Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Van
We’re sitting in what I guess I’ll call my new car, flying down the winding dirt road leading back to the reform school.
In the back seat, Aiden, Reid, and Wilder are crammed together like sardines.
The three of them all appear to be sleeping, but I know enough to know that at least one of them is probably pretending just to avoid having to chat with each other.
Beside me, Izzy sits with her head thrown back, her long caramel-colored hair rippling around her in the wind from the open window.
I try to subtly watch her out of the corner of my eye, but I don’t think I’m being as subtle as I thought.
Normally with women, they were just sort of there.
I could change one out for another and not notice the difference.
But with Izzy… Well, there’s no one like her.
I’d never quite figured out what drew me to her, but it was as strong as a rope between us.
It was hard not to stare all the time. But when she had her eyes closed like she did now?
I just drank her in. Because while all this “god shit” might be enough to make any normal person feel unsure how much time they had left, I always kind of got the sense that the clock was ticking for me… faster than it was for anyone else.
“Do you think the godslayers will be back?” Izzy asks.
I frown as her eyes open and connect with mine. Of course she knew I was watching her. “Does it matter?”
“It matters if they’re waiting to kill us…”
I try to shrug away the tension that seems to rise between my shoulder blades, but I don’t let Izzy know I’m worried about the godslayers too. I won’t add to her stress. “I’m pretty sure we can take them out if we need to, either way, so let them come.”
Izzy smiles. “Are you always so confident about everything?”
I’m not. “I just don’t take things so seriously.”
She sighs. “I wish I was like that. It seems like I’m always just waiting for the next awful thing to happen.”
I force a smirk. “Not everything in life is all doom and gloom.”
“Maybe…”
But she sounds uncertain, so I add, “Sometimes something good is right around the next corner.”
I turn the wheel, curving around another corner, and slam on my breaks. A young woman with short brown hair turns huge eyes onto us. She puts her hands up, as if to stop the car from hitting her. I manage to stop within a foot of running her down.
If I’d been a little slower...
My heart races. Holy hell, I almost just killed a woman.
“Stay here, I’ll make sure she’s alright.”
I unbuckle and open the car door, my legs shaking ever-so-slightly. I have enough blood on my hands. The last thing I need is to add this woman to the list of people I’d unintentionally hurt.
Wilder’s voice sounds groggy from the back seat. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll be right back,” I say.
I hear Izzy start to say something, but her words are cut off by the sound of the slamming door.
I’ve taken two steps toward the woman before I realize that something’s wrong. We’re in the middle of nowhere, woods all around us, and this woman just happens to be standing in our path? It’s fucking weird.
My steps slow. I pause a few feet from her. She doesn’t look like she belongs out here. Her boots have high heels that aren’t practical for a walk through the woods, and her skin-tight shirt and leather pants look more suited to a club.
“You okay?” I ask, my hands unconsciously curling into fists.
She moves a little closer, and her fearful expression slips away, replaced by a mocking one. “Van, Van, Van, you’ve been digging where you don’t belong.”
Aw, fuck. Trouble.
“I’m just a curious guy,” I say, glancing back at my friends to make sure they’re okay.
All of them peer at us with expressions of concern.
“Oh, yes. You’ve been digging where you don’t belong and that has consequences…like the deaths of all those you hold dear.”
A chill rolls down my spine. “You’re a vampire.”
She smiles, and I swear I spot her fangs. “Yes.”
“It was stupid coming out here alone,” I growl, reaching within myself for my powers.
“Who said I was alone?”
My gaze runs over the woods around us, and some ancient sense within me spreads out.
I detect…ten, ten fucking vampires in the woods around us.
In the blink of an eye, I feel my sword appear on my back.
Some instinct makes me reach for it and draw the weapon from the sheath.
The soft hiss it makes as it comes free makes goosebumps erupt on my flesh.
I hold the sword out in front of me, and the woman pales. “Do you really think you and your ten companions can take on Tyr, the god of war?”
She stands up taller. “I think the rumors are right. I think you gods don’t know how to use your powers yet, and I think at least some of you will die today by our hands. I like our odds.”
And I like my odds.
I smile and lift a hand. Behind me, the doors to my car lock. In my mind I picture what I want done, and suddenly the car reverses, then switches gears and drives around us. I catch my friends’ shocked faces as the car speeds away, leaving me and the vampire alone.
Well…alone with her vampire buddies.
She regards me like I’m insane. “That was…foolish.”
“Or perhaps I want all the glory for myself.”
I say the words without thinking, but the strange thing is that they have a ring of truth to them. Glory is something Tyr craved. He was brave and loved to battle. Perhaps having the god within me was making me want the same things.
The vampires rise from their concealed positions.
From behind trees and hills and bushes they stand, slowly surrounding me.
A small thought in the back of my head whispers that I can’t defeat this many supernatural beings, but then a deep voice growls right back at it that we are Tyr.
Tyr, who never shied away from battle. Tyr, who faced giants and monsters.
Vampires were nothing.
As the vampires draw closer, I swing the great sword around in a movement that feels like a dance, but something inside of me recognizes it as a moment to connect with my blade.
To feel it come to life within my grasp before the coming battle.
It was something that Tyr loved to do, and I find that I love it too.
The female vampire flashes a smile. “Do you know how easy it was to kill the members of your household? Do you know how they cried and begged…these humans who hadn’t even known that real monsters existed?” Her smile widens. “I had a feast that night.”
I close the distance between us and slice off her head before I’m aware I’ve moved. Her head tumbles down and her body foldes. Gasps rise from the male vampires around me, and then I feel their anger like a storm.
When they attack, they’re fast and filled with rage. They’ve spent their whole lives being at the top of the food chain, fearing no one. But I am a god, and everyone fears my kind.
I slice down the vampires, barely feeling it when their sharp claws tear at my flesh or their teeth bite down on me. A few of their blows land, as do a few of their kicks, but I never stop moving.
And then the wolves come.
It’s like being in a fantasy world. The pack of multi-colored beasts explode from the woods and fight at my side, attacking the vampires. When I knock one of the vampires to the ground and raise my blade, I know deep in my heart the battle has been won.
But he smiles despite his bloodied face. “You think this will make a difference?”
My strike falters. I want to hear what he has to say.
“We are only a few of the great vampire house Holden. You may think you’ve hurt us, but you’ve only stirred up our nest.”
I tower over him, listening to the snarling wolves feeding on the screaming vampires. “We will destroy all of you for what you did.”
His smile widens. “Oh, the sister? She was asking for it. She--”
I end his life, my hand shaking, and lift my head to look around me. The pack of wolves have been as effective as my sword. And when the last of the vampires is dead, the biggest of the beasts lifts its head and moves toward me.
It looks up at me with a strange kind of intelligence, and I jump when his voice comes into my head. We are the children of Fenrir. Once you trusted him, and he betrayed you. But we will not do the same.
Our eyes lock and hold. I don’t understand.
The wolf bows its head. Call and we will come, Tyr.
And then the wolves hurry back into the trees, and I’m left standing in the midst of a sea of vampire bodies.
Knees shaking, I kneel and clean my bloodied sword in the grass and resheath it.
My mind is empty, but at the same time, I can feel questions and fears scratching at the back of my thoughts.
And then I hear the sound of running feet on the road ahead of me.
Heart in my throat, I reach for my sword, but Izzy, Wilder, Reid, and Aiden come racing around the corner. They look angry as hell. Maybe even afraid.
All of them stop when they spot me.
“I took care of it,” I say, not knowing what else to say.
Silence stretches between us for a minute, before Izzy stomps toward me.
Uh oh, I think I’m in trouble.