Thanks for the feedback! I'm assuming since we already met Thor, Loki, and Tyr in Nevermore that Norse gods are going to play a large part in the second book as well. So I did research (have you seen Loki's family tree? Seriously, go look that up for a laugh) and I am including gods in my story as well. Enjoy.
I stomped through the water to the door. "Hey there, gorgeous," I drawled to whatever was lurking behind the wooden frame, "This is your last chance to save your skin. The four of us are packing enough weaponry to fill an armory, and I shoot first and don't give a rat's ass about asking questions, so if you're here to sell kitchen knives, spread religion, or even get me to buy fucking Girl Scout cookies, you're about to get your face shot off."
Robin raised his eyes to the heavens beside me. "I have absolutely no idea how you function in society," he said, "Much less how you ever managed to get laid."
"I get by just fine," I said defensively. I unlocked the door and pushed it open, wedging my Desert Eagle into the gap. The stench intensified to the point where it became an entity of its own. A woman...damn, it was probably a woman...stood beyond the frame, eyes watching with distaste as the water from the apartment gushed around her ankles on its escape into the hallway. "Huh," I said.
Goodfellow made a shocked noise, and I reached over and clamped a hand over his mouth. "Don't tell me, I know this one. Niko was always going on and on and on about gods and shit, and I think I remember..." I trailed off, frowning, "Damn name's on the tip of my tongue. Don't tell me."
She straightened in a motion far too quick to be human, and opened her mouth to speak.
"Shut up a second, lady, I'm thinking," I said, tapping my gun thoughtfully against my head as I studied her, breathing through the smell of decay. That's why it stank so badly, she was decaying. Half of her face could have passed for human, with a blue eye cradled in pale skin and crowned with fiery red hair. But the other half...
A corpse. She was half a corpse, flesh peeling away to reveal yellowing bone, hair thinned and clumped where it had fallen away. Her second eye was dug out down to the socket, but even that seemed to be regarding me with contempt.
"Hel," I said triumphantly, snapping my fingers, "You're Hel," I told her, and turned to Niko and smiled proudly. "She's Hel. See? I do pay attention to you."
Niko's usual zen demeanor shifted momentarily, and his mouth hung slightly open while his eyes drifted in disbelief from me to the walking nightmare past my shoulder. After a few seconds he steeled his gaze. "I'm ecstatic to see that your attention span has finally evolved past that of a two-year-old, Caliban," he said, "Why is she here?" he half directed the query to me, but mostly to the god.
Brothers. Put a goddess on your doorstep and suddenly you're last week's news.
The woman continued to study me. Her lips tightened together in a thin line, sending the left half of her mouth drooping into a sideways slice across her ragged cheek. It was unnerving as fuck, and since I already had enough unnerving fuckery to deal with thanks to the Kyntalash strapped to my arm, slowly draining the life out of me, I didn't find the addition all that welcome. "Listen, princess. We've already got enough problems to deal with because of one god," I told her, "We don't need any more from you. So I'll say it again, put down the Tagalongs and Samoas and then piss off."
Goodfellow groaned.
"What did you do?" Hel spoke to me, words breathed across her lips like crackling paper in a fire.
"O-kay," I said, wincing, "Two things, lady. One: breath mints. Seriously, you need to invest in some. I will drive you to the pharmacy myself if you ask. Secondly, you need to be a lot more specific."
Robin elbowed me sharply in the ribs and then stepped half in front of me, either shielding me from her or trying to stop me from doing anything stupid. It was a toss up. He smiled apologetically at the goddess. "Please ignore my young friend. He has the self preservation of a lemming and all the common sense of a deranged mosquito."
"Hey! I don't-"
Another elbow struck me, this time with enough force to nearly shatter a rib, so I shut up. Robin continued, his voice dripping with sincerity, "I'm sorry to say that you have caught us at a rather bad time, Hel," he said, acting as though gods showed up on his doorstep all the time. They probably did. "Please come back in a month or two after everything has calmed down. I would love to sit down with you and catch up on everything that's happened in the past few centuries. And if you see your father, please pass my regards to him."
