Odin

Chapter 8

Minutes later, lying there beneath Odin, Simone began to squirm.

“Be still, Simone,” Odin urged.

“You never did answer me.”

Odin picked up his head and looked down at her. “What are you talking about?”

“You said you were worried about something.”

“I did not.”

“You said that me being an innocent is not what you were worried about.”

“And it is true.”

“Then what are you worried about?”

“That if you don’t stop squirming beneath me, I’ll do this all over again, no matter how tired you may be!” he declared.

Simone used her inner muscles to grip his length, then she moved her hips gently left and right. “You mean, like this?”

Odin groaned and raised up above her again.

“Wait!” she exclaimed.

“What now?” he demanded as she pulled herself free from him and turned over onto her hands and knees, presenting herself to him, her bottom up, as she peeked over her shoulder at him. “See anything you’d like to explore further?” she invited.

Odin’s chest rumbled, and he hissed as he grabbed her bottom on both sides and held her steady as he forced his way into her eagerly waiting depths again. He felt her muscles quivering around him, and the deepest part of her body cradling him each time his cock hit bottom. And it was perfect. Everything he’d always wanted, nothing he’d ever let himself have before. A little voice in the back of his mind kept pestering him, no matter how much he tried to ignore it. When finally he’d satisfied both himself, and Simone one last time, he dropped onto the beach beside her. It was then he realized what the voice was saying. Mate. Mate. Mate.

No. She couldn’t be his mate. She was Marie’s family, the only one left that existed because Marie had once existed. She deserved so much more than a life in the middle of nowhere with an Ice Demon for a partner. His thoughts wandered to the Gargoyles he’d found her with… and they certainly wouldn’t be considered acceptable as her mate either.

Snarling, he jumped to his feet.

“What’s wrong?” Simone asked, sitting up and looking around to see what had him on alert.

“Put your dress on. I’m taking you away from here.”

“Home? You’re taking me home?!” she asked excitedly.

His gaze cut to hers and suddenly she knew. Wherever it was that he was taking her, it wasn’t home. If he had his way, she’d never see home again.

~~~

“You can’t be serious,” Simone said, her brows raised, her hands clasping Odin to keep him from leaving her in the plain, non-descript courtyard where they stood in the early morning light. “Is this where I think it is?”

“I have never been more serious.”

“Then you should be taken out and whipped.”

“How dare you?” Odin demanded.

“How dare you?! I have no business being here, and you know it!”

“This is the safest place for you. Here you will be protected, fed, sheltered.”

“Here I will die of suffocation and loneliness!”

“They will care for you here!”

“I was cared for before you took me from home! Take me home!”

“No. You do not belong there.”

“Says who?”

“Me! I promised Marie that I would find you, determine that your place in life was a good one, and of your own choosing.”

“My place in life was of my own choosing!”

“It was not!” Odin insisted. “You were chased away from your home and forced to commune with Gargoyles in order to find security.”

“You’re insane. You’re twisting this entire situation to make it fit your ideas. None of the family stories told of you being insane,” Simone snapped.

“I am not insane! I am protecting you. Keeping you away from those who do not have your best interests in mind.”

“My best interests are my responsibility. I’m responsible for me. Not you, and not even Malice and the others.”

“I made Marie a promise before she died. I’m keeping my promise. You will stay here where you will be safe.”

“Be gone, Demon!” a feminine voice rasped out behind them.

“You remember me, do you not?” Odin asked, stepping out of the shadows filling the courtyard.

“Be gone,” she whispered, crossing herself again.

“You will shelter this female as you did Marie, otherwise, I’ll return, often, and you will regret it. You will pray for delivery from me, only it won’t come.”

“I will not stay here!” Simone shrieked.

“Do you understand me?!” Odin demanded of the Mother Superior attempting to banish him with prayer.

The nun inclined her head, then kept her eyes on the ground.

“Do not test me, Simone. You do not want me to return,” Odin said.

“Do not test me, Odin. You do not want me to come looking for you!”

“Stay here or bear my wrath!” Odin threatened.

“If you leave me here, I’ll never, ever forgive you, and you will be doing the exact opposite of your promise to Marie.”

Odin took a step back into the shadows.

“Do not make me pay for your guilt! I don’t want to be here!” Simone shouted.

“Stay safe and sheltered!” Odin ordered, losing himself in the shadows he’d traversed to get them to the convent.

“Arrggghhhh!” Simone screamed in anger, her hands fisted at her sides. She heard whispered prayers and turned to find the elderly nun praying so rapidly that her rosary beads seemed to be hanging in the air, immune to all gravity as they left her fist when she pushed another out of her grip. “I will not stay here! Do you hear me?!”

The nun just prayed louder.

“I’m going home!” Simone shouted.

“You cannot! The Demon will return! He will curse us all!”

“He will do no such thing! Just tell him Marie’s ghost told you he doesn’t belong here and he’ll leave.” Simone grumbled to herself as she approached a huge wooden gate. “How do I get out of here?”

“It is locked against the outside world. We cannot allow outside evils of humanity to penetrate our holy walls.”

“You will allow this human to exit. My walls are already penetrated and I’m more than certain you wouldn’t want me here if you knew all I bring with me.”

“The Demon…”

“The Demon is my lover, we’re having a bit of a disagreement.”

The Mother Superior’s eyes widened and she began blessing herself and using every motion she knew to ward off the evil Simone surely brought onto hallowed ground. But the entire time she prayed and crossed herself, she was digging for the key she wore at the end of a chain hanging from the belt securing her underskirts. She rushed to the heavy wooden gate and unlocked it, then began trying to pull it open.

Simone joined her, and together they managed to get it open just enough for Simone to slip through.

“Thank you,” Simone called over her shoulder as she ran from the convent.

