"She played her part, just as you will," Nix said. "They believe they know my role. They think I hasten the apocalypse. They think to Nix is to destroy. They think Nix means nothing."
Jo bit out, "Wh-who?"
"The Morior. The Bringers of Doom. They're bogeymen, ones you never even knew to be terrified of. Nightmares made flesh. Imagine having one's bones pulverized. It'd probably hurt something like this--"
SNAP. Jo screamed when Nix broke her other arm. "STOP!"
"Their wasteland realm approaches," the Valkyrie continued, oblivious to Jo's pain. "Inside their castle . . . monsters and devils. A dragon who could burn the world. A poisonous bane who slips into your secret fantasies. A malevolent demon risen from hell. They're bent on enslaving us all." She laughed. "Though it sounds terribly fun and exciting, the Undoing is anything but. He'll soon have us all in the palm of his hand."
Nix loomed over her with that crackling dagger-bolt, her face twisted but beautiful. "He says worlds are like glass spheres. When he handles them, he leaves his mark. Sometimes only the faintest smudge." Her expression grew vicious, her voice rising to a shriek: "Other times, he obliterates--them--back--to--sand !"
Lightning speared down. Cement exploded; the river boiled. Grit blasted Jo's eyes, and steam scorched her face.
Nix tossed away her dagger and leaned down to murmur at Jo's ear, "Each has such fabled abilities. Together they attain synchronicity. On a battlefield, if interconnected, they will win. But if we can't defeat them, we can appease them."
"D-don't understand."
The Valkyrie whispered, "If you want to see Thaddeus alive, you'll learn about Orion."
"Don't even know . . . who that is."
"And yet he'll impact your life in so many ways." SNAP.
Jo's left femur. "AHHHHHH! S-stop! Why?"
"Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind."
"You're . . . crazy!"
"There, there." Blank-eyed, Nix petted her face, her razor-sharp claws slicing Jo's cheeks. "Shhh. I want us to be friends."
Jo couldn't fight back with broken limbs. "I-I'll do it." I'll say anything.
Nix pressed her forefinger over her own lips. With her other hand, the Valkyrie grasped Jo's neck and squeezed.
Black spots swarmed her vision as she stared into this monster's eyes. Consciousness faded.
Delirious. About to die.
Who would save Thad from the Valkyrie?
TWENTY-SEVEN
Can't reach her. No arrows left . . .
When all attempts to shoot through the cage failed, Rune had attacked the bolts bodily, snatching at lines of them until his hands were charred.
The light was searing his corneas. He closed his eyes, willing them to regenerate quickly. Unable to see, he could only fight, burn, and hear.
The crack of Josephine's bones. Her strangled breaths.
He roared with fury, striking out at the lightning with even more force. Nix would likely spot him. She could begin to clock his future, lessening his chances of a successful assassination.
Rune didn't give a fuck. To reach Josephine, he grappled to breach the cage--
The lightning began to dissipate.
He swiped his sleeve over his eyes, blinking repeatedly to regain his sight. In the distance, Nix had vanished, and Josephine lay motionless on the ground.
He traced to her. The damage was even worse than he'd thought. He dropped to his knees beside her battered body.
Shattered bones, cracked skull. Skin blistered and slashed.
He'd suffered enough internal injuries to recognize them in this small female. Her organs were bleeding inside her. With a curse, he lifted her. Her head lolled unnaturally. Nix had broken her neck.
He yelled into the night, "I'll fucking kill you, Valkyrie!" He traced Josephine to Tortua, to his bed. He sliced away her clothes, wincing at what he revealed.
If she was truly so young--and hadn't made the transition to full immortality . . .
The vampire could die. As brutally as my mother did.
He cut his wrist for blood, dripping it between her pale lips. She didn't wake and wouldn't swallow. He needed a healer. How to find one? Immortals had scarce use for them! All they had to do was rest and wait for regeneration to happen.
Rune's ears twitched. His heart raced as her heartbeat slowed. She might perish before he could return with help. Think, Rune!