"Who's her father?" I muttered in his ear.
"Loki."
"Oh," I said. Her good eye hadn't so much as peeked at Robin the entire time he had spoken to her. Instead, it was trained on me, unblinking, as though she could sear a hole through my skull to find what she was searching for. The attention had already usurped the point of being highly awkward and spiraled straight down to straight jacket status. I grinned at her, flashing my eyes red for a moment as a warning, monster to monster, to fuck off. "I actually met your daddy once," I told her, "At a party. The guy's head over heels in love with his own dick. I'm glad to see he finally managed to father something that wasn't a horse, a snake, or a wolf. Good for him."
Behind me, Cal made a noise somewhere between a cough and a laugh.
Robin shoved me backward. "Would you stop!" he hissed at me. He turned back to Hel and began slowly closing the door. "A thousand apologies, my dear. An unfortunate situation has arisen, and we really do need to go and take care of it."
A skeletal arm snapped up from beneath her cloak and held the door open with slender, boney fingers. Her second hand, pale and covered with healthy flesh, reached out and firmly grasped Robin's shoulder to push him away from me. "What did you do?" she demanded, mouth twisting into a rotted snarl. She reached her decaying hand toward me, spreading her fingers wide like claws. I took a step back. I had no intention of letting her touch me.
"Back off," I said through clenched teeth.
"Robin?" Niko said edgily. The tip of his katana rose into my vision. Stabbing the goddess wasn't exactly his best plan ever, but since most of my plans usually fell along the same mentality, I really had zero room to judge.
"I am Hel, goddess of the dead. Ruler of Helheim. And I demand an answer," she fumed. Black inky symbols blazed across her eye and spiraled downward over her face and neck, just as I had previously seen on Loki. And Tyr. Shit. "What are you?" she thundered, "What. Did. You. Do."
This was starting to mirror the 'where are your brothers and sisters' fiasco all over again. Just as I was about to gate her off somewhere distant, Robin stepped into the fray. He reached out and pushed down her arm and Niko's sword. "Everyone calm down!"
And he thought I was suicidal? Jesus Christ, Goodfellow.
"No weapons," he continued, pushing at the sword again, "No wrathful displays of power," he emphasized strongly to Hel, and then glared at me, as though this mess were my fault somehow, "And absolutely no gating, Caliban."
"This one," Hel spat, clenching her hands, "This one escaped from me. I want to know how. I want it fixed."
"Okay, good," Robin said encouragingly, attempting to diffuse the bomb, "He escaped from you. That's good to know. Now let's just talk about this like grown adults-"
"I didn't escape from her," I snapped, "I've never seen her before in my life. Trust me, with a face like that, I'd remember. And I really don't want to know what she means by fixed."
"I am responsible for all the dead. Every death is predetermined, and you," she jammed a finger against my chest, "Were supposed to kill yourself after the others died in the bar."
No one spoke for a moment. "Well aren't you just a bright ray of sunshine?" I said flatly, "I'm disappointed that Goodfellow never mentioned you, we could've hung out more. You want me to get you anything? Some tea? Or are you a coffee drinker?"
"What does she mean everyone died at the bar?" Cal demanded, whirling to face me, "Who died?"
I regarded him with slanted eyes. "You didn't actually think my Nik would have let me come by myself, do you?" I said simply, leaving the devastating truth hanging in the air for him. He blanched.
"You got a letter right after the explosion," Hel told me, "You should not have gotten that letter. Everything is muddled now. The timeline is skewed. And now your people have given Tyr a vessel, and more power. The gods weep."
"Well I'm glad all those holier than us are paying attention to current events," I said bitterly, "But the Vigil are not our people. So I fucked up your ledger of the dead. Big deal. As Robin was trying to tell you, we have bigger problems. We need to go fix the Vigil's mess."
