Godhunter

by Amy Sumida

  “What did I do?” I sat back down on the bed with a heavy thump and stared up at him.

  “Let’s go back to the Hall and we’ll talk there,” he reached for me but I shook my head.

  “No, just tell me.”

  “It’s nothing. I just haven’t had the time to heal myself yet.”

  “I can take care of that,” Teharon lightly touched Thor’s shoulder and he nodded distractedly.

  “Thank you,” Thor finally pulled his eyes away from me to look over at Teharon. “I owe you a great debt.”

  “You owe me nothing,” Teharon’s eyes strayed to me. “I have this odd feeling that I just saved myself by saving her.”

  For a second I wondered if the fever was back but then I realized I was only blushing. I was sure doing that a lot lately. I looked over at Thor and saw the relief back in his face. He hugged the Indian roughly and then turned away, giving us all his back. I thought I saw him swipe at his eyes but that's just ridiculous. Why would he be crying?

  “Well, that must’ve been one hell of a fever to get you all so worried,” I looked around at the surprised faces. “But I still don’t get why you needed to chain me.” Even as the words left my mouth, my eyes started to widen with memory. “Oh shit,” I whispered. “No. It was Blue wasn’t it? That bastard possessed me.”

  “That’s one way to put it,” Teharon nodded and crossed his arms.

  “Another way would be?” I remembered Blue's voice and the things he said to me.

  “Another way to put it,” Ull stepped over and sat down next to me. “Would be to say he mind-raped you, stripped away your will, and forced his soul into your body.”

  “I think I like possession better,” I said in a little voice.

  Ull laughed and helped me to my feet. “Come on, Vervain, let’s get you cleaned up.”

  Thor came back to take me from Ull and I saw his cuts again. “Oh, no,” I crumpled in misery. “I’m so sorry. I should have listened to Teharon. I never would’ve hurt you.”

  “Vervain, don’t,” Thor knelt and wrapped me in his arms as I began to cry. Hot, frustrated tears poured down my cheeks. I couldn't believe I'd been so stupid, so foolish. Never loose your temper when you're fighting. Lose your temper and you lose the fight. I'd lost mine and let it push me into action too soon. “It’s alright, darling, they’re only scratches. I’ve had far worse.”

  “Who else did I hurt?” I pulled back and looked at the others. “Are all of you okay?”

  “Thor held you down until I could medicate you,” Ull’s normally carefree voice was low and serious. “He was the only one injured. We chained you after that.”

  “Oh… good,” I let Thor pick me up and carry me out into the night.

  We were on the shore, at the base of the cliffs of Bilskinir. The lake was a black mirror, reflecting a gibbous moon on its surface. The waves riding in were gentle, barely disturbing the wide expanse of water as they made shushing noises against the rocks. The rest of Asgard obeyed the admonishment and kept quiet. I looked up, awed by the view of the cliffs looming over us, but it didn’t last long. Thor opened the Aether and traced us through in a heartbeat.

  We stepped out into a large blue marble bathroom. There were grand columns everywhere, like the ceiling was too heavy to be supported by mere walls. Artwork was spaced at intervals on the walls, each with its own spotlight. A countertop with twin sinks stretched down one side a bit before giving up the fight and ending just short of a cream colored chaise. The window behind the chaise was open, devoid of any glass, like all the other windows I'd seen in Bilskinir. Light blue curtains fluttered in the breeze. At the far end was a white jacuzzi bathtub with golden fixtures, heavy blue curtains held back to either side of it. As I watched, the water started to pour into the tub.

  “You need to bathe and relax. If you’re hungry when you’re done, come out to the dining room and join us. If you’re tired, you're welcome to sleep in the guest bedroom out here.” He pointed back through a door behind him. “Okay?”

  I nodded and he kissed my forehead before turning to leave.

  “Thor?”

  “Yes?” He turned back with raised eyebrows.

  “You just saved my life didn’t you?”

  “Teharon did,” he began to get that wounded look again. “He’s in his rights to pursue you now even though he’s already renounced the claim. God laws are pretty clear about a life for a life. If you wish it, I won’t stand between you two.”

