Half Bad: A Reverse Harem Goddess Romance (Godhunter Book 31)

by Amy Sumida

  “Can all of you trace?” Austin asked.

  “As far as I know.” I looked to Kirill for help.

  Kirill shrugged.

  All Gods can trace, Odin supplied the answer. There's no reason for him to take the tunnel.

  “No reason,” I whispered, and then my blood went cold.

  Warn Viper! Odin shouted in my head—right there with my train of thought.

  “Vhat is it?” Kirill asked.

  I held up a hand to hold him off as I called for Viper in my mind.

  Yeah? came his immediate response.

  I think it's a trap! Turn back!

  I can see the end of the tunnel. I'm not turning back now.

  Viper, he should have traced away but he didn't. There's only one reason for him to take that tunnel and it's to lead us somewhere.

  He'd have to know we were hunting him, V, Viper said calmly. Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'm here already. Coming out of the tunnel now. It looks like someone's backyard.

  Viper, get out of there now!

  Relax, sweetheart. No one's here to jump me. It's just a house. It—oh, Hoover Dam.

  What? What happened?! I shrieked.

  There's more than one. A lot more.

  Trace to Austin's!

  Viper didn't respond.

  Viper! Viper! I got so frantic that I screamed his name aloud, “Viper!”

  Austin slammed on the breaks and stared at me in shock.

  “Is he hurt?” Kirill asked gently.

  “I don't know,” I moaned.

  A little busy here, Viper muttered. Give me a second, babe.

  “Oh, thank goodness,” I whispered in relief and released my death-grip on the pile of Viper's clothing on my lap.

  “I guess that means that I can start driving again?” Austin asked warily.

  “Da. Drive,” Kirill said. Then to me, “Vervain?”

  But I was back in my head, growling at Viper, Trace away!

  It's all good. I got it.

  Damn it, Viper!

  Floppy french fries! Viper cursed again. They got away.

  What?

  They ran. Vamoosed. Evacuated. Left the nest.

  Good, I huffed in relief. Get your fine ass to Austin's.

  Yes, Ma'am, Viper drawled in mimicry of the Cowboy-Cop.

  “He's okay,” I let the guys know. “He's going to trace to your house, Austin.”

  “What about the killer?” Austin asked.

  I grimaced.

  “What the fuck? You're supposed to be gods!”

  “We are gods,” I huffed. “The problem is, he's one too.”

  “That's no excuse,” Austin growled as he pulled up his driveway, his headlights flashing over a crowd of gods and demigods standing before his house. “He's one god and you guys are—to get biblical—legion.” He waved a hand toward the others. “I expected better.”

  “Well, I'm so sorry to disappoint you, Dad.” I rolled my eyes as Kirill slid out of the truck. “This is how it goes when you hunt gods; it takes awhile. Get over it.”

  Austin sighed and ran a hand over his face. “Sorry. I didn't get much sleep before your friends showed up this mornin'. I'm one wheel down with my axle dragging.”

  “It's okay. They shouldn't have come back so soon. We forget that people need to sleep.”

  “You don't need to sleep?”

  “We do, just not as much as you do. We need it more for the mental part of it, you know? Your body needs sleep to repair itself but our bodies don't; we repair ourselves constantly. However, our brains still need rest to process and store memories as does yours. If we go without it for long enough, we'll start going crazy and no one wants a crazy god.”

  “Well, shit,” he snorted then chuckled.

  “At least, that's my theory.”

  “Honestly, I'm so tired that anythin' sounds reasonable right now.”

  “We should go,” I said gently. “We can come back and meet with you in the morning.”

  “No. I want to hear it all now. Then I can sleep and do my processing just like you.” He grinned. “Maybe when you return, I'll have a solution.”

  “Sure, we'll go with that.” I slid out of the truck.

  “Hey, what's that supposed to mean?” Austin climbed out, shut his door, and faced me across the hood.

  “That this case is going to take more than a good night's sleep to solve.”

  Chapter Eight

  “Where the actual fuck is Viper?” I snarled, regressing into using a foul word because I was that angry... and that scared.

  “He's fine, Minn Elska,” Trevor grabbed me by my upper arms as if to keep me from running off after my missing lover. “He's ferrying people to the house where he found the snakes. He'll be back in—” Trevor broke off and looked up. “Here he is.”

  I spun around and found Viper standing there, smiling at me. In clothes. I dropped the clothes I was holding.

  “I popped back to Pride Palace to grab something to wear,” Viper said in response to the garment dropping. “I didn't want to be tracing people in my birthday suit.”

  “You took the time to trace home but you couldn't trace to me?” I growled.

  “You said to meet you here.”

  Now, let me just say before I go any further that I am not a violent lover, and I absolutely do not condone violence in a relationship—from either partner. If you don't want to be hit, you shouldn't hit. That being said, if that's your thing and both of you like it, go for it; I won't judge. But I will say that there are times when you get so damn angry that all of the sense flies out of your head. And when the sense in a shapeshifter's head goes bye-bye, all that remains is primal animal instinct.

