27. Let Justice Conquer All
Chapter 27
Let Justice Conquer All
“ Y ou smell good enough to eat.”
I wanted to vomit, turning my head away to avoid the long length of drool I saw coming down between its crooked, yellow teeth. But then, when it didn’t take a bite of out me like it had been leaning down ready to do, I finally braved a look back, wincing as I opened my eye just a crack. My eyes widened the second I saw a very large blade held under its neck. The polished silver steel was etched with decorative runes, intricate lines and knots, as well as a name written in what looked like Norse descent. A bulky, shadowed figure stood to the side of it, and I held my breath when a deep accented voice said,
“I believe you’re right, but not in the way you intend to taste her.”
I gasped at the sexual undertones of that statement, asking myself had he really just said that? Jesus, what was next? First the demon who wanted to eat me and now the one that wanted to… yeah, so not going to that buffet.
“Now if you value your head, I would take your hands off the woman and rise slowly… uh uh, I said slowly,” he warned when it started to move quickly, the point of his blade moving with the head of the demon. As for me, the second I was free of its hold, I rolled to my stomach and choked up some puke because yeah, this being pregnant in Hell thing wasn’t fun. And neither was the putrid stench of the demon who had been drooling over the idea of eating me.
Now as for who had just saved me, I finally turned to see the large muscular back of a warrior, one who looked as if he had just stepped out of Valhalla. I even found myself rubbing my eyes, as if it was possible that I could now be seeing things. But nope, there it was, every leather-clad, fur wearing inch of him, with his long straw-blonde hair braided back down the length of the top of his head, with the sides shaved to the skin. Oh, and then there was the massive silver axe strapped to his back… so yeah, that was also a dead giveaway that I was currently losing my mind.
“And now I have your attention, the other woman you were chasing, what is to be her fate?” the Viking asked the demon, one who he still held at his sword’s edge.
“We were instructed to take them back to our master,” the demon snarled.
“Unharmed, I assume?” The accusation in his tone was easy to hear.
“It was just going to be a bite,” the demon argued, making me scoff at that. This before arguing,
“I’m human, asshole, what do you think would happen if I were missing a piece?” To which the Viking laughed, before admitting,
“She makes a good point.”
“Damn right I do,” I said, getting to my feet and coming to stand closer to the one that clearly felt like waking that day with the inclination to save a damsel in distress. Well, sign me up, because after losing my powers, I could certainly do with some muscle. And this guy certainly had enough of it… with extra to spare at that. Jesus, he was packing. What did he eat for breakfast, ground up demon horns? His entire upper body looked made from stone.
Of course, I still hadn’t seen his face yet, but I was kind of hoping he was lacking in at least one department. Because being handsome as well just wasn’t fair to the rest of humanity. For starters, we already had one Jared Cerberus walking the Earth and he had enough rugged handsomeness to take the cake and make every woman want to eat it.
“If she is caught, where do you intend to take the other woman?” he asked next, and I had to say, I liked where his mind was at. Clearly, just saving the one chick wasn’t enough to fill his quota for today. But then, there had been about thirty of those demon guards, was one man really capable of taking on them all?
“To the House of Hades,” the demon replied, making the Viking dude sigh at this news. Then in his annoyance, he purposely dug the tip of his blade in further and in an irritated tone asked,
“And which path did you intend to take?”
“Through the Stygian Marsh pass,” the demon cried out in pain through gritted teeth, after being prompted to do so with the tip of his sword now sticking in his bleeding flesh.
“See, that wasn’t so difficult, was it?” the Viking mocked, making the demon snarl. Then as if it hit its limit, it suddenly attacked. Starting with ducking out of the way of the sword before launching itself at my savior’s belly, trying to take him down. However, this didn’t exactly work out, because the Viking easily dodged the attack, sidestepping, and at the same time swiping down with his sword.
This meant the demon came running at me, stopping abruptly when it’s brain and body both realized they were no longer attached. A sickening sight followed, and its head slid from its neck before landing on the forest floor and bouncing off a rock until it came rolling at my feet. Its body then fell flat and my instant reaction to this was to… yep… vomit.
I twisted my body to the side and heaved up anything that might have been left in my stomach from back when I was in the sanctuary. In fact, even when there was nothing left but bile, I still continued to cough it up, feeling it burn my throat.
I flinched when I felt a hand come to my back, a gentle voice then telling me,
“Easy now, I will not hurt you, little human.”
Oh great, I was back to being called little. Well, it wasn’t all that surprising really, because the guy was at least six foot six and made me feel tiny in comparison. Thank the Viking gods he was on my side, although I thanked them even more when I saw a large hand holding out a leather flask in front of me.
