The valkyrie novels box.., p.23
The Valkyrie Novels Box Set, page 23
part #1 of Valkyrie Series
Soon after, we said goodbye and headed out the back way, taking the tree-lined pathways behind the houses and into the woods. Hugin returned to my shoulder, his weight now comfortable and familiar. Hidden beneath the trees, we paused to get our bearings. On the other side of the hill stood a small group of shops—a tourist stop for hunters and trampers on their way into the mountains.
“I’ll go down,” Aidan said. “Buy a cell phone. Should take me ten minutes tops. Stay right here.”
I bristled. He seemed to think he was in charge. But just when I was ready to tell him where to get off, guilt raised its ugly head again and laughed at me. And I shut my mouth. It didn’t matter. Let him take the lead. I owed him that much. Besides, we were most certainly not in a battle of wills. I had nothing to prove. Aidan, on the other hand, still had to prove his loyalty.
I stood in the shadow of a large tree and watched him slide down the steep incline toward the road. He crossed to the curio shop and emerged minutes later bearing a small bag. The trip up the hillside took twice as long, and only when he was standing beside me, tearing the plastic off a disposable cellphone, did I let go of my breath.
He rang the bus company, checking to see if we were near any bus routes. We had to avoid public places, where Aidan would be spotted, a dead man still alive, or where I’d be seen, probably with that APB still out on me. A shoulder-borne raven would no doubt attract unwelcome attention, too. Unfortunately, the nearest route went right through the center of the town, so we had to scratch the bus idea.
“Too bad you can’t fly,” Aidan quipped. His eyes darted to Hugin and back, then widened. “Can you fly?”
“No. I haven’t learned that yet, and I’m not so sure I want to. Besides, we would draw a certain amount of attention, you know—a winged woman flying through the air carrying a guy.”
Aidan grinned, and in that second I was reminded why I’d let him into my heart so quickly. That cheeky grin and those smiling eyes. I smiled back, and for that moment, everything was right with the world. It would all work out. I had absolutely nothing to worry about. Until he blinked and I blinked and the moment was gone.
“What do we do now?” I said.
“We need a ride out of this town. And a ride under the radar.” When I frowned, he added, “We can’t be traced. They’ll be watching Craven for any suspicious activity in the area, so we can’t make a move while it’s light.”
“Guess we have a good wait ahead of us, then?” The sun threw tepid warmth on our heads. I raised an eyebrow, wondering where we could possibly hide until nightfall.
“Yes, ma’am. Let me lead you to your lodgings.” Aidan beckoned me with a flourish of his hand, leading me into a dense stand of trees. In this isolated part of town we were pretty safe, so I settled on the ground, my seat a cushion of thick autumn leaves.
Along with the cellphone, Aidan had bought a tiny bag of Doritos. He popped the bag and took a handful, then tossed the rest to me. “Bon appétit.”
To pass the time, I pulled the leather volume out of my bag. Aidan didn’t react. I ignored him, reading and snacking until he fell into a deep sleep. The sun dropped behind the trees, and darkness drew long shadows over the sleepy town. I let him rest, wondering how long it would take for Freya’s curse to begin to wear him down.
He woke after midnight to the metallic tune of the alarm on his cellphone. Guess he had the forethought to set an alarm. He cleared his throat. “We’d better see about a car, then.”
“So how do we get—” I started to say. Then an idea struck me. One that filled me with guilt, but ultimately it was our best option. The thought of doing something illegal appalled me, but this did count as desperate times.
“Bryn?” Aidan nudged me.
“Lots of kids in the area have cars or bikes they don’t use too often.”
He chuckled. “My, my, Bryn. That’s not the most legal thought you’ve ever had, is it?”
I flushed, still shocked and now embarrassed. Hugin shifted his feet, as if sharing my unease.
“Not a bad idea though,” Aidan said. “It might be our ticket out of Craven.”
“Or we could ask Ms. Custer for her car?” I backed away from the thought of stealing a vehicle, wishing I’d never even mentioned it.
