The Valkyrie was throwing him. Again. Too much to take in. A new Bride. A hunger like he’d never known…
He gazed at her neck once more. Her skin was pale, smooth, begging for his fangs.
“Besides, the more I think about it,” she continued, “the more I realize you should probably be rescuing your brother from her. She’s going to twist him inside out.”
Murdoch shook himself. “She’s already done that. She tormented him for five years.” His anger was growing, matching his thirst and exhaustion. “I barely got through a few hours of needing to come— imagine half a decade!”
Her pleased mien faded. “He deserved nothing less.”
Murdoch traced directly in front of her, staring down. In a menacing tone, he said, “Did he? To be shot up, then left crippled by his Bride?”
She rolled her eyes at him, possibly the first woman ever to do so. “Either you don’t know all the facts or you’re ignoring them. On the night that Myst left Nikolai, he was about to torture her for information in Mount Oblak’s dungeon. Our sisters rescued her from that fate, and they wanted to kill Nikolai, but Myst left him alive. Your brother owes her his life.”
“Watch what you say, plika.”
“Chit? You called me a chit?”
Figured she’d know Estonian.
Her own ire clearly mounting, she said, “And what’ll happen if the plika doesn’t watch what she says? Will you hurt me, your one and only Bride?”
“You think I’m bound by this? Bound to you?” Even as he sneered the words, he had to resist that unbearable pull toward her. Resent it. “You think that I’ll follow you around like a dog as you scorn me?” His eyes kept straying to her neck. Would she notice?
“Scorning you hadn’t even been in the decision tree for me, but now that you bring it up, it makes total sense, especially considering the repercussions otherwise,” she said. Yet then she frowned. “Wait a second. I see what you’re doing. Trying to scare me off.”
She rose, tucking the sheet around her like a towel. “Look, I’m as freaked out about this as you are. But the fact is that I… liked you, up until five minutes ago, and I wanted to see you again—even though I’d be risking ridicule at best and ostracism at worst.” She took a step closer to him, that vulnerability in her expression. “I’m sure this is all overwhelming for you. One minute you’re going about your business, and the next you’re blooded with a Bride—”
“One I didn’t choose.” He was taking his frustration out on her, and he couldn’t seem to stop. “I didn’t manage monogamy as a human, though I could have wed my pick of the most ravishing women in my country. How do you think I’ll fare with a female I can’t touch?” Especially now that he could have others.
Her eyes narrowed, and lightning struck outside. “Monogamy? I’m not angling for a wedding!” All shades of that previous vulnerability were gone, replaced by haughtiness. “And if you don’t think I can hold my own against all those eighteenth-century mortals you were out tagging, then you’re a fool, Casanova.” At his expression, she added, “Oh, yes, I know all about you.”
He went still. “What are you talking about?”
“I was alive back then. And all the Lore heard about the ruthless warlord brothers from Estonia. The general, the scholar, the enigma, and… the manwhore.”
He clenched his jaw at the thought of having his life analyzed, especially by creatures he didn’t even understand. The Forbearers could garner little information on Lore beings—their lives held secret—and yet they’d been actively following his own exploits?
“A manwhore?” Was that all he’d been remembered as? “Maybe I left behind the women I’d enjoyed because I didn’t want to deal with exactly this.” Even now he wanted to end this argument by kissing her and taking her to bed, which confused him even more. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the hour we just shared was the best we ever will—it’s all going to go downhill from there.”
“You don’t have the sense to realize you were blooded by one of the only Valkyrie who would accept a vampire in her bed.”
“To do precisely what there? Freeze?”
In a flash, she drew back her blistered hand to slap him.
“Do it, ice queen. And feel the sting with me.”
Lightning struck again as she lowered her hand. “You’re not worth it, leech,” she said, but he was scarcely listening. Below her collarbone, a small line of blood had just risen from the last remnant of her wounds.
That stark red against her alabaster skin called to him, made him imagine following the trail with his tongue, then pinning her down to suck from her breast.
Already the scent was all around him. And now to see it?
Don’t look at it.
How the hell had Nikolai restrained himself from biting Myst all those years ago?
Murdoch’s hands fisted as he struggled not to fall upon Daniela. He’d been able to resist touching her when under the most painful pressure he’d ever dreamed of.
But I’m not going to be able to deny this call…
CHAPTER 10
How can this be happening? They’d been doing so well. Fantasy made reality… somewhat.
But now the vampire’s eyes had flooded black again. So he was as angry as she was?
Danii turned from him to snag the T-shirt, donning it as she dropped the sheet. When she met his gaze, he appeared even more incensed than before.
“Obviously, I need to leave,” she said, while thinking, Tell me I’m your Bride, and that I will be staying. Be an arrogant, possessive Neanderthal vampire!
She wanted him to simply inform her that he would never let her go and she would just have to accept that, or whatever domineering misguided tripe these manly men always said. To women that aren’t me.
This one wouldn’t even look at her. “You need to go. Now.”
Kicking me to the curb. She didn’t know how much more of this her ego could take. Leeches were detested by most Valkyrie—by most of the Lore—yet Danii had been ready to offer this one more. He has no idea what I’d been willing to risk for him. “I’m a bit perplexed here. Most vampires refuse to be separated from their Brides, yet you can’t get rid of me fast enough.”
Because he no longer needed her. Danii had helped give him his initial release, her Bride’s duty done, and now he could be with other females. She was expendable.
But one day he would realize what he’d lost—a frigid, broken female he could never claim, and one with skin issues—and then he’d be sorry.
When her bottom lip trembled, she cursed herself bitterly. Don’t you cry in front of him!
“I thought you were going.”
Exasperation drowned out the urge to cry. Exactly how was she supposed to leave? She didn’t have a car here, didn’t even know where they were. “No.”
“What?”
“Not until you tell me why you’re so intent on getting rid of me.”
His gaze was transfixed on her neck, his voice a snarl as he said, “I’m about to throw you to the ground. Take your blood in a frenzy.”
“B-but your kind doesn’t bite.” Her lips parted, and she backed away with real fear. “I’m not strong yet, Murdoch. If you did that, you could kill me.”
His eyes went wide, then narrowed. Yet he’d still begun striding toward her. She backed to the wall.
Can I spare enough cold to stop him? With a grimace, she started building ice in her palm, planning to trap him as she had before.
When he was just before her, he shook his head, his entire body going off balance. With a last look at her face, he snapped, “Leave here. Before I return for you.”