by Diem, J. C.
“I guess it was so long ago that the aliens didn’t make it into the history books.”
“Writing had not been created back then,” she confirmed. “The Viltarans sent out a pod that was designed to detect intelligent lifeforms. It landed on Earth and discovered humans then sent back a signal to the mothership. They sent a small ship full of warriors who intended to transform people into their slaves using advanced technology.”
I could just picture it; aliens with sophisticated weaponry versus humans with crude clubs and rocks. “What happened? How did you fight them off?”
“God’s soldiers chose human hosts and fought the aliens in hand to hand combat.” She wasn’t a soldier and probably hadn’t taken part in the battle, but she still smiled at the memory. “The Viltarans assumed the humans had access to magic when they conjured swords seemingly out of the air. They had no way of knowing that angels were controlling the humans and were healing their flesh when they became wounded. When it became obvious that their foes weren’t going to be easy to subdue, the aliens gave up and fled to their ship.”
“They haven’t been back?”
“Not as yet.”
“Who were the other aliens? Did they try to take us over, too?”
Her expression turned rueful. “No. Their purpose was very different from conquering us, although many women fell prey to their charms.”
Thoroughly confused by her answer, I reached for my tea. “Who were they? What did they want?”
“They were called gods by the Norse people,” she said with a sniff.
That rang a bell. “Wait a minute, are you talking about Thor, Odin and the others that I can’t remember?”
“Yes.” Her lips pressed together in a prim line. “They discovered our world and realized that humans did not possess magic or great strength as they did. They believed this made them superior to your kind.”
“You can’t really blame them,” I said, hardly able to believe we were having this discussion. “Thor could call lightning from the sky, from what I’ve heard.”
“He was one of the most arrogant of all the Asgardians,” she said darkly. “The sheer number of women that he bedded was phenomenal.”
I hid my snigger behind my cup then took a sip of tea. “He must have been pretty hot if so many women fell for him.”
“He fathered many children in the time that he and his kind spent on this world.” My mouth dropped open in shock at that. “Fortunately, none of the Asgardians passed their powers on to their offspring,” she added.
“I thought they were just legends,” I mused. “I can’t believe there are actual humans with Asgardian genes running around.”
“It is just as well that they were not able to spread their abilities to mankind.”
“Why?” I could tell there was something troubling her.
“Not all of the Asgardians thought kindly of humans. One in particular hated your kind. He felt nothing but contempt for beings who were weak and pitiful in his eyes. His powers were dark and malevolent compared to his kin’s. If he’d taken an interest in Earth women like Thor did and had managed to pass on his power to his progeny, the consequences would have been catastrophic.”
A shiver went down my spine. “Who was he?”
“His name was Loki.”
“I’ve heard of him. Isn’t he the God of Mischief, or something like that?”
“He was,” she confirmed.
“You’re talking about them in the past tense,” I noted. “Angels didn’t kill them, did they?”
“No. They are still alive. We merely advised them that it was time for them to return to their own realm. Earth is not a plaything that they can visit and cause havoc whenever they please.”
“How did the angels manage to convince them to leave?”
“Arrogantly believing that he was undefeatable, Thor issued a challenge to God’s messengers. He told them that if anyone could best him in hand to hand combat, that they would return home and never bother us again. If he lost, Earth would remain as their playground indefinitely.”
From her self-satisfied smile, and the fact that we weren’t currently being ruled by the Asgardian race, I knew what the outcome had been. “Who took on that challenge?”
“One of the Seraphim. He was the greatest of God’s warriors. He stepped forward to challenge Thor and won, of course. Not even an Asgardian can best a holy champion. They have their own form of honor and could not go back on their word. Consequently, they had no choice but to leave.”
I noted that she’d said the Seraphim had been the greatest warrior, but something in her tone told me not to question her further about him. He must have fallen out of favor with their creator somehow. It made me sad to think that an angel who had been so high in God’s army could have fallen so low.
Cocking her head to the side, tension eased out of her body as she listened to what was going on downstairs. “It appears that the arguing has stopped. Hopefully, the peace will last for more than five minutes this time.”
“Thanks for bringing me my lunch,” I said. “And for telling me that story.”
“It was my pleasure.” She smiled then left me alone to contemplate the legends that had actually been based on true events. I’d never heard of Viltarans before and was glad that they’d been banished long before my birth. I had my own battles with the armies of hell to face. Fighting a war against hostile aliens wasn’t high on my list of things to do in my lifetime.
₪₪₪
Chapter Ten
Thick snow continued to fall. It blanketed the entire city, clogging the roads and bringing traffic to a standstill. Two days later, I was tired of being cooped up inside and I was itching to escape.
Almost our entire group was gathered at the table. Sam was the only one missing. He was upstairs with his butt glued to the couch. Feeling restless, I left my seat and walked over to the front door. Shifting the purple curtain aside, I looked out through the window. The sidewalk in front of the store had disappeared beneath two feet of snow. Parked cars had become shapeless white lumps. The street hadn’t been plowed yet and the asphalt was completely hidden.
