Free Immortals After Dark 04 - Wicked Deeds on a Winters Night by Kresley Cole

brothers were among Lachlain’s most trusted soldiers. “They have no’ returned from the last task I sent them on.”
    “And Garreth?”
    Lachlain’s younger brother had called just two days ago. “He still pursues Lucia, his Valkyrie huntress. She’s proving to be elusive quarry, even for him. And there’s no one else I’d trust to do this. I’m going. This is my final word on the subject.”
    Bowe’s expression darkened. Lachlain was so used to giving orders that he sometimes overlooked the fact that Bowe was an alpha himself—a strong one who was far more comfortable giving orders than receiving them. Not to mention the unspoken fact that Lachlain was king only because Bowe’s father had ceded his heirdom.
    “I’m no’ off to fight the goddamned Hydra, Lachlain. I fly, I drive, I collect a witch. Do you truly believe I’m incapable of this?”
    Lachlain had not only angered Bowe but offended him. He exhaled. “No, of course no’. Just... just let me know if I can help you.”
    Bowe nodded. “Before I go I want to know why that Valkyrie soothsayer told me I would get my mate back through the Hie. Can you call Emma and get her to find Nïx—”
    Lachlain’s new pager went off and he started, still uncomfortable with the technology of this age. Emma had gotten this contraption for him and tried to teach him how to work it, but he’d been gone that entire day without seeing her, and the only thing he’d been interested in was ripping off her red negligee with his teeth... He hadn’t yet told her that red was an attractant to Lykae males, much less mated males.
    He tossed the pager to Bowe. “Tell me what it says. And if you canna work it with one hand, then you sure as hell canna drive a stick shift down in Guatemala.”
    Bowe glowered, then fiddled with it. “It says, ‘Dim the room. xoxo.’”
    “Bugger me!” Lachlain lunged for the drapes, yanking them closed.
    Just as he was finishing the second window, Emma traced inside the scant light of the bedroom and smiled softly at him, her expression proud. “See? The system works.”
    “What’re you doin’ here, lass?”
    Casting Bowe a sympathetic glance, she said, “I had to come when I heard all the commotion at Val Hall.”
    “Commotion?”
    “I had better let my aunt Nïx explain it.” Emma’s beautiful blue eyes grew troubled. “She’s on her way here. Said Bowe was going to want to speak with her now?”
    Bowe scowled. “Eerie, bloody foresight. I’m weary of it, and of magick—and of the whole bloody Lore!”

9

    W hen Nïx blithely entered the room minutes later, Bowe said, “You told me that if I entered the Hie I would get my mate back. What reason would you have to deceive me?”
    Ignoring his question, she unabashedly crawled onto the foot of Bowe’s bed. Her T-shirt read: It’ll only hurt for a second. Promise... Weird bloody Valkyries—and she was one of the weirdest. As the firstborn of her kind, she was likely over three thousand years old, though she looked not old enough to buy liquor in the States.
    Other males saw Nïx as exceedingly comely; all Bowe saw was a powerful being made mad as a hatter from her foresight.
    She lay on her side, bending her elbow to casually prop her head in her hand. With a sigh she said, “Bowen, I took you on as my pet project because I like to ogle you. Due to your rowr factor.” Her distracted gaze flickered over his face and the bandaged end of his arm. “If you’re not going to keep yourself up, well—”
    “Answer me.”
    “Sooooorry, I didn’t see that you’d be enthralled to love another, or, more correctly, ensorcelled —”
    “I knew it!” Bowe cast a look at Lachlain.
    “You’re aware of it, then?” Nïx asked.
    Bowe annunciated, “ Brutally. ”
    “Mariketa will remove it from you, you know, in time,” Nïx continued. “As well as that pesky mortality spell. Which is convenient since you must go for her and return her to her coven.”
    “Return her to