23. Zeke
Twenty-Three
Zeke
I had fantasies about a big bear of a man pinning me down by the throat. But in the daydreams it was always accompanied by him saying something like, that’s right, take my cock like a good boy instead of, I’m going to tear you limb from limb .
The instant he—Davyn apparently—let go of me, Finn blinked me by Azzie’s side, then kicked off a fight with the new arrival. What I was watching was similar to when Finn attacked Azzie. Except that even knowing nothing about hand-to-hand combat, it was clear now Finn had been holding back with her.
With Davyn he was lightning fast. The hits were hard. Finn had stick and move down to an art form.
How did I never know he could do this? Did he ever see Azzie as a threat? Did she realize the answer was probably not ?
It was also clear that this Davyn was really fucking hot. She had to see that .
The fight was enthralling. Like nothing I’d ever seen before. Finn popped into view, sucker punched Davyn, and disappeared before the other man could react. His hits couldn’t be landing hard, but there were a lot of them.
When Davyn connected with a fist or a boot though, it was hard. Each blow was enough to send Finn stumbling back, dazed for a moment and paused long enough for Davyn to charge.
“ Davyn . Stop.” Azzie’s shout jarred me from my awe.
I should be protesting too, not just drooling. “Finn. I gave my word.”
“I told you not to, and I didn’t give my word.” He appeared at Davyn’s side, but Davyn was waiting with a sweeping kick. Finn vanished before their legs connected.
“What was the promise?” Davyn’s movements were fluid. Ballet performed with fists, by a beast. He fell into a crouch, and came up with a shoulder to Finn’s gut.
Finn doubled over, but he was gone again before Davyn’s uppercut found his jaw.
“We promised not to hurt each other, and to keep you from hurting us,” I said. “That’s the blood oath.”
“Why would you make a promise like tha—?” Davyn’s question ended in a grunt when Finn landed behind him and landed a short rain of punches to his side and back.
In a blink, Finn was on the other side of the room. “Because of the prophecy you idiotic bear. And no one promised I wouldn’t silence you.”
Davyn stopped. “The prophecy?”
Finn flew across the room toward his stalled opponent, like something out of a superhero movie.
“ Finn .” I barked his name.
He scowled, but vanished and appeared by my side.
Davyn whirled in our direction, as I reached for my gun, and Azzie covered my hand. She gave me the faintest frown then stepped between us and Davyn.
“Which prophecy?” Davyn asked.
“The one that talks about my equal and opposite,” Azzie said. “The one that says one of us has to kill the other. Isn’t that why you attacked?”
Davyn clenched his jaw. “Sure.”
Holy shit. He hadn’t known— He was going to kill me because I fucked her. Should I be more amused or concerned? Especially since she didn’t seem to realize…
“Can we talk now, instead of punching?” Azzie asked.
Davyn’s scowl deepened. “Are you safe?”
“Yes.”
“You’re covered in draugar.”
She crossed her arms. “We killed them.”
“Wait. There were draugar?” Finn gave me a concerned look.
We might have talked about that if these immortals hadn’t decided to go at it the moment they met. “They showed up shortly before the two of you.”
“Fuck.” The energy seemed to drain from Finn.
Davyn crossed the distance between him and Azzie and lifted her chin as he looked her over. “You were gone.” His voice softened instantly.
But she implied there was nothing between them.
“I left you a message. On the whiteboard.” The fight was gone from her voice too.
“Our apartment was ransacked, and most of it has been destroyed. The whiteboard is dead,” Davyn said.
Envy spiked through my chest at the intimate moment. Not that I had a right to be jealous, but seeing how completely she’d tamed this beast…
Azzie took a step back, breaking the contact between them. “I’m okay.” She assured him again.
“Good.” Davyn glanced at her waist. “Both of your knives are one-hundred percent?”
She nodded.
“Great. Let’s go get the car and regroup,” he said.
Don’t let her leave. The compulsion pushed out before I could consider it.
“We can’t go,” Azzie said before I could speak. She glanced at me, and that connection was back. Whatever drew me to her was instantly vibrant and potent. “The four of us have some things to figure out first.”
“How about that. He’s the brawn, she’s the brains and beauty.” It was hard to tell if Finn was amused or annoyed. “Like a bad detective TV show.”
Davyn fixed him with a glare. “I assume you’re none of the above. It’s been a while, Fionn Mac Cumnhaill.”
“Not long enough.” Finn gave him a tight-lipped smile.
