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  Upstairs, Danii passed the most shaded chamber in Val Hall, belonging to Emmaline, her beloved niece. But she knew Emma would be asleep as well. It was day, and Emma was vampire. Or half one. No one knew who her vampire father was, and that information wasn’t likely forthcoming, since her Valkyrie mother had died of sorrow decades ago.

  Gentle Emma was the single vampire the Valkyrie accepted. Though a blood drinker, she was so timid that she made it easy to overlook the vampirism.

  Emma was the exception; Murdoch was the rule. Just accept it. He almost bit you…

  Danii reached her room, which was basically a giant freezer, and pushed open the heavy insulated door. A blast of arctic air and the comforting drone of refrigeration met her.

  She lived at Val Hall year-round. But in the summer, even the meat locker—as her sisters called her room—was barely adequate for her needs.

  There simply was no call for hundred-degree days.

  Closing the door behind her, she gazed around the spacious area. She’d decorated it with frost, glazing the walls with it. Icicles dripped from the blades of the ceiling fan. Valances of ice capped her windows.

  She couldn’t say she loved it here, but she’d adapted to life with her coven. Others could tolerate hours in the snow, but would seek a hearth at the end of the day. Danii was the same way with heat, except she sought the comfort of her meat locker.

  Her slushy waterbed was filled with saltwater, which lowered the freezing point to below thirty-two degrees. Above her bathtub was an ice maker, and beside it hung an Epsom salt dispenser. On occasion, she had to add salt to the water so that she didn’t freeze it.

  Her ice-proofed computer was a military-spec laptop with a magnesium chassis and a sealed keyboard.

  Yes, she’d adapted. And she’d felt some security living in such a warm climate. I thought I was safe from Sigmund here. It should’ve been the last place the Icere would look.

  The attack was another reason Danii was avoiding her sisters. If she told them about last night, they would insist on her staying—and them fighting. But the Icere were an enemy the Valkyrie didn’t need.

  And one they could never find to defeat.

  When Danii had been a girl of seven, her mother Svana had journeyed to Icergard, the Icere castle, to reclaim her crown from the vicious Sigmund. Danii’s memories of this time were indistinct after the passage of so many years, but she remembered her mother saying, “If I don’t return to you here, you must promise me, love, never to follow me. Never, never go to Icergard.” She’d made Danii vow it.

  Svana had never returned. Before she’d even made it to the castle, Sigmund had assassinated her—the mother who’d refused to linger endlessly in peace with her young daughter in the godplane of Valhalla.

  Once Danii had grown old enough to leave Valhalla herself, he’d dispatched killers after her to prevent her from ever challenging his reign. As if she ever would.

  Over the centuries, she’d considered breaking her vow to her mother, but only to gather her sisters and strike back at Sigmund, freeing herself from his threat. Yet even if the Valkyrie could find Icergard—rumored to be hidden within the Arctic Circle beneath a dome of ice—they could never attack the castle without getting slaughtered.

  Sigmund was perfectly protected from the Valkyrie, inadvertently utilizing their greatest weakness as his defense.

  Diamonds. Svana had told her they dotted the walls and perimeter fences. Though Danii was immune, most Valkyrie could be mesmerized by them.

  With a sigh, she rose. She needed to pack, and then she needed to find Nïx to ask the half mad soothsayer about three things:

  Myst.

  Exactly what was supposed to have been fixed the night before.

  And where Danii should flee before the next wave of Icere arrived.

  There were eleven other Valkyrie covens around the world that Danii could choose from.

  The latitude of the Seattle coven had always intrigued her. And then there was the one in New Zealand. Fall approached down there.

  Yet as ever, Danii hated to leave her own coven. Valkyrie visited others, but they always returned to their primary coven, like preferring an immediate family over an extended one.

  Plus, the New Orleans Valkyrie had plagued the others with practical jokes, which might make it awkward for Danii to pop in.

  She could just see herself telling the Seattle Valkyrie, “I had nothing to do with signing you up for the emu farming franchise. And I am sorry twenty of them were released in your pool house, startling your harem of cabana demons. See Nïx.”

