Dead Silence (2 page)

Footsteps on the loft ladder announced the arrival of another Jotunn, pushing an IV stand. My lids were heavy as I watched him halt at Loki's side then crouch to lift the lid of the cooler. He removed one of the six blood-filled bags from its bed of ice and hung it on the stand before attaching the tubes. The Jotunn expertly set up a blood transfusion system, complete with a set of Y-tubes joining the streams of blood from each bag, and a well-placed needle to the vein. Loki didn't even flinch when the needle broke his skin.

I struggled to remain conscious as both the Jotunn retreated to the edge of the loft, leaving Loki and me with a modicum of privacy.

I had to admit he was going out of his way to be impressive, dragging all his equipment to a dusty loft so I could watch him fill himself with blood. Loki was as unpredictable and as melodramatic as ever. His behavior had never made much sense, and I didn't think he'd be changing anytime in the near future. We'd all learned to take his eccentricities in our stride, learned too that looking for logic in the god's actions was usually a waste of precious time. His unpredictability has made Loki all the more harder to trap.

Loki tilted his head and grinned. "It's a concentrated blend of Thor's blood. In case you were wondering." He raised his hand and gently caressed the blood-filled plastic bag.

"I wasn't," I snapped, glaring at him, and the feathers of my wings shivered slightly, revealing my frustration and anger. I was surprised I'd been able to summon the energy to respond with such fury, but I paid for it as I slumped back, the room beginning to spin.

"I'd drained Thor well when I had him in Belogorka. But it wasn't enough.Vanya said I needed to find a way to increase the concentration of Odin's blood. Then perhaps it will work."

Shaking my head, I swallowed hard as I asked, "Why is it so important to you? You obviously have the power to access the Bifrost at will. Why waste your time draining Odin's children just to use one spear."

Loki chuckled. "It isn't just a spear, dear sister. It's special."

I tilted my head, frowning as I tried to figure out why the spear was so important to Loki. Then I managed a weak laugh as the pieces fell into place. "It's because he gave it to me instead of you," I said softly, blinking as darkness closed in on the edges of my vision.

Loki's eyes went black, a demonic look that made my blood freeze in my veins. He leaned forward, "Not only did he overlook me and gave it to you, he also gave it to Thor, and Baldur too."

"Feeling left out, are we?" I asked, swallowing my laughter. All this was because Loki was jealous? The revelation was enough to keep me conscious.

The trickster didn't answer. He just leaned back and sighed, then slipped two fingers into his shirt pocket, withdrawing a rich red feather.

My feather.

My mouth opened of its own accord and I had to force myself to shut up. I wanted to know what the hell he was doing with my feather, but I refused to give him the satisfaction. He was baiting me, and I didn't plan to bite.

He held the feather to the light from the bare bulb above us, twisting it between his fingers as he made a show of studying it. The red -feather shimmered with a strange incandescence, something I'd gotten used to enough that it no longer awed me.

But Loki seemed entranced as he smiled at it, his eyes now a whirlpool of purple and blue. "I tried to take them from you, and yet my efforts were for nothing." He spoke, merely stating the facts. He'd made me sacrifice my wings but Odin had given them back to me. Apparently Loki hadn't appreciated his decisions being overruled.

"Maybe it's because they weren't yours to take?" I suggested, feeling my head grow too heavy to keep upright any longer. A part of me remained painfully aware of the level of the blood in the bags as it began to slowly decrease. The longer he sat there, the more of Thor's and my blood circulated in his veins. My mind struggled to find a way to stop him but bound as I was, weak as I was, there was nothing I could do. Even if I threw myself at him and tried to aim a well-placed kick at Loki's head, he had too much of an advantage over me. I'd have to catch him unawares but with his frost giants watching from behind him even that would be near impossible.

And the damned golden rope wasn't just unbreakable. It also worked in opposition to my struggles. The more I moved the more it sucked the energy out of me. I was pretty sure that any overexertion on my part would end up with me passing out.

"Fair enough," said Loki, and I had to strain against blinking in surprise at his agreement. Loki tilted his head to study my face, and then he sighed. "You really should stop wasting your time fighting for the wrong side."

