Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night

She ignored that and heedlessly continued. 'It might not even have been you I truly wanted. The night that you saw me without my cloak, the damage was done. Maybe I was just taking advantage of the situation—'

'What do you mean by damage? And why did you wear the cloak and glamour?'

Tell him everything. Let him make sense of it. She exhaled and muttered, 'It was predicted that a warrior from the Lore would recognize me as his mate—'

'A warrior from the Lore?' And he's up again! 'Then it's me!'

Gods, he has the sexiest grin. He always appeared so bitter, so grim, yet then, with one heart-stopping curl of his lips, his entire countenance changed, his amber eyes growing warm.

'It must be me, lass.'

'But this could merely be a trick! You do recognize me as your mate, true, but that doesn't mean you should or even that it's real. I could very well have enthralled you. Some witches only have to recognize that they want something, and then, all of a sudden, it's theirs. That could have happened.'

'And yet you believe that you could have left behind that enthrallment when you took the mortality curse away? You were weak and nigh out of your head with fatigue and injuries. You canna look me in the eyes and say you would be capable of removing one without the other.'

When she pursed her lips, he raised his eyebrows.

She looked away and said, 'Maybe not in the past—'

'Did you feel another of your hexes?'

After a moment, she shook her head.

'And you dinna do anything to me at the Hie. If you had no' had your glamour on that night, I would have recognized your scent then.' Way up.

'You're reaching, because you want something definite. You want your black and white. And that's not what you're going to get with me.'

He had a self-satisfied look on his face, a relieved one, that made her want to groan with frustration. 'If you're telling me the truth, Mariketa, then there's a chance you truly are my mate.'

'Why would you get two? Are you special?'

'You might be... you might be reincarnated.' He frowned. 'You doona look shocked.'

'No. My friend Regin has a reincarnate, a berserker who's mad for her and keeps coming back. And he never misses an Accession.'

'Aye, it makes sense that the Accession could fuel these events—your reincarnation as well.'

She didn't feel that this was round two for her—wouldn't she sense it in some way? 'Was your mate like me? Do we resemble each other? Act alike?'

'You're nothing alike, other than your names and ears. She was fey as well.'

'How did you meet her—by entombing?'

He ignored the last and answered, 'I'd known her all her life. After a five-year absence I'd returned to her father's kingdom, and she'd grown into a woman.'

'Wouldn't you have known what she was the minute you met her?'

He shook his head. 'No' always. Females of different species often need to reach maturity to trigger the Instinct.'

'I just don't sense this about myself. And that berserker always gets his memories of his previous lives. I don't remember anything like that.'

'You're young still.'

'Say all this is true—'

'It's true.'

'—the fact remains that I don't want you. Even if fate decreed that we had a bond, I definitely don't recognize it. I don't even like you.'

'If we had no bad blood between us, would you... like me?'

'I'd be attracted to you, but there's no way I'd want anything permanent with you—bad blood or not.'

'What the hell's so wrong with me?' His eyes flickered, and the hint of uncertainty he'd just revealed was drowned out by a surge of arrogance. 'I'm strong, I can protect you, and I'm rich. And I vow to you, lass, once you experience what it's like to share my bed, you will no' ever want to leave it.'

His eyes bored into hers as he said the last, and despite herself, his utter confidence in this area affected her, forcing her to wonder what tricks a twelve-century-old immortal would've picked up over the years.

She inwardly shook herself. 'MacRieve, when I settle down it's going to be with a male that has—oh, I don't know—a sense of humor, or of modesty. How about a lack of scathing hatred toward witches? Maybe a zest for life? Too much to ask that he's born in the same millennium?'

'Some of these things canna be changed, but know that I was no' always so... grave as I am now.'

'It doesn't matter. We're just too different. I need a male who will get along with my friends, my witch friends, who'll be current enough to know the difference between emo rock and jangle pop, and who'll be able to get me through the ice world in Zelda.'

MacRieve was no doubt speculating in what ice dimension this mysterious land of Zelda was. He finally said, 'These differences are surmountable—'

'And the age difference? You keep talking about how young I am, but all you're doing is reminding me how old you are. Any minute now you're going to say something really lame like 'When I was your age... ,' and I'm just not going to be able to keep from laughing at you.'

He scowled at that, but still said, 'I'll change your mind about me. You'll warm to me.'

'In two days? That's your plan? Forget it.'

'Damn it, witch, are you no' even curious about where this could lead?'

'No, but I am curious how you can be when you despise my kind. How quick you were to tell me that when I suggested we work together in the Hie! I will never forget your disgust.' Did his jaw clench? 'Why do you despise us so much?'

He shrugged. 'With witches you never know what you're in for. All false faces and deviousness.'

'But with Lykae, what you see is what you get? Oh, wait, I totally forgot about the beast that lives inside you. And then by the time you see what you're in for, it's too late, isn't it?'

He narrowed his eyes. 'I'm one among the most powerful species on this earth—none are stronger than the Lykae—and I've trained for war or fought it for my entire life. Yet you, with your wee body and utter lack of training, can still pin me by the throat. It's no' natural. Witches are no' natural.'

'That can't be all.'

'That's all you'll hear tonight.'

'You know what? I'll play. If you answer one question correctly, I might consider possibly thinking about giving you a shot to maybe win me over.'

'Ask it, lass.'

'What if we somehow worked through all the obstacles between us and were together for a couple of years or so, and you were given another chance to go back for your mate? There could be another key. Would you ignore it if it was handed to you?'

Emotions seemed to pass over his face. He scrubbed his hand across the back of his neck. 'I could lie, but I will no'. I'd use it.'

Her lips parted. 'Then why in the hell would I invest my time and my feelings when you won't be doing the same?' She stood, storming away from him. 'Game over, MacRieve.'

'But you have to understand why.' He shot to his feet and seized her elbow. 'I believe it would be you.'

'I don't feel like I have a pre-owned soul. And furthermore, I like myself. Other than some late-blooming magickal powers and some sealed legal records, I think I'm pretty nifty. Yet you would just wipe me out entirely?'

'You would no' be wiped out. Just different.'