s face was ashen and scarred.

Despise scars.
“I am a king. I don’t negotiate with mortals at your pay grade.”

“A king, is it? That’s not what my intel says. In any case, I run this facility. Everything goes through me.”

“Then you can bring me my ring. I want to see it.”

“We’l get to that. But first, you’l tel me what you know about the Valkyrie.”

I know it feels like
rapture
to snap a Valkyrie’s neck.
He twisted against his bonds with remembered pleasure, sighing, “The Archer. The Archer in the Green Hel .” He’d broken her neck like a twig.
I know
that Valkyrie are abhorrent.
“Sanctimonious, nosy, prideful.”

Chase peered at Lothaire as if he’d spoken nonsense.

“My ring, mortal!”

“This one?” the magister pul ed the band from a case in his pocket.

Lothaire’s eyes widened. At the sight of his ring, he punctured his bottom lip with a fang for a shot of

blood, sucking with need.

“What does it do, vampire?”

Damn it, he wore gloves? “Take off a glove and touch it.”
Be the last one to touch it.
“You’l better understand its power.”

Chase gave him a shrewd look. “No, I don’t believe I wil .”

“If you keep it here, you wil bring evil down upon this place.”
She
was coming for him. But he had to get back to
her
. He stil had crumbs of her mummy flesh in his pocket. Stil had gold flakes from her body.

“What kind of evil?”

“Hers!”
Once the waters receded, she and her foul guards would come.

“As no evil can get
out
of this facility,” Chase said, “I’m confident the reverse is true as wel .”

She could reach Lothaire across time if she needed to. A mere mortal jail couldn’t keep her out.

“You play with a god’s power. She wants the ring.”

“What does it do? Why do
you
want it so badly?”

Lothaire just stared at the ceiling, counting down each second to the time when the Gilded One arrived.

“Tel me what it does. Now!” Chase launched his fist against Lothaire’s face, the blow like an anvil hit.

Lothaire shook his head hard, then grinned up with bloody fangs. “
Blyad’!
You’re no normal mortal.”

Another hit, this time with more rage.
No wonder this male was able to take me!
Though Lothaire

sensed Chase wasn’t an immortal per se, he was somehow enhanced.

Probably taking some chemical to increase his strength. The male’s pupils were enlarged, and a sweet

scent emanated from his skin. “I wonder what you’d taste like.”

“You filthy leech, answer me.”

Lothaire sighed.
“Chto ty nesësh’?”

“Why am I bothering you with this? Is that what you said?”

“You speak my tongue?” Lothaire asked.

“Enough of it. Now, answer me!”

“Or what? What can you do to me that hasn’t already been done?” With a laugh, he related, “I’ve been

hung from a tree with the length of my intestines. I’ve been unmanned with a whip made of razor wire.

Natural y, that took
many
lashes. I’ve watched a Lykae lord eat my eyes after scooping them out of my skul with a rusty spoon. Of course, I could only watch the first; for the second, I listened to him chewing it wetly, until there was a
pop
that he seemed to particularly enjoy.”

And when Dorada got hold of him? Now,
that
would be torturous.

“You see, that’s the thing with you detrus,” Chase began in a contemplative tone. “Your bodies are

abominations. If I severed your arms—”

Lothaire yawned loudly.

“—you’d merely regenerate from the injury. You might experience pain, but you wouldn’t suffer the

horror of permanent
loss,
not like a human.”

Lothaire grew increasingly bored by this. “When I get free, I believe I’l show you your spine. I’l hand it to you so casual y, politely even, as if expecting you to remark upon it.”

Ignoring that, Chase continued, “Of course, mortals also don’t suffer from …
the sun
.” He flipped a switch, and overhead, the lights changed.

Lothaire’s skin began to burn.
UV bulbs.

Chase ripped open Lothaire’s shirt, exposing his chest. Though Lothaire was older and not as

sensitive to the sun as other vampires, this was intense. “Chase, my master thanks you for this.” With a

laugh, he grated, “You prepare me … for trials to come.”

As charred flesh began to fal from his body, he writhed in agony. His hair turned to soot, the tip of his nose and the ends of his fingers disintegrating.

And he couldn’t stop laughing.

“You’re glowing,” the kid told Regin. He stood to his ful towering height and pointed at Natalya. “And

your lips are black.” He gave a strained chuckle, looking like he was about to start banging his head

again. “Snakes have arms and can talk, and men have horns, and—”

“Take a deep breath, my poor lad,” Natalya said. “Here, have a seat next to me.” She guided him over

to one of the bunks and sat close beside him.

“You both have pointed ears.”

“I’m a dark fey cal ed Natalya. That’s Regin. She’s a Valkyrie.”

Regin said, “So, you got a name?”

He absently replied, “Thaddeus Brayden, ma’am. Everybody cal s me Thad.”

Ma’am?
“How did you get here? What do you remember?”

“I, uh, I drove to my date’s house to pick her up,” he said warily.

“Go on.” Natalya patted his knee.

“While I was waiting, her dad kept looking at me funny, questioning me about stuff. But then he seemed

to calm down, even gave me a shot of whiskey. When I woke up, I was here, seeing
things
. Things that can’t be right.”

