by Maren Smith
Dark forces at play? What was this? They were insane. And apparently, the women knew my name also.
Great, just great. Next thing I knew, they were going to tell me that they were witches or some sort of magical beings.
“Who are you?” I turned to the other woman, the one who hadn’t just destroyed my phone like it was made of clay. The one who looked like me.
“Odin’s Operators,” she answered.
“What?” I must have fallen asleep; this was a dream. It had to be a dream. That was exactly what this was. I had fallen asleep on the park bench reading.
“You aren’t asleep. You are going to be all right, Morrigan,” the blonde said.
“How?” I must have been speaking the words out loud, there wasn’t another explanation for this insanity.
“No, you thought them.” She pushed herself to standing. “It’s telepathy. I read minds.”
Wonderful. Just fucking wonderful. My thoughts are more messed up than my words. Can’t even hide my sarcasm.
Oh, God!
That means that she knew my thoughts about all of them, especially… him. What if he could read minds too? What if he knew what I had thought, how my panties had dampened?
Shit.
“Who are you?” I turned to the big man standing next to me.
So help me God, if he said he was Thor...
“He’s not Thor.” She read my mind again.
Of course she did. Was there a way to block her from reading it?
“There is, but you haven’t figured it out yet. You haven’t accessed any of your powers.”
“Powers?” I stared at her blankly. The leather-wearing, voodoo-speaking, mind-reading freaks were out of their ever-loving minds.
“Let’s slow down a minute. I know you are overwhelmed,” the mind reader who looked like me said, gently placing her hand on my shoulder. “I am Edda, third-generation valkyrie and demigod.”
“I am Kara, also third-generation valkyrie,” the purpled-haired phone crusher introduced herself.
“I am sorry to disappoint you, but I am not Thor. I am the god called Forseti.”
“Forseti? I’ve never heard of such a god.”
Both women laughed.
“He gets that a lot. Surprisingly, as he is one of the twelve leading gods,” Edda said.
“I am Odin’s grandson, the God of Justice. My father, Baldur was Odin’s beloved son. I am Thor’s nephew,” Forseti explained.
That was it. I knew then that I was dreaming. He was claiming to be Thor’s nephew, for fuck’s sake. I sat down on the ground, put my head in my hands and wailed with laughter. Of course, I would have the oddest dream ever. Not even my dreams could be normal.
Time to wake up, Morrigan.
I shook myself. What do they do in dreams when they want to wake up? Oh, yeah. They pinch themselves. I pinched my arm and slowly opened my eyes.
He was still there. Peering at me as if I had a horn growing out of my forehead.
“Fuck.”
“I really don’t like that language,” he stated, scowling at me.
What did he mean he didn’t like that language? What was a little cursing? He couldn’t be serious.
“He is very serious,” Edda said, reading my mind again. “He is the God of Justice. He is fair, but he is very strict. Quite the taskmaster.”
Forseti cleared his throat.
“What?” She smiled at him. “I’m just telling the truth, boss.”
“We need to get out of here,” Kara reminded them, looking nervous. “Before we draw a crowd.”
“I agree.” Edda nodded. I felt Forseti’s strong hands under my arms, lifting me to standing.
“Hold on to me now, Morrigan.” He wrapped an arm around my waist and lifted his other arm in the air. My body felt shaky, the air in my lungs seemed to dissipate. I couldn’t breathe. Everything went black.
Chapter 2
Morrigan
“She’ll wake in a second; remember she’s never transcended before.” Forseti’s voice was somewhere in the distance. “Why don’t you two go get changed, and I’ll sit here with her.”
I kept my eyes closed tightly, not wanting to open them and find out what the fuck he was talking about. I didn't want to be here, wherever ‘here’ was. And I certainly didn’t want to be with them. I needed to process everything. I needed to get out of here. I needed a plan.
Okay, Morrigan think. What in the hell just happened?
