She crept closer and knelt on the carpet, reaching up to touch the ends of his hair that hung over the sofa. A grey-tipped ear poked out of the silver strands. It twitched as Ella watched. With his narrow face and hooded eyes, he looked like an arctic fox.
Well, hello, eye-candy.
He smelled of strong male, musky and sharp. The scars on his broad back caught the light. She’d never had the time to study them like this before. They were shiny and flat like shards of a mirror, most of them concentrated on his lower back, dipping below his waistband. Thinner, longer ones ran parallel to his spine. What could have caused them?
Finn grimaced in his sleep and his eyes opened, dazed. He blinked slowly, and she smiled, leaning even closer, until their noses almost touched.
“Hey. Did I wake you?” She was surprised he’d slept through her conversation with Dave and her opening of the door. “I was looking at the scars on your back. What made those?”
Finn lifted a hand to touch her chin, then her mouth. His eyes were half-lidded. “Asmodr,” he whispered.
Ella froze. “Who’s Asmodr, Finn?”
“Commander.” Finn’s hand dipped and his eyes closed, his breathing evening out once more in sleep. “Aesir commander.”
Her breath caught. “What did he do to you?”
“Mmm.” Finn shifted on the sofa, turning on his back. Then his eyes snapped open, finally clear. “What?”
Would it matter if Dave listened in, if he found out about Finn’s past along with her? “How did this Aesir commander get his hands on you?” she asked.
The blood drained from Finn’s face. “I don’t... don’t remember.” He sat up, swung his legs off the couch and scrubbed a hand over his face. The long scar on his chest looked dark and angry, fresh somehow, although she knew it to be old.
“Try. Did the Aesir form an alliance with the Dark Elves?” The book had implied that, but not said it outright.
“Yes.” Finn put his hand down. “In the past. In the war against the Vanir.”
“And now?”
Finn shook his head, frowning.
“What’s the deal with the Aesir anyway? They look like a cross between a dog and a human, but they glow like fire. What can they do? Why do they call them ‘gods’?”
“Gods?” Finn scowled.
“Do they have magic?”
“They sprang from the race of the Vanir,” Finn whispered. Not an answer to her question, but information anyway. “The Vanir have magic, and they allied themselves to the Joettnar, the Sorcerer Giants, and the Ettin, the Fire Demons. Which is why the Aesir came looking for us. They needed our magic. But we were defeated and controlled by the Dokkaelfar, who accepted the challenge.”
Whoa. Ella resisted the urge to touch Finn’s brow, check if he ran a temperature. She couldn’t remember the last time he’d talked so much in one go.
“The Aesir are said to have the gift of madness,” Finn said. “Odr. The Divine Madness.”
“Crazy gods.” Ella chewed on the inside of her cheek. She thought of something he’d said after one of his nightmares. “And the spider?”
“Lokke. The Weaver.” Finn shivered.
Weaver. He’d asked Sarah to look up this person. “Why’s the Weaver important?”
He shook his head, his mouth tight. “The Veil is a textile.”
“Yeah, Dave said so. Those golden threads I keep seeing. And you can control them, right?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” She reached up and stroked his chin. “Try me.”
Finn flashed her a crooked smile. “Legend says the world is a frame. Where you create textiles.”
“A loom?”
“A loom. A person from each of the nine worlds has a power to affect the threads. John Grey is important because he controls the threads that can be moved.”
“The weft?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know who else controls what. But the Weaver, he controls the frame.”
Why did that sound like bad news? “Controls the loom, huh?” She wondered what that might mean. “And the Weaver comes from...?”
Finn shook his head.
Right. Okay. An Aesir commander, a who-knows-what weaver, an Aelfr John Grey, and she was... What? The warp? The shuttle? The pedal, or whatever it was looms had?
Or was that pianos?
God she wished Sarah had found out something. She hadn’t called or reported anything since their meeting at the gym.
