As if she'd never spoken, he said, "You'll tell me what I need to know, or I'll administer a dose." He held up a control pad with a red button in the middle.
"Torture doesn't work on my kind, just pisses us off. It starts to collect over the years."
"Valkyrie, I will get answers from you one way or another. Either through this painful exercise in futility, as you believe, or through a civilized conversation."
"You call this civilized?" She strained against her cuffs, leaning in to whisper, "Psst, Chase. The sexual tension between us is grueling."
His face grew even colder, as if she'd just spoken blasphemy.
"So you're the bossman around here, huh? I saw you took down Lothaire. You've got some low-hanging goolies to mess with him."
"Do you have information about that vampire? It might affect your own treatment."
"Turn informant? Sing like a canary? The more I talk, the better I'll get treated?"
He just continued to stare at her with an undisguised loathing.
"Then get ready for an earful! So everybody thinks Lothaire is hotter than the sun he'll never see, but I don't get it." Some of her Valkyrie sisters had deemed him as mesmerizing as a shiny-shiny. "I mean, yes, his body is magnificent--when not extra crispy--but he's a leech, a parasite. His irises are nearly red. Females are always tittering about how you never know whether he's going to kiss you or kill you. And that's just something I'd want to establish up front, you know?"
Chase narrowed his eyes.
"For the record, I like 'em young, dumb, and hung. And clever Lothaire only fits one of my criteria. Plus he's a vampire. I despise vampires. We probably have that in common--"
"You refuse to reveal pertinent information about your enemy?"
"I'll bet Lothaire won't dish about me either. Matter of fact, I'll bet you don't know much about the Valkyrie at all."
"If that's true, you're soon to remedy my lack of knowledge."
"You've never captured a Valkyrie, have you?" Had her tone been gloating?
"But I have one now."
When his thumb hovered over the red button, she stared at him aghast. "You're truly going to ... torture me?"
He cast her a puzzled look. "Why wouldn't I torture you?"
Because you used to love me, used to cherish me. "I thought we had a moment yesterday? Didn't you like seeing me in lingerie?"
In a monotone voice, he said, "Why did the charge throwers have no ill effect on you?"
He's truly going to do it? Then fuck him. DEFCON. "Chase, I've tussled with vibrators stronger than your charge throwers."
No reaction. "You consumed energy. And channeled it at will. How?"
All Valkyrie consumed it--they were each connected through a grid of mystical energy--but Regin was the only one she knew of who could radiate it through her body. She'd inherited the talent from her birth mother. "So how does one get started as a magister? College or trade school?"
"I don't have the time or patience for games. Now, tell me, why do you ... glow?"
"I touched a radioactive alien cock once."
He pressed the button.
As her eyes followed a bead of poison traveling down the tube, she muttered, "You're not giving me much of a choice here, Chase."
She remembered all those centuries ago when Aidan had taught her war strategies. If this were a battlefield, then she had only one move open to her--a charge. Could she be his doom once more?
To sit and wait in this facility would mean certain death. Regin hadn't stayed alive for a thousand years by inaction.
When the poison reached her arm, she clamped her jaw shut to keep from screaming--it was like liquid fire in her vein. Sweat broke out on her face. Every muscle in her body began to knot.
She gritted out, "When I escape--"
"Valkyrie, no one has ever escaped this island."
"Nothing but a roll call ... of dead immortals?"
"Precisely. Now, tell me what language you speak to your cell mate."
"Immortalian. No? Immoratlivan. Immortinian!"
"Do you want me to hurt you?" Another bead inched down the line.
"I want you to go fuck yourself!" she bit out just before it hit.
Her back bowed, her sharpened claws slicing into her palms as she fought the urge to shriek. Lights flared and thunder rocked the building.
Blood trickled from her nose. She tasted more in her mouth.
If he does it again, then my decision's settled.
"I'm told the effect is cumulative--it will continue to worsen." Though outwardly calm as he explained this, his face had paled even more. "But if you tell me about the Valkyrie's weaknesses, I'll administer the antidote."
