Chapter 21
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
Sylvara didn’t know what to think. Remnants of her dream came back to her as she stared at Rolf, who had looked like a carbon copy of Apollo.
Loki’s son? No. Apollo’s? A definite yes.
What. The. Hell?
And what did that dream mean? The one where she learned again that the vampires were not only Apollo’s creation, but that their foremother was Selene, a goddess?
Wait. Did that mean his mom and dad were siblings? Because, ew.
But no. First off, Rolf wasn’t that old. But how? Why?
She yawned, staring at Rolf and trying not to remember how he’d flashed her with a full frontal before sliding between the sheets. She needed less lust and more rest, more time to figure out what her dream meant. Blast, but who was the lady, and why did Sylvara feel like she should know her?
Frustrated, she placed her ax by the door with a request that it keep her safe. Blood Drinker had no problem with that. Then she slid next to Rolf—with her clothes on.
Instead of taking forever to fall asleep next to the draugr, she settled into slumber easily enough.
This time, instead of the regal lady, Morpheus appeared. “There you are. I’ve been looking all over for you two!”
She frowned. He appeared dressed in jeans and a tee-shirt. With him was Mormo, Hecate’s white-haired apprentice, also dressed casually in jeans and a tee.
“Hello.” He nodded to her.
“Ah, hi.” She looked around and found them all seated in a movie theater. Rolf was in a row below them, taking up four seats as he lay snoring, his rumbling puppy-soft. Kind of cute. “You let him sleep but woke me up for a movie? Of the two of us, I need more rest.”
“Sorry. I tried to get him up. He refused.” Morpheus scowled. “For the record, I detest draugrs.”
Mormo didn’t bother to hide a smirk.
“Why are you here?” she asked him.
“Hecate wanted me to pass along a message, and she didn’t trust Morpheus not to forget or to get it wrong.”
“I’m so maligned.” Morpheus gave Mormo a flirty onceover. “But I forgive you because you’re so cute.”
Mormo’s cheeks turned pink, but he refused to look at Morpheus.
Sylvara couldn’t help smiling. “Aw, that’s adorable.”
“Female, you would do well to listen,” Mormo snapped. “We had an incident east of our homebase in Seattle, in the mundane world. That means the end is coming sooner than we’d hoped. You must find the stone.”
“We’re on it.”
“Yet you’re sleeping.” Mormo shook his head. “I knew sending Rolf was a mistake.”
“Hey.” She didn’t like hearing that. “We’ve been fighting in Hades’s realm against psycho vampires.
We’ve battled dark elves and malicious tree spirits.
” Ha, that’s on you, Danica. “Rolf is due a break. We’ll get the Bloode Stone when he wakes up.
Unless you can tell us where Jormungandr is, fuck off. ”
Mormo’s stare turned icy. “Watch your tone, woman.”
“Woman? I’ll give you a woman.” She stood, glaring at him.
Morpheus had a bag of popcorn he was munching on as he watched them from his seat.
Then a movie started rolling, distracting them all.
“What’s this?” Mormo asked.
“You got me.” Morpheus shrugged. “But I bet it’s gonna be packed with action and romance. We should watch.”
She sat down. Rolf still hadn’t stirred. The lights in the theater dimmed, and she studied the screen, recognizing the grim vampire she’d met once before in Irkalla, where she’d fought alongside Rolf.
“Isn’t that Khent?” she asked. The reaper who could turn into a dragon.
Mormo frowned and sat. “Yes. And that’s his mate, Valentine.”
“Ah, right. The necromancer. Tough chick.” When Sylvara had first been assigned her task by Loki to track down the last Bloode Stone, she and Rolf had fought in the Mesopotamian underworld together.
The battle had been invigorating. She’d fought demons, ghosts, and mutant underworld monsters down there, in addition to watching some ancient being possess Valentine while her vampire mate turned into a fucking dragon.
It had been worth the hassle of dealing with Rolf and allowed her to see just what the Night Bloode were capable of.
Loki had the right of it. If allowed free reign, the Night Bloode would rule the entire Bloode Empire and set the mundane world into chaos.
They would conquer everyone and eventually make their way into the other realms.
Personally, she didn’t mind so much. Death came to everyone sooner or later. But the Norns didn’t care for that ending to the mortals they watched over. Plus, valkyries still had a part to play for the coming of Ragnarok, the Norse end of the world.
Not to be confused with the many prophecies from all the other pantheons crying about their ends.
In Sylvara’s opinion, Hecate had been crying the loudest, and her prediction seemed to be coming true first. Sylvara still had no idea what Loki intended to do with the final Bloode Stone. Did he think he could rule the vampires instead? Or did he want them to do his bidding for some other purpose?
Hell, for that matter, did Loki intend to help the Darkness that Comes or would he fight against it? With Loki, she could never tell.
The movie had a killer soundtrack as credits in a language she couldn’t read rolled.
“Popcorn?” Morpheus offered her.
“Oh, why the hell not? Can I get a drink too?”
“Sure. Candy?”
“You bet.”
“Might I recommend Junior Mints? They’re refreshing.”
Mormo muttered under his breath, something uncomplimentary about their host.
But Morpheus was all smiles as he handed her candy, popcorn, and a soda.
Intrigued with the action-packed movie, Sylvara kicked back to watch as Khent of the Night Bloode came under attack from a new source of worry.