Not My Apocalypse (9 page)

“We won’t be,” he said. He looked like he was convincing himself. He ran off toward the sounds of chaos and I followed him. When Fenrir came into sight I felt like I wanted to go find somewhere to hide. He was bigger than Sköll and he looked nastier. He seemed to be having a hell of a good time tearing shit up and showed no signs of slowing down. I held Excalibur tighter and Stefan said, “Come on!”

I shoved the fear down and we ran at the huge wolf. He stopped smashing the building he was standing in the middle of and looked down at us. “I do not know you, little ones. Who are you? I want to know if I should play with you for a while or just eat you.” His tone was almost laughing. He seemed to be having the fucking time of his life.

“I am Stefan, son of Odin.” He held Tyr’s sword up. I wondered if he was planning to stab him in the knee, ‘cause that was about as high as the sword could reach.

Fenrir’s canine smile faltered a little and he leaned down. “What is that you have there, little one?”

“The sword that was lost to love and is found again.” I guess the situation had turned him into a fantasy hero. He didn’t talk like this around me or the others.

“Tyr’s sword,” the wolf snarled. “Interesting, but no matter; even Tyr’s sword cannot stand against me.” I might have imagined the note of insecurity. According to the prophecy, part of the reason the gods lose is because Tyr doesn’t have his sword. We might be proving the prophecy wrong right now.

“Let’s find out.” Then the crazy fucker ran at the wolf.

I figured Fenrir couldn’t eat us both at the same time, even though we would both easily fit in his mouth, so I charged at him too, Excalibur held high. Fenrir went for Stefan, his head down for a snap, and turned slightly away from me. It was like the fight with Sköll, only with a much bigger opponent. Since his mouth was the closest thing to me, I stabbed at it. I grazed the side of his jaw, drawing blood, and he howled, turning away from Stefan to snap at me. I dodged away, stumbling over some debris. I fell over, but it actually saved me since his jaws closed around the air where I would have been if I hadn’t fallen.

His hot breath passed over me, his huge teeth hardly more than a foot away. Thankfully I hadn’t fallen on my sword and it was still gripped tight in my hand. I brought it up, intending to stab him in the soft spot under his jaw.

Stefan got there instead, charging the wolf and sinking the sword deep into the top part of his snout. Fenrir whirled, growling, and went for Stefan instead. He’d kept hold of his sword and yanked it out, most of it now covered in blood. I felt a spark of hope rise in me. We hadn’t planned it this way, although we should have, but it made sense for the two of us to try to keep to each side of Fenrir so he always had to worry about two targets instead of one. He was fast and he was huge, but if we could keep his attention divided between us we might be able to win this.

Stefan and I kept moving, Fenrir attacking first one of us, then the other. We got him good a few more times, once in his jaw, once on his nose, and I stabbed him deep in his paw. That hurt him enough that he backed away and gave it a few licks before charging at us again. Every time I stabbed him I got more confident. I knew we weren’t hurting him that much, but I hoped we’d be able to wear him down eventually. Preferably before we wore ourselves out.

Then Odin showed up, dressed in full battle gear.

Fuck.

He knew the fucking wolf was going to eat him, and he still came out to fight him. Stubborn old man. It pissed me off and made me admire him at the same time, but it caused us a hell of a problem. If the wolf ate him, then we were that much closer to Ragnarok. We could take on Fenrir maybe, at a long shot, but a full-on battle between the gods and the giants? Even I knew that was hopeless, although my stubborn ass would probably go out there and fight anyway. Better than hiding or waiting. Hiding at Joshua’s had made me feel like enough of a coward that I didn’t want to go through that again anytime soon.

Stefan exchanged a look with me, his face going pale. “You go stop your dad if you can. I’ll hold off Fenrir,” I said. How was I gonna do that alone? I didn’t know, but I figured I’d do it somehow. I had fucking Excalibur after all and I knew I could hurt the monster wolf.

Fenrir took a few steps back from us and looked at Odin. “Greetings, Odin One Eye. So you have come to meet your fate.”

“Fenrir, son of Loki, as I fall so shall you, at the hands of my son.” Not Stefan, but Vidar, the son that was a full-blooded god.

