To Vex A Valkyrie

by Jane Cousins

  Focused as she was, she didn’t dismiss the slight displacement of air to her left… there, she adjusted her course abruptly and hip checked the apprentice Enforcer, sending her flying sideways to land heavily in the soft dirt below. You snooze you lose, five more steps, three, one… the flag. Brodie raised it high, waving the flag in triumph above her head.

  She grinned, listening to the sound of clapping and whistles from the viewing gallery. Nice to know none of her earlier opponents held a grudge.

  Funny how winning this stupid flag, knowing she’d beaten sixteen highly trained magical skilled Enforcers today, gave her more satisfaction than the last couple of wins on the battlefield. All she needed to complete the moment was a prize for all her efforts.

  And just like that, her eyes locked on Fen, watching her from the gallery. An amused smile quirking up the edges of his lips, those cerulean eyes of his sparkling with humour. And the one word that leapt to Brodie’s mind was… Prize!

  Strange, when she looked at Fen, the same flutter of anticipation tickled her gut as when she had begun to run up the hill, headed for the flag one final time. She knew it was wrong to think of another human like that, but she… wanted him… purely on a physical level of course. Wanted to win him, own him… prize.

  She wanted to know what it would feel like to have his hands run over her body. Wanted to know if his lips would be soft or demanding. Couldn’t help but wonder what he would taste like. He wasn’t afraid of her, or intimidated by her… he had the temerity to say ‘no’ to her, for Freyja’s sake. When was the last time any man had said no to her? She didn’t like it, but she respected his wanting to stay true to his vow.

  Brodie shook off the feeling of possessiveness that stole over her when she looked at Fen. It was nothing more than the desire to win, to succeed, she assured herself. Once she had him… used him, for the required amount of time to have sex, then she would Portal directly to Valkyrie Headquarters and demand a new campaign assignment.

  Hmmm, but how much time would Fen require? With that solid, muscular frame, and clear shining vitality, the man was obviously fit. Would an hour be long enough? Two hours? Heat lanced through her lower body at the thought. A night then. To ensure she completely and thoroughly fulfilled Stephanie’s directive.

  Now she just had to work out how to convince him… no, that word felt too limp, too insipid. She would have to work out how to conquer him, yes, she liked that word a lot more.

  By the time she was under the shower in the change rooms, water pelting her hard, washing away blood, dirt and grime, Brodie recognised the rather large inescapable flaw in her plan. This wasn’t a battlefield. She had no training in the womanly arts.

  She had no skills in luring a man.

  Normally, when she was out celebrating with her fellow Valkyries, high on victory and bloodlust, and the mood came upon her, she would approach the nearest decent looking male, place him in a headlock and drag him off into a dark corner.

  Walking away ten minutes later, invariably vaguely dissatisfied by the encounter. Leaving the exhausted male in a dazed wreck, never even bothering to learn his name. She doubted very much that Fen would willingly allow her to place him in a headlock or drag him anywhere. Stubborn male.

  So, just how could she claim her prize?

  She could offer to kill someone for him. Though with his powers, she thought perhaps Fen could take care of his own enemies. Hmm, so if she could not fight his battles for him, what could she do?

  She couldn’t cook, had no interest in cleaning. Nor was she capable of mending his clothes. She could offer to train him in the use of a sword… but he appeared happy with his career choice. And he already had magical abilities as his weapon.

  Turning off the shower, Brodie snatched up a large fluffy towel and began drying off. Scooping up a dob of ointment from a large tub full of suspicious smelling bright blue slime, labelled burns. She smeared the goo across her upper arm where blisters bubbled, thanks to the earlier spray of acid she’d incurred. The instant cooling relief made up for the overpowering smell of roses mixed with pungent herbs.

  Perhaps she was going about this the wrong way. If Fen were a prize, and this was a true battle, how would she go about winning?

  She would be tenacious, relentless, she would utilise all of her talents. Study his weaknesses and his strengths.

  Huh, could the answer be that simple? She would get to know Fen… maybe she should start by asking what his last name was. Every Valkyrie instinct she had baulked at the idea. Getting to know a man? What a waste of time and energy.

