by Amy Sumida
As soon as I reached to close the book I'd been using, Ull turned sharply to face me. “Where did you get that?”
“It belonged to Ku.”
“Oh,” he sat down next to me and ran a finger along the edge of the cover. “You killed him right?”
“Yeah, I was trying to prevent myself from becoming his next sacrifice at the time.”
“Hey,” he held up his hands, palms out, “I don’t have a problem with you taking out the competition.”
“Hmmm,” I closed the book. “Speaking of competition, I met your mother.”
“You think of my mother as competition?” His mouth twisted in mirth.
“More importantly,” I pushed at him, “she thinks of me as competition. She would’ve decapitated me while I slept if Blue hadn’t told her to back off.”
“Blue?”
“Sorry,” my face burned red. “I mean Huitzilopochtli.”
“You have a pet name for the big bad vampire god who kidnapped you? What is this, Stockholm syndrome?” He had totally sidestepped the part where his mother had tried to kill me.
“It’s not a pet name,” I sighed. “He actually made the same comment. Do they give all you guys the same script? I was getting tired of his long-ass name so I shortened it, that’s all.”
“How is Blue short for Huitzilopochtli?”
“It’s not, it’s short for ‘Blue Hummingbird on the left’, the English translation.”
“I bet he liked that,” Ull chuckled, sharing my delight in Blue’s irritation.
“He was thrilled,” sarcasm dripped from my words as I smirked, “especially when I told him how apt a description it was going to be of certain body parts if he continued to chase me.”
“You said you’d give him blue balls?” Ull roared, smacking the stones beneath him. “Holy shit, woman, talk about balls, you’ve got brass ones.”
“Why, Ull,” I batted my lashes at him and slid into my southern belle accent, “you say the sweetest things.”
He picked up the remnants of the box, still laughing a little, and looked it over. “What did you use, a sledgehammer?”
“Ha ha” I smirked. “I needed to use god magic.”
“Oh hey,” he dropped the box, quickly moving on to the next subject, “so you met Mom?”
“Uh, well, noooo, not exactly,” I extended the no to convey my annoyance. “ I got to listen to the dulcet tones of her voice but I never had the pleasure of actually meeting her. She woke me up by screaming at Blue to let her in so she could chop my head off for bewitching her husband.”
Ull snorted. “She said she was going to kill you for bewitching Dad?”
“Yeppers.”
“Whoa, Mom needs to move on.”
“How long has it been since they um, divorced?” I wasn’t sure god unions worked the same as human ones. I mean it wasn’t like they had to file paperwork.
“About five-hundred years, give or take,” when I gaped at Ull he laughed some more. “Some of us hold grudges a long time.”
“Grudges sure,” I snorted, “but she’s just plain in denial. How can she possibly think he’s still her husband?”
“She can think whatever she likes,” Ull shrugged, “she’s a goddess.”
“She’s an Atlantean and so are you but I’m not going to argue semantics. Either way, she would’ve killed me for nothing because I’m not sleeping with Thor.”
“You’re not?” Ull waggled his brows at me. “So you’re available?”
“What she meant to say,” Thor’s booming voice cut in, “was she’s not sleeping with me yet but she will be… soon.”
“Holy shit,” I jumped and turned to see him in the doorway. “How'd you get in here?”
“You invited me, remember?” He frowned as if I was daft.
“Once,” I glared back, “that doesn't mean you can just waltz on in whenever you like.”
“You want me to knock?” His brow furrowed.
“It would have been polite, yeah.” I got to my feet. “I could've been doing something.”
“Yeah, like me,” Ull just had to pipe up.
“Leave her be,” Thor growled and Ull just smiled bigger.
“Fine, whatever,” I pushed Thor back out the door. “Let me get my purse and we can go.”
“Good,” Thor calmed a little. “Teharon is waiting. He thought you'd be there already since it was you who was so eager to get into Huitzilopochtli's head.”
“Blue,” corrected Ull. I glared at him.
“What?” Thor started to look confused again.
“Blue,” Ull was all smiles. I guess he figured if he wasn’t going to get to screw me, he’d just screw with me. “It’s what Vervain calls Huitzilopochtli. It's her little pet name for him.”
We were losing Thor to his storm eyes again. Great.
“It’s not a pet name and I will make you pay for this, Ull.” I glared harder.
“So what is it then?” Thor’s voice was tight and I was getting a little tired of defending myself to a man I wasn’t even technically dating.
“It’s a simple shortening of his English name and I intended it to be insulting.” Okay, that was a stretch but I didn’t think Thor would like the idea of me teasing the bad guy.
“You were trying to insult him by calling him Blue?” Thor narrowed his eyes. “I can think of several things more insulting right off the top of my head.”
“She told him it would be the color of his balls if he kept trying to boff her,” Ull’s voice inserted helpfully.
“You what?” I didn’t know if Thor was going to laugh or choke.
“Well not in those precise words,” I grumbled.
Thor began to laugh, and laugh, and laugh. The shelves shook, the windows rattled, and Nicholas came zipping through the hallway to hide in my bedroom. I admit I cringed a little.
