by S. T. Bende
Here goes nothing.
I whipped my leg in a low circle and struck the guard holding me. He dropped his weapon, and I toed it out of his reach before turning to plant a solid heel to his face.
“Arugh!” he cried out as blood spurted from his nose.
I tugged at my handcuffs and discovered the chain was just long enough. I tucked each knee to my chest and climbed back over my hands. With my fists in front of me, I turned to assess the second guard. He stood five feet away, with his hand on his holster and his mouth slightly open.
“You little—” He drew his gun and my stomach dropped.
“Enough! Everybody stand down,” a deep voice thundered from the porch. I whipped around to assess my next assailant. When I caught sight of his face, I froze.
The man stormed across the porch, down the steps, and over the dusty earth. He grabbed my upper arm. “What do you think you’re doing?” His voice was low… and unbelievably angry.
“Tyr?” I gasped.
Tyr’s eyes blazed. The hand that wasn’t gripping my arm balled into a fist. Every muscle was tensed, and he positively radiated fury. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m—I was taking a walk and I heard—well, there was this deer and—ouch!” I twisted my arm out of his grasp and stared at my bicep. “That hurts!”
“You need to leave. Now.” He marched me toward the Hummer.
“No.” I dug my heels into the dirt. “Not until you tell me what’s going on. Who is that girl? You’re not holding her against her will, are you? Because so help me, I’ll go to the police and—stop pulling me! I’m not getting in that thing. Whose car is it anyway?”
“Any more questions?” Tyr glowered down at me, still holding my arm.
“Are you hurting that girl?” I spun free of his grip.
“No.” Tyr’s fists were so tight, the veins in his forearms pulsed.
“Well then, what is she doing in there?” I wanted to put my hands on my hips, but the handcuffs were completely inconvenient. “And for the love of all that is holy, will you please take these things off me?”
Tyr fished around in his pocket and pulled out a keyring. He undid the cuffs and I rubbed my wrists.
“You need to get out of here in case he comes back.” Tyr moved toward me, but I stepped out of his reach.
“In case who comes back? What is going on in that house? Why did that guard pull a gun on me?” My pitch climbed as I spoke. “He pulled a gun on me! I deserve some answers.”
“Mia,” he pleaded. “I have to get you out of this clearing. Now.”
We locked eyes in a silent power struggle. Tyr was so angry, tremors of rage radiated off his chest. I squared my jaw, squinting into midnight blue orbs that practically spewed daggers. I should have run away screaming—I barely knew Tyr, and here he was in the middle of what looked like a military operation, holding an unconscious teenager in a cabin protected by lethal force. But I wasn’t about to blink. If there was one value I was taught, it was to look out for people who were weaker than you. If the girl in that house needed help, then I would figure out a way to help her.
“I’m not backing down,” I pointed out.
“Obviously,” Tyr muttered.
We stood toe to toe for another ten seconds. Finally, Tyr’s shoulders dropped. “Why do you have to be so stubborn? We can talk. But you have to get in my car. I don’t want you exposed.”
“That’s your car? What happened to the motorcycle?”
“Get in, Mia,” he pleaded.
“Okay.” I stomped to the Hummer, and waited while Tyr unlocked the door. Before I could reach for the handle, a hand shot out from behind and opened it for me.
“Get in,” he repeated. He whipped his head from left to right as he lifted me into the cab. What is he looking for?
“I’m going,” I complained. The door slammed behind me and Tyr appeared in the driver’s seat before I could turn around. I glanced out my window. The forest looked darker through the shaded glass. What did Tyr need with tinted windows, anyway? “Tell me about the girl.”
Tyr dropped his head against the steering wheel. “Your life will be a whole lot easier if you just let me drive you home.”
“Is she being held against her will? Because I should probably warn you, I’m not going without her if she is.” I crossed my arms.
Tyr raised his head a fraction of an inch. A hint of a smile played at the corners of his eyes. “I can see that.”
“So what are you doing to her?” I pushed.
