The Wages of Sin (Blood Brothers Vampire Series Book Two) (13 page)

“You and your ultimatums.”

“They’re out of the house now, so this is it. I’m
going. Are you with me?”

She knew he wasn’t going anywhere without her, but
this was his way of asking her for something he needed. Say what
you will about mass murderers; when you’re in love with one, life’s
an adventure. And much as she might not have wanted to be, Eva was
still in love with one.

“Carry me,” she said.

It was a bourgeois prison break. When Loki and Thor
came back from Heimdall’s botched drain there was no sign of Tyr or
Eva and Loki was screaming, “Get the fucking car. We’re gonna find
him.”

“Do you really think it’s necessary? They just want
to be left alone. In a few days she’ll die and he’ll come back of
his own accord. Do you honestly think otherwise?”

“I don’t give a damn. Yesterday he let a woman get
away on foot, today he’s walking one out with his arm around her.
Tomorrow he’ll be inviting them into my house just to let them
leave.”

“Come on. For all we know she died two hours ago and
he went off to mourn or to bury her.”

“
No. No, he’s
letting that bitch get the best of him. Ever since he got back he
hasn’t been Tyr. Last night you and I are out here fighting for our
lives and he’s off fucking around. Then he chases that bitch out
onto the highway and then loses track of
her—
loses track of her?
How, pray tell, do you lose track of a human
female? When has anybody ever gotten away from us? It starts now?
When he’s got this cancer bitch burrowing into his fucking brain,
I’m supposed to believe that’s a coincidence? No. No
coincidence.”

“You’re all over the place, Loki. I’m not sure what
you’re getting at.”

“
You don’t see
it? He let her go. All this relationship shit, it’s turning him
soft. He couldn’t kill the bitch, so she takes off and calls the
police. So I told him—last night, I told him in simple terms—‘you
kill her tomorrow or I do it for you,’ and… Christ, I should have
known he’d take off. I mean, I
did
know it, but I should have done
something about it.”

“Wait. You threatened her?”

“No, I talked to him. I told him how it had to
be.”

“Loki, you can’t do that. You’ve got to let it run
its course…”

“There’s no fucking time for running its course when
it’s putting us all in danger. I’m telling you, this shit’s got to
stop or sooner or later we’re gonna become known murderers and
that… that’d suck. We’d have to move, cut our fuckin’ hair… Fuck
that.”

A thought occurred to Thor which hadn’t before. He’d
postponed his plans of departure indefinitely given the life debt,
but the rising tension in the household made him reconsider. He
couldn’t very well leave Heimdall with Tyr and Loki and let him
suffer for their actions, but maybe there was another way.

“Maybe you should go and I should look after
Heimdall. We can’t take him with us and we shouldn’t leave him by
himself after the night he had.”

“No, I want you there to back me up. Heimdall will
be fine. We’ll lock him in a room and be back in an hour. It’ll be
nothing.”

“How many times are you going to lock him up? He’s
gonna feel like a prisoner in this house.”

“The way he acted today he ought to be a
prisoner.”

“Loki, what are you turning into?”

“
Fine, then we
won’t lock him up. He’ll be fine for one hour by himself. I’m not
worried about Heimdall, I’m worried about Tyr. What happens when
this chick dies? Is he gonna go off and get a new human to fill the
void? And then another one after that? Shit, we’ll never get him
back. And that’s not to mention the risk of half-breeds and female
vampires which… I don’t think even Tyr’s
that
fuckin’ stupid, but a hundred
years ago if you’d told me he’d get this gaga over a human I
wouldn’t have believed that either.”

“He wouldn’t let that happen.”

“That’s what I’m saying, but I’m also saying you
never know.”

Thor shook his head. There was no point in debating
it further. There wasn’t an iota of trust left between Tyr and Loki
and if their relationship was reparable at all, it was going to
keep getting worse before it started healing. But the immediate
future wasn’t hard to see: the sooner Loki’s problem was resolved,
the sooner Thor could resolve his own.

