A Hunger Like No Other

So I'm, uh, like a queen now.'

'All hail Queen Emma!' Nïx cheered. 'Is your coronation the reason you couldn't call for five days?'

'Or perhaps it was being hung up on repeatedly the last time I tried?' Emma didn't mention that two days ago she had called and found Nïx wasn't lucid. 'Besides, I'm serious,' Emma said, shaking her nail polish bottle. The color was I'm Not Really a Waitress red.

'So am I. And who are your people? Hopefully not all the other vampire Valkyries, or you'll have no one to tax. Or are they the Lykae?'

'Yep, I'm like queen of the Lykae.' She hopped onto the bed, then stuffed cotton between her toes. 'Aren't you going to congratulate me for fulfilling my destiny?'

'Hmmm. How do you feel about it?'

At the surprise fluttering of disappointment, Emma accidentally painted a stripe on her toe. She frowned, feeling as if she should have done something. As it was, her fate was no more than a quirk of the same. A quirk that had made her the queen of someone great. 'I went from co-ed to queen. I'd have to be happy, right?'

'Uh-huh,' Nïx said in a noncommittal tone.

'So is Annika there?'

'Nope. Out working on, er, a pet project.'

'How's she taking this?'

'Luckily, she's up to her ears with work. Otherwise she'd be more of a wreck since 'a dog has her Emma.' '

Emma winced. 'Will you not tell her that I'm here voluntarily?'

'Right. She'll believe that over the other options. A. You're delusional. B. He's terrified you into submission.'

Emma exhaled, then said, 'What's going on around the coven?' She hoped Nïx could talk for a while.

Since Lachlain had king stuff to do—land disputes, punishments for bad behavior, overarching improvements for the region—Emma had time, even day time. They'd discovered that, like Lachlain, she now needed only four or five hours of sleep in a twenty-four-hour span.

Though the nights were for them alone—each sunset they sent everyone away so they could have the run of Kinevane, literally—the days could get boring. He'd been concerned about that and had asked her if she could content herself by 'buying goods via the computer.' She'd batted her eyelashes up at him and answered, 'I'll endeavor for you.'

'You're far too far behind, Em,' Nïx said. 'You'll never catch up with this soap.'

'Come on, gimme dish.'

Nïx sighed and Emma heard her shaking her own polish. The Valkyrie loved painting their nails, since it was the only way they could semipermanently change their appearance.

Polish shaking meant Nïx was settling down for a long talk. This afternoon Lachlain was taking a break from meeting with Lykae and the Lore creatures that seemed to surround Kinevane and the village in droves, but only to read numerous abstracts on the computer. He abhorred the computer, and his big hands, which were so skilled with her, were clumsy on the keyboard. He was on his third one.

'Very well. Dish as follows…' Nïx said as though put out, but Emma knew she loved to gossip. 'Myst and Daniela never returned from their vampire hunt. Myst could be out tomcatting, for all we know. Now, Daniela is more of a mystery. For her to go walkabout for a while? Odd… Oh! Speaking of walkabout—Kaderin's gearing up for the Talisman's Hie.'

The Talisman's Hie was the equivalent of an immortal Amazing Race, with the winner garnering power for their faction in the Lore. Kaderin the Coldhearted always won. 'I guess it's silly to ask if she's excited,' Emma said. Centuries ago, Kaderin had spared a young vampire's life and lost her two sisters because of it. She'd wished to be unfeeling, to never let emotion sway her judgment, and some power had unexpectedly granted her wish, thereby blessing—or cursing—her forever.

'No symptoms of excitement. But I did find her at the window, forehead and palm pressed against it, staring out into the night. As though she had feelings. As though she longed.'

'I used to do that,' Emma murmured. She'd yearned for more, ached for something unknown. Had it always been for Lachlain?

'But no longer. I suppose things are going well with your Lykae?'

'Nïx, I think I…like him.' When he wasn't doing king stuff, they watched TV with him propped up at the headboard, her lying between his legs, her back to his chest. They watched soccer, which he loved. She watched the ball, everyone did, but he really, really watched the ball—much like he watched her legs whenever she crossed them.

He enjoyed adventure films, but he especially liked science fiction, because, as he said, 'Everything in those movies gets explained as if everyone else knows as little as I do.'

So she'd made him watch every Alien movie. Most of the goriest scenes were accompanied by his dialogue: 'Ach, that's no'—that's just no' right… Bloody hell, this canna be right.'

'He's a bit stubborn and aggressive, but I can wiggle around that. Though I'm not planning on bringing him home for dinner anytime soon.'

'Smart. There'd be all those attempts on his life. Plus, we don't eat.'

Emma edged off the bed to hobble on her heels over to her polish remover. 'Why hasn't Annika sent a retrieval party?'

'Now, don't feel slighted—I'm sure she will soon—but right now she's focused on finding Myst. She figures if Ivo is looking for a Valkyrie, it'd have to be Myst. Remember, she was in his dungeon only five years ago? And had that incident with the rebel general?'

Like Emma would ever forget. Myst herself had confided to Emma that she might as well have been caught freebasing with the ghost of Bundy.

'See,' Nïx said, 'other Valkyrie like the forbidden fruit as much as you do.'

'Yes, but Myst stopped herself,' Emma said. Unlike my own mother. 'She got past it.'

Nïx chuckled. 'Just because you slept with the Lykae doesn't mean you can never leave him.'

Emma blushed and tried to say lightly, 'Yeah, yeah, I gave it up.'

'So. Do you wuv him?'

'Shut it.'

'Would you run into his arms?' Nïx asked. Her aunts believed that a Valkyrie would always know her true love when he opened his arms to her and she realized she would forever run to get within them. Emma had thought it a quaint legend, but her aunts swore by it.

'We've only been together for two weeks.' The only thing she knew for certain was that he made her happy. Because of Lachlain, she could now determine that she enjoyed—in addition to getting gifts from vending machines and popping bubble wrap—showers big enough for two, stripping to his riveted gaze, drinking straight from the tap, and night-blooming flowers. Oh, and daily gifts of priceless jewels.

'Do you enjoy it there?'

'It's a sweet setup, I'll admit. For all that the maids still show up each day with jumbo crucifixes, jumpy movements, and eyes red from crying over the short straw that drew them vampire duty.' Yesterday, she'd just stopped herself from raising her clenched hands above her head and chasing one of them around the room groaning, 'I vant to suck your blood.'

'If that's your only complaint… Or are your memory dreams a problem? I'm assuming the ones you spoke of were Lachlain's memories.'

'Yeah, I can see things from his eyes, smell scents he smelled.' Just the thought of those memories made her mood turn serious. 'In one dream, he was buying this gorgeous gold necklace, and when he picked it up, I felt the metal warming in my hands. I know, I know, it's crazy.'

'Are they all old memories? Or do you experience what he remembers about you?'