Three large people, claiming to be from Asgard, had kidnapped me and somehow transported me to another place, in a blink of an eye. I didn’t believe in Asgard. Sure, I had seen all the Thor movies; my dad is a huge fan of Marvel movies. I had taken a class on Norse mythology in college, I knew the basics. Odin and the rest of the gods resided on Asgard and Earth was called Midgard. But none of this really mattered, because no matter what the freak shows who had kidnapped me claimed, Asgard wasn’t a real place. It was a mythical realm. There weren’t really gods, goddesses or valkyries. Those were all fairytales.
Weren’t they?
I could feel myself starting to hyperventilate the more I thought about all of it. None of this made any sense. Like at all. I just wanted to go back to work, in the lab where it was safe. Where I was safe. Where I wasn’t surrounded by leather-wearing goons claiming to be gods and goddesses.
Take a deep breath, Morrigan. Break it down step by step.
Step by step. Right. Okay. I could do that.
I drew a breath, inhaling deeply, and counted backwards from ten in my head. My heart rate started to slow.
First, who exactly were these people and why had they taken me? They had to be a group of mentally ill people, likely escaped from a psychiatric hospital or something.
But, what about this lady’s mind reading? I’ve never had much of a poker face. She probably could tell by my expressions that I was concerned. Right. Okay, next.
The transportation thing. This was a bit harder to explain. Unless we hadn’t really transcended like Forseti said. Then what? How did we get here?
Then it dawned on me.
They weren’t a group of mentally ill psychiatric hospital escapees. They were the serial killers! The ones I had been tracking. That was the only logical explanation. My blood ran cold.
“You drugged me!” I sat straight up and stared at Forseti. “How?” Whatever drug they had used, must have knocked me out for a good bit, long enough to get me here. “It is impressive that you’ve managed to leave no DNA evidence behind at the crime scenes, especially with three of you participating in the murders. How do you do that?”
“You are a very confusing woman,” Forseti said, cocking his head to the side and staring at me with a frown on his face. “We already told you who we are. We are here to protect you, not to kill you.” There was a bit of a growl in his statement, he seemed offended that I dared to believe him the bad guy.
“Look, this doesn’t make a lick of sense. Why wouldn’t you contact me in a professional manner and let me know my life was in danger? Why wouldn’t you go to the authorities and let them know? Kidnapping me and taking me...” I paused to look around the room. It was a nice room. The bed I was currently sitting on was obviously custom-made; it was the size of two king-sized beds combined. There was expensive hardwood furniture surrounding the bed and an oversized leather chair in the corner. A large fireplace made out of beautiful amethyst bricks stood tall in the middle of the room, and there was a small sitting area with a couch, two leather chairs and a table facing it. A door led to what I assumed was a master bathroom. I doubted they would murder me in here. The furniture was too expensive to get blood on.
“Your thoughts are funny,” Edda said from the doorway. “She thinks we are going to kill her. Although, she deduces that we won’t do it here. The blood would ruin the room, naturally.” Edda laughed.
I realized in that moment that she could actually read my mind. She came fully into the room as she spoke. She had changed clothes, she looked less threatenin
g in jeans and a black t-shirt. I did a double take. Holy hell. She looked just like me.
“We are first cousins. The resemblance is going to be strong.”
“We are…” What did she just say?
“My mother and your mother are sisters. My mother is married to my father though, so I was raised on Asgard with our family. Your father and mother were never in love. They were matched specifically to make you, a defender of Midgard.”
“Okay!” I threw my arms up, flabbergasted. This was some sick joke. “My parents are John and Sarah Longhorn. I have two older brothers who are happily married with children. Both sets of my grandparents are alive and well. This is a case of mistaken identity. I would like very much to return home now. If one of you would please let me borrow your cell phone so that I can contact work and let them know what is going on.” What was I going to tell them?
I still have no idea what was going on.
Had I been kidnapped by a group of mentally ill larpers? Of course, I had. At least now I knew that they weren’t serial killers. Thank God for small favors, right?
“If you help me get home, I won’t press charges.”
