by Amy Sumida
“He could have just said; Live to fight another day,” I murmured.
“Zere is even easier vay to say it. In Russian, it's called terpet; to endure. But it means much more zan zat. It's longing; vaiting for something and suffering as you vait.”
“That's a lot for one word to carry.”
“First you say too much then you say too little.” Kirill nuzzled my forehead as he grinned. “And zat's my point; one vord vouldn't have helped me but my father's vords stuck vith me. Ven Niyarvirezi found me, I didn't fight. I vent vith her. I endured her punishments. I bent my knees and survived ven all I vanted to do vas tear her throat out.” Kirill let out a long breath. “I didn't understand about cord zen. I didn't know she could find me so easily.”
“How could you not know about it?” I was shocked. The cords connecting me to every Intare were bright, golden things that pulsed inside me. Impossible to ignore. All I had to do was think about one of my lions to feel that bond between us. I'd always assumed it was the same for them but maybe I was wrong. “The cord that connects us is a brilliant glowing ribbon inside me. Is it different for you?”
“No, Vervain.” He kissed me tenderly. “It's same for me. But cord vasn't like zat zen. You made bindings bright. You cleared away darkness zat had confined us and transformed it into rays of light zat freed us.”
“What?” I whispered.
“You didn't know?”
“No. They've always been golden for me.”
“Zat doesn't surprise me.” Kirill smiled tenderly. “Before you took Intare, cords vere slippery shadows inside us. I didn't know it vas zere until Niyarvirezi used it against me. She kept it hidden, like snake vaiting to strike. You banished shadows. It vas part of how I knew I could trust you, even ven my mind had gone feral.”
“I never thought she started like that,” I whispered. “I assumed that she had begun with good intentions.”
“You zink too vell of people,” he chided but in an adoring way. “Not everyone is born good. Some are born wrong and get vorse vith time.”
“But magic is pure.”
“Niyarvirezi's magic found her through tragedy. Intare vere born in blood, Vervain. From adultery, abuse, and murder. Our magic vas formed by darkness.”
“There's nothing wrong with darkness,” I said gently.
“Not a lack of light, no,” he conceded. “But darkness as I speak of it, zat vhich shaped our magic vas evil.”
“The Intare were not born evil,” I protested.
“Not us, Vervain. Our magic and our goddess. You met her. You slew her. You know I'm right.”
“But...”
“You made us good.” Kirill smiled brightly at me and laid his palm on my cheek. “You made us family. And you changed Intare magic. Vith one touch, your soul transformed it.”
“All of you transformed me too.”
“Of course, ve did. Zat's vhat being family means.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The next morning, we traced to the Vilkacis compound to check on Lesya and gather our werewolf hunting team. Lesya was already awake and playing with her new friend when we arrived and barely had time to kiss me hello or goodbye.
“I suppose that's a good thing,” I said to Veja as we left the kids in the backyard, under the care of Karina's mother. “Better that she doesn't miss me.”
“She knows you'll return,” Veja said. “Come, I've gathered a team. Ve are ready to leave ven you are.”
The Vilkacis team consisted of roughly fifty men and women, all eager to hunt. Kirill shot me a smirk. His reticence at having help didn't seem to extend to fellow Latvians. Every one of them knew Alūksne well so it was easy to explain where we were headed. We traced to the peninsula where we had started the day before. Jarilo was waiting in the same spot with the same blouse in his hand. He nearly dropped it when he spotted the Vilkacis.
“Ven you said you'd bring volves, I didn't expect zis many,” Jarilo murmured as he stared over the large group.
“Zis is only a handful of my family,” Veja said with a proud smirk. “But I zink zey're enough to cover Alūksne. Hello, Jarilo, it's been long time.”
“It has,” Jarilo agreed. “It's good to see you again, Vejasmate.”
“You know each other?” I asked in surprise.
“Ve've met a few times.” Veja shrugged. “Zis is my family.” She waved a hand to the wolves, and they inclined their heads. “And my consort, UnnúlfR.”
“It's an honor to meet all of you.” Jarilo bowed. “I'm deeply grateful for your assistance.”
“We're happy to help,” UnnúlfR said and held his hand out for the blouse. “Just give us a whiff of that.”
“Oh, of course.” Jarilo handed the blouse over.
UnnúlfR sniffed first then passed it to Veja. The blouse made its way back through the crowd. Being already attuned to Mokosh's scent, I picked up on it from afar; refreshing it in my mind. Vejasmate spoke to her people in Latvian, and they rushed off to do her bidding.
“Ve vill meet back here at end of day,” she informed me.
“Happy hunting.” UnnúlfR grinned then took off at a run, Veja hot on his heels.
“Is it just me or do zey seem to...” Jarilo trailed off.
“Be enjoying themselves?” I finished for him.
“I realized zat might be considered rude.” He gave me a sheepish grin.
