“I won’t be able to for much longer.” He tugged free from the red-bearded Viking’s gentle grip. “In another day or two you will have to lock me up.”
Harald’s gaze slid to the side. “Irja will prepare a sedative.”
“Even drugged, you have to lock me up.” He paused. “You need to send for one of the other kings.”
Astrid made a sound of protest. Although Odin spoke to all Viking and Valkyries, only the kings could contact the god unbidden. Only a ruler of one of the other warrior tribes would be able to tell the Wise One to call Leif back to Valhalla.
Harald shook his head. “We don’t have to make that decision now.”
Leif grabbed his shoulder, smearing blood on Harald’s tunic. “Promise me you will send for one of them.” Without Naya, he’d live the rest of eternity as a drugged animal in a cage. Unbearable. He shuddered.
“I promise,” Harald whispered, not meeting his gaze.
The door swung open and Irja marched in, lab coat billowing in her wake. “Min kung, I have news.” The healer had returned early to the fortress once it was clear they would beat the wolverines.
Leif’s head jerked up. “About Naya?”
The Valkyrie stopped a few feet away. “Yes, somewhat.”
“Don’t dawdle, jänta. Tell the king,” Harald said gruffly.
“I started some processes on the wolverine blood before we went to battle. In case we had injuries or someone got poisoned,” she explained. “I wanted to know as much as possible about the creatures.”
“And?” Leif said when she didn’t continue.
“I found nanoparticles similar to Naya’s.” She looked away.
“What are you saying?” Harald insisted. “Is Naya related to Loki’s monsters?”
Leif rubbed his eyes. “We knew of the connection between Naya’s kidnappers and Loki’s minions.” And Naya had told him the wolverines had been created in the same lab.
“Yes,” Irja whispered. She coughed. “The nanoparticles show that whoever created the wolverines are the same people who trained and enhanced Naya.”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean anything. She told us she was a prisoner in the lab,” Harald said.
Leif appreciated his stallare’s loyalty to his queen, but it was time to face reality. He couldn’t believe there was the same evil in her as in the wolverines. Surely the berserker would have picked up on it? But why had she left if it wasn’t to weaken him? “She could have been created by Loki to be a weapon against us, just like the wolverines.” She’d left on purpose. He’d explained how the bond worked. Hadn’t he?
“She wasn’t like that.” Harald looked to Irja for confirmation.
The Valkyrie flushed. “She…didn’t always tell us the whole truth.”
Was his själsfrände an enemy? Had he bonded with one of Loki’s monsters? Leif’s heart thundered in his chest.
* * *
Naya tottered up to the rental car counter on stripper heels, making sure she put enough swing in the hips to make her short skirt flounce. Her boobs were pushed up to just below her chin thanks to some silicon cutlets, and she made sure she leaned over the counter far enough for the clerk to get a generous glimpse of her cleavage.
“How can I help you today?” His sleazy smile matched his gelled hair. The name tag on his chest said “Chuck.”
“I need a car, please,” she said in her best breathy Marilyn Monroe impression and handed over her driver’s license. It had a fake name worthy of her outfit.
“Of course”—his eyes left her chest long enough for a quick glance at her license before returning to her boobs—“Miss Mystique.”
Naya gave him what she hoped was a flirty smile. “I’d like something with four-wheel drive. I’m planning a trip to the mountains.” She leaned over a little farther. Her hastily purchased driver’s license was a cheap fake. The ID would not have worked for air travel, but luckily she’d caught a lift with Holden’s private jet to Colorado. Private airfields did not ask for identification. She was supposed to draw up the plans for his ski lodge in Aspen while he was there on business, but she’d talked him into postponing for a few days so she could stop by and visit Scott.
“I’ll see what we have available.” He cleared his throat and took another peek at her cleavage before tapping the keyboard. “The Rockies are beautiful this time of year.” He typed some more. “Denver also has a lot to offer. If you are in town for a few days, I’d love to show you the nightlife.” He flashed another smile as he jotted down his cell phone number on the rental contract of a brand-new BMW X5.
