Lothaire trailed him, keeping a keen eye on his new investment and blood supply. When they reached the other half of the plane, the berserker, the fey, and Thaddeus had just crawled from the wreckage.

The fey's cheek was gouged open. Thaddeus appeared unscathed, sounding out some primitive Texan-esque whoop, then yel ing to the sky, "We freaking lived!"

Brandr had an unconscious Regin cradled in his arms. One of his eyes was swol en shut and blood trickled from his nose. But Regin looked no worse than before the crash.

When Chase sagged in relief, Lothaire yanked him upright.

The man's scarred hands clenched and unclenched behind him as he so clearly longed to have her in his possession.

Lothaire drawled at his ear, "You want her so badly? Perhaps you oughtn't have had your lackeys mutilate her. Just a thought."

Natalya reached for her charge thrower. "What is the leech doing here? Again?" But her weapon had been damaged.

"Chase is my prisoner, and the Valkyrie goes with us."

Brandr nodded slowly. "You are as crazy as they say."

To keep his bargain with Chase, Lothaire would have to defeat these three and take the Valkyrie.

Or I can use them. Lothaire assessed them one by one. A ragtag army.

The fey had skil s, the berserker would be an extra sword. Thaddeus's hidden strength could come in handy. Currently, the lad was dragging an overstuffed backpack out of the tail of the plane. Seemed he was smart enough to provision himself.

"Chase is leading me off the island," Lothaire said. "He knows of an alternate means of escape. We could include you. For a price."

Natalya rol ed her eyes. "What now?"

"Al egiance to me, until we depart this place. You'd vow no malice against me."

Brandr shook his head. "That thing, that La Dorada, will be coming for you. Unless you kil ed her?"

"She's out of commission for a time." The sorceress had been rash, coming for him before she'd regenerated enough. He'd capitalized.

Natalya pressed her fingers to the wound on her cheek. "Do we have a choice but to side with you?"

"Not unless you want to stay here. And Chase informed me that the Order will be retaliating soon. Unite with us, or die."

"Then let's all egiate or whatever!" Thaddeus said. "I want out of this place! You've got my vow." Natalya gritted out, "Mine as well."

Brandr scowled. "I vow it."

Lothaire tensed as a new scent wafted in the air. A foul scent. Through the rain, he spied glowing eyes in the woods. "Wendigos. On three sides."

When Declan spotted the creatures skulking closer, his instincts screamed for him to get Regin away.

There were three times as many as before.

"Only one place to run." Natalya turned her gaze toward the dark forest just beyond them.

"No, we can't outrun them with these torques." Brandr swiped at his bleeding nose. "And we'd be going directly into their most advantageous terrain. We need to stand and fight."

Natalya scoffed. "Al of us barely defeated a fraction of their number."

"If we run, you know what will happen! They'l infect us. I'd rather die- in a fight!"

"You could run, and I could stay to fend them off," the vampire offered. "For some reason, I feel amazingly refreshed." He swung an amused look at Declan that made him grind his teeth. "And it seems I'm quite handy against them." He fingered something in his pocket.

Natalya tossed away her busted TEP-C. "So, Lothaire, you're going to fight them out of the blackness of your heart?"

Lothaire said to Declan, "Mortals always have a rabbit hole. There's a secure shelter somewhere on this island, isn't there? Somewhere you'd all be safe this night?"

Beginning to recognize Lothaire's calculating look, Declan gave a tight nod, not bothering to hide the scathing hatred boiling inside him. "And what would it take for you to fight the Wendigos?" What more would he want?

"Whenever I ask for something in the future, you will do it for me. Anything. Without hesitation. Vow this."

Another deal with the devil?

"Make no bargains with vampires," the fey murmured. "You always lose in the end."

Too late.

Brandr shook his head. "You can't agree to an open-ended deal like that, especial y not with a leech like him."

"Do I have a bloody choice?"

"Chase, they're pure evil. I've fought them all my life," Brandr said. "Hel , I've probably fought him!"

Lothaire calmly said, "An unlikelihood, as you still live."

Brandr lunged for the vampire, his free hand bal ed into a fist, but Natalya stepped between them. "The Wendigos are closing in," Lothaire said. "I'm going to need your answer."

