Dragonslayer (Twilight of the Gods Book 3) (8 page)

She crossed her arms over her chest. “You think I should go upstairs and take a nap while you take care of everything?”

He hesitated, a trace of wariness entering his gaze. “You had a big shock yesterday,” he said carefully. “We need you to keep the sheriff and newspapers off our backs, but we’ll handle the rest.”

She ran into this same sort of thing at work all the time when something really interesting came up. She was small, young and female. People underestimated her all the time. She shouldn’t be surprised that Christian was doing the same thing. She wasn’t really, but damned if she was going to stand there and let him shut her out of her own investigation.

“I need to meet Grace if I’m going to be working with her,” she said. “And I think I should have some say in how the problem is going to be handled, since I’m the one who’s going to be out there tracking this thing.”

His hands—his strong, elegant, eminently competent hands—tightened on the plate he was holding, and for a second she thought it might crack. She thought about taking the plate and cracking it over his head.

“That’s yet to be decided. If the creature came from the fault, it won’t be able to get very far either, not without coming back. I told you, we’ll find a way to get it here. You might not have to go looking for it at all.”

“Good. That’ll be great.” And she hoped that plan worked, but until they knew exactly what they were dealing with, she wasn’t about to bow out. She headed for the stairs, barely glancing at Raquel as she passed. “I’m going to get changed. Don’t start without me.”

When he’d come downstairs that morning to find Jacey sitting in his quiet kitchen, her narrow shoulders hunched as she stared out the window, he’d worried that he’d made the wrong decision last night. It certainly would have been a Hel of a lot easier to let Kamis wipe away her memories, but he hadn’t wanted that. He hadn’t wanted the witch to get within ten feet of Jacey, let alone climb inside her mind and start ripping things out. He hadn’t wanted to leave Jacey at Aiden’s place, either. He didn’t want the clan bothering her now, while she was still off balance and trying to sort everything out. If he’d had his way, he would have kept her in bed all day. If he’d
truly
had his way, he would have stayed in bed with her.

She was his responsibility. That was one thing that Aiden had made abundantly clear last night. By bringing Jacey into their world, Christian was taking complete responsibility for her actions. If she betrayed them in any way, not only would Jacey suffer for it, but Christian would as well. Even without the truth stone that Alan had used to test her oath, Christian would have trusted her. His ability to read people bordered on an Odin-blessed gift. All of his instincts said Jacey wouldn’t betray them. Not purposefully. Christian would bet his life on it. He
was
betting his life on it.

The invasion of his home began almost immediately after breakfast was cleared. Fen arrived first with Kamis in tow. Rane and Elin came through the back door. They passed through the kitchen, helping themselves to coffee and tea on their way into the living room. Elin tried to corner Christian in the hallway, but he avoided that by wrapping Grace up in a welcome-home hug as soon as she came through the door.

Elin had always been able to read him like a book, and he didn’t want her to see how worried he was that the leaders of the clan were about to eat Jacey alive. Not literally, but this wasn’t an easy group to navigate for someone who’d grown up here, let alone someone who’d just discovered a whole new world in their backyard. And Elin…they’d been lovers up to a year and a half ago. She’d been the one to break it off, but that didn’t mean there weren’t lingering feelings there. She could be over-protective of him, and the last thing Jacey needed was a target on her back. Aiden barely muttered a hello before moving past him down the hall. Grace hugged him back tightly before pulling back to arm’s length to get a better look at him. “You need to keep your phone on.”

“So I’m told.”

“My husband almost came over last night to dump you out of bed.”

“And I have you to thank for stopping that from happening?”

She shook her head, her dark curls bobbing around her face. “I didn’t get in until dawn. He didn’t want to leave Hallie alone in the house while he tracked you all down, and he’d already cooled off by the time I got there.” Grace swept her gaze around the room. “Where’s your wildlife biologist?”

