Lothaire

true?”

Nïx the Ever-Knowing, the Valkyrie oracle. His nemesis for millennia, she’d thwarted more vampire schemes than all the other factions’ soothsayers combined.

“Crazier than Nïx? Impossible.” She was much worse off than Lothaire. He wondered if she’d foreseen Saroya. The only good thing about Nïx? She was so maddened that she often forgot her visions.

But what if she had remembered? What if Nïx conspired against him even now? White queen moving against black king on the chessboard . . .

Thaddeus muttered, “Your eyes are changing by the second. Worse than I’ve ever seen them.”

Uneasy leaving my Bride alone. Mercenaries and assassins from all factions hunted him constantly. Whenever powerful Loreans owed him blood debts, they usually opted to send their best warriors for Lothaire’s head. “Occupational hazard. But the benefits are fantastic.”

“What was that, Mr. Lothaire?”

Yet now they would target Lothaire’s Bride. He reminded himself that technically Saroya couldn’t be killed.

But I want her in Elizabeth’s comely form. Thinking about her gray eyes, sexpot lips, and fantasy-worthy figure, he again determined it crucial to secure her body for Saroya.

Not to mention her delectable blood. She tastes of wine and honey—just as his father had said. Lothaire’s fangs sharpened even now.

“What about wine and honey?” Thaddeus asked. “You’re not making sense.”

I spoke aloud? As if to dislodge the memories, Lothaire shook his head hard, inadvertently stepping back into the line of the wraiths.

“Watch out!” Thaddeus cried.

Before Lothaire could trace out of their path, they’d clawed at his face, leaving bloody furrows.

“Are you all right, Mr. Lothaire?”

Pain. Grasp at a thread of lucidity. Show no weakness, demonstrate no madness.

When blood dripped to his lip, he darted his tongue for a taste. He detected a top note of Elizabeth’s blood mixed into his own, and it calmed him.

The wraiths slowed, and their leader gazed at him with a spectral face.

“I alone know how to destroy you,” Lothaire grated. “Touch me again, Scourge, and I will demonstrate.”

She shrieked; Lothaire smirked. “I knew you when you were pretty.”

Her face flashed to her former visage, that of a beautiful Macedonian warrioress.

In a contemplative tone, Lothaire asked, “Didn’t I do you when you were pretty?”

Another furious shriek, then she was swept away in the tide of their tempest.

Lothaire shrugged. “Guess I did.” Onward to Chase.

Thaddeus persistently followed. “What do you want with DC?”

“I’m going to reach inside his mind and read his thoughts.”

“How?”

Imploring the sky for patience, Lothaire bit out, “I drank blood from him, and then I later gifted him with my own. We’ve a bridge between us forever.”

“So that’s what you meant when you warned Regin about unbreakable ties.”

Partially.

Thaddeus planted himself in front of Lothaire. “Why should I let you mind-meld or whatever with DC?”

Lothaire gave a bitter laugh. “What can you do to stop me? Now step aside.” He almost added, “Or I’ll kill your beloved adoptive mother and grandmother for your insolence,” but the rána arose in his throat.

Which meant that would be a lie. Why would I not murder two insignificant humans? Why would he feel even a scrap of allegiance to Thaddeus?

Because there was one instance with the boy that affected me. A demonstration of loyalty . . .

Thaddeus put his shoulders back. “I could raise the alarm.”

And I could snatch your throat out before you took a breath to yell. But because of their past interactions, Lothaire would spare him this eve. “I plan to use Chase’s memories to find Commander Webb—the one who ordered our abductions and those tedious experiments. The one who could still hurt your family.”

The one who holds the key to my entire future, in the shape of a ring.

The young man’s fangs lengthened. “I want to hunt him too.”

“Why would you possibly think I need help carrying out a blood vendetta?”

Don’t I? Lothaire had yet to complete his age-old ones. He recalled Olya, that human female in Helvita, recalled how badly he’d wanted to murder her. She’d been drained by Stefanovich long before Lothaire could get to her.

He remembered the mortals brutalizing his mother. “Avenge me!” she’d screamed.

Only now was Lothaire on the cusp of retribution. To find Serghei at last . . .

“Don’t care if you need it, Mr. Lothaire. I’m hankering for vengeance too. Besides, we are friends. And friends watch each other’s backs. Just like you and me did on the island.”

In the heat of the escape, Lothaire might have saved the boy a few times, without receiving anything in return from Thaddeus, but only because it served Lothaire’s own ends.

He’d also endangered Thaddeus’s life repeatedly.

Lothaire cut off further arguments with a curt: “We’ll discuss this later.” To make the statement true, Lothaire envisioned the extent of their “discussion.”

Thaddeus would ask, “Can I go with you?”

Lothaire would reply, “No. Now, fuck off.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that, Mr. Lothaire. Now what exactly are you looking for with your mind-meld thing?”

Below the window of Chase’s room and out of the way of the wraiths, Lothaire answered, “He must have visited Webb’s hideout. If I can access that memory, I can trace directly to it, as if I’d been there myself.”

“Then access it, and let’s go kick ass!”

“Step one is you shutting up.”

Thaddeus nodded eagerly. “Right on.”

Lothaire steadied his breathing, calming his heart as he listened for Chase’s own heartbeat. Once it began to grow loud in his ears, like a repetitive quake, Lothaire briefly closed his eyes—but he still could see. Straight into Chase’s afflicted mind.

Lothaire found . . . blackness there. Blankness.

No thoughts, no dreams. Is he in the grip of death?

Gods, to have his own mind at rest like this? Might be worth dying. He delved deeper, but all was quiet.

There’d be no thoughts of Webb anytime soon, and Lothaire couldn’t scratch at all the scars in Chase’s mind to search for a specific memory. He might as well try to navigate his own. At least he knew where the black holes were, the quicksand traps and points of no return.

He released his hold on Chase, exhaling with frustration. Nothing to show for his trespass, no new information.

His claws bit into his palms. Chto za huy! Must have that ring! Kept from him though it was his.

Thaddeus asked, “Did you find Webb? Anything to help our mission?”

“Our mission? I didn’t see anything to help my aims! You say nothing of this—of anything concerning me—to anyone.”

“Why should I keep secrets from my other friends? Do you mean any of them harm?”