The Banished Gods Box Set: Books 1-3

by L. A. McGinnis

  Mir blinked. Both valid reasons.

  Syd offered him a shaky smile. “Just to be clear, I’ve never been in a relationship before. The world’s going to hell, my life is a disaster. Throw in the fact that you’re…”

  “A god?”

  “One of the smartest men I’ve ever met,” she continued, talking as if he hadn’t interrupted, “and it all adds up to the fact that I find all this somewhat intimidating. Maybe I was hurt and pissed off and scared. And freaked out because I’d been possessed by something called…of all things…the Orobus.” She shook her head. “Such a stupid name, really.”

  She picked up her sandwich, took a bite, closed her eyes, and moaned again. “So that’s where I’m at. Your turn, buddy.”

  Mir took a long breath. He was great at explaining complicated concepts. Outlining strategy. Telling others to go fuck off. Feelings? Not so much.

  “When that thing possessed you, your eyes went completely black. Unreadable.” Gazing at her, perched there in front of him, eating the food he’d brought to her, watching him with such trust, he went on, “Your eyes, Syd, are one of the things I love best about you. Looking into your eyes is like falling into a deep well, as if I can lose myself in them. In you. You’re complex in ways I never knew another person to be. I want to untangle you. I want to drown in you and not care if I never take another breath again.”

  Her cheeks flushed pink, her eyes wide and glittering. “Oh, that’s a really good start. Keep going, Mir.”

  “When that thing possessed you and vanished… When you disappeared, I thought I’d never get you back. When I found you, then brought you home, I vowed I’d do anything to keep you. And I’m going to do exactly that.

  “Right now, the less you know the safer you are. The less chance you’ll be used as a pawn, as leverage by that fucking thing. Maybe, if you’re no use to that monster, he’ll leave you alone.”

  “He still needs me for something.”

  “What?”

  She gnawed on her lip, his eyes following every move. “How am I supposed to know? I’ve just got this feeling… Damn it, Mir, do you have any idea?”

  Mir pushed himself off the wall and caged her in with his arms, thighs on both sides of hers, pushing her back down onto the desk with his chest against hers, lips on her neck. “The only thing I know, baby, is that it’s been two days since you were in my bed, and I’ve been counting down those days by the minute, ever since I realized you’d left me.” Pressing his lips into the trembling hollow of her throat, he whispered, “Milliseconds, if truth be told, every one of them a misery.”

  “I love it when you talk science to me, oh smart one.” Setting the sandwich aside, Sydney wrapped her arms around his neck and murmured against his mouth, “Now let’s talk about friction.”

  “A subject I’m well versed in.”

  She gave a little hum and settled herself against him, sliding a hand beneath his shirt, tracing the ridges of muscle. “This isn’t a scientist’s body at all,” she murmured then broke off as he kissed her, widening her knees, pressing in between them as the tiny desk creaked dangerously. “Not much time spent on research, apparently.”

  “Nor you,” Mir muttered, tracing the long line of her back. “More time spent in the field, I would assume.”

  “If I can,” she said, her quick, impatient hands pushing his shirt out of the way, unfastening his pants. “Unearthing all sorts of things…”

  She had to stop her exploration when he pulled her shirt over her head and then, frantic, they were both panting, half naked, mad to get to each other, to feel flesh against flesh.

  “I want to see your tattoo.”

  Eyes widening, Sydney raised and rotated her left arm, but Mir ran a gentle hand down her side until he grasped her hips and stared straight into her eyes. “No. Your other one.”

  A slow smile and she twisted away, both hands on the desk, legs spread wide, her back arched downwards, the line of moons undulating as she turned her head to look at him, eyes burning.

  “Like this?”

  Jesus fucking Christ.

  Bracing his hands on the curve of her hips, he pushed in, a long, slow slide and felt her grip him, wet and hot and tight. Heard her low, muted moan as she absorbed each thrust, then the indrawn gasp as he withdrew. Holding her steady he moved slowly, running a hand down her back, pushing her hair to the side, then twining his hand into it, a fistful of silken length, and thrust against her, deep. A gasp, his name, and he did it again. And again. Until blood pounded in his ears, and it was her name echoing against the walls as he released everything he had into her.

