Immortals After Dark 09 - Pleasure of a Dark Prince

horrified her like this but he couldn’t help it—the need to protect overwhelmed him.
    As Garreth ran for her, he scented other Valkyrie. There must be vampires, attacking in number. But as he neared, he smelled none.
    He burst into a clearing, spied Lucia on the ground, twisting in pain.
    Turning even more fully.
He’d slaughter whoever did this.
    —What you see is not so.—
    He felt a prick on his neck, slapped at it. A dart?
Oh, fuck no!
Still struggling to reach her, he felt his body go boneless, his legs giving way.
    Garreth crashed to the ground right beside Lucia, landing on his side. As Lucia gazed at him vacantly through tears, smirking Valkyrie surrounded them. Realization struck. Lucia had done this on purpose. She was the bait.
    “You… helped them?” His words were slurred, rough.
    She nodded. Despite the fact that she’d deceived him, he couldn’t stand the sight of her tears. He reached forward to brush her face, but his arm went limp. “Why?” he rasped. “Why, Lousha?”
    She whispered, “He took her… took Emma.”
    “Who?”
    “You don’t know?”
    “Know… what?” He saw her lips moving but heard nothing as consciousness faded.

ELEVEN

    “For the love of all that’s unholy,
will he not shut up
?”
    Regin demanded, pausing her video game.
    MacRieve had been roaring in his cage in the basement for hours now, keeping Lucia on the razor’s edge—an uncomfortable place to be with her muscles still aching from the night before. Gods, how she paid for those missed shots.
    And more unnerving, Nïx was perched on the back of the sofa, absently braiding her long sable hair, studying Lucia’s reactions. Nïx, usually so vacant eyed, was watching her keenly.
She knows how I feel about him….
    Or how she’d
felt
about him—
before
Lucia had seen him turned, his face savage, his fangs so sharp.
    “Let me the bluidy hell out of here!”
sounded up from below.
    Regin glared at Lucia, as if this were
her
fault. “He is harshing my buzz, and I am”—Regin turned to yell over her shoulder—“not interested!”
    “Open this fucking cage, you glowing bluidy freak!”
Gods, he was fierce.
    Yet as soon as the thought arose, she recalled how he’d awkwardly patted her tears. And last night, evenafter realizing what she’d done to him, he’d still reached for her.
    “Somebody needs to make Scooby a snack or something, ’cause
this howling is freaking old
!”
    They could hear him banging against the bars, but he could never break them. Though the Lykae were the strongest species in all the Lore, the metal was indestructible, made so by spells purchased from the witches.
    “You go, Luce,” Regin said, eyeing her video game longingly.
    “What do you think I can do?”
    “He’s attracted to you. Skeevy as that is… At least go try. Just don’t lift tail for him or anything.”
    “Regin!” Lucia snapped, slanting a telling glance at Nïx.
    With a roll of her eyes, Regin said, “Oh, yeah, like the soothsayer doesn’t already have your number.”
    Nïx winked at her.
    “Come on, I’ve never gotten this far in the game.”
    Lucia rose slowly, stifling a wince when her muscles protested. “Fine, I’ll go,” she said, acting put out over seeing MacRieve, though she’d wanted to since he’d awakened. She wanted to finally thank him for saving her life—for painstakingly hiding her away, then rising up like wrath embodied against the vampires who’d invaded her family’s home.
    Apparently, the beast could be tender. Or deadly. No matter what he was, or what was inside him, he deserved her gratitude.
    And she wouldn’t mind a chance to find out why shereacted so intensely to him. How could she still be so drawn to him, even after she’d seen what he was inside?
    “You owe me one, Reege,” Lucia added in an aggrieved tone.
    Nïx easily saw through her act and winked again, growing happy, entertained by Lucia’s behavior. But when the soothsayer followed her to the basement door, Lucia turned and said, “No, I want to talk to him alone.”
    “Even when I already know everything you’re about to say? Just as I already knew about the saliva swap at the swamp you two attended weeks ago.” Then, more gently, Nïx added, “You like him?”
    Lucia sighed, leaning her shoulder against the wall. “I don’t understand it. He’s like my kryptonite. Just his brogue…”
    “Makes your claws curl?”
    “Big-time. When I was with him, it was like I had no defense. He