Prophecy (21 page)

Victoria rested a hand on his shoulder. “Love strengthens you, Oliver.”

“And it gets them killed.” Liam snapped. I assumed by “them” he meant the women they loved.

“You mean they take your loved ones to punish you?”

“They take because they are Vikings and they take what matters most to show their power. They want to be victorious and make themselves known as conquerors.” Liam pressed his arm against my side, forcing me to take a step away. His hand heated in mine and his arm doubled in size. His chest widened to gladiator proportions.

A ripple of shock tore through me.

“Here we go.” Oliver stood and moved around the side of the counter toward us.

“Hey.” I stared into Liam’s bright green eyes. “Hey.” I pressed a palm to his cheek, tracing the chiseled lines of his face. The youthful face I knew and loved was replaced by something ancient and ethereal. Hearing he was a demigod was abstract until now. Seeing the metamorphosis, touching his true face, stunned and exhilarated me. “Liam,” I whispered, unafraid. He leaned toward me and I tiptoed to press my lips to his nose. “It’s fine. Nothing’s happened yet. I think you need brains not brawn right now.”

Liam relaxed against me, holding me in his magically deflating hands. If I’d doubted any of it was real before that moment, the doubt passed.

Three truths emerged from my changing heart. Liam was a demigod. I was a human and my heart was his. My lips curved into a smile against his.

Even if everything else in my life was a lie.

“How’d she do that?” Mason’s voice drew my attention over one shoulder.

“Looks like you’re not needed,” Liam spoke against my lips.

Oliver retreated behind me with heavy steps.

“Me?” I asked between short sweet kisses Liam pressed to my lips.

He kissed my nose and then my chin. “Oh, I assure you, you’re needed.”

Oliver’s stool scraped the tile floor. “She was supposed to run away, flailing and squealing. What’s her problem?”

I giggled.

Liam kissed me again, this time with less caution, despite the audience, and I couldn’t find the energy to care.

“Love,” Victoria whispered. Her word ended our kiss.

Liam shut his luminous green eyes and reopened them to their normal paler hue, which seemed much less interesting than before. “I’ll walk you home.”

Whispering in the kitchen started the moment we left and continued until we were out of earshot. Chester followed us through the house, dragging his leash. Outside, I bent and scratched Chester behind both ears. I wrapped the free end of his leash around my fingers.

“I have more questions and I’m mad you tried to steal my memory.” I narrowed my eyes at Liam.

His cranky face was back in place. “I apologize. May I try something?”

“Okay.”

“Callie, I want you to forget.”

I slapped his stupid over-sculpted chest. “Stop that.”

“I was just checking.”

“Yeah, well don’t.”

“Why would I bother for all the good it does me. I might as well bop you on the head.”

“Hey!”

His crooked smile gave him away. I’d erase that awful scowl from his go-to bag of looks eventually. The smile was so much better and worth whatever trouble it took.

“Walk me home?”

“Lead the way.”

I zipped my coat up to my chin, barring against the nipping wind. “Any chance you want to drive me to work today? Maybe bring me home?” I elbowed him in his side as we moseyed down the sidewalk between our homes.

“Is this how dating works for you? Your boyfriend shuttles you around at your command?”

I nodded. “Pretty much.”

“I accept. Any other things I can do for you while you have me on duty, Miss Ingram?”

“Oh, well, since you asked. Yes, there are.” I stretched onto my toes and curved my fingers into the fabric of his jacket collar, pulling him down to me. My toes curled inside my boots as I kissed him good-bye for now.

An enormous tour bus blocked the road outside Roll With It. People in fanny packs dragging wheeled carts with shopping bags lined the sidewalk where the door to the deli stood open. Liam slid his Mercedes against the curb a block away. He dragged his Wayfarers down the bridge of his nose.

“Looks like the makings of a long night.”

“Antiquers,” I moaned. “The same tour company hauls oldies in by the literal busload every fall to see the foliage and buy our junk. I don’t think half of what they buy is actual antiques. I think this town’s historic charm is a racket. The homes are old. Yes. The stuff in those bags was probably made this morning by a farmer in an outbuilding. We host the tour’s lunch at Roll With It every year. Buddy made some kind of deal with them to eat for a discount.”

