Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Marty did exactly as Nina said she would. She covered Dom’s fear-frozen feet with a blanket from her couch while Wanda helped her sip some herbal tea as though she were a small child with a cold.
Fletcher sat with Nina, balancing on her shoulder in Dom’s favorite puffy chair-and-a-half positioned by the window, snuggling against the vampire’s thick, coal-black hair.
“Are you all right, Miss Acosta?” Harvey asked, sitting across from her atop her coffee table, his hands clasped in a fist in his lap.
“Dom,” she said from stiff lips. “You can call me Dom. I mean, now that we’re acquainted in vampire, we should be on a first-name basis.”
She let out a shuddering breath, gripping handfuls of her fuzzy pink blanket and reminding herself everything was okay. She was breathing, no one died, everything was fine.
“Dom,” Harvey rumbled, eyeing her hesitantly. “Are you all right? I realize that was a harrowing few moments, and this all seems surreal right now. I would have liked to take a softer approach—”
“Oh, can it, Thor’s weird offspring. It had to be done,” Nina barked.
Thor’s weird offspring. There was a gigantic man sitting on her coffee table, testing its Ikea limits, calling himself the son of the Norse god Thor—with a name like Harvey, of all the names in the history of Norse names—and no one had batted an eye.
“Is there a softer approach than showing me in a symphony of fangs and fur that vampires and werewolves really exist?” she asked, shrinking farther into the couch.
That happened. It happened hard. It happened so hard, Dom was still shaking.
The ladies had given her a bunch of explanations about how they came to be—werewolves and vampires, that is.
They’d even had a handy explanation for how they’d found out where she lived.
Nina the vampire had found her address from her phone number and sniffed out her location—used her nose to locate Dom like some sort of olfactive GPS.
And the icing on the cake? Harvey claimed he was one of many of Thor’s children. So many. Apparently, Thor got around New Asgard.
That was the place where Thor lived. New Asgard.
But Harvey wasn’t just a descendant of the almighty Thor, God of Thunder. Sort of the way some people brag they’re descendants of historical figures, etc. No, that wasn’t what he was saying at all. He was claiming to be Thor’s actual son.
Which could mean he was centuries old. When, despite her terror and the forceful pounding of her heart, she managed to point that out to him, he nodded in agreement.
Harvey. Harvey nodded in agreement. He didn’t confirm or deny, simply nodded.
Ludicrous. Absolutely, positively ludicrous.
As Dom began to absorb the words spoken and the reality-defying feats of body morphing and the shedding of hair she’d witnessed, she licked her very dry lips and asked the one burning question that had troubled her since hearing their explanations.
Pulling the blanket under her chin, she looked to the man who could rival Chris Hemsworth, and that wasn’t an embellishment. No. He was beautiful, sculpted perfection.
“Harvey,” she said in a wooden tone.
He cocked his beautiful head, his green eyes meeting hers. “Yes?”
Dom shook her head. “No… I mean, I wasn’t addressing you. I was wondering about your name. As I recall from history class, you have two brothers named Magni and Modi, and a sister named Thrud.”
“Half-sister,” he corrected with a smile so glorious, it made her eyes tear.
Dom blinked. “Half, three-quarters, whatever. You’re still related.
My point is, your name is Harvey. Harvey.
It feels a little…um, common, in comparison to all those larger-than-life, unpronounceable names.
” She paused a moment, then said, “Yes. That’s it.
It feels common and totally out of keeping with the names of your siblings.
Who, and I mean this with zero disrespect, names the son of a god Harvey? ”
MC barked a laugh. “She’s gonna love this. Go on, tell her the story, Harv.”
Harvey squinted as if he was attempting to keep his patience in check when he looked to Dom.
“Magni and Modi are also my half-brothers. Most of my father’s offspring are spread far and wide, despite what James Gunn, Jon Favreau, and the like who’ve made movies about him tell you.
He’s had many different mistresses in his time.
My mother, Dagny, a skilled weaver and cloth tradeswoman, was but one.
Her father, my grandfather, his name was Havard.
But my mother gave it a bit of a modernized update. ”
“Don’t forget the part where she did it to spite your father, Harvey,” MC reminded.
“If you’re going to tell the story, tell it all.
