Very Much Alive: True Destiny, Book 1

by Dana Marie Bell

  Kir glanced back at Logan with a frown. “Are you sure this is going to work?”

  Logan rolled his eyes. Kir was such a worrier sometimes. It drove him nuts. Kir and Jordan might have the technology down pat, but when it came to the magic part…that was the part where Logan shined. Kir should know better than to worry about that part.

  “Yes,” Jordan answered, confidence seeping from every pore as she stepped aside. Logan pushed her seat forward so he could get out of the Cracker-Jack box Kir called a car. “Follow me, boys.”

  “With pleasure,” he purred.

  She looked over her shoulder and rolled her eyes at him, but he could still see the uncertainty in her.

  He noticed Kir’s attention was also focused on Jordan’s ass and stifled a smile. Since they’d decided to claim the luscious Jordan for their own neither one had kept their interest to themselves. Jordan was acting a little confused by all of the attention. She’d better get used to it. She was going to be on the receiving end of a lot of attention, if they had their way.

  The thought of Kir, Jordan, chocolate sauce and tongue baths was probably what kept him from noticing the large blue sedan that pulled up alongside them.

  Jordan bellowed “Down!” as she pushed him hard enough to knock him on his ass. It was his first clue that something was seriously wrong. A sound like a firecracker pierced the afternoon air. Jordan grunted in pain, and Logan literally saw red.

  Kir landed on top of him, sandwiching Jordan between them. The blue sedan sped off, pedestrians shrieking and diving for cover. Kir rolled off him and immediately took Jordan into his arms. Logan stood, ready to chase down the blue sedan and have a little “chat” with the driver.

  “Jordan!”

  Something in Kir’s deepened, panicked voice stopped him from chasing down the blue sedan. He looked at the woman cradled in Kir’s arms, and his heart stopped. He knelt down beside Kir, instinctively placing himself between them and the street.

  She’d been shot. Blood seeped from a wound in her right shoulder. Her eyes were glazed in pain as she looked up at him. Her features were determined as she grabbed a hold of Logan’s shirt and pulled him close, hissing through clenched teeth, “He was aiming for you.” Her eyes went to Kir. “Get him the fuck outta here.”

  And Logan slipped from being a little bit in love to being all the way. No one, no one, had ever taken pain meant for him. No one had ever gotten in between him and danger. No one had ever tried to protect him, or bled for him. No one had cared enough.

  No one but Kir.

  He saw the look on Kir’s face, knew Kir felt the same damn way. That overprotective streak of Kir’s was now fully engaged at the sight of the woman they’d claimed bleeding on the sidewalk. Kir was beyond furious as he cradled her to him, wincing in sympathy as she hissed.

  An enraged Kir was a scary thing.

  Kir stood, growling as Jordan gasped in pain, and ran for the car. He put her in the backseat, cursing the tiny sports car, while Logan dug in Kir’s pocket for his keys.

  “Jefferson’s closest.” Kir’s voice had deepened. The pupils of his eyes turned white, storm clouds beginning to edge out the sunny blue. Logan reached into the glove compartment and handed Kir his mirrored shades, hiding his inhuman eyes from sight, then pulled on his own shades. Thunder sounded as grey clouds rapidly began to roll in over the city.

  “Right.” He waited long enough for Kir to close the passenger side door before taking off like a bat out of hell for Jefferson University Hospital.

  They pulled up outside the emergency room entrance just as the rain started. Kir ran inside and managed to get a gurney for Jordan. It had taken a slight shift in the paperwork to get her seen first, but at this point he’d have been willing to blow on trumpets until she got taken care of, let alone a measly flexing of his powers. She was taken in, immediately assessed and moved straight into a curtained-off area, where a physician began prepping her for surgery.

  “Excuse me; is either of you gentlemen related to the victim?”

  Logan took his gaze off the curtains where Jordan was being prepped to look down at the nurse standing next to him. Her grey-streaked, no-nonsense bun was twisted, her brown eyes sympathetic as she clutched a clipboard to her chest.

