Valkyrie

by Raythe Reign

  “Mom is not dead,” Cameron said. He was surprised at the twist of absolute grief he felt at the thought of her dying. They had always been at odds. She had always seemed to be fighting him about what he was doing or not doing. Everything about him was against Mary’s code. But she was his mother. He loved her. Sometimes he forgot that, but not now. At this moment, he knew exactly how he felt about her.

  “No, she’s not. Too tough for that,” Liam agreed.

  “We would know if Mary passed,” Thor assured them both. “She is of our blood.”

  Loki was suddenly staring at a spot in the parking lot that was around the side of the building. He was so intent on it that Cameron was sure he saw something.

  “What are you seeing?” Cameron stepped up to Loki’s side.

  The Trickster God pointed with his free hand. Cameron followed his outstretched finger. Through the bloody light of the shield and the rush of sand, Cameron thought he saw something darker than the darkness. It was very far away. Maybe five hundred feet. It could have been a mirage of the moving sand and lack of sunlight, but Cameron sensed that it wasn’t

  “You see it, too?” Loki stated more than asked.

  “I do. It’s darker there. Colder there,” Cameron murmured almost without thought. It was also where the raven had gone to. Not into the hospital, but beside it.

  Loki nodded. “Let’s —”

  A child’s shrill scream, soft yet unmistakeable, broke through the roar of the wind. It came from that greater blackness. Without thinking, Cameron charged outside of Loki’s shield towards both. He formed another ice shield before him almost effortlessly. A small part of him marveled at how easy it was to do this, how the magic leaped to his defense as effortlessly as breathing. He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t been able to do this a week ago. It felt like he’d been doing it all his life.

  He heard the others coming after him. Liam was suddenly at his side. He had unsheathed his hammer and lightning played around the substantial head. Cameron increased the size of the shield, once more easily, to cover them both. He realized that his other hand was lit from within by swirls of magma like reds and golds. He was prepared to fight with fire and ice.

  There was a groan and shriek of metal. It seemed to be coming from all sides of them. It was only as the first car slid into their path that Cameron realized what was happening. The vehicles were being thrown at them.

  Lightning came from behind them and the cars were knocked out of the way, spinning off into the darkness, to land with thunderous noise as they smashed into the pavement. The darkness was still a hundred feet away. Another vehicle suddenly dropped almost on top of them. But this time a ruddy blast of light hit it and lifted it out of the way. It, too, landed somewhere out of sight with a dull whump. The parking lot seemed to shake and fiery light had Cameron squinting. The vehicle had exploded.

  I thought that only happened in movies! Cameron’s thoughts tumbled hysterically in his head, but he kept running for that greater darkness.

  There were terrible scraping sounds as metal moved over asphalt and tried to crush them. But it was the vehicles that moved silently that scared Cameron far more like the SUV that had suddenly raced towards them out of the gloom. Liam had grabbed him around the waist and with a flap of wings had flown them both out of danger. It was only after they were out of the way that another of Thor’s lightning bolts turned the SUV into slag.

  There was a ring of vehicles around the darkness, forming an almost barrier, but Liam easily flew them over it and they landed on the other side. It was only then that the wind and sand died down, as if they were in the eye of the storm. Cameron dropped the ice shield. He stared stupidly at what was before them. There was an old woman with one hand around their mother’s throat. A little girl lay on the ground on her front, unmoving, still wearing a hospital ground.

  Their mother was bleeding from multiple skin lacerations. It looked like her skin had been scoured off in places and that was when Cameron realized it had been. She’d had no shield like they’d had against the sand. He shuddered in empathy with how much pain she was likely in. Yet her blue eyes were clear and determined. She didn’t give an inch even as the elderly woman caressed her throat with blackened nails that were sharpened into what looked like claws.

  “Mom!” Cameron cried and took a step towards her.

  “Don’t, Cam!” Liam put a hand up in front of him, impeding him. Cameron stopped though he gritted his teeth in frustration.

