by Leah Cutter
“And you did such a good job of it,” I added sarcastically.
Both men turned to glare at me.
“Seriously. Hunter, you’re a mess. Sorry, but that’s the truth. You need counseling to help you deal with the PTSD. Even if they didn’t believe what you were seeing, they should have helped you deal with the stress of it,” I said. “So Josh, don’t go patting yourself on the back too much. You kept him on the street. Unable to merge back with society. So you and your company could continue their experiment with him.”
“Whatever,” Josh said, shaking his head and rolling his eyes.
Josh was worse than a used car salesman—even if he knew the truth of the situation, he wasn’t about to admit it.
“And now you need to do one more thing for me,” Hunter said, turning his attention back on Josh.
“What, get you some condoms? Grocery store is just up the street,” Josh said, sneering.
I knew Hunter could move fast. This time, though, he moved so fast I didn’t even see him move. I just saw the end result, Josh being held up by his neck by Hunter’s one hand, his feet dangling above the floor. “You will treat my blood brother with respect,” Hunter said sharply.
“We need you to drive us someplace,” I told Josh when Hunter didn’t appear to want to continue, as Josh’s face turned red.
“Where?” Josh managed to choke out.
“We’ll know it when we see it,” I told him. It was as close to the truth as I was about to get.
“Okay, yes,” Josh wheezed.
Hunter dropped him unceremoniously.
Josh collapsed to the floor and sat there, coughing for a moment. “Then we’re even, right?” he finally asked. “I won’t owe you any more favors?”
Hunter gave a laugh that I’d never heard before, loud and full of merriment, like this was the best joke he’d heard in a long time. “Oh no, Josh my friend. This is just the start.”
***
Josh still drove the same shitty piece of junk I’d first met him in. It smelled of sweat and cheap fries, as if he’d been living in it before moving to his swanky new digs. However, the engine turned over right away and the heat started blasting quickly.
“So where am I going?” Josh asked as he eased his way into the holiday traffic on Lake Street.
I half turned in the front seat to look at Hunter. “Well?” I asked, when Hunter didn’t reply.
“North,” Hunter said after a moment, frowning.
I turned back around as Josh navigated.
“I take it your powers have come,” Josh said quietly as we headed north on Hennepin.
“No thanks to you,” I pointed out. “Didn’t use your inhaler.” I did have it, though, in a pocket of my jacket.
Always better to be prepared. Just in case.
“I’d say every thanks to me,” Josh countered. “If I hadn’t interfered, you would have gone into the regular program. It would have taken months, if not years, for your power to manifest.” He paused, then asked, “So what’s it like?”
I snorted at him. “Yeah, like I’m ever going to tell you anything. You’ll just carry that information back to your corporate overlords.”
“You ever get shy on money, you let me know,” Josh told me. “I’m sure we can work out a deal.”
“Why do you think I won’t be able to get a regular job?” I asked him. “Now that I’m one of the blessed and everything.” And wasn’t that a kicker?
“Because of how you got there,” Josh said. “You cheated. You took a shortcut. They aren’t going to thank you for that. Or give you a job. No one will trust your powers. No one legitimate, that is.”
Shit. That sounded just as fucked as the government generally was.
“Don’t listen to him, Cassie,” Hunter said. “There aren’t enough of us. You have skills others need.”
I shrugged. Even if I didn’t have a job working as a post-cog, I was certain I could stay employed at Chinaman Joe’s.
Even if I was taking off a bunch of time during one of our busiest weeks.
Hunter sat in the back with his eyes closed, muttering. Josh didn’t seem worried about this, so I tried not to be as well.
Traffic was awful. I couldn’t see why people did this every day, twice a day, for years. I don’t think I could. Would have made me absolutely nuts.
I didn’t see any pasts, though, as we were traveling. I also didn’t try finding that blue dot and riding the waves out. I didn’t want to take a chance on interfering with Hunter’s hunt.
After getting us all the way north to the circling interstate, Hunter had us turn east, toward St. Paul.
Josh predicted that as soon as we left the freeway we’d be lost.
He was right. I had no idea where we were, where we were going.
Luckily, Hunter was driving by feel, not by map. He directed us down streets that probably were known only to locals, then out again, finally drawing us up near the capitol.
“Here?” I asked dubiously. I figured any senator worth his salt would have the call girls coming to him.
“Here,” Hunter said as he slid out of the car. “Thanks for the ride, Josh. And all the drugs. Particularly the speed and heroin.”
“But I—”
Hunter slammed the door on Josh’s reply.
“What was that all about?” I asked as we made our way up the wide sidewalk.
“I assume everything said in that vehicle is recorded,” Hunter said. “Figured I’d give his, what did you call them, corporate overlords, something to ask him about.”
I’d been worried that Hunter hadn’t seemed very angry at Josh for what he’d been doing.
Now I realized that Hunter didn’t have to show rage for him to be intent on revenge.
***
The capitol was prettier than I remembered as a kid, coming here on field trips. White fairy lights decorated the grand domes. There was more snow over here as well, coating the lawns in graceful white. While the buildings were huge, the way they were set out also made them accessible; at least, that’s what my dad had told me.
