“Right. Now let’s push this thing out of the snow.” I scrambled over the pile of rocks that had obviously stopped the car. A closer look made my breath catch. We were on a mountainside and there was a steep cliff behind that rock pile. “Careful. Watch your step or we could end up taking a bad fall.”
Gretchen grabbed me as she slipped on a rock. “I wish I had one of Jeremiah’s knives. Somehow I would stick it in that bitch’s back. Ordering us around like we’re her slaves!”
“Come on, let’s work together. Use your anger as fuel.” I put my hands on the car’s hood. “When she honks the horn, we push.” We stood shoulder to shoulder and did just that when Ursula leaned on the horn. We did have vampire strength and shouted when the car slid backward on the first try.
“We did it, amica!” Flo and I hand slapped. Gretchen did the same with both of us. Then we got the bad news.
“She’s leaving us!” Gretchen stumbled toward the deep ruts the car had left in the snow. “No, she can’t do that!”
“It seems she can and did.” I exchanged a look with Flo. Why was I not surprised? A figure staggered out of the blizzard toward us. Of course. She’d dumped Elsa too.
“Family means nothing to that jävla tik.” Elsa shivered then shook her fist at the car that had already disappeared from sight. “I just hope to God she has to face her son about this. He will make her suffer for it.”
“Okay, now that we’re stuck in a blizzard, let’s figure out our next move.” I knew better than to be cheerful as three sets of eyes swiveled toward me.
“The men should be driving down this way any minute. Ja?” Elsa had lost her hat somewhere. Oh, yeah, when her mother-in-law had torn out her hair.
I studied the scenery. “I wish I could say yes, but I’m afraid Ursula got off the path or road or whatever it was.” I spit snow out of my mouth and unwound the scarf I had around my neck. “Elsa, put this over your head.”
“Thanks, Glory. When they find our frozen bodies next spring, at least I will have my ruined hair covered.” She laughed until she cried then sat on a rock and put the scarf over her head. “I wonder how long before sunrise.”
“Don’t even think about it.” Flo shook her finger at her. “Pregare. Do you believe in God? He will send someone to find us.”
“While you wait for divine intervention, I’m shifting and looking for the car with the men in it.” I hugged Flo. “And praying too. Thanks, pal.” I did my shift into that sturdy bird and winged away in the direction I hoped would take me back toward the road and the cave. I read the wind, remembering that it had been blowing into my face when I’d followed the road before. So I put it at my back and struggled aloft. I sent God all sorts of arrow prayers as I flew.
My wings grew heavy with ice and I was about to give up when I heard the noise of an engine below me. The car was covered in white so it was nearly invisible. But it had to be our guys. Now it was going to be a matter of using my instincts to lead them back to my friends. And Elsa.
I swooped down and did the change thing, taking no chances on being hit. This time I did what Ian had done and hit the driver’s side window. The car was moving slowly enough that I had no trouble making that happen. It stopped immediately and the window came down a few inches.
“Glory?” Edvard stared at me. “What are you doing out here?”
I told him a short version, trying not to make his mother sound like a total psycho. It wasn’t easy.
“You mean my wife is out there in this weather? Unprotected? Mamma just left her there?” Edvard was dumbfounded.
“For God’s sake, man, open the fucking doors and let her inside.” Jerry was coming unglued, banging on his window in the back seat and rocking the car in his effort to get to me.
“Yes, of course.” He unlocked the doors and Jerry was out in an instant, wrapping me in his arms and dragging me into the backseat with him. He held me in his lap, trying to stop my shivering by holding me close and folding his coat around me.
“Gretchen?” Gunnar sat in the front, riding shotgun. “What of her?”
“She’s waiting out there in the cold as well. I think Ursula really wanted to kill her but didn’t take the time to do it. Your wife wants all your gold now, Gunnar, but Gretchen wouldn’t tell her where it is.” I was finally starting to warm up. “Go slowly, Edvard. I think Ursula got off the road because we were really near a cliff and got stuck. Do you know where that could be?” I stuck my hands inside Jerry’s coat, under his arms.
“God, Gloriana, your face is coated with ice.” Jerry kissed my cheeks over and over again. “Ursula’s gone mad.”
