After Will made a phone call to Apollo, Anka emerged dressed for the day in the clothes from yesterday. Now clean.
Will turned toward Anka. “Ready?”
Denny’s brow furrowed. She was leaving already?
She nodded.
Storm straightened. “You need me to come with you? Ask witnesses what they saw?”
Will arched an eyebrow. “Are you kidding me? No, I do not need you intimidating and interrogating by-standers with no official capacity to do so.”
Storm raised her hands in mock surrender.
With a salute, Will placed a hand on Anka’s shoulder and shimmered into oblivion.
Denny waited until they were gone before leaning on the counter and addressing the Valkyrie. “You drop a beautiful woman in danger on my doorstep. I don’t know whether to thank you or chastise you.”
Storm shrugged as if to say her feelings would be unaffected regardless of which route he chose.
“How do you know her?” he asked.
“She did Bryce’s tattoo. I went back to her on a case when I needed information on Norse markings. I figured who better to ask than a tattoo artist who understood the magic involved? Last night when she called for help, she was already in her car and away from danger. At that point, I thought she probably just needed a roof over her head and some friendly company.”
He could see Storm’s logic, respect it. If he was honest with himself, he was honored she regarded him as a reliable and trustable source for someone in need.
He also knew if he didn’t set boundaries, she certainly wouldn’t. “So long as this isn’t a recurring event. I know you and your team are all doing important work, but when this crisis with Helen passes, I still need my day job—the one that keeps a roof over my head and food on my table.”
“I won’t jeopardize your job. This is a one-time ask. Anka is special. She’s important to the cause.”
“Special? In what way?”
Denny’s limited understanding of the secret world of Norse bloodlines was that leaders of an organization called the Council of Mjölnir spanned across the world, and Shadow Guardians with different forms and levels of magic protected humans. Among the Norse bloodlines were prophets, who foretold of a forthcoming battle between Helen and the chosen ones.
“According to her grandmother, Anka helps the Shadow Guardians. I’m wondering if that moment is now, as it pertains to the orb.”
“Her grandmother is also a Shadow Guardian?”
“Her grandmother is leader of the North American branch of the Council of Mjölnir. She’s the woman who directly recruited and trained my sister, Raine.”
“And how are things going with you?”
Storm gave him a sideways glance, and he knew she understood the question.
“I’m part of a team now. I see my family more regularly, and I have a new one with Bryce and Olivia. Life is good, or as good as can be expected while we work to try to track down Helen.”
He’d staged the intervention to help bring her out of isolation and rejoin her family, but he hadn’t seen or heard much from her since that event almost a year ago. He hadn’t been sure if the silence had been indicative of the success and she didn’t need therapy any more or out of frustration toward him. Now he could see it was the latter.
He was admittedly happy for her. He sometimes missed her intrusions and impromptu counseling sessions; however, he would enjoy the satisfaction of knowing he played a role, though reluctantly at times, in helping a powerful Valkyrie coming into herself.
“Life is short and damn well ugly at times,” he began. “Grab onto love and soak it all in while you have it. Take all that love into battle with you, because it’s a kind of shield and a kind of power.”
“I understand that now. I appreciate your help. Now and last year.”
“That’s what friends are for.” He raised his coffee mug in salute before taking a gulp.
❖
Anka watched in amazement as the rainbow colors faded around them.
“That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Thanks,” Will said cheerfully.
The two of them stood in a house overlooking a sandy beach. Which shoreline, Anka didn’t know. The view of lapping waves under the morning sun looked serene though.
Turning from the window, she noticed the owners of the home, seemingly unperturbed by their sudden appearance.
“This is Apollo and Rosalyn. Apollo is a healer and Roslyn is a shapeshifter with some pretty gnarly moves,” Will announced with an easy grin.
Rosalyn had creamy skin with long white hair that contrasted her young appearance. Apollo was tan and a few inches shorter and broader than Will. His brown hair had sun-streaked highlights.
“Nice to meet you both. I've heard of you, Apollo. I think you’re the only healer the shadow world knows. You’re both Shadow Guardians?”
“That’s right,” Rosalyn said, her voice held a melodic English accent. “Chipping away at Helen’s forces one demon at a time.”
“They’ve been amazing,” Will added. “This whole secret organization, the Council of Mjölnir.”
“But you’re one of them, aren’t you?” She couldn’t keep the slight chaffing out of her voice. She didn’t like the thought of being surrounded by members of a group she’d been excluded from.
Will cast a sideways glance at her. “I’m not. I help them and they help me. They get rid of their demons, and I close FBI cases. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship.”
“So, you’re like an honorary member?”
Will shrugged. “If people call me one it’s because of my association with Raine, not from any official title. I’m happy in my role as an FBI agent. Anyone can contribute to helping to fight against Helen without directly being a guardian. Take Denny, for example. He was instrumental in bringing Storm into the fold—reconnecting her with her sister so she could join us. He’s not a Shadow Guardian but helped us tremendously.”
She thought of the tattoos she’d given Jake and Bryce—helping others without being a Shadow Guardian.
“How can I be of assistance?” Apollo asked, his voice light with a slight Southern accent.
Anka held up her hand. “I’m hoping for the use of my hand back. And I took a good blow to the hip.”
“No problem. Let’s see what we have here.” Apollo approached, holding one hand out, palm up.
Anka set her injured hand on top of his. She felt warmth, followed by a burning sensation and then itching, and she sucked in a breath as her eyes watered.
“Almost done now,” he said gently.
She thought of the orb and wondered what such a power might spew from the hands of a healer like him. Heal an entire cancer ward? A hospital? Perhaps. But as long as Helen walked Midgard, the orb needed to be hidden somewhere safe. A mass healing would certainly enable the goddess of death to track it down more easily.
Apollo moved a hand to hover over her injured hip. She started to ask him if he needed to see the injury in order to heal it, but before she could speak, she felt the warm itching and burning of his magic deep in the joint.
Relieved the pain had subsided and she would have no lasting injury, she flexed and extended her fingers.
“Thank you.”
Apollo stepped back. “No problem. We’re all part of the same team.”
She thought he looked a little paler, like the use of his magic taxed his body a bit. Would use of the orb cause less consumption of personal energy or more?
❖
“Is this the place?” Will asked.
Anka nodded and her heart sunk at the sight of the dead body on the floor of her tattoo shop. After they’d said goodbye to Rosalyn and Apollo, Will had brought her here.
“I think he’s my age,” she said sadly. She was twenty-eight. There was a time when she didn’t think she’d live past twenty, but now she couldn’t imagine dying so young.
Will looked down and shook his head. “I hate this damned war. Too many people are dying too young.”
He pushed through the front door of her shop, gingerly stepping past Dune, neck craning in different directions as he looked around the exterior. She followed him outside the building.
“You can transport anywhere in under thirty seconds?”
“Most places,” he said. “It has to be a place I’ve been, a person I’ve met more than briefly, or a place they know. For instance, just because I know of Helen it doesn’t mean I can transport to her lair and launch a surprise attack. I don’t know where she lives, and I haven’t met her personally or spent time in her space enough to find her through the Bifröst.”
“What about in a fight? Could you just move from one place to another, dodging the undead?”
“I’m not fast enough for that. I’ve tried. I’ve worked hard at making myself faster and managed it down from minutes to seconds. But dodging a bullet or a fist? No.”
“I might be able to help with that. I’ll think about it. There might be a tattoo we could do to augment the magic. Specific runes.”
“Like Bryce’s tattoo?”
“Not something quite so elaborate. His had to be large and more intricate because I was taking someone with no protective shield ability and giving him a powerful shield. For you, we’re talking about a little extra something to enhance strong existing powers.”
She followed him as he walked along the strip mall.
“I like the sound of that. Are there side effects or things that can go wrong with a magical tattoo?” he asked.
“Worst-case scenario is I don’t get the magic right and it doesn’t work. It’s not as though I fumble the magic and you grow a third eye.”
Will chuckled.
“What are you looking for?” she asked.
He pointed up at a lamppost in the parking lot and one corner of the strip mall where it made an L shape. “Security cameras. Like Denny said, if we can find whoever brought the draugr here, we can try to track that person. I’ll hit up some shop owners and ask to look at their footage. See if I can get a photo. With that, I can have the FBI run facial recognition. I can’t take you with me for this part.”
