Immortals After Dark 12 - Lothaire

Lightning flashed, bolts inside the great caverns of Dacia for the first time in history.
    In the streets below, screams rang out. Thunder rocked the entire kingdom, echoing until rubble quaked. The unknown threat Hag spoke of.
    “Calm yourself, Valkyrie!” He grabbed her shoulders, giving her a jostle.
    She thrashed against him harder, and two more bolts speared down in rapid succession. Like detonations. She could topple the castle!
    “Phenïx, calm yourself!” He lifted her into his arms to trace her away—
    At once, the lightning ebbed. Seconds passed. A muted scream here and there. Disaster averted.
    “Phenïx?” she whispered up at him. “No one calls me that but you. Everyone who used to is dead. They’re all dead.”
    He exhaled a gust of breath. “They always die before us, don’t they?”
    “Without fail.”
    “When was the last time you slept?”
    “Not since I saw you on the island.”
    That had been several weeks ago. “Why? The shrieks at Val Hall keep you up?”
    “I like to drift off to the sound of shrieks. No, it’s because someonealways needs my help. Loreans are incessant, skulking around the manor, with their languishing hearts and unfulfilled desires. I can feel them ache, like a bad tooth I can never yank free.”
    “You need a male to keep those beings at bay.”
    “You have no idea.”
    He muttered a curse, then said, “You may rest here this eve.” Tracing to the sitting room couch, he gently laid her down. “I’ll keep the Loreans away for one night.”
    “It is blessedly peaceful here, high in this castle. White queen and black king can call a draw for a time. . . .”
    My enemy, my onetime friend. Why had she continued to help him? With a brusque “Good night,” he tossed a blanket over her.
    But she said, “Stay. Just till I fall asleep.”
    After debating a few moments, he sank down, resting his back against the couch, his arms stretched over his bent knees. “Why do you want me here?”
    She yawned widely, as the young did. “We can watch each other’s backs in shifts, as we used to do.”
    Though it did feel like times past, he said, “You still can’t trust me. I’m considering cutting your hair when you sleep, just for keys past the Scourge.”
    “Naturally. Talk to me about other things.”
    “About what?”
    “Anything.”
    Another exhalation, then he spoke his mind. “I feel . . . old.” He knew she could sympathize. When they’d been friends, he’d once confessed to her, “Phenïx, you are the only one who understands the truth: Eternal life alone is naught but an eternal punishment.”
    “Lothaire, I’ve met dirt younger than we are.”
    He scrubbed his hand over his face. “I didn’t feel old when I was with Elizabeth. I felt like a young vampire, just starting out with her. The world was ours for the taking.”
    “I envy you that feeling.”
    After several heartbeats, he admitted in a low voice, “I’d go back to the grave if it would force Elizabeth to love me.”
    “Oh, Lothaire,” she sighed, patting his shoulder. “I tried to help you with her. I watched out for her at Val Hall. I showed her that she could walk in the sun.”
    “Was she excited?” He twisted around to face Nïx. “What did she say? Did she mention me?” Though Lothaire had long sworn never to bestow a gift with no thought of a return on his investment, he finally had. I gave Elizabeth the sun. He’d wanted her to know that happiness, even if he, himself, could not—
    “Ellie was . . . sad.”
    “Sad?” he bit out. He’d never understand females! “Did she never speak of me?”
    “In the weeks that you ignored her, humiliating her with every day that you didn’t retrieve her? Honestly, Lothaire, if she’d brought you up to anyone . . . awkward .”
    He glowered at the ceiling. Silence reigned.
    Damn it, Nïx was going to fall asleep and leave him alone and unsettled, wondering how he’d made Elizabeth sad—and whether he should give his Bride another one of his black hearts in penance.
    With a scowl, he gruffly said, “I’m not a pussy, you know.”
    “Then dream her memories,” Nïx whispered, before drifting off.

58
    A fter several days back in her childhood home, Ellie still hadn’t acclimated.
    As she mended socks, she gazed around the trailer, trying to see it through Lothaire’s eyes.
    Mama was at the stove, frying up chicken for when Ephraim and the others got home from the mine. A singing Big Mouth Billy Bass was proudly