“I don’t have a company credit card yet,” Naya said. “Is cash okay for now?” She lightly touched his arm.
The clerk faltered in his typing, but recovered quickly. “Of course, I’ll just need a larger deposit.”
Naya counted out the bills on the counter. She grabbed the keys and gave Chuck a little wave before sauntering out of the rental office.
Five miles outside of the Denver city limits, she tore off the itchy cheap blond wig and lobbed it out the open car window. Sighing contentedly, she ran her free hand through her own hair, digging her fingers into the scalp until the itching stopped.
A few miles later, she popped the silicon cutlets out of her bra and threw them on the passenger-side floor. They were more expensive than the wig and had proved quite useful. She might need them again. She needed to change at the next rest stop. The heels were too hard to walk in and left her vulnerable. She’d drive barefoot if it wasn’t so cold in the mountains. Hopefully she wouldn’t need to fight in her current getup. The new name should have thrown off any handlers on her trail.
The thought of fighting exhausted her. Her aching head refused to stop throbbing, no matter how many ibuprofens she popped. She had trouble swallowing because of a sore throat.
A honking horn yanked her back to reality. Shit.
She’d forgotten she was driving and swerved over the center line. Jerking the wheel right, she pulled over on the shoulder. She took slow, deep breaths. Her vision darkened at the edges. Panicked, she grabbed the supersized soda she’d purchased from a gas station and poured the sticky liquid over her head. Chunks of ice slid off her hair and down her now-deflated cleavage. They traced a cold trail on her skin. She concentrated on their icy path until her vision slowly returned to normal. She ignored the ruined clingy top and dripping hair.
She dug her cell phone out of her bag and popped the Bluetooth earpiece in place before dialing Irja’s number. She tried to ignore a stabbing ache in her chest. She was not missing Leif. It was fake. It would go away. It had to.
She concentrated on the phone’s screen. She’d prefer to avoid any contact with the warriors in the mansion, but if Irja had cured Sten, then she may have suggestions for how to treat Scott.
The medical officer answered on the first ring. “My queen, you have to return right now.” The pitch of her voice was higher than normal, panicked. “Leif is…sick.”
“I’m not your queen.” She swallowed. Had Leif been injured during the fight? “I called to find out if you figured out how to remove the nanoparticles from Sten’s blood.”
Irja’s voice broke. “You hurt our king with your absence. The bond weakens him.” Her anguish sounded sincere.
“Why would the bond make him sick?”
“He’s losing control of his…his rage. He’s going insane. Just come back,” she pleaded. “If you don’t, we…I will have to sedate him and then…”
Guilt rippled through Naya’s chest, then she steeled herself. “My brother needs me. Did you find out how to remove the nanoparticles?” She hated how cold she sounded, but Scott had to come first, and they were running out of time. She suspected her fatigue was related to the time-ticking nanoparticles in her blood. Maybe they had been accelerated by whatever manipulations she’d experienced through the bond.
Irja’s breath hitched. “Please, come back, and I’ll tell you what I’ve discovered.”
Exc
itement made her hands shake. “So you found something? Do you know how to remove the nanoparticles?”
“I’ll tell you when you get here.” So Naya could be used as their bait again?
A wave of anger washed over her. She wanted to rip the steering wheel out of the console. She’d kill the Valkyrie for resorting to blackmail—after she’d squeezed the details about the cure from her. The violence of her rage surprised her. Forcing herself to breathe evenly, she released the death grip on the steering wheel. “Irja, tell me.”
“Come back and I’ll tell you.”
She bit back a curse. “If this was about your brother, if you had the chance to save his life, would you return?”
“My loyalty is to my king first and foremost, as yours should be.” The Valkyrie’s voice wavered.
“Leif has all of the warriors by his side,” Naya ground out. “My brother has only me. If you ever cared about me, you will tell me if you have found a way to help my brother.” Tears ran down her cheeks. Irritated, she wiped them away with the back of her hand, coating it in sticky soda.
