Viking Sensitivity (Night World Series Book 2) (4 page)

"Okay well, there isn't a whole lot I can do right now. So we will spend the night getting things done and getting you caught up on what might need to be done over the next few days. Then first thing in the morning I will go about wooing this woman named Mia.

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Gwen called about an hour after he had spoken to her to let them know she was catching a redeye from Montana. Cesar had to yank the phone from her hand to let Viking know Gwen was traveling alone and that he demanded at least one Warrior be there to pick her up from the airport. When Poet heard this he immediately volunteered with more excitement than Viking had seen from the other man in weeks.

So here Viking was at four in the morning still in the lounge with Raider going over assignments for who would be guarding Gwen during her unexpected visit. They were both impatiently waiting for Poet to return from the airport with Gwen.

Viking knew the moment she entered the building. He couldn't hear her and Poet talking, but he could feel her arrival a moment before that.

Pausing in his sentence to Raider and from the other man's expression the pause was long enough to understand that Gwen was now in the building. Without even thinking Viking stood up and faced the door to the lounge. A few moments later Gwen walked in followed by Poet.

The smile on her face was huge. She was clearly happy to see them, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. The worry for Viking being in Maddening seemed to have tainted her smile. She still dropped the duffel bag in her hand and ran to Viking, arms open. He reciprocated by opening his arms wide as Gwen launched at him. He couldn't help but smile in return. He had missed her so much. It almost felt like he was missing a part of himself.

"How are you?"

"About as well as you would expect."

He felt Gwen beginning to separate. A small part of him screamed that it was too soon. But he knew it would be impractical for him to hold on when she had let go. She would just be dangling in midair as he held her. So he slowly set her back down on her own two feet and she backed up a step so she could look into his face.

"Do you know anything about this woman? Her name? Where we could find her? Anything? Oh no, I hadn't even thought about this, is she even a Night Worlder?" That last thought had turned Gwen's eyes almost into saucers.

Viking took a deep breath before answering. "Yes, we know her name. We know a little bit about her. I do not believe she is a Night Worlder. In fact from what Poet tells me you know her better than the rest of us. Except maybe Lucia."

Gwen backed up the step then turned so she could look at both Poet and Viking. "What is he talking about?"

Poet's smile diminished slightly as he looked down at Gwen. "I am afraid our dear Viking has found a mate in Mia Jones. The woman who owns that spiritual bookstore down in a Renton."

Viking felt his heart speed up as he watched Gwen's confused expression as she processed what Poet just said.

"You have met Mia at the holistic healing convention in Seattle on several occasions." Poet said by way of reminder.

Viking watched as a light bulb went off in Gwen's head. "Oh yeah, Mia." She turned back to Viking. "Mia is actually quite nice. From what little time I spent with her. I kind of like her. I think I know where her shop is. I know I have her phone number. Or at least her office phone number at the shop. I don't remember the shop name though. Though I could Google it and I know I would recognize it." Her expression turned stern as she looked at Viking. "I'm coming with you in the morning." It left no room for argument.

Viking was grateful Gwen wanted to help him in this. He genuinely did feel more comfortable with her there. And he knew as awkward as it might be he would prefer to have her with him later in the morning. Viking didn't put up any kind of argument he simply nodded at Gwen.

Gwen nodded in return. "Good, now that that is settled. I'm going to bed. I am so behind on my sleep and I am soon to be of no help to anyone." Then she smiled at Viking before turning to pick up her duffel bag, brushing past Poet and leaving the room to presumably go up to her apartment.

Viking heard Poet chuckled to himself and looked up. "It would seem our king has rubbed off a little on Gwen. Either that or she's use to Cesar doing exactly what she tells him to do. But I just can't see Cesar bending to Gwen's will." With that the other man shook his head and walked out of the lounge.

Viking looked at Raider and the other man shrugged. "You might as well get some sleep Viking. We all know you’re not going to be getting much over the next few days. I'll take care of the rest of this stuff."

