Chapter Twenty

If there was a greater plan here, Kara couldn’t see it. Right now, all she spied was death and destruction crashing down on Everett’s Ridge, their own Ragnarök, if they didn’t do something.

She just couldn’t figure out what.

The uniform shirt and pants were a bit tight, but dry and warm. Kara looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. The shiny metal badge on her chest had been a last-minute addition, Marie pulling the shield out of the desk and handing it at her.

“You’re official now,” the woman announced.

Kara drew her fingers over the raised surface. Wasn’t a breastplate and wouldn’t stop any bullets but she felt…

Good. Right.

She’d checked the wound in her side while changing—still oozing a little blood, but nowhere near as ugly-looking as it’d been earlier that day. The stitches were clean and tight—if there was a scar, wouldn’t be that noticeable.

Kara offered a prayer up to Freyja. If they were about to fight for their lives, she could use a little celestial blessing.

My lance couldn’t hurt. Along with my wings and armor.

A tingling ran along her arms, and for a second, she thought her prayers were about to be answered.

Nothing.

Pushing down the nugget of greasy fear congealing in her belly, she went back out to the front.

Liam was there already, grinning as he posed in his new uniform. He touched his pistol, now resting in the leather holster at his side.

“Don’t ask,” Marie said, interrupting Kara’s unspoken question. “I’m not even sure I want him to be carrying. But desperate times call for desperate moves, and right now I’m pretty damned desperate.” She studied the Valkyrie. “How are you doing?”

“Not great. But I can fight.” Kara couldn’t help smiling, admiring the way the blue shirt sat snugly on Liam’s shoulders and back.

“Do you know how to use a pistol?” the chief asked.

“Yes.”

“No.” Liam’s voice carried over hers, stronger and more adamant. “This isn’t the time to give her a beginner’s course.”

“I can fight,” Kara protested.

Marie eyed her. “I’m not keen on giving you the two-minute drill. I’m still wondering if I should change my mind about him.” She jerked a thumb at Liam.

“I need something.” Kara’s attention went to the police baton lying on a nearby desk. “How about that?”

“I can live with that.” Marie handed her the wooden stick. “Be careful. Don’t rip those stitches out.”

Kara let out a laugh as she tested the weight, swinging the stick through the air. “I’ll make do.”

It wasn’t her lance but a fine substitute.

The police chief donned her thick parka, the official patches and lettering on the back and front marking her as law enforcement. Goggles sat on the table alongside a set of gloves.

“Right. This is how we’re doing this.” Marie pointed at the window. The snow was still blowing past, but it was getting darker by the second. “I’m taking the main road—I’ve got a full tank of gas and hopefully I’ll hit someplace or someone along the way who can help.”

“If you reach my truck, you can siphon out the rest of the gas in my tank,” Liam offered.

She eyed the pair. “Goes without saying that I’m not happy about this, any of this.”

“I’m sorry. I never planned to bring any of my past into the Ridge,” Liam said.

“Not all on you. Plenty of people here got things in their past they’d rather not deal with.” She zipped up the parka and reached for the goggles. “Not like yours, but still… And like I said, you’ve been a good man since you’ve been here. If I were standing in front of the Lord, I’d speak proudly in your favor.” She held out her hand. “Good to know you, Jack.”

Liam smiled and gripped the gloved hand tight. “See you soon, when you return with the reinforcements.”

“That’s a promise.” She slipped the goggles on. “There’s a second snowmobile in the shed. I’ll leave some gas, but I doubt it’d be enough to make it all the way out. Worst case scenario, save who you can. Bring them to the station and barricade yourself until I bring back help. Keep trying the phones, the computers. Maybe they’ll make a mistake and you’ll be able to get a message out. I’ll stop once or twice on my drive to try and call ahead, sound the alarm.”

“Will do.” Liam nodded.

Marie paused before pulling him into a bear hug, her eyes wet. “Damn it, Jack. Don’t mess up a good thing by being a hero. Just hold down the fort until I return.” She released him. “We’ll work something out, I promise. You’ve been one hell of a help around this town and I can’t see the Ridge without you now.”

