Lothaire (36 page)

She was a mortal, ignorant even of the danger
he
presented to her. His hand wrapped around her throat. “I could throttle you so easily. Squeeze the life right from you.”

“Do it!” she screamed, her eyes fierce. “And stop talkin’ about it!”

“You won’t incite me to kill you,” the vampire said. “So cease trying. If I were going to do it by my own hand, I would have by now.”

For the briefest second, Ellie thought she saw him frown, as if he’d just realized that was true.

Can’t lie, huh?
When he eased his grip on her throat, she stumbled back. “I’m not screamin’ at you because I want you to kill me, I’m screamin’ because you make me sick! You’re supposed to be some kind of Lore brain-iac? But you’re fixin’ to choose Saroya over me? Why are you too stupid to see what’s just in front of you?”

“In front of me? You mean the mortal shrieking at me in a thick hillbilly accent? The ignorant human with no accomplishments? Perhaps I’m
smart
enough not to lower myself to a creature like you.”

“I’m not ignorant. I have a degree!”

He raised a blond brow. “Assuredly. It says H.S. after it. In any case, there’s more to knowledge than a degree. You’ve never been outside of your own state, never encountered any kinds of people but your own.”

“Because I’m
young
! I’ve been in prison since I was a teenager. You have no idea what I would’ve done if that bitch of yours hadn’t hijacked my body. You can’t have it both ways—you can’t ridicule my ignorance when you had a hand in shaping it!”

“No idea what you would have done? I’d wager you would have lived in a squalid trailer with wailing brats clinging to your apron while you watched TV all day.”

He’d just done Lothaire-speak. “You
don’t
think that’s what I would’ve done. You don’t believe that at all.”

Double take from the vampire. But he recovered, saying in a bland tone, “This grows tedious, Elizabeth. Shut up and undress.”

“Get Saroya to do it! Or maybe she finds you as hateful as I do!” A muscle ticked in his jaw, warning her that she’d pushed too far.
Don’t care. Already dead.

“You court my wrath because you’ve never truly witnessed it. I’ll remedy that right now.”

He yanked her against his chest. “Let’s take a trip.”

“You said your enemies would find me!” To be a demon’s whore . . . ?

“I’ll cloak us. Again, the one you need fear most is
me
.” In the space of a breath, he’d traced her into a cave. But he hadn’t fully teleported them; they stayed in some kind of hazy twilight.

Still she could scent musty earth and rot, could hear flies buzzing. Once her eyes grew used to the dim light, she saw corpses.

The savagely beheaded bodies of young men. Dozens and dozens of them.

Gore, severed limbs, crushed skulls.
Splatter
on the dank cave walls.

She would’ve vomited the contents of her stomach, if she’d been of weaker constitution. Or if she hadn’t beheld a similar scene in her own home five years ago.

When she could trust her voice, she asked, “You did this?”

“Ah, Elizabeth, now do you see what I’m capable of? Slaughtering an entire pack in their own den
bored
me. My heart never even sped up, my bloodlust never quickened. I yawned loudly when I worked one’s head free. The last thing he ever heard was me tsking over my impoliteness. You’d do well to fear my fury, to understand that my very name strikes fear in the hearts of those who know me—
for a reason
.”

“I understand that you’re scary, sick, and perverse! I understand that the Enemy of Old and Saroya the Soul Reaper are absolutely perfect for each other. Two broken puzzle pieces jammed together.”

Again, her words struck a nerve. His hand tightened on her arm, his expression promising pain.

“Is this what your life is like?”

He sneered, “Most nights for millennia.”

“Then I feel sorry for you. That’s right—Elizabeth, your
pet
, the peasant you scorn, ‘the body’—
pities
you.” She gazed at his face. “Uh-oh, we’ve got that muscle tickin’ in your jaw. Spells trouble for me! What’s the matter? You can’t take it when someone tells you like it is? I’m probably the first person to do so in centuries.”

Was there a flicker in those red eyes?

“Like it is,”
he grated. “And how is it that
you
could possibly pity
me
?”

“I’m twenty-four years old. I’ve spent more than twenty percent of my life on death row. And I’ve still known more happiness in my short life than you have in your unending one.”

 31

T
hat Elizabeth would fucking dare! “As usual, you speak about things your mind can’t even comprehend!”

“
Me?
I bet you don’t even
know
what happiness is!”

Lothaire wanted to snap, “Of course I do!” But he . . . didn’t.

He believed he’d known it as a child with his mother, but he couldn’t remember those early years vividly, not after eons had come and passed, not after his life had become devoted to revenge.

And he couldn’t resurrect whatever he’d felt then, because he hadn’t felt anything approaching it since.

He often spied on others, studying their ways. He’d watched two Sorceri sisters snickering over wry jokes. He’d observed Lykae roughhousing, then laughing so hard they’d had to hold their sides. They experienced happiness; Lothaire did not.

