by Sumida, Amy
“You sure do sparkle nice though,” she smiled and came over to hug me. When she was in close enough to my ear, she whispered. “The only way to break his hold on you is to drink from the Grayel. Tell them they must let you drink from the Grayel or all my efforts will be wasted.”
“What?” I was jolted from my apathy.
“I’m getting you out of here,” she pulled me to the door, saying in a louder voice. “Come on, I have a gift for you in my room.”
I went along with it, hardly able to hope that I might actually escape Anubis. We strolled casually through the hallway, arm in arm, like we had all the time in the world, while my heart rate sped up and tried to burst free of my skin.
It actually only took a few minutes to get to the tracing chamber but it felt like lifetimes. I was shaking and sweaty by the time we set foot on all that glossy obsidian. I turned to look at Ma’at and she held my hands.
“I’ll open the way,” she said quickly, “then you direct the trace so I don’t have to leave with you.”
“Will you be okay?” I suddenly realized that Ma’at would have to deal with the fallout of my disappearance.
“He won’t be able to prove anything,” she smiled and winked. “Besides, I can’t help myself. I’m the Goddess of Justice and what he’s doing to you is unjust.”
“Thank you, Ma’at,” I felt tears rise up. “If there’s ever anything I can do for you, just ask.”
“I will, my friend,” she started to chant the words that opened the gates to the Underworld.
I chanted my own directions into the spell and felt the magic begin to pull me.
“Goodbye, Godhunter,” I heard Ma’at’s voice as if from far away. “May you never be forced to return to Duat.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
I was standing in my living room, my living room in my house. I couldn’t believe it. I was finally home. My welcome was an indignant meow and a hurtling pile of fur. I was shaking a little but I still managed to pick Nick up and give him a proper hello while he chastised me.
“I know, baby,” even my voice was shaking. “Mama’s sorry. I didn’t want to leave you.”
“Oh fuck,” a hoarse voice from the couch announced Trevor’s location. “Now I’m even hearing her.”
It was a little hard to see. All the living room windows were covered by the tenting I’d hung to give the room a Moroccan feel, and there wasn’t a single lamp on. I reached over and turned on a light. Trevor was laid out on the low couch, one arm over his face, a scruffy beard covering what I could see of his chin, and an almost empty bottle of Jack on the floor beside him.
“Trevor,” I hurried over to him, depositing Nick on a chair as I went by.
“Go away, hallucination,” he didn’t move, “I can’t take your taunts.”
“Honey-Eyes,” I knelt beside him and gently pulled his arm away from his face. “It’s really me. Ma’at broke me out but we have to get me to a God Realm fast or Anubis will call me back.”
He blinked up at me, disbelief, then hope, and finally joy pouring over his face. He sat up abruptly and I got my first good look at him. He’d lost weight, lost sleep, and apparently lost his ability to bathe, because he reeked of whiskey and sweat. But his eyes cleared fast and they took me in from head to toe like they’d memorize me.
“Minn Elska, you’re really here?”
“Are you going to hug me or what?” I grinned but it, like everything else, was still a little shaky.
He let out a trembling sound of pain and relief as he pulled me forward and buried his face in my hair. His body closed in around me and beyond the smell of unwashed skin and alcohol, I found him, the scent of spicy musk, the smell of home. I exhaled an anxious breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
“Hurry up,” I pushed him back and shook him a little. “We need to get out of here. If I’m in a God Realm, Anubis can’t get to me right away and then I can explain the rest.”
“Where to?” He stood as I scooped up Nick.
“Pride Palace,” I smiled and hugged him tight. I couldn’t wait to see my lions.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“What the fuck is going on?” I shouted as my eyes narrowed.
Nick leaped down to bravely investigate the tumult before me. He’d come to think of Pride Palace as his second home and his ownership was evident in his disdainful sniffs at the filth lying about the common room where I’d found most of the Intare. The trash was piled high in the corners and a brawl was currently underway.
It stopped immediately and all eyes turned to me.
“Tima?” Kirill came up behind us in the hallway.
