His cell phone ringing startled them both awake, and he located it with some difficulty among the pile of hastily-discarded clothes.
“Hello?”
She could hear another man’s voice, and she was close enough to make out the words. “Rolf is inside.”
“Good. Any reports?”
“Not yet,” the other man said. “I’ll let you know when he’s gotten a good look around.”
Erik nodded, though his conversation partner could not see him. “I hope to the gods that he avoids Astrid and Sigrunn. They both know his face.”
“Trust him, Erik. He’s the youngest, but he knows his job.”
He looked unconvinced. Nika wondered if he had reason to worry, or if he was a professional control freak. She hoped that his need to control did not extend to his lovers.
“Well, keep me posted.”
“Will do.”
He hung up the call, then smiled at her apologetically. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s okay.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I have a serious case of bed head. Or maybe couch head.”
He chuckled. “I think you look beautiful.”
“You’d better.” She smiled at him, and he kissed the tip of her nose. “Who is Sigrunn?”
Erik deposited the phone onto the coffee table and cuddled up again. “She was the one who stole the sword.”
Nika shuddered. “That’s a face I won’t forget…”
“Nor should you. It’s important to know what your enemies look like. If she ever saw you again, she would try to kill you.”
“That’s not very comforting.”
“Maybe not, but it’s true.”
She took a deep breath and suddenly felt awkward and uncomfortable. She slipped out of his arms and stood up, picking up her robe to hide her nakedness, although there was nothing of hers that he hadn’t already seen.
He watched her, confusion making his eyebrows pucker. “Are you all right?”
“Fine,” she lied. “I just… need to take a shower.”
Silently, he watched her go.
***
The hot water cascading over her body was soothing, and she stood in the spray longer than was strictly necessary. Nika closed her eyes and let the heat wash over her.
She had never wanted to sleep with a man so soon after meeting him. She had certainly never felt that strange soul-to-soul connection that had almost formed. She was confused by the situation and by her own reactions.
Why was it so easy for her to accept his story about the vampires and the old Norse gods? She supposed it was because she had seen Sigrunn’s teeth for herself, or perhaps because in the face of so much craziness, any explanation was better than more questions.
It just all felt so right.
She should have been horrified, not just for believing the unbelievable, but for actively trying to make him bring her into his strange world. She shook her head and ran her hands over her hair, sending excess water sluicing down over her shoulders.
‘Please bite me?’ What the hell was I thinking?
She knew that she should have been grateful that he had resisted temptation, but a part of her was so very disappointed.
She had never felt so completely out of her element.
***
Nika was still in the bathroom when Erik’s phone rang again. It was Rolf.
“I’m inside,” he said. “They’ve set up a hörgr.”
That was bad news. If the Draugr had created a sacred stone table, then they were intending to use it for a sacrifice. “Do they have a sacrifice prepared?”
“No, although the pen is ready.”
He nodded. “Well, that’s one good thing, at least. Any sign of the sword?”
“No. I think Sigrunn is keeping it with her.”
“That could make things complicated.”
Rolf laughed softly. “My friend, when do we ever do anything without complications? I will call back when I know more.”
The line went dead as Rolf ended the call in his usual abrupt manner. Erik rose and went to the window, contemplating the city below.
The world had changed so much in the years he had been alive. The sacred groves had all been replaced by high rises and parking lots, and nobody even seemed to remember the old gods at all.
As human attention passed and worship ended, the gods had lost their powers. They had finally been forced to take up residence within human hosts, binding themselves to lesser souls and riding along through incarnation after incarnation. Some had chosen to bind themselves to the Draugr, or to the Veithimathr. Others had chosen the Valtaeigr. A few had been forced to occupy humans, denied the more powerful vessels by those who had taken residence before them.
It had been on a dreary midwinter day when his time had come to take on a sacred passenger. He had agreed readily enough, though the ritual was painful in the extreme. He could still remember the feeling of liquid fire when the god Vidar had fused with his soul.
That was when Ithunn, goddess of the Spring, had taken Berit.
