“Nemain kicked his ass at an eating contest,” Cameron said as Thor choked on his startled reaction. “He’s practically one of us now.”
Thor’s face reddened as Sif’s eyes grew round, but Cameron just smiled at the giant god of the Norse and brought them all back to Earth.
Thor pointed Mjölnir at Cameron and said, “That wasn’t cool.”
He nudged Selena and whispered, “Thor just said cool.”
“Is this our new thing?” she sighed. “Instead of listening to you and Badb bickering all the time, I’ll have to hear it from you and Thor?”
“He started it,” Thor mumbled.
Cameron nodded seriously. “Totally don’t regret it either.”
Thor squinted at him and retorted, “You are an obnoxious asshole.”
“Could be worse,” Cameron responded. “You could be Greek.”
“Hey,” Nemain interrupted. “Our oldest friends and allies are Greek. Athena is Greek, who happens to be my sister’s best friend.”
“Jasper is Greek,” Cameron pointed out.
“He’s not nearly as bad as you think he is,” Nemain argued.
“Why are we back in this swamp?” Thor interrupted.
“Well, we’ve found a pissed off Sumerian god and an army of hummingbirds this way, so why not?” Cameron answered.
“Good point,” Thor conceded.
“We’re not looking for the pissed off Sumerian god though, remember?” Nemain said. “I won the bet. We’re going after Huitzilopochtli.”
“That’s not going to stop Enlil from pursuing me,” Cameron argued.
Nemain shrugged him off and turned in slow circles to take in the marshland around her. Cameron shot Selena a “What the hell is she doing?” glance and Selena answered him silently.
Um… tracking?
Cameron’s internal voice sighed, and if he’d an internal pair of eyes, he would have rolled them. This can’t be how she earned her reputation as the Gatekeeper.
Selena watched her for a few seconds before answering him. Maybe she has a gift she’s never told us about… kinda like Badb’s powerful telepathy.
I can’t believe I had to apologize, Cameron pouted. That old crow totally brought all the name-calling on herself.
Selena didn’t bother using her internal voice to sigh. She sighed aloud and rolled her eyes. Cameron, for the love of God, get over it.
Cameron grinned at her, but she answered him before he could ask.
You! she interjected. For the love of you!
“Cut that out,” Nemain warned. “I’ve told you it’s incredibly annoying.”
We should do this for the rest of the day just to piss her off, Cameron told Selena. I want to see her turn into a crow.
Selena snickered so Thor warned them to knock it off, too.
Bonus! Cameron exclaimed. We get to piss off Thor as well!
“Cameron,” Selena said. “They’re going to ditch us and we’ll be stuck hunting all of the assholes who want us dead now on our own.”
“Badb would come,” Cameron insisted. “She’s so jealous that she’s missing out on giant serpents and hummingbird armies that she’d even put up with me again.”
“I’m starting to wonder how she did it the first time,” Thor teased.
“Had no choice,” Selena answered. “She knew we were the demigods destined to replace Lugh and Dian Cécht, and it was her job to make sure that happened.”
Cameron continued to watch Nemain turning in slow circles then finally lost his patience. “What the hell are you doing?” he asked her.
“Picking up signatures,” she told him.
Cameron grunted at her and crossed his arms. “There’s no one out here. Selena and I would be able to sense them.”
“No,” Nemain corrected, “I’m not looking for gods but the signatures they leave behind. When anything possesses that much power, it radiates off of them and leaves… a residue.”
“So that is your gift,” Selena breathed. “You can track gods by picking up the energy they’ve released and left behind.”
“Exactly,” Nemain answered. “And there were more gods here than just Huitzilopochtli and Enlil.”
“Oh, God,” Cameron groaned. “Please tell me there isn’t a snake god.”
“I’d ask which god,” Selena interrupted, “but you obviously don’t know.”
Cameron just nodded and waited for Nemain to assure him he wouldn’t have to fight another snake.
