Dark Deceit (26 page)

A minute later, he was pounding on the back door of the club. Mason
answered it, a pinched expression on his face. When he saw what Korvain was
carrying, his eyes bulged.

‘What the fuck?’

Yeah, that pretty much summed it up.

‘I can’t explain right now.’ He pushed past the human and started toward
the elevator. Over his shoulder he called, ‘Get them up there ASAP. I need
help.’

Mason didn’t bother asking any more questions. Korvain was grateful
for that. Punching the elevator button, he waited impatiently; it seemed to
take forever for it to arrive. He was focused on it so much that he snarled
when a hand touched him gently on the shoulder.

Whirling around, he saw it was Mist holding her arms out in front of
her in the universal sign for surrender.

‘Easy male,’ she murmured, her eyes already fixed on Taer. Mist’s
hands touched her own throat as she looked at the injuries Taer had sustained.

‘Gods, what happened?’

‘She was attacked.’ The elevator chose that moment to
ding
open.
He stepped inside, Mist squeezing in right beside him. ‘I need your help. I
can’t take her to a human hospital. They’ll run tests and get more questions
than answers, and...’ he squeezed his eyes shut to stop the fresh tears, but it
did nothing to stop the burn in the back of his throat. ‘I don’t know of anyone
else I can take her to that I trust.’ Yeah, it hurt to say those words.

Mist looked him square in the eye and nodded. ‘Don’t worry. We’ll
take care of her in the best way we can.’

Korvain let out a relieved breath. ‘Thank you. Thank you.’

Mist nodded and the elevator came to a stop. When the doors opened,
Mist led him in the opposite direction to Bryn’s door. She opened up her
apartment and ushered him in.

‘Put her on the couch for now, but let me put a towel down first.’

Korvain waited for Mist to return, draping a towel onto the couch
before he placed Taer into the middle of it. Pushing some hair behind her ears,
he could feel the heat radiating off her skin. He took that to be a good sign.

The door opened again. Kara and Mav came into the room. Kara smiled
her saccharine smile while Mav seemed to glower at him. When Kara saw Taer
stretched out on the sofa, her expression went from playful minx to serious in
a heartbeat.

‘What the Hel happened?’

‘She was attacked. I found her like this.’

‘Who is she?’ Mist asked, her voice far more level than Kara’s had
been. Korvain glanced over at Mav when he felt her eyes burning into him. He
looked back at Mist.

‘She’s my best friend’s baby sister.’

‘And where’s your best friend?’

‘Dead,’ he replied in a hollow voice.

Mist lowered her eyes and shook her head. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘Not as sorry as I am,’ he replied in a dark voice. ‘But I need you
to help her.’ He tilted his head in Taer’s direction. ‘I need her to survive
this.’

Mist nodded. ‘We’ll see what we can do.’

‘Good. I have to go now.’

‘What?’ Mist stood up, letting Kara take over placing her hands on
Taer’s lifeless body. ‘Where are you going? You just can’t dump her and run.’

‘I can if you want me to get Bryn back.’

Mist started. ‘What do you mean get Bryn back?’

‘Mason hasn’t spoken to you?’ he spat, running a hand through his
short hair. Mist shook her head. ‘Fuck.’

‘Why? What happened to Bryn? Where is she?’

Korvain glanced at the other women individually before finally
looking back at Mist. His chest rose and fell as he prepared to voice the awful
truth. ‘Loki has her.’

Korvain felt the air shiver as Mav drew her sword into her hand. It
was the deepest black, liquid steel.

‘What?’ she asked, her voice all gravel.

‘Loki took Kristy then called to bargain for her life. In order to
get Kristy back, he wanted Bryn and her cloak.’

‘But why?’ Mist cried, folding her arms around her torso as if she was
physically trying to hold herself together. Kara was the only one to remain
quiet. Her focus was on Taer, sending whatever healing powers she could into
the other woman.

‘I don’t know. She didn’t tell me. All I know is that I have to get
her back.’

‘You know where Bryn is?’ Kara asked, speaking up finally. Korvain’s
gaze slid to hers.

‘I think so, but I need to get moving now if I have any chance of
getting her back.’

‘I want to help,’ Mist pleaded, reaching for Korvain then recoiling
at the murderous glint in his dark eyes.

‘No. I do this alone.’

Korvain felt
guilty for leaving Taer behind the way he did, but he didn’t really have
another choice. Bryn needed him, and he needed to get to her before Loki—

He cursed, a stream of profanity pouring from his mouth in an
uncontrollable wave.

He didn’t want to think about what Loki could have done to her already.
Ever since talking to Bryn, he had racked his brain trying to figure out exactly
where she could be.

