Her hands stopped stroking him as he panted over her and she pushed at his chest.
“Thor, what are you?”
The sound of clapping came from the open doorway.
“Why he’s Thor, God of Thunder. Didn’t you know that?”
Emma squealed at the sound of the strange male voice and tried to cover herself.
The intruder snorted and looked away.
“Like I even want to look at your body.” His upper lip curled in a sneer and he inhaled deeply.
“Ewww, Thor, it smells like nasty human sex in here.”
“Get out, Loki,” he growled, dressing Emma with a thought. “You’re the one behind all of the accidents aren’t you?” His eyes narrowed as he contemplated killing another of his kind for the first time in his considerably long life.
Emma looked between them, her eyes growing wide.
“Thor...? Loki...?” She shook her head with disbelief. “This can’t be happening. She looked down at the clothes covering her and bit back a hysterical laugh. “Tell me this isn’t happening.”
Loki scoffed. “Dream all you want, human. The only reason he is here is because he needs to get you pregnant.” He strode around them, resting his hip against the outer wall. “He needs offspring or the whole universe is kaput.” He laughed. “His Goddess spurned him for another and now he has to sink down to your level. A human.” He said the word like it was a curse.
Tears began to flow from her eyes and she looked over at Thor, before lowering her gaze to the ground.
“Get out,” she whispered, not able to even look at him.
“You don’t understand, Emma.”
“What am I saying?” she asked looking around the shed. “Never mind, stay here as long as you want. I’m leaving. And don’t you dare follow me.”
She ran from the shed. The sound of Thor’s roar and splintering wood followed her into the sunlight and she ran into the house, to her room. How had things gotten so out of hand? How had she fallen in love with the very God who had left her family to suffer for all those years? She pressed her hands to her mouth to stifle another hysterical giggle. She’d fallen in love with a God?
The words Loki spat in her face came back to her. He must really hate Thor to go to such trouble just to make him fail at getting offspring. And why did the future depend on his children?
The sound of the splintering wood came back to her as she realized a desperate man, immortal or otherwise, would carry a weapon.
“Oh, my God, Thor!” She ran from the house back to the shed, her love overcoming her anger. Falling to her knees beside her wonderful lover, she pushed the hair from his face. Those wonderful sapphire eyes gleamed back at her, filled with pain.
“I’m sorry, Emma. I never meant to hurt you.”
He raised his hand and cupped her cheek. Strange, iridescent orange-red blood covered her breast as his hand fell away from her cheek, striking her chest on the way down. Her lover was her God. She eased back for a minute, remembering his kindness. Remembering the long hours he’d toiled in the fields so her crops could be harvested. How weak he was after their visits to her brother, her brother who’d grown stronger, while her lover’s great strength waned...
“No!” she looked up at the sky. “Odin, father, please help him. Help your son. I believe in you. I believe in him. I love him. Please don’t let him die, I beg you…!”
Chapter Sixteen
Emma knelt on the straw-covered floor and cradled Thor’s head in her lap. Tears streamed down her face, falling onto his forehead and into his hair. She moved her hand, caressing his forehead as the droplets ran down her cheeks.
“What would you do to save him?”
She jerked her head up, surprised to see the man who had been in her bedroom the other night. Though she shouldn’t be, she supposed. The man had claimed to be Odin, after all. She swallowed thickly as she sat contemplating the possibility of facing the All-father.
“Anything,” she said with conviction. “I would do anything.” She tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes. “Are you really Odin?” She pressed her lips together when he turned his full stare on her. Perhaps she would be better off not saying anything. She didn’t want to make him mad. Frowning, she inhaled deeply when he nodded. “I always thought Odin was an old man with one eye and a beard.”
He laughed. Though how he could laugh at a time like this was a mystery to her. His son lay dying at his feet, covered in blood, with his head held in a mortal’s lap.
“That is merely one of my disguises. You wouldn’t have me walking about creation telling people that I’m God, would you?” He shook his head with disbelief. “They would lock me away faster than I can blink.” He winked at her. “Not that I couldn’t get out of it. But it’s such a bother.” He waved his hand in a gesture that spoke volumes on his opinion of that particular shape he’d taken.
“Did you really think that a God would appear that way all of the time?” he asked, curling his lip. “I’m a shape-shifter. What makes you think I would choose to keep such a fearsome countenance all of the time? Hell, woman, I would scare more people to death than help them, in this day and age.”
“I guess I never thought that much about it.” She shrugged, still brushing the hair back from Thor’s face. “Will you save him?”
Odin, the All-father, studied her and frowned.
He stared at her and she stubbornly lifted her chin.
“Let the fates take me, instead.” She cast a quick gaze down to Thor’s still form. “I don’t care anymore. I’m tired of the people I love dying. I don’t want to live like this anymore. Tell them to take me so long as they let him live.”
She looked down, watching the blood as it oozed from Thor’s wound. His breathing was shallow, nearly non-existent and she knew he had little time left.
If he is a god, how can he become hurt?
“How could this happen? I thought he was a God. Isn’t he supposed to be immortal?”
