After a moment, a pair of glowing yellow eyes appeared in the depths of the dark water, and then the new Nøkken ruler rose to the surface. In his natural guise, he was moss-covered and greenish, with dark veins running beneath his skin. It was hard to believe that anyone would be seduced by such a creature.

  He strode to the shore and left the water, standing in front of the Ulfen alpha. He smelled of sea weed and rotting vegetation, and Ardrik suppressed a sneeze.

  “What is it?” the Nøkken asked.

  “The Jutland pack has arrived, and with them the Doggerland pack. We are ready to begin our operation. Will the trolls be coming?”

  The Nøkken nodded. “The trolls and the frost giants will join. The others will decide after they see your success...or failure.”

  He nodded. “The Draugr in the cottage have silver bullets. They are ready for us.”

  “Then plan your attack accordingly,” the Nøkken ordered archly. “We have contracted with you because of your strength, not because you are invulnerable. Every war brings casualties.”

  “The Valtaeigr…” he began.

  “I do not care to hear about your spies and machinations,” the Nøkken advised. “I care only for results. I want the Draugr destroyed, starting with the last Huntsman and the Rune Master.”

  “The Huntsman is dead, as I’ve already reported to the witches. As for the Rune Master, she is careless. We will eliminate her soon enough.”

  The Nøkken began to return to the lake, but hesitated and said, “And your son, Dominic. Will he fight?”

  Ardrik raised his chin proudly. “None of my cubs are cowards. Even the omega will fight when he is ordered to do so.”

  “I hope so. I have heard that he may be...compromised.”

  Ardrik flushed, and he balled his fists at his sides. “His injury was years ago, and the Draugr who bit him is long dead. I made sure of that. He is no risk to you.”

  “If he becomes a risk, he will have to be eliminated. The witches will see to that.”

  He returned to the water without another word, melting back into the lake as if he had never existed at all. Ardrik returned to his four-legged form and raced back to his den.

  ***

  Nika was sitting on the couch with the Book of Odin in the early afternoon sunlight, and Magda came and sat beside her.

  “Lars tells me that you’ve decided not to pine away and die for want of your Huntsman after all,” she said, a smile on her face. “That pleases me.”

  Nika closed the book. “If he could wait for me to be reborn, then I can wait for him, certainly.”

  “That shows a great deal of character, my dear.” She touched the book with a fingertip, and Nika only barely resisted the urge to pull it away. “So, have you given any thought to what I said about your training? There is much you still need to learn.”

  She nodded. “I’m willing. I have to do something to fill the time until he returns.”

  “If he returns,” Magda said.

  “Why would you say that?”

  “Nobody knows what the gods will decide to do,” she shrugged. “I certainly can’t predict it.”

  “I came back many times, and always near him. He will come back near me.” Her tone was firm, and it was clear that she would brook no argument on the point. “Will I be going back to Ingrid?”

  “That would be a good place to start, certainly, but I had someone else in mind.”

  “Who?”

  Magda smiled. “My own mentor, an ancient soul named Natasha. She is of the Rus, like me, and she lives in northern Finland. She can teach you everything you want to learn, and things you haven’t even guessed at.”

  “Natasha,” she mused. “That’s a modern name.”

  “So is Magda. So is Nika. We all change with the times.”

  “I suppose so.” She tucked the book onto the seat on her other side, putting her body between its knowledge and the Valtaeigr who was so subtly intruding into her space. Magda noticed the way she guarded the book, and she smiled.

  “Too many secrets,” she said. “It will take you forever to learn everything in that book… unless you voluntarily put out your own eye and hang by the foot from the Tree of Life, that is.”

  Nika smiled. “Odin already did that. I just need to read his book.”

  Lars came into the room, a mug in his hand. Sif walked beside him, their hands entwined. Magda narrowed her eyes but said nothing. Sif saw Magda’s reaction and released his hand.

  “We’ll be heading out tomorrow,” he told Nika. “Back to Mellerstön on your own, or back to Stockholm with us.”

