Valkyrie Divided (Pyralis Book 2)

by Brandy L. Cunningham

  Biting down my urge to rip his head off, I went along with him, if only for the possibility to get him to talk. “You’re right, Desmond. I could not stay away from you.”

  He lifted his head, hauntingly sexy brown eyes stared at me. I hated the way they still touched me, those warm brown eyes of his. I hated how the wings of memories still caressed my heart and my mind. How was it possible that I could harbor any desire, any compassion for this man who had hurt me so? I had felt so sure the only emotion he would evoke in me was disgust, that I became angry with myself when that wasn’t the case. Trying to keep my face neutral, I stepped closer.

  “Knowing you were here, it was driving me crazy. You and I cared for each other once. Loved each other. What happened, Desmond?”

  His eyes shifted, and I had the feeling he was weighing my words, trying to decide if I was being sincere.

  “Yes, Valkyrie. We did love each other, once. And oh how we loved each other. I still know every curve of your body, from your breasts to your hips. I know the areas you liked most to be touched, and just how hard you liked it.”

  My face remained smooth, but inside, I was screaming. I had known he would do this, but it didn’t make things any easier. My gaze strayed to the mark on his shoulder, and I remembered that day. He had gotten that scar the night I had first bitten him. I hadn’t meant to. Filled with lust and ecstasy, I had lost control during one of our many trysts. I recalled the way he had at first been shocked, possibly even frightened. It had soon faded as he had moaned. I had regained my control, but the bite had left a scar.

  Desmond knew where my eyes had strayed. He watched me intently. “I remember that night as well, my sweet Valkyrie. You were so wild, so full of need.”

  I didn’t want to talk about sex with Desmond. I needed to change the course of our conversation. “Tell me Desmond, was any of it ever real?”

  Desmond’s eyes glazed over for a moment. He looked away. “It was always real. All of it, that is, until that bastard La Croix came around. After you met him, you began to change. You tried to hide it, but I wasn’t a fool. I could see you were enchanted with him.”

  Blinking, I wished again that I could remember these times with Aeron. It frustrated me that I could not. “It didn’t matter that I had met him, I had already chosen you.” Although I hadn’t meant to speak the words aloud, I knew they were true.

  Desmond’s eyes widened for a moment, but then he shook his head. “No, it’s not true. You were falling for him more and more each day. Every time we met, you were different. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so angry, after all, you were meant for him.”

  I wasn’t sure what he meant by that comment. “Why did you curse me to come back if that’s how you felt?”

  Desmond looked away again. I could see his mind working. He didn’t want to tell me. I had the feeling I wouldn’t get much truth from him.

  Turning, I shrugged. “I should go.”

  “Wait, stop. Don’t go Valkyrie. Stay.” When I looked back, his eyes were full of longing. I wished he would just be honest.

  “Why Desmond? Why should I stay here? You don’t want to give me answers. You only want to talk of sex.”

  Leaning his head forward once more, he released a sigh. When he didn’t say anything else, I decided to try something different.

  “Desmond, tell me who the woman with the dark eyes was. The woman you spoke to long ago, when I was still yours.”

  Very slowly, Desmond lifted his face. He stared at me in shock. “How do you know about her?”

  Shaking my head, I said, “Tell me who she was.”

  Desmond shook his head. “No. I can’t tell you. You have no idea what any of this means. I wasn’t always like this, you know. I had every intention of waiting for you, reuniting with you.”

  I laughed. “That’s a little hard to imagine, knowing what you did once I finally did come back, isn’t it?”

  Desmond began to look agitated. “Val, there are so many things at work here, you just don’t understand. I had to take you. I had to protect you…”

  Again I laughed, but the sound was anything but jovial. “Protect me? Are you joking? You didn’t protect me! You experimented on me. You tortured me!”

  Desmond shook his head. There was a look of almost desperation in his eyes. “I knew you wouldn’t understand. What I did to you, it was all to protect you.”

