Gods on Earth: Complete Series (Books 1-3): Paranormal Romances with Norse Gods, Tricksters, and Fated Mates

by Andrijeski, JC

  Morty never saw the blue-white lightning, or the nephew who turned into a snake, or the blue plasma ball Thor generated to trap that same nephew in this dimension.

  Morty had roughly two seconds to adjust to something truly weird, something his rational mind couldn’t explain.

  Which ended up being Thor and Silvia materializing right in front of him, in the middle of their apartment’s living room.

  They’d appeared directly between the couch and the television, blocking Morty’s view of the rom-com he’d been watching. As a result, Morty couldn’t possibly miss the whole “materializing out of thin air” part of their arrival, given that he sat on the couch, his socked feet resting on the coffee table, a bottle of beer halfway to his lips.

  In retrospect, Silvia thought, watching Morty scream, she should have told Thor to bring them into her bedroom instead.

  Or the foyer, maybe. Or right outside the apartment’s front door.

  Or hell, even the bathroom.

  It was too late for any of that now, though.

  Silvia held up her hands, in the vague hope the gesture might be soothing.

  They’d come to see Morty specifically, so going to the apartment made sense. They were still in Tyr’s house––or gold basement, or place of work, or whatever that black building was––when Thor asked Silvia where someone would leave her, Silvia, a message, if they wanted her to get it right away. After she explained cell phones to him, and text messaging, and social media apps, Thor shook his head adamantly, and revised his question.

  “No,” he said. “What if you didn’t have one of those devices? How would someone get a message to you then?”

  Silvia thought about the question, but not for long.

  “Morty,” she said promptly. “They would tell Morty.”

  Thor reached for her arm, almost before she’d finished saying it.

  A blink later, and they were here, with Morty on the couch in front of them.

  Silvia’s roommate and best friend screamed one last time, and she raised her hands higher.

  “Morty, hey!” She was practically shouting. “HEY. Calm down, okay? It’s all right. We’re perfectly okay, and so are you.”

  She lowered her hands slowly, lowering the volume of her voice as Morty’s scream died down. Still watching him cautiously, she went on in a more subdued voice.

  “I’ll explain everything,” she promised. “Right now, though, we just need to know if anyone left a message for me with you. Did anyone stop by here, or stop you in the park, or call you, looking for me…? Anyone who wanted to talk to me, or meet me somewhere, or who you didn’t know but who mentioned me or Thor by name?”

  Morty blinked.

  It was a long, overly-thorough blink.

  He opened his eyes, staring between them a second time.

  “Morty?” Silvia repeated, her voice gentle. “Was there anyone? It’s really important. There’s a time element involved.”

  Morty nodded his head, moving like a marionette whose muscles were being controlled by someone off-stage.

  “Okay,” he said.

  “Okay? Does that mean there was someone?” Silvia watched her roommate stare at Thor, and frowned. “Think, Morty. Anyone who came up to you? Anyone who left a note on the door?” Glancing at Thor, she added, “Anyone super handsome? With green eyes? Black hair? A kind of wicked smile––”

  “Yes!” Morty’s gaze swiveled to her. Sudden, sharp recognition rose to his eyes. “Yes. There was someone like that. I forgot.”

  She nodded. “Okay. I get that. Can you tell me what he said?”

  Now that she’d given him a way back to his memories, Silvia saw Morty’s more logical and rational mind kick in, righting the good ship Mortimus. He stared off to one side, frowning, his eyes going slightly out of focus as he thought.

  “Golden Gate Bridge,” Morty said after a beat. “He said it was really important that you, and your ‘boyfriend’…” Morty glanced at Thor, a faint frown on his lips. “…Meet him on the San Francisco side of the Golden Gate Bridge. He was adamant about it. He also mentioned the ‘boyfriend’ thing a few times.”

  Morty again glanced at Thor.

  Hesitating, as if he considered saying something, he seemed to change his mind, right before he looked back at her.

  “I tried to tell them you weren’t seeing anyone.” Morty aimed another stare at Thor, muttering, “…Maybe I was wrong about that.”

  There was a pregnant pause, where Morty looked between them.

  He seemed to be waiting for one of them to either agree with him, or tell him he was wrong. When no one did, he sighed, a bare trace of his more characteristic drama returning to his voice.

  “Well, they weren’t super interested in my opinion, so it’s not like it mattered,” Morty said. “Whoever that guy was, he didn’t give a crap about much of anything I had to say. He seemed to expect me to just keep my mouth shut and give you the message like I was your servant, or some little errand boy.”

  Morty grunted, folding his arms.

  Looking between them, he grunted again, his lips curving in a deeper frown.

  Despite Morty’s annoyance with her, and his obvious suspicion of Thor, Silvia felt nothing but relief as she looked at him.

  She could see her best friend slowly returning to the spaces behind his eyes.

  “Silvie,” he said next, before she could respond to anything he’d told them. “What the hell is going on? Why do I feel like I just delivered a ransom note?”

  She shook her head, still shaking it even as she spoke.

  “I really can’t explain it all right now,” she said, apologetic. “I really can’t. But I’ll tell you everything when I get back here. Everything, Morty, including about where I disappeared to today and how all this started in Alamo Square.” Hesitating, she added, “Promise.”

