Twice Turned

by Heather McCorkle

  The metal door opened with a slight whoosh, revealing an elevator compartment. Turning sideways, I slipped through and managed to stay at Vidar’s side. Like the doors, the interior was all brushed stainless steel. It smelled mildly like cleaner and metal. Emelia turned to push the floor number and I realized they were in Roman numerals. The skin on the back of my neck prickled as the doors closed us in. The elevator whirred into action, carrying us down. Gaze shifting up to the roof access panel, I tried to breathe a little easier. At least there was one other way out.

  “Why electricity?” Evan asked.

  My gaze shot back to him. Blue silk pajamas hugged what looked like the body of a runner. Pale as he was, he was still sexy in a disheveled, rich boy kind of way. My mind filled with questions about his kind, but I couldn’t grasp any of them. I was too worried about Vidar.

  “Because I think I can use it to jump start his healing ability,” I said.

  The siblings exchanged a look. When Evan’s gaze came back to me his dark green eyes were a bit wider. “I didn’t know varúlfur could do that.”

  “They can’t, just me.”

  “Ah, it’s an uppskera trait, then.”

  I gave him a hard look, pushing a touch of power into it. It rolled over him like a wave, coating him, but not soaking in. Interesting. He had to be quite powerful to keep my power out. “Yes, but the others don’t know and we need to keep it that way.”

  “Are you sure they don’t know?” he asked.

  “I’m sure. They never would have attacked me during a storm if they knew.”

  “Unless they were testing you.”

  Horrible prickles of dread skittered down my spine and settled in my gut. “I killed them all so it doesn’t matter.” Just talking about it brought back the nasty scent of their scorched flesh. I suppressed a shudder. “Besides, they were after Vidar, not me.”

  Evan nodded. “Ah, I see.”

  I tensed. “What do you see?”

  “They either seek to eliminate a rival suitor, or they want Vidar out of the way for another reason.”

  My first instinct was to shrug off the idea. “Assassins have come after me when Vidar wasn’t around. And I spoke to one who said a hit was put on me.”

  “Have you considered there may be more than one person who put out a contract on your lives? And that they may have different agendas.”

  I hadn’t, but… The guys in Hemlock Hollow that had attacked me, the berserkr that had attacked Vidar, the weretiger, the werewolves at the waterfront, they were too many and too random to have been sent by the same person. Why hadn’t I thought of that before?

  “Shit.”

  “The more power you have, the more enemies you have,” Evan said.

  The truth of the words made me sick to my stomach. “All this time, I had thought it was just my brother. Now the entire world hates me,” I said, the last part coming out as a soft murmur.

  Evan’s ginger brows rose into his curls. “Your own brother? Vidar told me the man was villainous, but I had no idea it was that bad.”

  I looked back down at Vidar’s still form. His breathing came ragged and slow. “Yeah, neither did Vidar until he got back and saw.”

  “I don’t think he would have stayed away if he had known your brother was that bad,” Evan said.

  “He talked about me?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking.

  Evan smiled so big I saw the hint of very sharp canine teeth. They were short, somewhere between ours and a humans, but definitely more pronounced than a human’s. “Incessantly,” he said with a chuckle.

  Warmth spread throughout me. It intensified my dread. All this time we’d had feelings for each other and hadn’t acted on them. So many wasted opportunities and moments. If he survived this, I would never make that mistake again.

  The elevator eased to a stop and the door opened. A wide hall yawned before us, walls with a beige adobe-style finish seeming to stretch out forever. Taking the end of Vidar’s gurney, Emilia propelled us into that hall at a jog. She passed up a fork with halls extending in both directions and continued straight. A huge metal door similar to what one might see on a ship waited at the end. When we reached it she punched a code into the panel beside it and lowered her eye to the retinal scanner. That Evan had given his sister access to his workshop revealed a lot about how he felt about this family.

