“Let us put it to a vote. Who believes the realm of Valhalla should close to Midgard now and forever?”
Hands shot up in the air faster than I could blink. Every single one of my sisters wanted to close the gates. I realized I’d been the only one who didn’t raise her hand.
“Those who disagree?”
After scanning the faces of my sisters, I raised my hand. They gasped. What they were doing was wrong. I knew in my gut this was not right. It would be their undoing.
“You disappoint me.” Kara narrowed her eyes. “You can follow suit or stay in Midgard and no longer be welcomed home. You have until sundown to choose.”
7
Present Day
The news of Kendall Carter’s death played in the background and became white noise as a quiet enveloped Charlie and me. She didn’t move. I wasn’t sure she was even breathing.
My gaze darted around the library until I couldn’t take the silence any longer. “Hello?” I waved a hand in front of her face.
“You’re lying,” she whispered, her body rigid and eyes wide. “They’re gone, and there is no such thing as a valkyrie named Raven.”
That was the downside to recording our history with the humans. Every single valkyrie’s name was practically public record.
“Raven isn’t my real name,” I started, and quickly added, “and don’t ask what it is because I won’t tell you. I will show you this …” I said as I turned my back to her and began lifting my shirt. I exposed my back, giving her a view of the two scars that marred my body where my wings had once been.
She gasped. “Heavens,” she muttered. “You’re a valkyrie.”
It was the first time I’d ever shown anyone proof of my heritage. The whooshing sound of the air conditioner startled me as it kicked on.
I shivered and straightened my shirt. “Yes.”
She cocked her head. “Aren’t you supposed to be …?”
“White, blonde, and blue-eyed?” I chuckled. “Myth. We come in all sorts of flavors.” I winked.
In the eyes of humans, I would be what they considered Hispanic. I assumed that was what my mother was. Our race was a melting pot. Freya might be Odin’s wife, but she most definitely wasn’t our mother. It was what Odin wanted. We were made to be the perfect soldiers—half human and half god.
Charlie blushed, averting her gaze. “I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s okay.” I waved her off. “What matters is I’m being framed, and I need to know why.”
“Of course!” She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose with urgency. “Who do you think it might be? Do you have any enemies?”
“Really?” I deadpanned. “I’m a valkyrie. I have billions of enemies. Narrowing it down would take a hundred lifetimes.”
She gulped. “Well, is it possible a human might have found out?”
“It’s possible, but I have no idea how.” I bit my lip and began to pace. “It could be the soul of a Viking stuck in limbo, but they wouldn’t have a corporeal form. No way they could murder someone. And how would they even get into Midgard without someone helping them?”
“They could have hired someone, like a Medium!”
I nodded. “Possibly.”
She fidgeted, her eyes glistening. I quirked my head and zeroed in on her chest, where her soul fluttered with genuine excitement. It was warm, lightweight. It surprised me every time I looked at it. I was still shocked by how rare her soul was, I kept looking at it to make sure it was still pure—like I was scared it would disappear.
“What are you going to do now?” She worried her bottom lip. If she kept biting on it, she’d rub it raw.
“I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.”
“Do you have somewhere to go?”
I shook my head.
She ran her hand through her hair. “Uh … if you … uh …”
I held my hand up to stop her. “I don’t want to put you in a compromising situation.”
“You can’t stay in a motel, Raven. Your face is all over the news,” she said, her face full of anguish.
She was right. The best I could do was find a homeless shelter and try to blend in. I looked the part at least.
“I don’t make a habit of bringing strangers home, much less fugitives, but I owe you, remember?”
With a final huff, Charlie went around the front desk and locked the library doors, turning over the “open” sign. She reached over the counter for her purse and pulled out her keys.
“C’mon. You can stay with me.”
Charlie’s ponytail swung back and forth as she closed up and made sure everything was in order before leaving. The last I heard was the reporter stating how dangerous I was and for the public not to approach but to contact the authorities as soon as possible before she shut off the television. The sound of the TV clicking off echoed in the library. It didn’t sit well in my stomach. I’d always been the predator, not the prey.
Charlotte’s apartment was spotless—almost obsessively so. There wasn’t an item out of place, the walls and floors reminded me of the cuckoo bin, and her house smelled of pine. It fit her neurotic personality perfectly.
“Uh … Charlie?” I scanned the living room—afraid to dirty her floor. I wasn’t necessarily the neatest individual. “Why do I feel like I entered a mental institution?”
She laughed. “I guess I’m a little bit of a neat freak.”
“You think?”
Her face reddened.
Before I could take a step outside the foyer, she stopped me. “Don’t forget to take off your shoes!”
I jerked back. “Right.” Yeah. She was definitely neurotic.
“If you don’t mind,” she added in a soft voice. “Do you need a change of clothing?”
Still wearing the pajamas I’d worn to bed last night, I shook my head. There was nothing she had that could possibly fit me. We were both tall, but where I was more athletically built, Charlie was thin with barely any curves.
Either way, I could be sporting a burlap sack and it wouldn’t matter. My top priority was acquiring my trunk from police lockup. If someone from my past was trying to get my attention, it was working, and I needed to be prepared for when they made themselves known.
