Across the Music (Across the Ocean Book 2) (27 page)

þá byrja ég hægt með fingrunum að þreyfa. Hún fílar það í botn og byrjar líkaman að hreyfa.

Svo höldum við jú áfram því að þetta er rétt að byrja.

Hvað finnst henni gott, að því þarf ekki að spyra.

Ég nýt þess bara að sjá um, og sinna mínu verki. því þegar ég hitti á góða staðinn, þá gefur hún mér merki.

Hún byrjar þá að kyppast til og láta í sér heyra. Þá vita þeir sem eitthvað vita að stelpan vill fá meira.

En þá stoppa ég, og stelpan tapar áttum, Ég útskíri hvað gerist næst, í frekar grófum dráttum.

Ég leggst þá í rúmmið stelpan hefst handa. Ég stend ekki upp fyrr en hún segir mér að standa.

Hún ræður þessu öllu, því hún veit hvað á að gera. Hvergi annarsstaðar mindi ég vilja vera.

Já, Stelpan kann þetta, það alla hefði grunað. það eru sönn forréttindi, að þekkja svona unað.

Þetta móment er gott, og það verður það sem verður. þegar á heildina er litið, er þessi leikur ekki til þess gerður.

By the time the last notes of the song fade out, I'm excessively hot and bothered. While the enthusiastic crowd claps madly for their spectacular performance, Gunnar holds up the microphone and looks me in the eye as he motions me up to the stage. Now it's my turn.

"This next song we made with an incredible woman. I know you'll love her just as much as we love... having her in our group. Please put your hands together and welcome Sophie!" I'm mildly embarrassed at such an extravagant welcoming, and definitely still a bit aroused due to Gunnar's song, and I know my face is turning pink as everyone claps exuberantly for me while I make my way to the stage.

Loki moves back for me to reach the microphone, and I adjust the height to my tastes. I clear my throat and peer out into the audience which is rather hard to see after the first row.

"G'evening mates," I say tentatively into the microphone "These guys behind me have hearts of gold for letting me be a part of this experience. Hold on to your
gruns
, and we'll play you our song. If you don't like it, do try to not be a
wet blanket
and boo me off stage, aye? I'm a sensative hearted girl, and just couldn't handle it." The audience chuckles at my antics, and I turn to a smiling Gunnar and give him a saucy wink.

"Hop to it, mate!" I say into the microphone, and Gunnar begins to play the song we've written together the last few days. It's a sweet melody, not as deep and dark as the ones previously played, but it's still a great song in my opinion.

Loki pitches in with his share of the song a few bars in with the guitar, helping to lift the tune to a place where my melody will fit in beautifully. I close my eyes, and see the words in my mind that I need to sing, concentrating and becoming one with the music.

Lights from far, to the North

Bring me closer to where you are

Beaconing its beautiful light

Safely back to where I belong

And soon, I'll take off and fly

To meet you where the Earth meets the sky

Fate has said that there I'll stay

And now the lights will show me the way

I am waiting, for this night to end

To be with you, in our destined land

Forever, I'll be by your side

Together, we'll light up the night

And soon, I'll take off and fly

To meet you where the Earth meets the sky

Fate has said that there I'll stay

And now the lights will show me the way

The song comes to a close, and I'm filled with an overwhelming amount of pride and accomplishment to have finally done this with Gunnar and Loki. We wrote this song for Brooke's wedding, but it has a deeper meaning to myself, I am learning. I feel like it could be about me as well.

The audience claps, cheers and whistles when the song comes to a close, and it's exhilarating to be front and center, a part of this accomplishment. Every fiber of my being has wanted to be this role for a very long time, and it's another gift that Gunnar and Loki have given me. I'm humbled, grateful and happy in this moment, with nothing to bring me down from this euphoria.

By the end of the set, I've sung two more songs with them that have been received well by the audience. I'm sweaty, drunk and smiling so much my face hurts. I don't think that Loki and Gunnar are any different from myself as we grab their gear and put them back into their cases.

