Immortals After Dark 12 - Lothaire

the bathroom. “Go wash your face now!” To Thad, Hag said, “Sit. You’re next.”
    Inside the bathroom, Hag slammed the door behind Ellie. “Wash! Get his scent off you.”
    Ellie dutifully scrubbed her face. Okay, maybe the beers were wrong and that hadn’t been the best idea. “You’re not going to tell Lothaire?”
    “This happened on my watch. I left two drunken, postpubescent beings alone. Lothaire can never know. Why in the gods’ names would you do this?”
    “I just . . . I had to know why I feel things so strongly with Lothaire. If it was me being straight out of prison, or if it’s him .”
    Hag’s disapproving mien softened. “No matter how ill-advised your experiment, I can’t fault you for your curiosity.” She exhaled. “I can only imagine what you must be feeling. But did you at least make a determination?”
    “It’s only Lothaire for me. Passion-wise, at least.” Nobody’s fool.
    Then Ellie frowned. What if there was actually a future with a vampire like him? Somewhere—and somehow—to be found?
    To save herself, she’d been seducing his body and his mind, with some success. But she’d left his heart out of it.
    What if she set out to win the vampire—because she wanted to try a life with him?
    “I’m gonna make Lothaire fall in love with me. I mean really in love.” Gonna put his heart in my sights. Trace, vampire, but you can’t hide.
    “And what if he still sacrifices you for Saroya, for his crowns?” Hag asked. “All you’ll be doing is making it hurt worse for both of you.”
    Ellie would be guarding her own heart the whole time, determined not to fall for Lothaire. And once she made up her mind, she couldn’t be moved from her decisions. “Then I’ve got to make him love me more than two vampire kingdoms.”
    “And precisely how are you going to do that?”
    Ellie grinned. “I’ll figure it out over more tequila. Now, let me go smooth things over with poor Thad. . . .”

39
    O ne love, one heart . . . let’s get together and feel all right. . . .”
    When Lothaire traced back to Hag’s, reggae music and laughter sounded from her deck. A bottle popped open, glasses clinking.
    Though the potion base bubbled at the ready, the kitchen area was empty. Was Elizabeth outside? Had she regained full consciousness without this concoction?
    So much for his imaginings. Hag completing the potion, me administering it, Elizabeth’s stubborn gray gaze coming into focus, her arms wrapping around me in gratitude. . . .
    Ash vines clutched in his shaking fist, Lothaire rendered himself invisible, half-tracing to the opened patio doors to find Elizabeth, Hag, and Thaddeus doing tequila shooters on the deck.
    Relief washed over him as he surveyed the scene. Elizabeth was awake, her eyes bright. She wore cutoffs and a bathing suit top; since Thaddeus wasn’t ogling her body, Thaddeus got to live.
    Elizabeth was safe, the boy was being a gentleman with her, and Lothaire could tell that Hag had changed the boundary code since he’d left. All was well.
    Still, he was furious with the three of them. Though Lothaire didn’tknow for what. He just knew that his oracle, his woman, his . . . friend did not need to be drinking and laughing together without him around.
    Lothaire’s eyes narrowed. This felt vaguely like . . . mutiny, but he couldn’t precisely say why.
    He listened to them talking between shots. Thaddeus was telling tales about him? “Lothaire’s the funniest guy you’ll ever meet,” he said.
    “Yeah, right,” Elizabeth scoffed. “I can process that as well I did the Cerunnos.”
    “I’m serious! In the middle of our escape, all the world was going to hell—fights everywhere, explosions going on left and right with bloodcurdling screams. And Lothaire shows up out of nowhere just as calm as he can be. The last we’d seen him, he’d been fighting this huge vampire gang. One of our group asked him how he could possibly have survived that battle. In this deadpan voice, he says three words: ‘I’m that
good.’ ”
    As the females laughed, Lothaire leaned his shoulder against the doorway, still unseen, casting his mind back to that exchange. He remembered it because Thaddeus had shown him loyalty directly after.
    The group had been about to take off in a plane with Declan Chase, bound for escape, but they hadn’t wanted to include Lothaire. Yet Thaddeus had demanded that he be allowed on.
    Lothaire had declined, of course. Then he’d ordered winged