Runes #03 - Grimnirs (23 page)

I slid behind the wheel, and our eyes met in the rearview mirror.

“Not going to join me back here?” he asked naughtily, the timbre of his voice sinfully sexy.

“No.”

“But I need your warmth and sweetness.”

Sweetness? I cringed. “I’m not sweet.”

He pretended to think about it. “No, you’re not. I’ve watched
your
vlog entries and social network updates. You are a little spitfire.” He gave me a slow smile. “It makes your sweetness, when you choose to show it, even more special. Please, come back here, Cora.” He patted the seat beside him. “I just came back from Hel’s Hall and need you.”

“Last night, we agreed we’d keep our distance,” I reminded him.

“We did? You said a lot of things last night and didn’t give me a chance to respond. I want us to be friends, doll-face.”

Friends? Was he crazy? I couldn’t be friends with a guy I wanted to deck one minute and kiss the next. “Sure, Echo. We can be friends. Start by not calling me doll-face.”

“Maliina hated that name, too.”

“Oh. Then I like it.”

I didn’t realize I’d spoken until he chuckled. “So will you come back here and warm me, a cold, miserable friend?” He gave me a fake lost puppy look. “Please?”

Part of me wanted to ignore him. I should, but I had questions. It was a little cooler inside the car, so he might really need me. I touched his duster. It was cold. “Who used to warm you before me?”

He grinned. “You don’t want me to answer that question.”

Probably Mortal women. “Why did you go to Hel’s Hall anyway?”

“To check if they knew two more Grimnirs were missing. I checked earlier during your meet, but they didn’t know anything then. Now they do.” He extended his hand toward me. “Please.”

I started the car and hiked the temperature. “There you go. So what did Torin and Andris do with the Grimnirs’ bodies? I mean, they didn’t just leave them out there in the vineyard.”

Echo shrugged. “I’m sure they took care of them. As for you, you are developing quite a reputation.”

“Me? Why?”

“Everyone thinks you are the one taking them out.”

I cocked my eyebrows. “Don’t you mean Maliina?”

He rubbed his hands and blew into them. Sighing, I stepped out of the car, ignored the peeping hag across the cul-de-sac, and slipped beside him. He scooted to create more room for me, wrapped his arms around me, and dropped his cheek on my neck. He was really cold.

I rubbed his hands.
I’m an idiot.
“Why do they still think I’m Maliina? Didn’t you tell them the truth?”

“No.” His breath teased my ear, and my body responded.

I fidgeted. “Why not?”

“I have a plan,” he said. “Remember I told you yesterday that there’s a reason I came to your place that first night. If you are ready to hear that story, let me know. But you should know that, to the Grimnirs, you are a means to an end, namely giving the goddess what she wants. As soon as I find Maliina, I’ll fix up this mess and you’ll be safe.”

I still didn’t want to discuss Maliina. “So no one knows about you, Torin, and Andris hurting Grimnirs?”

“No. I’ve made sure the Grimnirs who came for you didn’t report back to the goddess. Otherwise we’d be on the hit list, too.”

Instead, I was the target. I shivered. At least he and the others were safe.

“Hey,” Echo lifted my chin, “they won’t get you as long as I’m around.”

Looking into his gorgeous eyes reminded me why I’d agreed to warm him. He was irresistible when he turned on the charm. And no matter how much I wanted to pretend things were over between us, they weren’t. I saw it in his heavy-lidded eyes. Felt it in the heavy pounding of his heart and the change in his breathing. My hands tightened around his.

“Cora,” he whispered. His head started a slow descent, and my breath caught. I wanted to kiss him so badly it hurt. But I couldn’t. I didn’t want to invite more heartache. Maybe it was time to talk about the Immortal who screwed me over.

I turned my head. “Do you know where Maliina is hiding?”

There was silence. I stole a glance at him and caught the heated look in his eyes before he shielded it with his lashes.

“No. I’ve checked most of the realms, except Muspell and Asgard. I’m persona non grata in Asgard, so Torin and Andris are checking there now. If she’s not there, she’s with the Norns in Muspell.”

I frowned. “Don’t the Norns live in Asgard?”

“The good ones do. The evil ones are in Muspell, the land of the demons and fire giants. No one has ever gone there and made it back to talk about it.”

“Then what are we going to do? I can’t be hunted by Grimnirs forever.”

“You won’t. She’ll soon hear about how she’s being blamed for the disappearance of Grimnirs and come out of hiding. No one wants to piss off Hel. Maliina already did that by failing to deliver Eirik. Killing Grimnirs will make her the most wanted woman in history.”

