11. Davyn
Eleven
Davyn
Azzie slept for a few hours, and then it was time to check out.
I gave her a handful of instructions on driving the car, and cringed every time she ground the gears. Once she got up to speed, she did okay.
I kept us to the highways that didn’t have heavy traffic, and found myself pressing my foot to the floor every time another vehicle approached.
“You’ve got to stop with that,” she finally said.
She noticed? “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Uh-huh. You’re the one who insisted I learn.”
Fair point. “Let’s trade off at the next gas station.”
She huffed and shook her head. “Fine.”
I directed her to the appropriate exit, and she pulled onto the ramp without issue. The moment she reached the Stop sign, she hit the brake hard, and the engine sputtered and stalled.
She winced. “I forgot the clutch.”
“You did.” I was already opening my door. “I’ll take it from here.”
She scowled as she slid into the passenger seat, and I drove us the last few meters to the gas pumps. “It’s hard.”
“How long has it been since you learned something new?”
“I trained with a master who blended taekwondo with kickboxing in new ways, less than a year ago.”
I shook my head. “That’s another version of what you already knew. This is a different mindset from what you’re used to. Give it time. It takes practice.”
“I guess.”
Give it time. Words for me to heed as well. “Do you want to try again when the tank is full?”
She shook her head. “Maybe I’ll practice a little around towns first, before we hit the highways again.”
“If that’s what you’d like.” It sounded like a brilliant idea to me.
We reached Lincoln, Nebraska that night, and checked in at a place on the edge of the city. It was a lot more populated than I wanted, but we wouldn’t be here long.
Check-in was less creepy than yesterday, and after we stashed our bags in the room, I found took a few minutes to stretch the kinks out from two days of driving.
“Do you want to spar?” Azzie asked.
I wouldn’t mind a fair chance to see for myself what she could do, rather than watching a match second-hand that had been a set-up. “It’s dark.”
“We won’t be far from town,” she said. “I’ll manage. Besides, I need to work my limbs. Unless you have any other ideas for a workout…” She blew me a kiss and fluttered her eyelashes.
I shook my head. “Let’s see what you can do, little girl.”
Her scowl was worth the jab.
We headed away from the population to find a place to spar. Once we knew which direction to go, it was easy enough to follow the scents of earth and trees to a space for us to get some punches and kicks in.
The smells grew stronger, and the asphalt and exhaust and sound fell away behind us, as we headed into a block of trees.
There were joggers and people on bikes on the side of the road, but it was easy to move deeper into the grove, until the trunks muffled outside sound, and the modern world became background noise.
That looked like a good clearing. “This will do.” I stopped us.
Azzie looked around and shrugged. She bent at the waist and picked up a branch, and then another.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Making a space for us to practice.” She made it sound as if the answer was obvious.
I shook my head. “No. Drop the sticks.”
“I—” She frowned and did what I said. “Why?”
Was I going to learn to hate that question? “You can answer that. Have you really never trained anywhere but on mats?”
She bristled as if she’d been insulted. “Wood. Tile. Concrete. Packed dirt.”
“All of them clear of debris? How often do you think that happens in a real battle?”
Her cheeks puffed out, and she pushed out a breath. “Okay, I get it. This is real life.”
If I were cruel, I would have already attacked. Told her the same thing any Berserker-in-training learned before we could stand. Always expect a fight . She got one run-down first. “It is real life, and here’s how this is going to work. In watching you fight the other-you, it was clear you’re skilled. You’ve learned several styles, and you know how to integrate them. I’m not going to teach new ones.”
“Okay…?”
“After this conversation is over, there will be no warnings. Sometimes we may square off and spar in a more official manner, but you’ll expect an attack at any time.”
“No.” Azzie’s answer came firmly and without hesitation.
I was willing to hear her reasons, but they needed to be good. “Why?”
“It feels fun to ask, doesn’t it?” She smirked. “Public places, especially crowded ones, are off limits. I understand the potential for someone else to come after me in the middle of a diner at lunchtime, but I won’t let you risk the people around us or draw unwanted attention to us in the name of training.”