  “I want to go to Mellerstön,” she replied. “I have to face it sooner or later.”

  It was an empty house, devoid of Erik when it had been built for them to share. She was not eager to experience the hollowness she knew was waiting for her inside, but the longer she put it off, the worse it would be. She was not someone who avoided problems, not even painful ones. She would face this challenge head-on.

  Lars nodded. “Okay. I’ll take you home. These two can find their own way back to Stockholm.”

  He smiled at Sif, who nodded. “No problem. Will you be staying on the island, or will you be coming home?”

  He shrugged. “I’ll probably go to Kronberg, see if there’s any truth to the rumor that the SOG will accept us Draugr back into its ranks.”

  Nika frowned. “I don’t trust them. They tried to kill Erik.”

  “Yeah, but they missed. And that was one rogue officer under Loki’s influence, not the high command. I’ll be all right.”

  Magda asked her, “Would you like some dreyri, Nika?”

  She shook her head. “No. I’m going to feed in the hotel.” It was something else she would have to get used to.

  “Suit yourself,” Sif said.

  “Do you want me to go with you?” Lars asked.

  “No. I need to go alone.” Nika rose with the book. “I’ll put this away, and then I’ll go. I’ll be back before you know it.”

  “I can watch the book for you,” Magda offered. The impish look on her face said that she knew Nika would refuse.

  “No, thanks. I’ll just put it back upstairs.”

  She went up the stairs, leaving Magda’s knowing smirk behind, and went into her room. She tucked the book into her suitcase and locked it, then put the key in her pocket. No suitcase would hold up to a suitably determined thief, but she doubted that Magda would do anything so crass and obvious as breaking and entering.

  She glanced out the window, and she thought she saw a flash of eye-shine in the trees. She went to Erik’s bags and collected one of his pistols, checking to make sure it had a full clip of silver bullets inside. He had started to teach her to shoot, but she was certainly not the marksman that he had been; still, if the wolf came up close enough, she’d be hard-pressed to miss.

  She tucked the pistol into her purse and headed out to the hotel.

  ***

  The road ran through a quiet stretch of forest, and there were no other vehicles as far as anyone could see. Even Draugr hearing failed to detect engine sounds or the noises of civilization. They were that far out into the woods. Erik stepped out of the van and looked around, drawing a deep breath of the cool air, smelling the summer scents on the wind. It was another beautiful night in raiding season, with stillness and moonlight their only witnesses. The surprise would be absolute for whoever they would be attacking.

  The Valtaeigr alit right behind him, following him out through his passenger-side door, clambering over the van’s gear box as she came. She dropped down beside him and put a hand on his arm. “Take off your shirt.”

  All of them raided bare-chested, displaying their tattoos. He did as she commanded.

  The flame-haired woman began to chant, and as she did, she opened a screw-top plastic jar filled with something pungent. She began to smear it over his chest and shoulders, her hands working too quickly to be sensual. His mind tried to feed him images of another scarlet headed beauty, but her face was indistinct. He shook his head and tried harder to remember.

  “No, no,” Mia said, forcing him to turn his face to her. “Look here, not there.”

  He didn’t know how she had known that his attention had wandered, but then, how did the Valtaeigr know anything? Shamans and wise women had confounded him for centuries. Clearly this one was not about to change the trend.

  He focused on her, and she resumed her chant, rubbing the smelly oil into his skin. The others removed their shirts and pulled out their weapons, preparing themselves to meet glory or Valhalla tonight. Mia’s eyes pinned Erik’s, and though he tried, he could not look away. His skin tingled wherever her ointment touched, and he felt like he was on fire, burning to death from the inside out. His chest pained him, and he took a breath against it, trying to hide his reaction. He would show no weakness before his brothers.

  “Is it done?” Bjorn asked her.

  “Yes,” she nodded, capping her jar again. “It’s done.”

  “Is he with us?”

