Howl for Me

Logan gri

“What do we do about the Old Man?” Fen stared into his father’s eyes. “He scarred my mate.”

Logan blew out a breath, all humor leaving his face to be replaced by grim determination. “We find him and kill his ass.”

Fen frowned, confused. “How will that hurt him? Has his ass done anything wrong?”

Logan’s expression blanked just before he burst into laughter worthy of Kir.

He barely breathed as he doubled over.

“What the hell?” Jordan stared at Logan as if he’d grown a second head.

“What did you do to him?”

“I asked him why we wanted to kill the Old Man’s ass. Surely the beast has no say in what Odin does.” It was probably as much of an i

He had no idea how long ago that had been, nor did he want to. He only knew he’d recognized that look. For all his brother seemed to be free, he was just as imprisoned as Fenris.

Her lips twitched. “Oh. American Idioms 101. When we say we want to kill someone’s ass, we mean we want to kill them.”

He shook his head. “Why didn’t he say so?”

“He did, you just didn’t understand it.” She patted his shoulder. “You’ll get it eventually. Jeff will help.”

He stared toward the bedroom door and smiled. “Yes. I know he will.”

Jeff, delicate and fragile looking, snored so loudly the door rattled. Fen gri

Chapter Nine

“So.” Jea

“Earthquake?” Jordan popped yet another piece of pizza in her mouth. For a woman who professed to hate olives she was eating a metric ton of them recently. And was that pineapple on her pizza as well?

“Good thinking.” Jea

No one said anything. Then again, the majority of those in the know were currently in Kir and Logan’s condo holding their own war council. The Grimm family had been relegated to Jeff’s place, not that he was complaining.

He bet they came up with stuff much sooner than the Norse gods did.

Sometimes all it took was a fresh perspective on an old problem, and who better to help them with that than Jea

“Note to self, look that up later.” Jea

She tapped her pen on the table. “Scratch that one off, ’cause I’m pretty sure it’s happened more than once and will happen again.”

“During an earthquake, while the Old Man talks to a decapitated head?”

Jordan sighed in bliss as another bite of olive and pineapple pizza disappeared into her face.

“How can you eat that?” Jeff shuddered in revulsion. “There’s no meat on it.”

Everyone stopped and stared at him. He shrugged. “What?”

Jea

Jordan choked on an olive. Jamie helped by smacking her back so hard she fell off the sofa.

Jea

Again, blank stares met her questioning look. “No clue, Mom.” Jeff got up and snagged his own piece of extra pepperoni. “Add another Post-It.”

She did. “The monstrous Beast twists in mighty wrath. Jörmungandr? Or someone else?”

Jordan frowned down at her pizza. “Dad said Jör wasn’t the serpent.”

Jeff stared at his sister. “He did? Then who was the serpent?”

She stared right back. “Odin?”

Jea

Jörmungandr, part of it could not. The Snake beats the waves sounds like him.”

“Yeah, it does, since he was banished to the sea.” Jeff took his seat next to Jamie and watched their mother pace.

“The Eagle is screaming.”

“That’s because they haven’t won the Super Bowl in forever.” Jamie flinched when Jordan popped her one on the back of the head.

“The gold-neb tears corpses, Naglfar is loosed.” Jea

“Screw this. Bring me a laptop.”

Jeff hopped up to do his mother’s bidding. He soon had her set up at the table, some of the papers set aside carefully so as not to disturb their order.

“Okay. If I remember, there’s more than one translation of the Poetic Edda.

Your friends have only given us one. Let’s see what else is out there.” Jea

“Not much difference that I can see,” Jeff muttered. He leaned down to stare at the screen over his mother’s shoulder. “Look there. This seems to say the Eagle and Naglfar are the same— and the tawny eagle gnaws corpses screaming; Naglfar is loose.”

“So we need to find out who Naglfar is.” Jea

Next.” She scrolled a bit. “There.”

“Another name to add to our list. Who’s Byleist and his brother? They’re in both translations.” Jea

Jordan gasped. “Logan has a brother?”

Jeff groaned. “You mean there are two of them?”

Jea

“That sounds lovely.” Jordan grimaced. “Zombies throng Center City.

Corporations notice no differences in productivity. Film at eleven.”

“The Joy of Frigg? Does that frigid bitch believe in joy?” Jea

“That seems to be pretty consistent.” Jordan pointed. “But take a look: