Not so easy to relinquish. Answer the bloody question. Cade couldn't have her anyway. She was forever forbidden to him. Rydstrom's scrutinizing me. Did he know? Answer it. "Yes, I would."
"Very well." She faced Rydstrom. "Your crown... You and Cade's gang have been searching for months for a particularly nasty warlock who's the only one with the knowledge of how Omort the Deathless can be vanquished."
Rydstrom narrowed his gaze. "We've told no one that."
She waved away his words. "Don't worry, I've been telling everybody." When he scowled, Nïx said, "Problem, though."
"Which is?"
"The warlock's... been murdered." She cupped her ear. "Wow, I can hear your hopes plummeting."
Cade ran his hand down his face. "How?"
"Sucked dry by a red-eyed vampire." Both Cade and Rydstrom tensed.
"This leech... he lives still?" Cade inched forward in his seat, already envisioning how to torture the vampire to retrieve the warlock's stolen memories. The Woede had no love lost for vampires.
"He does!" Nïx said. "And I even know where he is."
With a kingly motion of his hand, Rydstrom waved her on. Nïx grew still. Cade drank deeply. Rydstrom, you just f**ked up... .
"You dare wave me about?" Nïx's eyes flickered silver with anger. "Like I'm your court seer, or the seer's coffee-fetching intern?" She lowered her voice. "I'm more than twice your age, and two of my three parents are gods."
Rydstrom had to know he'd botched this, but he plowed on. "Nïx... " he said slowly, warningly.
"Oh, Rydstrom" - she scratched him under the chin and gave him an embarrassed smile - "this mad creature is so soft in the head, she forgot where she put the leech!" She stood to go. "Toodle-oo, the night grows short, and Regin and I have much mayhem to hatch."
"Stay, Nïx. I'll leave. You can continue talking to Cade." Rydstrom obviously thought he'd have more luck with Nïx.
In general, Cade was considerably smoother with women than his brother was. Though Rydstrom did love to remind Cade what a "blathering idiot" he'd been the sole time he'd spoken with his fated female.
Admittedly, he hadn't been at the top of his game, but blathering idiot? Not in a million years.
Rydstrom indicated for the rest of the crew to go to the bar. Except for Rök, who gave a vile curse. "Summoned yet again," he grated, then began tracing.
Ballocks, there goes my ride. Neither Cade nor Rydstrom could trace any longer. They'd had that ability bound - a punishment for a failed coup.
I'm going to get Rydstrom's bloody crown back for him if it bloody kills me... .
When it was only Cade and the Valkyrie, Nïx said, "You'll be at the gathering this weekend, yes?"
He nodded. "How's the alliance shaping up?" He'd heard Nïx had been actively steering this Accession. For her to take such an interest meant this one could be apocalyptic. Otherwise, Nïx the Ever-Knowing would likely be out shopping, as Valkyrie fancied doing.
She said, "So far on our team, we have the Lykae, the Forbearers, the Furiae, the Wraiths, the noble fey, myriad demonarchies, the House of Witches, possibly the CIA, and probably a Colombian drug lord. The nymphs are straddling the fence."
Regin opened her mouth, but Nïx cut her off. "That one's too easy, Reege."
The Valkyrie shrugged, her attention returning to an arm-wrestling match.
In a nonchalant tone, he asked Nïx, "So you want to tell me about the leech?"
"I don't know if you can defeat this one," Nïx said. "He's unspeakably powerful."
Cade gritted his teeth. "Then I only wish you'd seen what I did to my last enemy. And that was piss easy for me."
Nïx peered at the ceiling, then down again with an expression of surprise. "Very nice. But I can't see what you did with his spine."
She could view the past as well? There'd been rumors... . "Made him try to crawl for it before I beheaded him." He immediately frowned. "What do you do when you pluck a spine?"
"The same. You can't improve on a classic. Oh, and speaking of getting a spine - how are things with your lady love, Cade?"
He drank, studying her over the rim of his mug. Nïx can tell how I feel. She knows. Cade was notoriously brutal, a feared mercenary. Yet at times he found himself gut-sick with wanting his female, one who was too young and too human - the sole species forbidden to him.
Because the mortal wouldn't survive the initial claiming when he went demonic.
Cade no longer tried to deny that she was his, no longer bothered with his halfhearted pursuits of other females. Every time he saw her from the shadows, the certainty grew.
He wondered if Nïx knew about the picture he kept beside his bed.
Nïx smiled at that very moment; Cade swore. "Ever-knowing, Cade," she said softly.
Cade hiked his shoulders, pretending nonchalance. "Tell me about the vampire, or not, dove. But none of us really wants to be here."
"I'll tell you," Nïx said, her gaze rapt on his horns. "But only if you let me lick your rock-hard horns - "
"Nïx!" Regin's attention snapped back to this conversation.
Eyes wide, Nïx cried, "Who said that?? I didn't say that! Oh, very well - the vampire's named Conrad Wroth. Best be careful with that one. He single-handedly took down Bothrops the Lich."
"That was Wroth?" He'd heard of the assassin before. Cade grudgingly admitted that the leech did nice work, dealing deaths with a unique, gruesome signature to them. Which was important in their line of business. "Where is he?"