Runes #03 - Grimnirs (19 page)

“Yeah, now that you mentioned it,” Andris teased. “The beard and gray hair are a dead giveaway. Can he sign my copies? No, even better, introduce us, so I can give them to him and watch him sign them.” His excitement was contagious.

“Sure. Once all this mess is over, I will. He might even let you read his next book before it hits the stores.”

The look on Andris’ face was priceless. “I think you and I are going to be friends now, Cora Jemison.”

“You mean we aren’t already?”

“No, but don’t be offended. I barely tolerate most Mortals. Unless they have something I want.”

“Aren’t you a walking mass of contradiction?” When he cocked his eyebrows, I added, “You’re selfish and proud of it.”

He smirked and nodded. His phone beeped. It was a text from Ingrid. She used a portal and joined us, but Andris didn’t hear her when she tried to talk to him. She shook her head and came to sit by my side.

“So now you know his secret,” she said softly. Her Scandinavian accent was beautiful.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Andris guards his nerdy side from everyone except those closest to him. I even doubt
Roger
has ever seen him touch a book.” She said Roger’s name with distaste. “He disappears in libraries and bookstores whenever he’s not reaping, or he buys books online. You should see the den. It’s overflowing with his collection of books and comics, some of them so old they belong in a museum. And when he’s not reading, he’s wiring something.” She glanced at Andris, her cheeks turning red. “He’s sort of a genius. There’s no computer he can’t fix or system he can’t hack.”

Men could be so blind. Despite all his smartness, Andris couldn’t see that Ingrid adored him. When we finally dragged him out of the store, he was the proud owner of several books.

The two of them followed me home, but didn’t enter the farm. They just made a U-turn and left. They must have believed I was safe with my parents. Obviously, Echo had forgotten to tell them about the attack on us and the dent he’d fixed on our truck.

Echo came to my room that night while I slept. I realized it on Tuesday morning when I woke up after a dream where he was leaning over me and saying, “I’m sorry.”

I would have written it off as a dream if he hadn’t taken his T-shirt, coat, and gloves. I had washed his T-shirt and left it with the coat and the gloves on my dresser. That he chose to take them without waking me up told me he hadn’t wanted to talk.

That hurt.

Andris and Ingrid were waiting outside my gate in their SUV and followed me all the way to school. Then Torin stayed with me most of the day. He and Raine decided to eat lunch at school, so we shared a table with a bunch of jocks and my swim friends. It was an interesting combo. Naya must have hooked up with one of the jocks during Drew’s party because they were all over each other.

Torin had football practice, Ingrid had cheerleading, and Raine had lessons with her Valkyrie instructor, so I hung out with Andris again. This time, we went to the Creperie. Once again, Andris helped me with my homework, and then he introduced me to his favorite authors. I loved seeing this side of him. It was opposite the blatantly misogynist, cocky, selfish douchebag he sometimes morphed into.

At night, I tried to stay awake and wait for Echo. Something woke me after midnight. Maybe he’d made a sound or there was a sudden chill in the air. I didn’t have to search hard to find him. He was seated on my chair, runes glowing, arms crossed as though he was trying to stay warm. I didn’t have to touch him to know he’d come from Hel.

“Echo?”
                           

“Go to sleep, Cora.”

“You are cold,” I whispered.

“I’ll be okay.”

I wanted to ask him to come to bed, where it was warm, but I feared he’d reject me, so I got up, went into my closet, and came out with a throw rug. I gave it to him. The gold in his eyes intensified.

“Talk to me, please,” I whispered, staring down at him, wanting to crawl onto his lap.

“Go to bed, Cora. I’m here to protect you, nothing else.”

His voice was frosty and uninviting. Thoroughly humiliated, I crawled back into bed. Sleep eluded me, and I kept tossing and turning. He must have runed me because I fell asleep suddenly and didn’t wake up until morning.