Of course, the cold hadn’t let up one bit.
Hunter was still hunting. We were close, but not there yet. I had to take his arm more than once to keep him on the sidewalk as he continued to search out the not-man.
I didn’t recognize my name until I heard someone call it for a second time. “Cassandra. Cassandra!”
I turned us both around. “Mom?” I asked. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d be in Florida by now.”
She wore a coat I’d never seen before, dark red wool with gold buttons down the front, almost like a military coat. Her rabbit-fur earmuffs were perfectly placed so as to not muss her hair. And her black boots were sensible, stylish, as well as warm.
“I won’t be flying out until tomorrow,” Mom said, coming up. She didn’t have to wrinkle her nose for me to see her distaste. “And why are you here?” she asked. “I’ve never seen you here before.”
I nodded, understanding. This was Mom’s territory, and I’d just crashed her party, uninvited.
“We’re looking for someone,” I told her. I glanced back up at Hunter. “Hooker or drug dealer?”
Hunter shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“I see,” Mom said.
She was about to turn and go when I added, “Say, Mom? Would it change your opinion of my sexual orientation if I told you I’d come into my abilities finally?”
“Excuse me?” Mom asked, her eyes wide. “But you—you never showed even the slightest abilities in any of the pretesting!”
“Those pretest centers. They aren’t run by the government, are they?” I asked, suddenly suspicious.
“No, they’re administered by a private group,” Mom said.
“Jacobson Consortium,” I told her. “Yeah. Their tests are actually meant to keep some people out of the government nets. So they end up needing the company instead.”
“I know people on the board of the Jacobson Cons
ortium,” Mom said frostily. “They’re good people.”
“I have no doubt about that,” I told her. “But their mission is skewed. Or rather, they’re a little more self-serving than you realize.”
“Can you prove it?” Mom asked, suddenly interested.
I shrugged. “Not tonight. And Sam already knows.”
“Sam?” Mom paused, then nodded. “That’s right. Samantha Monroe. Lovely woman. Her family’s always been very charitable.”
I was about to point out to Mom that Sam was also very gay, but decided against outing her. I had no idea if she was in the closet as far as the general public was concerned, and it certainly wasn’t my place to burst my mother’s bubble.
Hunter tugged on my arm. “This way,” he said firmly.
“Look, Mom, I’ve got to go,” I said, turning.
“Cassandra.”
I paused and looked back at her.
“I do love you,” Mom said. “You should never doubt that. I might wish for something other for you, a better, easier life. But I also…I’d also like to see you. More regularly.”
Huh. My own Christmas miracle.
Was it because I’d come into my abilities? Because she was moving to Florida and wouldn’t have to actually keep her word? Or had my mom finally seen some sort of light?
It didn’t matter. Maybe part of the miracle was that I, after all these years, felt like saying yes.
“Okay,” I said.
“I’ll call you. After the holidays,” Mom said. “Good-bye, and…good luck.”
She turned to go back to her perfectly normal life and her perfectly normal husband-to-be.
While I turned to Hunter, ready to plunge into the chaos and weirdness that was now my life.
***
“Here?” I asked, stopping, looking over my shoulder at Hunter. “Are you sure?”
It wasn’t really an alley. It was more like a space between two concrete garages. I could fit through and my hips wouldn’t touch the walls, but just barely.
I’d seen nicer alleys. Hell, I’d been in bigger closets.
It gave me the creeps.
Even with the cold, the place smelled foul. As if bums had been using it for a toilet for so long, the wood along the ground had all rotted. The wind had died and the air had that quiet feeling the world gets just before it snows, though there was no precipitation predicted in the forecast. No snow marked the ground nearby, as if it wouldn’t dare trespass.
“Here,” Hunter growled.
I shook my head but finally pushed myself to go forward. Eaves from the building on either side covered the space. Killer icicles hung down, though I didn’t know when it had been warm enough for anything to melt, or even when it would get warm again.
“Careful, or you’ll lose an eye,” I joked.
The space got darker. Were the two buildings’ roofs touching now? And the stench was much more foul.
How long were these buildings, anyway?
I was about to turn back to complain when I saw a light up ahead.
It wasn’t a natural light.
Fuck.
Were we too late? Had the non-man already done his work? Was I seeing the past already?
I hurried forward, slipping more than once on the treacherous snow and ice.
There was the non-man. Only he was human now.
Did that mean he was real?
“Hey, stop!” I shouted as I walked forward.
The twink on his knees in front of the non-man looked up at us, guilty. “Sorry, man, not into threesomes,” he muttered as he stood up quickly, zipping his own dick away. “Look. I’ll call you. Or something,” the guy promised. “Excuse me,” he said, brushing past me, his head down, his fair cheeks dark with shame.
The non-man stood in the gap between the buildings with a huge grin on his face. He looked different in the flesh. He had a black eye patch decorated with silver grapes, for one thing. He was just as tall, though, with big hands, a big nose, and shaggy blond hair that fell into his pale blue eyes.
And he still had that thing that looked like a camera slung around his neck.
