Loki's Gambit, page 220
part #1 of I Bring the Fire Series
Dare’s head tilts. “Such as?”
“Will I become a vampire?”
“Night Elf,” Dare says, and she swears his pointed ears twitch. “No, we’re a species. We’re born this way, just like humans …”
Her eyebrow dances. “Yeah, you’re just like us.”
He looks away. “We’re not so different. The myths of extreme strength and speed are largely false. We have a nutritional requirement that is … unique. We live long if …” He trails off.
“If you drink human blood,” Penny guesses.
Dare meets her eyes, and there’s something angry there, but there shouldn’t be. Humans are the ones being eaten—or drunk, or whatever. Her skin gets hot. “So are there like … hundreds of you, thousands, preying on us? Hidden government conspiracies and covens and—”
“No.” Holding her gaze, Dare gives her a tight smile. “There are not thousands of us, even in Alfheim, our homeworld.”
Penny’s brain spins a little at “homeworld,” but he’s a vampire, and another planet doesn’t seem like quite that big a stretch at the moment.
Dare continues. “The twenty-three Night Elves here under the sway of Prince Aurel are the only ones on Earth.”
“But if you need our blood to survive …”
Dare looks down. “We drink all kinds of blood—horse, sheep, cow, and the occasional wolf or dragon if we’re feeling adventurous. The young vampires in my realm have never had any from humans.”
“Prince Aurel said you need it, though,” Penny protests.
Dare massages his temples. “Why did he have to try and impress me by speaking English?”
“Is that true?” Penny demands.
Dare doesn’t even look at her.
“It is, isn’t it?” Penny sits straighter. “Why aren’t there more of you here?” Her country went to war for oil that they could have gotten other places for slightly more money … why weren’t the vampires, or Night Elves, or whatever, pouring through what Rayne had called the Veil or World Gate to come here?
He gives a tight smile. “It is against Odin’s law for any magical being to live on Earth. It is to keep us from taking advantage of humans. Odin has considerably more warriors than there are Night Elves so … ”
“And you’re okay with this?”
Dare crosses his arms over his chest. “I am against Night Elves like Aurel using humans against their will, and against other magical creatures doing the same. It was a problem in your ancient times. Magical beings—elves, Asgardians, Vanir, and Jotunn—would set themselves up as gods. Without Odin’s law, they would do so again.”
Penny tilts her head. Yep, Dare’s lawful good, but she doesn’t like the idea that humans are helpless. “Not if we can shoot them with guns,” she says defiantly.
His lips quirk. “Against many of us that would work quite well. Most magical beings don’t develop their magical abilities and would be easy enough to manage.”
“Most magical beings?” Penny says.
A knock sounds before Dare can answer. Penny stands, but Dare is already up and across the room, hand on the doorknob, ear pressed to the door. “It’s a human man,” he says.
There’s another knock and then Penny hears a familiar man’s voice. “Penny, it’s me! Are you there?”
Dare looks to her, his eyes glowing a bit in the low light, one of his eyebrows arched. There’s something cat-like about him, and he’s not bumbling like Rayne at all.
“It’s all right. Let him in,” Penny says.
Dare opens the door, and Todd, one of Penny’s employers, and the owner of the trailer, gapes up at him. “Oh,” he says. He looks quickly to Penny. “Penny, are you alright?”
Todd is in his late 50s, gray haired, soft around the middle, and is perpetually red cheeked. Penny doesn’t think he’d be even a match for Rayne, and she has no idea what he’d do if she wasn’t “alright.”
“I’m fine,” she says. “This is my friend Dare. Dare, this is—”
“Just call me Todd!” Todd says, holding out a hand with a grin.
Dare takes it with a bemused smile. Todd looks Dare up and down and Penny realizes she has no excuse for Dare’s odd clothing—though fortunately his pointed ears are covered by his curls.
“You must work at the park!” Todd says, stepping back.
“Yep, he’s from a magic kingdom, all right!” Penny exclaims nervously. Dare looks at her in alarm, but then the look of betrayal on his face morphs into a look of confusion when Todd asks, “Are you a pirate or a prince?”
