Immortals After Dark 04 - Wicked Deeds on a Winters Night

Lykae for Bowe to be a general of his own men. In one battle against the Vampire Horde, Rydstrom and Cade’s youngest sister had sneaked into the fray. Bowe had saved her life.
    “Yet that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to hold off the others from trying,” Rydstrom said.
    Bowe couldn’t care less about them. Now that he was strong, they posed no real threat to him.
    In fact, the only one who did was the witch.
    “And Cade will not be bothered by the debt if Mariketa doesn’t recover fully. Or if she asks him to kill you.”
    “What is she to him?” Bowe demanded. “What’s his interest?”
    Rydstrom shrugged. “He probably wants to attempt her.”
    Bowe felt his fists clench, claws digging into his palms. Whereas Lykae could recognize their mates by scent or even sight, many demon breed males could only determine if a female was his by mating her. Demons called this investigation attempting .
    “Why don’t you tell me what she is to you?” Rydstrom said, his tone stern. “That you’re still glancing over my shoulder in her direction, and your hands are bleeding?”
    “She cursed me, and I need her to remove it.”
    “But you’re healed.”
    “The witch did no’ just hex me with mortality—she hexed me to believe she’s my mate.”
    Rydstrom raised his brows, but before he could ask for details, Bowe said, “Now tell me—what in the hell happened to her in there?”
    “The better question would be what didn’t happen to her.” Bowe scowled, but Rydstrom said, “What did you expect? You left a beautiful female in a tomb with at least a half dozen crazed incubi.”
    “There were no bruises consistent with that.” Bowe stubbornly shook his head. “She dinna appear to have been hurt that way.”
    “No, I don’t believe so. But you have to know that she’s been through hell and back for weeks.”
    “Believe so? What do you mean believe so? You were no’ with her?”
    “They took her shortly after you sealed the tomb. We suspect they’d just been waiting for the chance to snatch her.”
    “Why did you no’ steal her back?” Bowe closed in on Rydstrom, ready to tear out his throat. “Because she’s a witch?”
    “You might be eaten up with that prejudice, but all I saw was a defenseless young mortal. I didn’t succeed in stealing her back because they took her to their lair, over a hundred feet above us. And any time we tried to scale the walls—the inverted walls—they attacked with a viciousness I have seen in few battles in all my years.”
    “Then how the hell did you get her tonight?”
    “Each day I tried to convince her to jump, but she’s terrified of heights. Then, while the incubi slept this afternoon, she finally said she’d do it. It’s as if she knew you were coming,” he said, clearly thinking back. “I had just caught her and checked her over—she’d been sick—when they attacked again. You returned right as we were having our asses handed to us.” Frowning at Bowe, he said, “You know, I’d been uneasy when I learned that Mariketa had cursed you, but now I see that if she hadn’t, we’d still be in that hell.”
    “I didn’t return only to have her spells removed,” Bowe said. “More is at stake.”
    “What?”
    “War. My faction, yours, the Valkyrie, the House of Witches. I’ve been given till the full moon to get her to call in and assure her coven that she’s all right.”
    “You have a sat-phone in your pack?”
    “Aye,” Bowe answered. “That was smashed when the witch slammed me against that wall.”
    He shrugged. “I have one in our truck.”
    “No. No, you doona. I trashed your cars, CBs and phones.”
    Rydstrom narrowed his eyes. “Then you did anticipate that we would get free?”
    Now Bowe shrugged.
    “That will help with the others’ anger.”
    “Doona give a damn about them. But for your sake, know that I was especially confident of your escaping since the witch led me to believe she could lift the stone as easily as she lifted me tonight.”
    Rydstrom glanced in her direction. “She has little control over her powers and was immediately weakened—they took her swiftly and violently. All the way up to their lair, they bashed her skull against the stones, knocking her unconscious.” At Bowe’s expression, he said, “If it’s hard to hear, imagine how it felt seeing it happen and not being able to do a goddamned thing.” He grew quiet, no doubt reliving the sight. Facing Bowe once more, he said, “Now, why