Dreams of a Dark Warrior

keeping a keen eye on his new investment and blood supply. When they reachedthe other half of the plane, the berserker, the fey, and Thaddeus had just crawled from the wreckage.
    The fey’s cheek was gouged open. Thaddeus appeared unscathed, sounding out some primitive Texan-esque whoop, then yelling to the sky, “We freaking
lived
!”
    Brandr had an unconscious Regin cradled in his arms. One of his eyes was swollen shut and blood trickled from his nose. But Regin looked no worse than before the crash.
    When Chase sagged in relief, Lothaire yanked him upright.
    The man’s scarred hands clenched and unclenched behind him as he so clearly longed to have her in his possession.
    Lothaire drawled at his ear, “You want her so badly? Perhaps you oughtn’t have had your lackeys mutilate her. Just a thought.”
    Natalya reached for her charge thrower. “What is the leech doing here? Again?” But her weapon had been damaged.
    “Chase is my prisoner, and the Valkyrie goes with us.”
    Brandr nodded slowly. “You
are
as crazy as they say.”
    To keep his bargain with Chase, Lothaire would have to defeat these three and take the Valkyrie.
    Or I can use them.
Lothaire assessed them one by one. A ragtag army.
    The fey had skills, the berserker would be an extra sword. Thaddeus’s hidden strength could come in handy. Currently, the lad was dragging an overstuffedbackpack out of the tail of the plane. Seemed he was smart enough to provision himself.
    “Chase is leading me off the island,” Lothaire said. “He knows of an alternate means of escape. We could include you. For a price.”
    Natalya rolled her eyes. “What now?”
    “Allegiance to me, until we depart this place. You’d vow no malice against me.”
    Brandr shook his head. “That thing, that La Dorada, will be coming for you. Unless you killed her?”
    “She’s out of commission for a time.” The sorceress had been rash, coming for him before she’d regenerated enough. He’d capitalized.
    Natalya pressed her fingers to the wound on her cheek. “Do we have a choice but to side with you?”
    “Not unless you want to stay here. And Chase informed me that the Order will be retaliating soon. Unite with us, or die.”
    “Then let’s allegiate or whatever!” Thaddeus said. “I want out of this place! You’ve got my vow.”
    Natalya gritted out, “Mine as well.”
    Brandr scowled. “I vow it.”
    Lothaire tensed as a new scent wafted in the air. A foul scent. Through the rain, he spied glowing eyes in the woods. “Wendigos. On three sides.”
    When Declan spotted the creatures skulking closer, his instincts screamed for him to get Regin away. There were three times as many as before.
    “Only one place to run.” Natalya turned her gaze toward the dark forest just beyond them.
    “No, we can’t outrun them with these torques.” Brandr swiped at his bleeding nose. “And we’d be going directly into their most advantageous terrain. We need to stand and fight.”
    Natalya scoffed. “All of us barely defeated a fraction of their number.”
    “If we run, you know what will happen! They’ll infect us. I’d rather die—
in a fight
!”
    “You could run, and I could stay to fend them off,” the vampire offered. “For some reason, I feel amazingly refreshed.” He swung an amused look at Declan that made him grind his teeth. “And it seems I’m quite handy against them.” He fingered something in his pocket.
    Natalya tossed away her busted TEP-C. “So, Lothaire, you’re going to fight them out of the blackness of your heart?”
    Lothaire said to Declan, “Mortals always have a rabbit hole. There’s a secure shelter somewhere on this island, isn’t there? Somewhere you’d all be safe this night?”
    Beginning to recognize Lothaire’s calculating look, Declan gave a tight nod, not bothering to hide the scathing hatred boiling inside him. “And what would it take for you to fight the Wendigos?” What
more
would he want?
    “Whenever I ask for something in the future, you will do it for me. Anything. Without hesitation. Vow this.”
    Another deal with the devil?
    “Make no bargains with vampires,” the fey murmured. “You always lose in the end.”
    Too late.
    Brandr shook his head. “You can’t agree to an open-ended deal like that, especially not with a leech like him.”
    “Do I have a bloody choice?”
    “Chase, they’re pure evil. I’ve fought them all my life,” Brandr said. “Hell, I’ve probably