The Valkyrie Read online

  It took me most of the morning to get my stuff boxed up, but I managed. Charan had reappeared halfway through my packing with plywood and nails in hand. He tried to be quiet as he boarded up the window. The more he worked, the more I watched him. There was something very familiar about his look and his gestures. I felt very comfortable around him.

  I put a call into Tom, the local repairperson, and set up with him to stop by and fix the window. Molly walked in while I was on the phone with him. Tom asked what broke it, and I told him it was a large tree branch. Hey, it was all I could think of on the spot. Molly nodded behind me in a very ‘that’s what I thought it was’ way, and headed out the door in her work whites.

  Charan helped me load my car full of boxes. He even offered to fill his car up with some as well. I didn’t have that much stuff, so it seemed unnecessary. Shortly after he left, I headed back in to do a quick double check. Molly wouldn’t care if I forgot things. I bet that I’d still be here a few times a week anyways. Mostly, I wanted to take one last look at the only home I could ever remember having.

  The blinking light on the answering machine caught my eye and I stopped to press play.

  "It’s Dillon. I just wanted to touch base with you. I’ve been wondering how you are and if you’d like, I could come in to town and... Beep." It cut him off. I did a silent thank you prayer and waited for the next message.

  I heard Payton’s voice. "Valerie, I’m fine. Sorry about last night. I was paged with an emergency and had to go. I hope that it was okay to let your friend in. I’ll call you later, sweetie."

  I breathed a sigh of relief. Payton was all right. He didn’t see any of the horror Torin had brought with him. I picked up the phone and tried his house--no answer. I tried his office, cell phone, and pager--nada. I waited for about fifteen minutes and headed out to my car. My sudden need to hear his voice took me a bit by surprise.

  The drive to my new house was quiet. It gave me time to reflect on the last few months. As hard as I tried, the puzzle wouldn’t fit together. My head hurt, and I gave up trying to sort out the bizarre events surrounding me. By the time I pulled onto the driveway leading up to my new house, I was tired.

  The key was exactly where Bernice said it would be, in an envelope stuffed into the door. When I pushed the door open, the smell of stale air hit me hard. I stepped in and put the key down on the tiny table next to the door. It was dark in the house. It was broad daylight outside, but all of the curtains were pulled shut. I reached my hand up, felt for the light switch, and flicked it on.

  I looked at the very green and very old wallpaper on the walls. I hated it, but it was mine--all mine. I had a house of my own now. I slid my fingers over the wallpaper and savored the rough texture. I glanced into the large kitchen and laughed. I could make the meals I wanted now. No more Twinkie dinners, well, not unless I was menstruating.

  Every room of the house was furnished. I’d given most of the clothing in the house to the local charity. I had no use for it. I’d had new mattresses for two of the beds delivered a week prior. There were four bedrooms. I only really cared about the one I’d be sleeping in at the moment, but the guy at the mattress shop cut me a great deal on a second one. I couldn’t pass it up.

  I lucked out. The house had hardwood floors and throw rugs. I didn’t need to have carpet cleaners come in. I did need to take the curtains down and wash them, but it wasn’t really high on my to-do list. My number one goal for the week was to meet Mr. Douglas. I’d been to the house a handful of times, none of which revealed the mystery tenant to me. Bernice assured me that he was real, and I believed her. I guess he was just very busy.

  My phone rang and I was excited to pick it up. I didn’t even care if it was Dillon. It was my phone, my first phone, and my first phone call. Well, not my first, but it had my name on the bill now. I answered it with a smile on my face.

  "Hey, chick, how’s the pad?"

  "Its great, Molly, thanks."

  "You up to going to a movie tonight?" she asked.

  "Sounds good, babe. Call me on your break and we’ll work out the details."

  "Congrats on the crib, Valerie."

  I hung up and smiled. She was right, I had a crib. Sure, crib was an ultra hip way of saying house, but I’d take it. It was mine. I picked up the phone and tried to reach Payton again. I didn’t have any luck. I hadn’t talked to him since he’d left my house. I debated on whether or not to tell him about falling out of a window with a superhuman actor. Knowing Payton, he’d wrap me in ice until I froze to death.