~~~

In the uninhabited depths of Whispers, in the early morning hours just before the sun rose in the sky, a heart-wrenching cry shattered the quiet new morning. Birds lifted from their overnight perches as they squawked in protest. Animals looked worriedly around themselves as they hunkered down in their dens, or searched for a sudden place to hide. Trees vibrated and leaves shook for just a few seconds before they froze in place, a thin coating of ice covering their surfaces and the twigs they grew from. A light sheen of frost just barely covered the ground and all the foliage native to this particular area of Whispers. And within the middle of it — Odin sat leaning against a tree with his head in his hands, miserable, with no one to blame but himself.

His chest heaved, pushing each breath out forcefully with his agitation, and with each breath a blistery cold fog left his body and permeated the area around him. He didn’t notice. He didn’t even lift his head to see. Nothing mattered to him anymore. He’d lost Marie, and now in a cruel twist of fate, because of a promise he’d made to Marie, he’d lost Simone, too. Sitting back against the tree, he rested his head against its trunk and sat, refusing to even consider moving from this spot he’d chosen to languish in.

~~~

Brannaugh, awakened by the wail, sat up groggily in bed. The empty place beside him let him know that Kamilah was already up and about despite the still dark sky. He got up, got dressed, and left his bedroom in search of his mate. He glanced up the stairway on his way downstairs and saw that the door to the observation room was opened and smiled to himself as he altered his steps in that direction. The enclosed widow’s watch he’d added to the roof of his second story home was a favorite place of his Kamilah’s, especially in the early morning hours.

He stepped into the small room and just as he’d thought, found her curled into the only chair in the room, her feet up, a quilt covering her as she sipped her tea and waited for the sun to come up. “You’re up early,” he said, dropping a kiss onto the top of her head as he leaned over the back of the chair.

“Couldn’t sleep. I decided that a sunrise and a cup of tea was to be had,” Kamilah said, smiling at him.

The pleasure she took in the small things in life, the positivity she saw in every circumstance, never ceased to amaze him. He was in fact the luckiest male he’d ever known of.

“Can I get you anything, love?” he asked.

Kamilah shook her head contentedly. “No, thank you. Would you like some tea?” she asked, gesturing toward the delicate porcelain teapot and the second teacup she’d brought upstairs with her.

“I think I’ll have some when I return,” Brannaugh said.

“So it was Odin, then?” she asked.

“I’m nearly sure that it was. At the very least it’s one of ours, so close to the darker parts of Whispers. I should make sure all is well.” He leaned over, this time placing a finger under her chin to tilt her face up toward his. “I won’t be long. If you need me before I come back, call for me… I’ll hear you.”

Kamilah stretched just enough to reach his lips again, kissing him softly. “I’ll be fine. I love you.”

“And you,” he said, caressing her cheek, then her slightly swollen belly then disappearing from sight before her very eyes.

Kamilah giggled realizing how different her perspective on life now was. “There was a time that would have thrown me into shock, now it’s just as normal as you please.”

~~~

The crunching of footsteps on the field of ice Odin had inadvertently created around himself, let him know that he was not alone. But the part that irritated him most was when those footsteps stopped right in front of him, rather than moving on as most would do when they happened on an Ice Demon sitting dejectedly among patches of ice. He opened his translucent eyes slowly, preparing to frighten away whoever was stupid enough to approach him at this particular point in time. The moment he saw who stood before him, he knew it was pointless to even try, and just closed his eyes again.

