by Kresley Cole
"A dorseri!" the Valkyrie suddenly exclaimed. "Yes, yes, of course!"
"What's that?" Rydstrom asked, as if he were used to interruptions like this from the soothsayer.
Nïx nodded sunnily. "That's what we should call a Sorceri and demon halfling!"
Sabine cast Rydstrom a look askance, but he shrugged. "Yes, Nïx that sounds about right, but for right now, I need to know what's happening here."
"We heard that the folks were going to be gone for a bit," she explained. "And by folks, I mean you, Cadeon, and Rok. We don't have a pool at Val Hall, and they don't have one at the Animal House of Witches." She hiked her thumb over her shoulder at the swimming witches. "So we moved in."
"Then move out! And get my house cleaned up."
She gave him a military salute, then snapped her fingers at a pair of witches, sprawled on nearby loungers. "You two. You can do a cleaning spell."
One slurred, "But Nixie, I'm really pre-hungover."
Nix's eyes went wide. "Do it, or the photos go live!"
The witch shook her fist to the sky, crying, "Damn you, Valkyrie! Damn you and your digital ways!"
Nïx turned to the rest of them and called out, "Party's over, because the demon king's lame. I mean home. The demon king's home!"
The crowd grumbled, most of them unsteadily filing out of the pool. A buxom dark haired witch strolled by topless. "Hiya, big guy," she purred. "You remember me? Carrow? Mariketa's best friend." She ran her finger over his chest as she passed.
The only reason Sabine let "Carrow" live was because Rydstrom didn't turn to ogle her from the back.
As soon as the cleaning witches started chanting, power surrounded them. Sounds drifted from the house.
The grounds grew immaculate, the litter vanishing. In minutes, the pair was done. They went for a high-five and missed.
"There, all better now," Nïx said as she turned to Sabine. "Dearling, you look peaked. You should rest."
"Yes, I'll show you to our room." Rydstrom put his hand on Sabine's lower back, "Nïx, I'll be back," he said over his shoulder as he whisked Sabine inside.
Now that the odor was gone and the mess cleaned, Sabine noted other details of the mansion, like the rich wood paneling and high ceilings throughout. Fans lazily circled overhead. The demon had taste.
When they reached a spacious room upstairs, he said, "This is ours." It was so large, it had a sitting area. A balcony overlooked the pool.
The bed was immense, and she eyed the rich beddings hungrily. When she sat at the edge of it and removed her boots, he strode to a chest of drawers, pulling out an undershirt.
"Here's something for you to wear for-"
By the time he'd turned back, she'd already stripped and crawled under the covers, half asleep.
When Rydstrom returned, he told Nïx, "She didn't need this commotion, Valkyrie. I didn't need it." He ran a hand over his horn.
The crossing had been grueling. And he didn't think Sabine would admit it, but he suspected she'd been upset by Puck's teary good-bye. She'd frowned and said, "This is . . . uncomfortable. The demon boy makes me. uncomfortable."
"Dirty Rydstrom, you wore your sorceress out!" Nïx appeared as mad as ever. "She's not like your typical demure demonesses, you know."
"I know this." Gods, he was glad of it. "Damn it, Nïx, some of your guests are still in the pool."
"I've got this." To the others, she called, "Hey, witches, did you see that redhead who was just here in the wicked cool clothes?"
One called back, "The one dressed up like a sorceress?" while another declared, "I'd do her."
"Well, she's a real sorceress. She's Sabine the Queen of Illusions-"
That got them surging for the sides of the pool, some of them crying out: "The bitch will gack our powers!"-"She'll make us insane!"-"Where is my intoxibong?"
With a contented sigh, Nïx said, "I think Sabine's introduction into New Orleans Lorekind will be fraught with moments like these."
"Is Sabine safe here? When will Omort strike?"
"Well, there actually was a benefit to our invasion of your home-the witches put a protection spell on the perimeter. Something about a probation officer coming after Carrow." She shrugged. "Anyway. No one but those who live here can enter your property without invitation."
He'd been planning on setting traps. This was better. "How long will the spell last?"
