Nїx shrieked.

The glass shattered from her warcry and scattered over her.

Who, what, and why the hells was she not seeing?!

A male had a hold of her? A demon had traced into her vehicle?! Nїx swung the Portofino over to the right. They were careening off the road. Hitting a rise, launching into the air.

She slashed at him and he grunted as he leapt out.

She flung her hand behind her to where her blades were stored. Only one came out. She leapt free in the next second.

The blinged-out vehicle careened nose-first into an embankment. The trunk fell open, littering a stockpile of grenades and a box of Semtex. Nїx turned, facing the immortal who’d just snatched her wrist out of nowhere.

Never interrupt Johnny? What?!

The male was taller than her, but scarcely a monster. Lothaire and the rest would tower over his frame. Her eyes flicked over him swiftly, appraising.

He was around five feet, ten inches tall. An angular countenance, high cheekbones, with lips just full enough to be the right look for a male.

Dark brown hair, the color of walnut, silver at the edges. He had it shorn short, a low fade cut, military style. Slim in the shoulders, a rangy build.

She took the rest in. A tuxedo coat and pants. And a blue silk shirt underneath. Narrow hips, and those dress slacks were holding some legs under them. Black wingtips, expensive.

He wasn’t old looking, but not young, either. She could surmise he was in his mid-thirties when his immortality had frozen. Something about him was worn around the edges, almost feral.

There was no glamour, no magicks. This was a real entity. Why hadn’t she foreseen him? Or seen him?

He was brushing his coat off. The male gave a pained grimace when he noticed the holes. “Ah, dammit, I just got this one!” he rumbled.

His eyes turned to look at her. She reflexively took them in. Something about those eyes made her breath hitch. Jade green.

His eyes were open, almost trusting, but there were crinkles at the edges. He squinted.

“You owe me a new coat, Valkyrie. Do you have any idea how much Rubbinaccis are?”

Something about that deep baritone voice set off a shiver in her. Then she blinked, chastising herself.

Wait, he wants me to buy him a new coat?!

What the hells was he talking about, he’d traced into her vehicle!

She checked his coat. The left shoulder was half-ripped off, and three gashes were through the front. She’d torn them up with her claws out of reflex.

Then she stopped and registered. Waaait... why...

Nїx’s strike should have shredded the male. Why was he unhurt?

Slipping the coat off his shoulders, he tossed it. Then his breath sucked in hard when he touched the front of his undershirt.

He gave off a low howl. “Oh, fuck no! Not the silk, too!”

He held the deep blue garment like bemoaning a lost love, giving off an agonized moan, then looked at her with a growl.

“Rrrrrrr!!! You’re racking up one hell of a debt already here, Phenїx.”

Nїx was many things, but having patience with a stranger using her full name was not one of them. She snapped up straight.

“What the hells did you just call me?!” she shouted.

“Your name,” he enunciated. His body straightened like he was unfolding himself. “Phenїx.” He wagged his forefinger, “There’s only one of you around. Don’t tell me foresight addled your brain so bad, you don’t remember your own name?”

“You call me Nїx,” she fumed. She poised her blade and readied herself. Then glanced around. Where the hells is the other one?

The damnable male had it! He brought the blade up in a defensive posture with his left hand. “You lookin’ for this, Valkyrie?”

Her eyes flicked over him. He postured like an immortal. She flashed forward at her highest velocity, striking for his heart.

He parried, grunted. Then jerked his chin in part admiration, part challenge, “Nice. Try again.”

Nїx screeched. The male grimaced like the noise pained him. She shrieked a second time and flung herself forward, slicing upwards.

Parrying hard with her blade, he nodded over her shoulder, “Behind you.”

She looked in time to see something barreling at her head. Nїx parried.

Something heavy and harder than wood, almost steel, struck a blow on her claws. It smashed two of her fingers.
She hissed pain.

Her other sword clattered to the ground. The immortal leapt between her and the dropped blade, eyes locked on her.

He slung round, retrieved that one, then placed both swords on his back. They clung there automatically, as if magnetized to him.

She stared over him. He was calm. Too damn calm.

He rolled his shoulders and neck. “Let’s talk, soothsayer. Oh sorry, predetermination demigoddess.”

Her hand healed rapidly and she flexed her fingers out. Die first and talk to me from the afterlife, whoever you are.

Nїx charged. Whoever the hells this was, he was dead. She had just been off to get some good pandemonium going for some dick warlock.

Now, this immortal male was challenging her during an Accession? He was insane!

The male continued backing up, elbow and wrist blocking. He was dropping into the swamp, away from the convertible and the highway.

She slashed again, hissing with each miss. Left cross, right jab, uppercut… damn him, he was… still… getting… away!