“All right, so, recap.” Ella waved her hand back and forth. “The Dark Elves fought on the Aesir side and won the battle against the Vanir, the Ettin and the Joettnar.” And you have memories of an Aesir commander torturing you in a dark cave. “The Weaver is a VIP and nobody knows who he or she is. The Aesir are some crazy bastards, their madness being their gift from heaven.”
Wait, that sounded odd.
A ghost of a smile touched Finn’s lips.
“Anyhow.” She couldn’t help smiling back. Dammit, all these bits and pieces of information with no real answers were driving her up the wall. With a sigh she got up. “I’m afraid we have to go. Dave called. Oh and dress warmly. It might snow.”
Chapter Four
Wings
Not a rooftop. Well, that was something, at least, Ella thought, getting out of the car and checking her gun. Which meant this probably wasn’t the dragon.
Was this good or bad news? No idea, but she glanced over at Finn who limped across the half-empty supermarket parking lot, checking he had his Kevlar jacket on.
Check.
If it was another trap by whoever wanted to take them out, they were as prepared as they could be.
Still, the idea turned her blood to ice. No tall buildings around, but there was a construction site. A sniper could just as easily hide there.
She reached up, placed her hand over the fading bruise right below her collarbone where the bullet had hit her, and opened her mouth to shout at Finn not to stand out in the open, to take cover.
Finn vanished behind a wooden fence with a sign that said ‘underground parking garage’.
Shit. She hurried between the parked cars and ducked behind the fence, catching sight of him crouched beside an empty kiosk that apparently sold snacks in summer time.
“Found something?”
A fluorescent tube was nailed over the door of the kiosk and the harsh light turned Finn’s hair into tinsel. He turned to face her, brows drawn together, his mouth a flat line.
Uh-oh. Bad news.
A few more steps and she saw white feathers. A huge wing and she didn’t think an angel had dropped from the sky. Hell, it wasn’t even Christmas yet.
Dragon. She holstered her gun and crouched next to Finn, gazing at the point where the wing had been cut, bone glimmering white in the crimson flesh, the pool of blood, a little paler than what she was used to seeing. She leaned against him to whisper in his ear.
“Not your dragon, right?”
Finn shook his head.
A Gate, then. Looked like it had opened very briefly, clipping this dragon’s wing, but it was the first they had found in weeks. Dammit. No wonder Finn looked like he’d swallowed something foul.
What to do? They couldn’t just leave it there like that. Burn it, perhaps?
A stray dog approached lazily, sniffing at the air. Scenting the blood. It was a mongrel, a cross between a Doberman and a Sheepdog. Another dog followed in its tracks, smaller, a patchwork of black and white.
Without a word, Ella drew a knife and started cutting up the wing. She couldn’t cut through the bone, but she opened up new wounds, letting the blood flow.
Finn lifted a brow.
The dogs, though, got the message. Warily they approached and started gnawing at the wing. Soon more dogs gathered.
Finn shook his head, a corner of his mouth twitching up. The dogs would make noise, but it was late and hopefully the animals would have enough time before morning to make it unrecognizable.
Finn braced himself against the kiosk wall and rose to give her a hand up. She let him haul her to her feet and casually threw an arm around his waist to help him walk back to the car.
He was doing much better. She’d buy Darla extra chocolate chip cookies if he continued improving, and that would be something as Ella tended to finish off chocolate chip cookies before she even left the bakery.
She called Dave as they came in sight of their car. “Hey, boss. False alarm. Couldn’t find anything suspicious. Many stray dogs, though.”
“Are you sure?” Dave sounded skeptical. “Nothing out of place?”
“Nope, nothing. We’re heading home to crash. It’s late.”
“Roger that. Be careful.”
An odd note in his voice made her pause and glance around the empty street. “We are. Any progress on our sniper?”
“No, but I have suspicion on who’s behind this. We need to talk in private.”
She frowned. “Want us to come in now?”
“Might be a good idea.”
“Okay then.” She disconnected the call, gave Finn the car keys and slowed down.