“I’m not sure who it is,” Nemain murmured. She finally stopped turning and narrowed her eyes at the line of the trees to her right. “But I have a suspicion, and you’re not going to like this, Cameron.”
Cameron groaned and backed away from the trees. “I changed my mind. Let’s look somewhere else… like Ireland. It’s still snake-free, right?”
“Nope,” Selena said. “People bought them as pets then released them in the wild. They’ve ruined the entire country for you, love.”
“Assholes,” Cameron mumbled.
Thor snorted and agreed with him then asked Nemain, “So who do you think was here?”
“Tlaloc,” she answered. “Huitzilopochtli may be attempting to build an Aztec army just like his brother.”
“Stop calling that an army,” Cameron insisted. “That was like… five gods.”
“Yeah,” Thor interrupted, “and in that one battle, several square miles of this Basin was destroyed, which is why small groups of gods fighting each other are considered armies.”
Cameron waved him off and asked Nemain, “So does Tlaloc turn into a snake?”
“I’ve never actually met him,” Nemain responded. “We knew this continent was over here, but we had no reason to start trouble with a bunch of gods over land we had no interest in. After the Spanish wiped out the Aztec, we all assumed most of their gods died, too, because no one heard from them for centuries. Not until recently.”
Thor nodded and stared at the same line of trees where Nemain kept her focus. “We Norse thought they were mostly dead, too. Bunch of savage gods. If I remember correctly, Tlaloc demanded the sacrifices of newborns.”
“Oh, my God!” Selena exclaimed. She covered her mouth in horror, and Cameron took her other hand.
“I’m smiting the bastard just for that,” he assured her.
“Tlaloc is a weather god and can control the rain,” Thor explained. “The way my family has always told his story is that he’d refuse to let rain fall unless infants and children were sacrificed to him.”
“But why?” Selena cried.
Thor shrugged. “Human sacrifices have existed as long as religions have. People used to sacrifice to us, too, but none of the gods ever asked for human sacrifices or threatened to cause droughts and famine or anything. People just did it because no matter what happened, we were believed to be the cause of it.”
“I realize that,” Selena interrupted. “But why would Tlaloc have wanted babies murdered?”
“We don’t know,” Nemain said. “We always thought some of these Aztec gods were just evil, but perhaps there’s more to it. After seeing how Huitzilopochtli has made himself powerful again by harvesting the hearts of gods and demigods, maybe Tlaloc kept himself so powerful through these sacrifices.”
Selena wrapped her arms around her stomach and paled as images of these sacrifices flashed through her mind. Cameron glimpsed each of them and felt her attempts to stop fixating on the murder of infants. He wanted to hunt down this god first, just to punish him for the deaths of all those children and to bring some sense of relief to the goddess he loved, but that ridiculous agreement with Nemain prevented him from changing their plans.
But then he realized if Nemain were right, Tlaloc was most likely here because of Huitzilopochtli, which meant if they found the creepy-baby-murdering-god, they would find the creepy-heart-harvesting-god.
“So if Tlaloc is here and we go after him,” Cameron said, “we might be able to find Huitzilopochtli.”
Nemain nod
ded and pointed to the trees in the distance. “Let’s follow his trail. Maybe I’ll pick up something from Huitzilopochtli, too.”
Cameron squeezed Selena’s hand gently before heading toward the cluster of trees in the distance. A strange noise made him stop before he’d taken four steps.
“Tell me that wasn’t a hiss,” he pleaded.
“I think it was a hiss,” Thor told him.
“Haven’t I killed all the damn snakes yet?” Cameron complained.
“Actually, I thought Ninurta killed Bašmu thousands of years ago,” Thor said. “And yet, Enlil brought it here to kill you. So maybe these mythological snakes really are demons since they apparently can’t be killed permanently.”
Nemain shook her head at the thunder god. “They’re not demons. You should know better than to believe everything in the stories men wrote.”
Thor just shrugged as the snapping of tree limbs and another hissing sound came nearer. “If that’s Bašmu, I’m going with demons.”