Viking was grateful he had such a competent second-in-command. If it'd been almost anyone else Viking was pretty sure he wouldn't have been able to trust them to run things while he was preoccupied. Giving a curt smile to his right hand man Viking headed out of the lounge to get at least a few hours of sleep.

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Viking was downstairs at nine am. He'd done an internet search before going to bed and was able to track down the store Mia owned in Renton. The store opened at ten and he wanted to be there first thing in the morning so that he beat any customers that may be coming in.

He knew five hours was not enough sleep for Gwen but he couldn't seem to help himself. There was an itch inside him that needed to see Mia as soon as he could. He sent Gwen a mental message half an hour earlier letting her know that he wanted to be at the shop at ten. She once again insisted she accompany him to Mia’s store. So here he was waiting in the lounge for Gwen to get ready to go.

The Maddening was already taking its toll. The adrenaline shooting through his system made him feel anxious and aware. He was a Warrior so things like anxiety and sleep deprivation were much harder to get. However in this particular case, it felt like he had not slept in several weeks. Basically he felt paranoid. Viking was not a fan of this feeling. He continued to try to use meditation and breathing exercises to keep his system calm. It worked to some extent but he knew in another day or two it wouldn't help.

"Okay Storebror I'm ready. Do you want me to drive or do you want to be in control of the vehicle?" Gwen asked from the doorway.

It worried Viking that he hadn't heard Gwen coming down the hall or open the door. Shaking off the frustration at knowing his senses were already starting to cloud Viking turned to Gwen.

I think perhaps it would be best if you drove."

She watched appraisingly for several beats. He could tell she was trying to decide what to say. She seemed to decide on no response instead and turned and left the room.

Viking wasn't sure how he felt about her lack of response. It wasn't like Gwen to not say anything. He must've looked how he felt. Rolling his neck to loosen the muscles Viking followed her out of the room.

Viking forgot to take rush-hour into account. It shouldn't have been an issue since they were headed out of the city but they still managed to hit the tail end of traffic. That did absolutely nothing to help calm his nerves. After the first ten minutes of slow driving he finally closed his eyes and worked on breathing instead of watching the cars not going by.

Gwen was thankfully silent. She didn't speak the entire car ride down to Renton. Viking was both thankful and troubled by this. He was used to Gwen talking, being chatty and pleasant. This near silence was a little distressing. He wanted to talk to her about it. He wanted to ask her if something was wrong. But at the moment he couldn't seem to sum up the energy. He felt bad about that. He knew he was being selfish. But he also knew Gwen wouldn't hold it against him. Which also made him feel worse. Like he was taking advantage of her nature as well as being selfish.

When Gwen pulled the car into a parking lot they were in front of an end unit of the strip mall. It was one of those strip malls where the buildings took up four sides of the square while all the parking spots were in the middle. There were four to six shops per side. The shop they were looking at was in the far northwest corner. There didn't seem to be anything special about it. Nothing about it stood out from the other stores.

Viking felt Gwen's hand on this thigh as he reached for the door. Instead of opening the door he turned and looked at her.

              She seemed to be waiting for his full attention. The smile on her face was small and calming. As if she was used to trying to calm an anxious Warrior. Which Viking supposed in a way she was.

              "Viking we still have fifteen minutes before the store opens. Perhaps it would be best if you took that fifteen minutes to think of how exactly you are going to approach her. Barging in and saying, ‘hey I'm a Warrior we are mated. Let's go dance the horizontal mambo’, is probably not the best way to get things done. Do you have any particular idea on how you're going to approach this?"

              Viking did not appreciate Gwen pointing out that he did not have a plan. Mostly he didn't like that he hadn't thought of a plan. Especially for a situation as important as this. He didn't like that the Maddening was already affecting him to this extent. It felt too soon for him to already be losing his wits.

"Okay Little One I'm open to any suggestions you may have."

Gwen watched him appraisingly again. All Viking could pick up from her face was her concern.

