The Immortals After Dark 11: Dreams of a Dark Warrior

Up close like this, there was no mistaking his unsettling hatred. Though she'd resisted any escape plan that involved Chase remembering his past, now she realized she might have to declare him a misfire regardless.

She gazed around with a bored air. "This feels just like Law and Order. But shouldn't you lawyer up before I throw the book at you? No? So what's in the IV bag?"

"Pain poison. Taken from the Sorceri Queen of Agonies and replicated for our purposes."

A queen was a sorceress more powerful at manipulating a certain element than any other Sorceri.

Bottom line: this is gonna smart.

"Another tool cribbed from the Lore? Like with these torques. And rumor has it that this facility is mystical y hidden. You use mysticism when it suits you, even though that's our realm."

As if she'd never spoken, he said, "You'll tell me what I need to know, or I'll administer a dose." He held up a control pad with a red button in the middle.

"Torture doesn't work on my kind, just pisses us off. It starts to col ect over the years."

"Valkyrie, I will get answers from you one way or another. Either through this painful exercise in futility, as you believe, or through a civilized conversation."

"You cal this civilized?" She strained against her cuffs, leaning in to whisper, "Psst, Chase. The sexual tension between us is grueling."

His face grew even colder, as if she'd just spoken blasphemy.

"So you're the bossman around here, huh? I saw you took down Lothaire. You've got some low-hanging goolies to mess with him."

"Do you have information about that vampire? It might affect your own treatment."

"Turn informant? Sing like a canary? The more I talk, the better I'll get treated?"

He just continued to stare at her with an undisguised loathing.

"Then get ready for an earful! So everybody thinks Lothaire is hotter than the sun he'l never see, but I don't get it." Some of her Valkyrie sisters had deemed him as mesmerizing as a shiny-shiny. "I mean, yes, his body is magnificent-when not extra crispy-but he's a leech, a parasite. His irises are nearly red. Females are always tittering about how you never know whether he's going to kiss you or kill you.

And that's just something I'd want to establish up front, you know?"

Chase narrowed his eyes.

"For the record, I like 'em young, dumb, and hung. And clever Lothaire only fits one of my criteria. Plus he's a vampire. I despise vampires. We probably have that in common-"

"You refuse to reveal pertinent information about your enemy?"

"I'll bet Lothaire won't dish about me either. Matter of fact, I'll bet you don't know much about the Valkyrie at all."

"If that's true, you're soon to remedy my lack of knowledge."

"You've never captured a Valkyrie, have you?" Had her tone been gloating?

"But I have one now."

When his thumb hovered over the red button, she stared at him aghast. "You're truly going to ... torture me?"

He cast her a puzzled look. "Why wouldn't I torture you?"

Because you used to love me, used to cherish me. "I thought we had a moment yesterday? Didn't you like seeing me in lingerie?"

In a monotone voice, he said, "Why did the charge throwers have no il effect on you?"

He's truly going to do it? Then f**k him. DEFCON. "Chase, I've tussled with vibrators stronger than your charge throwers. "

No reaction. "You consumed energy. And channeled it at will. How?"

All Valkyrie consumed it-they were each connected through a grid of mystical energy-but Regin was the only one she knew of who could radiate it through her body. She'd inherited the talent from her birth mother. "So how does one get started as a magister? Col ege or trade school?"

"I don't have the time or patience for games. Now, tell me, why do you ... glow?"

"I touched a radioactive alien c**k once."

He pressed the button.

As her eyes fol owed a bead of poison traveling down the tube, she muttered, "You're not giving me much of a choice here, Chase."

She remembered all those centuries ago when Aidan had taught her war strategies. If this were a battlefield, then she had only one move open to her-a charge. Could she be his doom once more?

To sit and wait in this facility would mean certain death. Regin hadn't stayed alive for a thousand years by inaction.

When the poison reached her arm, she clamped her jaw shut to keep from screaming-it was like liquid fire in her vein. Sweat broke out on her face. Every muscle in her body began to knot.

She gritted out, "When I escape-"

"Valkyrie, no one has ever escaped this island."

"Nothing but a rol cal ... of dead immortals?"

"Precisely. Now, tell me what language you speak to your cel mate."

"Immortalian. No? Immoratlivan. Immortinian!"

"Do you want me to hurt you?" Another bead inched down the line.

"I want you to go f**k yourself!" she bit out just before it hit.

Her back bowed, her sharpened claws slicing into her palms as she fought the urge to shriek. Lights flared and thunder rocked the building.

Blood trickled from her nose. She tasted more in her mouth.

If he does it again, then my decision's settled.

"I'm told the effect is cumulative-it will continue to worsen." Though outwardly calm as he explained this, his face had paled even more. "But if you tell me about the Valkyrie's weaknesses, I'll administer the antidote."

"Weaknesses? So many. Foremost, we're ... ticklish."

A third bead dripped down.

"You'll pay!" The pain was blistering, like acid eating away at her from the inside. She threw back her head and shrieked as her body seized. Her arms wrenched violently against her restraints.

Pop. Her shoulder dislocated. Light bulbs shattered above them.

Going to kill him. Going to do the deed myself! When she'd finally endured that wave and faced him once more, her vision was blurred by a film of blood. Dots of crimson had begun to seep from her pores.

He narrowed his eyes. "Your glowing has lessened. Is it emotion-based?"

She spat, giving him a slow, bloody grin. "This will hurt you ... more than it ever hurts me." Must make him remember.

"And again, you act as if we've met."

"I did know you," she said. "Long before all this. Don't you remember me?"

Like a shot, he was on his feet and around the table, his hand gripping her throat. He squeezed her windpipe as he demanded, "Were you there that night?"