Liam nodded, swallowing hard.

She moved to Kara and pointed at the badge on her uniform shirt. “That means something. Means you’re going to be the one to run to trouble, not away from it. Good men and women die every day wearing that.” Her voice wavered as she continued to talk. “Lift your right hand, both of you.”

They both did so.

“I hereby deputize the two of you to help protect the Ridge until I get back.” She paused. “There’s a lot of words I should be saying but right now I’m worried as hell about this town and can’t think of them. But the most important thing, the one thing you both need to understand is that we’re all in this together. We all love this town and don’t want to see anyone hurt.”

Kara swallowed hard, feeling an invisible weight settle on her shoulders.

“Anyone asks, tell them we had an emergency and I had to leave. And if they want to dispute me putting those badges on your shirts, tell them to save it until I come back.” Marie gave them both a final nod. “Keep our town safe.”

She moved to the door and was gone before Kara could say something, anything.

They didn’t move until the roar of an engine split the silence, rising and then falling away to leave nothing but the winter quiet.

Liam turned to her. “So, what do you want to do now?”

She paced between the desks, staring out the windows. “Are you sure they won’t come out until the snow stops?”

“Very much so.” Liam cleaned off the nearby desk and pushed it toward the thick wooden front doors.

“What are you doing?”

“Keeping us safe for the time being.” He raised a hand before she could move. “Stay there. Last thing we need is for you to aggravate that wound.”

She watched him shift the desk through the swinging counter and up against the door. He flicked the deadbolt, sealing the two mammoth doors shut.

“I know they pull open,” Liam said before she could respond. “And if they want, they can get in easily. But let’s make it at least a little bit harder.”

She nodded as he moved a second desk next to the first, then busied himself back behind the counter building a small barrier, moving other empty desks into a L shape.

“I can…” Kara stopped as he growled at her.

“Last thing we need is to try and make it back to Annie’s ’cause you ripped those stitches out. Just sit and rest. Please.”

She did so, rocking back and forth in the office chair as he finished his redecorating.

“There.” He glanced at the nearest window, set above the front doors. “Dark outside—time to go to sleep.” He stifled a yawn, and she realized he’d been awake nearly twenty-four hours nonstop, punctuated with various events. “I don’t know about you, but I could use some shuteye. We’ll camp here—gives us a good view of the door and the windows.”

“But…” She placed her hand over her heart. “The Sons of Cain…”

“Are going to be doing the same damned thing. They’re not going to try and dig themselves out until daylight.” He grunted. “Let me check the doors in the back and the pantry for some snacks and blankets—be right back.”

She walked around the main floor, studying the bulletin boards. The darkness settled over the building like a shroud, punctuated every few minutes by a burst of wind.

Kara climbed up on the counter and looked out, squinting to see through the blowing snow. A handful of streetlights were on, a trail of full moons in the distance, but there was no sign of activity. They might as well have been on Mars instead of a mountain town in Colorado.

Liam came out from the hallway, clutching a plastic bag in one hand and blankets in the other. “Raided the vending machine—don’t worry, I left an IOU. We should bunk down out here—the only other option is the cells, and I really don’t want to be behind bars, even voluntarily.” He shook his head. “Come on down and be careful.”

She followed him behind the makeshift barricade where he set down the blankets as a floor covering.

He sat down and opened the bag. “Got a whole lot of chocolate here. Fresh pot of coffee in the break room, and we can always bust the soda machine open if we need to.”

Kara moved in on his left side, careful not to jostle her injury. The knife cut might be healing quicker than what she’d expected, but she didn’t need to strain it. Her eyes adjusted to the dim light coming in from outside, the entire station taking on an unworldly appearance.

She leaned in, pressing her ear to his chest as he curled his arm around her.

“Tell me…” She paused, a burst of shyness overcoming her.

“Tell you what?” He murmured.

“Tell me how you became the man you were. The man before you met me in that bar, before you came to the Ridge.” The warmth from his body soothed her, calmed her nervousness. “Who are you?”