“Oldies.” Liam removed his glasses, revealing the eyes I dreamed about. How had I ever believed his eyes were unexpressive?

“Allison calls them elderlies.” I smiled. “They all think she looks like their granddaughter or their daughter at her age.” I smiled wider. “She hates it.” I unbuckled my seat belt, eager to see her face. After what happened to Kristy, I needed to see Allison. Whoever Kristy’s closest friend was, I knew she was crushed today with grief and loss. Losing Allison would kill me, too.

“Callie.” Liam touched my hand and electricity jolted up my arm. “You haven’t asked how old I am. Doesn’t my age concern you?”

“Not really.” I hadn’t had time to worry about normal things like age. Too many very scary, abnormal things ensnared us. Like, how soon could I tell Justin they suspected he was the next Viking? From what I gathered, Liam’s family needed more muscle as soon as possible, especially with the Stian clan in town and local girls dying.

“Tell me how it works again. How does your family keep the balance?”

“As you know, we’re called many things. Guides. Guards. Watchers. All are correct. We’re of the Viking bloodlines, but we’re set apart with certain skills that aid our fight. We’re gifted in detecting those who’ll join us, though the ability is weaker now with so few of us left. We can persuade, when necessary, for one side or the other. Balance is the goal. Our abilities are natural, like an untapped sense suddenly available. We see intentions. We can sway will.” Liam stilled beside me.

“You can make people do things?”

“We can make people want to do things. The choice remains theirs.”

I tilted my head. “You can make me want to kiss you right now?”

“Therein lies the rub. When the women we love discover the truth, which they must if we truly love them, they leave. If the damnable Vikings don’t kill them first, the women question themselves out of the relationship, wondering if what they feel was real or manufactured. Love for us is complicated and unwise.”

“Bummer.”

He cracked a tiny smile. “Yes. Bummer.”

“So, you sway the new Viking to the side he should join.”

He nodded.

“How do you find them? You said fate led you here?”

“The Fates. Very different. The three of us have trouble sensing the coming Viking now. We’re more powerful in numbers. We asked The Fates for help and this is what we got.” He raised his palm. “Riddles and cornfields and a house the whole town knows something is wrong with. We normally try to stay off the human radar.”

“Fail.”

“Agreed. I can only hope there truly is a new Viking coming and The Fates didn’t send us to our doom. They knew full well the Stians were here. I’m certain of it.”

“Are you sure Adam and Tony are Stians? Were. Tony, I mean.”

“I am. I sense it, though I intend to ask them directly when I find them.”

“If The Fates wanted to kill you, they could do it with less drama than sending you here for the Stians, right? I mean, with a name like The Fates, they must be powerful.”

“Annoyingly.”

“What did you mean by riddles?” I made a mental note to look up The Fates as soon as possible. I had enough mythology research to keep me from my actual studies for the rest of the year.

Liam shifted in his seat, slumping his shoulders. “This town is supposed to contain the one who will turn the tides, change the state of our bloodlines, and lead us to victory over the Stians.” He pulled in a breath, as if reciting a memorized quote from a book. “He will taste the blood of weaker men, trade his life for honor and create a vast bloodshed that will soak through the earth and mingle in the River Stix. He will fill Valhalla with warriors and Odin’s tables with kin.”

“Whoa.”

“It’s a prophecy. There are many prophecies unfilled. The Fates aren’t trustworthy. They toy with lives, claiming a change of human will when their predictions fail.”

I chewed my lip, mulling over the boat loads of disturbing information. “Something’s bugging me.”

Liam chuckled darkly. “Finally.”

“Odin and Valhalla are Norse legends. Nike and Zeus are Greek.”

“And?” He tented his eyebrows.

I shifted in the seat, twisting to face him. Eagerness fizzed in my chest. “Well, it’s like mixing DC and Marvel.”

He stared. “Is this another comic book reference?”

I tugged my lip. Well, basically. Yeah. “How can they exist together?”

“They exist because they do. They are gods and goddesses. They are the fodder of stories taught in school, whispered in secret, spouted from pulpits. Where you lived when the earth was smaller determined which stories you heard. People applied the truths that fit their lives, their problems and cultures. They adjust the stories to warn children to behave and to explain the things they didn’t understand, but I assure you the sources are very real.”

