Nemain, Ares, Athena, and London waited outside the hospital, watching the armored vehicles roll slowly down the street in front of the medical center. The incessant messages they played warned residents to stay inside their homes and gave them a simple number to call in the event of an emergency. With so much uncertainty and so many bizarre and deadly events within the city, the local and federal governments apparently had no intention of lifting the curfew and quarantine anytime soon.
Cameron scowled at the vehicles as they passed and asked, “And what about the people who don’t have a phone? Guess they just die?”
“Surely they won’t shoot anyone who steps outside and asks for help,” Selena guessed.
“They tried to shoot us” Cameron countered.
“True, but they wanted us to obey their orders and we wouldn’t,” Selena argued.
“Still don’t think this is the best way to handle it,” Cameron sighed. “At least they aren’t setting up huge shelters and telling people to cram into them.”
“Wasn’t here for that,” Selena reminded him.
Cameron watched another convoy pass down the tree-lined street before lowering his voice and telling her, “I was fifteen. I spent three days going to the PMAC with my dad. I could have helped some of those people, Selena, but I had to hide what I could do from the world. And after three days of watching people suffer from a fairly minor injury I could have healed, I refused to go back.”
Selena put her arm around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder. “I may not have been around for something like Katrina, but I’ve lived with that kind of guilt my entire life. We can’t let it consume us, Cameron. We can only do something now.”
“But look at them,” Cameron said quietly, pointing to the convoy that had parked on the otherwise peaceful street. “That’s how humans will always respond to us. They’ll fear us and resent us. We’re only kidding ourselves if we think we can really become the Guardians of Tara.”
“Cameron,” Badb scolded. “You of all people are not allowed to give up this easily. You and Selena started this, and you will see it through. You want them to have faith in you then have faith in them.”
Cameron narrowed his eyes at her and teased, “You ate the smart fish, didn’t you?”
“And… you’re back to being an obnoxious asshole,” Badb teased back.
“There’s nothing left for us to do here,” Nemain interrupted. “We can’t change the laws they live by. We have to respect the way they’re handling the aftermath of the health crisis here. If we don’t find Huitzilopochtli soon, there will be no one left to worry about anyway.”
“Back to the Basin?” London suggested.
“We know he’s there,” Badb answered. “It doesn’t make sense to look anywhere else.”
“Giant snakes,” Cameron sighed.
“What about Loki?” London asked. “Maybe if we find him and get him back in that cave, we can at least stop Armageddon.”
“Loki is working with Huitzilopochtli,” Badb argued. “He has to be. When he left New Orleans, he probably went to the Basin anyway.”
“Giant snakes,” Cameron said a little louder.
“Basin it is,” London agreed. “I did a little reading about Tlaloc and…”
“Giant snakes!” Cameron yelled.
London grunted at him and tossed her summer wheat hair over a shoulder. “If we don’t find Loki soon, you’ll be fighting the biggest snake in the mythological world so stop complaining and get your ass over there!”
Cameron shook his head defensively. “Jörmungandr is Thor’s problem, not mine.”
“Wow, you’re seriously going to let your friend die?” London retorted.
“He’s supposed to die at Ragnarok!” Cameron countered.
“You really are an obnoxious asshole,” London muttered.
“Cameron,” Selena groaned, “stop antagonizing Little Goddess so we can leave. I’ve just healed like four hundred people that were dying from smallpox, and I’d rather not repeat this experience.”
“Stop calling me that!” London insisted.
“What’s wrong with Little Goddess?” Thor asked as he joined them outside the hospital. Tyr stood beside him, looking just as grim and severe as before he set off to find Loki on his own.
London narrowed her eyes at him and hissed, “I hate you all.”
“Hey, Lefty,” Cameron said to Tyr, “did you see any giant snakes in the Basin while searching for Loki?”
Tyr raised an eyebrow at him and held up his fake left hand. “First of all, wouldn’t I be Righty since that’s the hand that still works? And secondly, no. Only the regular Earth snakes.”
“That’s enough of a reason for me to stay out of the Basin,” Cameron responded.
Selena sighed and grabbed his arm. “Stop being such a baby.”
Cameron sighed, too, as the familiar tightly packed trees appeared before him. “I really don’t like this place,” he mumbled.
“So now what?” London asked.
Cameron tapped Nemain on the shoulder. “Ok, Gatekeeper. Do your weird tracking thing.”
“Already have,” she responded. She pointed to the west and added, “I’m picking up a bunch of signatures. Not just Loki and Huitzilopochtli. One of them is Tlaloc… I’m not quite sure yet who the others are.”
“Damn it,” Badb groaned. “How many more asshole gods can there be?”
“Why would you ask something like that?” Selena groaned back. “Haven’t you learned anything over the past few months?”
Badb grimaced and offered Selena a sheepish grin as an apology. “Apparently not.”
Nemain motioned for the Guardians to start walking. “I’m pretty sure they’re all Aztec. We suspected he was building an Aztec army.”