“Can you blame her? I’m sure looking at Bjorn again drove her over the edge. Brought back memories she’d shoved into the back of her mind.” I shuddered. “Edvard, do you see anything?” The blizzard was getting worse. I was worried sick about Flo and touched Richard who was rigid beside me. “Richard, what do you think we should do? Would it be stupid to get out and shift? Search from the sky?”
“Damn it, Gloriana, let me out of the car and quit reading my mind.” Richard reached forward to grip Edvard’s shoulder. “Stop the fucking car. I’ve got to get out of here.”
“My wife is out there too, Mainwaring! It would be madness. Then we’d have one more lost in this mess. Give me a few moments more. This is my mother we’re talking about. I think I know where she might have gone off the track.” The car lurched. “There! Do you see something moving?” He stopped the car and wrenched open his own door. He was out on a run. We all piled out of the car, though I still clung to Jerry.
“Stay in the car, Gloriana.” He tried to put me back inside. The motor was still running and the vehicle was a haven of warm air.
“No! I have to help.” I peered into the driving snow and ice. “I can’t see a damned thing.” I closed my eyes and tried my other senses but they were overwhelmed by the cold and wind and the shouts of the men. Even Ian had taken off toward what Edvard had insisted were dark spots against the snow. “Be careful!” I screamed. “You could fall off the edge of a cliff.” I rushed forward, Jerry beside me, refusing to let me go.
“Gretchen!” Gunnar sounded frantic as he stumbled through the snow. “Answer me! I will come with you wherever you go! I swear it!”
“I’ve found them! They’re huddled together for warmth.” Richard shouted repeatedly so we could follow his voice. “This way. They’re all right, just suffering from the cold.”
We all rushed to where he held Flo against him. He was murmuring to her and rubbing his hands over her face which was a sickly shade of blue. Gunnar grabbed Gretchen, lifting her into his arms and hurrying back toward the car. Edvard did the same for Elsa.
“We need to get them warm as quickly as possible. I should check them over. At least they were dressed for the weather. But hypothermia is still dangerous.” Ian looked at me as we raced back to the car. “Gloriana, how do you feel? Any numbness or tingling in your feet or hands?”
“All of the above.” I wondered how we were going to fit into that car. By the time we got there, Gunnar was in the front passenger seat with Gretchen in his lap. Somehow Edvard had put Elsa in sideways in front of him in the driver’s seat. So Ian, Richard with Flo in his arms, Jerry and I crammed ourselves into the back seat and forced the doors closed. We all breathed a sigh of relief as the warmth of the car heater blew over us.
“How are you going to drive this machine like that, Edvard?” Gunnar stopped rubbing Gretchen’s hands long enough to ask.
“We’re figuring it out. But that is not the question on my mind now.” Edvard helped Elsa sit up between the front seats, on the console. I was sure she was very uncomfortable but it couldn’t be helped. “I am wondering what in hell I will do about my mother. She just tried to kill my wife. I can’t forgive her for that.”
Elsa clasped his hand on the steering wheel. “Will you kill her for me?” She looked around the car. “Oh, stop staring at me. I won’t actually make him to do it. Though it wo
uld give me great pleasure.” She sighed and leaned against his shoulder. “Just take me home, min kärlek. It will be enough to toss that bitch out into the snow. See how she likes it.”
Edvard kissed the top of her head. “It will be done.” He put the car in gear and started down the mountain.
I held onto Jerry and stared at Gunnar in the front seat. Had I heard him promise Gretchen he’d come to Austin with her? Great, just great. Let the honeymoon go on down the drain. I could hear the gurgle.
Chapter Seventeen
“Where do you think Ursula was going?” I knew we were all wondering the same thing. I was just the one to ask it out loud.
“The hotel.” Flo sounded miserable as she said it. “I wasn’t thinking when I told her where we were all staying. She asked me about my boots and I told her about the boutique. Of course it is a Brodin Boutique, Edvard.”
“Yes, then you must be staying at the Ice Palace. Is that where you’re keeping your gold, Pappa?” Edvard had been concentrating on getting us down the mountain successfully and we’d been silent while he’d done it. Now we were on a paved highway.
“Yes. I’m sure all she will need to do is ask for our room number.” Gunnar grunted. “But half of my gold is in your room, Richard. You were researching the values of the coins.”
