by Ken Lange
He swallows hard. “Fine. What do you want from me?”
“I’ve told you already. Where’s Ethan?” I give him a dismissive gesture. “You want the cure, I want Ethan. It’s a simple trade.”
His gaze flickers down to my pocket. “I’m not denying my responsibility in your man’s death, but you should know that wasn’t part of the plan.”
I arch an eyebrow. “Oh? Just what was the plan and why does Ethan suddenly want me dead?”
He winces in pain as he tries to focus on me. “The little runt was supposed to test your defenses. You’d killed several powerful wraiths across the lake, and Ethan wanted to know how you did it. That was supposed to be it. But Leonard brought an entire raiding party and from what I was told, Geanann stumbled into them. That’s when things changed, and Ethan killed him. I wasn’t there so I can’t be sure that’s how things went down, but he has no reason to lie to me.”
Pulling air in through my teeth, I ask, “And?”
The Baron sits up and sweat pours down his face. “When he found out you’d freed the Loki and killed Katherine, he went insane. He started screaming about how you’d defeated the mad god and how you were a threat to his plans.”
There’s that fucking mad god again. Could they be referring to Kvasir? My mind starts to wander down that path and I have to force myself back on topic. That’s a question to be answered later. “Are you sure you don’t know where Ethan is?” I pat my pocket again. “Your suffering can end in a matter of seconds if you just tell me.”
He tries to pull himself up to his feet, but he doesn’t have the strength. “On any other day, I’d rip your head off and take it for myself.”
I smile. “But today is not that day. It seems to me you’ve got to make a decision. And quickly.”
He falls back in his seat. “I really don’t know where he is. What I do know is where you can find the information you seek.”
I smile. “That’ll work.”
He holds out his hand. “Give me the antidote, and I’ll tell you.”
Laughing, I say, “Jesus, you really do think I’m that stupid.” I shake my head. “Either cough up the information or I’m going to have my people come strap you down and see just how long we can keep you alive.”
Anger courses through his voice. “Fuck you, Viktor.”
I’m across the distance in an instant. My tone turns hard when I place the barrel of the gun against his knee. “I wonder if this will kill you outright or just make things worse.”
The fire in his eyes burns out. “Fine… All I know is one of his trusted lieutenants—Robert something or another—lives in his house in Old Metairie.”
I blink. “Robert Boudreaux?”
He gives me a curt nod. “Yes. He’ll know where Ethan is staying…I swear. Now give me the cure.”
I reach in my pocket, pop one of the tainted bullets out of the spare clip, and slam it into his mouth. “This will end your suffering. I promise.”
Clamping my hand over his mouth, I hold his nose closed until he swallows it. Seconds later, he’s shaking, foaming at the mouth. Not long after, his life force slowly fades away until there’s nothing left but a corpse.
I hadn’t lied.
It did cure him of all his ills.
If he goes to the next life and suffers, that’s entirely due to the poor choices he made in this one. While this won’t bring Geanann back, it will help balance the scales.
And don’t think for a moment I’m done collecting my pound of flesh.
Chapter 23
My dreams are filled with faint images of worlds I’ve never seen. . It’s as if I’m falling through space and time, catching glimpses of what came before. There are whispers in the darkness, calling out to the mad god.
There’s a pause in my descent. Kvasir is standing on the precipice of what is and what could be. He’s lived too long, and the stars have begun to die. He’s traveled from one end of the universe to the other and there isn’t another living being aside from himself.
Loneliness washes over me and my heart breaks for the man. It’s impossible to know just how long he’s been on his own, but he’s watched stars be born and burn out since his last encounter with another sentient being.
He falls to his knees, looking into the void, weeping as despair takes hold. Eventually, the tears stop. There’s nothing left inside him. But in that moment, billions of voices whisper out in the distance.
This is it; his mind has broken. But he keeps listening, and they keep speaking.
