Immortal Need (19 page)

For now, Sevani and Alexander were standing in Ronald’s bedroom in the dead of night. From his calculations, he’d been on the mission for three days. He still had five days to get Ayah back and defeat Freya. Plenty of time. One last hiccup to erase and then he could go get his woman. Ronald lay, sleeping, in his bed. He was older than Sevani had thought he would be. Ayah’s uncle, her own father’s brother, wanted her dead, and for no other reason than to have her money. It also seemed that Ayah wasn’t the only one. The merc had also told him that they were to kill Jean Pierre shortly after Ayah. Ronald stood to become a very rich man if he succeeded. But he wouldn’t succeed. Surrounded by gaudy signs of wealth, from artwork, a vanity, and an antique dresser, to a four-poster monstrosity of a bed, Ronald was a man who knew only greed. Nothing was enough for him.

Sevani silently pulled a blade from his side and stalked up to the black-covered bed. Ronald shifted to face Sevani and sighed in his sleep. He was struck by how much Ayah looked like him. The same narrow face and brown hair, though Ronald’s was peppered with gray. The same strong jaw. This man, who should have been like a second father to Ayah, had signed her death warrant as if it meant nothing. Here he slept like he hadn’t betrayed the very ideal of family with his actions. For money, he even was willing to remove his son. No man more than he deserved to die at that moment. Sevani didn’t hesitate. He covered the man’s mouth with one hand and raised his blade.

“For Ayah,” he said, and Ronald’s eyes widened, even as his scream was muffled against Sevani’s hand. Sevani struck, burying the eight-inch blade to the hilt, right through the man’s heart. He held his hand over Ronald’s face until he lay quiet in a pool of his own blood.

“Can we go to Folkvangr now?” Alexander asked.

“Love to,” Sevani said, and they disappeared into the night.

* * * *

They didn’t stop by the mansion. Freya could come there at will, and they didn’t want her to know their exact location when they entered. Folkvangr was a big place to get lost in. The home the Watchers lived in was just on the edge, as close to the human world as possible. Freya hadn’t wanted the warriors in her arsenal to know where the Watchers were. It could be hard to maintain an image of happiness and fortune when they could, perhaps, see the person who had killed them, in Alexander’s case. No, Freya kept her chosen soldiers close to her temple that served as her home. That was where Sevani and Alexander would try first. She would have wanted to keep Ayah as close to her as possible.

When they touched down, Sevani flashing this time to save Alexander the fatigue, they rested for a few minutes in the open meadow. Thick green grass waved in the wind. The smell of sweet flowers and honeysuckle permeated the air. The sun beamed down, but comfortably so, peeking through soft, fluffy, white clouds in the cerulean sky. There was no sense of urgency here, or pain, just freedom, relaxation, and peace. Sevani could see now why soldiers for Freya were not apt to leave here or fight their fate. The very air whispered of pleasures and the need for sleep. Sevani forced himself to stand, and Alexander followed. They were not here for the peace. Sevani was here to shatter it, if need be, to get Ayah back.

Ayah. His Ayah. Things had certainly changed for him. In the short time he’d known her, she’d turned his world upside down. He wished he could figure out what it was about her, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. At first, yes, it had stemmed from her connection to Nila, but with the first taste of her lips, that had disappeared. He wanted to save her not only because of his past, but because he wanted a future. Perhaps one with her. And then she’d taken a bullet for him. He still could not get his head around the idea. Alexander, Valerie, or Lei he could expect that from. Any one of them would die for the other, they’d all known that. But for an innocent, who hadn’t known really what was in store for her, to do it was humbling. He’d wanted to snatch her up and run away with her, somewhere far away from death and destruction, somewhere they could be alone, grow to know each other, and he could learn to be happy again. All he wanted was the chance. But when she had given him back his soul, he wanted even more than that. He wanted the absolute knowledge that she would be by his side, for eternity, if he could will it.

He didn’t know if he loved her, if it was even possible after all he had been through in his many years. His heart, to be sure, was quicker to distrust and to hate than to love. But he would try for her. He would, at the very least, treasure her for all her days. She would never have to be afraid again. She would never have to wonder if someone would hurt her. He would be there, her shield. Of course, he would have to wait to get her out of Freya’s hands, and he would. The goddess had started something that he intended to finish. It may have been her last-ditch effort to bring him to heel, but it was too late. Ayah had changed him, and he would
never
be the same.