Regin asked, “What are you?”

“A senior, ma’am.”

Natalya murmured, “I could just eat—him—
up
.” She scooted closer to him until their thighs touched.

Regin glared at her, then asked, “I meant, are you human?”

“Of course, I’m human! Wh-why ask me something like that?”

“Because you’re in a Lore supermax,” Natalya said. “A prison for immortal creatures.”

“I don’t understand.”

After Natalya relayed the basics about the Order and the Lore, he said, “These people made a

mistake. I play bal , go to church on Sunday. I’m an Eagle Scout! I never heard of any of this stuff.” He

raked his fingers through his tousled hair. “I just want to go home.”

Regin snorted. “Don’t we al ?” Actual y, she only wanted to get to Lucia. Would her sister stil be in

South America?

Natalya patted his knee again. “What’d the dad say before he micked you?”

“That I play bal better than anyone he’s ever seen. But I get that al the time, you know,” he said without conceit. “I’ve set al these records and everything. So I thought he was going to accuse me of juicing, but I don’t touch that stuff.”

“Records, huh?” Regin said. “Sounds like super-human strength and speed to me.”

He exhaled. “I guess. But if I’m not human, then what am I?”

“We don’t know,” Regin admitted. “You don’t have horns or pointed ears, no glyphs or scales.”

Natalya added, “I thought you might be a vampire, but you have a tan line.”

In a measured tone, he asked, “How do you
know
that I have a tan line?”

“I checked to make sure you weren’t a vampire,” Natalya said. “You see, we’re enemies with the

vampire Horde.”

Regin narrowed her eyes at the kid. “Hey, you didn’t use tan in a can, did you?”

“Of course not. I was out in the sun over the weekend, playing touch footbal . I was on the skins team.”

Natalya was al but purring. “Did you hear that, Regin? The lads played
touch
footbal . And Thad was
shirtless.
”

Regin rol ed her eyes. Luckily, Thad was too preoccupied to notice the cougar going into heat right

beside him.

“So does this mean I’m like invincible to bul ets or something?”

“No, you’re stil total y vincible,” Regin said. “At least until you stop growing and reach your ful

immortality.”

Menacing growls sounded down the corridor as another fight broke out. Thad’s eyes started to go

buggy again, so Regin snapped her fingers. “Hey, Thad! Stay with us, kid. Tel us about yourself. What

are your parents like?”
Really strong? Probably don’t look much older than you do?
“Anything

unusual?”

“My mom’s a widow. My dad died on the work site when I was four. They’d adopted me not long before

that.”

An orphan. No wonder Thad had no idea what he was.

“I live with Mom and my grandmother now. Nothing unusual. Mom likes to cook. Gram sews.”

“So you eat your mom’s cooking?”

He glowered. “She’s a
great
cook.”

Talk about ruffled feathers. “I meant,
do you eat
?” Clearly,
nobody
better talk bad about Thaddeus Brayden’s mama.

“Of course I eat.”

“When was the last time?” Regin said.

“I had a burger yesterday.”

Natalya said, “Not quite so, my boy. You’ve been here for over a week.”

“A week!” He shot to his feet, towering over them. “I’m not even hungry. How’s that possible?”

“Some species don’t have to eat a lot. Regin’s doesn’t have to eat at al . There are phantoms, ghosts,

succubae, incubi. Maybe half a dozen more.” To Regin, she muttered, “My money—and my hopes—are

on incubus.”

“I can’t believe I’ve been here that long! Oh, man, I missed a game Friday. Coach is gonna kil me.”

If the mortals don’t kill you first. …

“Mom and Gram are gonna be worried sick. I’ve never even broken curfew.” Then his voice went low.

“Is my family gonna be safe?”

“We don’t know,” Regin said. “But since you were adopted, they’re probably mortal, which means they’l

likely be left alone.”

“If anybody touches them …” His eyes flickered.
Black.

She and Natalya shared a look. Black indicated vampire, or possibly demon.

Then Natalya’s gaze flittered toward the corridor. “Ah, gods, Valkyrie. Look.”

Guards were dragging by Uil eam MacRieve. The werewolf’s blue eyes were glazed, his body

shuddering, his skin bloodless. Dixon had vivisected him, leaving a line of staples down his broad chest.

His ears were bleeding.

“Wh-who is he?” Thad croaked.

“One of my al ies,” Regin said. The Lykae were now united with the Valkyrie, part of the Vertas army. In

fact, Regin was distantly related to Uil eam by marriage. Her halfling niece Emma had wed his cousin, the

werewolf king—a king who gazed at Emma with utter adoration and wolven protectiveness.

And the Lykae’s prince? He was the werewolf in love with Lucia. The one who had better be protecting

Luce since Regin couldn’t.

Before al this had happened, Regin had briefly wondered if maybe she oughtn’t cal them
dogs
or

crack Cesar Mil an jokes in front of them. Then she’d shrugged and said, “Neh.”

At present, she felt fiercely loyal to Uil eam. She leapt to the glass. “We’re going to get out of here

soon. MacRieve, just hang tough!” She watched until he disappeared from view.

“Al ies? We need al ies?” Thad’s gaze darted to the wal , as if he yearned to start banging his head