Immortals (Runes book 2) (14 page)

“We do,” Sondra said and glanced at the others, who nodded. “We talked to everyone on the team, and we agreed unanimously that you can come back.”

“Some people are curious about how you knew, but that’s all,” Caleb added.

“No one really thinks you’re a witch either,” Jake added. “I mean, witches don’t exist.”

If that were true, they would have given me some support over the last five days. The swimmers had acted like the rest of the students. Maybe I was taking out my frustration and worries about the identity of the person vandalizing my locker on my coach and the captains, but I hadn’t seen the solidarity I often associated with the swim team. Their words also sounded so rehearsed.

“There are a few things I’d like to say,” Coach Fletcher said. “I want to thank you for what you did during the meet. You saved many lives that night. If we’d listened… if
I
had listened to you, more lives would have been saved. That’s my burden to carry.” He paused and sighed before continuing. “Like Caleb and Luke, your teammates are curious about how you knew, but no one thinks you’re a witch. However, we all agree on one thing. You were a hero that night.” He glanced at the captains, who nodded. “I also just heard about the vandalism to your car and locker. The principal and I had a meeting this afternoon, and he’s assured me the culprits will be caught.”

Not if he or she was a Valkyrie. I hadn’t really thought about rejoining the team. Between taking lessons from Lavania and my regular schoolwork, I didn’t have time for anything else.

“How soon can you come back?” Doc asked as though my return was a given.

“We need you,” Jake said.

“You, Cora, Sally Peters, and I will be the relay dream team,” Sondra added.

Cora had been a backup despite making the state time the last two years. She would be thrilled, but I refused to go back just for her.

“Can I give you my decision later? I have to talk to my parents first.” Doc nodded. I got up and gave them a brief wave. I had no intention of going back to the team.

Outside, I found Andris waiting, his expression annoyed.

“Un-freakin’-believable.” He pushed against the opposite wall and walked toward me. He took my backpack before I realized his intention. “Don’t tell me you’re thinking of going back. Not after the way they’ve treated you.”

“Shh. They’ll hear you.”

“Where have they been since you came back? What did they do to stop people from treating you like a worm? You should have told them to stick their offer up their—”

I covered his mouth and practically pushed him away.

He removed my hand from his mouth. “That’s the problem with you, Raine. You’re too nice. When dealing with Mortals, you have to be tough. You’ll learn once you’ve transformed.” He turned his head and yelled, “She’s not coming back. Do you hear me, you self-serving pricks?”

“Shut up, Andris.”

He grinned. “Are you seriously considering rejoining the team?”

“Maybe.” We exited the school building. The parking lot was deserted, except for my car and Torin’s Harley. “Are you taking the bike?”

“Yeah. Do you want to come for a ride?”

My feet faltered at his words. Torin used to ask me the same question but in a husky voice and with a wicked twinkle in his eyes, making the request sound naughty. “No, I have to stop by the store before heading home.”

“Oh come on,” he protested. “You’re supposed to go home, where it’s safe and warm, and not so wet. I hate this weather. Why couldn’t we make our base in Florida or Malibu, where it’s warm and fun, and co-eds frolic half-naked at the beach?”

I laughed. “I told you I don’t need a sitter.” I unlocked my car, put my oboe case on the seat, and turned to take my heavy backpack, but he’d already thrown it in the backseat.

“Sorry. You’re stuck with me.” He glanced up at the gray sky and grimaced. It was drizzling. “Damn Oregon weather.”

Somehow, I doubted Andris was the person vandalizing my locker. He was blunt about most things. He’d probably brag about it and tell me in excruciating detail why he was doing it. “Follow me. And FYI, Oregon weather is perfect.”

9.
     
ARTAVO

Andris followed me downtown, parked beside my parents’ car, and was right behind me when I entered the Mirage. “Browse, but don’t break anything.”

He gave me the finger using both hands. Rolling my eyes, I turned and froze. Dad watched us from the customer desk, his expression unreadable. Had he seen Andris’ rude gesture? Jared usually manned the store, and from the looks of things, he wasn’t around. There were no customers inside the store either.

“Hi, Dad,” I said. “Did you get my text?”

“Yes.” He moved closer. “Hi there, young man.”

Andris turned from examining the frame of a mirror and offered Dad his hand. “Mr. Cooper, nice to finally meet you.”

Dad frowned, glancing at me before shaking Andris’ hand. “Finally?”

“I’m one of your new neighbors. Your wife…” Andris glanced at me and grinned, “Raine’s mother invited us over to dinner tomorrow night.”

A spasm shot across Dad’s face. “Oh, yes. She told me.”

