A Sinister Game (32 page)

Jeannine smiled. “Basically, yes. Except it will work
on good guys too, so stand back
when you break it.” She handed the glass pill to Simon, who seemed the most eager to take it. “On the up
side, if it does
get you, you won’t be nauseated
when you wake up.”

“How many will it take out?” Storm asked.
John Storm had never come into the Medical Research Unit, not once. So,
Dr. Cure had heard his rumbling voice only a few times since she’d met him, but each time
she did,
he reminded her of thunder.

“Half a dozen at most. One at the very least.” She nodded at Simon. “Aim well.”

He nodded back.

“These are regenerators. They’re incredibly difficult to make, as they require
l
ight leader power to alter some of the molecular development of
the drugs incorporated.
I only have a few. One for each of us was all I could manage.”

“What’ll it do?” Storm asked, eyeing the handful of small red button-like tablets in Jeannine’s hand.

“Cure what ails
you, Mr. Storm.” She
handed one to each of them. “Barring dismemberment, that is. I can only do so much.”

“It’s enough. Thank you, Jeannine.” Victor nodded and smiled at her. It was an uncharacteristica
lly warm smile, coming from the man who
some of the women in the MRU called “the god of ice.” It made his eyes light up like green magic and melted everything in Jeannine’s body from her neck down.

She smiled back, n
aturally.

“Right then, let’s get going.”
Storm pocketed his regenerator and fingered his hammer.

“Where is Jonathan?” Victor asked, referring to Jeannine’s longtime lover.
Victor
was
hoping to have Jonathan’s help in locating Victoria’s tracking device.

“He’s wai
ting for us in a cubby.”
Cubby
wa
s her term for a hiding space. She used cubbies now
and again to pilfer components for experiments she was conducting; sometimes it was better to conduct them in private.

Victor gestured for her to lead the way.
“R
ight. Let’s get going.”

“Now may I see her?”
Andromeda asked.

Loki
regarded her.
She was so lovely
gazing up at h
im with her gold orbs that were even now
bright with unshed tears. Her expression bore su
ch earnest and
such yearning,
it stoked the flames within him.

“It’s nearly time
. Give her a few moments more. You’ve had years to mourn; she’s had seconds.”

Andromeda turned
away. Loki recognized her expression
as a s
harp mixture of frustration,
anger and keen eagerness.

She had no idea how her sister felt. Andromeda had never had to suffer the loss of a loved one;
she’d
been the one killed
.
Loki understood that she missed her twin with a true fierceness. But she would never know the pain that Rose Tyrnan felt at that moment. It was easier to die.

From beyond the walls of the cabin that separated them, Loki could hear her sister sobbing. He could hear the old maid, Elizabeth,
trying to soothe and comfort her
.

It was a few minutes before this passed and a more subdued conversation
drifted toward them
. They were talking about Rose’s necklace
now. It was a locket –
one of a pair. Andromeda had worn the other. Loki remembered that now. The young goddess had died with it on.

“It’s time, love.
Let’s go see your sister.
”

* * * *

“It has five
dire
ctions,” Victoria sniffed, wiping
her nose on the sm
all rag Elizabeth had given her
. “I’ve never understood it. It always points in one of
the four directions on a map,
and
then
either up or down.”

Elizabeth took the compass
locket
in
her
old, ginger hands
and gazed down at it in wonder.

“Your sister
had one just like it,” she said
softly. An already scratchy voice cracked under the weight of her memories. “
Though it didn’t ever point up or down. This is
new… and I understand why it’s happening
. Andromeda’s compass
would help her find you when you wandered off into the
forest alone.” She laughed
, and it was an ancient, wonderful, emotional sound. She shook her head slowly, her fingertips tracing the edges of the golden compass. “Yours told yo
u where she was when you were cheating
at hide
and seek.” She laughed again, softly and
contagiously. Then she sighed. “They point to one another, Rose.” She looked up then, and cupped Victoria’s cheek in her withered hand. “Do you remember, child?”

Victoria closed her eyes as Elizabeth wiped away the wetness that was still staining her cheek. She nodded. She remembered everyth
ing now. She remembered enough even
to know that the necklace she now wore was
not
hers. It was Andromeda’
s. They had
traded that morning,
the morning of the day Andromeda died. They’d been
hoping to confuse their parents about who was who.

They’d been
so young. They never would have imagined that the day would end as it
had, with one of them stolen… a
nd the other dead.

“I found
the locket
under my bed in my quarters in the Red tower,” Victoria whispered. “I don’t know how it got there. But ever since – it
s compass
has pointed either up or down
.”