  “Are you kidding me?” I thought back to his reaction to what Teharon said. “Is that why you seemed so relieved when he said you didn't owe him? Is that secret god code for Don't worry, I don't want your woman?”

  “He never said he didn't want you and I saw the way you looked at him,” Thor didn’t even try to hide his hurt.

  “He’s hot and he’d just basically felt me up from the inside,” I made an unladylike noise. “Give a girl a break would ya? I’m surrounded by sexy gods who, for some reason beyond me, seem to think I’m attractive too. I can’t help lusting every now and then. I’m not dead.”

  “Is that Vervain code for Don't worry, I don’t want Teharon?”

  “I guess it is,” I shook my head and laughed at myself. “And he doesn't want me either, Thor. You need to relax.” I'd just had Teharon inside my head and I knew his feelings for me were chaste.

  “Thank you,” he smiled. “I'll give relaxing a try sometime when you're not being possessed by a bloodthirsty Aztec.”

  “Don’t thank me yet, you might wish I’d chosen Teharon before we’re through.”

  “Vervain,” he filled my name with wonder. “There isn’t a man out there who wouldn’t trade places with me right now, no matter the cost.”

  “You know what, Thor?” I was equally bemused. “I really don’t get it. I’ve met a few goddesses now and I know you could have a lot better than me. Is my magic really that appealing or are you all just tired of beautiful women?”

  “You’re a witch, you know the call of magic.” Thor came to stand before me and slid his hands over my face. “Yours is like a siren’s voice, singing of strength, all the more shocking for the fragile body its housed in. Seducing with passion hot enough to burn a god and brand him for eternity. It lures with promises of love to outlast the stars and laughter to light the world. The magic inside you, the magic that is you, is more beautiful than any face I've ever seen.”

  My stunned silence turned into nervous twitching, culminating in me ruining the moment like I always did. “Most of the stars we see have already burned out. It just takes a really freaking long time for their light to reach us.”

  I wanted to clap a hand over my mouth. He’d just given me the most romantic speech of my entire life and I was arguing over the lifespans of stars. I stared at him, hoping he wasn’t about to take it all back. Sorry, never mind, I thought you were someone else, someone who wouldn’t babble like an ass when given romantic flattery.

  Surprisingly, he didn’t get mad. He laughed, sweeping me up and around in a circle. “See what I mean, my little witch? I haven’t had so much fun in centuries.”

  I paled as I heard the endearment and he grew still, studying me.

  “Please don’t call me that,” my whisper belonged to a lost little girl, not me. I hated it and I hated the man who'd put the fear there. “It’s what he calls me.”

  “Huitzilopochtli?”

  I just nodded.

  “I’ll never call you that again,” he pressed me into his chest, the pounding of his heart filling my ear. “It’s going to be alright now, darling.”

  “Yes, I like that better,” I snuggled deeper. “Say it again.”

  “It’s going to be alright.”

  “No, the ‘darling’ part,” I smiled against his chest.

  “Oh,” his laugh jostled my face. “Anything you want, darling.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “I don't want you doing this.”

  “Your opinion has been duly noted, Tho
r,” I sighed. He'd been throwing a god tantrum for the last hour. “We all know how you feel but if I don't do this, we've got no leads and everything I just went through was for nothing.”

  “She's ready,” Teharon said as he placed a hand on Thor's shoulder, “and we'll be right here, just in case.”

  “Fine,” he sat down right next to me on the library's carpet.

  I met Teharon's eyes and his lips twitched. I didn't say anymore. I was done talking, this needed doing. So I forgot about Thor beside me, the others gathered around nervously, and just focused. Teharon wasn't even going to prompt me this time, I was on my own.

  I focused inward until I found the steel box imprisoning Blue's link. I thought about him tearing through my mind like a surgeon on Crack, cutting up my personality with insane precision and reforming me into the woman he wanted. Now it was my turn. Instead of pushing down the walls, I just imagined them slowly evaporating. The steel became gray mist and then disappeared. I went still, waiting for some kind of reaction, but nothing happened. It was calm and quiet inside my head.

