Lothaire (56 page)

“I’m going to take care of you for the rest of my life, doing whatever is necessary to ensure your safety. If that includes making decisions for you, then so be it.”

Her lips parted. She was now a vampire, and he was
still
treating her like shit.

It’s never gonna end.

An eternity of living with this arrogant ass?

“No, Lothaire, this bullshit stops
now
! Or I’m leaving you. Do you understand me? I don’t
have
to be with you—and I’d rather be alone than be constantly treated like a child.”

“Your blood is still high. This will ease in time.” He gave her an indulgent look. “I’ll forgive these rash words for now.”

She sputtered, “
Forgive?
Let’s talk about who should be forgiving who.”

“Whom,” he corrected.

“Shut up! I’m in the right here. Remember all those things you did to me? Threatening my family? My mother and brother? Sending my ass to prison? You never once apologized to me. You never once asked forgiveness—from
me
. You just commanded your pet to get over it. And only
after
you recognized that I was your Bride, once the lightbulb had
finally
flickered on in your thick head.”

“And you told me you would get past these things!” he snapped. “You vowed it.”

“I—
lied
.”

He looked stunned, as if this possibility had never occurred to him. “Then you’ve already betrayed me!”

“Did you think I’d just shrug off everything in the space of a couple of weeks? I couldn’t—especially when you hadn’t changed whatsoever! And all of that went on
before
you turned me into a blood-drinker against my will.”

“Making you a
blood-drinker
should negate any offenses against you!” he yelled, shooting to his feet. “You should be even more beholden to me. I toiled for years to find that ring! I risked my life again and again—and I do not court death lightly!”

“I never asked for this.” To be Lothaire’s “made” creature, to be his possession. “I never asked for you!”

“You told me you accepted this thing between us, that you accepted me. I took your words for truth and trusted them. I trusted
you
!”

“You lied, too,” she cried. “You told me I’d never regret this. Right now I do, with all my heart! It’s becoming crystal clear that this will never work between the two of us.”

At that, his furious expression transformed into a cruel smirk. She despised that look. “One problem. You’ve fallen in love with me. You won’t be able to live without me.”

He thought he had her at his mercy; she ached to hurt him as much as he continued to hurt her. “No, I haven’t fallen in love with you.”

After last night, I have completely fallen in love with you.
But as ever, she didn’t want him to know of her feelings, didn’t want to give him yet another hold over her. Besides, love
didn’t
conquer all. If she’d learned one thing growing up in a hardscrabble community, it was that sometimes love wasn’t enough.

“And again, you lie to me,” he said, but she thought she saw a flash of doubt in his eyes.

“Love or not, I’d decided to give us a chance. But you’re
ruining
it. You’re ruining everything with your arrogance and selfishness—
everything
!”

He seemed to not even be listening to her, his mind seizing on one thing: “You
do
love me. It’s obvious. Even if you hadn’t told me—oh, how did you put it?—that ‘what we feel between us isn’t something that everyone experiences together.’ ”

“Didn’t I tell you that the night I realized you were truly gonna kill me? What wouldn’t you have said in my shoes?”

“We end this now, Elizabeth. You’re acting foolish.”

“Of course
I
am the one acting foolish. Never you. Because I’m demonstrably your inferior! Isn’t that how
you
put it? How could I ever love someone who treats me like a dog? You expect me to have tender feelings for a man who captured me, tormented me, was secretly planning to destroy my soul. What do you think that would say about me? Would
you
want a woman who allowed an asshole to treat her this way?”

“If you haven’t been falling in love with me, then what have we been doing for these three weeks?”

“
We? I
have been
surviving
! And I did whatever it took.”

In a quietly ominous voice, he said, “That’s all this was to you? A ruse?”

“How could it be anything more? Tell me, Lothaire, I want to know. Convince me why I should love you.”

“Because any other female would! Yet you
feigned
affection for me?” His eyes blazed with wrath.

It . . . frightened her. Which only made her madder. “Always in the back of my mind I thought of all you’d done.”

