By hastening the death of a male I've mourned for centuries?
Behind them, the kid spoke for the first time, muttering, "You ... glow."
Chapter TWELVE
Lothaire the Enemy of Old woke strapped to a table in a blindingly white room, the bright artificial light paining his sensitive eyes.
He strained against his bindings, thoughts roiling. Get to my ring. To get to her. His master-the Endgame-commanded him. But Lothaire couldn't break free.
For mil ennia, no enemy had held him. Now a mortal had somehow captured him, had been faster than any human he'd ever encountered.
When Chase strode into the room, Lothaire's fangs went sharp with aggression. Then his eyes narrowed. Something was amiss with this male. Seething anger rol ed off him in waves.
"I have questions for you, vampire," he said in a low, raspy voice. "Answer them and you will be spared any unnecessary pain-"
"Who is your commander?" Lothaire interrupted.
"What does that matter?" The man's face was ashen and scarred.
Despise scars. "I am a king. I don't negotiate with mortals at your pay grade."
"A king, is it? That's not what my intel says. In any case, I run this facility. Everything goes through me."
"Then you can bring me my ring. I want to see it."
"We'l get to that. But first, You'll tell me what you know about the Valkyrie."
I know it feels like rapture to snap a Valkyrie's neck. He twisted against his bonds with remembered pleasure, sighing, "The Archer. The Archer in the Green Hel ." He'd broken her neck like a twig. I know that Valkyrie are abhorrent. "Sanctimonious, nosy, prideful."
Chase peered at Lothaire as if he'd spoken nonsense.
"My ring, mortal!"
"This one?" the magister pulled the band from a case in his pocket.
Lothaire's eyes widened. At the sight of his ring, he punctured his bottom lip with a fang for a shot of blood, sucking with need.
"What does it do, vampire?"
Damn it, he wore gloves? "Take off a glove and touch it." Be the last one to touch it. "You'll better understand its power."
Chase gave him a shrewd look. "No, I don't believe I will ."
"If you keep it here, you will bring evil down upon this place." She was coming for him. But he had to get back to her. He still had crumbs of her mummy flesh in his pocket. still had gold flakes from her body.
"What kind of evil?"
"Hers!" Once the waters receded, she and her foul guards would come.
"As no evil can get out of this facility," Chase said, "I'm confident the reverse is true as well."
She could reach Lothaire across time if she needed to. A mere mortal jail couldn't keep her out.
"You play with a god's power. She wants the ring."
"What does it do? Why do you want it so badly?"
Lothaire just stared at the ceiling, counting down each second to the time when the Gilded One arrived. "Tel me what it does. Now!" Chase launched his fist against Lothaire's face, the blow like an anvil hit. Lothaire shook his head hard, then grinned up with bloody fangs. "Blyad'! You're no normal mortal."
Another hit, this time with more rage. No wonder this male was able to take me! Though Lothaire sensed Chase wasn't an immortal per se, he was somehow enhanced.
Probably taking some chemical to increase his strength. The male's pupils were enlarged, and a sweet scent emanated from his skin. "I wonder what you'd taste like."
"You filthy leech, answer me."
Lothaire sighed. "Chto ty nesesh'?"
"Why am I bothering you with this? Is that what you said?"
"You speak my tongue?" Lothaire asked.
"Enough of it. Now, answer me!"
"Or what? What can you do to me that hasn't already been done?" With a laugh, he related, "I've been hung from a tree with the length of my intestines. I've been unmanned with a whip made of razor wire.
Natural y, that took many lashes. I've watched a Lykae lord eat my eyes after scooping them out of my skul with a rusty spoon. Of course, I could only watch the first; for the second, I listened to him chewing it wetly, until there was a pop that he seemed to particularly enjoy."
And when Dorada got hold of him? Now, that would be torturous.
"You see, that's the thing with you detrus," Chase began in a contemplative tone. "Your bodies are abominations. If I severed your arms-"
Lothaire yawned loudly.
"-you'd merely regenerate from the injury. You might experience pain, but you wouldn't suffer the horror of permanent loss, not like a human."
Lothaire grew increasingly bored by this. "When I get free, I believe I'll show you your spine. I'll hand it to you so casual y, politely even, as if expecting you to remark upon it."
Ignoring that, Chase continued, "Of course, mortals also don't suffer from ... the sun." He flipped a switch, and overhead, the lights changed.
Lothaire's skin began to burn. UV bulbs.
Chase ripped open Lothaire's shirt, exposing his chest. Though Lothaire was older and not as sensitive to the sun as other vampires, this was intense. "Chase, my master thanks you for this." With a laugh, he grated, "You prepare me ... for trials to come."
As charred flesh began to fal from his body, he writhed in agony. His hair turned to soot, the tip of his nose and the ends of his fingers disintegrating.
And he couldn't stop laughing.
"You're glowing," the kid told Regin. He stood to his ful towering height and pointed at Natalya. "And your lips are black." He gave a strained chuckle, looking like he was about to start banging his head again. "Snakes have arms and can talk, and men have horns, and-"
"Take a deep breath, my poor lad," Natalya said. "Here, have a seat next to me." She guided him over to one of the bunks and sat close beside him.
"You both have pointed ears."
"I'm a dark fey cal ed Natalya. That's Regin. She's a Valkyrie."
Regin said, "So, you got a name?"
He absently replied, "Thaddeus Brayden, ma'am. Everybody cal s me Thad."
Ma'am? "How did you get here? What do you remember?"
"I, uh, I drove to my date's house to pick her up," he said warily.
"Go on." Natalya patted his knee.
"While I was waiting, her dad kept looking at me funny, questioning me about stuff. But then he seemed to calm down, even gave me a shot of whiskey. When I woke up, I was here, seeing things. Things that can't be right."
Regin asked, "What are you?"