  My animal instinct told me to smack the crap out of my man and make him understand what he'd just put me through.

  I didn't slap or punch him. I had enough reasoning left to channel my anger into that sort of paddling pummeling women do when they're more scared than angry. I beat on Viper's chest until that fear was gone, then I collapsed into his arms.

  He folded himself over me and whispered, “I'm sorry, sweetheart. I'm so sorry. I didn't think you'd be upset.”

  “Fuck you, Viper!” I screamed at him and pushed away to point a finger in his face. “I told you it was a trap. I told you to turn around, but you wouldn't listen to me. You had to go and act like an asshole.”

  “Wow, fuck and asshole,” Re murmured. “She's really mad.”

  “I was right there,” he growled. “This body may be less than a year old but I'm not a child, Vervain. And I'm not one of your lions either. I don't take orders from you... not anymore.”

  “No, you're not my lion, you're my boyfriend and I love you. And that should have been enough of a reason for you to trace back to me when I was worried about you.”

  “As if you don't do shit like that all the time,” Viper scoffed. “Don't lecture me about things you're unwilling to do yourself.”

  “I do shit like that all the time?” I snarled. “When? In my past that you weren't a part of? And to who? Not to you, Viper. I have never done that to you so you don't get to say that shit to me.”

  “I can't say that to you? You're going to put limits on what I can say now? You already tell me where to sleep and what to wear. You run my fucking life, Vervain, and I'm tired of it. I'm sorry that I scared you, but I had everything under control.”

  “Yeah, but you left me hanging while you established that!”

  “I was busy fighting a whole lot of fucking snakes! You should have trusted me!”

  “Snakes that you wouldn't have been fighting if you'd listened to me!”

  “Go fuck yourself, Dark Star, cause I'm not playing the part of your sex toy tonight,” Viper snarled and traced away.

  Dark Star. That had been a low blow—even worse than that sex toy bit—and I wasn't the only one who thought so, if the gasps around me were any indication.

  I stared at the empty space before me, my breath coming out in ragged pants, a
s my family and friends shifted uncomfortably in the awkward silence. How had that escalated so quickly? I haven't shouted at one of my men like that since... since the time Trevor had left me. Oh, fuck. Had I just driven Viper away? Was that a break-up argument? He told me that he'd been waiting centuries for me in the Void. He said I was everything to him. He said a lot of things that made me believe he'd never leave me but then, most men do. I felt that awful, bitter weight on my chest—something I haven't felt in a long time. Something I thought I'd never feel again.

  Insecurity.

  I doubted Viper and our relationship. Part of me was already preparing for abandonment—steadying myself for the blow. A long time ago, I'd been a cynical person, especially when it came to love. I'd been burned a few times and it had left me with a rubbery scar that love couldn't penetrate; it simply bounced off. When I met the Gods, my insecurity deepened at first. Thor had done a number on me—reaching past my scars only to crush my heart completely. Then Trevor came along and he'd pushed back the fear for awhile—those nagging thoughts that I wasn't good enough. That human men got tired of me so what would make a god stick around? Then Trevor had left me. He came back eventually—I had to bring him back, actually, right out of Viking Hell—but I'd never forgotten the pain of his abandonment. Or the look in his eyes when he told me it was over.

  Don't get me wrong, I wasn't blameless in that episode. Trevor had a good reason to leave and I didn't resent him for it. Nonetheless, he wasn't the one who picked up the broken Vervain pieces and put me back together. He wasn't the one to teach me that love can get shaky sometimes but when you have something truly special, nothing can break it. That was Kirill. And Odin. That was Azrael and Re. Toby... he had left too but I, oddly enough, had gotten over it. There was still an ache in my chest for him, but I'd known from the beginning that Toby was never meant to be mine. Deep down, I knew it wouldn't last. Viper, however, had felt like mine from the beginning. If he left, I would never get over him.

  “He's just gone somewhere to cool off.” Trevor gently laid his hand on my shoulder.

  I jerked away from him. He was the wrong man to comfort me about this.

  “Minn Elska?” He asked in a wounded tone.

  “I'm sorry, Honey-Eyes, but this is bringing back bad memories and one of them is of you.”

  Trevor's jaw clenched but his wolf eyes softened with understanding. He dropped his hand.

  “What I miss?” Aidan, one of my werelions, asked as he appeared nearby.

  “Not now, Aidan,” Kirill growled.

  “Sheesh, Viper told me to come back and show you guys how to get to the house,” Aidan grumbled. “He was rather rude about it too. What the hell happened while I was gone?”

  “Start transporting Intare to site,” Kirill ordered. “Everyone else, give us some privacy, please.”