Wednesday night, Andris told me Ingrid had a date. He didn’t look too happy about it, but he perked up as the evening progressed. He took me and Roger to dinner, so I didn’t come home until late.

Before I went to bed, I left two throw rugs on the chair for Echo. Still, I knew the moment he came into my room, and I pretended to be asleep. He walked to my bed and stared down at me for a very long time. A few times, he reached down as though to touch my face, but each time he stopped. It took all my effort to lie still when all I wanted to do was pull him down beside me.

I was pissed off when I woke up. He must have runed me again because I couldn’t remember anything happening after he stood by my bed. The rugs were on the bed as though he’d covered himself with them, and there was an indentation where his head had been.

How dare he rune me and deprive me of the memory of sleeping in his arms?

Pissed-off me was a total a bitch to Andris and Torin. All of a sudden, their presence bugged me. I hated that I couldn’t go anywhere without one of them hovering and told them in large letters on a notebook, which I shoved at them.

Drew had kept his distance the last few days, although I’d caught him staring at me with a calculating gleam in his eyes. His pride had been hurt, but he’d be an idiot to try something. Leigh and Pia were beyond stupid and made the mistake of cornering me in the bathroom during lunch.

“Stay away from Drew if you know what’s good for you,” Leigh snarled.

“Or what?” I asked, eyeing her through the mirror.

“Or I’ll bury you,” Leigh snapped. “One word from me and the entire school will treat you like slime. Not even your friendship with Raine and St. James will save you.”

I laughed. “You think I care about my social status in this school? Not anymore. Besides, Drew likes me. If he decides to talk to me—”

“He won’t.”

“Not after he saw the type of men you date,” Pia pitched in. “Who was the guy anyway? We’ve never seen him around.”

“He’s a college student. Unlike you guys, I only date older guys now.” I moved closer to Leigh, forcing her to lean back. “Don’t ever threaten me again, because you have no idea what I’m capable of.” Grinning at their expressions, I left the room.

Andris went with me to Dr. Olsen’s for my Thursday checkup and, once again, stayed in the waiting room with his nose buried in an e-reader. He’d hoped Dad would come to the doctor’s office with me, but it was Mom who hurried into the waiting room.

“We have a meet on Saturday. Is there a way I can participate?”

Dr. Olsen studied the sutured wound and glanced at Mom. “It’s healing well, but I don’t think that’s a good idea. The last thing you need is an infection.”

“I told her the same thing,” Mom piped in.

“The team needs me, Mom. Isn’t there something I can use to cover it? I plan to swim a few races, and
like you said, it’s practically healed. No pinkness or swelling
. I’ve been taking good care of it. You know, using
antibiotic ointment and wiping the area with peroxide.
”

The doctor shook his head and exchanged another glance with Mom. “She’s still as stubborn as ever.”

Mom sighed. “She takes after her father. Is there anything she can use?”

“Of course, but you have to be very careful, young lady.”

I left the doctor’s office with hydrocolloid adhesive pads. I was so waiting to have it out with Echo that night, but he didn’t even show up. Or if he did, he must have runed me again.

***

“It’s Friday. Please tell me you’re planning on clubbing or at least throwing a beer bong party in the middle of some vineyard,” Andris said, sliding beside me, his boy toy Roger by his side.

“I have swim practice. Then I plan on going to bed early.”

Andris sighed. “How can someone so hot lead such a boring life?” I was sure he was saying that for his friend’s benefit. “Roger, is there anything happening anywhere tonight?”

Roger shook his head. “Geoff is having a Minecraft tourney at his place.”

Andris chuckled and touched Roger’s cheek. “You know I don’t go for those kinds of games. We need to go out and have some serious fun. How about it, Cora? Pick a place. L. A. Connection or Bill’s Taproom, the new bar on 8
^th
North.”

“Sorry. I have a meet tomorrow morning, so it’s early to bed for me.”

“What? Where?” His eyes narrowed. “How early is this meet? If I have to get out of bed for you, Echo will owe me.”