“No, they’d be watching her car. We want to avoid drawing any attention to Ms. Custer. Wait here. Watch for me.” He pointed down at the roadside.
I knew he was going to jack a car. It had been my idea, and though I was relieved he wanted to spare me the experience, I couldn’t let him go alone. This was my burden to bear and he was just caught up in Freya’s little power play.
I called after him, whispering as loud as I could, “Wait. Aidan, hold on.”
He turned and watched me catch up with a frown furrowing his clean brow. A memory of the bullet wound that had blasted his forehead open and marred that perfect skin triggered a shudder.
“I’m coming with you,” I said. “This is my problem too.”
“Be my guest. I just thought I’d save you the trouble.”
I got you into this mess, no way am I letting you shoulder all the responsibility.
We fell into step beside each other and walked back to the suburb, silence hanging over us. Voices traveled farther at night, and we couldn’t trust that we were passing through the area unobserved. Two a.m. in the morning and the homes were all dark. Aidan made a move to walk down the first driveway.
“No. That’s Mr. Ralston’s property,” I whispered. “He’s got one of those really vicious dogs. Rottweiler or something.”
“Good thing you came along, then.” He smiled. “So who doesn’t have vicious, man-eating dogs?”
I nodded at a house across the road. Pete’s house. Certainly would be fitting if it were his vehicle we jacked. We crept round back, keeping to the shadows again. Thankfully, huge, leafy trees filled Pete’s garden and yard. The garage door was unlocked. I eased it open, and a strip of moonlight lit the inside of the garage, reaching silvery fingers as far as the driver’s side of Pete’s classic Lincoln Continental. Most of the kids in Craven had classics, probably handed down through the decades.
But my thoughts weren’t on the beautiful car. My mind raced back among the shadows on the frozen path, with my cheek on fire and my abdomen in agony. My jaw was rigid. Images of Pete’s attack ran through my head. All I could think about was lashing out at something, and the car seemed the most suitable option.
Aidan’s voice and a soft squawk from Hugin broke the trance.
“You okay? You look upset. And about to punch something.” His words held a smile, which oddly enough didn’t anger me. It lightened my mood a bit. I unclenched my fist and leaned into the open window, scrabbling around the ignition for keys. Nothing.
“Looking for this?” Aidan indicated a rack of keys. He fished through them and withdrew one. I hoped it was the right one. We’d rather not wake Pete’s family, so we’d have to roll the car out onto the drive and then onto the road before starting the engine.
The garage door was an ancient one: two large doors, which opened wide. I hadn’t thought about what we’d do if it had been an automatic door. Way too noisy. We would have had to look for an easier car to steal.
I unhitched the door and eased one side open, going slowly and hoping it didn’t creak. It didn’t. Relieved, I kicked a brick in front of it and did the same with the other door.
Aidan got in, set the gear to neutral and got back out, holding onto the door, ready to push. “Get behind,” he whispered.
I wondered who died and made Aidan the boss. Then I wanted to giggle. He’d died and I’d made him the boss. The joke was on me.
I did as he asked, and pushed.
The car rolled smoothly forward. We steered to the end of the drive, turned into the road and pushed it all the way to the corner, three houses from Pete’s.
I thought about the garage door standing wide open like a gaping jaw. Pete was in for a surprise tomorrow morning. I’d never pegged myself as vindictive, and my little trip to Asgard had almost made me forget Pete’s attack. But back here in Craven, staring at his car, the memory of that day seeped into my mind, crawling all the way into my bones. Shivers rippled through me. I jumped into the car.
Hugin flapped wildly, in such a crazed frenzy that I was afraid he’d either peck out my eye or scratch me with his sharp little talons. I let him fly out and watched as he ascended and circled above the car. Shaking my head, I shut the door as quietly as I could. The click of the lock echoed up and down the empty street. I shuddered, sure the cops would be on our tail in the next ten seconds.
Aidan jumped in and stabbed the key into the ignition. I held a breath and sent a prayer up to Odin. I breathed again only when the engine turned. It growled loudly and then settled into a low purr, waiting for Aidan to set it in motion. We drove off, leaving the sleeping neighborhood behind while I enjoyed imagining Pete’s reaction when he discovered his car was gone.