Rrrrrr!!! Kill-kill-kill!

If she could only get to him…!

She growled, “You are dead, little immortal!”

She landed an oblique blow on his shoulder and he juked away again.

“Feel pretty alive, little Valkyrie,” he snorted.

Ohhh, motherfucker, he did not just call her little! She fumed, swung. He elbow-blocked her next swipe with her right hand, then threw the heel of his palm into her solar plexus. Hard contact.

She winced at the impact. Godsdammit, he’s strong!

He backed up again. She recovered. Foolish male! Giving her an opening. Nїx leapt in and hissed, “Stay still like a good dead little immortal! Are you a coward?!”

The male's eyebrows raised, eyes flared wide for a moment with a clear ‘you think so?’ painted on his features.

Did he just fucking smirk?!

Nїx threw another jab and caught his gut a glancing blow. More of the silk shredded. She closed her claws, felt his stomach tighten under her touch. He dodged the return swipe meant to sunder open his intestines.

Damned fast, too. What is he?

She tried another slash along his shoulder line. When he avoided, she doubled back for his face. Her middle finger’s claw caught the tip of his chin. A single blood drop came off on her.

She smelled it and her eyebrows lofted. The blood of an immortal, but… So youthful.

The drop hung on her claw. She licked it off. Yummy. Her eyes glimmered even brighter gold, lips curling upwards in her death smile.

“Youth,” she hummed. “So cocky.”

The male grimaced, his face telling her he was not even the least bit impressed. But his eyes hadn’t turned colors. No black, no horns, so not a demon.

Neither red-stained, so not a vampire. Perhaps a Forebearer or Dacian?

He snarled at her. His mouth was empty of fangs.

She mentally shook herself, wondering as she closed in. Warlocks were never strong or mobile enough to keep this kind of velocity, neither were the Sorceri.

A shapeshifter? He would’ve already turned on the flare of pain, and no green or yellow in the eyes.

Perhaps a dark fey? No, his blood was red. And no poison in it.

She shrieked. When he leapt back, he was shaking his head and growling. Sensitive ears? But they weren’t pointed like the fey.

Her index of prominent Loreans was almost exhausted. And he was no halfling. She tilted it over in her mind while she kept attacking. Each time, he’d turn the blow just enough to avoid major tissue disruption.

Without being able to bleed him out, he was maintaining his strength.

The blood had had a tint of a mortal’s scent in it. Was he from The Order? Had Preston Webb sent an assassin with new mixtures after her?

How could he, outside her knowledge siphon?

Damn it all, she was missing all the fun of the Accession – HER Accession – because of this fool.

Just then, realization struck her. Nїx couldn’t predict where he’d go next. Somehow, he was continuing to give her the fight of her life. Her blood heated up, and her heart began pulsing with adrenaline she hadn’t used in a very long time.

For the first time in centuries she felt… incredibly excited. A challenge in a one on one? Her sisters never even tried anymore. That was something that woke her up.

Her weeks-long exhaustion was slipping away.

She gave a fierce slip-kick. When her next twisted swing went for his throat, claws out, he blocked, coiled and met her.

He locked up her elbows with his hands, his upper body strength superior to hers. Then he tossed her over his hip, swinging her into a tree.
That almost made her lose her breath again.

She recovered, squared off. The male stood wide-legged, prepared to go to the ground with her. He knew how to handle her assaults.

His stance shifted again, getting ready to come at her. Nїx dabbed her tongue to her lip, breathing deeply. Lush rotting vegetation filled her nose.

“I’ll give you this, youth, you’re pretty good.”

No answer. An intense gaze was all she got. His heartrate remained steady.
A heavy beat. Accelerated, but he was controlling his breath so well.

That focus in this kind of fight was superb. She was the oldest of her species, a demigoddess, why was he keeping up with her?

He quirked a brow, rumbling, “You gonna try and kill me or what, Valkyrie?”

She hissed and charged in. Kill? More like end!

He flipped his arms, breaking her up into an elbow lock, suddenly reached behind her. His hand grabbed something.

Bertil squeaked. Her heart gave out. “Bertil! NO!”

He tossed the bat away and threw her into a nearby tree. Then he suddenly planted his body’s length against her from behind, pinning her. Her ass wriggled against him and he grunted.

She hissed and tried reaching around to elbow him, but he held on tightly. “You asshole!" She looked overhead, scanning the skies for her familiar, "Bertil!!!”

Something hit him from behind that jerked her as well. His voice rumbled. “Good. Let’s go.”

The nearby air rippled, and her eyes widened. A black-and-purple flash of cosmic light. A portal?!

She struggled, but then felt them move. Where?!