I lifted my chin. "What makes you think I'm on the wrong side? My loyalty lies with Odin and the Aesir. Something you know full well."

Loki shook his head and pursed his lips sadly. "You have spent enough time in our world to have heard the predictions. Surely you know that Odin will die, and so will his precious Fenrir, whether he kills the All-Father or not." Loki's expression took on a malicious air.

Scowling, I gritted my teeth and snapped, "I don't understand you. Does family and blood mean nothing to you?" The effort to speak was beginning to make my head spin.

Loki's eyes flamed green then swirled to demonic black. "Odin is not my father. I owe him no loyalty." His words fell from his lips, emotionless.

I shook my head, suddenly sad for him. "You may not be his blood but he thinks of you as a son. Even when you do the most horrible things, he always remembers his love for you. I just can't understand why you don't see it." There was a frustrated growl to my voice but I did nothing to tamp it down. "And even so, Fenrir is your son. How can you care so little about your own child?"

"He may be my progeny but as to being a son, I have to say he isn't. Has never been. His loyalty has always been with Odin, and that is something I can neither understand, nor forgive."

I sighed softly, trying hard not to pass out. "What did Odin do to you to make you hate him so much?"

"You won't understand." Loki gave me a charming smile and I wanted to snort out loud. As if one smile from him would get me off track.

"Try me," I said, the challenge clear in my voice and expression.

Loki laughed and this time I could hear the hardness that laced his tone. "You are too much Odin's child, Brynhildr. You have been far too deeply poisoned by old One-Eye for you to see things clearly."

"You're crazy Loki. How can you be so driven by greed and ambition that you can't see how much you're hurting your family?"

"They are not my family," Loki said, his tone emotionless, as if he'd resigned himself to being a black sheep, the outcast.

I snorted. "You're so blind." I wanted to say that he was also stupid but there was no sense in antagonizing him. Not that I was afraid of being beaten. I just wanted to bide my time until I found a way out of this hellhole.

Suddenly, Loki launched himself out of his chair and I almost flinched. A glance at the bags confirmed they were empty. The first frost giant stepped toward the bags, swiftly swapping them out with fresh ones. Thor's blood now ran within Loki's veins, mixed into a potent soup with my own blood. My stomach tightened. I was not looking forward to watching Loki succeed when he tried his hand at using the spear.

My eyelids drooped and I must have slipped into unconsciousness because when I opened my eyes again the bags were empty. Loki tugged the needle from his arm and dropped it on the straw covered floor. Then he pressed the opening in his flesh a few times until it closed. Even if Loki was not a real god of the Aesir, he did possess the power to self-heal.

Then he dusted his hands together and smiled. "Well, my dear sister. The moment of truth has arrived. Gungnir will be the proof to my claim."

"What claim?" I asked, my tone too sharp but I didn't care too much now. I'd already accepted I'd get little more from Loki now that he thought he had the means to use the spear. There was only one thing that I could think of that Loki would want to claim.

Odin's seat as the God of Gods, the All-Father.

Loki hooked his thumbs into his belt and laughed, the sound echoing around us. "Wait and see, dear sister." Loki looked over my head, his attention falling on someone beside me. He gave a nod, and the ice in his eyes made my stomach harden.

Although I twisted in my seat, trying to look over my shoulder, I didn't get to see who stood behind me.

Something hard connected with my skull, the blow so powerful I passed out almost instantly. In the brief moment before the darkness claimed me, I swore to punch Loki in the face the first chance I got.

CHAPTER TWO

The first thought in my mind when I came to was how furious Joshua would be with me if he only knew what I'd gotten myself into. It was totally my own fault because I shouldn't have come alone, shouldn't have left without telling someone besides the potentially traitorous Derek where I was headed.

Blinking slowly, I could feeling every pain-filled movement of the muscles in my eyes. I tried to turn my head but a blinding pain flared in the right side of my skull. I sucked in a breath then gasped at the hot moistness of blood as it trickled back into my hair.

I was lying flat on my back, and could feel nausea well in my throat. Stiffening, I knew it was in my best interests to sit up, or at least move onto my side, or I'd puke all over myself.