You remember, right? Thor forbade her to name you after her father, and she looked him directly in his eyes and said, ‘I did exactly as you wished. His name isn’t Havard.
It’s Harvey.’ Then she stuck her tongue out at him.
All of Asgard has been having a laugh about it ever since. ”
Harvey rolled his tongue around the inside of his cheek. “Yes. That’s true. Thanks for reminding me to overshare our family history with a complete stranger, Mjolnir.”
“She’s not going to be a stranger for long, Harvey,” MC crowed.
Harvey popped his lips before clearing his throat, then looked at Dom, his eyes glistening under the lights.
“She did it to spite my father, because he didn’t like my grandfather.
My grandfather was wholly against their relationship, due to the fact that my father was married at the time of their… meeting.”
“You mean mating. That dirty dog,” Nina said on a laugh. “But if he looks like you, I guess I get it. The pickin’s probably aren’t slim for a hot dude like that. I mean, if you like ’em the size of a giraffe.”
Wanda, her pretty eyes focused on the vampire, frowned. “Nina, in this very fragile moment, when we’re trying to comfort Dominique on her journey into the paranormal, is the time to zip your lip. Do that, won’t you?”
Nina rolled her eyes in response, but she did quiet, crossing her feet at the ankles and sinking farther into the chair.
Wanda turned back to her, folding her hands neatly in her lap. “Back to you,” she said warmly. “We’re here to help. So let’s begin.”
But Dom didn’t understand. She untangled herself from the blanket and jumped off the couch, distancing herself from the women and Harvey.
“Begin what? Now that I know who the hammer…er, I mean, MC belongs to, Harvey can take it home and I can go back to my life as I knew it, right? The only thing that’s changed is now I know vampires, werewolves, talking hammers and gods who cat around and have kids named Harvey exist. I swear, you don’t have to worry I’ll tell anyone about any of you. Because I won’t. Not ever.”
As if anyone would believe what she’d seen anyway. She still wasn’t sure she even believed it. These people had been right here, right under her nose, having children, creating families, living their lives, and the population at large remained completely unaware.
Ignorance is indeed bliss.
But then a thought hit Dom, a morbid one, making her back deeper into the kitchen. Would they hurt her to keep her quiet? And…where had that knife gone?
Marty rose, approaching her cautiously, her eyes shiny and blue with understanding. “Oh, Dom, I know what you’re thinking. It’s not like that at all. We would never hurt you—”
“I would,” Nina assured her, stretching her arms upward as Fletcher nestled deeper into her hair. “I mean, if the sitch calls for it.”
Dom swallowed hard. She didn’t doubt Nina would put the hurt on her. Not even a little.
“But she won’t because we would never allow it,” Wanda said, also rising to approach her with measured steps. “I know you’re still in a bit of shock, but we need to begin to address what’s happening with you.”
Nipping at her thumbnail, her brow furrowed. “I still don’t understand. There’s nothing to address. Now that I know the hammer, er, MC, belongs to Harvey, he can take it and go home. Everyone can go home. False alarm. Sorry to trouble you.”
But there’s still the problem of you randomly screaming out a man’s name with no rhyme or reason. Will that problem go away if Harvey takes the hammer back?
Dang it. The devil really was in the details, wasn’t it?
“Here’s the problem with that, Dom,” Harvey said, his voice tight. “I can’t take MC with me unless he’s willing to go.”
“And I am not willing to go.”
“Sure you can.” She stomped to the table to grab MC. Wrapping her hand around the thick handle, she picked it up and offered it to Harvey.
But then, as had become her newly acquired oddity, she raised MC high in the air and screamed, “Thor!”
The word flew from her mouth like a clap of thunder, shaking the room with such force, her lampshades quivered.
Everyone, including Harvey, winced.
She stuffed her fist against her mouth. “Sorry,” she said, in muffled apology. “I don’t know why that keeps happening, but I can tell you the folks at CVS aren’t lining up to join my fan club after the ruckus I made there the other day in the allergy meds aisle.”
MC began to laugh so hard; he shook in her hand. “Oh, leave it to Thor to make his mark known, eh, Harvey? Despite his altruism, he has a bit of vanity inside him I could never manage to erase.”
Dom held up the hammer, looking directly at it. “Vanity? I don’t understand…” she murmured. She felt as though she’d said that a lot tonight, but she really didn’t understand.