In the past, whenever the Brothers had a spit and
Tyr ran off, he did so more or less without incident. Often they
fought beforehand, but once they were separated Tyr was left alone
until he chose to return. There was always a level of fear that he
would be pursued, that Loki would take vengeance, but the fear was
never answered. That fear was present on this occasion, but no more
than usual, and so he didn’t take proper precautions. Instead, he
assumed when Loki came home and found them gone he would be
relieved he no longer had to deal with the two of them. He assumed
wrong.

When he and Eva arrived back at his home, where what
seemed like decades ago he had killed so many innocent women and
burned them in the incinerator, he took her inside and put her to
bed. He stayed up pacing the house, watching the lights of Vegas
from his balcony as he had so many nights in the past. And much
like he always had, he hoped not to see Loki coming across the
field toward him.

He didn’t, but only because Loki approached from the
other side. It was perhaps three hours—not too long before
sunrise—when the first molotov cocktail came through his living
room window and the couch caught fire.

“Bring her out, Tyr. We’re going home.”

And so the ceaseless adventure that was Eva’s life
failed to let up once again as Tyr entered the room and said, “The
house is on fire.”

“What? Why?”

“Loki’s trying to kill us again.”

“Why does the whole world want to kill me?”

‘
Because
you’re alive,’
Loki might have
said.

Tyr put his arm around her and helped her out of the
bed, down the stairs, into the flaming living room. Loki and Thor
were standing there, Loki with a sword in hand, as the flames
licked the floors and the furniture.

“Seems like every few years we’re finding ourselves
killing each other again, doesn’t it Tyr?”

“You can’t let anything be, can you? No matter what
the circumstances, you have to get your way.”

“Uh, yeah, Tyr. You’re just now figuring that
out?”

“Are we going to die?” asked Eva.

“No,” said Tyr. “I doubt it.”

“Come back to the house, Tyr,” said Thor. “Let’s
just sort this out.”

“What the hell is your angle anymore, Thor? Are you
just Loki’s lapdog, or do you genuinely have a problem with me? I
expect Loki to break into my house to kill me, but you’ve always
had class. What happened?”

“You guys lost yours,” Thor said.

Loki’s eyes went to Thor, where
everyone else’s were. “What do you mean
you guys
?”

The flames were closing in from every side and the
room was around 170 degrees Fahrenheit, but the Brothers had a
strong tolerance for pain and Eva was half dead and could hardly
feel temperature.

“Let’s talk about it later,” said Thor.

“No, I want to talk about it now.”

“You’re irresponsible,” Thor shouted as part of the
second story crashed down in the next room. “This whole idea with
the club has gone too far.”

“I’m getting sick of justifying this thing to you
guys, because it isn’t dangerous,” said Loki, whose shirt was
mostly melted to his chest. “It’s a fun little business. And the
Chosen like the idea.”

The sword in Loki’s hand was red hot now. It was an
old sword he’d kept since the sixteenth century, with a steel hilt
and a silver blade. Impale Tyr through the heart with it and he’d
barely have the strength to stand for an hour. Slice through his
neck and it’d be second death in an instant.

“Did you bring that sword for me? Planning to finish
me off this time?”

“Nah. I just thought maybe I’ll maim you a little.
I’m an improv guy, you know that.”

“Can we get out of here?” asked Eva. She didn’t have
much hair, but what was left of it was catching fire.

“Kill her, Tyr. Kill her now.”

“I won’t.”

“I’m not giving you an option.”

Tyr grabbed Eva in his arms and ran. The house
collapsed around them as the fire spread, but he was out in the
driveway before long and Loki and Thor followed.

Loki cut into Tyr’s back with the sword and opened
up a wound from his shoulder down to his hip. Tyr dropped Eva, but
managed to support her enough so she landed on her feet.

“Get in the car,” said Loki, “or so help me I’ll cut
your goddamn legs off.”

Tyr grimaced. He didn’t need that shit. After a
minute went by, he got into the car and Eva sat next to him.

CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN

It is an unfortunate characteristic of lifeforms,
human or otherwise, to instinctively place blame for undesirable
events as far from oneself as manageable. Following their arrival
home and much fighting over what was to be done with Tyr and Eva,
it was some time before the Brothers discovered Heimdall was no
longer in the house. When this knowledge was gained, Loki’s
response was to put the whole thing on Tyr and Eva. Heimdall never
would have been left unsupervised if it hadn’t been for their
running off. If Tyr wasn’t so selfish, he would have chosen a
different time to make his departure. Et cetera.

The tedious dance was rehearsed for the umpteenth
time, with Loki laying accusations, Tyr defending himself in vain,
and Thor refusing to take a side. Long story short, Tyr ended up
chained in silver in the basement and Eva lay on the couch in the
living room with Thor watching over her. There wasn’t much to
watch.

When Loki returned from bonding his Brother, he
dragged Eva to her feet and made it Thor’s responsibility to find
Heimdall and bring him back before he exposed all of them. Not only
did Thor accept, but he would have insisted had Loki suggested the
reverse. He didn’t want to know what Loki had in store for Tyr or
Eva. He didn’t like being in the house. But more than that, he
wanted the alone time with Heimdall.

As a matter of fact, he didn’t plan on ever finding
out Tyr’s or Eva’s fate. It was none of his business anymore. When
he found Heimdall, he wouldn’t be coming back. There was no place
for him with Loki and Tyr anymore, and the broken home to which the
Brothers belonged was no place for a fledgling vampire. If Heimdall
stayed with Loki and Tyr, this was the first of many situations
like it to occur. But if Thor took him under his wing and left,
then fine. Over a hundred years he’d been dead now. He’d learned
enough to be a mentor, he supposed.

He left the house in the scuffed Rolls Royce that
had come to be known recently as Lady Macbeth, and as he did, he
remembered the Blood Brothers. It seemed all that was over now, but
they’d had a good run together, and Loki and Tyr had had an even
better run before he’d come along.

So maybe tonight was the beginning of a new and much
longer Brotherhood between Thor with Heimdall. This new millennium.
The year 2000.

It was only a few days away now.

To new friends,
he thought.
To new
beginnings.

It had been thirty minutes before the gang arrived
back that Heimdall had left the house. Loki and Thor hadn’t been
gone long, but immediately following their departure Heimdall had
wandered the house calling out for them. Loki had told him to sit
tight, had said he was stepping out briefly to tie up a problem,
but Heimdall wasn’t a hundred percent on whether he could trust
Loki’s word. Part of him wondered if his loyalty was being tested,
if he was on trial for his life.

After some time, he sat on the couch, unfolded the
letter from Jewel and reread it.

The message said it was written at a public library,
said she’d taken a job at Wendy’s. He was vaguely aware of the area
of town where they’d used to live and there was a public library
not far from there. Since she almost certainly didn’t own a car
yet, it was likely she was working at whichever Wendy’s was nearest
that public library. She’d also been something of a night owl, he
remembered, and there was a chance she was working the graveyard
shift.

It was a long shot, but he took a chance. He
strolled casually into the garage, looking over his shoulder for
Loki or Thor, and then fired up Thor’s bike as quickly as he could
and rode like hell off the property. He clenched his teeth as he
rode, but with each mile his jaw seemed to loosen and his breath
felt steadier.

He prayed they weren’t following him, counting on
him to lead them to Jewel. But he was fairly certain there was
nobody nearby when he arrived at the first Wendy’s and found her,
and he felt so absurdly lucky he expected to wake from a dream.

A male voice at the loudspeaker in the drive-thru
said, “Welcome to Wendy’s. Would you like to try our blah blah
bacon cheese blah blah?”

And Heimdall said, “Does a girl named Jewel work
there?”

“Uh… hang on. Jewel?” His dopey teen voice said
something indistinguishable to a coworker, but Heimdall had his
answer.

He raced to the window and banged on it, shouting,
“Jewel!”

She opened the window and he tried to explain
himself but she leaned out with tears of joy and kissed him. In
what felt like the final act of the most low-class fairy tale ever
written, a man on a motorcycle in a Wendy’s drive-thru was leaning
up to kiss an employee while a car behind him honked and an
overweight tourist shouted something racist.