Seeress: Book Three (Runes Series) (15 page)

“Please. I barely convinced Echo. If Torin is not there, he will be bored out of his mind.”

I sighed. “What are they supposed to do? Pound on each other.”

Cora flipped her hair to one side and hoisted her backpack on her shoulder. “That’s how they bond. It’s a Grimnir-Valkyrie thing. They’re not happy unless they are fighting or solving problems. They came together to protect me and now you.”

“They came to blows.”

Cora stuck out her lower lip in a pout.

“Fine, jeez. I’ll work on Torin.”

She hugged me. “You’re the best. Are we still on for Saturday?”

“He’s doing something during the day, but he should be free by evening.” We reached her car first. She’d parked at the curb.

“Echo is busy, too.” She unlocked the car and threw her backpack inside. “He said he might be gone the rest of the week, so convince your man to stay at school for lunch. I sat with Kicker and the girls, and all they talked about were books.” Cora rolled her eyes. “Which reminds me, I promised to help Dad with his blog. He hates blogging. Can you believe it? The problem is I don’t read his books. What do I tell his fans?”

I laughed. Her father wrote amazing books. I owned all of them. I even got to review advanced copies.

“It’s not funny. Why does he write science fiction? It’s, like, the worst genre ever. Can you help me? You’ve read all his books.”

My life was a hot mess right now. “I can’t. Talk to Andris. He’s read all your father’s books, too.”

Cora thumped her forehead. “How could I forget him? Love you. See you tonight.”

I waved and started across the street. Rita and Gina hurried passed me, talking in whispers. I made eye contact with Rita, but she smiled shyly and looked away. I noticed something I’d missed earlier. They both wore pendants. Part of me wanted to follow them, but I couldn’t do it with Torin and Andris watching me. Talking to them would have to take place away from here. Away from the Valkyries.

“Hey, Andris? What’s cookin’?” I said when I joined them.

He made a face. “Let’s see. I spent half of last night runing the whole damn town for you, then gallivanted all over the world looking for your faceless, nameless nemesis. I need a caramel
frappé
.”

Sheesh, it was a rhetoric question. “Will a thank you and a hug do for now?”

“Um…” he glanced at Torin.

What? I couldn’t hug other guys without the Earl of Worthington’s permission? I hugged Andris, taking him by surprise. He hesitated for a beat, and then he patted my back awkwardly.

“I’ll buy you a
frappé after work.” I turned and studied my boyfriend. He didn’t look too thrilled. He hated being ignored, and I planned to ignore him. I extended my hand. “My keys.”

“Don’t I get a hug, too?”

He smirked, but I saw through it to the Valkyrie he once was before we met. The guy who’d hated himself, his life, and what he’d become. He’d come close to losing his soul. Of course, I couldn’t deny him a simple hug.

I walked into his arms, wrapped my arms around his mid-section, and squeezed. A shudder went through him, reminding me once again that, despite his cockiness and annoying habits, I meant the world to him. Everything that happened to me affected him in ways a regular person wouldn’t understand.

Still, he wasn’t getting off easily. I wiggled out of his arms and pinned him with a glare. “What you did was not cool.”

His brow shot up. “Now you lecture me.”

“Next time I’ll start with the tongue lashing. You don’t take my things without my permission. My father had a fever and needed to be calmed down. What if I couldn’t remember the runes to open a portal?”

He groaned and rubbed my arms. “I’m a jerk.”

“First class.” I extended my hand. “My keys.”

He handed them over, held the car door for me without saying a word, and hurried to the passenger seat. He didn’t say anything and neither did I, although I saw the runes on trees along the road. This was the route I often used to get to the store.

Torin kept glancing at me as though to say,
“I did these trees too; aren’t I awesome?” What if there was an accident and I had to take another route? What if there was construction? He couldn’t foresee everything. I had to start training A.S.A.P.

There were a few more cars in the alley behind our store than usual. I parked and grimaced at the runed building, trees, and wooden fence separating our parking lot from the adjacent art center. When he did something, he went all out.

“Try to see this from my point of view, Freckles,” he said.

I studied his handsome face. I was everything to him. I understood that. He meant the world to me, too, but my father was equally important. No one was allowed to mess with my time with him. “I do, but you went too far.”

“I have my reasons. First, I gave your mother my word that nothing would happen to you while she was gone.”

Whatever sympathy I’d felt for him disappeared. “What?”

“Your mother told me to keep an eye on you and vowed to scalp me if anything happened to you while she was gone. I may not know what it feels like to be scalped, but Hawk turned pale when she said it so I believed her.”

Sounded like something Mom would say, but that didn’t mean I liked it.

“Second, think of the mayhem I’d cause to get my revenge if you were hurt. Mortals who’d get caught in the crossfire. This was my way of making sure that didn’t happen.” He reached out and twirled a lock of my hair around his finger. “How about this? I promise never to pull a fast one on you if you promise to work with me. The sooner you can take care of yourself when I’m not around, the better I’ll feel.”

Part of me wanted to hang on to the anger, but another part knew he had a reason to be worried. There are people out there after me, and there was so much I needed to learn to defend myself.

“Maybe I should just use portals. You know, home to school, school to the shop, and shop to home.”

Torin’s eyes narrowed. “No. I don’t want you acting like a prisoner or scared of your shadow because of these bastards. We are all going to act normal, like we don’t know they are after you. The element of surprise will be ours, not theirs.”

Good looks and brilliance, a winning combo in my book. When he jumped out of the car and came to open my door, I hugged him again. He cradled my head.

“I thought you were going to be mad at me the entire evening.”

“It crossed my mind.”

“But you couldn’t resist me for long.” The teasing twinkle in his eyes was cute, but I wasn’t stroking his ego.

