Demons (Eirik Book 1) (16 page)

“Did you tell my mother that I tried to escape?”

The giantess’ cheeks grew pink.

“Did you?” I snapped.

“Eirik!”

I heard Celestia’s warning, but I was busy watching the giantess shuffle backward, fear in her eyes. “Out!”

At first, she looked confused.

“Yes, you. Get out.”

Her chin trembled. She turned, ducked her head under the massive door, and disappeared. Celestia stood there for a second, her eyes wide with shock. She recovered quickly.

“I cannot believe you just did that. You are…” She growled. “Jerk.” She raced out of the room and went after the giantess. “Trudy, wait. Please. Trudnir.”

Damn it!
I stared at the ceiling and slowly counted backward. I had to know if Rhys was okay. Who could I trust to find out? Celestia stormed back into the room. Without looking at me, she started picking up her things and shoving them in her backpack.

She was the only one I could trust. Everyone else worked for my mother, and I had no idea how to locate my father.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to,” she said without looking up. “That girl was nice to me even though she knows I’m lying about who I am, and you just treated her like she was the devil’s spawn.” She dropped her backpack and moved closer. “After what your mother’s put you through, you should know what it feels like to be under someone else’s thumb.”

“How the hell is she under my thumb? I’m the one lying here recovering from two weeks of torture.”

“Boohoo. You are in a position of power. Your mother is the big kahuna in this realm, so what you do or say matters.”

“She’s spying for my mother and knows the identity of the people who tried to help me escape. She probably told my mother.”

That slowed her down. “Oh.” She chewed on her lower lip for a second, then sighed. “Listen, Eirik. I can call you Eirik and not some royal godliness title, right?”

I glared at her. She was starting to annoy me again.

“Yeah, too bad. Not happening after all I’ve done for you. Let me explain something so even you might understand, Eirik. Trudy is a servant and her loyalty is to your mother. What could she have done if your mother knew about your plans and asked her? Lie for you? I don’t think so. Not everything is about you and your predicament.” She grabbed her backpack and looked around.

She had a point. Trudy owed me nothing and my mother could be cruel. “You need to find Rhys and make sure he’s okay,” I said.

“Oh no. I need to get my ass home. I’m done here.” She grabbed her blanket and coat from the stone bed and shoved them in the backpack, then stood back and closed her eyes. After a few seconds, she cursed and squeezed her eyes tight.

“I’ll find her and apologize,” I said.

“Good.”

“As long as you locate Rhys.”

She opened her eyes and shot death rays my way. The blue in her eyes intensified. “I’m not locating anyone for you, mister. Now, stop talking. I’m trying to concentrate so I can astral project home.”

“It won’t take long. Just find a hall full of Grimnirs. If they are like Valkyries, they’re probably training or eating. He has violet eyes and lots of tattoos.” I knew she didn’t belong here and it was selfish of me to want to keep her, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want her to leave. “This is the last thing I’ll ask you to do for me.”

She sighed. “You don’t need me, Eirik. I’ve done my part, okay? Now, I need to focus or I’ll be trapped—” She frowned. “Violet eyes and tattoos,” she mumbled. “And they’d worn long dusters like Grimnirs. Could he be the same guy? Does he reap with a girl? Pretty? Dark hair?”

“Yes. You’ve seen them?”

“I think so. Back at home. My friend was talking to them by the bleachers at Windfall High, where my cousin’s team was doing drills. She said they’ve visited her store several times. I thought it was strange that she was actually nice to them. Hayden is rarely nice…” She stopped talking and frowned. “What is it?”

She’d finally picked up on my annoyance? I’d never met a girl who talked so much. “It’s nothing. Since you know him, you can easily track him down.”

“No, you went pale just now when I mentioned my friends talking to your violet-eyed reaper and his partner. What are you not telling me?”

Her eyes had grown big, and there was fear in their depth. I wanted to reassure her. No, I wanted to pull her into my arms and tell her everything would be all right, but that would be a lie. If a Grimnir was at her school, they were there to reap someone. Probably someone she knew, and that person would not be one of the players. Raine’s boyfriend liked to get close to those he reaped. If that was also Rhys’ method, her friend Hayden might be the target. Rhys would be able to tell me who he planned to reap.

“You think they were there to reap someone?” Celestia said, the fear in her eyes becoming full-blown panic. “My cousin plays for Windfall High.”

“Grimnirs don’t reap athletes. Valkyries do.”

