Immortals After Dark 09 - Pleasure of a Dark Prince

the static again?”
Click
.
    Lucia paced the small cabin once more, stunned by all she’d learned—and
hadn’t
learned. Was this a wild goose chase? Was Nïx even lucid? The soothsayer had been improving mentally over the past few months but still had hellacious lapses. Like the month she spoke in nothing but ancient Babylonian or the weeks when she would only answer if addressed as
P!nk
.
    As Lucia gaped at the sat-phone, another text arrived from
RegRad
:
Jst kdding. Ur not loser. I shld B there w/ U. Kinda miss U.
    Lucia’s brows knit.
I kinda miss you, too.
    Pacing, pacing… A bead of sweat trickled down her forehead. She wiped it away, but another appeared. She felt grimy, and her legs were still sticky from her earlier contact with river water.
    Making a snap decision, she grabbed her toiletries from her backpack, then hurried into the bathroom. Hastily stripping, she hopped into the small shower stall. The water pressure was nil, the temperature less than lukewarm, but it was enough for her to rinse off her body and wash her hair.
    After she redressed, she sat on the edge of the bed, but just as quickly shot to her feet to pace some more, glancing at her phone clock. MacRieve should’ve been back by now. What was he doing?
    She crossed to the little balcony and stared out at the river. The
Contessa
was chugging along at a steady clip and apparently would motor all night.
    The water was muddy, like the Mississippi, the air as sultry as summers in New Orleans. Though she’d just taken a cool shower, her skin was already heated. She wound her hair up and rubbed her nape.
    What was taking MacRieve so long? Since Lucia was hyperaware of the Scot’s nearness, she was also keenly feeling his absence.
    He’d told her he had questions for her. She had some for him as well.
How’d it feel to lose your crown?
She’d known he loved his older brother and was overjoyed athis return, but to go from king of all Lykae back to the Dark Prince had to have affected him.
    How’d you keep from attacking me when the moon was full?
She’d feared he’d had other females brought to him on those nights to work off the overwhelming lust he’d had to suffer. So what would keep him from attacking now? In ten days, the moon would be full.
    But mainly she wanted to ask,
Over the last year, did you ever consider giving up on me?
    Lucia stared down, nearly hypnotized by the swirling eddies.
Staring at the water… memories arising.
All the talk with Nïx about Cruach forced Lucia to remember. How naïve she’d been, how bright her future.
    At sixteen she’d had no idea how good she’d had it in the immortal plane of Valhalla. She’d spent much of her time at the exit portal of the plane, longing to leave. She’d found Valhalla
dull
.
    Now she knew it’d been a land covered in mists, full of beauty and endless peace.
    But the outside world had been so clear, so sharp, so exciting. Lucia had wanted to lie on her back and stare up at the bright stars that she could only scarcely see from her perch. She’d longed for adventure but mainly for
romance
. She’d wanted her own hearth and family—a husband and eventually a dozen children.
    Let her half sisters deal with the Valkyrie’s duties—choosing the slain and fighting battles. She’d had no interest in death.
    Lucia had wanted
love
….
    One night, a stranger had appeared at the other sideof the portal. A man—just there, like a dream, as if she’d conjured him. He’d had curling bright hair and blue eyes the color of the cloudless daytime skies she’d glimpsed, but always at a distance. Never had she encountered anything as compelling as the man’s angelic looks.
    “What’s your name, fair Valkyrie?” he asked.
    “I’m Lucia the Maiden. What is yours?”
    “I’m called Crom. I’m the man you’re soon to marry.”
    She laughed, delighted. “Are you, sir?”
    “I will make you mistress of my castle. And shower you with gifts and adoration.”
    “I do like gifts.”
    They flirted until she heard Regin calling her for dinner. As young Valkyrie, they still had the need to eat, still were mortal until they were fully grown and had frozen into their immortality. After casting a quick glance over her shoulder, Lucia told him, “I have to go, but will you return to see me once more?”
    “I’ll be here tomorrow night, eagerly awaiting you,” he said. “And the night after and after again. Until you agree to wed me…”
    That’d been the only promise