“So it has been said, Wise One, but I will taste your blood before the end.” Fatalists, all of them. It’s like they didn’t even want to try to go against the prophecy. If there’s free will, which I believe, then the future is not fixed. We can change it and I was going to prove it to them right here and now.

Fenrir was ignoring me in favor of his mortal enemy, so I charged with Excalibur held in both hands. Fenrir turned at the last second, snapping at me like I was nothing more than an annoying fly. Something hummed through me, Excalibur’s strength, or my own powers, or some combination of both. I moved just as fast as the wolf, dodging his huge teeth and running past his head. I couldn’t reach up very far, but I aimed as high as I could. I jumped and sank my sword into the meat of his left leg, almost all the way to his shoulder.

Excalibur got stuck for a second and I had to swing my legs up and push off against him to get enough leverage to pull the sword back out. Once the blade came free, I fell, again possibly saving me as Fenrir brought his head around to attack me. I hit the ground with a thud, knocking my breath out. I rolled out of the way and Fenrir just missed me again.

“Whose spawn are you, annoying fly? Are you Odin’s bastard as well?” Fenrir growled down at me.

I’d distracted him, at least for a moment, and that made me feel good. “No. I’m Lucifer’s.”

The wolf licked his snout, his tongue running over one of the wounds we’d given him. “Jehovah’s adversary? Are you not prophesied to bring about the end of the world?”

Good thing he was curious, because it gave me a chance to plan my next attack and it gave Stefan some time to get his father out of there. “I don’t want the world to end. That’s why I’m here.”

The huge wolf laughed, little drops of blood falling from his muzzle. “Do you believe you can stop me, little flea? It is my fate to eat Odin and you cannot change fate.”

“We’ll see about that.” I ran at him. Maybe it was just adrenaline, but again I seemed to be faster. I could swear I wasn’t running this fast when we started the fight, and I should be getting tired now. Except I felt like I had more energy and I didn’t have time to consider it. Fenrir moved to stop me, his mouth opening wide. I could’ve avoided his jaws; I had just enough time to choose which way to dodge. Instead of getting out of the way, I ran straight on with Excalibur held high and went right into Fenrir’s mouth.

I jabbed the sword into the roof of his mouth and it forced him to keep his mouth open instead of chomping on me. He roared and shook his head, trying to get rid of me. I was all too happy to not be so up close with those huge teeth, but the sword stuck for a moment and I wasn’t going to let it go. He shook his head again, the sword slid out, and I tumbled away from him.

I’d been half inside his mouth and just as the shock of it was starting to hit me, I had to race away to avoid being chomped on for real this time. I got a look at his eyes and the expression in them told me he was done fucking around. He was seriously pissed. I guess having a magical sword shoved in the roof of your mouth will do that.

I really wanted to glance behind me to see how Stefan was doing at keeping his father away from Fenrir. He couldn’t delay him for long unless he could flat-out convince him that today was not his day to die. No way he had the strength to actually hold him back. So I guess I just had to keep Fenrir’s mouth occupied so he couldn’t use it on Odin. I raced around the huge black wolf, using the surprising speed I still had, forcing him to turn if he wanted to follow me. I tried to get in a slash along his side, but I wasn’t quite fast enough for that.

“I will eat you first, you hell-born vermin!” His voice sounded a little funny coming out of his wounded mouth. Running away didn’t make me feel good and I almost stopped to face him again, but then I realized if I could get Fenrir far away from Odin, he wouldn’t be able to eat him. I’d already pissed off the monster wolf enough to draw his attention, so as long as I could keep it, I could draw him away while Stefan worked on convincing his dad not to go to his doom.

I raced through the ruins Fenrir had created and heard the monster wolf behind me, growling like a huge thunderstorm. I’d never run so fast in my life, or been so quick to react, able to shift in midair when I jumped over a piece of debris. Fenrir stayed behind me, but he didn’t catch up. Several minutes into my run, I realized it must be my powers kicking in again.

Although most of me was focused on not getting bitten by the thing only a few feet behind me, a small part of me thought if this is what it would be like for me all the time in the future, it was gonna be awesome. Running, quick reflexes, plus ice powers and fire powers. Oh, and teleporting. If I had all those at the same time, plus Excalibur or something like it, I really might be able to stand up to my father.

