The Valkyrie Read online

  "Valerie, are you all right?" Guytano’s voice was smooth and near me. Gregory’s hand tightened on my arm.

  "Ouch," I said, pulling back from him. He looked down at his hand and apologized. The tension levels started to rise again. Gregory didn’t want Guytano near me, and as far as I could tell, Guytano just wanted to piss Gregory off.

  "So, who’s Guytano’s creator?" I asked.

  "Oh my God!" I heard Molly’s tiny voice squeal. "Oh my God! It’s Guytano Marsarius... He’s here, he’s on our porch." I turned to see her making her way up the sidewalk in front of the house. Her eyes were locked firmly on Guytano. This was a big moment for her. She’d been a horror movie buff ever since I’d known her. "Valerie, do you know who that is?"

  "Yes," I said.

  Molly turned to look at me, her eyes wide. She mouthed the words "Oh my God!" one more time before she finally composed herself. She looked striking in her white, with her hair pulled back tightly from her face. Her light blue eyes glistened. I had no doubt that visions of Guytano danced in her head. I also doubted very much that she had any idea that he was a vampire. I looked at Molly’s dress. It was an all white cotton polyester blend with a v-neck. Having her hair pulled back left her neck fully exposed. A wave of panic swept over me. I looked at Gregory. He stood in the background staying out of this. Smart man. I looked at Molly’s neck once more, then to Guytano.

  Guytano was looking directly at Molly. She made her way up the stairs and stopped before him. He reached out to her. I gasped. He looked at me and tipped his head slightly to the right and then smiled. He lifted her hand to his lips and planted a tiny kiss on it. His charcoal black hair fell forward, covering his face. Molly made a small sound, halfway between a giggle and a moan. I saw Molly’s knees start to shake. In an instant, they went out from under her. Guytano’s arm wrapped around her waist, holding her tight to him, she looked like a rag doll. Her neck was fully exposed to him now. I sucked in air. Guytano’s eyes flickered to me. He must have seen the horror on my face because he looked at Gregory.

  "Take her," he said. His voice was deeper than normal. Gregory did not argue, he walked over and took Molly from Guytano. He lifted her like she was only a feather. I held the door open for him as he walked past. I wanted to follow him in but knew that once I did Guytano would be gone. I turned to Guy. He wasn’t looking at me. He was looking out into the night.

  "I frighten you," he said, still not looking at me.

  "Umm, ye..." I wanted to say yes. I looked at his profile. I tried to think of all the reasons to send this man away. I ran the lists in my head. He walked slowly off the porch. I ran to him and touched his arm. "No, no you don’t frighten me. The idea of a vampire scares me but you don’t. I just wondered if you viewed Molly as an open buffet. Did you?"

  He stopped walking and turned back to me. "Valerie Falkyr you are an odd one to read. One minute I see the look of sheer terror on your face and the next you tell me that I do not scare you. I know that you’re not lying. In all my years I have never been quite so puzzled by anyone as I am by you."

  I was at a loss for words. Gregory’s reappearance on the porch saved me from having to come up with anything earth shattering to say. The best I could come up with was that I had to go. I had to meet a friend of mine. Both men looked skeptical.

  "What friend?" Gregory asked.

  "Why, have you been keeping tabs on all of my friends?" I asked. I was just joking. The look on his face told me that in fact he had indeed been monitoring all my friends. I wanted to spit in his face. Instead, I took a deep breath and smiled. "Is Molly all right?" I asked instead. My, I was impressed with myself. At my current rate, I wouldn’t even need anger management classes.

  "Yes, Molly will be fine. I put her in her room," he said, curtly.

  I didn’t even bother to question him on how he knew which room was Molly’s. Five years of lurking in bushes will get you some pretty interesting firsthand knowledge of the other person.

  I looked at the two very different and very beautiful men who stood before me. So many strings were attached with each of them that I wondered how my life had come to this. Things had been normal for me. Well, except for the appearing out of nowhere five years ago, having no memory of my past, getting engaged and unengaged in a matter of six months. Yeah, I’d say things had been normal.

  "I’ll come with you," Gregory said.