  My connection to Blue was a deep pit in the floor of my mind. It seemed bottomless but I knew better. Blue was down there, hopefully unaware of my imminent leap into the abyss.

  The blackness within the link seemed thick, the kind of dark belonging to back alleys and primeval forests. Things lurked in black like that and if you stared long enough, you might see them staring back. I didn't want to stare. I didn't need to see the red eyes to know they were there... searching specifically for me.

  I crept forward, slid down the rabbit-hole, and carefully peered into Wonderland. The darkness fell back and I blinked my mental eyes in the light of Blue's thoughts. I had interrupted his lunch and I don't mean food. It took all the willpower I had to calm myself and not flee screaming. After a few deep breaths, I was able to take a better look.

  But it wasn't just looking.

  All of Blue's senses became mine. Replacing the feel of the carpet, was solid floor beneath my feet. The sound of the fire beside me morphed into a woman's moans. My nose filled with the scent of expensive perfume with a top note of blood, making my heart race in time with his. Metallic saltiness was sweet ambrosia on my tongue and I felt my body shudder in response, heat filling me with an almost sexual pleasure.

  I pulled the woman closer, feeling her hands sink into my hair, her groin press into mine. When Blue's male response threatened to overwhelm me, I was finally able to pull back. I drug myself away from his present to search the vault of his mind for his recent past.

  Memories surrounded me as the sensations of his current exploits receded and I lost track of time as I searched, filtering them by sensing the gist like a glowing marquee above each one. I became more efficient the longer I looked, until I was able to sort through batches of them by subject. Unfortunately, there were a lot of plots concerning humanity and I had to find and trace the one he'd settled on to his final decision.

  After I grasped it fully, memorizing all the details, I pulled away gently. I reformed the walls around Blue's link and sank back carefully into myself. I focused first on my breathing, the way it filled and lifted my chest. In through the nose, out through the mouth. I heard the fire pop, a foot shift across thick carpet, breath easing out of several throats in different rhythms. My face was warmer on the left where it was closest to the fireplace. My right foot was starting to go numb and I wasn't looking forward to the pins and needles I'd soon be experiencing.

  “There is no spoon,” I whispered as I opened my eyes to a roomful of expectant faces.

  “What happened?” Thor's eyes were wide, on the verge of going stormy.

  “It worked,” I smiled, “he didn't even know I was there. In and out of the Matrix without seeing a single Mr. Smith.”

  “Good job, Vervain,” Teharon praised.

  “Yes, yes but what did you learn?” Horus circled me, his head at a sharp angle.

  “What do you know about the Russian government?” I countered.

  “Enough to understand whatever you've discovered, I'm sure,” Horus settled into place to peer at me.

  “Okay good,” I got up and shook my leg out, grimacing through the sharp pains, “because I know very little.”

  “Blue's going to hit Russia?” Ull had really taken to the new nickname for Huitzilopochtli.

  “He's going to plant a car bomb to kill a woman named Maria Putina,” I frowned as I replayed it in my head. “Well he's not going to plant the bomb but he's going to put the whammy on some poor schmuck who works for Prime Minister Medvedev and Blue's going to make sure it all gets caught on camera. How does he do that exactly? When I was staring into his eyes, he could control me but once I was able to break contact, I was all myself again. Yet with the guys at the peace rally, he was barely even paying attention to them and they were practically zombies.”

  “It's not the eyes, that's a myth,” Teharon explained. “Like I said before, it's one of his powers but it requires proximity to work. If you broke free from him, it had nothing to do with your eye contact. It was probably an outside influence.”

  “Oh, right,” I thought back to those first few terrifying moments with Blue. “It was the heat rolling off him. He burned me. That must have snapped me out of it.”

  “That would have done it,” Teharon confirmed. “He probably worked a spell in addition to using his magical abilities with those terrorists. He would have needed a boost to control more than one person, unless the people in question were really simple minded or already inclined to behave the way he wanted them to. As far as controlling someone to the point of doing something against their nature, like planting this bomb, he'd have to be fairly close to his subject. So we can assume that he'll be in the general vicinity.”