She understood what Will was saying. If he was going to request information and look at video footage as an FBI agent, he might lose credibility if he brought along a civilian, especially someone as unconventional-looking as her. She took no offense because she liked her appearance and had no interest in tagging along with his investigation.
“Can you hang back in your shop? Maybe pack up some things you want to take with you since it’s going to get shut down when I bring an investigative team here.”
“Yeah. I want to check the cash register.” She turned and walked away. She’d left the store unlocked all night since running for her life took precedence over her closing routine.
“Oh, and don’t touch the body,” Will called after her.
She glanced back at him to give him the most absurd facial gesture she could muster. Why on earth did he think she would? Gross.
She walked back into her shop and look down at Dune. Sadness swept over her. This poor man wouldn’t have a regular burial for a while if the FBI was going to bag and tag him. Did he have a family? She wondered who would have to tell them. She’d seen dead bodies before, but none who had landed violently at her doorstep. She considered checking on Hank, but wasn’t sure she could stomach what she might find.
She checked the register, thankful to see no one had taken the cash. She suspected if robbers had opened the door, they had probably left as soon as they noticed the body on the floor.
Tattoo artistry was, at best, a modest stream of income, so she couldn’t afford a swanky place to rent and hang her shingle. In fact, she usually found slightly rundown strip malls like this one in sometimes sketchy parts of town. If she’d been robbed last night, it wouldn’t have been the first time.
She gathered the cash, rolled it, and pocketed it before moving to the back room where she tugged a suitcase out from under a cot. After opening it up, she began dumping valuables and clothing inside. She could come back later for her other supplies when she found a new shop to rent, but for now, she couldn’t sleep at this place. She definitely couldn’t risk Helen knowing where she was.
As she was zipping up her suitcase, the front door chimed. Friend or foe? She thought she might now wonder that for the rest of her life when someone walked into her shop.
When she peeked around the corner, her heart gave a brief flutter to see a tall black man standing in the doorway.
Denny.
He looked down at the body on the floor and frowned.
She came out from the back office, lugging her suitcase. “Yeah. I try not to look at it.”
“This is terrible.” He swallowed. “I feel like we should cover him up, give him some dignity. But I suppose this is a crime scene right?”
Anka nodded solemnly. “Will said not to disturb him.”
“You had one hella a terrible night.”
“Yeah.”
“All healed?”
“Yeah. What are you doing here?”
He shifted his weight on his feet. “You’re going through a lot. I thought maybe you could use a friend. Or just somebody to lift heavy shit for you. Storm told me the name of your shop, so I found you on my GPS and drove over.”
“That’s very kind of you. And I’ll hold you to that offer when I have to move all the rest of my things. For now, it’s just a suitcase.” She moved around the body and out the front door.
Denny followed. “Where will you stay?”
She shrugged. “Probably a motel. I can’t rest until I know the orb is safe.”
“You’re welcome to stay with me until…” He let the word hang, making her wonder if he meant until she found the orb. Until she found a new place to live? Until either of them wanted to change the arrangement?
“You barely know me. Why would you help me?”
“Sometimes we get to know people by the quality of the time spent together, not the quantity. Have we spent less than twenty-four hours in each other's presence? Yes. But do I know you better than some casual acquaintances I've known for years? Also, yes.”
She looked down at her packed bag as she considered his offer.
“You liked my eggs. Wait till you taste my homemade eggplant parmesan.”
She laughed. “You clearly already know me well enough to know I can be bribed with food.”
He chuckled—that warm, endearing sound she enjoyed. “I’ll take that as a yes.” As if it weighed nothing, he plucked her suitcase from her and they walked out the door to his car at the curb where he placed it in his trunk.
As he closed the lid, he peered around his car at her when she opened the passenger side door. “Anka, did you just pack an overnight bag from your tattoo shop? Are you living in there? In this place?” He gestured to the strip mall.
“I’ve stayed in worse.” She rolled her shoulders and took a shaky breath. “Will you walk around back with me? I need to see Hank, and I don’t want to do it alone. He saved my life. I would like to pay my respects.”
“Absolutely.”