  "No, I’ll accompany you." Guytano shouted more at Greg, than me.

  "Neither one of you are coming with me. You two seem to be violence magnets. I’ll take my chances on my own thanks."

  I walked past Gregory and locked the door. Molly would be fine. I planned to be back within an hour anyway. I snatched my purse up off the chair and headed down the steps leaving the two of them staring at me. I didn’t want to play peacemaker. If they wanted to kill each other I wouldn’t stand in their way anymore. I needed to see Payton. I’d almost forgotten about him in all the confusion.

  The walk to the old mill wasn’t too long. It was eerily quiet. I had a newly developed case of the goose bumps. I glanced behind me once. I thought I could feel someone there. I saw no one. Finding out what Guytano was had gotten my imagination running on overtime. Every bush I walked past I pictured a huge werewolf waiting to devour me. Every flutter in the trees above made me think of a killer vampire waiting to strike. I wondered how many other creatures of nightmarish tales were real, and in what numbers did they live among humans. Every shadow now looked like a possible threat. Panic gripped my body.

  My heart was pounding so loudly that I could hear it. I ran full force toward the mill. Why had I let Payton talk me into this? I hit the metal door so hard that I fell through it. I landed hard on the concrete floor. The thin khaki material that I wore provided no protection.

  Feet appeared before me. The sight of the rather large, shiny black dress shoes made me tense up. I stood slowly. I didn’t have to look up to know who it was.

  "So glad you could make it." Torin’s loud voice rocked me.

  I had to fight to keep my balance. I let my eyes scan the length of his body. He was so tall that I had to take a step back to look into his face. He smiled down at me. My mind told me to run like the wind but my body wasn’t cooperating. I didn’t feel him clouding my mind. That was a good thing. I knew enough now to recognize his prickly energy for what it was--he was a vampire. I now understood the signs.

  I managed to get my right foot to take a step backwards. I was starting to see a pattern here and odds weren’t good that this would end pretty.

  "Leaving so soon?" Torin asked. "You’ve only just arrived. I have a present for you."

  "A present?" I asked.

  "Yes, it is customary for a gift to be given to one’s mate," he said. I looked up at him. There was no way in hell I was going to mate with him. The vampire thing was creepy enough, add that to the guy’s size and you had me scared. Besides, this guy had some serious character flaws.

  "I think that there’s been some mistake... You see, I umm, I have someone in my life right now ... at least I think I do, and he’s well, he’s not really going to want to share me, so I’m going to have to politely decline your very generous offer." I made another attempt to leave. Hands seized my shoulders. I screamed.

  "Oh, really Torin, when you summoned me I thought that you’d found the perfect woman." A cool female voice said next to my ear. "This one’s a little jumpy, don’t you think?"

  Torin looked down at me. "I have tasted her. She tastes of power and sex." He looked down at me and gave me his best attempt at a smile. For a guy who was turning out to be psychotic, his smile wasn’t that bad.

  The woman gripping my shoulders pushed me toward Torin. I stumbled and fell into his massive chest. Falling into a brick wall would have been softer than he was. His arms shot around me and he kept me from falling to the ground. He lifted me and tossed me over his wide shoulder. I didn’t bother to struggle. From this position I could clearly make out the woman who had
grabbed me. She was gorgeous. Her red hair was cut close to her head. She was tall and fit. She had that perfect body builder’s body that so many women tried to achieve. I got a view most men would kill for down the front of her leather cat suit. One of her breasts alone was bigger than my head. I wasn’t sure how she’d gotten them in that outfit. She looked up at me. Her face was square. I looked at her features closer. She reminded me of someone.

  "Sive, where do you want me to put her?" Torin asked.

  Sive? That was the name that Torin spoke of to Guytano. My body tightened up. I was in deep shit if this was one of Guytano’s scorned lovers. She screamed vampire and evil in a big way. She caught me looking at her and flashed her fangs at me. I winked at her, realizing it was a huge mistake the minute I saw her hand fly up. She struck my cheek with such a force that my vision blurred for a moment. Torin tossed me down onto a pile of unfolded cardboard boxes. My cheek burned; it was on fire. I brought my hand up to it gingerly and Torin bent down to look at me.