  The phone rang again, and scared the hell out of me. I snatched it up and found Charan on the other end. "What’s up?"

  "Guy would like to treat you to dinner for all the trouble that he’s caused you."

  "Hmm, he must be real broken up. He had you call me," I said, derisively.

  Charan sighed. There was silence on the other end for a minute, then I heard a groggy voice. "Valerie, sorry, I’m a touch tired still. I did not mean to insult you by having Charan call. I just didn’t want you to make other plans. I am not an early riser and wanted to be sure that I had this opportunity to make things up to you."

  His voice was so sexy through the phone that I wanted to agree to whatever he wanted. I thought about Molly and came to my senses. "I’m sorry, but I just made plans to go to a movie with my friend."

  He exhaled noisily, sounding a bit defeated. "I see, well, I did want to try to make up for all the problems I’ve caused for you..."

  I had an idea. "I’ll meet you for a friendly dinner, if you’ll come with me to the movies and meet my friend. She loves you, I mean she loves all your movies." I made sure to stress the friendly part.

  "It’s a deal. I will be there to get you within the hour."

  That was fast. "Guy, what should I wear?"

  He let out a very male laugh. If he said nothing I’d hang up on him. "I’ll handle that. Just be waiting there for me."

  I hung up the phone and vowed that I’d look into getting a Guytano decoder first thing in the morning.

  Chapter 13

  I looked at myself in the floor length mirror. The one-piece black denim dress that Guytano had shown up with fit very snugly. This was not something I would have chosen for myself. It left the tops of my breasts exposed. The thick belt that hit below my waist made the skirt portion seem even shorter than it already was. I didn’t have time to wonder if my sandals would go with it because Guytano held a pair of knee high black leather boots out to me. Thankfully, the heel was on the thicker side and only two inches high. I’d kill myself in anything higher than that. I slipped them on. They fit perfectly. I gave him a puzzled look.

  "Okay, I’m willing to go with the idea that you keep women’s clothing on hand for emergency friendly dinners, but the shoe thing is a bit much."

  He put his hands up in a ‘who me’ gesture. "You are of average height and shoe size," he said.

  "Yeah, ‘us common folk’ tend to come that way." I knew that I sounded harsh. I intended it to be that way. It was petty, but hey, that was me. I took a good look at myself in the mirror. Wearing all this black blended with my hair and made my turquoise eyes stand out. I had always tended to avoid too much black. My hair was jet black enough. I looked a little too eager to go to a funeral. The Morticia look never appealed to me. Apparently, it appealed to Guy because he winked at me.

  "Are you all set?" he asked.

  "Yes, but I’d like to call Molly’s and leave her another message."

  "Most certainly."

  I walked over to the phone. I was not used to walking in boots that went up to my knees. They felt odd against my bare skin. I dialed our number and waited for the machine to pick up.

  "Hey Molly, it’s me. I’m still going to meet you for a movie, but it will have to be the later showing. I’ll come by your house, and I’m bringing a surprise for you. I just didn’t want you to worry about me..." Her machine cut me off.

  I tried Payton one more time before we headed
out. I wasn’t too happy with the way I’d left things with him. The last time I’d spoken to him, I’d accused him of trying to force me into marriage.

  Chapter 14

  Guytano pulled up outside of "The Tall Hat." It was a local country bar that had a reputation for serving one of the best hamburgers in the Midwest. I’d never actually tried one of their burgers yet, as I wasn’t altogether that fond of red meat. It had less to do with animal rights, and more to do with the fear of E. coli poisoning. I could stop bullets with my hand and heal at an abnormally fast pace, yet I worried about something as simple as E. coli. I couldn’t explain it either.

  I had been worried about going somewhere too fancy and making a fool of myself in front of Guytano, but The Tall Hat wasn’t upscale by any means. Guy had gone out of his element to see to it that I was comfortable. That said a lot about him. I looked down at my black denim outfit, and to him. Now, the choice in attire made perfect sense. I was just about to make a snide comment about us only needing cowboy hats to make the ensemble complete when he reached behind me to the back seat and pulled out two hats.