“He is the God humans made him.” Odin said with a shake of his head.
He settled down on his haunches next to her.
“We are not gods. Not like you think, at any rate.” He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “How to explain?”
Emma remained silent, knowing his last words were merely thoughts spoken aloud.
“Our people came here eons ago, near the beginning of time. Our ability to shift our shape and bring people over to immortality gave us the illusion of being gods.”
He bowed his head and folded his hands between his knees.
“We are a proud people with special powers who rely on the energy of others to sustain our way of life. Without your belief and the belief of others like you, we would not exist.”
Emma’s mouth dropped open.
“Do you mean to say that you have perpetuated this myth throughout time merely to survive? You’ve...” She took a deep breath and choked back a sob, realizing that she, and her family, had lived a lie for generations. “You’ve perpetuated this belief system merely for your own survival?”
He shook his head. “No not just for our survival. We give back to those who believe. We always give back in the form of answered prayers.”
She closed her eyes. “Answered prayers?” A derisive snort escaped her throat and she shook her head. “Not always.”
“Yes, always.”
She opened her eyes, knowing they were filled with the fire of betrayal. He lowered his gaze when she glared at him. He knew. She almost laughed. Of course he knew. He was the All-father, the wise one who knew all. What his wisdom didn’t tell him, his two ravens did.
“Who answered my prayers, All-father?” she asked, gently laying Thor’s head on the cold ground. “Who was supposed to answer my prayers?”
He looked down at Thor and a sharp pain stabbed her heart.
“You were my son’s charge and he failed you. That is why he came himself, to save your brother, the last of your family, from the same fate th
at befell your parents.”
She closed her eyes again, but not before the tears escaped and slid down her cheeks. What could she say to that? Even with all she’d just learned, she didn’t want him to die. She couldn’t bear it if he died.
“Will you save him?”
Odin nodded. “Under one condition.”
“And your condition?”
“That you allow me to take you to Asgard to await Ragnaroc with the rest of us.”
She looked down at Thor, a shaft of betrayal driving though her heart. It was he who should have saved her mother and father, yet she couldn’t bear the thought of his life being extinguished for all time.
“Will I...” She searched for the words before clearing her throat to try again. “Will I be with him?”
Odin stood and stared deeply into her eyes.
“Make your decision wisely, Daughter. You will live with it a mighty long time.”
“I don’t want to be with him. He has betrayed me and my family. I can’t trust him again.”
She gazed down at his silky red-gold hair spilled out on the ground, framing his gray face. “I don’t want him to die.” Her gaze met Odin’s and she blinked. It almost hurt to look directly into his eyes. “But, after this, I don’t ever want to see him again.”
“I can give you over into the care of the Valkyries. You are no longer a maiden but,” he gave her a crooked grin. “I don’t think they will mind a new face for a while.” He stopped then rubbed his chin. “What if you should change your mind?”
“I really don’t think I will, sir.” She smiled wanly. “But I would like to think that you are a kind and benevolent god and would allow me to change my mind at least once.”
“Perhaps,” he said with a nod. “Do you have any stipulations before our deal is struck?”
“Just one, sir. I want to remain here on earth at least until my brother reaches the age of eighteen and is old enough to care for himself. I’d really rather wait until he’s twenty-one, but I won’t insist.”
“Done.” He leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “Prepare yourself.”
He closed his eyes and the world tilted. Emma stood awestruck as he raised the power of life between his hands. The ball of white energy glowed between his hands before he thrust it at her, enveloping her with it. The ball of energy grew in size until it enveloped both her and Thor in its blinding circle of light.
Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her side and she looked down. Blood seeped from a deep wound in her side and she looked up at Odin, her mouth agape.
“You said I could stay.”
It was the last thing she said before she stumbled forward and fell on Thor’s motionless form.
* * * *
Emma woke, only to find herself lying in her own bed.
Alex banged through the door. “Hey! I’m hungry. Are you going to lie about all day, or are you going to come downstairs and fix me something to eat?” He hung his head. “I suppose I could just fix myself a bowl of cereal.”
He banged back out of the room, his backpack hitting the doorframe as he left, the rollerblades on his feet making him clumsy.
She looked around her room, rubbed her head and frowned. Could Alex’s hospital stay and her subsequent visit from Thor, all been a dream?
No child. You have until the boy is eighteen to right your world, then you shall come to us in Asgard or Valhalla. Either way you shall belong to us after that.
What of Thor, did he live? She shook her head. He must or they wouldn’t expect her to join them in two years. The deal had been made to save his life.
She brought a trembling hand to her head.
“What the hell happened? Why can’t I remember Alex coming home from the hospital?”
Suddenly, false memories assailed her. His eventual recovery. Picking him up, bringing him home, hugging him until he pushed her away, angry and smothered. Gone a long time, she had missed so much.