  “Wait, Maria Putina,” Horus frowned as he interrupted. “The President's eldest child?”

  “Is the President's first name Vladimir?” I plopped down on the loveseat, suddenly exhausted.

  “Yes,” Horus sat down beside me, earning a glare from Thor who'd been on his way over. “Vladimir Putin.”

  “Then yeah,” I leaned my head back and talked with my eyes shut. “He wants it to look like the Prime Minister was trying to assassinate the President but got his daughter instead.”

  “Putin is overly protective of his young,” Horus mused. “The girl is in her twenties and has only recently been introduced to the public. Her murder would destroy Putin, at the very least, it would break off his friendship with the Prime Minister.”

  “Don't Putin and Medvedev both have ties to Gazprom, the Russian oil company?” Brahma asked. “If their bond goes bad, they could bring Gazprom into it, which could ultimately lead to war with the European countries they export to. The relationship is already strained from the increases in price.”

  “Hmph,” I could barely open my eyes. “Bad juju.”

  “So who's up for a Russian vacation?” Pan piped up.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Pulkovo Airport, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation.”

  “Yes, very good, Vervain,” Horus patted me on the head, “that's exactly where we are. Maybe you can learn your Arithmetic next.”

  “Sorry,” I shrugged and gestured to the view before us. “I was having an X-Files moment. It felt like the scene could use some groovy subtitles to let the audience know where we are.”

  We were standing off to the side of the main terminal of Pulkovo, watching people come and go through the glass doors. Some looked exhausted, some excited, but none of them looked like the guy I'd seen in Blue's head. I frowned as I watched a tall woman dragging an overstuffed brown suitcase behind her. It was so strange to have arrived at the airport without actually stepping off a plane.

  “So where's this guy supposed to be?” Brahma sounded bored.

  “He should be walking into those doors at any second,” I pointed to the entrance of the parking garage. “And there he is,” I grabbed Thor's hand and started walking briskly but casually af
ter Medvedev's man.

  The man's eyes were glassy, his movements robotic. He banged into the shoulder of a red-faced man bundled in black fur and barely noticed. The fur pile yelled something nasty after him but he just kept walking. He was obviously under Blue's control already, which meant Blue was probably somewhere nearby. So all we had to do was stop him from planting that bomb without alerting Blue and we'd be golden. No problem.

  We entered the parking structure right behind him; Brahma, Pan, Persephone, Thor, and I. Horus was out flying recon around the airport and Teharon was on standby with Ull, Finn, Mrs. E and Mr. T at Bilskinir. Thor thought too many of us would draw unwanted attention. As if he didn't draw attention all on his own. Please. His height alone was worth a second look. Though I have to admit, in Russia it wasn't as noticeable as it was in Hawaii.

  Medvedev's man headed toward priority parking, a row of sleek black sedans and limos. One red Porche stood out like a whore in church but he passed it by, heading for a limo on the end with tinted windows. When I saw how far ahead of us he'd gotten, I started to jog. How had he moved that fast?

  “Excuse me,” Pan called over to the man. “Do you speak English?”

  The man shot an alarmed look over his shoulder and then ran the last few steps to the limo. In a move any Pro-Baseball player would admire, he slid the last bit and disappeared under the car.

  “What the hell?” I looked up to where I knew the security camera would be and sure enough, it had been focused right on the guy as he made his very noticeable slide. “Thor, we gotta get rid of that security tape. There can't be any evidence pointing to the Prime Minister.”

  “Brahma?” Thor turned to face him.

  “No problem,” he smirked as he faded into invisibility.

  “Now what?” I frowned as the bomber ran off, having completed his mission. About ten feet away, his steps faltered, then stopped. He looked around in confusion before starting off again. He was going to be really annoyed when he saw that big oil stain on the back of his coat.

  “You don't happen to know how to diffuse a bomb, do you?” Persephone asked, her voice muffled by the huge scarf she had wrapped around her face.