“That’s when I knew Logan was telling the truth.”
He let the silence linger for a moment after Kir’s soft announcement before continuing. The agony of that day, the barbs and arrows piercing his flesh while he smiled and laughed it off, still had the power to awaken him with nightmares not even Kir could soothe. “So Odin, as me, stood behind Hodr, handed his blind son the arrow meant to kill his heir, and shot me instead, right through the heart. He then took off, making sure to shift back into himself out of sight of the others so he could properly express his outrage.” He smiled cynically. “To celebrate, he immediately rushed off and fucked his mistress, begetting Vali in the process, who slew Hodr, etc., etc.”
Kir grimaced. “I watched as Loki was borne off, his body anointed for burial. As soon as he could he left a simulacrum in his place and released me, but he collapsed before he could do anything more. He was so wounded, pierced so many times that I thought, despite his daughter’s promises, he would die.”
“So Baldur took it upon himself to go to Hel and explain what had happened, never knowing that Frigg had sent a messenger asking her to release him back into the world.”
Kir shrugged. “You would have done the same.” Kir was right. Logan would have. “The messenger arrived shortly after I did. Hel and I had to think fast; she decided to pretend I was dead, and I had to go along with it. She came up with the fiction of having the world weep for me, thinking that would buy us some time and explain my miraculous return.”
“But we hadn’t counted on Odin.”
Jordan sat on the edge of the ottoman, her thigh brushing Kir’s. She frowned, obviously lost in thought, not noticing the way Kir swallowed or how his jeans slowly began to fill out as his cock leapt to life.
Kir glanced at Logan, guilt flashing across his face before he carefully inched his leg away from Jordan’s.
Logan smiled. Damn. I thought so. We need to talk once we send her on her way. “Odin turned himself into Pokk, refused to weep, and flew off, insuring neither Baldur nor Hodr would ever grace the world again.”
“And insuring that Loki’s days were numbered, as well.”
“I had no idea what Hel and Baldur had done. I’d taken myself off to heal, spending some time in a pond as a salmon. That’s where they found me. They took me, bound me to three slabs of stone with the enchanted entrails of my own child and left me there to rot under the venom of that damn snake.” Logan could feel his fists clenching in his lap at the thought of his murdered child.
“What happened to your other son, the one that wasn’t killed?”
Logan shook his head. “I don’t know what happened to Nari. We were never able to find him. We can only assume that Odin killed him, too.”
It was Kir’s turn to rub Logan’s knee soothingly. “But I came back and freed him. Sigyn wanted us to inform the world what had happened, but Loki and I agreed that that would be too dangerous for all of us. By that point, Nanna was dead, and we were worried the same fate would befall Sigyn if she openly helped us. Besides, we had to prove to the other gods, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Loki was innocent. At the time, all of them were firmly on Odin’s side, especially when he informed them that I would return after Ragnarok to lead them into an era of peace.”
“They turned Baldur into a risen god and me into the harbinger of their deaths.” Logan’s smile didn’t waver as Jordan stared at him. “We waited, and waited, for the right opportunity to present itself, but every time we made a move, Odin somehow found out and sicced Vali on us.”
“Thought and Memory.” Jordan’s tone was thoughtful; she was processing the information.
She’s smart. She’s figured out how he keeps finding us. Damn. He had a thing for people with smarts. “Among others.”
“And now, if you so much as show yourselves before the other gods, they think that it’s some sort of sick, twisted trick.”
“And Kir and I get to go into hiding for another century or two until they call off the hunt.”
“What made you decide now was the time to try again?”
“Things have changed.” Kir got up and went to the fridge, pulling out three colas. He brought each of them a can and popped the top on his. “Recently the gods themselves began to change. They’ve adapted amazingly well to technology. Some of them have even taken mortal wives, not all of whom know who their husbands really are.”
“Like my mom?”
“Exactly.”
“You think that, because they’ve integrated with mortal society, it’s mellowed them out?”
