Lothaire said, "Why so much time?"

"It's a Hail Mary protocol. The island is seeded with incendiary bombs for a total self-destruct, but for some reason, they didn't detonate."

Natalya said, "Technopaths could have detected them and disarmed them."

Declan had suspected the same. "The soonest the Order can deploy an aerial attack is six and a half days. They can't strike before Friday at noon." It didn't escape his notice that he'd begun saying they instead of we.

His life with the Order was over. But Webb had it wrong. That didn't mean Declan had to throw in with these miscreats any more than necessity demanded.

Unfortunately, it looked like they'd be along for the ride-al the way to the escape boat and beyond. "In the meantime, there are other adversaries to contend with."

Lothaire said, "Some of the vampires and demons will simply trace from here now that their torques are gone."

"Some?" Brandr swigged his Coke.

"Others will remain to pick off the Vertas while they're at their weakest. It's what I would do. Actual y, I'd trace more of my brethren back to this place and exterminate them all."

Brandr whistled low. "Fish in a barrel."

In a thoughtful tone, Lothaire said, "We will have to chance that they don't."

"Then what?" Thad said. "How do we get out of this place? How do we get home?"

Declan grudgingly said, "There's a boat on the far west coast of the island. It would take about three days through the forest on foot."

Brandr said, "Which is the Wendigos' natural habitat. The woods will be crawling with them."

"The only other option is to stay above the tree line while crossing the mountains. Which will tack on two days."

Thad belched into his fist, then said, "Never been on a mountain before!"

"So the mountains it is," Natalya said. "Doesn't sound too bad. We only have to stay alive for a spell, then we cruise home."

Declan gazed at Regin. And then she would leave him and never look back. Or maybe she would remember that he'd rescued her from those vampires and feel gratitude. Aye, gratitude.

Brandr added, "When we get back, we can get a witch to remove the torques. Regin's good friends with several of them." Then he frowned at Declan. "Wait a second. You said the mainland is eight hundred miles away. What kind of boat are you taking us to?"

"A bloody big one."

"What do I do then?" Thad asked. "Can I go back home?"

Everyone looked at Declan. At length, he said, "No. Your family is mortal, so they're safe, but if you return, that magister will simply recapture you. Take you to another facility."

"There are more of these places?" Natalya cried.

Declan shrugged. Four others.

Thad said, "Thanks for letting me know Mom and Gram are okay. I appreciate it."

Gratitude from the kid, after all that had been done to him.

"Hey, is there like a witness relocation program for us?"

Natalya said, "We'l figure something out for you and your family, lad. I promise." Then she turned to Lothaire, "So, vampire, who is La Dorada?"

Thad asked, "What'd she keep screaming about a ring for?"

Declan grated, "And how the hel did she get into my facility?"

His tone dripping condescension, Lothaire crooned, "Ah, children, it's not yet story time." He closed his eyes and turned away, saying over his shoulder, "To anyone who contemplates even nearing me while I sleep: I will garrote you with your own viscera."

Declan was about to demand an answer when he heard a muted whimper. Was Regin waking at last?

Yes, her eyes were darting behind her lids, her brows drawn. He leaned closer, hands clenching behind his back again. He would fix this with her. She'd never known a man with a will like his. I'll make her want me back-She opened her eyes. Narrowed them on him.

Then she hissed.

Regin shot upright, locking gazes with Chase. He'd been looming over her while she was defenseless?

She wasn't now.

Launching herself at his throat, she shrieked, "I'll kil you!" She dug her claws in around his Adam's apple, but he wouldn't fight back.

Brandr lunged forward, prying her from Chase's throat. "You can't, Valkyrie!" He looped an arm around her waist, pul ing her away.

"Watch me!" She lashed out at Brandr, knocking her head back against his face.

Chase simply stood there, tense as a board, his neck bleeding.

Brandr muttered, "I can't let you do that, Regin."

"Why not?"

"He knows a way off the island, a boat just a few days from here. He's going to lead us to it." At her ear, he said, "You know I can't let you kil him anyway."

"Did you not see what he had done to me?" she cried. "They cut me open by his order!"

Chase's eyes blazed. "I didn't order it, didn't know about it!"