“So, it’s all true?”

He rolled his eyes. “Some of the tales are downright ridiculous, but yes, we are real.”

I stroked his forearm where it rested between us, thankful for the existence of him. “You think my Justin is like you? He’s a descendant of gods? That he could become your leader?”

Liam moved his gaze onto the street. “We hope.”

“Why did you enroll in high school?” The question popped into my mind and out of my mouth before I considered asking. Who cared why he enrolled in high school? Then again, it didn’t make a lot of sense.

“We thought posing as a family made the most sense. We chose the high school so we could stick together. Oliver has a rougher time pulling off his twenties than I do. I can blend in at college when needed.”

“I see.” How many times had he and Oliver attended high school? “I bet you’re great with college entrance essays.”

“I am.”

“I have a pile on my desk.” I nudged him with my elbow.

He frowned at the window. His thinking face.

“I don’t care how old you are.” The truth of it settled in my bones. So much for Caution sign Callie. Senior year was like a walk through the looking glass so far.

He glanced in my direction. “I’m older than you can fathom.”

I shook my head. “You’re here now.” He’d made it clear he’d leave soon. This was now. I wanted all the now I could have before it ended.

Liam’s pale green eyes searched mine, flashing with light. He cupped my chin in one palm and kissed me like a Viking. Strong hands held me tight. The caution in our first kisses was gone, replaced with passion and fire. Again, the sensation we’d kissed a thousand times ran through me, attaching me to him, in new and complicated ways. When he left, I’d be broken. Changed. For kisses like these, I didn’t care. He ravished my mouth and my mind let go of the world in exchange for hot, wet kisses and his powerful arms. When he pulled his lips from mine, my head fell back against the soft leather seat.

Liam leaned over me in the small space. Mischief twinkled across his features. “Would you like me to walk you to the door?”

“No. Stay here or I won’t have the willpower to go inside.”

He hesitated, checking his rearview mirror and scanning the street. “Maybe I should stay and keep an eye on things. I heard my girlfriend has a thing for oldies.”

“It’s true.” I nodded. “But you should still go.”

Liam pushed the glasses over his eyes. I blinked. The spell was broken.

I jutted my bottom lip out. “You’re completely unfair. How am I supposed to serve rolls after a kiss like that?”

“When can I pick you up?”

“We close at nine, but Allison can bring me home. It’s not a big deal.”

He took my hand and kissed each knuckle. “It’s a big deal to me. I’ll be back before you close. If you decide to ride with Allison, I’ll place an order to go and see you tomorrow.”

“Deal.”

“If you need me, text.”

I climbed out of the car before I changed my mind. The Mercedes stayed at the curb until I was inside the crowded deli. I waved through the window.

“Excuse me.” I slid behind the counter where Allison struggled to keep a smile on her face. I’d seen the look many times. The aftermath was hilarious.

I pushed my way between Allison and the register. “Welcome to Roll With It. What can I get you?”

“Thank you,” she whispered, moving away in a hurry.

“I’d like a meatball sub on Italian bread and coffee.” A woman with puffy white hair opened her wallet. “What do I owe you?”

“We serve our sandwiches on rolls, so I can’t make you a meatball sub, but I can do pepperoni, mozzarella and sauce on an Italian roll.”

“On a what?” She cupped one hand around her ear and leaned closer. Menthol and rose perfume split the air, infiltrating the usually rich smells of baked rolls and soup. I suppressed a sneeze-gag combo.

“On a roll.”

“Oh.” She shook her head, bouncing pearl drop earrings off her sagging cheeks. “No thank you. I don’t want a roll.”

Buddy smacked the bell on the counter behind me. “Order up!”

“Good luck.” Allison breezed past me. She wiggled her fingers and headed for the pickup counter.

“You look just like my Maria when she was your age.” A man in a Bolero hat called as Allison buzzed through the crowd with a full tray on one shoulder and a forced smile on her lips.

An hour later, the tour bus pulled away. Roll With It was trashed. Discarded food and half-filled cups covered every table. The meager tips were worse than the mess. Ordering at the counter meant no tip necessary to most people, but Allison had worked her butt off to meet the needs of thirty-five antiquers.