Chapter 33
“So what’s the plan? Where are we going?” The cracked blue leather squeaked with every move we made. Pete didn’t take good care of his leather seats. The interior of the Lincoln was otherwise immaculate, even though it was probably made in the late sixties. They made cars well in the old days.
“Washington,” said Aidan, tracing the soft blue leather of the huge steering wheel.
“State or DC?” I asked the dumb question even though it was clear we were on the old Route 66, heading east.
He raised an eyebrow. “DC. Rockville, Maryland, to be specific. The national hub of human gene research. We need to make a quick stop at the institute on the way to New York.”
“The institute?”
My unhappy expression elicited a gravelly laugh. “Marlowe Institute of Genetic Science,” he said.
I got the impression he’d said the full name just for effect. I shivered, remembering the Institute’s emblem imprinted on the lab reports. The place where both our fathers had worked, competed and apparently hated each other enough for one of them to try to kill the other’s daughter.
“I thought you said we have to stay under the radar? I’m not sure going into the lion’s den is the best course of action when the point is to avoid said lion,” I said dryly, staring straight ahead to study the dark Missouri night. I tried to stick my elbow on the low armrest, unsuccessfully.
“They have important records stored in their system. We’ll have to risk it.”
“How will we get in?” I stretched out, enjoying the legroom and marveling at my lack of tiredness. The chainmail chinked as I moved, reminding me that we were still clothed in our Asgard getup.
“I have a security pass.”
I snorted. “You’ve been dead for a while. Don’t you think they’d have deactivated your card by now?”
“I have my father’s card.”
“Oh.” I looked at him, unsettled by the deadness of his voice, by the shadow that crossed his face. He’d been doing his father’s bidding when he came to Craven, but the coldness in his voice when he mentioned his father sent a creeping shudder up my spine. “Well, I guess that will help. So, he’s a genetic scientist, huh? Small world, hey? What exactly does he do at the institute?”
“He’s in charge. Took over your father’s role when he passed away.” Aidan threw me a quick, apologetic glance before concentrating on the road again. Not that he needed to concentrate all that much. The road ahead was easy, just point and drive.
“Hey,” Aidan said, “can that bird of yours keep up with us?” He squinted up at the sky.
Way to go on the swift change of subject, Biker-Dude. I rolled my eyes, shook my head, didn’t bother to force the issue. Not yet.
Leaning forward I peered up at Hugin as he swooped in a circle, high above the car. I caught a glimpse of the raven when he crossed in front of the white-faced moon, bemused at the simple beauty of the bird, backlit by the pale moon.
But Aidan had a point. Could Hugin keep up with a car? He was no ordinary bird; he belonged to Odin, after all. And he’d made it pretty clear that he wasn’t particularly fond of the Lincoln; he couldn’t fly off fast enough. I shrugged. Nothing we could do now. We couldn’t walk all the way to Maryland. Surely Hugin would keep up. We had to get to the institute, fast. Every minute wasted was a minute of Aidan’s life gone, a minute closer to his last breath.
“So your dad’s the boss now, huh?” I asked, determined to get my answers. “That’s how he got his hands on those old reports.”
“Yeah, he suspected your father was doing something odd right from the start.”
I bristled, remembering that I was the thing he’d been suspicious of doing.
The road straightened, and Aidan gunned the engine. “After the DNA results came back negative, everything should have gone back to normal, but your father’s investigations continued and my father became increasingly suspicious, so he looked at the files,” he said. He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. “At that time, he couldn’t find anything conclusive, but when your father passed away, he left a considerable amount of paperwork at the lab. Incriminating paperwork.” A bitter tone laced Aidan’s voice. “He’d done blood tests on you when you were born. To investigate the level of nonhuman DNA in your blood at different stages of your life. Only three of them were ever performed.”
“I still don’t see the need to go right into the institute,” I protested, glaring at him. “What’s so all-fired important to risk our lives to go there?” The ticking time bomb that was Aidan’s life filled my mind.