Did he know our neighbors were Valkyries? Mom had said she’d talk to him last night about my training, so he must know. “Where’s Mom?”

“She went grocery shopping for tomorrow,” he answered, but his eyes were still on Andris, who was busy running his finger along the runes on the frames.

“Jared?” I asked.

“He’s getting us coffee. I thought it might be nice not to walk in the rain.”

I sighed. “I know about Nikos and how his customers feel about me, Dad. It’s okay. We don’t ever have to go there.”

Anger flashed in his hazel eyes. “Wait for me in the office.”

“Who’s Nikos?” Andris asked, his eyes volleying between me and my father.

“A café down the street,” I said, starting for the office. “You should try it. They sell tasty pastries.”

“Why do his customers have a problem with Raine, Mr. Cooper?” I heard Andris ask.

“That’s a private matter, young man,” Dad said in a firm voice.

I grinned. My father calling Andris “young man” was funny. Despite looking like a teenager, he was probably ten times my father’s age.

“Sir, anything that affects one of us affects all of us.”

“My daughter is
not
one of you,” Dad snapped, confirming that he knew Andris was a Valkyrie.

I stopped walking and turned. Dad pinned Andris with a glare. Andris stared right back. This wasn’t good. “Dad?”

“What’s your name?” Dad asked.

“Andris.”

“Where are you from, Andris?”

Andris made a face. “We don’t really have a home, sir. We divide our time between Asgard and a temporary home of our choosing here on Earth. From the looks of things, Kayville is going to be home for a couple of years. It’s not exactly my cup of tea, but I didn’t get to decide this time.”

Dad’s lips tightened. “I meant your country of original… what century…”

“Constantinople before the Ottoman captured the city,” he said, which made him at least five hundred years old.

Interest flared in Dad’s eyes. He loved history, but all he said was, “It’s nice to meet you,
young man
. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to talk to my daughter. Alone.” He turned toward me.

“About Nikos, sir—”

“Let it go, Andris,” I said, getting exasperated by his persistence. Dad put his hand on my shoulder and started to lead me into his office.

 
“If someone is bothering Raine, Mr. Cooper, we can deal with him a lot faster than you.”

“Really?” Dad turned, and I groaned. “Where were you when the Norns tried to take her? She ended up in the hospital and almost died because of you people. I will not have you use magic to fool people around my town.
I
will protect my daughter.”

I swallowed, my heart pounding with dread. I wanted to tell them to stop, but Andris didn’t know the meaning of the word and Dad’s protective instinct often went into overdrive where I was concerned. He looked like he might attempt to rip Andris apart if he said another word, which would be a big mistake. No human could take out a Valkyrie.

“Dad, please.”

“With all due respect, Mr. Cooper,” Andris said at the same time. “You have no idea what we’re dealing with. Norns could level this town without losing sleep, and Mortals would just call it a phenomenon and spend decades trying to understand it. We don’t have time to pacify a few disgruntled people—”

Dad cut him off by raising his hand. The doorbell dinged, and Jared walked into the store, carrying two cups of coffee in a holder and a box of pastries.

“Leave,” I mouthed to Andris.

He shook his head. I was so going to kill him after this.

Dad took the coffee and pastries from Jared, thanked him, and glanced over at Andris. “Feel free to look around, Andris. If you see anything that interests you, I’ll be in the office. Jared, he’s a special customer.”

“What does special customer mean?” I asked, following Dad into his office.

He waited until I closed the door before he said, “Valkyries, but Jared only knows them as the people who order floor-to-ceiling mirrors with special designs on the frames.”

I sat, rested my elbows on his desk, and warmed my hands on the paper cup as Dad studied me with a thoughtful expression. He sipped his drink. “Is he your boyfriend?”

“Nooo. He’s just, uh, a friend.” Calling Andris a friend felt weird, but I guessed he was. Everything he’d done since my talk with the counselor said he couldn’t be the one vandalizing my locker. Or maybe I was being too trustful. “So Mom told you everything?”

Dad nodded.

“And you’re angry.”

He leaned back and shook his head. “Not with you.”

“With Mom?”

“Of course not. I knew you were special before you were born. That one day you would follow in her footsteps. I thought we had more time to prepare, time for you to lead a normal life as a...”

“Mortal?”

He shook his head. “No, as a typical teenager. Boys, prom, graduation without runic magic, portals, and dead souls.”

My heart squeezed, hating to see him in the dumps. “If you don’t want me to train until I graduate from high school, I can wait.”

“You could be twenty or thirty, pumpkin, I’d still have a problem with this immortality thing, but your mother said it was better this way. Both Valkyries and Norns want you, and from the sound of things, being a Valkyrie is a better option.” He made a face like he’d swallowed a bitter pill.