Who was here, taking her place as she recovered from that mortal wound in Asgard? Who did so well in playing the part of imposter? Pain assailed her from those memories. She knew she would never be allowed to see the one she loved, ever again. The one she loved hated her, couldn’t bear the site of her. Her love was torn asunder by the fickle jester, Loki—it infuriated her—no, him. The thoughts confused her. Whose thoughts were they?
She gasped when she realized she visited Thor’s memories. It was he who had taken her place while she healed in Asgard. He who visited Alex in the hospital, talking to his comatose body. He disguised himself as her, joked with Alex after he awakened and hugged him the way he knew she would have done, all in her stead. Now he gave her the gift of those memories—the precious gift of watching her brother growing stronger every day. Of watching him return home.
Putting her hands to her head, her gaze darted around the room and she steeled her resolve. She wouldn’t forgive him. She couldn’t. It had been his neglect, his selfishness that put her family into this situation. Regardless of the reason, he had made them vulnerable to Loki’s attack. She could never forgive him for that.
Pain knifed her chest when she saw that she only had him to blame for her troubles and him to thank for her brother’s recovery. Who said love conquered all? She shook her head. No, she didn’t love him. She refused to love a man who could be so caught up in himself, in his own needs, that he could ignore the very people he depended on for his own survival.
She would live and she would love again, and if not, she would at least know that her brother had a shot at a normal life. Odin promised her that Alex would find a wife and have children. The mortals responsible for their troubles would be found through Loki, once he himself was found.
Emma didn’t give a rat’s ass if he did take her place, talking her brother from his coma as she healed in Asgard. Thor could rot in the hell he’d made for himself. She never wanted to see him again.
Chapter Seventeen
Thor hovered just outside her second-story window, feeling like a voyeur. He’d used his powers to push her curtain aside just enough to see her. He’d do as he was told and stay away from her, lest he incur his father’s wrath, but he refused to never see her again. The thought was too horrible to be borne.
She sat at her dressing table, facing the mirror and combed her hair. The large comb slid easily through her silken locks. The shoulder length tresses gleamed silver in the muted light of her bedroom. Fat tears ran from her eyes, and slid down the silky soft skin of her face and neck.
His heart slammed painfully in his chest as he watched her and sighed. He touched the pane of glass that separated them. Cold from the glass seeped into his fingers, and his heart broke for what he’d lost.
“I’m sorry, Emma. I did not mean to neglect you or your family.”
Thor bowed his head, knowing that no matter what he did, it would never bring back those she loved.
He almost laughed. It’s funny how her family had always considered him this all-powerful being, yet he couldn’t seem to keep his own love life straight. He shook his head and shoved his hand through his hair and barely stopped the moan from escaping his throat. Instead, he shook his head and sighed.
Emma stopped combing her hair, mid-stroke and her back stiffened. She turned to look at the window through narrowed eyes. Standing, she strode over to the window and pulled the drapes closed with a frown.
Praying she would leave it open just a crack, he remained outside watching her, dreaming about what could have been, had he not been such a selfish ass. Instead, she pulled them fully closed and he was locked outside without even the comfort of looking in.
He bowed his head when the curtain stopped swaying. The crack was gone and he could no longer see his love. It was time he faced the fact that she would never allow him into her life again. He raised his hand, tempted to use his powers to open the curtain, just a little. Shaking his head, he lowered himself to her porch to the swing where they sat in such companionable silence not so long ago.
Bittersweet memories assailed him as he sank down onto the swing. She had leaned into him, holding his hand as they sat in this spot, swinging softly as they both watched the sinking sun set over the horizon. He had been such a fool. He didn’t even have the comfort of thinking he should have told her the truth from the start, because he knew if he told her the truth, she would have had him committed.
Thor leaned forward, rested his arms over his knees and clasped his hands. There was nothing left for him here. Perhaps, in time, she would forgive him, but until then, it was past time he went home and made himself busy by checking on his other charges. How many others had suffered from his unintentional neglect? It was time he found out.
Standing, he stretched and looked out over the hewn fields and felt a surge of...something. Was it pride? In the way she’d been able to finish her work, even after her heart had been torn asunder.
It was time he made the effort to rebuild his life. It was past time that he let his people know they weren’t forgotten. His plans now were great and to see them realized, he would need every ounce of power and self discipline that he possessed.
A soft smile curved his lips as he made his plan. Since losing Emma was not an option, he had to figure out a way to win her back. That it wouldn’t be without a fight was a thought that had never crossed his mind. Oh, he had no doubt that she would fight him tooth and nail. He smiled, prepared to love every minute of it. His would be a hard won victory, but that would only make his prize that much sweeter.
After checking on his people and leaving them in the capable hands of the fates, he returned to Emma’s farm and made plans.
What surprised him was her sudden contact with a local realtor. Did she plan to sell? Tired of the constant accidents, had she finally decided to get rid of her property? He shook his head with disbelief. No, that was impossible. There must be another reason she contacted those people.
Every time he looked at her his heart ached. Not to mention his balls. He wanted nothing more than to sink himself inside her again and revel in the silky soft embrace of her wet velvet sheath. His body tingled at the thought of her satiny skin sliding over his as he thrust himself inside her.
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