“In the meantime, your people will continue to think I’m Maliina and keep coming after me.” I sighed. “There must be a way to force her out of hiding.”

“She could help.” He glanced outside, and I followed his gaze. Raine was walking toward us.

I frowned. “Raine?”

“She’s a powerful seeress, and her powers are tied to the Norns. She can summon them, hear them, and when possible, see what they see.”

“Yikes. No wonder they want her.”

Raine opened the front passenger door and peered at us, grinning. “Cozy?”

“No,” I said.

“Yes,” Echo said at the same time.

“Do you think you guys can go without me? Mom needs my help with something.”

I wiggled out of Echo’s arms and got out of the car. “Is your dad okay?”

Raine sighed. “Today has been rough on him, so we need to sit with him.” She glanced at Echo, who’d gotten out of the car and was walking toward the front passenger door. “Are we still going to your place later?”

“Yeah.”

“Then pick me up when you finish with the Burgesses. Good luck.” She waved at Echo. “Take good care of her.”

He flashed a smile. “I plan to.”

The exchange between them had weird undertones that didn’t surprise me. Raine had just lied to me, her face turning red. Raine Cooper couldn’t lie if a life depended on it.

“How long do you think Mr. C has?” I asked as I pulled out.

Echo paused in the process of biting his sandwich and frowned. “Mr. C?”

“Raine’s father.”

“I don’t know. I’m actually surprised he’s still alive. Something is stopping him from dying.” He didn’t sound concerned.

“Love.”

Echo chuckled. “Norns.”

“What would they gain by preventing his death?”

“That’s the question, isn’t it? Norns are twisted. That’s why I don’t like dealing with them.” He took a bite of his sandwich and chewed with gusto. “So, what are you going to tell the Burgess family?”

“I don’t know yet.” The closer I got to Newfort, the more nervous I became. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

12.
 
Answers

Newfort was half-an-hour’s drive from Kayville. It was considered a town, though it had one streetlight and one elementary school. Most of their children attended junior high and high school in Kayville. Defoe Funeral Home served several towns, so it wasn’t surprising the family had used it for the wake.

“Turn left at the next stop sign,” Echo said. His arm rested on the back of my seat and a slight tug of my hair told me he was playing with a lock of it. How long had he been doing that?

“Eyes on the road, sweetheart. Left turn coming up.”

I followed his directions. By the time I pulled up in front of a yellow bungalow with a wraparound porch and a white picket fence, he was stroking my hair.

“You’ll be fine,” he said reassuringly.

I blew out a breath and reached over my shoulder for his hand. How had he known I was stressing about the meeting? I wished Raine had come with us. She was good at this sort of thing. When the rest of the swim team had refused to volunteer to give a eulogy after one of our swimmers died, Raine was the only who’d stepped up.

“You want me to do it?” Echo asked.

I wished I could let him do it, but this was my problem. If I relied on him, I’d never face relatives of the souls I was trying to help. “Thanks, but I think I can do it.”

I let go of Echo’s hand and got out of the car. Gripping the envelope, I headed to the front of the house, rang the doorbell, and waited. When no one answered, I glanced toward the car and found Echo leaning against it, arms crossed, eyes watchful. He looked relaxed, but I knew he’d be beside me in seconds if I were in danger.

I pressed on the doorbell again.

The door opened and Victoria Burgess, the girl from my school, stared at me with puzzled eyes. “Cora?” she asked, frowning.

I smiled. “Hey, Victoria.”

She stepped outside, closed the door, and crossed her arms. “What are you doing here?”

“I, uh, was hoping I could talk to your mother?” It came out as a question, a telltale sign that I was nervous.

“Oh.” She glanced toward my car. “Why?”

I followed her gaze to Echo. He smiled. It was reassuring.

“I have something for her, but I’d rather give it to her in person.” I lifted the envelope.

She studied the envelope, but didn’t seem eager to invite me inside. “My mother is grieving right now, so if this is about school—”

“No, it’s not.”

The door opened behind her and an older hulk of a man peered at me. He looked wasted. “Vicky, what’s going on out here? Who is this pretty girl?”

“She’s a friend from school, Uncle Reed.” Once again, she glanced behind me.

“And who are you?” her uncle asked, following her gaze.

“Echo.” He sounded close. A glance over my shoulder showed him standing guard behind me.

Uncle Reed let out a loud belch. “What kind of name is Echo?”

“The kind a mother gives a son who’s so fast no one can see him coming or leaving,” Echo said. “All you hear is an echo.”