“You killed my friend,” I told him. “In the alley.”
“My dear, there’s been so many recently, I couldn’t possibly know who you mean,” the guy said. “Could you be a little more specific?”
I growled at him. Hunter came up behind me, standing close enough to my shoulder that he shared some of his warmth.
“You need to come with us. To go see the cops,” I said firmly.
Hunter would make sure this guy couldn’t get away. No matter how big or strong he seemed, Hunter was faster. Better trained.
The guy just laughed. “I’m sure it would be fun running the police around in circles for the evening. But I don’t have time.”
“You’ll make the time,” I told him.
“Stubborn little thing, aren’t you?” he said. He walked closer to me.
I held my ground, with Hunter at my back.
“What’s your name?” the man asked. His eyes were really blue.
“Cassandra Lewis,” I told him. I shook my head. Good thing I wasn’t into guys, cause he was kind of cute. “Who are you?”
“I’m the god Loki,” he said expansively.
“Yeah, right,” I told him. Great. Another crazy.
“You think I just kill these poor creatures. You couldn’t be further from the truth,” Loki said.
“You take their souls,” Hunter said, finally joining in the conversation. “Or their fighting spirit. Or something.”
“A seer!” Loki exclaimed. He peered over my shoulder at Hunter. “Storyteller!” he exclaimed. “I’ve been looking for ones like you.”
“What do you want with him? And why are you taking my friends’ souls?” I asked.
Loki turned to look at me again. “They live on, you know. In glorious battle. The whores make fine Valkyrie, to lift the victorious fallen, to give them a chance to live again, make something of themselves. While the others, they make good generals. Or soldiers. Depending.”
So that’s what Kyle was now? A Valkyrie? I couldn’t help but shudder.
“You take their souls with that spider thing,” I said, pointing to the camera he still wore around his neck.
“Two seers?” Loki asked, looking from me to Hunter and back again. “But you don’t see like he does, do you?”
I wanted to lie, but found I couldn’t. “No. I see the past. He sees the future.”
“You saw me, though. Both of you,” Loki said thoughtfully.
“Yes. And we stopped you,” I said fiercely, trying to concentrate on the win here.
“You merely delayed a single conquest,” Loki said dismissively.
“We’ll keep hunting you, no matter where you go,” I said hotly. “Stop you every time.”
Loki cocked his head to one side to look at me curiously. “And you truly believe that, as well. My, my. We seem to be at an impasse here.”
“Why do you want soldiers?” Hunter asked.
“That’s right. You were a soldier once, weren’t you?” Loki asked. “It’s the twilight of the gods. After the new moon, a new world will arise.”
I shivered. The way he spoke the words made them shine silver in the light, as if every word he said was destined to be true.
“Ragnarok,” I said, shivering.
“That word isn’t wholly inaccurate,” Loki murmured. “This world will die. A new one will be born in its stead.”
“How many people are you going to kill in this crazy war of yours?” I asked. I mean, if it was just happening over where Loki was, that would be fine, wouldn’t it?
“All of them!” Loki said cheerily. “No, that’s not true. All but two.”
Suddenly Loki was much closer, standing in my personal space, close enough that I could smell the honeyed smoke of his hair. “You could be one of them. One of the chosen two. All you’d have to do is pledge yourself to me.”
I forced myself to
stand still. “You’re not my type.”
“Too godly?” Loki asked, drawing back, giving me a huge smile. He really was cute.
I shook my head. No. “Wrong plumbing,” I told him honestly.
That gave Loki pause for a moment. “Ah. That’s why you weren’t more attracted to me earlier. Fascinating.”
I smirked at him. “Happens all the time.”
Loki cocked his head to one side, considering. “Not worth changing for you.”
His face changed slightly. The female version of Loki stared at me.
Damn she was cute.
“I’ll just have to take the storyteller, then. His death will help seal the fate of the world, make it stick,” Loki said.
“You can’t have Hunter,” I told him.
“Too late, my dear.”
I’d thought Hunter moved quickly. Loki was even faster. The pair of them traveled down the end of the small walkway and were gone before I’d taken a single step.
Damn it.
Was this Loki character really a god? It kind of fit, with the taking of souls and everything. I shivered in the cool evening.
Which left me where? I had a crazy god on the loose who was killing people to help him with the final battle of the world, and I’d just lost Hunter, the only person who saw the same things I did, different futures and pasts.
I needed to go after Loki. Get to the battle. Try to stop him somehow.
Try to save the world.
Mom always did say I was destined for greatness.
Somehow, I don’t think she meant this.
Chapter Fourteen
The last person I expected to hear calling my name as I walked toward the sports arena was Sam.
I didn’t want to stop for her. I was tired and cold. The streets weren’t deserted, but the types who were hanging out weren’t those I’d normally associate with—drunks and fratboys from the nearby bars. It was already drawing close to midnight. I’d finally stopped and looked at the date—December twenty-first, the longest night of the year.
Normally, that was something I’d celebrate. All that extra loving time.
Right now, I knew that gave me fewer hours to prevent a war. A war that I still wasn’t sure I believed in.