He closed his eyes as the memory rose. Berit, so small, so frail, the most delicate example of the Valtaeigr line. The princess, the priestess, his great love. He had come closer to choosing her than he had with any other woman.
He regretted every day that he had not done so in time. If their vampire selves had been linked, perhaps she could have gained enough strength from him to survive her transformation. Perhaps he could have experienced at least a little of that great happiness of living with a chosen mate before the ritual had taken her from him.
When she died, he vowed that he would find her again. He would know her soul anywhere, he was certain, and when the time was right, he would choose her after all. He had vowed to the gods that he would stop drinking blood, bypassing the life-saving healing that the dreyri could give, until he had found her again.
Three times before, he had re-encountered Berit, still bearing the companionship of Ithunn in her soul. Three times before, he had been too slow to choose her, and he had lost her. Three times, he had buried his beloved.
The last burial had left him grief-stricken and vulnerable, and when Astrid made him the offer of an alliance, he had rushed in, in too much pain to think about what he was doing. At the time, loneliness had been a bigger burden than the loss of his freedom. They were married at midsummer after the winter he had lost Berit the third time.
They had never been a good match. He had tried to be dutiful, to be a proper husband. Astrid was too cold, though, and too proud. She never stopped reminding him that she outranked him. She was the vessel of Freyja, the great goddess, and she never let him forget that the god who had joined with him was of a lower station.
They had never been equals, not even on their wedding day, and the situation only deteriorated from his perspective over the years. He was nothing more than a lackey to her, her prized possession, valuable as the chief of the Veithimathr and the vessel of the god who was destined to kill Fenrir at Ragnarok.
He doubted now if Ragnarok would ever come. The world had changed so much – if there was to be an apocalypse, it would be of humanity’s own making. He very much doubted that there would be a giant immortal wolf for him to slay when that dark day came.
He heard the shower shut off, and he glanced back over his shoulder. Now was not the time to be lost in thought, he reminded himself. He turned back to his phone and dialed Gunnar.
“Go ahead,” his old friend said.
“How’s the arm?”
“Much improved. You should consider having at least a sip sometime… the dreyri is a remarkable thing.”
Erik shook his head. “Someday you will stop trying to convince me.”
“Only when you stop needing to be convinced.”
It was an old conversation, and he abandoned it as quickly as he could. “How are things in the vault?”
“Hakon isn’t much of a conversationalist.”
“That’s a good thing. If he starts talking, we have a problem.”
Gunnar chuckled. “True enough. No, it’s just me and the boys here around the box they have the old man’s body in. Nobody is coming in, not even your wife.”
“You know I hate it when you call her that.”
“Would you prefer it if I called her your keeper?”
He groaned. “I like that even less.”
“Then don’t complain.” He could hear Hrothgar’s voice in the background, speaking to someone. Hrothgar seemed to be allergic to quiet. Gunnar responded quickly, his hand muffling the phone, and then he returned. “I’ll call you if anything happens, but so far… nothing.”
“Good. Be safe.”
“Roger that.”
He shut off the phone again and went back to staring out the window.
***
Erik was talking on his cellphone when Nika came out of the bathroom, fresh from the shower. He was standing by the window, not at all self-conscious in his nudity. His body was muscular perfection, and his skin was shining in the rays of the setting sun. She found herself staring at him while he talked, drinking in the beauty of the sight.
She didn’t know where any of this was leading, but seeing him this way, she was happy to go anywhere, as long as he was going, too.
He ended the call and turned toward her, a smile on his face. “Look who’s back,” he said, coming to her and kissing her gently.
She returned the kiss and ran her hands over the hills and valleys of his rippling abdomen. “Look who’s here,” she returned. “Who was that?”
He tossed his phone onto the couch. “I was just checking in. One of our agents is on the inside now with the Draugr, and hopefully he’ll be able to tell us where they took the Sword.”
Nika wrapped her arms around his waist and looked up at him, her chin on his chest. “And until then?”
“Until then, we wait.” He stroked her shoulders. “You stay here, and I stand guard.”
