by Raythe Reign
Cameron suddenly ran from the room. Liam was so stunned that he stood there stupidly for long moments as he heard his little brother’s footfalls becoming fainter and fainter. Their mother was suddenly gently pushing him towards the door.
“Go get him, Liam. He needs you. He’s always needed you.”
She wiped away her tears and took in a deep breath. Her smile at him was only slightly tremulous now. Already, their mother had tucked the emotions she felt at his return into some corner of her mind. He was certain in a few moments she would be “the sheriff” again and act as if he had never been dead, never been away for 10 years. And when he told her about being a Valkyrie, their descent from the Aesir, even Cameron’s powers he realized she would accept it, ask questions and align her view of reality again and batten down the hatches. The only thing that would not compute would be the sexual need he and Cameron had for one another. But he pushed that aside for now.
“But, Mom —”
“I’ll be fine. I need to stay here with Juan,” she explained, her expression quite calm. “He might wake up at any moment and when he does, it will be him. Not that thing …” Her voice faded off and her eyes became haunted. “What is that thing, Liam? Do you know?”
He nodded. “I know. I’ve been fighting it since … since I left,” he said, chickening out at mentioning his own death. Maybe he wanted her to be this stoic warrior and not the softhearted maternal figure.
“Do you know how to stop it?” she asked.
“I think so. But there are some snags,” he said.
She nodded bruskly. “You’ll tell me all about it after you help Cameron. I can tell there’s a lot you have to say.”
“Yeah … Mom, you just found out I’m back from the dead and you’re telling me to —”
“To go take care of your brother? Yes.” She tilted her head to the side. “I sometimes think that you were born to care for Cameron. That’s why when you — you left it seemed so dreadfully unfair. You balanced each other out. Things have been out of balance for a long time now … But you’ll make it right again. You’ll make Cameron … right again.”
Liam didn’t know how to respond to that last comment. Cameron was brittle. But he always had been. Sensitive and lightning quick. She’d never been comfortable with that about him. Open displays of emotion disturbed her and Cameron exploded every once in awhile.
And likely more and more on purpose to get her to notice him. Or to punish her when she did something that hurt him.
“Mom, I’ll be right back. We’ll talk. I’ll explain everything,” he said finally, not wanting to delay going after his little brother any longer.
“The truth is that it’s easy to believe you’re alive,” she said with a bubbling, slightly hysterical laugh. She swallowed the laughter, becoming sober again. “Because I never really believed you were dead. Now go. Go get him. He needs you. I’ll be right here when you get back.”
Liam stared at his mother and didn’t know whether he admired her or was frightened of her. Maybe both.
She’s related to the Aesir, too. I wonder who she really takes after.
But Liam didn’t stay to ponder that. He took off after Cameron. He didn’t have far to go. Cameron had just run to the end of the hall and into the waiting room. His arms were around his torso again and he was pacing in a tight circle.
“Cam!” Liam cried in relief and rushed to take his little brother in his arms.
Cameron was rigid against him. Liam’s breath frosted for a moment, but he didn’t let Cameron go even with the threat of being turned into an ice statue.
“Cam, please, don’t be angry,” Liam breathed into Cameron’s hair. “I love you. I just couldn’t let her think she was crazy.”
The cold vanished and Cameron sagged against him. “Why did she have to figure it out? Why couldn’t it have just been us?”
“I don’t know. Loki warned me about it,” Liam said.
Cameron stiffened again. “Loki! I bet he’s behind her recognizing you! He knows that she’ll go apeshit if she finds out we’re romantic with one another! That’s just the kind of chaos he’s known for!”
On the one hand, Liam was inclined to agree with Cameron, but he recalled Loki’s expression when he had warned him about their mother becoming aware of who he truly was. “I don’t think so. I think he genuinely wanted to warn me. He was worried what her disapproval would do.”
“Because why? Because you might change your mind about us?” Cameron’s hands fisted in the back of Liam’s t-shirt and that rigidity was back in his form. As was the cold.
