Silvia rolled her eyes, not bothering to answer.
She looked at Thor, who continued to glare at his nephew.
The Thunder God’s eyes glowed brighter the longer he stared, but his expression remained unreadable, a hard mask. Some part of her wished he would back down, if only because Jörmungandr clearly enjoyed causing his uncle psychological pain.
At the same time, she was almost afraid of the intensity of feeling she saw there.
Whatever Jörmungandr told himself, he was playing with fire right now.
As for her role in all of this, she would ask Thor once they were alone again.
“Okay,” she said, shrugging, turning to Jörmungandr. “Take it out. Like you said you would. You’ve dragged this out long enough.”
“Oh, I agree.” Jörmungandr smiled, gliding closer on graceful feet. “This won’t take long at all, cousin. I promise you.”
He reached her in two more strides, standing directly in front of her, and Silvia tilted back her head, exposing her neck, like she had with Tyr and Thor. Jörmungandr stepped closer still, until he loomed over her.
Smiling down at her face, he reached out a hand.
Silvia didn’t like the look she saw there, in those reptilian eyes.
She didn’t like it at all, but unfortunately, it was already too late.
The instant his fingers touched her skin…
Everything around her vanished.
13
Dinner With A Water Dragon
“ I never would’ve thought a god could be this bored,” Silvia remarked. “…or this petty.”
She folded her arms across the front of the tight, green and blue dress she now wore, leaning back in a high-backed, green-velvet chair, crossing her legs in four-inch heels. Reaching up, she fingered a stone necklace, glancing down at it as she turned it in her hand. Some reddish, coral-like rock made up the setting and “chain” of the necklace itself; in the center, a deep black and green stone formed a pendant, nestled right at the top-middle of her chest.
“I mean, you’re immortal,” she added, letting the stone necklace fall back to her bare skin. “You can travel inter-dimensionally. You can turn into a friggin’ dragon. And yet, this is how you spend your time… being a back-stabbing jerk to your own family. Coming up with lame schemes to annoy your uncle and grandfather. And for what?”
She waited a beat, wondering if he would answer.
“Seriously,” she went on. “What’s the point? Are you really that gung-ho on sticking it to your grandfather? Proving him wrong with the whole ‘free will’ thing?”
The man sitting across from her, with his snake-like green eyes, black hair, high cheekbones, and narrow mouth, smiled at her.
The smile never touched his eyes; those remained cold, dead-looking.
“My uncle clearly enjoys talking while he fucks,” the creature remarked, gauging her eyes as he spoke. “He told you much about me. I find this interesting… even with your past-life bond.”
“Why?” she said, refolding her arms, exhaling. “Why would you find that remotely interesting? Unless you seriously have no life.”
“It is interesting,” he repeated, undaunted. “Why would a god share such things with a mortal? Why would he bother to talk to her at all?”
“Why not?” she retorted back.
The god’s faint smile returned, but only just.
When he didn’t answer, Silvia exhaled, looking around at where he’d brought her.
From what she could tell, the two of them sat, more or less alone, apart from servants, inside a giant glass ball at the bottom of the ocean. Tall seaweed plants waved in the current outside several feet of lit glass. She caught glimpses of enormous silver and red fish with spike-like tails, what looked like hairless monkeys swimming under the water, clinging to plants and staring at them through the glass.
She also saw a lot of more “normal-looking” sea creatures: rays, eels, frog-like animals with webbed feet, whales, sharks, starfish, various schools of brightly-colored fish.
She even thought she saw what looked like an alligator swim by, its scaly body undulating back and forth, its short legs pressed against its sides, its snaking tail acting as both rudder and propeller.
When she glanced back at the Dragon God, he was studying her eyes.
Two waiters walked up before she could speak, wearing white tuxedos and white gloves. They began setting down plates on the table in front of them, uncovering dishes, releasing steam and pungent smells as they whisked away the silver lids.
Silvia heard her stomach growl.
She tried to remember the last time she’d eaten, and realized it was the few bites of sandwich she got in the park with Morty before the Dragon God showed up and burned the immortality ring into her neck.
“Why me?” she said, turning to him. “I mean, I know you’re doing all this to bug your uncle at this point. But why put this thing in me? Why not hide it in some total stranger, where Thor would never find it?”
Jörmungandr shook his head, smiling that knowing smile.
“Humans,” he mused. “You really are quite sweetly innocent at times.”
Still smiling, ignoring the irritated look she aimed in his direction, he lifted a glass of dark red wine from beside his plate and took a few sips.
“You really do not comprehend how differently Thor behaves with you,” the Dragon God added. “I had my doubts we would ever get him to cooperate. But my father assured me Thor would remember you, and that you would make him weak.”
Silvia stared at him, genuinely bewildered.
“Weak?” she said finally. “Because he wasn’t willing to kill me to get the ring back?”
“Precisely,” the Dragon God said, taking a sip of wine.
At Silvia’s hard look, Jörmungandr lowered his glass back to the table, staring at her with those green, reptilian eyes.
“You’re wrong,” she said. “He wouldn’t have done that. He wouldn’t have just killed someone, not to get back some god-trinket. He would have looked for another way. No matter who I was.”