Boston was an old city with a lot of secrets. But he had discovered
something on his many Internet searches. There were abandoned tunnels under the
city streets. Lots of them. But Bryn had mentioned something that had struck
him as odd.

That had narrowed down his search. She had to be in the old Tremont
Street subway segment; somewhere between Boylston Street and Eliot Norton Park.
That particular part of the tunnel had been deemed a suitable place for people
to take shelter if there had been an attack during the Cold War.

At least that would have explained why she saw an old biscuit tin
down there.

Wrapping the shadows around him tightly, he faded to Boylston
station on the fringes of Boston Common. Descending the emerald green-tiled
stairs, he kept his head down, his eyes sharp. He followed a group of humans
down onto one of the platforms, his eyes scanning for a way below the tracks.

That’s when he saw a security-mesh covered doorway leading down to a
disused section of track. This had to be the way. He faded onto the other side,
the smell of damp growing stronger.

There were piles of dust and debris everywhere. Behind him was a
dead-end which meant there was only one way to go. Pulling the shadows closer
to muffle his footsteps, he started off in search of Bryn.

He was going in blind, but that wasn’t what unsettled him. It was
the fact that he had no fucking idea whether she was still alive or not. He
hadn’t been able to reach her in her dreams when he’d tried again. He hadn’t even
been able to find the door to her subconscious.

So this was either a rescue mission.

Or it was body recovery.

L
oki clipped shut
the last of Bryn’s bonds and sat back on his heels to look the woman over. She
had blood—congealed and tacky—on her forehead from the cut above her eye. The
opposite eye was already beginning to discolor, her shattered cheek bone making
a divot under her left eye.

He had beaten and tortured her until she had passed out, and even
that hadn’t stopped him. He needed to have her cloak. He needed it so he could
finally kill Odin. What he couldn’t understand was why she had turned up
without it. She knew the stakes. She knew her other two Valkyries would have
been killed for her disobedience.

And yet she had turned up all the same.

Ensuring the metal collar cutting up under her chin and rubbing
against her collarbones was firmly in place, he stepped out of the small room
he had chosen as her cell.

Bryn hadn’t caved under his torture, but he had lost one of the
Valkyries in his quest to make her talk. He wanted to keep her alive for a
little longer, but Bryn’s denial drove him into a frenzy where he ripped the
feathers from her cloak and drove his dagger through the woman’s heart.

Even though she had witnessed the death of her fellow Valkyrie, Bryn
had withstood his torture, denying knowledge of her cloak’s location until the
very end. He had done more damage than he had ever done to a female body
before, but she remained strong. He could understand why Odin had chosen her
now.

He spat onto the floor, sneering over his blood brother’s name in
his head. Loki was so close—so incredibly close to killing him. The only thing
standing between him and reaching his goal was chained to a pipe just on the
other side of a metal door.

Stalking through to the main room, the only breathing Valkyrie in
the room whimpered, but didn’t move away from her sister’s corpse. If anything,
she drew it closer, protecting the body with her own.

Loki snapped his teeth at her, pacing in a tight line. He needed to
get that cloak. Of course he didn’t believe Bryn didn’t know its location. All
Valkyries knew exactly where their cloaks were. It would have to be somewhere
in the apartment she shared with the others, but how was he supposed to get in
there to retrieve it?

The idea struck him. Loki laughed out loud, tipping his head back
and rejoicing in how perfect it could be. The other woman simply stared at him
as if he had suddenly lost his mind. Tears trembled on her bottom lashes, small
squeaks coming from her throat as she clutched her dead sister closer.

It was all too perfect.

They all knew Bryn was gone, which meant he could simply wear Bryn’s
face and go in there and retrieve the cloak without any questions being asked.
Marching from the room, he opened up Bryn’s makeshift cell door and stepped
inside. She was still slumped over just as he’d left her.

Touching one shoulder, he began changing his form to mimic the
fallen Valkyrie. Making himself shorter was always harder—it required a lot
more concentration—but he managed to shrink his seven foot frame into a
semblance of her six-two body.

Her long braid fell over one of his shoulders, bouncing with a
weight he didn’t expect to feel. Touching it, he found the hair soft and thick
and smelling of coconut. He transferred the same jeans and tee from her body
onto his and looked down at his new body.

He abhorred being a female.

He shrugged, let out a breath and faded to the club. Approaching the
rear door, he knocked. A few moments passed before a human male opened the
door.

‘Bryn?’ he asked, eying him suspiciously.

Loki nodded roughly, pushing past the male and stepping inside.
Ahead of him was a door and to his right a long hallway.