"You should be as honest as you can, though I am not sure you could tell her everything from the get go. She will think you are crazy. Based on how quickly you need it done and from what Poet told me about your interaction with her last night I would start with an apology for being so abrupt. Make up some excuse about how inventory had gone wrong or something to that extent and say you wanted to apologize in person and you came to take her to coffee. See where it goes. This is going to take precious time you don't have, especially since she's going to have to find out about the Night World and adjust to her new reality. Although you could just not tell her until after. It will make things easier but it'll be a little dishonest. Okay, a lot dishonest. Ultimately, it's up to you."

Viking frowned. He wasn't sure how to take that. It hadn't even occurred to him to delay explaining the Night World to Mia. Honestly he was surprised Gwen suggested it. He let his hand on the door drop. He stared straight forward into the shop. Gwen was right, he needed some kind of game plan.

Closing his eyes for the millionth time since last night Viking concentrated on his breathing. He delved deep into the well of power he inherited from his mother. He concentrated on the deep blue pool. Using those reserves to mask the initial symptoms of the Maddening. He would do as Gwen suggested and use the next fifteen minutes to calm himself and come up with a plan of attack for Mia.

Chapter 4

Last night had been terrible. Mia had not had a night like that in years. When she was a teenager and first came into her 'gifts' as her aunt called them, nights like last night had been really commonplace. Her aunt claimed the gift ran in their family. That it didn't go a direct route down the family tree but instead zigzagged.

When she was younger things came during the night or in dreams. She quickly learned sometimes her dreams were not just dreams. She would be attacked in a dream and wake up with scratches where a dream attacker had gotten her.

At first she thought she was just rolling around in her sleep. Then she mentioned this to her aunt. Her mother's sister. Her aunt explained what was really going on.

Things sensed she had abilities and were trying to control her, get rid of her or in some cause just mess with her because they could. Her aunt, along with some of her aunt's friends, proceeded to teach her how to guard her dream world so these beings couldn't get into it. Then they taught her how to be aware of her surroundings. That was when she noticed things would come at night while she was awake. They weren't as strong as they were in the dream world. Couldn't do as much harm. They were still scary as hell.

Now a decade and a half later she was experiencing things as if she was young again. Her aunt had taught her to put up shields to guard herself. For about a week before the retreat Mia had dreams where she felt she was being watched by something from outside her own subconscious but try as she might she could never find it.

She didn't know what it was last night when Viking touched her hand. She felt a quick surge of power after the shock from the static electricity. On her ride home she felt as if there was a stronger power coursing through her veins. Almost like she burned brighter. Because of whatever it was she had nightmares all night and had woken up cranky and with bruises on her arms, sides, and legs with several scratches along the side of her back.

She called her aunt on the way to work explaining what it happened. Her aunt told her she would be coming by the shop this afternoon around two to do some patch work on Mia's shields so hopefully this wouldn't happen again.

Mia looked forward to seeing her aunt. There was something about the older woman, her calming presence that always put Mia at ease. Part of her hoped maybe she could convince her to spend the night. Or that she could spend the night with her Aunt. She knew it was juvenile but she just felt safer with her.

Mia knew she was going to be on edge until her aunt showed up. So when she got to the store and pulled in the parking lot she took a deep breath. One of her aunt’s friends, Charlie, had similar abilities, she couldn't remembering the term the woman used to describe herself, but she could feel the other woman's power coming off of her in waves. Charlie put wards on Mia's shop for protection. It seems like overkill to Mia at the time, but now she was grateful to Charlie for doing it.

Mia grabbed her giant coffee and locked her car before heading towards the store. She would be the only one there this morning. Which was fine with her. After an entire weekend surrounded by women, a morning in the store alone sounded perfect. Andrew, the one who usually opened, called her yesterday about a family emergency and asked if he could cover a shift next week to make up for it. Mia considered her staff to be something like a second family. She told him not to worry about it and she would cover all the shifts he needed covered. Andrew had been grateful but insisted he make it up to her sometime later.

Weekday mornings were not terribly busy at the shop so Mia wasn't too concerned about being by herself. It was never busy enough to open the second register before three pm on a weekday. Weekends are usually where their big crowds came in.

