Dark Deceit (9 page)

Sometimes I hear Mother crying in her
room at night. She won’t tell me the reason why.

*

L
oki woke with the
sun’s hot rays on his face. It burned liked fire ants were crawling all over
his skin. Lifting his hand to brush the prickling sensation away, he was
greeted with puffy skin and bloody fingertips. He winced when his fingers
landed on one sensitive eye socket. Sitting up
slowly, he squinted at his surroundings, taking stock of the situation. He was
where he had been the night before, lying on a slab of pavement splattered in
his own blood.

Blood stained his mouth. He tasted it on the back of his tongue. He
swallowed, trying to get rid of the metallic dryness when something small
shifted around in his mouth. Loki spat into his hand and found a tooth, his
tongue probing the space where it had once been.

‘Man, they got you good,’ someone said above his head. Loki looked
up, shielding his face from the sun. Whoever this person was, they were
standing just to the left of the warm disc hanging in the sky, blinding Loki temporarily.

‘Who are you?’ he demanded, instantly going on the defensive. He
would not be tricked so easily again.

‘Me?’ the man asked, crouching down beside him. Loki smelled the man
before he really saw him. He smelled of roasting pig, and when he got a good
look at his face, Loki recognized him immediately.

‘You’re Andhr—’

The man held his hand up, stopping Loki mid-word. ‘Don’t go by that
name anymore,’ he said gruffly. ‘Call me Sooty.’ He eyed Loki’s bruised and
beaten body in a detached sort of way. ‘And you got your ass handed to you last
night.’

Even though Loki didn’t understand the words, he understood the
meaning. ‘Yes, I suppose I did.’ But he wouldn’t be making the same mistake
twice.

‘Well, if the cops see you just hanging around on the street
bleeding like you are, they’ll lock you up. So let’s get you out of here and
cleaned up.’ Sooty offered Loki his palm. He stared at the offer for help and
hesitated. Could he trust this Aesirean?

‘Look, you can trust me,’ Sooty said seeing how he paused. Loki
didn’t know whether he could or not. But what other choice did he have? He had
been looking for other gods without results, and now a god had found him.

In his previous life, Loki had been aware of Sooty and his role in
Aesirean life, but had not once met him. He looked over at the male’s blond
beard and wide-set green eyes. With a slow nod, he took the proffered hand and
was hauled to his feet.

As soon as he was vertical, Loki tried to put weight on his right
leg, but winced. Sooty crouched down and inspected his ankle.

‘Could be broken. All you need is some time to recuperate. Think you
can fade?’

Loki nodded gingerly, discovering a new ache in his neck. ‘I think
so, yes.’

‘Well, alright. Take my arm and I’ll show you where to go.’

Loki put his hand on Sooty’s arm, closing his eyes as the vibration
of a fade overtook his body. One second he was in a stinking alleyway and the
next he was in a small, cramped apartment stinking of mildew. It wasn’t much of
an improvement.

‘Are we still in St Louis?’ Loki asked, clutching the wall when the
room wouldn’t stop spinning.

‘Whoa, why don’t you sit down for a second?’ Sooty had grabbed his
arm and was directing him to an old green couch. He slouched into the worn
cushions and stared up at the other god.

Loki was vulnerable right now and he hated it. He needed to find out
how much Sooty knew before he could rest.

Loki licked his lips and looked Sooty in the eye. ‘Do you know who I
am?’

Sooty’s eyes skirted around the room before finally landing back on
Loki. ‘Just some guy down on his luck?’ He made his answer into more of a
question.

Was he lying or telling the truth? ‘But you knew I was a god. How?’

He shrugged his shoulders and sank down onto the coffee table
opposite the couch. ‘How do humans recognize their own family members?’ he
asked in reply. ‘I just did. Can’t you spot other gods?’

He thought about that for a moment. ‘Yes, I suppose I can.’

Sooty nodded and stood up, clapping his hands together then rubbing
his palms nervously. ‘Are you hungry? I can make you something, or would you
prefer to take a shower first?’

Loki looked down at his blood-stained hands. ‘I would like to bathe
then I’ll eat.’