The god’s faint smile returned.
“Okay,” he said agreeably.
Silvia knew the god was screwing with her.
She suspected it was to get her to see Thor differently, as someone who would just let an innocent person die if they got in the way of his plans. It annoyed her, but she wondered if there was some way to use the god’s talkativeness against him.
The Dragon God smiled, shrugging as he lowered his glass.
“Are you not wondering why I brought you here? So we could talk alone?” he said, his voice smooth as silk. “You seem far more concerned with Thor’s well-being than your own.”
Pausing, he added,
“Of course, he is the same. On that bridge, he was like a broken record. Blah-blah-blah, ‘free her of the ring, nephew.’ Blah-blah-blah, ‘I will not talk until you free my wench, and promise to never harm her again.’”
Twirling his wine glass between his fingers, Jörmungandr sighed, as if he was bored out of his mind.
“Which is my point, really. My uncle’s interest in you, his seeming devotion to you, while tedious as hell … has also made me quite curious.”
Silvia re-folded her arms. “Curious how?”
“Curious about you.”
Silvia frowned. “Why would you be curious about me? I’m not anyone. Assuming there’s any truth whatsoever to the concept of past lives… which I’m definitely not assuming, by the way… my connection to Thor could be more accurately described as a connection to a dead version of me. So I’m not even the same person.”
“But the thing is… it worked,” Jörmungandr said.
Still giving her that half-smile, he leaned forward over the table, clasping his hands.
“My father merely caused Thor to resonate with you. He merely connected your essence to Thor’s. And Thor went straight for you… like a dog in heat. Totally blew him out of his initial trajectory to co
me after me. Some part of him said to hell with all of that. He changed direction so fast, he didn’t even bring his clothes with him to the new coordinates.”
Silvia blinked, frowning at him.
“That’s why he was naked?” she said, bewildered.
Jörmungandr nodded, grinning. “Yes.”
“Why would he do that, though?” she said, genuinely puzzled. “That makes no sense.”
“I know… right?” Jörmungandr laughed in genuine delight. “You are human. How could you possibly turn a god’s head in such a way? And yet it clearly was you that caused him to veer off course. It is fantastic! Ridiculous! But utterly irrefutable.”
The god gave another of those delighted laughs.
“I grew even more certain when you followed him into the park,” he added. “I saw the resonance there, between you. I don’t know if it would have happened, if you could have actually pulled him off course, in the midst of an inter-dimensional leap, if my father hadn’t intervened with a nudge, if you and I hadn’t been so close to one another physically. But still… my father was right. The bond between you is truly remarkable.”
Smiling at her, he picked up his fork, leaning towards the slab of what looked like a pale white and pink fish on his plate.
“Uncle Thor isn’t like my grandfather, you know,” Jörmungandr added, waving the fork gracefully towards her. “He is not like most of my siblings… or even my grandmother. Most of the time I have known him, he is all work, work, work. Very little personal life, unless you count food and mead.”
The god grunted disdainfully, bending over his plate of food.
“…He is not one who goes trolling in the mortal realms, looking for pussy.”
Silvia rolled her eyes, picking up her own fork.
“Charming,” she muttered.
“Yet accurate,” the god countered. “Would you really argue with me about my characterization of my own family? An uncle I have known my entire life?”
She put down the fork, glaring at him.
“No. I’m just tired of this game. What are you trying to do right now? Freak me out? Get information about Thor? Why would you take me away like this, just to feed me dinner in your creepy, underwater aquarium and tell me family stories?”
Glaring at him, she motioned around at their strange setting.
“I mean, what is this? Is this gloating? Leverage? Or just you being petty again? Trying to piss off Thor?”
Remembering what else Jörmungandr had gotten Thor to agree with, she felt a harder flush of anger, one that made her feel faintly sick.
“He already promised to let you leave with that ring,” she said. “Isn’t that enough?”
“It is something, indeed.” Jörmungandr raised his glass in a mock toast. “My uncle, whatever else might be said of him, is a god of his word. Even now, providing I save your life, he is bound by his word to not attempt to take the ring off me.”
Silvia felt her annoyance deepen.
“Then save my life. Take this thing out of my throat. Now,” she added, sharper. “You won. Thor lost. I think you’ve gotten your victory lap. Why am I still here?”
Jörmungandr smiled. “I wished to have dinner with you.”
“Fine,” she snapped. “I’ll stay for dinner. It’s not like I have much choice.”
She motioned around the strange dining area to make her point.
The round, high-ceilinged, palatially-decorated space, with the table, the food, Jörmungandr, the wine, the plants, the piano in the corner, the birds, even the free-standing fireplace… all of it existed inside that giant ball made of glass. No doors or other openings existed on that rounded surface, at least none she could see.
She really wasn’t going anywhere, not without his help.
Silvia watching as a massive, spotted, iridescent ray swam by, followed by a shark so large, it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, even though she knew there was no way it could get to her. A few feet of glass stood between her and those rows of jagged teeth, but it looked so close, her heart pounded in her chest.
