“Come in,” Diana said, making it sound less like an invitation and more like a command.
I followed Diana through her front door, pushing the dogs aside. As I walked into her living room, it occurred to me she’d probably killed all the taxidermied animals in her house, from the black bear by the fireplace to the cougar over the mantle.
“There’s pajamas on the couch,” Diana said. “And you’re welcome to use the shower.”
“Thanks,” I stammered.
“Tea?”
“Yeah, please.”
She left the room without another word. I picked up the blue moon and stars pajamas from the couch and wandered down the hall. Once I found the bathroom, I took a very hot shower and tried to forget everything that had just happened in Jake’s Bar N’ Grill. Once I’d washed my hair and pulled on pajamas, I felt slightly more normal.
Diana was in the living room, sitting with her legs crossed in an enormous recliner. Two of her hunting dogs curled at her feet. She looked cold and regal in the silver moonlight pouring through the windows.
“Your tea,” she said, gesturing to the coffee table.
“Thanks.” I sat down and wrapped my fingers around the steaming mug.
We sat in silence for a few minutes. An Northern saw-whet owl called outside the window, sounding small and lonely in the darkness. Diana scratched one of her dogs behind the ear.
“I’m sorry you had to be involved with this,” she finally said.
I wasn’t sure how to respond, so I turned to my tea. It smelled good, like honey and mint. I took a few sips, and exhaustion settled over my arms and legs. The owl called again. I let myself sink into Diana’s enormous couch. It felt very welcoming.
“Time for bed,” Diana said. “He’ll be waiting.”
“Who?” I asked, blinking slowly. My eyelids felt very heavy. “Who’s waiting?”
Diana smiled at me. It was disconcertingly similar to the smile she’d given the dog when she scratched its ear. “Sleep well.”
With that, she left the room, her dogs trotting after her. I lay down and pulled a blanket over the couch, trying to relax. Diana’s living room was not exactly calming. The pale moonlight cast strange shadows over her taxidermied animals, making it look like the black bear’s head tilted at a slightly different angle every time my eyes wandered. And I could have sworn the mountain lion blinked at me. I shivered, telling myself sleep may just be impossible tonight.
And then I fell asleep.
SUNLIGHT DANCED ACROSS the nodding heads of grass and the delicate green aspen leaves, filling me with a wave of relief so strong it was almost ecstatic.
“Dreaming,” I whispered. “I’m here. Dreaming.”
I stepped forward and the aspen trees parted around me. A few more steps and I could see Vali, standing in our meadow.
I paused, frowning. Vali wore clothes, something dark and tight across his back and rear. Heat surged through my core as I stared at his backside, realizing exactly how tight those black pants were. Damn, he looked good dressed. I took another step, leaving the protection of the trees.
My heart plunged.
Someone else was in our meadow. With Vali. Someone tall and proud and beautiful, wearing a delicate blue dress.
“Diana?” I said.
Vali turned, a smile rippling across his face. “Karen!” he called.
I stumbled backward, into the shade of the aspen grove, my eyes stinging. He’s wasn’t alone. The realization burned. My vision blurred with tears as Vali’s warm hands wrapped around my shoulders, his smell enveloping me.
“Are you well?” he asked. “I’m sorry, the last time I saw you, I was—”
“Don’t!” I pulled out of his arms and pressed my hands to my eyes, trying to hide the tears. “Don’t start. I just came here to warn you. Your...Loki is here. He’s looking for you.”
“Karen, I know. Diana told me.”
I took a deep breath, but I couldn’t quite force myself to open my eyes. Diana. Diana and Vali. Of course she’s protecting him. They’re lovers.
I’ve been such an idiot.
“Then I guess Diana’s got everything you need,” I snapped through gritted teeth.
His hand brushed my arm again, and I backed away. “I’m done!” I yelled. “I’m done here. I’m ready to wake the fuck up!”
“Karen, wait—”
But the aspen grove was already vanishing before me.