“We head east,” Alexander said then as they kicked into motion. “The mansion is to the west of us. I figure Freya would want to reside opposite of us.”

“Then we head that way. But we need to move quickly. The longer we’re on the land, the easier for Freya to find us, I figure,” Sevani answered.

Alexander nodded, and as one, they began to run. The meadow stretched as far as the eye could see, but Sevani’s hearing could pick up the faint sound of rushing water. The river Gioll cut along the side of Folkvangr to separate the worlds of the dead and the living. The rapidly moving river could be traversed safely only by the dead and couldn’t be seen by the living. Sevani was happy that none of the Watchers had been working since he’d gone to Ayah. That meant there would be no new soldiers to come across on the way to Freya. The ones who were here already may be enough. They moved faster, racing full-out along the even land until a dark dot marred the horizon. As they grew closer, they slowed down.

“What do you think it is?” Sevani called.

“Vardr,” Alexander yelled back, and Sevani groaned. When Freya had been made wife to Odin, she’d also been given her own animal familiars. They were large cats that looked like the domestic variety, but were as big as ponies and deadly.

“She would send them out.”

“She doesn’t want this to be easy on us,” Alexander commented.

Sevani grunted and ran faster. If she wanted this to go rough, he’d go rough. He was not going to stop.

As they drew closer, the dark dot split into four and then into eight. The dots grew bigger, and Sevani knew the Vardr were on the move. One broke out in front of the other until Sevani could see the beast. Covered in dark black fur, with thick claws, the cat was beautiful. It looked like the domesticated Persian cats humans owned, but when it opened its mouth and roared, the similarities ended there. Large white fangs dripping with saliva greeted him. Sevani watched, pulling his sword, as the cat prepared to pounce. In one fluid motion, the cat was airborne, hind legs straight behind it and forearms extended out to grab him, claws unsheathed.

Sevani met its jaws with an upward stroke. He felt the jar of impact and nearly went to his knees. Claws sank into his back as he wrestled with the beast, sword locked in its teeth. Alexander came from his left and stabbed the Vardr in the heart. Sevani threw it away from him and met the next. The grass was splattered with blood as they worked fiercely. The two stood back to back. When one was attacked by a Vardr, the other would deal the deathblow. Each strike was precise, each meant to cause death. They didn’t stop until, chests heaving, there were no more to fight. Sevani fingered the slowly seeping wounds on his back, thigh, and arms. Each was already healing, but they would take time—time he could not afford to lose. He shook his head. He would just have to continue on.

“Press forward. I’m sure Freya has more on the horizon, but we can’t stop,” Sevani said then.

Alexander nodded wearily and raced onward, leaving the carcasses behind. After a time, a woman stood far in the distance. Something in the windblown sable strands of her hair made Sevani’s pulse throb.

“Ayah,” he called and ran faster.

“Sevani, wait!” Alexander yelled after him, but Sevani didn’t stop.

Ayah was here. Freya hadn’t thought they’d make it past the Vardr, silly of her. She had probably thought that Sevani would have left on his own to come for Ayah. Every step he took brought him closer to her. Now he could see she was tied to a pole, arms bloodied, her white robe dirty and in tatters. Her head hung low, hiding her face from him. He felt rage bubble within him. For every hurt, every mark that Ayah bore, he would return it tenfold on Freya’s flesh. He would create sweet music of agony and blood on that goddess’s body. She would regret the day she had taken Ayah from him.

Sevani didn’t focus on anything else except for getting closer to Ayah. When he met her, he skidded to a halt. His eyes drank in the sight of her. It felt like so long since he’d seen her last, tasted her lips, felt her heat. He needed to see her face. With careful fingers, he lifted her chin and felt his heart sink. His desire wavered as he looked into a face fuller than Ayah’s, eyes filled with such hate and loathing that he choked with it. A pale, pouty mouth twisted into a snarl, blackened teeth chomping at him. The brown hair he had found so alluring, straight as a pin and to the shoulders, was curled slightly and much longer.

Nila.

