The eldjötnar. He knew.
She shook her head.
“Jaron went after him. The demon was foolish to approach you while we were close. What did he do?”
“He taunted me. Told me the Wardens were just like them. That’s what you are, right? A Warden?”
He pressed his lips to her forehead. His sigh sent tingles skipping across her skin. He carried her to the bed and crawled onto it with her still cradled against his chest. “Yes. We are the Wardens of the mist and guardians of its treasures.”
She peered into his face. The moonlight coming from the window cast a silvery radiance onto his skin and enhanced the gray in his eyes. In this moment, he appeared ethereal. He could’ve been an angel, but if what the fire demon had said was true, he was far from good?
“And are you as evil as they are?”
He skimmed his fingertips down her cheek. “I suppose we could be, but remember, the eldjötnar chose to consume the life force of their mates in order to break their bonds. They also choose to wreak havoc on the world simply because they have the power to do so.” He urged her to straddle him. She did, settling her bottom over his bent thighs. “We have always held our honor close. It guides our choices from feeding to mating.”
She pressed a hand to her neck. “You didn’t bite me.” She posed it as a statement and hoped it was true.
He wrapped a section of her hair around his hand and tugged her head exposing her throat. Her heartbeat kicked up. He bent closer and brushed his lips along the column, right over her racing pulse. Her breaths quickened, not in fear. Anticipation rode her. She wanted him to bite her. Jesus, what was she thinking? She tried to shake her head to get the crazy thought out. He held her still.
“No.” His breath tickled her ear. “Taking your blood would guarantee our mating. There would be no discussion. I would make you mine. I won’t do that to you, Cat. I won’t take the choice out of your hands. Being my mate is an eternal commitment for both of us.”
“Who do you bite then?”
“We coax human males or animals to share their blood with us.”
The dog. He hadn’t been hugging a beloved pet. He’d been feeding.
She strained against his hold. He immediately eased his tight grip on her hair. She stared into his eyes. “Do you kill them?”
He cupped her face in his large palms. “Never. Wardens only take what their hosts can safely give. Think of it, Cat. We come from a world where living creatures are few and far between. Killing our donors would be detrimental to our existence.”
Her breath escaped in a slow hiss. The tension in her shoulders eased. “But you can’t die.”
“Without nourishment, we must embrace the death-sleep or succumb to blood lust.”
The words triggered the importance of the conversation she’d had with Sam. “Is that what your gods had succumbed to? A death-sleep?”
“They are your gods, not mine.”
She waved his statement away. She wasn’t about to get into a conversation about religion with him. Her acceptance of his nonhuman status and his tale of demons and Ragnarok pushed her limit of what she was willing to believe. “Answer me. Do they appear dead?”
A guarded look slid over his features. “Yes. Our bodily functions stop, but we are not dead. Our…” He paused a moment. His brows turned down. “Our souls still reside within our physical shells. Here.” He laid a hand over his heart. “Life returns to our bodies when we are awakened.”
She sat up straighter and gripped his shoulders. “What triggers you to wake up?”
For a long moment, Rune didn’t say anything. He watched her with first confusion then wariness. Finally, he sighed. Defeat slackened his features. “It depends on why we entered into the sleep. For us, it was the duty to protect humans from our enemies. Our last thought was to rise if we sensed their release. Our souls remembered and we awoke.”
“But the gods? What would wake them?”
He set her on the bed and climbed off. Long strides took him to the window. He leaned against the frame and surveyed the village.
“Well? Answer me.”
He snorted. “You are a demanding female.”
The hint of amusement in his voice brought a smile to her lips. “Like I said earlier, you have no idea. It’s probably why I don’t have a boyfriend.”
He peered over his shoulder. His eyes took on a faint glow. The tips of his fangs showed in his parted mouth, not the full set she’d seen on Jaron. She waited for her fear to surface at the reminder of his nonhuman status. It never came.
“I am not sure your personality has anything to do with it.”
She scrunched her nose and ran a hand over her uneven hair. A visit to the hairdresser and drugstore for makeup was a must as soon as she got home. “Thanks. That makes me feel wonderful.”
He ambled back to her side. Next to the bed, he towered over her. She glanced into his face. The look of hunger she’d seen him wear more often than not around her heated his eyes. The glow to them and the pointy teeth in his mouth gave him a wild edge. Arousal flowed. The fresh pair of panties she’d slipped on when she’d arrived grew damp.
In a quick move, he fisted her hair and used the hold to tip her head back. He bent over her and stared deeply into her eyes.
“I can’t help wondering if the mist hasn’t chosen you for me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have been in this village for over a week and passed through others. Many females have crossed my path. Beautiful, alluring ones. Women who would’ve spread their legs in a heartbeat for me if I’d asked.” He leaned closer and traced her lips with the tip of his tongue. She parted her mouth for his kiss. He eased back and caught her gaze. “None stirred my cock or my hunger. None mattered until I saw you.”
Oh. Dear. God.
The man knew exactly what to say to a girl.
She cleared her throat. “I’m not special, Rune. Maybe I just smell better than the other women in the village.”
“You do smell of heaven.” He skimmed his lips across her cheek to her ear. “My heaven.”
