Viking's Fury (4 page)

“I don’t know.” She fidgeted.

“Yes, you do.” He used his finger to tilt her chin up so she was forced to look at him.

“Fine.” Oh, she could drown in his eyes. Mercy didn’t know how he expected her to maintain any rational kind of thought while she was slipping down into—

“Mercy,” he prompted again.

“You put your life in my hands. I can’t do any less. And I see that you want me to trust you, not because I have to, but because I can.”

“Lesson passed.” He nodded. “Suit up.”

Chapter Four

Magnus thought he was a grown man.

Grown men didn’t sneak glances at beautiful women while they were changing. Untried boys did things like that. Grown men told their women that they wanted to watch them, grown men undressed them with their gaze boldly and purposefully, while within full view of their women.

But he couldn’t help it.

He’d had his hands all over her curves and the way she’d responded to him had his recently thawed brain much too hot to concentrate on anything but her.

Shit, he had to get his head in the game. Their lives depended on it.

The worst part about it was he knew that she’d give him whatever he desired. Even if she wasn’t just paying a debt or finding some way to feel like she’d done her part—he was sure from the way she kissed him that she wanted him.

Only—and he never thought he’d say this and, if he had to say it out loud, he’d swear that it was the freezing sickness talking, but—he didn’t want just a fuck. Not some mechanical chore, even if the outcome was pleasure.

He wanted a connection.

He hadn’t realized how lonely silence was. He’d been left on his own many a time. The first time he’d crossed the Great Dark, he’d been alone.

But watching the years of men and beasts go by, looking out of his frozen prison, he longed for interaction. For connection. For touch.

Then she’d been there, her tiny little touches like the remnants of a meteor shower, burning up before she even made contact.

Yet, the casual brush of her flesh against his kept him sane.

That thought was enough to make him turn his head. She was beautiful, kind, and generous. She’d just shown that she trusted him. He wouldn’t violate that by sneaking peeks at her lovely, delicious, delectable…

“All done,” she said and turned around. “Were you watching me?”

He’d been caught. “It’s only fair.”

She blushed again. Damn, he liked making her blush.

“I’m teasing you.”

“Are you ever going to let that go?” Mercy fidgeted with some unseen bit of something on her sleeve.

“It’s only been a day, so probably not.” He shook his head.

“Fine. Should I strip naked for your inspection?” She pursed her lips.

She was being flip, but his cock didn’t care about that. It demanded
yes
. But his brain… no. “See? Look at that sauce. I’m Magnus the Destroyer, and you’re sassing me with absolutely no fear.”

“Because I trust you.” She smiled softly.

Damn it, there it was again. All those soft, squishy feelings inside that he’d always wanted to avoid, yet now he sought out. He was as confused as she was. This was all new territory and now was
not
the time to go off on some adventure with his feelings. They had plenty of adventure right there in front of them.

“Are you ready?” He handed her a light stick.

She snapped it in half and it glowed to a pale, green life. “As I’ll ever be.”

He stepped through the door and out into the new world. It was strange. The sky was black as pitch, and he could see no stars. But there were odd little bits of flora and fauna which shone and twinkled like what his mother called Valkyrie lights. She said those things were the souls of defeated Valkyries lighting the way home. If he was ever lost, he should follow them.

And now they seemed to be leading down the path that the nav wanted them to take.

Mercy reached out her hand almost as if she wanted to touch one, but she pulled back.

“It’s strange how they grow amongst the ice.”

“Where else would Valkyrie lights grow?”

She laughed. “The Great Dark, I suppose.”

They were silent then, as they followed the trail. He turned to check on her now and again, but she kept pace behind him.

It seemed as if they walked forever, but in truth, it couldn’t have been very far.

The land in front of them opened out to a wide expanse of a steaming lake. There was a pink sandy beach and the water was filled with those Valkyrie lights, making the water a strange purple.

“It’s so beautiful,” she breathed. Mercy touched her finger to the water. “It’s warm.”

He pulled the mech shelter out of his pack and it deployed, unfolding and setting itself up. He peered inside and saw it had every luxury—including a dry chem toilet. Whoever had wanted them here seemed to think of Mercy’s every comfort.

