Immortal Need (14 page)

“Knew that.”

“Didn’t know that.”

Maybe Thing One and Thing Two. Whichever character, they were confusing. What he wouldn’t do for Cheshire cat. At least with the cat, he knew there were ulterior motives but he was a good guy in the end. Alexander shook his head. He’d just have to try as best he could.

“Freya—”

“Evil.”

“Goddess.”

“Yes, the goddess,” Alexander said, not wanting to get confused again or add that she was evil. “She has set a course in motion that will force my friend to kill a woman, another to become hers, and yet another to be pained by it. I am requiring your help to stop her.”

“Can help.”

“Can’t help,” came the responses from them simultaneously.

“Ask.”

“Don’t ask,” came then.

Alexander chose to listen to Lefty. “How can I stop Sevani from having to kill Ayah?”

“Freya fears god but not god, that one. Knows this.”

“Freya can’t be beaten. She is all-powerful. You cannot win.”

“How can I stop her from punishing Sevani?” Alexander asked, taking both of their answers and logging them to memory. He didn’t think he could get much clearer answers from them, and he didn’t have time to try to force them to clarify. They could simply think to be somewhere else when they were done with him. He had to get all of the information he could before then. If he failed, they didn’t have enough time to find another method.

“The girl.”

“Can’t win. It is useless to try,” the birds answered.

“Why have Sevani kill Ayah when he’s killed her in a past life?” Alexander asked then.

“Warrior won’t stay.”

“Warrior must leave,” they answered.

The warrior?

Sevani was cursed for killing Nila and taking a warrior away from Freya to fight in Ragnarok. Alexander had never understood what Freya saw in that soul when, from Sevani’s descriptions, Nila had been a kind soul who had never shown anger. She’d been a woman to mother rather than fight, to smile rather than rage. She didn’t fit the bill of Freya’s chosen. Those women were all fighters in life, whether by weapon or words. They’d lived lives of chance or danger. They’d been spies, assassins, politicians, drug queenpins, and a multitude of others. Even Alexander had seen their drive in life. They all had, whether they were good or bad.

“Does she want to have Nila’s soul for Ragnarok?”

“The soul is but a pawn…a way to control.”

“Yes, for Ragnarok. Will be a great fighter and help Freya win,” they answered.

Alexander didn’t know what to believe. Talking to the birds was like talking to two little children who made up answers as they went. But he knew they were the ultimate wisdom. Why, then, would they give him such answers? He needed to get back to the others, and he had hoped he would turn up with more information. He’d thought he would be able to return with hope.

“Why does she want Lei?” he asked, wanting to make sure he asked everything. He’d have to work through their answers later.

“Immortality.”

“Death,” were his answers.

Immortality? But Freya was immortal, wasn’t she? Yes, Loki had proven that a god could die, but that was by a god’s hands, and there was already the prophecy of Ragnarok. At Ragnarok, Loki would rise with his army against the gods of both Aesir and Vanir. He would succeed where he’d failed previously, to kill the other gods and become the All-father. He would rule, and the humans, caught in the balance of the greatest war in existence, would die in droves. The ones who did survive would be under Loki’s command. It was why Odin and Freya had spent their existence, since learning about the prophecy, on finding a way to change their fate. No one knew when Ragnarok was going to occur, but they knew it was coming.

“Why does she want immortality?”

“Doesn’t want it.”

“Does want it.”

Okay, they were going in circles. They’d already said she wanted immortality. Now they said she didn’t, but she did? How did Odin deal with them?

Wait.

“Why does she want Lei?”

“Immortality.”

“Death,” they answered again.

Okay, so that answer hadn’t changed. So he’d asked the wrong question when he’d asked why she wanted immortality. He thought for a minute. Immortality, what else could they mean?

If Freya was already immortal, then immortality meant something else to the birds. By taking Lei, Freya said she wanted to hurt Valerie—Valerie, the goddess of the seeds of immortality.

“She wants Valerie?”

“Yes.”

“No,” were their answers then.

Again he stopped. They were answering in opposite to each other, as if one lied and one told the truth. The idea struck him. If one could only tell the truth and the other only lies, then one of them had been answering his questions truthfully. He just had to figure out which one it was.

