The Immortals After Dark 11: Dreams of a Dark Warrior

To talk about sports and women? Declan had no life outside of work. None. still he said, "I look forward to it."

Once they hung up, Declan glanced around his chamber. This room represented his entire life outside of his job. The facility itself was his life's work. Now he was in jeopardy of losing it all.

Truly, how much is there to lose, Dekko? No family, no friends. No woman of his own.

No peace. For as long as Declan could remember, he'd craved some kind of ease inside himself.

Though he'd never experienced it, he could somehow imagine what it would feel like not to know constant misery.

Declan had seen men with an expression that said All is right in the world, had envied them their contentment. His own da had had that confident, satisfied mien. At least, before Declan had started having nightmares as a boy. Once he'd begun running with that gang at fourteen, his da never had it again.

Listening to the Valkyrie's tales, simply being near her, was the closest Declan had ever come to it.

And tonight's dream ...

His mind whispered, Why not enjoy her?

No! She was undermining his resolve. And with that fal would go any pride he'd managed to salvage over the last twenty years. Whatever power she wielded, he would resist it.

Another of those creatures control ing him again? Never.

She would not break him. His will was stronger than hers. Than anyone's.

I'll break her.

And that was the reason-the only one-that he still burned to see her.

Chapter TWENTY-ONE

You've, uh, used all your dares, ma'am," Thad murmured.

"And you've used all your truths, Tiger," Natalya countered throatily. "So ask me a truth."

It's too early in the morning for this, Regin thought, bemoaning her second week in this hel hole. She lay on the top bunk, trying to ignore the latest episode of Good Boy Gone Bad, guest-starring Natalya, whose voice had turned  p**n -queenesque.

And Thad truly was a good boy. Over these unending days, he'd proved to be both affable and kind. At least when not faced with mind-bending sights like the Cerunnos or bewinged and behorned demons.

He'd also proved curious. A typical conversation between him and Regin:

"Is there a drinking age in the Lore?"

"Nope. Your high-school self can get slizzard on Zimas every night."

"Is there marriage?"

"Wel , sometimes. It's species-dependent, I guess."

"Church?"

"Define church."

But he was starting to flag, with shadows under his eyes, and he'd lost weight. He ate none of the slop the Order served him and Natalya. His jeans hung on his lanky frame, his build morphing from football player to marathon runner.

Ultimately, Regin had concluded that he was part leech, a halfling vamp, because while Natalya had been busy monitoring Thad's sleep woodies -"Two words, Valkyrie: nocturnal emission. Just kidding, but I got you to look!" -Regin had been noticing another part of him giving a salute.

His fangs had lengthened and retracted at intervals. The sweet kid who'd barely been broken of calling them Ms. Natalya and Ms. Regin was a leech, or part one?

Regin's beloved niece Emma was half vamp, half Valk, but Emma could never go out in the sun as Thad obviously could. So what was the kid's other half?

And why do I still like him?

First Emma. Now Thad. Regin was sick and tired of non-evil vampiric creatures messing with her mil ennium's worth of scathing animosity for their species. ...

"A truth, then?" Thad asked Nat. "So how many guys, uh, you know-"

"Have I bedded? I'm centuries old, you remember, so if I 'went steady' with one guy every six months, wel ... you get the picture. I wouldn't say an army's worth, but definitely several battalions. Care to enlist?" Over Thad's embarrassed stammering, she said, "And how many girls have you enjoyed, Tiger?"

Regin could hear him blushing.

"I've had tons of girlfriends," he said. "I am a quarterback, you know. I chase tail all the time."

"You didn't answer the question."

In a low tone, he admitted, "Between footbal and Eagle Scouts, I haven't had time to find, you know, the right girl."

Natalya sighed. "How utterly irresistible of you. Now that you've found her, I dare you to lose the jeans."

He choked out, "Ma'am?"

Thaddeus Brayden, worshipped as a footbal god in his smallTexas town of Harley, had obviously never encountered a female like Natalya. "Of course we should share a bunk," the fey had purred this morning. "I'm nothing more than a fairy godmother. If we share a bed, I can make all your wishes come true."

Regin turned a blind eye-because everyone in this cel might be executed at any time. And because she'd forgotten she wasn't a moral person who wouldn't give a shit if the virginal Thad got it on with Natalya.

Just wait till I'm asleep. In the meantime, she stared at the ceiling, mul ing over her own situation with Chase.

After their fight last week, Chase had ignored her, letting her languish in her cel . She had no idea where she stood with him or how close he was to remembering her, to kissing her.

This mul ing sucked. Regin didn't introspect; she acted. Sometimes she got it right, oftentimes she didn't, and she'd never real y figured out how to differentiate between the two.

Because she didn't f**king introspect.

Now apparently she was going to contend with some kind of internal struggle. Some kind of on-the-one-hand type crisis. Like the ones her sisters routinely went through.

The ones Regin mocked.

She simply didn't have them. She did whatever she wanted to do, and she slept well at night.

Regin muttered, "Balls." Then she finally surrendered to it:

On the one hand, her big berserker had returned to her, and her memories of their times together were burning hot. Each day I'll love you more than the one before...

On the other hand, how could she let this misery go on? Her friends, old and new, were suffering. Like Carrow.

The grapevine had been abuzz with gossip about her, rumors that Regin prayed were untrue. Word held that Chase had forced the witch to travel to the demon plane of Oblivion-a.k.a., hel -to use her wiles and trap a brutal vampire demon. Or else Chase would kil another prisoner.

Carrow's seven-year-old cousin, a little girl named Ruby.

The Order had captured Ruby-after murdering the child's mother. At that news, Regin had heaved, nearly vomiting energy-

She tensed when she heard Dixon's heels clacking down the corridor. Evil Order employees going about their evil daily business.

Regin hadn't thought anything could be worse than Fegley's bel igerent visits, but Dixon had edged him out for prize ass**le.