  She met Cameron’s gaze steadily. “I’m all right, Cameron. Liam, I need you to check on Florie.”

  Her gaze slipped down to the unmoving little girl. Liam slowly advanced upon the child. He got down on one knee, placing his hammer on the ground as he did so in order to gently turn the girl over. She was another one of the hospital patients. Her eyes were closed. Her skin was bone white. But she was breathing shallowly.

  As everyone’s attention was on Liam and the girl, Cameron went towards his mother. He had no healing powers. He could do nothing for the child. But he could help his mother. The claws suddenly dug into their mother’s neck. Mary gave a slight hiss, but nothing more even as blood traveled down her throat from where those claws cruelly ripped her flesh.

  “Don’t come any nearer, grandson,” the old woman growled at him. He heard the Gash in her voice.

  “Grandson?” Cameron’s eyebrows rose and he looked more carefully at the old woman.

  She had long stringy hair that might have been blonde at one point, but it was dark with oil after not having been washed in ages. Her face was the color of old parchment that had been left to gray in sunlight-less cellars. Her eyes were almost white with just the barest touch of blue in them at the edges as if they’d been bleached of color.

  She wore a shapeless dress that was frayed and holey with house slippers that had seen better days. The stuffing was coming out of both of them and there were holes where the big toes were. He could see curling yellow nails sticking out of the material and felt his gorge rise. Her arms and legs were bare. The skin was mottled and crepey. It looked like the skin would easily break. His gaze went back up to her face and he found himself seeing similarities between their mother’s bone structure and this creature’s.

  “She’s not your grandmother,” their mother protested. “She died. She died a long time ago.”

  “Oh, she died much longer ago than you know. I was in her all your life. You just never realized it. She let me in. Just like all the others did,” their grandmother smirked, showing black teeth.

  Their mother stiffened and knowledge that this was true flashed in her eyes. A wave of anger went through Cameron. The Gash had been torturing their family for far longer than any of them had realized. The runes on his skin burned brighter and he saw answering marks on their mother’s forearms for just a moment. This distracted him from his rage for a moment. It made him start thinking. He looked up at their mother again and she gave this almost imperceptible nod. She had powers like his. They were … alike.

  “You possessed our grandmother and made her do those terrible things to our mother?”

  It was Liam who spoke even as he picked up Florie and carried the little girl over to a car where he placed her tenderly on the hood. There was no where else to put her, but at least there she wouldn’t be in the way. Cameron noticed that neither Loki nor Thor had come into the circle of cars and he sincerely hoped that they were planning something. Loki should have been trying to open the way to the Between for Thor to then send the Gash back or destroy it utterly.

  “Yes, and I killed your father, too. I know you were wondering about that.” The Gash smiled almost fondly as if killing their father was a pleasant memory. “He was so brave, you know? He saw me in the store clerk. Saw me clear as day and understood what I was even though we’d never been formally introduced.”

  Cameron’s gaze flickered to his older brother. Liam had loved their father so deeply. They’d been the most alike. Strong and easy going yet with
a sense of justice and rightness that could be oppressive, because it made them have to act, to do the hard things that others wouldn’t or couldn’t do. And it would be so like their father in his last moments of life to have known the truth of the danger to the world that the Gash posed and to have tried to do something about it, while knowing, at the same time, that he wouldn’t be able to win.

  “You monster,” their mother hissed. Her hands had gone up the arm that held her and she clamped them around it. “You absolute monster.”

  “Yes, but at least I know what I am. I accept what I am. I don’t spend my whole existence trying to twist myself into knots to not be what I am. You did that to the point that you alienated the son that is most like you,” the Gash responded reasonably.

  Cameron saw the swirls of color appear more strongly on his mother’s forearms and he felt an answering call in his own.

  What if we could combine our powers somehow. If Liam or I try attacking with the Gash holding onto her, it’ll kill her. But if she and I could work together to bring the cold that the Gash hates so much then maybe she can be freed.

