by Sumida, Amy
I frowned and raised the jacket to my face. I was instantly overwhelmed by sensation. My head swam with the sharp, pungent smell of the man who'd been wearing the jacket. I had to lower it immediately, the smell was starting to burn my nostrils. As I lowered it, I had a flash of the man himself, not a full vision but rather an impression of his build, how tall and how thick he was. I put the jacket away from me with dawning horror.
“I don't need to do this,” I whispered.
“That's what I said,” Trevor stood up and came over to the edge of my circle. “You can do this later.”
“No,” I looked up at him in wonder. “I mean the spell is unnecessary. I can track him, me, with my nose. I can smell him out like a damn bloodhound. I just need to go back to the house we found the bodies at.”
“It's probably over-run with cops right about now,” he frowned and looked me over. “That jacket was dry cleaned recently and barely worn afterward, if at all. All I can get off of it are chemicals, yet you say you can track with it. Is this some of your new magic?”
“I think so,” I nodded. “Maybe it'll come in handy after all.”
“I never doubted that,” Trevor grimaced. “Breathing fire has its advantages too.”
“Can you let the others know?” I started to clean up the circle. “I'd like to leave as soon as possible.”
“Sure,” he gave me an odd look. “If you think you can control this?”
“It's just smelling,” I scoffed. “What could possibly go wrong?”
Chapter Thirty-Five
We'd been driving for half an hour and my nose was getting tired. Where were the coffee beans when you needed them?
In order to follow the trail, we needed to be on the ground, so we'd traced in to Hawaii and then drove to the site of the child murders. After parking a block away, I used a god technique to make myself invisible and had walked in with just Roarke, in cat form, to guard me. I'd picked up the scent easily and we ran back to the waiting line of vehicles to start the chase but now I was getting bored.
“Where are they?” I griped as I hung my head out the window and continued to sniff the air like a forlorn puppy.
“You tell me,” Trevor said from the driver's seat next to me.
“That way,” I perked up and pointed to an off street. “And yes, I realize how much I resemble an English Pointer right now so don't say it.”
“Gotcha,” Trevor flipped on his turn signal. “Turning right and no dog references.”
“Besides,” Roarke griped from the back seat, “dragon senses are way more sensitive than a mere canine's. It's like comparing a fly to a falcon just because they both have wings and start with the letter F.”
“Interesting analogy,” I nodded and then quickly pulled my head back in while I reached for Trevor. “Stop the car, we've found them.”
“Really?” Roarke perked up.
“Yes, cat,” I grinned. “Time to go hunting. Think you can handle a few humans?”
“I think I'll manage,” he rolled his eyes.
“Da, enough talking,” Kirill got out of the back. “Ve go now.”
“I agree,” I looked back to where the others were, tapping my foot impatiently as I waited for them to get out and walk over. “They're in that house there,” I pointed out an abandoned house set back among some trees. “Everyone ready?”
They all nodded and we crept up to the house, cloaked with invisibility. Everyone except the cat and Kirill, who'd never been taught anything beyond tracing. My lion crept through the shadows as silent and invisible as the rest of us though, and we made it to the back porch without any cry of alarm being raised. Of course that didn't mean they weren't just sitting there waiting for us.
We dropped the cloaking as we broke through the back door and from the looks of the set-up, they hadn't been expecting us. There was an altar in the middle of the empty living room, actually it was more of a picnic kind of thing, just a big white cloth strewn with candles, knives, incense, and one gold dish waiting, empty.
Behind the cloth sat a tall, lanky, dark-skinned man wearing thick, blue, coke-bottle glasses strapped to his head with pieces of leather. Four men danced around him, three were white men(two of those brunette and one blonde) and the last guy was a local Hawaiian. I was kind of shocked, didn't Tlaloc have any of his own people following him?