“Kirill,” I hugged him and he tightened his arms around me to the point where I was gasping for air. I pounded on his back until he let me go.
“Why weren’t you with Trevor?” I looked from one to the other.
“I sent him away,” Trevor shook his head. “I couldn’t have any more reminders of you and all he did was try to cheer me up. I didn’t want to be cheered up. I wanted to die.”
“Oh, honey,” I stroked his face and a tear soaked into my skin.
“Don’t ever leave me again.” He grabbed my hand and kissed it.
“Or us,” Kirill motioned to the room and the lions who were coming over to humbly welcome me home. “Ve need you, Tima. Vithout you ve’re just animals.”
“Darius told me that before but I’d hoped you wouldn’t regress this fast.”
“I’m sorry, Tima,” Darius trudged over, golden hair greasy and hanging around his buff shoulders. “I warned you that we needed your guidance. Without our heart, our Tima, we have no direction, no love to soften us. I’m so happy you’re home.”
“We tried to find you,” Fallon came up next to Darius. “But your scent was lost and we had no idea how to track you without it.”
“Where I was, none of you could follow,” I sighed. “But I’m back now, Ma’at got me out.”
“Not a moment too soon, by looks of it,” Kirill fingered my silk.
“You were about to marry him?” Trevor finally digested the meaning of the diamonds and dress.
“Yes,” I took his hand and held it. “I was just finished dressing when she came and told me she didn’t believe in what he was doing to me. I would’ve tried to escape sooner but I overheard Anubis talking with Thoth once and he said a human could only leave the Underworld with the help of one of the gods who ruled there.”
The lions circled around me as I went into the room, rubbing their faces against my hands and rumbling out relieved greetings. My heart filled with love for my men, my strong lions who’d suffered without me. When I finally took a seat on one of the couches, they all settled in around me and Nick sauntered through them with a raised tail and chin. If he could have spoken, I’m sure he would’ve been telling them all how they were gonna get it now. He crawled into my lap and started purring contentedly.
The lions around me curled up and mimicked him, filling the room with the sound of happy kitties. My chest was practically vibrating. Trevor was lying half across me, one hand in my hair, one on my leg. His face was laid on his arm and he seemed just as content as the rest of them.
“There’s more,” I petted Nick, his warm fur a physical reminder of my freedom. “Anubis siphoned my soul until he had it all. I lost all emotion, numbed by the cold of a soulless body, and susceptible to his call. Then he filled me with heat, driving away the cold but taking control of my body as he did it. I heard him tell Thoth that if I should ever get away, even to a God Realm, it would only be a matter of time before the cold would seep back in and he’d be able to call me again.”
Trevor’s hands tightened on me and a low growling replaced the purrs.
“No,” Trevor’s voice was rough but determined. “He won’t take you from me again.”
“When Ma’at got me free, she told me to drink from the Grayel,” I looked over at Trevor’s round eyes. “Do you know what she meant? Was she referring to the Holy Grai
l?”
“Yes and no,” he whispered. “It’s what the myth was based on but it’s not a chalice at all, although there is a cup involved. The Grayel is a machine, an Atlantean machine. It’s one of the sources of immortality.”
“A machine?” I snorted, go figure that the source of numerous myths and legends was an Atlantean contraption.
“Granter of Recuperation, Agility, and Youth Ever-Lasting,” Trevor rubbed a hand over his face. “GRAYEL for short. It heals anything but it also gives you immortality. Are you sure you want to live forever?”
The Highlander song started playing in my head. Who wants to live forever? Who wants to live forever in Duat, slave to Anubis? My choices weren’t the best but option A was looking far better than B.
“It’s either live forever with you or live forever with Anubis,” I shrugged.
“Good point,” he sighed. “I’ll have to go ask Father to contact Jesus then.”
“What?” I battled gods all the time, so I’d met quite a few of them but I’d never met Christ. I was beginning to think he was simply part of a greater god, Yahweh, Allah, whatever the original was that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were all descended from. Evidently, I was wrong.