I gasped and sat up on the couch, facing the black bear in Diana’s living room. His wide mouth was fixed open in a permanent grin; it looked like the old stuffed bastard was laughing at me. I wiped away my tears, furious with myself.
“He even told me,” I hissed to the bear. “Vali said I wasn’t the first to find him in dreams.”
The bear grinned at my stupidity, and my heart ached. Of course Vali had other lovers. His father was a god, for fuck’s sake. No wonder Vali had the body of a god. My stomach clenched violently and I pressed my hands to my eyes, trying to stop the new tears. Thinking about Vali’s body was not a good idea right now.
The hallway flooded with yellow light.
“Karen?” Diana called.
I took a deep breath and briefly considered ignoring her. Then I considered punching her as hard as I could in her beautiful face.
“I’m here.” My voice trembled far more than I’d have liked.
Diana stepped into the living room, followed by an undulating cloud of wagging tails and long, pink tongues. She looked strange in the low, blue light. In fact, she looked exactly the same as she’d looked in the dream. She was even wearing the same bizarre, shimmery dress.
“You really don’t know much about mythology, do you?” she said, offering me a steaming mug.
“Excuse me?”
This was so far from what I expected her to say that I froze, forgetting to take the mug from her hands. After a moment she set it down on the coffee table and sank into the chair opposite me, crossing her legs in front of her like a closed gate.
“I have no lovers,” she said. “Well, no male lovers, at least. And I kill those who try. So, even if Vali were so inclined, I dare say he’d know better.”
I stared at her in the thin blue light, unsure how to respond. She gazed absently out the window to the dark, snow-covered forest. One of the dogs let out a long sigh, and she reached down to pat its head.
“Anyway,” she said, “Vali, son of Loki, is yours alone.”
“Really?” I squeaked.
“Really. And I have to say, you are rather appealing. If you ever change your mind about Vali...” Her voice trailed off and she gave me a slow smile.
I blinked. Did a Greek goddess just hit on me?
“Damn!” Diana yelled, slamming her mug down on the table. She exploded to her feet, the dogs howling around her. “Oh, that lying sack of shit!”
“What?” I asked. “What happened?”
“That bastard!” she hissed. “I know how to cover my tracks. But you—” Diana stared at me as if she’d never seen me before. “Of course! You and your little emotional outburst in Morpheus’s realm. And Vali’s reaction. By all the gods of fucking Olympus, we might as well have lit a signal fire for him.”
“For who?” Fear coalesced in my stomach like a cold, hard stone.
“Loki’s found him,” Diana said. “Loki’s got Vali.”
My heartbeat surged. “What? How?”
“Through you, damn it. Loki must have tracked you through your dreams and used Vali’s little emotional outburst to find his physical location. And now Loki’s got him. Loki’s finally trapped him.”
My stunned brain snagged on something she said. “Vali had an emotional outburst?”
Diana ignored me. “Get your boots. I may be able to use you.”
I jammed my feet into my duck boots and stood up, not bothering to lace them. “What can we do?”
Diana barely looked at me when she grabbed my arm. The room spun—
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
<
br /> —And I was suddenly very cold.
Diana and I were outside, in a great, moonlit field. The air was very still, and the snow glowed with a silver light that shivered and undulated like a mirage. The cold air cut through my pajamas and stung my nostrils, making it hurt to breathe. My skin tingled all over. Something tall loomed before us, a blinding tower of snowflakes. It looked almost like a snow devil, those little tornados that sometimes flickered across the plains.
But it’s wasn’t moving.
“Lie-Smith,” yelled Diana, her voice hard and cold. “I will kill you.”
I turned. Diana stood next to me, her arms outstretched. She held a pistol with both hands. I followed the barrel of her pistol to see where she was aiming.
Loki.
He stood before the snow devil in his black suit, his flaming hair streaking out behind him. No, he wasn’t exactly standing. He was staggering. His arms stretched in front of his body, with his palms facing the column of frozen, crystalline flakes. He looked very pale; a trickle of blood flowed out of the corner of his mouth.
He ignored us completely.