He gave her a questioning look but set off toward the car.
Ella turned in a circle, checking for any suspicious glints off metal from the buildings in the distance. They were in the suburbs and the area around the supermarket had an empty, abandoned look. A half-built store loomed to her left.
Finn was limping toward the car, a shadow against the overcast sky. Their car was the only one stationed outside the parking lot. The street lamps cast yellow pools on the asphalt. He walked out of the gate and onto the street, then paused and turned toward her, waiting.
Everything was quiet. Relax. She took a step forward and stopped, because the air behind Finn shifted; something was forming.
Ella’s breath caught. She drew one of her knives. She’d fought Shades for so long she had no doubt it was a rip in the Veil — and something was about to emerge like a moth from its cocoon.
A hulking shadow flickered behind Finn, something huge, easily twice his size, its body shimmering like a flame. Wings of fire branched over its elongated head, and was that a tail swishing behind?
“Finn!” She broke into a run, weighing the knife for a throw.
Long golden claws extended, reaching for Finn’s head. What the fuck? There had been no threads, no clicking, and damn, she’d never seen anything that big spring from the Veil before.
Finn drew his knives and turned, but the creature swept him easily aside, throwing him against the car. He slid down, looking dazed.
Fuck. She pulled back her hand and threw her knife. The blade struck the giant creature square in its bright chest and Ella stumbled to a stop, readying her second knife, waiting for the Shade to vanish.
It didn’t.
Finn came back at it, but before he scored a hit, long claws swiped at him, forcing him to fall flat on his belly.
He rolled and twisted into a crouch, his long blades glinting. The creature raised a hand and a long blade of burning fire sprang from its palm. It brought it down and Finn raised his knives over his head, crossing them. Fire and steel met with a jarring screek, like chalk scratched across a board. Sparks jumped.
The fiend from hell bent over, pressing down, leering over Finn’s head, a long tongue of flame lolling out of its mouth. As Finn’s arms started to tremble, Ella prepared to launch her knife, hoping a second hit might sent the hulk where it came from.
She froze. Oh shit. Another giant was forming behind, just as big and ugly. The cloning sequence from hell.
“Dammit.” Ella took off toward the new arrival, trusting Finn to keep it up for a moment longer. Its outline was still blurry, its flesh shimmering as it solidified. She didn’t give it time to get its bearings: her blade struck it in the leg. Ducking under a swinging fist, she grabbed the handle and pulled, freeing her knife. She swept it in an arc, slicing off the Shade’s leg, and it hissed, going down on the asphalt with a thump.
Turning with the momentum, she cut through the other Shade’s arm, then swept her blade down, striking a massive leg.
A roar and a wave of heat and blinding light washed over her.
Ella dropped to her knees, covering her face with her arm as the air ignited and the creatures exploded into flame.
***
The ringing in Ella’s ears went on and on as Finn helped her up. What a sucky night. Her hands hurt. Burns. At last the stars cleared from her eyes and she managed to retrieve her knives — blackened and their blades twisted from the heat.
“Ugh.” She let Finn drag her to the car, stumbling as she went. “What the hell were those things?”
“Ettin,” Finn muttered, his head bowed, his grip on her arm bruising as he hauled her along. “Fire Jotunn.” And then a string of sibilant words she couldn’t make out.
Or were her ears still ringing?
“Hey, Finn. Can you slow down?”
He apparently couldn’t — slow down, or hear her. He opened the passenger door and pushed her inside. She landed in her seat with a startled yelp.
He dropped to a crouch at her feet and caught her chin in his rough fingertips, checking her face. “Where’s the medic-kit?”
She blinked. One-handed she fished under the seat and pulled out the green box. Was Finn hurt? He had a black streak on one cheek but didn’t seem to be bleeding.
Finn grabbed the kit and glanced inside. Then he grabbed the neckline of Ella’s blouse and ripped it open.
“The hell, Finn?”
Scowling, he grabbed a pad from the kit, tore the package open with his teeth and slapped it on Ella’s shoulder.