“What are you going to do?” Charlie went into the kitchen, pulled out two water bottles from the refrigerator, and handed one to me as I joined her. I glanced at the bottle and wished for vodka but took a swig anyway. I could already feel the jitters from the lack of alcohol. All the excitement from the day had distracted me, but now that it was winding down, my mouth was salivating for something to drink.
“I’m going to break into the police station.”
She spat out her water. “Are you insane? Are you trying to get arrested?”
“Been there, done that.” I shrugged. “They have something important I need if shit hits the fan. I don’t have a choice.”
Charlie was at a loss for words. Her forehead scrunched inward, and she popped her knuckles as she marched around the kitchen. I've met many people in my long life but none like her—her soul was spotless. Her ponytail whipped back and forth as she moved, making me chuckle.
Slowly, her eyes grew as she came to a realization.
“I’m harboring a fugitive. Oh my goodness, I’m an accomplice,” she gasped. “I can’t go to prison, Raven! I’m claustrophobic, germophobic, I have all the phobics!” She paced, shaking her hands back and forth as if trying to flick something off of them. Her chest heaved and her wild eyes were shooting all over the place.
“Whoa.” I took a step back. “Calm down, you’re not going to prison. Maybe jail, but not prison.”
She began to gasp for air, her chest puffing in and out like she was having an asthma attack. Maybe she was. Here I was worried for her soul when I’d be the one to taint it. I was selfish like that.
“Okay, that was a bad joke,” I said, trying to figure out what to do. I attempted to reach out to her, but she swatted me away. “Let me help yo
u.”
“Don’t touch me!” she shrieked as she ran around to the opposite side of her kitchen island.
“Let’s not be childish.”
“Childish?!” she screamed. “I’m behaving rationally for what’s occurring. Normal people freak out!”
I shook my head. “We’re not normal people.”
“I am!”
“You’re a banshee. Embrace it.”
“Embrace it? Are you serious?” she chortled. “I have been living a mundane life. I love my pseudo-human life. I’m not shrieking every five minutes of the day!”
“Technically, you’re shrieking now, but that’s beside the point,” I said. “If this is going to be an issue, I’ll leave. It was nice of you to try to take me in, but I understand if you don’t want to get involved.” With the water bottle in hand, I attempted to gracefully slip my shoes back on.
“Wait,” she murmured just as I spun around to leave. “Don’t go,” she sighed.
A laugh was bubbling up from deep inside, and I had to bite my tongue to stop it from erupting. Charlie was so predictable.
“What if they catch you?” Her hand flew to her mouth in fear.
“Aren’t you afraid of getting caught?” I said over my shoulder.
“Of course, but you’re a valkyrie, a warrior. It’s my duty to help you.”
I knew where she was going with her thoughts, and I hated having to spoil the moment for her. “I can’t send you to Valhalla,” I whispered.
Valhalla was where everyone wanted to go when their time was up. Human and supernatural, only the best and strongest got the golden ticket. Unfortunately, I didn’t even have the golden ticket to enter. I wasn’t a valkyrie—not anymore.
“I have access to the police station blueprints over at the library,” she said, ignoring my comment.
I should have denied her help. She was a sweet girl who looked like the most excitement she’d had was ten-cent bingo night over at the senior center. She was out of her league, but I accepted her aid anyway. Call me selfish, but I didn’t want to go through this alone. The thought surprised me. There was something about Charlie that amused me. I wanted her to stick around.
“Let’s get started.”
Charlie was able to retrieve the blueprints for the police station in record time while I waited in her apartment. We spread them out on her glass dining table and conjured up a plan. It wasn’t going to be easy—that was common sense—but it wasn’t impossible. Honestly, a lot of it was going to be pure luck and stupidity.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?” She followed me around the table. “I can drive the getaway car. No one would suspect me. I’ve never even gotten a ticket before.”
There was only so much I’d let her participate in. She’d been right to freak out earlier. She was now an accomplice, and the last thing I wanted to do was get her a roommate named Big Sheila at the county jail as a thank you.
“I’ll be faster alone.”
With everything in place, now it was just a waiting game. Timing was everything, and it was too early in the night to sneak in.
“Raven?” Charlie interrupted the quiet that had settled over us as we sat at her dining room table eating some leftover pasta she’d made the night before. “Can I ask you something?”
“You already have.”
She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”
“What’s up?”
“Why didn’t you leave with the other valkyries? Why are you still here?”
Wasn’t that the million-dollar question? She wanted to know why I was stupid enough to stick around this dull world instead of going back to paradise.
“Because I’m an idiot just like the rest of the mortals.”
She twisted her mouth to the side. “You don’t like humans very much, do you?”
“Is it that obvious?”
She shook her head. “Humans are wonderful creatures. We have a lot to learn from them—”
“Like how to be ungrateful and cruel animals? Sure, Charlie.”
She was silent for a moment. “Is that why the valkyries left?”
“It doesn’t matter now. They’re gone.” It wasn’t a topic I cared to talk about and haven’t talked about in years. I’ve been alone this whole time. I hadn’t had anyone I could speak to about this, and I didn’t want to start talking about it now. “Thank you for dinner,” I mumbled.