“Christ guards the Grayel,” Trevor got to his feet. “We’ll have to talk him into letting you take a sip, though I honestly don’t think it’ll be difficult. He’s pretty easy going.”
“Is he?” I was overwhelmingly curious.
“I’ll go see if I can arrange a meeting as soon as possible,” he started to head out but stopped and turned back. “Could you find something other than your wedding dress to wear?”
“Sure, baby,” I laughed and it was the first laugh I’d had in over a month that I could truly enjoy. “If you could maybe find some water to bathe in.”
“Da, you stink,” Kirill said it best.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jesus is a hippie.
That was the first thought in my head when I met the J-Man, as I was told he liked to be called. He was a gangly guy with long, shaggy, brown hair and a hook of a nose but his smile was wide and generous. A thin strip of leather was tied around his forehead, holding all that hair back, or at least trying its best to, and a pair of round, purple-tinted, John Lennon glasses hid his eyes. I had a feeling they’d be bloodshot… there was a distinct odor in the air.
He’d been meditating on the floor, cross-legged, when we came in, dressed in nothing but a T shirt and jeans. Behind him was the Grayel. Big, beautiful, and shiny, the machine was all bells and whistles, looking every inch as important as it was touted to be. At the center of it, sat a gold cup underneath a silver spigot.
I had a sudden flash of Four Weddings and a Funeral, the scene where the nervous priest, played by Rowan Atkinson, is performing the wedding vows and announces “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spigot”. I’d just found the Holy Spigot!
I choked back a giggle but made enough of a sound that Jesus lifted his head and noticed us. He smiled serenely, got to his feet, and came over with an ambling strut. I nearly choked again when I got a better look at his shirt. On it was a picture of a chicken, wearing red devil’s horns, and baring pointy teeth. Beneath it were the words “Fowl Demon” in dripping blood letters. Who knew Christ had a sense of humor?
“Hey there,” he reached for my hand first and I was relieved to find his grip sure and steady.
“Hello,” I smiled hesitantly. What was a witch supposed to say to Jesus Christ? Hey, how about changing that line about not suffering me to live? I was at a loss.
“Come in, everyone,” he spread his arm out to offer us a seat on the comfy white sofas spread out to the either side of the Grayel. “Vervain, Fenrir has told me all about the badness that’s been going down. That’s not cool, what Anubis was trying to pull, but Ma’at was right, the Grayel should completely remove his mark on you… and anyone else’s,” his head cocked as he peered at the lightning bolt down the side of my neck.
I frowned. No more connection to Thor. Why did that sound so horrible?
“What about Trevor?” I looked over at my wolf. “Will it sever my ties to him and the Froekn, to my Intare?”
“No,” he smiled a half grin. “You’re all good there. The bond between you and the wolf is through his magic, it’s not like a virus or a poison, and it’s not a scar. The Grayel heals all, so the scar at your shoulder and the one on your neck will disappear but your magic is part of you, the wolf and the lion are safe as well as… is that Aphrodite’s magic I smell?”
“Uh, yeah, long story short, she tried to torture me to death and I sucked her magic out of her till she died.”
“Well, Ding Dong the bitch is dead,” he laughed a little. “She tried to seduce me once. Can you believe that? I told her, ‘Look crazy lady, I ain’t got time for your shenanigans. Bad babes aren’t good for the meditating, you know? You’d clog up my consciousness.’ Man, she didn’t dig that.”
“Well,” I looked over at Fenrir, who was smiling at my shock. “I’m glad you didn’t fall for her bullshit.”
“Nah, she was good but not that good,” he leaned in to whisper. “I’ve had better. There was this one time in Judea…” his eyes drifted off for a second before he shook his head a little and they cleared. “Anyway, she stank of evil, you dig?”
“I do actually,” I shivered as I once again heard the crack of her whip in my head.
“So,” he sat up and slapped his knees. “You want that drink or what?”
“Um, yes please,” I took Trevor’s hand to try and still the shaking of my own.
