Valkyrie

by Raythe Reign

  CHAPTER THIRTY: FAMILY TRAITS

  Liam went over to his mother as soon as Loki pulled Cameron behind the bar. He did so reluctantly, because he knew that Loki wasn’t going to be saying anything good to his emotionally fragile little brother. But Cameron likely needed to hear some of it.

  And if I say it, it will destroy him. If Loki does … he might listen. He almost hurt Mom and himself.

  But he understood why Cameron had acted that way. Their mother basically raised the spectre of his greatest fear and Cameron became a little kid again who had lost his brother.

  But Cam has powers now. He can’t lose it like that! And he’s only made things with Mom worse.

  Casting one last glance to where Loki and Cameron disappeared, Liam hoped that the Trickster God could somehow fix this and help his little brother see another way of dealing with his fears.

  Mary looked seemingly unhurt. She, too, had been staring at where Cameron and Loki rounded the corner of the bar. Her expression was hard to read. Was she grateful that the Trickster God had stepped in or annoyed that he had interrupted a family argument? Liam wished he had been able to stop it himself, but Cameron had gone into a world where not even Liam could tread.

  “Mom, you okay?”

  Thor joined him and Mary. “Are you all right, Sheriff Blake?” Thor then quickly amended, “I can see you are physically uninjured, but I am certain that you must be upset.”

  Mary turned one of her patented cool stares on the Thunder God. It was clear that she didn’t understand why he was here, a part of this, and that she didn’t like him. “I’m quite all right.”

  “Yes, you are a warrior. You would rather gnaw your own limb off before telling anyone that you are hurt in any way,” Thor intuited.

  His mother blinked and looked away from him for a moment. “You would know something about that, I suppose.”

  “A little,” Thor said with a modest shrug. “I used to hold everything in. Never seek anyone’s help. Never admit to being injured whether physical or emotional.”

  Her mouth thinned. “Emotional injuries are nothing really. They’re just in our heads.”

  “I doubt you would say that about someone else who was injured,” Thor said gently. “Just yourself for which you have much higher standards.”

  “He’s right, Mom. I can’t imagine you telling another person to just buck it up after what you’ve experienced,” he said. She would, however, tell Cameron that and he would say the same to her. The two of them were peas in a pod about keeping emotions inside.

  “Cameron used to just be able to send fiery words towards me. Now he can lob real fireballs. But in some ways, nothing has changed,” she said with a half curl of her lip.

  “You do not scare easy,” Thor said. “I respect that. Cameron though is not the same as you.”

  She stiffened. “What would you know of Cameron?”

  “I’ve been watching him all his life.” Thor smiled like the sun as if he couldn’t be prouder of being a part of their lives through watching.

  “But — but why?” She narrowed her eyes at him.

  “Because your family is … special to me,” Thor said and flushed. He almost looked guilty. “You have our blood, you see. Mine and Loki’s and … you are family to us.”

  Liam sensed that there was something more to this than Thor was saying. His mother noticed it, too. Lying alway shut his mother down and this time was no exception.

  Her voice was crisp and clear, “Now, I’d like to talk to my son alone, please.”

  “Of course.” Thor did a little bob of a bow. He looked over at Liam and gave his shoulder a fatherly squeeze. “It will be all right. Loki will know how to reach Cameron. They are very … similar, after all.”

  Liam blinked. Again, he had this feeling that Thor meant more than just the fact that both Loki and Cameron had magic. Somehow the two of them were very alike. He nodded. “Thanks, Thor. I appreciate your support.”

  Thor’s face brightened with a smile. “Of course. Anytime. Always.”

  Always …

  Liam contemplated that word as the Thunder God walked back inside the bar. Liam turned back to his mother. He wondered if she realized that the fact that Thor was inside the bar didn’t mean he couldn’t and wouldn’t hear every word they said to one another.

  “Mom, are you seriously okay?” Liam reached to check out her ear where the fireball passed awfully close to the skin. There was no damage and she quickly drew her head out of his gasp, waving away his attentions.

