“They did.” A smile tugged the corner of Echo’s lips. “But you’re nothing like me, Cora. I’m a total screw up. I tend to act first and ask questions later. Been doing it for centuries and will probably continue doing it for the rest of my miserable life. You barely became a Grimnir. You are allowed to make a mistake or two.”
“Miserable life?” His head rested on the headrest, his eyes almost closed, but I knew he was studying me. “What’s there for you to be miserable about? You’re going to live forever, you don’t age, and you are loaded.”
“The wealth means nothing to me, and being young forever is overrated.”
“What would make you happy?”
“You.”
Okay. Not what I was expecting. “You have me.”
“Do I?” He leaned in and trailed kisses along my neck to my ear. “I like being this close to you, holding you in my arms. You are warmth, Cora. Light. Pure sweetness. You make me feel things I never felt before.”
I giggled. “Good or bad things.”
He nuzzled my neck. “I haven’t decided yet. It’s unsettling, yet I still want you. I want to do naughty things with you. Things we’ve never done before, but at the same time I want to just hold you and feel your soft breath against my skin.”
His warm breath fanned my skin, and I shuddered. Focusing on our conversation was getting harder. “Didn’t we cuddle before?”
He nibbled on my shoulder, shooting heat through my body. “You weren’t interested.”
Weird. I loved to cuddle. I’d imagined cuddling with Eirik for so long I’d felt deprived. Yet now I didn’t want to be in anyone else’s arms but Echo’s. “Maybe I had more evil deals to make with other goddesses.”
Laughter rumbled through him. I gripped his head and directed his lips to mine. The world tilted as we kissed, our breath mingling, hearts pounding. When I bit his lower lip, he shuddered and let out a low growl. He pulled me tightly against him, his hardness sending pleasure through my body.
I didn’t want to wait until we went to his place. Already, I was getting lost in his kisses and the sensual haze we were creating. When he nipped on my lower lip, I grounded against him. We both moaned and strained against each other.
Gripping his face, I pulled my lips from his.
“Don’t ask me to take you home again, Cora,” he whispered. “Not yet. I want you.”
“Then have me.” I pulled off my shirt and threw it aside. Reaching behind me, I unclasped my bra.
Echo sucked in a breath. I’ve always complained about guys ogling my boobs instead of listening whenever I talked, and yes, I’d used them to my advantage on an occasion or two. But this was the first time I was proud to have someone stare at them. Watching Echo drool was a big turn on. The awe in his eyes. The tremor in his hand as he reached out and cupped their undersides as though seizing them up. Then he lifted his head and our eyes locked.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered in a voice gone husky and stroked my skin. My body trembled.
“So are you,” I managed to say.
He grinned, leaned forward, and nuzzled my chest. Then his mouth replaced his fingers. Moans of pleasure escaped me as sensations washed over me. More runes appeared on his body, glowing and dimming, sending a surge of new sensations through me. Whatever the runes were doing, I wanted more of it. More skin contact. More connection.
I pulled and pushed his T-shirt over his head, needing to touch him intimately, too. I caressed his abs and pecs, ran my hands over his shoulders, defined arms, and down his back. His muscles flexed under my palms. The skin on his back was a bit bumpy as though scarred, but he didn’t give me a chance to explore it.
He kissed me hard, bending me backwards and curving into me as though he craved skin contact, too. Then he froze.
Sure I had done something wrong, I cringed. “Echo?”
He smothered a curse, forked his fingers through my hair, and fused my mouth with his again. The thrust of his tongue was urgent, demanding, consuming. I grabbed his shoulders and held on for dear life. When he tore his lips from mine, I moaned in protest.
He was breathing hard, his eyes more golden than green. “Stay here while I get rid of him.” He lifted me off his lap and onto the seat. “Don’t move.”
I couldn’t move if Hel’s army was attacking. Through the tinted window of my car, I could see one bright light. When the roar in my ears subsided, I realized it had been mixed with the sound of a motorcycle.