  She glared at him. “The effect will last long after the raid is over, I promise you.”

  “It had better. We need him with us. We need him to be seen.”

  Kjeld help up his camera, already shooting a video. “He’ll be seen, all right.” He grinned at Erik. “I’ll make you a star, baby.”

  “Fuck off,” Erik growled. Kjeld only laughed.

  Olaf walked out in front of the group. “The village of the trollkona Iselstad is inside this wood. She is protecting four troll children and a Huldra named Aingred. We will take the children for dreyri and burn the rest….” He hesitated. “Those are your orders, right, Erik?”

  Kjeld filmed his face in close-up. Erik felt confused and on the spot, but he knew that with his brothers, certainty was more important than anything. He could not show a crack if he meant to maintain control. He was their leader, after all. He had always been their captain.

  “Those are my orders,” he affirmed.

  Halvar laughed as if someone had just told him the best joke. Erik glared at him, and he fell silent.

  Olaf came to Erik. “And the Huldra… what about her?”

  “What about her?” Erik asked, feeling his skin tingling. He could smell the blood on everyone’s breath. He could the heartbeats of the trolls in their sleeping village. His fangs extended, long and feral. “Take her however you like, for as long as you like. She is my gift to you and the men.”

  They exploded into grins and back-slapping, congratulating themselves on their boldness and screwing each other’s courage up as high as it would go. They armed themselves with rifles loaded with incendiaries bullets, and Dag strapped a flame thrower to his back. The weapons were new, but the mentality was old. It was a small mob, but mob mentality would still rule the day.

  Bjorn pressed the double-bladed axe into Erik’s hand, and Erik twirled it around himself, the sharp edges whizzing through the air, first on his right, then on his left. He had always done this. It was a martial dance of sorts, a dedication of the blood he was about to spill to the Valkyries and the gods of war.

  Erik raised the axe, and they looked on in breathless anticipation, crouching like runners at the start of a race. “May the gods accept the sacrifices we are about to give them.” He grinned, his face filling Kjeld’s tiny screen.

  “GO!”

  They crashed through the underbrush and found the trolls’ village just a few hundred feet beyond, tucked into a little rocky valley in the woods. There were four huts, each one wide as a longhouse and just as tall, the roofs thatched and smelling of new grass.

  Too wet to burn, Erik thought. No matter. We will slaughter them where they sleep.

  They kicked down the doors and set fire to the buildings, axes and bullets putting the unsuspecting faery to their deaths. Draugr fangs sank into faery veins and screams filled the clearing. The Huldra was pulled out of the protection that the trolls had given her, and they all took a turn at her, biting and brutalizing. Her nearly lifeless body was dumped into the back of the van beside five terrified and manacled troll children, and then the bloodstained Viking vampires left, rolling down the highway with a blaze of destruction behind them.

  It had taken less than half an hour to destroy twenty-five trolls and take five captives. There was no gold this time, no objects worth taking, but when they sold the virgin troll blood and finished their games with the Huldra, they would feel well rewarded.

  The burning and tingling from the ointment was fading, and Erik’s senses were full of smoke and blood. He felt sick.

  Mia watched Erik closely. She met Bjorn’s eyes, then reached up to touch Erik’s neck. She spoke with a tone and timber none but a Valtaeigr could match. “Sleep.”

  He sagged in the seat, his chin on his bloody chest.

  “Kjeld,” Bjorn asked, “did you get that all on video?”

  “Every single minute,” he nodded. “It was just like old times. I forgot what a beast he could be. I sent it to Magda to see what she wanted to do with it.”

  The Huldra whimpered, and Dag said, “I think she’s waking up.”

  Their attention turned from Erik to their captives, and still the van kept rolling on.

  Chapter Ten

  Nika went to the hotel bar again, since it had proven to be such a good hunting ground. There were few people there this time, and she was about to leave when Dominic walked in, looking furtively around the room. His eyes met hers, and he started to turn away.

  “Dominic,” she called. “Don’t leave.”

