Dreams of a Dark Warrior by Kresley Cole Read Free Book Online

was through fighting it. Love or not—this was
    her man and always would be. …
    More hours of blissful coupling fol owed, more unimaginable pleasure.
    And afterward, as she began drifting to sleep with their bodies stil joined, he cradled her face with his cal used palms, brushing kisses over her forehead, her cheeks. “I promise you eternity, Reginleit. And
    each day I wil love you more than the one before—”
    Suddenly pain stabbed in her torso like fire. “Aidan!” A blade had sunk into her? How? In a panic, she
    pushed up against him. Blood poured as she disentangled them.
    “Reginleit?” he bit out in confusion. A sword tip jutted from his chest.
    “Aidan!” she shrieked. “Ah, gods, no!”
    A vampire loomed behind him; the assassin had traced into their home and stabbed Aidan from behind.
    The vampire wrenched the sword free, raising it to finish Regin as wel . “For the lives you took
    yesterday, berserker! For your wars … now you and your woman die!” He swung; Aidan shielded her with
    his body, taking the blow across his back.
    Just as the vampire readied to strike once more, Brandr burst inside, cleaving through its neck with his
    ax. The vampire col apsed.
    Brandr cast one look at Aidan and fel to his knees. “ Nay, Aidan,” he rasped. “The fiend must have fol owed you back.”
    Stil struggling to protect her, Aidan rol ed onto his lacerated back, reaching for his sword.
    Brandr hastened to hand it to him, but said, “There are no more, my friend. R-rest easy.”
    When Aidan turned his head to her, shock threatened to engulf her. Even as she numbly curled up
    beside him, in her mind she was stil shrieking, stil hungering to slaughter the thing that had done this.
    Aidan’s mighty chest labored for breath. “Brandr wil earn ohal a and watch over you.” He faced his
    friend. “Vow it.”
    His voice ragged, Brandr said, “I vow it.”
    Seeming relieved, Aidan turned back to her. “I love you, Reginleit.”
    She swal owed back a sob. This cannot be happening. “I-I love you, too.”
    “Nay. Your heart is … stil your own.” He raised a bloody hand to her face, and she knew he’d lost sight
    in his eyes. “ I but needed more time .”
    She seized his hand in both of hers, squeezing hard. “Then take it, warlord. Take more time—you fight for us! You heal so quickly, you can recover from this!”
    But his lids slid shut, his breaths rattling. Brandr roared with grief.
    “Aidan, come back to me.” She wept over him, tears spil ing onto his skin. “Come back to me, come back to me!”
    Just before his breaths ceased, he vowed, “Somehow, love … I will find you.”

    ***
    And Aidan did.
    Yearning for Regin endlessly, he was reborn again and again for the next thousand years, re-
    embodied in different guises and lives, with no memory of his past. Yet each borrowed lifetime ended
    more tragically than the last.
    A pair of lovers—bound and cursed by fate.
    Some say ’tis Wóden who punishes Aidan for his hubris, dooming him to perish just when he’s found
    Reginleit and remembers his love for her.
    Some say Aidan’s indomitable will proves so strong that, at times, he can escape the Reaper’s gaol;
    but no man can elude that dark scythe forever.
    Others say that the Valkyrie’s kiss was so sweet that it enchanted the mortal, who finds her through
    eternity by following a mad longing within his heart.
    Whatever may be the case, to this day, Reginleit awaits.
    To this day, Aidan returns. …
    “Check yourself before you wreck yourself?”
    If I hear that one more *$#&%@! time…
    —Regin the Radiant, Valkyrie,
    prankster, modern-day swordswoman
    The only good immortal is a dead immortal.
    —Declan Chase, magister of the Order

    ONE
    Outside of New Orleans
    Present day
    D eclan Chase eased his Humvee down a winding bayou drive leading to Val Hal , the estate where a
    notorious coven of Valkyrie lived.
    My target will be within.
    Regin the Radiant.
    Though his head was splitting