8. Not Worthy
The voices were muted, but I knew an argument when I heard it. Had a cop pulled up on a motorcycle? They often came up here to disperse parties. Echo arguing with him wasn’t going to help matters.
I felt around for my bra. It was dark inside the car, but I refused to turn on the lights when I was naked from the waist up. From the raised voices, Echo was probably pissing off a cop and buying us one-way tickets to the county jail. He really was a hot head. Why had I thrown the damn bra and shirt? I found my top and pulled it on. I patted around the tray and something sharp sank into my hand. Pain shot up my arm.
Crap. Echo must have put his artavus there.
I lifted my hand and warm blood rolled to my wrist. That was heavy bleeding. I
turned on the car’s interior lights and saw my hand. The cut was long and deeper than I’d thought, and it was bleeding profusely. Outside, the voices grew louder.
Dang it. What was Echo doing now? Ripping off the head of a local cop? And where were my healing runes when I needed them? I reached in the glove compartment, grabbed wads of tissue, and pressed them against my palm.
A loud roar came from outside, and my car shook and rotated as though something had hit it in the rear. Not something. Someone not human. More crashes followed.
I grabbed Echo’s coat, shrugged it on, opened the door, and stepped outside. My eyes widened at the scenes of mayhem. Echo was fighting someone or something, their movement so fast, they were blurs of light as their runes glowed and dimmed. They collided and rolled on the ground, leaving fissures on the parking lot like a freaking volcano.
Didn’t these people ever talk? Not sure what to do, I kept low and followed the body of the car while peering at them. Was it one of his Druid Grimnirs? They slowed down long enough for me to see the face of his attacker. I gasped.
Torin? Why was Raine’s boyfriend fighting with my Grimnir?
They were back on their feet, circling each other, hands clenching and unclenching. I opened my mouth to yell stop, but then I saw the smirks on their faces. They were enjoying this. The two idiots were actually getting a thrill out of pounding each other and destroying everything around them.
“I told you to leave, Valkyrie.” Echo’s voice shattered the silence.
“And I said I wasn’t leaving without her.”
Her who? Me? Even as the questions flashed in my head, the two charged each other, shifting into hyper speed. I screamed, but the sound was swallowed by the thud of Echo’s fist connecting with Torin’s body. The force threw Torin backwards and into the air, across the parking lot and the road to the trees on the other side.
A crack filled the air, and I winced. More uprooted trees and no explanation. The people of this town were going to believe we’d been invaded by aliens.
“Stand down, Valkyrie,” Echo yelled, turning around slowly, piercing wolf eyes studying the surrounding darkness. “Go home to your—”
Torin flew across the parking lot in swirls of flashing lights and caught Echo on the side. The force of his attack knocked Echo backwards. He slammed into Torin’s Harley, which broke his momentum. His hands and fingers dug into the ground, leaving grooves.
“STOP IT!” I yelled. “ECHO!”
But I might as well have been talking to myself. He propelled himself forward like a sprinter, but Torin was ready. Their bodies slammed, the sound like a cannon going off. They rolled across the parking lot and disappeared over the side of the mountain, taking down half the wooden security fence with them.
I ran, almost twisting my ankle in the fissures they’d left behind, fear clutching my stomach. There was no vegetation down there to break their fall, only broken beer bottles students had chucked.
I peered into the darkness. There was nothing but the sound of the rushing river at the bottom of the canyon.
“ECHO?” I yelled. The sound pierced the air, but the only answers were tremors from below as they continued to rip each other apart. “TORIN!”
Getting pissed, I turned and marched back to my car. The huge dent on the rear end of my car only made me angrier. Hand still hurting, I found the key on the tray next to the cup holders, where Echo had put his blades and started the car. Turning on the headlights, I hit reverse, almost running over Torin’s Harley, which had toppled on its side. I was surprised it wasn’t totaled.
The car rocked as it hit the cracks. My hand throbbed and continued to bleed. I brought the car to where the fence gaped like something from a haunted house and flashed the lights.
Please, let him be okay. Please, let him be safe.
