The Gatekeeper (The Guardians of Tara Book 1)

by S. M. Schmitz

  Cameron flinched in anticipation of some sort of telekinesis that would strike them, but nothing hit the gods and goddesses inside his living room. Instead, three bodies crumpled to the floor, their skin a pale gray and covered in buboes and black splotches. Cameron instinctively stepped back as he heard Nemain whisper, “Loviatar.”

  The evil goddess’s gaze settled on the war goddess and Cameron raised his Spear, but he was too late.

  Loviatar disappeared and with her, so did Nemain.

  Selena knelt beside the three humans who had been tossed into Cameron’s living room and placed a hand gently on the young man’s forehead. She glanced up at Cameron and told him, He’s still alive. Barely, but I have time.

  Cameron couldn’t stop staring at the bodies. Do they actually have the plague? I mean… THE plague?

  Looks that way.

  Can gods catch that?

  Selena shrugged and said aloud, “If so, I’ll heal you, too.”

  Cameron tried not to wrinkle his nose as he watched Selena, but there was nothing else to distract him since they were alone with the dying people. As soon as Loviatar disappeared with Nemain, Thor and London went after them. Selena had to stay behind to save the humans, and Cameron would never leave her. Loviatar had almost certainly known that as well.

  “It’s septicemic,” Selena said, more to herself than her boyfriend. But Cameron nodded anyway and continued to stare helplessly at the dying humans huddled on his living room floor.

  The young man’s skin began to regain some of its normal burlap color and the black splotches receded until they vanished altogether. The swollen lymph nodes shrank until Cameron could no longer see them at all. The man’s eyes opened and he gasped at the beautiful goddess who had healed him, but Selena had already moved on to another dying human.

  Help me, Cameron. You’ve done it before.

  Cameron swallowed and blinked at the diseased woman on the floor beside the healed man who sat up and rubbed his eyes as if waking from a nightmare.

  Yeah, Cameron told her, but those people Mithra tried to kill didn’t have the plague!

  Selena glanced over her shoulder at him and shot him a look that told him he’d better get his ass over there and help her so Cameron got his ass over there and knelt beside the woman who had thin trickles of blood dripping from her nose.

  She coughed as soon as he reached a tentative hand toward her, and Cameron pulled his arm back.

  Selena, deal breaker, he warned.

  Cameron, heal, she warned back.

  “She coughed on me!” he exclaimed. “I’m totally going to die from the plague now!”

  “Who are you people?” the young man asked.

  “Paramedics,” Cameron said.

  He hesitantly reached out to the woman again and put a hand on her head. He still wasn’t sure how he’d channeled Selena’s healing power before, but it had worked when Mithra attempted to kill several hostages. He tried to clear his mind, but he was having a hard time moving past “These people actually have the plague!”

  Selena sighed and rolled her eyes at him. “You know antibiotics treat the plague now anyway, right?”

  Cameron grimaced as the woman coughed again. “Yeah, if they’re treated quickly enough. These people would be past the point of help.”

  “I don’t think you two are paramedics,” the young man said.

  “I never said we were paramedics from Earth,” Cameron retorted.

  “Are you like aliens or something?” he asked.

  Cameron nodded. “We’re on a cosmic mission to rid the universe of any disease that causes buboes. Because this is seriously disgusting. And so is that word. When the diseases are gone, we’re striking buboes from your vocabulary.”

  “You’re not going to… probe us, are you?” the young man asked.

  “Dude…” Cameron warned. “Don’t ever say probe again either.”

  Selena rolled her eyes at him again then stood up. Cameron glanced at the woman he’d been touching and noticed her skin had returned to its normal shade and the bleeding had stopped. Her eyes were open and she was staring at him, dazed and bewildered, but alive and healed. Selena had already finished healing the third young woman.

  “They’re not aliens,” the woman breathed. “They must be angels.”

  Cameron laughed and moved his hand. He gestured toward Selena and told the woman, “Maybe her. But I’m no angel.”