It sure as hell wasn’t Odin Lokison.

She’d spotted a lagoon and was grinning from ear to ear.

“Wait, wait! Let me check the water for salinity and life forms. The Valkyrie lights may be pretty, but we don’t know if that’s actually what they are or if they’ll chew your face off.”

He readied a test strip and followed her over to the small lagoon that glowed even more brightly than what seemed to be the sea. But they didn’t look like the Valkyrie lights, it was something all together different.

There were no predators, no life at all, in fact. The water was too hot. There was ice all around them, but for the bodies of water.

“Seems safe enough.” He used the nav to run a sonar test for depth. “No deeper than six feet in the middle. But why don’t we get settled before you go adventuring?”

“Okay.” Mercy ducked and pushed her way into the shelter. “Oh, wow. This is nice. I think my father used to use these when he went hunti—” She stopped as if she’d just realized what impact her words would have. “That was thoughtless.”

“You mean when he was hunting me? It’s okay, you know. That’s not your fault. I’m not angry at you.”

“But I don’t live in a bubble. I should think before I speak.”

“It takes more than a memory to hurt me, Mercy.”

“Does it? Because you could slice me to the bone with one.”

Her words crashed into him and he cocked his head to the side as he considered her. “Why aren’t you afraid of pain?”

“Being afraid of a thing doesn’t make it any less likely to happen.” She shrugged.

“Is that what you’ve been taught, or what you feel as yourself?”

“What?”

“Your tutors. Did they say those words to you?”

“No, my mother did, and they feel true.”

“It’s a very Valkyrie thing to say.” He nodded.

“Have you known many Valkyries?”

“I suppose. I was raised on Acadia. My mother was Boudicea, and when the Saxony came and salted our lands, poisoned the wells, and wiped out our technology, I vowed revenge.”

“Have you had it? Your revenge, I mean?”

“No. I still have to kill Rollo. He was the warlord that took my mother. And when I find him, I will grind his bones for salt,” he growled.

“That’s why my father hunted you. It wasn’t just the thrill of the sport. I’ve heard that name before, Rollo. He’s one of my father’s supporters for governor.”

“Your father will never be governor. The Asgardians don’t want another Saxony.”

“I think all the honest thieves are on Hel.” She shook her head. “It was Rollo my father was hoping would ask for me.”

“He’s already married some Saxony princess. He wants to be king.”

“Then I think you should kill him.”

He sat down. “That’s rather bloodthirsty of you, Mercy.”

“Did you know that Eir, my mother’s name, means Mercy?” She looked up at him, eyes wide. “Rollo can’t be king. He’s a bad man. King of Saxony means he’d rule the Saxon system and, from there, he’d control the food supply for most of the ‘verse.”

“You speak of killing a man as if it were an easy thing to end a life.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I know it’s no easy thing. And I don’t know, if given the chance, that I could do it. But you could.”

“And then what? Then I’d be King of Saxony?”

“Do you want the right answer or the answer I’d rather have in my head?”

“Both.” He chuckled.

She flopped down on the inflated sleeping area with a huff. “I know that the right answer would be that you’d stay until a fair government was installed, but really, I’d want you to run away with me.”

“With you? What would we do?”

“This.”

“Right now? In a mech tent on a no name planet with…”

“I told you it was silly.”

“What do you think is going to happen here?” he asked softly.

“We’re going to fall in love.”

She said this with the utmost surety, so it slapped his face harder than a mace ever could. “Why do you say that?” He wasn’t afraid of her conviction, or the idea of loving her. But they’d just met.

“It’s science.” She shrugged. “Proven fact that people who’ve been through a high-stress situation together tend to bond. And we’re stranded on an uninhabited planet. Eventually, I’ll look good. I’m the only one here.” She gave a wry laugh.

“You look plenty good,” he reassured her.

“And don’t forget Stockholm Syndrome. I’m completely reliant on you for my survival.”

