No Rest for the Wicked (16 page)

Nikolai’s first hit connected before Sebastian had time to tense.

Nikolai bellowed, “Is it her? Did she make your heart beat?”

Sebastian struck back, connecting squarely with Nikolai’s jaw. “No,” he bit out.

Nikolai lowered his fists and backed away, inhaling deeply. “You found your Bride before

you came here?”

Sebastian glowered, running his sleeve over his bleeding lip.

“I am... sorry... I thought... ”

“Just tell me where my gold is.”

Nikolai ran his fingers through his hair. “This isn’t how I’ve imagined this meeting would

be, Sebastian. I regret hitting you. I lose my head with her. But you understand now that

you’ve been blooded.”

You don’t know the half of it.

“Sebastian, this is Myst.”

“We’ve been searching for you,” she said, with the same accent as Kaderin’s. Though

their coloring was completely different—Myst had red hair and green eyes—their features

were similar. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

He gave her a quick jerk of his chin in greeting, then turned to Nikolai. “My—gold.”

“Very well.” Though Nikolai evinced no expression on his face, Sebastian knew him well

enough to discern his bitter disappointment. “If you’ll follow me.”

As Nikolai led him toward their father’s old office, Myst followed, eyeing Sebastian

warily, as if she considered herself a little guard for Nikolai. If she were half as vicious as

Kaderin, she’d be tremendous at it.

The office that the three of them entered was being renovated, and shutters had been

placed over every window. “I can’t believe you’re restoring Blachmount,” Sebastian said

in a disgusted tone.

“We plan to live here. Of course, you are always welcome to stay here,” Nikolai said, but

Sebastian scowled at that. “And you can trace to this specific room at any time if you need

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) shelter in a hurry,” Nikolai added. “These windows will be shuttered during the day

without fail.”

As if Sebastian would ever want to be here voluntarily. “How did you find my crates?” he

demanded.

“I thought I sensed you the other night out on the property, so I scoured the grounds for

some hint of you. I hadn’t been optimistic about locating you again, especially not...

recently.” He cleared his throat, and a look passed between him and Myst. “Discovering

the shovel and freshly dug earth was a great relief—”

“Take me to my gold.”

Nikolai’s lips thinned, but he crossed to the back wall to unlock a small wall safe. The

bricks around it were new, as if repaired where someone had recently yanked it from the

wall.

“How did you know what I am?” Myst asked him, drawing his attention. “Most mistake

the Valkyrie for nymphs.” She shook her head, then murmured to herself, “Hate those

little hookers.”

“I’ve seen your kind before,” he said.

“Where?” Nikolai asked, retrieving a case from the safe.

“Around.” Sebastian’s eyes narrowed when Nikolai set it on the desk.

“I see,” Nikolai said. “I’ve exchanged most of your gold for cash, and it’s been invested.

In this briefcase, you’ll find the investment portfolios and information on your bank

accounts. There is a laptop, a sat phone, a temporary Estonian identification card—though

you’ll need to get a photograph soon—and credit cards. You are as established as a

human would be.”

Sebastian was seething. Nikolai was doing what he did best, which was whatever the hell

he wanted. “You had no right.”

“I’d hoped to assist you. You couldn’t have been dealt with fairly for these riches. You

and Conrad are wealthy men.”

“You know where Conrad is?” He’d lost track of his brother after they’d left Blachmount

as vampires. If Sebastian had rapidly gone out of his head with hunger and confusion,

Conrad had fared much, much worse.

Nikolai’s face fell. “No. I have searched for both of you. Have you seen him recently?”

After a hesitation, Sebastian shook his head. He hadn’t seen Conrad since just weeks after

their turning. That last day, Conrad had spoken cryptically of things he’d left undone as a

mortal, tasks he could now complete as an immortal. At dusk, he’d disappeared and never

returned. “What of Murdoch?” he asked, curious to know if he’d lived or died. How many

brothers did he truly have?

“I can take you to him right now. He’s at the Forbearer stronghold.”

Sebastian cast him a black look. “A place I will never go—even if I had any inclination to

see him.”

Myst walked between them to break up the tense moment. “Why are you so angered over

the past? Seems you’d be grateful to Nikolai. Without his actions, you’d never have your

Bride.”

I don’t have her now. “I wonder if that might be a blessing.” He took the case and traced

away.

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) At the edge of the Atlantic Ocean , in a secluded villa on the beach, Kaderin lay in her bed,

staring at the ceiling in misery.

She needed action, but she was forced to wait for the scrolls to update. Yes, action, or she

needed sleep.

Normally, she required only about four hours in a twenty-four-hour period, and she could

go for days without when pressed, but she wanted to be at one hundred percent after the

Antarctica trip. She was sore from her climb—and descent—and soon she would really

start to rack up the injuries.

Yet she couldn’t fall asleep. Her T-shirt was too confining over her breasts and driving her

crazy. She loathed sleeping with anything over her torso, but tonight she had to prepare

for the possibility of company. And even the fine bedclothes in this lavish rented residence

were like burlap compared to her Pratesi sheets. Worse, the bedroom was large and

echoing and dark. Too dark.

Though fearless in battle, the Valkyrie often had secret weaknesses. Lucia the Archer was

terrified of missing her target, since she’d been cursed to feel indescribable pain every time

she did. Nïx feared foreseeing the death of a Valkyrie so much that, to this day, she never

had. Regin, always the first to run screaming a war cry into the fray, was afraid of...

ghosts.

And Kaderin? When alone, she had once suffered from lygophobia, the fear of dark or

gloomy places, even though she could see near perfectly in the dark.

By the way she was eyeing the bathroom light switch, she apparently had the fear once

more. Yet another weakness from before the blessing, rearing its ugly head. She rose to

flip on the light, then returned.