  The woman sat up and shook her head slowly at Selena. “But the Devil took us and tried to kill us. If you’re not angels then what are you?”

  Selena grabbed Cameron’s hand and smiled. “We’re the Guardians of Tara.”

  Chapter Ten

  “Another forest,” Selena sighed as she tilted her head back to take in the birch trees that towered above them. Cameron shivered and zipped up his coat. The only footprints in the snow that blanketed the forest floor appeared to be from some sort of hooved animal. He smiled and nudged her with his elbow.

  “Maybe we can find Rudolph here.”

  Selena nodded and put her coat’s hood back on her head.

  “We can’t summon London and Thor in case they’ve found Nemain, and neither of us can summon Loviatar. How do these gods keep doing this?”

  Cameron shrugged. “It’s almost like the old gods don’t want us to know.”

  “Like whatever’s going on with Lugh,” Selena said. “But why wouldn’t they tell us how some gods can hide?”

  Cameron shrugged again. “Maybe because they don’t want us to hide.”

  “They couldn’t summon us anyway,” Selena pointed out. “We’re more powerful.”

  “True,” Cameron conceded. “Something tells me if we want to get answers, we’ll have to ask a god who doesn’t care about their Games anymore.”

  Selena nodded slowly. “And I know exactly which god to ask.”

  Cameron pulled his boot out of the snow and scowled at the ground. “We need a snowmobile.”

  “We need to get Badb,” Selena responded.

  Cameron almost tripped over his own feet as he glanced back at his girlfriend and stammered, “Badb? Why? I just had to apologize! This will be humiliating!”

  “Because her sister is missing,” Selena said. “If it were me, you’d be furious if someone didn’t tell you right away and include you in the search. Macha can stay with Aunt Tara, and Badb can help us look for Nemain.”

  “Then leave Badb in the Otherworld and bring Macha,” Cameron whined. He knew he was whining, but he wasn’t ready to deal with Badb’s gloating. He didn’t think he’d ever be ready to deal with Badb’s gloating.

  Selena shook her head stubbornly, and he recognized that expression. Badb would be joining them soon. “I want Badb.”

  Cameron pulled his other foot out of the deep snow and shook his boot off, mumbling, “Fine. But if I disappear, don’t come looking for me.”

  “Why are you disappearing?” Badb asked.

  Cameron groaned and turned around to face her. Selena hadn’t even given him time to complain properly before summoning the war goddess. He squinted at his girlfriend and hissed, “You so owe me.”

  Badb arched an eyebrow at him and waited for someone to explain what the hell she was doing in a frozen forest in Finland.

  Selena took a deep breath and wrapped one of her gloved hands around her friend’s arm. “We were in Cameron’s apartment in Baton Rouge when Loviatar burst in, threw a few deathly ill people into the room to distract us, and grabbed Nemain. Thor and one of Jasper’s employees who’s apparently joining us went after her, but Cameron and I had to stay behind to heal those people. And I brought you here to help us find your sister.”

  Badb’s gray eyes clouded with a ferocious anger and her jaw tightened. Cameron could almost see the anger and hatred radiating from the goddess’s body, and he wondered if he’d looked the same way when his anger controlled him and he lost his ability to think and act like himself. Being a new god, he lived with the fear it would overtake hi
m again and something catastrophic would happen. He’d almost killed Badb once, and he’d come so close to destroying an entire city in Russia. Only Selena had been able to ground him and clear his mind.

  But who could save Badb’s?

  The war goddess closed her eyes and clenched her fists, taking long deep breaths that formed white clouds in the air each time she exhaled. “If that bitch has killed her…”

  “Then we’ll make sure you get your revenge,” Selena promised.

  Badb shook her head. “It’s not enough, Selena. Revenge is not enough.”

  “Then we need to find her quickly,” Selena told her. “If her spirit hasn’t been gone too long, I can bring her back. You’ve seen me do it before.”

  Badb nodded and closed her eyes again, letting one last breath pass through her pursed lips.