“I need you to stop talking and listen to me.” Forseti came over and sat next to me, his weight shifting the bed beneath us. “This is not how you were supposed to find any of this out.” He ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “You are Morrigan, daughter of the valkyrie Rota and the mighty God of War, patron God of Justice, Tyr. You were conceived to become a defender of Earth. After you were born, you were brought here and adopted by a family handpicked by Odin himself.”
My mind raced with this proclamation. I had taken a semester of Norse history in college and something wasn’t lining up.
“Odin is the God of War, the All Father,” I said. “Tyr stepped aside for him, if I remember correctly. Isn’t Tyr, Odin’s son?”
“No, Tyr was the son of Hymir, the giant. Men seem to have a hard time getting us all straight,” Edda said.
“Hell, I have a hard time getting us all straight,” Kara added, coming into the room. “The pizza is done. Why don’t we move this conversation downstairs?”
She smiled and for the first time, I found myself relaxing some. Perhaps, if I could keep them talking, get on their good sides, I could convince them they had the wrong person and they would let me go.
Sure. That sounded like a plan. As good as any of the other ones I had, at least. Smiling as convincingly as I could, I stood and motioned for them to lead the way. Forseti waved me ahead of him, and I followed the women down the winding staircase, down a long hallway and to what appeared to be a dining hall. Of course, there would be a dining hall. They took this role-play business seriously.
It felt like I had just walked onto the set of a movie. At the very back of the room were three floor-to-ceiling windows. In front of the windows was a just slightly raised dais with a table with eight chairs facing the rest of the room. Two rows, containing three tables each, were below it. I quickly counted the chairs, eight on each side of the table, forty-eight chairs, fifty-six all together. Why would Forseti need a house that would host fifty-six people for meals? Was he rich? He had to be. How else could he afford a house like this?
“This is the feasting hall. We don’t use it much, as I don’t host nearly as many parties as I did when I was younger,” Forseti explained.
He was right behind me. If I stepped a half step back, I would smack into his massive chest. I felt his breath on my neck and his spicy smell wafted toward me. Masculine. My olfactory receptors were working overtime, and his pheromones were causing my body to react. My nipples tightened, and I felt the moisture start to pool between my legs. Fuck. Why was this stranger having such a strong effect on my sexual arousal? I had never been this physically attracted to a man before.
“Are you coming?” Kara asked, from the lead. “I hate cold pizza.”
I shook myself and followed along.
I hate cold pizza too.
On the other side of the large hall was a smaller, more intimate dining room. This room boasted only one dining table. Kara had placed three steaming pizzas on it, along with bottles of soda and paper plates. I was surprised. It was so… normal. We sat down at the table and filled our plates. It smelled delicious. For a second, I forgot that I had been kidnapped by strangers. It felt like I was having lunch with friends. I closed my eyes and moaned with pleasure when the bubbling cheese hit my tongue.
“Were you expecting an extensive staff and fine china?” Edda asked, breaking the silence.
I really wished she would stop reading my mind. I was starting to get a headache, and I wasn’t sure if it was some sort of side-effect of the constant mind reading or a natural reaction to the stressful chain of events that had occurred in the last hour.
“It is probably a combination of the two,” Edda answered the question I hadn’t spoken. “For what it is worth, it isn’t something I can turn off easily, especially around untrained minds. Forseti and Kara block the signal, and I can only hear their thoughts when they unblock it. Normally, the only time they unblock it is if we are on a mission and stealth is required. It only works one way though because they don’t have this power. They can communicate their thoughts to me, but I can’t give them mine. For people like you, who haven’t trained their thoughts, it comes across as if you were speaking out loud. Imagine if we were talking to you and you didn’t want to hear it. You would have to either leave the room or put in ear plugs, right?”
I nodded, following along with her train of thought.
“Telepathy doesn’t work that way. I can’t just put in plugs and have it go away. Our brains are talking to each other. Your movies get that wrong, by the way. I don’t put my hands up to my forehead and connect to your signal. It doesn’t get turned on and off by me, it gets turned on and off by you.”
“Let us pretend for a second that I believe all of this and that you can read my mind,” I said.
“Why pretend?” Edda asked. “I know that you know I can read your mind. Think of a number.”
