A Hunger Like No Other (Immortals After Dark #2)(100)

Emma said, “Tracing! That’s right. Now we can visit whenever we want. Coo-ell. Can we spend some weekends here? And Mardi Gras? And the Jazz Fest? Ooh, I want to watch you eat crawfish!”

With a pained expression, he said, “I suppose on occasion we could run through the bayou as easily as a forest.”

Then her face fell. “But I don’t know if I want you around all my gorgeous aunts.”

He chuckled at her ridiculous statement, then winced when his wounds wouldn’t cooperate. “Emma, you shame them. No, doona argue. I have eyes, I can see.” He stroked his thumb over her cheek. “And I know none of them can howl at the moon half as good as my wee halfling.”

“Cheeky werewolf!” she chided, leaning in to kiss his lips, but she was interrupted by a scream downstairs.

As they frowned at each other, Annika shrieked at someone unseen, “What do you mean, we have a six-figure credit card bill?”





36


Emma the Unlikely

Emma the King Killer

Emma of the Three



H er own page in the Book of Warriors!

Regin, N?x, and Annika had taken her—and she’d insisted on taking Lachlain—into the war room, to the ornate, ancient pedestal with the light shining down upon it. They drew it out from under its Plexiglas case and opened it to her page.

Her likeness was painted there and below it, written in the old language, were her aliases and One of Wóden’s Cherished Warriors. Warrior. War-ee-yur. This was so cool as to not be believed. With trembling fingers, Emma brushed the raised writing on the soft parchment.

Slayer of Demestriu, king of the vampire Horde, eldest and strongest of vampires. When she chose to battle him alone.

Emma raised her eyebrows at the implicit rebuke, and Annika lifted her chin.

Queen to Lachlain, king of the Lykae. Beloved daughter of Helen and all Valkyrie.

“Look at my resume!” Tears spilled over. “I look good on paper!”

Regin groaned. “Not the crying. That’s so gross.”

“And you left room for more!” She sniffled. N?x handed her tissues she’d had the foresight to bring, and Emma brushed her face with them.

“Well, of course,” N?x said. “Even if you spend a lazy eternity doing nothing more than wallowing about with your wolf, we left room for your heroic, hell-raising kids.”

Emma’s face flushed, and she felt Lachlain draping a protective arm over her, squeezing her to his side. Chin up, he said, “We’ve decided no’ to have bairns.”

N?x frowned. “Well, I’m not usually wrong about these things when I do see them, but if you both are so set on it, then never let her eat human food, especially not for back-to-back weeks on end, or she’ll get knocked up faster than a rabbit after a Druid fertility ceremony!”

Emma said softly, “But I can’t…I’m a vampire, and we can’t have children.”

N?x and Annika both frowned. “Of course you can,” N?x said. “You just have to take different nourishment.”

When Lachlain still looked unconvinced, Annika said, “Think about it—what do all humans do that not all in the Lore do? They eat of the earth and they spawn. The two are not unrelated.”

Her heart thudding, Emma remembered Demestriu talking about Helen sharing meals with him just before she got pregnant. “And a Lykae with a…valkire?”

“Can you have little ankle-biters?” N?x giggled. “Absolutely, and in the most literal sense. You know, you aren’t the first time the different factions have had offspring together.” She glanced around as if looking for someone in the manor, then waved it away. “Vampires who can walk in the sun, Lykae who can take sustenance from lightning. Valkyrie who run the forests at night with perfect joy.” N?x got an awed expression on her face. “And they’re strong. Just look at you.”

Emma glanced from N?x to Annika. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Annika raised her palms, shaking her head. “I never imagined you thought about this at all, much less that you were under this misimpression.”

To Lachlain, N?x said, “When Emma yearns in her heart for children, it begins. She’ll have to eat regular food for at least nine months.”

Emma smacked her lips and grimaced, not relishing the thought of masticating.

“Doona hold your breath. I’m no’ keen to share her.”

“Very well. Until then”—N?x paused to give him a lascivious grin—“honeymoon!”

Emma and Lachlain sat stunned.

N?x waved an impatient hand. “All this would have come out during the three hour pre-joining counseling that you two are required to do.”



That weekend after Emma and Lachlain’s small, straightforward ceremony, and the raucous, bizarre party afterward, the members of the coven lounged in the TV room, sprawled over furniture, eyes glued to the television.

Lachlain and Emma sat among them, but he was restless, unable to watch the movie when Emma was making lazy circles on his palm with her fingertip.

Lachlain had invited only Bowe and Garreth to the festivities, though everyone in the clan hankered to meet the wee queen who’d felled Demestriu. But his kind liked to drink and rib and be boisterous, and he could just see the mad Valkyrie, who didn’t drink—anything—reacting poorly. The preternatural versus the natural mixed with liquor.