“If I tell you, will you promise to come back to Leif?”
Naya could scarcely breathe. She had waited so long for this moment. She weighed her words carefully. “I will return after my brother gets better.” She would risk a visit with the Vikings if her brother would be healed.
“I want your promise to return, even if my method doesn’t help you or your brother.”
She bit back a scream of frustration. “Fine. But only after I try whatever you have found on Scott.”
The line stayed quiet for several heartbeats. “This may not help, but I managed to attach the free-floating nanoparticles to a particular kind of white blood cell. I injected Sten with extra basophil cells, the white cells that release antihistamine and respond to inflammation.”
“Does it work?”
Irja sighed. “It’s too soon to tell, but Sten says he feels better, stronger.”
Naya swallowed her disappointment. She had hoped for a miracle cure, but this was better than nothing. “Can you email me the details of your treatment?”
The line went quiet again. “When will you return?” Irja finally asked.
“After I help Scott.”
“I want your word as our queen that you will return.”
She clenched her jaw. “I give you my word.”
The Valkyrie sighed. “I’ll email you the details as soon as I get to the lab.”
Naya wiped her cheek and got more sticky soda on her hand. “Thank you,” she said before hanging up.
* * *
His knuckles split open as he hit the sandbag in the gym, but Leif welcomed the pain. He’d left the gloves off and only taped his hands before taking out his frustration on the inanimate object. Sparring with one of his warriors would be a better workout, but he didn’t think he’d be able to hold back the berserker if it smelled blood other than his own.
Sweat trickled down his bare back and chest and into his eyes. He closed them and kept hitting the bag. Each hit reverberated pain through his arm and up to the shoulder. He didn’t care. He’d beat his body into a bloody heap if it would calm the berserker. He’d do it every day and twice on Wednesday, Odin’s day.
The hairs on his neck rose. Someone else was in the gym, watching him. He swiveled and opened his eyes, raising his hands before jabbing a right hook at whoever had been stupid enough to sneak up on him.
Irja parried his hook easily, grabbed his wrist, and used his momentum to swing his arm underhand.
He flipped over, dropping to the floor face-first. Humiliated, he spit blood from his split lip. “Fight or get out,” he snarled.
Irja’s pupils widened as her body became attuned to the presence of his warrior spirit so close to battle rage. “I will not fight you.” Her nostrils flared, a sure sign her berserker was responding to the challenge of his.
Shit. Even his most stoic Valkyrie couldn’t control her warrior spirit around him. “Then get the fuck out.” He rose from the floor, wiping his mouth and nose, smearing blood on the white tape on his hand. He straightened.
Irja’s six-foot frame made her tall for a woman, but he loomed over her by a few inches. A small part of him felt ashamed for intimidating his medical officer, the one warrior he trusted the most after Harald.
The rest of him didn’t give a crap. He just wanted a fight. He took a step forward.
Irja widened her stance, holding her hands loosely by her side. Black streams swirled in her dark irises. Her berserker had surfaced.
His warrior spirit howled, happy to find a willing opponent, a willing victim. He faked a left hook and instead followed through with a right uppercut.
Irja sidestepped both and landed a right overhand between his shoulder blades.
He went down, flat on his face again. Snarling, he jumped up.
The Valkyrie held out her palms in the universal sign of surrender. “I will not fight you. I came to talk.”
“Fight,” he snarled in a voice so different from his own he thought a third person had entered the gym.
Her eyes widened in surprise. “Min kung, I spoke to your själsfrände.”
He went still. Even the berserker stopped pacing, anxiously waiting for news of Naya. “Tell me,” he growled.
“She is well.” She paused. “But her brother is not.”
The brother.
“She is with her brother? Where are they?” He took a step closer.
Irja stood her ground. “I do not know, but she will take care of her brother and then return to us. She gave me her word.”