Focusing the same will that’d brought this universe into being, he reaches out to uncover the origin of the voices. Time passes, more stars go to their deaths, and he continues to search. Then he finds the source. Sources. Seven of them. With a wave of his hand, the veil is parted, and he senses two powerful minds, Heidr of the Álfheimr, and the god king of the Svartálfar.
While I’m sure he has a name, it hasn’t been shared with me, yet.
Not wanting to frighten them, he gently cuts through the veil to listen to their minds. His grief, fear, anger, and hatred fade. While they’re not gone, his burden is eased by these strangers.
Finally, not content to listen any longer, he slowly strengthens his connection to avoid alerting them to his presence. Soon, he’s able to watch and learn about these new beings. There are more types of life in these realms than there were atoms in his own during its prime.
More stars wink out of existence around him. His universe is ending and he could die with it. Not ready to face that fate, he devises a plan. Siphoning power from the other seven realms, he creates a pocket reality around his perfect living world, Asgard. Just as the last star is about to die, he plucks out his eye, blows what’s left of his essence into it, and places it inside the star. Kvasir crumples to the ground, reaches out, and sets off an explosion in the hopes of reviving the void he lives in.
The ringing of my phone jars me awake and the dream—vision?—is lost. Sitting up, I reach over and pick it up. Unknown number. Oh, and how wonderful: it’s 11:15 a.m. I’ve had a solid three hours sleep.
Doing my best to keep the irritation out of my voice, I swipe the answer button. “Hello.”
A man’s voice I recognize but can’t place comes across the line. “Good morning, Viktor, it’s Pete. How are you today?”
I get to my feet and walk to the bathroom to wash my face. “Tired. What’s up?”
He hesitates for a moment. “I need a favor.”
My jaw clenches. “Can you be more specific?”
He lowers his voice slightly. “Sure, sure. Here’s the thing. After what happened at the MCC the other day, things here are a mess and I’m unable to conduct my post-mortems properly.”
“And?”
He clears his throat. “And, is there any chance you’d allow me access to your facilities? It’s only temporary…well, hopefully, anyway. The samples from the cemetery and the hospital are very interesting. But I don’t have the right equipment to study what they are and why they act the way they do. Even if the MCC were still in place, we wouldn’t have anything advanced enough to do this properly.”
Toweling my face dry, I stifle a yawn. “Ah…sure. Mind telling me what you’re looking for?”
Excitement tinges his voice. “It’s hard to say, really. But there’s something odd about the remains from the cemetery. Whatever that goo is still has an energetic signature, and I’d like to know what that is.”
I turn out the light and step into the bedroom. “When you get here, check in at the front desk and ask for Mir. He’ll make sure you get what you need and assist you where necessary.”
His smile is apparent in his voice. “Thanks.”
“Not a problem. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
He chuckles. “Not unless you’ve got room for my people to work until the MCC finds a new location.”
I pull a clean shirt out of the closet and toss it onto the bed. “While you’re here, talk to Mir. If we’ve got room, y
ou’re welcome to it.”
There’s silence for several seconds. “Really? You’d let us work there?”
I laugh. “Yeah, I don’t see why not, if we’ve got the space.”
His voice raises an octave. “Wow, that’d save us a lot of time. You are one of my main sources of work.”
I wince. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be. The scumbags you send my way needed killing. Anyway, I’ve got to run. Thank you again for this and I’ll keep you up to date with what we find.”
I nod. “Thanks. Have a great day.”
Mir shimmers into view as I pull my shirt on.
“Wondering when you’d pop in.”
He arches an eyebrow at me. “You’re really going to make me babysit while you go out and possibly get yourself killed?”
Suppressing a grin, I say, “Pete’s good people. Besides, he might be onto something with this goo.”
Mir blows a raspberry. “Oh, I’m sure.” He pauses and shrugs. “I suppose having him here will be helpful since the NOPD isn’t accepting his reports anymore.”
I pull on my boots. “Wait. They’re not?”