Her skepticism was clear in her tone of voice. “No. I think they won’t have any choice but to believe us when we present them with irrefutable proof, done in such a way that, no matter where they are on this earth, they’ll see it.”
“And my job is to convince them, with irrefutable proof, that you’re innocent—” she pointed to Logan, then swung around to Kir, “—and you’re alive?”
They looked at each other. Logan smirked. “Yup.”
“That about covers it.” Kir smiled sweetly at Jordan. “Should I order the pizza now?”
They are certifiably crazy. Then again, after the life they’ve been forced to live, who wouldn’t be?
Jordan took a last bite of pizza and wiped her fingers off on a paper towel Kir had brought from the kitchen. Part of her was dying to explore the luxurious, modern condo. It had been like stepping into her dream home, complete with pale blue walls and stunning views. “Okay. I have a couple of ideas on how to proceed, but you need to know how I operate.” Logan grinned, and her pulse leapt. Down, girl. “Business-wise, perv.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
She ignored Logan’s mutter and focused on Kir, who was desperately trying not to laugh again. “We need to be really aggressive here. I’m not going to pull my punches with either one of you, and I don’t expect you to pull your punches with me. If you disagree with something I’m doing, that’s fine. Tell me.” She turned to Logan again. “Then expect me to tell you to back off and let me do my job.”
Both men frowned at that. “Don’t expect us to allow you to put yourself in danger.”
Surprised, she turned to Kir. “Wow. I would have expected that caveman attitude more from Logan, not you.”
“He’s a fierce mother bear when his cubs are endangered.” Logan leaned back on the sofa, a smug look of satisfaction on his face.
Kir rolled his eyes and pointedly ignored him. “I mean it. If there seems to be the slightest threat to your safety, you pull back and regroup. Understood?”
“I’m a PI rather than a cop because I’m not into bodily harm. I don’t like pain, pain hurts me.”
“Didn’t somebody famous say that first?” Logan looked at Kir, who looked back at him with a shrug.
“Daffy Duck, maybe?”
“I thought it was Rodney Dangerfield.”
“Wait, wasn’t it the Cowardly Lion?”
“Oh yeah, I think it was!”
“Are you two done?” Jordan glared at the two men who grinned at her unrepentantly. “Because this is serious, okay?”
“Of course it’s serious. And we’re serious that you are in no way to put yourself in danger.” Kir’s tone had gone from cheerfully playful to full of command in the space of a heartbeat. He looked at her like he expected her compliance on every level, and for a moment she saw the man who was truly meant to lead the gods.
The look of love and pride on Logan’s face nearly brought tears to her eyes. His absolute faith and devotion to his lover was written all over his face.
Now I know they’re telling the truth. No way could anyone, even Loki, fake that look.
She felt a momentary twinge of regret for what could have been with either of these men before she forced it down. Neither one was for her; they were for each other.
And then Kir ruined the moment. “Duh.”
Jordan frowned. “Duh?”
Kir grinned as Logan collapsed with a
n exasperated sigh. “Duh. You find yourself in a position where you could get hurt you move. Val won’t hold back from killing you, you know. Not if Grimm orders it.”
Jordan rolled her eyes. “Yes, Mom.”
“Do you carry a gun?”
Jordan snapped her fingers. “Damn. Left it at home with my fedora and trench coat.”
“I’ll take that as a no.”
“You can take it any way you like.” She tried to ignore the sudden heat in Kir’s eyes, focusing on the problem at hand.
“How come Grimm hasn’t just waltzed in here and blown both your heads off while you sleep?”
Loki grinned. “Simple. The wards.”
“Wards?”
Logan wiggled his fingers at her. “Magic. Oooh.”
She quickly ran through the miniscule amount of magical knowledge she had. Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings were about the extent of it. “What are wards?”
“Magical runes Logan puts up to prevent anyone from entering our home uninvited. They also protect us from magical prying eyes. They don’t last forever, but they do the job long enough for us to realize our time is probably up and we should move on.”