“Just take it out,” she said, turning back to Jörmungandr. “At least do that much. I’ll eat dinner with you. Then take me back to Thor.”
The god sighed.
She watched him seem to turn over her words.
Then he sighed again, rising to his feet.
“All right,” he said, grudgingly. “I thought we could have a pleasant meal first, but if you are really so worried about your mortal life, I suppose that might cut into your enjoyment of the food I’ve had prepared.”
Some part of her wanted to laugh, or at least point out the absurdity of what he’d just said, but she bit her lip, not wanting to do anything that might change his mind.
He motioned towards her neck, a fluid up and down gesture she somehow understood.
She obeyed, tilting back her head.
She held her head in that odd angle, exposing her neck, as he took the seat next to her, scooting the high-backed chair closer with his feet. Leaning towards her, he placed his hand on her throat, exactly like he had in the park.
His fingers immediately grew hot.
Silvia gasped in shock, although maybe she shouldn’t have been so surprised the second time.
Somehow, the process was much more visceral and physically tangible in reverse.
She felt a substance––something hard, something that made her teeth ache––coming out of her throat. She felt it pass through each layer, through the blood, bone, cartilage, flesh, skin. The sensation made her grimace, and writhe in the chair. If she could have moved away from his hand, she would have, even knowing he was likely saving her life.
Closing her eyes, she gritted her teeth, then stared up at the high arc of the glass ball, watching another shark pass above.
She wanted to yell at Jörmungandr to hurry it up.
She wanted him to just finish already, just yank it out of her.
It felt like watching someone extract a heavy needle from the center of her neck, all the while moving with excruciating slowness, forcing her to watch and feel every associated sensation, refusing to just get it over with.
As it went on, as the pain grew worse, but the nausea, the strange grossness of it, the sickening sensation of something coming out of her––all of that was somehow a hundred times worse than the pain.
A few minutes later, she felt like she might scream if he didn’t finish.
Irrationally, she wanted to punch him in the face.
It occurred to her, a few seconds later, it wasn’t just the ring he was pulling out of her.
She didn’t know how she knew it, not exactly, but she knew. That’s why neither Thor nor Tyr had been able to take the thing out of her. That’s why the strange symbol on her neck glowed that odd green color. It wasn’t just the ring. Jörmungandr bound the object to her by putting some aspect of himself inside her.
He’d used himself to bind the ring to her flesh.
“You are quite intuitive, for a human,” Jörmungandr remarked, smiling down at her. “And before you start speculating and getting paranoid… yes, I can hear you. Did I fail to mention that I can read minds?”
She gave him a flat look. “Can you just hurry this up?”
“I cannot, sadly,” he said, still smiling. “But worry not. It will be over soon.”
“Soon to a human being?” she retorted. “Or soon to a god?”
His smile widened.
She wanted to ask him again why he wanted the ring, what he really meant to do with it. She still wondered if it was for him, or if he’d stolen it for someone else. She went back and forth about asking him in her head…
Then she realized she just had. Asked him, that is.
Again, Jörmungandr laughed.
“Yes,” he said cheerfully. “You did. And you catch on quick, for a human.”
“Are you going to answer me?” she said. “About why you want it so badly?”
“I haven’t deci
ded yet.”
The pressure on her neck grew excruciating. The pain worsened, but most of what she felt was that sickly heat and pressure, that feeling of something being pushed out of her skin, like some part of her was vomiting it out of some deeper part of herself.
She started to gag…
When suddenly, without warning, it was done.
14
A Voice In My Head
J örmungandr withdrew his hand, smiling at her.
Between his thumb and forefinger, he displayed a gold ring, etched with runes.
The markings looked similar to what Silvia had seen all over Asgard.
She stared at it, still gasping, holding her throat in one hand. She was struck by the delicacy of the markings, the sharp glint of the metal. Whatever it was made of, it didn’t look like only gold to her, more like gold fused with some otherworldly material.
She was still staring at it when Jörmungandr smiled at her, whisking the ring away. It disappeared somewhere on his person, but she didn’t really see how, or where he put it.
The ring was there, in his hand. Then, with the flourish of a magician, Jörmungandr showed her his hand again…
…and the ring was gone.
“So?” she said, coughing as she rubbed her neck. “Are you going to tell me? What you plan to do with it?”
Jörmungandr gave her another of those musing smiles.
After a few seconds where he just studied her, he turned away, walking back to his side of the table. He folded himself gracefully back into his chair.
“What makes you think I have plans to do anything at all with it?” the creature said, quirking an eyebrow over one of those shocking green eyes. “Perhaps I just want a ring that will keep me safe on the lesser worlds. Make me immune to the vagaries of mortality.”
“Maybe,” Silvia said, frowning. “I know you have some bizarre plan to take over Earth. So why do I get the feeling it’s not that simple?”
Jörmungandr raised an eyebrow, leaning back further in the chair as he smiled.
He motioned towards her plate.
“Will you not eat? I can feel that you are hungry.”
Gods on Earth: Complete Series (Books 1-3): Paranormal Romances with Norse Gods, Tricksters, and Fated Mates Page 12