Her logic was sound. Excellent. “Is that it?” I asked.
“And either one of us has the option to tap out. Once again, I understand the idea of your enemies won’t stop because you’re having a bad day , but we’re not enemies. If either one of us is stretched beyond a breaking point, isn’t allowed to rest or heal, is pissed at the other because sparring happened when we weren’t in the mood—that’s far more dangerous in the long run.” She spoke with confidence .
The confirmation that I was right to stay with her was both reassuring and unsettling. “I agree,” I said.
A whisper of a smirk flitted across her face. Her teasing wouldn’t be subject to the same rules, and I had to be prepared for that. “Do I get a safe word, sir?”
There it was. Sir was better than Daddy Davyn . Something to be grateful for. “Pick one that you’re not going to say otherwise.”
“I yield. That’s my phrase.”
I raised an eyebrow. Hard to argue with that. “Anything else?”
“No. That’s it.”
“Great. Let’s go back to town.” I turned away, to hide my smirk.
“What?”
I glanced over my shoulder. “You heard me. The element of surprise doesn’t always mean being attacked when you least expect it.”
“But we came out here to stretch. To work out.” She stood her ground.
I was looking forward to doing exactly that. I spun and charged without warning.
Though she wasn’t armed, and her eyes grew wide, she bounced out of my way without hesitation, twisted around me, and came up from behind to tap me on the small of the back.
I dropped the aggressive stance as I turned to face her. “What was that?” I asked.
“I draw first blood?” What started as a confident response ended in a question.
“This isn’t a dojo, and you don’t get points for taps.” As I talked, I slid into a Ready posture and circled her.
She kept her arms up in front of her, hands loose but fingers curled, and held my gaze, following the same path I did. “We’re actually going to hit each other?” Her left arm twitched, as if she was going to strike, but she pulled back when I tensed.
We continued to circle. I wasn’t going to full-on hit her. Not because she was a girl, but because my punches could shatter bone. On the other hand— “You’re not going to hurt me.”
I threw a right cross at her head, making sure not to move too quickly.
Azzie ducked under the punch and lightly slapped the inside of my bicep before straightening and gliding back a step. “So rude . Both the telegraphed hit and the assumption.”
“You think you can hurt me with your fists?” I couldn’t hide my disbelief.
“You watched me fight a magical doppelg?nger that was trying to kill me, less than two days ago.” She feigned, and instead of striking, ducked and slid.
I turned, and was facing her as she hopped to her feet with a flying kick. “A doppelg?nger that had your strength, not mine.” I knocked her leg aside with my arm, using enough force to throw her off balance but not do damage.
She landed smoothly on both feet. “A soulless golem with a cheating master. Neither of us knows what it was capable of. And unlike it, you’re not trying to kill me.” There was no jerk or pause in her movement, as she pivoted into a spinning jump-kick aimed for my head.
I grabbed her foot and tossed her back. “You’re right. We’re practicing, not trying to kill each other.”
“ What was that? ” She deepened her voice and landed on both feet again. Was that supposed to be me? “ This isn’t a dojo . You don’t want me to pull my punches, but you’re going to pull yours?”
This was more tantalizing than her sleeping half-naked in the bed next to me, or my thoughts about her in the shower. I could smell her adrenaline, and I swore I could taste the sweat beading on her skin. This was fun and challenging, and if I were half a millennium younger, it would have me hard and horny.
As if I wasn’t anyway.
Images of the two of us fought their own battle in my mind, for my attention. Fantasies of stripping her down in the middle of the forest for a new kind of workout. The kind where I ran my tongue over her body and made her scream in pleasure.
She danced closer and met my gaze, as her expression glided from determined to sultry. “It’s not as much fun if you’re only doing it for me.”
Now that I knew this was one of her cards, it was easy to see the flirting was meant to be a distraction, not a seduction.
I didn’t mind one bit. “I know how to fight.”
“Everyone has something to learn.” She said one of the wisest things I’d ever heard, and simply stopped. No more bouncing or dancing or circling.
Which meant I needed to do the same. “I’m not going to try to kill you, and I’m simply suggesting I can take a harder hit.”