“Prince!” says Penny at the same moment Dare says, “Pirate!”
Which makes Penny scowl at him. He is so not a pirate, Count Afraid of Spiders.
“Errr …” says Todd.
Dare bows theatrically. “I am the Prince of Pirates, at your service.”
“Ha, ha! You’re good!” Todd laughs. “Must be that new ride everyone’s talking about.”
He turns to Penny. “Emma and I were about to ask you up to the house.”
The cat-like Dare who’d just been at the door is suddenly back. In a cool business-like voice, he says, “Why?”
At that single word, Todd stares up at Dare, eyes glazed. “Someone left messages on our business line asking for Penny’s address.”
“Did you give it to them?” Penny asks, alarmed.
Straightening, Todd says, “Oh, no, we’d never do that.”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine, then,” says Penny.
Todd coughs nervously. “Penny, anyone who knows the business number can Google it, get our address, and our address is—”
Penny puts a hand to her chest. “My address.”
Todd nods gravely. “Emma’s calling the cops, but I don’t think there is much they can do at this point. We thought you might want to come up to our place—”
Penny bites her lip. They’re always asking her to come over to dinner, and she always says no. It would be too terribly awkward. “That’s so nice of you, but—”
“—to have dinner, and maybe spend the night,” Todd finishes.
“We’d love dinner!” Dare exclaims.
Grinning, Todd says, “Well, we’re about to put it on the table.”
Dare beams. “We’ll just get our shoes!”
Todd beams right back. “Great! Well, I’d better head on up. See you in a few.” Just before Dare closes the door, Todd looks back at Penny, does a sort of sideways winky-wink thing in Dare’s direction, and gives Penny the thumbs up.
Oh, no. She has the feeling “terribly awkward” has just multiplied by two.
“But I had to say yes,” Dare says, heading up the hill to the abode of Todd and Emma. It’s just past sunset, but not too bright. Or maybe it is just human blood, and a human who is smart, courageous and generous is altering his view of the world, tinging it in welcome shadow. “Todd smelled delicious.”
Penny’s eyes go wide.
“Not like that,” Dare says, and he can’t resist putting a hand on the small of her back. “One human is enough for me.”
She doesn’t pull away, but crosses her arms over her chest. He gets the feeling he’s making her uncomfortable, not comforting her. He drops his hand, and the movement physically hurts. So different from when she nestled in his arms. He wants to believe that it’s grief that separates them, but feels that there is something more that hangs over her, maybe more than one thing. She’d been defensive about her home, clean and comfortable as it is, and had defensively mentioned the region she hails from. Are either or both a signal of belonging to a lower class? Norns know, that can be stress inducing.
Trying to lift her mood, he adds, “He smells like ghee, spices and naan bread. Blood has hardly any calories. I’m hungry for food, Penny. ” It’s true, but he is more worried about her. She has found out that magical beings exist and that her sister is dead in a single night, that combined with whatever other demons she is fighting … She needs to eat, even if she doesn’t know it. He could compel her with magic, of course, but she’d figure it out eventually … like she’ll eventually realize he used compulsion to make her go quietly with Rayne.
“But they’re … they’re … Christians,” Penny sputters. “And not like my mom, they actually go to church, and not just on Sundays!”
Maybe it’s a difficult parental relationship that dogs her? They don’t have time for such a discussion though. They’re not five paces from the house, and Dare can smell the rich aromas of Indian food. “Crosses and Holy Water don’t hurt me,” he says. Neither would Jesus, but that could lead to an awkward discussion of his age, and he doesn’t like being a name dropper either.
“Maybe I’m thinking of myself, not you,” Penny huffs.
Before he can ask what she means, Todd opens the door with a smile. “Come on in!”
Dare steps aside and lets Penny go first. She doesn’t so much walk past him as scurry. Had standing back broken some new rule of etiquette?