“Water,” he told me. I reached out and snatched it, before I started chugging it down and making him chuckle.
“Thank the Gods,” I muttered.
“This God hears your thanks and grants you blessing.”
My mouth dropped open before I turned my head slowly, hoping his response was irony or something. However, I wasn’t so sure, not when I rose back to standing and took in the rest of him. This mainly being the front half that seemed to be the most important, especially when I saw how insanely handsome he actually was. Something I only discovered after raising my head up and up and then up some more.
“Oh, come on!” I complained, taking quick steps back, my response no doubt looking strange to him as the god of a man arched a blond brow down at me.
“Is something wrong, human?”
“Yes, no… er, well I just… you know, can’t believe my luck is all… you coming in here all hot and heavy… no, not hot just heavy… dear gods please shut me up.”
“I would but I am finding your reaction to me far too amusing to prevent it from continuing,” he told me, and that was the second time he had referred to himself as a God.
I mean wow, this guy was hot, but even for someone with that face, that was a little too much ego for my tastes.
Okay, so who was I kidding? This guy most likely took one look in the mirror and then blessed himself for the face looking back at him. All those chiseled features, and manly ruggedness, I wasn’t surprised that people worshipped him. His profile was damn perfect, with high cheekbones, a straight nose, and golden tanned skin. A complex series of dark blue tattoos were painted over the pieces of skin on show, like the massive bulk of his arms corded with lines of muscle. These Viking symbols and knots were also showcased on the sides of his head where his hair had been shaved down to the skin. His blonde hair on top was a mix of thin braids, twisted dreads, and woven strands interlaced with the much larger braid down the center. The length of it reached down past his shoulder-blades and ended at the base of his spine.
Weirdly, it made me question if he did it himself. Or did he just have a team of half-naked beauties all fawning over him and tossing a coin to see whose turn it was to braid his hair next? With that face, I was going with the latter. One look at those come-hither eyes of his and they would be crawling to him on their knees. Whoa, okay, time to stop my brain right there and crack a whip while telling my libido to get down, girl.
Although that was hard when those icy blue eyes seemed to be trying to penetrate my soul. Oh and that bad boy, knowing grin of his, one framed by a neatly trimmed, sandy golden beard, wasn’t exactly helping. Even the two lines of blue he had running through one eye, and down his cheek wasn’t off putting. No, if anything it just made him look bad ass, just like the warrior outfit he was wearing.
I could only see the hints of some sleeveless, rawhide tunic under all the straps of thick dark brown leather. These belonged to a multitude of things, like the decorated shoulder armor that was covering the top of his left arm. Or the pelt of shaggy, blonde and light brown fur that covered his right and hung down his one side. Then came the one that carried that massive axe on his back, which was thicker than the rest and like everything else, was decorated with embossed symbols.
The rest of the leather was hanging around his waist. Multiple belts weren’t only used to hold the many layers of material that were folded around his mid-section, no, these were also holding even more weapons, like the smaller axe that hung by his thigh and the two daggers that were both sheathed by his hip. Again, every inch was decorated in what you would mostly likely call a typical Viking style. Including his arm bracers which were lined with fur and held in place with thin leather cord. His tight leather trousers were of the same style, as well as his boots, and these too were wrapped tight with lengths of woven animal skin.
But it was the round silver disk about the size of a saucer that was fastened to the fur at his shoulder that caught my eye. It looked as if some tree of life was engraved there, making me think back to what Lerna had told me about Norse mythology. Had she mentioned a tree? I wasn’t sure now but either way, the silver disk was beautiful and caught my eye enough to want to ask about it. Just like the symbol that seemed to be a continuing theme on his outfit, and every piece of leather and metal buckle had the same rune. A simple arrow shape pointing upward.
However, now was most definitely not the time to ask him about his clothing, so instead I focused on the part where he didn’t want to stop my embarrassing ramblings.
“Okaaaay… anyway, thanks for saving me, but I have to go and try and save my sister now,” I told him before I started off in that direction, making him quick to catch up with me.
The many weapons alerted me to his movement. Jeez, just how much weight was the guy carrying with that arsenal? No wonder he had all those muscles… okay, stop thinking of the muscles.
Damn it, I missed my HellBeast.
“I am afraid that is too dangerous.”
“Yes, well is there anywhere in this Hell forsaken place that isn’t dangerous? Because I haven’t exactly seen a human embassy around here offering me sanctuary.”