“Everyone on that field was an athlete, except… me and Hayden,” she whispered. “Oh God. I have to go home. I have to warn her. She’s my only friend,” she whispered, her eyes overly bright. “The only one who understands me and all this.”

Bracing myself against the headboard, I struggled to my feet and wrapped the covers around my waist. “Celestia.”

I doubted she heard me. She clutched her backpack and headed for the door. Her bunny-eared hat dropped on the floor. Her coat followed.

“Celestia.”

Before she cleared the doorway, she disappeared.

Damn it! I stared at where she’d stood seconds ago and cursed again when dizziness washed over me. She’d helped me twice and I was completely useless to help her. Unless I found Rhys. Rhys was the key. But I couldn’t do that without getting my strength back.

I picked up her hat, brought it to my nose, and inhaled. It smelled like her hair. One day, I’d return it to her in person. I shuffled forward and picked up her coat. I smiled as I read the words on the sewn tag.

This coat belongs to Celestia Deveraux. I am a Witch, so return it
.

A Witch who had no problem telling the world what she was. What a breath of fresh air. In Kayville, where I grew up, anyone connected to the supernatural world hid it. Imagine if the people knew. Things would be…

Not so simple. Everyone would want to come to Asgard. Chaos would follow.

I pushed her hat inside her coat and debated whether to burn them. She’d said I would pay for them with interest. I was going to miss her smart-ass comments. I hid her things under my pillow. One day, I’d return them to her.

Fighting dizziness, I picked up the last Hershey’s wrappers she’d missed and threw them in the fire. She’d missed half a bag of chocolate I hadn’t eaten. I loved chocolate, although I preferred the crunchy ones. I shoved it under the bed and gave the room a sweeping glance.

There was no sign she’d been in the room. The problem was I might erase the evidence that she had been here, but everything she had done was etched in my memory. Our paths would cross again after I’d completed my training, taken care of the Norns, and found my sister.

CELESTIA

I appeared in the same damn cave again.

“Are you kidding me?” I screamed. “My friend needs me. Why do you keep bringing me here?”

The familiar growl came from inside the cave and I jumped. I ignored it, opened my backpack, and fought the urge to throw it across the cave and bawl. Great. Just great. My coat must have fallen out of the bag in Eirik’s room.

Refusing to break down, I pulled out the thermal blanket, wrapped it around my shoulders, gripped my backpack, and started the long trek to the back of the cave. The humming started.

Yeah, you sing away, bitch, because I’m not scared of you.
Tell that to my pounding heart and the hollow in my stomach. I wasn’t panicking. I refused to panic. I was pissed.

There was a reason I always landed here. Maybe the magic was thinnest here or maybe the singer was luring me into this cave for some nefarious reasons. I didn’t care. I just wanted to go home to save my friend.

Like last time, I tried to project as I walked toward the cave, but got nowhere. So I listened to the singer. It was definitely a woman, which was only a little comforting. Women in this realm were powerful and mean. The goddess was cruel and sadistic. Trudy was sarcastic.

I slowed down as I got closer to the end of the cave. Like the first time, the humming continued, but grew faint. The fire was there and nothing else.

Furious, I sat by the fire and warmed myself. It wasn’t as cold as the first time, so it didn’t take long before I was warm. I tried again and again, but I still couldn’t astral project home. Hayden needed me and I was stuck in Hel.

An hour crawled by. Hungry, I rummaged through my backpack for something to eat. Damn, I’d forgotten that Eirik had eaten the bag of chocolate. All I had were the stupid wrappers. The thought of drinking the last bottle of electrolyte solution was not appealing. I weighed my options. I had two choices. Stay here and keep trying or head back to Eirik’s place. The humming was still in the background, but the person was keeping her distance.

After a few more failed attempts, I caved and stood.

“Thank you for the fire, and thank you very much for dragging me here against my will again,” I yelled. The humming stopped. “I wish you’d come right out and show yourself, and explain to me what the hell is going on. What are you anyway? A powerful Witch? A giant? Some kind of monster? What do you want from me?”

Silence. The fight drained out of me and I reached for my backpack.

“Please. My friend is in danger and needs me. Will you let me go if I promise to come back?”

The humming started.

“Is that a yes?” Please, let that be a yes. “Thank you. I promise I’ll be back.” I gripped my backpack, closed my eyes, and let the image of my bedroom fill my head. I let the will to rejoin with my body fill me.

When I’d left home, I was lying on my bed with Hayden and Zack keeping an eye on me. I was still standing. I opened one eye, expecting to see them.

