by Amy Sumida
“Your territory is full of children,” Morph said.
“They're the dead souls of children, and they're all of an age that I can let them roam the territory freely. It's not like they're going to hurt themselves,” Pan said. “I don't have to look after them.”
“I would appreciate the help,” I took Pan up on his offer before someone got him to change his mind. “Samantha is here with Zariel upstairs if you need her, and all of Lesya's things are in her room. She's potty-trained, so you just need to help her clean up after she goes. There's also food in the fridge; she'll show you what she wants to eat, even if she can't say the words.”
“We'll be fine!” Pan rushed over to sit with Lesya. “Won't we, little lioness?”
Lesya giggled, bounced, and held a wooden wolf out to Pan.
“See?” Pan showed me his gift. “She loves me.”
“What about your father?” Odin asked.
“I'll text him.” Pan whipped out his phone, and Lesya reached for it. “Oh, no, sweetheart; no one touches the Pan's phone.”
I shook my head and went upstairs to fetch the goggles. The Pan was about to face his greatest challenge: the Lesya.
Chapter Eleven
We investigated power plants in LA, Tucson, Seattle, and Las Vegas; all major cities. We saved Las Vegas for last. As you can imagine, the loss of electricity had affected Vegas the worst. While we were walking through the power plant, finding no signs of god magic being used there—just as had been the case with all the other plants—we overheard some of the workers talking about the consequences of the power failure.
“I heard it was only five,” one man said.
“Five,” the other huffed. “Try closer to fifty-five.”
“Fifty-five dead?” The first guy whispered in horror. “How?”
“Don't you know how dark those casinos can get when the lights go out?” The second guy asked with smug satisfaction. “People panicked. It was chaos. Then there are all those rides. Frankly, I'm surprised more didn't bite the big one. The Adventuredome alone had eleven deaths.”
“What about their backup generators? Didn't they kick in? Every hotel has generators.”
“Backup generators!” The second guy scoffed. “What would they power, even if they worked? You saw the damage. It wasn't just the plant that was affected, whatever happened, it took out every electronic device within fifty miles. They're still rewiring Vegas. The big casinos have paid top dollar to have electricians flown in and work through the night.”
“Shit. You know, I heard they had people on the Xscream, over at the Stratosphere, that were stuck, hanging over the tower for four hours,” Guy 1 added.
“There were incidents like that everywhere,” Guy 2 said. “Someone is getting fired over this mess. Possibly a whole lot of someones. But honestly, I'm damn impressed. I'd like to know how they pulled this off.”
So would I.
“Who?” The first guy was confused.
“Whoever did this.”
“You think someone did this?”
“Well, it wasn't an act of God,” Guy 2 huffed.
Morpheus made a snorting huff that thankfully went unnoticed by the men.
“Terrorists,” Guy 2 went on. “It had to have been terrorists.”
“Like those Muslim guys?”
“Nah; I think it was the Koreans. You know how crazy that fucking leader of theirs is.”
“That's North Korea.”
“Whatever. I think it's all the fucking cabbage they eat,” Guy 2 said sagely. “You know they put it in the ground to go bad?”
“Pickling,” the first guy said. “Kimchee, they call it.”
“Isn't that the name of the crazy leader?”
“No; that's Kim Jong-un.”
“Whatever.”
With that gem of wisdom, the gods and I—under cover of invisibility—moved past the men. We found the power plant's generator, and I looked it over carefully with the goggles. Nothing divine had been done to it. There wasn't even the barest trace of magic wisping about, though there was the distinct smell of burned metal. We continued to search the plant, but the conversation we'd overheard kept replaying in my head. Not the kimchee part; the other stuff. The deaths, all the electronic devices, and especially, the fact that these workers had no idea what had caused the failure. It made my skin crawl. Something didn't add up. Those men didn't think this had been a natural disaster, and neither did I.
I tapped Azrael, who stood closest to me, and he passed on the signal that it was time to head home. We silently shuffled to an empty area, counted heads to make sure we had everyone, and traced back to Pride Palace. But as soon as we exited the tracing room, I turned to the gods and discovered the same concerned expression on their faces that I must have been wearing on mine. It looked like Morpheus had stumbled across something big.
“Failures in major cities with deaths occurring at each location,” Odin said.
“All the electronics fried,” Azrael added.
“And yet there were no traces of god magic at any of those power plants,” I said. “What did we miss?”
“Perhaps it's not god-related at all,” Hades suggested as we moved into the dining hall.
Pan and Lesya were gone, most likely upstairs, but there were a few Intare sitting around the table, eating. They waved to us and went back to their meals, accustomed to our endless troubles. They knew I'd let them know when they were needed.
The gods and I took seats at the other end of the stupidly long table and had a quiet conversation that my lions could nonetheless hear if they chose to listen in on. That didn't bother me; I'd be happy to tell them all about our little puzzle if they asked. Maybe I should; they could help us work it out.
“Are you saying that you think humans are behind this?” Trevor asked Hades. “Because there's no way that these could possibly be simple accidents. Those men practically said as much. Plus, power plants don't just break, and they certainly don't do so in such numbers.”
