Page 15 of Coven Relics
“True or false,” Loki said. “Ravyn eats her pancakes with chocolate chips.”
“More like scientific fact. She loves sweets, but she can’t eat them often, or it makes her sleepy. Chocolate-chip pancakes seem to be an exception to that rule. She can get her fix without needing a nap.”
“You strike me as a fruit-topping kind of man.”
“Right as usual.”
“Sleipnir, you’ve actually eaten pancakes before. We just called them something different. The ingredients are similar, and we generally topped it with fruit. This isn’t some new recipe from this century. People have been making versions of it for a long time, just with a different name.”
That made a lot of sense, and now that Loki had a stack of them on a plate, they looked familiar. I didn’t know Ravyn all that well, but she had the right idea with pancakes.
“I want mine with this chocolate.”
“Good call,” Killian said. “What do you think Bjorn wants?”
“Chocolate,” Loki and I both said.
When Bjorn eventually woke up, he was going to want to try this. The seer had a massive sweet tooth. There wasn't much to do when we were stuck in the pocket dimension, but we had plenty of resources to feed ourselves and survive. I shifted and ran a lot. Bjorn liked to cook and see if he could force visions. He made up several new pastry recipes that were delicious. As soon as he figured out how to cook things here, I felt he was going to want to cook for us to show them off.
“Not to interrupt the pancake bonding, but do we have a plan when we get to the museum?” Killian asked.
“I already stuck spyware on his computer. I’m going to start there. I’m sure he knows the Paranormal Investigation Bureau is after him now, but Kaine wouldn’t have asked Balthazar and me to get a little illegal if there weren’t red tape and time he would have to cut through to get what we could find on our own. Valentine probably thinks he has time before ditching the cellphone, and his computer is safe. I’m going to start there.”
I didn’t know the first thing about what any of that meant, but as soon as I ate my chocolate pancakes and we found this wolf, I thought it was pretty appropriate to blood eagle him for his crimes.
Chapter11
Bjorn
Before we had to go into the pocket dimension, I always volunteered to keep watch and stoke the fires overnight in case someone attacked, and no one would die from the cold. Loki’s pocket dimension didn’t have hard freezes and snow, and we didn’t have to worry about anyone attacking us. I preferred staying up at night and sleeping late. That was what my body wanted to do.
Sleipnir was keyed to sleep during the night and hunt during the day. We had a system, but there were several hours where we could be together and chat. Ravyn’s cottage seemed to keep itself cool, and I was told it heated itself without fire. No one seemed to need to tend the fire or watch for invaders anymore. I didn’t particularly want to readjust my sleeping schedule, but I was needed during the day right now.
I groaned and stretched. I must have fallen asleep on the couch watching Ravyn’s television. She showed me how the remote and menu worked. A ghost child sat with me and helped me figure out what I wanted to watch. Back in my day, we feared the spirits. They weren’t happy about their lot. If they visited you, they expected you to avenge them, find their body, and do the rites so they could rest.
This young spirit seemed happy if Ravyn left the television on. I knew a little, but he filled me in on the history of these grounds from someone who lived through it. I came from a violent time. I didn’t participate in it much, but I never really thought about things from the points of view of the people who were attacked for lands or treasure. It was just how things were.
They slaughtered these ghosts on this site out of fear, and it was just so pointless. They gained nothing from it. The humans killed all of these supernaturals for no reason. They burned any treasure they might have owned and abandoned the land as cursed. No matter how I tried to rationalize it in my head, I just couldn’t.
Somehow, the spirits here weren’t angry. Maybe they had been a long time ago, but they weren’t anymore. Alfred suggested a television show for us to watch, and I put it on, but we mostly talked all night. I was much older than he was, but I missed so much history while I was in the pocket dimension, and I had never been to this land before. I wanted to know everything.
Alfred was gone when I woke up. Ravyn came stumbling out of her bedroom right around the time my eyes cracked open. She plopped on the couch next to me.
“Everyone in this house is a morning person except us. It’s unnatural. Science and evolution say not everyone is meant to get up at the ass-crack of dawn and be productive. Some people are hard wired to get shit done at night, and we’d all be dead if they weren’t,” Ravyn moaned.
“I don’t understand this modern custom. We all would have died if everyone was sleeping at night!”
“Thank you! Now, they expect us to allfeellike we are dying getting to work at seven in the morning.”
“Why do they do that? Do they know nothing?”
Ravyn just shrugged.
“I blame the Industrial Revolution and capitalism. You should hop in the shower and get dressed. That’s what I’m about to do. It helps me wake up. Killian is amazing and makes sure I get fed when I want to sleep late. Loki has taken over Ravyn feeding, too. So, I’m keeping both of them.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. Bathing in this century was lovely, and I knew Loki well enough to know he always took care of the people he cared about. If Killian hadn’t prepared food, Loki would have. I loved to cook, and maybe once I figured out how to do that in this century, I could join the team that kept Ravyn fed.
I showered and tried to enjoy it for as long as I could. It wasn’t just that I was hungry and Ravyn needed to eat. The eclipse was coming up, and we needed to stop Valentine. I was just figuring out how this cellphone worked and didn’t know what hacking was. I wasn’t a warlock, so I couldn’t do a locator spell. If I had the vision about the hybrid’s betrayal sooner, I was sure Loki wouldn’t have taught them how to hide from gods. All I had were some pretty fantastic fighting skills and visions that only came when they wanted to.