She grabbed his arms to steady herself. “See? It’s pheromones. How I smell. Nothing more.”
He dragged his parted mouth down her throat. The scrape of his fangs against her skin tore a whimper from her. He nibbled over her pounding vein before easing back so only his lips touched her neck.
He turned his head and captured her gaze. “It is more. I’ve seen it.”
With that, he kissed her. Deep, slow strokes of his tongue with hers ignited the fire that burned for him alone. No other man had ever made her feel so complete. His scent and warmth of his body wrapped around her. He could be her heaven too. Did she want that? She didn’t know. How could she make such a life-altering decision? Her world was unraveling, but here, in Rune’s arms, she felt right.
For the moment, that was all that mattered. She settled her hands on his waist and pulled him closer.
A low groan crawled up his throat. He held her with the grip he had on her hair and worked her mouth in quicker strokes. She could barely move, but she slid her hands over him—his ass, his back, anywhere she could touch.
His guttural moan turned into a growl that rumbled his chest. The sound whipped through her. Her muscles slackened and her hands slipped from his rear. He lifted her, a hand on her bottom, and kissed her as if he were starving. She automatically wrapped her legs around him and kissed him back.
He gripped her hair. The tug on the strands sent a bite of pain across her scalp while the caress over her butt cheeks spread pleasure. The two extremes left her quivering.
Another whimper crawled up her throat. He took control of her passion and directed her in the intimate dance she hadn’t known was possible outside of sex. Never had a man kissed her the way Rune did, as if she were the very air he needed to breathe.
Her back met the mattress. His weight settled on top of her. So damn good. She moaned. He fed her his pleasured sound too and ran
his hands down her arms. He linked their fingers. She curled them, holding his tight. The connection the small touch brought cracked open her heart. She couldn’t stop it.
He pushed her hands into the cheap cotton sheets, locking her upper body in place, forcing her to experience everything he could give her. Anticipation rose along with the same sense of desperation she’d felt before. She wiggled against his trapped length. The desire to be inside her grew. He thrust against her in a mimic of sex while he continued to love her mouth. It was nice but not what she wanted.
Naked, she wanted them naked.
She pushed against him. He broke their kiss. Glowing eyes locked on to her.
“Clothes.” The single word came out as a demand meaning so much more.
He grinned. “Yes, our clothes. They will be staying on.”
She frowned. His denial didn’t make sense in her sex-starved brain. “But you want me.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “More than any other. It is why we will not be giving in to our passion. I won’t send you running from me again. I can’t lose you.”
Damn.
The man was determined to win her heart.
“That’s not why I left.”
He eased back and met her eyes. “Then why did you?”
“I needed…” to get away from you. She couldn’t tell him that, not after the respect he’d just shown her. She bit her lip and gave her other reason. “Ivan told me about some books he had. They detail the local legends. I wanted to confirm…” Her words trailed off with the hurt look in Rune’s eyes.
“That the tale I told you was true.” He rolled off her and sat on the edge of the bed. “Why didn’t you ask me to come with you? Did you not believe when I said you were in danger too?”
She knelt behind him but didn’t touch him. She held her hand above the tattoo on his back. Tingles danced from her fingers up her arm to spread through her body. She dropped her hand before the desire his nearness sparked could take her over.
“Like I said, I don’t know what’s truth and what’s not, especially when…”
“When all you can think about it sex.” He turned and took her hand. It looked so small and delicate cradled in his. He stroked his thumb over her knuckles. “I feel the same, but know this—I…” He swallowed hard. “I like you, Cat. It is more than just your body I lust for. You intrigue me.”
The door banged open on a gust of wind and snow flurries before she could respond, not that she knew what she would say anyway. The cool breeze swept through the room, but didn’t chill her. She pressed against Rune’s back anyway. Fear drove the reaction.
Jaron stood in the doorway, more frightening than he’d appeared the first time she saw him. Rage tightened his features. His glowing eyes locked on to them. “The eldjötnar escaped.”
The words came out slurred. Her gaze dropped to the fangs filling his mouth. She inched closer to Rune.
“Why didn’t you go after him?” Rune asked.
“He got on a small airplane with a human pilot. I couldn’t direct the winds to crash it with an innocent inside.” Jaron slammed the door behind him and crossed to them.
Rune tucked her against his side. “Who was it?”
“Draven.”
“Shit.”
The two brothers held each other’s gazes. She glanced between them. Worry showed on their expressions. She caught Rune’s chin and turned his head to face her. “Talk to me. What’s going on?”
He blinked and focused on her. “Draven is unmated and does not carry the virus. They feed and claim consorts the same way we do. Had he caught you, I could’ve lost you to him.”
She heard the worry in his voice. She acknowledged it but pushed it aside. It hadn’t happened thanks to Ivan. What bothered her was Rune’s first statement. “So there’s another demon who’s infecting people?”
“Yes, but that is not our biggest concern.”
She glanced at Jaron. “What is?”
“Draven’s words to me before he slipped inside the plane.” He stepped closer. A growl rumbled his chest. “He asked if I’d discovered what had happened to the gods yet because he had.”
