Chapter 14

Odin was not a fan of car rides. He was sure he could modify his inner ears to stop the nausea he was experiencing but also couldn't shake the notion that he shouldn't be allowed to shapeshift at all.

I am unworthy.

"Unworthy of what? The shapeshifting thing?" Freyja asked while she drove the car.

"Yes." Odin hissed.

He had forgotten the Link was still open between them.

No.

He hadn't forgotten.

It was strange. He expected Freyja to hate him, or at the very least resent him. Emotions like that just weren't there from her. At least, not as he understood them to be after having touched her mind. Hate, true hate, was something she felt when she thought about the Old Man. Odin and even the Hive didn't elicit such hatred from her.

He didn't understand it at all.

"I already told you I'll forget your name. Pretend I never learned it," Freyja said.

Odin nestled his front feet under himself more and shut his eyes. "I am a failure. I do not deserve the gift."

"Then why are you okay with me taking you to the Old Man?" She asked as the car slowed down.

It was a good question.

Why was he going along with this? He could have just stayed at the Armory and waited for someone to come kill him. But he had gone with her to see the gym and now...

"I need to be stronger," he said.

"You need to get stronger as a shapeshifter, but you're not gonna shapeshift? You realize how that doesn't track, right?"

Odin let out a huff.

It didn't matter that she didn't understand. He didn't need to explain the ways of the Hive to a human. He had been shamed and already failed his mission. He'd failed the Hive. Most of all, he'd failed Follower. He didn't deserve to live...but...he needed to be stronger. It was possible he could defeat Freyja if he consumed her father. Then, maybe, he could salvage his mission, after all.

"I know you feel bad about Follower. But letting yourself get killed? How does that honor his memory? How does that keep him alive?" She asked as she pulled the car to a stop. She turned to look Odin in the eyes. "You've got to live for the ones you've lost."

That was absolutely the last thing he expected to hear.

She wanted him to live?

"You want me to live to punish me with misery," Odin said.

"Nah. You just seem so sad," she said while tapping her temple. "Up here. I can feel it. Your pain. You're miserable, yeah, but I also know you think there are better ways for the Hive to do things. Less violent round about ways. That's why you distanced yourself from them before. You, uh, want to be a caretaker. Not a conqueror. The way you were for Follower. Hel, you even feel sad about having to snuff out Odin's mind and you half did that so he'd stop hurting himself. You're...well, you're not good but you're not pure evil."

"Hollow words."

"Meh, fine. Think of it this way: You're the devil I know. I've seen inside your head. I know how you think and what you want. I don't know what the rest of the Hive really wants to do. I don't trust what they told you. I'd rather deal with you than some other not-cat."

"Not-cat?"

"Well, you're not really a cat, but you kinda are. I could call you a 'worm cat.'"

"I do not like being called a 'worm.'"

"Reminds you you're small, right."

"No, it-"

He was cut off when someone knocked on the window of the car. It made him jump out of his seat and into Freyja's lap with a hiss.

"Ha ha, right. You're just a scaredy cat," Freyja said as she pet him behind the ears. He hated that he liked it. She unlocked her door and got out of the car, carrying Odin under one arm. He also hated that he liked being carried.

"You brought him?" Gunner asked from behind his medical mask.

"Of course. Why else would I want to see the Old Man?"

"Yeah. How are we gonna sneak him in? He's a huge cat."

Freyja looked down at him. "Gonna make yourself scarce or am I gonna have to shove you in a bag?"

"Invisibility is not one of my powers," Odin replied dryly.

She carried him to the back of her car, then opened the trunk, rooted around a moment and found a mostly empty gym bag. She dumped out the books that were in it and put it on the ground. Then, she sat Odin down inside it and started to zip it closed.

"I will not fit."

"Shrink," she ordered.

"I do not deserve to."

"Then no dinner."

If he didn't use his powers he wouldn't be able to gain the strength needed to kill her. If he went along with their plan he could dispatch her after her brother left town, then replace her, and no one would know save for the Hive. His mission could proceed.

"Fine," Odin replied while becoming half as big.

He didn't like the bag shutting around him. Nor did he like when Freyja hoisted it up onto her back, which caused him to slide around inside it. Her carrying him this way was equally as embarrassing.

He'd rather be cradled.

Odin kept quiet as Freyja and Gunner spoke to another human about viewing the body to 'say goodbye' or something like that. Freyja managed to sound sad, which didn't come across through the Link at all.

No.

She was happy.

The idea of feeding her late father to an extra-terrestrial invader made her want to sing and dance. She wanted to throw a party.

"I can give you ten minutes with your father. I'm sorry it's not more. I'm already bending the rules a lot here," the third human said.

"Thank you so much, I just...I didn't get to say goodbye before and, hck, I..." Freyja stammered through false tears.

"It's okay, Ma'am. I understand."

More walking, then a door closing. The bag Odin was in moved suddenly as Freyja slipped it off her shoulder and to the floor. She opened it, smiling.

"Come here, pretty kitty."

"Pfft, I am not 'pretty,'" Odin scoffed.

He slipped out of the bag and resumed his normal size. There was a large metal table next to him. He could smell death upon it. Leaping to the top was easy and afforded him a great view of a white sheet draped over a human corpse. Gunner stood by the door, holding one arm in front of him over his large stomach.

"It's a shame you couldn't eat him while he was alive," Freyja said.

"Based on your memories, I did not think you wanted anyone to meet this man," Odin said.

"She said 'eat,'" Gunner corrected.

Odin stared at Freyja.

She really, truly, wasn't faking. She was indeed happy to have him eat the Old Man. And, what's more, her brother, who seemed sad about the man's passing, was enabling the action. Which meant he too wanted Odin to eat the corpse.

"We don't have long, so hurry up and get to work. I'm guessing it doesn't take you ten minutes to eat a person, right?" Freyja asked.

"It doesn't," Odin said as he moved to the other end of the table, near the corpse's head. "Remove this sheet."

Freyja quickly grabbed it and pulled it to the side. The dead human looked very little like her and Gunner. He had a bald head and unkempt white facial hair. His pale skin was thin, wrinkled, and covered in countless tattoos of plants. In many ways, he reminded Odin of his current Host: old and worn out.

He glanced at Freyja and Gunner before loosening his body, swallowing the man's head, biting down with more teeth than he had as a cat, then moved down the corpse. He felt the flesh, dead blood, and bone joining his own as he went. And with that he learned something surprising. This body would certainly make him more powerful but wouldn't afford him enough strength to defeat Freyja in a one on one battle.

There was no way it could.

Shit.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Freyja asked.

"Wait, something went wrong? How can you tell? That looks disgusting," Gunner said while doing his best not to vomit, his hand pressed against his medical mask.

Odin finished eating the Old Man and resumed his form as a cat at the foot of the table. He licked his lips.

"This man was not related to you at all, Freyja."