  Tonight, the wily soothsayer would likely be downtown in the Vieux Carré. So Danii would be trolling Bourbon Street yet again. Her only consolation was that she wouldn’t run into Murdoch.

  He and his brother had only been in New Orleans to find Myst. Good riddance.

  Damn it, why did never seeing him again matter to her?

  Because he saved your life and surprised you repeatedly. And she’d enjoyed him, had liked what they’d done together. It was the first time she’d had an orgasm with someone else in the room. She grew aroused just recalling how he’d worked the seed free from his shaft. He’d been naked in bed with her, his mighty chest heaving, yelling out as he came.

  And now he was free to use those sensual lips to kiss another woman, could use that magnificent body to pleasure others. She glanced at her claws. They’d straightened with aggression.

  Stop thinking about him, she told herself firmly as she crossed to one of the windows, brushing away a layer of frost. As her gaze flickered over the lightning-scorched trees in the yard, a sense of melancholy fell over her. I don’t want to leave.

  In the window glass, Danii spied her reflection. She was exhausted, which meant there was a reddish tinge to her lips and under her eyes, instead of the blue that should be there. Her face was pinched.

  She looked miserable. Tally yet another reason why the vampire hadn’t wanted to have anything to do with her. Well, other than biting and possibly killing her.

  She glared down at her pale, icy skin. Never to be touched. Never without pain. Danii was stuck in this body, stuck in this rut.

  Most of her half sisters were fiercely independent—many were legendary warriors or love-’em-and-leave-’em jet-setters. Danii was just… Danii. And she could admit she’d longed for a male of her own, maybe to make a home with. A male who would always clasp her in his arms when she ran for him.

  I’m the Valkyrie who most wants to be held—and I never can be. At the thought, she felt her bottom lip trembling. I’d rather not have had a glimpse of what I’ve been missing.

  She dropped her head into her hands and wept, her freezing tears making her want to scream.

  CHAPTER 13

  Tonight Murdoch might be forced to kill his king.

  He had sworn fealty to Kristoff and his Forbearer order, but he was loyal to Nikolai above all others.

  After Lukyan left, Murdoch quickly stuffed Daniela’s note in his pocket—and donned his sword. He would strike down Kristoff in a heartbeat if his brother was in danger.

  When he traced to the great room in Blachmount, Kristoff intoned, “Sit, Murdoch.”

  Kristoff was at the head of the timeworn table, flanked by four Forbearer elders from Russia, some of the first ones he’d turned— his own countrymen.

  Within their order was a tense alliance between the Russians and Estonians. Kristoff thought the realm of the Lore superseded human concerns and wars. But history was difficult for Murdoch to forget.

  Russians had killed him and most of his family.

  “I imagine Nikolai will be down shortly.” Kristoff was analyzing him. Would he hear Murdoch’s beating heart? And if he did, would he say anything about it?

  The king often acted in ways that were incomprehensible to Murdoch. He’d demonstrated blistering wrath toward some subjects, and unexpected leniency to others.

  Kristoff was a natural-born vampire, not a turned human, and was as
shrewd as he was ruthless. As a boy, he’d had his crown stolen by his uncle, Demestriu, the current leader of the Horde. Kristoff had been smuggled out of the capital before Demestriu could assassinate him, then raised in hiding by humans.

  Once Kristoff had grown old enough to seek his birthright, he’d had no army, so he’d started making one, siring troops of turned human warriors.

  Murdoch sat down uneasily. “What are we doing here?”

  “Questioning your brother,” Kristoff said. “About his crime.”

  Striving to make his tone level, he asked, “What crime would that be?”

  “One of the worst.”

  The worst crimes in their order were treason and drinking living blood straight from the flesh.

  There’d been no treason. Though Murdoch didn’t particularly care about Kristoff’s cause—he’d agreed to join the king’s army because he’d wanted to live—Nikolai had always fervently believed in what the Forbearers stood for.

  And drinking living blood? When Murdoch had seen Nikolai earlier, he’d been content, but he’d still been pallid, still lean. His eyes had been closed, so Murdoch hadn’t been able to tell if they were red.

