Dreams of a Dark Warrior

shrieked.
    As if in a dream, she heard Chase’s answering bellow.
    Suddenly the glint of a sword flashed at one vampire’s throat. His head tumbled to the ground.
    The remaining pair turned on their attacker.
    Chase. Standing just there. His eyes were blazing, his body larger, his muscles swelling with his berserkrage.
    They rushed him. With uncanny speed, he sliced through one’s neck, seizing the other by its throat.
    Squeezing, squeezing. His brutal power … The vampire’s eyes bulged just before Chase separated its head from its body.
    Then Chase ripped free the masses of concrete that covered her as if they were feathers. “Hold on, Valkyrie.” With unexpected gentleness, he scooped her up, clasping her to his chest. “I’m gettin’ you out of here.”
    “Hate you.”
She was too weak to fight him.
So dizzy.
To black out now, with enemies all around? Her Valkyrie instincts screamed for her to be wary.
    “Hate me all you want—after I save your life.”
    As Chase lifted her, she gazed back at the fight. Lothaire was still surrounded in a battle to the death. Natalya and Thad had escaped? Yes, Natalya had somehow snagged a charge thrower and was threatening to fire it as she backed herself and Thad out of the clash. He was scanning the area, yelling,
“Regin!”
    Regin drew a breath to call for them—
    “Ah-ah, Valkyrie.” Chase shoved his gloved hand over her mouth as he took off in the opposite direction.
    Only when they were clear did he remove it.
    “Why … save me?” As she struggled, his pitiless face grew blurry.
    Gazing down at her, he growled, “Because I’ll protect
what’s mine
.”
    Darkness took her.

THIRTY-FIVE

    D eclan cradled Regin’s limp body in one arm; with his other, he struck with his sword, clearing a path for them.
    Still filled with that incredible power, he effortlessly slashed through the melee. With every back and forth swing of his blade, he cleaved off heads, adding to the carnage.
    Mangled bodies lay everywhere. Heinous creatures devoured fallen soldiers, raping others. Some beings had weapons, which meant that the storage area had already been raided.
    He glanced down, saw a female’s severed arm, still covered in a sleeve from a blood-soaked lab coat. Dixon’s oversize glasses lay crushed beside it in the same copious pool of blood. She couldn’t have survived that.
    So Vincente was missing, Fegley likely fallen, and the doctor was done—
    The floor shifted beneath his feet. Rocks still rose, flames soaring. The entire area was unstable, could cave at any second. Time was running out.
    If he could get to a truck, he could drive to a small airstrip a few klicks away. There was an old twin-propplane that
might
start. But the impound lot was too far from here.
    With luck, there might be a vehicle in the warehouse loading bay. As he headed there, he spared a glance at Regin’s new injuries. Too much blood to determine the extent of damage, but he could tell the staples had held at least. She would heal. She’d glow again.
    I will see to it.
    When he’d saved her from those vampires, he’d wanted to yell with the rightness of protecting her. The instinct to make her his woman and defend her to his last was primal, ingrained in him.
    God help him—because he’d surrendered to it completely. Declan had nothing else to hold on to, no other reason to fight what he was feeling for her.
    Now it grew inside of him, flaring to life like an out-of-control fire.
Mine.
    I’d die to protect her.
The realization didn’t shock him, just confirmed what he’d been grappling with for weeks.
    Once he reached the loading bay entrance, he shoved open the double doors. Inside, cracks in the roof allowed rain to pour inside, and the ground buckled. The area was dark, yet he could see clearly. Another mystery explained—berserker senses.
    Scanning … scanning … A truck! He sprinted to it, slowing as he neared. A section of rafter had crushed the engine. “Fuck!” Twenty-one minutes left. He turned back to the entrance.
    Brandr blocked his path, his sword raised.
    The man took one look at Regin, and his face fell.Declan thought he muttered, “I’ve failed him.” Then he charged forward. “Put her down, you sick fuck!”
    Declan raised his own sword, pointing the tip at the berserker. “I don’t want to fight you,” he said honestly. Whatever Declan thought of him, the man had protected Regin in the past. “And I’ve no time for this.”
    Brandr seemed to