Immortals After Dark 12 - Lothaire

memories. . . .
    In greeting, Hag said, “Thaddeus asked about you earlier.” The fey sported streaks of purple paste on her hands and one cheek. “He wants to go on your revenge mission, to watch out for you.”
    “ Do pizdy. He’d do well to forget he ever knew me.”
    Hag didn’t disagree. “Have you tried explaining to the boy what you’re really like?”
    “I showed him. I tapped his neck within ten seconds of meeting him, directly after he helped me out of a tight spot.”
    And from those meager drops of blood, he’d stolen Thaddeus’s memories easily enough. Lothaire had already experienced a couple of them, had dreamed of running in the sun, feeling the warmth on his skin.
    No wonder his Bride dreaded the loss. “Why does no one believe I’m evil anymore?” he asked her.
    “Oh, I do. Honest,” Elizabeth said solemnly before turning toward the bathroom. “Gonna wash off the salt water. Don’t leave till I get back!”
    As he watched her saunter away, he thought, She doesn’t believe I’m evil, not really.
    Yesterday when he returned to Hag’s to pick Elizabeth up, she’d been asleep. Carefully he’d lifted her into his arms, and she’d burrowed her face against his chest so trustingly. He’d gazed down at her, troubled, thinking, She still has no idea what I’m truly capable of, no idea what I’ve done.
    What I would do to possess her forever.
    Now he exhaled a gust of breath, sitting at the dining table. In a low tone, he asked the fey, “Does Elizabeth speak of me?” Hag gave a wary nod. “And? What are her feelings toward me?”
    “They vary according to your behavior.” She dropped leaves into a pot. “Amazing how that works out.”
    His gaze narrowed. “Watch yourself, Hag.” Again his mood was foul. He’d spent the day uselessly dreaming his own memories once more.
    “She hasn’t told me that she loves you, if that’s what you want to know.”
    It was. He needed Elizabeth to fall in love with him—because only then would he trust her loyalty to him.
    Yet a lesser male might suspect that she still hated him for all his sins against her and merely bided her time until she could be free of him.
    And free of Saroya.
    Hag asked, “Do you not see her thoughts in dreams?”
    He pinched the bridge of his nose. “None.” Even though he continued to sip from her.
    Whenever he slept, Elizabeth was like a quiet blank spot in his mind. And no matter how much he prompted, she’d never told him of her feelings.
    Yet nightly, she said or did something to remind him of how much she longed for her family.
    Though he felt like a petty, jealous lover, he knew that if she was loyal to them, then she couldn’t be fully loyal to him. The situation would be ripe for betrayal, because she would choose their interests over his if a conflict ever arose.
    And let’s be realistic, when would I not be in conflict with those ill-bred humans?
    Severing contact with them was the wisest course. News reports held that Elizabeth had been mortally wounded in a botched prison escape. Her family would believe her dead.
    “You’re ceding your heart to her,” Hag observed.
    He gazed in Elizabeth’s direction. “She is”—he paused, then admitted—“treasured. If anything should happen to me, you are to protect her. Search for a way to free her.”
    The fey nodded. “Speaking of something happening to you, Dorada’s been felt in the South, near the Valkyrie coven in Louisiana.”
    The sorceress had previously lived in the Amazon; now she was in Louisiana? He’d bet the hideous mummy and her Wendigo lackeys were hiding out in the swamp basin.
    “I’ll go there this eve.” He would trace to a bayou bar called Erol’s, one frequented by scores of immortals. Perhaps Dorada had journeyed to that area because of the Lore energy. Or perhaps she’d sensed he had been there recently.
    “Has Saroya risen?” Hag asked.
    “Once. While Elizabeth slept.” The girl had never even known.
    He’d wasted no time castigating Saroya, taking out his fury at himself on her. “You knew you weren’t my fucking Bride!”
    “Are you so sure?”
    How could he ever have been fooled? “You’re not mine. I’d seek a noon-day sun if paired with you.” Hadn’t he told Elizabeth the same thing? He flinched when he thought of how incredibly much he’d insulted her. “You knew all along that I had no fated tie to you.”
    “I used your own arrogance as a weapon against you. Such a plentifularsenal.