Aidan’s hands gripped the steering wheel, tension radiating from him. “There are still vials of your blood stored in the lab freezer. Those vials are evidence of your existence, and I intend to remove them. No way am I leaving them any ammunition to use against you again.”
“Oh,” I said quietly.
He looked at me, his eyes pools of blackness in the night’s shadows. When I said nothing and turned to stare at the blacktop racing at us from up ahead, he continued. “My father looked for you for a long time. The problem was you disappeared into the system when your father died, and he didn’t have the connections to find out where you were. And when he eventually found out, it was always after the fact. You moved often enough to keep him just one step behind you.”
I nodded. That’s why the pendant had taken so long to find me, too.
Gazing outside, I watched Hugin as he flew above us. Apparently he could keep up just fine. Our very own sentinel. Just his presence up there made me feel safe.
“I’d always been interested in Norse mythology and my father had arranged for me to go to summer digs around the world,” Aidan said. “I’ve been to the dig site where Brunhilde was unearthed. There’s nothing there now. Everything was taken to New York, to the Neilsson Museum of Ancient History. That’s our next stop after the institute.”
“Don’t tell me you worked for them, too?” I asked dryly.
“Actually I still work there. Well, until I died anyway.” A self-deprecating and sad smile curved on his lips. “It’ll take a while to get used to the whole being-dead-but-not-really-dead thing.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that. I guessed it would be a bad time to remind him that the whole walking dead thing also applied to zombies. I bit back a smile, silently admonishing myself for those insensitive thoughts, and gazed out the passenger-side window. The silence felt endless. How do you make someone feel better about being dead?
A mile marker sign whisked by on my right. Then another. When I couldn’t take the silence anymore, I asked, “What were you doing for the museum?”
He rubbed his eyes, then returned his hand to the steering wheel. “I was transcribing, and translating. That book you found? Many old books were found at the dig site. The book I had was a copy of one written by a Scottish professor of archaeology who’d gotten quite far with his translations. I was trying to do more of them, using scripts taken from the dig site.”
My thoughts flicked to the back seat where my bag sat. Buried inside was the topic of this discussion. And although Ms. Custer had returned it to me, I hadn’t given it back to Aidan yet. I needed more time. I still felt connected to the book, perhaps because it held within it a painting of me. A painting done hundreds of years before I’d even been born.
Neither had I told him that I’d completed the translations. I didn’t want to tell him. Not yet. I felt like I’d negate all his hard work by admitting it took me only a couple of days to translate the whole thing, and correct his translations where he’d gone wrong.
It all made sense now, where the knowledge had come from.
Another long silence fell as the miles flew by and the milky moon slipped behind a cloud. “So how did you end up in Craven?” I finally got the nerve to ask.
“My father. He told me it was high time I proved myself. That I needed to make a decision as to which direction I was going with my studies. He showed me the reports and implied that if I were to be the one who discovered the existence of a real living Valkyrie I would gain international recognition and I would have my pick of Universities.”
He sighed and glanced at me, his eyes apologetic and shadowed by . . . what? Regret? “I’m not proud of that lapse in judgment,” he said. “My selfishness came to the fore. But the temptation to be the one to make that discovery . . . well, I took his offer. Then he sent me to Craven. All he wanted was someone who’d be able to fit in, at the foster home, at the school.”
A quiver of anguish edged his voice, as if behind the pain a memory had come loose, fallen into the pool of his mind, causing rippling waves. I stayed silent. As much as I wanted to know more, I was tired and just a bit shell-shocked.
The ride seemed endless and felt like such a waste of all our precious minutes. I wished we’d had a plane or faster transport. I just wanted this whole escapade over and done with. We’d have to ditch the Lincoln soon, probably steal another one.
The hours slipped by and soon we’d traveled the whole night. I kept expecting sirens. The one time we heard them, I tensed and watched the rearview mirror until a police car passed us by and skidded onto a side road. By now, Pete would know his car was gone, but the Craven police chief would first want to rule out pranksters. We were already miles away, somewhere in south Illinois.