“I hate you,” she growled at him. “You killed me. Killed me when you knew I’d never betray you,” she cried shrilly. “And then you give yourself to
her
. What about me? What about the promise you made to never love another in this life or the next? You filthy, pitiful, disgusting liar. I hate you.” With each sentence, her voice rose louder, until it was ringing in his ears. Sevani fell to his knees.

“I am sorry,” he choked out. “I have wished, so many days, that I had stilled my blade. That I had listened. I thought you betrayed me.”

“You are the betrayer. She is not me. You gave yourself to her and thought nothing of me.
I
am the one who has been searching for you.
I
have been mourning your loss, twisted my soul from the afterlife to come to you!” she screamed, tears red like blood falling from her eyes. “You left me here to rot.”

“Sevani,” Alexander broke in, but Sevani ignored him.

“Your soul is in her. Ayah—”

“Don’t say her name!”

“She touched something in me. She gave me back my soul. I have done penance for thousands of years for the wrong I did to you. I know it shall never be enough, but I have done it.”

“Sevani,” Alexander said again.

Sevani shook his head. His head hung low as he cried, faced with the wife he had killed. He’d thought much the same himself when he’d met Ayah. How could he have felt so strongly for her, desired her, if she wasn’t Nila? What about his long-dead wife he had killed with his own hands? He looked down at them and saw that they were, indeed, covered in her blood. He wailed. He could not be sorry for Ayah. Gods knew he wished he could, but he couldn’t. She’d touched something so deep inside of him that he couldn’t let it go. He couldn’t make it disappear, no matter how much he may wish it weren’t so for Nila. She’d died violently at his hands, searched for thousands of years for him, and this was how he repaid her.

“Nila, I am sorry. But I cannot let her go. I can’t. She’s part of me.”

“I am part of you. Me. You bastard’s son. You whore’s get. I curse the day I laid eyes on you.” She struggled against her bonds, blood leaking from her ravaged wrists. As she shifted, her robe parted, and he could see the ragged wound in her belly he’d delivered to her so long ago. As she jerked, the slit opened wider, her insides falling out.

“No!” he screamed, jerking to his feet. “I’ll make it right. I swear I’ll make it right.”

“Sevani,” Alexander yelled, grabbing him by the shoulders and spinning him around to face him. “What is wrong with you?”

“Nila,” he gasped. “Can’t you see what I’ve done to her? Can’t you see her pain?”

“Sevani, there is nothing there. I swear to you.”

“My hands are covered in her blood. She spurns me for wanting Ayah.”

“Sevani, she is not real. Listen to me,” he added with a shake when Sevani tried to pull from his grasp. “Nila was not a woman for harsh words.”

“Death changes people,” Sevani countered.

“Even as she died, she didn’t say a cruel word to you. You told me so yourself. She’s not there. It’s an illusion. There is nothing but meadow, the sun hitting your skin, and fresh, clean air.”

Sevani swung his gaze to where Nila still struggled against the pole.

“Look at me,” Alexander yelled, and the crack of a slap hit him first. Then the slow sting on his cheek registered next.

“You hit me,” Sevani said in wonder.

“I’ll do more if you don’t listen to me. Ayah is with Freya. She carries the same soul Nila did. You and Nila were not meant to be, but you and Ayah are. She is the one who gave you back your soul. She is the one who bonded with you despite your faults. She is the one who risked her life to come to you when she thought you were in trouble. Ayah did that. Ayah is the woman you came to save. She is the reason you are fighting. Remember that,” Alexander finished, exhaling roughly.

Sevani stared at Alexander unseeingly as thoughts of Ayah filled his head. The smell of her hair filled his nostrils, clearing the scent of rotting flesh and insides. The touch of her skin covered his hands so that they no longer felt slick with blood. And the taste of her filled his mouth until the acrid flavor of failure was washed away. Ayah. His Ayah. He took a deep breath. Freya would play any game to stop him, to impede his charge to get Ayah back at his side. She would even go as far as sending him an illusion to do it. The thought cleared the fog in his mind. When he looked back at Nila, she was silent on the pole, her gaze now unsure.

“Will you forget me?” she asked.

“Never. But then, you already know that,” he whispered and pulled from Alexander’s grasp, nodding at his questioning look. He turned, resolute, and walked right through Nila. He ignored her scream, knowing she wasn’t real.