“I thought we established back at the hangar that we’re in this together.” He tried not to laugh. She had this way of stating things that was so brash, so honest, but completely unaware of herself.

“Without you, I might last until the rations ran out. Then I’d be screwed and I know it.”

“You’re stronger than you know.”

“You keep saying things like that.” She laughed. “You make me feel good about myself, and I think that you like that I’m not afraid of you. You’ll love me, and I’ll love you, even if it is just while we’re here.”

He smirked. “What if we never leave this planet?”

“Then I guess we should try to make the best of it.” She shrugged.

Magnus shook his head. “You are not what I expected, Mercy Odinsdottir.”

“I hope that’s a good thing.”

“Yes, it is.”

He wanted to tell her so many things. He was sorry he took her, but he wasn’t sorry they were together. He was sorry for what it meant for her. Then again, another part of him wasn’t sorry at all. A man like Odin Lokison didn’t deserve to have Mercy in his life. He’d treated her like crap.

A child should be protected and loved, and she was neither. She was nothing but a means to an end for him. There was a vengeance in that, too, for Magnus. He’d taken her away, and now she belonged to him. Odin would never use her again.

He didn’t have to hurt Mercy to make Odin pay. All he had to do was love her better. That would be no harsh task.

Could it really be that easy?

Magnus thought about what she’d said about Rollo as he lay down next to her, and she came into his arms easily.

For fifteen years he’d been frozen. Fifteen years of his life, gone. All the while Rollo was still walking around breathing. The knowledge didn’t sit well in his gut.

But she curled into him, her small hand splayed on his chest. Her touch calmed him, eased him—all things he’d never expected from his enemy’s daughter.

In truth, all things he’d never expected from anyone.

It was almost as if they had the bond like the Valkyries and Berserkers in the days of yore. He made her stronger, and she gave him peace.

Or as much peace as a man like him was capable of enjoying.

For being mostly marooned on a planet hovering at the edge of the Great Black, it wasn’t too bad a deal.

His fingers closed over hers.

“Will you do something for me?” she asked after a while.

“If I can.”

“We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. We don’t know how long we’ll be here, or what’s waiting for us.” She sighed.

“Is this your
I don’t want to die a virgin
speech?” he teased her.

“No. This is my there are things I want to experience and the best time is now speech. And before you try to talk me out of it—” she hid her face against his chest “—it isn’t like just being here with you made me want you. I’ve wanted you since the first time I touched you. I’ve thought about it. It’s not that I don’t want to die a virgin. It’s that I want to experience
you
.” She laughed, a nervous titter.

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe there is some Valkyrie in me after all, because I never would have said this…or I never thought I could make my mouth move to form those words. I said them, though, and I didn’t die of mortification.”

“You want mortification?” The corner of his mouth curled up in a smirk. “You got some Berserker in you?”

She lifted her head and searched his eyes. “No.”

“Do you want some?”

Her mouth dropped. “Do you mean…? That’s dirty. And bad. That’s so bad. Did that ever actually work for you?”

“I think it’s about to.” He grinned, and she laughed. “See, sex is supposed to be fun. You should be able to laugh. It’s serious, but it’s not.”

“So I’m
not
supposed to be staring at the ceiling thinking about goddess and star system.”

“No. Gods, no. Who told you that?” He was so horrified.

“My comportment teacher.”

“You talked about sex etiquette in comportment?” Magnus couldn’t fathom that discussion or the reason for it. It made his brain hurt, among other things.

“So I didn’t embarrass or shame my family.” Her voice took on a prim and proper affectation.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

“Yes, for fuck’s sake.” She nodded.

“Don’t you want to wait until this love thing happens that you’re so keen on?”

She laughed. “No. I want this. I want you.”

Chapter Five

Mercy couldn’t believe what she’d just said, but she didn’t want to take it back. It seemed like all the things in the ‘verse had lined up to put her in this particular moment in time, with this man.

It was exactly where she wanted to be.

He was everything she could have dreamed: fierce and strong when he had to be, intelligent, witty, and kind. He was gentle with her. He treated her like his equal even though he was stronger, faster, and probably smarter. He listened to what she had to say.