“I’m trying to keep her alive.” Well that explained the white robed women—they must have been nurses.
“If that’s true, then why isn’t she in a hospital? She looks sick. She should be in an ICU.”
“That is an ICU. At least it’s our version of an ICU. Western medicine isn’t going to help her.” Tyr kept his eyes closed.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because she’s not like you. She’s… special.”
“Ignoring that dig, that girl looks sick, Tyr. Whatever your ICU is doing isn’t enough. She needs a real hospital. I’m calling nine-one-one.” I pulled out my cell phone before I realized this corner of the woods was a reception-free zone. Frustration clouded my vision.
Tyr snatched the phone out of my hands and threw it in the backseat. “I told you. They. Can’t. Help. Her.”
“Oh, and you can?” I reached for my phone but Tyr grabbed my hands. He held tight.
“I don’t know if I can. But the best team of healers in the realms is working on her. And I have security making sure nobody gets anywhere near her. Well, apparently anybody but the world’s nosiest co-ed.”
“And why would you do that? Who is she?” I tried to pull my hands away, but Tyr held on tight. “Oh my gosh—is she your girlfriend? Your girlfriend’s dying and you asked me out. That’s so… so… common.”
“Common? That’s the meanest word you could come up with?”
“It’s the meanest word I want to say out loud. But I’m thinking a much worse one about you right now.”
“Well, you shouldn’t be. The girl in that house isn’t my girlfriend.”
“Then who is she?”
Tyr met my eyes. “She’s my sister.”
CHAPTER TEN
“SAY SOMETHING,” TYR GROWLED.
“You have a sister?” The words tumbled out. “And she’s in a coma in a secret cabin in the woods behind your house? Surrounded by armed guards?”
“More or less.”
“Do your parents know she’s here?” I asked.
“Our parents are dead.”
“I… I am so sorry.” Mortification settled over me like wet wool. “I had no idea.”
Tyr’s shoulder lifted, as if shoving off my sympathy.
My world turned on its head. Things like that didn’t happen in real life. And they certainly didn’t happen to people I knew. In that moment, everything I thought I’d known about Tyr flew straight out the window. “What happened to them?” I asked softly.
“I was young when they were killed. I don’t wallow.” Tyr gripped the steering wheel.
“I—I’m sorry.” I reached out to touch his hand.
“The same monster tried to kill my baby sister, Elsa, a few weeks ago.” Tyr’s knuckles were white.
“Why would he go after your sister?”
“It’s complicated.” Tyr rubbed his palms on his jeans. “Listen, Mia, if you’re going to be in my life, you’re going to have to fly blind in some areas. Can you handle that?”
“Probably not, but it’s moot. Do you even want me in your life?” He’d been so hot and cold since we met, I honestly didn’t know the answer.
One corner of Tyr’s mouth turned up in his signature half-smile. “Yes.”
“Oh.” Oh!
“But letting you into my life means putting you in the middle of a living nightmare. And I mean it when I say there are things I am not going to be able to explain to you.”
“Y
ou said last night you wanted me to trust you,” I reminded him. “And trust is founded on honesty. How do you expect me to trust you if you’re not going to tell me the truth?”
“I’ll always tell you the truth,” Tyr corrected. “I just won’t be able to answer everything you want to know. Does that sound fair?”
“Fair, yes. Doable for me? Not so much.”
Tyr chuckled. “Henrik told me you had one of those minds.”
“Excuse me?” Indignation colored my tone.
“The inquisitive ones. It’s why you chose engineering, ja? So you could make order in a chaotic world?”
My fingers played with my grandmother’s ring. “That’s actually really perceptive. I’d never thought about it that way, but yes. That makes sense.”
“Well prinsessa, there’s nothing orderly about my life.”
“Besides your kitchen cabinets.”
“Right.” Tyr sighed. “Mia, you have to understand. I wake up every morning and wonder what kind of skit I’m going to deal with that day. I’m not complaining; I signed on to this life. But I’m not sure you’re going to want to.”
