Immortals After Dark 01 - The Warlord Wants Forever

fight with her. “I’d had five years of torment. I’d had a hell of wanting you and feared you would leave me at the first opportunity. Then I had dreams of your memories.” These ghouls were irritating him, especially when they got between him and Myst while he was trying to convince her about something so critical. He began killing them more quickly. “In each one you were evil…a seductress.”

    “Still am, Wroth.” She kicked a ghoul in the belly, freeing her sword from his chest.

    “No, you’re not—”

    “Duck!” Her sword whistled over his head to decapitate a ghoul behind him. “Yeah, well, as I recall, every sunset I asked you about your dreams and you brushed away my concerns.”

    He slew two with one sword thrust. “I know. I should have asked you, because all those excruciating scenes of you…doing things were all out of context.” When the largest ghoul out there howled and attacked him, Wroth stabbed the thing in the face, dropping it. She raised her eyebrows as if impressed, then scowled, remembering herself.

    “Myst, even then I was still falling for you.”

    That at least got her to pause. She blew a curl out of her eyes and just when he tensed to trace behind her, she took two hands and plunged her sword back along her side to kill the ghoul at her back.

    Now he raised his eyebrows, but continued, “I was angry when I saw your plan to trick me, but I finally understand that you rightly wanted your freedom back. I know what and who you are now. I saw all the memories, clearly at last. Not out of context.” Goddamn it, more ghouls? “Myst, can we not just speak about this? Away from here? Dawn nears and all I ask is for a chance to—”

    “I gave you a chance. Freely. And you threw it away. You were about to brainwash me.”

    With one hand, he carved at a ghoul. “I couldn’t have lived with myself for that. I was wrong in many ways. I took your freedom when you needed it, and I hurt you just when you’d given yourself to me.” Never had he regretted his actions so much.

    He could have won her. A heart for a heart.

    “I wanted you so badly I resorted to anything I could and treated you ill when you didn’t deserve it.” He looked around. He’d been so intent on her, he’d scarcely noticed they’d cut such a swath that the others had run. “If you give me a chance, I will make it up to you.”

    “Oh, you got it, Wroth. Just let me go gift wrap my chain for you.”

    Wroth’s eyes flickered black and his voice went low. “I’d destroy the thing if I saw it.”

    His reaction surprised her. “You’ll certainly never get within arm’s reach of it.”

    “Myst, I felt your feelings for me, felt you struggling against them. I know you care for me.” Long moments passed as they stared into each other’s eyes.

    She was weak, undeserving of her family, she knew, especially when her heart had leapt at the sight of him. But she shook her head. “I can’t. It’s just too late. I have a lot to lose from this. I won’t hurt my family by accepting you.”

    “Kristoff seeks peace. He would fight the Horde with you. There would be no conflict with them. And I would…make an effort with your sisters, Myst. I know how important they are to you now. Believe me, I know.”

    She tapped her chin. “So you can see why the idea of being forced to forget them made me cranky? Huh? And what if you saw more out of context? This would just happen again and again.”

    “I would not drink from you.”

    She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, just like I’m going to finally beat my Xbox addiction.”

    “I’m pleased you feel the same about that option. I’ve already vowed never to use the information to harm the Valkyrie in any way. And I would have to tell you everything I was thinking as if you could read my mind as well. We are wed. We should know each other’s secrets. Myst, we are kindred.”

    That made her hesitate. She’d felt that way too. Kindred.

    What the hell was she thinking? He’d been about to brainwash her.

    Making her voice firm, she said, “Wroth, I’m sorry, but I could never trust you—” Her words were cut off by a massive arm squeezing the breath from her throat. Not a ghoul. A demon? she thought wildly. A turned demon?

    Wroth raised his sword, a savage, killing look in his eyes, but the arm tightened and he froze.

    “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Ivo said as he sauntered to the front of his gang of vampires. “He’ll snap