"You were awesome," Loki says with a wink, "just like we knew you would be." I feel my cheeks turn pink with pleasure from his compliment.

"I couldn't have done it without you crazy blokes." I respond over my shoulder as I stuff one more mixer into it's carrying bag. Gunnar comes up to us from wherever he was off-stage, and takes the case from me.

"There's an important person who wants to speak with me," he begins, "I think it might be something to do with our music. Why don't you two go relax and I'll meet you out in front when I'm done talking to him and done putting all of this stuff in the car. Baldvin agreed to drive the car home since I've had too much to drink."

We take his advice and Loki and I head to leave the bar. On the way out, there are two Icelandic guys who look very sloshed from booze who try to grab at my arm as I walk passed them. They make remarks that I can only assume are crude slurs, since I don't understand Icelandic. I feel a chill of fear when their clammy hands grasp at me, and I try to pull away.

Loki notices that I'm no longer right behind him, sees the situation at hand and moves towards me to whisper something into one of the bloke's ears. The Icelandic guy; a decently attractive blonde with blue eyes, gets angry at whatever it is that Loki says to him and releases my arm rudely. He turns to his friend and says something to him in a pompous tone that tells me he thinks he is awesome. They eyeball me in a way that makes my skin feel dirty, as though I should take a shower immediately. The second guy, not attractive in the least, makes crude comments that cause Loki to narrow his eyes and change his posture to one that screams alpha male to me. I hope these blokes can take a hint.

My heart is pounding, and my head is still swimming from the mixture of alcohol and the high from performing. The buzz is fading some in the face of this annoyance, but Loki grasps my arm and pulls me at a quick pace from the bar and out to the coolness of the evening. The sun is even lower tonight, and the sky is full of varying shades of dark blue mixed with purples.

I take deep breaths to calm my nerves while Loki pulls a hand-rolled smoke from a case in his pocket. He lights it up, watching me carefully.

"Are you okay?" He asks softly. I nod, rubbing both of my upper arms with my hands to fight the chill.

"Yeah, I'm right as rain. What were they saying? Do I even want to know?"

"I doubt you do." Is his simple reply.

We both turn at the sound of the door to the bar opening behind us, and the two men who bothered us step out. They spot us seconds later, and sneers break out on their faces.

"
Jæja
, what do we have here?" Blondie asks in heavily accented English and a nasty tone, I assume to me. Both men stand too close to me, invading my personal space; threatening me.

"Don't you have anything better to do than bother us?" I ask him, full of piss and vinegar that this bloke has the nerve to continue bothering us.

"But look at you,
elskan
. You look like the type that would spread their legs easily. And this guy here," he motions to Loki, "shouldn't be hogging you all to himself. We know he likes loose women, we've seen him around downtown. Surely you must be one of them." As the last words come out of his mouth, Loki steps forward and punches the guy right in the face, smoke still between his fingers. The loud fleshy sound accompanied by bones knocking together is both gratifying and frightening to me. I'm completely shocked that Loki took a blow at the guy, but I'm also happy he did. The guy deserved it.

The guy's head snaps back with the force of the blow, and blood begins to flow from the corner of his mouth. Both of the assholes begin to yell at Loki in Icelandic, and my fear levels spike significantly. There are two of them, and only one of Loki. I'm not a very talented fighter, and if they came at me, I'd do my best to get away. I just don't think I'd be much help, and there is no telling when Gunnar will show up.

"You better watch what you say to her." Loki threatens cooly, taking a drag from his smoke as though he hadn't just punched a guy. This obviously riles the two men up considerably, or maybe it was the punch itself. Maybe these two guys were just filled with a blood lust that needed to be slaked by causing trouble tonight. There's no way to know what's going on in their minds when they both turn their attention to Loki and take steps towards him.