“I’m sorry for what finally brought you up here, Penny, but I’m glad you came up to the house,” Todd says with a gentle smile that goes all the way to his eyes.
“Um,” says Penny, her arms tightening around herself, and Dare wonders about her discomfort.
“Your home is beautiful,” Dare says, to divert Todd’s attention, even though with large windows, it actually looks like it would be terribly bright in the daytime. It was the right thing to say because Todd beams and explains how he designed and built the house himself while he and his family lived in the trailer Penny now occupies.
Dare’s eyes slide to Penny. She’s looking at a photograph hanging on the wall. Her brow is furrowed and she looks confused. Todd looks over at Penny, too, and a wide range of emotions play over his face so fast Dare can’t place them all.
“Oh, that’s my brother, Tom, he lives out in San Francisco. Don’t get to see him hardly enough.” There’s something defensive in Todd’s voice, or maybe it’s protective. Of who?
To take the edge off things, Dare points at another picture of three teenagers holding hammers, wearing light cotton shirts emblazoned with the words, “Habitat for Humanity.”
“Are these your children?” he asks.
Todd loosens up immediately. “Yep, those are them. They’re all off at college now. Don’t get to see them nearly enough now either.”
“Mmmm …” Dare’s eyes slide to a framed biblical quote, Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” and then to the picture that had so confounded Penny. In the photo, Todd has his arm around a man who looks to be a slightly younger version of himself. The other man is wrapped in a rainbow flag. Dare doesn’t understand what could possibly be troubling about the picture.
He instinctively moves closer to Penny, but she’s gazing out of the foyer. He hears light footsteps coming from the direction of her gaze and a woman steps into the room. Penny immediately looks down, but Todd brightens and holds up his arms. “My wife Emma! Emma, this is Dare. He’s a magical pirate-prince.”
Emma laughs, and it’s a beautiful, light musical sound. “I didn’t know you were allowed to wear your costumes out of the park!”
Pretending he knows what they’re talking about, Dare bows, but steals a surreptitious look at Emma. To Night Elves, their own host always looks perfect. Love, sex, food … all wrapped up in a single package … no one could be more desirable than Penny to Dare at the moment. With all that he feels for her, he does recognize that Emma is striking. She has olive skin, delicate facial features, and the creases around her eyes seem to accent their sparkle. Her dark brown hair is thick with a few bold streaks of gray. Emma isn’t terribly tall, but she is trim and even the simple movement of stepping into the room shows off strength and health. She smiles at her husband and then at Penny and Dare. “Follow me. It’s on the table.”
“Thank you for cooking for us,” Penny says, ducking her head and hustling past her.
“I only set the table! Todd does all the cooking.” Emma laughs, and Dare can’t help but smile. He knows this couple—well, not them—but they are a type he’s seen from ancient Greece, to Svartalfheim, to World War II Germany, and England: the exceptionally beautiful woman who marries a man who is a little stout, but a great cook. Also, Dare is certain that within seconds Todd will display a jovial sense of humor.
He glances over at the man expectantly, and Todd jerks a thumb at the picture of his brother wrapped in the rainbow flag. “My brother got the gay gene, but somehow I got the cooking and interior decorating genes.”
Dare is sure it is humorous, but he doesn’t understand what he’s talking about. Todd seems like a happy person, so he doesn’t know how he couldn’t have gotten the “gay” gene as well. Dare smiles and sticks to something safe. “It’s hard to live apart from family.”
“Yes, it is!” Todd agrees as they step into a dining room table laden with a tempting array of different dishes. Before he can ask about Dare’s family, Dare turns the conversation to Emma and Todd’s children. They don’t just talk about their biological children, they talk about Penny—how she’s wonderful with the animals in their boarding stable, and how they’re worried about her living alone.