  I knew I was about to lose my temper. I pivoted on my heel, about to storm out, when I felt the sensation in my hand. Remembering Tamyra’s words, I turned back toward Desmond. Stalking toward him with deliberately slow movements, I stopped only when I was standing mere inches from him. He stared back at me, his pupils dilating with uncertainty.

  “I want one last kiss, a kiss to remember the old days.” Desmond’s eyes widened in reaction to my words. I stared into those warm brown irises, slowly closing the gap between us. When I felt my lips press against his in the softest brush of a kiss, sensations jolted through me. Apparently, the lips remember those we have loved. I was bombarded with memories of our life so long ago. We were younger and the world was so much simpler. My body reacted both to the memories and to the feel of this man’s familiar lips.

  Without realizing what had happened, I found myself kissing Desmond deeply, passionately. Our bodies pressed close, and our mouths devouring each other. Trying to come out of the trance of passion I found myself drowning in, I lifted my hand, using my fingers to trace his jaw line, slowly slipping them between our lips and breaking the thrall he held over me. At the same time, I used the advantage I had created. His mouth was open, his breathing heavy. I slipped the herb into his mouth, and whispered the words Tamyra had told me.

  Desmond’s eyes flew wide, his breathing hitched, and his body began to buck. As though fighting a demon who wasn’t present, he writhed, moaning in anger as his eyes glared accusingly at me. Foam frothed in his mouth, and his eyes began rolling back in his head. A few moments later, he slumped against his chains, his eyes staring blindly at me.

  “Desmond Wolfe, tell me what Byron Walker’s plan is.” I waited as his glazed eyes seemed to twitch back and forth.

  “Byron Walker…” his voice was flat and void of all emotions when he finally spoke. I stared at him, waiting, hoping for answers.

  “Byron Walker…dark Witch…” drool dripped from the corner of his mouth and his eyes twitched as though he was trying to fight the spell that was forcing him to speak.

  “Yes. Byron Walker. Tell me about him. Tell me what plans he has and what he is going to do with these dark Witches on Samhain.” Frustration was rising in me. If this was all I would get, these mumblings, then perhaps this had all been pointless.

  “Yes. Byron Walker...he will use dark Witches. Unleash a great evil. Evils of Hell. Corvo seeks you. Byron will sacrifice you to the monster of Hell…that is why I tried to protect you…”

  He trailed off again as I stared at him in uncertainty. The monsters of Hell? Sacrifice me? Blinking rapidly, I shook my head, confused. If Desmond thought that by torturing me he was protecting me, then he was more delusional than anyone realized.

  “Tell me what city he is going to strike on the final eclipse.”

  Desmond’s head moved toward me slightly. His eyes stilled and then twitched. In his mouth, bubbles gurgled out and foam stained his lips. “Savanna will fall…Byron will release the demon plague. The monster will require sacrifice…”

  I had heard enough. Spinning about, I stalked to the tent flap, but the words whispered by Desmond in his hoarse voice, stopped me dead in my tracks.

  “When you hear his voice, Valkyrie, do not trust it. Do not go to him. Do not follow him. It will be a trap.”

  Very slowly, I moved my gaze over my shoulder to look into the fully cognizant eyes of the man I once loved. Warm liquid brown ringed with violet stared back at me. I had to ask. I didn’t want to, but I just couldn’t help myself. My heart pounded with anxiety. “Who’s voice?”

  Desmond’s mouth moved, forme
d a word, a name, but it was as though I had lost all ability to hear. The wind whipped up around me, and I felt a brush of warmth against my back. I blinked, turned, and left the tent. My ears pounded with that one name. A name he should not have muttered, a name that was impossible. He had said don’t listen when you hear Aeron’s voice.

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  9

  Feast of Blood

  My dreams were dark and violent that night. Plagued with dreams and images that frightened me. Something had happened when I had kissed Desmond, something similar to what had happened when I’d drank his blood. Images had transferred from his mind to my own, and as I tried to rest that same night, those haunting images would not leave me. I saw her again, the dark eyed woman. This time, however, it was in Desmond’s arms that I saw her. The sight of their naked bodies joined together, it was too much for me.