He forced himself to breathe deeply. Naya had not trusted Leif enough to tell him where her brother was. Even after he’d offered to protect and treat him. Maybe their bond was not a true själsfrände binding. It carried the sexual connection and the separation dangers, but the trust and companionship had not developed between them.
Had he failed his people in his choice of queen? He could not meet Irja’s gaze.
Naya had called one of his people, but not him. Another sign that they were not truly connected. Perhaps she fought on Loki’s side after all. “How long?”
“I don’t know,” Irja repeated. “Can we track her through her cell phone?”
Leif shook his head. “Ulf tried. Her phone does not have GPS or she has somehow disabled the signal.” She was a fucking genius. Of course she’d find a way to block her signal.
How could she be a weapon of Loki’s when all her actions while in the fortress had been aimed at helping the Norse warriors? She might not be in love with him, but she felt something for him. The connection he had with her through the berserker told him so. Surely he’d notice if she’d been intent on betraying them? He buried his face in his hands.
The distance between himself and his själsfrände muddled his mind. He could no longer think clearly and he very much needed to come up with a strategy.
Irja reached out to touch him, then changed her mind and pulled back her hand. “The important thing is that she will return.”
“If I get worse before she does”—he looked up—“you must sedate me and lock me in the prisoner cell.”
She paused for a few moments. “I give you my word. But when the queen returns, you will be well again.”
Leif tried to muster up a smile. Naya might never return. A själsfrände should not be able to leave so easily without looking back. And even if she did return, their connection might not be strong enough to leash his berserker.
Chapter 19
Naya crouched by her brother’s side, stroking his hand. “Scott, I’m here to make you better.”
His gaze was empty and a slight sheen of sweat covered his upper lip and forehead. She blotted his face with a tissue. “I’ve been working with…a friend in a different lab. She may have found a way to clean your blood. The injection Dr. Rosen just gave you contained extra white blood cells.”
She rested her head on Scott’s thigh and closed her eyes. Sh
e was so tired. Exhausted from worrying about Scott—and about Leif. The Viking king was constantly in the back of her mind, thoughts of him beating the same dull rhythm as her headache. She tried to force them out, but it was impossible.
Irja had sounded frantic on the phone. She didn’t think the Valkyrie could have faked the worry in her voice, no matter how much she wanted Naya to return.
Scott’s head jerked. He moaned.
She stood and cradled his head in her palms. “Take it easy, little brother.” Would the treatment backfire and make him worse?
His eyes popped open and rolled to the back of his head. Convulsions shook his torso and legs.
She held his head, pressing her body to his to make the spasms stop. Normally it would be no effort at all, but her weakened body broke out in a cold sweat from her effort. She punched the alarm button on the headboard.
To her relief¸ feet thundered down the hallway and the door flew open. Two scrubs-clad nurses rushed to the bed with Dr. Rosen on their heels.
One of the nurses gently, but firmly, moved Naya aside. He tilted Scott’s head back, checking his eyes with a small flashlight. “He’s seizing.”
Dr. Rosen grabbed the statoscope hanging around his neck. “Give me two milligrams of Ativan.”
Naya grabbed Dr. Rosen’s sleeve. “What are you doing to him?” Her voice sounded sharp in her own ears.
The doctor turned. His eyes widened as if he’d just realized she was in the room. “Ms. Driscoll, please wait outside.”
“I’m not leaving until you tell me what you’re doing.”
“We’re giving him an anticonvulsant to stop the seizures. I’ll join you outside as soon as we have him stabilized.” The doctor’s green eyes implored her to cooperate.
“I’m not leaving this room,” Naya said. She trusted the medical team, but her nerves were too frayed to keep a door between herself and her brother.
Dr. Rosen hesitated, then shrugged. “Fine. Just stay out of the way.”
Naya watched from a chair in the far corner of the room. She nibbled her lower lip. Irja had emailed the dosage she had used on Sten. But what if it was wrong? Naya had thought it safe to use on Scott.
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