  We rolled into a large room dominated by what looked like a car chassis. Not just any car, but an electric one. The entire top half of the car was missing, exposing the enormous battery. Once I got a closer look, I realized it wasn’t one battery, but hundreds, thousands, all packed together in a compartment that stretched the entire length of the car from wheel well to wheel well. An l-shaped glass desk easily twenty feet total in length took up one corner of the room. Shelves of books, glass containers filled with fluids of various and sometimes bright colors, batteries, and wires, covered every wall. But it was the batteries of the electric car the held my attention. The fat cord extending from the wall to the car chassis looked like it would do nicely.

  “What do you need?” Evan asked.

  I pointed. “That.”

  Evan’s brows rose so high they disappeared into his ginger curls. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Two-hundred and twenty volts run through that cord.”

  I stared at him. “I channel lightning.”

  He let go of the gurney and stepped back as I rolled Vidar over next to the chassis. “But can Vidar survive that?” he asked in a quiet voice.

  A sad smile came to my lips as I looked down at Vidar. “He’s my insulator.”

  “Your insulator?” Emelia asked.

  “He can hold onto me when I channel it. He can help me direct it.”

  Emilia drew in a sharp breath and straightened. Her eyes flicked from Evan, to the door, and back to me. “You’re like Gungnir,” she whispered in a reverent tone.

  Chills ran through me at the comparison. The valkyrie had told me that coupled with Sonya—the Seeker—I had the potential to be one of Odin’s greatest weapons. Hearing it said like this, though, put it into a new perspective. I wasn’t sure I liked being compared to Gungnir, the mighty spear of Odin, one of the greatest weapons of the Gods. But it made a sort of sense I couldn’t deny.

  Claws extended, I picked up the power cord. “You may want to step back.”

  Not even my keen werewolf hearing picked up on their footsteps, but I felt their energy withdraw, so I knew they moved away. I stripped the insulation from the wires with a swipe of a sharp claw. The electricity jumped into me. I drew it in as hard as I could, inviting that wild, pulsing power to fill my body. It was more than the 120 volts I had played with as a kid, but it was like a glass of water where lightning was the incoming tide. I prayed it would be enough. The wound in my arm from the arrow I’d taken burned, but I ignored it. Vidar was all that mattered.

  The lights started to flicker after what felt like only a small jolt that didn’t even come close to filling me. As the power went out and plunged us all into total darkness, I let go of the now useless cord and lay my hands on Vidar. Coagulating blood squelched between my fingers. The renewed scent tried to drive a sliver of panic into me. I forced it aside and focused. Using my own power as a propellant, I channeled the electricity into Vidar.

  The different parts of his power stuck out to me like different scents. His healing ability wasn’t easy to find. It was fading by the moment. While perusing inside him I felt that the arrow had nicked his heart and damaged one of his valves. His werewolf strength was all that was keeping him alive, and it was failing. I directed the mixture of my power and electricity toward the part of his power that amplified his healing. My willpower helped direct it, funneling it down so all of it flowed where it needed to go. The nick in his heart repaired itself in an instant. The shredded valve knitted together a bit slower.

  He jolted beneath my hands and sucked in a deep gasp of air. “Ayra!” His hands found my arms, one moved up to my face. “A
re you hurt?” he asked.

  A generator whirred to life and the lights came back on.

  Relieved laughter bubbled from me. “Am I hurt? You’re insane, V, you know that?”

  I leaned down and carefully placed a long kiss on his pale pink lips. When I drew away color had already begun to return to them. The jolt hadn’t been able to heal him completely, but it did enough that he’d survive so his own healing could finish the job. Vidar smiled and my heart melted into a puddle I wasn’t sure would ever solidify.

  “It’s the superhero in me. Seriously, though, are you hurt?” he said.

  I put my hand against his where it cupped my cheek. “No, not at all, thanks to you.”

  Relief smoothed out his features, erasing the wrinkles between his brows and around his eyes. “Well, superhero and all, you know.”