“Odin,” they both said at once.

He didn’t have much time. If Odin was calling for them, he’d have to get out of here and fast. He may have time for only one more question. How to guess if one was right and the other was wrong? It was a riddle. If he had two before him, one told the truth and gave him the answers he sought, and the other told only lies and would lead him down the opposite path. What question could he ask to find out the truth if he had only one shot? He couldn’t ask outright which one was lying because if he asked, the one who lied would tell him a lie, and the one who told the truth would tell him such. He would get two different answers. He had to ask a question that guaranteed he got the same answer no matter who he asked. His question would have the one who spoke true give him the wrong answer, and the liar give him the
same
answer because it was a lie for him. Either way he would follow the opposite answer they gave. He thought for a second more.

“Odin,” they said again, and he got the sense they wanted to help him. He just had to find the key. Odin obviously had and knew how to listen to them.

“If I asked the other who told the truth, what would he say?” he asked, figuring that they both would point to the liar. The one who told the truth would do so because the liar would have to tell a lie, and the liar would point to themselves because they knew the truth teller would have to tell the truth. The bird on the left pointed to the right one with a broad wing, and the bird on the right pointed at himself.

So Lefty was the one telling the truth, Alexander thought as the world went to gray fog again when the birds left to answer Odin. Alexander stood for a moment in the fog, sifting through his answers. The one on the left had always spoken first, and those were his answers. That meant that Freya was evil, that they could beat her, the soul Ayah housed wouldn’t stay with Freya, and Freya wanted Lei to control Valerie. It also meant Ayah’s death had nothing to do with Ragnarok, or becoming one of Freya’s warriors, but was a way to control Sevani. It also meant that Sevani was, or could be, a god? Alexander clenched his teeth. He had answers, but they gave rise to even more questions.

What the hell was Sevani if he couldn’t be controlled by Freya if he didn’t kill Ayah, and how was that possible? What did Freya want from Valerie that she wasn’t getting now, that she would take Lei to get it? And who the hell was Ayah to Sevani?

“Come back,”
Valerie suddenly blasted into his mind, interrupting his musings.
“We need you here. We’ve already survived one attack on Ayah. She was wounded. I’ve healed her, but she’s out of it. Something has changed in Sevani, and more mercs are coming.”

“Why so many? Who’s trying to kill her?”

They hadn’t yet figured that out, but it didn’t make any sense that her family would send that much to get her. Even Alexander would have used against her what he knew about her, if he’d been her family member. It’s why Sevani’s job could be so difficult. He fought against people who knew mostly everything about the person he was trying to protect.

“We haven’t had a chance to interrogate the man we captured, but we may not have time. Whoever it is has divine help now.”

“A god?”
Alexander cried, already preparing to flash.

“No. A goddess. Freya.”

“I’m on my way.”
Alexander flashed without a second thought.

Chapter Ten

Sevani was completely and utterly dumbfounded. Just as Lei had said, there was no way that he would have guessed who was standing outside. Freya, in all of her goddess glory, stood behind a wave of more mercenaries coming in. With just a glance, he counted at least another thirty men coming to attack Ayah. It didn’t make sense. Why would the goddess herself weigh within the balance? She had already made sure that he understood that he was supposed to keep Ayah safe for seven days and then kill her, something that he was not going to do. But if she was now sending a multitude of enemies his way, she was now stacking the odds against him. What could this all mean?

“That bitch, she lied,” Valerie said as she exploded into the room. “What the hell is she doing here? We agreed that if she took my apple that she couldn’t use it against us.”

“Obviously Freya’s not above intervening or going against a pact. If that’s the case, then she shouldn’t expect for us to go with it either,” Lei returned, his face cruel, even more so with his evil smile.

“No,” Alexander said, showing up in the center of the room. “I don’t think that’s the case either.”

“Sorry we had to bring you back so quickly,” Sevani said in greeting. “But it seems like everything is going to hell in a handbasket over here.”

“You have no idea. But we’ll have to talk later. Freya’s here, you said?” Alexander questioned.

“Yeah, and she’s here in full force,” Valerie answered.

