For a wild moment, she considered revealing everything about Cruach. She believed that the Broken Bloody One could in fact bring about an apocalypse - if she couldn't cast him back to the bowels of his lair for another five centuries. Nïx had said his power would now spread like wildfire, like a plague, if unchecked.

But Lucia knew if she laid it all out there, the Lykae would simply inform her that he would take care of Cruach. A male like MacRieve would never accept that she alone had the power to defeat a monster so powerful he could destroy the world.

"Tell me, Lousha...."

She steadied herself. Because she'd trusted one male, she was in this predicament - she wouldn't be blindly trusting another one to get her out of it! So she answered with a question: "How could you possibly get here so quickly? I saw you in the Northlands."

"I have ways. And I'll be as forthcoming as you are with me."

"Damn you, MacRieve, you can't comprehend how important this is."

"Then enlighten me."

She pursed her lips.

"Will no'? Then I doona give a damn about your business. All I care about is having you in my grasp. Maybe I dinna make myself clear. Before I would have been good to you, spoiled you. And I might have bargained with you. No longer. Now I simply want the use of your body and revenge for all you've done to me."

Stunned, she bit out, "Go to hell."

"Been there, Valkyrie. For the last twelve months."

"I'll escape you, MacRieve, just as I have time and again. If you want to play dirty - "

"I'll always play dirty with you, because it's the only way to win." His hand shot downward. Would he grab her, stroke her -

But he never touched her. Her jaw dropped. He snagged my bow! She lunged for it, but he yanked it back.

With a look of diabolical satisfaction, he said, "Bet this has no' been out of arm's reach in centuries."

"Wh-what are you doing?"

Her look of horror would have told Garreth all he needed to know even if lightning hadn't struck just off the port window. She'd do anything to get this back.

"Give it to me!" She made another futile grab.

"Ah-ah, Valkyrie." He half turned from her, examining it, checking the lines. Etched into the wood were bizarre symbols that raised his hackles, made him wary. Esoteric ones that he'd never seen, as mysterious as the woman before him.

Not for the first time, he felt as though he didn't know Lucia at all.

"If you want this back in this century... you'll do whatever I say."

Her lips thinned.

"I think we're beginning to understand each other. Now to make you more cooperative." He unstrung the bow, placing it into its case.

"MacRieve, no!"

He tossed the case on the bed. "Calm yourself. I'll give it back when you vow to the Lore that you will no' run."

 8

"I can't believe you would do this to me!"

He cast her an amused look. "Believe it," he said, savoring this victory, knowing he'd finally won a round - and it was decisive. "I'll do this and more. Show you all the mercy you showed me. You'll do whatever I tell you for the duration." He stepped back, his gaze raking over her body. "And right now, I'm telling you to strip for me."

 20

She froze, glaring up at him. "When I get that bow back, MacRieve, I'm going to use it to kill you."

"What's new there?" His gaze dropped to her lips. "For the last year, you've been exploding things at me and trying to end me."

"I've never tried to 'end' you before - as evidenced by the fact that you're still alive."

"What about the log truck? And the warehouse fire?"

One single flaming arrow plus a New Year's cache of fireworks equaled a whistling, popping, screeching inferno - that he'd been directly in the middle of.

He hadn't even brought up the Austrian incident: Regin, some shrieks, an avalanche, and a buried, pissed-off werewolf.

"Not to mention what you did to my quarters in Louisiana!"

She might have ordered "her subjects" to relocate the horses from the stable to his rooms. And possibly she'd cut all his more costly belongings in half, removing fifty percent of them. "What about your lies?" Lucia snapped. "Saying that I wasn't your mate!"

He didn't address that. "I've been patient with you, Lousha, forgiven any slights against me and my family. No more patience. I'm a different man now than I was then."

A darker, even more attractive man. Or beast. "Slights? If you wouldn't have stalked me - "

"Luckily, I did, so I could repeatedly save your pert arse."

"And yet I survived the previous millennium without your assistance!"

"I could have taken you from Val Hall that night of the vampire attack, away from the threat. Instead I stayed to save your sisters' lives. I did this for you."

She knew this!

"So I was a shade pissed that I'd made a sacrifice for you and you threw me over at the earliest opportunity. And there are a dozen more incidents when I've had to save you."

"Listen to you, talking about your good deeds!"

"I've got a few of them to speak of where you're concerned. And in the last few weeks, your foes have been increasing in number - "

"I swear it's like you believe your deeds are credits, and if you do enough or remind me enough, then you can buy me."

"No' buy you. Earn you. That's the Lykae in me. Could no' turn that off if I tried. Deep down I believe that if I show you I'm a good protector and provider, you'll surrender to me. You'll want me in turn."

"But I don't want you. I couldn't have made it clearer over the last year. There's playing hard to get, and then there's take a freaking hint! When you followed me, you brought all this on yourself." They were toe-to-toe, breathing heavily, and she was uncaring of the consequences.

"Doona want me?" His voice dropped to a low rumble. "Ah, lass, do you really want me to make a liar out of you?"

He was about to kiss her, and gods help her, she feared she wanted him to -

A knock on the door. From just outside the cabin, a male said, "Dr. MacRieve," interrupting her swan dive toward disaster.

The Scot mouthed, "Dr. MacRieve?" with a wolfy grin. For the first time his eyes warmed.

She wanted to die!

"That pleases me, Lousha."

"I didn't do it," she hissed. "Nïx did."

"O' course."

At the door, she called, "Um, yes?"




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