Page 16 of Seduction

He glared at her. “I’ve done no wrong, but you’ve condemned me to imprisonment on this cursed planet with the sorcery you performed on my body. Worse, you’ve robbed me of the battle scars I earned with my blood. Badges of honor I wore with pride. Now you would strip me of the last proof I have that I’ve earned the right to enter the halls of Valhalla. Never!”

She took a step toward him, stricken. “I…I’m sorry, Haldor. I had no idea. I thought…”

He ignored her and strode to the window, standing with his back to the room.

As she slipped away, she heard him mutter “By all the gods, I wish Sigrun had let me die.”

Chapter Eight

Haldor stared down, unseeing, at the bustling streets below. His head ached so badly he was tempted to go back to the looking glass to see if the doctor had somehow missed a Tabun arrow imbedded there.

He felt guilty for snapping at Selena. It wasn’t all her fault. Teasing my cock the way she did, making my balls ache – that was just the naughty wench trapped inside her, finally getting a chance to misbehave. She’s badly in need of a strong man who’ll take her over his knee regularly then take her to his bed. I proved that last night.

As for being here on Earth, well, that was the doing of the three Norn. Beloved maiden goddesses? Not to his way of thinking. Vicious old maids, that’s what they are. Three dried-up spinsters in need of a good fuck as badly as my doctor. Spiteful witches who envy human happiness and have nothing better to do than to make trouble in people’s lives.

They’d set his fate at the moment of his birth, as they did for every Viking child. It was because of them that he found himself trapped here – hungry, horny and lonely – instead of where he belonged, seated at a long table in the great hall of Valhalla with his departed comrades, feasting on roast goose with a mug of honey mead in his fist and a buxom wench bouncing on his knee.

He sighed and turned away from the window. Maybe he couldn’t do anything about the horniness or the loneliness, but at least he could still the pangs of hunger gnawing at his belly. He sat down on the bed and examined the tray she’d brought him.

A clear glass vial with a white substance that looked for all the world like goat’s milk. Back home, only sickly children and old folks with no teeth drank goat’s milk. He sniffed. At least it didn’t smell like goat. Next to it sat a dish of brownish gray paste. It looked like the excrement that came out of sickly children and old folks after they drank goat’s milk. She called this food?

He picked up the only item on the tray that didn’t look disgusting. A red object as big around as a duck’s egg. Fruit, she’d said. He sank his teeth into it and grunted in approval. Firm. Sweet. A pity they didn’t have liquor on Earth. He’d love to taste what came from letting a barrel of these ferment.

Once his appetite had been primed, he managed to get down the rest of the contents of the tray. Restless, he prowled the room, idly picking up objects for which he had no name, twirling them around in his hands and trying to guess their function. He soon tired of that pastime and dropped to the floor, did pushups and sit-ups until he was drenched in sweat, his lazy muscles screaming for mercy.

Haldor was curled up on the floor with a violent cramp in his side when he heard a hesitant knock on the door.

“Enter,” he gasped through clenched teeth, struggling painfully to his knees.

“Haldor!”

Selena rushed to his side, drew another strange object from her pocket, and waved it over his body. It made a bleating sound, like a lamb caught in briars. She dropped to the floor next to him.

“Your heart is racing, and your new organs show levels of severe stress. What happened?”

“Nothing,” he muttered. “I was training and got a cramp in my side.”

“Training? Please, Haldor. I know you’re angry with me, and you have every right to be. But I beg you, don’t do this to yourself. You’ll only slow your recovery. Earth’s gravity is stronger than Gadolinium’s. It takes a heavier toll on your body. And you’re at a higher altitude here. We’re on the 411th floor of this building. That’s like being near the top of a small mountain on your world.”

She stopped suddenly. “Oh my goodness. I’ve never had a patient from off-world before. I didn’t think to ask now that you’re up and about. Do you have a headache?”

“I won’t have, once you pull the axe out of my skull.”

She laid a cool hand on his brow then touched her machine to the back of his neck. It hummed softly, and the agony in his head instantly lessened to a dull ache. “Better?”

Now that he didn’t fear his head would fall off, he risked a nod.

“Your headache will disappear completely in a few minutes,” she promised.

He sighed with relief. “That would be a useful object to bring along to a battle. If a warrior can stay on his feet and fight on, he doesn’t feel pain. But when he’s felled, that’s when it gnaws at him like a hungry wolf feasting on his flesh. I’ve seen valiant men nearly bite off a finger rather than shame themselves crying out.”

Her eyes grew wide. “Your world is a harsh place.”

“It can be at times.” He reached for her hand. She didn’t pull away when he brought it to his lips and kissed it. “I owe you an apology, Selena. I spoke out of anger and frustration earlier. Instead of thanking you for saving my life, I drove you away. Whether patient or prisoner, I am here in your world for now, and I will make the best of it.”

“It’s all right. I understand. You’ve had so many shocks. Thinking you were dying then waking up on a strange planet…”

“I wronged you another way.”

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