  "This should just about do it," he said, slipping his on. My heart fluttered. I’d never been much into the cowboy look, but I was starting to see its appeal. Guy looked unbelievably hot.

  I picked up my black hat, put it on, and turned to him. His tongue ran out over his lower lip. I don’t think he did it on purpose, but he ended up looking at me like I was the sexiest female on the planet--yes, the cowboy thing was working out well.

  I blushed, and he leaned over to me. I knew what was coming, yet I did nothing to stop it. His soft lips pressed to mine and his tongue worked its way into my mouth. I tipped my head, trying to drink him down. Guy got out and came around to open my car door. I had already started out when I realized what he was doing. I stayed put and let him be the gentleman that he was brought up to be. I was running into more and more nice guys lately. Something had to give soon. I mentally began the countdown to meeting a jackass and got out the car.

  We made our way up to the entrance. A young man with a tan hat sat on a stool by the door. He gave me a wink as we passed by. I smiled back at him. He wasn’t my type of guy, but he was handsome all the same. A sneer fell over his face. That sort of killed any hope of him looking hot to me again. It just made him come off as a dirty-creep in the making

  Mental note--one jackass down. How many more to go?

  Guytano never even looked in the man’s direction, and after sparring with Guy in the warehouse, that was probably a good thing. Guy had the skill and power to cause some serious damage. Come to think about it, so did I.

  As soon as we entered, the sound of twangy country music filled my ears. From what I could see of the dance floor, it was full of people line dancing. I’d never been much into any of that. Molly was the line dancer in my circle of friends. She’d only recently given up on trying to get me to go out dancing with her. She’d spent the last two years trying to convince me that line dancing should be an Olympic sport. I personally thought it should be outlawed. When I told her that, I thought she was going to go ape shit. She spent the next hour criticizing my favorite music, punk. Granted, there was no achy breaky in it, but still.

  The thick crowd of denim-clad people parted for us. We made our way to a tiny table in the back. A tall leggy blond waitress came out to greet us. I took one look at her hair and wondered why someone with such pretty blond hair would bother dying the roots black.

  Yeah, I know, I’m a bitch. What else is new.

  She told us her name was Stephanie. That seemed to suit her well. I ordered a beer and Guytano ordered the same. Stephanie eyeballed him for a minute or two before sashaying off to get our drinks.

  There was a basket of peanuts, still in the shell on the table--cute. I glanced around. The place was not that big and it was packed. I guess organized dance and gourmet nuts in shells was how everyone else liked to spend their evening too.

  "Well, did I do all right?" Guytano asked.

  I turned and looked at him. He looked like New York’s version of Billy the Kid. I had to laugh. If his Hollywood buddies caught sight of him in a place like this, I’m sure they’d have a field day. I still couldn’t comprehend how I had ended up in a country music bar with one of the richest and not to mention sexiest men in the world. Saying he was normal would have been a lie. Saying he was a superstar didn’t cut it either. He was just Guytano.

  I took one more look around. At the opposite end of the bar I caught a man staring at me. His forest green eyes had been what caught my attention. His shoulder-length silky blond hair made me do a double take to see if he was, in fact, a he. He caught me looking at him and turned away quickly.

  "Valerie?"

  I turned to Guytano. "Sorry, yes, you did very good."

  He looked pleased with himself. He tipped his hat slightly and did a few John Wayne impersonations. He had me laughing so hard that I actually teared up. I was glad that I’d avoided snorting, that would’ve been a big no-no. Guy seemed to be loosening up as well. He still had that layer of tall-dark-and-mysterious but some very male tendencies were showing through. Two redheads in short shorts came past waving and blowing kisses at him. His gaze lingered over their derrière’s before shooting back to me with a smile across his face.

  "Glad to know you’re not dead," I said, as I leaned over to make sure my boot was zipped up.

  "What?" he asked, with a hint of panic in his voice.