"As long as you don't cancel the credit card I found in your drawer."
He inhaled for patience.
"I also had them put a spell on your weapons armory so that it can't be broken into. You know, getting ready for the arrival of The Sword."
Rydstrom had a sizable stone armory in his study. It had been lockable. Evidently, it was now invulnerable. "Then my brother is on his way here. Is he safe?"
"Yes, yes, enough with your abject thanks, Rydstrom. I already know my help is priceless, and that you should name your firstborn daughter Nïx. To answer your question, Cadeon is fine. He claimed that sword at great risk to himself." She tapped her chin. "He also wrecked your million dollar Veyron-"
"He did what?" That car had been Rydstrom's pride and joy. There were only three hundred of them in the world, and he'd expressly forbidden Cadeon and Rok from even touching it.
"Actually it was Holly, my niece, who crashed it. Which, naturally, has made her a hero among Valkyrie everywhere. Totaling the demon king's seven-figure ride? She'll never pay cover again-"
"Why did you let Holly go with Cadeon in the first place?"
"Because I'm impish?"
"Did Cadeon . .. give Holly up to Groot?"
"Yep. Cadeon chose bro's before ho's. But Holly, the little trooper, managed to get free all by herself. Don't look so astounded. She is my niece." Nïx fluffed her hair. "And then Cadeon rubbed out Groot."
"So Cadeon and Holly are together, then?"
"Cadeon gave her up to a psychotic murderer. She's not exactly chipper with him. But don't worry. She'll
come around when she finds out he always planned to come back to save her."
Rydstrom was relieved to hear that, but he was still tense about his own situation. Six days to win Sabine. He'd taken his woman to his home, where she lay naked in his bed. He believed she would receive him tonight.
And he was nervous. I want to make love to her ... to get it right for her.
"You're going to do fine tonight, tiger. Relax."
He hated that Nïx could read him so easily. "Are you saying that as a soothsayer?"
Nïx shook her head. "More as a female who's lived three thousand years. So I have to skedaddle now."
"Contact me if you hear anything else about Cadeon."
"B'okay. Will do." Over her shoulder, she murmured, "There's a thunderstorm brewing, Rydstrom. A bad one. Better be ready."
He surveyed the sky. Not a single cloud marred the blue.
37
"Wake the hell up!" Sabine shot up in the bed, blinking around her. "Is someone here?" she murmured, seeing no one in the luxurious room with her. How long had she been out? It was already dark outside.
"Are you up yet?" a voice said, laying words in Sabine's mind.
"Lanthe?"
"Ah, gods, Abie, I've been searching this city for you!"
Sabine swung her legs over the side of the high bed. "You're . . . here?"
"I got your message at Tornin and opened a portal here. I've been scouring this place hour after hour."
"The Vrekeners-"
"Are everywhere. But you have to get back for your dose-now! Where are you?"
"With the demon. In his home." In our home.
"Can you escape him?"
"Things are different between us," Sabine admitted. "We've kind of reached an understanding."
"Good! I'll make you another portal in six days, and you can return then. But for now, you have to come with me!"
"What has happened?"
"Omort lied-the morsus will hit you a week before you'd thought."
/>
"He did what?" That bastard! When she faced him again, she would make him meet his nightmares, would show him scenes that even he couldn't bear.
"It's true. He admitted it to me himself. Abie, it's a mess at Tornin. The vampires bailed. The fire demons are squir-relly. And Omort nearly took my power and killed me."
"Then you can't go back there!"
"I convinced him that you would never accept him if he harmed me. Omort still believes the two of you will wed. Now, find your way out of the house, and follow my voice to the portal. We can't waste any more time."
"I can't just leave Rydstrom without a word," Sabine said.
"Are you jesting? As much as I hope it works out for you kids, now is not the time to start confiding in him."
When Sabine heard the paneled bedroom door creaking open, she quickly cloaked herself in invisibility, then cast an illusion of herself sleeping soundly.
Rydstrom looked in on her, gazing at her sleeping form with an unmistakably proud expression. She probed his mind, just a touch.
