Valkyrie

by Raythe Reign

  He gave the Gash a bloodless smile. “You really did your homework on us.”

  “You’re so very interesting,” the Gash admitted. “I knew that Loki was behind the interweaving of your families’ lines to produce you and Liam. I’ve wondered endlessly about what he was up to making the two of your as we’ve pretty much kept out of each other’s way. A truce so to speak.”

  Cameron felt a wave of anger at Loki. The Aesir could have ended this thing by simply opening the Rainbow Bridge. Why hadn’t he? How much more corruption would he tolerate from this thing that didn’t belong?

  It’s because he fears the Aesir will be worse than the Gash, but has he seen what it’s doing lately?

  Juan gave out a low groan and he saw his mother shift in the corner of his eye. He had to do something. He had to do something now.

  But anything I do will kill one of them. Then again, if I do nothing one of them, at least, will die. Best to go with the plan.

  “But back to what I was saying about this boy. If you let him live, his life is not going to be very good. Juan didn’t eat people,” the Gash burbled. “It’s going to be a hard decision.”

  Cameron’s hands clenched into fists and his breath frosted the air as he said, “Not really.”

  Cameron lunged at the Gash. His blue arms were outstretched. The magic in him reaching just as he was reaching. His body impacted the boy’s and he wrapped his arms around the slender, burning yet clammy body. The Gash made an animal snarl and raked its fingernails along Cameron’s front. There was the sound of rending fabric. But when his fingertips touched Cameron’s flesh the boy howled in pain. He wriggled in Cameron’s grasp rather like a worm on a hook. Cameron felt unclean from the touch. He thought he heard Juan let out a soft huff of air. He wondered if he’d just killed the deputy. Maybe wrenching the Gash off of him had killed the man instead of saving him. But the choice was made. What was done was done.

  “Mom! Help me!” Cameron called. “We’ve got to restrain him!”

  His mother slammed her gun back into the holster as she clearly guessed the threat of shooting the boy would only amuse the Gash. She grabbed the boy’s kicked feet while he kept hold of the boy’s torso. They carried the kid out of Juan’s room and into the hallway.

  “Where do we put him? We can’t keep holding him like this!” Cameron asked as the Gash writhed and snapped his bloody teeth trying to bite them like he’d down to the doctor and nurse.

  His mother cast around, but then she saw a door halfway down the hall. “Linen closet.”

  Cameron nodded and the two of them carried the child to the closet. His mother opened it. Inside there were shelves full of sheets and towels. They practically had to toss the boy inside and then slam the door on him as he jumped right back up to his feet and rushed them. Cameron winced at the thuds the boy made as he impacted the door.

  While Cameron braced his shoulder against the door, his mother grabbed an IV tree and the two of them managed to extend it across the hallway so that the door would not open no matter what kind of force the ill child used. Both of them stared at the shuddering door as the Gash bashed against it again and again.

  “Why doesn’t the Gash just leave that body and escape?” his mother asked.

  Cameron shrugged. “Maybe it can’t do it twice in quick succession. Maybe it knows it hurts us to listen to it hurting that boy’s body. I haven’t got any more clue than you do.”

  She ran a hand through her damp hair. “God, we have to get people down here to deal with this.” His mother was suddenly reaching for her radio. He grasped her wrist.

  “You can’t.” His expression was fierce.

  “Cameron, there are two people dead and who knows how many others. I haven’t seen a person since we found that child in Juan’s room. There was more than one doctor and one nurse on this floor” she pointed out. “We need help.”

  “We can’t bring more people into this yet. At least, not outsiders,” he told her.

  “Cam –”

  “No, Mom. Imagine if the Gash gets into another one of your deputies? Can you deal with that? The Gash with a gun?” he asked her. “We have to handle this with the people that are in the know.”

  “So who are you calling?”

  “A god.”