“Shit,” Diana muttered.
A shiver of fear traveled along my back as I turned from Loki to the tower of snow crystals. Each flake held perfectly still, as if an entire storm were trapped between sheets of glass. And there was something inside. Something dark twisted and writhed within the column of snow. The flakes sparkled cold and hard in the moonlight as the dark shape whirled inside them, but they did not move.
The clearing filled with a harsh, animal cry, and I turned to see Loki falling to his hands and knees. The snow tower collapsed with him, sending a gust of crystal flakes dancing across my boots. The strange silver light vanished from the snow, and the moonlight grew colder. Loki’s shoulders heaved as he spat blood onto the snow.
“Shit!” Diana yelled.
I looked up.
Vali stood in the middle of the field.
He was completely naked, with his arms crossed over his muscular chest and his bare feet planted in the snow. Loki’s rasping breath echoed across the snow as he climbed to his feet. The air felt thick and heavy, like a thunderstorm, as the two men faced each other.
“Father,” Vali said, his voice cold.
Loki smiled. Blood leaked from his mouth and dripped down his chin. “Come with me,” he said.
“To stand in judgement for my crimes?” Vali asked.
Loki shook his head, still smiling. “No. No judgement. Just come home.”
“You expect me to believe you?”
“I could force you,” Loki said.
“Could you?” Vali asked, tilting his head at Loki.
Loki raised his hands, his palms facing Vali. A booming, echoing explosion ripped through the still air, and Loki collapsed against the snow.
“GO!” Diana yelled. Her gun still pointed at Loki. A thin trail of smoke rose from its barrel.
“Holy fuck,” I whispered, staring at the crumpled mess of Loki’s body on the snow. A dark stain radiated from his shoulder and crept slowly across the moonlit snow.
Snow crunched behind me. Vali, I thought, my mind spinning. Vali’s naked. In the snow.
“Vali!” I yelled. He was almost to the trees, and he didn’t look back.
“Diana!” I turned to her, screaming. “Vali, he’s naked! He’s naked in the snow!”
Diana walked past me without saying anything. Loki struggled to his feet, one hand clenched around his shoulder. Blood oozed between his pale fingers. They glared at each other. She did not lower her gun.
“Hello!” I yelled. “Vali is naked! He’s naked! He’ll freeze to death!”
Loki and Diana both ignored me. Oh, fuck, I thought. Oh, fuck.
I turned and started to run.
IT WAS EASY TO FOLLOW Vali’s footsteps across the frozen field. I sprinted after his tracks, the frozen air burning as I pulled it into my lungs. His footsteps turned once I reached the trees, and I followed. The snow was spotty on the frozen ground beneath the dark lodgepoles. Vali’s tracks wove in and out of deep shadows.
“Vali?” I called, slowing to a trot.
My voice echoed strangely in the still, moonlit air, and the shivers in my arms and legs became violent tremors I struggled to control. Rubbing my hands over my thin cotton pajama top, I turned in a slow circle, searching for Vali’s footprints.
I didn’t see anything. My teeth began to chatter, and I crossed my arms over my chest. If I could just find my own footprints, I could backtrack until my trail met up with Vali’s.
I turned in another circle. The trees were thick here, and there was hardly any snow. I didn’t see anything that looked like a footprint. Or rather, everything looked like a footprint in the strange, stark moon-shadows.
“S-shit,” I whispered, my teeth clanking together as my muscles contracted violently in an attempt to generate heat.
I took a few deep breaths and tried to think rationally. I was wearing pajamas. I didn’t have a jacket. I didn’t have a compass, or matches, or a map. I didn’t even have a warm hat.
And I didn’t know where the fuck I was.
“D-d-don’t panic, K-Karen,” I said, wishing my voice didn’t echo so strangely across the frozen ground. “Just stay w-warm. Stay m-m-moving. You might get f-frostbite, but you can s-s-survive frostbite.”
My hands already felt numb as I curled them around my shivering arms and started to walk toward the most familiar looking clump of trees, scanning the ground for any hint of human tracks. Or not-so-human tracks.