 
“It’s a stupid name. So are you fast on your feet or with your fist?”

There was silence, but I felt the change in the air behind me.

“You ask stupid questions,” Echo said, enunciating his words.

“And you are too smart-mouthed, boy.” Vicky’s uncle glared. He was tall and beefy and looked like he could snap Echo’s backbone in half, but I knew that Echo could hurt him with one blow.

I stepped back until my back touched Echo. I reached behind me and took his hand before he did something we’d both regret. My eyes went to Vicky. “Maybe we’ll come back some other time, Vicky.”

“Yeah, you do that,” her uncle said.

Vicky closed her eyes and sighed. “It’s okay. Come this way.”

She led us away from the front door, along the wraparound porch to the back, and into the kitchen. Several adults and kids were visible through a doorway leading to their living room. From the sound of the sportscaster, they were watching a football game on TV.

Once again, Victoria’s eyes went to the envelope in my hand. “Wait here.”

Echo and I stood awkwardly in the tiny kitchen. No wonder Victoria had appeared reluctant to invite us inside. The place was a mess.

“Was that true what you said about your mother?” I asked.

Echo grinned. “Nah. When we were living in the forest, we would run out of food at times and had to visit nearby villages in the dead of the night to steal some. We had to be fast.”

I stared at him with wide eyes. “You stole?”

“Day and night. When I got older, my routine changed. A little charm goes a long way with the ladies, especially the wealthy ones.”

Bet they couldn’t resist him either. I tried to imagine him in a Roman society, wearing a toga and tunica, and smiled. Echo wasn’t a conformist. He probably dressed like his priestly Druid master to piss off the Romans.

“So why were you named Echo?”

“I was named Eocho. After I became a Valkyrie and decided to help my people, I changed it to Echo. Because that’s all the Romans heard whenever I paid them a visit.”

Could he get any more fascinating? Victoria entered the kitchen and I stopped staring into Echo’s eyes like a besotted idiot.

“Come with me. Just Cora,” she added.

“I’ll be fine,” I reassured Echo. I untangled our interlocked fingers then followed Vicky. He didn’t look happy being left behind.

Vicky took me to a medium-sized bedroom with drawn curtains. A bedside lamp was on. Her mother sat up on the bed with pillows piled behind her. From her ravaged face, she must have been crying for days.

“Mrs. Burgess, I’m so sorry for your loss,” I started.

She nodded, blew her nose on a tissue, and crumpled it. “You go to school with my Vicky?”

I moved closer. “Yes, ma’am. My name is Cora Jemison.”

She gave me a shaky smile. “What can I do for you, Cora?”

Now that I was in front of her, the lie Raine had come up with seemed so lame. I scrambled to come up with a better explanation. “Uh, last weekend, I was at a bistro across the street when a man walked out of Key Bank and dropped a piece of paper on the ground. By the time I picked it up, he was gone. I didn’t know what to do with it until I heard about the accident and realized the man was your husband.”

Her eyes went to the envelope, so I gave it to her. She ripped it open and eagerly reached inside for the single sheet of paper. She read it and frowned.

“This is my Bill’s handwriting. He likes… He liked to send home greeting cards when he was on the road.” She waved toward a stack of cards. “But I don’t understand what these words and letters mean,” she said.

I moved closer. “I wasn’t sure what they meant either, but I think these initials, KB, stand for Key Bank, because he left the one on Main Street when he dropped the papers. The numbers must be for a safety deposit box, because they are written right next to SDB. And he wrote Clare Bear over and over again and PW. It is probably the password for the safe.”

She studied me as though I had morphed into a psycho. Then she sighed. I recognized the look on her face. A few nurses at PMI would look at patients like that.

“Clare Bear was your nickname, right?” I asked, desperate to convince her.

“Yes.” She smiled again. “Thank you for bringing this, but I don’t know how you’ve reached these conclusions about a safety deposit box. My Bill could not have rented a safety deposit box without discussing it with me first.”

She didn’t believe everything I had told her. “Will you at least check the bank to see if I’m right?”

“I will, dear. Thank you.” She smiled, sliding lower to rest her head on the pillows. “Could you close the door behind you and send my daughter to me.”

She didn’t believe me. What had I expected? I backed out of the room, almost bumping into Vicky. “She wants to see you.”

“I heard. I also overheard what you told her. If Dad opened an account…” she glanced toward the bedroom. “Wait for me outside,” she whispered.

While she disappeared inside her mother’s bedroom, I hurried back to the kitchen and practically dragged Echo out of there.