  He fished out his cell phone. He didn’t know if the other Valkyrie had cell phones or what their numbers were, but then again, as he reminded himself, why settle for Valkyrie when you could get the help of a god? He speed-dialed Loki’s number. He didn’t have time to wonder if the Aesir would pick up, because it had hardly rung when Loki’s silky voice was on the line.

  “Cameron, how goes it?” Loki asked.

  “Are you really asking me that? I’m pretty sure you know,” Cameron growled at him.

  “I am not clairvoyant, but from the darkness emanating from the hospital I would say you have your hands full,” Loki responded, not at all moved by Cameron’s annoyance.

  “We need your help. The Gash has taken over the bodies of ill children. Juan is almost dead – or could be dead.” His mother’s face blanched and she hustled into Juan’s room to check on the deputy. “Liam and Nafari are missing and –”

  “Yes, you should get to your brother,” Loki interrupted and his voice was slightly less amused.

  Cameron’s mouth went dry. “Why? What’s happened to him?”

  “He’s in a bit of pickle.”

  Cameron looked around as if his brother was somewhere near, but all that he saw were the empty halls and the pool of blackening blood from the dead hospital staff. “Where is he, Loki?”

  “Down. Morgue, I think from the amount of energy coming from there,” he answered.

  “And where are you? And how fast can you get here?” Cameron asked as he raced towards the stairwell. He called over his shoulder, “Mom, heading to morgue to get Liam! Don’t call back-up!”

  He slammed his shoulder into the stairwell door and headed down the steps. He saw more bloody children’s footprints on the stairs and he saw that two sets continued on down to the basement and the morgue. He was so intent on getting to Liam and keeping his mom from calling for back-up that he hadn’t noticed the silence that had fallen over the line between himself and Loki.

  “Loki? When are you getting here?” Cameron demanded as he followed the bloody imprints of two pairs of children’s feet down the stairs. He wondered if the Gash was possessing these kids, too. Could it possess more than one person at a time? Or were these children simply running for their lives?

  “Cameron, I must remain neutral –”

  “Bullshit!” Cameron shouted. The word echoed in the stairwell. “The time for being neutral has passed. The Gash is coming after us, your family. Tell me that this isn’t the Gash crossing your line in the sand? Tell me it isn’t violating your neutrality!”

  There was a thoughtful silence then Loki said, “I see what you are saying, but when a god acts, Cameron, it affects the warp and weft of fate in a way you do not understand yet. It could bring back the time of the gods and end the time of the humans.”

  “I’m not going to try and pretend I know what that means, Loki. All I know is that my brother, your descendant, is in danger from a being that is pure corruption. A being that your kind let loose here.” Cameron reached the end of the stairwell. The door into the basement was ahead of him. The rectangle of glass showed a hallway beyond where the lights were flickering wildly. There was more dark than light beyond the door. “You have a duty to clean up the Aesir’s mess since you won’t let the Aesir responsible back in here to do it.” He pushed open the door and stepped into the hallway beyond. “Or at least send the rest of the damned Valkyrie to the hospital right now. Can you at least do that? I don’t have their phone numbers. Loki? Loki? You hear me?”

  He looked at the screen of his phone and realized he’d lost reception. He swore a blue streak and hoped that the Aesir really didn’t need a cell phone to hear him. He slipped his cell back into his pocket. Just then
he heard his brother cry out.

  Cameron was pounding down the hallway towards a set of swinging double doors. The cry had come from inside. His blue palms hit the doors and frost crazily zigzagged across their surface. He nearly barreled into a metal examining table as he didn’t slow his forward progress, just wanting to get to Liam.

  The sight that met his eyes was like nothing he expected. Liam was standing in front of one of those rectangular refrigerator doors that held a single body. Another door was open above his brother’s head. And a child was clinging to Liam’s broad shoulders. The child was yanking at his brother’s long hair and trying to bite Liam’s hands as he tried to dislodge it. Cameron realized that Liam had somehow been lured to the refrigerators and the child, who must have been hiding in one of them, had jumped on top of him.