“Forewarned is forearmed,” Liam explained. “He wanted me to be prepared that she’d figure out who I was and that she was likely going to figure out us, too. And no, that will not change my mind about us. I’m in love with you, Cam. I always have been and alway will be. No one else’s feelings on the matter count.”
The cold retreated and Cameron was shivering instead. Liam ran his hands up and down his brother’s back, soothing him. What he really wanted to do was take him back to the bar. He wanted them to crawl back in bed together, draw the sheets over their heads and forget the world. But they couldn’t do that. Not now.
“That’s what you were so angry about, wasn’t it?” Liam asked. “You were afraid that now that she knows who I am she’s going to ruin things between us?”
Cameron nodded. “I’m never this lucky. I never thought I’d really get you and then I do and then … then … I just feel like you’re going to be taken away from me. Like someone is going to say, ‘Cameron, you’ve exceeded your happiness and good luck quotient, time to crush you down to size again.’”
“That’s not going to happen,” Liam said. “You deserve so much more than me.”
“You’re my everything, Liam. I don’t care about anything else.”
Liam drew Cameron’s beautiful face away from his chest. It was tear streaked and red, but it was still so lovely. He kissed Cameron gently. His little brother made a needy moan and surged against him. While there was desire behind this kiss there was more desperation to keep him near. Liam did not draw away, but let the kiss continue until they were both breathless. He rested their foreheads together.
“Cam, we can’t leave Mom alone with Juan. Not after … well, we need to explain all this,” he said.
“What about Nafari? He took off like a bat out of hell, trailing the Gash. Shouldn’t we try and find him, too? Maybe he needs some help,” Cameron pointed out..
Liam felt a stab of guilt. He’d let his best friend go after the Gash on his own. He bit his lower lip. “I —”
“Solution,” Cameron said, tapping his chest. “I’ll go back to Mom while you go after Nafari.”
Liam frowned. “Are you sure? You just blew up at her and ran off …”
“That’s the usual with her and I, Liam.” Cameron grimaced. “She’s used to my moods. Normally, she just pretends that they haven’t happened. It’ll be the same this time.”
“But can you handle the questions?” Liam asked.
Cameron lifted an eyebrow at him. “It’ll be easier for me to explain to her than for you to. You always wanted to shelter her from the truth. I’ll just tell her straight out. Truth is that I think she likes it better that way.”
Liam thought of her straightforward manner with him and he had to agree. But there was something more bothering him. Liam knew that he was seeing just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the bad feelings between his mother and little brother. And the last thing he wanted to do was force them to interact if it would cause more pain. But he couldn’t let Nafari face the Gash alone.
“Are you sure?” Liam asked Cameron one more time.
His little brother nodded and looked quite calm. Like their mother, Cameron was a master at disguising what he was feeling when he wanted to.
“Go. I’ll be fine,” Cameron said even as his hands clung to Liam’s shirt. But then he released Liam and took a step back. “Seriously, I don’t want t
he Gash to hurt anyone else, let alone someone you care about.”
Liam gave Cameron an all too brief kiss. The back of his neck prickled and he found himself turning to look back down the hall to Juan’s room. Had their mother stepped out and seen them kissing? Were they going to tell her that they were together? Or were they just going to keep it secret until she figured it out? There were a ton of thoughts like this in Liam’s head, but he, too, stepped back from Cameron. Now was not the time.
“I’ll be back soon,” Liam promised.
Cameron gave him a wave as he strode down the hallway, back to Juan and their mother as if he had not just fled from there, shaking with rage and leaking cold magic. Liam felt wretched letting him go, but there was no choice. Or rather, no good choice.
Faster I find Nafari the faster I’m back with Cam.
Liam closed his eyes for a moment and centered himself. He could always sense other Valkyries. They were like the blinking dot on a radar. It was no different this time. He knew that Nafari was down a floor and about two hallways away. Liam opened his eyes and took off for the stairs. He didn’t want to bother with the creaky elevator. Luckily, it didn’t take him long to find Nafari.