In theory, he possessed enough magicks to heal her, but he would need a runic combination to access them, a spell of symbols. Could he remember the precise order and form of the runes?
He'd utilized healing spells to regenerate quickly after a violent brothel patron, but that had been thousands of years ago.
Racking his brain, he gathered black blood from his wrist. He pressed his forefinger to her chest and willed his mind to remember. . . .
Jo woke, blinking at her surroundings, her body in agony.
She was at Rune's? He'd been at the riverfront! He must have saved her from the Valkyrie.
Jo raised her hand to her forehead, wincing. Dizziness made his bed feel like it undulated in waves. She dared a glance down. Bandages covered her. Strange markings peeked out from the edges.
She tried to make sense of that, but her head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, yet echoing at the same time. The harder she stared at the bandages, the more her vision blurred. Soon she saw two of everything.
Two of Rune appeared beside the bed. Both of his faces looked exhausted. "You're awake." He sat next to her and rolled up his sleeve. "You should drink," he said, but his manner was cold.
Why? He now knew she wasn't in league with Nix. "How did you find me?"
"I never lost you. I released you solely to follow you back to the Valkyrie."
"I was bait?"
"As if you wouldn't have done the same," he said, tone even colder. "Seems you're quite good at using others."
"What are you talking about?"
"Forget it. You need to feed again." He offered his wrist.
Pain ramped up her nausea. "I can't. Not yet."
He shrugged. "You're on your way to making a full recovery, regenerating all on your own." He hesitated, then said, "You should've told me you didn't know Nix."
She couldn't read his expression. "Would it have mattered?"
"It would have, yes. What did she mean when she called you rare?"
"I have no idea," Jo murmured. "Did you bandage me?"
"I did. And I finally got you to drink over the last two days."
She'd fed, and didn't even remember? Wait . . . "Two days?" She needed to get back to Thad--he was still in that woman's power! "I've been gone that long?" She sat up, and the room spun. All the pain in her body grew sharper. In response, her mind went foggier. She collapsed back.
"You had a cracked skull, among other things. It's too soon for you to rise."
"Oh." Recovering from bullets to the face had been easy compared to this.
"I'm going to have a hell of a time assassinating an oracle now that she'll be clocking my every move. And she made it sound like she'd already been watching yours."
"I guess." Jo's cloudy brain couldn't recall the things Nix said, only the ass-kicking she'd delivered.
He reached for Jo's hand, smoothing the edge of a linen bandage. Without looking up, he said, "The male you two were fighting over. Thaddeus. You thought I was aiming at him that night."
She nodded, then grimaced at the deep pop in her neck. Waves of dizziness washed over her. The urge to throw up grew.
"You attacked me with all your might to protect him. You must really care for him."
Confusion. "Of course I do."
Rune shot to his feet, starting to pace. "Who is he? What is he?"
She tried to follow his movements, but the effort was grueling. What is Thad? She didn't know. Was he like Jo?
Thad was good. "He's the best man I know." Her voice sounded more and more distant.
"In our wager, you were able to resis
t me because you wanted to get back to him."
"Uh-huh."
"Won't tell me his species? Then what is he to you?"
Everything. "I'd die for him." Her words were slurring.
Black forked out over Rune's eyes. "You love him?"
"Whaa?" Silly question. "More than anything."
Rune sank down on the side of the bed again. Just as abruptly, he rose. He dipped his hand into his pocket, rolling something there over and over. The trinket? "You love him so much you drank from me? Then you gave me your body for a night? How would he feel to know you can't get enough of my forbidden blood?"
What did that have to do with anything? "You wouldn't understand."
As she slipped back into sleep, he muttered, "I understand the demon in me demands his due. I'm off to service a harem of nymphs."
TWENTY-EIGHT
Rune's head pounded, his ears ringing.
Josephine had used him, sighing his name and coming on his tongue. She'd given him his first real kiss. But her reactions had been feigned so she could return to the one she loved.
Loved. She'd given her heart away. Lore females didn't do that lightly. And I'd actually been worried about her getting attached to me?