“Are the two of you enemies?” I shouldn’t be surprised. This entire encounter, starting with Azzie, was one long string of the kind of coincidences that wouldn’t fly in fiction.
“We are now,” Finn said.
“Great. Everyone knows everyone except me.” I approached Davyn, hand extended. “I’m Zeke.”
Davyn raised an eyebrow.
Azzie cleared her throat.
He shook my hand. “Davyn. I have a feeling you know more about me than I do about you.”
“Not really. Azzie wouldn’t talk about you.”
“You had time for talking?” Was that bitterness? It was certainly sarcasm.
He was upset that she and I were fucking. “We had to do something while we cuddled.” I probably shouldn’t poke the bear.
He growled.
Azzie sighed. “We should clean up, then actually talk this through.”
Finn rested a hand on my arm. “I’ll sweep up in here, and dispose of… everything. Go take a shower.”
Good idea.
“A shower sounds like a good idea,” Azzie agreed.
“I’m not sure we’ll both fit, but we can try.” I teased.
She smirked, but Davyn growled and lunged.
I didn’t flinch, but my heart leapt, then hammered against my ribs.
“Should’ve had her teach you how to hide your fear instead of hiding the sausa?—”
Azzie grabbed Davyn’s arm, cutting him off.
A low rumble reached my ears, and I frowned. What the hell?
Davyn’s brows knitted together, and Azzie glanced back at him. “When did you eat last?” she asked.
“I’ve been worried about you.” His reply didn’t offer any useful information, but it said everything.
“Slight plan modification.” Finn already had his phone out. “I’ll have Gabby send someone with some food.” He looked Davyn over. “A lot of food.”
Azzie let out the smallest laugh. “I’ll use the guest bathroom. See you soon,” she said to me.
“Yeah.” This was the weirdest combination of strange and normal.
Somehow in the last few days, my life had gone off the rails. The thought wouldn’t leave me as I headed into my room. When I met Finn, I’d thought that was insane, but this…
The pull to Azzie was unexplainable and impossible to ignore. There were aspects of my self-preservation that shut off around her, and seeing her with Davyn made that reaction worse. They weren’t fucking? Really?
Maybe that was where the tension came from, but it was clear they leaned on each other a lot.
I did the same with Finn, or I would if it weren’t for the secrets.
And my other half was about to leave.
I dropped my ash-covered clothes in the hamper, and made my way to the shower. Should I be worried that I’d been attacked twice by draugar since she showed up? That seemed like a good reason to let Azzie and Davyn walk away.
Could I go back to life as it was before if they did go?
The questions swirled in my mind, none of them finding answers, as coal and draugar ash swirled down the drain.
When my shower was over, I didn’t have any more answers than when it started. I dressed and joined the others. Finn stood behind the island dividing the dining room from the kitchen, as if keeping a barrier between himself and the others. Azzie was already in a chair at the table. Her wet hair was pulled into a braid. She had one leg tucked under her and the other propped at the knee, which she rested her chin on.
Davyn leaned against a wall behind her.
The sight made her look deceptively helpless, as if she couldn’t summon a sword from mid-air that she wielded as effectively as any master.
I took the Styrofoam takeout boxes from the counter in front of Finn, and the familiar smell of smoked meat and BBQ sauce greeted me. I inhaled deeply. “I forgot it was Friday.”
Finn almost smiled. “Same.”
Friday was when Gabby’s oldest son pulled out the smoker, and the special at the diner was ribs, brisket, and burnt-ends.
The table had come with four chairs, but it wasn’t meant for a meal for four. I spread the boxes of food and side dishes across the island, while Finn grabbed plates from the cupboard.
“Help yourselves.” I gestured to the spread, and a new thought entered my head. “Unless we’re going to have another conversation about exchanging favors for food.”
“Nah.” Finn shook his head. “Davyn paid.”
“And the feeding hole is sacred ground.” Davyn grabbed a plate and was already piling it high before Azzie finished standing.
“So you two know each other?” I pointed between Finn and Davyn, then grabbed my own food.
Finn loaded up mac and cheese and biscuits, to go with his ribs. He never touched the potatoes. “Not really, I’ve heard his name.”
“I think we fought once.” Davyn waited until Azzie had her food—nearly as much as he had—and was seated before he took the spot next to her. The wood of the chair creaked under his bulk, but it held.
“Thirteen-twelve?” Finn seemed to consider Davyn’s statement as he took the other spot next to Davyn.