“The people at the front desk won’t just give out your room number, Gunnar.” I felt compelled to tell him. “There are privacy issues. Especially if Ursula goes in claiming she’s your wife and looking mad. You checked in with another woman. Hotels are not going to get involved in extramarital affairs.”
Gretchen shifted on Gunnar’s lap, clearly uncomfortable both with the subject and the fact that she was sitting on a big man’s lap in a fairly small space. “The room is in my name anyway. I am the one with the credit card. She will probably use mind reading on the mortal workers to get the information she needs.” Gretchen leaned against Gunnar’s shoulder. “I am so sorry.”
“Why? This mess is of my making.” He kissed her cheek. “No, it is of Ursula’s. I can’t imagine her thinking, leaving all of you in the cold to die. I will make her suffer for that.”
Jerry’s arms tightened around me. “I’m beginning to think this honeymoon destination was one of my worst ideas ever.”
“Well, I won’t confirm or deny that.” I smiled and kissed him. But I was really beginning to wish for a warm place like my cozy apartment in Austin.
“Sweden is a beautiful country. And peaceful.” Elsa looked at me from the front seat. “You have fallen into a family quarrel that is unusual. And that is putting it mildly.”
“No, I fell into their honeymoon.” Gunnar looked back at me too. “You saved me and I won’t forget it. But it was not the romantic wedding trip Jeremiah planned, ja?”
“I was thinking about the advantage of your long nights, not about the cold. I’ll admit it.” Jerry nuzzled my cheek. “We have had those. But they’ve been full of the kind of bloodthirsty battles and killing my new wife hates. There should be no more of it, no matter how mad at Ursula you are, Gunnar.”
“This just means you’ll owe me a second honeymoon someday, Jerry. In a warm place.” I smiled and slid my fingers inside the neck of his sweater.
“I’m sure you want to see an end to this as much as we do, Glory. And to get warm again,” Edvard said.
“Son, thank you for all you’ve done.” Gunnar reached behind Elsa to clap him on the shoulder. “You have made me proud. Please do not feel bad when I make your mother pay for what she did to Gretchen.”
“Hah! Stand in line, old man. She tried to kill my wife and has been a pain in my backside for hundreds, no, a thousand years. If she did conspire with Bjorn, we should end her.” Edvard’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Glory will just have to leave the room.”
“Enough killing. You cannot do that to your own mother, Edvard. As much as that would gladden my heart.” Elsa covered his hand with her own. “But we will make sure she leaves Sweden.” She looked back at me and winked. “And not go to Texas either. That would be too cruel, eh, Glory?”
“You are so right.” I leaned back against Jerry. “So we’re going to the hotel to try to stop her? Do we have a plan for when we get there?”
“Let’s see what we find.” Gunnar was sounding reasonable. Who knew it was possible in a Viking? “Just make this machine go fast, Ed, uh, Bjorn. I know Elsa is uncomfortable and, even though I am enjoying holding her close, Gretchen’s legs are pushed against this piece of metal in front of us. There are too many people in here.”
“You’re right, Pappa. I’m putting the pedal to the metal.” Edvard grinned. “And call me Edvard. I’m forsaking that bastard’s name from now on. I’ll explain to the world that my long lost father has come home and I’m taking back my birth name. No one in the vampyr community will question it and I don’t care what others think anyway.” He laughed.
“I am Edvard Ellstrom again. Damn, that feels good to say.” He reached for Elsa’s hand. “I’ll even rename the department stores. It is time for the Brodin name to disappear forever.”
Gunnar laughed with him. “Even if I have no gold at all, I feel rich this night.”
It was a good thing he felt rich, because Ursula was doing her best to make him poor. She’d obviously read mortal minds and had latched on to our favorite bellman, Viktor. We saw him, shaking and white faced, as soon as we entered the lobby.
“I’m so sorry, Mr. Ellstrom. The woman wouldn’t take no for an answer. I don’t know how she did it, but I ended up opening your door for her.” Viktor turned to Gretchen. “Well, it was your door too of course, Ms. Marken. She dragged me down the hall and insisted. I couldn’t help myself.”
