Immortals After Dark 03 - No Rest for the Wicked

wraith swooped down, and their way was cleared.
    Reluctantly, he followed Nikolai. Inside, Sebastian heard her voice in a nearby room.
    “Now, this spear is a weapon of apocalyptic power,” Kaderin was explaining. “You must use it wisely, Dash. To abuse it will bring ruin to our people.”
    “Let me see that,” Dasha said.
    “No! Push the red button on the right,” Kaderin said. “Your other right, Dash!”
    Video games. He grinned, even as he was saddened. He missed her too much—his chest was besieged with a constant ache, and now he understood what it was.
    When he and Nikolai stood at the door, Nikolai gave him an encouraging slap on the back that would have felled lesser men, then traced away.
    Sebastian saw her shoulders stiffen. “Bastian?” she murmured. Lightning struck just outside.

    Kaderin heard his voice, his sure footsteps. He’s come for me.
    Her mind seemed to go blank. The yearning she’d felt for so long turned to excitement, excitement to urgency.
    She’d been waiting for the right time to tell her sisters she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. That time was now.
    If she wasn’t touching him in seconds, she’d go mad.
    She scrambled to her feet. She knew her sisters were eyeing her strangely, knew that what she was feeling was undisguised. Right then, she didn’t care. She turned and ran for him. Bastian! Standing at the door, so tall and proud.
    When he saw her, his lips parted, then he absently palmed the center of his chest.
    As she hadn’t slowed, he opened his arms—she knew what this meant—but she didn’t hesitate to run into them, leaping up and latching onto him. They would have gone reeling if he weren’t so strong.
    The Valkyrie who’d flown down the stairs at the marked lightning saw her. All around them, she heard gasps. One muttered, “ She ran to his arms. I saw it. ”
    “Bastian, I missed you!” Kaderin whispered.
    “God, I missed you, too,” he murmured, clutching her. She felt him stiffen, and knew Rika and Dasha had appeared behind her. He released her with obvious reluctance, but once on her feet, she only turned, keeping his front to her back.
    Just when she thought there’d be a confrontation, Rika said, “Kader-ie, we have a thing we wish to tell thee—” She winced. “I mean you .”
    “What is it?” Kaderin asked, pulling Sebastian’s arm around her. He tightened it immediately.
    “We invited him,” Dasha said.
    Rika added, “And now we can see that it was a wise decision.”
    “What do you mean?” Kaderin asked, her voice unsteady.
    Dasha answered, “You spent too many years blaming yourself for our deaths and too much time without happiness. It must stop. It is time for you to be content.”
    “You deserve it more than anyone,” said shy Rika. She approached Kaderin and Sebastian and addressed him. “We hate that vampire for what he did to Kader-ie, and to us.” She frowned at that, then said, “But you are not that vampire. If you love Kad—”
    “I do,” he quickly said.
    She squeezed his arm.
    Dasha muttered, “Then be wed with our blessings.”
    “Rika? Dash?” Kaderin said in a breathless voice. “Are you in earnest?”
    “Kader-ie, you need him. Even if we didn’t support this, you’d go to him eventually. We understand that.”
    Kaderin turned to him, gazing up and nibbling her bottom lip. “Yes, I would have.”
    “You would?” he rasped, his eyes so dark.
    “Of course, Bastian.” She glanced over her shoulder and said to her sisters, “Thank you. I-I don’t know what to say.”
    “Begone,” Dasha said with a scowl. “This does not mean we wish to see you two in the agonies of love, or biting, or whatever it shall be. Rika and I have video battles to master and a driving lesson with Regin and Nïx when they return with Sad Wiener gum from the pack-a-sack.”
    When Rika grinned and nodded, Kaderin stood on tiptoes to whisper at his ear, “Will you take me somewhere so I can kiss you?”
    He shuddered as he traced.
    “Where are we?” she asked, not wanting to take her eyes from him even to glance around.
    “Our new estate,” he said, studying her reaction, so clearly wanting her to like it. “Close to Val Hall,” he added, leaning down to brush his lips over her ear, his breaths warm and already quickened with need.
    She didn’t have to see it to know she would like it. Sebastian was here, and that was all she needed to know. “Oh, Bastian,” she sighed, eyelids fluttering