A Hunger Like No Other (Immortals After Dark #2)(78)
Author: Kresley Cole

Lachlain shook his head. He didn’t know how to feel about everything – how to reconcile his past and his losses with what might have been a brief flare of pity. And Lachlain realized now, with Emma here, that he didn’t have to know. Not yet. They’d figure it out together.

He turned from his thoughts and studied the Valkyrie’s reactions as they watched. They laughed uproariously at the fact that Emma, a vampire, was spooked by the blood on the floor. During the fight, they tensed and leaned toward the TV, eyes wide when Emma shattered the window. "Ballsy," Regin muttered, and others nodded in response though none shifted their gazes from the screen. At one point, Nïx yawned and said, "I’ve already seen this part," but no one bothered to ask how. And when Demestriu told Emma he was proud, some cried, making lightning split the sky.

Proof that Furie was alive was met with cheers, and Lachlain didn’t douse their happiness by saying that at this very moment, Furie was praying to great Freya to die.

When it was over, Emma pulled her earbuds out and peeked up from his chest. The Valkyrie merely nodded at him and Emma the Unlikely and filed out, with Nïx predicting that The Demise of Demestriu would outsell One Goblin’s Night in Paris among the Lore.

As Regin exited, she summed up what seemed to be the attitude of the rest of the coven: "If Emma wants the overgrown Lykae bad enough to go drop Demestriu, then she ought to be able to keep him."

Annika alone remained.

"You don’t have to decide right now, Emmaline. Just don’t do something you’re going to regret for the rest of your life."

Emma shook her head, dismayed to see Annika hurting, but resolved in this. "I kept thinking it was about my choice, but it’s not. It’s yours. You can choose to accept me with him. Or I leave." Lachlain drew her hand into his as though for support.

Annika clearly strove for a calm demeanor and her face was like marble, but lightning fired behind her, belying her efforts. She was torn about this.

"Annika, I’ll always run to his arms." There was no defense against that, no argument to refute it – and they both knew it.

Finally, Annika, with her chin up and shoulders back, faced Lachlain. "We don’t recognize matehood" – she spat the word – "or whatever you Lykae call it, as a bonding union. You will have to exchange vows. Mainly I’m concerned about the one where the Lykae vows he won’t use this union to harm the covens in any way."

Lachlain grated, "The Lykae has a name. And if you’d like Emma to share it, nothing will please me better. I’ll make that vow."

She faced Emmaline with one last pleading expression. When Emma shook her head slowly, Annika ordered, "Do not trace him here any more than is absolutely necessary."

As she strode from the room, she mumbled, "Coven’s gone to hell on my watch."

Emma said, "Tracing! That’s right. Now we can visit whenever we want. Coo-ell. Can we spend some weekends here? And Mardi Gras? And the Jazz Fest? Ooh, I want to watch you eat crawfish!"

With a pained expression, he said, "I suppose on occasion we could run through the bayou as easily as a forest."

Then her face fell. "But I don’t know if I want you around all my gorgeous aunts."

He chuckled at her ridiculous statement, then winced when his wounds wouldn’t cooperate. "Emma, you shame them. No, doona argue. I have eyes, I can see." He stroked his thumb over her cheek. "And I know none of them can howl at the moon half as good as my wee halfling."

"Cheeky werewolf!" she chided, leaning in to kiss his lips, but she was interrupted by a scream downstairs.

As they frowned at each other, Annika shrieked at someone unseen, "What do you mean, we have a six-figure credit card bill?"

36

Emma the Unlikely

Emma the King Killer

Emma of the Three

Her own page in the Book of Warriors!

Regin, Nïx, and Annika had taken her – and she’d insisted on taking Lachlain – into the war room, to the ornate, ancient pedestal with the light shining down upon it. They drew it out from under its Plexiglas case and opened it to her page.

Her likeness was painted there and below it, written in the old language, were her aliases and One of Wóden’s Cherished Warriors. Warrior. War-ee-yur. This was so cool as to not be believed. With trembling fingers, Emma brushed the raised writing on the soft parchment.

Slayer of Demestriu, king of the vampire Horde, eldest and strongest of vampires. When she chose to battle him alone.

Emma raised her eyebrows at the implicit rebuke, and Annika lifted her chin.

Queen to Lachlain, king of the Lykae. Beloved daughter of Helen and all Valkyrie.

"Look at my resume!" Tears spilled over. "I look good on paper!"

Regin groaned. "Not the crying. That’s so gross."

"And you left room for more!" She sniffled. Nïx handed her tissues she’d had the foresight to bring, and Emma brushed her face with them.

"Well, of course," Nïx said. "Even if you spend a lazy eternity doing nothing more than wallowing about with your wolf, we left room for your heroic, hell-raising kids."

Emma’s face flushed, and she felt Lachlain draping a protective arm over her, squeezing her to his side. Chin up, he said, "We’ve decided no’ to have bairns."

Nïx frowned. "Well, I’m not usually wrong about these things when I do see them, but if you both are so set on it, then never let her eat human food, especially not for back-to-back weeks on end, or she’ll get knocked up faster than a rabbit after a Druid fertility ceremony!"

Emma said softly, "But I can’t…I’m a vampire, and we can’t have children."

Nïx and Annika both frowned. "Of course you can," Nïx said. "You just have to take different nourishment."

When Lachlain still looked unconvinced, Annika said, "Think about it – what do all humans do that not all in the Lore do? They eat of the earth and they spawn. The two are not unrelated."

Her heart thudding, Emma remembered Demestriu talking about Helen sharing meals with him just before she got pregnant. "And a Lykae with a…valkire?"

"Can you have little ankle-biters?" Nïx giggled. "Absolutely, and in the most literal sense. You know, you aren’t the first time the different factions have had offspring together." She glanced around as if looking for someone in the manor, then waved it away. "Vampires who can walk in the sun, Lykae who can take sustenance from lightning. Valkyrie who run the forests at night with perfect joy." Nïx got an awed expression on her face. "And they’re strong. Just look at you."