“How do you expect me to make an informed decision if you’re not going to answer my questions?”
Tyr closed his eyes. “How about a compromise? You can ask one question now, and you have to hold the rest until tonight. I’ll answer as much as I can, but you have to accept there are some things about me you might never understand.”
My mind spun, trying to compartmentalize the list of things I suddenly wanted to know about Tyr—who he was, how he’d dealt with losing his parents so young, how he wasn’t losing his mind worrying about his sister, how Henrik and Brynn fit into all of this? How I fit into all of this…
“Is Elsa going to be okay?” I wrung my fingers in my lap.
Tyr’s eyes dropped. “I hope so. I’ve got the best medical team in the cosmos working around the clock. When I found her, he’d left her for dead—maimed within an inch of her life, and barely breathing.”
Bile swirled in my gut as my brain fought against that image. “Did you call the police? Do they have any leads?”
“It’s not that easy. Things don’t really work like that where I’m from.”
“Police don’t go after murderers in Sweden?” There was no way that was true.
“You already asked your one question,” Tyr pointed out.
“But this is a relevant follow-up. And more than that, a totally legitimate response to your statement.”
“The less you know about all of this, the better. If the killer thinks you’re involved, he’ll come after you, too.”
“Why?” Icicles traced a pattern along my vertebrae.
“He picks off people who are important to me. My parents and sister weren’t his only victims, though Elsa was the first target he left alive.”
I squeezed my fingers so hard a knuckle popped. “Why would he do that?”
“It’s who he is. I used to think I could change him—if I showed him there was another way that he’d choose a different path. But I should have known I wasn’t that powerful. And now he’s become what he was born to be.”
“You know him?” I asked softly.
“He was practically family.”
“Oh, Tyr.” This time I took his hands in mine. He’d lived a horror I couldn’t begin to imagine. “I am so sorry.”
“I can’t change what he’s done. But I can protect the people I care about moving forward.” Tyr raised an eyebrow. “So you need to stay away from all this before he comes after you. I’m not sure I could handle you getting hurt, on top of everything else.”
The icicles burst, spreading a chill across my back that left me shaking. What would happen if the killer tracked me down? Would I end up like Tyr’s sister… or worse?
“Told you it was some messed up skit.” Tyr squeezed my hands. “Are you okay?”
“Not even a little bit,” I answered honestly. “But I’m here. I’m sorry you’ve been going through this.” Embarrassment flooded my face. All this time I’d thought he didn’t call because he was into Freya, but as his best friend, she’d probably been his lifeline while he’d been trying to keep his sister alive and fighting off some crazed killer.
“Can I meet her?” I asked tentatively. “Elsa?”
Tyr ran his hand through his hair. “That’d be nice. But go straight in the house. And when we’re done, I’m taking you home immediately. If it was him I saw in the woods earlier, I want to make sure he doesn’t see you again.”
“Again?” When had he seen me before?
But Tyr just stared straight ahead, so I opened the car door. Tyr was at my side before my feet hit the ground. “How do you do that?”
“Let’s move, Mia. I don’t want you out in the open longer than necessary.” Tyr scooped me in his arms and raced toward the house. The guards stared as we moved—one still dabbed at his bloodied nose. Ouch. By the time Tyr closed the front door behind him, I was breathless, and more than a little flushed. Thankfully, the entry was empty—the nurses must have been with their charge in the other room.
Tyr leaned against the closed door. “We made it.”
“Made it,” I said back. It was hard to form words when I was cradled in his arms. I felt like the heroine in a regency romance novel.
“So…” Tyr stared down at me. My heart thudded against my ribcage.
“So…” With tentative fingers, I reached for his hair. I touched the strands just above his ear, then trailed my way down his jawline. A light stubble broke through the hard plane; the rough hairs tickled the pads of my fingers. I hesitated, then moved one finger to his mouth, tracing the line of his bottom lip. He stiffened.
“Sorry.” I pulled my hand back.