  In that moment, Cameron stopped caring about having to apologize for all of the teasing and the good-natured bantering that had defined their friendship. He understood the Hell Badb found herself in now, and he also understood Badb wouldn’t want his pity. She’d want – and expect – his help in punishing the goddess who had taken her sister from her.

  And he was determined to give her exactly what she wanted.

  Badb opened her eyes again and looked around the frozen forest. “We share a powerful connection. It’s almost impossible for any god to hide my sisters from me. I can feel her even though you can’t. She’s still alive.”

  “How are these gods able to prevent us from summoning them?” Cameron asked. “Why is it such a secret?”

  “It’s not a secret, Cameron,” Badb explained. “Many gods can concentrate their power on masking themselves. Really powerful gods like Huitzilopochtli don’t need to use nearly as much of their power to do it. I can’t summon someone like Huitzilopochtli because I’m not strong enough. The only reason you and Selena can’t is that you haven’t figured out how yet. I wish I could tell you how to do it. Believe me… if you could, we’d have Loviatar over here instantly and my sword would quickly put an end to this.”

  “Great,” Cameron muttered. “The problem is no one knows then. You’ve been telling us the whole time we’re the most powerful gods the world has ever known, which means we won’t find anyone who can just teach us how to do these things you all insist we can do.”

  “No,” Badb answered quietly, “there is a god who could likely teach you. But he won’t.”

  Selena inhaled sharply and her eyes widened. “Lugh,” she whispered.

  “Where is he?” Cameron asked.

  Badb gestured toward the east and ignored them both. “We need to find my sister.”

  We’ll never escape the Games of the Gods, will we? Cameron asked.

  Selena took his hand and followed Badb through the frozen forest. Apparently not. Do you think Lugh’s spirit is actually in Findias? Maybe they’re lying because he’s… She bit her lip as she tried to imagine what would even happen to a god whose spirit had been destroyed. Badb had told them before they’d simply cease to exist, but neither of them could imagine it.

  Cameron stared at Badb’s back for a few minutes then told Selena, Maybe you’re right. And if Lugh is gone forever, we have no one who can help us uncover who the rightful heir of the Stone of Fal is.

  When we talked about him before though, Badb seemed just as in the dark as we are. I don’t think she knows anything about him, do you?

  Cameron shook his head, but they both abandoned their silent conversation when Badb turned around and told them, “Thor and this new girl are nearby.”

  She suddenly stopped walking, and Selena had to grab the back of Badb’s coat to prevent herself from slipping.

  “What now?” Selena groaned.

  “Nemain…” she breathed. “She’s gone.”

  “What?” Selena cried.

  “Sh,” Badb hissed. “I can still feel her, but she’s no longer in Finland. We have to hurry.”

  Badb spun around and grabbed Cameron and Selena who found themselves in a completely different climate. Cameron squinted against the blinding sun and yanked on the zipper of his coat.

  “Can you warn a god the next time you teleport him to a desert?” he snapped.

  “We’re not in a desert,” Badb snapped back. “We’re…” She looked around then lifted a shoulder. “I don’t actually know where we are.”

  “Great,” Cameron sighed. “Your GPS is broken.”

  “Quite possibly,” Badb admitted. “Except I know I’m closer to Nemain now.”

  Selena pulled her coat off and used her free hand to shield her eyes from the merciless sun. “If you’re certain Nemain is here now, should we get Thor and London to join us?”

  Badb had just begun to nod when Cameron heard Thor sigh and ask, “Where the hell are we? Are we actually in Hell?”

  “Quite possibly,” Cameron responded. “Badb’s here.”

  “Ignoring you, Sun God. The only thing I care about is finding my sister,” Badb told him.

  “You really suck at ignoring people since you just responded to me,” Cameron said.

  Badb flipped him off then nodded toward the mountains in the distance. “She’s over there.”

  “You’re the one who can sense her,” Cameron said. “Just… teleport us there, we’ll kill the maybe-even-creepier-goddess-than-Huitzilopochtli then figure out how a bunch of gods get themselves out of Hell.”

  “Don’t think this is Hell,” London supplied helpfully. “I’m here.”

