by Dena Christy
Her voice trailed off, and her brows drew together.
“What is it?” he asked, curious about what could have caused her face to lose the excited animation that she’d had when talking about exploring his property.
“I didn’t like the place where I was attacked,” she whispered and his arms tightened around her and he drew her close. His mind threw him right back to the night that had brought her back into his life. He still wasn't any closer to finding out who’d attacked her so viciously. Maybe staying home wasn’t such a good idea. If he went to work, maybe he would get closer to finding out who was responsible for her attack.
“Baldr,” she said as she put both hands on his face and turned him to look in his eyes. “I didn’t bring it up so you could go running off to work.”
He leaned forward to kiss her, not at all surprised that she’d guess where his mind automatically went when she mentioned the attack. It was going to take time to overcome habits that had been ingrained in him over centuries, but he knew he needed to try.
“I said I’d stay home today and I will,” he said as he ran his thumb over her slightly swollen bottom lip. “It will take awhile for me to get used to focusing on anything other than the Order, so you will have to be patient with me.”
“I will have all the patience in the world for you as long as you try,” she said as she smiled up at him. A warm feeling blossomed in his chest as he looked at her, and he realized that he was falling in love with her all over again.
“I’ll try,” he said. “Why don’t you show me where the attack happened, and you can see that it’s nothing to be nervous about. I’ll be with you the whole time, and it will be in the light of day. I don’t want you to be frightened of anything here.”
He was thinking of this place as her home too, but refrained from saying so. They had rebuilding of their relationship to do, and he still had to convince his father to let her stay. He pushed that thought out of his mind. He would deal with Odin when the time came, but for now, he wanted today to be about them and free from the problems that would face them tomorrow.
They got out of bed, and couldn’t decide who would shower first, so they got in together. The press of her wet flesh against him as he soaped her body was too much for him, and he made love to her with her back pressed against the shower wall. Once they were both sated, they dried off and dressed, staying close and giving each other lingering caresses.
“At this rate, we won’t leave this room,” Cadric said as amusement laced his voice.
“We can’t have that,” she said as she turned and walked out of his bedroom. He followed behind her, admiring the sway of her hips as she walked ahead of him. “I want to explore.”
They had a quick breakfast and donned jackets to wear outside after they were finished. He scooped his cell phone off the counter in the kitchen, and he caught her frowning at him as he slipped it into his pocket.
“Don’t look like that. I promise you have my attention today, but I need to have it with me. My staff needs to be able to contact me,” he said, and he bent to kiss her on the mouth. She melted against him for a moment.
“Ok,” she sighed as she stepped back.
They walked out of the house together, and she nestled her small hand in his much larger one.
“Lead the way,” he said as he squeezed her hand.
She led him away from the house, and up the hill toward the trees that thickly rimmed his property. He knew if he turned his head he would have a perfect view of the house and driveway. She’d been in this area that night, watching him. He’d left, and wondered if he hadn’t been in such a rush after his dream to bury himself in his work, perhaps he might have heard enough to come to her aid.
“Baldr,” she whispered, shock lacing her voice. It was enough to bring him to high alert as he looked down at her.
“What it is?” he growled as he tried to draw her behind him. There’d been more than lingering fear in her voice, and he needed her where he could shield her in the event of an imminent attack.
“What is that?” she said as she raised her hand and pointed at something over to the left and a short distance away from them. He’d been so focused on scanning the horizon, looking for a threat, that he hadn’t paid attention to the ground.
He looked in the direction she was pointing and his heart picked up speed in his chest. It looked like a heap of clothes tossed among the fallen leaves, but he saw a hand peaking through the leaves, and knew it wasn’t something as innocent as discarded clothing. He let go of her hand and took a step closer. The closer he got to it, the bigger the horrible, sick feeling in his stomach grew. There was a familiarity about the body as he looked down at it, and knew without turning it over, who it was.
Determined to face the implications of what his mind was telling him, he squatted down and rolled the body onto its back. As he suspected, Eduard Rouben’s sightless eyes stared up at him. He stood swiftly, cursing under his breath.
“It’s not a what, it’s a who,” he said as he walked toward her. “His name is Eduard Rouben, and he’s an agent with the Order who I’ve been looking for.”
“Oh dear,” she murmured as she turned her gaze away from the body.
All the problems that he’d successfully held at bay today came flooding back and he reached for his cell phone. He saw the disappointment clouding her face and felt it too. For once he’d looked forward to enjoying a day pretending he was a normal man, with no responsibilities. It wasn’t to be, and this reinforced for him that he couldn’t take his eyes off the ball for a second.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he punched in the number for headquarters into his phone. She nodded and seemed resigned to their ruined day. He longed to promise her that they would have another day together, but in light of the implications of finding Eduard’s body, he didn’t want to make promises he couldn’t keep.