“Oh.”
“Too much information?”
She frowned. “No, just wondering why they haven’t figured out ways to counteract them before.”
“They have.” Logan smirked. “Then I change them.”
“Change them? Isn’t that supposed to be a bad thing? Didn’t I read in some book somewhere that making up a new spell is, like, dangerous? On the level of oops I melted the world?”
“Not if you know what you’re doing.”
Kir smiled. “You need to remember something; Logan wasn’t born Vanir or Aesir. He was born a Jotun.”
“A what-un?”
“Jotun. A race of magical beings mistakenly called giants. To them, magic is an innate ability, not something you learn like a human wizard would have to. It has limits, of course, like the toll it takes on Logan’s energy to do anything really complicated, but it gets the job done.”
“Really? Wow.” She filed that phrase like a human wizard away for later examination. She’d get more info on that at a better time. “Is there some way we can use Logan’s magic to get your point across?” Before they could speak she winced. “No, wait, never mind. They’ll all chalk it up to trickery again.”
“Exactly.”
She began to pace, her mind whirling a mile a minute. Plans were made and quickly discarded as she realized that most of what they could do would be viewed as just more of the same deceit they’d come to expect from Loki.
“What kind of powers do you have? I know all about the Human Torch here, but what can you do? Other than the bending knife trick?” She stared at Kir, eyes narrowed in thought.
He grinned. “Look out the window.”
She turned and saw clouds begin to roll in on a perfectly sunny day. Dark clouds, fat with rain that began falling gently on the city below. “Rain. Huh. Anything else?” Thunder cracked, a shaft of lightning striking down somewhere outside the city. “Oh.” She turned back to Kir, who had his head in his hands and was looking down at the floor. Huh. Maybe it gives him a headache. “I thought thunder and lightning were Thor’s gig?”
Kir looked up. There was no trace of pain on his face. “It is, but as a God of Spring, I’m in charge of, um, April showers. You know, sudden thunderstorms? Thor’s lightning is a lot more directed, more like a Zeus kind of thing.”
“Huh.” She looked outside; it was kind of pretty. She’d always liked thunderstorms. She flopped back down on the ottoman next to Kir and sighed, propping her chin on her hand, elbow on her knee. She looked over their heads and caught a glimpse of the laptop they’d set up on the glass dining room table. Why it was there instead of in the posh den she’d spied on the way in, she didn’t know, but the sight gave her an idea of how to blend Kir’s powers and Logan’s in such a way that the Aesir couldn’t ignore the message.
An evil grin crossed her face as she looked at the two very hot, very supernatural, very photogenic, men. “Have either of you heard of YouTube?”
Kir closed the door behind himself and Logan after having seen Jordan onto the elevator. He sighed and closed his eyes tightly, completely mortified.
Fuck. Logan saw my reaction to Jordan.
The knowing gleam in his lover’s eyes did not bode well for the coming conversation.
So it was with some surprise he felt Logan gently push his hand into his hair, pulling Kir’s mouth to his own. The kiss was a languid stroking of tongues, not the usual kiss Logan gave. Logan usually preferred hot, heavy kisses, full of passion and the promise of sex. This one was the kind of kiss Kir preferred. Soft, sweet, and full of the love they both felt.
“I love you, you know that, right?”
Kir focused on Logan’s face. “No more than I love you.”
“We need to talk.”
Kir closed his eyes again, not wanting to see the pain in Logan’s.
“Hey.”
He sighed and moved past Logan’s body and into the living room. Dejected, he sat on the sofa, his head in his hands. “I’m so sorry.”
“For what? The fact that you’re attracted to Jordan?”
Kir groaned.
“Kir.” He looked up, surprised to see the understanding on Logan’s face. “Me, too.”
He felt a surprising flash of jealousy at that, but wasn’t sure if it was for Logan or Jordan. Not good…or very good? “You want her, too?”