  Cameron lunged across the space, blue hands outstretched again. He grasped the child – a girl – around her bony waist. He could feel her terribly thin skin beneath the hospital gown. Like the other boy that had been any maybe still was possessed by the Gash upstairs, her skin was both burning and clammy. As soon as his icy hands touched her she let out an unearthly screech and released her hold on his brother’s hair. He wrenched her off of Liam and held her close against his chest as he backed away.

  “Cam!” Liam cried as he turned and saw Cameron holding onto the writhing, wild child.

  “It’s cool. Done this once already,” Cameron let out a bright hysterical laugh. “Are you okay? Holy shit …”

  Liam’s movement allowed him to see into the refrigerator his brother had been standing in front of. Squeezed inside were an adult and a child. The child had the dead, old eyes of the Gash and a scalpel against the terrified adult’s throat. From the labcoat and blue scrubs, Cameron guessed this was the pathologist.

  “What the Hell?” he breathed.

  “Did you think that you had won against me simply by saving Juan?” The child in the refrigerator grinned at him while the other one continued to kick and screech in his arms.

  Cameron looked around for a spot to imprison the child he held and saw an office attached to the main room. He began to drag her over there when the Gash spoke again.

  “Let me go,” the Gash said and the words were spoken out of both children’s mouths so it was like he was hearing it in stereo.

  “How about no?” Cameron scoffed and continued to move towards the office, letting a little more cold seep into the girl’s body to dampen her squirming.

  “How about I’ll slice this man’s throat from ear to ear if you don’t?” the Gash shrilly asked. It really didn’t like the cold he gave out.

  Cameron slowed, but didn’t completely stop moving. “What are you worried about? You have one kid to taunt us with. Why do you need two?”

  The Gash smiled. “Two? Who says I have just two?”

  Cameron heard the patter of naked feet running down the hall. He met Liam’s gaze and there was a mixture of terror and sadness in his brother’s eyes. Liam knew that this could not end well.

  Loki, you’ve got to get here or some kids are going to die.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: HEAT AND LIGHT

  As the patter of little feet approached, Liam closed his eyes. Just for a moment as the knowledge sank in that things were about to go even more pear-shaped. But he was just as quickly opening them to meet his little brother’s wild gaze. Cameron needed him to keep it together for both of them.

  Liam could see the magic swirling around his little brother. It wasn’t just limited to his arms that were the color of arctic ice and lined with darker blue swirls that extended from the tips of his fingers to his elbows. There was an aura of blue-white surrounding Cameron. It glittered beautifully, but there was something frightening about it, too. Liam imagined that if he touched it his fingers would freeze solid and break off.

  Cameron’s teeth were bared as he held onto the girl controlled by the Gash. Frost coated her skin near where he gripped her and Liam could see that her struggles were slowing. Cameron’s cold was draining her. The cold was more than just physical, but spiritual in some way. It drained away life, Liam realized, and increased Cameron’s power.

  “Liam,” Cameron said tightly. “Liam, what the Hell do we do?”

  The Gash’s voice came in stereo again from both children’s mouths, “Now you see the predicament you are in.”

  Liam lunged a mop that was leaning against the wall. He snapped off the wooden handle and slid it through the door handles just as many children’s palms hit it. The doors jerked towards him but came to a stop.

  “Good thinking. Pretty obvious, but good,” Cameron laughed. His voice was strangely bright and brittle.

  “I do try.” Liam tried to give him a comforting grin, but Cameron’s gaze danced away from him to the refrigerator where the other child held the doctor hostage.

  Cameron’s on the edge, gathering power to him, until … Liam stopped there. He’d had to kill his share of humans that the Gash inhabited. Never children before now, but people nonetheless. The people though he’d had to deal with were already corrupted like Reggie. They had dark desires within them that the Gash just gave them that extra bit of confidence to pursue so his anguish had killing them had been tempered somewhat. But these children are not corrupted. This is completely different.