  I kissed him again. His hand moved to cradle the back of my head. I clung to him, but gently, knowing he had a lot more healing to do. He felt so amazing, warm, and alive beneath my lips that I wasn’t about to try and draw back. The world narrowed to just him for a wonderful moment. Then someone cleared their throat.

  “I do beg your pardon, but you should take care not to overexert yourself too much just yet,” Evan said.

  “Now Evan, they’ve just reunited after Ayra feared she might lose him. Give them a moment, or ten. I’ve always wanted to see werewolves mate,” Emelia said, mumbling the last bit beneath her breath.

  Evan made an exasperated sound and said something sharply in Gaelic to Emelia. “Please forgive my sister. She grew up in the sixties and seventies,” he said to us.

  “Don’t be such a prude, Evan. Surely you’re curious too,” she countered.

  Vidar chuckled, the sound ending in a wince that left him clutching his chest. I put a hand on his shoulder and focused my power into my sense of hearing. His heart beat strong and steady. I let a long breath out.

  “Your sister is every bit as spunky as you described her,” Vidar said.

  The draugr’s lips curved up, exposing one very pointy eye tooth. “I did warn you.” He crossed the room to Vidar’s gurney. “It’s good to see you, my friend. I’m only sorry it’s under such circumstances.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Vidar grumbled.

  Evan dipped his head in my direction. “Your lady here is every bit as marvelous as you described.”

  Fingers wove through mine. I looked down to find Vidar gazing up at me not with the adoration or worship I feared, but love. The shock of it stole away the snappy response I had to Evan’s words.

  “Yes she is,” Vidar agreed.

  His eyes trapped me, holding me like something precious and priceless. The world narrowed down to only the two of us again. I heard the others in the room, but it didn’t matter. Emotion choked me until I couldn’t draw another breath. Vidar had almost died. If that had happened, I would have lost my mind.

  “The doctor is still on his way. If you’d like, he can take a look at you. And I hate to press, but the council is meeting at five o’clock,” Evan said.

  Feeling the resistance building in him, I gave Vidar a hard look. He finally sighed and broke from my gaze to look at Evan. “Yeah, the doc can take a look at me. Just so long as he gets here before the meeting. I’m not missing that.”

  I dipped my head in compromise. “Fair enough.”

  “In that case, we’re going to give you two a moment alone while we go prepare to hack the unhackable,” Evan said. He bowed his head low to both of us and made his way to the door.

  A profound look of disappointment came over Emelia. “We? But shouldn’t one of us stay close in case—”

  “No, Emelia, come along.” He grabbed her arm as he walked past and dragged her along behind him.

  She walked backwards, her eyes glued to us. “But I have so many questions, as I’m sure they do about us!”

  “There will be time for that later,” Evan insisted.

  Emelia’s eyes locked onto mine. “Later then?”

  Her curiosity made me smile. I would have felt exactly the same were I not so distracted. “Later,” I promised.

  The door closed on her eager face, leaving Vidar and I alone at last. The woman in me and the reaper in me went to war. One part of me wanted to collapse into his arms and let the tears of relief fall that I’d been holding back. The other part wanted to kill everyone who threatened us.

  “This is—”

  “Not your fault, don’t you even say it,” Vidar interrupted.

  Unable to hold his gaze, I looked down at our clasped hands; his big, dark hand enveloped my tiny pale one. He seemed so strong, so untouchable. But today had proved he was anything but. His free hand lifted my chin, forcing me to look at him. The fierce look burning in his eyes took my breath away.

  “If I hadn’t been in the process of going down on you, that shot wouldn’t have missed my heart. So the way I see it, you saved me,” he said.

  “I let myself get distracted while I knew we had enemies out there. And now I’m not so sure Calder is our only enemy.”

  His brows rose. “Please, Ayra, don’t let this change your mind. You’re my soul mate. I would fight off all the assassins in the nine worlds to be with you.”

