Rapture (13 page)

Raine
had told them to pack their things so they could move into the new house
tonight. And they had, deciding that sticking as close to Raine as possible was
a good idea.

So
they’d gone to the new house tonight, with a trunk full of clothing and
accessories they’d acquired while in this realm—or at least some of it—planning
to instruct Raine to sit her ass down at the house and wait for the males to
search for her son, Riley, while they searched for the other Valkyries.
Savannah would return to the new house with them when they brought their
remaining items, having figured that she was much more comfortable being alone
than being waited on. But when they’d reached the house, no one had been there
except for the female servant, the distraught young man who had lost his uncle,
the two younger boys, and a very upset god who couldn’t get a reading on where
the tiny blonde goddess was—Ally, they called her, though how anyone could
address a goddess so informally was beyond her. If she or any of her sisters
had ever addressed Freyja or Odin in such a manner, their asses would have been
handed to them on a silver platter. Dellingr’s obvious distress over losing
Ally was what had gotten them into action and back into the taxi that had
brought them out from the city.

“I
don’t know,” Raven said, shaking her head. “We’ll have to search for all of
them now.”

“Well,
hopefully we’ll be able to find at least one of them since there are so many to
look for.” She’d have the driver drop them off at the condo they were renting.
It was just as good as any place to start searching for their sister.

****

Vili’s
Temple

Asgard

“You
took long enough to get back.”

Eve
eyed Vili over the bright pink bubble of gum she was currently blowing into.
Her biggest yet. He reached out, and before she could stop him, he poked the
bubble, effectively popping it for her. She glared at him as she licked up all
the pieces that plastered to her face, wadding them in her mouth with her
tongue so she could start over. “You better hope I can do that again. I’ll turn
you into a toad if I can’t.”

“I’m
sure,” he said dubiously. The god had no patience for her, and that only egged
her on to do things her own way. “Now, what kept you? Did you fail?”

Eve
hopped up on her favorite perch in his quarters and crossed her legs
Indian-style. “Pfft.... Me? Fail? Please.”

“Eve!”
he boomed, accentuating his fury by slamming his fist on a table. It made a
pretty nice dent, and she nodded approvingly. “Get on with it. What. Kept.
You?”

Deciding
her Bubble Yum had lost too much flavor, she picked it out of her mouth,
holding it between thumb and forefinger while waving her other hand in
dismissal. “I didn’t see a need to rush over here right after doing the deed.”

His
eyes widened slightly as he took a single step toward her. “So you did it
then?”

“I—Where
can I put this?” she asked, holding the pink wad out to him.

“You
can shove it up your—”

“Wonderful!”
She smiled. “That’s what I thought.” She pressed it against the mirror behind
her, taking care to smoosh it with her thumb. She kissed the mirror next to it
for good measure, noting that the slob still hadn’t wiped off the lipstick from
all the other times she’d left her mark. It was wonderfully chaotic. Taking
three more pieces of pink Bubble Yum, she unwrapped each piece and popped them
into her mouth before scooting off the table. “If you’re so worried about it,
why don’t you just look at it? It’s right over there.” She pointed to his bed,
where she had placed the blood-soaked sword she’d run through the blonde bitch.
“I’ll admit, your seer actually nailed that one. Did you give her a raise or
something?”

Vili
had been approaching the bed to look at the weapon, but at this, he turned,
shaking his head at her in abject horror. “I swear, you’re getting worse.”

She
jumped on that, smiling as she excitedly skipped over to his side. “
Ooh
... swear to who?” She drummed her
fingers together, awaiting his reply.

He
sighed and turned away, giving her another sidelong look. “Never mind.” He
reached the sword and pulled it off the bed, removing the covering she’d placed
around it. “A Wal-Mart sack?”

Eve
shrugged as she stretched her gum with her tongue. Gods, he was picky. “I had
to go get Bubble Yum. So, when do we get started?”

****

Ferox
strode down the sidewalk with Raine by his side. They had spent much of the
night with the other Guardians, scoping out enemy hideouts and infiltrating
them in an effort to find the missing boy. The others were in obvious distress
over Riley, and so he had opted to help them in a search. It was only after the
third failed attempt that he had mentioned he wanted to go see Eugene and Kyle,
the old man and teenage boy who had taken him in. They lived on the streets in
a small homeless community hidden away in a side alley not far from where they
were now.

Raine
had agreed to go with him, though even he could tell that she searched for
Riley—inspecting every street they passed, looking for any potential sign.

She
froze then, her breath hitching in her chest. “Ferox,” she whispered.

He’d
sensed it too, albeit too late. A whip caught him around his waist, another
around his neck. And just as quickly, his arms and legs were bound as well as
he was pulled down and dragged along the asphalt. Raine didn’t fare any better.
She’d been tackled to the ground and was now fighting two women. He growled,
the sound of it echoing off the surrounding buildings as he struggled against
his binds. Raine needed him—she was losing her own battle even as he was being
dragged backwards by more women. He couldn’t break free, his fangs couldn’t
reach any of the whips, and he couldn’t loosen his arms or legs. At the first
opportunity he shot forward, only to face-plant on the ground. Pain lanced
through his legs as blades sliced both his ankles. The scent of his own blood
reached his nose, but still, he fought to reach her.

He
pushed forward on his knees, though he gained no purchase. His eyes met Raine’s
for the briefest of seconds and then she was up on her feet, spinning to dodge
the grasps of her two attackers. She was thrown down again as they caught her,
and three other women rushed past him to hold her. Lightning crashed down,
lighting the alleyway. There were limbs flailing in all directions, so many
that he could no longer tell which belonged to his wife.