Since she completed all that needed to be done with the new inventory. The only thing going today was a spiritual food health seminar happening at six o'clock. So overall it was going to be a bit of a slow day.

Mia was going to use the opportunity to catch up on the books and surf the internet looking into new inventory. She had been debating whether to start selling health food and the like.

It was a good thing her aunt would be visiting because as Mia's silent partner her opinion on the addition would matter. The store next to her is going out of business so the space would be up for grabs. She's been considering leasing that space as well to house the new products. It was a gamble. The shop was doing well and she thought it might be worth it. Since most customers visiting her shop regularly were into very specific diets. She knew it required more research before making a decision and a slow day would work perfectly.

Mia unlocked the door, slipped the open sign over and was just settling down behind the counter when the bell above the door ring. She was surprised to see Gwen and Viking walking in. She knew her pleasant smile slipped a little. What surprised her more was what she saw around them.

She chatted with Gwen on several occasions, but never before had she noticed the white-blue halo that hummed around the other woman. In fact it had been years since Mia saw anything out of the ordinary, like people's energy, period. Viking had a blue light around him that seem to be coming from inside. The light was comforting and strong.

Mia blinked several times. In times like this she found it was best not to point these differences out. She learned the hard way as a child to keep her mouth shut.

Gwen didn't seem to notice Mia's reaction as she walked up to the counter. "Good morning Mia, I hope you're doing well today. Please pardon the intrusion but my good friend here wanted to speak with you and since I knew where to find you I offered to give him a ride. So I am just going to browse while he says…whatever." The younger woman smiled before wandering to the other end of the shop.

Mia turned back to Viking.

He watched her curiously before moving toward the counter, smiling and shaking his head. "I just wanted to apologies for my rudeness last night. I had several things on my mind when you visited. That is not an excuse for rudeness, but it is all I have to give. If it was not too presumptuous I would like to take you to coffee or a meal when you end your shift today to make up for my behavior."

She wasn't sure what surprised her more. That this near stranger just asked her on a date or that she was pretty sure she heard Gwen choke back a laugh. Curiosity tugged at her.

At this close a distance she could see that the blue surrounding him did not look as calm as she originally thought. It was almost electric, like lighting. His sandy blonde hair was tied back in the same manner as every time she saw him. Mia found her hands itched to run through it and find out how soft and smooth it was. Viking wasn't anyone she needed to be afraid of, Mia was positive about that. Part of her balked at the idea of having dinner with a stranger. A bigger part of her commented on how attractive he was and how long it had been since her last date. She decided to split the difference.

"I have a speaker at the shop tonight. So after work is out of the question. But I can counter with a late lunch, say at one-thirty? By that time there will be a sales associate here to watch the shop. But I have to be back by two. I have an appointment coming it that I can't miss."

"Deal!"

Viking's response was so quick it was startling. Mia was not sure what to make of a man so eager to go out to lunch with her. In fact she wasn't sure whether she should take his eagerness as some kind of warning.

She might've known Gwen for years. But she didn't necessarily know her all that well. That meant Gwen was not necessarily a credible reference. A small part of her wanted to take back her agreement. But the curiosity and attraction won out.

Gwen picked that moment to walk back over to the counter. Thankfully ending Mia's train of thought. She had two books in her hands. One was a spiritual cookbook Mia had just gotten in recently. The other was a spiritual healing through diet book.

"Mia are these food books new? I don't remember seeing them when I was here a few months ago."

Mia concentrate her attention on the subject at hand instead of dwelling on the oddity of Vikings proposal. "Yeah, it's something we've been trying out the last few months. Spiritualism and diet seem to be a very popular subject recently. It's actually quite interesting. I think you'll enjoy reading the text. If you happen to get a chance feel free to come by tonight and listen to the speaker. Spiritual eating is the basis of all three of her books. It's an interesting subject whether you believe in that kind of thing or not."