I rolled down the windows and screamed again, “ECHO! TORIN!”
Echo appeared suddenly in front of headlights, looking like something out of a horror movie, blood on his chest and face. I forgot about my hand and slammed it on my mouth. Pain shot through my arm, and I cried out.
Echo peered at the car as though he’d heard me. He started toward me, but Torin appeared behind him, his T-shirt ripped, leather jacket dirty. Relief that they were both fine left me dizzy, but it was short-lived. Their arms shot out toward each other, and I lost it.
I grabbed Echo’s artavus, yanked the door open, and jumped out. “I swear if you two don’t stop this stupid fight, I will personally decapitate both of you right now.”
Their heads whipped in my direction.
I brandished the blade with my good hand. “I mean it. Stop it or I’m coming after both of you, and I’ll win because I’m pissed and I fight dirty, and you can’t fight back because I’m a girl.”
“Sweetheart,” Echo said.
“Don’t sweetheart me. I can’t just sit here while you two try to kill each other over… what? Some stupid ego crap? The worst part is you are enjoying it while I’m bleeding to death.”
Echo raised his hand in a placating gesture. “It’s okay, doll-face. We’re not fighting anymore.”
“You’re… not?” I stared at them. Their hands were clasped as though they were about to arm wrestle. They patted each other’s shoulders in a manly hug. The gesture looked staged because they were both stiff as though waiting for the other to attack.
“See? We made up.” Echo moved toward me, his eyes moving from my face to my hand. “You engaged your runes.”
I stared at him stupidly. “Huh?”
“Your runes. They’re glowing.”
I looked down, trying to see them under the glare of the headlights. I had runes on my arms. Not a lot, but still… I had them. They dimmed and disappeared. I opened my palm to check on my cut. It didn’t hurt as much, but the cut was still there.
“Echo, those are not regular—”
“Shut up, St. James,” Echo snapped, but his hand, when it closed around my wrist, was gentle. He pried the blade from my hand, saw the bloodied tissue in my other hand, and turned pale. “Are you bleeding? Did you cut yourself?”
I shook my head, trying to process many things at once. I had engaged my runes, but they hadn’t healed me. Torin was trying to warn Echo about something. Me? My runes? Why would he come for me? For that matter, why didn’t Torin want Echo to be with me when he had Raine? It wasn’t fair.
“It was an accident,” I said, searching Echo’s face. “I was looking for my, uh, things and cut it on your artavus.” His face was bloody, but I didn’t see any open wounds. Not on his chest or his abs. He’d run out shirtless. “Why did the runes take away my pain but not heal me?”
“Because you don’t have the right—”
One second Echo was beside me, the next he was by Torin, the artavus he’d taken from me pressed against Torin’s throat.
“I’m tired of your bullshit, Valkyrie. I want you to listen very carefully because I’m only going to say this once. I know her. She’s not some Immortal bitch with a vendetta against your people. She is Cora Jemison, and she’s mine. One more word out of you and your head says bye-bye to your neck,” Echo snarled.
Torin smirked, and I realized why. His hand was pressed against Echo’s chest. “We’ll see who is faster, Grimnir,” Torin retorted. “If you weren’t so irrational and stubborn, you’d see that I’m right. Or make an effort to confirm it.”
Tired of their crap, I marched to where they were facing off and pressed my hands on their chests. “You two have way too much testosterone to be rational. Echo, put the blade away. Torin, hands off his chest. You hurt him and I will come for you.”
Torin cocked his eyebrows and smirked.
Of course, I had no chance of ever hurting him. “In your sleep when you are vulnerable,” I snapped.
Torin stopped smirking while Echo chuckled.
I glared at Echo. “And you, no more warming you and no more kisses for a week if you don’t stop.”
He stopped smiling.
I pushed on their chests, but I might as well have been trying to move a wall of reinforced steel. Worse, the blood from my hand was leaking onto Torin’s shirt.
“Back down, boys. Now.”