  Bad enough she knew his first name.

  * * *

  Fen watched Brodie stride towards him, fresh from the shower. Her black hair, still damp, braided back in an intricate design, her cheeks were flushed and her eyes sparkled. She was dressed in a fitted maroon tank top and indecently tiny, navy shorts. Displaying those gorgeous legs off, bruises and all. The gold, lace up boots should have looked like overkill with that outfit, but Fen was beginning to realise that the boots were a part of who Brodie was. She had that whole – I am Valkyrie, hear me roar – thing going at a bone deep level.

  “Where is everyone?” Brodie looked around at the empty gallery.

  “Hospital.”

  Brodie felt hot colour flood her face… embarrassed? Her? “I… I may have been a little rough.”

  “You think?” Fen couldn’t help but laugh. “And I bet they loved every single second of it, the sick bastards.”

  “Sorry?” Brodie blinked, confused.

  “Elijah’s training philosophy is ‘no pain, no gain’. If he didn’t have to get his collarbone set he would be here now, pleading with you to come back tomorrow. What a bunch of masochists.”

  “Really?” Brodie flushed again, but this time in pleasure. It was good to know that she hadn’t been the only one having fun out there today.

  “Oh, yeah. I don’t think his phone has stopped ringing with challenges for you.” Fen read Brodie’s confused expression. “One of the guys was filming your bouts and posting them on the family intranet. Every Enforcer out there, including a few who have so-called retired, want a piece of the Valkyrie action.”

  “That’s very… nice of them. Are we talking many? Perhaps I could take them on en-mass and just get it over with?”

  “Whoa there, Xena. Even you can’t take on over a hundred and fifty Enforcers with magical abilities.”

  “A hundred and fifty? I hadn’t realised there was so many. Why weren’t they at training today?”

  “Most are working, or on assignment for Southern Royal Global, our security and investigation firm.” Fen gestured towards the exit, so Brodie began walking. “Elijah does all the schedule juggling.”

  “You know, you could be an Enforcer.” Yes, Fen would make a good one, skilled, brave, look at the way he’d barely blinked when he’d faced off against her last night.

  “No thanks. I’ve been on the Enforcer fast track, no way.”

  Brodie felt a tinge of disappointment, though she couldn’t say why. It’s not like she intended to introduce Fen to any of her friends. His being merely a fireman, when he had so much more potential, was not significant in regards to her plans to have sex with him. In the parking lot she blinked, surprised to find that the sun was sinking fast towards the horizon. “I hadn’t realised it was so late.”

  Fen pointed out where he’d parked the Chief’s truck. He’d borrowed it for the day, mainly in a passive aggressive way of punishing Pete for giving him Valkyrie protective duty. The all too tempting Valkyrie with the long, long legs and fantastic smile, that made his cock hard just remembering the way she’d grinned as she’d held the flag high in victory. “You hungry?” The words came out a little more gravelly than he intended.

  “Yes, starved.”

  “How about pizza at the Marina?” Fen could have kicked himself, why had he mentioned the restaurant at the Marina? Sunset, looking out over the ocean? It reeked romantic date location.
Damn it, he refused to over think this… what ever this was. They had the best pizza in town there, that was all, no ulterior motive.

  “I’d like that.” Brodie watched Fen drive. He did so with cool efficiency. Honestly, was there anything the man did that failed to ratchet up his already annoying attraction level? Well, besides turn down her offer of sex? She found herself frowning as she mulled over his vexing reaction to her offer.

  Which was why, when they were led to a secluded table on the balcony overlooking the shimmering blue ocean as it reflected the light of the sinking sun, the first words out of her mouth were. “Why did you turn down my offer of sex last night?”

  Fen coughed into his hand, thanking the Heavens that their waiter had disappeared inside to fetch two beers. “Excuse me?”

  “You never gave me a reason. Is it because you find me displeasing to the eye?” If that were the case, her battle to win him was over before it began.

  “No… you’re very… pleasing to the eye.” The woman was beautiful and that body… no, he wouldn’t think about her body.