  Cameron realized then that he was hearing the buzz of chanting in the background. It was so soft that he was certain that no one else heard it. It was the chanting that Loki had done in the basement. They were getting ready to open the way to the Between. He had to get their mother away from the Gash.

  He met Mary’s eyes again and he tried to reach for her with his magic. He imagined it as a mental brush of minds. Nothing happened and then he felt a pulse from the dagger and he knew what to do.

  Our shared blood. That’s where the power is.

  Surreptitiously, he took out the dagger and moved it behind his back. He reached behind him with his other hand and placed the sharp blade against his palm. He braced himself as he cut across his palm. The pain was sharp and bright. He bit his inner cheek trying to not react to the cut and drew blood. The copper taste of blood was in his mouth and he felt its hot stickiness running between his fingers.

  He held the dagger behind him with both hands now and let the blood flow down over the blade. Then he tried reaching for Mary again.

  For a moment, nothing happened, but then he felt an electric spark between them and his magic surged up inside of him. Their mother felt it, too. She drew in a sharp breath and the swirls of blue and red on her forearms burned brighter. She then seemed to hold her breath as they both waited to see if the Gash noticed. It hadn’t and Liam started talking, distracting it more.

  “Why have you done all of this to our family?” Liam asked.. Cameron noted that he had picked up his hammer and lightning was crackling around the head of it again. His older brother was also slowly sidling around to the other side of the creature.

  “If you think that getting behind me will give you any advantage, I would tell you to stop wasting your time,” the Gash said, noticing the sidling, too, evidently.

  “Then don’t let it bother you,” Liam retorted, seemingly unconcerned at being spotted.

  As they talked, Cameron reach for his mother again with his magic and she surprised him by reaching back. It was such a surprise that he jerked his magic away from hers. There was this look on her face, disappointment, he realized. At first, he thought it was at him and he wanted to tell her that this wasn’t easy. That he didn’t know what he was doing. That this was the first time he was attempting this and why couldn’t she give him a break?

  Of course, as soon as he thought those things, he felt like a petulant child. They didn’t have time for him to gain his footing. He had to get it right, because there was simply no other option. But then he realized that it wasn’t him she was disappointed in, but herself. She thought that she was to blame. She believed the Gash’s words that she had pushed him away and now, when they needed that closeness between them, that trust, they weren’t able to connect.

  That’s exactly the kind of thing that I would think. It’s not true. Not like the Gash meant it. We’ve been apart, but we can be together. I love her. I — I trust her.

  He reached for her again. Hope sprang up in her eyes as their magic moved against one another, trying to find a hold in each other. If he could fully connect with her, he could show her how to fry the Gash. More than that, he could feed some of his energy through her so that they could really get the sucker.

  “Why have you focused on our family so much?” Liam repeated.

  “Because it was the only way to get the Aesir’s attention,” the Gash answered. “I want off of this realm. I want to go to other places, see other things, corrupt other beings. Humans are boring.”

  When the Gash said corrupt, Cameron imagined maggots burrowing into a wound. He swallowed convulsively, but kept his focus on his mother. He actually felt her trying to shield him from the Gash’s evil and that had his magic moving closer to hers. And that’s when it happened. It was like fingers lacing together. His blood seemed to grow hot as did the dagger.

  The Gash continued, “The Aesir must feel the same way, because they have not reached out to me to end this. But I knew when you were born that things were different. Loki was suddenly active and engaged. Yes, I knew that you were the keys and I was right! They are here! And I know their plans to send me away, but it won’t work. Because there is nothing that you can do to get with me unless you destroy Mary. And you won’t kill your own mother and neither will they —”

  “I’m not dying, you monster,” Mary snarled and Cameron smiled. They were ready. It was now or never. The dagger burned as the focal point of their connection. “You are.”

  Cameron sent his power through his mother, adding to hers. The runes and swirls appeared not just on his forearms, but on her face as well. They glowed so brightly that it obscured her features. The Gash screamed. It sounded like a thousand voices raised in agony.