  “My liege, you know Nikolai,” Murdoch said. “He’s a loyal soldier.” Besides, Nikolai would’ve told Murdoch if he’d planned anything.

  “Exactly.”

  Murdoch fell silent at that, knowing from experience that Kristoff would say no more. As a natural-born vampire, Kristoff was unable to lie, so instead he often ignored questions and answered others cryptically.

  As they waited for Nikolai, Murdoch restlessly glanced around the decaying room. So many memories haunted this place. Here Nikolai had made the fateful decision to try to turn all of their dying family.

  Murdoch remembered that time as if it were yesterday.

  After he and Nikolai had risen from the dead, they’d traced home and had found their sisters and father dying of plague. Sebastian and Conrad had been stabbed through by Russian marauders and barely clung to life.

  All in this room… How the girls had wept when they’d comprehended that they were dying. How filled with rage Sebastian and Conrad had been to be turned into vampires against their will—

  Nikolai suddenly materialized. He was black-eyed with fury, his fangs dripping. He must have sensed intruders, and thought them a threat to Myst.

  “Wroth, I pity the being who wishes to harm your Bride,” Kristoff said.

  Murdoch nearly whistled out a breath at Nikolai’s appearance. His face had been beaten. His clothing was filthy, his shirt tattered and marked with blood.

  Nikolai seemed to be grappling for control. “I would not wish to attend you in such a condition. I’ll go wash and change—”

  “No, we know you are eager to get back to her for the remains of the night,” Kristoff said, then added in a proud tone, “Congratulations, Wroth. You’ve now been blooded and claimed your Bride.” He studied him. “Recently. Though it appears she didn’t acquiesce to you.”

  Did Kristoff think Myst had fought Nikolai? What the hell had happened to his brother since earlier this day? If Nikolai had been content earlier, now he looked determined.

  “I’d like to meet her,” Kristoff said.

  “She is resting.”

  Murdoch thought he heard her in the bath upstairs. Leisurely bathing? If they’d fought, then why was she not fleeing Nikolai?

  Kristoff said, “I suppose she would be resting. In fact, we’d wonder if she weren’t.”

  Two of the elders snickered until Nikolai shot them a quelling scowl.

  Kristoff steepled his fingers. “And you drank her blood this night?”

  Deny it, Nikolai.

  “Did you take her flesh as you did so?”

  No, steady Nikolai would never commit this crime, the one punishable by death. Should Kristoff decree it, Nikolai would be chained in an open field until the sun burned him to ash.

  When Nikolai’s eyes narrowed, Murdoch’s hand slipped to his sword hilt. Five against him and Nikolai. Likely the brothers wouldn’t make it out of Blachmount alive.

  How fitting.

  Nikolai’s shoulders went back. “I did.”

  No, brother… He hadn’t restrained himself. But why were his eyes clear?

  Kristoff ordered, “Take off your shirt.”

  Murdoch caught Nikolai’s glance, tensing to fight, but Kristoff said, “Stand down, Murdoch, no one’s dying tonight.”

  A lashing then? Nikolai removed the shirt, too proud for his own good. His gaze darted to the stairs; even now he worried for his Bride.

  “Toss it on the table.”

  Frowning, Nikolai did. Murdoch caught the scent just as the other elders did. Kristoff had detected traces of Myst’s blood, and now they all did as well. Like the others, Murdoch’s hands went white on the table, but for a different reason.

  Murdoch was reminded anew of Daniela’s blood—and of his dream, recalling how he’d pierced the supple flesh of her neck, sucking from her… “And what was it like?” he absently asked, his voice hoarse.

  Nikolai didn’t answer. Then Kristoff raised his brow in a wordless command.

  After a hesitation, Nikolai grated, “There is no description strong enough.”

  Murdoch barely suppressed a groan and was surprised that no one noticed the hectic drum of his heart.

  “How did she feel about your bite?” Kristoff asked.

  Again Nikolai was silent.

  Kristoff’s stare was unflinching. “You resist answering your king on the heels of confessing to our most reviled crime?”