  Darkness and anger flared to life within me, because now I knew Desmond had been sleeping with another all those days when my heart had been his. This woman, whoever she was, had seduced him, filled his mind with mad thoughts, and stolen him from me. Desmond had once been good and kind. Now, I saw that he was a twisted, demented shell of the man who he once was. His morals were skewed, and the things he thought he did to protect others only hurt them. I needed to know who this woman was and what role she played in all of this.

  With a fever-like heat burning in my skin, and a desperation to wipe clean the images that fogged my mind, I left my tent, the new one that I’d moved to, and glanced around. Still the gloomy overcast half-darkness hung over the world. Not light, yet not dark, it tricked the eyes and the mind. We were suspended in a state between dusk and dawn. For me, it was most welcome, as I had come to enjoy the darker times of day the best, but I knew for the rest of the world, it was an omen of darker times.

  I wasn’t surprised at all when I found Rafael sitting outside his tent, looking for all the world as though he had been waiting for my arrival. He inclined his head to me. I gave him a small smile.

  “Trouble sleeping my dear? It never was your strongest virtue, was it?” Rafael’s blue eyes bored into me, and his white hair hung around his shoulders as he fidgeted with his cane.

  My smile widened slightly. “You’ve always been able to see straight through me, haven’t you, old man?”

  Patting the space on the rock beside him, he indicated I should sit. I shook my head. I dared not get that close to anyone I cared about. The chance that I might lose control of my anger and set fire to them was a chance I wasn’t going to take.

  “Rafael, I saw something, some images in Desmond’s mind. I told you already about the plans he spoke of, but I didn’t tell you of the images. There was a woman, apparently he had been sleeping around even then. I get the feeling she is powerful but I can’t place her.”

  Rafael’s pupils contracted, but otherwise he displayed no emotion to my statement. I wondered if he had known all along.

  “Tell me what she looked like, Valkyrie.”

  I filled him in on as many details as I could recall from the two occasions where I had received the images. Rafael listened intently. When I had finished, he closed his eyes, let out a long breath, and then looked up at me with a deep regret.

  “Her name was Niada. I promise you, Valkyrie, I had no idea they were intimate. She was a Witch. A powerful Witch. Desmond met her when we attended a gathering for Witches and their apprentice’s. She was an apprentice at the time as well, but nearly finished with her training.”

  He paused for a moment, and I thought over his words. “Rafael, was this before Desmond and I met?”

  Rafael nodded his head. “Yes, the summer before. She came around periodically afterwards, even once he had met you, but they were only friends as far as I could tell. After you…” Rafael cleared his throat. “after your death, she didn’t come around as often, but I heard from other Witches that she had begun following a path of darkness, conjuring evil spirits, and even inviting them to use her body as a vessel.”

  Blinking in surprise, I stared at him. “Is that actually possible?”

  Rafael nodded. “I’m afraid so, Dear. Witches hold great power, and great possibility, and for some, it sends them down dark paths. We all make the choice. Evil can be seductive in its promise of greater power.”

  “Rafael, in the images I saw, she tells Desmond I will choose someone else. She talks to him about plans. Do you think she could be involved with Byron?”

  Now, Rafael’s face scrunched up in deep thought. “It’s not likely. From what I have known of her, she harbored a deep hatred for Vampires. I don’t think she would team up with them. The last I heard of her, she was staying with a dark Coven in Las Vegas.”

  Contemplating this new information, I thought about sharing with Rafael the last words Desmond had spoken to me, but something kept me from sharing them with him. It seemed that thoughts of Aeron had no place being spoken aloud, so I kept them to myself. I decided I had time to pay an unplanned visit to the Coven Rafael had spoken of.

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  The lights of the city flashed neon around me as I stalked down the streets of this seedy community. Prostitutes on the corners eyed me, no doubt threatened by the appearance of another female in their territory. It made me want to laugh. Men poured out of strip clubs and bars, words slurred and unable to walk straight, so inebriated. I shook my head. I had always thought it was a waste of life. Whoring, drinking, and partying. What did it amount to? These men and women were on the crosshairs of a war they knew nothing about, and had no idea how to fight.

