Dead Wrath (26 page)

Brother? Did she mean Thor? Chills ran up and down my spine.

Loki growled. "He is not my brother."

"Then why are you so upset that he is weakened?" asked the woman. She certainly had guts.

Loki didn't answer. Footsteps hurried toward the door, and I had no place to hide. I stood, still praying he wouldn't see through my glamor. But I needn't have worried. Loki threw the doors open and stormed across the threshold, moving past me so fast the feathers on my wings fluttered.

When he stopped in his tracks, I held my breath and tried to temper my heartbeat. He tilted his head toward me, as if listening harder. Perhaps he'd heard me take a breath. Or had he heard the flutter of my wings? Whatever it was, I didn't plan on asking him. I remained still and waited as he waited, frozen to the spot and staring at nothing.

Then he shook his head and headed down the hall, taking the right turn I'd originally planned to take. I followed slowly, tiptoeing behind him, not daring to fly for fear he'd hear the flap of wings and feather.

My foot struck a loose floorboard and it squeaked so loudly I just about died on the spot, but Loki didn't even turn a hair. He entered the first room on the left, leaving the door wide open. I stood on the threshold, my heart frozen in my chest as I watched him stand beside the bed and stare down at the still form of Thor.

I'd found Thor.

My ears rang with shock. What impossible luck that we found him here with Loki. He'd been with Loki all along. It made our mission that much harder, but saving Thor was now as important as stealing the virus. If not more important.

I shifted away from the room. The sight of Loki's tight and angry features as he stared down at his unconscious brother did strange things to my insides. I had to admit that I'd seen a depth of emotion in his eyes as he stared at Thor. The proof that Loki loved his brother was right there in front of my eyes, and I wasn't sure I liked bearing witness to it. Knowing he had a heart made him seem more human in a way, and I didn't like to think of him that way.

Loki was cruel. Loki was harsh. Loki was the Trickster. He was not supposed to be a loving brother. Not after what he did to his own father. He'd taken Odin from us, stuck him in some strange dimension to keep him from helping us with this war with Loki.

But even that, I had to admit, seemed to confirm Loki had a heart. Because if he didn't care, he'd have just killed Odin and been done with it.

Damn it.

I didn't like this new knowledge. It churned my gut and made me want to scream and yell at him. Was this the way his family had felt about him all through his lifetime? A combination of love and frustration, annoyance and anger?

I wanted to walk back into that room and shake some sense into him. Instead, I studied the rest of the floor with the heat sensors, confirmed it was empty, then floated to the ground floor and made a full sweep.

I found one more frost giant and heard Edrik confirm one more on the other end of the ground floor. So Yuri was wrong. The count was four frost giants, two gods, and an unknown woman.

Our surveillance was done and I wasn't about to push my luck. When I turned to head back upstairs, I saw Edrik coming down the hall. I pointed at the upper floor and his head bobbed in agreement before he followed closely. We left the building without incident, pushing the balcony door closed. I flew back to the girls while Edrik did his wolf-monkey thing and leaped off the balcony as if he had his own wings attached to his back.

We returned to the boarding house, bearing information I hadn't even thought possible.

We'd found Loki and Thor. And Loki was trying to change fate.

I only hoped that whatever he'd done hadn't had any kind of lasting effect on the rest of our lives.

Yuri still wasn't back when we returned to Maria's, but he was the last person I was concerned with. When dealing with gods and frost giants and mystery fortune tellers, what did one human matter?

Derek created a 3-D image of the house and the locations of the Jotunn I'd seen. Naturally, we wouldn't expect them to still be there when we decided to enter, but at least we knew they were watching the grounds outside the house.

As soon as we got back, we gathered our things and the whole team got ready to move out. We left silently, Siri transporting Enya, Aidan, and Aimee to the field alongside the house.

CHAPTER THIRTY

The night seemed to have grown darker, the moon hunched lower on the horizon. It gave off an eerie, misty light that made everything it touched seem ominous and ghostly.

I gave everyone their locations, sending Aidan and Enya to the north corner, Aimee to the east. Joshua and Siri watched the south corner, with Edrik alone at the west end. I planned to join him soon, but for now I pulled on the night-vision glasses and flew upward to hover over the manor house roof for a while. I could see five heat signatures, which I assumed to be the two gods, the two frost giants, and the mysterious woman.

I lowered myself to the roof and found an even spot near one of the chimneys. There I rifled through my bag and retrieved the bottle of Norn water. I pulled Gungnir from my back and coated the tip of the spear with the water. The gold glistened as if I'd rubbed it with an oil, yet the water looked like plain old water to me.

No time to waste trying to unravel the mystery.

I slipped the spear back into the harness at my back, then fished inside the bag for a box of bullets. I dipped each of the bullets in the box into the water, then used one of the knives strapped to my thigh to cut a large cross on the lid. I would need to identify the box in a hurry.

Pulling the Glock from the holster on my right thigh, I proceeded to load the anointed bullets into the empty chambers. The other gun I filled with normal bullets, knowing they wouldn't do much more than slow either god or frost giant.

An hour later, I spoke into my microphone. "I'm going in for Thor. If anything happens or I give the word, enter the building and eliminate all targets. Remember, we need the virus, so check the upper level room that has the chemistry setup. I'll take Thor straight to Asgard and come right back, so I will be gone for a little while. Be careful and keep your eyes open at all times."

When I fell silent, I heard a whispered chorus of copy-that's and will-do's. Satisfied that everyone knew their roles, I closed the bag, returned the gun to its holster, and surged into the air. With the goggles still on, I made one more sweep of the house, watching the two frost giants pace the floor. Thor remained unmoving in his bed, while Loki was seated in his room, his upper body hunched over.