  Nikolai resisted because he’d accepted Myst as his. As his family. Wroths protected their family’s honor.

  Answer him, Nikolai—you can’t protect her if you’re dead.

  Nikolai must have been thinking the same thing. Though distinctly unwilling, he bit out, “She found extreme pleasure from it.”

  She’d liked being bitten?

  Kristoff relaxed back in his chair, his demeanor pleased. He asked those at the table, “Do you think I should forgive Wroth his transgression? For which one of us could have resisted the temptation when she was our Bride and her exquisite blood called?” The king stared at the shredded garment marked by a Valkyrie’s blood.

  Murdoch masked his shock. For centuries, this had been law. Forbearing from drinking the flesh was how they’d earned their name. Was this a license to drink from one’s Bride?

  “Continue as you were,” Kristoff told Nikolai. “But if your eyes turn red, know that we will destroy you.”

  Nikolai is free to drink his Bride, to take her blood at his leisure. Murdoch envied him. Again.

  Nikolai was stunned as well, but recovered enough to say, “I was coming to Mount Oblak tonight to tell you that Ivo was spotted in New Orleans.”

  Ivo the Cruel was a leader in the Horde, and their armies had battled in the past. In fact, Mount Oblak had once been his holding.

  “He’s looking for someone,” Nikolai said. “I suspect it could be Myst.”

  That made sense. She’d been Ivo’s prisoner, had already been in his dungeon when the Forbearers had taken the castle.

  Nikolai ran a hand over his face, his concern evident. “I need to go—”

  “We’ll take care of it,” Murdoch interrupted sharply. “For God’s sake, you stay here and… enjoy… everything.” Everything I can’t.

  Kristoff returned his attention to Nikolai, eyeing him shrewdly. “Find out as much as you can from her. And you will tell us if the memories follow the blood.”

  After a short nod, Nikolai traced from the room.

  His brother hadn’t just been spared, he’d as much as had a slap on the back from Kristoff. The king was no doubt thinking of an alliance with the Valkyrie.

  And I have a Valkyrie Bride. But Murdoch could never drink her anyway, was a danger to her.

  If Nikolai had succumbed, knowing he was breaking the laws of their order, then Murdoch didn’t stand a chance of controlling
himself with Daniela. And she would find no pleasure in it, had told him she could die from it.

  Kristoff stood. “Now, which of you will volunteer to accompany Murdoch to New Orleans where this coven full of Valkyrie is located?”

  They all shot to their feet.

  One asked, “Does this mean we can drink from our Brides? Without repercussions?”

  “Only if they’re immortal and can’t be killed from blood loss. I believe that’s why Nikolai’s eyes are still clear,” Kristoff said absently, his gaze focused on Murdoch. “A word,” Kristoff told him, ushering him aside. “You are charged with protecting Myst the Coveted. This match between her and your brother is critical. Scour the city for Ivo until the sun drives you back.”

  In the past, Murdoch had searched those city streets for his brother’s sake. Now he would do the same for Myst, a female he’d hated for years. “And when I find him?”

  “Take him out.”

  “Gladly.”

  “Is there anything you’d like to tell me, Murdoch?”

  “My liege?”

  “Your heart beats,” Kristoff observed. “Don’t worry, the others won’t notice. Turned humans rarely think to listen for it. When did this happen?”

  “Last night.”

  “A mere five years after your brother. While I’ve waited millennia.” Did Kristoff envy them?

  Doubtless. The natural-born vampires had the same pressing drive to find their mates. They were born fully alive, growing much like mortals, until they neared the age when they froze into their immortality. Then with each day, their hearts would beat less, their breaths—and sexual need—gradually diminishing to nothing until they could become blooded.

  Just like the Forbearers, the natural-born vampires knew exactly what they were missing…

  “Is your Bride by any chance a Valkyrie?”

  When Murdoch hesitated, Kristoff’s eyes flooded black with anger. “Need I remind you that I’m your king? And I’ve just shown mercy to your brother.”

  “She is a Valkyrie.”

  “Have you been able to learn anything about the Lore from her?”

  “I’ll be able to find out more in the future,” he said, hedging for some reason.