Sooty nodded; a jerky movement. ‘No problem. I’ll show you where
everything is.’

Loki was led into a small, windowless bathroom. The shower stall
backed onto the basin while a toilet sat opposite them both.

‘Here’s a fresh towel and some clothes to put on,’ Sooty said a
moment later. Loki took the things from Sooty’s outstretched arms and shut the
door.

Resting against the lip of the basin, Loki disrobed. His ankle still
hurt, and he couldn’t put any real weight on it yet. Stripping the bloody shirt
Mike had given him from his body, he dumped it onto the floor beside him. He
struggled to remove the pants, but managed. They, too, joined the shirt on the
dark green tile.

He hobbled the few steps to the shower and turned on the taps until
hot water beat against the grimy floor. Loki stepped inside the cubicle and
shut himself in with the steam.

The blood that had been caked onto his face and body dissolved with
the water, running pink down the drain at the bottom of the trough. His face
was still tender to touch, so he washed it clean as gently as possible.

When some of the aches from his body were gone, Loki dried himself,
slid into the new clothes and left the bathroom. Sooty was at the stove cooking
something that smelled suspiciously like stew. On the counter top, there was a
fresh loaf of bread and a knife.

Sooty’s head lifted when Loki entered the room. ‘Hungry?’ Sooty
asked.

‘Yes.’

He watched as the god pulled out two wooden bowls reminiscent of
their previous lives and filled them with the thick stew. He placed one bowl in
front of Loki where he sat at the small counter and fetched him a spoon to eat
with.

The rich food filled the gnawing hole in Loki’s stomach, helping him
heal the injuries he had sustained from the night before. Loki was scraping at
the bottom of the bowl when Sooty took it from him and ladled another spoonful
into it.

When he slid it back in front of him, he mumbled, ‘You need to eat
more to heal yourself.’ Sooty cut a hunk of bread off for himself and dunked it
into the stew.

With the spoon poised in front of him, Loki looked at the other god.
‘Have you seen many others?’

Sooty glanced up from his bowl. ‘Yeah, occasionally. Some of the Vanir
live around here, but not many.’

‘Have you seen any other Aesir?’

Sooty’s eyebrows rose. ‘Around here? No, not so much. That’s why I
settled here.’

The next question burned on the tip of Loki’s tongue, but he had to
be very careful about how he asked it. ‘And what of Odin?’

‘Odin?’

Loki nodded and forced his eyes back down on his bowl. Sooty
remained quiet for a time before Loki heard him inhale deeply.

‘Odin is where he has always been.’

‘Which is?’ Loki nudged casually, spooning some more stew into his
mouth, chewing, swallowing.

‘Boston. He’s in Boston, Massachusetts.’

Loki let out a breath and sat back into the bar stool, his spoon
abandoned in the bowl. ‘Is it far?’

Sooty shrugged. ‘A bit over a thousand miles.’

Loki’s mind churned over the new information quickly. He was only
one thousand miles from Odin, but he needed to get to his Valkyries first. He
raised his pale jade eyes to Sooty’s face. The other man was watching him with
a fearful look in his eyes that hadn’t been there a few moments before.

He knows who I am
. Loki had to move
quickly now.

‘Do his Valkyries still reside with him?’

The other god dropped his spoon into his bowl of stew, splashing
some of the contents out onto the counter top. He took a step back from the
sinister look that was no doubt in Loki’s eyes.

Loki’s eyes darted to the bread knife sitting between them just as
Sooty’s did. Loki looked back at the other man before throwing his
still-healing body over the counter top, toward the knife.

His bowl went flying in one direction, hitting the ground and
spitting bits of meat and vegetables everywhere. Sooty had done the same thing,
but he was a fraction too slow because Loki’s fingers had just wrapped around
the hilt.

Sooty backed away from Loki; his hands up, his eyes like saucers. He
walked around to the other side of the counter and approached Sooty in a
stalking gait.

‘Tell me about the Valkyries,’ he hissed, thrusting the knife into
Sooty’s fearful face.

Sooty’s eyes remained on the blade now perilously close to his
eyeball. ‘I swear, I don’t know about them.’