The night she'd fouled his shot, she'd been dressed like a man-eater--because she'd known she was going to see Thad. The body Rune had lost himself in belonged to someone else.
He pinched his temples. He'd planned to go to the tree nymphs' covey, but couldn't quite bring himself to leave. His headache worsened, and an unfamiliar, churning aggression filled him. Damn it, that night with her had meant something to him.
Shared breaths, discovery, barriers broken. It'd been different; it'd been more. How much had been real for her?
He did the using. Artifice was his specialty. He gritted his fangs, pacing the room. He craved angry sex, a good hate fuck. He wanted to hurt Josephine. Needed to.
He could return to New Orleans and take down her male. From his ever-present quiver, Rune pulled a gray arrow. The eraser, they called it. A shot to the chest with this one, and there'd be too many pieces to find.
The demon in him whispered, Do it. Then piss on his grave marker.
The fey in him said, She's too young to know what love is. She's too young for you! Just think about this and calm yourself.
She might have a man, but Rune would keep her from him. He couldn't allow a security risk like her to be freed--
One of the symbols on his arm began to glow and tingle. An alert. Someone had tripped his perimeter wards. A trespasser in my sanctuary.
He pictured Josephine--small and helpless in his bed. The demon in him commanded protect. Fangs bared, he unslung his bow, then traced to the observatory. His scowl deepened. He had a guest.
Sian was drinking from a flask, gazing down at an orgy, his customary war ax sheathed at his side.
By way of greeting, Rune said, "How did you find this place? And trace past my ward?" He shouldered his bow once more.
Sian cleared his throat. "You concealed your knowledge of this location, but when I read your mind, I uncovered enough." The demon's striking face was stamped with fatigue, his intense green eyes bloodshot.
How long did he have before his appearance started changing? With his twin's death, Sian had become the King of Pandemonia and all Hells--which meant he would transform from one of the most physically faultless males in the worlds into his own most monstrous state.
Sian offered his flask. "Brew?" The favored libation of demons.
Rune found the taste harsh, but as a lad, he'd drunk it just to have more in common with demons. The habit had stuck. From his pocket, he retrieved his own flask.
He raised it and took a generous swig. "What are you doing here?" Would Sian scent Josephine on him? How would Rune explain that he smelled of only one female? "You could have contacted me." His wrist tattoo was dark. "Now is not a good time."
"You must have a thousand nymphs in need."
Rune corrected him: "A thousand and one." Soon. He'd gone two nights without release, holding vigil for a female who didn't want him. Two nights abstaining! That was why he was conflicted. Rune wasn't the only one. "You look like hell, demon."
"Soon to be literally," Sian said in a bitter tone. "I'm now the king of it and must fit the part."
Rune had nothing but sympathy for Sian. He loathed change, had been altered so many times during his life, he refused to be ever again. "How long do you have?"
Sian didn't respond to that, his focus on a racy scene below--a demoness with three males inside her. "Gods, I will miss the attentions of desirable females. They flock to me now. Anon, they will gaze upon me with horror."
There was only one cure for a demon like him, and it was so implausible, Rune had little hope for his friend. "Will you resemble Gourlav?" Sian's twin had been a giant with green skin and slitted yellow eyes, considered repulsive by most.
Curt shake of his head. "Already I sense different changes. I'll be my own brand of monster." He drank again. "I asked around about my brother, couldn't understand why he would enter a contest for a kingdom. He already had the demonarchy of Pandemonia."
The source world of all demons. "Then why'd he do it?"
"Also up for grabs was a queen, a sorceress who'd volunteered to be won." Sian met Rune's gaze. "Don't you see? He craved a willing wife and could see no other way to get one." Sian took a long swig from his flask, then stared down at it. "The spectators of that contest considered him a monster, when all he wanted was a companion. Soon, I'll be the one who's hideous and yearning. How amused she would be about this."
"The fey girl? With different colored eyes."
Sian glanced up. "We have so few mysteries among all of us."
"Was she your mate?"
"I never attempted her, so I can't know for certain," he answered. "But I had a strong sense she was mine."
