Immortals After Dark 12 - Lothaire

For some reason, her body seemed awkward, her breasts heavy. “Taking straight from the flesh, cosaş ? Twenty thousand years of my memories will undoubtedly send you over the edge,” she said. “You must have been very desirous of blood to have stolen hers.”
    Was there a subtle flush on his face? “I wager you have to be at the forefront of consciousness in order for me to harvest your memories. As for Elizabeth’s—I believe I can handle twenty-four human years.”
    “How long did you leave me in that prison, Lothaire?”
    “A mere half decade.”
    “What was more important than I?”
    He shrugged. “Finding a way to circumvent your curse.”
    “I assume that you’ve found such a means. Else I’d still be locked up.”
    “I freed you because the body was about to be executed. By mortals.”
    Too shaming to be borne! “I’d sensed a threat, but an execution? For such a paltry number of deaths?”
    Some of the tension left his broad shoulders. “My exact thoughts.”
    “So we’re no closer?” At least now that she was free, she’d be able to kill once more. In the past, she’d reaped souls from her kills, each victim providing her strength. She’d been a true vampire. Now she stole lives solely for pleasure.
    “After years of searching, I unearthed the Ring of Sums.”
    “Sums?” Her eyes widened. “Clever Lothaire.” For him to have thought of this possibility! That talisman was steeped in power.
    “It will allow me to extinguish Elizabeth’s soul and make your body undying. You’re to become a vampire like me.”
    Female vampires could only be born—never made. Though vampiric blood could potentially transform human males into vampires, a mortal female like Elizabeth would never survive the turning.
    Even a former deity like Saroya didn’t know why.
    But the ring would overcome that. What else might the ring do . . . ?
    She almost felt like smiling—which she never did. Then her satisfaction dimmed. “I understood the ring to be lost centuries ago. Along with its owner.” A sorceress named La Dorada, a particularly treacherous adversary of Saroya’s, had guarded the ring.
    No matter how zealously Saroya had sought Dorada’s death, her assassins could never deliver it. “You stole the ring from the Gilded One?”
    He inclined his head regally.
    Her lips parted. “I knew you were ambitious, but this is scarcely believable! Even gods tread carefully with Dorada. Especially the evil ones.” I’ve never been more defenseless against her. . . .
    “I faced the sorceress and her lackeys seven days ago, yet here I
stand.”
    He’d survived a confrontation? “She will target your Bride to punish you! Unless you killed her?” Am I free from the prophecy at last?
    “Not yet.”
    “If you left her alive, then she will be coming for us.”
    “Yes,” he said casually.
    “We must use this ring to return my godhood, Lothaire! And quickly.”
    “Even the Ring of Sums has limitations. If the ring could make one a god, then Dorada would have commanded it to do so. I believe we are bound to the realm of the immortals.”
    “In any case, give the ring to me.”
    “Three weeks ago, I was trapped by foes, an organization called the Order. They imprisoned me and confiscated it.”
    She was tempted to disbelieve such a story—few in the Lore were as formidable as Lothaire—but he couldn’t speak untruths. “Why would they target you?”
    “To examine me, determine my weaknesses, then execute me. Many other warriors from the Lore were captured as well.”
    “These foes must be exceptionally cunning to have trapped you.”
    “Their weapons are advanced. But I will steal the ring back. I depart tomorrow night, once you are settled. And once we have . . . caught up,” he added.
    “You must destroy Dorada, Lothaire. You must .”
    He narrowed his eyes. “I intend to, as soon as I reclaim the ring. Consider the sorceress as good as dead.”
    Reassured somewhat, she asked, “How long will it take to retrieve it?”
    “A night? A month? I can’t say for certain,” he said. “I drank the blood of my former jailer. He knows how to find the ring, and I can tap his memories through my dreams. Have already seen some.”
    Saroya wasn’t a patient god. “This body ages with each day.”
    Lothaire prowled around her, shamelessly raking his gaze over her form. “It is much changed.”
    “Mirror!” she ordered imperiously.
    With a bored lift of his brow, he pointed behind her, to one