  The Gash’s arm snapped away from Mary’s throat and his mother pitched forward, still glowing. Cameron lunged forward, caught her around the waist and pulled her to safety. As they touched, he realized that her palm was cut just like his and the blade from Hel glowed a sulfurous red.

  The cars that circled them suddenly flew back, tumbling end over end to reveal Loki and Thor just outside of the circle. Loki was on his knees before a massive portal. Thor was standing beside him, wreathed in lightning. Cameron saw that his older brother was as well. Thor and Liam were like twin bookends.

  “Liam,” Thor thundered. “Unleash the lightning!”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: THE STORM

  The Gash was between Liam and Thor. The hand the Gash had wound around Mary’s throat was smoking and blackened as if it had been roasting in an open fire. The Gash’s scream continued to echo in the air even as it started to curse them.

  “We have to weaken it with the lightning, Liam! And then we send it away!” Thor commanded.

  The Thunder God sent a lightning bolt directly at the creature’s chest. It lurched out of the way and the lightning came to Liam instead. He “caught” it with his own hammer. He immediately threw it at the Gash. Once more the creature tried to avoid it but Liam turned the bolt of lightning into a line of it that kept firing. His hand was rapidly growing numb and his arm shook as he kept up the steady pulses of magic. This line of lightning herded the Gash towards the center point between Thor and him again. When the Gash tried to escape the other way, Thor formed a line of lightning, too.

  “Bring the lines together!” Thor shouted.

  Liam grasped the handle of his hammer in both hands while Thor did the same. They swung the hammers so that both of them were aiming at the Gash’s center mass. The creature was hit with the bolts simultaneously and another scream rocketed out of it.

  The ground beneath Liam’s feet suddenly lifted up as if a massive creature had just woken from a nap. He went flying back. The lightning he wielded snapped wildly up into the air, striking Thor on the shoulder. He thought he hear the Thunder God let out a curse. Liam landed on his right hip and side. A cry of pain escaped his lips and he
lay there, stunned, for a moment.

  “No, you don’t!” Liam heard Cameron shout and then suddenly a dome of ice formed over all of them, trapping the Gash with them while the keeping the storm without. The eye of the storm that had settled over them earlier had started to dissipate and the scraping wind had started to batter them all.

  Lightning flew overhead as Thor sent more bolts at the Gash. Some of those bolts hit the dome, and shattered the ice, but it quickly reformed. Liam saw a hissing and spitting Gash backing away from one of the walls of ice. Cameron’s arms burned ice blue as did Mary’s. He and their mother were clasping hands and an icicle of blood hung down from their fingers.

  Liam lunged to his feet. His hammer had left his grasp and skittered away under the one remaining car that held Florie’s unconscious form. Liam started crab-walking over to it, under the waves of lightning that were coming from Thor’s hammer. It was then that Liam realized that he wasn’t the only one heading to the car. The Gash was going there, too, even as those waves of lightning struck it again and again.

  It’s going to use Florie as a shield!

  Liam raced towards the figure just as the Gash was at the car’s hood, reaching out for Florie’s unconscious body. He leaped and caught the Gash around the waist even as it turned towards him. He landed on top of it heavily.

  Liam nearly gagged as the smell of rot and unwashed flesh rolled over him. The Gash beat surprisingly strong hand down on his head and shoulders. Nails raked at his face and he felt hot blood spill down his cheeks, but he didn’t let go. Instead, he crawled up the Gash’s foul form and grasped hold of the thing’s neck. His powerful hands framed the scrawny throat.

  “Would you kill your own granny, Liam?” the Gash asked, black teeth flashing between lips that looked scabrous.

  “Absolutely.”

  And he meant it.

  This thing had destroyed his mother’s life - or had, at least, tried to. Only her strength had allowed her to come out of her childhood forged into harder steel. But that shouldn’t have been her history. She didn’t need to be made stronger by that kind of adversity. It had killed his father. It had taken him from Cameron. It had haunted his beloved little brother. It had destroyed countless lives. The Gash should never have been in this realm and he intended to send it back where it belonged.