Dark Desire After Dark Page 0,91

night vision was nearly perfect, and she could leap twenty feet into the air with the ease of an afterthought. He'd taught her to rub pine needles over herself to mask her scent, and she'd become so stealthy that she could actually stalk him from the trees.

And she continued her own work, pushing to finish her code so that when this quest was over with, she could do nothing but enjoy her demon.

Only two things marred this time. The first was his secretive calls. Outside, she'd hear him snapping in Demonish, pacing back and forth amidst the spruce trees. Then when he returned, he was always distant with her, taking time to relax again.

The second was his attitude about the future. His full-court press across the country of Canada had...cooled.

Even after she'd been claimed, he didn't speak about the future, evading the subject if she brought it up. At first, she'd had insecurities, wondering if she'd done something to disappoint him or put him off.

But that was ridiculous. They were good together, better people than they were apart.

No, she felt confident that he wanted her as much as she did him.

Puzzling...

"Did you miss me, halfling?" he asked from the door.

She ran and leapt into his arms. "Terribly."

"I've got a surprise for you."

"Lemme guess - it's a fish?"

He nipped the tip of her ear, which always gave her shivers. "Get your gear on and meet me outside. The weather's nice."

Chapter 23

The surprise was a burlap sack filled with snow, hanging from a limb.

"Gee, Cadeon. I didn't get you anything."

"It's for sword practice."

She collected his sword with a long-suffering sigh, though she secretly enjoyed this training.

As he cleaned his catch, he instructed her. "Thrust, parry, counterthrust, twisting block, strike. Nice. That's it, halfling."

Even in the dry, arctic air, she was working up a sweat. Her sparring was improving. He'd even said that she was better than some warriors he'd faced on the battlefield.

Holly didn't know if that was true, but she knew she wasn't laughable anymore.

"Underhanded sword fighting techniques," he said. "Give me two."

As she continued working on slashing attacks, she said, "Obscure my enemy's vision by throwing something like my jacket over his face or sand in his eyes. And second, I could wound my opponent's advancing leg."

"Why?"

"To take blood any way I can - because blood equals strength."

"Very good. Here's a new one. Sometimes you can take a hit in order to see what your opponent's got, or to let them think you're weak," he continued. "They'll get overconfident, 'specially with a tiny chit like yourself."

She nodded.

"Or you can fake an injury. Like dragging your leg to lull a predator. So you give a little to get a lot."

She froze, her mind whirring. "Oh, my God, that's it!"

"What's it?"

"My code - how to identify foes from friendlies. Give a little! In quantum cryptography no measurement or detection can be done to a two-party dialogue without disturbing the system, thereby giving the outsider away...."

"Uh, yeah?"

"If you know the hacker's there, you let him in! You let him take information! He'll get more aggressive, then come with BFC, and you shut them all down. You don't have to have an unbreakable code. You just have to infect your own data, designing it so that when it leaves your system's environment, it can't survive. It will wipe itself out, along with everything around it."

"Go!" he ordered. "Stop gabbing and get it into your computer then."

With a laugh she ran for her laptop.

"But remember," he called, "clearly, sex helps math. Ergo..."

Later that night, they lay bundled up in the small bed together. Running her fingers up and down his chest, she said, "You're dragging your feet to get to Groot's."

"I was rushing for your sake before. We've got days before the full moon deadline. And it'll only take a day of hard driving to get there. Now that you want to stay a Valkyrie, we have time."

"Then talk to me. Tell me more about yourself, such as why you would think you'd lost your brother's crown."

He liked how she worded that - as if she didn't believe it. "I was supposed to go to Tornin, Rothkalina's capital, to stand as head of state until Rydstrom returned from war with the Vampire Horde. I didn't. I was content with my foster family, and they needed me."

"That's why you got blamed?" she asked in disbelief.

"Omort saw this as a sign of weakness and attacked." Cade had tried to shed the guilt, telling himself that there