you've succeeded.'
'Kaderin, that was not my intention.'
A branch of lightning struck in the distance across a cloudless night. He now knew that it came from her. 'You've put me in an untenable position.' Removing her gloves, she neared until she was toe-to-toe with him. 'And do you know what else you've done?' She reached up her delicate hand and gently brushed the back of her smooth claws down the side of his face. Just as he was about to close his eyes, she continued, 'You've underestimated a Valkyrie.'
Like a blur, she dropped down to a crouch, one leg straight out, sweeping around to stab the kobold through the throat with her cleats. As she rocked closer to the trapped creature, her arm shot out, then she gave her leg a decisive yank back to dislodge the being.
She was on her feet again in the blink of an eye, amulet in hand. Sebastian couldn't speak. Giving him a bored look, she leisurely curled one finger around it at a time and held it over her heart. Until it was... gone.
The kobold lay writhing, hands clamped to its throat and gushing yellow blood.
When it continued to thrash, she exhaled impatiently—then shuffled her foot at it, brushing it over the edge to fall thousands of feet. As Sebastian stared in shock, she tilted her head. Then, as if thinking, While I'm here... , she plucked the siren's anchor out of the rock. She yanked until she'd dislodged the next one down as well, then let go. A scream carried on the wind.
Stunned by her sudden viciousness, he snapped, 'I was responsible for this. Why not take the prize I hold?'
'They'd been warned.' She yanked out her ice axes. 'But next time, I will take yours. I promise you.'
Then she simply dropped from the ledge.
He dove for her, reaching out, but she'd disappeared. He caught sight of her as she snagged a lip with her axes five hundred feet down.
Just as he traced to that ledge, she freed herself with a violent heave and plummeted once more, before catching with a jerk lower down. A roar of breath left his body, and he sagged when he saw her reach the base.
With a glare up at him, she tossed the axes and sprinted for her vehicle.
15
Kaderin groaned to see the kobold had plunged directly into the roof of the snowcat, bending it down in a V, and now lay sprawled, unconscious.
Lucindeya? Kaderin had passed her at one thousand feet, hanging on with her fingertips, cursing her in what humans assumed were dead languages. 'I didn't think you'd start this early, lightning whore! It's on!'
'Hey!' Regin called. 'What hit the roof? I don't have comp and collision on this thing. Hee-hee.'
Kaderin slammed into the cab, gasping after her exertion. 'Just go!' She put her hands to the window and ducked and twisted, scanning for Sebastian through the scratchy glass. It was only a matter of time.
'Um, shouldn't we get whatever is up there off the freaking roof? You know, so we'll be sveltely aerodynamic again.'
'Kobold,' Kaderin said dismissively, still fighting to catch her breath.
At that, Regin shoved the door open and patted around blindly on the roof. She jerked the moaning kobold off by his ankle, flinging him far.
'Put this thing in gear!' Kaderin snapped. 'And get your swords ready.' Regin's swords were more like refined cutlasses, worn crossed over her back in twin sheaths. They were short enough that she could use them freely in the closed cab.
Regin drew them immediately, glancing around for a foe. 'What? Where's the bogey?'
'Vampire!' Kaderin gasped. 'And he's right—' Kaderin jumped, startled when Sebastian appeared outside not a foot away. 'Here!'
When he traced inside the snowcat compartment to sit in the backseat, Regin tensed, turning slowly. Any other creature in the Lore would have witnessed her eerie movements as she prepared to spring and would have known life was over.
Kaderin might not be allowed to kill him, but Regin would do so with glee.
Suddenly, Kaderin didn't know if she wanted to see this. After all the vampires she had killed and had seen killed, his imminent death was making her... nervous?
'Kad, baby,' Regin began with a menacing purr, 'you brought me a kill? And here I was getting light on fangs.' Regin's swords shot out, positioned around his neck like they were hedge clippers. She wrenched them together.
But at the last second, he'd traced a foot over. Her swords sliced only air and each other with a pure metallic ring. He was either the fastest tracer they'd ever encountered, or he'd never been fully substantial to begin with.
'You can't kill a competitor,' Sebastian said to Regin with infuriating calm.
'Not a competitor yet, leech.' Regin's swords shot out once more and flew together. 'I just drive the boat.'
But he'd nonchalantly traced over again. 'You try my patience, creature,' he said to Regin, then gave Kaderin a last look. 'Tonight, Katja.' He disappeared.
'Damn it!' Regin snapped. Then the situation seemed to hit her. Her jaw dropped, and she swung her face to Kaderin. 'Katja?' she cried, pointing a sword.
'Just shut up. I don't want to hear it.'
'A vampire just called you a nickname! A sexy nickname.'
Kaderin waved her hand dismissively. 'He thinks I'm his... Bride.'
Regin threaded her swords in their sheaths. 'Yeah? That so?' she said, speaking far too loudly in the enclosed space. 'Seems to be catching.' She yanked the gearshift to speed them off at a loping ten miles per hour.
'Catching? What do you mean by that? Because of Helen?' Helen's transgression was seventy years ago. Would the covens never let it die? And if not, what would they do if they found out about Kaderin and Sebastian?
'Helen. Sure. Whatever,' Regin muttered, surly again. 'What's this leech's plan for you?' She drove like a consummate trucker, one hand at six o'clock on the large wheel, the other on the gearshift.
'He wants to help me win the Hie.'
She made a sound of frustration. 'Like you'd trust a leech with something this important!' Without even trying to miss, Regin ran straight through a snowdrift. 'When you're barely trusting me to help you!' A frantically blown gum bubble. 'He seemed really possessive of you already. You haven't... you haven't, like, lifted tail for him?'
'No! I didn't have sex with him!' she said honestly, hoping to manage a believable amount of indignation. Thank the gods I didn't go that far. Would never. I can always deny...
'What did he mean by tonight? He can't find you.'
Um, actually he might be able to. 'I can't imagine, Regin.' No, no way. Tracing to a person was impossible. Vampires just didn't have that talent. And yet he'd surprised her in so many ways already. She knew he was unique. If he truly could come to her, would he tonight?
'What are you going to do in the future if you go up against him again?'
'I don't know,' Kaderin admitted. 'I can't kill him, because of the competition.'
'Contain him, then. If he's not that old, you could still hold him with a reinforced shackle. Or throw a boulder on him. On his leg. He'd be trapped.'
'Unless he took off his leg the way Emma's Lykae did to get to her.'
Regin shuddered. 'Eeesh, that skeeves me.'
Kaderin hadn't really thought much about Lachlain's act. Now she found the idea of him willfully amputating a trapped leg to crawl through vampire catacombs to reach his mate on the surface vaguely... romantic? Would