  “I’m fine,” she insisted.

  “But how can you be?” Liam found himself asking. He let out a small helpless laugh. “How can you be after everything? I don’t think any of us are okay.”

  “We have to be tougher than other people, Liam. I wasn’t lying when I said that to Thor. Tragedy follows us around like a cloak on our backs,” she said simply. “If we give way every time something goes wrong then … well, we wouldn’t be doing much else.”

  “It’s not about being tough,” he said. “It’s about avoidance.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t know what you mean. I’m not avoiding anything. I’ve just come to a point where I’m not sure what I should do. You won’t stop this thing between you and Cameron. You’ll sacrifice yourself to this madness. And we have a creature running around, possessing people and ruining their lives and the lives of all those around them. Not to mention we have two Aesir who are responsible for bringing that creature here.”

  “Odin was actually responsible for that,” Liam pointed out. “Now with Thor here and his hammer, we can send the creature back or destroy it. The Valkyrie have been battling it for ages. This time we actually have a chance. You don’t know how good this is.”

  “All this time when Cameron told me that there was a creature inside of Reggie I didn’t believe him, but there was. It was all true.” She was staring off into the distance, clearly remembering those conversations.

  “But knowing all that, you still wanted to institutionalize him?” Liam didn’t hide the disbelief from his own voice. Once more his mother was trying to control everything and Cameron was not to be controlled. Not by her. Not by anyone. He thought of the fireballs and wondered if Cameron was even to be controlled by himself.

  Mary pointed out those fireballs herself. “Do you think he missed me on purpose or by accident?”

  “On purpose!” Liam cried. But then he quickly lowered his head. “He shouldn’t have done that. But what you said scared him, Mom. Angered him, too, but I hope you realized he’s terrified. The thought of being locked up, thought crazy, is the top of his list of things he never wants to happen.”

  “I didn’t see much terror in him, Liam.” She ran a hand through her hair. “Just rage. And maybe I’ve earned some of it.” Her sharp blue eyes focused on him. “But he proved my point with his reaction.”

  At that moment, Loki came out from around the bar and walked towards him. Liam noted that his steps did not crunch the stones beneath his feet. He walked silently to them. His expression was a mixture of grimness and weariness. He stopped a few feet from Mary and the two of them regarded each other silently. Mary shifted her weight towards the hip with the gun. Loki raised his eyebrows.

  “I knew all along you were trouble, but I had no idea just how much,” Mary said dryly.

  Loki gave a devilish smile, but that quickly faded into something serious as he said, “Mary, you really must stop looking for you mother.”

  Mary stiffened. “Excuse me? What do you know about –”

  “About your mother? Everything. And what do I know about you? Everything.” Loki regarded her with one of his stares that just made him seem what he was: otherworldly. “So stop looking for her in Cameron’s eyes. Stop looking for her in your own. She was a necessary evil, but she’s gone now.”

  His mother’s eyes narrowed. “A necessary evil? For what? What good came of her?”

  A faint touch of a strange smile lif
ted Loki’s lips. “Cameron and Liam.”

  “I don’t know what you are talking about! My mother had nothing to do with my sons! I …” She stopped herself. Liam watched as she bit back words and swallowed her emotions, showing that steely, icy calm she was known for. It made her a good sheriff, but it had not always suited to being a person. “After this thing with the Gash is done, I want you out of my sons’ lives. You and your kind are poison.”

  “I don’t entirely disagree with you, but it will be Cameron and Liam’s choice about who is and isn’t in their lives. And you may find that both the boys could do with a little guidance from Thor and me due to their … specialness. You may even need my help from time to time.”

  “I swear you’re behind all of this. All of it,” she muttered.

  “I am,” he agreed quite genially, which had her eyes widening.

  “You admit it?!” Mary sounded shocked and Liam had that sense again that Loki was hinting around something rather bigger than his words on their face said.