“Nafari, what —”
But his best friend held up a hand to silence him. Nafari was standing very still at the beginning of a hallway that was covered in bright butterflies. There were notices about clowns and reading parties, too. Liam realized that this was a children’s wing and that chilled him. What was the Gash doing here?
Nafari kept his voice as a low whisper, “The Gash came here and then … it broke apart into many small shadows.”
“Where did they go?” Liam asked.
Nafari turned to him, his face grim. “Into the children’s rooms.”
Before Liam could react, there was suddenly a girlish giggle coming out of the nearest room. A little girl, spindly as a skeleton, with her hair gone likely from chemo treatments sauntered out into the hallway. “Hello, Valkyries, want to play?”
CHAPTER TWENTY: NO CHOICE AT ALL
Cameron was about to walk through the door of Juan’s hospital room just as his mother was walking out. He saw a doctor and two nurses over her shoulder. From their expressions they were relieved at Juan’s new status and a wave of relief went through Cameron as well. Whatever he had done had exorcised the Gash, but had not harmed Juan. His mother lightly touched his shoulder, a brief touch, to get his attention. He met her blue eyes so like Liam’s.
“They need the room,” she said. “Let’s get a cup of coffee and talk.”
He nodded, saying nothing. He had told Liam that he could speak to their mother more easily about the Valkyrie and Liam’s resurrection than Liam could, but now that she was in front of him his throat felt tight and dry and he had no words. He followed after her trim form back down the hall to where there was a coffee machine and some soda machines. The machines were lit much more brightly than the rest of the hospital. It made the yellow light in the hallway appear dirty and opaque. He almost wanted to cling to the clear light of the soda machine rather than enter the half-light of the corridor.
“What would you like?” she asked as she pulled out some crumpled one dollar bills from her front pocket.
“No coffee for me. Maybe a Coke?” he asked and had the ridiculous feeling of being ten again when he needed his mother to pay for his drinks. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got money —”
“No, it’s fine. I’ve already got mine out.”
She slid two dollar bills into the bright and cheery Coke machine and made the selection for him. There was a thump-thump as a plastic bottle was dispensed and then a tinny metallic sound as her change dropped down into the change dispenser. He grabbed both and handed her the few coins. She then went to get a cup of coffee, black, no milk or sugar. He wound his hands around the cold, perspiring bottle of pop as they waited for the hot, bitter brew to be spit out into a paper cup for her.
How am I going to explain all of this to her? Will she be gushing about Liam being back and what she and he will do together? He knew his anger was irrational. She was their mother. Of course, she should be thrilled Liam was alive again. Of course, she should have hopes and dreams for Liam, too. But what will she dream for him? A wife and babies? Not going to happen. He’s mine. No one else’s. There will be no babies. There will be no wife or husband. Just me.
His fingers tingled and he knew he was in danger of bringing the cold again. He saw that there were fingerprints of frost on the Coke bottle. He took a deep breath before opening the bottle and taking a swig of the sweet, carbonated drink.
“How is Liam back?” she asked while staring at the steaming coffee being sprayed out of the machine.
So she had decided to begin the conversation. He was almost relieved by that. Plus, like he had told Liam, she completely ignored his earlier breakdown or tantrum or whatever it had been. His emotions had always been volatile, but even he recognized that they were out of control. But he centered himself and tried to distil what he knew himself about the situation.
“He’s a Valkyrie,” he said, hoping his mother had some understanding of the traditional Valkyrie in Norse mythology. “They’re warriors who fought against the Gash and died, but were found to be worthy to to fight again by the Aesir. Thor, Loki, Odin, all of them are real.”
He thought about telling her that Sigurd was really Loki, but he didn’t know if the trickster god wished her to have this knowledge. Though, considering he suspected felt that Loki was behind his mother realizing who Liam really was, he owed Loki no such consideration. But the man was his friend, too. He would give him the benefit of the doubt. If he found out that Loki was behind this, however, he would freeze him into an ice sculpture without a second thought.
