Dark Desire After Dark

'I've never heard that before.' Nïx looked as mad as ever but she also appeared…tired.

'How is Holly?'

'Splendid. She's settling in nicely. She even has a date next week with someone name Desh. He's a demon. Maybe you know him?'

The news felt like a kick in the teeth

'So what did you want with me?'

'I want to see her before I have to leave for Rothkalina. I don't care if it's just for five minutes. Can you arrange a meeting?'

'Where?'

'Where-bloody-ever!'

'You'll have to do better than that,' Nïx said. 'Holly told me just the other day that she wished she had a great, big house.'

'She truly did?' he exclaimed. He'd get her the biggest, best—

'No, she didn't truly,' Nïx added with a sigh. 'Maybe? Sure! I can't remember. Anyway, the fact remains that Holly might actually somehow forgive you, and then what will happen? Do you expect my niece to live in your pool house man-cave with you and the smoke demon?' She waved a negligent hand toward Rök, and he saluted her with the flask. 'The days of your unplanned, rolling-stone existence have ended, Cade. Having a female all of your own is a big responsibility.'

'I'm on it. Just get me the meeting.'

'I'll help on one more condition: You and your crew stop searching for Néomi and the vampire.'

Néomi was indeed alive. 'How did she survive?'

'After you so rudely gutted her? She's a phantom now. Long story. But witchcraft was involved.'

Rök exclaimed, 'A phantom! No wonder I couldn't bloody find her. I never had a chance, did I?'

Nïx shook her head sadly. 'Especially not when I was tipping her off to your every move…'

Both males were stunned silent by that. Finally Cade said, 'You knew she lived? Yet you told us that she'd died. You lied—'

'Yes, and people who lie are bad. Oh, but I didn't mean you.' Her eyes going vacant, she said, 'I did tell a fib, but only so the fates would align to get you here, skulking around Val Hall at midnight tonight—with Groot dead, with you in possession of a mystickal sword, and with Holly…'

'With Holly what?'

'Nothing.' She gracefully stood. 'I'll get started on our plan,' she said, sauntering off, leaving his heart thundering at the idea that he might win Holly back. 'By the way,' she called over her shoulder. 'Your brother's back in town.'

48

'How are you liking it here at Val Hall?' Nïx asked.

'I like it fine,' Holly answered, wondering if her aunt was lucid.

Nïx was a font of information. But to get to it, one had to first catch her. Then one had to catch her when she was lucid. Over the last two weeks, Holly hadn't had much luck with either.

'You're settling in?'

This put Holly on edge. What's Nïx getting at? 'I am,' she answered slowly. In fact, she was getting on with her new life quite well, all things considered.

Since she couldn't return to the loft, she'd accepted the room the Valkyrie offered her at Val Hall. Regin had taught her how to survive at the manor—how to steal others' clothes and defend her own, how to know who'd just gotten dry cleaning back for the really good takes, how to anticipate and avert pranks.

Holly was expected to train with weapons several times a week—especially with the Accession nearing. Regin had helped her try out swords to pick the one she liked best. 'Anything but a greatsword,' was all Holly had requested.

She was also expected to practice Wii because the witches were winning even when drunk, and were getting overly cocky about their abilities.

In her free time, Holly could work on her code, which everyone mistakenly believed was a video game, so they left her alone.

'And what about your school?' Nïx asked.

'I found out last week that I can finish my PhD from here.' When Holly had called her doctoral advisor and described her project, the woman had told Holly that her code would be more than enough to complete her degree. No more classes, to be taught or taken. Mei had taken over jock duty—and she'd gleefully related that Tim was facing an ethics panel and lost grants….

Holly had known her code would be enough to finish her doctorate. Universities owned their students' research. Her code could earn the school untold riches.

But she didn't care that she would lose out. The school had been good to her.

Nïx asked, 'But you know you can go out every now and then?'

She nodded. 'With a buddy.' Holly was in much less danger now that Cade's crew had in fact taken out two factions, and Tera the Fey had spread the word that Holly was not to be touched.

Plus, Holly's reputation as a slaughter-happy Valkyrie would make enemies, as Regin put it, 'a jot leery' about attacking her.

Still, she wasn't to go anywhere without another Valkyrie.

'I'm glad to see that Regin has taken you under her wing,' Nïx said. 'Though I wonder about that, since she isn't exactly the most giving of Valkyrie.'

Holly said, 'She's already admitted that she's using me for distraction and advised me not to look too deeply into it.' Straight-shooting Regin, telling it like it is.

Regin was even going to help her find an exorcist for the Laughing Ladies—though she wouldn't accompany her to the bridge. Fierce Regin was terrified of ghosts. So Holly was still looking for a buddy to go with her to Michigan in the winter.

Yes, Holly was settling in. Life was almost dandy. Except for the fact that she was pregnant with an evil demon's spawn.

In a rare bout of lucidity, Nïx had explained that Cadeon could've 'double bagged it,' and Holly could've been on the pill, a sponge, and an IUD, and he still would've 'slipped one past the goalie.'

The Vessel was hyper-fertile at all times for the first pregnancy. A virile male could have blown her a kiss, and Holly would've been calling him in nine months.

Good to know. Now. Score another one for Nïx, who could've divvied that little nugget of wisdom, but hadn't.

Holly didn't actually believe Cade was evil. But her general attitude about having a demon baby was: Meh. She couldn't get worked up about it one way or the other, and waited each day for it to sink in, hoping to feel some kind of excitment.

She'd forgiven her aunt for the most part. Without Nïx's interference, Holly would still be stubbornly clinging to her old life, when this one suited her far better.

Holly had realized that being with Cadeon wasn't the sole reason she'd been happy. And though it didn't feel possible now—even after everything, she still missed him terribly—Holly believed she could be happy once more.

All she'd ever wanted was to feel normal. In the Lore, she did. Even with her lingering quirks and compulsions, Holly fit in.

Nïx had told her that she would finally get a sense of herself on her journey, and in fact, Holly had discovered who she was: Holly the Bright.