“Will you do whatever it takes to survive once more? You have no idea how to trace or get blood. You are completely dependent on me. If I have to use your thirst to keep you as my captive, then I will.”

Any trust she’d managed to feel for him had just been violated—beyond repair.

She felt her lips drawing back from her own fangs, felt them sharpening as memories assailed her.
“I’ve decided to let you go to prison this eve.” “I’ll kill your family with delight. . . .”

The fear and frustration that had built and built now boiled over. “I never want to see your face again.”

“Too bad, Elizabeth. You’re stuck with me. Not for a few decades, not for centuries. You’re tied to me forever. That girl and boy offspring you talked of? They’ll come from me—or no one.”

“I’m
leaving
!” She turned toward the door, striding down the hall, flinching when she recalled those things chasing her the night before.

“Leaving me?” He traced in front of her with a mocking laugh. “Even if you could get through the boundary, where would you go?”

She strode around him.

“Where could you go that I wouldn’t find you?” He followed, taunting her, even though her feelings were raw, her nerves frayed.

They were now in the living room where he’d brought her that first morning—straight from the injection bench.

He’d thrown her around, shoving her to the floor. “Where would I go?” she asked. “How about the same place my family went—where you couldn’t find them! Eventually, I will get free.”

She thought she saw a flare of alarm in his eyes, but his own aggression
quickly overran it. “Resign yourself to the fact that you will never see them again! They are dead to you, just as you are to them.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“They believe you died in that prison escape, shot to death by a guard. They will never know the truth,
pet
.”

And with that, her mental rubber band . . . broke.

Instead of checking out, I’m gonna lash out.

She snatched up a vase, hurling it at him. “I hate you! Only a fool could ever love you!” Then a lamp. “Ugly on the inside!” She swooped up the decorative sword she’d threatened him with that first day. “Why don’t you try throwin’ me across the room now!”

In a snide tone, he said, “Hag called you feral before. Hag had seen
nothing.
”

“I’ll kill you!”

“You’d never hurt me. Deny it all you like, but you do love me. Use your little sword to convince me otherwise, or accept that you’re mine forever.” Again he laughed.

His laughter flayed her, cut like a knife. Wild with confusion, she raised the sword, wishing she could cut him back.

When he advanced on her, she cried, “Get away from me! I can’t . . . I can’t be here now! Just leave me be!”

“You can’t be here? And yet, I’m not letting you go.”

“I told you to stay away! I’ll swing!” Red covered her vision. Literally.

Bloody tears.
Dear God, I have blood for tears now. Can’t see.

“You could never wield that blade against me. Now, stop acting like a child, and put it away before someone gets hurt.”

She screamed with fury, but she could
still
hear his laughter.

Can’t stop screaming . . . sword hilt crushed in my grip . . . blindly swinging the blade—

The laughter stopped. Was that a thud on the floor? She swallowed, dizziness engulfing her.

That had
not
just been his body?
The bastard’s messing with me, tricking me.

She rubbed her eyes, again and again, and saw . . .

Horror.

Lothaire lay on his back, head lolling at an angle to his body. His neck was cleaved through, his spine severed. . . .

Her fingers went limp. The sword clattered to the floor.

Knees buckling, she collapsed beside his body.
I . . . killed him?

More tears came as she threw herself over his motionless chest.
No, no, no!
He was invincible—
nothing
could take him down. Least of all her.
What have I done?

She hadn’t even been close enough to reach him.
How, how, how?

Anguish replaced her rage. Even after everything, she’d never meant to hurt him like this—to . . . kill him. Just because she didn’t think they could live together didn’t mean she hadn’t felt love for him.
I wasn’t anywhere near him!

“He’s not g-gone,” she sobbed. “He’s not. C-can’t be.” Ellie rose up, mindlessly tearing at her hair. Her blood-filled eyes darted—

She froze.
The ring.
“I w-won’t
let
him be.” She shot to her feet, sprinting for the safe. “I’ll bring him b-back.”