“Anything for you, doll-face.” Echo removed the blade from Torin’s neck and slipped it in whatever hiding place he had in the back of his pants. Torin’s hand fell from Echo’s chest.
I stepped back, wooziness threatening to suck me under.
“Seriously, you two act like little boys when you are, like, what? Gazillions of years old?” I snapped.
“Actually, I’m—”
“I don’t care, Torin. Just play nice.” I stepped away from them, so exhausted I just wanted to go home. Worse, tears rushed to my eyes. I turned and stumbled on the uneven ground. Arms wrapped around me.
“I’ve got you.” Echo lifted me up and cradled me closer to his chest.
I studied his face. His beautiful face. “You look awful.”
“All the cuts are healed.” He walked around the car, opened the front passenger door, and sat with me on his lap and his feet on the ground. “Let me see the damage you’ve done to yourself.” His hand was gentle as he probed my palm. Funny how it looked ghastly yet I felt no pain. “What idiotic Valkyrie turned you without giving you healing runes?”
“Maliina.”
Echo stiffened. “How do you know?”
“Ingrid told me. Maliina is her sister, and she is not a Valkyrie. She’s an Immortal. Can you give me healing runes?”
“Hel’s Mist!” he swore and glared at Torin, who was watching us with an unreadable expression. “Get lost, St. James.” Torin turned and walked away. “Damn Andris and his idiotic habits. I’m so sorry, doll-face.”
The distress in his voice didn’t make sense. “It’s just a cut.”
Echo sighed. “No, it’s more than that. You’re not self-healing for a reason. St. James was right.”
“About what?”
“You.” Anguish flashed across Echo’s face, and with his runes glowing, I didn’t miss a thing. His eyes darkened, the green swallowing the gold. He dropped the bloodied tissue, reached down on the floor, and came up with his T-shirt. He wrapped it around my hand, his movements slow and gentle. “The things I’ve put you through. I shouldn’t be calling Andris an idiot. I’m the idiot. I should have seen it. Should have listened to you, but you look just like her. No, she looked just like you. There were subtle and obvious differences, but I wanted you and didn’t care. I liked the changes in you. You were sweeter and nicer, and I wanted it all. I’m so sorry.” He kissed my wrapped hand. “You need stitches on that cut.” He pressed his lips to my temple. “Hel’s Mist, this is my worst screw up yet. I’m so sorry.”
I wished he
would stop saying that. My fear had morphed into a full-blown panic. “What are you talking about? Who is like me? And why do we have to go to the hospital?”
He stood, easily carrying me, then walked around to the other side of the car and reluctantly set me on my feet. His hands, when he cupped my face, were unsteady. His face was gray under the runic glow. He brought my head toward his until our foreheads touched. Then he closed his eyes, his ridiculously long lashes forming a canopy on his chiseled cheekbones.
“I don’t think I can explain anything right now without going over the edge,” he said slowly as though he was in extreme pain. “I need to think. Confirm a few things.”
He opened his eyes. The wildness in them said thinking or confirming anything was the last thing on his mind. He looked ready to kill someone. Level a mountain or something.
“Echo—”
“Just know that I wanted to be with you, so I ignored the signs. I want you, Cora, not anyone else. You. Your warmth and sweetness.”
“I know.” I searched his face, my heart pounding with dread. “But you’re beginning to scare me, Echo. Nothing you say is making sense. Please, tell me what’s going on. Who is like me? What signs are you talking about?”
“Signs that you are not meant to be mine.” His voice was now a husky whisper of pain and self-recrimination. Blood roared past my ears, muffling his voice and distorting his words because there was no way he’d said what I just heard. “You never were.”
The ground gave out under me, and I would have fallen if he hadn’t wrapped an arm around me and held me up. I gripped his arms to steady myself.
“No,” I protested.
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying that. Tell me what’s going on.”
“I don’t want to let you go,” Echo whispered, arms tightening until there was no space between us. I didn’t even care that he was smearing blood all over me. My body recognized his, and my heart pounded in perfect unison with his.
Runes #03 - Grimnirs Page 13