‘I don’t believe you.’ Loki pressed the tip into the skin just below
Sooty’s right eye and applied the slightest amount of pressure.

‘Okay!’ he screamed. ‘Okay,’ he repeated quietly, defeated.

Loki growled. ‘Start talking.’

Sooty’s face drained of color, but his gums began flapping. ‘The Valkyries
split from him.’

‘When?’

‘I’m not sure. I h-h-heard rumors it was
right after the Fall and others saying it was more recent than that—a hundred
years or less.’

‘And where do they reside?’

‘Boston, I think.’

Loki could feel the satisfied smile pulling on his lips. Odin had
done half his work already. He had been wondering how to approach the Valkyries
without him knowing, but the arrogant asshole had already alienated them.

His pale eyes fixed on Sooty’s face once more and he smiled. ‘Thank
you.’ He pulled the knife away from his eye and settled it near his hip instead.

The other god looked relieved for a second right before Loki sank
the blade into his belly. Sooty cried out in pain, dropping to the floor with
both hands pressed to the wound, the knife still protruding from his belly.

Getting down onto his knees, Loki took the hilt into his hand again
and repositioned it under Sooty’s ribcage. The god cried out again, but didn’t
fight against it. With a push, Loki thrust and twisted the blade upwards through
the god’s heart, killing him.

Loki got off his knees unsteadily—Sooty’s blood staining his
hand—and looked around the apartment. He had eaten his fill, but still required
more suitable clothing than what Sooty had provided for him. After dressing in
a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt, he took the god’s wallet and coat
from the rack near the door and began fading—hopping from state to state until
he reached Boston.

When Loki arrived
in the city of Boston, the thrum he associated with Odin had lessened. Perhaps
it was because he was now in the heart of his territory, or perhaps it was
because so many others from the Nine Worlds seemed to reside in the city, too.
Whatever the reason, the vibration was weaker—diluted somehow.

Still disoriented by the new world he was now a part of, he found
himself sitting in the shadows of a tree in a small cemetery in the center of
the city. For some reason, he felt at peace there. The ancient headstones
jutted out of the ground like the broken teeth of giants.

He watched the humans walk by, going about their days, oblivious to
him and everyone else around them. They held small
phones to their ears, not speaking to the people who stood shoulder to shoulder
with them. They were moving together as one, but disconnected from each other
also. More than once he spotted a light elf towering above the crowd.

As the day wore on and the number of humans dropped off, the
vibration started to get a little stronger and Loki realized why Odin had
chosen this city to make his home. The human’s energy along with the others seemed
to distort his. When the temperature started to drop and he began shivering in
the light jacket he’d taken from Sooty’s apartment, Loki decided to move on.

Loki stretched out his legs, his knees popping in protest from being
in the same position all day. He left the iron-hemmed area behind him,
following the pull of Odin’s energy.

When he passed by a large glass-fronted shop, his steps slowed, his
eyes clamping onto something pinned to the other side of the glass. He leaned
in closer for a second before entering the shop and tearing the piece of paper
off the window.

‘Hey! You can’t—’

Loki growled at the woman behind the counter and left the shop,
clutching the thin piece of parchment in his white-knuckled hands. It was a
poster for a place called
Odin’s Eye
on Tremont Street. It could simply
be a coincidence, but he doubted it. If someone had the gall to reference the
All-Father then perhaps he had just found something that could lead him to
Odin’s Valkyries.

Folding up the paper quickly, he stuffed it into his pocket and
began making his way to the address. When he got there, he looked up at the
unassuming building. He didn’t even know if this was the place. There was no
sign on the outside. As his eyes looked over the façade, they paused just above
the door.

On the lintel, carved into the stone work, was a small rune. Loki
squinted at the symbol, realizing what it was, what it meant. This had to be
the place.

He decided he would return later on in the evening and try to gain
entry then. Turning around, he started walking, following the tug of Odin’s
energy.

Loki crossed a large park still filled with people despite the drop
in temperature, despite the setting sun. Around its fringes were vast buildings
made from red-bricks and white stone. They rose to great heights above his
head. Passing down one of the streets, he closed his eyes and drew on the link
with his blood-brother.

He was still going in the right direction.