The J-man walked over to the big machine and pushed an inconspicuous button. A soft whirring filled the room and I felt the prickle of magic on my skin. It was a machine alright but it was a magical one. Sparks flew out of the end of a tube and there was an odor of crisp green grapes and icy mountain springs. The sound of water rushing through pipes increased until I thought the machine would blow up and drench us all, but at the pinnacle of sound, the spigot gave one gush of bright, glowing, white liquid and then the whole machine seemed to take a breath and relax.
Jesus picked up the cup and carefully, reverently, carried it over to me. He spoke some words in an unknown language and then translated them for me.
“Take into you all that I hold. Drink of my life and live forever, for I am the Guardian of the Grayel and it is my right to succor you and sustain you. It is my magic that you consume and I give of it freely. Do you accept it willingly?”
Whoa, that had a touch of communion to it. All we needed was some bread. At least he’d referred to magic and that I could handle. I looked at the delicate carving on the cup, unable to recognize what culture it stemmed from. Well duh, I thought suddenly, it was Atlantean. Of course I didn’t recognize it.
Fenrir’s discreet cough made me realize I was procrastinating. I looked up and Jesus smiled gently, patiently holding the cup like he could stand there forever. He probably could.
“I do,” I reached for the cup and drank down the bright liquid, feeling immensely grateful that I wasn't saying those words to Anubis.
Sweet, like a honeysuckle, with the kick of moonshine. It was a shooting star of a flavor, breathtaking but gone in moments. The magic shot through me, rushing through my veins and swirling around my body like the winds of change. My very cells felt invigorated, revived. My wolf started to howl, the lioness roar, my jaguar finally came out from hiding, and the butterflies of my love magic rose up to flutter madly about. I was filled with laughter, love, and strength. Then it hit the piece of death Anubis had left behind.
I was flung to the floor, someone thankfully took the cup from me before it could fall, and my body went into horrible spasms. I felt my head thrum against the white carpet until someone cradled it in their lap and stilled it. My legs kicked out and my arms flailed but I felt the elixir wining. I felt and saw the light inside me brighten till it was blinding, and cowering before it was the darkness Anubis had put there. T
he light pushed the dark out of my pores like it was a mere nuisance, sending it back to its master.
In moments, it was done and I found myself cradled in Trevor’s arms. He was stroking my face, my hair, and the crook of my neck. I knew without feeling for it that Anubis’ scar was gone. I was free. But I also knew that Thor’s mark was gone with it and I wasn't sure how I felt about that. I struggled to sit up and reach out to ol’ JC. He grinned and came over to take my hand.
“Thank you,” I whispered hoarsely.
“From Godhunter to Goddess,” he pushed his glasses up onto his head and his eyes sparkled like topaz at me. “I think you were always destined to become one of us. Welcome to the family, Goddess of Love and Lions.”
“Goddess?” I looked over at Fenrir and Trevor, the only two who’d been allowed to come in with me. They nodded, looking way too serious. “Can’t I still be the Godhunter? I kinda liked that title.”
“Sure, Minn Elska,” Trevor kissed my cheek. “You know you’ll always be my Lady Huntress.”
“I’m Anubis-free now?” I turned back to Jesus.
“Yep, one hundred percent Anubis-free, all organic Vervain,” he leaned in and winked at me before putting up his glasses, “and Thor-free as well.”
“And Blue,” I said as I realized there was one more scar I'd forgotten. At least I'd made up with him. The one good thing to come out of the whole mess.
“Thank you,” I looked over at the J-man and laughed a little.
“What’s so funny, kitty cat?” Jesus gave me a half smile.
“I just never imagined I’d be saying thank you to Jesus,” I let Trevor wrap an arm around me to lead me out. “Take it easy, J-Man.”
“Peace, Godhunter.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
A living room had never looked more wonderful, more achingly lovely, more perfectly what I needed. One step inside my house and my breath left me. The air flew from my lungs to become a part of the air I’d left behind and the new combination was sublime. My past blended evenly with my present and everything was instantly okay.