He shifted against her. “That was a bad man. I’m not sure I want to introduce you to him.”

She pressed her hand against his chest. “It’s your past. I want to know how you became Jack Hammerson.”

He let out a sigh. “I was born, went to all the regular schools and decided to join the military when I graduated. It wasn’t a family tradition, but my father was adamant I not follow him into the coal mines. He’d seen too many good men die before their time, wanted better for me. My mother was a good woman, a tough lady who took care of all the kids in the neighborhood when she wasn’t working retail. When they both died in a car accident, I was overseas on my first deployment. I came home and buried them, sold the house, and went back to work.”

She kissed his cheek. “I’m sorry.”

“We couldn’t afford for me to go to college, so my dad told me to join up. Get in, do your duty, learn a skill, and leave to make money. I took his advice to heart and when my instructors found I had a natural aptitude for killing, I followed the road laid out in front of me. I accepted the training, worked the black ops, taking out the enemies as dictated by my superiors, and when it was time to re-enlist or leave—I left.”

“And they let you?”

“Couldn’t stop me. Except the only real work skill I walked out with wasn’t really compatible with what society needed. Well, not this one.” He gestured at the windows with his free hand. “Tired of taking orders—wanted to decide for myself what I was going to do.”

“But killing for money…” She pressed her face into his neck, searching for answers. “That wasn’t what they taught you.”

“It was.” He didn’t look down at her, focusing on the blowing snow outside. “Some of the missions I went on… I can’t tell you about them—I swore an oath. But I can tell you that the people I killed, they weren’t all evil. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught up in circumstances and political crap that put a bullseye on their foreheads. So, when I got out, wasn’t hard to keep on going.”

His grip on her tightened. “I was known as ‘The Hammer’—I’d bring it down on anyone for the right price. The only rule I had was no work within the United States. I wouldn’t spill blood on my native soil.” He let out a laugh. “Might sound strange, but that was the line I wouldn’t cross. Other than that, no restrictions, no holding back.”

He paused. “Until I got to that village and spotted the battle angel, I’d never regretted any of my decisions. But after seeing her…” He exhaled, his broad chest rising and falling. “I knew if I didn’t change my ways, it’d be a one-way trip to the Bad Place for me.”

“Liam.” She waited until he turned to face her, the dim light from the outside casting part of his face in shadow. “That was a Valkyrie.” She touched her lips. “Like me.”

He frowned, eyebrows drawing together. “No, no. That’s a fantasy you pulled out of that children’s book from the library. You latched onto the pretty picture, that damned amnesia letting you take hold of the idea ’cause she appealed to you.”

“It did. But not because I smacked my head.” She gripped his hand, entwining her fingers with his. “I am a Valkyrie, Liam. Not the one you spied on the battlefield, but I am.”

He shook his head.

“Listen to me.” She tightened her grip. “That woman—she wore a breastplate, reflecting the colors of the rainbow. And a helmet.”

Kara continued on, describing the woman’s attire from top to bottom, the greaves on her shins right up to the lance and the way the Valkyrie landed on the field, how she approached each dead and dying soldier. She’d done the same thing thousands of times—the Valkyrie would have followed the same training.

“Each of the spirits rose in turn, and at the end, she drew a glyph in the air—it’s how we send them to Valhalla.” She choked on the word. “The last one, the dark Valkyrie… She wasn’t taking the soldier to Valhalla. She was taking him to Helheim, where he will suffer for eternity, freed only by his death at Ragnarök, where he will fight for the Fenris Wolf to try and defeat the warriors in Valhalla, backed by Odin and the other Gods.”

It was hard to continue, the bitter taste in her mouth making her want to spit. “We ferry them one by one to Helheim—the evil in their souls makes it impossible for a Valkyrie to gather more than one at a time. After we deliver them, we return to Valhalla. It’s a heavy weight to bear, so many women burn out over time. But we rest and recuperate, and when Odin calls, we head out again to the next battlefield.”

His jaw tensed, his eyes narrowing as he heard the truth in her words. “You’re one of them? One of those creatures who send men and women to Hell or Heaven? Are you demons or angels?”