  “Of course, but you’re assuming that this is far worse than what would have happened if I had not interfered, but I assure you,” and here he paused, his golden eyes hardly blinked, seeming to glow more gold at that moment, “that things would be far, far worse if I had not. You’d be buried in that basement, Mary.”

  His mother jerked back as if struck and Liam found himself stepping between them. He had held back because he hadn’t been sure where Loki was going with this and that he was on Cameron’s side.

  “Loki,” his voice deepened into a growl, “My grandmother is off limits.”

  “But she is at the crux of everything, Liam. She is why your mother is how she is, especially with Cameron. I’ve talked to him. He has explaining and apologizing to do, but I …” Here Loki paused and he blinked. He almost looked … upset. His voice lowered, “But I won’t let her hurt Cameron – or herself - because of it. That is not necessary for things to work out as they should.”

  “You know something,” Liam began.

  “I know lots of things,” Loki quipped with another raised eyebrow.

  Liam gave him a hard look, which, surprisingly had Loki squirming. Or perhaps it wasn’t a surprise as he had copied it from Thor. “You know what I mean.”

  “I assure you that I know lots of things that you wish to know, but I’m not going to tell them … at least not right now,” Loki answered, but then he was turning to Mary again. “Cameron is going to come out here in a few moments. I told him to fix this with you, Mary. But I don’t think either of you is in the right state of mind for a truce.”

  “We are the Blakes. We will work out our own problems. Why don’t you go and be with your own kind?” She jerked her head towards the bar.

  “Mom! Loki – Loki and Thor are family!” Liam exclaimed.

  “Are they? We’ll see,” she said tightly and met Loki’s stare. “I’m not taking parenting advice from you, Loki. All the myths say that your children are a right mess.”

  “Mom!” Liam cried again and his gaze flickered towards Loki, but the Aesir looked more amused than anything else.

  “You know, Mary, you have my blood, too. What does that say about you?” And with that, he sauntered into the bar.

  When the door was closed, Liam whipped around to face her. “Mom, do you really think pissing Loki off is a good move?”

  She let out a long breath that puffed her bangs. “No, but it certainly felt good.”

  Liam laughed. He couldn’t help it. And she grinned at him, showing a rather Loki-ish side herself. At that moment, Cameron rounded the corner of the bar. His hands were in the pockets of his pants and he was looking for all the world like a scolded little boy. But then he glanced over his shoulder with a wary expression as if he were being watched by someone he didn’t like turning his back to.

  “Cam!” Liam called.

  Cameron immediately turned back around. His expression brightened for a moment when he saw Liam, but then he was hunching his shoulders and lowering his head. Totally ashamed. Liam had seen this same attitude on him a few times when he was younger. It was always after he’d gotten into a huge blowout with their mother. Liam was not happy with Cameron. He should not have acted in that immature and crazy way.

  Cameron stopped, unknowingly, right where Loki had. He didn’t take his hands out of his pockets and he was looking rather studiously at the ground. Liam could see his tongue poking against the side of his mouth as he was clearly debating what to say or whether to speak at all.

  “Well?” their mother said quietly and Liam winced.

  Cameron’s head shot up. “Well, what? Do you want an apology? Because you’re not getting one!”

  How old are you, Cam? Liam struggled not to roll his eyes. But at the same time as his little brother was being a pain and true to form with their mother, Mary wasn’t winning any awards either. She must have known that one word in that tone would set Cameron off.

  “I could give you an apology then. Would that work?” she asked and Liam internally cheered.

  Cameron’s shoulders curled further forward and he was back staring at the ground again. “I – I don’t want you to apologize.”

  “I was wrong to say you should be sent away, Cameron,” she whispered. Her hands were in front of her and she was wringing them together. “I was reacting to the news in a bad way. In a wrong way. But you have to understand that … well, you don’t have to understand it, but then neither do I.”

  “No, I guess you don’t,” Cameron agreed. He raised his head and there was hectic color in his cheeks. Liam reached for him to comfort him and their mother immediately stiffened, which caused Liam to pause in making that touch. Cameron’s blue eyes immediately went icy. “Don’t, Mom.”