-My woman . . . in my bed. At last.-
Then his expression changed once more, that line between his brows deepening.
"Oh, my gods, Lanthe. Rydstrom is looking at an illusion of me-and he appears to be ... in love."
"You saw that look?" Lanthe sounded wistful. "Did he have his brows drawn with feeling?"
"Yes. And as he walked out of the room, he kind of rubbed his chest a little." "Like his heart hurt!"
"I've only ever seen that on TV beforel" Sabine said. "Lanthe, I have to tell him-about everything."
"So he can do what exactly?" Lanthe demanded. "And while you're informing him that you are going to a place he will never let you go, I'll be Vrekener bait."
If Sabine explained the poison to Rydstrom, he wouldn't likely allow Sabine just to waltz back to Omort. And if she told him that she would probably die if she didn't make it through this portal, he'd insist that he could find help for her here. But there was no one on this plane who could prevent the morsus from striking.
Even knowing this, Sabine bit her lip, torn about what to do. "Sneaking out of his house seems so wrong."
"You are without a doubt one hundred percent in love, because it's making you stupid! It's not reasonable even to consider this. You can come back in mere days." "I could write him a let-" "Abie, I just heard wings."
Sabine was on her feet in a second. "I'm coming!" She hauled on her boots, then snatched up her clothes. Leaving the illusion on the bed, she kept herself cloaked in invisibility and slipped from the room.
She heard Rydstrom walking the house and eluded him to find her way out of a back door. As she hurried
off the property into the night, she hastily dragged on
her top and skirt.
The demon would follow as soon as he discovered her missing-she could only hope to make it to Lanthe's portal before then.
"Lanthe?"
"Sabine, just follow my voice. I'm in a park somewhere."
The streets all looked the same, like a labyrinth. Rain began to fall, lightly at first, then intensifying. Soon, lightning fractured the skies. Thunder quaked. As though poured from a bucket, rain pounded down.
"Lanthe?"
"I'm here. This weather blows."
Sabine caught sight of a park in the distance. "Talk to me."
"You're close."
"I can see a-" Sabine stumbled when she heard the demon roar her name, the sound echoing like a cannon's boom.
He'd started the chase. And he sounded enraged.
"Lanthe, he's coming for me!" No answer. "Lanthe?Where are you?"
When she answered, her voice was fainter. "Kind of had to make a detour."
"You're getting farther away from me? What are you doing?"
Her voice was a scarce whisper. "Right now I'm running from winged monsters. You?"
"Fleeing a seven-foot-tall rage demon. ..."
38
When Rydstrom had gone to check on her again, he'd reached down to brush her hair.
And found nothing but illusion. He'd stared for long moments, disbelieving.
She tricked me. She'd obviously never intended to stay. Another lie. She'd . .. deserted him.
Why! He'd charged from the house into a storm, bellowing her name. Where in the hell is she? He caught her scent from what must be miles away.
He tore off after her, tracking her, following his instinct. He sprinted down sodden streets, rage overwhelming him with every step. The frenzied need to mark her consumed him.
She doesn't carry my mark . . . we're not wed.
He caught sight of her nearing a small park, darting through puddles. He squinted through the rain. In the distance, he saw an area of diffused air-a portal. And she was heading directly for it.
Can't lose her. He pumped his arms for speed until he was on her heels, then lunged for her. Seizing her by the hips, he took her down into the muddy grass.
"You told me you wanted to stay with me!" With his breaths heaving, he tossed her to her back. "You made me believe you. And you were running back to Omortl"
"No . . . yes . . . Rydstrom, you must listen!" She blinked up at him, the pouring rain hitting her face.
He hauled her beneath him, digging his claws into her thighs. "Why? Every word out of your mouth is a lie! How many times will I let you deceive me?"
She'd thought to escape him? The lying sorceress would pay.
His eyes glowed in the night, cruel obsidian. Rain poured down painfully-never had Sabine felt it like this. The drops pelted her eyes so hard, she could barely see, could scarcely hear herself.
