Odin's Murder Read Online Free

your support system during your time here. By the end of your four weeks, your team will feel like family members.”
    “Did you write that down?” Memory whispers to Julian. “Hopefully, this means I can find a new brother or sister. Maybe one that doesn’t steal my hair gel.”
    I laugh, glancing at Julian’s hair. I’d watched him tug at it for ten minutes before we left for dinner. I rub my naked scalp. One good thing about lock-up is free haircuts. Memory holds my glance for one brief, steady second, before refocusing on the student assistant, who is now describing the dining room, library and computer lab.
    Last time I saw her, she was lying in my bed. With her eyes off me, face in profile, I can check her out, and I take a long minute doing so. I haven’t seen a lot of girls recently, not this close up. She’s fantastic, and she knows it. She’s playing some kind of game, dolled up in a quasi-rockabilly pinup thing, shirt so tight I can see the pattern of lace underneath, hair up, showing off her white neck, long and nice, and legs that go on forever. I don’t know what the rules are, but she’s winning, hands down. I can’t keep my eyes off of her and neither can anyone else, male or female.
    “Don’t,” Julian says, so low only I can hear him.
    I play dumb. “Don’t what?”
    “Don’t judge that book by its cover. You want nothing to do with it, I promise you.” He hunches back over his notes, all ears as Zoe starts listing the ground rules for behavior.
    “Dormitory doors lock shut after midnight. If you break curfew, security will let you in, but you’ll have four hours with the janitorial staff for the favor. No boys in the girls’ rooms. This program is sponsored by the college, which does maintain a strict conservative campus. Ladies, you are welcome to have male visitors in the lounge only. Girls can go into the boys’ rooms, but only until 10pm.”
    “That’s worse than last year,” Memory says. Several other girls nod in agreement. “And it’s completely sexist.”
    “Welcome to the Bible Belt. I don’t make the rules. Next: You may not smoke—even if you are over eighteen—drink or use drugs while you’re here. If you are found with alcohol or illegal substances, you’ll be sent home.
    “Finally, to keep the integrity of the program consistent, and curtail outside distractions, you may not leave campus unless it is a designated trip with the program.” Zoe looks around the room. “Did you hear that? I’m going to say it again. You may not leave school grounds unless you are with a chaperoned group and a teacher. This campus is on private grounds. I’m sure you saw the gates when you arrived. Should you leave for any reason, security will not let you back onto campus without direct escort by the dean himself.”
    She tells us the time and reminds us of the curfew. I stand, and stretch. Memory is talking to some girl half her size, with short brown hair and piles of clothes that make me curious about the body hiding beneath.
    “You know what they say SHP really stands for, right?” Memory asks.
    The other girl frowns, dark eyes huge in a little face. “No.”
    “Sent Home Pregnant.”
    “What? Why?”
    “Because half the kids here lose their virginity before they go home, and they’re totally unprepared. No protection. They come here for college credit and leave with a new definition of the creative process.”
    “You’re kidding, right?” the girl asks. She touches a pendant between her collarbones, like a delinquent’s mother stroking a cross, but the necklace is a naked woman, straddling the man on the moon, curved crescent horn between her legs like—
    “I wish I were.” Memory turns and winks at me. “Goodnight.”
    I close my teeth with a click. Julian and I watch them leave.
    Girls.
    *
    “I’ve taken the liberty to alter our part of the program a little this summer,” Dr. Anders announces, scratching his chin under the blond beard. I wonder if he