The last statement had been a bit Mia threw out to see how the other two people reacted. They both reacted in their own way. Gwen's smile didn't change except that it seemed a little more strained than it had a moment earlier. Viking seemed to blank his face. Mia could tell from their reactions both of them were aware of the strange auras they had and what caused them. She did find it interesting they both went out of their way to react neutrally.

After a second Gwen's smile softened as Mia placed the books in a bag and handed it over the counter.

"It will be interesting. Listen to a source before delving into the subject. I might take you up on it, thank you for letting me know."

Gwen was certainly faster than Viking, who still stood there almost stoically. Mia smiled in return as she rattled off the price. Gwen handed to her card as payment and as soon as the transaction was done she backed away from the counter. Then she looked up at her companion and her smile grew a little amused. She turned back to Mia.

"Well, I think this means I may see you tonight and Viking will see you in a couple hours?" With that last part she swung her head to look at her male companion.

He blinked a second as if he just realized he was expected to say something. Mia tried not to laugh. He simply nodded before turning to head out the door. Gwen shook her head, rolled her eyes and smiled at Mia before following him out.

It was most definitely a strange interaction. Mia wasn't entirely sure how to take it. She reminded herself to ask her aunt what a glowing and a blue thunderous light might mean. Part of her was curious about what abilities Viking might have. Another part of her was warring between how hot he was and how clamed up he seemed to get. Shaking her head Mia turned her attention to the laptop in front of her.

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Mia knew she shouldn't be surprised when Viking arrived at the shop early. Though she gave him points for not bothering her. When he came in the door at one-fifteen he simply nodded to her after making eye contact then began to examine books in the store. There were several other customers so he didn't seem totally out of place. And Sherry was helping at the register so she didn't really notice his appearance.

Mia took her time finishing her work on the spreadsheet she had open on her laptop. All the while trying to convince herself that she wasn't stalling. When the little clock on her laptop read one-thirty she felt his presence on the other side of the counter. Looking up she was still startled to see Vikings standing there smiling at her.

He took the opportunity to keep her attention. "Hi, you did say one-thirty, correct."

She had to admit Viking seem a little more relaxed and much friendlier than the other times she'd seen him. She didn't know what warranted this change but she found herself thinking she might enjoy the date after all. She smiled back at him as she slid her laptop close.

"Yes one-thirty. If you're not too opposed I was thinking the sub shop at the end of the strip. I know it's nothing fancy but it's close, convenient and would get us back in time."

Viking’s expression, while still being pleasant had a tinge of curiosity to it. "No, that's perfectly fine with me."

Mia nodded and grabbed her purse before coming around the counter. She already told Sherry she would back with a sandwich for her. So she simply waved at the other woman as she and Viking left the store.

Once outside Mia expected them to start chatting. But Viking was silent as they walked down the sidewalk. It was a companionable silence and not as awkward as Mia would have expected. But she couldn't help the amusement she felt at the lack of small talk. Silence continued their entire stroll down to the sub shop.

It went as far as no communication as they ordered their sandwiches other than Viking insisting he pay, including Sherry's. Mia made a little joke about eating at such a ritzy place. But she wasn't entirely sure Viking got it.

It wasn't until after they were seated that Mia finally spoke. She didn't want to eat in silence. "So, tell me about yourself. General small talk. Do you have any pets? What do you do for fun? Any childhood traumas? What was your first pet? Anything interesting I should know about you? "

She got a better reaction than she anticipated. He stopped mid bite, his eyes wide and looked at her, pausing for a second before swallowing. Laughing, Mia took a bite out of her sandwich.

"I never had a pet. I'm not sure what else I can tell you that would be interesting to you. I've known Gwen for more than twenty years. Ever since she was little. I just stuck with her since. There is not much to tell about working at the bookstore. You own one, you know all the ins and outs. I am sort of the general manager. I am her right-hand man or general if you will. As for childhood traumas I'm pretty sure that is not a first date thing, but nice try. What about you? What do you do for fun? What made you open your shop? And all the other questions you asked me."