Dreams of a Dark Warrior (23 page)

NINETEEN

A
gainst me?” Chase raised his brows.

“Uh-huh. Castle-taking was your thing. You ‘commandeered’ key strongholds for King Philip al over

Europe, and you’d set your sights on Lanbert’s keep.” Regin drew her calves under her to sit cross-

legged on his desk, daring him to say something. Getting comfy when cuffed was damned near

impossible.

He glowered but said nothing.

“Every day your army trenched in closer to the castle, almost in trebuchet range. But we’d known it was

only a matter of time. Your men were fanatical y loyal, and you were a master strategist. Lucia was

running out of arrows. My blades were dul ed from cleaving bone. We hadn’t slept in days …”

When she began describing the setting—the smel of smoke and tar, the lingering rock dust from the

battered castle wal s, the smithy’s constant hammering—he leaned back in his chair, the marked tension

in his shoulders lessening.

As she recounted the weeks of battle, the foot-soldier offensives and arrow exchanges, he relaxed

even more, resting his hands behind his head. Chase liked these tales.

“Then came the day of reckoning. The trebuchets were loaded, and so close that we could hear the

ropes straining. Before you fired them, you rode up to the portcul is, astride a wild-eyed stal ion.

Skirmishes slowed, quieting until only a stray sword clanged here or there. You were tal , not as tal as you are now, but massive in armor. I would have known you were Treves even if you hadn’t been carrying

your standard, a red banner with two ravens in flight.”

“Ravens?” Had tension crept back into his shoulders?

“The symbol of Wóden, remember? At the time, we just thought it was a coincidence that Treves had

it.” She slanted him a glance. “You know this mark?”

Chase shook his head. “Go on.”

After a hesitation, she said, “For some reason, you raised your gaze to the rampart I defended, doing

a double take at me.”

In an irritable tone, Chase said, “Perhaps because you
glow
.”

“I was cloaked from head to toe,” she said with a saccharine smile. “To Lanbert, you bel owed,

‘Surrender your castle, or I’l raze it to the ground.’ Your ultimatum didn’t sit wel with me, so natural y, I voiced my opinion.”

“Which was?”

“That you should go copulate with a pig. It sounded way cooler in medieval French.”

Chase raised his brows.

“But at my words, you jolted in your saddle, your horse growing even more wild-eyed. You cal ed to me,

‘You defend that rampart, female?’ I answered, ‘To the death, prick.’ Again, way cooler in medieval

French.”

“You antagonized the leader of a superior force?”

“What were you going to do? Trebuchet us even harder?”

“So how did
he
respond?” Chase asked.

“
You
cal ed out, ‘Lanbert, send down the black-cloaked woman as my war prize, and I wil end my siege.

We close this eve with peace between us.’ Everyone was floored. For Treves to quit a siege without a

victory? You’d won dozens of castles—you
never
lost. Even more shocking was that you wanted a

woman.”

“Why was that so shocking?”

“Because Treves belonged to a
monastic
order of knights. No damsels al owed. Lucia and I didn’t

know what to make of this. You couldn’t know that I was a Valkyrie. But why else would you want me? Of

course, Luce made the obligatory war booty cracks, and we yucked it up.”

Lucia had final y begun to shake off the worst of Cruach’s torture. After centuries, she’d relearned how

to laugh.

“You weren’t afraid?”

Regin rol ed her eyes. “I fear nothing. Besides, we thought it great fun that you were tel ing Lanbert to

send me down. The old earl could no more command me than I could ask Wóden to wake from his

godsleep. But by this time, I was fraught with curiosity. I simply had to face you. When I strol ed out of the castle, you rode up to meet me.”

Regin would never forget how he’d looked. Up close, she’d gotten a better sense of his size, but she

hadn’t been able to see his face. His visor had shaded his eyes, and the winter sun had been at his back,

paining her preternatural sight. “Treves and I … bantered.” She could stil hear his voice:

“You’ve come to sacrifice yourself to me?”

“Have you not seen me in battle, knight? I sacrifice nothing with this move.”

“Woman, you became my prize as soon as you crossed from that keep.”

She lifted her chin. “Or you became mine.”

“You ordered me to take off my cloak. Though I didn’t take orders, I did enjoy shocking people with my

wicked-cool glowing. So I pul ed my hood back. You hissed in a breath, but you had a surprise of your

own. Just as your waving pennant blocked the direct sun, you lifted your visor. I caught my first glimpse of your gray eyes and nearly fainted. They’d begun to glow.”

At first Treves had appeared confounded, muttering,
I’ve never seen you, but you haunt my dreams.

Then his gaze had narrowed with intent, and he’d stabbed his standard into the ground.

“Before I could blink, you’d swooped me up into the saddle in front of you. To your men, you cal ed, ‘We

war no longer!’”

Now Regin studied Chase’s reaction. He hardly seemed to be listening. “And we lived happily ever

after,” she said, which was not remotely true.

“Stopping there?”

“You seem real y preoccupied. You don’t like my knight’s tale?” She certainly didn’t like the end of it.

Treves had died in agony before the next sunrise, convulsing in her arms as she’d helplessly watched.

After fighting across half of Europe, Brandr had reached them just as Treves took his last breaths.

“Am I
boring
you?” Never in a thousand years had Regin asked that question.

Chase shrugged noncommittal y, his dark brows drawn.

What is going on in that complicated mind of his?
With Aidan, she’d always known what he was

thinking. But this Irishman was continual y throwing her. She scooted to the edge of the desk again. “You

probably just want to can the chitchat and get to the kissing, huh? It’s understandable.”