Brandr released her, standing between her and Chase.

"And I'm supposed to believe that? How could you not have known?" Natalya had told her she'd thrown off electricity like a reactor. "Were you gone?"

Even after everything, part of her wished he'd been gone, wished he'd had absolutely no part in it.

"I swear that I didn't know," he answered, his tone evasive. "And that I would've stopped it if I had."

Lying about something. She was too drained to think, too injured. She gazed around with growing disbelief. Saws, scalpels, exam tables, and cages surrounded her. "Ah, gods, where are we?" She rubbed her chest, reeling on her feet. It was like a warehouse of old torture tools.

Then she spied Lothaire atop one of the cages, relaxing with his hands folded behind his head as if he'd just been napping. "Him?" She reached to her back-for swords that weren't there. "Do you know what he's done to the Valkyrie? What the hel is wrong with you people?" Her breaths grew shallow, wheezing. "I can't be around them ... I can't." She coughed, a rattling sound. "And I-I can't stay in this place-"

Regin's legs gave out. Her knees met the hard floor as blood bubbled from her lips.

Chapter THIRTY-NINE

Declan shot forward to help her, ignoring the bloody hand she raised to ward him away.

Brandr shoved him back. "She doesn't want you to touch her!" He knelt beside Regin. "Listen to me, Valkyrie. The wire holding your rib cage together doesn't come out on its own. Nor the staples. I'm going to have to cut them out of you." Regin's silvery eyes grew stark.

Oh, bloody hell, no. "She'l heal on her own. She'l regenerate." They always do.

Brandr cast him a black look. "You had this done to me too, remember? And I know that I was ripping those staples out of my chest over an entire day. I had to dig for the wire, unknot it, and pul it free-in between the times I blacked out. At least she'l have someone to help her."

Regin was still coughing, blood dripping from her lips, her staples straining.

Declan's gut churned as realization sank in. He knew this had to be done.

"Is there some kind of remover here?" Brandr asked. "For the staples. Maybe some kind of anesthetic?"

"They would have used sutures back then. And any chemicals were removed from the bunker."

"I'll need a blade." Brandr lifted her into his arms.

"Take your pick." Lothaire smirked. "We're surrounded by them."

Natalya found a scalpel, gravely handed it to Brandr.

Brandr jerked his chin toward a pair of clippers. "Fey, can you grab those bolt cutters as well ?"

They weren't used to cut bolts. Declan stepped for-ward. "I'll see to her."

Regin cried, "He's ... not touching... me!"

From his vantage on the cage, Lothaire exhaled loudly. "Whatever you do, be quick about it. If the storm abates, her lightning will be like a beacon to the Pravus. And I for one need rest before I face yet another army of immortals."

"I'm doing this, Chase," Brandr said simply.

On some level he must trust the berserker, Declan realized, because he all owed Brandr to carry her into a back examination room.

As Declan watched from the doorway, the berserker laid her on a metal table, then took off his shirt, bal ing it under her head. "Regin, when you feel like passing out-just let yourself. This is going to get rough."

"You know I can't ... with enemies here. Vampire. Chase."

I'm not your enemy. No longer.

"Just turn off those Valkyrie instincts for once. I'm not going to let anyone harm you. I've waited a thousand years to protect you." He brushed his hand over Regin's hair. "Let me do it now." Then he marched to the door.

Before Brandr slammed it in his face, Declan met eyes with her. He parted his lips to say something- I'd take this pain for you. No one will ever hurt you again.- but no words came out.

Outside the room, Declan began to pace. He hadn't protected her. He'd gotten her out of the facility, but this had happened when she'd been directly under his watch.

He'd done nothing except hurt her from their first meeting. When he'd gutted her in a dirty street. When he'd poisoned her.

And when she needed me most, I was high in my room, failing her.

Each time Brandr excised a staple, Declan could hear her biting back a cry. The strain was crippling him. But now it was accompanied by the onset of withdrawal symptoms. Teeth-clattering tremors threatened.

At her first real scream, an answering roar was ripped from his chest. Where was his vaunted will power now? His lack of emotion?

How many times had Webb told him, "You're devoid of emotions like that"?