“Who is Echo?” Roger asked.

“The guy she has a crush on. The reason she’s being Miss Goody Two-Shoes. She doesn’t know that’s not the way to keep someone like Echo interested.”

If a glare could kill, he’d be plant food. “The meet is here, and you don’t have to be there, douchebag. I don’t want you to. And FYI, I don’t have a crush on him,” I added through clenched teeth. “Oh, and your services are not needed this evening either. Go clubbing or partying for all I care.” I exited the building, but Andris was right behind me.

“Wait up, Cora,” he said.

I ignored him.

“Okay, I’ll apologize. Stop stomping like Attila the Hun. Girls are supposed to glide.”

I stopped and turned. “You do know when you piss someone off, you are supposed to apologize, not hurl more insults.”

He raised his hands in mock surrender and smirked.

I cocked my eyebrows. “I’m still waiting for an apology.”

“Which part pissed you off? The crush, Miss Goody Two-Shoes, or keeping a certain Grimnir interested.”

The anger drained out of me. I couldn’t stay mad at him no matter how often he pissed me off. He was cute and had been great the whole week. Besides, I loved his snarkiness. “Forget it.”

“Now I need a hug. Come here.” He extended his hands toward me.

I rolled my eyes and gave him a hug. His hand crept lower. “You touch my butt, Andris, and I’ll knee you so hard your jewels will lodge in your throat.”

Grinning, he stepped back. “Okay, no need to turn me into a eunuch. Come on. I’ll take you to the pool and stick around until you’re safe at home. Again. What time is the meet tomorrow?”

“Early. It’s okay. I’m going with Raine.” Raine had been studying with her Valkyrie instructor after school, so we hadn’t hung out, but she had off today. She caught up with us before we reached my car.

“Roger is waiting for you, Andris,” she said.

“I know. Isn’t he adorable? Are you really babysitting Cora this evening?”

“Babysitting?” Raine and I said at the same time.

Andris took off laughing. “You two be good. Watch out for Grimnirs.”

I was beginning to doubt the “presence of other Grimnirs” story Echo had fed Torin and Andris.

“At least you don’t have to skip class to
babysit
me,” I told Raine and threw my backpack in the back of my car. She added hers and her oboe then sat in the front passenger seat. I cranked the engine. As I backed out, I almost hit a girl. The soul that had been following me on Monday was walking beside her. He shook his fist at me. “Don’t your man and Andris care about missing classes?”

“Not really. School is about blending in, not learning. Are you excited about tomorrow’s meet?”

“Yep.” I always enjoyed meets. Raine liked to say I was an adrenaline junkie, and she might just be right. It might explain why I was lusting after a certain bad boy. “Can you come with?”

“No way. Even coming with you tonight scares the heck out of me. I don’t know how the others will react to my presence.”

“Oh, please. The way they all came to the hospital after your father’s coma scare should tell you the past doesn’t matter anymore.”

At the next stop, a cold draft filled the car, and I grinned.

Echo.

I turned and groaned with disappointment when I saw the gray-haired soul from school. How did he pull that off? I thought he was attached to the girl I’d seen him with. I studied him in the rearview mirror. He wore an expectant expression.

Why did they always look at me like I was the answer to whatever bugged them? I shivered. And why did they have to be so cold?

“What do you want?” I snapped.

“What?” Raine asked.

“I’m talking to the dead guy, not you,” I said, glaring at the soul through the mirror.

Raine whipped around, her eyes wide. “Where?”

“The soul, Raine.”

She squinted, her eyes darting around.

“Behind me. Can’t you see him?”

She sighed. “No. Why can’t I see them? Everyone does except me.”

“But I thought you wanted to be a Valkyrie.”

“Doesn’t mean I can see souls yet. Mom and Lavania keep saying I will when the time is right. That the Veil opens slowly so we are not overwhelmed by what we see. Yours happened too fast and you, uh…”