With the sun dipping toward the horizon, I merged onto the highway.It split a few miles later, and instead of going south toward The Rain, I headed east.It might be a bad decision, but I’d decided to drop by Carrie’s.“I have one more stop to make.”
“Hmm,” Thordis mused.“What happened to get in, get out, go home?”
“I’mkindagoing home.I promised my roommate I’d drop by.My rent is paid through the summer, so technically I still live there.”
Her nexthmmdidn’t sound surprised or concerned.She’d probably suspected I didn’t plan to go straight back to The Rain.
“Carrie is my roommate.John is a friend who lives in the apartment across from us.They’re normal college students.Smart, social, fun.They mean a lot to me.They don’t know about the paranormal world, and they think…” I couldn’t believe I was going to say this.“Blake told them The Rain is an exclusive sex resort.So just—”
A laugh exploded from the Valkyrie.She slapped a hand on the dash, her grin stretching across her face.“Blake is now, officially, my favorite werewolf,” she said.“He was already toward the top of my list with that build and those eyes and his smile.A sex resort.”She laughed again.“He and I can make that claim true.In every building.Multiple times and in every position.Goddess, I’d even leave the Null again to have his magic pound—”
“Enough daydreaming, Thordis.”I gave myselfhugeprops for so casually interrupting.I couldn’t be mad or jealous.I had no right to Blake.In fact, it would be great if they hooked up.I could add it to my reasons-not-to-sleep-with-Blake list.
“Just try to be human-ish,” I said.“Please.”
“No problem.”She grinned.“I can pull it off.I have pink nail polish.”
Fifteen minutes later, I parked in the first empty spot I could find, then took the sidewalk to my building.Even though I had a Valkyrie at my side, my gaze flicked from one sunset-stretched shadow to another, hoping a fey wouldn’t step into my path.But the only paranorm I saw was Eli, the earth elemental my parents had asked to watch out for me.
I ground my teeth.If I’d known he was here because of them, I’d have beenextremelyannoyed.I probably would have insisted they call him off.I’d definitely demand they tell me why they thought I needed protection, which was likely the reason they hadn’t told me anything.They’d been keeping secrets.
Eli met us at the stairs to my apartment.He dipped his head in a respectful hello to me.Then he gave Thordis a more curt nod.“Valkyrie.”
Thordis put a finger to her lips.“Shhh.I’m a secret.”
Eli didn’t react to her theatrics.
“It’s good to see you again,” I said.“Have there been any problems?Any visitors I should know about?”
“Jared’s vampires come by regularly,” he said.“Sometimes they check in with me.Sometimes they stay and walk the perimeter.Lehr sends a wolf most days.”
“Lehr sends them?”My voice sounded flat.I couldn’t help it.I’d treated Lehr with respect most of my life.That respect ended when he’d hunted down the unsanctioned.It had turned into hatred when he forced me to kill Shelli.Now I could barely stand the sound of his name.“Is anyone here tonight?”
Eli shook his head.“The wolf left at sunset.”
“To avoid crossing paths with a vampire, I bet,” Thordis said.
“Let me know if anyone…” I faded off.Something had changed in Eli’s expression.He was studying Thordis, a wrinkle between his eyes.That wrinkle smoothed out a second later, like he’d just figured something out.
“Thordis,” he said.
A chill prickled the hair at the back of my neck.I hadn’t introduced him to Thordis yet, and the way he’d said her name… It sounded like he recognized her.
My gaze shifted to Thordis and locked in place there.Her entire face had hardened into something sharp and lethal.Shebecamea Valkyrie.A warrior.A weapon.
“Thordis?”I tried pulling her attention away from Eli.I might as well have not existed.
“I have no quarrel with you,” Eli said.“And no reason to speak to your kind.”
She held a knife in her right hand.It hadn’t been there a moment ago.
I risked a step toward Eli, cutting slightly to the left so I was more in her field of vision.“You were going to do your best to act human, remember?”
Eli placed his hand on my shoulder, eased me out of the way.“Put away your weapon.You know where to find me if I’m not true to my word.”
Thordis’s nostrils flared.The atmosphere felt too still, too closed in, too quiet.If Eli blinked wrong, violence would erupt at the foot of my apartment stairs.
What the hell was going on here?She hadn’t acted this way with Deagan.