“Ow!” Spikes of pain went through her collarbone. She was the one hurt? How had she missed that important detail? “What happened?”
“Your knife,” Finn said through gritted teeth, unrolling gauze and winding it around her arm and torso to keep the pad in place. “You stuck it in the Ettin. When it exploded, the knife flew out and cut you.”
Nearly beheading her. Damn. Ella swallowed hard. “And an Ettin is...?” She felt she knew the word but her brain felt fuzzier than a cotton ball.
Finn lifted her arm, running his hands over it, then down her side. God, the cut hurt. “Fire giants. Living in Musspelheim. Dangerous.” He tucked her feet inside the car, as if she were an invalid, and she was too distracted by the information he was reluctantly offering to care.
She put a hand over the bandage, pressing, and winced. He’d mentioned these Ettin before, she remembered now. Fire demons. “I’ve never seen one come through the Veil before.”
Finn shook his head, his eyes distant. “That’s because they never have.”
Ella frowned. “What do you mean?”
Finn stood, braced on the car frame. He wiped the back of his hand over his eyes. “When the Aesir won the war over the Vanir and the giants, they isolated their worlds: Vanaheim, Jotunnheim and Musspelheim. Cut them off from all other worlds, shut them out of the Veil.”
“An embargo.” Ella snorted. “Wait a sec. The Aesir cast such a spell, imprisoning whole worlds? I thought the Aesir had no magic and that only the Weaver could do such a thing?”
“It was the Dokkaelfar,” Finn whispered. “They found a way.” Then he shut his mouth with a snap and glared, as if pissed at himself for saying that much.
The Dark Elves seemed to be behind every major recent change in the Nine Worlds. They had magic and strong allies and were on the victors’ side. It was almost as if they were controlling the whole universe. Which was ridiculous.
Okay, scratch that. It was damn frightening.
Ella stared at him. “So the Ettin, these fucking giant things that have flaming horns and tongues of fire — not to mention that they explode when cut — never crossed the Veil because they were prisoners in their world. With spells so strong they can’t even get caught in the Veil like everyone else. But now they’re here, taking the job over from the little kobolds and goblins we�
��ve grown to know and love. Which means?”
Finn was still for several heartbeats, the only movement the rise and fall of his chest. Then he stepped back and closed the door. He slid into the driver’s seat and revved the engine. “We need to go.”
Right, but... “Finn.” Ella licked her lips. “Do you even have a driver’s license?”
“I can drive,” Finn said. “You’re hurt.” And he floored it.
***
“That was a red traffic light,” Ella said, not for the first time. “Slow down. Have you got fire ants up your pants?”
“I’m taking you to the hospital by the HQ.”
“What? Why?”
“You’re bleeding.”
Oh. She squinted at the crimson stain on her bandaged shoulder, and now she paid it attention, the pain flared. “It’s not bad. You did a good job patching me up.”
Finn grunted but slowed down — finally. It had been a mad race from the suburbs to the town center and Ella wasn’t sure anymore if she was dizzy from the explosion of the hellish fiends, blood loss or the ungodly speed.
He did know how to drive, though. “Who taught you driving?” she muttered, leaning her head back, fighting the overwhelming urge to close her eyes and stop thinking.
“Norma.”
“Really?” They were approaching headquarters and Ella reluctantly sat up and tried to remember where she’d put her knives. Ah, they lay by her feet. Finn must have put them there. She fought with her safety belt, finally managing to unlatch the damn thing.
Finn sent her a sideways glance, lips compressed in a flat line.
What? Ella bent to gather her knives and ow, her shoulder hurt. Black spots danced across her vision. The knives slid out of her hands. Slippery bastards.
“How’s Norma doing?” Norma’s weak heart had almost given out during the police chase a month back. Mike had undertaken to check on her for Finn and take him to see her as often as he could. “Mike says she was released from intensive care.”
Boreal and John Grey Season 2 Page 11