“We were separated when he was just a little kid.”

“How old is he?” As a younger brother, Thad couldn’t be over twenty-four—because she’d lived for only a quarter of a century. The back of Rune’s neck flushed.

“Thad’s seventeen.”

Big fucker for his age. But the boy wouldn’t be frozen into immortality yet. Which meant Josephine had a glaring vulnerability: she cared for a being who could easily be killed. “How were you separated?” When immortals had offspring, they tended to keep a family united. Unlike my own sire. “Did your parents die?”

She crossed her arms over her chest, pulling taut the material of his T-shirt across her pierced nipples. “Rune, I like you. And I loved what we did in bed.”

He snapped his gaze from her chest to her face. He’d known that night had been different!

“But why would I reveal more to you? Give me a reason.” Her eyes were almost . . . beseeching.

“Because you can trust me.”

She exhaled with clear disappointment. “Which is exactly what an untrustworthy person would say.”

Rune let it go. “I’ll get your secrets soon enough.” He planned to introduce her to blood mead at the earliest opportunity. Before she could ask more, he said, “Nïx’s allies are staunch. Your brother might choose to remain with her.”

“Oh, that will never happen.”

“Why are you so confident?”

Her eyes flickered, her irises black as night. “Because I’m going to kill her.”

THIRTY-TWO

I admire your optimism, but she trounced you.” Rune hit that flask again. “She amused herself with you.”

“Our next matchup will be different,” Jo assured him. “I’m ready for it.”

“You are a very, very young vampire who should never pick a fight with a primordial.”

“Relative to you, the big bang is young. And what’s a primordial?”

“Don’t know that either, Forbearer? It’s the firstborn of a particular species, or at least the oldest one living.”

“Are you the primordial dark fey?”

A shadow flashed across his face. “I may never know.”

“Whatever she is—I’ve got this.”

“Say you could somehow prevail over her, why would I give up my kill?”

“Is it personal?” Jo asked.

“It’s important. She’s been playing with forces she’s too young and confused to understand, forces that can throw the entire universe into chaos. She flirts with an apocalypse. I happen to be one among a group that opposes her.”

“What did Nïx mean when she talked of the Møriør?”

“That’s the name of my alliance. I’m a Møriør.”

“But you’re not a nightmare made flesh.” Not a Bringer of Doom. Jo figured Rune would need to keep it in his pants for more than a hot minute to be a doom bringer.

“And you’re not a bomb,” he said. “Can we agree that Nïx alleged ridiculous things?”

The Valkyrie had said she’d kept her eye on Jo and Thad: her nuclear weapons. “Do you share a castle with monsters?”

He ran his hand over his chin. “That part is true. But not material.”

“The hell?” Her potential guy lived with monsters? Girlfriend/roommate issues would take on a whole new level.

“We’re speaking about Nïx.”

“Fine.” Jo would address his monsters in the future. “What does she intend with me?” With Thad?

“Depends on what you are. Nïx said you were rare. You’re half vampire, so what’s your other half? The first time we met, you cut me off as soon as I asked you what you are—as if I’d reached the limits of my usefulness. But you do know?” Whatever he saw in her expression made his lips part. “How could you not know? If you were raised by one parent, were you told nothing about the other? You said you were all by your lonesome. The generation before you is gone?”

Jo couldn’t bring herself to share her story yet. If he’d given her just one good reason to trust him . . .

“I’ll have your secrets soon enough, Josephine.”

The second time he’d said that. Why was he so confident?

“Since you can stomach my poison, you could be one of the mystical species,” he said, “like the Sorceri or Wiccae. It’s possible you could be fey. Most fey have magicks in them.”

She recalled her dream of Rune’s first kill. “Maybe you’re enemies with the Wiccae or Sorceri. You’re half fey, but you still might not be a fey fan.” She wondered if he would admit to hating them.

“I despise the fey, but I wouldn’t make you my enemy just because you possessed fey blood. As for the Wiccae, I’ve sworn allegiance to a witch. She’s one of the Møriør. I don’t care about the Sorceri either way.” He took another swig from his flask, his mind on this mystery. “Vampire hybrids are uncommon, but would any of those combinations be enough to attract the attention of a primordial Valkyrie?” He met her gaze. “When I kill Nïx, this information might go to the grave.”

Never to know? “As long as Thad is safe, I don’t care.”

“Then let me deal with her. As I told you, I’m an assassin by trade and have been for thousands of years.”