“Neither.” She swallowed hard, pulling the painful memories up from her core. “You have to understand—Valkyries aren’t born out of nothing. We were recruited as young girls, offered a chance to join our Mother Freyja on her mission to recruit worthy warriors for Valhalla, preparing for Ragnarök.”

“The end of the world,” he whispered.

“Yes.” She pushed through the mental barrier, ready to speak about it. “In my case, it was a blessing to be chosen. Mother Freyja came to me one night when I lay in the hay, sore from yet another beating.”

“What?” The anger packed into the single word both comforted and terrified her.

“You have to understand—this was long ago and far away, in Europe. My parents had many children but couldn’t afford to feed and clothe us all. As a girl, I was unable to work the land as hard as my brothers. So I was sold to a traveling merchant.”

“Sold,” Liam repeated. “A slave.”

“Yes.” She let her breath out slowly. “He treated me well at first, along with his other possessions. But as time went on he became cruel, taking his anger out on me when his business deals didn’t go well.”

“Did he…” Liam drew a deep breath. “Did he hurt you?” He pulled his fingers into fists. “You know what I’m asking.”

There was no lying now. “Yes. But as I got older he lost interest. But he still beat me when he needed an outlet for his anger. That night…”

She swallowed hard. “He was mad because a deal fell through. When he left me there in the hay, I thought I was going to die. I knew I was going to die,” she corrected herself. “I’d given up on life, on living.”

His arms went around her, pulling her closer, if that were possible. She felt the dampness on his skin and realized she was crying.

“A bright light filled the room, and she appeared. So beautiful…”

“Freyja.”

“Yes.” Kara sniffled. “She was so beautiful. She asked me if I wanted to come with her.”

“And you said yes,” he finished the sentence.

“No.”

“No?” He pulled back to stare at her. “You refused her?”

“At first.” She smiled. “I thought she was an evil spirit, trying to trick me out of my soul. I might be prepared to die, but I wasn’t stupid. But she kept talking, explaining what she wanted to offer me.”

“What worked?”

“The idea of helping collect women and men for Valhalla—I’d heard about these women warriors but didn’t think they really existed. It sounded…glorious.”

“You took her up on her offer.”

“Yes. I healed, and I grew older, stronger. I trained, and I fought, and I went and collected souls for the Great Halls.” The remainder of her memories came back in a rush. “But I never forgot who I’d been.”

“The merchant. Your owner.” Liam growled.

“Yes. I never met him again, but I saw plenty of men like him—those who think they own women and men, anyone below them who can be manipulated and twisted into doing things they don’t want to do. I swore I would never let myself be controlled by anything or anyone.”

“I believe you.” The statement was short and heartfelt.

“You do?” Kara stared at him.

“Yes. Because it’s so crazy it has to be true.” One edge of his mouth twisted upward. “But then how did you fall from heaven and end up in the Ridge? And Las Vegas, before that?”

“I…” She hesitated, her cheeks burning. “I did something wrong.”

“Wrong?” He cupped her cheek in one hand, pulling her up to face him. “I didn’t think angels could do anything wrong.”

“I did. I let my pride, my emotions take over. My need to prove myself better than another woman. My sister, my friend. When we met in Vegas, I was already headed for trouble.” She shook her head. “I hurt people, innocents whose only sin was being in the same place as I was. For my punishment, Freyja sent me to the far side of the barracks, to where the Dark Valkyries are. I changed from collecting worthy, strong fighters for Valhalla to snatching up pitiful, evil souls and taking them to Helheim. The penalty was supposed to humble me, but I just got angrier. I mocked them, told the tortured souls there was no room for change, that they had chosen their fate. Then…” She sighed. “Then I found myself at your door, bereft of my memory and everything gone—except your name on my lips.”

“So…” He moved in closer, his breath caressing her skin. “Was this supposed to be your punishment or mine?”

“I don’t know.” The scent of him was intoxicating, the need to have him growing. “But I’m glad it happened.”

Then his lips met hers, and she was lost.