He shakes his head. “Nope. Apparently, the moment they kicked Pete and his people out of the coroner’s office, they stopped accepting any of his filings. They’re not even being paid by the city any longer.”
“Huh…okay. Guess they’re in the same boat as the UCD.”
Mir wobbles his hand back and forth. “Well, the UCD still has an office till the end of the year. Gavin’s having a new one built, but at the rate they’re going, it might not be completed on time.”
With the discovery of the reemergence of the Black Circle and the Gotteskinder, it seems as if someone’s doing their best to freeze out the Archive. There isn’t much they can do to me since I don’t live in their microcosm, but they’re probably crippling Gavin.
“You know the workers we had putting this place together a few months ago?”
Mir nods. “Yeah? What about them?”
I gesture at him. “Give the foreman a call and see if he can lend a hand on the new UCD building. Tell Captain Baptist I’ll pick up their tab.”
“Consider it done.” Pausing, he asks, “Want to talk about that…dream?”
I collapse into a nearby recliner. “What’s there to talk about? You know exactly the same amount I do… Possibly more.”
His voice tightens. “Not more, but I’m a bit freaked out by it. Do you really think it’s true? Do you think this is how everything started?”
Rubbing my forehead, I sigh. “Like I have a goddamn clue? It felt real, but who’s to say? This could just be my mind messing with me after seeing the foreign nanites in Kira. Or hearing about the nine realms from Gavin…or god knows what.”
Mir frowns. “It did feel real, and it did make sense.”
Sweat beads on my forehead. “Yeah, but that could be my head trying to make things fit. Seriously, Kvasir was ancient in the dream. I had no sense of the Idunn in his system. So…I’m just not sure how it’d be a reality.”
He’s quiet for several seconds. “But—”
Cutting him off, I say, “It does make sense.”
He nods. “Yes, it does.” Gesturing at the room around us, he says, “And if it’s true, maybe it’s Kvasir’s madness that infected the other realms. Maybe that’s what sent them into a downward spiral.”
My stomach churns, my heart aches, and a part of my wounded soul rears up to claim responsibility. “Maybe…but then Kvasir isn’t only the Gray Wanderer. He’s the mad god as well.”
Mir winces. “Yes, he would be.”
Leaning forward, I place my face in my hands. “God damn it. That’d make him the source of all this suffering.”
He sits in the chair across from my own. “It would. And you should repeat that to yourself…because it’s his doing, not yours.”
I raise my gaze to his. “True, but how can I fix it?”
He shakes his head. “You may not be able to. All you can do is the best you can, and the universe will just have to be happy with that.”
A deep sadness fills my soul. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
He thumbs over his shoulder. “You can start by finding Robert and dealing with Ethan.”
Biting back the despair, I sit upright. “That’s the plan. All I’ve got to do is scoop him up, have him tell me everything he knows, use that to find Ethan, and finally end the man.”
Mir snorts. “Just like that?”
After moving into the living room, I grab a bottle of whiskey and pour myself a drink. “Probably not. But it’d be nice if it turned out that way.”
He rolls his eyes. “Stop dreaming and get with the program. Nothing ever comes easy for you.”
Downing my drink, I say, “Can’t argue with that. Things will probably get nasty and someone will die. Let’s just hope it isn’t me.”
Mir sighs. “That’d be nice. Just do me a favor and don’t get taken prisoner again.”
That makes me laugh. “Sure thing. In the meantime, you’ve got things to do.”
He nods. “I suppose you’re right.” He vanishes into the Nexus.
Mir’s probably about to have the time of his life. First, he gets to play in the lab with someone sifting through wraith guts. Second, Pete isn’t part of the family nor does he work for me—directly, anyway. So, it’ll give him a chance to interact with someone on a completely different level than anything he’s had so far.
Only thing I’m worried about is Pete. I mean, what’s he going to think when he figures Mir out? He’s a smart man. I’m sure it won’t take him long to piece things together. Hopefully, it won’t be too traumatic for him.
