It vibrated when I gripped the handle, sensing the familiarity of its owner and begging to taste blood.
“Shhh,” I cooed as I lifted and drew the sword. I could feel its hunger as I pulled it from its leather bindings. It felt natural twirling it around and slashing the air as if just yesterday I’d held the power to take life. Its energy ran through me and I covered the metal before it gave me any ideas. I was no longer a valkyrie; I had no business holding on to such a dangerous weapon—a weapon many sought.
At the bottom of the trunk were random knickknacks reminding me of home, and in one corner was my brass headband engraved with feathers of a raven. The trunk contained artifacts of who I’d been. A killer and a savior. Judge, jury, and executioner. I missed that person, but a small part of me was also relieved that this was in my past. I didn’t understand this feeling, but I was in no rush to analyze it any further either. At least not until this whole mess was cleared up.
In the midst of reminiscing a past life, the burner phone in my back pocket began to buzz.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Meet me at Shirley’s Diner off Highway 97 in thirty minutes.”
Before I could ask why, Will hung up. Returning the trunk’s contents and sealing it shut, I hurried out of the apartment, my Pez dispenser gripped tightly in my hand.
Charlie had to go into work, so I was on my own. Besides, I couldn’t ask her to blow off her life for me. I already felt really selfish by keeping her around.
Hailing a cab, the driver knew exactly where to go. Shirley’s Diner was a run-down restaurant that mainly serviced truckers coming and going through Portland.
The eatery sat beneath a rusted streetlamp. The shabby wood paneling and peeling paint were all that was left from a once-popular diner. A bell jingled overhead as I opened the fogged glass door. Red plastic booths were lined around the empty restaurant, and I easily spotted Will in a corner near the window.
“What made you pick this shack?” I chuckled as I slid in opposite him.
“The pie,” he said with a straight face.
“Right. So why are we meeting?”
“A murder weapon was found in the apartment. Another one of Donnie’s knives. It’d been sent to forensics and was misplaced.”
“That’s great.” I gave him a rare smile.
“It’s not.” He shook his head. “They found it an hour later. I had to sneak it out of the station.”
My brows scrunched inward. “I’m not following.”
“I think our killer is someone on the inside. A cop.”
That gave me pause. I’d never had any dealings with the law. It didn’t make sense a cop wanted to frame me for murder much less know I’m a valkyrie.
“How’d you come to that conclusion?”
“Don’t you think it’s odd that someone misplaced the most important part of such a high-profile investigation? We’re talking about the murder of Police Commissioner Carter’s daughter. There’s no way we’re making mistakes on this one. And then, all of a sudden, it’s found with an extra fingerprint that hadn’t been initially catalogued. No, something’s not right.”
“Another fingerprint? How?”
He shrugged. “It’s easy to do as long as someone has access to anything you’ve touched. Because I’m ninety-nine percent certain the print will match yours.”
Well, that was definitely a theory. There were some holes in it, but I could understand why it would make him think this was an inside job. I just wasn’t sure the killer was actually a cop.
“Maybe the real killer hired a cop to help him,” I suggested.
“It’s a possibility. Why do you say that?”
I shrugged. “I’m trying to cover all of our bases. We can’t jump at the first clue thrown our way,” I deflected. What I really wanted to say was I didn’t think a human had figured me out. I hadn’t given any clues in the seventy-five years I’d been in Midgard to suggest I was anything but human. It was literally impossible. “You said you stole the murder weapon from the lab. Where is it?”
“Safe.”
I rolled my eyes. “If you’re caught with it, you’re an accessory. Are you sure you want that responsibility?”
“I’ve already crossed a line once I stole it. I’ll take the consequences.”
“All right, so why do we have to meet at this shitty diner? Why couldn’t you tell me this development via phone?”
Will peered out the window, scanning our surroundings. “I’m not risking someone overhearing, or worse, my phone being tapped. We can’t be too careful.”
He was taking a risk, and I wasn’t being necessarily fair. I sucked it up and said, “So I was at my apartment earlier today. Before the murder.”
“Uh huh. I know.”
“And … there were two guys searching my place. Before you ask, I don’t know for what.” That was another lie. “Maybe they’re connected with Donnie’s murder.”
Will’s face flamed. “Goddammit, Raven! You’re just telling me now?”
“I wasn’t sure what they wanted so, until I figured out more, I didn’t want to say anything. I took down the license plate of their van. Can you run the numbers?”
His jaw ticked as he sat there fuming. This was our first real lead; he had no choice but to take it.
“Fine, but don’t hold out on me anymore. I need to be able to trust you. Can you do that?”
I silently considered his request but didn’t promise a thing.
Will and I spent the next few hours going over all the evidence and notes from the two murder scenes with a fine-toothed comb, each time coming to a dead end. He kept hounding me about any enemies I might have, and each time it made me laugh harder. If he only knew.
Once midnight hit, we decided to call it a night. Will paid for our dinner and offered to give me a ride back to Charlie’s place.
Unlike in my apartment, I felt the souls before they attacked. The minute we stepped outside, a darkness in my chest consumed me as I sensed about six individuals in the shadows.
