A Pirate’s Life For Me [POSSIBLE Urban Mythica Book 7 Excerpt]
This will make more sense if you’ve read URBAN NORDICA: CHAINBREAKER (which you should because ME AND ALISDEE WROTE IT AND IT’S AWESOME), but you may enjoy it anyways. Back from 2008;
I wrote this on a lark… just a scene I had in my head, lol. Possible excerpt from the seventh Urban Mythica book featuring Miriah, our heroine; Loki, a god on loan from Alisdee; and Raine, Tara’s tattooed vampire lover. And a more or less mindless beast Joseph hunting them.
Miriah grunted as she shouldered the weight of the injured Loki, moving as quickly as she could to the set of heavy doors at the top of the marble steps ahead of her. To her left, Miriah spotted the tattooed blur of Raine leaping up ahead to the doors and pulling them open with a growl. Behind them in the park they could hear the roar of Joseph as he pursued them in the night. Loki’s caustic blood dripped onto Miriah’s shoulder and she winced; throwing them both through the doorway, she grabbed her hat and quickly wiped it away as Loki slumped to the floor.
“Once, just ONCE I’d like to come up against someone who doesn’t know his Kryptonite!” she spat, and Raine slammed the doors shut behind them, the sound echoing through the huge main hall.
“What happened to him?” the vampire asked, and Miriah grimaced.
“Mistletoe bolt,” Miriah explained, locating the shaft jutting from the small of his back. Raine grabbed Miriah’s hand before she could pull it out, motioning to the acidic hiss of the pooling blood beginning to eat at the wooden floor.
“I’ll do that,” she said matter-of-factly, gripping the shaft and tearing it out quickly; Loki yelped at this, but his colour was already returning. “I don’t remember the Norse God of Mischief being brought down by a Christmas decoration.”
“It’s complicated,” Miriah said, picking Loki up again. His eyes fluttered open and he looked around slowly.
“Fuck me,” he slurred, “Where are we?”
“Underwood’s Museum of Art and Science,” Miriah said, the group moving forward as one. “Hasn’t got any skylights thankfully, so we won’t have to worry about him coming in through the ceiling.”
“Thank heaven for small mercies,” Loki spat, “But where’s the…”
“Freeze!” barked a voice behind them, interrupting him. The security guard raised his sidearm with his flashlight beam, his mouth falling open, “What the fuck?”
“Ah,” said Loki, “That answers that then.”
“We haven’t got time for this shite,” Raine hissed, “Piss off, you!”
“Get on the floor!” ordered the guard, and the doors crashed open behind him.
“Run!” Miriah ordered, and the group fled while the guard stood dumbly at the appearance of Joseph in the doorway; before he could utter a word the demon had slashed out his throat with ragged claws, splashing the tapestries of the room with gore. Moonlight glinted off of the teeth exposed in the ragged hole where his cheek used to be, and he sniffed for the scent of Loki’s blood.
The trio ran full speed into the nearest room, and Raine slammed the doors behind them, locking them and shoving whatever was loose and heavy in front of them. Miriah cursed.
“It’s a store room,” she said glumly, “No way out.” She drew a flashlight from her messenger bag and scanned the area; she was the only one who needed it.
“It’s all pirate stuff,” Raine said, stepping away from the hastily barricaded door.
“I remember this exhibit,” Miriah said, propping Loki against a huge replica treasure chest, “It’s from when those pirate flicks were really popular and everyone was cashing in.” She grabbed a saber off the wall and examined it; it was barely sharp enough to cut butter, nevermind make an effective weapon. “We’re so fucked.”
“That’s the spirit!” Loki chimed in, tossing her a pirate’s hat, complete with skull and crossbones. Miriah caught it and looked flatly at Loki before her eyes went wide.
“Hello-o-o-o nurse!” she crooned, hopping over him and gasping for a moment when the doors shuddered with a huge bang; Joseph was pounding on the door now, and Raine growled. Miriah threw a sheet and some small props into the back and clapped her hands in hope. “Now we’re talking!” she said, shining her flashlight onto the huge iron ship’s cannon.
“Brilliant,” Raine said, “Let me have a butcher’s for some flint and powder, and you get a cannonball, we’ll be all set!”
“Have a little faith,” Miriah said, looking to Loki as the doors shook violently once more. “That trick you did, way back, with my guns; does size matter?”
The God stood up and grinned through stitched lips.
“For this? No Ma’am.”
Raine hopped over and, revealing her twisted predator’s face with the effort, lifted the heavy cannon and pointed it at the door with a crash, wood splintering beneath. She clapped her hands and her features reverted back to those of an attractive young woman. Miriah put on the pirate’s hat and stood with Loki.
“I guess we know who opens the jars at Tara’s and your place,” she breathed.
—//—
When Joseph managed to bring the oak doors down, he saw Miriah smiling at him with her foot on the cannon; Loki knelt behind it.
“Avast, motherfucker!” she shouted as she covered her ears; there was a flash, a noise like thunder, and soon Joseph found himself sailing backward and breathless, ribs shattered by the hot cannonball. His trip blew out a window and some stonework as he passed through the wall into the night.
The trio ran.