Immortal Craving: Immortal Heart by Magen McMinimy, Cynthia Shepp

they were rarely used. They called upon Lucas to do most of their research, and even recon, so he wasn’t surprised by the thin layer of dust that had settled on his desk. The third floor was off limits to most of their employee’s, which included the maid service.
    “Ok,” Kale breathed. “Where do I start?” he asked himself out loud.
    Kale was good with computers and he did alright with research, but he couldn’t focus or decide where to start. So he did what any reasonable person would do… he searched the name Katarina Montague and, of course, came up with nothing. He tried just looking for people named Katarina and narrowed his search down to Vermont. He was going to find the little Succubus he’d followed the other night. Now, more than ever, he believed he’d been within reaching distance of Katarina.
    A throat cleared in his doorway. Kale lifted his gaze to a questioning Lothar.
    “What are you doing here, brother?” Kale asked.
    “I had an interesting conversation with Cree.”
    The air of question that had enveloped Lothar when Kale first looked at him washed away to something altogether different. Lothar’s dark, steely irises seemed to melt. They had a unique way of telling others that Lothar was reading them; they took on the qualities of melted, flowing metal.
    “All you need to do is ask, Lothar. I would answer anything you asked of me,” Kale said before returning his attention to the useless computer screen.
    Lothar moved into Kale’s office, closing the door behind him. “True, however, I can’t help but read you, Kale. I never know where your head is at.”
    “You never ask,” Kale remarked before closing the browser on his computer and shutting it down.
    “Fair enough. So you want to tell me where your head is at right now?”
    “It’s fucked up and confused.”
    Lothar smiled softly. “Katarina always had that effect on you.”
    Kale leaned back in his chair and sighed.
    “You know, little brother, you’ve never come clean and told us what happened to you that day.”
    That day , Kale thought. No, he never wanted to talk about it.
    “It changed you, you know that, yet none of us know what happened to you.”
    “Not true,” Kale countered.
    Lothar’s eyes narrowed. “Who have you confided in?”
    “The one person who could not tell… Rowan.”
    Lothar smiled. He could imagine how that conversation had gone. “Are you ready to tell me?”
    Kale squeezed his eyes tight and let the memories of that day take hold.
     
    Kale followed the Pixie into a trap. He didn’t see Katarina when he pushed through her front door; he was instead greeted by Darion and a handful of his guards.
    “Wait until nightfall,” Darion began ordering the Pixie, “then go and inform Rowan I have one of her warriors. Tell her I’ll give her and her remaining Immortal Warriors passage to come plead for his life.”
    “Where is Katarina?” Kale struggled and ground out the question.
    Darion smirked at him. “She’s in my castle awaiting her punishment for consorting with a Light Fae. I’ve told her, I will take her setting this trap for you into consideration when I decide her punishment. You see, you can’t trust a Succubus. She got tired of playing with you and came to me. She informed me she knew how to capture one of Rowan’s Immortal Warriors.”
    “She wouldn’t,” Kale growled.
    “Oh, but she did, only she ratted herself out in the process.”
    Lothar felt each emotion flood Kale as he told him what had happened that day. Lothar felt the pain, the sorrow, the betrayal, the love and the hate—it was a jumble of emotions that left his head spinning.
    “It’s time we get you some answers,” Lothar told Kale.
    Kale nodded. “Yeah, no shit, but I want to take my time. I want her to look at me and be forced to see what she has turned me into.”
    “You’ll get that, and I think I have a plan that will allow you to get your closure.”
    Kale’s brows rose. Lothar was the kind,