  “Please,” the doctor said, his voice cracking. “Please let me go. If you need help I’ll help —”

  “You’re providing me with all the help I need, doctor,” the Gash tittered and the scalpel slid along the doctor’s skin. A thin line of red appeared and the man yelped. “Hold still or you’ll really have a reason to yell.”

  Liam met the doctor’s frightened gaze. He tried to fill his voice with confidence as he said, “Please keep calm. We will get you out of there.”

  “So confident!” the Gash snarled. “You might have done that little lightning display upstairs, but you’re all drained down here, aren’t you? And you can’t risk sending a lightning bolt into a box now can you?”

  “Lightning?” Cameron questioned.

  Liam looked over to him and gave a half smile. “You aren’t the only one that inherited some magic.”

  Cameron’s eyebrows rose. “You mean … Thor? Like lightning god stuff?”

  Despite the thumping of children’s palms on the doors and the doctor’s barely held back gibberings, Liam found himself smiling and ducking his head. “Yes, exactly like that. I was able to flush the Gash from the children upstairs.”

  “But lightning in a box?” Cameron confirmed.

  Liam nodded. “Yes.”

  “So …” Cameron looked down at the child in his arms meaningfully.

  He could feel the electricity in him more now than before. He thought he could free the struggling girl. There was enough energy building inside of him.

  But what about the doctor? What will the Gash do to him?

  He lifted his right hand up from his side towards her, meaning to direct the lightning. The doctor gave out a shout and Liam glanced over at the refrigerator and saw more blood dripping down the doctor’s neck.

  “Don’t,” the Gash hissed.

  Liam dropped his hand to his side and asked the Gash, “What is your end game here?”

  The Gash tilted its head to the side. “Cameron gave me the idea.”

  “What idea?” Cameron asked.

  “Humans and Valkyries are so uninteresting. We’ve been fighting the same battle over and over again. You’ll never win against me —”

  “Things have changed.” Cameron’s blue eyes flashed in the darkness of the morgue. The magic around him swirled higher

  The Gash’s eyes narrowed. That was such a strange look to see on a child. A wrong look. One that should never be there. But so long as the Gash inhabited that body it would remain. He felt a snapping between his fingers and realized that an electric spark - hot, bright white - had skittered between his fingers.

  “Not as much as they need to,” the Gash said.

&nb
sp; “What do you mean?” Liam asked and nearly bit his tongue as snapped his mouth shut so quickly after the question had snuck out. Asking the Gash anything was always a bad idea. It told the truth, but such a twisted version of it that it always made one regret that one asked.

  “I’m bored,” the Gash said simply. “And I wish to leave this place.”

  There was a long beat while Liam heard those words but did not understand them and then between one blink and the next he did. “You — you want to leave?”

  The child the Gash inhabited nodded its suddenly wizened visage as if it had aged fifty years in half as many seconds. “I do.”

  “Then why don’t you just go?” Cameron snapped. “Go back through whatever hole you crawled out of?”

  The Gash let out a soft huff. “I am trapped here. Odin trapped me here, you see.”

  “The release your hold on the Bifrost and let the Aesir back,” Cameron challenged.

  Another narrow-eyed look was shot out at them as if they were slightly stupid children. “Did not your beloved ancestor tell you?”

  “Beloved … you mean Loki?” Cameron suddenly looked alert and strangely uneasy. Liam wondered why.

  “Yes, he is the one controlling the Bifrost completely. I have no control over it. Only he can bring Odin back so that I can leave,” the Gash said.

  “Where will you go?” Liam asked.

  The child shrugged which was hardly a movement as the Gash and the doctor were wedged pretty tightly in the refrigerator. “Wherever I want, but away from here. Doesn’t that please you?”

  “So you can go take your corruption to try and destroy another of the Nine Realms?” Liam asked.

  “What do you care? You are of Midgard. There are far more than Nine Realms, by the way. There are countless realms. So many more interesting than here. Don’t get me wrong, playing with humanity was fun, but I’m ready to move on,” the Gash said.