The scent I'd been tracking was continuing to pull at my nose but once I recognized it as belonging to the blonde, I was able to turn it off and forget about it. I focused instead on Tlaloc but so were most of us, so there was a mad dash and a bit of a pile up in getting to him. He jumped to his feet and pulled a sharp looking knife from a sheath at his waist. In a moment it was being held at a child's throat, a child we'd been too focused on Tlaloc to even notice; tied up, gagged and thrown in the corner as he'd been.
The priests were being dispatched by some of my friends who were still thinking rationally. I heard a feline howl and realized that one of those rational minds was fey. I'd have to buy the guy some catnip or something. After I killed the four-eyed son of a bitch in front of me, of course.
I looked over his grip on the child, trying to find a weakness. I wasn't going to bother telling him to drop the kid, that would just be a waste of breath.
“Tlaloc,” Blue stepped forward and the glasses-wearing god grinned, revealing a set of fangs that would look right at home in a snake's mouth.
“Huitzilopochtli,” Tlaloc's stance eased a bit and I kept my eyes peeled for any opportunity to strike. “I wasn't expecting you and your friends so soon. We haven't even killed the boy yet.”
“I apologize for the interruption,” Blue grimaced. “Tlaloc, this isn't the way to gain power.”
“Huh,” he looked down at the child and then cocked his head at Blue. “Yet it's been working just fine for me. Now I know for a fact that what you're doing will not gain me any power. It's not working for you at all. Is this female thing really worth it?”
“Thing?” I gaped. “What the fuck?”
“I see you,” Tlaloc peered at me through his thick lenses.
“Yeah, I see you too, freak,” I snarled. “You're standing right in front of me and I don't need glasses.”
“No, I really see you,” he chuckled and it was a sound like rocks being tossed together in a river bed. “I see the mish-mash you've become. You aren't really a woman anymore, you're a bit of this and a bit of that. Your own body isn't even sure of what it is. So many creatures wanting out, which one will you become? Maybe all of them at once!” He started to laugh hysterically and the child in his arms twisted in a panic.
“Tlaloc,” Blue spoke before I could come up with a witty comeback, which honestly, I didn't have. I was too damn shocked by his perception. “Your priests are dead, it's over.”
I turned my head and saw that Blue was right, someone had killed all the humans while I'd been distracted. Tlaloc looked over the bodies of his priests without concern. He just shrugged and held the kid tighter.
“I can still have this one's heart,” he sniffed heartily and grinned. “It beats strong. Can you hear it, Godhunter? Hear the way it pounds with fright? Do you feel the clenching in your legs? The flutter in your belly? That's the call to the Hunt, the call of the Host. You long to ride the air and chase this sound through the night. To corner the terrified child and listen to his screams. That's the beast in you, sensing weakness, scenting prey. Give in to it,” he let out a shivering breath. “It's so sweet.”
“One thing that makes us different,” I gave him a scathing head to toe look, “is that beneath all the beasts you see, I'm still human. I control the animals, the magic, not the other way around. The dragon may want to hunt but the woman knows better, knows the difference between prey and child. Oh, and fuck you, you sick bastard.”
Tlaloc laughed, clenching the child tighter. The poor kid was trembling, he had to only be around five or six, and there was blood at his wrists where he'd tried to free himself from the ropes. His dark eyes were
wide over the gag in his mouth and they were filled with terror but he wasn't about to just stand there while this psychopath slit his throat. The child let himself drop to dead weight and when Tlaloc looked down, the kid rammed his head back into Tlaloc's face.
I whooped in delight and jumped for the child, rolling with him to safety as the others went for the Aztec. I ran to the back door with the kid in my arms, wanting to get him as far from that crazy fucker as possible. As much as I wanted to kill the bastard, I wanted the kid safe even more. I ignored the sounds of fighting and carried the child all the way to the car.
I opened the car and jumped in with the kid still in my arms, pulling the door shut behind me and locking it for good measure. As if a locked car door would keep out a psycho Aztec god. Silly but I did it. Then I finally looked down at the kid and started to undo his bonds.