What the hell? I was back in the dungeon. Eirik was on top of his bed with his eyes closed. He wore white jersey pajama bottoms. He opened his eyes and sat up.

“Dimples?”

My throat seized up. He struggled to his feet.

“What happened?”

I shook my head.

“Come here.”

My eyes burned and my chest hurt, but I couldn’t move. If he touched me, the tears I was fighting would spill, and I refused to cry in front of him. I was the one doing the helping here, not him. “I want to go home. I tried, but I ended up in this ice cave and it led…”

“You back here. It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. Hayden needs me and I’m trapped here,” I said, my voice breaking. “I have to find Rhys and talk to him. He cannot reap her.” I didn’t realize he’d moved until he pulled me into his arms. I tried to wiggle out of them, but they tightened. The next second, he was on the bed clasping me firmly to his side, and my head tucked under his chin. I froze. He moved fast, too?

“You are not going anywhere, Dimples,” he said, one leg draped over mine as though to trap me. “Cry. Let it all out. We’ll figure out what to do once you stop.”

“But I have to—”

“Do nothing.”

The dam broke and tears of frustration flowed. I cried, and every time I thought I was going to stop, thoughts of Hayden brought a rush of fresh tears. After a while, I just closed my eyes and shut out the world. I wanted to try to leave, but I was too scared of landing in the cave again.

“Under you go,” Eirik said sometime later, pulling the blanket over me. “I’ll stay on top and use your thermal blanket.”

On a different day, I would have given him grief about that, but I didn’t care. I was thinking about Hayden and Zack and how they must be panicking. Hopefully, they didn’t call Aunt Genevieve. I didn’t get too cold in that cave and I’d made them promise not to call her or Dad unless I was turning blue. Dad was at a conference in New Orleans, until Sunday. I had to get home before he returned.

~*~

The smell of bread woke me up, and for one moment, I thought I was home. Grams’ baking used to wake me up on Saturdays and Sundays. I inhaled and stretched, then turned my head. The partially open massive door sent memories rushing back and I sat up.

I was in Hel.

Where was Eirik? The white tank shirt he’d worn was on top of the bed. I was in my socks. I scooted to the edge of the bed and looked down. My boots were by the foot of the bed. Eirik must have removed them last night. At least that was all he’d removed. I would have been mortified if he’d undressed me, too.

A cart with breakfast—eggs, bread, a pot of hot beverage, and juice—was by the bed. I lifted the cloth covering the bread. The loaves were warm. There were two mugs, one of them used. Eirik must have eaten and left.

Grunts came from outside the door, and I went to investigate. My eyes widened and I swallowed at the sight that caught my eyes.

A shirtless Eirik was doing push-ups, the same tattoos I’d seen on his mother coiling under his glistening skin. He didn’t have as many as she did, but that pull to reach out and touch his skin was there. Despite his fewer glowing tattoos, the pull was stronger and somehow different from his mother’s. I couldn’t explain it.

Warmth coiled deep in my stomach and my heart did that weird tremble it did yesterday when he had buried his head in my hair. The corded muscles on his back shifted beautifully, his biceps straining with the effort as he pushed and lifted himself up, then down. Funny, I hadn’t noted the thin dust of blond hair on his arms. I never thought manly fuzz would be intriguing. And who would have known the weak man I’d helped yesterday would have such a masculine body with washboard abs?

The urge to close the gap between us and touch him grew. I wanted to run my hand up and down his back. Would the tattoos react? It was obvious they were magical. It was the only explanation for the pull I’d felt toward his mother and now him.

“Morning,” he said without looking in my direction.

My first instinct was to jump out of sight. Had he caught me ogling him? I leaned against the door and tried to act indifferent. “Morning. Should you be doing that already? What happened to rest and relaxation is the key to full recovery?”

He jumped to his feet with the agility of a dancer. His eyes, when he glanced at me, were hard to read. He gave me a slow perusal and I began to fidget. It was as though he’d reached out and touched me, and the flutter in my stomach increased. If he noticed my reaction, he didn’t show it.

“I wasn’t sick, and all I needed to recover was food and fluids. That nasty drink you brought with you helped and I ate well last night.”

He walked toward me, the swagger cocky and loose-hipped. I tried to focus on anywhere but his abs and the pajama bottoms riding low on his hips, so I stared at his feet for a spell. There was something really sexy about a guy walking barefoot.

“I woke up in the middle of the night while you snored and had a guard bring me more food. This morning, I ate a whole plate of pancakes, drank a pitcher of apple juice, and almost finished the pot of tea.”