“Don’t be.” He grinned. “But I was under the impression you wanted to meet my sister.”
“I do,” I insisted. I swung my legs over his arms, and he helped me stand. “But is there a landline in here? I need to call Brynn so I can ask her to put the lasagna in the oven, and somebody confiscated my phone. Plus, apparently there’s no reception out here.”
Tyr smiled. “Your mind never slows down, does it?” He walked the few steps to a small desk by the living room window, lifted the receiver of a telephone and held it out to me while he dialed.
“Never,” I confirmed. When Brynn answered I asked her to cover the lasagna and bake it at 375 for forty-five minutes. She sounded unaccountably giddy when I told her I was at Elsa’s with Tyr, and wished us a ‘fabulous time.’
“All sorted?” Tyr asked when I hung up.
I nodded. Tyr twined his fingers through mine and pulled me toward the hallway. I glanced at the enormous hand wrapped around my own. It was warm, and strong, and oddly familiar. It fit mine perfectly.
Tyr knocked softly on the door. He poked his head in without waiting for an answer.
“Hei. It’s me. I brought a guest. No need for the security check on this one.” He pushed the door open, providing a clear view of what I’d struggled to see through the window.
A stark white room held a store of medical equipment. The robed nurses exhibited an air of competence and grace, their matronly expressions set in neutral masks. One injected Elsa with a long needle, then stepped aside. The white-clad caretaker kept her head low as she walked by Tyr. My eyes darted to Elsa—she wore a long, silvery-blue robe, and a strange rectangle hovered over the bed.
Tyr gripped my hand. “A moment, please?”
All four women stepped out of the room while Tyr pulled me to the side of the bed.
“Mia, this is my little sister, Elsa.” He gazed at her, and I followed his eyes. Elsa looked like a life-size child’s doll. Her eyes were closed; thick black lashes rested against unnaturally-pale cheeks. Blond waves flowed from the top of her head down to her stomach, where her hands lay folded neatly across her slender waist. Despite being in a coma, her eyelids were powdered with a silvery shadow that offset the dark circles under her eyes. She had a
smattering of freckles across her tiny nose, and her pale pink lips were fixed in a small smile.
“She’s so beautiful. Who would hurt her?”
“A monster,” Tyr growled.
“What’s that?” I nodded to the rectangle hovering over Elsa.
“It monitors her vitals.” Tyr reached up to press a corner of the rectangle, and a series of numbers and symbols flashed across the suspended screen. “She’s holding—no changes since you snuck up on us outside.”
“Sorry about that.”
Tyr lifted my chin with one finger. “I’m sorry you found out. I don’t like you being any more involved with this than absolutely necessary. But selfishly, it’s nice to be able to share this with you. And Elsa would like knowing that you came to meet her. She loves mortals.”
I shot him a puzzled look.
“You know what I mean.” Tyr shook his head, obviously rattled. “People. She loves people. Sorry, translation.”
His accent was so faint, sometimes I forgot he was from another country.
“Right.” I turned toward the bed. “Can I talk to her?”
Tyr nodded. “She’d like that.”
“Hi Elsa.” I kept my voice cheerful. “I’m Mia. It’s nice to meet you. Your brother’s kind of a pain sometimes. So’s my brother. We can talk about them when you wake up.”
Tyr put a hand on my back and rubbed softly. “She’s tough—she’s like you that way. But he found her in a weak moment and almost broke her. Henrik and I barely got to her in time. Freya suggested I bring her here—it’s so remote, we didn’t think he’d find her again. I got her stabilized, and now it’s just a waiting game. We’re hunting for a cure but so far, the best we can do is keep her from getting worse.” Tyr’s shoulders slumped.
“Hey.” I cupped his cheek. “She’s going to be okay.”
“Thanks.” He bent to kiss my forehead and a pulse shot from my face all the way down to my toes. While I fought for breath, Tyr leaned over his sister and kissed her cheek. “Be back soon, Else. Hang in there for me.”