At First Light(Dr. Evan Wilding #1)(73)

The man spun and started back down the stairs, dragging the dog with him. As he turned, Addie caught a glimpse of his profile. And the intricate weaving of his braid. The series of turquoise and black beads knotted into the strands.

Exactly like in the footage from Talfour’s attack.

On the back of his bulging triceps was a tattoo of the black cross.

“Stop!” she yelled in her best you-are-so-screwed-if-you-don’t-listen voice. “Ryan Ruley, you are under arrest for the assault of James Talfour.”

Ruley’s shoulders came up, and Addie watched the tension in his neck. She could all but read his mind: Stay and face the music? Or run away?

“There are officers in the back, Ruley,” she said. “Don’t even think about it.”

From upstairs came the sound of a sliding door slamming open and then footsteps. Someone moving fast.

“Here comes the kid,” said the CACC agent by the stairs. He had his gun out.

Walters appeared at the top of the stairs. Addie could see the kid’s pulse beating in his throat. His skin was pale, his pupils large in the blue irises.

“Ruley?” the kid screeched.

“Kick it, kid,” Ruley snapped. “I’m right here. With the police.”

Walters looked close to tears. “He’s out back. Oh, God. It’s so bad. His head.”

Addie kept her eyes on Ruley. The guy had edged down another step.

“Stay right there,” Patrick told him.

Ruley blinked at Patrick, then shouted up the stairwell. “Who the hell are you talking about?”

“It’s Hank,” said the kid. “He’s all fucked up.”

“Mr. Walters,” Addie said firmly, pulling the teen’s attention. Her own heart slammed in her ears so that she could hardly hear. “Is Mr. Helskin hurt?”

The teen’s chin dropped toward his chest. A weird, high-pitched laugh emerged. Spots of color appeared in his pale face. “Hurt?” The laugh turned into a giggle as he sank onto the filthy carpet and hugged his shins. Addie noticed for the first time that the kid’s feet were bare and dirty where they thrust out of sagging gray sweats. He was shivering even in the olive-drab parka he’d put on since the last time they saw him.

Addie and Patrick exchanged glances. Patrick gave a slight nod and turned his attention back to Ruley, while she moved toward the stairs. It was the way they typically worked—Addie handled the women and kids because they saw her as less threatening.

She went halfway up the stairs and knelt so that she was eye to eye with the kid. “Mr. Walters? Are you all right? Can you tell us what happened? Is someone hurt?”

He lifted his chin so that their gazes met. Another giggle, this one as sudden and shrill as if he’d just been pinched by an invisible hand.

“You could say that.” His gaze slipped past her. “Oh, Jesus, God, and Odin’s wolves. You could totally say that. Hank is . . .”

“Hank is what?” Addie pressed.

“Dead! He’s dead!” The kid buried his face into his crossed arms. “Oh, God, what someone did to him.”





CHAPTER 23


“What do you know about the god Odin?” Christina asked Evan. “And seithr?”

“About seithr I know nothing. As for Odin . . .” Evan drew a box around the word Odin in his notebook. “He was the leader of the Norse gods, the ?sir. He was the god of poetry, wisdom, and death. He also revered wisdom and was willing to make great sacrifices in order to attain it. He hung upside down for nine days with a spear in his side and gave up an eye so that he could learn the secret of the runes.”

“Excellent, Evan. Then you can see why Odin, a god of both death and knowledge, would also command seithr.”

“What need would a god have for sorcery?”

Beside him, Simon leaned forward. “What indeed?”

“Oh, there was a great deal that a god could do with seithr magic. For one, he could see the future and perhaps even alter it. But seithr was even more important to humans. A sorceress could bewilder her enemies or heal the land or lure a beautiful man or woman to her bed. She could strike a man down in a cruel rage. Or she could raise him from the dead.”

Evan wrote furiously. “You said sorceress. The magicians were women?”

“Women and ergi men.”

Evan looked up. “Ergi men?”

“Men considered unmasculine. As in, homosexuals. Viking sorcery was likely sexual in nature and was very much the province of women. Or of men who had the characteristics of women.”

“Interesting.” Evan made another note. “Please continue.”

Christina arched her back and stretched. “The otherworldly beings in the Viking universe used the gaps among the worlds, the seams where worlds were pulled together, in order to travel. And while everyone knew of these so-called Others, it was the sorceresses who knew how to find them.”

Simon stood. “You two keep chatting. But we’re completely out of tea. I’ll make another pot. And see if I can rustle up a few more scones.”

He disappeared through the door to the back.

“He doesn’t care for all this talk of sorcery,” Christina said.

Evan looked up from his journal. “These sorceresses, they could find the places where different worlds came together? Where the Others lived?”