“You won’t be doing anything,” a voice said from behind her.

Ellie whirled around. A woman with long black hair, pointed ears, and small fangs stood beside Lothaire’s body. Off to the side was a hulking demon, watching the scene intently.

“Who
are
you?” Ellie demanded. “How did you crack the boundary?”

“The Valkyrie about to abduct you. Inside information from a soothsayer.”

“Try to keep me from what I aim.” Ellie snapped her fangs. “I dare you to.”

With a speed matching Lothaire’s, the raven-haired female charged Ellie, her fist taking her unaware.

Ellie spun on one foot, blood spraying from her mouth before she fell to her knees. The woman was upon her at once, binding her wrists, then shoving a blade against her throat.

“No! Let me go!”

“You are a former human, then? I bet that took the smug bastard down a peg.” She signaled the demon. “Deshazior, now.”

At once the demon traced forward, gripping Ellie’s arm. He could teleport her out of here in an instant.

Away from Lothaire.

“No, don’t touch me!” Ellie hissed, struggling with all her new strength, but she couldn’t break the demon’s hold. Now pleading to the Valkyrie, she cried, “I have to get to the ring! I’m beggin’ you! I’ll bargain with it, just listen to me!” The female was immovable. To the demon, Ellie screamed, “No! Don’t do this—”

He began tracing with both the Valkyrie and her. Just before they disappeared, Ellie twisted around for one last glimpse of Lothaire.

The vampire she
had
fallen in love with.
I killed the man I loved.

But I’m gonna bring him back. . . .

An instant later, the three of them appeared in front of a sprawling mansion with red-robed ghosts flying around. Lightning streaked the misty nighttime sky, shrieks sounding constantly.

Have they taken me to a Valkyrie coven?
She needed to figure out where she was, and then come up with an escape plan.
Got to get back to the ring before Dorada arrives.

As the Valkyrie hauled her toward the front entrance, Ellie’s mind whirred with ideas. She could force the demon at sword point to trace her back! Then she could heal Lothaire, could take them back in time if she had to.

Get free. Find a sword. It isn’t over.
Her new claws bit into her palms until blood dripped.
Have to escape! Lothaire’s lying there . . . dead.

When the female began shoving her up the porch steps, the demon gave a teasing bow. “Until we meet again, Carafina.”

“No!” That was her ride back! Ellie flailed against the woman’s unyielding hold, but he’d already disappeared.

After matter-of-factly offering a lock of her hair to the flying ghosts, this Carafina stiff-armed Ellie, sending her sailing through the front doors.

Ellie whirled around. “Let me go, you bitch!”

The Valkyrie’s eyes were violet, glimmering eerily. “I’m the only thing protecting you from my sisters now.”

Inside, pointed-eared females were all over the place—gazing down from the second-floor landing, lining the walls. Though each of them was startlingly beautiful in her own way, they all had claws and fangs and moved with an otherworldly grace.

As her captor forced Ellie deeper within, one Valkyrie said, “We’re allowing a leech to walk unaccosted through Val Hall?”

Val Hall—the Valkyrie stronghold! In
Louisiana
.

Oh, God, how can I get back to New York?
More useless tears spilled, but she was able to blink them away faster.
It still isn’t over!

“Where did the Enemy of Old find a
female
vampire?” another asked. “Oh, gross, I hate it when leeches cry!”

A third quipped, “Then why do you always make them do it on the battlefield?”

The group laughed.

Get back to Lothaire, get back to Lothaire.
But Ellie was weakening by the moment, her mouth dry with thirst. From her tears?

“Did that bitch just check out my neck?” a short redhead snapped. “ ’Cause it is
on
if she’s ogling me for food.”

When they entered yet another room, Ellie saw even more Valkyries lining the walls. A golden-eyed one sat at the head of a long dining table—with a
bat
perched on her shoulder. “Welcome, Ellie Ann Peirce Daciano. I’m Nïx the Ever-Knowing, and I’ll be your soothsayer tonight.”