He reached me and leaned in to study me, his eyes lingering on my lips before meeting my gaze. I was sure my eyes were wide.

“And now I’m hungry again,” he added.

My brain stopped functioning and my lips tingled as though he’d touched them. He smelled of sweat and soap. Had he bathed while I was sleeping? Even though the tattoos no longer glowed under his skin, I had an insane urge to rub my cheek against his skin, to smell him.

Concern flickered in his amber eyes. “What is it, Dimples? Are you worried about going home?”

Home was the last thing on my mind. What the heck was wrong with me? “Of course, and I don’t snore.”

“Do too.” He frowned. “Are you hungry?”

I nodded.

He gripped my shoulders and turned me around. “Start with that and I’ll ask Litr to bring us a fresh pot of tea.”

It was weird how warmth now radiated from his body like he was an oven, when yesterday he’d been frozen. He directed me to the bed, lifted the cart onto the lush rug by the bed, and placed it in front of me.

“The apple juice is from apples grown here in a greenhouse. Litr swears they are from Goddess Idun’s orchard. The tea is sweetened with honey. The Dwarves supposedly harvest it in their villages. And the pastries are amazing.” He picked up one and bit into it. He chewed and swallowed, then demolished the remaining half. “I’m not sure what the filling is, but it is unbelievable. Try it.” He picked up one and brought it to my mouth. I leaned back and he followed, his eyes challenging. Didn’t he ever smile?

I took a bite. It was good. The filling was creamy and sweet. The bread was flaky and buttery. I closed my eyes and moaned.

“That’s so good.” I opened my mouth for a bite and found only air. Frowning, I opened my eyes. Eirik was scowling, his expression saying he was either baffled or annoyed. “What?”

“You have cream on your lip.”

I tried to lick it off.

He murmured something, reached out, and wiped it with his thumb. “There. Gone.” He stuck his thumb in his mouth and sucked it off, then demolished the rest of the pastries. “Eat. I’ll ask Litr to bring you bath water.”

I stared after him, too shocked to react. I could still feel the print of his thumb on my lips. I studied his back, the way his broad shoulders tapered to his waist. He really had a beautiful body, like he worked out regularly. Masculine without being buff.

He spoke briefly with someone and turned to enter the room. I averted my eyes and started eating. When he joined me, I scooted to put some distance between us, but his legs were long and our knees ended up touching. I didn’t like this sudden awareness I had of his body and everything he did.

“I asked Litr to bring more apple juice, too, and drinking water,” he said.

I ignored our touching knees. Tried to anyway. “You know I can’t bathe in here.”

“Why not?”

My face warmed. “Look at this place, Eirik. There’s no privacy.”

“Oh, there’s plenty,” he said, demolishing another piece of bread. He poured the tea into the mugs. “The tub is over there and the bed is way over here. I used it last night and didn’t care that you were in the room.”

My eyes narrowed. “I was asleep. Not the same thing.”

He shrugged. “So I’ll turn my back and promise not to peek.” Sounds came from the hallway and he got up. “We can talk about your plans for today while you bathe. I’ll even close my eyes while I scrub your back if you like. The loofah doesn’t have a stick.”

He was nuts if he thought I’d bathe with him in the room, let alone allow him to scrub my back. Two Dwarves entered the room with a giant steaming pot and poured the water in the tub. They smiled at me and left. They made four more trips until the water was halfway up the tub.

Eirik dipped his fingers in. “Perfect temperature.”

“I’m still not using it,” I said, wrapping my hands around the mug and sipping the tea.

“Then more for me,” he said, then stepped back as the men returned carrying what looked like a rug, until I saw poles sticking out on one side. They lifted it upright and spread it out. The portable partition had six panels and covered the huge tub nicely.

The scoundrel.

“Thanks,” I called after them as they left. I shook my head. “You knew?”

“Before you opened your mouth. I can tell when you are about to be difficult. Those baby blues start flashing and your chin lifts. When you are angry, I actually see steam come out of your ears.” How could he say that without cracking a smile?

“You can at least get out of the room while I change.”

“With the partition in place?” he griped, reaching for more bread.

I crossed my arms and stared right back at him.

He sighed. “Fine. The towels are on the stone bed. I’ll see if I can find something else for you to wear.”

“No, I’m fine. As soon as I find Rhys, I’m going home.”

He paused in the middle of the room and glanced back at me. “I know. But this will give me a chance to apologize to your giant friend, too. I asked Litr to bring her to me, but he couldn’t find her anywhere.”