I sighed. “You don’t like them?”

“Other than your mother, the ones I’ve met are pompous, condescending, and have little regard for humans.”

He just described Andris. Torin wasn’t like that. “You always tell me not to discriminate against a group of people because of a few rotten apples.”

Dad chuckled. “That’s true. I guess when it comes to you the rules go out the window.” He put his coffee aside, leaned forward, and gripped my hands, his expression becoming sober. “Is this what you want, pumpkin? Immortality? Reaping souls for eternity?”

When I thought I had Torin, I hadn’t cared. But I didn’t have him, and I might never have him. This was about preparing myself to deal with the Norns. As a Mortal, I was too vulnerable. They might snap my little neck like a twig and send me straight to Hel’s Mist, and there was nothing I could do about it. As an Immortal I had a fighting chance.

“Raine?”

“Yes, Daddy. I want to do this.”

His eyes bored into mine. “Will you promise me one thing?”

I nodded.

He leaned forward. “If you have any doubts at all, promise to come talk to me. Okay?”

“Okay, Dad.”

“Good.” He got up, walked around the desk, and gave me a hug. “Now get out of here and take
him
with you.” He inclined his head to indicate the main floor of the store.

He grows on you,
I wanted to tell him, but I was sure he wasn’t in the mood to hear anything nice about Valkyries. “I love you, Dad.”

“Love you too, kiddo.”

Andris was signing a piece of paper when we left the office. “I’ll make arrangements to have it picked up tomorrow,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” Jared said with a grin.

“What did you buy?” I asked.

Grinning, he pointed at the largest mirror in the room. “A couple of those. We have one, but could use a few more.”

Dad didn’t make a comment about Andris’ purchase and waved as we hurried outside. The drizzle had stopped.

“Has anyone ever told you that your father is one scary dude?” Andris said.

“Nope. He’s just worried about me.”

“How can he hate Valkyries when he’s married to one?”

“He doesn’t hate anyone.” I opened my car door and got behind the wheel. This dinner thing hadn’t seemed like a good idea when I first heard about it, and it was even less appealing now.

“I wonder if I can skip dinner tomorrow,” Andris said and made a face. “I mean, he might decide to poisons us.”

I glared at him. “That’s ludicrous and insulting. My father is not that diabolical. Besides, aren’t you immune to things that make people sick?”

“Yes, but cramps are a bitch, even if they last seconds.”

I couldn’t think up a response, so I just closed the door and started the engine. Andris knocked on the window of my car, and I rolled it down.

“What is it now?” I asked with as much exasperation as I could muster.

“Watch it with the ’tude, missy.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t have an attitude.”
 

“What time is your lesson with Lavania?”

“Five.”

“Okay, let’s agree on one thing. Once you get home, you stay put. You don’t go anywhere without swinging by my place first. Got it?”

Was he kidding? “Yeah, sure.”

His eyes narrowed. “Remember, I’m not Torin.”

“Meaning?”

“I’ll have no problem runing your door and windows, confining you to your room.”

I laughed. “You and whose army?”

“Try me.” Smirking, he turned and swaggered back to the Harley.

Grinding my teeth, I took off. Torin was so dead. Andris stayed behind me all the way home. After parking the bike, he stood in the driveway and waited until I entered my house.

Upstairs, my eyes fell on the brown manila envelope on my side table. Torin’s rune book. I picked up the envelope and sighed. Somehow, I couldn’t bring myself to part with it. Soon. Turning, I walked to my closet, opened a drawer, and hid it in the back.

***

“Come in. We have the house to ourselves today.” Lavania waved me inside before closing the door. She was always courteous. Today she wore a sleeveless light-blue gown with dark-blue jewels along the hem and neckline, and a broad bedazzled belt with runes circled her waist. A matching headband held her hair back, and armlets adorned her upper arms.

“You look pretty,” I said.

“Thank you. I have a date tonight. A celebration.”

With who? Torin? “Andris is gone?”

“With Ingrid. They left when you were crossing the lawn. He almost came to get you.” She chuckled. “He’s always been impatient.”

“They used a portal?”

Lavania chuckled. “What other way is there to travel? Come on, we’re going to use the kitchen.”

I hadn’t been in their kitchen since I was last there with Andris and Ingrid. At the time, there were huge moving boxes filled with Torin’s things. I looked around with interest and smiled. Someone in their house loved to cook. There were a lot of modern cooking gadgets on the counters. Across from the kitchen was the family room with a sectional couch and a high-def flat screen TV on the wall. The party Torin had held here, before everything went to Hel and back, flashed through my head.