She stepped closer, and the scent of adrenaline spilling from her vanished. The sound of her pulse hammering under her skin disappeared. The way she masked some of her body’s natural reactions was disconcerting, and it wasn’t something she’d taught herself. The fact that both indicators vanished in a blink made me think magic rather than physical control .
The one thing she didn’t mask was the desire she radiated. Was that something she didn’t want to hide or couldn’t? Was this all thanks to her knives? From what I’d seen, she didn’t have anything else magical on her, aside from the talisman I’d given her.
“Are you tattooed?” I didn’t mean to ask that now.
She stepped closer, until she pressed against me, heat searing between us. “Are you asking me to take off my clothes, so you can see?” Her question was a purr.
She reeked of a want that mirrored mine, but the way she was hiding the rest of her reactions told me I was right about this being a distraction.
That didn’t make it much easier for me to ignore how good it felt when she adjusted her weight and her full body rubbed against mine.
“I’m asking what enchantments or spells you have access to, outside of your blades.” I didn’t live this long by giving into lust every time it popped up.
“None. I’m just little. Old. Me.” Her voice stayed sweet, and her body submissive.
Aside from her right hand, which moved from my chest to her hip, then toward my side, in a blink.
I grabbed her wrist before she could fake-stab me in the flank, spun her, and pulled her back into me, wrapping my other arm around her as I yanked hers across her chest, to restrain her.
Fuck, this was fun.
She twisted under my grip, and ducked, using the momentum of my capturing her to try to throw me over her shoulder.
There wasn’t enough inertia, and the movement resulted in her ducking away from me as I stumbled forward.
Clever girl.
“Being sexy won’t get you out of every situation.” I was reminding myself this was a battle as much as I was warning her.
She ducked her head, though her gaze never left me. “You think I’m sexy?”
“Yes.” No reason to lie about that.
“I’m not in every situation.” She resumed circling me. “I’m fighting you. Why would I use techniques meant for someone else?”
Fair point. The fact she had to make it meant I was floundering.
What an incredible feeling, to be surprised by a fight. We’d gotten away from my original request, though. “Hit me in the gut as hard as you can.” I planted my feet and squared my stance.
“You’re sure?” She frowned and shook her head. “Gods, that sounded cliché. Forget I asked.” Azzie balled her hands into fists.
“Are you going to do it, or stand there and look pretty?” If we were taunting, I was going to take advantage of that.
Her smirk was back. “I can do both.” She bounced on the balls of her feet and dragged in a few deep breaths. The way the light reflected off her in the darkness, it looked like she wore a faint glow that grew brighter with each passing second.
I ignored my desire and grasped the thrill of the battle. “Today?”
“You volunteered as a punching bag, and that means I get a moment to prepare too.” She lunged, and I braced myself.
As her first flew at me at high speed, I swore the ethereal glow focused on her hand.
She landed a hit directly in my gut, and it knocked the wind from me.
I stumbled back a step, startled, and caught myself on my back foot. She shouldn’t be able to do that, regardless of her training. She didn’t have that kind of muscle mass.
“See? I can hit hard too.” Was that surprise mixed with her taunt?
“I do see.” This was going to be so much fun. “No pulling your punches going forward.” A new flavor of excitement joined what already roared inside me. This was the closest thing I’d had to a healthy, friendly fight in a long time.
For the next hour or so, we traded blows, spending as much time poking each other’s limits as anything.
We headed back to the hotel, cleaned up, and ordered food. It turned out she liked eating as much as I did.
After days of pushing hard, I needed to relax my brain and body. I settled onto my bed, grabbed the remote, and flipped through channels. I stopped when a familiar scene from The Ice Pirates caught my attention.
“What is this?” Azzie’s question was a combination of curiosity and disgust.
“Classic cinema.” Apparently, I had things to teach her besides fighting. “Watch and learn.”
She wasn’t sold on the movie when it was over, but she didn’t hate it, either. I assured her if we had seen the beginning, she would have wanted more.