One
Valkyrie rolled out of the fray and grabbed a loose brick. Just as the others
spread Raine’s arms and legs, rendering her unable to fight, the Valkyrie
slammed the brick against her head, shattering it to dust.

“
No!
” Ferox growled, doubling his
efforts. Tears stung his eyes as blood seeped from Raine’s head, and she moved
no more. He roared and roared, uncaring of who heard. But the Valkyries paid
him no attention. Footsteps pounded on the pavement, and some of the Guardians
came into sight, their gazes going between Raine and the Valkyries, to Ferox.
Just as they rushed toward the women, another bolt of lightning struck, so
close and so brilliant that it burned his eyes. When the light faded away, none
of the females were there. Not the enemy Valkyries. And not Raine.

“What
the fuck is going on?” Draven asked, rushing over to where Ferox lay, still
bound by the Valkyries’ whips.

“Raine,
Raine!” Ferox shouted. Draven untied one of the whips as Raider and Ethan
worked on the others.

“Were
those the other—” Raider was interrupted as a pair of black boots, black
leathers and black wings took up the space right beside him. “Demetrius, Jesus,
it’s good to see you.”

“Anyone
want to explain what the fuck happened to my house?”

“Saw
that, huh?” Raider said. Ferox hadn’t needed to look to see that the vampire
was suddenly uncomfortable.

Demetrius’s
eyebrows rose over the brim of his sunglasses and Ferox shook his head. “I’ll
let you two catch up. As for me, I need to find a way to find my wife.”

“Nice
to see you out and about, too,” Demetrius said, turning his attention on him.

He
scowled at the winged bastard, about ready to ask him what he meant by that,
when Draven spoke instead.

“Gods.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “We’ve got to get you caught up.”

A
while later, Ferox moaned as pain coursed through him. The ride back to
Draven’s home hadn’t been pleasant, but that had been preferred over
Demetrius’s offer to
carry
him
through the air. At first, he’d assumed the bastard had been joking, but when
he’d moved to pick him up, Ferox had scrambled to the best of his ability and
Demetrius had backed off. It wasn’t until they were in Draven’s SUV that they’d
really started to fill Demetrius in on what was happening—including the fact
that Ferox had no memory and that Damion had infiltrated the mansion by posing
as Ferox himself. This had been followed by countless questions that actually
made the ride go by a little faster, and now here they were, in the underbelly
of the mansion.

“How
could I have missed that?” Demetrius asked as Draven and Ethan wrapped his
ankles.

“How
do you think we feel? We’re his sons, and we missed it.”

“To
be fair,” Ethan chimed in, “we did just think he was having some serious PTSD
issues.”

“Still.”
Demetrius shook his head.

“You
know, you could talk like I’m actually in the room.” Ferox sighed.

“How’s
this: you’re lucky you didn’t lose your feet,” Raider said, supervising the
other’s ministrations.

He
squeezed his eyes shut. “I didn’t?”

“No.
And believe you me, re-growing an entire appendage is a lot harder than just
waiting for bone, muscle, and veins to fuse.”

The
other two grunted their agreement, though Demetrius remained silent as he
leaned against the doorjamb. Ferox let his forehead fall against the sheet as
more tugging and wrapping caused painful flutters to shoot from toe to head.

“Healing
will take a while though, especially without Mom’s blood.” Draven stepped
around and took a seat near Ferox’s head. “You’ll have to stay off your feet
for at least a few days, and that’s with blood bags.”

“Can’t,”
Ferox said, meeting his son’s eyes. “I have to find her.”

“Jesus,”
Ethan groaned as he finished wrapping the other ankle. “What is going on
lately? How is it that everyone just keeps getting kidnapped or disappearing?
We’re already searching for Riley, and now we have to add Mom to that list.
Last week we were looking for Garrick, and all along we should have been
searching for Dad!”

“Not
to mention that it was actually Damion who sent Thrash on a mission to
Alaska
.” Draven added.

Ferox
rolled over and sat up, taking care not to bump his feet and ankles. “You
should just keep searching for Riley. I’ll find Raine.”

“And
how do you propose to do that?” Raider asked. “You’ve no memory of the past.
Valkyries took her, which means that she’s most likely in
Valhalla
now, unless Odin has had her taken to one of his other realms.”

“
Valhalla
,” he said quietly. Yes, Raine had said that was
where she grew up, the realm of the Valkyries. And Odin, that was her father.
She’d told him that, too. “I’ll use her sisters. I’m sure they’ll assist me in
retrieving Raine from their father.”

“Doubtful,”
Draven said. “They told me that Odin knows when Valkyries leave or return to
the realm. If they go to
Valhalla
, he’ll know
in an instant.”

“And
he won’t know if I go there?”

Draven
shrugged. “They didn’t say. I’m not even sure they’d know.”

“And
your mother, she never told you how to get there?”

His
sons glanced at each other before Draven shook his head. “No, we’ve never been
there, and she’s never told us.”

Ferox
would at least need to talk to the Valkyries and find out how to reach
Valhalla
, even if they didn’t accompany him. His entire
body was strung tight, and he wasn’t sure if that was due to his injuries, or
the fact that the woman he’d shared a life he couldn’t remember with, was
missing. Though he had a feeling what caused it. “Find her sisters. Bring them
to me as soon as you can.”

“Alright,”
Draven said. “Let’s get you moved back upstairs.”

Chapter Twelve

Raine’s
head felt tight. She reached up and touched her forehead, feeling dried blood
sticking to her skin. Prodding gently, she winced when she touched the worst
part. She rolled into a sitting position and blinked open her eyes.

“It’s
about time.”

Raine
peered in the direction of the voice, seeing Caleen shackled to a wall. Between
them was a row of foursquare prison bars. “Caleen?” she asked. “Where are we?”