“I bet you miss them,” Charlie added, almost too softly for me to hear.
My jaw tightened. I did miss my sisters. It was as if half my soul had been ripped from me. I wasn’t whole, and I never would be again. I was sad, but more than that, I was pissed. Angry at them, at myself, at the world. Everyone. The pain was suffocating.
Charlie’s face fell, and she noticed the change in my mood.
“Who would have thought we’d be here now?” She perked up. “You know … after the whole bar incident. I don’t know if I ever truly thanked you.”
“It’s all good,” I said. “That guy was a scumbag.”
“I guess it was destiny for us to meet.” She smiled.
I rolled my eyes. “Destiny is crap. We make our own future.”
Sporting a hoodie Charlie had lent me, I pulled the hood over my head and covered my face. The station was filled with criminals going in and their friends and family posting their bail. It was too easy to get lost in the shuffle and blend in with the chaos. Unfortunately, there were too many cops near the stairs and elevator. I wouldn’t be able to slide by unnoticed. I’d have to create a distraction.
The lobby was packed, the noise level working in my favor. Wedging myself between two men, their backs facing me, I squeezed one in the ass and got a nice grip and tapped the other on the shoulder. Before they could turn to face one another, I slipped out into the fray.
“What the fuck, man?!”
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t go grabbing my ass. I don’t swing that way!” the guy screamed as he decked the other guy in the jaw.
“Fuck you, asshole!”
A brawl commenced, the shouts raising a few decibels, and others joined the chaos. Officers tried to make their way to the center and break it up but there were too many people in the lobby. I took the opportunity to race up the stairs and to the evidence locker on the second floor where the blueprints said it would be. With my hood in place, officers rushed past me to go downstairs, not paying attention to the girl walking down the hallway.
Already considering how I would escape, I noticed the only window was at the end of the corridor near the elevators. I knew I couldn’t count on any of the doors I’d passed to be open. It would require a lot of noise to get out of the station. If I got off on the murder charges, I definitely wouldn’t be able to escape charges on breaking into a police station.
A Dutch door led to the inside of the evidence locker with an officer guarding it. He already knew something was wrong once I approached him.
“Excuse me, you’re not allowed to be up here,” he called out as I headed straight for him. “Ma’am!”
I grabbed the officer by the collar when I reached the half door, slammed his head on its frame, and he slumped to the ground. Reaching over the counter to the doorknob, I let myself in. The room was filled with rows and rows of lockers and shelves holding evidence. Mine shouldn’t be too hard to find. It was a big-ass trunk. Everything from guns, bloody clothes, and drugs were packed away to be processed in either bags or boxes. When I opened a locker labeled “narcotics”, there were bags filled with prescription pills. Since I no longer had a dealer, I snatched one of the many ziplocked bags and stuffed it into the pockets of my sweater.
My trunk was oddly placed in the bottom row of a shelf in the middle of the room. It didn’t completely fit, so a corner of it was sticking out. On the shelf above it was the brown paper bags of different things taken from my apartment. I grabbed my stash. My eyes flickered to another bag that held the murder weapon. Donnie said he’d bought the kn
ife in Key West and typically kept behind the bar. Its dark-blue handle had two mermaids on either side of it, but it now it had dried blood all over it—Kendall’s blood.
I took the knife without a second thought and stuffed it in the waistband of my sweats. I needed my freedom if I wanted to find out who was framing me, and the police had no case without the knife.
Grabbing the handle of the trunk, I pulled it out of its tight space. At three feet by one and a half, it was heavy by human standards, but I easily hefted the thing over my shoulder and speed-walked out of the evidence room. This was going to be the tricky part.
I barely made it out of the room before a familiar voice called out. “Did you think it’d be that easy?” Detective Callahan said.
“A girl could dream.” I sighed as I turned around to face him.
His eyes widened for a moment as he stared at the heavy trunk on my right shoulder. He snapped out of it and unclipped his gun holster. “Don’t move. Raven Romero, you are under arrest—”
“Will, let’s not do this again.” I set the trunk down on the ground.
He drew his gun and aimed it at me. “I said don’t move!”
I took a step forward, and he pulled the trigger. The first shot hit my shoulder. Jerking backward, I winced but kept walking toward him.
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” I said before another shot hit my chest. “C’mon, Will.” Another to my abdomen. Bullets hurt like a motherfucker, but they couldn’t kill me. It didn’t mean I couldn’t bleed though. I needed to hurry before the stains seeped through my shirt and onto my jacket.
“What the hell?” he said as he lowered his gun and looked at it. His brow furrowed, and I stopped just a few feet before him, hands raised.
“I didn’t kill Kendall Carter. The sooner you realize it, the faster you can catch the actual murderer.”
“You should be dead.” He took a step back. “You—”
“I have a bulletproof vest,” I lied.
His features relaxed a bit, but he still looked skeptical. With my baggy jacket, it wasn’t too far-fetched.
The Last Valkyrie Series Complete Boxed Set Page 6