He frowned at this and told me,
“You are not what I remember of human females.”
I couldn’t help but scoff a laugh.
“No? Let me guess, they talked less?”
At my response it was his turn to laugh, and the sound was more enticing than should be allowed near anyone with a vagina.
“In the presence of a God, yes, they usually did.”
My mouth dropped again before I snorted a laugh and said,
“Yeah, okay there, buddy, whatever fantasy floats your boat.”
“Now that I did not understand,” he admitted, still following me until I stopped once we had passed the forest line, seeing ahead of me an open field of strange blue grass. I also had no idea where to go from here.
“Probably for the best…” I remarked before asking, “So where did Mr. Drooling Headless say they were taking my sister?”
He smirked down at me, his easy grin telling me that he found me amusing. Then without answering, he simply pointed in a direction that looked as if it was heading toward some mountains. His strong, tattooed hands looked big enough to twist a man’s head off.
“Righty O’ then” I said before starting off in that direction, happy to see the Viking was still following me.
“By the way, my name is Ella… and you are?” I said after a few minutes of silence.
“Tyr, God of…”
“Yeah, yeah, okay, let me just stop you there before you say something like, God of seducing woman or bountiful harvest…”
“That is the Goddess Freyr,” he interjected.
“Okay, whatever, my point is, you don’t need to impress me any further. You already saved my life and proved yourself more than capable with a blade. Therefore, consider me well and truly impressed.”
Again, the grin on this guy could have melted panties on a mass scale. Victoria’s Secret would be creaming their pants at the increase in sales.
“Happy to be of service to you, something I will continue to do until my vow is fulfilled,” he said, putting his hand to his rippling abs and bowing slightly in what I knew was a teasing way.
“Your vow?” I asked, focusing less on the light mockery.
“Yes, my vow to protect you,” he replied, making me shake my head a little before coming to a stop.
“Wait, you’re not just some random dude taking a stroll through the forest who happened upon two girls in need of saving?”
His lips quirked up again before repeating one word.
“Dude?”
“Yeah, forget that part… answer the question?” I pressed on.
“No, there was nothing random about my being here.”
My mouth dropped a little at that.
“So let me get this straight, you were sent to rescue us?”
“That is what I am telling you, little hu…”
“Little human yeah got it, you know short people don’t really appreciate being called little anything… but that’s not the point,” I said, yet despite this, he chose to focus on the ‘little’ part of the conversation.
“What is the point, human woman… who is short in stature?” He whispered this last part behind his hand in a comical, teasing way. I gave him a tense smile in return, waved my finger at him and said,
“Yeah, I see what you did there… anyway, can we get back to focusing on the who sent you, part of this conversation and who I might therefore owe a kidney?”
“Great Valhalla, you certainly have a way with words, for I find myself barely catching up with them.”
I giggled at that. However, the moment my shoulders bunched I found myself yelping in pain.
“You’re hurt!” he exclaimed, making me wince as I reached over and touched my shoulder, the adrenaline of the chase now worn off, leaving me to realize my injuries. But of course, the drooling bastard had cut my shoulder with his claws.
“It should be okay, I just need to find some more water to wash it with so it doesn’t get infected. I am afraid I drank all your water. It’s been a while and I didn’t realize how thirsty I was… wait, where are you…”
“Ssshh, little one, I will care for your injuries, now sit,” he said after taking my hand in his giant paw and leading me to some fallen logs that looked like they had been cut down and just left.
Then he turned me around so my back was to him, his hands squeezing my waist, framing it with his large hands. I swallowed hard, not liking the feel of another man’s hands on me other than Jared’s, despite how attractive the big Viking guy was.
“Oh, that’s okay, I can just…” I quickly stopped talking when I felt him lean down so his lips were at my ear before he whispered firmly,
“Sit. Down.”
Well okay then, I tried to swallow down the big lump in my throat. Seems like easy-going prince Viking charming had some dominant bite in him after all.
He pulled me down to sitting on the grass with his large body dominating the space behind me, and he used the log to rest his back against. Which meant this put me in between his legs, which was definitely not a place I wanted to be. He was so tall that he could easily see over me; I still only came to his chest.
But then I also knew that I needed to trust this guy. Other than thinking himself as a God, he had done nothing but help me. First, he saved me, then he gave me water, and he hadn’t once tried to come on to me. And let’s face it, he could have had his way with me pretty easily considering the size of the guy.
So, I forced myself to do as he asked when I heard him urge,
“Relax, I won’t hurt you.”
In the end, my voice was too thick to speak, so I just nodded instead, trying not to jump when I felt his large hands come to my hair.