After a lot of staggering, I cleared the lodgepole pines and headed in what I desperately hoped was the right direction. I scanned the forest floor, but a thin scrim of clouds drifted in front of the moon, and my shivering was so violent my vision jumped and trembled. Everything on the ground was a blur, a great gray and white blur.
“D-doesn’t m-m-matter,” I said. “Just k-keep m-moving.”
The ground tipped under my feet, and I found myself walking between sparse, snow-covered aspen. Moonlight gleamed off the fresh, trackless snow; it was beautiful and strangely peaceful. My shivering slowed and finally stopped, thank God. But then my body grew funny, and it was strangely hard to lift my legs.
“Dumb legs,” I muttered to myself.
My voice sounded ridiculous, slurred and low, almost like I was drunk. Drunk in the snow. Funny. I started to giggle, weaving stupidly in and out of the trees. My giggles turned into laughs, making it even harder to move my dumb legs. A moment later the ground rushed up to meet me, and I got snow in my face.
It was warm. Warm snow.
I stretched out, spreading my arms through the magically warm snow. It was as welcoming as a feather bed. God, I was tired. I tried to remember what I was doing out here in the first place and drew a blank. It wouldn’t hurt to close my eyes for a second, I decided. Just a second.
I into the snow, sighing in pleasure.
“Karen!”
Someone was calling my name. Some distant, male voice. I smiled. It was a nice voice. I should open my eyes for him, I thought, but it was too much effort.
SHIVERING WOKE ME. My entire body was shaking, jolting my head and forcing my eyes open. I blinked at the sudden rush of heat and light. I was staring at an enormous fire in a dark forest, with something soft and heavy over my legs and strong arms wrapped around my waist.
“Shhhhh, you’re fine. You’re safe.”
“W-What?” I said.
Soft lips traced the back of my neck, and Vali’s scent enveloped me. Warmth and sweetness.
“Karen,” Vali whispered. His breath felt hot against my neck. “I asked you to leave. To go somewhere safe.”
“I c-can’t leave,” I stammered. “I s-s-study the—“
“Wolves. I know.” His voice was hardy more than a whisper. “But the wolves are leaving.”
My body convulsed with shivers so violent my vision blurred. Vali’s arms tightened around my abdomen.
“That’s n
ormal,” Vali said. “Your body’s warming up. You won’t shiver much longer.”
I nodded, not quite able to speak. I was covered in a dark fur, leaning against Vali’s chest with his legs wrapped around mine. We were inches from a roaring fire. The flames danced hypnotically, and I found it impossible to tear my eyes away from them. I didn’t think I’d ever seen anything so beautiful.
He kissed the back of my neck again. “What in the Nine Realms were you doing out here?”
“You w-were n-n-naked,” I stammered.
He laughed softly. “Did you come to rescue me? You have that little faith in me?”
“N-No.” I shook my head, trying to pull my thoughts together. Between the dancing flames of the fire and the heat of Vali’s body, it was hard to focus. I grabbed at the soft furs around my body. “Where did t-this come f-from?”
“I’ve forgotten,” he said, his voice soft against my neck. “It’s been so long since I had a lover. Karen, any Æsir can pull a few items through the aether, weapons or clothes. Most of them can even travel that way.” He sighed. “Not me, of course.”
I didn’t understand, but I was far too tired to care. I closed my eyes, leaning against the solid warmth of Vali’s body. An image flashed through my mind, making me flinch. Loki, crumpled in the blood-stained snow.
“Oh! Vali, your dad! I think...I think Diana killed him.”
Vali laughed again. This time there was no warmth in it. “No. He’ll be fine, believe me. He’s seen far worse.”
Vali fell silent, and the flames in front of me caught my attention again. My mind drifted as I watched their scarlet and vermillion dance, heat and light coming together and falling apart, blending and fading and sending sparks to the heavens.
The Wolf's Lover_An Urban Fantasy Romance Page 11