“Making plans.” Kir sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Shit. I wish the M&M’s were here. They’re the only ones with even a chance of controlling those three.”
“In your dreams, maybe.” Travis paused. “What if we let them?”
Fen turned his attention to the blond god. He didn’t like the look on Travis’s face one little bit. “No.”
“We’d be right behind them.”
He let his fangs out, showing his displeasure at the thought, let alone the deed. “You are not using our mates as bait.”
Thunder sounded outside. “Especially not Jordan.”
Travis waved his hand. “Of course not. But Jeff? C’mon. We all know Fenris will kill Odin, but now that Jeff has Fen’s healing abilities he can hold his own while Fen does the deed.”
“He’d be a distraction. A good one.” Kir settled down once he realized Jordan’s potential worth as bait was off the table.
“Does the prophecy actually say Fen will be the one to kill Odin?” The others turned and stared at Val. The man shrugged and chugged some more beer.
“Already the prophecy is out of whack. Thor wasn’t supposed to die yet. Plus I don’t recall Fenris’s name being specifically mentioned. Do you? It just says the giant’s son and the wolf. Technically, since Fen changed Jeff, that would make him his werewolf daddy, wouldn’t it? And since Fen, as a pureblood Jotun, is a giant, wouldn’t that make Jeff partly one, too? Knowing my nephew he’s already thought of this and, right or wrong, is going to go after the Old Man.”
Dead silence settled over the room as the implication of what Val said hit them all. They raced for the front door, practically tripping over one another in their haste to get to their mates.
“Shit. You think they’ve already left?” Flames danced along Logan’s skin, singeing the maple floor.
The door opened under Fen’s hand. He stared at a startled Jeanne Grimm.
“I’d say yes.”
“Please, for the love of all I hold dear, tell me your daughter didn’t just do something stupid.” Logan glared at his mother-in-law. The fear was easy to read for all who knew him.
Jeanne’s lips thinned. “So extraordinarily stupid it boggles even me.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “They snuck out while I was on the toilet.”
A bright light flashed behind them and Jeanne flinched. Travis’s voice, strangely echoing and deeper than normal, surrounded them in ways only another god could understand. Tyr was preparing himself for battle. “Where’s Jamie?”
“With them.” Jeanne Grimm waved her hand. “Could you tone that down a little?”
Surprisingly, Travis’s light dimmed.
Kir and Logan exchanged a glance. Kir’s brows rose in surprise. “Well. We know where Jamie got
Travis’s eyes were white, blind with rage and power. His head tilted up, seeing something none of the rest of them could. “I swear, I’m going to paddle her ass when we get her home. She’s gone after him.”
Jeanne nodded. “They think Jeff can kill Oliver. I tried to talk them out of it, but none of them would listen to me.”
“No. They wouldn’t.” Kir had storms dancing once more in his eyes. “They won’t listen until their father’s murderer is dead.”
“Do they even know where Oliver is?” Jeanne scrubbed her face wearily, looking every inch her fifty-plus years. “Seriously. It’s not like the asshole left a forwarding address.”
“Jamie?” Fen was thinking hard even as he strode toward the elevator.
“Could she use magic to track him?”
“She’s strong, but not that strong.” Travis, for all his eyes were milk-white and blind, moved like a man who could see everything, right up until he walked into the elevator doors. “Shit.”
Fen thought back to everything he knew about the female. Jordan’s powers were different. She’d gotten his father’s abilities over fire. Unless Grimm was sitting in front of one, and Jordan was as well, she wouldn’t be able to scry for him that way. Then he remembered something Jamie had told him earlier. “The earring!” He couldn’t recall if Jeff still had the earring on when they’d carried him from the house, but if Grimm somehow managed to get his hands on it Jamie could track him that way.
“Fuck. If Grimm has Jeff’s earring he’ll know exactly what it is.”
The men exchanged a quick glance. They knew what their lovers were heading into.
“Oh, hell. It’s a trap,” Jeanne whispered for them all.
Logan took Jeanne’s shoulders. “Stay here.”
Her glare was ferocious. “Oh
“Your babies can kick ass. You can’t.” Kir turned her away from the elevator.
“We’ll bring them back. I give you my word.” The god’s eyes had gone completely dark, the storm clouds racing across them obliterating the blue.
Jeanne’s jaw clenched. “You’re going to fix it so I can kick ass too.”
Logan and Kir exchanged a glance, but whatever they would have said in response was halted by the arrival of the elevator. Logan nodded. “We will, I promise.”
Kir smiled grimly. “It’s safe here, and if they come back before we do call us.
Okay?”
Jeanne nodded once, obviously unhappy about being left behind. “Okay.”
Jeff growled. “You’re fucking kidding me. He’s staying
“Jeez, this place is like Wes Craven’s wet dream.”
“It’s like he wants to be a cartoon villain when he grows up.” Jordan shook her head. Flames danced in her eyes. “Are you
Jamie grimaced. “It’s not like I have spectral On-Star, now is it?”
They stared at the rotting husk of a house, and all three echoed the same thought. “It’s a trap.”
Jamie tapped her teeth with her fingernail. “Bet the door’s booby-trapped.”
“Windows set to blow.” Jordan blew her bangs out of her eyes.
“Floor sawed partway through.” Jeff stared at the lawn. He swore he could see really old dog poop. “And I don’t even want to think about what he did there.”
“He probably threw the earring into the building thinking we’d be stupid enough to go in after it.” Jamie turned and glared at the desolate landscape.
“Travis might.” Jordan smirked. “Logan would be too busy laughing his ass off.”
Jeff began peeling off his clothes, much to the vocal disgust of his sisters.
“Shut up! I can’t shift in jeans.” Fenris might be able to perform that little trick, but Jeff had to do it the old fashioned way: naked. He turned wolf, letting his senses drink in the surrounding area.
Hell, there wasn’t even a rabbit nearby. But there were lots and lots of ravens, just sitting in a tree, staring at them. He shifted and pulled on his pants.
“Don’t look now, but I think the trap found us.”
Jamie glared at the birds and half of them went sailing through the air to land in an ungraceful, bone-breaking heap. “Hmph.”
That was when all hell broke loose. It was like something out of
Ravens flew in from every direction, swooping and attacking, clawing at their heads and faces. Jamie screamed and immediately tried to protect her face.
Jordan, pissed as hell, tried to fricassee every bird that came in contact with her.
The stench of burning feathers filled the air.
Jeff shifted and wiggled out of his jeans, but by the time he was free, bloody gouges had been dug into his sides. He began snapping at the birds, grateful for the fact that Fen’s healing had taken hold. The bloody strips the birds took out of his hide hurt like hell but healed almost instantly.
Poor Jordan didn’t have that. She looked like someone had gone after her with a knife. Blood began to pool at her feet and she swayed, her fire flickering.