  “Yeah, but I’m here with you, so it can totally be my Hell,” Cameron responded.

  London’s bright green eyes sparkled as she sized up the young sun god then she laughed and told him, “I wouldn’t want you to feel like you’re in Hell anymore. See ya, Sun God.”

  “What?” Cameron asked but the blur of white and yellow cut him off as she ran through the desert toward the mountains.

  “I’m not sure I like her,” Badb mumbled.

  “Join the club,” Cameron said. “I’m making t-shirts.”

  “Leave her alone,” Selena scolded. “Maybe the reason she’s struggling to fit in is that you’re constantly picking on her.”

  Cameron blinked at his girlfriend then exclaimed, “I’m constantly picking on everybody! That’s what I do!”

  “Still,” Thor added, “an honorable goddess doesn’t just abandon those she’s pledged to fight with. I don’t trust her.”

  Cameron nodded as Badb apparently grew tired of listening to them and began walking toward the mountains in the distance.

  “You’re really not going to just teleport us there?” Cameron called after her.

  “Walk,” Badb demanded.

  “Make me!” he demanded back.

  “Selena!” Badb yelled.

  “I hate you!” Cameron yelled back.

  Selena grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the war goddess, and Thor laughed and patted his shoulder. “Nothing you can do now, my new friend. When our wives want us to walk, we walk.”

  Cameron walked but still had to ask, “Does it matter if she’s not my wife yet? Can I get out on a technicality?”

  Thor shook his head. “She basically is your wife because Midir and Étain were married.”

  “But Cameron and Selena aren’t,” he pointed out.

  “That would only matter in this world,” Thor said.

  Selena smiled up at Cameron and asked him, “Does that mean we should have our wedding here?”

  Cameron thought about it then decided, “Not unless Dagda’s magic chef comes, too.”

  Badb slowed down long enough to remind them, “Aonghus would be devastated. Not because he can’t come to Earth for a wedding, but you know he’s already planning the most elaborate ceremony Murias has ever seen.”

  “There will be shrimp po-boys, right?” Thor asked.

  Cameron snickered and was about to add, “And gumbo,” when an unnerving noise made him stop walking. The other gods must have heard it too because their feet kicked dirt in the a
ir as they suddenly stopped moving.

  “That was not a hiss,” Cameron insisted.

  “I think it was a hiss,” Selena responded helpfully.

  “There’s no way Enlil’s out here!” Cameron cried. “Does Loviatar have snakes?”

  “Don’t think so,” Badb said quietly as she looked around the desert. “Maybe it’s just… a normal snake. We are in a desert.”

  “You told us we aren’t in a desert,” Cameron told her. “You lie a lot.”

  Selena looked around them again then guessed, “Chile maybe?”

  “Badb,” Cameron groaned, “the Incan gods probably have at least a dozen snake deities. You’re on your own. Good luck.”

  Selena grabbed his hand before he could leave. Thor shot him a look that he interpreted as, “When your wife says stay, you stay.”

  So of course Cameron stayed.

  “I don’t feel any new gods around though,” Badb murmured.

  The hissing sound grew louder, and Cameron’s Spear appeared in his hand. He noticed Thor now held Mjölnir in one of his hands as well.

  “There’s nowhere for it to hide,” Cameron said quietly. “Where the hell is this thing?”

  None of the gods could answer him because the hissing suddenly grew to a terrifying shriek, and Cameron prepared to throw his Spear at the first thing that moved outside of their circle.

  A flash of white and yellow in his peripheral vision made his arm retract before London’s laughter alerted him to her presence. The young goddess stopped in front of them, her cheeks flushed and eyes shining, and put her hands on her hips.

  “Such a badass posse,” she laughed again.

  “That was you?” Thor asked. Cameron noticed he hadn’t put his hammer away. He kept his Spear in hand as well.

  London laughed again and waved her arms toward the desert surrounding them. “Of course. Who else is out here?”

  “My sister has been kidnapped, and you’re out here playing pranks?” Badb shouted.