"Weaknesses? So many. Foremost, we're ... ticklish."
A third bead dripped down.
"You'll pay!" The pain was blistering, like acid eating away at her from the inside. She threw back her head and shrieked as her body seized. Her arms wrenched violently against her restraints.
Pop. Her shoulder dislocated. Light bulbs shattered above them.
Going to kill him. Going to do the deed myself! When she'd finally endured that wave and faced him once more, her vision was blurred by a film of blood. Dots of crimson had begun to seep from her pores.
He narrowed his eyes. "Your glowing has lessened. Is it emotion-based?"
She spat, giving him a slow, bloody grin. "This will hurt you ... more than it ever hurts me." Must make him remember.
"And again, you act as if we've met."
"I did know you," she said. "Long before all this. Don't you remember me?"
Like a shot, he was on his feet and around the table, his hand gripping her throat. He squeezed her windpipe as he demanded, "Were you there that night?"
She gasped, "Wh-where?"
"Were--you--there?"
"Aidan or not ... I am going to serve it to you!" Her leg shot up to punt his groin, but he deflected her kick with his other hand.
"What did you call me?" His grip tightened.
She wheezed in a breath. "Prick!" What night was Chase talking about? She couldn't think!
Squeezing harder, harder. "Why did you call me Aidan?"
Losing consciousness. Heart pounding wildly. "Want to know? Bring me ... to your office tomorrow. Just you and me. I'll tell you . ... everything."
When her head slumped forward and her glowing dimmed even more, Declan left her in the room, barreling to his quarters.
He just reached the toilet before vomiting the contents of his stomach. After heaving over and over, he eventually lurched to his feet. Hands gripping the edge of the bathroom counter, he waited for his balance to return. For his control to return. What is happening to me?
Administering that poison had affected him nearly as much as her. Though he'd done the same to hundreds of other prisoners.
When he'd tortured Lothaire yesterday, he'd regretted ending the session, wishing there'd been more flesh left to torment.
After Regin, Declan felt like he'd been tortured.
And she'd called him Aidan. As had the berserker. If they'd intended to make him paranoid ...
It's bloody working.
Staring into the mirror, he muttered, "I fuckin' hate her." Yet he still felt that pull toward her.
Even as I was ready to squeeze the life out of her.
A mortal hunter and his immortal prey. But then, perhaps I'm not quite mortal. He shuddered.
She wanted to meet with him in his office? What was she planning? They were always planning something, living and breathing deceit.
He removed his gloves, then scrubbed his face with two handfuls of water.
To do as she asked was madness, but he needed the answers he'd promised Webb. And Declan knew he wouldn't be able to torture her again.
Why not try meeting her? Having a female prisoner alone in his office would raise some eyebrows, but Declan couldn't care less about that. No one would dare naysay him in his own installation.
I need to kno
w why she called me that name.
After rinsing his mouth, he staggered into his room, sinking into his chair at the console. He pulled up the Valkyrie's cell on the screen.
Vincente and another guard were just returning her, wearing thick gloves because the poison seeping from her skin was lethal to mortals. Vincente laid her on the floor with more care than the other guard would have.
The Valkyrie's body convulsed with each wave of pain, her glow nearly extinguished.
Declan should be observing her impassively. Instead, bile rose in his throat.
As soon as Vincente closed the cell, the male halfling yanked off his shirt to wipe the blood from her. The fey knocked his hand away before he touched Regin's skin and got himself poisoned. Then she punched the Valkyrie's shoulder directly below the joint, forcing the ball back into the socket.
Before Regin passed out, she whispered something to Natalya in that unknown tongue, the maddening language he couldn't even identify.
Whatever Regin said made the fey appear relieved. Declan had just put his head in his hands and started to squeeze when he received a screen message from Webb:
Let me know how your session with the Valkyrie
went. Productive, I'm sure. Update: information
about their weaknesses takes precedence over
all other inquiries, i.e., her source of energy or the vampire's ring. ...
