Lothaire

tears? What’d that feller do to you?”

When Josh came bounding toward them, Ellie whirled around. “Send him down the mountain. I don’t want him to see me like this!”

Mama headed him off, shooing him back to his friends, then said to Ellie, “You best come in.”

She nodded, and the three of them trudged to the trailer in silence. Inside, once her mother got a closer look—her gaze darting over Ellie’s tear tracks, black claws, and small fangs—comprehension dawned.

“Oh, Ellie,” she murmured, “don’t you know that when you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas?”

She knows what I am! How would she react? Will she shun me? Be disgusted?

“Don’t mean I ain’t gonna love your flea-bitten hide.”

Ellie wanted to sag with relief. When Mama opened her arms, she was tempted to run to her, but stopped herself. “I can’t be hugging anybody yet. I’m kinda strong-like.”

Ephraim gazed back and forth between them. “Ellie, I think you got a heap of talkin’ to do.”

Nodding gravely, she sank onto the living room’s shabby couch, unleashing dog fur and dust motes to float through the sunlight streaming inside. Then she began to outline her new abilities and immortality, her need for blood. . . .

Once she’d finished, Ephraim appeared dazed. “Gonna have to ponder all this awhile. But the fact is: you’re a Peirce. No matter what you got turned into. And we do right by our kin. So just tell us if you’re gonna need”—he swallowed—“to drink or anything. I’ll hunt, help out where I can.”

Mama crossed her arms over her chest, huffily leaning back in her recliner. “I want to know more about the vampire that did this to you.”

So Ellie told them about Lothaire as well—leaving out the mind-blowing sex, of course—summing up with: “And then he gave me his heart in a box and told me to rot in hell. He didn’t even want to talk about what had happened, just sent me a kiss-off!”

“I’ll kill him,” Ephraim grated, his eyes glinting, which made Ellie choke up all over again. When he saw her blood tears, her uncle vowed, “I’ll kill him dead to rights, Ellie Ann. He sets one foot on our mountain and he’s a dead sumbitch.”

57

“You have a visitor, Lothaire,” Hag called.

“A visitor? In my supposedly hidden kingdom?” He bared his fangs at Stelian, who merely raised his brows. “By all means, show in my uninvited guest.”

It was Nïx, carrying a small gift box.

“How did you get in here, Valkyrie?”

She peered around, golden eyes wide, then whispered, “Get in where?” Her hair was windblown, and she had dark smudges under her eyes. She wore a crinkled peasant blouse, a long flowing skirt—and one boot.

“You’re getting worse.” Why didn’t he have the energy to hate Nïx as she deserved to be hated? On the island, she’d told him, “There won’t be a next match, vampire.” Because he couldn’t be bothered?

“You were getting better,” she said. “Before. Not so much now.”

“If you’re here to negotiate Elizabeth’s release, save your breath.” An eighth of an inch. Took my goddamned happiness away.

“I’m not. I’m only a messenger from Elizabeth. You sent her your heart in a box, and she responded.”

At once, he traced to Nïx, snatching the package from her. As Lothaire lifted the lid with a sense of dread, Nïx murmured, “Hint: it’s the middle one.”

Elizabeth’s fragile finger. Seeing it severed like this brought on a visceral reaction —pain shooting through his own hand, radiating throughout his regenerated heart.

He closed the lid with a swallow, sentimentally pocketing the package.

“You gave her your heart, and she gave you the bird.” Nïx sighed. “Songs will be written about this.”

Stelian laughed, choking on his mead.

Then Elizabeth truly does hate me.

Don’t give a fuck.

“My coven went wild over this, by the way,” Nïx said. “Absolutely adored that feisty vamp. If I don’t find our queen soon, they’ll probably put her name on the ballot.”

So much for their tormenting Elizabeth. The Valkyries had never seen her coming.

“And now your queen is on to the next chapter of her eternal life.”

Which is, which is . . . ?

No, don’t care! Don’t—

Damn it! He seized Nïx’s arm, then traced her to his private suite, high in the castle. Too late, he remembered the state of his rooms. Since he’d allowed no one inside to clean, they were in . . . disarray.

“Remodeling, vampire?” She surveyed the area, taking in the furniture he’d destroyed and the wall he’d punched so many times it’d finally collapsed.

All because of Elizabeth!

Nïx frowned. “I liked it the way it was before.”

“Before? Naturally, you’ve been here?”

She shrugged. “So you don’t want to know what your Bride is up to?”

Can’t lie. “I haven’t come for her, have I?”

She strolled to the sitting room window, peering out. “Understandable. They say even you are frightened of her. And by they, I mean me. But the rumor’s catching on. You’ll thank me for that later,” she promised, sauntering to his desk and rooting through papers. “It must have taken you days to regenerate a heart. All that pain . . . If only I could find a male so romantic.”

“Romantic? It was to mark the end of our relationship. Keep her at Val Hall forever, if you like.”

“Oh, no. She’s gone. Whereabouts unknown.”

His gut tightened. The cloaking tattoo around her ankle had faded with her transformation. Would Elizabeth be safe outside of the wraiths’ guard?

Who was he kidding? She was a vicious female—a vampire who’d taken him down!

“Ellie did mention something about seeing the world.”

He wanted to tell Nïx, “I couldn’t care less,” but his throat burned on the lie. “You do know that there’s a bounty on her head?”

“The one Kristoff posted?”

“Kristoff?” he bit out. The Gravewalker will be receiving a visit from me—

“He’s on walkabout currently. He’ll be back at Oblak in a few weeks. If I remember, I’ll be sure to let him know you’ll be calling on him.”

“Do whatever you like,” he snapped.

“Fear not, very few Loreans would target Ellie. After what I’ve told everyone she did to you? Plus, they know better than to use her as leverage—since you seem not to want her.”

Don’t I? He still reached for her in his bed, only to find himself clasping nothing. Upon every wakening, he roared with frustration, shaken anew that she wasn’t with him.

“You can keep up the façade, Lothaire, pretending how wonderful it is without her. But we both know you miss her.”

“Perhaps I simply miss a female—any female. I wager I’ll be the one vampire who will forsake his Bride and enjoy others.”