Dreams of a Dark Warrior

friends?
“When did you start to feel differently about me?”
    “That night in my bathroom marked the beginning of the end for me. I actually considered runnin’ with you to bloody Belfast. Would you have gone with me then?”
    So fast it would’ve made his head swim. But she didn’t need to encourage him. Instead of answering, she brushed his track marks. “What happened here?”
    “I used to inject a drug to keep my rage and strength in check. It had an opiate in it as well.”
    “How long have you been doing it? Some of the marks look old.”
    “Over a decade.” He hesitated, then said, “Before that … I shot heroin. When I was younger in Belfast.”
    Oh, gods.
“Because you always felt sick inside?” His past lives competing with his present, the nightmares and memories. …
    He shrugged, but he didn’t deny it.
    Then she should have found him as a boy before he got so twisted. Instead of running from Aidan’s latest incarnation, she should have protected him. Guilt was like a lead weight over her chest.
    How loyal am I? I abandoned Aidan to fate. Left a young Declan Chase at the mercy of the world.
    As if sensing her turmoil, he said, “Come now, lass.” Whenever Aidan had wanted to look into her eyes, he’d gently cupped her face in his hands. Not so with Declan. He gathered her neck in the crook of his arm and held her steady as he gazed down. “Let’s no’ talk about that. You’re with me now.”
    Even after everything that had happened, Regin found herself nodding against him, her arm gliding across his deep chest.
    “But I want you to understand that I’m not tryin’ to replace Aidan. Know I can’t. You loved him too bloody much.”
    I didn’t. Not irrevocably.
The Valkyrie believed that one of their kind could recognize her eternal mate when he opened his arms and she realized she would forever run to get within them. Regin had been so
close
to running to Aidan, but she’d fought those feelings. “I … didn’t love him.”
Hadn’t allowed myself to.
    “What? Why didn’t you fall for him?”
    “I needed him body and soul, but my heart was still my own.”
    Chase stared up at the sky, and the corners of his lips curled. A thousand years ago, Aidan had evinced that same expression.
Anticipation.
“Then, Valkyrie, it’s still mine to win.”
    In time, his breaths deepened, and he passed into sleep. As Regin watched, his eyes began to dart behind his lids, his arm tightening around her.
    He’s dreaming.
Her own eyes welled with tears as she whispered,
“Shh, be at ease. …”

FORTY-SEVEN

    S he can’t remain on the battlefront with me,
Edward thought, his gaze following Regin as she paced his tent. Wending around his myriad weapons, she trailed her fingers over the waist jacket and crested helmet of his cavalry uniform.
    Her lovely visage was drawn, her ethereal glow lighting the interior. Already his soldiers thought she was a witch who’d entranced him.
    She couldn’t remain with him—and he couldn’t part from her. Which meant he’d be going into her world, he hoped as her husband. Yet the Valkyrie was proving … recalcitrant.
    “You’re too young, Edward!”
    “I’m twenty-five. Men my age marry.”
    “Men your age usually don’t turn their backs on everything they know. Finish your tour on the peninsula, then go home to your London mansion. Marry a mortal girl who wears dresses and doesn’t have pointed ears. I will bring you nothing but tragedy.”
    When she picked up his saddle blanket and saw his embroidered personal crest, her face grew stricken. “Two ravens in flight?” She gave a bitter laugh. “Edward, you must let me go. You have to forget about me.”
    He cast her a rueful smile. “What makes you believe I could possibly do either?” She didn’t understand the depths of his feelings, could never be made to. He stood, crossing to her—even moments without touching her proved too long to endure. He rested his hands on her slim shoulders, wanting so badly to kiss her, but she forbade it.
    For how much longer can I deny myself a taste?
    “Regin, it will always be you. This curse can’t be stronger than what I feel for you.”
    “That’s exactly what Gabriel said. On the day he died.”
    “It’s just coincidence, love. All of it. Aidan fought vampires his entire life. Is it a surprise that, in the end, he was murdered by one? Treves had repeatedly angered his king—a coward who had him poisoned. And Gabriel? My God, Regin, how