Watching her, seeing the world through her eyes, had me wanting more as well. A dangerous thought to indulge given the nature of our arrangement, but that didn’t stop me from feeling the pull to her.
Over the next few days and weeks, the two of us decided what would be involved in traveling together aside from random fights . We used my contacts and Azzie’s prophecy journal to move from town to town, looking for more information to fill in blanks and answer questions she had about what fate waited for her.
After a lot of cursing on both of our parts, and her grinding the gears of my truck until they were smoking, we made a stop in Detroit, where Anubis rebuilt the clutch. Azzie was wary about meeting the god—what if he was a danger—but after talking to him for less than five minutes she realized he was one of the few who didn’t take sides. A god who had as little interest in playing the other gods’ games as Azzie or I did.
Anubis spent a few days with Azzie, teaching her to drive the car. I still wasn’t happy with the way she tortured the poor thing, but once we hit the freeway, the drive was smoother.
About a month after finding each other, Azzie and I found ourselves in a small town in Western Kentucky. The motel looked like any other we stayed in when we didn’t simply pull over and sleep at a rest stop. The lingering scent of dinner hung in the air, and we sat across from each other on Azzie’s bed, with her prophecy journal open between us.
I was grateful for the divider, despite the fact that it was nothing more than a book. The weeks traveling together, the way she licked her lips when she was fighting, and the wicked gleam in her eye when she teased me, were only the tip of the iceberg when it came to what drew me to her. I took advantage of every moment I could to watch her. At the same time, I made sure to use any barrier between us to remind myself we were together to learn and find answers.
Nothing more.
The book was turned toward me, so I could read it, because she had it memorized. An older version of the prophecy on the current page was at the top, written in neat, blocky letters. Underneath it was a translation, in a friendlier handwriting that flowed and curved in its English.
In a land that races toward the sky
And cradles the church surrounded by churches
The flaming shield of the meek will break the seal
When the stone of the land rains down like the storms
Most of the prophecy translations I’d seen over the centuries were poetic. Whoever broke them down into a new language tended to make the stanzas pretty and eloquent.
I appreciated that most of those in Azzie’s books were more direct. As much as was possible, in a translation of an ancient tongue that didn’t have equivalent parallels in another language.
According to visions Azzie’s mother had, the flaming shield was a reference to Azzie. Each time the phrase appeared, she would be involved. This page was one of the sparser ones in the book, with notes and guesses about what each sentence meant, but no real conclusions.
“It’s temple not church ,” I muttered as I scanned the original words.
Azzie tapped her fingers against the side of her drink to make a plastic plink sound over and over. “That’s semantics.”
“Most of the time.” Especially the way words evolved over time. “But you have to take the phrase in context.”
“What’s the context of the stone of the land when it comes to houses of worship?”
One of the issues I saw with people interpreting the prophecies was that they tended to take them a stanza at a time. The original was a story, and the god fell told a different tale than the god fell into a mud puddle when he tripped over his own shoelaces . “I don’t think that’s the context we want, but without the surrounding paragraphs, I can only guess.”
Azzie twisted her mouth. This wasn’t the first time we’d had such a conversation, and it wouldn’t be the last. I had a friend working on getting us longer versions of the texts, but it took time. The gods had worked to hide what they saw as their imminent destruction.
“Fine. Then what are you guessing the context is?” she asked.
“Pull up a map of downtown Salt Lake.” I could be wrong. The answer could be any number of places, but this was the one in my head.
She grabbed her phone off the nightstand. “Hey, Xerxes, show me a map of downtown Salt Lake.” She showed me the screen. “And?”
I took the device from her and zoomed into the Mormon temple in the center of it all. The building that was boxed in by streets named North Temple , West Temple , and South Temple . “A temple cradled by temples.”
“Ooh.” She huffed her amusement and scribbled fresh notes in the book. “That’s brilliant. You’re brilliant.” She rolled up onto her knees to reach across the book and give me a quick hug.
Heat roared through me.
Pink flooded her cheeks, as she quickly sat again.
She could hide her tension in a fight, but moments like now, the scent of arousal drifted from her.