  "I want her whole to bed tonight, Sive," he said.

  Sive’s heels clicked loudly and she poked her leather-clad body out from around Torin’s. "Oh, dear brother of mine it was a harmless tap." She glared at me, daring me to argue with her on the matter.

  "Harmless tap my ass," I said. Her face twisted around. She made a lunge for me and Torin’s arm came out to stop her.

  He peered down at me. "I would not provoke her if I were you, little witch. She has quite a nasty temper." He bent down and took my arms behind my back, tying a piece of satin rope around my wrists in the process. It was courteous of him not use plain old rope. I would have thanked him if I wasn’t positive his motives were purely personal. He didn’t want me damaged. He couldn’t have as much fun with me if I was hurt. I shuddered.

  "Are you cold?" Torin asked. The sincerity in his voice caught me by surprise.

  Sive gave him a nasty look and turned her head with disgust. "I’ll get the others."

  I watched her walk away and was suddenly very aware of how alone I was with Torin. Having Sive hovering over me making threats seemed better than being alone with him. Her intentions seemed clear, beat me then kill me. His weren’t so clear cut. I looked up at him warily.

  "Torin," I let his name roll off my tongue. He stopped moving. "Torin, why tie me up? Don’t you want me to be with you because I want to?"

  This made him smile, as he brought his large hand out to touch my face. "I have no cares if you like me or not. Once I bring you over, you will do as I say."

  This made my throat tight. He wasn’t planning to rape me. No, he was planning on making me into a vampire, and then claiming me as his mate. I pushed backwards with my legs. My body moved across the cardboard smoothly. Torin loomed over me. "If you keep struggling, I will knock you out. You need not be conscious. In fact, you may actually prefer not to be." I had no reason not to believe him, so I sat still. Payton would be coming soon. Part of me was relieved, the other part was terrified. He’d be no match against the evil Vaughn-fang family.

  "Torin, untie me and I’ll follow your orders." If he was like Guytano he could sense a lie. I gave it my all to believe in what I was saying. Besides, I wasn’t planning on running. I was planning on trying to kill him. Perhaps vamps couldn’t sense truth with technicalities. I could only hope.

  Torin walked closer to me. I batted my eyes at him. I’d never been much of a flirter. There was no better time to give it a try. I moved my face as close to his as I could. "My, what a thick neck you have. Is all of you like that?" I lowered my voice considerable, trying not to gag on my own lies. I thought I sounded like a deranged lunatic, but to a man, I most likely sounded sexy. Torin’s jaw tightened and his gaze flickered downward. He was thinking about it.

  "If I let you go, will you runaway?" he asked.

  "No," I said, truthfully.

  He seemed to think about it for a minute. His head shook slightly and pulled back. I panicked and did the only thing I could think of doing, I licked his lower lip. His lips came down on my mouth with such a force that it made me cry out. This must have sounded encouraging because his body slid up and over mine. The pressure of his large frame with my arms tied behind my back made my shoulders feel like they were about to snap.

  I tried to push him off me with my legs. It was a little like trying to move a bus with my pinky finger. He wasn’t budging. My left shoulder pulled so hard that I was sure that it was starting to tear. The pain was so excruciating that a wave of heat came over me. I turned my head up to try to regain my thoughts. I caught a glimpse of white blond hair from behind a set of crates. More pain shot through my shoulder. I wanted to cry out. I looked again in the direction where I’d seen the streak of blond. Gregory was moving quietly toward us. He had his index finger pressed tightly to his lips. I nodded my head. No way in hell was I about to give him away.

  Torin pulled away. "No, don’t go. I want to touch you... I want to run my fingers over your body," I said. I meant every word of it too. I did want to touch him. I wanted to touch him long enough to yank his heart out too. Somehow I got the feeling that this guy was a hell of a lot more powerful than the wanna-be cowboy from the bar. No, tearing his heart out wouldn’t work, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to try.