* * *
Cadric drove into headquarters, with Nan sitting quietly beside him in the car. His knuckles ached, and he attempted to relax his grip on the steering wheel. The sound of his teeth grinding echoed in his head, and he forced himself to loosen his jaw. Wearing his teeth down to stumps wouldn’t do anything to change what had happened. Of all the places to find Eduard, dead on his property was the last place he’d expected. Cadric hoped that Eduard hadn’t taken the secrets he’d held in life with him to the grave.
He slammed his hand against the steering wheel, his frustration bubbling over despite his efforts to contain it. Beside him, Nan jumped in her seat and looked at him, startled.
“I’m sorry,” he said. He hadn’t meant to frighten her and when he glanced at her he wondered if he should have left her at home. She’d been pale and jumpy since they’d discovered Eduard’s body.
“You're frustrated,” she said as she looked down at her hands twisted together in her lap. “I don’t mean to be so jumpy.”
“It’s understandable. We’ve seen something ugly today, and in the spot where you were recently attacked. That’s bound to make anyone nervous.”
She nodded and remained silent, turning her head toward the window. Perhaps it would have been a better idea to leave her at home since he didn’t think things would get any better once they got to headquarters.
When his team had arrived to collect Eduard, there had been no question of her coming with him. He didn’t want to leave her alone and vulnerable, especially since someone had come onto his property, dumped a dead body and left without him being any the wiser. He needed to go to headquarters to sort this out, so she was coming with him.
He pulled into the parking lot at headquarters and peeled his fingers away from the steering wheel. He shut off the car, and sat in the silence for a moment, the ticking of the engine as it cooled doing little to sooth him. The van carrying Eduard’s body pulled in behind them, and he got out of the car. He remained with the team while they unloaded Eduard’s body and solemnly walked beside his fallen agent as they escorted him through the tunnels and into t
he morgue in the lower level of the massive limestone building.
John Carstairs waited inside for them, dressed in scrubs. He was a demon and the Order’s resident medical examiner. Cadric had called him after he’d called his team and arranged for him to go to headquarters to wait for them.
“I don’t need to tell you the importance of your job here this morning,” Cadric said, without bothering to greet the other man. He needed to get this business done quickly, and there was no time for pleasantries. “You need to find out what happened to him and you need to do it quickly.”
John directed the team to an empty gurney and gave Eduard’s body a cursory look and frowned.
“It may take me a while to find out everything you need to know. I don’t want to rush this and miss something.”
Heat burned in Cadric’s belly, and the frustration he’d shoved down solidified in his gut and his eyes focused on John. Even though he realized that he was using the demon as a convenient target, he couldn’t stop the flood of words pouring out of his mouth.
“Do your fucking job,” he shouted. “I need to know what happened to him and I need to know now.”
Silence descended into the room like a thick cloud as everyone stared at him in shock. He felt the touch of a hand on his arm, and he looked over at Nan, who stood beside him. His shoulders sagged, and he sighed. Regret took up residence inside him.
“I’m sorry,” he said to John, who continued to eye him warily. “Please find out what happened to him.”
He walked over to the edge of the room and watched his team gently strip the clothes from Eduard’s body. Their movements were stiff, and they glanced at him out of the corner of their eyes.
“You are making everyone nervous,” Nan said as she came to stand beside him. “Why don’t we go to your office. Standing here waiting will not get the job done any faster, and things will go better for everyone if you aren’t breathing down their necks.”
He reached out and grasped her hand. She was right, hovering over his team wouldn’t make things go any faster. Everyone in this room had been chosen for their particular skill and he needed to trust them to do their jobs.
“I’ll call you as soon as I know something,” John said as he snapped a pair of latex gloves onto his hand. Cadric nodded and turned toward the door.
Nan squeezed his hand as they walked out of the morgue and toward the stairwell that went to his office.
“I’m sorry you had to see that. Today hasn’t exactly turned out to be a pleasant day off,” he said as they climbed the stairs. “The last thing I wanted was for my work to intrude and for you to be exposed to it.”
“You can’t protect me from everything,” she said as she squeezed his hand. “Do you want to talk about what happened today?”
“I don’t, at least not right now. It’s not because I want to shut you out, please don’t believe that’s why. I need time to get everything straight in my head, and to do that I need time to process everything.”
They finally reached the top of the stairwell, and Cadric held open the door to the hall leading to his office. Nan walked through and came to a halt in the middle of the hall. At first Cadric didn’t see what gave her pause, but as soon as he crossed the threshold out of the stairwell he saw three figures standing in front of his office. It took a second for the full impact of who it was to dawn on him, but once it did his heart picked up speed in his chest, and he squeezed Nan’s hand so tight that she jumped. He murmured his apology as he let her hand go.
Honos, Nemesis and Hyperion stood waiting for him, with serious looks on their faces. All three were old gods, and head of various Order of Odin cells. Their presence here could only mean that he’d run out of time to get to the bottom of the problems plaguing his particular branch of the Order of Odin. Resentment burned in his belly as he stepped forward.