Throughout dinner it becomes more and more apparent that the older couple wants to adopt her. He senses they feel the same sort of responsibility toward her that he feels toward Enit. There is haze around Penny in Dare’s vision caused by the bond of blood between them, or as Gretta would probably more accurately say, his judgment is impaired by a chemical cocktail mixed up by Penny’s blood. The other adults’ gaze helps him see her for what she is: a child in need of protection. He sees how uncomfortable in her own skin she is, and realizes Penny would be a terrible consort. In the shifting tides of inter-realm politics she’d sink him—and herself. And he notices she hardly looks at Todd, and looks at Emma while Emma isn’t looking at her, blushing as the other woman catches her gaze.
Dare realizes he’d be a horrible consort for Penny as well.
As Dare and Penny finally leave Emma and Todd’s place, Penny gives a sigh of relief. She’d never thought they’d get away. Dare had seemed so happy and comfortable with them. Emma and Todd had been on a trip to Europe and seen the cathedrals—Dare had some funny stories from the construction of said cathedrals—it had almost been like he’d been there. Which makes her wonder. “How old are you exactly?”
“Don’t you know it’s not polite to ask a gentleman his age, Penny?” Dare’s words are light, but his tone is sharp, and in contrast to the breezy way he responded to Todd and Emma just minutes before.
“Excuse me.” He sighs. “We’ve had a lovely breakfast—”
Her brow scrunches at that description. It’s 8 p.m. … but maybe to a vampire, dinner is breakfast?
“—but we need to get to work. Tell me how you got to be at the club last night.”
So Penny tells him, wandering in the direction of the stables instead of her trailer, just because the night is beautiful, and she likes to walk. She gets to the part about the red room, and the couples making out, and whispers in shock, “Do you think the humans there escaped last night alive?”
Dare shakes his head. “I’m sure they are fine.”
“But Hickey Man wasn’t giving that girl a hickey, he was sucking her blood!”
“No, he wasn’t,” Dare replies. “Aurel is against one-on-one bonding.” Which she guesses means drinking from someone alone. She bites her lip; she will not examine why Dare might say bonding instead of just “drinking alone.”
“Then what were they doing?” Penny asks. They’re standing by the fence to the pasture now.
Dare stares at her.
“What?” Penny exclaims.
He lifts an eyebrow. “Penny, you know how reproduction works, don’t you?”
Penny’s face heats. “Oh.”
Dare says, “Humans are attractive to us for more than blood.”
Penny swallows, not really wanting to think of the implications of that. He’s not put any uncomfortable moves on her though … she decides not thinking about it is perfectly appropriate.
Dare looks away. “Keep going with the story.”
Penny nods and continues, walking aimlessly back toward the trailer. She can just make out the back of her home through the trees, and is about to describe how she knew something was really wrong because of Windows XP on the computer, when Dare puts a hand out and says, “Do you hear that?”
Penny cocks her head but only hears the sound of insects. Her eyes slide to Dare. He is motionless, his head bowed and eyes closed. He shudders, and a loud crack splits the night. There is a thud, a man’s scream from the direction of her trailer, and then another crack and a crash that she swears reverberates through the ground. In the barn she hears the horses whinny fearfully. Emma’s and Todd’s door slams open, and Todd shouts, “What was that?”
Dare releases a long breath.
“I don’t know!” Penny responds as Todd barrels past with a shotgun.
Emma is there a moment later. “Maybe you two should stay back.” She puts her hand on Penny’s shoulder and Penny bolts.
“Penny,” says Dare.
From the front of her trailer, Todd cries out, “Emma, call 911.”
Chapter Five
“We found your stolen phone on the guy,” says a police officer. “And an unregistered weapon. Can’t say I’m going to lose sleep over this.”
“It’s just so strange,” says Emma, huddling under Todd’s protective arm.
“Yeah, strange,” says Penny. The dead tree by her home had inexplicably dropped on a vampire. Amazingly, one of its branches had pierced its heart. The police don’t know he’s a vampire; all they’d noticed was that the corpse had “funny ears.”
A policeman steps out of her trailer. “Thanks for showing me your ID.”
Dare exits just behind him. “No, problem, officer.”
Penny’s brow furrows. Dare has no ID.
“We’re going to clear out now,” the officer says. He nods at Penny. “We gotta keep the phone for evidence.”
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