TYR
Gods on Earth #3
JC Andrijeski
Copyright © 2021 by JC Andrijeski
Published by White Sun Press
Cover Art & Design by Sylvia Frost of The Book Brander (2020)
Ebook Edition, License Notes
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For my Family
Contents
A Quick Reminder Blurb
1. The Meeting
2. God Of War
3. Marion
4. Introductions
5. Making A Scene
6. Party’s Over
7. A Cold Wind
8. Conspiracy
9. Back To Earth
10. Christmas
11. Something Really Wrong
12. You Already Know What I Am
13. Date
14. The Least Strange Thing
15. I Told You This
16. Surprise Me
17. The Best Laid Plans
18. Marked
19. Time To Go
20. Getting Inside
21. No Separations
22. Almost Everything
23. Everything
What to read next
Join the Light Brigade!
Reviews are Author Hugs
Sample Pages
Prologue / Palace
List of Book Titles
About the Author
A Quick Reminder Blurb
I’m trying to save her life. I’m trying to stop a war. But nothing about Marion Ravenscroft is easy, and the world wants to careen into war, no matter what I do.
I’m out of practice in dealing with human women.
Especially human women who do strip teases for me, the first time I meet them. Especially human women I feel strangely drawn to, pulled into, like I knew her before I even met her. Especially human women who won’t do a damned thing I say.
I’m Tyr, God of War, son of Odin.
I’m supposed to be the adult in the room. Among my brothers, I’m the one who is duty-bound to keep the humans from destroying themselves, to keep peace among their tribes. Yet it was Loki who sent me on this quest, when his new wife stumbled upon a plot to kidnap the daughter of the President of the United States.
It should have been an easy way to stop a war. A simple tracking job. A simple rescue. I deliver Marion to her father, and then I deal with the dark forces attempting to harm her.
But Marion won’t let me save her.
She also might be the thing to finally make me lose my cool.
TYR is book #3 in Gods on Earth, a fun paranormal romance and urban fantasy series, ideal for people who want a light romp to Asgard, mischievous gods falling for unwitting humans and battling over magical objects, not to mention dragons, magical wolves, grumpy witches, and a dose of wicked trickster games.
1
The Meeting
Tyr sat at a human bar, in a human drinking establishment, in a human city.
Which meant, naturally, he was on the human world.
The brother he hadn’t expected to see, at least not anytime soon, and certainly not in any kind of work capacity, called to him the day before.
He proposed he and Tyr meet.
Tyr looked around at the location Loki had given him, and frowned.
The location itself wasn’t the problem.
A hole-in-the-wall pub, in Paris’ University District, the bar presented as comfortable and private enough. It wasn’t Loki’s usual sort of place, but that certainly didn’t bother Tyr.
The God of Mischief tended to gravitate towards flashier, more expensive, and frankly gaudier places, from Tyr’s remembrances. Loki also generally preferred sitting outside, in the sun, or at least under excellent lighting; he put a fair bit of thought into entrances and presentation in general, which required the right clothing and illumination.
Thor used to mutter that the God of Mischief could easily have been named God of the Sun, if he wasn’t such an annoying and unapologetically irredeemable wanker.
Of course, Thor muttered such things less, these days.
Tyr himself had no quarrel with a neighborhood bar, filled with guests who mostly kept to themselves, who weren’t there to be seen.
No, it was Loki himself who caused Tyr to frown.
His brother, his normally cheerful, happy-go-lucky, give-no-shits brother––maddeningly so, from some in the family’s perspective––had sounded uncharacteristically serious, even somber, when Tyr finally reached him over an Earth telephone.
Tyr wasn’t sure he wanted to know what brought that urgency to Loki’s voice, or the worry he’d felt in his brother’s heart in the short time they spoke.
Whatever was on Loki’s mind, it concerned him enough that he’d felt the need to meet with Tyr in person. Granted, Loki asked Tyr to come to Paris––where Loki currently lived––versus offering to go to Tyr himself, but still, even with that exceedingly Loki-like detail, it was strange.
Loki had changed though, in the last few months.
The God of Mischief had a new life, with a brand-new human wife, and even a sort of daughter, in the form of his new wife’s young sister and ward.
Tyr wondered if Loki’s new family might be the real reason for his brother’s worry.
Clearly, the stakes had changed for the God of Mischief when it came to Earth. The stakes had changed even more dramatically regarding the fate of the human race.
The fact that Loki called Tyr suggested a few things in Tyr’s mind already.
Loki likely feared some conflict was afoot, and wanted Tyr to put a stop to it.
It wasn’t an outrageous request. Being the God of War, most assumed Tyr’s job was to foster conflict.
