The Immortals After Dark 11: Dreams of a Dark Warrior

Regin jerked her head around. Through the rain, she spotted the soothsayer strol ing along the beach toward them. Nix? She was the one Regin had sensed?

The soothsayer had white sunblock on her nose, high-heeled flops, a wide-brimmed hat-and Bertil perched on her shoulder. Her T-shirt read: I Lost My Heart on Immortal Island.

"Nix!" she cried. "Is Chase going to live?"

"Dearling, it's up to fate now."

"Back in New Orleans, you asked me what I would do to break the curse. I said just about anything then. Now I'm saying anything! tell me what to do, Nix!"

"Al that could be done has been. Now as soon as everyone gets here, Malkom will be a dear and trace us off the island." She turned to Carrow. "Until then, good witch, a round of freedom for Regin's friends! And for ... him." She pointed to Lothaire.

He intoned, "Valkyrie."

"Vampire," she said in greeting. The bat unfurled its wings aggressively.

Regin gathered Chase's head into her lap, frantical y smoothing the hair from his cool forehead. When Brandr's hand covered her shoulder, her tears fel , splatting against Chase's cheek. "Wh-what are you doing here, Nix?"

"You know how it goes, had some miles about to expire. And it's just like you said. A little vacay was all I needed!"

Her voice thick, Regin asked, "Is Lucia safe? Did she face Cruach without me?"

"Cruach is no more! She and Garreth MacRieve took him out forever."

Cruach's dead. Regin's mind could hardly wrap around the idea.

"The two lovebirds are here on the island," Nix continued, "hoofing it to get to you."

Lothaire stalked toward Carrow. "Free me, and be quick about it."

"That's right," Nix said. "You'll want to be at ful power before the wolf arrives. Since you broke his female's neck down in the Amazon. Directly after you woke La Dorada."

Regin gaped. "He did what?"

"Witch, now, " he grated.

"Don't get pissy with me, leech." With a glare, Carrow pressed her print to his torque. "Even tapped out, I can still do a love spellto make you fal in love-with the sun."

When the collar dropped to the ground, Lothaire rol ed his head on his neck. But instead of disappearing immediately, he traced to stand mere feet from Nix.

A towering vampire with skin like marble and chil ingly flawless features was staring down a petite Valkyrie with crazed eyes and a cryptic smile.

The tension between the two was palpable. Even on the verge of flipping the f**k out, Regin couldn't look away.

"The Accession grinds on, does it not?" Lothaire said.

"Just like old times." Nix winked. "Alas, Dorada will come for you once she rises again."

"I'll be ready." He narrowed his red eyes. "You've likely foreseen this moment. tell me, are we to fight now? As in the past?"

"You defy foresight, Lothaire."

"That's only fair, Phenix, since you've long defied insight." Phenix?

Nix canted her head. "What does your Endgame tell you?"

"That white queen will never take black king." He gave her a formal bow. "Until our next match."

"There won't be a next match, vampire."

His brow creased into a frown, the Enemy of Old disappeared.

With a lackadaisical air-as if she just hadn't been toe-to-toe with the Lore's most-feared fiend-Nix strol ed over to Regin. "Tsk, tsk." She gazed down at Chase. "He was such a cute boy. He gave me a hug good-bye that day at the fair, even though he thought I was a fortune-tel er crone."

Regin swung her head up. "You saw him?"

"Saw who?"

"Nix!"

"Regin!"

Inhale. Exhale. Pet Chase's forehead. Don't go crazy like her.

Lucia arrived then, hand in hand with Garreth MacRieve. "Regin, thank gods, you're al- who are you holding?"

Out of the corner of her lips, Carrow said, "That's the guy I was tell ing you about."

Lucia's eyes went wide. "This isn't the man who ... tortured you?"

"It's complicated, Luce. J-just help me get him back to Val Hal ."

"Help him?" Garreth growled. "After he tortured my cousin Uil eam? Who, incidental y, is seconds behind us and bent on mauling this mortal."

Freed of his collar, Brandr stepped up. "He'l have to go through me." His eyes glowed, his muscles burgeoning.

Natalya flared her poisonous claws. "And me."

Thad bowed up his chest. "Me, too."

Garreth looked ready to tangle. Lucia plucked her bowstring, her loyalties torn. A howl sounded in the near distance, footfal s crashing closer. ...

It was Malkom who broke up the tension. "The magister tortured me, as well."

Great, another hater. "You got your revenge, demon! You want more?"

"I have Carrow because of him," Malkom said. "I want no revenge. I seek to repay."

Carrow gazed up at Malkom like a sap. "Let's start by tracing him the hel out of Dodge."

Chapter FIFTY-SIX

For two days, Chase lay in her bed at Val Hal , pale, still , his heartbeat so sporadic that at times she thought he'd ... died.

Brandr had paced a hole in the rug, while Regin struggled to hold on to hope.

No one had any idea what would happen, not even Nix, who'd only absently said, "Such a sweet little boy."

Now, as another morning broke, Regin rechecked the curtains, ensuring that no light reached him. "Will you stay with him, Brandr? I need to go downstairs for a bit." To go on a fool's errand.

"Of course."

She leaned down and kissed Chase's damp forehead. Strapping on her borrowed sword, she marched from her bedroom, down the stairs, and out the front door of Val Hall.

Thad and Natalya were on the porch swing, drinking coffee and holding vigil with Nix.

Regin's sisters had initial y taken issue with a half vamp like Thad and a dark fey like Natalya gaining entry past the wraiths, but Regin had been adamant about their staying.

Thad asked her, "Is DC going to be okay?"

"He's totally gonna pul through," Regin said, but even she recognized that she sounded half-hysterical, her words tinged with that out-of-place confidence people had when staring down a gun barrel.

"Don't be long, Regin!" Nix cal ed. "And if you see Bertil, tell that little scal ywag that it's past his bedtime!"

Huh. Nix is literal y batshit cray-cray.

Regin tossed her hair tol to the wraiths in order to cross their guard. With their forbidding presence and brute strength, those flying, spectral creatures kept anything out of-or in-the Valkyrie's manor.