“What happened to them?” she asked though she feared she already knew.
Rune glanced at her. “Their bodies were taken from their resting place.”
She clamped her free hand over her mouth to stifle her gasp. The Norsemen that had been found. It was true.
Rune cradled her hands in his and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. “We must get them back before the demons locate them. The eldjötnar believe there is an alternate outcome to Ragnarok, one that will halt the earth’s decline and grant ultimate control over the world to a new set of gods.”
She glanced in the direction of her computer and books. “I don’t remember reading about one.”
Jaron knelt in front of her, blocking her view. “Not everything is contained within your books, especially this particular version of the Ragnarok. It’s too dangerous.”
“Why?”
Jaron leveled a hard look on her. “Because it is believed that whoever kills a god absorbs his or her abilities.” He narrowed his eyes on her. “That applies to any being, including the humans. Can you imagine what would happen if the wrong person could wield such power? We must find the gods before that happens. Do you understand?”
She nodded. Crazy as it sounded. She did.
Where had her rational mind gone?
She didn’t have an answer to that. She only knew they were in a hell of a lot of trouble. During the 40s, they didn’t have the non-invasive scanning equipment archaeologists used today. It wasn’t her field of science and she didn’t claim to understand what would be involved in studying an ancient body, but it didn’t take much to envision them doing an autopsy on them.
“Rune?” He glanced at her. “How can your gods die?”
“By removing their hearts or heads.”
She swallowed hard. Bile rushed up. As part of a corpse’s examination, all organs were removed, examined and weighed. Please, God, let me be wrong. For once, I don’t want to be right.
She gripped Rune’s shoulders. “Why didn’t they wake up when their bodies were moved?” Or cut open.
When he didn’t say anything, she shook him. “Dammit, answer me!”
“Only the blood of a Warden will wake them. Mated males had guarded Asgard. When they died, we destroyed the bridge leading to their fortress and sealed their resting place in ice.”
“And their frozen tomb melted exactly as the ones here in Niflheim did,” Jaron added.
“You mean Greenland.”
Rune caught her chin and used his hold to turn her head. His gaze settled on her. “Yes, that is what our home is now called.” He cupped her face in his hands. “Tell me what is troubling you.”
She ignored his question and asked one of her own. She had to be sure. “Where is Asgard?”
“Across the water in the land you call Iceland.”
She closed her eyes. A lump lodged in her throat. Her institute, the one her grandmother had helped establish, had been involved in the Norse gods’ demise.
No, they’re just missing. Don’t think the worst without facts.
Her rationalization didn’t do much to reassure her. She clung to it anyway.
“Well, Cat? It is your turn. Talk to me.”
She opened her eyes and held Rune’s gaze. “I might be able to find your gods.” Or what’s left of them.
He stared at her for a long moment. His expression hardened. “Where are they?”
“I don’t know exactly, but I’m pretty sure I know who took them.”
Jaron growled. “Well, woman, tell us.”
She was trying to get it out. It disturbed her to think her intelligent grandmother, the one she was named after, might’ve killed the Norse gods.
“The Sanders-Downs Institute.” Cat glared at first Rune then Jaron, daring one of them to question her integrity. “The research center my
family helped establish.”
“Son of a bitch.” Jaron stepped forward, fangs bared. Rage contorted his features. He clenched and unclenched his hands. “Tell me where they are. Now.”
Chapter Twelve
Rune yanked Cat behind him and hissed at Jaron. His brother ignored the warning and reached for her. Rune’s protective instincts flared. He grabbed Jaron by the shoulders and threw him across the room, away from his mortal consort. He followed him and slammed him to the floor. Unlike the last time he’d tackled him, Jaron bucked, knocking Rune off. He rolled but grabbed Jaron’s ankle before he could get to Cat.
“Let me go. She’s going to tell us where they are.”
Rune glanced at her. She inched her way toward the door. He cursed. A wave of his free hand and he froze the lock, ensuring she couldn’t run. That done, he flipped Jaron onto his back and punched him. Rune was tempted to unleash his control of the elements and wield an ice sword, but he couldn’t start a fight in front Cat or inside the hotel. They’d most likely destroy it and kill everyone in it. That was unacceptable.
“She will, but you will not treat my consort as if she’s committed a crime.”
Jaron squeezed his eyes shut. A long breath escaped through his clenched teeth. “You are right. Forgive me.”
The door squeaked. Rune whipped his head in the direction of the sound in time to see Cat wiggling out. How had she unlocked it? The thought came and went. It didn’t matter. He pushed from the floor and went after her.
Faster than he expected, she’d reached the top of the stairs before he caught up to her. In one quick move, he wrapped an arm around her waist and covered her mouth to stifle the scream he knew she’d let out. The muffled sound heated his palm.
He smiled despite the tense situation. He was starting to anticipate his female’s actions. The knowledge pleased him even while he’d hated the fact that she’d run from him again.
“Be calm. It’s only me.” He breathed the words against her ear.
Her cry cut off, but her rough panting didn’t lessen.
He pulled her into the shelter of his body. “Jaron didn’t mean to frighten you. He wouldn’t hurt you.”
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