“Not if it's the truth.” I grinned back.
“Vhere's Lesya?” He asked suddenly.
“One of Veja's daughters is watching her today.”
“Oh, good.” He looked down at his mother's blouse, returned to him after the sniffing.
“If there's any trace of your mother left in Alūksne, we'll find it. We'll figure out where she went and go from there,” I promised. “Now, is there anything else you know that might help—”
Before I could finish, a group of men stormed out of the woods and rushed us. They didn't shout or even grunt. They just came at us with knives and guns and—of all things—nets. As in fishing nets.
Shots cracked like thunder. Kirill grunted in pain. Jarilo crouched and flung out a hand. A wave of magic coasted over the forest and it came alive. Tree branches knocked men over, vines shot out of the ground to ensnare them, and roots lifted to trip their feet. The Veggie God had some skills.
But I paid him only passing notice. As soon as Kirill was injured, a snarl vibrated over my lips. It didn't matter that the bullet had merely grazed his shoulder. Or that Kirill had burst through his clothing and into his lion form, healing the injury in seconds. All my beasts knew was that our mate had been hurt. None of them liked that and we all agreed that whoever had drawn Kirill's blood would be repaying it with interest.
Claws burst from my fingers as I launched myself at our assailants. Guns? Really? I had learned early on that guns don't work well on Gods. Some gods are even bulletproof but even those who aren't could recover from a bullet wound without batting an eye. Unless you were able to shoot enough bullets, in a straight enough line, to behead the god. But if severing a human's head is difficult—and it is; there's a reason the French invented the guillotine—then severing a god's head is exceptionally so. I know this from personal experience.
In conclusion; either these men were idiots or they weren't trying to kill us. Of course, that didn't matter to me either. I ripped through a man's throat and went straight to my next victim. I'd have to deal with regrets later but right then, eliminating the threat was my priority.
It didn't register until the fight was nearly over—an event that took seconds—that the men were human. I hadn't even considered the chance that they might be. But their lack of magic and their quick deaths finally made it past my fury and into my brain. I tried to pull my punches but it was too late for most of them.
Then lightning rent the sky.
Perun appeared before me and finished off our attackers with a golden ball of lightning that he launched from his palm. In a moment, we stood amid a field of ca
rnage; a black lion, a clawed goddess, and two Russian gods. Panting, we stared at the gore and then each other.
“What the actual fuck was that?!” I shouted.
It was not the time for cute curses; the F-bomb was required.
“Humans call zem golden apples,” Perun said. “But zey're really ball lightning.”
“Not your lightning ball—though that was impressive,” I admitted. “I meant; why did humans just attack us?”
Kirill shifted back to his human form and yanked the remnants of a net off himself. “I don't know but zey tried to trap me.”
“With a net?” I gaped at the shredded rope. “What the hell? No one even knows we're here.”
“Zey vere obviously sent by whoever took Mokosh,” Perun growled. He crouched over a severed hand and nudged it with a finger. “Magic!” he hissed and stood up. “Zey vere enchanted.”
“Zese are fisherman,” Jarilo murmured. “It looks as if zey used vhat zey had available for veapons. I don't zink zis vas about Kirill.”
“Oh,” I murmured as I retracted my claws. “Thanks. That actually makes me feel better.” Then I looked at Kirill; really looked. “Why don't you trace to the cabin and put on some clothes, babe? I'll wait here with them.”
Kirill was still coming down from the adrenaline high. The suggestion that he leave me alone with gods he barely knew made his eyes glow.
“Hey.” I turned and took Kirill's face in my hands. “I'm okay. I wasn't the one who was hit. Just trace there, grab some clothes, and come back. It won't take you but two minutes and you're going to lose your adrenaline and start feeling the cold soon. Not to mention the fact that you're very distracting, Lord Godiva.”
Kirill let out a long breath and nodded. “Okay.”
He stepped back and traced away. I turned to face the remaining Russians.
“This is a good sign,” I announced.
“I'm sorry, I zink I misunderstood you.” Jarilo scowled.
“She means ve must be doing something right if zey are attacking us,” Perun explained.
“Exactly. I—”
Kirill reappeared; still naked. He had clothes and a pair of boots in his hands. I snorted and shook my head as he dropped the boots and pulled on his jeans.
“I didn't mean literally grab them and come back without putting them on.”
Kirill shrugged.
“Shifters,” I said to the other men as if that explained it.
“Fishermen.” Jarilo frowned at the body parts.
“Astronauts,” Perun added.
“What?” I gaped at him. We all did.
“Sorry, I thought ve vere playing game; naming types of people,” Perun said.
“I think Jarilo was pondering the fact that enchanted fishermen attacked us,” I said after another amused snort.
“Did you catch a vodyanoy yet?” Perun asked. “Zey have influence over fishermen, you know.”
“No, we ruled out the Vodyanoy,” I said.