  I looked up and found the redheads still huddled next to each other and still staring at him. I pointed at them, and I saw his shoulders relax. As I watched him look around the bar, I was suddenly very sad that I hadn’t had Molly’s flare for horror films. I’m sure she knew everything about him. I was always clearing celebrity magazines off our coffee table when we lived together. I never bothered to read them, now I wished I had. I’m sure that most of what they print could be considered trash, but at least it was something to go off.

  "You know, I don’t really know anything about you," I said.

  "Nor I, you."

  He had me there. "Hey, I don’t know anything about me. I’m half-tempted to hire a private investigator to tell me if I got my name right. Sad isn’t?" He nodded, and I kept right on going. "So, tell me about yourself... I gather that you’re not from around here." It was the most tactful way I could think to ask him what country he was from. I had caught the slightest hint of an accent several times from him.

  "Well, I have lived in America for thirty-five years now. I was born in Genoa, Italy."

  "Wow, I want the number for your spa. You don’t look thirty-five."

  He leaned back against the wall and looked at me from the corner of his eyes. "Looks can be deceiving."

  He moved his hand slowly across the table. I slid my hand over and let my fingers dance along the table’s edge. I wanted to touch him, but I wasn’t sure he wanted me to. I sat there waiting to drum up the courage.

  Music filled the bar. The song was slow and beautiful. I moved in my seat to see who was on the small stage. The man with the forest green eyes sat on a stool with a microphone stand between his legs. He had his hat pulled down, almost covering his eyes.

  He’s shy, I thought to myself.

  His hand moved up to the sides of the mic. It was a simple movement, yet he made it seem strangely erotic.

  "I am happy to see that you’re not impressed with my fame." Guytano said, waving his hand in front of my face. He looked over his shoulder at the man singing.

  "Not bad, if you like this sort of thing," he said, unimpressed.

  "I don’t know. I think he could make you like country music. He’s making me a fan."

  Guytano shrugged his shoulders and moved his hand over mine. The touch of his cold skin brought all of my attention back to him. I’m sure that was his plan.

  "You’re ice cold. Are you feeling okay? Do you want to go?" I asked.

  "No, I’m always like this. Genetic I think." His hand moved
over mine. My fingers touched his wrist. Something was very different about him. Something was missing. I tapped my fingertips on his skin lightly, and then let my hand lay still. I’m not sure how I caught it, but it hit me, he had no pulse. I don’t just mean that he had a weak pulse, or low blood pressure, I mean he had no pulse. I jerked my hand away, quickly.

  "So, are you going to tell me what’s going on, or will I have to beat it out of you?" I asked. I knew that it sounded more like a proposition to him than a threat. I had intended it to. There was no shame in wanting Guytano, half the women in the world did. There was something different about him, and I wanted to know what it was. He looked around the bar and then at me.

  "I am not sure what you mean."

  "Like hell you don’t. That’s the second time I haven’t found a pulse on you. Care to elaborate, or should I just go?" I said.

  His eyebrow rose up. "Will you?"

  "Will I what?"

  "Go."

  I stood and he grabbed my wrist. I’d had enough of the games. The least he could do was tell me the truth. My life had been pretty normal until he’d waltzed into town. If you don’t count bizarre levitating instances, and run-in’s with people calling me a bruja, then my life was boring before Guy. I would never get that safe-suburban feel back, and that should’ve pissed me off, but it didn’t.

  "Don’t go," he said. I looked down at him, daring him to give me one good reason to stay. "I am a vampire."

  That did it!

  I shrank down into my seat. "You mean you play one on TV right? I’ve heard about you. I know that you make a living playing a vampire in movies. Hell, you’ve taken being a part owner in Vampyre Productions to the extreme here." He shrugged. "Yeah, and I’m a witch, I think. Now, tell me what’s really going on."

  His blue eyes locked on me. I watched as they darkened to near black, and little yellow specks of color swirled to the surface. I gasped, and he tightened his grip on me. He ran his tongue out and over his teeth. For the first time I realized that he had fangs. Why hadn’t I noticed them before? I should’ve screamed bloody murder and wet myself. I did neither. I sat quietly across from him in a silent state of awe.