The ramen place was small, noisy and had wooden benches. We took over one long table, ordering our broth. I slipped an arm around Kanesha. “So, we actually have everything dealt with.”
“Until…”
Until a bedraggled, wet, Monica stepped in. We slid along to make room for her. “I won’t ask how you knew we were here.”
She looked awful. Thinner. Starting to lose her hair. “At least you got rid of…you did get rid of whatever was messing with life and death?”
“I did. With a bit of help.”
She looked around the group. “Good, because if my dream last night is anything to go by, we have a new problem.”
“Ten minutes. Is that a new record?” Mike asked.
I grinned at him. “As long as it’s only one problem at once.” I turned back to her. “Spill it, and I’ll pay for your ramen.”
“I was going to spill it anyway. First of all, a bunch of fire giants is raiding Vanaheim. Which isn’t a huge problem. They’ll get sent home with their tails between their legs. But…”
I waited for the but, hoping the waitress didn’t come over until Monica had finished.
“But there’s some spillover.”
“That might be what we already dealt with today. We sent three of them back to Muspelheim the hard way.”
“I hope so, but the vision I had had frost giants, fire giants and a bunch of minor Vanir going at it in the middle of the Mall.”
I sighed. “I hope not. Let’s try and head that off. After the death stuff, people are starting to get suspicious that something really weird is going on.”
“I’ll give you what I can,” she promised.
The waitress showed up at that point and started to take orders. Not that it was hard, this being the kind of place where the menu was pretty short and consisted of variations on a theme.
I was actually amused by the idea of a knock down fight in the middle of the Mall, but I was determined to stop it from actually happening.
Just as she took the last order, the door opened again, letting in a blast of rain and with it an arctic cold that did not belong in DC, even in DC winter.
My head snapped towards the door.
Dressed like a biker, Angrboda was striding into the room.
“I think that’s who causes frost giants, fire giants and Vanir fighting in the middle of the Mall,” I asided to Monica.
“Oh,” was all she said.