***
When I woke I was tucked neatly in the bed, back in Svava's room at Valhalla with a white-faced Mason sitting in a chair next to me. "Kylie, oh, thank God! You're awake." Sitting up, I looked around the room to find it was just the two of us, no goddess Freyja or any Valkyries around. "These people are crazy, Kylie. Here you were, completely out of it, and they were like, ‘she'll be fine’, and went about their business. Can you believe that? They couldn't have cared less that you were convulsing, almost foaming at the mouth like you had rabies or somethin'."
"I was foaming at the mouth?" The thought horrified me.
He shook his head. "Well, no, not really, but you could have been. I saw it in a movie once. You looked like you were possessed. I expected your head to spin around and for you to start spitting out green junk."
Now I knew he was exaggerating. "You never should have watched the Exorcist. I told you it would screw with your head." Sitting up, my hand instantly caressed the bow lying closely at my side. It was the most perfect bow on the planet. An extremely good paring, the goddess had said.
"Kylie, are you listening to me?" Mason broke into my thoughts.
"I'm sorry, what?" I focused on his concerned, little face.
"You're not the same anymore. This place is changing you a little more every time I look at you." Sliding my feet onto the floor, I felt strong, rested and better yet, terrific.
I began taking in the room. According to the goddess, Svava had great promise, but she saw more in me. I couldn't imagine how that could be possible. This room was evidence of the contributions she had made to the cause, protecting others to her own detriment.
My hands grazed across the old dresser where Svava's clothes remained. I couldn't imagine what a Valkyrie archer dressed like; not in your typical Soccer Mom attire, of that I was certain. I mean, Rune was definitely into the grunge scene and Bryn wore crap out of the eighties.
The old book that Rune had given me earlier before I'd been whisked away to meet the goddess was sitting undisturbed on the dresser.
"What's that? It looks really old," Mason asked from over my shoulder.
"It is." Gently, I picked it up, being careful not to tear the binding. "In this book is everything about this new realm; all the creatures, the battles and the history of the Valkyrie. From what I was able to gather from the goddess Freyja, whatever happened to our parents has to do with the rage demons."
Mason nodded. "That's what Demetri said, too."
"What else did Demetri say?" I was genuinely curious as to what the rumor mill around a place like Valhalla was spreading.
"He said that rage demons were the most dangerous and difficult to kill of all the supernatural beings." Listening, I glanced back at the wall where there were dozens of rage demon skulls mounted. "And that it was they who damaged the wall between the realms. They wanted to kill us all. Why? He didn't know, but he said it had something to do with the accession that was coming. They want to kick Freyja to the curb and take over." Well, that was at least in line with what Freyja had told me as well.
"Anyway, they said that some of the Valkyrie wanted to find you and bring you here to Valhalla while the others hated the idea and wanted to leave you out there to rot." My nails curled. I'm not sure why this pissed me off so much, but it did. I wanted names!
Shaking myself out of it, I refocused on Mason who was still chattering away. "Demetri's an orphan, too. The Valkyrie let him hang out here because his parents were captured and burned."
"How awful! Did he see this happen?" I was horrified that this kid, vampire or not, had been a victim to such abuse.
"Yeah, it totally blows. He hid out, trying to find a way to help them when they were taken out in daylight to face the sun. He was lucky they didn't find him and do the same to him. I got the feeling that he felt really guilty about the whole thing; not that it was his fault, but that he couldn't do anything in order to save them." And I thought Mason and I had it bad, at least we didn't have to watch our parents suffer.
No sooner had that thought crossed my mind, when the door to the room burst open. "Where is she?!" I was suddenly face-to-face with a spiked, pink haired Valkyrie, furious about God, or should I say Freyja, knew what? "Rune! You let her have Svava's room?! No way, this isn't happening. Get out!" She picked me up and physically threw me out into the hallway. I was back on my feet the instant I hit the wall, nails curling and ready for her.
When I saw my brother fighting in her arms, however, I lost it. "Your problem is with me, not with him! I swear to God and Freyja, if you hurt him, I will end you!" My blood began to heat up as rage filled me.