“And in such close proximity to each other,” I said in a musing tone. “They're all on the West coast of the US. That's very suspicious.”
“If it is a human—or group of them—behind this, it's none of our concern,” Hades said calmly.
Persephone's eyes widened on her husband
“What do you mean it's none of our concern?” I asked in shock. “This is some serious warfare. Who knows what the goal is here, but it can't be good. And you just want to sit back and let this play out?”
“What would you have us do, Vervain?” Hades shot back.
“Investigate further,” I said immediately. “We need to know what's happening before we make any decisions.”
“Sounds reasonable enough to me,” Pan said as he came into the room with Lesya sitting on his shoulders.
Lesya had a hold of Pan's horns and was smiling serenely; as if she were the Queen of England, riding one of her horses through her estate. When Pan stopped moving, she kicked her heels onto his chest to spur him on. He laughed and brought her over to her father.
“Enough, kotyonok,” Kirill said as he took Lesya from Pan. “Leave Pan be.”
“Daddy,” Lesya said mournfully.
“Nyet,” Kirill said firmly.
Lesya sighed but settled into his arms contentedly.
“There is nothing left for us to investigate.” Hades got us back on subject. “We have no leads; no evidence at all that this was even a god.”
“I can keep a watch in the Dream Realm,” Morpheus offered. “Maybe the nightmares will give me another clue.”
“Thank you, Morph,” I said. “And I'll keep an eye on the news. If there are any more power grid failures, I'll let you guys know.”
“We'll tell the rest of the Squad,” Persephone said. “We'll figure this out together, V.”
“Thanks, Sephy.” I hugged her.
“Don't mind Hades; he's been in a foul mood ever since the incident with Eros,” Persephone whispered to me.
>
I nodded as I eased out of the hug. “And let me know if you hear anything about Eros.”
“Will do.” She headed out with Hades.
“I texted my dad,” Pan added. “He's got people looking for Eros. He said he didn't like how things went down at the council and he feels a little guilty about what happened with Eros afterward.”
“Didn't you tell him that I don't hold any of the Olympians responsible for this?” I asked.
“Except Athena,” Odin muttered.
I ignored him.
“I told him, but he says that he knew about Eros' deep hatred for you,” Pan explained with a grimace. “Dad and Eros used to get together to drink and complain about you to each other. So, when Eros was suddenly trying to bond with you, it was suspicious, and Dad said he should have known that something was up. He feels guilty for not warning you, or at least challenging Eros on it.”
“Well, we're not exactly besties.” I sighed. “Tell Hermes that his help negates any guilt on his part. At least in my eyes. I don't hold it against him.”
“I knew you wouldn't.” Pan smirked. “And that's exactly what I told him. It will be nice to prove that I was right.”
“Just don't get too cocky,” I chided him.
“V, I can't help but be cocky.” Pan smiled broadly and thrust his hips forward. “I'm the Pan!”
Chapter Twelve
Five days later, there had been no sign of Eros—not from the sirens or Hermes and his network—but Portland experienced a power grid failure. That made every west coast state—and one slightly more inland—a victim of whatever this was. Portland had the least amount of fatalities so far, and those that they did have, were do to traffic accidents. But still, as soon as I heard the news of the outage, I traced over to the city with Azrael to investigate the scenes of the accidents. Searching the power plants hadn't yielded any results, so I decided to think outside of the electrical box and come up with other locations a god might leave his or her mark; such as the scene of a death. If a god were behind this, they would be taking the opportunity to enhance their strength by accepting any resulting deaths as their sacrifice... and accepting a sacrifice would leave a trace.
As horrible as it sounds, it was a good thing that traffic accidents take so long to clear up. It gave us enough time to get out there and search the location without having to dodge cars. I saw the glow of magic before we were even within ten feet of the accident. It was definitely a god behind this. No other magic user would suck up the life energy a human death could provide, and that was exactly what had been done there. The trauma of the accident had left a spiritual scar on the street, but the bright glow I saw was the remnant of a human life passing. And the glow was tinted with swirling blues and greens... god magic. I couldn't tell who the god was, just that it was a god. Which meant that this was our business.
A tingle along the back of my neck made me lift my head and look around the rain-soaked street. There were police with transparent rain gear on over their uniforms, even those plastic shields for their hats, speaking to a few witnesses or just standing around while the paramedics put things away at a moderate pace. It's always a bad sign when the paramedics aren't rushing. A crowd had formed a circle around the crushed vehicles, staring in morbid fascination at the hunks of metal that had once been a Toyota Corolla and a Ford pickup truck. They couldn't see us under our glamours, so they paid us no mind; at least, all but one of them didn't. I briefly met a dark gaze. The eyes widened and then he or she scurried away. I searched the crowd for the person that stare belonged to, but they had vanished.
“I saw someone,” I said to Az as I moved away from the wreckage.
I felt him moving beside me, and before I could run off in pursuit, Azrael took my hand. We maneuvered through the humans deftly, and I scanned faces as we went. None of them had those eyes; dark brown and full of fury. Whoever it was, they were not a fan of the Godhunter.
“Your goggles,” Azrael reminded me.
