Page 4 of Coven Relics
Chapter3
Sleipnir
Iwas still learning the cast of characters my mother surrounded himself with now. Bjorn was an old friend, but I really liked Ravyn and Killian. I’d never met Reyson in person, but Loki spoke fondly of him. The men with him were apparently lovers of Ravyn’s twin sister, which was intriguing.
The female dragon was irritating me. Even her voice grated. Most people here only knew stories about Thorunn and the others, but I used to live with the bitch. Her little werewolf pet wouldn’t have gotten his paws on that spell if it hadn’t been for that dragon. I really wanted to shift and carry her to a realm where they ate dragons. Did I know of one? Hades’ pet Cerberus ate anything. Then again, I liked that three-headed dog, and this woman probably tasted as bitter as she acted.
I liked the male dragon Ravyn called to help us. The little witch wasn’t his whelp, but he was just as protective of her as if she was his young. Kaine appeared to be in a position of authority with the resources to help us stop this, but he didn’t look thrilled to be dealing with prophecies and dead hybrids.
He would hate what my mother was about to say even less. I really hoped he didn’t set anything on fire.
“So, about that. We all used different forms of sorcery and magic back then. My siblings and I developed our own potions and spells. They werealwaysblaming me for shit. They’d come knocking at my door like,oh, Loki, we fucked up again, or we want to slut shame Freya and steal her nice necklace. A giant stole my hammer, and I’m beside myself. We desperately need you to fix it, but we’re going to find a way to blame you for everything.
“Sometimes, I just didn’t feel like it, and IlikedFreya. If she wanted to have a four-day orgy with the dwarves so they would make her a pretty necklace, that was her business, and I was proud of her. Long before I had to go on the run from them, I developed a tea that could hide anyone from a god. I drank it every day when they were out for my blood. I gave it to Sleipnir and Bjorn and taught the hybrids to make it. I wasn’t exactly expecting them to give me up to my family.
“Valentine doesn’t know I’m Loki, but if Thorunn’s bones were on the ship with us, she would have recognized my face, even if I was pretending to be a warlock. I’m sure she kept that from Valentine untilafterhe robbed the museum because he’s clearly stupid, but not that dumb.
“Anyway, my potions are flawless, even when I don’t just want to be left alone, so Reyson and I finding Valentine is out. A little witchy woo-woo with a locator spell would work, and I’ve also been alive a very long time. I find hacking amusing, especially when it involves shitty people. Sometimes, I skip the whole god powers and go straight for their hard drives.”
“We wouldn’t be in this mess if you had just skipped using your god powers back in the day and never made these hybrids and given them the means to hide from you,” Kaine snapped. “I don’t know you or your hacking skills. I don’t give a shit who you are or that the Aether shat your ass out to be a god. However, Idoknow Balthazar, and I trust him. You’ll work with him, and if he says no, you don’t do it.”
We all looked at the vampire, who hadn’t said a word so far. He painted his face differently than the Vikings did, but I rather liked it and wouldn’t mind doing it, too. I understood Kaine didn’t know us, and my mother technically started all of this, but Loki didn’t deal with authority well at all. He hated it when Odin and Thor bossed him around. He wasn’t going to play well with a vampire when it came to fixing this.
Or maybe not. The vampire’s face lit up.
“Hacking with Loki? Fuck yes!”
I didn’t know what hacking was or how it could find the werewolf better than a locator spell, but it seemed to be a form of modern mischief my mother enjoyed. Unfortunately, the vampire seemed to as well, making the dragon cranky again.
“Rein it in, Balthazar. I haven’t thrown your ass in jail because I can’t prove a damn thing, and you’re generally helpful, but Iknowyou didn’t buy that motorcycle you keep upgrading with money you obtained legally.”
Was hacking like raiding? That was a legitimate job the last time I was alive. You went out, found a village, and took their shit if they couldn’t defend it. Why would that even be illegal now? If you hoarded nice things, someone would eventually take them unless you defended your property. Countries closest to us by boat learned that the hard way.
“I like this vampire,” Loki said. “Vikings made an honest living stealing shit from people. At least this way, an entire village doesn’t get slaughtered. Look on the bright side, Kaine!”
“I mean it.Do notfuck my investigation up. Now, I need everyone here to clear out. I need Sasha to take me to the room Valentine attacked her in. It’s now a crime scene, and I need to find any evidence I can.”
“Please be careful in this warehouse,” Ravyn said. “Everything here is dangerous unless you know what you’re doing.”
“I have no intention of staying in this warehouse. Everything in here gives me the creeps, and that big-ass horse keeps staring at me. I know how your sister gets about her library, and I’m sure you’re the same about your museum. Go home and regroup. Take five and figure out how you’re going to get what you need to do the locator spell because if I find DNA in Sasha’s office, I’m giving it to my witches so they can do it first. I don’t need this whole group thing you twins have going on in the middle of my crime scene. Sasha can handle it. Go home.”
“But—”
“Nope,” Killian said, leading her towards the door. “This is terrible, and it should never have happened. But, if we can’t stop Valentine, it’s going to get worse. We need to take five minutes before we dive into that to celebrate that Gertrude Von Stein’s reign of terror might be over because she decided to blame you for every woman her husband propositioned behind her back.”
“You really should,” Bjorn said. “I just met her, and she’s awful.”
“So, there’s going to be a very small rave at that big-ass building they keep trying to put really shitty, human bars in close to the Academy of the Profane. Some big, human company bought it trying to cash in on college students because they don’t know everyone at the academy is supernatural, and they keep scratching their heads why their watered-down drinks and weird themes keep failing. It’s still decorated with the cowboy theme they just tried, and the vampires are going to make fetch happen with it by having a rave there. I’m invited, so all of you are, too,” Balthazar said.
“Ooh, I love a good rave,” Loki said.
“A vampire rave has the potential to get my mind off of this,” Ravyn said.
“Since we have the rest of the day free and it’s not starting until tonight, we really need to take Sleipnir and Bjorn shopping. I can conjure what Ithinkthey need and a wardrobe, but that’s not me. I’ve never been the kind of god that thinks I know someone’s mind better than they do. They should pick things out themselves.”
I definitely had opinions about my clothing now that I wasn’t stuck as a horse. Of course, I didn’t know what shopping was, but I had a feeling it didn’t involve killing and pillaging.
Chapter4