Chapter 24
Even though the sun is blotted out by a mass of black clouds, it’s still stupidly hot, exceptionally humid—like that’s anything new—and beyond uncomfortable. Welcome to New Orleans in the summer. It’s days like this that I ponder leaving this place for somewhere more hospitable now that my debt to Hustahli has been paid in full.
At the moment, however, I’m going into Jefferson Parish, which is even less welcoming. The weather is the same, but the attitude is not. If you think the NOPD hates me and people like me, you haven’t seen anything yet. I think the entire parish dislikes anything different from themselves on general principal. Which explains why Robert feels so comfortable taking over his former boss’s house in Old Metairie.
As you can probably guess, I’m not a fan of the area.
Not like that’ll make a difference…which means I need to tuck this growing irritation in a box and push it to the side.
Ethan’s house is one of the older monstrosities just past the railroad about halfway down Hector Avenue. While I’ve never had the misfortune of actually stepping foot in the place, I did keep tabs on the man back in the day. We’ll see if that information still holds up or if Robert’s changed things.
There’s a convenient place to park just by the tracks at the top of the block. While the driveway would be a shorter walk, it’d alert the numbskull to my arrival. Then he’d run. I’d have to chase him. Someone would call the cops. Way too much effort. The best chance I have of avoiding that kind of trouble is to break in, secure Robert, and keep things relatively quiet.
Taking a deep breath, I get out of the car, glance around to make sure no one’s looking, and shift my shields to camouflage my progress. While this allows me to blend seamlessly into the environment, it makes walking around more difficult. Being in the pitch black doesn’t cause this sort of thing, so your guess is as good as mine why I practically trip over my own feet whenever I’m invisible.
I scan the area around me in the hopes of finding something to distract me from my klutziness, and I’m struck by the beauty of the old oak trees. As much as it pains me to say it, they’re actually kind of nice. Of course, twenty feet behind them is a row of McMansions…so that sort of ruins everything.
If you think that’s the worst of it, it’s not
. Nope, that honor belongs to the purple and yellow Lamborghini parked in the drive next to Ethan’s place—well, Robert’s place, now, which is more or less what you’d expect for the area: a massive two-story tan stucco house that takes up all but the minimum required green space. The drive’s cut off by a gate that’s flush with the face of the house.
If this were a movie, someone would’ve conveniently left it open for me. But it’s not and they didn’t. However, the neighbors with the nauseating Lamborghini in the drive haven’t bothered to close theirs. Careful not to touch the vehicle, I make my way up and ease the gate out a bit. Squeezing past, I sidle into the covered carport and sigh.
The massive iron gate in front of Ethan’s place is a good deterrent. However, it’s all a façade as what’s directly behind it is a three-foot chain-link fence. Most dogs can jump over this thing without a problem, so you know that anyone who means you harm won’t have an issue either. A hop, skip, and jump later, I’m in Robert’s yard. It’s almost entirely cement, with a good-sized pool in the center. There’s a massive energy spike when I look at the pool, which doesn’t surprise me—Hlidskjalf tends to find all sources of water very bright.
A set of wet footprints leads out of the pool and inside. Someone’s home. Hopefully, it’s Robert and not some random guest. Drips of water lead through the living room around to the stairs on the far side. Before rounding the corner, I scan the house for life and find one. Whoever’s here, they’re on the second floor, about two rooms back. I give the place another once-over to ensure it’s wraith- and Geist-free, which it appears to be.
Yippee. The scary stuff’s decided to take a powder.
I take my time getting up the stairs. Why? Because seeing the man’s face has already scarred me for life; I don’t want to be further traumatized by finding him in any other state than fully dressed. A shiver runs up my spine as revulsion sweeps through me.
By the time I top the stairs, he’s just walking out of the bedroom. Keeping still, I press my back to the wall and wait for him to get close. The moment he passes, I allow the camouflage to fall away as I wrap my arm around his neck and slap my hand over his mouth.