The awkward silence made it too easy to image taking the moment further. To fantasize about tackling her. Pinning her to the bed?—
I turned my attention to the book again. “I also don’t believe this is about a seal. Not directly. It reads as if it has to do with a blade. Your sword, perhaps?” I wasn’t as certain about that guess.
“My katana can’t be broken.” Her hand fell to her hip, but the weapon didn’t appear.
In fact, I hadn’t seen it since Ulf’s, but I’d been trying to figure out a natural way to ask about it. This was a good opening. “Can I see it?”
“She can’t be out without drawing blood.”
Interesting. Before I could say anything, her phone vibrated against my hand, startling me, and I dropped it.
Azzie gave me an amused look and grabbed the device. “This is Abbey,” she answered in a sugary voice I’d never heard before.
She didn’t say much else, aside from a series of cheerful grunts, and then, “Sounds great. I’ll see you in a few hours.” She hung up and looked at me. “I’ve got a potential job. I’m going to meet with them in a little bit and talk through details.”
“I thought you weren’t going to do that anymore.” We’d talked about a lot of things on our drives, including that she earned money being a bodyguard disguised as a friend.
“Why would I stop working?”
“It’s a dangerous job.”
She wouldn’t like that answer.
“A literal god—probably more than one—is sending supernatural monsters after me. I can handle a few assholes hitting on drunk women.”
“I—” I had a bad feeling about the whole thing, but it wasn’t my place to stop her, and she’d proven she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. “Be safe.”
She was. She came back from that job without an issue, and others she took after. I took jobs too, to keep myself busy.
When we weren’t working, we trained, we sifted through her journal with new eyes, and we continued to follow up on leads. A month turned to two, then three, and then it was six months later, and there was snow on the ground.
She and I were in a new clearing, with packed and frozen mud. She’d shed her coat, and we were trading kicks.
One of the unexpected things about the past months was I found myself learning from Azzie. She had an approach and an adaptability that few were capable of, especially immortals who had lived this long because what they did worked. Most figured why change?
The matches with her were frequently as much dance as fight. Where the point wasn’t to do the most damage, but to see which of us could push the other to a limit. In my case, she nudged and shoved, to get me to fight harder, and I worked to find new ways to make her respond.
The biggest struggle was with the beast inside, who didn’t like the idea of restraint. However, my bear liked a challenge, and this was definitely that.
I swung at her, at head level, and she ducked, as expected. Instead of rolling to her left, she evaded to the right, forcing her to use her non-dominant hand to slice my leg.
The cut was superficial, healing before she pulled the blade away, but it was meant to distract me. I knew this trick, and I was ready when she landed on her feet. Using my body and her surprise to box her in, I stepped in hard and fast.
Azzie retreated, eyes flitting as she assessed and searched for her retaliation. I didn’t have to be in her head to know that was the case. Her back collided with a large tree, and she let out a soft grunt.
I stopped, and the brush of her heat, the hint of fear before she tucked it away, sparked inside me. She couldn’t hide her arousal the same way, didn’t know she needed to, or didn’t want to.
It didn’t matter, because when she looked up at me with wide eyes and flushed cheeks, the edges of my control cracked.
My bear was always close to the surface when we did this, looking for a way to get out.
The woman in front of me—skilled, strong, and so much fun—was a beacon. Her chest heaved with each breath, and her hair was wild as it escaped her ponytail. On top of it all, she reeked of exertion and defiance.
Fuck , it was almost as hard to ignore her teasing as to not draw blood in our fights.
And she wasn’t trying to get away from me. She looked frozen. Captivated.
I should take a step back. Continue the fight, or better, call it a day. Instead, I pressed a hand to her throat.
Rather than breaking away, she fisted my shirt with both hands.
This was a bad idea, and I couldn’t think about anything else. When she licked her lips, I crushed my mouth to hers. She whimpered and growled. Or I did. Then she was kissing back and fighting me.
Only Azzie could make both work at the same time.
She dragged her palms up my chest and draped her arms around my neck, while our tongues danced. Even this was a sparring match of hands and lips and teeth, and it was incredible.
