Risking everything ...
Regin couldn't decide whether she was irate or grateful about this Webb's interruption.
How had things with Chase burned so total y out of control? She was supposed to put him under her spel . Instead, just the opposite had happened. ...
Webb swept his gaze over her with a look of revulsion. Her eyes slitted. Right back at you.
He was big, not tal like Chase, but burlier. He wore a military uniform and sported a salt-and-pepper buzz cut.
By Chase's reaction, Webb was a superior officer. Yet Chase faced him with his shoulders back and said, "I want her."
"You what?" Webb's gray brows shot up, his forehead creasing.
Dude's about as shocked as I am. She knotted the towel around her chest, then hopped down to watch the exchange.
Chase stretched his arm in front of her protectively. "I'll continue to do whatever you ask, but she belongs to me."
"Listen to what you're saying!"
"You're going to let me take her from here, to an older facility. Someplace where I alone will see her."
Chase was telling a superior what's what? Gods, his arrogance was magnificent-and so familiar.
Aidan had expected Woden to bestow ohal a on him; now Chase was demanding Regin as his due.
"No, you don't want her, son. She's just made you think that you do. Ask the Valkyrie why she's tried so hard to get you to remember this Aidan."
"What are you talking about?"
"Tel , him, female," Webb said. "Tel him how you've been trying to kil him."
Oh, shit.
Chase turned to her. "What is this?"
From behind him, Webb said, "She believes you're her lover reincarnated."
"Aye. She's told me as much."
"Has she told you that every man she's slept with has died within hours of it? She believes you're cursed to perish in each lifetime as soon as you claim her."
Shit, shit!
"Deny it," Chase commanded her.
She gazed up at him, knowing she should lie... "I can't deny it."
"And her lips have a drugging effect-like a narcotic," Webb continued. "That's why she was coaxing you to kiss her. She planned to seduce you, and then you'd perish like the others, all owing her to escape."
Between gritted teeth, Chase said, "How do you know this?"
"The transcripts from her cel . We had her conversations translated by a new source. She told her cell mate that this was her plan for escape-your death."
What new source? When I find out-
Chase launched a fist into the wal beside her head. "You f**kin' bitch, deny this!"
She sucked in a breath at the lost look in his eyes, the palpable pain. "What did you expect me to do, Chase? Calmly await my torture?"
His fists tightened even more, his muscles growing as rage well ed inside him.
She stared up at him. "Hit me, Magister. Make this easy for me."
Again Declan couldn't. Damn her! He roared, "Get her away from me!"
Webb grabbed her arm, shoving her out of the room. "Declan, come to my office in an hour. We'l talk once you've had some time to process all this."
And then they were gone. Leaving him alone in his chambers, where he'd likely go mad.
So it's over. The excitement he'd felt. The pleasure. The highest high to the lowest low.
Feeling dead inside, he sat at his console, watching the feed of her cel for the last time.
Such a f**kin' fool, Dekko. You knew they weren't to be trusted.
He saw Webb shove her into the cel . She was still in that towel, her clothes bundled in her arms. She swung her head up to face the camera, eyes silvery.
Declan ran his gloved fingers down the monitor over her image. Then he punched the screen.
Chapter TWENTY-SEVEN
I never expected this from you," Webb told him. His military bearing was even more pronounced tonight, though he used to relax around Declan. "Never from you, son."
Webb's censure was kil ing him. Declan respected him more than any other man. It was bad enough that Declan had f**ked up so completely, but for Webb to know about his transgression was too much.
"Your clearance will be downgraded. Your print won't work on prisoners' bindings."
Not mind-wiped? Not cast out?
"And Fegley will take over your captures."
"You're putting him in charge of Malkom Slaine?"
"Fegley's loyal to this cause. Loyal to the bone."
"He gets off on the power here."
"As opposed to getting off on the inmates here?" Webb rubbed his hand over his face. "You know I look upon you as a son. And your work here isn't finished. I will try to smooth this over as best as I can."
Fixing things for me yet again.
"But, Declan, I have to know you can beat this obsession with the Valkyrie."
"Consider it beaten." There was no gut-wrenching pain in his body, no urgency or crippling tension.
Inside he felt cold as ash.
It didn't matter whether Declan believed she had the power to destroy him. She had, which meant she'd been actively endeavoring to murder him. all the seduction, all the charm to win him over ... all bul shite.
He'd been an easy mark, yearning for what she'd seemed to offer.
And until he'd discovered the truth, he'd at last had the briefest taste of ... peace.
Now he knew exactly what he was missing. Fuckin' hate her!
"How can I trust that?" Webb demanded. "When you broke every regulation to see her repeatedly in your quarters? You of all people should know what they're capable of. Have you forgotten about your parents? How do you think they'd feel about your involvement with a female who's not human?"
Declan stared straight ahead, berating himself for this fal far worse than Webb ever could.
"It's us against them. There's no middle ground. You're either on our side or you align with the detrus that fed on your family. Fed on you. What's it to be, Declan?"
"I'm loyal to the Order."
"Good. Then You'll accompany Fegley in Slaine's capture, shadow the warden for once. Just as a pre-caution."
The idea grated. "Why?"
"Because you're the only one who could stop that demon if he got loose on our plane. After that, you'll take some time off base."
"Now, sir?" Who would interrogate Slaine? Who would make sure his blood got destroyed so no one was ever tempted to miscreate another like him?
Webb steepled his fingers, a gesture Declan now realized he'd emulated. He'd emulated much about the man. "I'd been coming to see you tonight to tell you some exciting news, the kind you crave most. But now I don't know if you deserve the mission. ..."