“It’s Thor’s way of reminding everyone where my origin story began—and it began with him. It’s his way of making it known, he’s still and always will be relevant to my existence. Just a little quirk of his that he clearly thought would be amusing.”
Her eyes went wide when she looked at MC.
“So I’m just going to run around hollering ‘Thor’ like I’m some comic book groupie at Comic-Con?
That’s nuts. Is that why you don’t want to take him back?
Because I get it. Who wants to wander around, screaming their father’s name at will.
But that has nothing to do with taking him back. He’s yours.”
Harvey popped his lips. “That’s not the reason I can’t simply take MC with me. Believe me, if I could, I’d put my little friend in a closet and lock the door—”
“Harvey! Come now, you don’t mean that,” MC chided.
“I was right beside you at your mother’s knee, teaching you, nurturing you!
I raised you from a wee bairn to be a strong man with integrity, dignity.
I let you watch MTV when your father strictly forbade it, for Odin’s sake!
How could you say something so hurtful?”
Harvey planted his hands on his lean hips, eyes narrowing as if the hammer could see his expression.
His angry expression. “Stop playing the victim here, buddy. You know very well my reasons. You root for my father’s wishes.
He tasked you with monitoring my every move because I won’t bend to his will.
And let’s not forget, you’re a nag, MC. If I haven’t said it a hundred times, I’ll say it a hundred more.
I’m a shipwright. I’m not meant to rule the realm! ” he thundered.
Rule the realm? What realm?
If she wasn’t freaked out before, now she bordered hysterical. Where was the realm? What was the realm?
Forgetting her fears, forgetting the notion they might kill her to keep her quiet about their secrets, she had to ask.
Twisting her hair around her index finger, she rocked back and forth on nervous feet. “I don’t want to sound like a complete idiot, but I’ve been a little busy and haven’t had time to catch up on my superhero movies. What’s the realm…?”
Harvey’s eyebrow lifted, haughty and high on his forehead.
“The realm, as in Asgard where I hail from. But there’s also, the sky, all of humanity, better known as Earth to you, or Midgard, as we Norse call it.
My father unceremoniously took it upon himself to abandon MC, as a not-so-subtle nudge in the direction of taking over his duties because he claims he’s tired and it’s time to hand over the reins to me.
But in the process, he also ensured MC would be kept safe with me by giving him free will, as long as, when called upon, he does his job. ”
His job? She didn’t want to know what his job was. She wanted to know what he wanted with her. “Then how the heck did he end up with me? If you’re supposed to be watching him, you’re not doing a very good job, because he was at a swap meet in Great Neck.”
“As I said, that’s his free will in play,” Harvey said. “If MC wishes to roam, he’s free to do so until needed. I’m sorry he roamed here.”
“I cannot be owned, Harvey Larsen!” MC cried. “I’m no one’s property! I’m a free spirit with free will, and my spirit brought me here to you, Dominique. I sensed you. I woke up the other morning, and as I meditated, your spirit connected with mine and instantly I knew. You’re the one.”
Now Marty and Wanda, who’d let this exchange play out without saying a word, each held up a hand. “The one? The one what?”
“Dominique is the one person in all of Midgard worthy of my power. There are many who have come close, but she hammers, pardon the pun, the competition. She will rule.”
Dom felt her face go slack. “I feel like I just won a contest I didn’t know I’d entered.”
The panic that had only begun to settle in her stomach bubbled in an angry boil to the surface, making her hands shake and her legs feel like butter.
She held up MC and shook it at Harvey. “I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know where you people came from or how you found me, but I do not—I repeat—I do not want this hammer! Now take it!” She shoved it at Harvey.
He held up his wide hands in protest. “You don’t understand, Dom. And we’ve gotten a bit off track. If you’ll let me explain—”
“I said, take it!” she bellowed, shoving it at him and letting go of the handle, fully expecting Harvey to grab it.
Wow, was that ever a mistake.
Because when she thrust the hammer at Harvey—and, in his favor, he did try to take it—it fell to the floor of her townhome.
And exploded.
In flashing sparks of colors and thunderous claps of sound that ricocheted off the walls and left a gaping hole in her floor the size of the Grand Canyon.
Okay, that was an exaggeration, but it was a big hole.
A really big hole.