"You once said she was treacherous."
"As duplicitous as she was lovely." Sian rubbed his head, a gesture he often did--a telling one. A full-blood hell demon like him should sport sleek black horns, but his had been shorn when he was too young to regenerate them. Even after so long, he felt their absence. Like phantom limbs.
A predatory and defensive feature, horns were also sexual organs, sensitive to the touch. Amputation would be a nightmare.
"I would give anything for vengeance." Sian turned up his flask, draining it, then swiped his sleeve over his mouth. "Let's think not on the past. I've come to call you to battle."
Even better than a covey visit! "Against?"
"The Ice Demonarchy. They've been making sacrifices to old deities, attempting to wake them."
Idiots. They had no idea what they were doing. The Morior ran into this sometimes, were old enough to have personally encountered most of those gods before they'd slept. The ice demons played with powers more evil than the Morior could dream of being.
Was Nix steering that faction as part of her Vertas army? If so, she was steering them straight into an apocalypse. Yet she would blame the Morior and Orion?
Few knew a fundamental truth about the Morior: The Bringers of Doom didn't cause the apocalypse; they heralded it.
Sian pocketed his empty flask and stood. "I traveled to that realm ages ago. I know our meeting place."
"Then let's be off." Rune grabbed one of his brawny shoulders, and the King of Hells transported them to the frozen reaches of the ice demons, landing atop a snow-covered shelf.
Chill winds gusted. A waxing moon illuminated lines of warriors below them, stretching all the way to the horizon.
Darach, Blace, and Allixta were already on the ledge, along with the witch's familiar. Curses' whiskers were frozen white.
Darach appeared on the verge of turning, his eyes as blue as the glaciers all around them.
Blace looked as impassive as ever. One would never know he prepared to enter the fray.
Rune glanced from Blace to Darach. Had either coveted a female to distraction? Wondered
if she might be his mate?
Had either been used by someone he'd desired?
"Oh, it's the baneblood," Allixta said as she fought to keep her hat on against the winds. "The assassin who can't take out a single Val . . ." She trailed off when Rune rested an arrow against his lips, eyes narrowed with threat.
Silence, witch, or die this night. He might be crazed enough to do it.
Though her palms glowed with defensive magicks, she turned away from his challenge. Smart girl.
Blace told them, "We don't know who's listening in these rocky crags. Speak silently." They often communicated telepathically in the presence of others. --The Valkyrie has eluded you, Rune?--
--For only so long, vampire. I have this well in hand.--
Blace raised a brow. --Then why are you in such turmoil?--
Did the vampire recognize that so well in others because he rarely felt it?
--If I am, it'll be short lived.-- Rune would celebrate this victory with an entire covey of nymphs.
Blace drew his sword, then turned to Sian. --You don't have any hesitation about killing your own kind?-- Was the vampire getting soft in his old age?
Sian readied his war ax. --The Morior are my own kind.--
Exactly Rune's thoughts! Sian knew where his loyalty lay. Why had Rune allowed Josephine to live after she'd taken his blood?
Because she makes me weak. He'd risked his standing among the Morior for a female who didn't even want him.
His alliance meant everything. Rune focused his gaze at the battalions of demon warriors below. Every one of those males was bent on defeating Rune's brethren. On stealing victory from their grasp.
Stealing the triumph I've enjoyed since joining the Morior.
Allixta asked, --This army was given a chance to surrender?--
--We always give them that chance.-- Sian twirled his ax. --Let's get this over with.--
Rune nodded. --Good warring, Morior.-- As he awaited Blace, Darach, and Sian's charge, Rune's thoughts turned to a memory from long ago.
He'd been target practicing in Perdishian's training yard, growing more and more frustrated. In the distance, Kolossos, one of the first to join Orion, had been having some fit or another, so the ground--and Rune's target--had quaked.
Orion had appeared beside Rune. "How fares this, archer?"
"I don't understand why I can't take up a sword and leave this bow to another." He'd pointed an arrow at Blace, sparring with Sian. "The vampire is teaching me."