“I
t’s confused. It’
s trying to point at you,
”
said Elizabeth. But even as she said it, the compass in Victoria’s hands shifted. She frowned. “And now it is now pointing at… the door?
”

Victoria
frowned
. The strange arrow that had long plagued her with its confusing tendency to either point toward the heavens or gesture toward the earth was now very clearly aimed at the front door to the cottage.

She lowered the golden sphere and stared
at the front door.

T
he door opened.

Victoria’s
first instinct was to shield and safeguard her old nanny. She was up and out of the bed in a flash, a ball of flame gathering in the palm of one hand, her telekinesis spinning, building, and waiting behind her glowing eyes.

But when the door opened fully, the world stood still. Time
hiccupped
. Elizabeth slowly stood.

On the threshold stood
Victoria’s look-alike, draped in white and gold garb, her long golden hair braided intricately, her expression one of cautious hope and her shi
mmering eyes filled with
love.

Victoria’s hand dropped to her side
. T
he fire in her palm sputtered and went out.

* * *
*

Loki
remained invisible
as
Andromeda
tentatively stepped over the threshold of her
old
nanny’s home. He could feel her hesitation, her fear and her hope.

But he was
more worried about his champion just then
. The shock of seeing her sister alive again after having
only
accepted her death
moments ago might prove to be too much
.

He would have to help her with this. Carefully, he crept into the home beside Andromeda, h
is eyes locked on Victoria
face. He watched her expressions
change and read her mind. A
t the exact moment when the
weight of the
world and its reality would have
cracked her spirit
, he lightened the load.

His power poured out of his body and into hers.

“Rose.” Andromeda said her sister’s name, and her beautiful voice broke off into a sob.
She clasped her hands tightly in front of her; he could see the white
of her knuckles. “It’s me.
Andromeda.”

Loki could read the thoughts spinning through Victoria’s mind. She
didn’t want to trust what she was seeing.
She was a smart girl, and d
ark leaders could change their forms. She
also thought she
might be imagining things
or even asleep and dreaming
.

So
when her instinct was to doubt her sister’s presence there, Loki forced her to move past
it. They didn’t have the time for
doubt.

“Oh…. My….”

Fuck.
He’d forgotten about the
old woman. She would have a fit of course. I
f the whites of her too-large eyes were any indication, it was already happening.

Elizabeth was trembling madly beside the bed, just behind Victoria’s protective stance.

“Meeda,” she whispered. “It can’t be. N-
no…. I
saw
you die!
” Her voice fell away into silence,
leaving only her quaking body and persistently shaking head
.

The gods were no
t as powerful as they’d once been
. The Game Lord’s wretched wall had done more damage than any of them
wer
e
willing to admit.
Loki
could protect the old woman from the same shock he was protecting his champion from, but
as far as he was concerned, it was an unnecessary drain on what power he did have
.

D
anger
was on its
way.
The
wolf would be at the
door in a matter of minutes. Loki
wanted to be able to fight it off, if need be.

A
s if sensing her n
anny’s distress, Victoria
turned
. She
caught the old woman as she fell, holding her aloft in strong arms
.

“Beth!”
b
oth sisters cried at once. Andromeda
also
rushed to her maid’s side.

“Help me get her on the bed,” Victoria told her sister. Andromeda didn’t hesitate
. She took Elizabeth’s feet, and together
they li
fted the old woman,
gently
laying her
over the blanket on the mattress.

Victoria
moved her hand before Elizabeth’s mouth, checking for breath
.
Once she was convinced her nanny was alive and only sleeping, she lowered her hand – and very slowly
turned to face her sister.

“Am I dreaming?”
s
he asked
.

Andromeda looked steadily into eyes that mirrored her own. She
shook her head. “No,
Rose.
It’s me.
Ullr took me to Valh
alla when I was killed.” V
ery gradually, so as not to frighten her sister, she raised her own hand and cupped Victoria’s cheek. “Odin has allowed me to see you again.”

Loki looked on as Victoria’s
face re
flected the torn emotions inside
.

In
the next magical, miraculous moment, the sisters
grasped
each other
in a hug that not a million men
in an eon of years could have separated.

* * *
*

Victor pul
led back from where he’
d been crouching in the bushes beside the trail. Blood hadn’t seen him. He hadn’t sensed him. The Red captain severely underestimated Victor.

But t
hat was a good thing.

Jonathan Thatcher managed to locate Victoria’s signal in record time. He also
determined
which transporter cube and location Maxwell Blood and his band
had utilized
.

Victor, Storm, and Simon had to face several more contingencies of guards on their way to the same transporter, but these were handled with incredible, relentless efficiency. Storm commented that he’d never seen Black so determined.