I pulled the goggles down over my eyes, and the world shifted back into an intense hyper-reality. I saw more than auras or traces of magic through the thick glass lenses; I saw the truth. Nothing could be hidden from them; not a god's birth form or the emotions in their heart. I focused my mind on the memory of the eyes I'd seen in the crowd, and instantly, a blue-green path appeared before me. The colors were an exact match to those I'd noticed around the life energy. This was the god we were looking for; I was sure of it.
Azrael and I raced away from the crowded street and through a suburb of brightly painted houses. It was dark, and a soft drizzle fell around us, but suddenly thunder boomed and rain pelted down from the sky. We were drenched in seconds. Despite the downpour, I continued to follow the trail of that god magic. Except the path took an abrupt, upward turn, and disappeared into the storm.
I focused on the dark clouds above us, but they were already starting to move away. With the bright flashes of lightning, it was difficult to spot the blue-green energy amid the storm. I ran beneath the rumbling clouds, eyes on the sky, and finally found the colors I was after. Just as I latched onto their location, and was about to shift forms, to fly up into the storm, the colors spread out so thin that they were indeterminable from the sky itself.
The storm picked up speed and shot toward the coast like a rocket.
Chapter Thirteen
“It's definitely a god, and he or she has magic that can control the weather,” I announced to the God Squad.
We were back in Pride Palace's dining hall; our go-to meeting location. This time it was empty, except for us. The Intare were going about their day; some of them training, some taking care of our little farm, some had taken jobs in the Human Realm and were there, and finally, a few were watching Lesya for me while we had this meeting.
“A weather god,” Teharon mused.
“Human dreams have been full of bleak weather and darkness, on top of the electricity themes,” Morpheus added. “It makes sense.”
“This god must control lightning, as I do,” Thor rumbled gruffly. “There's a connection between electricity and weather magic.”
“I'd say that's a reasonable deduction,” Odin agreed with his son.
“But there was no trace of magic within the power plants,” I reminded them. “I caught the aftereffects of the sacrifice being taken, and then chased a god off into a storm. I assume he's connected, but I don't know how he managed to make entire power grids fail without using his magic upon them.”
“Not just the grids; everything electrical,” Azrael reminded us.
“That is a good question.” Brahma frowned and then looked at his wife, Sarasvati. “Perhaps Rudra?”
“Perhaps,” Sara said, but she didn't sound convinced.
“Who's Rudra?” I asked.
“The Hindu God of Weather,” Sarasvati explained. “He's called the Howler, and not only does his magic cause storms, but it also brings disease and death.”
“That's lovely,” sarcasm dripped from my words.
“He has arrows that shoot the magic anywhere he wishes,” Brahma added.
“The arrows carry disease and death?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Don't normal arrows cause death?” I smirked.
“But these bring certain death,” Brahma countered, “not only to the person they hit but to those surrounding the target as well.”
“Nasty.” Trevor whistled.
“Doesn't he have a host of storm gods whom he controls?” Odin asked.
“Yes; the Rudras,” Sarasvati answered. “They're wild men, and not in a good way.”
“Do you think any of them could be behind this?” I asked. “The god I saw had dark eyes and dark skin, but that was all I caught. I'm not even sure if it was a man.”
“That's a vague description, but it applies to Rudra.” Brahma shrugged.
“Those are not the only storm gods,” Pan pointed out. “Most pantheons have at least one.”
“Well, the one
helpful thing about the dark skin and eyes description of our storm god is that it rules out the fair-skinned gods,” I pointed out.
“Rudra himself has reddish-brown skin,” Brahma said with a thoughtful expression. “But he could have easily sent one of his minions.”
“I can't see Rudra doing this,” Karni murmured. “We are not close, but I've interacted with him enough times to know that when he does fight, he does so in the open; not in such a secretive, dishonorable manner.”
“Either way, we still don't know how the power plants were affected without the use of magic,” I said. It was really bothering me.
“Lightning travels long distances through metal,” Thor said. “It's essentially electricity, Vervain.”
“So, lightning could have hit somewhere else and then was simply directed into the power plants?” Hekate asked. “Like backward, up the electrical wires?”
“Precisely,” Thor said.
“Tricky,” Hekate said with an approving grin.
“Katie,” Horus groaned.
“What? I can't appreciate an enemy's intelligence?” She huffed.
“She's right; it is tricky,” Karni Mata said. “And, as I said, Rudra has more honor than that. I don't believe it's him.”
“Still, there's no harm in asking him,” Sarasvati said. “I'll do it; Rudra likes me.”
“He what now?” Brahma scowled at his wife.
“Oh, please,” Sarasvati rolled her eyes. “You spread your seed for years across fields of human women, but I'm not allowed to have my romances?”
“No; you're not!” Brahma shouted.
We all went silent. Brahma was not a man who lost his temper often. He took most things in stride; except for, it seemed, his wife's infidelity.
Sarasvati smirked.
“Tell me that you never slept with that wind-blower,” Brahma demanded.
“Tell me you never slept with Aphrodite,” she shot back.
We all gaped at Brahma. It became physically impossible for my eyes to go any rounder.
