A Hunger Like No Other (Immortals After Dark #2)(62)

“I will never lie to you again, but your place is with me. Here.”

“Here. In northern Scotland. And we’re coming up on summer. Gee, Lach, how long are the days in the summer way up here?”

“I’ve thought about that. We’ll go to wherever you can be comfortable in the summer. And the nights are longer in the winter. Do you think I would no’ take you where I could have more hours with you?”

“You’ve got it all figured out. You’re going to make me say ‘I do’ whether I do or don’t.”

“I do?” He frowned. “As in marriage? This is much more serious than marriage.”

“That’s about as serious—”

“Marriages can end.”

Her lips parted. “Well, that certainly puts it into perspective. No way out for eternity. Did it ever occur to you that I might like to take one day at a time? I’m young, and this is everything. You’re asking me for—no, you’re demanding—everything, and I’ve only known you a week. You may have this cosmic certainty about me, but I don’t have the same about you.”

“If I asked you, would that make a difference? Will you stay with me?”

“No, I won’t. But I’m not saying we would never see each other again. I’ll go home and we’ll take things slowly, get to know one another.”

He closed his eyes. When he opened them, they were full of pain. Then his face hardened. “I canna allow that. You’ll remain here until you can answer that question differently.”

“You would separate me from my family?”

He seized her arm, hard. “You have no idea how ruthless I will be to keep you, Emma. I’d do that and more. I will do whatever it takes.”

“You’ll never hold me prisoner here.”

For some reason, that clearly angered him more than the rest. His body tensed and his eyes flickered blue. “No, I canna. You’re free to go. But you doona get a car. You doona get to direct someone here to pick you up. We’re a hundred miles from the nearest town, which is inhabited almost solely by the clan, so walking out of here is no’ recommended.”

At the door, he turned back. “I canna keep you a prisoner here. But the sun can.”





22


“N ?x!” Emma cried into the receiver when her aunt picked up the phone.

“Why, Emma, how are you? Enjoying Scotland?” she asked in a distracted voice.

“Just let me talk to Annika.”

“She’s indisposed.”

Emma inhaled a deep breath, drumming her nails on the desk in the small office she’d found. “N?x, this isn’t a game. I don’t know when I’ll be able to make another call, and it’s imperative that I speak with her.”

“Indisposed.”

“What do you mean?” Emma demanded. “She’s either there or she’s not.”

“She’s negotiating with the wraiths right now.”

Stunned, Emma sank into a cool, leather chair. “Why would we need them?” The wraiths were a final measure when a coven was in grave danger. Their price to circle the manor, protecting it from outsiders with their ghostly power, was steep.

“We were attacked!” N?x said delightedly. “Ivo the Cruel’s vampires ambushed the manor and attacked us—not me, actually, because no one woke me for this, understand, and I’m quite put out. And they weren’t all vampires exactly. One was a demon vampire. I want to call it a dempire from now on, but just to be contrary, Regin insists on naming it a vemon. Oh, and then Lucia’s arrow missed the dempire and I heard she dropped like a rock, screaming, which burst every light in the house. But in the dark this Lykae came to the rescue, prowling inside. Lucia’s screams seemed to really put him out. Hmmm…. So he stalked in and he and Regin united and fought side by side to slay the vampires. Except Ivo and his dempire escaped. Anyhoo. Vampires, Valkyrie, and Lykae, oh my. Or as Regin calls it—the ‘f*cking monster mash.’ Hilarity ensued.”

N?x had finally lost it. Dempires? Lucia missing her target? Regin fighting side by side with a “dog”? Emma gritted her teeth. “Tell Annika I’m on the phone.”

“Hold on, let me just finish up here.”

Emma heard typing sounds and asked slowly, “Why are you on the computer?”

“I’m blocking all e-mails from your accounts and any that have the extension ‘uk,’ like from Scotland. Because I’m clever like that.”

“N?x, why are you doing this to me?” she cried. “Why are you stranding me here?”

“You can’t possibly want Annika to come get you now.”

“Yes! Yes, I can.”

“So, the leader of our coven is to come after you, when we’re under siege, Myst and Daniela are missing, and Lucia is in pain and alarmed by her when-animals-attack admirer? If you can tell me you fear for your life, then maybe, but otherwise you’ll just have to take a number.”

“You need me there! N?x, you won’t believe this, but I’ve got madskills going on. I can fight. I beat up a Lykae female!”

“That’s wonderful, sweetling, but I can’t talk much longer or this GPS thingy Annika has attached to the phone might actually track your call.”