The human male was still buzzing around like an annoying insect.
‘Where have you been?’ he asked, stopping Loki when he tried to pull open the
door directly opposite him. Unable to speak in case his disguise slipped, Loki
wheeled around, bared his teeth and shoved the human away.

Stalking down to the other end of the hallway, he began his search
for a way to get upstairs. The human remained where he was, staring at him from
the other end of the hallway, which was a smart move because Loki would have
been forced to kill him if he had come any closer.

At the very end of the long hall, there was a blind corner revealing
the steel doors of an elevator.

He depressed the top button and waited, feeling more and more
uncomfortable in his guise. He had to be careful. These were the women who knew
Bryn best. If anyone was to see through his disguise now, it would have been
them. Stepping into the elevator, he waited for the doors to close and take him
up.

The doors reopened with a soft snick and he stepped out in an
equally long hallway as before. There were doors running the length of the
hall—all closed. He had no idea which door he had to enter through.

He started walking down the hall, letting his nose lead him. At the
end, he paused in front of one door, inhaling deeply. Bryn’s scent was all over
it. He tried the handle and found it unlocked.

He slid inside and closed the door behind him. He followed Bryn’s
scent until it became the strongest behind one door in particular. Opening it
up, he started his search for her cloak, throwing things on the ground, tearing
apart her bed and mattress, yanking all her clothes from the coat hangers and
dumping them with everything else.

And still he didn’t find the box.

With a nasty curse leaving his lips, Loki turned around and stormed
through the rest of the apartment. He tore it apart too; breaking glasses, plates,
bowls. He pulled out all the drawers in the kitchen, dumping the contents on
the ground and ripping the curtains from their windows. An unnatural roar left
his lips before he remembered who he was supposed to be and where he was.

Clamping his lips shut, he stalked out of there before the other
Valkyries had a chance to investigate. Coming back the way he had come, he
pushed open the back door, shook off his disguise and faded back to the
underground tunnel that had become his makeshift torture chamber.

Bryn was still unconscious, the swelling to her face looking worse
than before. Seeing her again ignited his anger. Roughly, he undid the cuffs on
her ankles, took her by one arm and dragged her from the room.

He needed that cloak.

And he needed it fucking ten minutes ago.

He picked her up and dumped her onto an old steel table he’d found
in one of the other abandoned tunnels. He tied her arms and ankles with more
links of chain holding the protective rune and removed her collar.

‘Please don’t hurt her,’ the remaining Valkyrie whimpered. Loki
turned his pale green gaze to her and she shrank back. She was still clutching
the hand of her long dead sister. He turned back to Bryn, his eyes roving all
over her body.

His gaze got snagged on the tattoo that sat on her neck. It seemed
to glow in the low light. It was gold and incredibly beautiful. His finger
skimmed over the ink, but he pulled away when her skin felt cold and hard over the
blade itself. Loki’s head suddenly turned around, scanning the rest of the
room. He could have sworn he heard someone say
motherfucker
. He was
losing his goddamn mind. He felt like he was in that cave again—hearing voices.

He glanced at the badly decomposing bodies of the other Valkyries,
wondering whether they were the ones who had spoken to him.

Shaking himself of the thoughts, he retrieved a bucket of water and
he threw it onto Bryn, stepping back to enjoy the show.

The female came to with a loud gasp. Her spine bowed, coming off the
metal table and rattling the chains that held her there. She was sucking in
deep, rasping gulps of air, her eyes scrunching shut to clear the water away.
When she was finally in control of herself, Bryn’s head rolled in his
direction.

Only one eye was functioning; the other swollen shut. When he’d
thrown the water over her, some of the blood had melted away, leaving faint
pink tracks down her cheeks. Blood plastered her hair to her head, matting it
together. Her lips were cracked and bloody, weeping fresh tears as her mouth
opened in surprise.

‘Tell me where it is,’ he demanded before she was fully recovered.
He took a step toward her supine form. She jerked against her bonds, moaning
when the links cut into her already rubbed-raw skin. ‘Tell me where your cloak
is Bryn, and I will set Eir free.’

‘Don’t tell him!’ Eir screamed, her eyes darting wildly between him
and Bryn. Loki stalked toward the other woman, cuffing her. Bryn screamed out,
but her voice was so quiet she could hardly be heard. Eir slumped forward,
blood trickling from her newly split lip. Loki pulled the bottom of his jacket
down, loosened his neck with a roll and turned back to Bryn.

He approached the table, finding one of the knife wounds he had
earlier inflicted, and pressed his thumb into her flesh. She pressed her lips
together and writhed in silence. Loki got in nice and close to her, wanting her
to feel his feathered breath on her face, wanting her heart to pound with fear.
‘Tell. Me.’ He penetrated further into her flesh until he forced the scream
from her lips. She shrieked and there was no sweeter sound.

