In the Company of Vampires

It is your decision, Beloved.

It took some doing to convince the acrobats that Loki posed too much of a threat for them to remain, but once Ben pointed out that they wouldn’t be able to perform—acrobatically or sexually—if Loki injured them, they gracefully withdrew, waving farewell and wishing us luck.

“What odd sorts of people you know,” I told the Vikings as the eye-popping bus drove off.

“Odd how?” Eirik asked, genuinely puzzled.

“It doesn’t matter. Let’s get going.”

Ben led Tesla over to a section of the pasture where we would be alone.

You’ll watch over him while I do this?

No. I’ll watch over you.

I let him feel just how much that irritated me. I want him protected from Loki. I love Tesla!

Not as much as I love you.

Irritation vanished in an instant, its place taken by the warm glow of Ben’s love. That is not playing fair at all.

Perhaps not, but it’s the truth. Tesla will be fine, Francesca, so long as you are safe.

He had a point, drat him. “Everyone ready? Good. Here we go.”

Ben stood beside me, not touching me, but the tense air about him, and the watchful look around his eyes, told me he was ready to spring into action should the need arise. Behind us stood the three Vikings, their weapons in hand.

I placed one hand on Tesla’s neck, the warm solid-ness of him giving me a measure of comfort, while Ben’s presence provided me with confidence. “Fire burns thee, earth feeds thee, air hides thee, Vikingahärta holds thee. Deceiver, slayer, trickster, bet—”

I didn’t even get the last word out before Loki was suddenly there, in front of us.

“Loki Laufeyiarson!”

The tall, thin man with fading red hair turned astonished brown eyes on me as I spoke. The astonishment quickly turned into calculation as his gaze flickered to Tesla.

“I bind you to the honor of the Vikingahärta, which you yourself created.”

“You!” he said in a manner that made me think of a cat hissing. “Why do you torment me so?”

“I am tormenting you?” I gawked at him in an outraged sort of way that he totally missed.

“You taunt me with the presence of my own descendant! That is a torment which I cannot tolerate! Begone, Beloved!”

His image started to fade. Ben! What do I do? He’s leaving!

You have the power to summon him, Francesca. You have the power to keep him here. Use the valknut.

I clutched the Vikingahärta in a hand that was still slightly numb and pulled hard on its power, willing Loki to remain.

“You think you have power over me, little human?” he said, laughing, but an indescribable look crept over his face as he stopped fading. He looked like he was standing in a dense patch of fog, his figure kind of wispy and indistinct, but after a few seconds of that he solidified again and marched toward me, his jaw tense and his hands fisted. “The Vikingahärta has the power to summon me, not keep me. What have you done to it?”

I held it up. “I did nothing to it. But it got zapped by an Agrippan and the triangles shifted.”

He stared at it for a moment, then turned a haughty scorn-filled gaze upon me. “I begin to regret my leniency on you earlier. Very well, since you have summoned me, what sacrifices have you made in my name?”

“Er . . .” I tried to think of what I had with me at the moment—other than the Vikingahärta and Tesla —that Loki might be willing to accept as a sacrifice. “I didn’t know I was supposed to bring one. That is, I know we’ve used them in the past, but I wasn’t aware they were mandatory.”

“No sacrifices?” His red eyebrows rose.

“Don’t have any on me at the moment, no.”

“No boons meant to sweeten my favor?”

“Er . . . sorry.”

“No gifts to honor me as the greatest of all the Aesir?” His hair stood on end as he spoke.

Tesla suddenly flicked his head up and snorted at him.

“I’m afraid I don’t have—”

“We have the sacrifices, goddess!”

Loki sniffed in an irritated manner, his jaw set pugnaciously as Eirik stepped forward, pulling out of his voluminous shirt a purple plastic object. “O father of lies, O bale-smith, O Loki the sly, in the name of the goddess Fran, the goddess Freya, and Odin All-Father, we bring to you these highly valuable sacrifices, which we gladly make in your name that you might bestow your favor upon us.” Eirik lovingly caressed the purple vibrator, then laid it at Loki’s feet, bowing three times as he backed up to where the other Vikings stood.

Oh dear goddess. Not the sex toy! Loki is going to go ballistic!

Loki spared it a brief glance. “Have one. What else have you brought me?”

He has one? I asked Ben, astonished.

I really think it’s best you don’t ask.

Agreed. But still . . . Loki has girl toys? Who’d have thought?

You are speaking of a man who was a pregnant mare at one point in his life.

Point taken.

“I bring unto you captured images of many large-breasted women,” Isleif said, presenting the magazine.

“Bah,” Loki said, looking down his long narrow nose at Isleif. “I have many such magazines.”

“This one has twin double-D cups in the centerfold,” Isleif pointed out.

Loki’s lips pursed as he took the magazine. “I accept this gift. What else have you brought me?”

Okay, that’s it. I’m just going to stop being surprised by anything he says from here on out.

Ben laughed in my head.

“We have the chocolate most fine, hewn by many peasants in the Toblerone province,” Finnvid said as he offered up the now yard-high stick of chocolate.

Loki looked at it, then at Finnvid. “Someone has eaten half of my chocolate sacrifice.”

“Turks,” Finnvid said without batting so much as one single eyelash. “Turks tried to take your fine sacrifice, many Turks, clad in the finest steel, riding elephants, and with legions of bowmen, but we slayed them and retrieved your sacrifice before they could completely consume it.”

“Turks love chocolate,” Loki said darkly, taking the giant candy bar. “All right, I accept your offerings. Since it is clearly your wish to humiliate me before my descendant, you will tell me now what it is that you desire of me.”

“I’m not humiliating you before Tesla!” I objected. “He’s not even awake! He’s dozing!”

We all looked at the horse. It was true his eyes were half open, but he had that dreamy look that told me he was enjoying a little horsey nap.

“It is true that my descendant looks well,” Loki admitted. “But I expected nothing else when I arranged for him to be taken into the care of a high priestess of Ashtar.”

“Mikaela?” I asked. “You arranged for it? I don’t think so. I had her and Ramon take Tesla when they decided to leave Circus of the Darned to become farmers.”

“Who do you think urged them to do so?” Loki asked with a self-satisfied smirk. “I did not trust you, a mere child, to see to the welfare of my descendant. But a priestess of the Asatru is a different matter. Tesla is well. I am content to have him remain here.”

“Good, because that’s what I arranged,” I snapped, then remembered that it wasn’t good to lose one’s temper with a god. “We’ve gotten off track. You asked what I want of you, and I’ll tell you—I want my mother back, so you can just stop seducing her now.” I straightened my shoulders in an attempt to look like the sort of person who routinely summoned gods to do her bidding. “And don’t tell me you haven’t done so,