As much as I hated puking, and it was very much not an option when my head pounded like someone was taking a jackhammer to it. I groaned and turned onto my side, feeling the agony in my scalp reverberate into my skull, beating incessantly until my ears rang like a dozen church bells.

Despite the pain, I had to get myself upright. I tensed, hundreds of small muscles in my wings tensing with me. I expected to feel the thin golden rope holding me in its tight embrace but there were no bindings. I was free to move about, free to stand up.

If I could do either without passing out again.

I inhaled slowly and smelled dirt, and mustiness. No straw and rotting onions. Shadows veiled the room from my pained eyes, steeping the place in a murky darkness. Tightening the muscles in my arms, I lifted myself up into a sitting position.

And for the first time noticed I wasn't alone.

A young woman, slim, tall and platinum blond, sat on a pile of blankets beside me, her back to the dirt wall. Her long gray-brown skirts were dotted with hundreds of stains, and her unshod feet lay curled up beside her. Around our pallets of old blankets, the floor of the room was made up of fine dry sand. The walls surrounding us were marked by snaking roots, some hanging into the room near the ceiling and the outer walls.

The girl's large gray eyes widened when she saw I was awake. She scrambled forward lightning fast, to steady me. "Be careful. They hit you very hard." She remained beside me, as if afraid I'd topple over any second. She was probably right.

I almost nodded but felt the pull of spiking pain in my scalp and ended up whispering my thanks and blinking blearily at my surroundings.

We were in a hole in the earth, probably the storm cellar Derek had mentioned. As I searched the walls I made out the vague shape of a set of rickety wooden stairs leading up to a door. Light surged in through space near the floor, striking on specks of dust that floated above our heads.

When my vision finally steadied, I shifted my gaze to my quiet companion. "Who are you?" I whispered. Her skin was tight and strained at her eyes, and too pale to be healthy. She seemed startled at the sound of my voice and I guessed I'd disturbed her thoughts, whatever they'd been they didn't seem happy ones.

She gave me half a smile. "Sorry. I've been here a long time and the only visitors I've had haven't been . . . kind." She ran her hands up her arms in a loose hug, the stance protective enough to make my stomach tighten. What had Loki done to her? She cleared her throat, straightened her spine and drew my attention back to her face as she smiled. "My name is Nita, Daughter of Vanya." She gave me a regal nod and the action didn't surprise me at all now that I knew who she was.

I shifted on my blankets knowing I should be giving her a much more respectful greeting than my blurry stare, when Nita said, "Don't you even think about moving. Have a drink of water and then you should lie down for a while." She inclined her head, her platinum hair falling over her shoulders, to her hips like a pearly waterfall. A note in her voice told me that it was best for me to listen. I didn't have any plans on disobeying Elf royalty.

She handed me a cup of water, the plastic cracked along the side. Sipping the cool liquid slowly, I brought my racing heartbeat back under control. My head tipped forward and then I found Nita unwrapping my fingers from the cup and helping me to lay back onto the blankets. I remained unmoving for a while, trying to stop my mind from wondering who'd lain here before me or what the odd, yeasty odor was that rose from the blankets beneath me.

I cleared my throat and the movement made me wince. "Where are we? I assume a basement of some sort?" I asked, keeping my voice low.

"Yes, it's the cellar beneath the main cottage, about fifty yards from the barn they found you in."

"Is Loki still around?" I asked. All I wanted to know was if the blood transfusion had worked.

"No," she said, falling silent for a moment. "He left in a fury. I think whatever he has been trying to do had not worked. There was a bit of screaming and stamping and then he left."

I shook my head. "Poor Loki had a tantrum, did he?" I laughed softly. I was more than elated that his plan failed. He'd gone off somewhere to work off his frustrations. Good thing he had neither Thor nor Vanya to take them out on.

But he'd had someone right here. I glanced over at Nita. "Did he hurt you?"

The elf shook her head. "No. He knows I am too valuable. Especially since he has plans to get my mother back."

"She's safe in Asgard," I offered her the information somehow knowing she didn't need it.