Loki removed his fingers and wiped her own blood on her cheek. She
tried to pull away from his touch, but he took her chin in his hand and forced
her eyes back to his.

‘You have ten seconds to tell me where it is. Failure to do so will
mean I kill Eir.’

‘Why are you doing this?’ she asked around her split lip.

‘Why? Because you are Odin’s only weakness. I eliminate you, and I
eliminate him. It’s simple.’ Loki tipped his head back and laughed out loud
when Bryn’s frown deepened.

‘He hasn’t told you, has he? That arrogant bastard.’ Loki got in
nice and close to her face, making sure he had her attention. ‘You are his
first. When he gave you your immortality, he tipped too much of his soul into
you. In doing this, he created an unbreakable bond between the two of you. Even
being the All-Father didn’t save him from his own arrogance.

‘Your immortality and his is tangled together so tightly there was
no way to undo it. You are bound together in life and in death. So, all I have
to do is kill you then I can kill him.’

Loki watched her face, waiting for the anguish. Bryn’s lips
quirked...into a smile. Loki’s anger flashed and he struck Bryn in the face.
‘What’s so damn funny?’ he demanded.

The Valkyrie laughed, coughing when blood got trapped in her throat.
It stained her teeth now. ‘You can’t kill me.’

Loki’s rage boiled over. With a snarl on his lips, he drew his gun
and pointed it at Eir’s head. ‘Eir will die in ten seconds if you don’t tell me
where your cloak is.’

The laughter died in Bryn’s throat, her eyes going wide, as he
flipped the safety off. ‘No!’ Bryn screamed, bucking against the chains,
pulling and twisting her body around.

‘Ten.’

‘Fuck you!’

He smiled. ‘Nine.’

She actually spat in his face this time.

Wiping it away, he said on a growl, ‘Eight.’

‘You bastard! You fucking bastard!’

‘Seven...’

* * *

K
orvain’s phone
was ringing silently in his pocket. Retrieving it, he placed the thing to his
ear.

‘Yeah?’

‘Bryn just showed up,’ Mason said in an unsteady voice. Korvain
should have been relieved, but something wasn’t right.

‘Tell me,’ he barked into the phone.

‘It wasn’t her. It was a god disguised as her. I read his thoughts.’

He bit back the snarl. ‘Where is the god now?’

‘Upstairs.’

A nasty curse left Korvain’s lips. Loki must have been looking for
Bryn’s cloak.

‘What should I do?’ Mason asked when Korvain was silent for too
long.

‘Nothing. Let him look and leave. He won’t risk being discovered by
the others.’

‘But if I let him leave, we won’t know where he’s keeping Bryn.’

‘I’ve got it covered. Don’t confront him if you see him again. Let
him go and I’ll take care of it.’

Korvain hung up and started walking again. Only half an hour had
passed since he’d dropped down into the abandoned tunnels, but it felt like a
Hel of a lot longer. He was about to give up when his foot accidently kicked
some of the debris on the ground, but instead of it being a solid sound, it was
hollow—rattling. Bending down, his long fingers reached for the small tin he’d dislodged
with his foot.

It was rusted with age, but there was no mistaking what it was. He
clutched the tiny tin in his hand and stood up. He did a sweep of the immediate
section of tunnel, looking for the door Bryn had described to him.

He’d almost missed it. But there it was. A door that didn’t look
like a door. It was inside one of the alcoves cut out of niches every ten feet
or so. He tried the handle and found it opened soundlessly. Before opening the
door, he took one last look at the tunnel and stepped over the raised lip into a
short corridor.

He walked straight into a wall of putrescent stench; rotted, fetid
flesh. He knew he was inhaling the rot of decomposing corpses—the corpses of
the slayed Valkyries. Loki must have kept them as trophies.

Holding a hand over his nose and mouth, he continued down a small
hallway and entered another room. Despite the overwhelming reek of decomposing
bodies, there was a metallic hum in the air, too. A lot of blood had been
spilled in there.

In one corner, there was a metal table and a chair, and in the
opposite corner were Eir and Kristy. His eyes grazed over the three bodies
piled one on top of the other in the other corner. Korvain hugged the shadows
closer to his body and walked further into the room.

Eir’s head rose slowly. Her eyes were red and puffy, her nose much
the same. She was looking in his direction, but she wouldn’t have been able to
see him. She lowered her head once more; her golden hair was matted with blood and
hanging in limp clumps from her head. She had the same kind of collar Bryn had
on in the dreams, her ankles shackled in the same way.