  “Then I’m too tall?”

  “Brodie…” Fen looked up in relief as the waiter arrived with their beers, grabbing his and taking a big gulp. “You’d better bring me another. And we want the special pizza, make it an extra large.” Fen turned his attention back to Brodie. In the last light of day, the broken shards of blue in her eyes glittered with intensity.

  “Well?”

  Damn, she wasn’t going to let this go. Taking another swig of his beer, he drummed his fingers on the table. “About two years ago, the family match maker returned from a long sabbatical, and within weeks the dominos began to fall. Meld after meld. None of them were weak minded. They were happy with their lives, determined even, to stay single… and then bam, through a convoluted series of events… melded, married, case closed.”

  “You are frightened of this match maker?”

  “Alarmed. Seriously alarmed. Doubly so now that I can confirm my mother has been working in cahoots with Great-Aunt Alma, the match maker, to bring to heel first my sister, then my two brothers. You’d think three out of four would make them happy, but I saw the determined look in my mother’s eyes last week, when we were toasting the news that Hadleigh is procreating. She hasn’t given up.”

  “Hadleigh?”

  “My sister. You’d like her, she lives to behead the bad guys.”

  “She does sound like someone I would like to meet. I can understand your feelings… to lose two brothers like that.” Brodie unconsciously touched her heart and then her forehead in a gesture of respect. “But you are dead wrong if you believe I have any interest in being matched, married.” Brodie spat out the last two words with a clear revulsion that Fen could relate to.

  “I’m not accusing you of being in on it, believe me. But I can’t trust that you aren’t some how part of Alma’s master plan to see me melded. So, for the foreseeable future.” Man, it physically pained him to have say the word. “I am officially celibate.”

  Brodie drank down half her beer in one go. She could understand Fen’s reasoning, respect it even. But since it didn’t fit in with her plans of using him for sex and getting back to the battlefields, she intended to ignore it. No Valkyrie buckled at the first sign of an obstacle. A Valkyrie charged on, breaking, and tearing apart obstacles.

  But perhaps charging at Fen, treating him like a hill to be conquered was not the best strategy. Oh, she had no intention of being swayed from her path, she would sleep with Fen. She would quit this holiday and get back to business as usual, covering herself with glory and gore on the battlefields. But, perhaps stealth would be a more optimal approach.

  She wasn’t scared at hearing there was a manipulative match maker in the Sanctuary. She was immune to trickery, just as she was immune to romance, feelings, and the softer emotions. They were okay for others, but not for her.

  Brodie looked up, nodding acknowledgement as the waiter placed a massive pizza down in the middle of the table. Good, food. No battle was ever won on an empty stomach, and she was starving. But no reason she couldn’t multi task and begin her stealth campaign to conquer Fen.

  “I hear, understand, and respect your decision.”

  Fen relaxed, thank the Merciful Lady, if the Valkyrie stopped bringing up having sex every five minutes, maybe his cock would relax and give him a break.

  Time for her stealth plan to start, there was more than one way to get under a man’s skin. “So, who would you suggest I do have sex with? And if it isn’t too much trouble to ask, as my host, perhaps you could perform an introduction?”

  Chapter Six

  Fen was still angry forty minutes later as they exited the Marina Complex. The hot, churning feeling in his gut would not go away. Just who did Xena, Valkyrie Princess, think he was? A pimp? Introduce her to likely sexual partners?

  Shit, as if his current monk-like existence wasn’t killing him, Brodie intended to rub his nose in the fact.

  She’d wanted names, descriptions of their fighting capabilities, contact details. Plus his thoughts on whether the candidates could defeat her in a challenge. She was so bloody determined to get laid that he’d finally cracked and asked why. When she’d told him he’d nearly spat out a mouthful of pizza. A boss insisting you had sex to relax? Under normal circumstances that was a boss he would follow into battle. But, here? Now?

  All it did was saddle him with a Valkyrie determined to get laid as soon as possible so she could get back to the bloodshed.