“What about dinner?”
“I’ll cook.”
“Eggs again?”
He laughed. “Is there a problem with eggs?”
They sat together on the couch, Nika tucked up under his arm. She rested her head, her ear just above his heart. She could hear it beating, steady and strong.
“Are you really in the Swedish Special Forces, or is that just a cover?”
He chuckled. “I really am. I’m a captain in the Swedish army.”
Nika listened to his heart for a moment more, her mind filling with questions. There would be no better time to give voice to them, so she decided to go ahead and ask.
“You said that the Draugr aren’t like Hollywood. Obviously, the sun doesn’t hurt you. And I don’t think you’re undead… are you?”
“No. Not undead. Immortal, more or less.”
She frowned. “More or less? You can be killed?”
“Silver can hurt all Draugr. Fire can kill us. Having our hearts carved out, beheading, well… that will give anyone a bad day.” He kissed her damp hair. “But those are the only things that can kill me.”
“And what can hurt you?”
“Bullets hurt, but if they’re only lead, they’re just an inconvenience. If you drain out all of our blood, we’re paralyzed. We can only come back from that by feeding.”
She straightened. “What do you feed on?”
He looked almost embarrassed. “We’re vampires, love. What do you think?”
“Blood.”
“Yes. And the life force it contains.”
“Animal blood?”
He shook his head. “It must be human.”
She touched his lips, then pushed a fingertip into his mouth to feel the edges of his teeth. “You don’t have fangs right now. I know I felt them earlier.”
He kissed her finger, then said, “They grow when I need to feed, or when I’m badly hurt, or when I’m enraged.”
She grinned. “Were you a berserker?”
He made a scoffing sound. “There are berserkers among the Draugr, make no mistake, but… no. Not me.”
Nika settled back against his chest and took his hand between hers, interlacing their fingers. She was quiet for a long while, then said, “You’ve been alive for a very long time. You must have some amazing stories.”
Erik shrugged. “Most of my stories are boring.”
“I don’t believe it for a minute.”
“You would be very surprised. I go where my superiors tell me to go, and I do what they tell me to do.”
“And today they told you to babysit me.” She looked up at him. “Cushy job.”
“Much preferable to anything else I can think of.” He kissed her. “Rank has its privileges.”
She grinned. “I should say so.”
She was just about to suggest a way to pass the time when his phone rang again, and he answered it brusquely. “Thorvald.”
Another male voice spoke over the line, hushed and rapid. She could not make out the words.
Erik responded, speaking that not-Swedish that she had heard him use with Astrid. She presumed now, given what she had learned about him, that he was speaking Old Norse. He and the man on the line spoke briefly, and then Erik hit the “end” button.
“They’ve found it.” He rose. “I need to go and get that sword, and I need you to stay here.”
She stood up as he gathered his discarded clothes and began to dress. He was moving rapidly, preparing to rush out into danger. She wouldn’t have it.
“No.”
He hesitated, his zipper halfway closed. “What?”
“I said no. I’m going with you.”
Erik looked exasperated. “You can’t do that.”
“Why not? I can help.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I doubt that. Not in a fight like this.”
“How do you know you’re going to fight?”
Now he looked insulted. “Nika, I have been a soldier for a millennium. I know when a fight is coming.”
“And if they come for me in the meantime?”
“We’ll keep them too busy to even think about it.”
“But… how many of them are there?”
“Enough, but not that many. As long as you don’t ask any of them inside, they can’t hurt you. Just stay here behind your locks and you’ll be safe.”
He finished dressing and pulled the Sálsteinn out of his pocket. He put it in her palm and closed her hand over it. The stone was warm and pulsating against her skin.
“Keep hold of this. It’s better if I don’t take it into their den.”
“So you trust me to keep this stone safe, but you don’t trust me to go with you?”
He nodded. “Yep. That about covers it.”
Erik kissed her soundly, then opened all of the locks on the door. “Lock this up after I leave,” he told her.
The door closed on the rest of her arguments.