At his quel ing look, she shook her head slowly. “No? Wel , then I’l give you some advice. Free of

charge. You’re probably up to your ass with work, and you’re hating it,” she said. “Chase, you weren’t

meant to run this place. You’re a hunter, a
warrior,
who was born to be in the thick of the fray.”

“Do you think that I desire or need your advice?”

“I
am
way older than you are.”

“Yet stil more immature.”

“Easily. You want to tel me what you’re thinking about?”

At length, he said, “If each reincarnation personified aspects of Aidan, what were the others?”

“Gabriel the Spaniard was humor and sex. Edward, my young English cavalryman, was …” She trailed

off, affected as ever by her heartrending memories of him. “Edward was pure love.”

“You believe I’m one of these reincarnations. What do you imagine I represent?”

“I think you could be al of them,” she said. “But right now, you’re Aidan’s dark obsession. You’re

drowning, Chase, and deep down, you know I’m your lifeline.”

He steepled his fingers. “I find it interesting that you tel of a man who turned his back on everything

he’d worked for. A knight who ended a siege for a woman. Then on the heels of that you
advise
me not to run this instal ation?”

“I just recounted what happened with Treves. Besides, he was by no means the king’s lapdog—he’d

questioned his ruler’s actions from the beginning and had stood up to him before. There was talk that

Treves could seize the throne whenever he felt like it.”

Which was why Philip had already had an assassin waiting in the wings. When Treves had disobeyed

Philip’s command to take the castle, the king had ordered him poisoned.

For choosing me over a victory, Treves had paid with his life. …

The Valkyrie’s gaze grew distant, her eyes flickering color. When she faced him once more, she said,

“Lemme ask you, Magister—have
you
ever stood up to your boss before?”

Earlier he’d suspected that this tale was al part of a setup, serving her agenda. Now she’d just

confirmed his suspicion.

While Declan had been relaxing his guard with her, she’d been working him over, every word she’d

spoken careful y chosen. “If I don’t act like your knight, then I’m a lapdog?” In a disgusted tone, he said,

“Perhaps I should betray everything I’ve ever known for you?”

“I could make you happier than the Order does.” So sure of herself.

“I’m not in this for
happiness,
Valkyrie. And I don’t question commands, because I believe in the objective—protecting humankind.
My
kind.”

“I think you want to leave al this behind to be with me. Chase, I’m only waiting on you.”

“Abandon my mission?
Never,
Valkyrie! Who would do this work if not for me?” His gloved hands

fisted. No one had ever infuriated him like she did! He was supposed to be emotionless by nature. He

injected those numbing concoctions every night. So why were these rages stil taking him over?

Without thought, he stormed to his filing cabinet, yanking out a worn file of pictures—photos of the

casualties in this war. If he ever doubted his purpose or resented the pain in his battle-worn body, he

brought out this folder. Nothing could solidify his resolve more effectively.

He wanted to show her what he fought against, and to observe her reaction.
To see for myself that

she won’t even blink.

“If it wasn’t for me, then the pack of viper shifters that hit this orphanage”—he tossed a set of four

photos onto the desk—“would stil be targeting easy prey.” The graphic pictures depicted the bodies of

children and nuns, swol en and fed upon. “They’d been dragged from their beds in the middle of the night,

then envenomed until paralyzed. They couldn’t even scream.”

She peered down at them, her lips thinned.

“Or how about this?” He flung another picture in front of her. This one showed mauled Wendigo victims

with their limbs ripped apart, their bones cracked open. “The Wendigos had sucked out the marrow while

their prey was stil alive. I destroyed every single one in that pack. Even the humans who’d been

transformed into their kind.”

As if she sensed she’d do wel not to say anything, the Valkyrie remained silent.

The next set of pictures made him rock on his feet; his mother and father tied up on the floor, their

flesh consumed to the bone. Their expressions frozen in terror forever. “What about the Neoptera?” he

demanded, his voice ragged. “I’ve eradicated dozens of them during my twenty years with the Order.”

For some reason, he shoved the picture of his parents in front of her.

And, damn her, her eyes flickered with sympathy. He slammed his fist down on the desk, bel owing,

“Don’t you fuckin’ dare feel sympathy for them! They were mere mortals, beneath your notice!”

“Of course I feel sympathy!” She shot to her feet, bristling. “That’s why I’ve kil ed as many of those

creatures as I’ve come across! You’re locking up immortals who would be your al ies—”

“Al y with you? You’re
indolent
. Your own sister said that al you do is fight needlessly and get high.”

They were toe-to-toe.

“Oh, you’re one to talk about getting high, Major Tom! You’re flying out of this atmosphere most days.”

He ignored that. “You serve no purpose, have
no
reason to exist.”

Again that flash of hurt shone in her eyes. “I have a purpose, you asshole! Ever heard of Cruach, the

god of human sacrifice and cannibalism? Every five hundred years, he rises, bent on turning al of

humanity into maddened cannibal kil ers. Alongside my sister,
I
fight him.
Me!
I’ve faced him twice before.

Only this time, he’s going viral. We’re talking apocalypse.”

Declan had heard of Cruach before, but they had limited intel on the being.
Yet another immortal

threat. Yet more information for the taking …

“I’m supposed to be facing him right now, but you have me locked up here!” She drew her lips back

from her smal fangs, reminding him of what she was. “Because of you, Chase, the world is teetering on

the brink of apocalypse, immortals
and
mortals in jeopardy.”

He’d speak with Webb about this, determine a plan of action—