More . The roar came from inside, and I was happy to indulge it. I needed to be closer. To be a part of her. I slid my hands down her back, to cup her ass, and she wrapped her legs around my waist.
Her body was warm, and the fingers digging into my back were demanding. I felt every bit of her, which made my cock hard as a rock.
Darkness licked the edge of my vision. Was this that intense? The sky was growing black. Were we doing that? Drawing the light from the world with the sparks between us?
“Hold on.” Azzie’s voice was strained, as she broke away.
Come back . I shoved the insistence down, because she was looking around, not at me.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
Her question penetrated deeper into my thoughts, calling to reason. My bear grumbled in protest. The sky was literally black, and I’d been so lost in the moment, I was willing to ignore it.
Unforgivable.
I let go of her, and she landed deftly on her feet. The inky darkness extended around us, with shadows growing out of the ground and taking on a vaguely humanoid shape.
Fight . The beast in my head was happier about this than I was.
Azzie slid into a combat stance, and her hand fell to her hip and her hidden sword.
The first Sceadugenga—shadow monster—charged, and I sliced through it with a clawed hand. It evaporated in a wispy cloud. The others followed, letting out a silent roar that shouted in my soul with an icy blast.
I needed to protect?—
Azzie dismembered one without hesitation, and it vanished into nothing.
I fell into a stance with my back to hers. If we were going to do this, we had to trust each other. As one shadow after another attacked, I beheaded, bifurcated, and dismembered them. The grunts behind me—the familiar sounds she made when she was focused on a fight—told me she was doing the same.
This was glorious. A real fight.
And it was over in less than a minute, with the shadows vanishing and the sky lighting up again.
You can’t escape destiny , an eerie voice floated in the air.
It couldn’t be over. That hadn’t been enough. I needed more. Tension coiled through me, and my bear roared to be let out. To hunt. Kill. Obliterate.
“Davyn.” Azzie’s tight voice provoked the beast.
Her. Want her .
No. I clenched my fists. I was in control. The gods didn’t tell me what to do, and neither did my other half.
Azzie moved into view, sword still drawn and stance guarded. “Davyn?” She radiated caution. The fear wasn’t tucked away, and neither was her adrenaline.
Her. Want .
I dragged a deep breath through my nostrils and cracked my neck. That kiss was a big fucking mistake. One I wasn’t making again. “They found us already.”
“That’s the point.” Her defensive stance didn’t change. “That’s what I wanted. It’s what you signed on for.”
True. Bringing destiny to our doorstep just became reality.
“Are you good?” she asked.
I nodded. “The fight…”
“Yeah. Your Berserker form. I figured.” She relaxed but didn’t sheath her weapon. “Why did they vanish so quickly?”
“They weren’t here to damage. They were meant to remind us that someone is watching and to see what we could do.”
“We did good.” She gave me a half-smile.
I nodded. “Yes.”
“If we stay here, will they be back?”
It depended on who sent them. Loki could summon shadows, but these didn’t come with the calling card she mentioned previously. Her mother—the one who was a god—could do that as well. We rarely spoke about the goddess of chaos who had impregnated Azzie’s mother. This couldn’t be her, could it? “It’s hard to say. If their master wants us to stay, probably not. If they’re trying to push us out, yes.”
“So let’s not give them the chance to decide on our behalf,” she said.
I agreed with that logic. “Are we going to hunt them down? We don’t know where to start.” I was happy to go looking, anyway.
“We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing. It’s working.”
“Sitting and waiting?” I didn’t like that idea before, and I really wasn’t a fan now.
“Searching for answers while we bring the fight to us. Like an ambush.”
I liked the idea of prepping for a fight, but not of making ourselves vulnerable while we did so.
“Or I go without you.”
No . Every bit of me protested her suggestion. Her threat. “No. I’ll go,” I said. “What happened before the fight, though? That kiss? No more. It’s a distraction.”
I braced myself for her to argue that she wasn’t a distraction. That I couldn’t make that decision for her. To give me some sort of protest.
Azzie sighed. “Agreed. No more.”
Good. We were on the same page. Great. Fantastic.
Want .
No.