Davyn waited until I joined them, but only barely. He paused with corn muffin covered in beans halfway to his mouth. “France?”
Finn shook his head. “I wasn’t in France until a few centuries ago. Ireland.”
Davyn nodded. “That makes sense.”
And now they were having a casual conversation?
“Things ended amicably?” Azzie sounded as confused as I felt about their abrupt shifts in demeanor.
“The way most wars do.” Finn’s sarcasm was back.
That was probably a fun story, but I had more pressing concerns than an eight-hundred-year-old battle. I focused on Azzie. “You were sneaking out.” I didn’t mean to let the accusation slide into my tone, and tried to hide it behind eating.
“I didn’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
The derisive snort Finn made could’ve rivaled one of Davyn’s growls. “Like draugar attacking, or your pet bear trying to kill Zeke?”
Azzie shrugged. “A lot like that, yes.”
“Since it’s too late to stop that now… Besides, you said we were safer together.” Was I going to ask her to stay? Them ? There was no pretending at this point that she was alone, and I had no idea where she’d come from. She would have her own home, and I didn’t know anything about her.
I knew one thing—I needed her by my side. Despite not knowing where that feeling came from, it was too potent to ignore. The thought of not seeing her again sent an unfamiliar rage through me, as if I’d destroy whatever took her from me.
That alone was a good reason to not listen to whatever impulses I had.
Davyn paused in shoveling food into his mouth long enough to rest a hand on Azzie’s arm. “You and I need to regroup.” He was only speaking to her. Finn and I didn’t matter in his world, and he wasn’t trying to hide that.
“This isn’t a matter of just you and me anymore.” Azzie dropped one eaten-clean rib on top of another, starting a pile. “Zeke and Finn are a part of anything that happens next, whether or not you try to cut them out.” As she talked, she sucked her fingers clean one-by-one.
There was no way I was turned on by that in the middle of all of this.
I was.
I shook the thought away and focused on my meal and her words. “Where are you going, anyway?” I asked. “Davyn said your apartment was trashed. Someone was looking for you there.”
“It also means there’s a good chance the attack was because of me.” Azzie’s voice faltered.
Davyn shoveled in more food. “If your point is they knew where you were, draugar here means they also know you’re here.” He was clearly a man practiced in holding serious conversation while stuffing his face. “Not a lot of gods control the undead. Odin was one of the last and with him gone, that leaves Loki and not many others.”
As he finished taking a drink, Finn’s glass hit the table hard, clattering and shaking everyone’s food. He gave us a tight smile. “Oops.”
I backtracked over what Davyn just said. “Loki is looking for you?” I didn’t know much about any of these immortals beyond what Finn told me, but I’d heard a couple of my clients talking about Loki.
That was bad news.
Azzie gave me an apologetic half smile. “And he’s a huge part of why I wanted to leave before anything happened.”
Reality was sinking in. Not just that my life had been turned upside down since meeting Azzie, but that she was used to the chaos enough that she expected something to happen. “Do you do this every time the bad comes after you? Leave, I mean.”
“Most of the time, yes. It’s smart to find a new place to be when someone who wants me dead finds the old one.”
Fuck. The longer she talked, the more real this situation became. When I met Finn, I didn’t have to deal with this kind of acceptance. The way he gave me knowledge meant it was all just there. Like I’d always known it.
This was more of a dawning feeling. I was a part of their world now—Finn’s, Azzie’s, and Davyn’s. Growing up, so many of the people Mom knew expected an attack around every corner. They were certain the end of the world was coming, and I’d gotten tired of it. None of the bad things they were looking for were going to happen.
Except that apparently the end of the world was looming, and the next person I met could be the one who wanted to erase me, just not for the reasons any of those people from my past believed.
“Why are people—gods, whatever—hunting you?” I asked.
“Azzie specifically? The prophecies.” Despite the barbecue sauce smeared across his chin, Davyn made me sound like the dolt with his reply.
Azzie glanced at him, and smirked, a snicker slipping out. “You’ve got…” She trailed off.
“What?” He didn’t look amused.
“Just… Sauce.” She pointed at her own cheek.
He swiped the back of his wrist over the stain, not making a difference in any way. “So?”
She dipped her napkin in her water, and wiped the orange smudge off his skin.
No, really. What were these two? I had a feeling that was a question neither of them could answer. “Everyone keeps talking about prophecies. What’s the end game? Are they just random snippets that wreck people’s lives? Do they all paint a story when you put them together?” And why wasn’t that part of the knowledge Finn shared with me when he showed me who he was? What those ancient texts said I could be?
