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Kirby wasn’t going to surrender just because some mysterious magic was gnawing away at her arm. She pointed to the duffel bag. “Grab whatever you’re comfortable with, along with a few extra magazines of ammo.”
“I’m good. Which direction are we heading? Or are we bringing them to us?” Loki said.
“Are you too nice a guy to shoot someone?” Given he’d had a hand in raising an entire school of gunmen, that was hard to believe.
Loki shrugged. “Sure. Let’s go with that.”
Ah. “You’re not skilled enough.”
“I didn’t say that. Plan?”
He didn’t deny her assumption, either. This might be better, as Kirby didn’t want him killing anyone unless he had to. “Can you disable someone from a distance?”
Loki summoned a baseball-sized globe of lightning, let it hover a few centimeters over his hand, and tossed it at a nearby tree. It struck the trunk and left an impressive scorched crater in its wake.
It also made a significant amount of noise. “Way to let them know we’re here.” Kirby didn’t bother to hide her irritation. “Can you do that without killing someone?”
“I don’t understand the question.” He looked at her as if she were speaking a foreign language.
Gods, the next hour was going to take forever to pass. “I don’t want you to kill anyone. Not until we have more information.”
“I’m sorry—who put you in charge?”
“We do it my way, or you find them on your own.”
Loki rolled his eyes. “Let’s not do this bluffing bullshit again. If I can touch them, I can put them to sleep. I promise not to kill anyone unless I have to, Team Leader Valkyrie.”
His disdain and the nickname clawed under her skin and gnawed at her thoughts. “Great. Follow me. Be quiet.” There was no way she’d tell him her entire plan. They were looking for Nobles, true. Trying to find the other snipers before they found Kirby. But she was also working her way toward the outer perimeter of the campus. Assuming Gwydion couldn’t magically get in any more than Loki could get out, she wanted to be at the most likely place for Starkad to arrive on foot.
If the Nobles knew teleporting in and out was disabled, and if they expected Starkad, they’d have someone positioned near Kirby’s destination. Whether they were there or not didn’t matter—Kirby and Loki would disable one or two teams from the entrance point as readily as she’d hide and wait for backup.
She and Loki picked their way through the trees, with Kirby in the lead. She hated having him at her back. Lesser of two evils wasn’t a comforting reason to take her eyes off the god. But it was easier to travel single file, and she only trusted her own sight on the area.
Brit should be completely gone from her head, but impressions lingered. It was different than actually being Brit. More like if Kirby had watched a movie of Brit’s life and could summon certain memories and emotions.
It made it easier to understand the egos of the people hunting them.
The underbrush was disturbed here. A handful of broken twigs and crumbled leaves were packed into the dirt. She held up her good hand, motioning for Loki to stop. Normally, she’d clench her fist, but that was hard to do while holding a pistol. She stepped behind a nearby tree, and Loki followed.
The wind swirled around them, creating eddies of leaves in pockets of trees. Kirby strained her ears, searching for anything out of place.
Nothing. But people had been through here recently. They might have left someone on watch. She had to take a chance. Please let Loki understand my hand gestures. She pointed two fingers toward his eyes, then gestured around them, indicating he needed to watch the area.
If she were doing this, she’d be in a tree and her spotter would be in a different one, near enough that any clicks sent over the radio could be interpreted as directions.
But they knew she was out here, and they weren’t going to do what she would.
Kirby braced herself and sprinted across the short clearing, to the next tree. A suppressed bullet bit the dirt in front of her, and then another at her heels, as she ducked behind another trunk.
Loki was gone.
Based on where the shots came from, the spotter was most likely a few trees over from Kirby and actively searching for her. Kirby stayed hidden, listening for a breath or the crack of a twig she’d never hear. They’d pursue her. She didn’t need to go to them.
A soft thunk reached her ears, and she whirled to see Loki standing next to Crazy Eight, who was unconscious on the forest floor.
Loki pressed his mouth to her ear, and unpleasantness crawled over her skin. “I’m locking them under the cafeteria. Used to be a boiler room, now it’s not,” he whispered.
She nodded. Loki vanished with Crazy Eight, and returned alone seconds later.
The Nobles would have communication, but they’d likely maintain radio silence so she didn’t hear them talking in the middle of the forest. With each team she and Loki removed from the equation, there was a larger chance someone would notice people were disappearing.
Kirby’s heart slammed against her ribs as they moved forward again. An ache ran from her shoulder into her neck, making her wish she could pop something, to alleviate the growing discomfort. She didn’t want to look at her arm but couldn’t help it. The infection was growing. The flesh nearest the hole had blackened and deteriorated.
Could TOM do this to any immortal? Maybe they had special ammo loaded in their guns just for her, but that was highly impractical. What were Starkad and the others walking into? Her fear grew. Was this what Min felt every time he watched her die? What the others felt?
She swallowed her terror as best she could.
A short while later, she and Loki came up behind another team. Actually saw their backs, before the team saw Kirby. With a few blinks, Loki had incapacitated them and removed them from the scene.
Having him here was nicer than she’d expected.
Her pulse roared in her ears, partly from adrenaline but mostly from the growing pain in her arm. The numbness had left her, and her right side felt like it was on fire. Her breath came in short gasps, as she struggled to draw in air.
“Sit. Rest,” Loki whispered in her ear.
Kirby didn’t want to. She didn’t have a choice. She sank to the ground, and focused on slowing her heart and ignoring the pain.
“Valkyrie.” Ice Queen’s voice startled her. Fuck. “I wonder who got a shot off at you. Doesn’t matter, because I get to finish the job.” The volume of her tone was normal, so she wasn’t trying to alert anyone besides Venus to where she was. And Venus was around somewhere.
“Gloating? Really?” Kirby was surprised she kept her voice steady. “You could have shot me, and you want to talk?”
“Yeah, I want to talk. Because, for you, there’s a life after this one, and I want you to die knowing you failed to destroy us. You were the best of us and you threw it all away. We were your brothers and sisters, and you gave us up for thousand-year-old dick?”
A school full of Alphas with egos. Exactly the way Hel wanted it. Kirby could either be amused or sob. “You were never anything to me.”
“That’s on you. You’ve got so much fucking ego, you couldn’t even hide who you were when you came back. Brit would never have made the stupid mistakes you did. Would never have given herself to a grimy grunt. Would never have trusted us with—” Ice Queen dropped to the ground when Loki appeared behind her.
“Got them both,” he said. “Be right back.”
Kirby slumped against the tree again. That was three teams down, but more were still out there. Melon-head and Cyclops were the biggest threat, but definitely not the only one.
She needed to stand. To survey the area. It didn’t matter how deep she dug; her reserves were almost depleted. Was she going to die out here?
The thought knocked her off-balance. She’d spent the last six years wondering if she wanted to die, and now that she was staring the prospect in the face, it terrified her. She wasn’t ready to go.
She might not have a say in the matter.