First the gag and then the ropes, I freed him quickly and checked his wounds as I went. They weren't too bad but still, I was surprised the boy hadn't started crying already. I glanced up to get a better look at this tough little kid and did a double take. The face beneath the blood and bruises seemed awfully familiar.
“Aunty V?” He whispered.
I frowned and reached up to switch on the car's interior light. “Ryu!” I gasped and put my shaky hands to his dirty face. “Cheese and rice!” I slipped into one of the curses I used around children, automatically. “Are you okay?”
He nodded solemnly, he wasn't much of a talker unless he was very happy or you happened to be trying to talk to his mother. His mother, who also happened to be my best friend, Sommer. Fuck, that sick fucker had taken one of my friend's kids. I started to get up, deciding that I needed to get in on the killing after all, when Trevor pulled open the driver side door. He looked grim and disappointed.
“What happened?”
“He got away,” he growled.
“Say that again,” I said very softly.
“You heard me,” he howled in frustration, slapping the steering wheel.
“Trevor,” I shouted, holding Ryu to my chest. “We have a child here, remember?”
“Oh gods,” he looked over, “I'm sorry. I... is that... is that Sommer's boy?”
“Yeah,” I answered as Kirill climbed in the back with Roarke.
“I'm sorry, Tima,” Kirill shook his head, “he traced avay, he...” Kirill's eyes got round when he looked up into Ryu's somber face. “Oh, hello, small man. Ve take you home now, okay?”
“Okay,” Ryu nodded, looked up at me, and promptly burst into tears.
“Delayed reaction,” I explained as I patted Ryu's back. “Head to Sommer's, we need to get him home as soon as possible. Did anyone think to bring a cell phone?”
Trevor opened the console and pulled one out.
“How bout we call Mommy?” I peered down at Ryu and he sniffled but stopped crying to nod. “Okay, this is going to be a fun conversation. How do you tell someone their child was abducted because a crazy Aztec god wanted to get even with you for stealing their cousin?”
“Maybe you should just return the child and leave most of that other stuff out,” Roarke suggested. “You did save him before he became a cape.”
“Oh fudge,” I said on a long breath and pulled Ryu closer. I was starting to shake as much as he was. He could've been one of those horror film corpses. This little beautiful child I was holding, made into a pile of meat and skin. I was going to kill that bastard slowly. “Hey,” I loosened my hold and looked down at Ryu. “You did good in there. You were super brave and smart. I couldn't have got to you without your help.”
“I gotta tell Daddy-o,” he said proudly, all the horrors forgotten in an instant. How amazingly resilient children are. Put them through a nightmare, and they'll be fine as long as they get to be safe again. It becomes just another story.
“Okay, we're gonna tell Mommy first though,” I said as I dialed. “I just hope she buys the right place at the right time story.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
We got Ryu home safe and sound. I thought Sommer was never going to stop hugging him or thanking me. She thought that I'd heard about Ryu's abduction and had gone looking for him with my god friends. That our magic had found him and saved the day.
Alex, Sommer's husband, had simply hugged me, swallowed hard and nodded his thanks before shaking Kirill and Trevor's hands. Then Ryu had to tell Daddy-o about how he'd helped take down the bad man with glasses and I was saved from looking him in the eye any further.
Sam, Sommer's eldest son, had even looked at me through a fall of his careless blonde curls(careless in that cultivated high school heartthrob way) with a fleeting glance of gratitude. High praise from the kid who rarely took off his headphones to do anything other than play his video games or talk to girls.
I felt like the biggest fraud. Yes, I did save Ryu but it was kind of my fault that he'd been in trouble in the first place. You can't tell me Tlaloc taking Ryu had been a coincidence. That Aztec asshole was fucking with me on purpose.
I was happy to see Ryu reunited with his family, though I drove away with a lump in my stomach, the terror of what might have been making me want to throw-up out the window like a drunken college kid. If we'd been thirty minutes later, holy fuck, if I'd listened to Trevor and rested before I tried to do that spell, Ryu would've been dead and skinned. I was on the verge of hyperventilating by the time we got home.