“It’s all right, Viktor. We understand.” I stood next to him while the rest of the crew surged down the hall toward Gunnar and Gretchen’s room. I’d spotted the telltale marks on Viktor’s neck. “Come with me. I want to tip you, to compensate you for your trouble. The money’s in my room.” Not true. I had money on me, but I needed to erase those marks. Ursula obviously had enjoyed a fortifying drink and hadn’t bothered to remove the evidence.
“Not necessary, Mrs. Blade. Really. You are always very generous with me.” Viktor swayed. “I’m going off duty now. My shift is over and I’m not feeling too well. I need to lie down.”
Damn it. How much blood had that woman taken? “Come with me, Viktor. I want you to promise to go to the restaurant and buy a steak. Rare. You are very pale and I think such a meal will help with that faint feeling. Will you do that? I’m paying.” I pushed him toward the restaurant.
“Oh, thank you, Madame, but they won’t like that. I’m in uniform. It’s not allowed.” Viktor tried to resist but a good stare into his eyes and he was putty in my hands. After I pulled him into a closet and erased those marks, we arrived in the doorway of the main restaurant which was open twenty-four hours a day.
“This man has done me a special service,” I told the maître d. “I know you will allow him this once to sit at a table in his uniform and enjoy a meal on me. Won’t you?” I pressed a large bill into the man’s hand and we were soon at a table in a dark corner. A waiter appeared at my elbow. “You will serve Viktor a rare steak and…” I turned to the bellman. “Would you like some fried potatoes with that?” I smiled.
“Sure.” Viktor collapsed into a chair. “You are being very kind after I did something . . .” He shifted the silverware in front of him. “I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t be.” I told the waiter to give me the check and I signed it, adding a generous tip. “Let him stay as long as he likes. He’s been very helpful to me and my friends.” I started to walk away.
“Mrs. Blade.” Viktor set down his glass of water. “I need to tell you something. I’m afraid it’s important. That woman asked me to tell her …”
“What, Viktor?” I leaned closer.
“She wanted the room numbers for others—yours and the Mainwarings’. Doctor MacDonald’s too.�
� Victor sighed. “I know it’s against policy but it was as if I didn’t have a choice. If you tell management what I did, I will lose my job.” He hid his eyes behind his napkin. “The worst is that she took my passkey. I may be fired anyway if I don’t get it back.”
“Oh, Viktor!” I gripped his shoulder. He was shaking again. “That woman took advantage of you. It’s our fault. We let her know where we were staying and that we have something... Never mind. I’ll get your passkey back for you. I promise.” I patted him on the back. “You won’t lose your job. Now please, enjoy your dinner.” I left him babbling thanks as I sprinted for Flo and Richard’s room. I’d be damned if I’d let that woman have all of Gunnar’s gold.
When I got to the door I heard noise from inside. Luckily she hadn’t shut the door completely and I eased it open, hoping I could take her by surprise. She was tearing through the drawers, dumping them out in her search. Flo was going to have a fit when she saw all of her lingerie on the floor. Ursula spotted me as soon as I stepped inside but didn’t stop searching.
“Looking for something?” I could see Richard’s computer had bitten the dust but no sign of a bag of gold. If he had locked it in the safe, she was out of luck.
“You know what I’m looking for. Where is it?” Ursula lifted the mattress and flung it aside.
“Gunnar’s gold? Haven’t you heard? It’s a myth.” I wondered if she had Flo’s machine gun somewhere. I was going to grab it as soon as I saw it.
“Do you think I’m stupid? Or without vampire skills?” She laughed. “I read Gretchen’s mind. She was so afraid I’d get her lover’s fortune that it was all she could think about--finding it on that island.” Ursula came closer. “Gunnar was actually clever, hiding it in that gravesite. I had no idea he had the brains to think of that.”
She whirled and walked over to the closet. “There’s a safe in here. Do you think it could be looked inside there?”
“If I had a bag of gold, it’s where I’d put it.” I looked around for that gun. I knew my buddy Flo had her jewelry jammed inside the safe. I doubted if Richard had added the gold to her stash. He was a brilliant man and liked clever hiding places. I had a feeling it was around here and almost in plain sight. Luckily I was one of the few vampires who could block my thoughts. Ursula could try reading my mind and she’d hit a wall.
Real Vampires and the Viking Page 25