"Chase," Brandr said warningly.

"This is the only way to save her, and you know it," Lothaire said. "Don't you want to safeguard her?"

At that, Brandr cursed under his breath.

Because he knows I'll make this deal and any other to protect her? "You have my vow." Put it on my goddamned tab. "Very good." Lothaire's red eyes glowed as he so obviously relished the upcoming fight. "Go. I'll stall them."

The halfling began shucking off his heavy pack. "I'll stay with Mr. Lothaire and fight." To Brandr, he said, "You get Natalya and Regin to safety."

With an eerie menace, Lothaire slowly turned to Thad. "No. You won't, young Thaddeus."

"I can help you-"

Lothaire's fist shot out, connecting with the kid's mouth, sending him flying onto his pack. "Run. Along."

Glaring over her shoulder, Natalya helped Thad up. The boy ran his forearm over his bleeding lip, casting Lothaire a stunned look. As he clambered to his feet, his eyes flashed black.

Brandr said, "Let's go. We're running out of time."

Thaddeus adjusted his pack, and Natalya snagged their only weapons, a pair of swords. Brandr still carried Regin-the sole thing Declan wanted.

They set off. But at the edge of the forest, Declan turned back to Lothaire. "How exactly will you know where we go?"

He laughed. "You won't get rid of me that easily, Magister." Fangs glinting, he murmured, "I'll pretend that you're prey and hunt you."

Chapter THIRTY-EIGHT

The group plunged into the forest, with Declan in the lead, making for an older abandoned facility. He'd been there a decade ago when he'd taken over the island.

In the background, they could hear the ongoing fighting, with earthshaking explosions and sporadic gun chatter.

Maybe Lothaire would be decapitated in the coming battle. And rob me of the joy of doing it myself?

Other creatures moved among the trees from time to time, though not the deadly Wendigos. Not yet.

The gale buffeted them, hampering their vision. They leaned into the wind, toiling up an ever-ascending terrain toward one of the many mountains in the island's interior.

Normal y he'd be sprinting this trek so easily, but he'd been weakened from the berserkrage that had probably saved him in the crash.

And weakened from blood loss.

Worse, Lothaire seemed to have sucked out any medicine left in him.

Stil Declan wanted Regin in his arms. "Untie me."

"So you can carry her?" Brandr ducked under a branch. "Now that I've got her, I'm not giving her over."

"Then free me, in case we meet an enemy."

Natalya said, "You are an enemy. You might have some weird reincarnation history with Regin and Brandr, but our history's only four weeks long, and it hasn't exactly endeared you to me." She leapt over a washout. "Let's see. Charge thrower to the face during my capture, imprisonment, threat of torture hanging over my head, enforced abstinence."

Brandr did a double take at that. "We might have a history with Chase, but that didn't stop us from being strapped down to a table and eviscerated without anesthesia." His ire growing with every word, he said, "Our rib cages were cracked open, then wired together-under his orders."

Declan grated, "Not Regin."

"Oh, yeah, that's right. You didn't know about her. Even though you run everything here? Or ran everything."

From behind them, the halfling said, "Is there real y another way off the island?" He was out of breath, no doubt from lugging that pack-what must be a week's worth of food.

"Aye."

Brandr snapped, "Wel , tell us what it is."

Declan shot him a look. "You're still an immortal to me. The fey's right. We are enemies. Seems that knowledge might just keep me alive."

"We didn't have to be enemies," Brandr said. "You're the one who f**ked up, Aidan."

"Don't cal me that!"

"Aidan, ass**le, whatever." He shoved Declan along. "Just shut up and keep moving."

Taking orders from the male infuriated him, but Declan had no berserker strength left to break his bonds, no choice but to lead them forward.

They continued in silence for at least half an hour before they reached the old research facility, a bunker tunneled into the side of a mountain. It was the first modern one on this island, circa nineteen fifty.

Declan led them through a series of rock cutouts, much like a labyrinth, winding deeper into the mountainside. When the trail appeared to dead-end at a sheer rock face, he edged to the right and kept going.

"An optical il usion," the halfling murmured. "Coo-el ."

They finally arrived at the bunker entrance, a thick metal door covered with lichen and moss.