  Chapter 20

  Ten blocks over from the Chicago Theater, Fen listened to the stream of babble coming from the man’s mouth. Professor McRoy was slumped against a brick wall, wedged between two overfilled dumpsters. He’d gotten what he could out of the man’s head, but Tyr had wanted to take a shot, and his methods were a little less…civilized. Possibly more effective, Fen thought, listening to the man take a shuddering breath.

  “But I’ve told you everything.”

  “It’s never everything. There’s always something more.” Tyr’s deep voice was a wellspring of eternal patience. The man would outlast death itself. If he had to. “You told me the location of the dolmens came to you in a dream. Now, tell me again about the girl. How did you locate her in the first place?”

  “Her face. Someone…something told me where to find her. At Harvard.” Spittle dribbled out of his mouth. Tyr had yet to lay a hand on the man, but as he delved deeper and deeper into his mind, as his secrets were pried out, the man fought.

  “Maybe I saw her in the dream too? I think… I remember the girl…before I ever met her.” Again, that vague, halting hesitation. “She stood in the circle under a thin moon. But that cannot be right, can it? The stones are inside the museum. Which means the vision was just another lie.” A sobbing breath came out of his mouth as his head sagged.

  Tyr’s voice turned encouraging. “Describe this scene to me.”

  “The dolmen’s are arranged in the circle, but they are outside and the moon but a sliver in a star-filled sky. Miss Allen is in the middle, and it feels like… It feels like something is about to happen. As if we are all waiting…”

  “Go on.”

  “And then everything turns black, and the dolmens become openings, and all of the air turns to shadow. Something, something… Something comes out of them…” The man’s voice faded away into terror.

  “And Miss Allen?” Tyr’s voice prodded.

  He frowned. “She is…changing. She is becoming…something different. Something terrible… I think she’s not human, I think she’s…” McRoy’s voice turned wheedling. “I only wanted to go home. I only wanted a better deal.”

  “Yes, I heard about the bargain you tried to negotiate with the Orobus. Using Hel as your intermediary was most likely your first mistake.”

  The professor’s voice turned brittle as he snapped, “I just wanted off this godforsaken planet. It’s not fair I have to die here with the rest of you.”

  Tyr’s lips tightened. “And you were willing to sacrifice us all in your haste to escape?”

  The professor’s eyes seemed to clear ever so slightly as Tyr relinquished his control over his mind. “An unfortunate by product. Every man for himself. Besides, you shouldn’t have tried to fool the dark god.”

  “Yes, Fenrir mentioned you told Hel about the problem with the dolmens. Way to sell us out, asshole.”

  McRoy prevaricated quickly. “I only hinted. I didn’t tell the death goddess anything specific.”

  The man’s eyes skittered all over, finally resting on Tyr’s unforgiving face, as Tyr asked, “How did you figure out our contingency plan in the first place?”

  “I still have access to the basement since my palm print is keyed into the security system. I was there two days ago. So yes, I noticed the stones’ altered positioning. It would have worked, perhaps even bought you some time. But
Hel and the dark god would have figured it out. Sooner or later.”

  Tyr leaned down and got right in the guy’s face. “How much time will it buy us?”

  “I don’t know, a couple of minutes? Once they figure out the formation doesn’t line up with the other stones in the circle, my guess is everything’s going to freeze. It’s not going to take the Orobus long to deduce why. Small matter to move some rocks around. Then it’s back in business before the second phase in the alignment.”

  “No, no they won’t be because…” Tyr’s evil smile faded as he noticed the light dimming in the guy’s eyes. Shadows began to elongate in the alley, even the sunlight seemed to move behind the clouds.

  The faint sound of female laughter issued from everywhere around them, along with a whispered warning. “Told you. You can’t escape me, professor. You want off this planet before it burns? I’m going to get you off.”

  The man’s face went slack, his muscles seeming to drip from his face, and his eyes emptied out. When the dead professor fell face first to the asphalt, Tyr cursed.

  “Fuck.”