“Have you ever seen it snow this bad in Manhattan before?” I said over my shoulder to Sophia.
She shook her head. “There have been other storms that nearly rivalled this during the past eighteen years, but this is the worst that I have ever seen.”
It had finally stopped snowing sometime during the night. Clouds still hung low in the air, threatening to unleash more mayhem. There had been several deaths reported on the news. Most had been heart attacks. People just didn’t seem to realize how much hard work was involved in shoveling snow. The victims had mostly been older people with heart conditions.
I wasn’t the only one who was restless from our forced inactivity. Brie wore a perpetually sour look on her face. We were growing tired of walking on eggshells around each other and our tempers were growing shorter by the hour.
Sophia had stocked up on food before the storm had hit. She’d been practicing her cooking skills since she now had me to feed. A plate of homemade cookies sat on the table. They were oatmeal, which wasn’t my favorite, but they were still pretty good. Even Sam had tried one and he hadn’t barfed it back up afterwards.
The store was a small two story building, which meant I couldn’t escape from Nathan’s constant presence. I could feel him watching me whenever my back was turned. I caught the longing in his eyes several times and it sparked a corresponding wistfulness in me. In an ideal world, we could date freely and maybe even get married one day. Any children that might eventually come along would be normal, happy and healthy. But this wasn’t an ideal world and that could never happen for us.
I was resigned to the fact that dating Nathan was a dream that would never come true. I was stuck with the reality that I would never be able to be with the man I truly loved. Zach made me feel things that I’d never felt before, but the demons inside me were partially responsible for that.
If I ever managed to evict them from my head, there was a good chance that everything would change between us. My fiery passion could very well die once they were gone and our relationship might die along with it. I shuddered at the thought that Zach might one day discover the true cause of my lust for him. He’d run screaming if he knew that I was harboring so many evil beings inside me.
Having feelings for two different guys was something I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I wouldn’t even wish it on Brie, not that she could ever suffer from anything as mundane as actual human emotions. She might have taken possession of a girl’s body, but she was all self-righteous angel inside.
“What are you thinking about?” Leo asked. He’d left his seat and was standing behind me. He could see my morose expression in my reflection in the window.
I couldn’t very well tell him the truth. Some thoughts were just too private to share. An idea popped into my head and I voiced it. “I was thinking about how bored I am. An epic snow fight might be in order now that it’s finally stopped snowing.”
Brie turned to face us. Unsurprisingly, her upper lip was curled derisively. “What an utterly childish and pointless idea.”
“I think it will be fun,” Leo said. His eyes were bright at the prospect of action that didn’t involve stabbing someone with a blunt stick while training. He was far more willing to try new things than his twin was.
“I agree,” Nathan said. “It will be good for us all to leave the confines of this building for a while.”
Sophia sent him a startled look. “Surely you do not think that I will be joining you in this game?”
“Of course you will,” I said with growing enthusiasm. I’d never been in a snow fight before. The closest I’d ever come was being pelted by my classmates while I’d run for my life after school. It had all been part of the fun of being the weird loner who preferred to sit alone and read than to communicate with other people. “Sam!” I shouted. “Get down here!”
His feet thumped on the floor as he leapt off the couch. I followed his progress down the hall and then the stairs. He burst into the room holding a steak knife in his hand, wild eyed with fear. He frowned when he didn’t see any danger. “What is wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. We’re all going out for a while. Everyone grab your snow gear,” I ordered. They stared at me in bemusement and I clapped my hands twice to get them all moving. “Now, people!” They didn’t really need to be rugged up, but they’d be noticed if they didn’t dress appropriately. Brie grumbled, but dutifully teleported herself upstairs. Sophia, Nathan and Brie now shared a closet. I shared mine with Leo and Sam.
When we were all suitably dressed in warm gear, Nathan teleported us to one of the parks in the city. It was so deeply covered in snow that it was impossible to be able to tell which one it was. The city that was slowly becoming familiar to me looked completely different now.
“Split up and prepare for combat,” I ordered. We scattered to the edges of the small park and formed a rough circle facing each other.
I built a low wall to crouch behind first then quickly gathered up snowballs. They were lined up side by side, waiting to be launched at my enemies. I knew exactly who I’d target first.
Brie hadn’t made a wall to hide behind. Her arsenal of icy projectiles was pitifully laughable. Sam had picked a spot to my right. I caught his eye and subtly nodded towards Brie. He smiled mischievously and picked up a snowball. Leo had set up to my left. Nathan was directly across from me. Brie was between Leo and Nathan and Sophia was between Nathan and Sam.
It was only sporting to give them some warning before opening fire. “Game on!” I yelled then hurled the first snowball. Sam threw his a moment later. Startled by my shout, Brie looked up just in time for both missiles to hit her in the face.
Leo giggled helplessly at his twin’s surprised expression. His snowball fell out of his hand and disintegrated on the ground. Sophia lobbed a missile at Sam and he ducked under it. His projectile was more accurate and hit her in the chest. Her eyes narrowed and then the battle was on.