  I batted my eyelashes at him. “That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.” I let the playfulness melt away and expose my determination. “But you won’t have to, V, because I’m going to show them all that they don’t want to fuck with us ever again.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Vidar

  Evan’s conference room wouldn’t stop spinning. Even with Ayra at my side, hand clutching mine like a lifeline, I felt like I might topple at any moment. It didn’t help that on each facet of the hexagon-shaped room a TV with revolving pictures of the hills of Scotland took up the wall. It took a good amount of my training to keep me standing tall and steady. Each beat of my heart sent a thud of pain reverberating through my body. Each breath fanned the coals of a fire smoldering in my chest. Each movement threatened to sap the last of my energy. My body wanted me to rest so it could finish healing me, and I desperately wanted to comply.

  But I couldn’t. Hel, I couldn’t even show the slightest weakness. The villains needed to think they had failed utterly, not realize they’d come so close to success. I would not be the reason they renewed their efforts against us. And if Ayra was right and they were sending assassins after me now, they needed to be taught why that was a really bad idea.

  Gazing up at me with a heavy look, Ayra frowned. “You sure you’re up for this?” she asked.

  I grinned and leaned closer. “Darling, I’m up for anything you can imagine.”

  She grimaced, which was exactly the opposite effect I’d been going for. “Is that going to be a thing now?” she asked.

  “A thing?” I tried not to sound too disappointed and failed.

  Her arms wrapped around my waist and she narrowed her eyes as she looked up at me. “The hometown charm thing. I’ll take my comic book geek over a cowboy any day.” A smile broke through as she said the last part.

  Raising my arms up, I flexed one bicep, then the other. “Can a comic book geek do this?”

  A huge, beautiful grin broke over her face as she pulled me closer with a little more care than I liked. “Mine can,” she whispered.

  That lithe little body pressed against mine made blood rush hot through my veins. My heart ached from pumping overtime, but I didn’t care. She rose up on her toes, and pressed her lips to mine. Her hands went around my neck. The rest of the world fell away, almost literally, as I started to sway on my feet. In an instant, her hands were back around my waist, steadying me.

  The worry in her eyes worried me. “Easy there. Why don’t you stand behind me for this, with your arms around my waist. It will remove any question as to my choice of mates,” she said.

  What she didn’t say hung over us like the threat of an anvil. And it will help keep you steady on your feet. She didn’t have to voice it. I could see it
in her eyes. We couldn’t afford to have our enemies see either of us as weak. But that didn’t worry me as much as how long healing would take. Time was a luxury we didn’t have at the moment. She was right and I couldn’t let my ego get in the way of that.

  “Going live in five,” Evan warned from the podium in the center of the room.

  I nodded to Ayra and slid my arms around her waist. She turned her back to me and rested her hands atop mine. I tried to pull my hands away with the intention of putting them on her shoulders, but she held fast. My back straightened so fast I felt a vertebrae pop. Mating with me in private was one thing, but this display could give people an entirely different idea, a more formal one. She couldn’t possibly be considering…

  The TV screens came to life with sound and live images. Several of them divided into two images to accommodate all ten members of the Shifter Council. One Representative of each of the known races were present: a male lion shifter, female leopard shifter, female tiger shifter, male cheetah shifter, female brown bear shifter, a male black bear shifter, a female polar bear, a male panda bear, a female coyote shifter, a male fox shifter, a male jackal shifter, and a female wolf shifter. Each were of course in their human forms, but I knew who they were, and what they were. Despite an aversion to politics, I kept up on them.

  The varúlfur counsellor, Brigid Thomasdottír, flicked her wide blue eyes from Evan, to Ayra and I, and back again. Her cheeks flushed a brilliant red and she bowed her head low to Ayra.

  “Uppskera, you honor us with your presence,” she said.

  The male lion shifter snarled and bared his fangs. “Like hell! No one has the right to interrupt a council meeting. And who the hell are you?” he directed the last to Evan.

  The black bear shifter answered. “He’s Evan McDougall, a draugr. What is the meaning of this?”

  “Why can’t I log out?” another asked.

  “How did you get past our firewalls?” demanded another.