  Chapter 21

  It was amazing what one could do with sixty feet of square footage, a desk, a rolling chair, and two bodies. The air in her office, Sydney calculated the next morning, was a balmy seventy degrees and smelled like pure sex. Salty and slightly exotic, as if together they’d created an entirely new perfume. Mir created a wonderfully dense pillow beneath her, all of her soft spots spilling over into his hard ones.

  “G’morning,” she whispered, pushing up on her elbows, her hair falling in a scarlet curtain over them both, the light of a flashlight dimmed down to a barely there glow. “We should get up. It’s probably late.”

  Mir shifted against her hip, and she knew there would be at least one more slight delay.

  “G’morning to you, my love.” His beard was a rough sensation against her skin, his body a delicious velvet slide against hers, and all she thought as she rocked against him was how much longer they had.

  She bumped her head on the desk and her elbows against the wall until she was about halfway dressed.

  “Shame, really, to cover up all of that beautiful skin,” Mir murmured, tugging down the shoulder of her shirt and skimming kisses all the way up along her neck.

  “I’m not, Mir,” she murmured, embarrassed

  He barked out a short laugh. “Oh, but you are. Perfection.” He skimmed a hand across her shoulder then down her arm, raising goosebumps in its path. “You are everything to me. I’ve missed you, Syd.” Mir breathed. “So damn much. Do you know…you touch me? All the time, your fingers are on my skin, or I feel you pressed against me. These last days have been torture without the feel of you nearby. You’ve left a hole in my life, love.”

  Jesus, he has the mouth of a poet, she thought as she traced those lips. And the body of a god, her eyes falling down his chest and abs and lower.

  “But unless you plan on staying in here all day, and I am perfectly willing to comply, you’d best quit looking at me like that, Miss Allen.”

  “We don’t have much time left, Mir,” she somberly reminded him, even though she’d be perfectly happy to spend the rest of her life here, in this tiny office. As long as she had Mir with her.

  Mir tried to hide the quicksilver glimmer of regret at Sydney’s reminder. “No, my love, we don’t.” A few hours, perhaps, until the rocks did their thing, and the Orobus came, and all hell broke loose.

  He hoped not literally.

  “A lot can happen in a few hours, Mir.”

  He nodded. A lot could. If he had a safe thick enough to shield her from the world and everything in it, he’d lock her up until this was all over. But he didn’t, and until then, he was her fucking shield.

  An hour later, he ghosted to the Tower where Fen and Tyr were waiting.

  “What do you mean, he’s dead? I told you I wanted to talk to him. Tell me you stripped him bare? Got every ounce of Intel the guy had in that doctoral brain of his?”

  “Well, Tyr tried. We got as far as Sydney in the circle under a night sky, and the dude even knew about us moving the stones. And us tweaking the positioning of grouping five.”

  “Fuck.”

  “That‘s exactly what I said,” Tyr pointed out gravely. “He went on and on about the doors opening up, end of the world, usual sort of shit. But no specifics.”

  “And he died how?”

  Fen and Tyr traded an uncomfortable glance.

  “The alley got dark, and he fell over dead. We’re thinking it was Hel…”

  “Oh, I know it was. I heard my sister’s voice,” Fen insisted. “She took him to the Underworld. We should count ourselves lucky it wasn’t the Orobus himself, come to claim the asshole’s soul.”

  “He might still tell her about the misalignment,” Tyr pointed out. “If he does, what we’ve set in place is for naught.”

  “Could happen,” Mir concurred. “There’s about a million things that could go wrong with our plan.”

  “Like your girlfriend selling us all out,” Tyr muttered.

  “Go fuck yourself, Tyr,” Mir said good-naturedly. He wasn’t worried. Sure, he was worried about a lot of stuff. But not that. He had other things on his mind as he headed for the Great Hall. It was about time he and Odin had a serious heart to heart. The same question had been dogging him for weeks now.

  Why wasn’t the Great and Mighty Oz giving them a heads up on all of this shit that was going down? For a thousand years, he’d had their backs. Okay, maybe not their backs. But Odin always had enough self-interest to make sure that, at the very least, his own ass was covered. And lately? That wasn’t happening.