  Torin moved his hands down my sides. I thought he was going for the ropes at first. His fingers touched my waist. They lingered there for a minute, before moving between my legs and cupping my mound. He took a deep breath in and his eyelids fluttered. It was plain to see what Torin was packing beneath his slacks, because they were pulled taunt. His erection was obvious and I had to fight with my body to keep it from going rigid. I glanced backwards. Gregory was gone.

  "I didn’t come all this way for you to skip the necessary steps." Sive’s voice boomed out. Torin sat up quickly. I would’ve laughed at a man his size being scared of his sister, but my arm hurt too bad to do anything. Sive bent over me. "So, you are the one that Torin found Guytano with." She reached out and pinched my chin in her hand. She turned my head to the left and to the right. Her eyes were the same shade of green as Torin’s. When they locked on me, all I saw was jealously.

  "I take it that you know Guytano." I said with my lips puked out from her tight grasp on me.

  "Yes, you might say that. We were lovers for over thirty years. I was with him right up until he grew a conscience," she said.

  "What? Did he stop eating children?" I said, sarcastically. I was willing to talk any route that would prevent me from picturing the two of them being intimate, even if it meant getting my ass kicked.

  She looked down at me surprised. "Yes, as a matter of fact he did. The Mistress was most displeased with him after that. She always taught us to be ruthless. Guytano’s newfound bleeding heart routine did not impress her. Guytano’s sire is even worse than my own. He will tear Guy’s heart out and feed it to him."

  Well, it worked. I wasn’t thinking about them being intimate anymore. I was now thinking about them slaughtering children. I looked into Sive’s face. Her beauty was undeniable. I didn’t want to see what lay underneath that. I couldn’t. If Sive changed into something hideous then I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to look at Guytano the same again. She leaned in close to me, and I saw her lips come toward mine. I knew what she was planning on doing. A kiss would be fine, but no, she was planning to strike out at me--bite me. I could almost smell her desire to taste me. I wasn’t in the mood to be a snacking buffet, so I fell backwards and threw my feet up. I came into contact with her stomach and kicked out as hard as I could. The pain in my shoulders was unbearable, I cried out, unable to see if I had knocked her down.

  There was no way I was going to be able to get to my feet in time. I rolled away. Each roll felt like someone was jabbing a hot poker into my arm socket. By the third one, I was all but numb. I got into a seated position and looked around franticly. There was no sign of Sive. I seriously doubted that she’d flown the coop. No, she was one who would want to make someone suffe
r. She’d be back, and I wanted to be ready for her. I used my legs to slide myself backwards. I pushed out hard and decided to make an attempt at standing up. Something grabbed hold of my wrists, and I screamed.

  "It’s me," I heard Gregory’s voice say. Part of me still wanted to scream, not because he scared me, but because it seemed like a great tension reliever. Gregory loosened the ropes, and he rubbed my hands over and over again. Feeling returned slowly to them. At first, it was that shooting, prickly pain that you can’t escape, and then it was a dull throbbing ache. I tried to move my hands forward to look at them. My shoulders wouldn’t cooperate.

  Gregory’s face moved next to my ear. "Do you trust me?" he asked. Since I didn’t really have much of a choice I nodded my head yes. He seized hold of my shoulders. I knew better than to cry out even though every part of me wanted to. He held tight. Heat swelled up behind me. At first I thought a fire had broken out and then I realized that the heat was coming from Gregorios. That’s why he’d asked if I trusted him, he knew that after his confession about the battle of Mursa it would seem like he was trying to burn me. I thought back to the fires in the dream with the hooded man. As close as they had come, they had never once hurt me. Looking like you were going to bake someone alive and not doing it seemed to be the running theme on trustworthiness lately. I really needed to surround myself with normal people.

  I closed my eyes and chased any thoughts of Gregory burning me alive out of my mind. He moved closer. I could feel his breath on the top of my head as he whispered something. It sounded like he was speaking in Latin. I didn’t let my guard down to listen. If I did, then I was sure that I wouldn’t be able to keep quiet. I didn’t know where Sive and Torin were, and I didn’t want to alert them that I was being freed. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I scanned the room.

  "Behind us!" I shouted out, unsure how I knew that we’d been flanked.