Cameron nodded seriously. “Definitely.”
“Might want to grab your spear,” Thor told him.
“Didn’t help a hell of a lot last time,” Cameron responded.
“If this is a Sumerian snake,” Selena interrupted, “then where is Enlil?”
Nemain shook her head again as the hissing grew louder and more urgent. The trees began to shake and Cameron backed away from them. His Spear appeared in his hand, and he extended his arm toward Nemain.
“Here,” he said. “Take it back.”
“What?” Nemain screeched.
“I quit. I’m going home.”
“You can’t just quit being a god, Cameron!” Nemain yelled.
“Watch me!” Cameron yelled back.
“Good God,” an unfamiliar woman’s voice said. “I was told this group needed a babysitter, but I thought that was a joke.”
Cameron spun around and blinked at the goddess who had appeared behind them.
“Who the hell are you?” he demanded. “And unless you’re here to kill giant snakes, we’re a little busy at the moment.”
The young goddess with hair the color of summer wheat nodded and looked around him toward the rustling trees. The hissing noise had gotten close enough now that Cameron could piece together why the hissing noise had sounded so strange at first. It wasn’t just one hiss, which meant it wasn’t just one snake.
Or, like Bašmu, it didn’t have just one head.
Cameron wasn’t sure which was worse.
“I’ll help you kill whatever this is,” the mysterious goddess told him. “But unless you’re planning on banishing me, I’m here to stay so keep your damn spear and turn around because whatever this is will be out of the woods in thirty seconds.”
Nemain’s fingers twitched around the hilt of her sword as she studied the newcomer. “You’re Greek, but I’ve never met you. A young goddess… almost as young as Cameron and Selena.”
The young goddess nodded but her eyes remained fixed on the shaking trees. “My boss sent me to help all of you, but he didn’t tell me I’d be fighting giant serpents. Or having to fight with the Norse.”
“Hey,” Thor protested, “did you miss the memo? We’re no longer enemies.”
The young goddess tossed her honey-wheat hair over her shoulder. “Doesn’t matter. If you turn on me, I can outrun you.”
“Hermes,” Nemain breathed.
The young goddess just smiled.
“Great,” Thor muttered. “Another trickster god.”
The young goddess narrowed her eyes at the thunder god, but if she intended to defend herself, the snapping of trees and emergence of the seven-headed giant monster shut everyone up.
“What is that?” Selena screamed.
“That,” Thor answered quietly, “is Mušmah.”
Chapter Eight
“Didn’t Ninurta kill anything like he was supposed to?” Nemain shrieked.
Thor pointed his hammer at the giant lion’s body with seven serpent heads. “Can we argue about this later? That thing has enough mouths to eat us all at once!”
The young, nameless goddess who had joined them stepped between Thor and Cameron and eyed the creature as its heads raised higher in the air, reaching the tips of the trees surrounding them. “Um… please tell me one of you can fly.”
“If we could fly, we’d be out of this damn forest and away from a seven headed snake-lion!” Cameron retorted.
“Well, we can’t just leave,” she replied. “Jasper would fire me.”
“Jasper?” Cameron groaned. “Oh, God, you’re with the New Pantheon, aren’t you?”
“Which god?” Thor asked. “Her?”
“Not sure,” Cameron admitted. “Jasper’s not a god, and I can’t invoke Ukko anymore.”
“Cameron!” Nemain scolded. “This one doesn’t have wings. Just burn it and argue about Jasper later!”
“Do you mean her?” Selena asked Cameron. “Because I’m still trying to figure out who the hell she is.”
“Selena!” Nemain screamed.
The lion-serpent’s mouths opened to hiss at them again, revealing long sharp fangs, and Cameron shook his head. “Screw this.”
A wall of fire erupted between the gods and the beast. Cameron tried to cave the flames around the monster, but apparently, giant lion-snakes could run really damn fast. The trees shook again as Mušmah retreated into the safety of the forest, but above the wall of fire, Cameron could see the massive serpent heads rising. It wouldn’t go far.
