In the Company of Vampires Read Online Free PDF Page A

chaotic.
    “Goddess!”
    I stared openmouthed at the man who turned from the small ancient refrigerator that squatted next to the TV, a chicken drumstick in his hand. He was tall, had shoulder-length bleached blond hair, and blue eyes that had seen more history than I could possibly imagine. “Eirik? Eirik Redblood?”
    “Goddess Fran! We are so happy to see you again! You have grown bigger!” A second man popped out of the tiny bathroom, wiping his hands on his linen tunic. He was bigger than the first, large and imposing, with a long brown beard that was split down the middle and braided.
    “Isleif? What—?”
    “She is pleased to see us,” a voice said behind me. I spun around and stared with continued stupor at the third man. He, too, was tall and muscular, but his hair was walnut, and he had a short goatee and mustache that gave him a roguish look. “Finnvid.”
    “Aye, she is pleased,” Eirik the Viking ghost said, frowning as Finnvid captured my hand and pressed his all-too-real lips to my knuckles. “Do not slobber on the goddess, Finnvid. It is unseemly.”
    “Sorry.” Finnvid’s brown eyes twinkled at me with an expression I remembered well.
    “What are you guys doing here?” I asked, trying frantically to wrap my mind around the fact that three Viking ghosts— my three Viking ghosts—were standing here in my apartment. “Aren’t you supposed to be in Valhalla? Didn’t Gunn and her Valkyries take you there? I distinctly remember her taking you away.”
    “We have returned,” Isleif said simply.
    “Freya has sent us to you to beg your help,” Eirik said, waving the piece of chicken at me.
    “Freya wants my help? The goddess Freya?” I asked, remembering a very pissed-off, very beautiful woman.
    “Yes. Frigga—that’s Odin’s wife—she asked Freya to take care of Loki, and since he keeps trying to sell her to the dwarves, she finally had enough and sent us to help you banish him to the Akashic Plain.”
    My mouth was hanging wide open in prime fly-catching position. I blinked at Eirik a couple of times, wondering if I’d suddenly gone insane. I reached out and touched his chest. He, like the other Vikings, wore a combination of fur, leather, and wool clothing. Each man had a sword strapped to his back, and a dagger and ax on his hips.
    Eirik’s eyes lit with interest as my hand touched his chest. “You wish to rut at last, goddess?”
    “No!” I snatched my hand back from him, remembering well his desire to do things that I had only ever considered doing with Ben. “No, I do not wish to . . . er . . . rut with you.”
    “Ah, that would be because you rut with the Dark One. He is here?” The three men looked around.
    “No, Ben’s in Europe.”
    “Europe?” Isleif pursed his lips and lowered his large body gingerly onto Geoff’s overstuffed beanbag chair. “You have had a quarrel with your man? We will give you advice.”
    “No, no, that’s not at all necessary,” I said quickly, all too familiar with their sort of relationship advice.
    “Advice,” Finnvid agreed, nodding. He shoved Isleif upright when the latter tipped over backward, having evidently not realized there was no back to the beanbag chair. “We are excellent in advice. I, myself, have had five wives. Eirik has had two, and Isleif has been married to the same woman for over a thousand years.”
    Isleif smiled smugly.
    “We are experts on women,” Eirik said, taking my hand. “You will tell us about this quarrel, and we will tell you what you have done wrong.”
    “Honestly, guys, it’s all good. Ben and I . . . er . . . we aren’t really a couple anymore. He stayed in Europe when I came home to go to college. Now I work for a Web development company.” I fought back a little bit of panic at the thought of the three Vikings, well-meaning as they were, giving me endless advice regarding Ben.
    “You aren’t a couple of what?” Finnvid asked.
    “Nothing. It doesn’t matter. Tell me about this thing