A soft footstep behind him alerted him to Jacey’s presence, and he turned to watch her walk down the hallway. In the bright morning sun, her skin seemed even paler than it had last night. Her freckles stood out in stark relief, and there were circles under her eyes. She’d run a wet brush through her hair to get rid of the worst of the tangles, but she hadn’t taken the time to dry it. It darkened the color to a rich auburn. She’d changed out of the sweats and T-shirt he’d given her last night, back into her rumpled pair of jeans. She looked very fragile at the moment, and the impulse to carry her back upstairs and tuck her in bed hit him again forcefully. The smile she gave him, shy but true, didn’t help.

He touched Grace’s shoulder to turn her. “Grace, this is Ms. Jacey Morgan. She’s the woman who brought the problem to our attention and has agreed to help us out.”

Grace smiled brightly at Jacey, a deceptively bright smile, meant to blind Jacey to the assessing look in Grace’s sharp eyes.

After she sized Jacey up, Grace gave him a disapproving look. “Didn’t you let her get any sleep at all last night?”

He frowned. What did Grace think? That he’d brought a terrified and recently injured woman back to his home and then ravished her? Judging by the accusatory look in her eyes, that was exactly what Grace thought.

The faint blush on Jacey’s cheeks said she understood the accusation. “I didn’t sleep well,” she said. “But it’s not Christian’s fault. It’s hard to get a good night’s sleep when your whole world has just been shaken up. You’re the tracker?”

Grace nodded. “Though honestly, all of my experience is with animals of the two-legged variety.”

“We can’t rule that out just yet, I think,” Jacey said, her gaze sweeping the room. “Is this everyone?”

Christian looked around. Aiden stood by the mantel. The twins had taken up spots on the floor around the coffee table, and Raquel and Fen were both on the couch across from Kamis.

Raquel caught his gaze and pulled a face, half anxiety, half apology for landing him in hot water alongside her. He wasn’t angry with Raquel. He’d have done the same in her place, otherwise he would have gone to Aiden with the information. If Fen was angry with her too…well, she’d have to work that part out on her own.

“The gang’s all here.”

Jacey stepped into the room before he could escort her in. She found an empty seat and lifted her chin when Aiden fixed her with a challenging look. While Aiden introduced Jacey to the people who hadn’t yet officially met her, Christian went into the kitchen and poured out two mugs of coffee. Black for him, cream, no sugar for Jacey. Aiden had moved on to catching everyone up to speed on the reports that had brought Jacey into town by the time he joined her on the couch. It was a big couch, but even so, with everyone here they had to sit nearly on top of each other to fit. Jacey scooted over to make room. He passed her the cup of coffee and she turned her attention to Aiden. Christian barely listened, distracted as he was by the warmth of her thigh pressed to his.

“Whatever it is,” Aiden said finally, “it’s avoiding the town and hunting at the very fringe of our territory, and that means we’ll need a list of people who can pass freely into the outside world. Most of us here can only get two hours out before we have to turn around and come back. There’s Grace, but I need someone to make up a list of people we can call on if we need help.”

“I’ve got that,” Elin said, pulling out pen and paper.

Aiden’s mouth tightened, and Christian knew exactly what he was thinking. They were talking about sending out their most vulnerable people while the strongest members of the clan sat on the sidelines. He didn’t like it any more than Aiden, but he kept his silence. His gaze drifted over to Kamis, the portal-opening witch who’d been wandering around unsupervised last night. “Are we sure we need to search any further than this room?”

“It’s not Kamis,” Aiden said sharply before Christian could go further. “We’ll get to that in a moment, but Kamis isn’t behind this one.”

Christian nodded, accepting that for now. For a good half-hour, they argued about how best to handle the situation. For an Odin, Aiden wasn’t particularly heavy-handed. He might redirect the conversation if it was headed on a course he seriously disagreed with, or to settle things down if the discussion became heated, but this was as close to a democracy as it got among the clans.

Rane wanted to ignore the problem until it came to them. Fen thought it was worth the risk to see how far they could push past the boundary to hunt the thing down directly. Raquel wanted to experiment with a summons spell to lure it to the fault. The problem with that was: how did you bait a trap for an unknown creature?

