Page 1 of Valkyrie Restored

1

Elin

Flashesof light burst before my eyes, blinding me. I dropped my head, blinking furiously to clear the black spots from my vision as tears streamed down my face. My heart raced, matching each beat to my blinks. I needed to see. People were in danger. For the moment I didn’t know who or why, but every cell in my body screamed with impending danger.

A sonic boom, louder than any thunder I’d heard, sounded off to my left. The ground rumbled and heaved below me, threatening to topple me off my feet. Before I could I throw out my arms to stabilize me, my wings—wings?—snapped out, giving me the added balance I needed.What the hell…?

I didn’t get a chance to finish my thought before I heard my name being called. Panic laced the deep, gravely voices. I wasn’t sure if they were audible or in my head because I felt the sound travel through me.

“Here,” I called while screaming it in my thoughts before taking the second to decide if it was a good idea. I didn’t know where I was or what was happening. Yet my body kept responding even as my mind tried to figure out what in the world was going on. This was nothing like my life, or what I remembered of it, but the rusty, coppery scent of blood, the light film of dirt that mingled with my sweat, and the stench of things burning made it seem all seem so real.

“Did you hear that?”

“It sounded close,” the second male voice responded. My mind screamed to run away from the sheer violence that resonated from their voices. But as with everything else, my body had different ideas. The sound of each individual voice sent a bolt of lust through me, but together… together their animalistic growl had me clenching my thighs as tingles ran down my spine.

Large, rough hands brushed against my wings while grabbing me from behind, closing around my biceps as if they were no bigger than twigs. This despite the muscle mass that I was proud to have developed after waking up in the hospital just over five years ago without any clue as to who I was. It wasn’t like my body belonged to a body builder, but I was strong and toned under the added weight curtesy of the medications for my headaches and weird seizure-type events.

“There you are. We thought we’d lost you. Are you injured?” The faint Scottish burr in my ear did crazy things to me. I wanted to lean back and rub myself all over the hulking body I knew stood behind me. It would be something like a bear using a giant tree to scratch their back fur.

Two other hands ran over the tops of my wings, sending fissures of delight to spark along my nerves. Kind of like the electric feeling I got when I used my personal pleasure device. For some reason, as much as I tried, I couldn’t call it by its name, a vibra—. Not even in my thoughts could I finish the word. Thankfully there was online shopping, so I never had to ask for one. Instead I just pointed and clicked. My brain skipping over the word in the menu and above the pictures.

“You seem uninjured. Why did you take off like that?”

“Without us?”

I shrugged, not knowing the answer. In fact, I didn’t know the answer to anything that was happening around me.

“You know we work better as a team,” the one with the Scottish burr who continued to hold onto my arms chastised.

“I, uh…” I began, but flashes of what looked like lightening on steroids flashed through the sky again. The ground shook again as a plume of dirt rose in the distance.

“We need to get back into the battle. They need us.” The owner of the second voice grabbed my hand and started to drag me towards those flashes of light.

“Yes, we can’t leave—” The rest of his words faded under the booming noises and the heaving of the ground. I felt myself falling. This time my wings didn’t protect me as the ground fell away from my feet. And that’s when the world went dark.

The air filled with the sound of a scream. One that came from my mouth as I bolted upright in bed. Sweat dampened my skin.

A nightmare.

That’s all it had been.

Not that it made my ragged breathing any easier or slowed my heart from its attempts to escape the confines of my chest. Black spots danced before my eyes as I struggled to slow down my breathing into a pace that would actually allow air to enter my lungs.

In. Out. In. I continued to focus on my breathing, praying for my tightness in my chest to ease.

My head swam. My body swayed. But then I felt the band loosen from around my chest, letting me breathe deeply. Those first few lungfuls of fresh, sweet air, coming in through my open window, did more to relax me than all the breathing techniques in the world. Nature always seemed to do that for me; calming and clearing my head better than any of the anti-anxiety medications my doctors prescribed.

Without hesitation, I jumped from my bed and hurried to throw on some clothes while simultaneously pulling my long, red hair into a ponytail. I needed to be outside. Out in the woods where I could dispel the lingering feeling of impending doom left behind by my dream.

I threw my head back and closed my eyes as I allowed the fresh breeze to cool my sweat-soaked face. Not even the sound of my screen door slamming shut behind me could disturb the peace of the moment. The remaining vestiges of the dream fled under the light kiss of lake water held in the wind. It cleansed me like an outdoor shower, scrubbing the remnants away.

Slowly sounds of the waking world filled me as the sun rose above the horizon. Not that I could see it. Only the faintest hint of lightening in the dark sky could be seen over the trees surrounding my rural property, like a halo effect. The trees led into a small forest that separated the few houses on the short, dead-end street from the lake.

Valhalla Beach Road. It didn’t matter that the beach part was a little misnomer, it was still close enough to the water to meet my needs. Besides, the name had resonated with me the moment I’d seen it on a street sign a year ago, during my travels through Manitoba.

There was a restlessness in my soul, a constant companion since waking up in a Greek hospital five years before. A coma they said. An unknown cause they determined. But when I woke, it was with no knowledge of who I was other than my name, a series of numbers, and a strong sense of independence. The name hadn’t been much help as we weren’t able to discover anything about my life prior to my arrival, unconscious, at the doors of the ER after being deposited there from an out-of-town ambulance.

The numbers we’d had a little more luck with. They turned out to be bank account numbers. Multiple accounts. And ones that came with lots of zeros after the one.

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