But first I had to survive Fenrir. I ran through Asgard, the monster wolf at my heels. I couldn’t stop or he would chomp me in a second, and I wouldn’t even have time to get Excalibur up to hurt him.

Then I started to get tired. Carrying a sword didn’t help and having to jump over all the debris, some of it on fire, only drained my energy faster, and it soon became apparent that Fenrir was going to catch up to me. I had to think of something to do. If I spun to face him, I might not be fast enough. He was so close his hot breath blasted against me. If he got me in his mouth I might be able to hurt him again, but he also might be able to bite down faster than I could stab him. One bite was all he needed.

As I passed another burning building I got an idea. Heat. If I could just get myself hot enough, I might be able to burn his mouth. He still might snap me in two, but it would hopefully do enough damage that he wouldn’t be able to eat Odin, or anyone else for that matter. So I focused on heat the way I’d focused on cold in the dining room before I made it snow.

It wasn’t easy to focus while running and being chased by a huge wolf strong enough to kill a god, but I did my best and felt heat start to rise off my skin. I willed myself to get hotter and hotter, and even as I was running through the darkness I could see the heat shimmer coming off me. As I was getting hotter I was also getting more tired and Fenrir took a snap at me. Hot air rushed over me as his teeth closed just inches from my back.

I stumbled over some bricks and that was it. Fenrir’s mouth came down around me. It was so huge it completely encompassed me, one tooth scraping along my left leg. He would’ve swallowed me whole if it wasn’t for the heat. Hearing a wolf yowl while inside of his mouth is an interesting experience. The sound filled the world and beneath it I heard the hiss as my extremely hot body met Fenrir’s tongue. Then I was flying through the air as he spit me out.

I landed hard and by some miracle (or Excalibur’s action?) I didn’t land on my sword. I struggled to my feet in case he came for me again. I turned to face him with the heat shimmer still floating in front of me and I heard a sizzle. It took me a second to realize it was his spit burning off me. Ew. I always wondered after I had one of my rage attacks and got so hot why my clothes didn’t burn. I guess they were just protected somehow. It burns everything else. Fenrir flung his head around, howling in pain. My little burning trick seemed to have worked even better than stabbing him in the mouth had.

Now I had a few seconds to make a choice: I could either catch my breath while he flailed—and I did need to catch my breath, the super speed and strength only went so far—or I could go on the offensive and try to do some more damage. Yeah, no rest for the wicked.

My powers seemed to be working pretty well right now, so I tried to throw some fire at the huge wolf. With my right hand, the hand not holding Excalibur, I gestured as if flinging the heat out from my body. A few inches from the ends of my fingers the air ignited and a streak of fire shot toward Fenrir. The wolf saw it coming and dodged, but he wasn’t quite fast enough to avoid it entirely. The fire singed along the left side of his body, leaving smoking fur in its wake. Fenrir tried to yell something at me, but his burned tongue wouldn’t let him and it just came out as garbled, angry sounds.

He lunged at me and I gripped my sword tighter. This time he wasn’t trying to bite me but swept down with his paw to try to stomp on me. Excalibur sank into the center of his paw and Fenrir yanked it up, yelping in pain. The sword stayed in and I kept hanging onto the hilt. Fenrir flung his paw around. It didn’t dislodge the sword, but I couldn’t keep my grip. I landed harder this time, and now I didn’t have my weapon.

But I still had my powers, so as I got to my feet, various parts of my body protesting, I pulled on the heat again. It chose that moment to go out.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

Chapter 8

My heat power wasn’t working, so I had to assume that my speed and agility were gone too, and I was having a hard time catching my breath. Fenrir tugged Excalibur out of his paw with his teeth and for a second I panicked, thinking he was going to eat my sword. Instead he flung it away and it disappeared into the darkness.

Fenrir came at me again, and yep, my speed was gone. I tried to dodge and failed. At the last second I dropped to the ground. His hot breath poured over me, smelling of burned flesh. On hands and knees I scrambled away. It took two tries to get to my feet and I ran under the huge wolf, thinking it would buy me a few seconds. He twisted around, trying to stomp on me, and I spent a while just barely keeping from getting squashed as I got more and more out of breath.

My left leg throbbed and felt sticky and I remembered his tooth had grazed me. I had no idea how deep the wound was. Just as I made it out of the way of his paw yet again, his claw caught me, scraping down my back.