  “She’s my wife.”

  He felt Kir start as the words slipped out of his mouth. He flexed his powers again to adjust all of Jordan’s paperwork from Grey to Saeter. It wasn’t enough to change her insurance and license; he’d changed all of her legal paperwork. The larger change took less energy and concentration. While he was at it he filed a marriage license with the state, just because…well, because. It soothed the beast inside him that needed to claim her firmly as his.

  For a prankster god, it was a piece of cake.

  The woman looked relieved. “I need you to sign the surgical release forms, please.”

  He signed everything she shoved at him, determined to see to it that his woman got the care she needed.

  He looked over at Kir, who was staring at the curtained off area, a fierce frown covering his face. The thunder was louder now; the rain was coming down harder. The street was almost invisible out the window of the surgical waiting room.

  Make that our woman. Lightning arced across the sky, confirming his thought.

  He stood there, clenching and unclenching his hands as he heard the doctor give the order to have Jordan wheeled to surgery. He was having a hard time controlling the raging fires within him. Someone, some stranger, was going to be cutting into her flesh, removing a bullet meant for him, and it was driving him crazy. The knowledge that he could have lost someone else he loved burned like acid in his gut. Memory flashed behind his eyes of his sons, Nari and Narfi, one dead by the other’s hand. Nari lost to madness for all time as he killed his brother; Narfi’s entrails enchanted to hold down a god and used to bind Loki to the mountain.

  Strong arms wrapped around him and held tight while inside he raged against the memories, both past and present.

  “How come she gets to be your wife?” Kir grumbled.

  Logan felt some of his anger drain away as Kir stroked his back.

  “She could be my wife, you know.” He felt Kir grin briefly against his neck, but it didn’t fool him. Kir was shaking. The urge to soothe his lover began to overtake the rage and pain inside him. “After all, she likes me better.”

  Kir sounded like a petulant child, but Logan knew the truth. Blondie was just as upset, and just as furious, as he was. Logan snorted. Shaking his head, he wrapped his arms around Kir, and settled down to wait for the doctors to return.

  Jordan woke to nausea and confusion. She blinked, looking up at the bright white light overhead. “Don’t go into the light,” she muttered, surprised when someone snorted next to her. Logan. Her brain immediately identified the sound, like she’d heard it hundreds of times before. Of course, I have damn near heard it a hundred times before.

  She turned her head, surprised at how difficult it was. Her stomach rolled with nausea. She swallowed hard, fighting back the urge to hurl all over Logan’s expensive leather jacket. He looked pissed as all hell. “Where’s Kir?”

  “Right here.” She felt someone take hold of her hand. “Told you she likes me better.” Soft lips brushed her forehead. She turned to see Kir smiling down at her, concern shadowing his eyes. “Hi.”

  “Hi.”

  Another pair of soft lips brushed her forehead. “Welcome back.”

  She looked up into Logan’s face, surprised at his fierce expression. “Thanks. Where’d I go?”

  “You got shot.” She felt his hand tremble in hers, and tried to squeeze it, surprised at both the emotion flooding his face and how hard it was to get her hand to work. “Don’t you ever put yourself between me and a bullet again, you hear me?”

  She closed her eyes wearily and licked her lips. “Yup. Next time, let your ass get shot. Got it.”

  “Jordan.”

  Her eyes opened to see Logan frowning down a
t her.

  “Shh. Not now, Logan.” The two men exchanged a look over her head. She would have tried to figure out what it meant, but she was so damn tired. “Go to sleep, sweetheart. We’ll be back soon to take you home.” Before she could process the fact that Kir had called her sweetheart, he gave her the sweetest kiss she’d ever received.

  “He’s right. Get some rest.” Logan’s mouth replaced Kir’s. His kiss was full of carefully banked fire. “We’ll be back in about an hour.”

  She had a hard time keeping her eyes open after the two men left her room, talking quietly as the door shut behind them. What the hell was that all about? She drifted off to sleep, wondering what it would be like to have the two of them really kissing her.

  “What do you mean, you missed?”

  Val winced at the hissed words as his father turned to face him. “I hit Jordan.”

  “What the fuck was Jordan doing there?”

  “I believe they may have hired her.”

  Grimm’s mouth tightened. Val made sure to keep all expression from his face as Grimm glared at him. “So what stopped you from finishing the job?”

  Val blinked. “I shot Jordan.”

  “And?”

  Val didn’t answer, knowing there was no point.

  “If Jordan is helping them, you need to remove her, as well. No excuses.”

  He bowed his head to his father, hoping the man didn’t see the hatred in his eyes. The reason for his birth, the vengeance against his brother’s murderer and the punishment of the man who’d masterminded it, had instead become service to the betrayer and an unending hunt for the betrayed.

  And it was seriously beginning to piss him off, especially now that the end was so tantalizingly near. But the end had been near before, and Grimm had managed to stave it off.

  He kept his expression blank as he left the office, knowing that his time was running out. If Jordan was working with Loki and Baldur, Tyr would soon find out. And Grimm would no longer accept mistakes.

  How did the idiot miss again?

  Grimm ground his teeth together, fighting down the urge to throw something. Something glass, that would make a nice, loud, shattering noise as it hit. He eyed the glass apple his wife Frederica had given him for Christmas about forty-five years ago and seriously thought about it. Better not. She’ll notice the next time she’s in the office and question it. Stupid bitch.

  And the only person he couldn’t afford questions from was Frigg. Her visions had let her know some of what he’d planned for Baldur and Hodr, but not all.

  Not enough to stop him completely.

  If Loki hadn’t interfered, things would have worked out a great deal differently. And now Jordan, the traitorous little bitch, was picking Loki’s side over his. And if Loki stayed true to form, there was no way Val was getting anywhere near Jordan or Baldur again.

  Unless…

  Grimm smiled, and the window in front of him frosted over.

  “Well. I see you’re having happy thoughts.”

  Grimm turned to see Rina Southerland, Val’s mother, standing in the doorway to his office. “Rina.”

  She shut the door behind her and smiled seductively. “We have a date tonight, remember?”

  He smiled again. Indulging Rina was one of his favorite pastimes. And since Frederica was at one of her charity functions, he had more than enough time to indulge himself, as well. “Of course. How could I forget?” He walked over and pulled her roughly to him, kissing her passionately as she cupped his thickening cock through his slacks. For her he changed into the virile young man he truly was, not the Old Grimm everyone thought him to be.

  For a frost-Jotun, Rina had more fire in her than any other woman he’d ever bedded, including his wife. And, buried balls-deep in her pale, slender body, he even managed to forget his troubles for a little while.

  Too bad he was going to have to kill her before he killed Val. After all, a wise man knew better than to rouse a mother bear.

  Kir watched carefully as Logan placed Jordan in the back seat of his Lexus. They’d opted to buy the car when they realized how uncomfortable Jordan would be in Kir’s Mustang. Logan had insisted on one of the best, most luxurious SUVs on the market and, since it would be Logan’s car, Kir hadn’t objected too much.

  The trip back to their penthouse was surprisingly uneventful. The ride in the luxury SUV was smooth and quiet. Jordan dozed, not surprising considering the amount of blood she’d lost and the strength of the painkillers she was on.

  He’d warned her that Val wouldn’t hesitate to kill her if Grimm ordered it. He’d been half hoping he was wrong, but once again his father and brother had proven to him how little innocent lives mattered to them.

  It had taken every bit of Logan’s power to keep her family from finding her. One wrong move and Grimm would have been breathing down their necks. As it was, Kir knew they were probably going to have some pissed off younger Grimms on their doorstep soon. Jordan was begging them to call her siblings and he and Logan were close to giving in, at least where Jeff and her sister Jamie were concerned. No way in hell were they going to call Magnus and Morgan Grimm. And they couldn’t tell her of the phone calls they were receiving from her sister. Some of them had made Kir’s hair stand on end. They’d started out pleasant enough, but the last one had been filled with threats that he was pretty sure were anatomically impossible without the aid of kitchen utensils and a lot of Vaseline. He still had no idea what a “rotating pineapple attachment” was, but he was pretty sure he didn’t want to find out.

  “She’ll be all right.”

  He looked over at Logan, whose eyes never left the road. “I know.”

  “Are you really pissed that I put my name on the paperwork?”

  Kir smiled. Logan was frowning, the expression one that let Kir know he was prepared to fight for his way. “No, just so long as she understands she’s committed to both of us.”

  Logan snorted. “Once we’ve got her naked between us, she’ll figure it out pretty damn quick.”

  A muffled snore sounded from the backseat. Kir turned to see Jordan’s face buried in the upholstery. She’d been in the hospital for almost a week and was still exhausted. Logan had put wards around her bed to keep her safe, but even then it had been a harrowing time. He couldn’t keep everyone from touching her.

  “How do we keep this from happening again?”

  Kir bit his lip. “I don’t know.”

  “Her fathers are going to pitch a fit when they find out what happened.”

  “Not to mention her boss. And her brothers and sister.”

  They looked at each other and winced. “Can we prove it was Val that shot her?”

  Kir shook his head. “And even if we could, they’d still blame us for putting her in danger.”

  “Not us. Me.”

  Kir didn’t say anything as Logan pulled into the parking garage and shut off the engine. They’d have to make sure the Lexus was added to their parking allotment, or they’d get towed. Since they didn’t use their powers any more than necessary that meant a long, boring trip to the manager’s office and filling out paperwork. Kir picked up Jordan, much to Logan’s disgust. He smirked at Logan’s disgruntled frown. “Your car, your paperwork.”

  Logan groaned at Kir’s grin. “Great. Where’s an assassin or two when you need one?”

  Logan left the manager’s office with a smirk on his face. He’d gotten a lecture from the overly fussy man on informing management about any “changes to the status of the tenancy of the condo”. Logan had been tempted to go back as the owner and give the man hell for upsetting a rich client, but he didn’t really have time for that sort of fun. So he’d chosen a different form of punishment for the pompous asshole. He grinned. He wondered how long it would take before the manager noticed that his signature on every single document in that office had been changed to Dick Head.

  He snickered as he stepped into the elevator. Kir would probably shake his head and try to talk him into changi
ng it back. Jordan seemed more the type to try and make him change it back. And maybe he would change most of it back.

  Maybe. If they begged really prettily.

  He headed up to the twenty-second floor, eager to see them both, hoping Kir had settled her down in their bedroom. The thought of Jordan’s scent mingling with his and Kir’s on their sheets was irresistible.

  He opened the door to find Kir scowling at Jordan, who was busy trying to set up the video camera one-handed. She was pale and shaking.

  Logan glared at her, all of his instincts screaming at him that she needs to be resting, not fucking around with electronics. And since his instincts were backed up by her doctor’s orders, he felt fully justified in growling at her. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

  She looked up at him and smiled wearily. “We need to get the YouTube video going.”

  “Now?”

  “The sooner the better.”

  “The doctor said you’re supposed to be in bed.” He turned to Kir. “Why isn’t she in bed?”

  “Because when I went to pick her up she started struggling and I was afraid she’d reopen the wound.”

  Thunder sounded outside, letting Logan know exactly how upset Kir was. The fact that Kir hadn’t taken his eyes off Jordan was also not a good sign. He looked out the window to see a fine spring shower raining down on the city. “To bed, Jordan.”

  She stood up with a wince, her face paling even more. Beads of sweat dotted her forehead. “No.”

  Logan gritted his teeth. “I think Kir and I can figure out how to take a fucking video. Go. To. Bed.”