  There was a silence.

  Then, still looking between them, Morty nodded slowly.

  His eyes remained wary as he looked from her to Thor and back again.

  “Okay,” he said.

  The way he said it verged on sarcastic.

  At the very least, Morty’s words and entire demeanor exuded skepticism.

  That skepticism clearly didn’t bother Thor, assuming he even made note of it. As far as Silvia knew, the gods of Asgard might not be big on sarcasm or snark.

  Whatever his thoughts on the topic, Thor looked only at her.

  “You know this bridge?” he said. “The location being referenced?”

  Morty’s eyes widened all over again.

  Now, her best friend almost looked angry.

  Affronted, perhaps.

  “The Golden Gate Bridge?” he said, like he was sure Thor must have missed that part of the message. “Did you really just call it ‘this’ bridge? Did you really just ask her the location of the Golden Gate Bridge? REALLY?”

  Silvia glanced at Morty, frowning, but didn’t bother to answer him directly.

  She looked back at Thor.

  “I know where it is. Do you need to see it on a map?” she said. “To jump us there?”

  “Jump?” Thor looked briefly puzzled.

  Then, after a pause, understanding smoothed his brow.

  “I can only make such distance-closing leaps when we are traveling inter-dimensionally,” Thor explained. “It works on Asgard because Asgard contains multiple dimensions within it. When traveling distances on a material plane, one containing only a single dimension, we must cover distances in the ways that are usual for the residents of that world. Which means we must use this- dimensional means to travel to go to Jörmungandr.”

  “Oh.”

  Frowning a little, Silvia thought about that.

  She had more questions.

  Then she remembered she was dying.

  She was actually dying right now. Moreover, she was dying much faster here than she had been during their mini-vacation to Asgard.

  Once the thought sank in, Silvia brushed all her other q
uestions aside, at least for now.

  Assuming they both survived this, she could ask him more about the traveling quirks of gods once she had the deadly immortality ring out of her neck.

  “Okay.” Taking a deep breath, she continued a little more decisively. “Ride-share, then?”

  S he managed to find her phone.

  Thank goodness, Morty carried her backpack back to the apartment along with his when he left the park. He also brought her jacket, which she’d stuffed inside the backpack when it got too warm to wear.

  He’d even returned to the bike racks for her bike, which she’d left chained next to his.

  She’d been right about Morty’s assumptions about her.

  He’d been terrified something horrific happened, that she’d been abducted in broad daylight while Morty was watching the play, and somehow, he hadn’t noticed.

  Leaving Thor in their living room, Morty followed Silvia into her bedroom, standing there and telling her the whole thing while she shucked off the filmy white shirt and cut-off shorts she wore. After a brief moment of indecisiveness because of the being poisoned thing, she hopped in the shower just long enough to wash off a layer of sweat and grime.

  She put her hair up first, to keep it dry so she wouldn’t freeze to death out by the bridge, then cranked the hot water up high, and stood under the stream for a full minute.

  Morty followed her into the bathroom, still talking to her through the shower curtain while she turned the water off and wrapped herself in a clean towel, stepping out of the tub and walking back into her bedroom.

  Morty stayed while she got dressed.

  He stood there, oblivious to her nakedness as she rummaged through her closet, eventually opting for black jeans, a turtleneck sweater, and a thick wool coat.

  All the while, Morty talked.

  He told her how he’d gone back and forth on whether he should call the police, file a missing person’s report, or if he should wait and see if she returned on her own.

  He told her how he’d been afraid the police would think he was a nut, or some kind of drug addict, since Morty himself hadn’t actually seen anything, or heard anything, or suspected anything… and he didn’t technically have any reason to think someone might have abducted her, or that she might be in danger, other than the fact that she’d left all of her stuff behind.

  He said he finally realized he wouldn’t be able to tell them much.

  Other than Thor, Morty had no suspicions as to who might have done it, since he wasn’t aware of anyone who’d threatened her.

  More than anything, he seemed horrified that he hadn’t noticed anything, that he hadn’t seen anyone carry her off, or noticed any kind of commotion.

  As far as Morty was concerned, Silvia was there, with him…

  …then Silvia was not there.

  Morty said he’d worried Thor turned out to be a kook. He’d worried Thor might have lured her away, then carted her off somewhere, without Silvia’s consent.

  Morty had visions of Thor pressing a chloroform-soaked cloth to her face from behind the tree, Silvia slumping and the giant Thor throwing her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry before he ran off into the trees.

  Morty said he’d called a few local hospitals.

  He’d gone through her phone contacts and called all of her friends.

  He even called her parents, on the off-chance Silvia might have contacted them, or somehow ended up at their home in the East Bay.

  Silvia listened to all of it, mostly without comment.

  She winced when he mentioned calling her parents, but mostly because he mentioned that was day two of her being missing, and she’d honestly though it was still Saturday, not Sunday night. She listened with only half of her mind as she sat down on her bed, lacing up her hiking boots over thick socks.

  When she finished, she finally approached her best friend.

  Grabbing him by the shoulders, she looked him straight in the eye.