Then Declan's path was fixed.
FOURTEEN
Again, Valkyrie?" Carrow the witch said as Vincente escorted Regin once more.
When the guard had shown up to cuff and retrieve her and she hadn't been gassed first, she'd known.
Chase had taken the bait.
"What can I say, Carrow? The magister loves my company."
In an urgent murmur, the witch said, "I saw how you fared his company yesterday. Maybe attempt not to enrage him tonight?"
On it. "I go with a peace offering. Check it"--Regin leered down at her own chest--"I'm braless."
Carrow shook her head. "Crazy ass Valkyries."
When they passed Brandr's cell, Regin told him in Old Norse, "My time here grows nigh." Though her attitude was confident, she knew several factors would work against her.
First, she wasn't a golden-tongued and persuasive Valkyrie; in fact, she was considered just the opposite--abrasive and smart-assed.
Second, she didn't do subterfuge, preferring to be brutally honest at all times.
Third, she had earned a reputation for flying off the handle with little provocation. Justly earned. Her emotions were notoriously volatile.
Yet now she would have to pretend to be attracted to a man who'd mercilessly tormented her? Instead of giving in to her need to play-dress him in his own intestines?
One move open to her. "His time grows nigh as well."
Brandr was at the glass in a heartbeat. His light green eyes were bloodshot, his handsome face wan. Chase must've worked him over too. Still Brandr said, "Regin, don't do it! I'll warn him."
For all that she and Brandr had never gotten along, she couldn't fault his loyalty. "Stay out of my way, or you break your vow. ..." She trailed off. Were those staples peeking out just above his shirt collar?
Dear gods, Chase had ordered Brandr's vivisection? If he'd do it to his one-time best friend, he'd do it to her.
When she and Vincente reached the hub connecting two other wards, the guard squired her into one filled with offices and labs, all empty this late. They followed it to the end, then entered a dark-paneled office.
Chase was already there, seated behind a large desk. He wore his uniform as usual, his dress immaculate. She could even scent boot polish. His hair was off his face again, and he wasn't as pale as usual. Nice lips, she realized with a start.
"Lemme guess," Regin said. "You had your introductory spiel all planned, but rational thought deserted you when you saw me stroll in braless."
Chase's angry gaze raked over her breasts. They were pressing against her tight T-shirt even more than usual since her arms were bound behind her back.
"Leave us, Vincente," he commanded.
Without any expression, the man did.
"For the record," she continued, "it's not my fault I came in here looking like Chesty LaRue. You caught me on laundry day, so I have no undergarments on. Though I will cop to a little extra spring in my step for your benefit."
He subtly adjusted his legs behind his desk. Hard-on. Zing! Regin one; Chase zero.
Yet his resentment only seemed to increase.
She didn't know when Chase might summon her again--if ever--so she had to make this one chance count. To rekindle his memories, she needed either to coax him to kiss her or to provoke the berserker inside him.
Sex or protracted violence should do it.
"Yeah, weirdly, our cell doesn't have laundry facilities. So I figure I'll wash undies at one time and outerwear at another, always keeping some cover for the cameras. I'm not shy, but frankly, I've had my limit of men chubbing themselves to videos of me. It's moved from simple idolatry to something more sinister." She sauntered over to his desk, hopping atop it, sitting on his papers. "A little too Caged Heat, you know?" Those angry eyes were rapt on her bouncing breasts.
Between gritted teeth, he ordered her, "Remove yourself from my desk, Valkyrie."
"Fine, huffy." She hopped down and began exploring his office. He said nothing, merely restacked his papers as he observed her.
The decor was modern and posh. Aside from the large mahogany desk and matching floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, he had a luxe leather couch and chairs. Office cabinets had been built into the walls. Two enormous windows revealed a temperate forest shadowed by night. Only so many places in the world where trees like that grew. ...
Yet there were no pictures or decorations. The bookshelves were empty.
