Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark #11)(79)
Author: Kresley Cole

Lothaire briefly gazed heavenward. "Chase is clearly a reluctant sharer. Which should incite her curiosity about what’s going on in his head. She’s a disgustingly self-righteous Valkyrie, fil ed with the need to fix things, to right wrongs. If anything needed fixing …" He waved a hand to indicate Declan from head to toe. "As wrong as he can be."

Declan remained silent, even though this reasoning seemed sound. Jaysus, Dekko, taking advice from a leech who’s blackmailing you for blood?

His jaw clenched so hard that he almost kept himself from grating, "Second thing?"

Lothaire said, "Ignore her. Regin is accustomed to being the center of attention wherever she goes. In her circle, she’s the showstopper, loud and brash compared to the silent sister she’s always around. If you ignore her, Regin will grow even more curious about you."

Ignore Regin? When even now his gaze was scope-locked on the back-and-forth swish of her h*ps and arse? Need hammered at him. Without those shots, lust was riding him hard.

Brandr snapped his fingers in front of Declan’s face. "Oh, yes, this is going to work like a charm."

"No, it’l total y work!" Thad finished his beer, offering a second round. When both Declan and Brandr refused, Thad cracked open another one for himself. "I ignored Sal y Ann Carruthers for an entire semester. My mom came home early one afternoon and found her waiting for me. Get this-Sal y Ann was waiting na**d in my bed. Mom dragged her out by her ear."

Quirking a brow at that, Brandr asked Lothaire, "And the next part of your plan?"

"Tonight we will all make sure she has a chance to go off by herself. Then Chase will use violence to break the ice with her."

Declan repeated, "Violence."

"Live by the sword, love by the sword," Lothaire said.

Thad belched. "I got nothing on the violence. I was taught to respect women."

"He can respect her in the morning. Or not." Then Lothaire began outlining a plan for this very night.

With each word, Declan realized the strategy made a certain sick sense. He’d have to go out of his comfort zone, but if this plan could work … Thad said, "This is definitely beyond my realm of experience. But I do have a tip, DC. My gram told me there’s one thing a man always forgets to do whenever he bungles something-simply say he’s sorry.

Don’t forget to do that." He pulled another beer from his pack. "Going to see if my girls are thirsty." He trudged ahead to join Regin and the fey.

Brandr seemed resigned to Lothaire’s plan, but added, "If this works, Chase, you still can’t kiss her."

"Because her lips drug men? Is that even true?"

"Aidan once admitted to me that her lips were like a drug, but I don’t believe he meant literal y. Hel , you two were locked at the mouth most of the time. However, I do think it makes you remember your past life sooner."

The idea of losing himself to Aidan’s memories no longer sounded so bad. Especial y if Declan’s

memories of torture, of addiction, of hurting Regin would all fade. Instead, he’d remember what it was like to be respected by his men rather than feared, to be adored by Regin rather than hated. "You truly believe in this curse?" Stranger things had happened in the Lore, but Declan had been cursed before and knew how it felt. Wouldn’t he sense his impending doom now?

"I’ve seen it happen too many times," Brandr said. "So no kissing her, and no berserkrage with her. And by no means can you claim her."

Not claim her? If that Valkyrie parted her thighs and actual y wanted Declan between them …? "Boyo, understand me"-his gaze pinned Brandr’s-"if I get a chance with her, I’m f**kin’ takin’ it."

Chapter FORTY-THREE

Is someone out there in the dark? Regin’s ears twitched. Watching me?

She still ed in the water of the stream she’d found not far from their camp.

With narrowed eyes, she scanned her surroundings-a marshy plateau cradled high in the mountains. Here the stream widened into a chest-deep pool before spil ing over into a waterfall.

Her sword and her recently washed clothes were laid out on a nearby boulder, a mere lunge away.

A second passed. Then another. Could just be the misting rain that continued to fall.

She continued her bath, scrubbing sand over her arms in agitated swipes, fearing she might be on the verge of introspecting again.

The unmerry band of six had traveled all afternoon and most of the night, but had decided to break till dawn. Though Regin was good to go-her chest had healed completely-Brandr, Chase, and Natalya needed to eat, were out hunting right now.

And Thad had begun to flag. Three beers hadn’t helped him. He’d grown maudlin, missing his family, friends, and school. Regin had told Natalya, "The kid needs to be drinking blood, not suds."

The fey had replied, "Are you offering, Valkyrie?"

No matter how much Regin liked Thad, she wasn’t ready to tap a vein for any vamp. Not hating a vampire was one thing; fil ing an empty beer can with your blood to feed one was another. …All afternoon, Chase had been ignoring her, just as he had when she’d been in that cel . Unable to stand it, she’d taken Brandr aside, demanding to know what the four males had talked about. He’d shrugged and said, "Ask Declan." She’d smacked Brandr on the back of the head and stormed off.

But she couldn’t stop thinking about Chase, about the scars he’d revealed to her. They’d looked old, which meant he must’ve been young when he’d gotten them-

The memory that had tickled her consciousness the night before finally surfaced, and she recalled the picture he’d shown her of the couple who’d been eaten alive by Neoptera.

Those curling, deliberate wounds the man and woman had suffered matched the distinctive shapes of Chase’s scars. She remembered the ragged tone of his voice, the knotting of his shoulders. The way he’d pounded his fist on the desk.

A gasp left her lips. They were his parents.

Declan Chase’s mother and father.

Had he watched the Neos devouring his family as his own flesh was stripped?

The couple had been middle-aged. Which meant Chase had been young when the creatures had …had fed on him. She shoved the back of her wrist against her mouth.

He must’ve barely survived. How terrified he had to have been.

She gazed at the cloudy night sky. Yet just because she could understand his motivations didn’t mean she could forgive his crimes. He might have had nothing to do with her vivisection, but he’d still tortured her, he’d still brought her and her friends to this hel -on-earth island as his prisoners.

Had MacRieve and Carrow even made it out of the facility alive? Was that vemon Malkom Slaine out stalking the witch and her ward? Regin had faced a vemon in the past and was lucky to have escaped with her life. They were phenomenal y strong and fast. If Slaine wanted revenge, then who could possibly protect Carrow?