In fact, Tyr’s primary job was to avoid it.
It seemed a never-ending task, like rolling a boulder up a steep mountain, as Sisyphus did in that myth of the Greeks… or doing the dishes, or laundry, or simply keeping oneself fed on a world such as this one, where food was required.
Of course, Loki knew Tyr’s true role.
If Loki was bringing something to Tyr, it likely meant Loki found something he felt could be problematic to the relative stability of Earth’s human world.
Perhaps even catastrophic.
Tyr checked his human watch, which was expensive, silver, and went with the tailored human suit he wore to blend in on Earth.
Loki was late.
Tyr was about to call out to his brother, to see if he was within psychic earshot, when the door to the drinking establishment opened with a bang, and a tall man with black and auburn streaked hair walked in, wearing a long coat, dark green pants and a matching jacket, a black dress shirt, black tie, Italian boots, a gold watch and cufflinks.
Loki’s haircut alone looked like it cost an indecent amount, possibly even several hundred Euros.
As per usual, the God of Mischief managed to both blend in and dramatically stick out.
He had the human schtick down perfectly, perhaps a little too well.
Loki also drew eyes as a matter of course, for all kinds of reasons. Some element of Loki’s make-up drank that attention in, which only encouraged it more.
His pale green eyes scanned the inside of the human establishment, then lit upon Tyr.
A smile curved that full mouth, one that didn’t reach his leaf-green eyes.
He walked briskly in Tyr’s direction.
Knowing Loki, they were also likely tanned from the sun, and adorned with significantly more expensive jewelry than Tyr’s.
“Thank you for meeting me, brother,” Loki said.
Something about the way Loki spoke always verged on dry humor, even sarcasm.
Tyr honestly couldn’t always tell if his brother was being sincere. Rather than attempt to puzzle out the difference, he generally took Loki’s words at face value.
“Of course,” he said politely. “You said you have something for me, brother? Something important you wished to share?”
“Ah. Yes. All business, Brother Tyr.”
The God of Mischief dug his hand into the long coat he wore, and produced a small, black object with a silver connector.
“It is my wife’s,” Loki explained, placing it carefully down on the counter. “The last job she did for that horrible human who was blackmailing her. In Los Angeles.”
Tyr nodded, frowning down at the object on the bar.
It was a human memory stick.
For a computer.
“What is on it?” Tyr said. “Can you tell me?”
Loki frowned, his hand and wrist rotating in a kind of vague shrug.
“She showed me,” he said. “Lia. My wife. On one of her human machines. I didn’t think to bring that device with me… but there were moving pictures.” He made another flurry of gestures. “There was sound. It all comes from surveillance she did. In Nepal. Not long before we ran into one another.”
It might have amused Tyr, in other times, that Loki himself was so clueless about the human technology he’d just handed him. Apparently, without his wife present, Loki had no idea how to show Tyr what was on the flash drive himself.
“My wife knows. If you require help––” Loki offered.
“I think I can manage, brother,” Tyr said diplomatically. “But thank you. And thank your wife for me. I will call her, using a human telephone, if I require her help.”
“You have our numbers?” Loki said. “Both of them? Here in Paris?”
“Yes.”
“Ah. Good.” Loki exhaled.
The God of Mischief combed his fingers through his longish, half-auburn hair, and Tyr again marveled at how perfect it looked.
Loki never did anything cheaply if he could pay top dollar.
“My wife was worried,” the other god admitted. “I know you hardly owe me anything, brother. Quite the opposite. But she was very worried, and given her condition, I thought of you. She seemed to think this could cause… problems. As in, your kind of problems.”
Tyr nodded, frowning faintly.
“Tell your wife, she has my sincere thanks,” Tyr said politely. “I appreciate you both including me. Particularly if you think it an area that might fall under my… jurisdiction.”
Tyr paused, quirking an eyebrow.
“Condition?” he queried politely. “Then you and she––”
“Ah. Yes.” Loki gave him a sideways look.
“Her idea? Or yours?”
“Mine, if you must know,” Loki said, a little loftily. “But she was entirely onboard. So was our little ward.” Loki’s smile grew warmer, filled with obvious pride. “Our Maia is very much looking forward to a little sister or brother to boss around.”
Seeing the heat rise to the other’s eyes, Tyr smiled.
He patted his brother on the shoulder.
“I am very happy for you,” he said sincerely. “It warms me greatly to see you so contented, Loki. More than I can say.”
The other god seemed to relax.
Briefly, Tyr saw past the part of Loki that always seemed to be on guard––always ready to take advantage, to pull some kind of con, ready to evade or do battle, ready to lie or cheat or steal his way out of some difficult situation.
