A Hunger Like No Other

'I heard talk of these…creatures cruising through the village, pumping bass and whistling at men on the street, before turning for the castle. Saw the gate mangled and thought you might need some help…' She trailed off, eyes widening at the sword.

Regin said, 'Where is she, Lachlain?'

Nïx added, 'We're not leaving without her. So unless you want permanent houseguests of the destructive sort, just hand her over.'

'Never. You're never to see her again.'

'A lot of nerve saying that when you're about to bloody Kaderin's sword,' Regin said with a smirk. Then her ears twitched and her voice suddenly turned saccharine. 'But what do you mean, you don't ever want us to see her again?'

'Never. I doona know how she became what she is after growing up in your vicious coven, but you'll no' get a second chance to twist her.'

Regin visibly relaxed at his words. Lucia dropped down and strode to the door, casually, as if she hadn't just shot him and as if she weren't mere feet from a Lykae itching for a kill and two seconds from turning.

'Lachlain?' Emma murmured from the stairs. He twisted his head around, saw her brows drawn. They'd wanted him to repeat his decree for her benefit. 'Had you always planned to keep me from my family?'

'No, no' until I met them,' Lachlain explained, as though that made it better.

She surveyed the room, then her aunts. Just what had they done since that door had been kicked down? She could only imagine—

And what the hell was Cass doing here?

Emma spotted Kaderin behind Lachlain, sword in place. 'Kaderin,' she murmured. 'Annika sent you?' Kaderin was a deadly, skilled, and unfeeling assassin. A perfect killing machine, she didn't get dispatched on recovery missions. 'Lower your sword, Kaderin.'

Regin said, 'Come down, Em, and nobody has to get hurt.'

'Kad, lower it!'

Regin reluctantly nodded, and Kaderin retreated into the shadows. Lachlain immediately strode up the stairs, reaching for Emma, but she gave his hand a withering glare and shook him off. He appeared dumbfounded.

Regin cast Emma a guilty smile. 'Annika just wants you away from him, Em.'

Emma marched down the stairs to point a finger in Regin's face. 'So, Lachlain plans to forbid me from seeing you, and Annika plans to kill the man I'm sleeping with without even asking me if this is a good idea?' These people were treating her like the old Emma, with everyone jockeying for the right to control her. And that simply did not apply any longer. 'I wonder what I plan.'

'Tell us!' Nïx cried breathlessly.

Emma glared at Nïx. Rhetorical, here! She had no idea what she planned—

'He seeks you,' a vampire intoned from the doorstep, his eyes on her.

Emma's lips parted. The Valkyrie did not believe in coincidence, only in fate. And sometimes fate didn't even bother being subtle.

Lachlain leapt for the vampire just as others appeared. Cass ran headlong into the fight beside him. Emma watched it all as though in slow motion, feeling the vampire's red eyes returning to her again and again.

Suddenly her back met the floor, her legs kicked out from under her.

Lachlain had tripped her? 'Get back, Emma!' he roared, shoving her away, sending her flying far across the polished floor.

As she glanced up through the melee, she saw that the vampires kept their gazes trained on her.

Here for her. What if her father knew about her? Had sent them to find her?

But who…?

Suddenly, dreams—nightmares—seeped into reality. Lachlain's memories.

An image of a golden-haired man flashed into her mind. Demestriu. Casually watching Lachlain suffer.

Everyone always says my features are my mother's, but Helen had black hair, black as sable, and dark eyes. The man in the dream is blond, with his sword sheath on his right, indicating he's left- handed.

Emma was a southpaw herself.

No. No way.

Lightning whipped outside. Fatalistic. That was it, she was simply being fatalistic, since this was the absolute worst scenario that could be. Her father couldn't have tortured Lachlain.

Like an acid bath, Lachlain's memory of the fire washed over her—torture that was now her own forever. His rage boiled within her, and she gave herself up to it—just as he had—to get through the pain…

She shuddered, couldn't stifle a whimper. Her thoughts grew dim, distant… She couldn't separate reality from nightmares. Like the way she somehow knew that, deep down in Lachlain's mind, utterly unacknowledged by him was a new suspicion that she was Demestriu's…

She recognized the monster for what he was. Father. Shaking, still on the floor, she gaped at her aunts fighting so valiantly, so perfectly, with all their innate grace and ferocity. Demestriu had taken their queen from them.

Filthy parasite.

Lightning rained down again in a crowded volley.

Fighting all around, and she was frozen. Not with a fear of dying, but with grief and pain. Grief that what she'd wanted so badly—a life with Lachlain, and the love of her coven—was being threatened by the blood running, now itching like poison, in her veins.

Watching these heroic warriors fighting to protect her, when they had no idea what she really was, was killing her. She was unworthy of all of them.

A vampire slumped to the ground. Laughing in delight, Nïx flew on top of him, stabbing her knees into his back, and snatched his hair to lift his head, baring his throat. Poised for her deathblow. The vampire caught sight of Emma. He reached out.

She felt unclean; her veins burned. Unworthy.

But I could make it right. Or at least better.

Nïx caught her gaze across the floor. Winked at her.

Clarity.

'Will I die?' Emma whispered.

'Do you care?' Nïx countered, her words as clear in Emma's ears as if they were right next to each other.

'He seeks you,' the thing gasped, reaching for her.

'I seek him, too.' Emma wanted to take his hand, but he was so far away— Suddenly, she found herself mere feet from him.

Dizzy… Had she traced? Like a vampire. For the first time…?

Nïx slowly raised her blade, and Emma crawled forward.

She heard Lachlain inhale sharply, knew he'd spotted her. 'Emma,' he rasped, diving for her, then bellowed, 'Goddamn it, Emma, no!'

Too late. A line had been drawn, just as with Heath. No, not drawn—it'd been seared into her mind. Lightning shot down to punctuate her decision. That which she had been born to do.

She stretched out her hand. Met eyes with the vampire.

You have no idea what you're dragging home.

Lachlain roared with fury as that thing—the last one left alive—took Emma. He couldn't comprehend it. She had sought him out?

He clenched Nïx's shoulders. 'Why did you hesitate? I saw you hesitate!' He shook her until her head lolled, while she grinned and said, 'Wheeee!'

'Where the fuck have they taken her?' he thundered.

One of the Valkyrie punted his bad leg, buckling it, making him release Nïx.

Cass raised her sword again. 'You let them in!' she snapped to Regin. 'Left Kinevane unguarded.'