I'm not. That gnawing anxiety overwhelmed him until he nearly doubled over with it.

Then came another scream, thunder clapping immediately after. Everyone stared at each other, leery.

The storm intensified, seeming to rock the mountain until even Lothaire raised his brows.

Regin cried, "No, no, Brandr, now just wait-"

When she shrieked, Declan rammed his head against the tiled wal , gritting his teeth. This is my doing.

Have to get to her. He strained against his bindings, his heart beginning to thunder as it pumped blood to his muscles. Coursing, coursing ... With another yel , he busted the straps, then charged to the door.

Natalya planted herself in front of him.

"Out of my way." - Nothing keeps me from her.-Just as he raised his hands to toss her to the side, Brandr came out. He had streaks of blood up his bare chest. He barely gave Declan's freed hands a glance. To the fey, he said, "She won't pass out, and the next part is going to be bad."

Declan snapped, "That wasn't?"

"What can I say? Your bitch Dr. Dixon did a hack job on her."

Because she was in a hurry to finish before I woke from my stupor.

"The wire got mangled into Regin's rib cage, and some of the bones have already grown over it."

Brandr looked at Natalya. "I need someone to hold her shoulders down. Either you or the boy."

Natalya nodded. "Of course I'll do it."

"Use the restraints," Declan grated.

She hissed, "How easily you say that."

"I tried using them," Brandr said. "Regin has to be perfectly still or the wire's going to pierce her heart. I can't strap down her chest because of the size of the opening."

Declan ran his hand over his face. "Neither of them will be strong enough to hold her still."

"And you will be, Chase?" Brandr demanded. "It's clear you've begun to think of her as yours-"

Lothaire guffawed.

"-so can you watch me slice open your woman?"

Natalya drew Brandr aside. "You're not considering this? The fiend looks like he's about to have a psychotic break."

Declan didn't deny that, just said, "I'm no' asking."

Brandr studied his expression. "Maybe he should see it."

When Natalya reluctantly deferred, Brandr turned back to the room.

Am I ready to see this? Declan inhaled deeply. You reap what you sow. He entered, halting in his tracks at the scene before him.

Brandr was squeezing her bloody hand in his, and Regin was gazing up at him, crying, shaking her head miserably. "We c-can do ... the rest tomorrow."

She was bare from the waist up. A line of pitted skin crawled up the middle of her torso, and blood tracked down her sides. Between her br**sts, Brandr had sliced the line wide open until her skin gaped over her rib cage. That hideous wire jutted up in the center.

Declan shoved his fist against his mouth, swal owed back vomit.

"This will be over soon," Brandr promised her. "And You'll never have to go through it again. Close your eyes, Regin. If you trust me, You'll close them."

At length, she did.

Only then did Declan cross to the table. He could see why Brandr needed her perfectly still . The man was going to have to lower those cutters directly beside her beating heart.

How many times had Declan cursed an immortal's resilience?

Now he prayed for hers.

Regin lay in a twilight, her mind refusing to go under, even as Brandr began clipping in her chest.

The gruesome sound of those cutters- snip, snip-echoed in the room. She thought she was still begging him to wait til later to do the rest. To give her a chance to recover from the staples.

Reasoning with him like a coward.

Her tone was mewling, like a little girl's. She was appal ed at herself.

Oh, gods, had he let Chase inside? She opened her eyes, but a murky film shaded her vision. Was that brute holding her shoulders down? She flailed against him, but he was immovable. "Let me go, let me go!"

"Regin, be still." Chase's voice sounded thick. "Please."

She kept struggling. Metal scraped bone.

"Damn it, Chase!" Brandr pulled the clippers out. "You've got to keep her still!"

"Aye," he rasped. His big hands covered her mouth and nose.

Terror flared. Suffocating her? Can't get air! She kicked her legs out, digging her claws into his hands.

Instead of helping her escape, Brandr muttered, "You are the coldest son of a bitch I have ever met."

Blackness took her, and it was almost a ... blessing.

When Declan removed his hands from Regin's face, Brandr gazed at him like he was a monster.

"See to her before she wakes!" Can't do that a second time. Her little claws were still embedded into the backs of his scarred hands. "What are you waitin' for?"