Dreams of a Dark Warrior

to his knee beside Chase. “Where’s my ring?”
    “Fuck off, leech!” He brandished his sword from a sheath at his side.
    Before Chase could strike, Lothaire fisted his wrist, wresting the sword free. “I recognize this blade. You stabbed me with it, twisting it inside me.” Lothaire pulled the scabbard free, then donned his new sword. “For sentimental value. Something to remember you by.”
    Next he seized the magister’s hand. “And now to berid of this collar.” Though the man resisted, Lothaire tore off his glove.
    More scars?
Raised marks covered the back of Chase’s hand.
    With a shrug, Lothaire flattened the pad of the man’s thumb against the torque’s lock. “Once I’m free, we’re going to find out exactly how much pain you can endure while remaining conscious. I won’t stop until you tell me where my ring is.” He leaned in to say at his ear, “I’ll be sure to make you feel your
loss
.”
    Chase sneered, “My print won’t work.”
    Lothaire pressed his thumb on the pad again. “You lie.” He snatched off Chase’s remaining glove to test his other print. Nothing.
    “If you want your torque removed, go find Fegley. Tell him I sent you.”
    “Didn’t you hear? The warden is dead. Emberine burned the man alive.” After his hand had been removed to use as a key. But the
suka
wouldn’t bargain for it, had threatened to incinerate it if Lothaire neared her.
    So I’m still trapped
. “Then you remain of use to me, Chase. You know of another way off this island.”
    “Of course I do.”
    “You
will
share it. But must I dismember you first?” Once Lothaire drank Chase, he’d garner knowledge of any potential escape to be had. But those stolen memories were difficult to access at will, no matter how hard he’d trained to do just that.
    Most of the time the memories came in the form of dreams.
How much sleeping will I be doing until I escape? Until I seize
her?
    The magister’s body twisted as the flames began to lick closer to his legs. As if he could see his female, Chase stretched one arm out, reaching in her direction. His eyes glowed with fear—but clearly not for himself.
    He would be particularly keen to bargain. “I
do
hope your female’s faring better than you. If she survived the crash, she could be at the mercy of those winged demons. Lusty devils. They won’t kill her; they’ll keep her as a concubine. For centuries. They’ll breed on her as well, of course.”
    Chase yelled, thrashing against the metal.
    “You want to get to her more than anything,” Lothaire murmured. “You want it so badly, you’re dumbfounded that you can’t get free.”
    Another violent thrash.
    “Now you understand what it’s like to be kept from your female when she is in danger. To have some enemy gloating, while you are trapped and powerless, unable to defend her. But what if I pulled you free and you were able to go to her?”
    “Do it! Free me!”
    “You’d have to cede things in return. You stole my property, jailed me for weeks, starved and tortured me. So many debts to pay. The scales between us tip so heavily against you, I probably should just kill you.”
    “You want to deal? Then do it!”
    “My ring. I must have it.”
    “It was taken off the island tonight. I don’t know where.”
    “
Blyad’!
Then what else do you have? What will clear the slate between us?”
    “The Order will strike this installation within six days,” Chase grated. “But there’s a boat a few days from here. I vow to lead you to it, if you free me now.”
    A few days?
Cutting it so close.
    Lothaire would require blood in the interim. Normally he fed only every week or so, but he was still regenerating. And he’d need all the power he could steal to compensate for this torque.
    “I’ll allow this to cancel out my stolen property and to pay for jailing me for weeks. You will be my guide—and my prisoner.” He examined his black claws. “Next?”
    “What?”
    “To pay for starving and torturing me. What could possibly be recompense for that?”
    Chase’s eyes darted. “I don’t … know. Damn it, pull me free so I can think!”
    “I can’t stand to see all this good blood going to waste, seared to nothing.”
    The magister’s face paled even more. “The fuck you’ll be drinkin’ me!”
    “When you tortured me, I told you I’d make you pay in ways you couldn’t imagine.”
    As ever, I was right.
Lothaire almost sighed.
The world is so tediously predictable.
Speaking