  He hesitated, then turned back, a stormy look in his eyes. “What do you want?”

  “I want to talk to you.” She walked closer to him, and he stood his ground warily. She offered him a smile. “I wanted to thank you for the other night.”

  He nodded. “You’re welcome.”

  “Sit with me?”

  He hesitated and looked around again, then finally nodded his head. “Okay.”

  They took a booth in the back of the room, secluded enough that they could speak openly without fear of being overheard. The barmaid came to their table, and Dominic ordered coffee and a shot of whiskey. Nika declined. The silence stretched uncomfortably for a long moment before she found the words she wanted to say.

  “You could have delivered me to your pack, but you didn’t.”

  He folded his hands on the table. They were strong hands, square and powerful. He interlaced his fingers. “Well… you weren’t in your right mind, I think, and it’s not right to take advantage of someone when they’re in a vulnerable position.”

  “That was very kind of you.”

  “It wasn’t kindness,” he objected. “It was just...what was right.”

  The waitress returned with his order, and then Nika said, “I don’t know anything about the Ulfen. I know that your people and mine don’t get along, but I don’t know why. Can you help me understand?”

  He poured the whiskey into the coffee and took a sip. “It’s an old enmity.”

  “How old?”

  “Centuries. Ever since the first Draugr were made.” He cupped his hands around the mug. “I don’t know the exact details of what happened, but I know that the First attacked a pack in Sweden and eradicated them. They drank them dry and left their bodies for wild animals to eat. That pack had never done anything to them. The Draugr just attacked for the sake of attacking.”

  She frowned. “That’s terrible. I’m so sorry to hear that.”

  He looked down at his mug. “Ever since then, there’s been a kind of war between our kind. The Draugr expand their numbers and their territories, and they encroach on Ulfen lands and take our prey away. It’s become a fight over resources, I suppose.”

  “Do the Ulfen eat humans?”

  Dominic looked ashamed. “Sometimes, when we can. It’s harder to hide these days.” He sipped his doctored coffee again. “Draugr eat humans. We’re not that different that way. You must have killed your share of people.”

  “No,” she said. “I’ve only killed one person, on the night I turned.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “That’s not what I heard. I heard that you killed Loki in his Nøkken vessel.”

  “I just pinned him. Erik is the one who killed him.” She felt a twinge when she spoke his name, and she looked away to hide the tears that sprang into her eyes.

  Dominic said softly, “I had no love for the Huntsman, but I’m sorry for your loss.”

  She wiped her eyes. “Thank you.” Nika swallowed the lump in her throat and forced a smile. “The Veithimathr were sworn to protect humanity. I’m guessing that brought your pack into conflict with them.”

  “Good guess.”

  “How old are you, Dominic?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. We don’t keep track of such things. After a while, the years all run together, anyway.”

  “So, I guess that means you’re very old, if you lost count.”

  “Very old,” he nodded, “but one of the youngest in my pack.”

  “Who was ruling Finland when you were born?” she asked. “Human ruler, I mean.”

  He thought back. “The Russian czar, as I recall. Alexander the First.”

  “So, you were born sometime in the early nineteenth century.”

  “If you say so.”

  They fell silent, and he sipped his drink. She found herself staring at the scar on his throat, the obvious marks of a Draugr bite that had been meant to kill. From the look of it, he was fortunate that he still had a throat at all. Dominic noticed her attention and self-consciously turned up the collar of his jacket to conceal the mark.

  “Who bit you?” she asked.

  He frowned. “That’s personal.”

  “Sorry… I didn’t mean any harm. I’m just…”

  “Excessively curious?”

  “Something like that.”

  Dominic sighed. “I never knew her name. She was a female Draugr, very strong. She decided at the last minute not to kill me, and I still don’t know why. I almost wish she hadn’t stopped.”

  “Why?”

  “My pack thinks I’m tainted,” he said. “I’m the omega now. I’m not very welcome there anymore.”