“What… what are you doing?” I asked on whisper, and I swear I could hear him smirk.
“I am gathering up this wild hair of yours, so it’s not in the way of your injury. Do you have any objection to me tying it up?”
I gulped at the thought of this guy tying any woman up. A thought I quickly squashed and instead, I concentrated on clearing my throat enough to speak.
“Ss-sure.”
When he started to gather up my hair once more, I couldn’t help but shiver, biting my lip when it took me back to memories of Jared doing it. Something he did a lot for me back when my arm was broken, he would make any excuse to touch me. Even those days seemed far simpler than what was happening now. And that had been when I was living with a HellBeast King I was secretly in love with, in his cave home and praying each day that he would one day claim me.
His long thick fingers were surprisingly gentle as they gathered up my mass of curls, and he even took the time to pry apart some of the knots. Something that felt strangely intimate, making me close my eyes tight and think of Jared.
“D?giligr,” he hummed down at me with his voice made thicker due to his accent. His fingers worked to wrap a length of something around my hair.
“What does that mean?” I asked, my voice strained, then I felt him lean down further and whisper again in my ear,
“Beautiful.”
“Erm, thank you.”
He chuckled at this and said,
“Do you always sound so unsure when giving your thanks?”
I laughed nervously as way of reply, especially when I felt him caress his fingers down my neck before getting to my injury.
“I have more water, so I will clean it before healing it.”
“Healing it… with like a cream or something?”
He chuckled again, before telling me to, “Stay still.”
I did what he asked, mostly because I was afraid as to what he meant by ‘healing it’ because I certainly found out what that had meant coming from Jared. And well, there was no way I was doing that with this dude. I would let my shoulder turn to gangrene before I let another man do that. Okay, so no, I wouldn’t let it rot because that would be stupid, and I had a baby to think about but still… I was not exactly fired up to do this.
I jumped when I felt liquid poured on it, making me hiss at the sting. But then I became very aware of his lips that had lowered just over my injury. Yet before I could ask what he was doing, he started to blow gently over it, making it quickly grow numb from the pain. It was as if he had blown pure frost from his lips and sealed it shut. The feeling made me shiver but even more so when I felt his lips turn into a grin over my skin.
“There now, that will start to heal quickly,” he told me after straightening up and giving me slightly more space. However, in my shocked state, I couldn’t stop myself before speaking my mind.
“Oh, so healing me didn’t come with a sexual release… oh shit, please pretend I didn’t say that!”
A rumbled growl sounded behind me, making me panic. But even more so when suddenly I found myself on my back with a three-hundred-pound Viking on top of me. His hand now covered my mouth so I wouldn’t scream. My wide pleading eyes searched his narrowed ice blue ones.
Naturally, I started to struggle, making him lower his head to my ear and after running his nose gently up my neck he told me,
“Ssshh, little one… for we are being followed.”
My eyes widened at this, just as his hand lowered, now he was assured I wouldn’t speak again. My heart was hammering in my chest, because I had feared the worst after my comment. Thinking me saying this had foolishly given him the green light to ravish me or something. However, it seemed while my mind was in the gutter, his had been on high alert.
“Have no fear, for I will keep you safe, but you need to stay down,” he told me, making me nod.
But this was my only warning before he suddenly moved. Which meant before I knew it, he was there one second and gone the next, making me turn just in time to see him running before taking a large man down. I frowned at what I thought I had just seen.
“No, it can’t be… but what if it is, Ella?” I asked myself, and before I knew it, I was up on my feet, doing the one thing Tyr had told me not to. Because I swore it hadn’t just been any man.
It was a man I had seen before.
Meaning the second I saw Tyr’s dagger flash up in the air, I went running, screaming at the top of my lungs,
“DON’T KILL HIM, DON’T KILL ASHER!”
However, when the blade went out of sight, I nearly crumbled and I cried out in my hands, coming to a deathly stop. Seconds later and I was running once more, hoping and praying for him to still be alive. I hadn’t known him long, but he had formed a friendship with Jared and helped him fight. And now here he was, and I just knew it was because of me.
Which meant that if I ended up being the cause of his death, then I would never forgive myself! Which was why the second I got there, I nearly crumbled again only to find that my prayers had been answered, for he wasn’t dead. But he soon would be with Tyr now pinning beneath him with a dagger to his throat.
“Who sent you, demon!?” Now with this, it wasn’t what Tyr asked that stunned me.
No, it was Asher’s reply when he begged,
“Please don’t slay me, Mighty…”
“…God of Justice and War.”