He folded his arms stubbornly over his chest and glanced at Selena. “Now can I burn the Basin down?”
“Probably not,” Selena told him. “After all, it’s our fault we keep coming back here.”
“How did you kill Bašmu?” Thor asked. “By refusing to shut up?”
Cameron nodded. “Works on gods, too.”
“And demigods I’ve heard,” the pretty mystery goddess mumbled.
“Hey,” Cameron snapped. “Don’t believe anything Jasper said about me. He’s an obnoxious asshole.”
The goddess smiled and twirled her spear in her hand. “Someone’s going to have to try something other than standing behind a wall of fire arguing. I’ll be right back.”
“You’ll…?” But Cameron’s question was cut off by a blur of white and yellow and the disappearance of the goddess as she ran around the fire.
“Um…” he stammered. “I have to admit. I didn’t see that coming.”
Nemain snickered and said, “I don’t think anyone could see that coming.”
“You’re really bad at puns,” Cameron told her. “Leave the smartass remarks to me.”
Selena backed up until she bumped into her boyfriend and watched his flames drop a little lower so they could see if the nameless – and most likely crazy – goddess had been killed by the lion-snake-creature. “I thought it was funny,” Selena said in Nemain’s defense. “Your fire’s too low. Mušmah will totally jump over that.”
“How can you remember these names?” Cameron asked.
“Not your biggest concern right now,” Selena reminded him.
As she’d predicted, Mušmah ran toward the fire, a much larger blur of golden yellow and browns, and leapt toward the gods on the other side. A flash of white in his peripheral vision made Cameron look away from the snake-cat to gape at the goddess who’d not only survived but returned.
“Can’t kill it with a spear,” she panted.
“I could have told you that,” Cameron said.
“And it’s on the other side of your fire,” she pointed out helpfully.
“Could have told you that, too,” Cameron responded.
A whirring sound by his ear made him jump and spin around as Mjölnir sailed past him toward the beast. “Dude!” Cameron shouted at Thor. “Next time, warn a guy!”
“How?” Thor shouted back. “You wouldn’t shut up!”
Cameron narrowed his eyes at the Norse god but said, “Conceded.”
Thor’s mou
th opened in astonishment and Cameron turned back toward the monster. Mjölnir had hit the golden flank of the Mesopotamian beast but had fallen to the ground.
“That’s not encouraging,” Cameron mumbled.
Selena shook her head as Cameron did the only thing he could think of to protect the gods: he covered them in another dome of fire.
The young goddess looked up at the flaming ceiling and nodded approvingly. “Cool.”
“Not cool,” Nemain argued. “Mjölnir didn’t even injure this thing.”
“My spear didn’t either,” the goddess said. “It did the same thing: just fell right off the… whatever the hell that thing is. Like it’s made of steel or something.”
Seven loud hisses responded.
Cameron grabbed Selena’s hand and said, “Steel snakes with lion bodies are a deal breaker.”
“When Enlil showed up last time, you did ask why you never had to fight lions,” Selena pointed out. “So really, this is kinda your fault.”
“That’s not a lion!” Cameron insisted.
“Do they always do this?” the goddess asked.
“Yes,” Nemain and Thor answered at the same time.
Cameron smiled at his girlfriend. “At least she didn’t ask what’s wrong with us.”
“Didn’t see the point,” the young goddess said. “But I have been wondering.”
Selena tilted her head at the goddess and asked, “Who are you? Besides Hermes’s heir and Jasper’s employee.”
The goddess’s pale green eyes sparkled and Cameron thought there might be something a little mischievous in them, even if the Greeks were supposed to be their allies. “My name is London,” she answered. “And as long as you’re on this Earth, I’m joining your party.”
Cameron groaned again and shook his head. “You’re like Jasper’s spy?”
“Not a spy,” London corrected. “Or I wouldn’t have told you the truth about who I am or for whom I work.”
The Gatekeeper (The Guardians of Tara Book 1) Page 8