He knew he was different from others. And yet, he couldn’t ascertain if he was
un
happy—since that would mean he could recognize the opposite.

“Well, do you know what it is?” Elizabeth demanded.

Can’t lie.
Contentment, happiness, satisfaction—all these things were unfathomable to him.

One of the reasons he fought so hard for his Endgame was that he’d
surely be content once all his vows had been fulfilled. Once his toiling had finally ended.

She gasped. “You
don’t
know. How ignorant am I? I’ve sat in my ‘squalid trailer,’ experiencing something
your mind
can’t even comprehend!”

“I might not kill you, but I could hurt you, break your fragile bones!”

“You
would
. You’d hurt the one person who could teach you to be happy!” She grasped her forehead. “Oh, God . . . now?”

Saroya rises?
“Elizabeth, you do
not
recede. You finish this with me!”

She narrowed her eyes up at him. “Just keeping the terms of our
deal. If Saroya wants her turn, then I’m supposed to get out of the way, right?”

“You little bitch, don’t you run from this!” His voice boomed in the cavern.

“Uh-oh, here I go. . . . Whoa, whoa, receding right before your eyes. Red Rover, send Saroya right over. See how happy
the Soul Reaper
can make you!” And then she collapsed.

Lothaire yanked her to him, catching her just as Saroya said, “Where am I? I sensed blood and violence.”

He gave a furious yell. Elizabeth had mocked him, gotten the last word, then receded purposely!
Fucking throttle her!

“Lothaire, what is wrong with you?” Then Saroya scowled, fighting to stand on her own. But he left his hand on her arm, keeping her cloaked. “Why am I dressed thus? Oh, my skin!”

Get control.
Before he crushed Saroya in fury. Inhale. Exhale. “The mortal proves . . . vexatious.” And confounding. She continued to astonish him at every turn.

“You can’t handle a human girl?” Saroya peered around at all the carnage. “But look at this splendid slaughter! Yours?”

Elizabeth had been disgusted. Saroya not only accepted what he was, she exulted over it.

“Are there no more lives to take? All of these are completely spent. Selfish Lothaire.” She toed a severed leg. “Why have you brought Elizabeth here? Does this have something to do with the ring?”

“I make progress on that score.”

“So you have no ring to give me and no lives for me to take—though I haven’t killed in years!” She kicked a decomposing head, then winced in pain at the contact. “Are you always so selfish?”

“Yes,” he answered absently. They couldn’t remain here any longer. He could only half-trace two people for so long. In an instant, he returned them to his room in New York, releasing her.

“Take me to live bodies, Lothaire! In fact, trace me to Elizabeth’s old home. I promised her mother that I’d kill her. I demand to have her in my grasp.”

“Demand all you like, it won’t happen.” After all, he felt gratitude to the peasant woman for bearing Elizabeth. Without that mortal, Lothaire would have no body for his Bride.

“I won’t remain at the fore if I’m to be treated thus.” Saroya began to sway on her feet.

Now
she
was going to recede? The hell she would! “If you purposely recede, I’ll brand this body. Scald your face. Gouge an eye out.”

Saroya immediately righted herself. “What do you want?” Lothaire was clearly in a dangerous mood.

“You’re going to answer some questions for me.”

In an aggrieved tone, she said, “Really, Lothaire. What’s brought this on? I’m the one who should be infuriated. Allowing Elizabeth to tan my skin like this?”

He traced from one wall to the other. “I need information.”

“Such as?”

“We talked years ago of ruling together,” he said. “Do you still want this?”

“Of course. I fear
you
are the one with doubts.”

“We spoke of thrones and power and vengeance. But what of us?”

“What do you mean?”

“When my retribution has been meted out and our crowns rest easy upon our heads, what then?”

“Then we conquer
more
,” she said. “We could rule the world together, while searching for a way to return my godhood. I have enemies who beg for retribution as well. Or have you forgotten that?”

“Your sister, Lamia.”

“Among others.”
La Dorada, for one.
“You’ve got the Queen of Evil vowing reprisal against you—which means against
me
.” Saroya debated whether to tell Lothaire of her many crimes against the sorceress, but decided against it. He didn’t need to know why she’d dispatched assassins after Dorada for centuries.

He doesn’t need to know about the prophecy, that foretelling by a long dead vampire oracle.
“If you do not vanquish her, she will kill me, Lothaire. I
feel
this.”

“Dorada cannot
find
you. No one in the Lore knows of this apartment. You are hidden if you remain here or at Hag’s, and I cloaked the body otherwise. Do you think I would ever allow Dorada to steal my mate—and with her my entire future?”

Saroya calmed somewhat. Though she trusted no one, she did know that Lothaire was one of the most cutthroat warriors in the Lore, and one of the strongest vampires ever to live.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “And after Dorada’s been defeated, how do you envision our lives?”

“We will annihilate any remaining enemies, becoming the most powerful partnership the world has ever known.”