“You are lovely,” Thor grabbed my face and planted a kiss on my nose.
“For telling some dude I’d give him blue balls?” I couldn’t see the “lovely” in that.
“For defying him with humor when most women would have cried, lay down and...”
“Closed their eyes and thought of Mother England?” They both raised their brows at me. “What?”
“Nothing, darling,” Thor squeezed me against him and I remembered the dream with him on the beach. So he had called me darling. “You just have a way with words.” The last part was whispered in my ear.
Sweet tingles spread out from the spots his warm breath hit. I pushed him a little and rubbed at my ear as he laughed. I was doomed, so doomed.
Chapter Fifteen
“I'm just not convinced you're ready,” Teharon said for like the fiftieth time, or maybe the third.
“I'm done waiting,” I growled. “Let's just do this.” I'd been over and over the same exercises with him for hours. I knew what to do, the only thing left was practical application.
“I guess we can give it a try,” he sighed.
I let out a whoop before kissing his cheek. “Thank you. I know I can do this, Teharon.”
“I don't doubt that you know what to do, Vervain,” he looked really worried. “There's just a big difference between knowing and doing. There's so much that can go wrong.”
“And you'll be here to help me if something does,” it was the same argument I'd been using for half an hour now. There really wasn't a need to repeat it except for it seemed to finally be sinking in.
“Okay,” he scooted back on the library's floor to give me room to work. “Close your eyes and sink into your subconsciousness like I taught you.”
“Alright,” I smiled, “sinking.”
“Find that part of yourself that seems hollow,” he kept coaching but his voice became distant, as if he'd retreated to the far side of the room although I knew he was still seated before me. “There should be impenetrable walls around this hole. Let them down slowly, carefully, gently.”
I found the place where Blue had taken a piece of me easily
enough. I'd erected psychic walls around it that I pictured as thick seamless steel. I reached for the steel and began to push it down gently. Something slipped, I pushed too hard, was too eager, and the weight of those walls fell like the clang of a large bell, reverberating through my head.
“No! Gently!” Teharon cried.
“I know,” I mumbled in my half aware state but before I could say anything more, I felt Blue surge through the hole.
I had no time to block or fight back. The wall crashed down and he was there before the echoes faded. I felt his heat seep into my mind and spread. There was a flash of crimson eyes, deadly black hair falling over me, and then pure panic. My entire body tensed to fight while I vaguely heard shouting around me. I went numb, arms falling limp, eyelids heavy, before being revived with fresh imperative, a new focus and direction.
Home, I had to go home. I got up quickly, brushing away something that was trying to hold me down. I headed into the hallway. Shapes fluttered around me as I walked but I kept batting them away. I just needed to get out of this place and get home. Yes, home where he would come for me. My god and lover commanded that I return to him. I must go.
Then suddenly I wasn’t moving anymore, there were strong arms around me and I fought them but I couldn’t make them let go.
“Vervain!” I heard my name and frowned. I knew that voice, it was important to me.
“Little witch,” my lover whispered inside my head, blocking out the other. “I ache for you. I need you, do not fail me.”
My heart wrenched at the sadness in his words. I had to get to him. He was grieving for me. How could I have been so cruel? I knew he loved me, I knew he needed me with him, but I’d left him. I’d been vicious and hateful. I’d behaved like a child but I’d gladly spend the rest of my life making it up to him.
Vaguely, I felt the sensation of more hands on me and somewhere in the background I heard voices shouting louder but all I could concentrate on was Blue. He kept calling to me, urging me forward and lending me his strength. He loved me so much he was giving me a piece of himself so I could fight the horrible people trying to restrain me.
I bucked and writhed. I twisted and kicked, but I couldn’t break free. I felt the cold bite of steel around my wrists and ankles, sending me into a screaming rage. I had to get to him, why were they trying to keep me from him?
“They are evil,” his voice caressed me inside. “They want you for themselves. They will all use you, one by one, and then they will throw you away like you’re trash. I’m the only one who truly loves you, little witch. You must come to me so I can protect you.”
I fought as if my life depended on it. Hands reached out to calm me and I bit at them, clawed at them. They wouldn’t have me without a fight. If they thought I’d just lie still while they all took their fill, they’d be sorely surprised. I was the beloved of a god. Nothing could keep me from him.
“Huitzilopochtli!” I cried. “Help me!”
“I’m giving you my strength, sweetheart. Fight them, you must fight them.”
I felt his magic pour through me and I strained at the chains. Something warm coursed down my wrists, which brought on more shouting until someone placed a damp cloth over my face. I inhaled a sharp scent and sank into oblivion.
Chapter Sixteen
I was warm, no, hot. I was burning hot, my screams boiling up my throat. I would’ve given anything for a drop of water, sold my body and soul for it in a heartbeat. The thought of cool liquid relief made me whimper. I couldn't get words past the desert my throat had become. Then something cold caressed my skin and I sighed. The cloth skimmed over my body but as soon as it left, I burned once more.