“Don’t sound so surprised. She’s a hell of a woman.”
Kir found himself nodding his agreement. “She took everything we threw at her in stride.”
“If I was her I would have kicked our asses out of my office, gone and had a few drinks, then convinced myself it never happened right after I called to have the carpet replaced.”
“So what do we do about it?”
They stared into each other’s faces, reading the promises they’d long ago made to each other and the new, sudden want they both felt. No matter how startlingly strong, there was no way Kir would act on it if it meant losing Logan.
Logan was his everything.
Kir reached out first, cupping Logan’s cheek. “I would never do anything to hurt you, Logan.”
“Ditto.” Logan’s face was flushed with pleasure, that demonic grin of his once again gracing his features.
“So, what do we do?”
He watched Logan slouch down onto the floor at his feet, resting his head against Kir’s knees with a contented sigh. “The way I see it, we have two options.”
“Those are?” Kir’s heart rate picked up. He began absently stroking that fiery hair, wondering if Logan was thinking what he was thinking.
“Option one: we walk away from her once this is all over.”
No!
The instant denial raced through his body, causing him to jump. What the fuck? He never had that reaction to losing anyone or anything…other than Logan.
It didn’t help that Logan started to chuckle. “Thought so.”
“Option two?”
His heart was in his throat right up until Logan looked up at him with a leer. “Don’t you just love the French?”
Kir blinked. “Huh?”
“They come up with words for the most amazing concepts.”
“Like?” Kir drawled. He was pretty sure now he knew where Logan was going, but he wanted confirmation before he said anything.
“Ménage a trois. It has such a sexy ring to it, doesn’t it?”
“Permanent ménage?” The words had left his mouth before he even realized the significance of what he was saying. Something about Jordan just…felt right.
Logan’s expression turned serious. “I’m not sure yet.” He shook his head, smirking. “But tell me you aren’t already a little in love with her, and I’ll call you a liar. I mean, damn. She’s got a smart mouth, hot body, bodacious ass, and she’s clever as all hell. And she wants b
oth of us.”
Kir opened his mouth to say the words and found them stuck in his throat. “Damn.”
“Ditto.”
“How the hell did that happen?”
“I don’t know, but it did.” Logan was frowning again, this time in confusion. “It’s like we’ve found something we didn’t even know was missing. But if you asked, I would walk away from this. You know that.” For the first time, Kir saw Logan’s uncertainty peek through, reminding him of the broken man Loki had been after Baldur freed him from the mountain. The reckless youth he was had been burned away by the snake’s acid, leaving behind a damaged man who tossed and turned at night, screaming denials as he relived everything over and over again. It had taken Kir a long time to ease his lover’s torment. He also knew their relationship was the foundation the now confident, cocky man who was still inclined to take risks stood on.
Which was why he’d been so upset about his reaction to Jordan. But knowing that Logan felt the same eased that guilt
Kir thought about taking Jordan and making her theirs. Thanks to Logan’s ability to shift genders as well as shape, Kir had been happily bisexual for centuries now. He’d felt no need to go outside the relationship when Logan could, literally, be everything and anything he needed. Logan, on the other hand, hadn’t been able to explore that side of himself with Kir, since Kir couldn’t change his shape. He knew that sometimes Logan longed for soft, scented flesh, rounded breasts and bellies, all of the things he’d given up when he’d pledged himself to Kir. But Logan, for all his wild youth and unhappy marriage, hadn’t cheated on him once. And not once, through all of the long centuries, had either of them had the urge to add a third to their relationship.
Now, with the advent of one small, half-human woman, all of that was about to change. He could give the touch of a female back to his lover, and have them both for himself. He thought back to the odd feeling he’d had on the beach, that something was about to happen that would change them, and felt that sensation once more before it settled into a comfortable purr.
He saw the relief on Logan’s face as he nodded his acceptance.
Very Much Alive: True Destiny, Book 1 Page 4