She turned to him. "I'm just relieved you weren't one of the men going fap-fap-fap to my vid. Or were you?" she asked with a stage wink, but his demeanor remained frosty. "So, what's with the gloves? The rumors say you don't like to touch others, or be touched. Care to comment?" She settled on the couch, drawing one knee up to her chest. "I wonder how you have sex. Or maybe you don't."
He'd turned off his anger, his interest, everything. A light extinguished. "You know nothing about me."
"The Blademan's blade is sheathed, huh?" She gave him a slow grin. "I vow to you that I know you better than you know yourself."
"So you keep saying."
Survival time, Regin. She took a steadying breath. Aidan would want me to live.
Besides, she didn't have any choice. Lucia needed her help; Regin needed to survive. Yet still she had difficulty with this plan. Centuries of secret hopes and waiting warred with the need to save Lucia--and herself.
Valkyrie won. "Yeah. A long time ago you were called Aidan the Fierce. I've known you for over a thousand years."
The tension in him eased somewhat. "And yet I'm not even forty."
"You reincarnate. A lot."
"Reincarnate. And often, too? Now, this sounds interesting," he said with a sneer. "How many times would this make it?"
"This is the fourth time that I know of."
"Do I look the same?" He was clearly toying with her.
"Your eyes are the same, but the rest of you is always different. I can recognize you, and you always sense I'm familiar. Even now on some level you do, don't you? Our little torture session probably hurt you just as much as me."
"You're insane," he said easily, confidently.
"I vow to the Lore that I'm telling the truth. You know I'm bound by that vow."
"Only when it's made to another of the Lore."
His darkening expression warned her she was on thin ice. Of course, when had that ever stopped her? "I know you don't want to believe you have anything in common with me. But you are of the Lore." She heard his leather gloves clenching beneath the table, knew he was probably envisioning strangling her. "Look, let's make a deal. I'll tell you more info about
the Lore than you've ever gotten out of any prisoner, and you'll grant me some concessions."
"Such as?"
"As long as I'm giving you information, you don't torture me or Carrow. Or Brandr and Uilleam MacRieve any more than you have," she said. "Or Natalya and Thad. Just lay off me and those friends, and I'll divvy."
She could see the wheels turning. He fully believed she was nuts. But he also was weighing the odds that she'd reveal something he could use.
Again Chase took the bait. "Agreed. So tell me, Valkyrie. How did you and I meet?"
FIFTEEN
You were a warlord in the Northlands," the Valkyrie said.
Declan waved her on. But, as she'd done before, she seemed to be wrestling with a decision. Likely deciding the best way to deceive the mortal.
Or perhaps this wasn't a game. Many of the older immortals grew maddened. She might believe what she said.
Yet her eyes looked lucid. "A berserker warlord."
He froze. Of all the factions she could choose ... Brandr had looked familiar to him. As had Regin.
No, this was some sort of scam, a plan to undermine him. He stifled his anger, knowing he would have to tolerate this bullshite in order to garner information from her. "Tell me what you consider a berserker to be." To even pretend this was a possibility rankled, but he didn't see an alternative.
"A berserker is a mortal born with uncommon speed and strength," she said. "He worships the bear and can channel its ferocity into a berserkrage, making him as strong as the most powerful beings on earth. At least temporarily. Afterward, he's debilitated." She cast him a measuring glance.
He evinced no reaction, even as a suspicion began to arise. This might all go back to ... Nix.
"The berserkers swore allegiance to Woden and fought battles in his name."
Though myths rarely corresponded with reality, Declan had researched the Valkyrie's. "Woden is allegedly the father of the Valkyrie."
She nodded. "I'm the daughter of gods. Well, two of my three parents are."
"How is there a third parent?"
"When a maiden warrior calls out for courage as she dies, Woden and Freya strike her with lightning and rescue her to Valhalla. I was in the lightning." She glanced at his expression. "You don't believe me, do you?"
"Immortals are notorious for aggrandizing their own origins. But I've learned never to discount anything completely."
"Fair enough."
"Though I do wonder, if your parents are deities, why would they let you be captured by me?"