“Where’s Ayah?” Alexander asked.

“She’s upstairs, healed, but out of it. I swear that girl has spent the last day or so passed out. But it can’t be helped. At least Sevani won’t be pulling his hair out because she can’t come downstairs and get in the line of fire,” Lei returned.

“I guess I missed a lot,” Alexander said. “What a difference a day makes.”

“Yeah, plenty, but we’ll have to catch up later. Freya has her men on the move,” Sevani tossed in. “Lei, I never thought I’d say this, but toss me some weapons. No use trying to go right out and pick them off in close combat. There are too many of them. I’d be shot full of bullets by the time I got halfway out there. Freya will have prepared those men for a battle.”

Lei clapped his hands and jumped up and down like a kid in a candy store. “Oh, fun days. Not a problem.”

He peeled around the corner, into the room where they kept their extra gear, and ran back into the living room. He carried a thick case that hit the ground with a
thunk
when he set it down. If he had been human, Sevani guessed, he would have needed the assistance of four or five other men to carry it. Sevani wondered what was inside.

“Okay, Sevani, I got three goodies for you. Get a load of this,” Lei said as he opened the lid. He pulled out several boxes full of ammo. “All of you can carry with the accessories that I’ve provided. You can sling two over your shoulders and carry the third. The first one is a SIG Sauer M-four hundred enhanced AR-fifteen. Shoot to your hearts’ content. I’ve got plenty of ammo. The second is a Smith and Wesson M and P fifteen-twenty-two rifle, and this one comes semiautomatic, just for you. Again, the weapon is stocked with full ammo, so go for it. I suggest you go out with this one blazing first. You’ll rip a hole through the front line as quickly as possible.”

“You’re having way too much fun with this,” Sevani said, noting Lei’s laughing face.

“Come on. A man’s gotta enjoy toys. If you are going to kill someone, you may as well have fun doing it—the right way,” Lei returned.

“There is no right way to die. Dead is dead. The end result is the same,” Alexander commented.

“Come on, mopey face. At least be a little bit more creative for it. This time we’re going against Freya, so we can take some enjoyment in this,” Lei argued. “Anyway, Sevani, your last one is a Beretta ARX assault rifle. This one even comes with collapsible buttstock so you can move around with it in tight corners. If you don’t kill most of them standing out there with these three, I don’t know what to tell you.”

Lei handed Sevani the weapons quickly. He tossed him a couple extra ammo clips as well. Sevani quickly attached the extra ammo clips to his camo pants and then checked to make sure all the weapons were loaded. He shouldn’t have. He should’ve known that Lei would make sure that all of the weapons were stocked with one of the chambers ready to go. Just as quickly as Lei had Sevani outfitted, he worked on Alexander as well. He tossed Alexander several rifles and clips, then Valerie, though he handed her only a pair of pistols.

“I know you don’t like rifles, too cumbersome in your hands. I thought that these handguns would do better for you. Those are PKs, forty-five caliber. You’ll blow a hole out wide in a man with those, courtesy of the hollow point,” he said to Valerie, winking at her.

“What fun,” Valerie tossed back, laughing.

“This will have to do. We’ll pick them off one by one, fast and hard. Move out,” Sevani commanded. “Valerie, go to the right. Lee to the left. Alexander, stay in the house. Keep guard over Ayah. I want to know that if anyone makes it past us, they have a deadly surprise waiting for them. You can also provide cover fire for us.”

“Got it,” Alexander said.

“I’m on it,” Lei said over his shoulder as he exited the house.

“On the move,” Valerie said, leaving the house as well.

Sevani streaked out behind Valerie on the side. He knew that he might have to give her cover, as she was using handguns. It didn’t matter. Whatever was coming this way, they were all dead. And if he could get to Freya, he would drag her ass kicking and screaming with all she was worth into the house. They deserved some answers.

“Val,” Sevani called, “if you please?”

“Yep,” Valerie returned. “Sound buffer up.” At least with Valerie now projecting calm around the area, any human pacifiers or law enforcement wouldn’t think anything was amiss. They could shoot to their hearts’ content and be safe. Sometimes having a goddess on their side was helpful.