'I'd planned to be good to you," he grated. "To make love to you. But no longer."
When he began unbuckling his belt, her eyes went wide. "Not like this!" she cried, raking her nails over his face and chest.
He roared with fury, then seized her wrists, fettering them behind her back with his belt.
"Rydstrom, no! Something has happened! Demon, listen to me. My sister's here-"
"Your sister's not here, she's in Tornin! In my castle! My home!" His horns were dark and flaring. "I don't want to hear any more of your lies!"
"Please, Lanthe's in danger. . . ." Her words tangled on her tongue as she tried to explain to him, while listening for Lanthe's voice or the sound of wings. "And the Vrekeners are everywhere!"
Rydstrom finished her binding and flipped her hack over to face him. He isn't hearing me. "I have to go to her!" she said, trying again, but there was no talking to him, no reasoning. I broke him. The demon who had been so rational, so reasonable. "If anything happens to her." Her heart was about to explode with fear for Lanthe. That fear turned to nausea, then fury. "You have no right to keep me," she cried. "No right to attack me, tackling me into the mud!"
"You lied-you'll pay for it."
"Get off of me, you animal! You have to release me, now!"
"Never, Sabine, Never." He snatched her up into his arms then over his shoulder, storming back to his home.
"No!" she screamed as he forced her away from the portal, away from Lanthe. "Don't take me back." Though the rain was easing, she still couldn't hear her sister.
"I'll keep her any way I have to," Rydstrom muttered to himself. "Chained to the bed if I have to. The demon in me will be satisfied this eve...."
She gazed back over his arm, shuddering. Where was her sister? Sabine had to get back to her, had to escape Rydstrom.
When the gale ended, she attempted once more to tell him about Lanthe. But it was like talking to a wall. He wouldn't listen, not even when they returned to the
house, not even when he stripped her. Not even when he stalked outside and found chains to trap her body to his bed.
One way to deal with a woman like her.
Rydstrom heard little of what she was saying. He didn't need to hear any more of her lies. Just need to mark her.
She lay on the bed with her damp red hair in a fall all around her head, her pale bod
y spread and trembling. He shoved his pants off, then climbed over her.
Her eyes went wide. "You've got to let me go!" she cried. "I have to get back."
Do nothing irrevocable. . . . But he had to, because she wouldn't stay anyway. Mark her.
He knelt between her legs. "I was going to take you slow." When he lay over her, he clasped the sides of her face. His cock pulsed against her hot sex.
Get control. She makes me crazed! Got me so twisted inside. . . .
"Don't do this to me, demon!" She gazed up at him with beseeching eyes.
"You told me you would stay. I believed you."
"Rydstrom, I have to help Lanthe, my sister. If I don't get back, they'll kill her. Trust me to return to you, and I will."
"Did you think it would have ended between us when you went back to Omort? I'd come for you." As he ground his shaft against her, he said at her ear, "Cwena, if we are apart, it's only because I'm not done fighting my way to you."
"If we do this, will you let me go?" she asked desperately. "Then take me, claim me, do whatever you have to, but just release me."
"You must bear my bite."
"Then, yes! Do it!"
"You know what you have to say, sorceress."
"You want me to beg, demon? I will! I beg y-"
"No!" He shoved his hand over her mouth. He didn't want this. Didn't want her to break. When she grew quiet, he removed it.
"Th-that's what you wanted, isn't it?" she asked.
"Yes . . .no!" He eased off her, sitting on the edge of the bed, pinching his forehead. Just think.
"Then what?" she cried, writhing in her chains.
He rose, pacing. Think . . .
"What do you want me to do, demon? What do you want?"
"I don't know'." he bellowed, putting his fist through the wall. "I want you to feel something. For me." And then he was above her again, clutching her nape. "Because you're clawing my bloody heart from my chest!"
"I do feel something for you, demon. Take me, mark me as your own. Forever. "
Words from a dream. He couldn't decipher the subtexts, couldn't foresee what trickery this was. Her silken tongue was telling him exactly what he wanted to hear, the sorceress soothing the beast inside him.