"Al right." Brandr said, "So how do we get in?"

"Untie me, so I can enter a code."

"Just tell me how to do it."

At the man's implacable expression, Declan said, "Tear away the moss. There's a manual code pad. If I can remember the code."

When Brandr uncovered it, Declan rattled off a series of numbers for Brandr to enter.

Clicking gears sounded. With a hiss, the door cracked opened. Declan entered, and the others fol owed. The air was stale, the inside pitch dark. Regin's glow was so dim it barely made a dent in the pressing black.

Brandr shut and locked the door behind them with an echoing clang, and Declan led them down a flight of narrow stairs into a large room. The exam room. Rows of metal tables-with restraints-stood in the center. Cages lined either side, while desks and cabinets occupied the front and back walls.

Oversize ventilation grates covered the ceiling. Blood drains dotted the tiled floor. Archaic-looking tools hung from wal pegs.

Thad whispered, "This place gives me the creeps."

Brandr rubbed his chest, no doubt reliving his own torture. "The ones in the cages had to watch?"

Natalya added, "Regin's going to lose it when she sees all this."

Declan gazed around, trying to see it from their point of view. Though the Order's research work hadn't changed much in sixty years, the manner of it had. The new facility's atmosphere was sterile, distanced.

This was raw, blatant, leaving nothing to the imagination.

Regin would lose it. She should. He glanced at her in Brandr's arms. She was shivering and soaking wet. And still not waking.

Brandr gently laid her on one of the desks, then began exploring. "There are more rooms?"

"Smal er exam rooms and some lavatories. The water should still work."

"Wil there be a key here to remove the torques?"

"No, none." Wanting Regin close, Declan sat on the end of the desk beside her, ignoring Brandr's scowl.

"I guess we're bunking here tonight," Brandr told the others. "It'l give all of us a chance to recover."

"And to eat." The halfling began unpacking his bag atop another desk, pul ing out energy bars and bottles of Coke. He, Brandr, and the fey began splitting the take.

"Where did you get all this?" Brandr asked.

Natalya said, "Thad cleaned out the PX store. He's a natural at looting. I was quite proud."

Thad beamed. "Wel , the Scout motto is Be Pre-pared."

Declan realized that he hadn't eaten in eighteen hours and had no more medicine in his system to dull his appetite. Withdrawal already threatened. He was alternately starving then nauseated, hungering for food while missing his nightly shot with a feverish intensity.

But he'd be damned before he asked them for something to eat.

They'd just finished their meal when banging on the door sounded. Everyone tensed.

Natalya said, "Has to be Lothaire. Are we certain we want to let that vampire in?"

Thad felt his busted lip. "He cleaned my clock."

"We all swore all egiance, remember?" Brandr started for the stairs. "Besides, he will help us keep Chase alive for the time being. He stays for now."

Moments later, Brandr returned with the vampire.

So much for my hope that Lothaire would die.

The vampire strol ed in, casting his surroundings a bored look. "Breathe a sigh of relief. I've returned."

While he'd been out, Lothaire had acquired a hooded camo jacket and a bush hat. More claw marks riddled his shirt and pants, and blood trickled from a wound down his chest.

My blood. Filthy leeches. Declan's hands fisted as he reminded himself that Lothaire had saved them all this night. And might come in handy in the future.

But at what price? Make no bargains with vampires.

Lothaire leapt onto a tal cage, sitting atop it with his back against the wal . He began removing his many weapons-one of which was Declan's sword. A vampire wielded his weapon. Just as I'd threatened to do with Regin's.

"Yes, you returned," Natalya's eyes narrowed, "but you've got Wendigo scratches. You'll transform into one of them."

"Luckily, I have salt." He took a handful from his pocket, rubbing it into the laceration on his torso.

Natalya raised her brows. "Salt halts the trans-formation?"

"Do you know how many people I had to drain to come by that knowledge? You're welcome, fey."

"Good to know. Now, what's happening out there?"

"More fighting. The facility is one giant kil box."

"What do we do now?"

"We get information from Chase." Lothaire winced as he tended a particularly deep gash. "How long before more mortal troops arrive?"

"They won't. I said the Order would strike. Not how. They'l bomb after one hundred and fifty hours."