“Maybe I shouldn't have human friends,” I said as we pulled into the driveway of my house in Kaneohe.
“Why do you say that?” Trevor shut off the engine and took my hand.
“I have so many enemies now,” I tried to breathe slowly, in and out, “they could all be in danger because of me.”
“And they all know this,” Trevor spoke calmly, like you would to a crazy person.
“They don't know this,” I was about to go crazy, “Sommer didn't know her children were in danger of being abducted by an Aztec god intent on seeing his priests dance in their skin. She loves me but I'm fairly certain she'd have run in the opposite direction if she'd known there was a chance of that ever happening.”
“You can't control what others will do,” Trevor continued, the two in the backseat were quiet as church mice. “There will always be danger, whether it be Tlaloc or a drunk driver. Life is dangerous and it's the risk every parent takes by deciding to bring a child into this world. They risk that child being taken from them. You can't deny yourself friendship because of what someone else may or may not do to them.”
“I hear what you're saying,” I was finally finding some calm, “but I don't agree. I have to think about this some more.”
“Okay,” Trevor nodded, “let's get home to Pride Palace and take a hot bath. Then we can all climb into bed and get some rest.”
“All of us?” Roarke piped up.
“No!” The rest of us spoke all at once.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Crops are dying all over the U.S.,” Horus stood regally at one end of the library, his arms crossed and his face stern.
I'd had enough of meeting in the dining room, I needed a more cozy environment after last night's activities. So I sat huddled before the fireplace, face flushed but still needing the heat desperately. There was something so comforting about it, the bright flames dancing above the wood they consumed. A story in itself, of how the end of one life begins another and so on. When the fire died, its ashes would provide nutrients to the soil and help another tree grow. Circle of life.
No matter how hard I stared, concentrating on the beautiful heat, I couldn't get the picture of Ryu's solemn face out of my head. I couldn't stop seeing the rope burns on his tiny wrists or the cut edges of his mouth where the gag had been tied too tightly. I kept seeing those thick glasses that saw too much and the knives laid out in front of them. I suddenly had to swallow back a scream.
“Vervain?” Odin was at my knee and I didn't remember seeing him arrive.
“Odin,” I breathed his name like a prayer and so
rt of fell forward into his arms.
“Shhh,” he rocked me and I closed my eyes tight. “We'll find him, he's as good as dead.”
“I can't even track him,” I moaned. “The priests are dead and I didn't think to take Tlaloc's scent. I was too busy getting Ryu out of there.”
“It's okay, Vervain,” he pushed me back so he could look into my face. “You don't have to do it all. You have people helping you, not just people, gods. It's one against all of us. He doesn't stand a chance.”
“Huh,” I gave a sort of hiccuping laugh and pushed myself back in my seat. “You're right, I'm sorry everyone. I just needed to have a little breakdown.”
“You're overdue,” Pan gave me a wan smile, his curls falling aside so I caught a glimpse of the horns they were hiding.
“Okay,” I took a deep breath. “Where are we at? Any ideas?”
“He seems to be making his way East,” Mr. T observed, looking at a map someone had laid out on the library's central table. “He's very methodical, almost too methodical. I believe he wants to be found. We already know he's doing this partially to get Huitzilopochtli back on his team. Maybe he's trying to give us a pattern to follow.”
Blue walked over to the table and looked at the path revealed from what we'd garnered off the news reports. “If he continues in this manner, this town here should be his next stop. Millersburg, Pennsylvania.”
“Okay,” Vali, my adopted son, strode over to the table. If there was one thing Vali was good at, it was hunting. “So we stake out the farms, lay a trap, and wait.”
“What kind of a trap?” Hades' interest was piqued and my interest was piqued when I saw the shirt he was wearing. It read: Hotter Than Hell. I hid my chuckle behind my hand.
“I'm not sure,” Vali shrugged. I thought Huitzilopochtli could help with that since he knows our prey best.
“What can stop the rain?” Blue shook his head like it was impossible.