  The woman was giving him a headache on top of the constant ache that had set up shop in the region of his groin for the last twenty-four hours. He should just sleep with the bloody Valkyrie, she’d be high tailing it off to the Fjornfiall fields before the sweat was dry on his body, never to be seen again.

  His gut clenched painfully in protest… hmmm, he clearly shouldn’t have had that last piece of pizza. Brodie leaving the Sanctuary was a great idea… in theory, but he still had a rock throwing, magical Firebug to apprehend. And Brodie was the key to making that happen.

  That was the only reason he wanted her to stay… official business, nothing more.

  Absently, Fen nodded at Aunt Meagan and Uncle Geoffrey, in the midst of saying their goodbyes to Gaia and her husband, Sergei. The foursome must have been upstairs celebrating Gaia’s happy news. After almost eighteen months of trying, Gaia was finally pregnant. The entire Sanctuary had breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing of the blessed event.

  Fen couldn’t help but note that the normally swarthy vital Sergei, Gaia’s husband, looked an exhausted wreck. Perhaps now Gaia would let the poor man take a break. Though, even by the dim car park lights, Fen could see Sergei’s gaze was fixated on the deep cleavage showcased by his wife’s low cut, fitted, gold top. Huh, maybe the man didn’t want a break.

  Gaia’s head snapped around, her big blue eyes narrowing for a moment. “Fen! Any news on Hadleigh’s due date?” The smile on her face at odds with the sharpness of her tone.

  No one had realised how competitive - seemingly easy going, earth loving, hippie - Gaia was, until she’d gotten married and decided she wanted to be the first amongst her peers to give birth.

  The road to getting that double blue strip had been fraught with tears, temper tantrums and desperation. Finding out she was pregnant the same day as Hadleigh, Fen’s sister, must have proven a brief, hollow victory.

  Fen wanted to empathise with Gaia. But his cousin’s fixation was impacting everyone around her. They walked on egg shells for fear of upsetting her, or kicking off a crying jag of epic proportions. Unfortunately for Gaia, tonight he was in no mood to coddle her.

  “Due date? Who knows with an immortal warrior type in the mix. Have you seen the size of Vaughn? It might take a couple of years, like an elephant gestating.” Fen watched Gaia’s expression lighten with delight, not so fast, Missy. “Or it might be super quick and take only a few months, you never know with magic in the mix.”

  Gaia’s expressi
on immediately darkened but she hung onto her smile through sheer force of will. “Yes… you never know.”

  They had only taken two steps past the group when Fen’s instincts took over. That whistling sound, getting closer, louder. Like a train coming into the station… or shit, a rock hurtling from the sky. A too bright streak of light illuminating the car park for a millionth of a second, before making contact with its target.

  “Get down!” The last syllable had barely left his mouth when the Chief’s SUV, that he’d parked at the far end of the third row, detonated like it had been hit by a bomb. Blasting out a shockwave of blistering heat, intent upon smashing everything and everyone in the immediate vicinity.

  Brodie was bemused at how quickly events had changed. One moment she was exiting the Marina Complex, feeling kind of smug. Reasonably sure by Fen’s increasing mono-syllabic responses at dinner that she was succeeding in getting under his skin.

  The next moment, she’s being thrown through the air, powerless to control her trajectory. This was going to hurt. The only question was, whether she’d be smashed up against a nearby car first, or whether gravity would just send her crashing to the hard pavement?

  Her cry of anger at feeling so helpless mixing and mingling with the shocked cries of the foursome who had been standing in the car park saying their farewells. No one would be walking away tonight without incurring damage.

  But then, just like that, a cushion of air engulfed Brodie, cradling her gently. Her backwards momentum ceased and she found herself lying on the ground. No impact. No jarring. Not even a little scrape. A split second later she was up and ready to face any attacker. The others were a lot slower to recover, helping one another to their feet.

  Brodie called Raven to her hand, the sword gleaming, reflecting the flicker of flames as she slowly scanned the immediate area, and the skies, for a sign of more incoming super heated rocks or, more importantly, who might be throwing them. Damn, nothing, just moonlight and a blanket of a thousand stars.