“A bit early for ice this year, don’t you think?” Brannaugh asked.

“Go away,” Odin answered.

“No, I don’t think I will. I have the morning free of commitments, so, I think I’ll spend it here, among friends.”

“I am not a friend.”

“Of course, you are. You just like to pretend that you’re not.” Brannaugh walked through the ice, thicker as it got closer to Odin, until he was right beside Odin, and sat down next to him.

Odin opened his eyes again, but this time there was no glower in them. Odin simply didn’t have the energy. “Just go, Brannaugh. Please.”

Brannaugh shook his head, his long, silky black hair cascading around his face and shoulders as he moved. “I heard your call.”

“I wasn’t calling.”

“You were.”

“I was releasing frustration.”

“And you were calling. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not long before several others find their way here as well.”

“Why?!” Odin demanded.

“Because they’re your friends, too. Despite the fact that you fight the friendship label at every turn.”

“They don’t know me,” Odin grumbled.

“Ah, so it was just a group of strangers who stood beside you to build Marie’s Hill, and help you bid your friend goodbye.”

Odin turned his head to glare at Brannaugh this time, and he did a great job of it.

Brannaugh grinned at him. “I feel it’s only right I point out that self-pity is not a good look for you.”

“I am not self-pitying!”

“I’m fairly certain that you are.”

“Will you not just go away?!” Odin demanded.

“What happened? Are you mourning Marie, still? You know there is no shame in it. Some people,” Brannaugh paused to look at Odin, “and Demons, mourn for years. Some in fact never finding their way out of it.”

“I am not mourning Marie.”

“Then, tell me. What drives your anguish?”

“At this very moment… you.”

Brannaugh laughed.

They sat quietly for a while before Brannaugh spoke again.

“You know that I am not leaving until I’m sure you’re well,” Brannaugh said.

“I am well,” Odin assured him.

“No, you’re not. The freezing temperatures and ice for a quarter-mile in each direction from here tell me that.” Brannaugh sat quietly for a while, allowing Odin to decide when he was ready to speak. And finally, it worked.

“I have found myself in the bottom of a hole that I alone have dug.”

“Tell me of this hole,” Brannaugh encouraged, his gaze focused straight ahead, rather than on Odin to hopefully make him feel less self-conscious.

Odin thought about it, then summed it up as simply as he could. “I found Simone.”

Brannaugh weighed this information, mulling it over in his mind. “I’m not sure that I know who Simone is.”

“You do not. She is Marie’s great-granddaughter.”

“Were you trying to find her?”

“I was. I promised Marie that I would find her descendants and make certain that their position in life was of their own choosing.”

“Because her own life wasn’t of her own choosing,” Brannaugh said.

“So I believed. But it’s been mentioned to me, with conviction, that Marie was not a prisoner and could have left the convent at any time she’d wished. She chose her life there.”

“Did she?” Brannaugh asked.

“I suppose. She did not choose the occurrences that found her there, though. She sought safety.”

“Did she achieve it?”

Odin nodded.

After a span of silence, Brannaugh decided to prod Odin for more information. “This Simone, was her position in life of her own choosing?”

“No. Then yes, and most recently, definitely not.”

“Care to elaborate?”

Odin sighed, his irritation still clear. “She was forced from her home, found another and a group of people she considers family, and now she’s not there any longer.”

“She was forced away from her new family.”

“Yes.”

“By what?”

Odin angled his eyes just slightly toward Brannaugh. “She is where she needs to be. It’s best for her,” he half snarled.

Brannaugh laughed, surprised at Odin’s tone. “Oh, I see. You are what forced her from her family.”

“They are not her family. They are a colony of Gargoyles!”

“If they protect her, shelter her, love her, they are her family,” Brannaugh said, careful to keep his voice even-toned.

“They do not love her! They’d better not love her!” Odin shouted, jumping to his feet and scowling down at Brannaugh.

Brannaugh remained sitting, not threatened at all by Odin’s demeanor. He made a show of lifting his head just a bit, flaring his nostrils as he inhaled, then looked suspiciously at Odin. “Tell me, Odin, the scent you now carry… is it Simone’s?”

Odin gnashed his teeth and jumped to his feet, his growl growing into an extended roar, then stomped into the shadows and disappeared, leaving Brannaugh to sit alone in the ice.