  “Don’t what?”

  “Don’t make Liam feel guilty or wrong. Don’t make it so we can’t be ourselves around you, because … because we don’t have to stay around you,” Cameron said.

  Their mother straightened. “What do you mean?”

  “After we get rid of the Gash, we don’t have to stay in this town,” Cameron got out, his eyes flickered over to Liam. There was such hope in them. Hope that he would agree. And Liam did agree. He wanted to take Cameron away from here and show him the world. Paris, London, Rome, Hong Kong, Tokyo and more. Maybe then Cameron would create art again.

  “You’d leave here?” their mother sounded stunned.

  “I only stayed because of Liam. All my memories of him were here, but now that he’s back, we can go anywhere. Make more memories.” Cameron lifted his chin into the air almost as if he was expecting a punch, but wouldn’t back down.

  “Like art school? Would you do that? Do something with your life?” she asked.

  Liam hid a surprised smile. She sounded happy about him leaving. Cameron was taken aback, blinking in shock.

  “I – I don’t know. Maybe. It depends what Liam’s responsibilities are. What’s an ex-Valkyrie to do?” Cameron gave him a small smile.

  “Maybe go to Valhalla,” their mother whispered and she looked stricken.

  That was nothing compared to Cameron. He went white as a sheet and nothing could have stopped Liam from going to him at that moment. He immediately pulled his little brother against his chest. He pressed his lips against the top of Cameron’s head and felt his little brother’s frantic breathing puffed against his shirt and warmed his chest. Cameron clutched at his back as if he feared that Liam was going to be taken away just that minute. There had been too many emotional shocks. And this was about one too many. He needed to get Cameron inside.

  “Nothing is going to take me away from you again, Cam. Do you understand?” Liam promised.

  “But what if it’s not your choice? What if it’s something in the magic that allows you to be here that the Gash still has to survive?” Cameron bleated.

  “Then Loki and Thor will get involved and keep me with you,” Liam said simply. He had faith that the Aesir would help them. Thor, especially, had see
med to be on their side forever. Liam knew he could count on him. “We’re meant to be together, Cam. I know it.”

  His little brother’s breathing slowed, but he did not release his hold on Liam. There was a slight crunch as their mother shifted her weight and put a tentative hand on Cameron’s back. His little brother stiffened slightly, but then relaxed.

  “I am sorry, Mom,” Cameron said into Liam’s shirt. “But with Liam back I feel … feel a little messed up, you know? With everything? The Gash and those terrible things happening, too?”

  Their mother nodded. She looked drawn and very sad as he lightly stroked Cameron’s back. He wondered if this was the first time they’d touched in a long time. Despite what she’d said to Liam just a little while earlier, she confessed, “Me, too. The world has certainly spun out from under my feet.”

  Liam reached and touched their mother’s shoulder. “We’re going to find a way to fix this.”

  He meant the Gash only. Him and Cameron being together was not a problem. His mother though said nothing, which was likely a success with her right now.

  “You two look exhausted. You should sleep,” Mary said. She gave Cameron’s back one more pat and then stood upright.

  “What about you, Mom?” he asked. She didn’t exactly looked filled with energy either.

  “I have to return to town,” she said. Then blanching slightly, she explained, “I, sort of, avoided quarantine at the hospital.”

  “What?” Both brothers said.

  “Long story. But the powers that be think that this is a disease of some sort. They aren’t half wrong in a way,” she explained with a soft laugh.

  “They think that you’re infected? All the more reason to stay here with us! They could lock you up!” Liam exclaimed.

  But she shook her head. “I have to appear normal, Liam. Like this is a normal case. And though it goes against every bone of my protective body … I don’t have magic. I’m not a Valkyrie. I don’t think I can add much to the fight against the Gash. But I can keep the authorities focused away from you.”

  “Mom backing down? Admitting she can’t stop a supernatural force?” Cameron’s words were actually surprised rather than a rebuke.