She shook her head, "You escaped from me twice. Once outside the bar. And now again in the water. I cannot overlook the second offence," she said, "What you just did...no one should be able to do that."
I frowned for a moment, trying to remember what I had done. Gate? Why it should be impossible to gate in the water?
Robin seemed to be thinking along the same lines. "Caliban is half Auphe, he can-"
"Hang on..." I interrupted as a bell went off in my head. "This is about the cabin thing, isn't it?"
Her scowl intensified. Ding ding ding. We have a winner.
"Cabin thing? What cabin thing?" Robin asked curiously, leaning closer.
I shrugged. "Oh, well, it's not that big of a deal. I died in the water. Heart stopped. Wound up in some Amish hellhole of a cabin with two doors, decided I wasn't ready yet for reincarnation and came back."
"You...came back?" Robin said. He pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. "From the dead? And you didn't think to mention it?"
"We were busy and I forgot. It didn't seem that important. You're welcome, by the way."
"Impossible," Hel murmured, and spat on the floor.
I turned to her, "Is that why you've been throwing this hissy fit? Because I came back? If you're that worried about people doing it you should probably update your system, because it was laughably easy to break. While you're at it, would it kill you to install an AC unit and maybe some cable in that place? It looks like a fucking hobbit hole."
"No one comes back from the dead," she hissed, leaning forward menacingly, "Not unless they are reincarnated. Not unless I allow it."
"I did."
"There will be repercussions!"
"Haven't been any so far. Thanks for the concern though, I'll keep a look out."
The symbols appeared in her eye again and bled across her face. "No. I am bringing you back with me to Helheim."
"You're not taking him anywhere," Niko said. He fisted the back of my shirt and yanked me back a step away from her.
"Listen, Hel," Robin said to her, stepping in front of me for what seemed like the hundredth goddamn time in ten minutes, "Just think about this for a moment. The Vigil made Tyr a monster and set him loose. That's the biggest threat to everyone right now, not Caliban. You want Tyr stopped."
"Dead," she growled, blood dripping from her lips.
"You want him dead," Robin amended smoothly, and spread his arms, "We want him dead. We are on the same side."
"I want them both dead. Tyr and the half breed, the monster who brought himself back from the dead."
They continued arguing. As their voices escalated, I reached back and swatted away Niko's hand from where it still clutched my shirt. I made a show of rolling my eyes at him. "Gods. People spend thousands of years obsessing over them and it turns out they're just half-witted children that throw tantrums if things don't go their way. Sorry bro."
Niko tilted his head at me, unamused. "I am sure you are not lecturing me about disillusionment at a time such as this."
"Just saying, I know you used to idolize these guys, and meeting them has to be a major let down," I said, raising my voice to be heard over Robin and Hel's explosive argument, "Sorry about that."
The lights flickered and went out. The bickering stopped abruptly, replaced by a monstrous feeling of unease. We had wasted too much time. Cursing, I realized my flashlight was still in my jacket, which was draped over the couch. Of course I still had my gun. I always had my gun. "We need to go," I said.
The scrape of hundreds of tiny claws came from out in the hallway, followed by the pitter patter of tiny feet.
Someone had the bright idea to slam and bolt the door. Moments later, Robin's flashlight glinted light across our faces and threw deep shadows across the walls. "Tyr is back," he said, furious, "We are not prepared for this."
"Her fault," I singsonged, pointing at Hel. Robin's expression darkened, and before he could rebuke me I continued, "I know, I know. Yell at me later. Tell me there's another way out of your apartment. Some secret passageway you've never told me about and only use for your most twisted sex parties or something."
"There is not an inch of this apartment that isn't used for my most twisted sex parties," he hissed, "And no, there isn't another way out."
The sounds in the hallway were getting louder. We backed away from the door, weapons up. "Seriously? We get attacked like twice a month minimum, and you don't have an escape route planned?"