“Baldr?” Nan said, her voice quiet and full of questions as she moved beside him. He was sure she could sense his agitation, but he didn’t want to be distracted by her during the most important conversation of his life.
“I’ll be fine,” he said quietly. “Why don’t you wait for me in my office. I’ll be in shortly.”
She made no move to go as she eyed the three strangers, and he knew she sensed their godhood. He did his best to smile reassuringly at her.
“Go,” he said, and she did as he asked and walked past the gods without acknowledging them, her head high. As soon as the door closed behind her, he squared his shoulders and faced his colleagues head on.
“I take it this isn’t a pleasure trip?” he said.
“No,” Nemesis said, with regret written on her face. She had been the Greek goddess of divine retribution, and he knew that this was not a task she would relish. Unfortunately the way the Order’s charter was written, a chartered he’d played a big part in creating, he could understand how all three would feel this trip to his headquarters was necessary. “We are here to inform you that we are launching an investigation into a death of a prisoner in your custody, who was killed without benefit of due process.”
“There is also another matter we are looking into,” Hyperion said. “There was the slaughter of several innocents in a warehouse raid.”
Although he knew that they were doing what they felt was necessary, his jaw tightened. He wanted to tell them that if it wasn’t for him, if he hadn’t invited them to be part of the Order of Odin, they would be sitting somewhere bored out of their minds, serving no useful purpose now that their followers had abandoned them for Christianity. His hands curled at his side, and he bit his tongue. He would say none of that.
“I’m looking into those matters, and I assure you that I will find out the truth,” he said, careful to keep any note of pleading out of his voice. Desperation clawed his insides, but they would never know it. He was proud, and he would not debase himself by grovelling or begging.
“It’s too late for that,” Honos said, his mouth pinched and turning down into a frown. “I’m afraid that you’ve run out of time, Baldr. We will take over and do our investigation. We will let you know our findings. Do we have your assurance that your staff will be cooperative?”
For a second Cadric felt insulted that they would question his staff’s integrity, but knew this was all a part of the formality of the investigation.
“I’ll send out a memo to all staff that they are to furnish you with any information you require, and that they are to answer questions you put to them honestly.”
“Very good,” Nemesis said as she reached out to squeeze his hand. It took all Cadric’s willpower to not shove her away as he nodded in acknowledgment. “We will let you know what our findings are.”
They turned as a unit and walked down the hall. Once they were out of sight, the anger and frustration he’d been holding at bay spilled over. He slammed his fist into the wall over and over until his hand was sore and bloody. Unfortunately hitting the wall did nothing to relieve him of the feeling that his days with the Order of Odin were numbered.
Chapter 14
The wall by the door inside Baldr’s office shook, and a picture tumbled to the floor with the tinkling sound of breaking glass when it came to a stop. It shuddered again with a slamming noise on the other side, and she crossed to the threshold and outside the office door to see what was happening. Baldr stood in front of a big dent in the concrete and slammed his fist into it.
“Baldr,” she gasped as she rushed over to him, putting her hand on his arm. “Stop this. You’re hurting yourself.”
The air bellowed in and out of his lungs and his eyes glowed blue when he looked at her. The anger burning there winked out and his eyes returned to normal as his hand dropped to his side and his shoulders sagged. She hooked her arm through his and walked toward his open office door. He made no move to resist, and he went where she led without speaking.
He sank down into his office chair, leaned his head against the back and closed his eyes. His bloodied and broken hand lay on top of his desk, and
if it was paining him, he gave no sign. Already it was healing, and very soon the only evidence of his loss of control would be the dent in the wall. Something catastrophic must have happened outside his office for him to react like that. She’d never seen such a display from him. Baldr had always kept a tight rein on himself, even in the heady days of his full godhood back in Asgard.
“Do you want to tell me what is going on?” she asked as she sat in the chair across from him. He remained as he was, not moving, almost as if he hadn’t heard but she knew he had. “Baldr, talk to me.”
She kept her voice low and soft, speaking as if to a wounded animal, and finally he responded by lifting his head up and looking directly at her. There was something in his eyes, a spark of something she’d never seen before. She swallowed hard and a sinking feeling developed in the pit of her stomach when she realized she was seeing fear in her husband's eyes for the first time.
“Baldr,” she whispered. “What has happened?”
“The three gods you saw a few minutes ago are heads of other Order Cells. They are here to investigate what’s been going on.” The muscle jumped in his jaw.
“Surely another set of eyes on this whole mess might see something you’ve missed,” Nan said and before all the words were out of her mouth he was shaking his head.
“They are here to investigate me, to see if I’m fit to continue in my role here.”
His voice was flat and devoid of expression, but she could tell by looking into his eyes that it pained him to say it out loud.
“How can they do that? Surely they can see what a good leader you are.”
Nan didn’t understand at all. Couldn’t these other gods see how much the Order meant to him, how much he sacrificed every day for the sake of this place?