“You can’t keep skating on your charm. One day it won’t be enough.” He gave a look that said that would never happen. I made a face. “Let’s go.”

Hawk was waiting inside with a folder in his arms like some supervisor. Seriously, the man needed to smile more. “Hey, Hawk. I’m ready to rock-n’-roll.”

He didn’t even crack a smile. He nodded to Torin as though they were passing acquaintances. “Good afternoon, Raine.”

I waved to Jared, who was with a customer. Several more were browsing. Hopefully no one needed my help. Maybe I should wear a “New Employee” tag, so customers wouldn’t think I was a complete dud when I couldn’t help them.

Hawk set me up at the customer’s service desk with the file, which turned out to be a catalogue of all the items we carried. I texted Cora and got to work. I read about frame styles and colors, framing styles, and quotes for custom framing. I memorized terminologies I’d never heard before like aspect ratio, rabbet, and corrugated backing.

My nose was buried in the file when Torin returned with a caramel macchiato and pastries from
Café Nikos, Dad’s favorite destination for all things baklava.

He placed them on my desk with a wink. “See you at six.” Then he disappeared in Hawk’s office. No matter how arrogant and aggravating he was, he was one heck of a boyfriend.

After an hour, I got up, walked along the aisles, and checked if I could recognize different frames. When customers glanced my way, I took a detour or pretended to be a browser. One woman, however, wasn’t fooled. But she just wanted to know if we had a public bathroom.

When Torin came back at a quarter to six, I had a serious drool moment. He’d changed into running clothes. Tights. Yummy. The pants hugged his thighs and calves. The light jacket was unzipped, and the thin shirt underneath showed his washboard abs and wide chest.

“Quit undressing me with your eyes,” he teased.

“Quit showing off,” I retorted. Then I remembered where I was and glanced around. Luckily, Jared was busy and Hawk was in the framing room.

“How was it?” he asked as we drove home.

“Great!” I said, faking enthusiasm.

“Liar. Want to quit?” he asked.

I threw him a reprimanding glance. “You don’t have to say it with such glee.”

“Just kidding. You’re not a quitter.”

The man knew me too well. “Damn right. I learned a lot though. We have over twenty frame styles, from traditional to vintage-inspired…” I prattled on until I pulled outside our cul-de-sac.

“You have ten minutes,” Torin said. “Change into running gear.”

***

I checked on Dad first. He was asleep, his fever down. He looked so frail. He used to be a triathlete, and the two of us would run in the summer and do five and ten-K races at local events. Kayville and neighboring towns were big on outdoor events. Tears rushed to my eyes as memories whipped through my head, and I wanted to slap myself.

No more self-pity.

Cora hadn’t responded to my text earlier. She wasn’t in her bedroom when I peeked in, so I sent her another message, changed into running pants, a tank top, and a jacket, and raced downstairs.

“We should be back in an hour,” I said when Femi looked up.

Torin already had the engine running. I didn’t ask where we were going. He seemed impatient to leave, so I hopped on the Harley and we took off.

Instead of going into town, he used back roads. We didn’t go far before we hit SW Whitfield Hill Road. Tillamook Forest was on the west side of town. It was hilly with nature trails and rivers The sun was still up, but a chill was settling on the valley floor.

The road forked to the Whitfield Vineyard to the north and a dead end to the right. We headed toward the dead end. There was nothing but trees and patches of grass.

I removed my helmet and looked around. “Where exactly are we running?”

“Uphill and through the forest, where we can’t be seen.”

“Except by the coyotes, black bears, and the wildcats,” I mumbled.

He chuckled. “That’s the idea.”

My jaw dropped. “Seriously?”

“I’m just kidding. But you can outrun them. Or you should be able to.” He shrugged off his jacket and threw it on top of the bike. The shirt hugged his chest like it was painted on. Add the running tights and he was a man worthy of sports magazine cover. “Did you hear what I just said?”

“Yes.” I gave him a sweet smile. “Something about crashing.”

He shook his head. “Once you engage your speed runes, you must think fast or you’ll crash into a tree. Remember, the tree won’t be the only thing going down if you do.”

“Couldn’t we just run in a grassy area today?”

“We could, but I want you to hit the ground running. You won’t need your jacket.”

“Nah, I’ll keep it on.” I rubbed my arms, though the sun was still up.

Torin led the way. “Okay. If you fall—”

“You’ll catch me.”

He shot me an amused glance. “No, I won’t. You engage your protection and pain runes, roll, jump up, and keep going.”

Was he serious? His expression said he was. Okay, I was officially in love with a sadist.

We entered the trees, and he engaged his invisibility runes. “Remember, the faster you want to go, the more speed runes you engage,” he said.

I nodded. The zing that accompanied the runes would never get old.

“Catch me if you can.” Torin took off. He started slow, going at a jogger’s pace, but boy, did he move gracefully. Like a cat. Every muscle in perfect condition.

Yep, I was perfectly happy following him and enjoying the view. The ground wasn’t rocky and there was more grass than trees, so no worries about crashing into one yet.

“Pick up speed, slowpoke,” he called out. “Engage your vision runes.”

My eyesight sharpened. I focused on him, where his feet landed. The trees in my periphery blurred as we picked up speed. We left the grassy terrain behind as more trees replaced them. Still the area wasn’t dense or thick with vegetation. Torin whipped around trees as though he knew the terrain, but he stayed on the trails.

We headed up the hill, moving through patches of grass and shrubbery, then more trees. The sun bathed the vegetation with rays of gold and orange. We had forty-five minutes of light left before sundown, but the sun wasn’t the reason I was sweating. No wonder Torin had left his jacket behind. Covering distance faster than a Nascar racer was freaking hard. My heart pounded and sweat trickled down my back, yet I’d never felt so euphoric.