The woman had also taken to her bed, but she tossed and turned and was definitely not asleep.

I flew around the house and landed on the balcony we'd used a few hours ago. The door was unlocked, with no sign that the jimmied door had been discovered.

Once inside, I pushed the door back into its closed position and sent up a silent thank you for water-swollen doors. I could see now how the damaged door fit snugly against the other one instead of swinging free.

I slipped out of the room, eyes moving back and forth, watching through the walls for the manor's occupants. Again, I ignored the Jotunn and this time headed straight for Thor's room. The handle was cool to touch, and I held my breath as I turned it to open the door.

The knob moved silently, and I let out a soft breath as I pushed the door open and slipped inside as quickly as I could. Without a sound, I moved toward the window, crossed the path of pale moonlight, and pressed against the wall in the shadows.

Removing my goggles, I let it fall around my neck. From my hiding place, I watched Thor, his chest barely moving, his breathing shallow. Fear rippled through me like an icy wave. What had the woman done to him? He slept soundly, unaware that I watched him, filled with fear.

I reached for Gungnir and released it from its holster. It never failed to impress me that a solid piece of five-foot-long metal could be shortened to no more than a foot's length. The magic of the Dwarfs was definitely impressive.

I shook the spear, thrusting up and down, feeling the shiver that ran through the metal as it released and grew to its full length. I held my breath as it made it signature
shiing
, the soft ringing sound of metal sliding against metal.

Thor moved in his bed, and I held my breath longer. Had he heard the sound of the spear? I watched and waited as his head turned toward the window and his eyelids fluttered. He opened his eyes then, and shock twisted my gut. He was staring right at me.

His Adam's apple convulsed and cleared his throat. "Brynhildr?" he said as if he was sure I was an apparition and not the real thing. I glanced at the door and waited. Someone might have heard either Gungnir's noise or Thor's voice. But nothing stirred.

I moved out of the shadows and approached his bed.

My fingers tightened on the spear as I crouched beside Thor.

He started to speak, forehead rumpled, eyebrows scrunched, as if he wasn't sure what he was seeing was real. I put a finger to my lips. "Don't speak," I whispered. "Remain still. I'm taking you home."

Thor's lips turned up at the corners, happiness brightening his blue eyes. I slipped my hand into his, shivering a little at how cold he was. I couldn't deny that I was afraid. He was weaker than I thought, and I was terrified he wouldn't be strong enough to make the trip home.

I hesitated a moment, unable to hide the worry in my expression. Thor must have seen it, because he whispered, "What's wrong?"

I didn't admonish him for speaking. Instead, I asked, "Are you strong enough to travel?"

Thor sighed and then smiled at me. I guess he must have thought something worse. He nodded. "I'm weak but not dying. You and Gungnir will get me home in one piece."

"I hope so," I whispered, rising slowly to my feet. I held on tightly to Thor's hand despite the iciness of his skin.

As I raised the spear into the air, I bent my neck to speak into the microphone attached to my collar. "This is it. I'm going on three. Good luck, everyone, and watch yourselves." As soon as I finished speaking, I took a deep breath and brought the image of Eir's treatment room into my mind. Then I stamped the butt of the spear three times on the bare wood floor.

The sound seemed painfully loud to my ears, echoing around the room. The air around us shimmered, and a multitude of colors sparkled. The room disappeared and relief flooded me. We were on the Bifrost and on our way home.

Seconds later, my feet touched the ground and I heard a solid thump as Thor's body hit the marble tiles. I was still holding tightly to his hand, and he squeezed it, giving me a grateful look.

Eir looked up from tending to an einherjar with a big gash in his upper arm. Her eyes widened with shock and surprise as her gaze flitted from me to Thor. She set her blood-soaked cloths down on the table in front of her and hurried to us. She probably intended to ask a bunch of questions, but I wasn't planning on sticking around for it. I gave Thor's hand one last squeeze, then let go.

"Get well," I instructed him before stamping Gungnir on the ground and thinking of the roof of the house in St. Petersburg.

With a shiver of air, I materialized on the roof beside the chimney, but I hadn't catered for landing on a surface that wasn't entirely flat. I appeared on the tip of the roof with one foot on either side. And I began to slide, each leg going down the opposite side of the roof. It would have been a funny sight if it hadn't been for the fact that I was trying hard not to alert Loki and his henchmen. I shucked out my wings and flapped desperately, hoping I didn't hit the roof.

My wings did their job, saving me from breaking my ass on the roof. I hovered up and away, floating higher above the house. Pulling the goggles back over my eyes, I studied the mayhem below. Purple and orange splodges were rushing round the house, confirming my team had entered the house as soon as I'd left.

A low rumble emanated from the far end of the house.

Loki.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

So our favorite troublemaker was throwing his toys. Funny how things hurt him when
he
was the one being played.

But I had little time to enjoy his tantrum. I flew around the house and landed on the balcony. Slipping inside, I grabbed the spear from my back and shook it out. I moved quickly to the doorway and peered into the passage. My earwig crackled, and Aimee's voice came over the comms. "I have eyes on the virus."

"Good. Get it and let's get the hell out of here," I said, eager to have it done with.

"Welcome back," said Joshua. "We've got action downstairs. I've got one frost giant that I'm going to make a Happy Meal of."

I grinned and ran down the hallway toward Loki's room. But as I passed the next doorway on the left, I caught sight of Siri facing down one of the frost giants. I entered the room, intending to help her out, but I couldn't get farther than the doorway.