“She didn’t believe me. I mean, she looked at me like I was crazy.
I
would look at me like I was crazy. What was I thinking?”

“Whoa!” Echo gripped my arms and turned me to face him. “Don’t beat yourself so hard. If she doesn’t look into it, it won’t be your fault. You’ve done your part.”

“And I’ll do mine,” Vicky said, walking toward us. “Tell me again what you told my mother.”

I quickly went over my lie and what was in the paper as we walked to the car. “I know it might sound farfetched, but I know what the initials stand for.”

At least, Victoria didn’t look at me like I’d lost my marbles. “I’ll stop by the bank on Monday, so thank you for bringing the note.”

I shrugged like it was nothing then slid behind the wheel.

“You do know there’s no restaurant or café across the street from Key Bank,” Echo said as Victoria walked back to her house.

“Are you sure?”

He grinned. “I’m a reaper, doll-face. I know every city, town, farm, road, and back road in this realm. Once she finds whatever her dad stashed in that safety deposit box, she won’t care about your convoluted lie.”

“Oh, I suck at lies.” I dropped my head on the steering wheel.

“I’m an expert. Next time, let me come up with one.”

Next time? I glanced at him and shook my head. “I don’t know if I want to do it again. It was awful. Her mother looked at me like I had lost my mind. Maybe I should just tell them I can communicate with the dead people.”

Echo chuckled, but he didn’t say anything.

“You’re not going to say anything?” I asked.

“Nope.”

“Am I doing the right thing by quitting?”

“Are you quitting?”

He was no help. “Some friend you are.” I started the car. “I need to think.”

“Good. Can we stop by Kip’s Frozen Yogurt while you think?”

“Why?”

“Because I need to feed my sweet tooth and you refused to have lunch with me.”

“What does your sweet tooth have to do with lunch?”

“I had planned to take you to this amazing Italian restaurant that serves the best gelato.”

“There are no gelato shops in Kayville.”

He smirked. “Who said the restaurant was in Kayville.”

“Okay, we’ll go to Kip’s on one condition,” I said.

“Deal.”

“You don’t know what I want yet.”

“Getting you to agree to anything is a step forward, so I’m being generous.”

Not for long. “Okay. Remove Burgess’ soul from Torture Island and put him with the general public in Hel. He doesn’t deserve to be tortured when I’m the one who gave him the green light to possess me. And if I hadn’t, I would never have known how to help him.”

Echo chuckled. That sexy sound never failed to send shivers up my spine.

“A soul for frozen yogurt, hmm?”

“So will you do it?” I asked.

“For you, sure. And it’s called Corpse Strand, or Naastrand, not Torture Island.”

“Isn’t it an island where souls are tortured?”

“Yes.”

“Then Torture Island it is.”

Once I reached Main Street, I headed north, turned at the light on 5
^th
North, and pulled up across from Kip’s. The place was packed.

“Come on. My treat.” Echo jumped out and stared at me expectantly.

I glanced at the crowded shop. This friendship thing just didn’t work for me. I understood and accepted he had to protect me. Knew he had to be around, but doing things like this together wasn’t smart.

My door opened, and Echo offered me his hand. “Please?”

“I can wait for you here—”

He squatted and studied me. “What’s wrong, doll-face? Have I done or said something to hurt you? Tell me and I’ll fix. I want this friendship to work.”

How could he be so blind? I wanted to scream at him. Shake him. But one look into his gorgeous wolf eyes and my reluctance melted away. Argh, he didn’t play fair. “It’s nothing. I’m just tired. You know, the swim meet and the fiasco at Victoria’s.”

He reached out and ran his knuckles up my cheek. Then he pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. “I’ll take you home.”

“No. We go in, you get your yogurt, and we leave. We don’t stay.”

The corners of his lips lifted in an irresistible, sexy smile. “Okay. We’ll eat in the car.” He stood and held the door. “You get some, too.”

I didn’t bother to argue. He’d win anyway. He grabbed my hand as we crossed the street. Eyes followed us inside. The tables and the counters lining the walls were all occupied, but my eyes found Drew, Pia, and Leigh. The fourth person at their table had his back to us, but there was something familiar about the wavy brown hair.

Silence fell in the room as most of them, majority of them girls, forgot about their frozen treats and stared. Echo seemed oblivious to the attention he was getting. He was back to wearing leather pants, a dark grey sweater underneath his coat, and boots. His chin was unshaven, and his hair messy as though he’d run his fingers through it. He stood out no matter what he wore.