Someone held a cup to my lips and told me to drink. Heavenly water poured into me, a temporary balm, it doused the flame for only a moment. Like fighting off a lava flow with a garden hose, it merely crusted the surface until the flow moved on and swept it away. My mind was fuzzy, my brain becoming nothing more than stewed meat. I fancied that I saw flames licking at the inside of my closed eyelids. My muscles were clenching and pulsing, desperately trying to escape the inferno.
“He said only he could save her,” a voice echoed through the room, the acoustics sounding strange. “Would it not be better to let him have her than to let her die?”
“She will not die!” That voice was so familiar, I almost wept. “Teharon will save her.”
“No more,” I whispered and heard them move closer.
I forced my eyes open and saw that I was in some kind of cave. The sound of waves crashing and the smell of salt filled the air. The men who had been speaking came slowly into focus. Two were light-skinned with fair hair, a third was pale but with dark hair, and the last was dark-skinned with dark hair. It was the darkest one who approached me and when I tried to move, the clinking and weight of chains alerted me to my condition. Why was I chained to a bed in a dank cave?
“Don’t try to move yet,” the dark one said. “I’m here to help you. Trust in me, focus on my voice, join your eyes with mine.”
I looked at him as he leaned over me. I knew him. His name was... “Teharon,” I croaked.
A gruff sound erupted from the dark on my right but I couldn’t take my eyes from Teharon. I saw the Indian make a calming motion toward the darkness and whoever it was quieted.
“I’m going to do some healing magic on you and I’d like your permission to enter your mind,” Teharon’s hands glided over me with a cool cloth. “The evil has settled there and taken root so I must follow it in to weed it out.”
I was about to say yes when I felt the heat rise and a voice that wasn't mine pushed out of my throat. “No! You will not have her!”
“He’s here,” Teharon moved but I could no longer see him clearly, my eyes were covered by a red film. “Throw these herbs on the fire and I’ll start the journey.”
“Teharon the weak,” that voice was scathing. I couldn’t believe it was coming from my throat. Was I possessed? Did I actually need a priest? Holy cannoli, I always thought all that exorcism stuff was crap. “You cannot fight me, healer. This one is mine and I’m the only one who can save her.”
“Yeah, yeah we’ve heard the same routine from you all night. Try something new.”
“Don't speak to him, Ull,” I felt Teharon settle his body over mine and I sighed as it began to absorb my heat. “You give him more to reach out to when you acknowledge him.”
My body started to convulse and the red over my eyes seemed to spread through me. I would’ve screamed if I could have made my voice work. Strong hands grasped mine and Teharon’s heavy body held me down. I heard him chanting above me and the words spread calm through my limbs.
Inside me I felt a rush of cold like a glacier-fed river. Water met fire in violent fury, sending searing steam against the inside of my skin. The lava had reached the sea yet it continued to rage on underwater. This fire could not be quenched by mere water. It called for blood and I shook my head in denial. I'd let it burn me alive before I gave in to that horrifying need. The effort cost me and I was panting with exertion when I heard someone inhale sharply.
“Do you see her teeth?” I think it was the one called Ull. “She’s growing fangs.” I hissed at him. I was angry, furious, though I didn't know why. “Fuck, her eyes are red.”
“Teharon,” someone spoke carefully, like he was about to fall apart, starting with his voice. “Please, I can’t fight this battle.”
The man above me kept chanting, like nothing else was important, but he wasn’t really above me, he was inside of me. I felt him stroking me from within, searching through every hidden part and soothing as he went. I felt the fire retreat from him. I felt the fresh water of his soul heal and renew me. It may not have been blood but water's persistence won out over fire's passion in the end. A terrible scream echoed through my head. Then the last ember was extinguished. I took a deep, cleansing breath and opened my eyes.
Everything came into sharp focus and my cooling mind began to make sense
of it all. Above me was Teharon, his body still along mine, supported by his arms. On the right side of the bed was Thor and when I met his gaze, his face filled with relief. Beside him, Ull was just lowering his arm from Thor’s chest, as if he’d been holding his father back. Near the foot of the bed was Finn and his face lit up with a bright smile when he looked at me.
“Aunty Em,” I rasped, “I had the strangest dream. And you were in it … and you …,”
Finn and Ull laughed, relief amping their voices and sending the sound echoing through the cave. Teharon’s blue eyes looked into mine with a trace of confusion.
“Haven’t you ever seen The Wizard of Oz?” I smiled as best as I could with my dry, cracked lips.
“Maybe you’ll play it for me?” He gently kissed my forehead and eased off my body before Thor could do more than growl at him.
I felt energized and tried to sit up as well but the chains still held me down. “Hey, I’m all for a little kink every now and then but the group thing doesn’t turn me on, so either all but one of you leaves or someone needs to unchain me.”
Thor was the only one who didn’t find that funny. He stepped over and unlocked my chains with quick movements and then helped me to my feet. His fingertips stroked my forehead and he looked into my eyes like he could see the healed parts of my mind through them. He finally nodded and that’s when I noticed his arms. They were cut deeply on both sides. He looked like a wild animal had used him for a scratching post.
“What the hell happened to you?” I waved at his arms.
“You did,” his eyes still held a little of the horror he must've gone through and I paled as I looked at them.
