Immortals After Dark 09 - Pleasure of a Dark Prince

to help her and couldn’t.
    She shrugged. “Probably just nerves over the upcoming battle. Plus, I’ll rest easier once we use the dieumort. I worry that more will come after it.”
    In their hands was an archaic secret—kept hidden for millennia in a previously impenetrable site, guarded by creatures of legend—and now they’d brought it forth out into the world.
    Each Lore faction had its own seers to direct them to a weapon like this, not to mention the assassins sent by the gods.
    Garreth was more than ready to use it, too. This afternoon,he’d called Lachlain to make sure Bowen’s witch could scry for this god. Lachlain had been thrilled that Garreth had finally claimed his mate after so long, and had found the dieumort as well. Lachlain had been less thrilled that his younger brother had nearly been eaten by a snake.
    “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Garreth!” he’d bellowed. “I’m goin’ with you on this mission. Bowen, as well.”
    “No’ a chance.” After all the two of them had been through in the last year, Garreth refused to lay more trouble on their doorsteps. “Can the witch find my target, or no’?”
    “Aye, she can still do many of the easier magicks. But you doona plan to deprive Bowen and me of a fight?”
    Garreth had answered, “So as to no’ piss off a vampire queen and the most powerful witch ever to live? Oh, aye.”
    “What are you planning?”
    “Steal the arrow from Lousha, sneak off, shoot the god. Then I’ll come back with a present and an apology, promising she can shoot the next god.” Garreth had sounded far more confident than he actually was. He couldn’t predict if she’d forgive him—or if she’d disappear again.
    But he didn’t feel like he had much of a choice. He could never risk her. Just having the weapon in their possession was a danger. He had to go, and he had to hope. Maybe if he could get some kind of commitment out of her….
    “Things will change when we return, Lousha,” he said now. “But I trust no’ too much.” Cupping her face, he pressed kisses to her forehead, her eyelids, the tipsof her ears. “I know you Valkyrie fancy marriages and such. So if you wanted to be my wife…” When she stiffened against him, he added in a surly tone, “Or no’, then. Only asked because my brother wed his mate.”
    “Can we table this for now? And talk about it as soon as this killing is done—”
    A man’s scream ripped through the air.
    Lucia said, “I recognize that scream.”
    Schecter.
“He must’ve found another lizard in his cabin,” Garreth said. “He’s terrified of anything cold-blooded now. Almost as much as he’s afraid of Rossiter.”
    The mortal Rossiter had seemed stoically resolved to his fate until Garreth had mentioned that another crew would likely go right back out to salvage the rich
Barão
and retrieve the bodies. If the doctor could hitch a ride, he’d only lose a month total.
Only
. For a mortal, a month was a long span. For a dying mortal, it was eternity.
    Lucia sighed. “Okay, so maybe there are some things I won’t miss about the
Contessa
.” She leaned forward and kissed Garreth’s chin. “But I meant what I said, Scot. I want to talk with you about the future, just not yet.”
    Hell, that was more than he’d expected. He relaxed once more, drawing her over his body. “I can wait.
For now
,” he said, talking a big game; Lucia was worth
any
wait.
    She felt him hard against her and gasped. “Again?”
    “Again.”
The things I do for the sake of the world.
“As many times as you’ll have me. I canna get enough of you, love.”
    “MacRieve?” she murmured.
    “Aye?”
    Her hand shot forward, an oversized syringe in her fist.
    Before he could react, he felt the sting in his neck as she injected him. “Lousha! Why?”
    As he fought to keep his eyes open, she whispered,
“I’m choosing you.”

FORTY-SEVEN

    “Bluidy hell,” Garreth muttered. “No’ again.”
    Moments before, he’d awakened, barely, and found Lucia was gone. Memories from last night flooded him. She’d
tranqued
him—likely with Schecter’s stash. She’d been plotting against him the whole time Garreth had been making love to her—as part of his plot against her.
    He sniffed the air. This ship was in port. But she was long gone, departed maybe two hours ago. He snatched up his phone, calling Bowen. “Need a favor from your witch.”
    “Good to talk to you, too, Dark Prince. Hold on.”
    As he waited for Mariketa to get