“When I tell you to duck, do as I say. Understand?” I murmured.
Will’s head whipped to me. “Excuse me?”
“Duck!” I exclaimed as the first stranger jumped out of the dark. The man was tall, towering over me, and he probably weighed around three hundred pounds of pure muscle. He slashed a blade, missing me by an inch. I went on the defense as I tried to scope out the area. The other souls in hiding hadn’t made an appearance.
“Freeze!” Will yelled as he aimed his gun at us. When the attacker didn’t stop, the ring of a gunshot echoed into the night. Bullets bounced off the stranger. His eyes flashed red when I made eye contact with him.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
I stopped dodging his hits, pulled two daggers out of my combat boots, and went on the offense. My daggers and his sword clinked once they made direct contact, and I used my upper body to push the blade away, throwing him back a few steps. I took advantage of his imbalance and jabbed at the side of his head with the hilt of one of the daggers. Climbing onto his body from behind, I wrapped my legs around his torso. With both edges of my daggers at his throat, I slit his jugular open. Blood gushed out of him like a fountain as he fell to the ground with a loud thud. I landed over him in a squat. Whipping my head up, I scanned the desolate parking lot, waiting for the others to show themselves.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” I taunted as I stood.
“Raven,” Will called out to me. His eyes the size of melons as he took me in. “What—”
“Shhh …” I put a finger to my lips. Shutting my eyes, I listened for the beating hearts, the heaviness of their souls. Two were to my right and another two to my left. The one that worried me, though, was the fifth creature behind Will.
I made eye contact with the cop. He snapped out of his shock when he saw what I was trying to relay to him.
“Now!” I screamed, and he crouched to the ground.
Sending my dagger flying ov
er him, it went straight into the one behind him. His body dropped with a thud. Two of the men came out at once, and I ran to the one that was going for Will. Sliding behind him, I slashed my single dagger across his shins, and he fell to his knees. Gripping his head, I snapped his neck before the second creature reached us.
My hair whipped across my face as I bent beneath his sword, dancing around him with ease. I was fluent in the art of killing. It was like riding a bike—you never forget. When he gave me an opening, I kicked out, my foot landing firmly on his chest. He stumbled back, and I tackled him to the ground. Sitting on his chest, I stabbed him in the eye. As he howled into the night, I dug the dagger further until the hilt met his socket. He fell limp beneath me.
Out of breath, I looked around. The last two were hovering around us, waiting.
“Will,” I called. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
There was no fear in his voice. He was a cop after all; death was nothing he hadn’t seen before. What I heard was curiosity, which seemed more dangerous.
I looked over to my left, where the two remaining men were still hiding. Both of them stepped out just before the streetlight could hit them. All I saw was the outline of one man, and I squinted my eyes to get a better look.
“What are you waiting for?” I hollered. “Who sent you?”
He said nothing.
Running to Will to close the distance between us in case he attacked, I got a better look at the stranger. What I saw made me think twice before doing anything. Valkyries didn’t have enhanced vision—much less night vision—but his firmly cut jaw was darkened by what I assumed was a beard, and the broad shoulders I’d held on to during a night of debauchery were a dead giveaway.
It was Fen—at least I thought it was.
As if he saw the realization on my face, he smirked and turned to leave. I didn’t run after him.
“What was that?” Will exclaimed. “Who the hell are you?”
“Those men were the real killers,” I said as I pointed to their lifeless bodies. “They know we’re on to them.”
“Do you know who they are?”
“Never seen them a day in my life,” I lied by omission, and for good reason. Those men who’d attacked us were creatures from the Underworld—hellhounds. They were shifters that transformed from man to dog, and not just any dog. They could breathe fire. Someone released them from Hell. Whoever sent them really wanted me dead. As for Fen … If I told Will, he wouldn’t trust me. Fen had initially been my alibi.
“What are you, Raven?” Will took a step back. I waited. My automatic answer, just like Charlie’s, was to say I was human, but Will didn’t seem like the conspirator nutcase who believed in the supernatural. “Are you FBI? CIA? Homeland?”
I released a small breath. “I do CrossFit.”
“That,” he pointed to the bodies, “is not CrossFit. That was specialized training. Nothing a civilian like you should be capable of.”
“Does it matter? This is proof the killer is out there and we’re closer to finding out who it is.”
“It does matter, Raven. And I will find out.”
“I know you will. Now, help me dump these bodies.”
“Dump the bodies?! Are you crazy? This is an active crime scene. I need to call this in.” He reached for his phone, and I all but slapped it out of his hand. His eyes drilled into me.
“You cannot report this. How will you explain why they attacked and who killed them? Hm? You can’t.”
“It’s my job, Raven. It’s my duty.”
“Fuck duty,” I scoffed. “These men are nobodies. You see how big they are? They’re probably mobsters. This is much bigger than you and me. We have to get rid of the bodies. The cops will have more questions than you could possibly begin to answer.”
Will exhaled loudly as he ran his hands through his hair. He paced, and I could see he was torn. His soul was split in two—half wanted to do the right thing and the other half wanted to do what was best.