Behind that, Tyr’s brother just seemed––happy.
“I am quite happy,” the god admitted. “And feeling a bit possessive of that happiness, I confess.” Loki gave him a worried look.
“You’ll let me know, yes? If you need any assistance with this thing? My wife understands it far better than I. She used to work for this group, this ‘Syndicate.’ In fact, I arranged to more or less fake her death as far as they are concerned, so that we didn’t have to worry about them bothering us again.”
Sighing, he flicked his fingers towards the memory stick.
“As for what’s on here, and why she wanted me to call you, all I can tell you is, she was doing surveillance at the instruction of her old boss. She watched the recordings only recently, after finding them in her bag… but what she saw concerned her. She tells me she pulled out the part she particularly wishes for you to see, and labeled it somehow inside here…”
Loki tapped the flash drive lightly with one finger, looking at the small piece of metal and circuits as if he was afraid it might explode.
Following Loki’s finger with his eyes, Tyr only nodded.
“I am sure I can find it, brother. Thank you again. And thank Lia for me.”
Loki looked up, his green eyes serious.
“I figure I owe you.” A touch more reluctantly, he added, “…I figure I owe you and Thor. For speaking to father about me. For letting me keep my life here, and not separating me from my wife.”
Tyr smiled, patting his brother’s shoulder warmly.
“I see no debt between us, brother. Therefore, I view this as a gift.” He gripped Loki’s shoulder tighter. “And congratulations, brother. I am thrilled and moved to hear you will be adding to the family soon. Be sure and congratulate Lia for me, as well… and tell her I am very much looking forward to meeting my new niece or nephew.”
Loki nodded.
There was a silence between them.
Somewhere in that silence, Loki seemed to decide their meeting was over.
Sliding off the barstool, the God of Mischief abruptly regained his feet. He stood there awkwardly for a beat, then thumped Tyr briskly on the back.
“Call us,” he urged. “You are always welcome, brother. Thor said something about dinner one of these days, as well. With the wives. You should come, too.”
Standing there a beat longer, Loki added,
“And call Lia if you need help with that… thing…”
Loki motioned vaguely at the flash drive he’d left on the wooden bar.
Tyr hid his smile politely.
“I will. And dinner sounds lovely. I would be most happy to come.”
“Okay. I’ll tell Thor.”
Loki stood there, hands in his pockets.
Then, without another word, the god turned on his heel and walked away.
There was a flash of light when he opened the door to the street, letting in the afternoon sun.
Then Loki, God of Mischief, was gone.
2
God Of War
Tyr stared down at the memory stick Loki had left him.
For an instant, he smiled wanly at Loki’s muttering discomfort, coupled with his awkward but touchingly sincere affection… all delivered right before he vanished back into the light of day and presumably back to his pregnant wife and family.
After that brief smile, Tyr’s mood grew more somber.
Tyr had met Lia.
He had attended their wedding.
Loki’s new wife struck Tyr as not the type to spook easily.
Lia, Loki’s wife, was someone who had been unfairly jaded by the world. Tyr wondered what she could have seen on that flash drive that would make her so nervous.
The technology itself did not worry Tyr.
As a function of his job, he more or less had to be proficient with the machines of this world. Most wars in the modern era started with those machines, in one way or
another.
Therefore, before he bothered Loki’s wife, Tyr thought he should look at what Loki had brought him, first.
Sighing at the thought, Tyr opened his coat, pulling out a small computer tablet.
Opening up a port on one side, he attached the memory stick, and waited for it to load. As he did, he tugged a wireless earpiece from his pocket and fitted it into his ear. As soon as the icon for the drive appeared on the desktop of his tablet, Tyr clicked on it to view the contents.
A list of audio-visual files appeared.
At the top, in capital letters, was a file named “TYR WATCH THIS FIRST.”
He clicked on that.
A movie file opened, showing a view of a white stone balcony covered with plants, chairs, and striped sun loungers. The loungers and chairs sat next to wrought iron and glass tables, painted white. Short white pillars ringed the far edge of the rounded balcony, covered in dark vines and purple flowers, decorated by potted rose bushes and dark green palms, despite the fact that winter was fast approaching this part of the world.
Whenever the video had been filmed, the sun shone brightly.
Tyr guessed the video might even have been made that morning.
He recognized the balcony as Loki and Lia’s.
The camera itself seemed to be placed on a larger glass table, with a chair with thick cushions that matched the patterns of the sun loungers.
Tyr saw a person walk around to sit in the white, wrought-iron chair, wearing dark blue pants and a white crop-top.
Tyr Page 1