  “Morty,” she said gently.

  She shook him a little when he continued muttering about how he’d been searching the local San Francisco stations for news about serial killers and rapists who matched Thor’s description.

  She shook him until he fell silent.

  “Morty, honey,” she said, even more gently. “I’m sorry. I’m really, really, really sorry. I wish I could have contacted you and told you I was all right, but I couldn’t. I’ll tell you all about it when we get back. I promise.”

  “We?” Morty frowned, glancing at the door to her bedroom, which led to the hallway that led to the living room. “Are you two a thing now?”

  Silvia thought about that, frowning.

  Was there such a thing as a “thing” with a god?

  In the end, she could only shrug.

  “I honestly don’t know,” she admitted.

  Morty glanced at the door again, then back at her. His eyes looked wary, and Silvia found herself thinking he was wondering what happened between her and Thor, and if Silvia was fully in her right mind.

  She opened her mouth, about to try again to reassure him, when Thor appeared in the doorway.

  He looked her over, raising an eyebrow at her change in clothes, but his eyes and voice grew serious.

  “We must go,” he said. “I am concerned about time. We could be endangering you, lingering here.”

  Morty looked at him, alarm rising back to his hazel eyes.

  “Endangering her? How?” He looked at her, his eyebrows arching higher. “What the hell does he mean, Silvie? What is he talking about? Who’s ‘endangering’ you? Is it him?”

  “No.” Silvia gave him a warning look, shaking her head. “No, Morts, it’s not him. Not even close.” She glanced at Thor, then back at Morty. “But Thor’s right,” she said apologetically. “We have to go. Right now. Where’s my phone?”

  Morty scowled, folding his arms.

  He looked like he might argue, but in the end, he only motioned with his head for the bedroom door. “It’s charging. On the counter in the kitchen. I have it plugged in next to the coffee maker.”

  Walking up to him, she leaned up, kissing him on the cheek.

  Then she walked swiftly out of her bedroom and toward the kitchen, the giant, blond, Thunder God trailing behind her.

  She noticed only then that he had his hammer in his hand.

  11

  Oh. My. Gods

  T hey used a ride-share app to get to the bridge.

  The absurdity of that didn’t entirely escape Silvia.

  At the same time, knowing she was probably dying from whatever that snake-god put in her throat took some of the fun out of her dark humor.

  It helped that Thor pulled her into his lap as soon as they got into the car.

  It helped even more when he wrapped a hand into her hair, and pulled her mouth down to his.

  She didn’t think too hard about the whys of him doing it right there, right then.

  She tried to ignore the driver glancing at them in the rearview mirror.

  After a few minutes of his muscular hands massaging the small of her back, his tongue and lips exploring hers, the fingers of his other hand caressing her belly, she forgot to care about any of it. She more or less fell into a trance, feeling the electric charge of his fingers on her skin, and even in his tongue.

  When the car began to slow in the parking lot beneath the south side of the bridge, Silvia pulled away from his mouth, looking around in shock when she realized they’d arrived.

  Sliding out of Thor’s lap, she reached for the door without looking at him, snapping the latch and stepping outside the car to breathe in the cold, salty air.

  She didn’t realize she’d left her coat behind––or even that she’d taken it off, or, more likely, that Thor had taken it off––until Thor handed it to her after he shut the door carefully behind him and their ride drove away.

  Shouldering on the coat, she wrapped it around the front of her as Thor hefted his silver hammer up to one should
er.

  He looked her over, that softer expression in his eyes and face.

  Reaching for her, he traced a cheek with a finger.

  “I will do everything I can to keep you safe, Silvia Hope,” he said, his voice gentle. “Please be careful once he appears. Stay behind me, if you can… and out of sight, if this is possible. At least until he and I have first spoken. I do not know what my nephew’s exact game is, but he is known for his treachery and complicated schemes, even more than his father. So if I tell you to get back, or even to run, please trust that I am trying to protect you.”

  Silvia nodded, thinking about his words.

  “I do,” she admitted after a beat, still thinking. “I do trust you. Maybe more than I should, given everything. I mean, objectively-speaking, it’s not exactly rational to trust you. I barely know you. But I do. Trust you.”

  A faint smile touched his lips.

  Leaning down, he gave her a lingering kiss.

  That time, it was almost tender.

  “We will talk later,” he said. “With your permission.”

  Her lips pursed. “Talk?”

  “Yes.”

  Seeing the look in his eyes, she found herself getting flustered.

  She only nodded though, forcing it from her mind, at least for now.

  She might be dying. She might be actually dying right now. She didn’t have the bandwidth to try and dissect melting looks from gorgeous, immortal gods who could travel inter-dimensionally, not while she was dying from some supernatural poison ring.

  Still flustered, and feeling her cheeks warm, Silvia turned away from him, aiming her gaze around the near-empty parking lot where they stood.

  A shiver ran through her as she stuffed her hands into her pockets, exhaling breath that turned into steam when it hit the cold air.

  “Do you suppose he meant down here?” she asked, turning back to meet those shocking blue eyes. “Or do you think he meant up on the bridge?”

  Thor cocked his head.