The sinister Valkyrie with the nightlight—that was her.

It was uncomfortably quiet here, just as it’d been at her London flat. She’d grown used to

living in her coven at Val Hall, amid the reassuring shrieks of her half-sisters and the

thunder rattling the manor. All night, Valkyrie pushed in and out of the groaning oak front

doors.

She turned to her side in a huff, glaring at her regular bedmate—her sword. Another huff

had her back to it. She was... lonely. She still hadn’t shucked his loneliness from that

morning in his wretched castle.

Why not just think about him? Allow herself to mull over the vampire and be done with it?

For instance, she could contemplate why he wanted to die. Had he lost a loved one? A

woman? It made sense. He was in his thirties, and would likely have been wed. If Kaderin

had lost a husband, she’d probably see the appeal of becoming a hermit. She might even

consider dying if she thought she could rejoin the one she loved.

But if he’d been married, then why would he seem so oddly unsure about kissing her at

first? Of course, it’d been a while for him, but there was something so hesitant in his

demeanor.

Then he’d quickly gotten back in the saddle.

She’d found herself thinking sometimes about his consuming kisses, reliving them and that

entire morning. Worse, whenever she thought about the details of what she’d done with

him, she didn’t feel only shame. She recalled riding his huge shaft, and an answering

wetness came between her legs. Her breasts grew swollen and achy. Her claws curled to

clutch him to her.

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) The changes, these shifts in her personality, couldn’t be explained. She believed a god or

some power had blessed her with numbness. A mere spell wouldn’t have lasted this long,

and the Valkyrie weren’t very susceptible to spells, anyway.

No, she’d been blessed by a tremendous power.

A power that could be neutralized by her attraction to a rumbling-voiced vampire?

His bottled-up ferocity had a way of calling to her own previously deadened sense of it.

Perhaps that was why she was so attracted to him. Because they were alike.

But why did she have to recover desire now, when so much was on the line? Inconvenient

did not begin to describe this timing. She turned to her back and skimmed her hands inside

her shirt, but her palms felt too soft against her breasts. His hands had been so enticingly

callused, and as hesitant in the beginning as his kisses.

Rough hands, delectably firm lips, intense eyes. Everything about him was made for

decadent dreams of sex, except Kaderin didn’t dream, not since the blessing.

But she did fantasize, and easily called up a memory of his muscular body. She bit her

bottom lip. The truth was that there was a lot of him to like. She’d never accepted many

lovers—even when she’d been a feeler—because it was hard for her to trust, and of the

handful she had welcomed to her bed, she’d never had an immortal one. None had

possessed even half of her strength.

The vampire was stronger than she was.

She would never sleep with him.

If he’s coming, then where the hell is he?

For hours, Sebastian sifted through all the forms and paperwork in the briefcase,

attempting to discern if he had wealth. But his mind was completely preoccupied.

He knew she couldn’t go after another prize until the scrolls updated, so he didn’t believe

she’d be in danger. And yet, at sunset, he finally gave in and traced to her.

He found himself standing in a spacious bedroom, in what seemed to be a private

residence. The clock said it was just after 4 A.M . , which meant he was on the other side

of the world. A bed sat in the center, and he traced to the foot to glance down.

His Bride was sleeping in the center of it.

Would he ever get used to tracing directly to her? The advantages of this couldn’t be

calculated.

His self-congratulations faded when he saw that she slept fitfully. She lay on her front, her

torso bare but for her shining hair cascading down. A shirt was wadded up near her head.

One slender arm stretched out to the sword that rested beside her.

A sense of unease passed over him. Did she sleep with a sword as defense against the

possibility of his finding her, or was her life always as dangerous as it seemed today? If the

latter, he didn’t know if he could ever let her out of his sight again.

Her eyes darted behind her lids, and her pointed ear twitched as if to detect the sound of

danger. Was she listening for the approaching footsteps of an enemy?

Her breaths were pants, the way young animals breathe in sleep.

Around the sword handle, her fingers curled surely, and seeing that made his chest feel

tight. He could protect her if only she’d allow it.

Surprisingly, she seemed to calm in his presence, so he removed his sword belt and jacket

and laid them on a nearby bench. With leisure to study her, he drank her in with his gaze.

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) He’d never thought of a woman’s back as sexy, but hers was. He wanted to clasp her slim

shoulders and pull her close to kiss along the delicate indentation of her spine.

Her smooth, golden skin beckoned him. It couldn’t be as soft as it looked.

She murmured something from dreams and shifted her position, turning her head to the

other direction. She drew her knee up, and the sheet slid off her, exposing the small pink

shorts she wore. They were pulled aside, and in the shadow he caught a stolen glimpse of

her female flesh and groaned. She was blond there, too, perfect and beautiful.

Born of gods? He was confident of it.

He had to touch her there, kiss her. He’d never taken a woman with his mouth, though

he’d fantasized about it often enough as a mortal man. He barely stifled a shudder of

pleasure at the thought of doing it to her.

With his shaft hard as iron, he reached forward...

17

N o, Kaderin didn’t dream, not since the blessing, so even in sleep, she was confused

about why she dreamed the vampire was nudging her legs apart.

Of course, it’s a dream. A wicked one. I’d never sleep through a vampire’s presence.

She allowed the dream vampire to continue touching her, seduced by his ragged breaths as

he skimmed his fingers up her inner thighs, his hands shaking. In her dream, they were hot,

one covering her ass, the other tugging aside her loose silk shorts to bare her sex.

He hissed in a breath. Could dreams be this real? She couldn’t remember! She shouldn’t

be feeling him leaning down, pressing his weight into the bed. To kiss her? Kiss her