"We just met, Caliban. Forgive me for not being prepared for the unholy amount of supernatural chaos that follows you around daily. If ever attacked, I assumed my extensive collection of guns would take care of the problem."
Hel vanished out of the corner of my eye and didn't reappear. It was probably for the best. I wasn't exactly sure who she would have sided with if Tyr forced her to make a choice. Plus, her stench had started making me lightheaded. The clawing and crawling noises in the hallway halted, leaving us with nothing but the sound of our own breathing.
"Well asshole, any brilliant plans?" Cal growled at me.
"Would it kill you to spice up your insults?" I snipped back, mind racing to figure out a course of action that didn't require gating.
A single furry head poked through the door, leering with jagged teeth. Fantastic. More shadow weasels. "No shooting or chopping the heads off, they grow back," I said levelly, not making a move, "Explosives?"
"I don't make a habit of keeping incendiary devices where I sleep," Robin said indignantly. A second head slipped through the door. Followed by several more. Dozens of eyes shone back at us from the light of the flashlight.
"Okay," I said, resolve tightening as I made a decision. I turned to Cal and squeezed his wrist hard to get his attention.
"Hey!"
"Close your eyes as tight as you can, and don't so much as peek unless you want your brain to melt out your ears. You got that?"
"What the hell are you talking about? Let go of me."
The shadow weasels swarmed into the room, through the door, the walls, the ceiling. I spun Cal around and tossed him back against Niko. Then I pushed, bringing the gate into being around the creatures. They paused and then panicked, caught in the unnatural tear in the world, their bared teeth appearing even more sinister in the swirling bruise of color. I slammed it shut on them, and they were gone. Shadow weasels hated light, right? Let's see how much fun the fuckers had on the goddamn sun.
A second group was already coming after us without pause. I repeated the process, and then turned to Robin. "Tell me you have an idea here," I snapped, "Because I'd rather not do this all day."
"Can you gate us out?"
"Is there anywhere on the Earth the bastard won't just follow us?" Another gate swallowed the next round of creatures, and I didn't even wait before building the next. I didn't look at Niko. I couldn't. I wasn't ready to see the expression on his face.
"No," Goodfellow said honestly.
"Well, that's not-" I broke off, gating away more of the shadows, "Very helpful then, is it? And anyway, if I take you guys-" I slammed another tear shut, "Through a gate you are all going to be worthless at fighting, hell, you probably won't even be able to stand-" I gritted my teeth against the pain that was building to a crescendo in the back of my skull as I ripped another gate open. "For several minutes. It took years for you and Nik to just step through a gate and not get sick."
"Hang on, Caliban, I'm thinking," he said.
The pain was slowly building to migraine status. I wasn't sure what was the cause. Maybe it was too many gates, or the Kyntalash was draining my stamina, or my body was rebelling from lack of food or lack of sleep, or maybe...maybe...
Maybe I just really needed to see my brother. Fuck. I send the next group of weasels up to the sun to join their brethren and staggered back a step, head spinning even as I watched more glinting eyes pop out of the woodwork. Goodfellow could brainstorm all he wanted, there wasn't a way out of this.
I was about to make yet another gate when a boom of thunder sent vibrations down my spine. I was suddenly horribly aware that we were all standing ankle deep in water while facing off against a god that controlled lightning. Just crown me the king of bad luck and get it over with.
"Little Aupheling," Tyr said, his voice echoing in the hallway as another gate swallowed more of his creations, "Time for judgement."
The wooden door splintered and exploded inward, showering me with debris. He was there, standing right behind the door, his creatures swarming around his feet. Screw it. He wanted Cal dead. But I? I was one hell of a distraction. I whirled around and punched Cal with just enough force to knock him out so that he wouldn't be conscious for what I did next. His knees buckled and Niko caught him against his shoulder. Our eyes locked for a second. His face was unreadable, but he must've seen something in my expression because he flung out a hand to grab onto my arm. "Don't," he said desperately.
I stepped back and gated the three of them away.
Please leave a review and let me know what you think. Thanks!