“The old number trick? Really? Magicians have been doing that for years.”
“Okay, fine. Think of something that only you would know. A secret,” Kara joined the conversation. “A memory that we couldn’t possibly know about. Edda will prove it to you then.”
I didn’t have many secrets; I was pretty much an open book. My parents had taught me, from a young age, how to strive to be a good person. I had done my best to live up to their expectations. I had a hard time coming up with anything I had kept secret from people. Although, there was that one time…
“You stole money from your best friend’s mother’s wallet when you were fourteen. You had misplaced the money your mother had given you for the drama club field trip. You were embarrassed and instead of just asking, you snuck it out of your friend’s mom’s purse,” Edda parroted my thoughts.
I heard Forseti tsk under his breath. He raised an eyebrow at me. He wasn’t going to reprimand me for something that occurred more than fifteen years ago, was he? Sheesh. I had done the right thing in the long run. I had found the twenty-dollar bill underneath the seat in the car, and the next day, I snuck it back into her purse.
“You made it right, though. You put the money back the next day.” Edda sat back and took a large bite of her pizza, smiling at me. I looked at Forseti, the raised eyebrow lowered. He smiled, looking almost relieved. Odd.
“He’s the God of Justice, remember?” Kara didn’t read my mind, but my expression.
I giggled, nervously. “Okay, so you can read my mind. I’ll give you that. How do I go about blocking my thoughts from you? Like they do?”
“That is a skill I will teach you, hopefully soon,” Forseti said, reaching for yet another piece of pizza. The man would easily finish off one of the pizzas by himself.
“What if I don’t want you to teach me that? What if I want to go home?”
“That isn’t possible. Until the threat is n
eutralized, you will stay with me.” His tone was absolute. He believed the words he was saying.
He was determined to keep me here. I was determined to leave. This might be tricky.
“I don’t want to stay with you. You can’t keep me against my will. That is kidnapping, and here on Earth, kidnapping is a serious crime.”
“Being kidnapped is better than being dead.” Forseti shrugged.
“You keep mentioning this threat of death. Are you referring to the serial killer I’ve been chasing? The one whose victims look like me?
“Killers, plural,” Edda said. “Loki has sent the dark elves to find and eliminate all of the valkyrie demigods that Odin placed on Midgard.”
“Midgard, you mean Earth.” I was trying to follow along with this fairy tale.
“Yes, you call it Earth. It is one of the nine worlds, the one where the mortal humans live.”
“So, let me get this straight. Odin whored out some of his strongest valkyries—”
“Watch your language,” Forseti interrupted me. God, the man had a definite alpha male vibe to him.
“—in order to give birth to valkyrie demigods,” I continued as if I hadn’t heard him. “These women are supposed to be Earth’s defenders when the dark forces arrive for war. Yet, no one has trained them or let them know of their powers, so when the dark forces came, they were able to slaughter them all, all that is, but me. My parents aren’t actually my parents. My mother is a valkyrie and my father is the God of War and Justice. I have repressed powers inside of me that Forseti here”—I turned and glared at him—“the God of Justice, is going to help me find and hone so that I can use them against these dark forces who are out to get me.” I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in my chair. “Did I get that all?” I spat, with sarcasm dripping from my tone.
“Yes. That about sums it up,” Kara answered matter-of-factly.
I wanted to stand up and scream that they were all insane and run out of the house. There were several issues with that plan though. I didn’t know where I was and I didn’t know how I would get home. I also had no way to communicate with the outside world, since my phone had been crushed to pieces. Then, there was the nagging thought in the back of my mind that perhaps they weren’t entirely insane. You had to have superhuman strength to crush a phone with your bare hands like Kara had done. Edda had proven she could indeed read my mind. We looked incredibly similar. Could it be possible that we really were cousins? I had more questions than I had answers and I didn’t like it; I didn’t like it one bit. I have a need to explain everything in a logical, scientific manner. That is what I do. That’s what I’ve done since I was a child. Right or wrong. Black and white. Quick, decisive decision-making based on balancing the logic with consequences of the action. This wasn’t logical. It made no sense.