  Aidan started to balk but took one look at my face and shut his mouth. He grabbed two lions and traced them away. The remaining lions and the God Squad followed a weary but wide-eyed Austin into his house. All but my men. In fact, Odin suddenly traced in. He must have still been with me in my mind and heard my panic.

  Odin stepped out of the Aether and directly into an urgent stride that took him straight to me. He pulled me into an embrace and held me against his broad chest as his head curled over mine. His hand went to my hair and started stroking soothingly. My heartbeat slowed as I listened to his and my breath left me on a long exhale.

  “Viper's just angry, Carus,” Azrael drew closer and laid a hand on my back. “Give him some time.”

  “I said some awful things,” I whispered.

  “No, you didn't,” Re insisted. “You spoke the truth, it was just colored with fear. He'll see that soon enough. Viper, as much as he acts the fool sometimes, is not one.”

  My husbands pressed in around me, and I let their love comfort me. The melding scents of warm men, magic, and dangerous beasts sank into me and calmed my own inner animals. Once they were calm, I was able to think straight again. And I didn't like what I was thinking.

  “I shouldn't have hit him,” I muttered, furious at myself.

  “It wasn't much of a hit—any of them,” Trevor said with a teasing smile. “I think he'll survive.”

  “I overreacted, then he said that I've run off like that.” I frowned. “Have I done that to him?”

  “Not zat I recall,” Kirill said and shrugged. “But even if you had—especially if you had—he should have understood your fear.”

  “People say mean things when they fight, La-la, you know that.” Re kissed my cheek tenderly. “On a scale of 1-10 for a lover's spat, that wasn't even a 5. It will be all right.”

  “Thanks, Re.” I rubbed at the back of my neck.

  Now that the fight had left me, as it were, exhaustion had taken over. Immortality couldn't heal this ache and it had seeped through my body with the departure of adrenaline. I just wanted to hide in my bed and pretend I hadn't argued with Viper. Immature, I know, but when love goes wrong, it tends to turn me into a teenager. Or maybe that was just another animal instinct; animals hide when they're hurt.

  “Come on, sweetheart, let's go inside and finish this,” Odin said. “Then we can go home.”

  “Okay.” I slumped into the house, leaning on my men, feeling absolutely pathetic, and not being able to do a damn thing about it.

  Chapter Nine

  We went inside and found only the God Squad waiting with Austin. Even with the thinned numbers, it was standing room only. The gods had made sure Austin had a chair, though. He slumped in it with a cup of coffee in his hand, on the verge of passing out.

  “I'm so sorry, Austin,” I said immediately. “I shouldn't have done that right on your doorstep.”

  “Hey, you were worried about your man and he was kinda an ass about it,” Austin said. “No biggie. I get it.”

  “We all get it,” Persephone added. “Viper was a jerk.”

  “We both were,” I defended him. “But let's forget about Viper for now. I want to talk about these snakes so we can get out of Austin's house and he can get some sleep.”

  “Your lions have gone to investigate the house Viper located,” Thor said. “Hopefully, they'll have more information for us soon.”

  “Until then, let's go over what we've learned,” I suggested. “It looks as if we were set up tonight. That snake led Viper into an ambush.”

  “But how could they have known about us in time to set us up?” Hades asked.

  “We've been driving around this town,” Finn reminded everyone. “We were obviously spotted.”

  “He knew who I was,” I pointed out.

  “That's right,” Azrael agreed. “He called you Godhunter. But, he also seemed surprised to see you. I'm not so sure that this was an ambush, at least not a premeditated one. It may have simply been a case of opportunity presenting itself.”

  “Just like the killin's,” Austin murmured.

  “No, not like the killings,” Hades protested. “He had every opportunity to kill that woman but he didn't. Why not?”

  “She never looked back,” Persephone pointed out.

  We all went still.

  “What I say?” Persephone looked around at all of us. “It's true, she didn't look back. She ran as soon as she heard someone behind her. The guy, however, turned to face whoever was following him.”

  “This sounds familiar,” Odin scowled as he spoke. “Like a story I've heard.”

  “They're safe until they turn around,” I mulled it over.

  Odin nodded absently, then focused on me. “I'm going back to Valaskjalf. I want to check my books.”

  “Okay.” I kissed him goodnight then whispered, “Thanks for coming to comfort me.”

  “Always, my love,” Odin vowed. “I will always be there for you when you need me.”

  It was exactly what I needed to hear, and he knew it. More importantly, it was true and I appreciated the reminder.

  “I love you, my sweet raven,” I whispered against his
lips.

  “I love you too, Trinity Star.” Odin nuzzled my face, then pulled back and traced away.

  “So, we have a group of snake-shifters burrowing their way up from Mexico to follow people around and kill whoever turns around to look at them,” Finn surmised. “At least one of them recognized Vervain and doesn't like her, if that ambush is any indication. They may or may not have spotted us earlier today but either way, they attacked Viper so they know we're their enemies.”