A ​Hunger Like No Other (Immortals After Dark 2.) 87% 15 csillagozás

When he watched her sleeping, he often thought, My heart lies vulnerable outside my chest.

Chapter 29 - Lachlain

“Who is Regin? And Lucia, and Nïx?”
[…]
“Who are they?” he demanded again. “They all order you to call except for this one message from Nïx. It makes no sense.”
Nïx was her befuddled aunt, the oldest of all Valkyrie—or the proto-Valkyrie, as she liked to be called. She had supermodel good looks but saw the future more clearly than she did the present. Emma could only imagine what Nucking Futs Nïx had said. “Let me see it.” She snatched the missive, placing it flat against the steering wheel, then took a quick glance at the road before reading:
Knock, knock…
—Who’s there?
Emma…
—Emma who? Emma who? Emma who? Emma who?

Nïx had told Emma before she’d left for Europe that on this trip she would “do that which you were born to do.”
Apparently, Emma was born to get kidnapped by a deranged Lykae. Her fate sucked.

Chapter 7

Harmann […] tilted his head at Emma. “The little one—she’s truly a vampire ?”
Lachlain crossed to her and tucked a blond curl behind her ear. “Half-Valkyrie.”
Harmann raised his eyebrows at her pointed ear. “You never did like to do things the easy way.”

Chapter 17

Minutes later, he was standing beside the bed, holding a telephone with no cord, ringing the United States.
A woman answered, “Emma! Is that you?”
“I have Emma with me.”
“Who is this?”
“I am Lachlain. Who are you?”
“I’m the foster mother who’s going to annihilate you if you don’t send her home right now.”
“Never going to happen. She stays with me from now on.”
Something sounded like it exploded in the background, yet her voice was calm. “Scottish accent. Tell me you are not Lykae.”
“I am their king.”
[…]
“Know this. If you don’t free her, I will find your family, and I will sharpen my claws and peel them. Do you understand me?”
No. No, he didn’t at all.
[…]
“Why is she afraid of vampires—?”
“They attacked?”
“Aye.”
“How many?”
“Three.”
“They will report back. Unless you killed them all?” she asked with a hopeful note in her voice.
“O’ course I did,” he snapped.

Chapter 16

“Lachlain?” Emma murmured from the stairs. He twisted his head around, saw her brows drawn. They’d wanted him to repeat his decree for her benefit. “Had you always planned to keep me from my family?”
“No, no’ until I met them,” Lachlain explained, as though that made it better.

Chapter 30

– Nix, she needs to know where…
-. ..you are? Emma, I've known precisely where you are. I'm not insane for nothing.

Sun flooded the hallway, and he shoved them into a corner, covering her with his body.“Shut the fucking door!”
“My apologies,” a familiar voice drawled from behind him as the door closed. “Dinna know there were going to be vampires about. You should have a sign.”
Back in the low light, Lachlain turned to find Bowen, his oldest friend. His pleasure at seeing him dimmed when he noticed how much more weight Bowe had lost. Once Lachlain’s size, he was now rangy and gaunt.
“And here I was surprised to see you alive, but looks like you’ve another surprise there.” Bowe approached, rudely inspecting Emma as she lay in Lachlain’s arms, picking up her hair and chucking her chin. “Wee beauty. Bit dirty.”
“From sleeping under the stairs this morning.” Lachlain shook his head, incapable of understanding her. “Meet Emmaline Troy. Your queen.”
Bowe raised his eyebrows, demonstrating the most emotion Lachlain had seen from him since his mate had left him. “A vampire queen? Fate must hate you.” More examination while Lachlain scowled. “Her ears are pointed?”
“She’s half-Valkyrie,” Lachlain explained. “Raised in a coven of them and kept from the Horde.”
“Then things around here just got interesting.”

Chapter 20

“We were attacked!” Nïx 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 puthim 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 ‘fucking monster mash.’ Hilarity ensued.”

Chapter 22

“Do you enjoy it there?”
“It’s a sweet setup, I’ll admit. For all that the maids still show up each day with jumbo crucifixes, jumpy movements, and eyes red from crying over the short straw that drew them vampire duty.” Yesterday, she’d just stopped herself from raising her clenched hands above her head and chasing one of them around the room groaning, “I vant to suck your blood.”

Chapter 28 - Nïx & Emma

The front door to Kinevane Castle was kicked down for the first time in history.
He looked at the kicker—a blond woman with glowing skin and pointed ears. He glanced at the fallen door, then back at her.
“Pilates,” she explained with a shrug.
“Let me guess. Regin?”
When she smirked, another Valkyrie passed in front of her, marching up to him, raking her gaze over him.“Hubba, hubba,” she growled with a wink. “Emma caught herself a wolf.” Her eyes zeroed in on his neck where Emma had drunk earlier, and she tilted her head. “Hmmm. You wear her bite like a badge you’ve earned.”
“And you must be the soothsayer—”
“I prefer predeterminationally abled, thank you.”
[…]
“How did you find this place?” he demanded of Regin.
“A phone tap, satellite imaging, and a psychic,” she said, then immediately frowned. “How do you find places?”
“And the barrier?”
“That was some serious Celtic cujo mojo.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at their car. “But we also packed the most powerful witch we know, just in case.” A nondescript woman waved brightly from the front seat.

Chapter 30