  If Mir didn’t know any better, he’d swear the bastard was…

  “Looking for me?” Odin’s deep voice boomed down the hallway from behind him.

  “Thought I’d find you be sitting on your throne. You know, ’cause you seem to like it up there so damn much.” Mir kept his voice bored because that was pretty much indicative of their relationship. Odin pontificated, and Mir remained disinterested with the whole thing. Loki undermined everyone, and Freyr seduced anyone who was willing, but that was a whole ’nother story. In short, they all had their roles, and for an eternity, they’d stuck to what they did best. Now it seemed, the center was not holding anymore.

  And when that happened? Well, shit fell the fuck apart.

  “What can I do for you, Mir?” Every inch of Mir’s spidey senses sprang to life. That was what the waiter said at a four-star restaurant. Or the girl at the lingerie counter. Never Odin. Odin was more of a rip your heart out and ask questions later kind of guy. When, you know, questions couldn’t be asked and shit.

  “Just wondering what the fuck is going down tonight. Be helpful if we had a clue about what’s coming our way. I’d kind of like to live to see tomorrow.”

  There was a twinge of annoyance to Odin’s voice when he answered, lined with a defensiveness that all but confirmed Mir’s suspicions. “When you’re ready to hear it, I will tell you what’s coming. Trust me, you aren’t ready.”

  “Oh, we’re ready, Odin. As ready as we’ll ever be for whatever cluster fuck’s coming down the highway at us. It’s you that’s not ready. Hard to be blind in a world where sight is your only edge.” He stared hard into those silvery eyes, and his gut tightened as Odin blinked first. “Isn’t it?”

  It was a bitch, he supposed, to go from being omnipotent to being blind. For someone like Odin, being sightless was like a kick in the balls. Except more painful. The whole reason Mir wasn’t worried about Odin finding out about Sydney was because in all probability, Odin hadn’t had a vision in months.

  Maybe even longer.

  When Odin took a step forward, slow and careful, Mir tensed for a minute, his eyes searching that face he knew so well. He’d feared it, loved it, defied it, and would still go to the ends of the earth for it. But for now, his only objective was to find out how deep in the shit they were as he asked, “Exactly how bad i
s it?”

  “If you knew, what would you do about it?” Odin sized up Mir.

  He wouldn’t have told the rest of them. Yet. He was too smart for that. He’d poke and he’d pry and see how just how far gone Odin was, and then, well, then he’d do the democratic thing and put it to a vote. There’d be a little uprising amongst the natives. Best to nip this thing in the bud.

  “Nothing. Yet.” Mir circled, taking his time pouncing, as if Odin was a cobra in a basket.

  Smart man. Stick your hand into darkness and who knew what you’d pull out.

  “Look, I’m just trying to figure out how serious this is. Damn it, Odin, you should have said something to one of us. Maybe there’s something we could have done…”

  “What the fuck are you going to do? Visit Yggdrasil? That fucker burned down eons ago. Drink from the well of remembering? Tell me where it is and get me a glass.” He got right in Mir’s face. “Tell. Me. What. The. Fuck. To. Do.”

  Rubbing his forehead, Odin backed off. “And I’ll do it. Do you think I enjoy watching everything go to shit and not being able to stop it? Do you think I liked having to make a deal with Hel to keep everything afloat for a couple of months longer?”

  Mir’s mouth quirked. “I know how bad you hate her.”

  “And you’d be right. Opportunistic little bitch was just waiting for something like this to happen. She’s got to be laughing her ass off, watching us run around with our dicks in our hands.”

  “She’s been around.” Mir was hedging, but at Odin’s sharp look, he embellished. “You know Hel, always skulking around, looking for an in. She hasn’t found one.”

  But Odin heard the word Mir didn’t add…yet. And knew things were worse than he thought.

  Odin gazed down at Mir. “It’s not completely hopeless. We have a bit of an edge.” His eyes darkened. “We know he’s coming. Thanks to your woman, we know the day and time, which, by the way, is ticking ever closer. It’s better than nothing.”