“Vhy?”
“Because she came out of vater,” Jarilo huffed. “Vhat are you doing here? I thought you vere upset about Marena?”
“I looked into Godhunter's claims,” Perun admitted with a grimace. “She vas right; Marena assisted in raising ancient city from sea.”
“As if zat vas ever in question,” Jarilo muttered.
“Your sister is not evil!” Perun snarled at his son. Then his snarl faded into sorrow as he corrected the tense, “Vas not evil. She could be cruel sometimes, but so can most gods. I taught her necessity of cruelty, but she also knew how to love. She vas not evil.”
Jarilo sighed deeply. “You're right. Marena vasn't evil; just... not very nice.”
“Nice doesn't vin vars, Son.”
“Do not call me son again, Perun,” Jarilo said firmly. “And ve aren't at var.”
Perun held up his hands in surrender. “Fine. But can ve agree zat Vodyanoy should be questioned? Fishermen attacked you.”
Jarilo looked over at Kirill and me.
“It wouldn't hurt,” I said.
“Depends on how strong Vodyanoy are,” Kirill argued as he stared at the lake. “And how insulted zey are by our questions.”
“Zey spoke to my mother.” Jarilo turned to stare at the water pensively too. “I don't know vhy zey von't speak to me.”
“Because zey are guilty! You know zey like to drown people. Zat's vhy your mother spoke to zem!” Perun snarled. “If I had vater magic, I'd part zis lake and snatch zem right up! Force zem to answer my questions.”
“Water magic,” I murmured as I looked at Kirill. “I have some of that.”
“You mean from Moon?” Kirill asked.
“Yeah. Power over the tides.” I narrowed my eyes at the lake.
“You have vater magic?” Perun asked anxiously. “Use it! Find us vodyanoy!”
“I've never used it to part a large body of water before. I always relied on Toby for...” I trailed off. “Never mind.” I strode up to the shore. “How hard could it be?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
If “how hard could it be” is not written somewhere on a list of famous fate-tempting words, it should be.
At the end of the day, I was still prowling the shores of Alūksne Lake, trying to find a vodyanoy. Oh, I could part the water all right. I could move it in all manner of ways. After a few hours, I got so good at it that I could have made liquid sculptures if I'd wanted to. But here's the thing; pushing lake water around tends to push whatever is inside the water with it. If there were vodyanoys in the lake, they were probably laughing their froggy asses off and having a nice carnival ride courtesy of the Godhunter. And it's a huge lake. I'd only gotten around half of it and all I'd found were mud and the things that wriggled in it. Not exactly the sights I was hoping to see on my vacation. I had to give up when we started losing light. We traced back to the peninsula.
“Hasenpfeffer!” I growled in annoyance as soon as I emerged from the Aether.
“Still doing the creative swearing, I see,” UnnúlfR announced as he strode up with Veja. “Or hear, rather.”
“Did you find anything?” Jarilo asked them.
“Mokosh has been all over this town.” UnnúlfR nodded toward the Vilkacis. “We just compared notes. Your mom walked nearly every street, went up to the observation tower, came back down, and circled the lake. We followed her every step and they brought us right back here.”
“It's Vodyanoys!” Perun declared furiously.
“Hold on.” I waved the Thunder God down. Then I asked Veja, “Did anyone find a trail going into the water? I mean, besides this one.” I waved in the general direction of the first trail I'd found.
“No.” Veja looked at the others. “Nobody, right?”
They all shook their heads.
“So, the only evidence of Mokosh visiting the Vodyanoys is right here, where Jarilo saw her go in. And I found where she came out. She's not with them, Perun,” I concluded.
“She could have traced back underwater,” Perun pointed out.
“Why would she do that?” UnnúlfR asked.
“I don't know.” Perun threw his hands up into the air. “Perhaps she came across more evidence and went back to confront Vodyanik. It vould be easier, and far more comfortable, for her to trace directly to him zan have to swim in cold vater.”
“Jarilo, what do you think?” I asked him.
Jarilo frowned at his father then made a grumbling sound. “It's possible, I suppose.”
“Possible?” Perun asked. “Vhere else could she be? She's not vith me, she's not vith you, and she's not in her territory. So vhere?”
“Where's her territory?” I asked.
“In God Realm,” Perun said as if it were obvious.
“I've met gods who live on Earth,” I said to his tone. “In fact, I just finished a war with a whole pantheon of them. So, ditch the attitude, Thunder Twin.”
“Sorry,” Perun muttered.
“Can either of you get into her territory
?” I asked Jarilo and Perun.
“I can take you,” Jarilo said.
Perun looked uncomfortable.
“What; you don't have a key to your girlfriend's place?” UnnúlfR asked Perun with a smirk.
Perun cleared his throat. “Vith two consorts, Mokosh didn't vant us to...”
“Run into one another?” I finished for him.