"
Þú munt sjá eftir því
," The blonde says to Loki. I don't know what it means, but the threat is very clear in his voice. Loki throws the smoke onto the ground and steps on it, calm as ever. He takes another step towards the blonde and gets in his face.

"What are you going to do about it?" He asks, egging the guy on in a way that causes my heart to sink. How much has Loki had to drink? Is he in any condition to be behaving like this?

"Come now, there's no reason to be this way. Let's all just call it a night and be on our way." Pleading with them just falls on deaf ears, except the unattractive guy steps towards me and grabs me suddenly from behind; wrapping both his arms around my front, pinning my arms to my sides. I immediately shriek loudly and begin to squirm and kick at the guy.

Much to my horror, Loki throws another punch at Blondie, catching him right in the stomach this time. Blondie gasps for breath, and backs up a few steps hunched over and gripping his stomach. Terror threatened to overwhelm me when Blondie lands a surprise punch into Loki's cheek, throwing him off his stance and probably making him see stars. The crunch of fists against flesh and bone continues as things escalate to a full blown fist fight.

Ugly Bloke still has his grip on me, but it's loosening as he watches Blondie and Loki fight. He releases me suddenly to rush behind Loki and throw an arm around Loki's throat and middle. I glance around for someone to help us, and all I see are a few people watching us carelessly as they walk away. Where is Gunnar, dammit?

I don't have time to think about Gunnar as I approach Blondie and attempt to give him a hard kick in the crotch as he is throwing his arm back to punch Loki in the gut. Loki is putting up a decent fight against Ugly Bloke, but the guy's arm is held tight around his neck, possibly even cutting off his air flow. The panic is rising and bubbling in me, and I throw my kick as hard as I can towards Blondie's groin.

He's unphased by my attempts, turning his punch in my direction at the last minute and striking my shoulder with his fist. Since my foot is in mid-kick during this, my balance is thrown off with the painful hit to the shoulder, and I fall helplessly down onto the sidewalk with a painful yelp.

"You stupid bitch, stay down where you belong, " Blondie taunts my fallen form. This causes something to snap within Loki, and he goes crazy in his attempts to get Ugly Bloke's arm off his throat. He scratches and kicks backwards, striking with his elbows and squirming to loosen the guy's grip on him.

It works, and Loki is free to tackle Blondie to the ground, where they continue their fighting just a few feet away from me, punching each other in the face and rolling around trying to top each other and win the fight. Ugly Bloke decides he doesn't want to be a part of what the other two guys are doing anymore and turns his attention to me.

"I'll show you how to respect a man like you should," I think he says to me as he pulls his foot back behind himself and then kicks me hard in the ribs. Blinding hot flames wrap themselves around my ribs; taking the breath from me and making me see stars. As I gasp for breath, I see Loki jumping on the back of Ugly Bloke, punching him repeatedly in the neck.

Silver dots are creeping up on my vision, making it difficult to see what it happening. Ugly bloke is frantically trying to get Loki off his back, and drops to his knees as he can no longer bear the pain and weight from Loki. There's a scuffle with all three men and in slow motion, I watch as Loki stands back from Ugly Bloke, and Blondie sticks his foot out to catch Loki behind the knee.

Loki begins to fall as time slows almost to a halt, his arms flailing helplessly as his body falls back to the edge of the sidewalk. There is a loud, sickening cracking sound as he hits the space where neck meets head on the edge of the curb. His body instantly falls completely still, and the two guys realize that the fight is over, spit in Loki's direction and run away without a backwards glance at me.

"Loki!" I screech in panic; crawling my way to his side, his eyes closed and his body unmoving. Half of his head is dangling over the side of the curb a trickle of blood running from the corner of his mouth, and I'm terribly frightened to disturb him if he has broken his neck. I have no idea what the extent of his injuries could be from the fight, either. Blackness swirls around the edges of my sight as I fight off the panic attack threatening to consume me. Visions of a similar situation from my childhood take over, and Loki has now become Evan in my mind's eye.