The Warlord Wants Forever (Immortals After Dark #1)(29)
Author: Kresley Cole

He was spellbound, watching as she rested on the edge of the roof, perched down as a gargoyle might. Her eyes swirled silver and her claws curled into the clay tile. She was clearly eager for the kill but waited, studying them. This was the first time he’d seen her in days.

After Wroth had found her gone from Blachmount, he’d traced to her eerie home, but found it had just gotten eerier. Ghostly, howling creatures in ragged red cloth circled the manor like a tornado. He’d shrugged and traced to her room, but the things caught him. They had a grip he couldn’t have imagined, and when he’d finally landed, his lesson had been learned. He rotated his arm, pleased he’d finally been able to force it back into its socket.

Those beings circled the house to protect it, and did so without cease and without fail, as he could well attest to. But the sentinel that protected Myst from threats like Ivo kept Wroth from her as well. Myst stayed behind them for night upon night, yet now he’d finally found her outside of their protection, no doubt waiting for her sisters to return so they could attack.

But dawn was coming soon and he needed to –

She leapt from the roof, drawing her sword from her back sheath as she dropped into the middle of the group of ghouls. There were at least fifty of them.

"What the f**k are you doing?" he bellowed, tracing to her side, unsheathing his own sword.

"This isn’t happening," she said to herself. "You’re not going to ruin my personal life and my fast-track career, Wroth."

"But in the middle?"

"I’m enraged enough to do this. You have no idea" – she struck out, slicing a ghoul from crotch to neck – "how much I need this."

"I do have an idea." A perfect one. He’d felt her rage and her need to fight from inside him. And yet he’d told her that as his wife she would never again fight.

"You had better leave, because once I finish with them, I won’t stop there."

"I deserve your anger. I’ve wronged you and seek to make amends." He wasn’t optimistic about his chances for that. She couldn’t be all things to him already and then forgiving on top of that.

"You think?" When one ghoul’s claw came close to his neck, he leapt back and she snapped, "Don’t let them scratch you!"

"Concerned for me, Myst?" He didn’t dare hope.

"Of course I don’t want you to get scratched." She eyed him. "Vampires are easier to kill."

"If I help you will you speak with me?"

"Don’t need your help." And she didn’t. She was merrily felling them one after another with a skill that awed him, her sword flying so fast it was barely visible.

"Then you’ll have to listen here," he grated, digging into the fight with her. "I’d had five years of torment. I’d had a hell of wanting you and feared you would leave me at the first opportunity. Then I had dreams of your memories." These ghouls were irritating him, especially when they got between him and Myst while he was trying to convince her about something so critical. He began killing them more quickly. "In each one you were evil…a seductress."

"Still am, Wroth." She kicked a ghoul in the belly, freeing her sword from his chest.

"No, you’re not – "

"Duck!" Her sword whistled over his head to decapitate a ghoul behind him. "Yeah, well, as I recall, every sunset I asked you about your dreams and you brushed away my concerns."

He slew two with one sword thrust. "I know. I should have asked you, because all those excruciating scenes of you…doing things were all out of context." When the largest ghoul out there howled and attacked him, Wroth stabbed the thing in the face, dropping it. She raised her eyebrows as if impressed, then scowled, remembering herself.

"Myst, even then I was still falling for you."

That at least got her to pause. She blew a curl out of her eyes and just when he tensed to trace behind her, she took two hands and plunged her sword back along her side to kill the ghoul at her back.

Now he raised his eyebrows, but continued, "I was angry when I saw your plan to trick me, but I finally understand that you rightly wanted your freedom back. I know what and who you are now. I saw all the memories, clearly at last. Not out of context." Goddamn it, more ghouls? "Myst, can we not just speak about this? Away from here? Dawn nears and all I ask is for a chance to – "

"I gave you a chance. Freely. And you threw it away. You were about to brainwash me."

With one hand, he carved at a ghoul. "I couldn’t have lived with myself for that. I was wrong in many ways. I took your freedom when you needed it, and I hurt you just when you’d given yourself to me." Never had he regretted his actions so much.

He could have won her. A heart for a heart.

"I wanted you so badly I resorted to anything I could and treated you ill when you didn’t deserve it." He looked around. He’d been so intent on her, he’d scarcely noticed they’d cut such a swath that the others had run. "If you give me a chance, I will make it up to you."

"Oh, you got it, Wroth. Just let me go gift wrap my chain for you."

Wroth’s eyes flickered black and his voice went low. "I’d destroy the thing if I saw it."

His reaction surprised her. "You’ll certainly never get within arm’s reach of it."

"Myst, I felt your feelings for me, felt you struggling against them. I know you care for me." Long moments passed as they stared into each other’s eyes.

She was weak, undeserving of her family, she knew, especially when her heart had leapt at the sight of him. But she shook her head. "I can’t. It’s just too late. I have a lot to lose from this. I won’t hurt my family by accepting you."

"Kristoff seeks peace. He would fight the Horde with you. There would be no conflict with them. And I would…make an effort with your sisters, Myst. I know how important they are to you now. Believe me, I know."

She tapped her chin. "So you can see why the idea of being forced to forget them made me cranky? Huh? And what if you saw more out of context? This would just happen again and again."

"I would not drink from you."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, just like I’m going to finally beat my Xbox addiction."

"I’m pleased you feel the same about that option. I’ve already vowed never to use the information to harm the Valkyrie in any way. And I would have to tell you everything I was thinking as if you could read my mind as well. We are wed. We should know each other’s secrets. Myst, we are kindred."

That made her hesitate. She’d felt that way too. Kindred.

What the hell was she thinking? He’d been about to brainwash her.