Rune was between us an instant later, snatching Mason from the other Valkyrie's arms. It wasn't enough for me that Rune had saved Mason from injury, though; this chick needed to pay.
"Ah, feeling tough, are we? Bring it!" she growled as her lips began peeling back, exposing her fangs. When she dove at me, I let my instincts take over and we went at it.
Her fist hit against my cheekbone, nearly shattering it as I went sailing down the hallway with her midair after me. I fell hard, landing on my back at the top of the staircase. As she came towards me, I caught her in the ribs with my feet, sending her crashing into the banister and flipping over the railing to land on the ground floor.
Wiping the blood from my lip as I stood to stare over and climb atop the banister at her now rising frame. I crouched momentarily before dropping down to land on top of her. She caught me around the neck, digging her claws in. Screeching in pain, I elbowed her as hard as I could in the ribs that had already taken a beating, slamming harder until one cracked. Then felt my face slammed into the hard wood floor with such force that my teeth slammed together.
Ignoring the pain, I did the one and only thing I could think to do in my current situation, I threw my head back, bashing the back of my head into her face and continued to do so until she threw me aside. When I rose, turning around to defend against her onslaught once more, I found her spitting blood and evaluating her injuries.
Grinning a red smile, she shouted, "Well done! Not bad at all. With a little work, you might do Svava proud after all."
"I told you, my visions are never wrong." Rune looked on from the corner of the room, and I suddenly realized we had an audience; young Valkyrie observed from everywhere. The room was silent, something I gathered wasn't the norm.
"Like always, Rune, I need to see things for myself." She turned to me with a nod. "I'm your aunt, Rota. If you want to survive, meet me in the morning out back for training." Without another word, she turned and stalked from the room.
Kylie's Journal Entry
Valhalla is always so loud and crowded with all the young ones barging into my room, wanting to suck up. It gets old. Rune showed me this amazing spot on the roof where I can be alone and write. Apparently, she and Svava used to come here when they were younger and it is beautiful here at night. I find it remarkably peaceful up here, surrounded by lightning rods.
I’ve been spending my days training with Rota. She's beaten the crap out of me so many times, I can't even count. She's teaching me the value of having knife skills and not totally relying on my bow for protection. Thankfully, I heal really fast, like super fast. I was so full of myself the night I attacked her, but she'd so taken it easy on me. At first, I thought I hated her, but now, I really like her. She is a no-nonsense kind of chick and you always know where you stand with her. Plus, she is definitely one you want on your side during a fight. Her knife skills are sick! I get the feeling that she and Svava were really close, not as close as Rune was, but she really cared about her.
I can't seem to get anyone around here to spill the details regarding my birth father. Even when I bate them, I get nothing.
Mason is doing better than I expected. All the screeching was really bothering him and even caused an eardrum to rupture the other day. Rune gave him some earplugs and that seemed to fix the problem. He's spends a ton of time w
ith Demetri who's turned out to be a pretty cool little kid. Surprisingly, Demetri's eating habits were as disgusting as Mason and I had feared; he microwaves blood that had been taken from donors. Most vamps get it right from the source but since he's living here, it only made sense for him to have a stash, seeing as none of us would be volunteering. Can you believe that there are people that actually volunteer to have their vein tapped and seriously dig the process?! I mean I get the whole fantasy role-play thing, but come on, a simple slip in one of these vamps control and you’re a corpse! I'm getting nauseous just thinking about it so, moving on.
In what spare time I have, which isn't much, I've been pouring over the book that Svava used to record all the data regarding the history of the Valkyrie with all the beings in this world and how to kill them.
Rage demons aren't, as I initially thought, so easy to take out. Apparently their skin is tough and several inches thick, meaning an arrow to the heart is easier said than done. Svava would slice through the area around the heart before sending, via arrow, the killing blow.
I'm ashamed to say that instead of pouring over rage demons I've been doing a lot of research on shifters instead. Yes, Abercrombie made an impression on me. I found out that it's easy for us to block them from invading our minds. It's almost like flipping a switch in one’s brain that puts up a barrier between us and those that can mind read, which a lot of the beings in this realm can do. Rune instructed me to just flip the switch and forget about it. Then, I would never be caught with my pants down, so to speak.