“We can’t rule out the possibility that the problem is human,” Raquel said, raising her voice.

Everyone looked at the Midgardian in their midst. “Human doesn’t explain the location pattern of the reports. Whatever it is, it’s very definitely hunting in a circular pattern around your town.” Jacey frowned and then looked at him. “I know you said you can’t get very far away from the fault, but what exactly happens if you try?”

“First, we lose our power, then our health and eventually our minds begin to weaken. For some it is a gradual process. For the people gathered here, of full Æsir blood, it begins almost immediately.”

“And the same thing happens to the jötnar?”

“Essentially. The jötnar are bound to us by a geis that allows them to cross to our world. They’re not tied to Asgard as we are, but the effect is the same. The circular pattern you’re seeing may be the extent of how far it can get away from us before it’s pulled back. If that’s the case, this thing has a wider range than we do.”

“So it’s either something from your world that can’t get too far away from the fault…” She looked around the room. “Or it’s from here and it knows about you but is worried about getting too close.”

Humans finding about what they were, locating one of the clans and studying them. It was one of their greatest fears. But it sure didn’t explain a bunch of dead chickens.

Kamis spoke into the frustrated silence. “There are older things in Midgard that went into hiding during darker times, creatures born of magic or attracted to it. It could be that one of those creatures has awakened. Asbrú was nearly lost a year ago in our skirmish with Surtr. That will have created a disturbance that many would have felt. It’s possible that it drew one of them here.”

Rane rolled her eyes. “If it’s lying in wait outside our territory, it is not our problem to deal with. Magic-born or not, a Midgard problem belongs to Midgard.”

Jacey stared at Kamis with wide eyes. “What kinds of creatures are you talking about?”

“Elves, trolls, dwarves…” He shrugged. “Midgard was never my area of interest. It could be any of a number of creatures. You’ll need to look to your own legends for the answer to that question.”

Aiden turned to Elin, and she nodded to accept that task as well, jotting a note down on her paper. As the town librarian, she would be able to search records of local folklore.

“We search every inch of our territory from the ground and air.” Aiden straightened from where he’d been leaning against the mantel. “Jacey will continue to work with the local authorities to track the creature down from that angle.”

“She needs backup,” Christian said. “She shouldn’t go out there alone.”

Jacey shot him an irritated look. “More than backup, what I need is information. If you guys can figure out what this thing is and what it wants, that would help me out tremendously.”

“If it’s not human, it will want what all of the old things wanted,” Kamis said. “Blood. The small animals may have whetted its appetite for larger prey. Each feeding will make it stronger.”

“Then I should raise an alarm,” Jacey said. “Warn people that there’s a dangerous animal out there that they need to protect themselves from.” At Elin’s sound of protest, her fierce gaze swept the room. “I don’t want to have to do that. I’m here, aren’t I? I don’t want to expose you, but that means we work together.” She looked at Rane. “This might be a Midgard problem, but since you live here—in Midgard—that makes it your problem too.”

Silence met her statement, and everyone stared at her. Christian didn’t blame them. He was staring too. The little Midgardian woman taking on the wild hunt. He didn’t know what he’d expected of her, but this wasn’t it.

He saw a glimmer of respect in Aiden’s eyes as he nodded. “We’ll give you what help we can. Raquel and Kamis will continue to work on a spell to lure it into our territory. Elin will take on the research. I’ll weaken the snowstorm headed our way. We’ll prepare a group of people to act as backup if you need it, and we’ll be ready if this thing crosses our border. Other than that…” He held up his hand. “I don’t know what more we can do.”

It was a crappy plan that exposed Jacey to an unfair share of the risk. While the humans of Midgard were like the Æsir in many ways, they didn’t have the advantage of being able to draw on the magic of Asgard. They didn’t have the gifts that Odin had bestowed upon his people with his dying breath. Jacey’s body wouldn’t heal as easily as someone of Æsir blood. She had no training and no experience in fighting the monsters of the world. She had more courage than he’d initially credited her with, but in this case, courage and good intentions could very well get her killed.