Her only reaction to this news of the old gods being real was a slight hitch in her breathing and a temporary clumsiness as she withdrew the paper coffee cup from the dispenser. Some coffee sloshed out and she grimaced as the hot liquid hit her skin. She switched the cup to her other hand and shook the coffee from her. Not once did his mother cry out even though the coffee must have been burning hot.
She doesn’t let the little things - like physical pain - bother her. This was something he admired about her, but at the same time, it annoyed him, too. She was tough and no one could deny that. But she expected everyone else to be as tough as she was or to feel as little as she did. He was half convinced that the reason she was able to withstand so much pain was because she simply didn’t feel as much pain as others. Liam would tell me that I’m wrong. She just pushes down what she feels.
“And this — this shadow thing in Juan? What’s that? Something from Hell?” she asked, breaking himself from his reverie on her.
He realized he wasn’t sure if she meant the Aesir goddess Hel or the Christian idea of Hell, which in some ways was very much like Hel’s supposed realm, Helheim. The thing was that he wasn’t sure that Hel even existed. The other Aesir did, but Loki had never said anything about having any children though he had named his bar Fenrir, which was supposedly his fierce, wolf son. Cameron would have to ask him about that.
“No, it’s from outside of the Nine Realms. They call it the Gash. I guess Odin, being the curious guy he is, let it in. All the Aesir battled against it, but they ended up being shut away in Asgard, unable to use the Bifrost, while the Gash is trapped on Earth,” he explained. “Except Loki. He’s still here.”
And I work for him, Mom. He’s your “favorite” person.
She sipped her coffee and tapped her foot on the floor considering this. “Unlike the Aesir, the Valkyrie are on Earth, too, even though they are ruled by the old gods?”
“I don’t know if the Valkyrie are ruled by the Aesir exactly, but they’re deal is to go against the Gash, which is what the Aesir want. Nafari, Elda and Lihua are Valkyries,” he said.
He saw his mother’s mind working as she tapped her fingers against the paper cup. “So the Valkyires what? Kill the Gash?”
>
“The Gash, I guess, has to have a human host to survive on this plane, because it doesn’t belong here. So it normally inhabits morally weak people,” he said even as he remembered Reggie. He wondered if Reggie would have ever acted on his sick desires to rape little boys if the Gash had not possessed him and used him as a human suit. “It encourages them to do bad things and then the Valkyrie come and destroy that host, but they can’t eliminate the Gash altogether. It just slithers out into another host and so on and so forth. The Aesir are the only ones that can really kill it, but they can’t get back here ... though Liam was able to go Asgard to see them.”
Her head jerked up. “Liam was able to go to Asgard?”
He saw the alarm in her gaze. Like him, she undoubtedly was worrying that if Liam could go to the realm of the gods, why would he ever come back to this place? “Yeah, but he came back obviously. Now we just need to convince Loki to open the Bifrost again and the Aesir can come down here and kick the Gash’s butt.”
“That sounds simple, but if it actually were it would have happened already.” His mother’s brow furrowed. “Do you know where Loki is? Have you been able to speak to him?”
“Oh, yeah, yeah, we do and we have,” Cameron said with a faint laugh in his voice. He really wondered what her reaction to be with Sigurd being Loki. She would, undoubtedly, march over to Fenrir, grab Loki by the lapels, and shake him until he agreed to let the Aesir through the Bifrost.
Who am I kidding? Loki would know she was coming, know she would do just that, and would just hide from her!
She looked up at him curiously. “What’s funny?”
“Nothing, it’s just sort of crazy to be talking about this at all, you know? We’re calmly talking about Loki!” he pointed out.
She let out a soft snort. “Yes, I suppose so and yet … we’ve been haunted by the Aesir for a long time, haven’t we?”