“Fine,” he muttered.
With much reluctance, Will agreed to get rid of the bodies instead of reporting it to the police. He’d no longer crossed the line; he’d taken one giant leap over it. There really was no going back from this. While he went into the diner to see if there was any security footage and talk to the staff who might have witnessed the incident, I took the opportunity to dig through the pockets of the hellhounds. I found a cellphone and a piece of paper with an address on it. To: Raven Romero was written on the other side of the paper.
It appeared as if Fen—or whoever it was—knew I’d kill them and wanted to send me a message. I contemplated telling Will my suspicions, but until I knew for a fact it was Fen, I’d keep my mouth shut. I wouldn’t even know where to find him.
Could Fen be a hellhound?
I stashed the items in my jacket pocket and went inside to see Will. He was assuring the diner staff a full investigation would be opened and asked for their security footage as evidence. Luckily, this run-down shack didn’t even have proper locks on the doors, much less security video.
I wasn’t ignorant. Sooner or later, Will would figure this all out, but not yet. I’d stall that moment as long as I could.
We dragged the bodies away from the highway and into the woods across the ditch behind the diner. I could have grabbed two bodies at a time, but I didn’t need to attract more unwanted attention from Will. He already thought I was part of some government faction. For kicks, I almost told him I was part of the CIA.
“C’mon …” I crossed the ditch and hauled a body to the other side. “Someone can show up at any moment.”
“It’s not easy dragging three hundred pounds of dead weight,” he grunted. “Still sticking to that CrossFit excuse?”
“Damn, Will, you blew my cover,” I sighed. “I’m really a Russian spy plotting to bring Communism into your country by killing random people and poking eyes out. You caught me.”
“This isn’t funny, Raven.”
The truth was a lot more ridiculous.
Once we brought all the bodies to the woods, the real work began. We started to dig using our hands and thick branches. To say it wasn’t easy was putting it mildly.
“You can’t use a gun for everything, Will,” I commented. We were going to be here for a while. Might as well start conversation. The detective sparked my curiosity.
“Was I seeing things, or did my bullets bounce off their chests?”
I’d picked up the bullets before he came back outside. I reached for his soul and found this was really bothering him. He was having a hard time understanding what he saw and was avoiding the truth like the plague.
“Is that what you saw?”
“I don’t know what I saw,” he muttered.
“Only you can answer that question. No one else.”
Will stopped digging and started to unbutton his shirt. He shrugged it off and pulled his undershirt over his head, using his clothes to wipe the sweat from his face and neck. The detective was lean but not scrawny. His abdomen was a reflection of the hours he spent at the gym. It glistened with sweat under the reflection of the moon. My eyes wandered over his body.
He caught me staring and tightened his jaw, the look in his bedroom eyes intense. There was a good amount of distance between us, including the gaping hole in the ground. I’d stopped digging as well and leaned on the stick I’d stabbed into the ground.
“You keep staring at me like that and we might find ourselves in a compromising situation.” I grinned.
“Why do you do that?” he cocked his head.
“Do what?”
“Use sex as a distraction and drown yourself in drugs and alcohol.”
I straightened. “There’s nothing wrong with having a good time.”
“There’s a lot wrong with overindulgence,” he said. “What are you hiding from?”
Humans and their need to overanalyze everything.
“Let’s keep digging, detective.”
1
0
Flashback
A dutiful soldier never questions their orders or asks for more information. They receive instructions and fulfill what is being demanded. When Odin sent Hugin to Valhalla to request our services, we didn’t think twice. To do so would be treason.
The Allfather needed aid in transporting a very dangerous creature out of Asgard. No other details were provided. Between six valkyries, we carried a steel box across the realms.
“What do you think it really is?” Hildr placed her ear on the cold frame.
A roar escaped and the container shook, but we held steady.
“From the sound of it, I think it’s some kind of an animal,” I said.
The noises of whatever was inside were muffled, and it was anyone’s guess what it could be.
“Well, it must be dangerous if we’re taking it to the Underworld,” Hildr remarked.
We readied to cross the rainbow bridge known as the Bifrost where Heimdall guarded the entry from Asgard to Midgard. Traveling to the home of the humans was the easiest way to get to the Underworld.
Odin stood at the mouth of the Bifrost. Hugin and Munin sat on either side of his shoulders. “Daughters, you must not fail. If you do, the punishment will be like no other.”
“Yes, Father,” we said in unison.
One of his ravens moved its beak to his ear while we waited. The birds flew around the nine realms gathering information to whisper back to Odin. He wouldn’t know a quarter of the things he knew if it weren’t for his ravens. They were everywhere, undetected for the most part. Hugin and Munin were the perfect spies.
“Ah, thank you, Munin,” he said. Odin scanned the six of us until his eye landed on me. “You will lead your sisters, and by no means must you look inside—that includes searching for souls. I do not care what you hear. It is forbidden. If you find out one of them has disobeyed my orders, you will report it to me at once. Understood?”
I nodded. “Yes, Father.”
His command only made me that much more curious. Whatever was in there was no animal.
The Last Valkyrie Series Complete Boxed Set Page 8
