Dreams of a Dark Warrior

physicals.
    She’d been keeping his secrets and keeping him dosed for all that time.
    “No adverse effects. I’ve decided I need to double up.”
    She set the case on his console. Inside, he’d find two weeks’ worth of vials and syringes, a convenient doping kit. “Chase, what you’re injecting should knock out a horse. It’s going to start affecting your mind, with potentially permanent complications.”
    He’d long suspected that at some point, she’d begun to add an opiate to the mix, increasing it gradually. Now he felt certain of it. “Then I must be building up a tolerance, because it’s not working.”
    When capturing the vampire and even the Valkyrie, he’d suffered that familiar rage, and with it had come the customary physical symptoms.
    Thought left his brain, while his heart felt like it would explode. His muscles twitched and swelled as if they couldn’t handle all the blood pumping to them. He would experience a marked surge in strength andspeed, yet afterward, he would be nearly feeble with exhaustion.
    Dixon squinted behind her glasses. “If I hadn’t tested you myself, I’d swear you were one of them.”
    “I am no bloody detrus.”
    She flinched at the coarse term.
    “And you did test me, finding
nothing,
” he reminded her. Though he did heal faster than most, his cells were still vulnerable to contagion and death. His skin scarred. His broken bones mended with calcium remodeling; an immortal’s bone would set as if never broken.
    Of course, he’d felt no need to tell her that he possessed animal-like senses, could see in the dark or hear a whisper from half a klick away. “Dixon, you’re the one who came
to me
with the idea of injections. Now you’re pulling back?”
    “I need to do new workups on you, run more tests,” she said. “Then we could finally get to the bottom of this.”
    His attention was back on the Valkyrie. “No more tests. You’ve subjects enough.” Besides, he feared he knew why his strength was burgeoning.
    Blood that wasn’t my own …
    “If we could find the root cause,” she said, “then we wouldn’t have to systemically suppress everything.”
    They’d gone over this before. In addition to deadening his abilities, his doses suppressed his emotions and any appetites, whether for food—or for sex.
    She couldn’t seem to believe that he was ecstatic about that particular side effect.
    “Chase, we have been friends for a decade.”
    Of a sort.
I use you.
She was his source, his dealer, providing him a bimonthly stash.
    From one drug to the next.
Just a couple of quid’s worth, I’m beggin’
. He shoved away the stray thought.
    She leaned against the console—in front of the screen. “You’re a male in your prime. Don’t you …
miss
it?”
    No. No, he didn’t. Even if he didn’t suffer that punishing anxiety with each sexual encounter, his body had been ruined.
    “Listen, Chase, there’s something I need to discuss with you.”
    “Can it not wait until tomorrow?” Had the Valkyrie stirred?
    “It will only take a second. It’s important to me. To us,” she added significantly.
    To us
? He cast her a menacing look, the message clear—
you do not want to fuck with me tonight.
    She blanched. “We c-can talk later, then, of course. I’ll let you get some rest.” She almost laid her hand on his shoulder, but a chilling glare made her recoil, backing to the door. “And I’ll have additional vials prepped for now, if you want to start doubling up. Just till I can formulate the stronger doses for you.”
    Be quick about it.
“Very good, Doctor.”
    As the door closed behind her, he realized Dixonwould not be easily dissuaded. The daft bitch thought she was in love with him. How could she want a man she innately feared?
    He exhaled with irritation. Damn it, he just wanted to watch his monitor, to see his new capture—
    The Valkyrie was rousing.
    Because her deadly cell mate was kicking her.

FIVE

    W here am I?” Regin mumbled groggily, fighting to wake. Was somebody kicking her hip? “Who are you? Why’s it dark in here?”
    “Take the bag off your head, you tosser,” a female said in a British accent.
    Bag. Abduction. Not a dream. “Don’t kick me again,” Regin warned.
    The next time a boot connected with her hip, her hands shot out to seize it, twisting until the owner went spinning to the ground. The move had Regin wincing from the pain in her side, but she swiftly snatched the bag off her head as she labored to