  When the big bad wolf came knocking on their doors, and their lifeblood was spilled across their floors, they would have nothing to show for it. Would the memory of the night they’d paid a street prostitute for sex make their life worth anything? I doubted it. I suppose some would have felt pity for these people, but I didn’t. I felt rage. Anger that my life and the lives of those I had cared for were forsaken so that I could fight for people like this. People who didn’t care who their president was, what was happening in their world, as long as they got to drink and smoke and fuck.

  When a man staggering from a bar with a couple of his buddies decides to send cat-calls my way, I stopped, glancing back at the man. He assumed I was nothing but a prostitute. I couldn’t stop the sly grin that crossed my face as the darkness in me begged to come out and play. This man had no idea. I was so much worse than a sex-for-money-whore. I didn’t exact money. I exacted death.

  Striding back toward the three men, I made sure to put a little more sway into my hips and a bounce in my step. The men watched my boobs bouncing and my hips sashaying toward them and they practically drooled. Leading them to the darkened alley beside the dingy bar, I sent a seductive smile over my shoulder, using my finger to indicate they should follow. Listening to their whoops and hollers, I felt the rage inside me grow a little more.

  Like lambs led to the slaughter, the three men followed excitedly in my wake. Once inside the alley, I leaned my back casually against the brick wall, placing a heeled foot on the wall beside my knee. The tight black skirt and shirt I wore left little to the imagination. Tilting my head to the side, I licked my lips, waiting in anticipation as the men lumbered closer. I could hear the erratic beat of their hearts and see the pound of their artery at the base of their throats. My mouth salivated at the sight.

  The first man stumbled closer, placing a hand on the wall near my head, he leaned in close, his eyes delving into the low cut neck line of my leather shirt.

  “Hooney, I’m not sure yoo culd hanle all tree uf us…” he slurred and his breath reeked of alcohol. Not just beer either, I got a tangible hint of tequila. I wanted to roll my eyes at his extraordinary amount of over-confidence.

  “Oh, sweetie, I’m quite sure I can handle the three of you. The real question is, can you ‘all handle me?”

  His mouth widened in a broad grin as he pressed closer to me. I could feel the hardness of him, and I didn’t need to wonder if he was aro
used. My stomach revolted at the feeling of him pressed into me, but I kept my cool, at least outwardly. Leaning my head forward, I licked along his neck, grimacing at the taste of alcohol already permeating his pores. The man shuddered. With a grin, I pierced the tender flesh of his neck, sucking in deep gulps. The saliva I exuded paralyzed my victim instantly.

  One of the other two men whooped, yelling incoherently as he stumbled forward. “Cum on maan…share!” he shoved his friend aside, where he fell to the cement I glanced down, licking the blood from my lips.

  “Oops, I guess he wasn’t up to the challenge after all.” I made a pouty face, as though I was truly let down. The second man grinned, his eyes enlarging, as he stepped forward. As soon as he was close enough, I sunk my fangs into him just as I had done to the first one.

  When he slumped to the ground, I lifted my eyes to the third man. He eyed me uncertainly, and I shrugged. “You ‘all must have had a lot to drink tonight.”

  Still, he hesitated. So, I took matters into my own hands. I grabbed him, spinning around until I held him pressed to the wall. Sniffing along his throat, I could smell his fear. Opening my mouth wide, I bit deep, relishing in the taste of his sickly sweet blood. The alcohol in his system did nothing to me. My metabolism was far too fast, burning it off in mere seconds. The man stiffened, trying to pull back, before the poison of my saliva took root in his nervous system. His eyes stared accusingly at me.

  In my head, I heard the faintest rustle. Pausing for just a second, I concentrated, trying to decide what I had felt. It was almost as though I had heard a whisper about judgment. Then, it came again. This time, the voice was much clearer.

  “Valkyrie. You are better than this. How can you fight for humans if you leave them dead in the streets?”

  With a growl, I tore my mouth away from the succulent meal I had been feasting on. “They aren’t dead.”

  Looking around the alley, I realized there was no one there. I should have known, as the male voice in my head was all too familiar.