Laughing so hard that I could barely see, I didn’t dodge quickly enough when I saw something come flying at me. Brie’s missile hit me squarely in the side of my head. Her teeth were bared in a fierce grin as she scooped up more ammunition. She was having fun despite her determination to be surly. The snow fight was bringing out her competitive edge. I acknowledged her with a nod, knowing she could have thrown it a lot harder than that. She was getting into the spirit of things rather than using the battle as a chance to humiliate me further.
Snowballs flew thick and fast as we chose our targets at random. Sophia was surprisingly accurate. She wore a determined expression as she lobbed her projectiles at us. Aiming in my direction, alarm stole over her as she focused on something behind me.
Spinning around, I saw a black object arrowing towards my face. My eyes focused on it to see it was the undead raven. It was coming for me with its talons outstretched and triumph blazing in its single milky eye.
Throwing myself backwards, I landed in the snow and put my arms up to protect my face. I watched through a slender gap as the bird opened its beak to utter a caw that never came. A snowball slammed into it, knocking it off its trajectory a moment before it could swoop down and gore me.
I tilted my head backwards to see an upside down Nathan striding towards me. He wore murder on his face and he had an armful of missiles. Another snowball flew at the bird when it made another attempt to attack me, this time it came from Brie. She bent to scoop up more snow then let it fly. Leo, Sam and Sophia joined them, advancing on the bird as it tried to attack me again. Hit from five different directions, it croaked in frustration as its efforts to maul me were denied. With a final glare, it spun around and rapidly flapped away.
“That raven is very determined to cause you harm,” Leo said uneasily when it was gone.
I was pretty sure it wanted to get its talons on me again. It was trying to forge another link between myself and its master, but I kept the thought to myself. Only Sophia, Sam and I knew about the reading that she’d performed for me. The messages that she’d received had been too disturbing to share with the others. Apparently, someone close to me was going to betray me. I just didn’t know who it would be or when it would happen.
Nathan offered me his hand and hauled me to my feet. He brushed the snow out of my hair with a tenderness that made my heart ache in longing.
“We should kill it,” Sam suggested. He stared in the direction that the raven had disappeared in with a dark look.
“It is already dead,” Brie pointed out. “What makes you believe that it can be killed?”
“Violet took its eye. If it can be hurt, it can be killed.”
“I don’t know if it can die when it’s here,” I said. “I can only kill demons when I’m in hell.”
“That thing is not a demon,” Brie said flatly. “It is merely a corpse that is inhabited by evil.”
I didn’t want to say it out loud, but the raven was almost the bird equivalent of Sam. He’d been taken to hell as a living human being. Over the centuries, his soul had become entwined with his body. He hadn’t died like the raven, but had become a twisted replica of a man.
It wasn’t just in this dimension that the bird could follow me. It could also track me down when I was in the shadowlands and in hell. If I had the chance, I’d do my best to slay the raven once and for all.
₪₪₪
Chapter Eleven
Snow plows were out in force by late that afternoon. They acted swiftly to clear the streets to enable traffic to flow again. The number of murders had slowed down during the past few days and people were starting to brave the sidewalks again. I didn’t know why the demons had stopped their infighting, but I was glad to have a reprieve from the influx of souls. Maybe their master was aware that his minions were culling their rivals and had put a stop to it. He’d need all the soldiers he could muster to take over the entire world.
Since
the sidewalks were now clear, there was no reason for me to stay cooped up inside. Our snow fight had unleashed my need for action. Leo was sitting across from me at the table and I directed a question at him. “Do you want to go out on a patrol?”
He was on his feet almost before I finished asking the question. “I thought you would never ask,” he replied with a grin.
Sophia opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off before she could issue her warning. “I know. You want us to wear warm clothes and to try to stay safe, right?”
“Right,” she agreed with a smile. “I would be very upset if anything were to happen to either of you.”
“We will be fine,” Leo reassured her then opened the door for me. He waited until we were a few blocks away then checked to make sure we hadn’t been followed by any of our friends. “I must confess,” he said, “it is good to get away from Brie for a short while.”
I smirked in sympathy. “I take it she’s getting on your nerves, too?”
He nodded morosely. “Whenever you are not within earshot, she harps on about you incessantly.”
It didn’t really surprise me, but I did feel a small stab of hurt that she disliked me so intensely. “What does she say?”
“She believes that you know where a portal to the seventh realm of hell is. She seems to think that you are delaying the inevitable and are deliberately putting the inhabitants of Earth in danger.”
My mouth dropped open in outrage at that accusation. Sure, I’d put off going to hell the last time, but only because I wanted to meet up with Zach before risking my life again. Besides, I’d only delayed the trip for a few days. “That isn’t true!” I said in self-defense. “I have no idea where a portal to the seventh realm is hidden!”
“I believe you,” he said solemnly. “We are all just getting frustrated that it is taking so long for us to find it.”