“Ragnarok,” Davyn said.
I knew that word. “The end of the world?”
“The rebirth of the world,” Finn said. “Some gods will be replaced by new ones—like you—and the old ones don’t like that.”
“Like Azzie,” Davyn corrected him.
Right. Because one of us had to kill the other, and I still wasn’t doing that. “So they’re working to stop it? These gods who are meant to be replaced? Can’t we just tell them here, take it. I don’t want it ?” Wait—Azzie was a target, but I’d never run into this before I met her. Was I not? Was I better hidden?
Not now.
“Do they send someone after you weekly? Daily?” I was curious for both of us, if this was about to be my life.
She frowned and pushed her plate away.
“You’ve lost people because of it.” I knew as much instinctively. I’d lost people too, but not because of this. Their deaths haunted me regardless.
Another thing she and I had in common.
“Not directly, but because I couldn’t stop it.” Somehow she managed to sound meek and defiant at the same time.
“It wasn’t because of you.” I had to say that out loud for my sake as well as hers. What happened to my mom wasn’t my fault, no matter how much I blamed myself.
Davyn lightly leaned his shoulder against hers. “It wasn’t anything you didn’t do or could’ve done. Zeke is right.”
I’d tease him, ask if it hurt to admit that, but this conversation had gotten too real and painful.
“Some of it is my fault, simply because I’m here,” she said. “The shadows in the forest? For me. The people in Salt Lake? There for me. The draugar? There’s a reason they didn’t show up until I was here.”
Jesus .
“And then you run, you hide, and you live your life waiting for the next disaster?” I wanted to say I couldn’t imagine, but again, I’d grown up around people who lived exactly like that.
Azzie’s expression was sad, and held a kind of surrender I hadn’t seen in her before. “I tried being out in the open, and Salt Lake was the result.”
“No.” I saw shades of gray in what she painted in black and white. “If they’re coming for you regardless, you don’t do things because of them . You live your life and enjoy it. If the threat shows up, you deal with it. If it keeps coming back, you fight or you retreat. But you don’t burn your own world down first so they can’t do it. You don’t surrender the things you appreciate so they can’t take them.”
“We’re talking about gods, not angry people wielding boomsticks,” Finn said.
Azzie almost smiled. “I knew you appreciated the classics.”
“What happened in Salt Lake? That wasn’t magic, it was people.” I’d seen the news, the same way everyone else had. “What happened today with the draugar—if they were going to be an ongoing threat, where are they? We cut them down, but we couldn’t have kept fighting. Are they a limited resource?”
“They’re undead demons, so there are more of them than any army could hold off,” Davyn said.
Exactly. “Yet, today there were just enough to see how Azzie dealt with them.”
“How we dealt with them.” Azzie’s defeated mood was fading.
“They tested our defenses, then fell back.” I’d learned so much bullshit about combat tactics in my life. Was it actually going to serve me? “This wasn’t the start of a war, it was a scouting mission.”
Davyn rolled his eyes. “He’s got a good point. Another one.”
“Of course he does.” Finn scowled at Davyn.
Azzie drummed her fingers on the table, sending tremors through the wood that made utensils rattle against plates. “Even if that’s the case, they know I’m here now. If I stay, you’re in danger.” Her voice wavered.
Don’t let her go . “If you leave, they still know where I am. At least Finn and I know attacks are a possibility in the future.”
“And we are stronger together,” Azzie said.
Finn made a strangled choking sound. “Gag me with a spoon.”
Davyn didn’t look happy either, though I wasn’t sure he was capable of expressing joy or pleasure.
“Stay here.” In my house. In my bed— Nope. I needed to figure out where that impulse was coming from and fight it. Or at least not let it take control with someone I barely knew. “In town.”
“This is idiotic.” Finn pushed away from the table. “It’s going to bite you in the ass.” He walked out of the room.
I’d talk to him in a minute. I looked at Azzie, waiting for an answer.
“It makes sense, I guess.” Davyn spoke before she could. “But if you go after Azzie…” He fixed me with a hard glare, and let the unspoken threat linger in the air.
“Prophecy-wise.” She amended his statement.
That wasn’t what he meant, but I wasn’t interested in his opinion. “Nothing you disagree with, Azzie.”
I was being an idiot. A horny, driven idiot.
“All right. We’ll stay.”
Her answer made everything all right, no matter how wrong things were.