“Or,” Cameron interjected, “we were wrong about Quetzalcoatl. Maybe it was never his army to begin with and was always his brother’s. He was just a part of it.”
“That would…” Nemain stopped and glanced over her shoulder at Cameron. “Did you hear that?”
Cameron nodded and told her, “It wasn’t a hiss. I think I’m ok as long as it’s not a hiss.”
“What is that noise?” London murmured, turning slowly to study the dense trees around her.
“Wings,” Selena breathed. “Hummingbird army again?”
Cameron shook his head as his Spear appeared in his hand. “No. Definitely not Huitzilopochtli or his tiny bird minions.”
“I still can’t sense anything,” Thor said. “What is it then?”
Cameron took a deep breath and nodded toward the sound, which was joined now by the snapping of tree branches and rustling of pine needles as they were disturbed on the Basin floor. “Your old friend. And someone who’d better not be able to turn into a snake.”
Tyr sucked in a quick breath and moved toward the front of the line. “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch this time.”
“Um… is he flying?” Cameron asked.
The leaves shook violently as an enormous fly burst through them, followed closely by a sleek, black jaguar and much to Cameron’s horror, a massive serpent. He groaned as soon as he realized why there was yet another serpent in the Basin.
“Why didn’t anyone kill you when I killed Quetzalcoatl?”
Chalchiuhtlicue hissed at him in response.
Tyr held up his sword and kept his eyes on the giant fly heading toward them. “We should have killed you the first time!”
Loki made a strange sound in response, and Cameron leaned closer to Selena and whispered, “Did that fly just laugh?”
“Think so,” Selena answered. “Laughing mutant flies are definitely a deal breaker.”
Cameron nodded seriously and lifted his Spear but all three gods who’d shown up to fight the Guardians disappeared before he could throw it. He immediately felt them reappearing behind their group so he spun around to face them. Another hiss behind him made him groan and complain, “Another god we should have killed three
months ago.”
“And you, Sun God,” said that slithery, slippery voice from behind him, “killed our brother. Did you think we would just forget?”
“Damn it,” Cameron sighed. He glanced at the giant serpent behind him and called back, “Xipe… can I call you Xipe?... your brother shouldn’t have gone around kidnapping people!”
Xipe Totec hissed at him.
“Where’s Huitzilopochtli?” Nemain asked. “Still too scared to confront us himself?”
Tlaloc, disguised as a jaguar, let out a throaty purr as more branches snapped with the emergence of a large dog that bared its teeth and snarled at them.
“Ok, I’m stumped,” Cameron said. “Who’s the dog?”
Nemain shrugged but Badb narrowed her eyes at the newest member of Huitzilopochtli’s Aztec army to surround them. “Xolotl. Quetzalcoatl’s twin.”
The god barked and Cameron lifted his Spear again. “This is ridiculous. I’ll take the dog…”
But Cameron was interrupted by a horde of hummingbirds descending on the Guardians. He hadn’t heard them coming this time and none of the gods had been able to prepare. Selena screamed as the birds dove directly toward her.
Fire leapt from Cameron’s body as he reached for his girlfriend to protect her, but Huitzilopochtli’s allies attacked the Guardians, distracting them from the thousands of hummingbirds attempting to get to Selena. He was about to transport them all out of the Basin when Badb suddenly disappeared.
“Badb!” he screamed. The Irish war goddess wouldn’t abandon them. He was as certain of that as he was that they needed to get out of this Basin, but how could they leave now when Badb might be in danger?
A shrill caw startled him and made the hair on his arms stand up. He grabbed Selena and pulled her to his chest, igniting his fire around them. The hummingbirds dove into the ceiling of fire, sizzling as the tiny bodies hit the flames. But only Nemain had been standing close enough to be protected by his fire, which meant the rest of his friends were having to deal with the Aztec army on their own. He grabbed Nemain’s arm and gently pushed Selena toward her.
“Take care of her!” he ordered.
Nemain nodded and wrapped her fingers tightly around the hilt of her sword as she waited for Cameron’s fire to extinguish. As soon as the blaze disappeared, he scanned the small clearing quickly for the closest god attacking his friends, but they all seemed disoriented and had retreated into the safety of the woods. He could sense their presence, but none of the Guardians had followed them. They stood waiting for one of Huitzilopochtli’s soldiers to return.
The deafening caw sounded again and this time, even the hummingbirds began to break apart, their ranks fleeing into the forest. Cameron risked looking away from the jaguar stalking between two trees to see what was making that noise. A familiar black bird, as dark as onyx with beady golden eyes, screamed again, and Loki’s disguise as a mutant fly broke apart, leaving him standing in the woods as the mad man with wild eyes that bore into Thor with a determined passion and a fiercer hatred.
For Loki, his presence here was about revenge.
The crow cawed again, and Loki covered his ears before vanishing. But the Aztec gods wouldn’t run as easily.
“What is that noise?” Cameron asked softly.
“The Battle Cry,” Nemain whispered, smiling at him as her sister cried yet again. “You should have seen her in battle long ago, Cameron. She could send hundreds of men running with one cry.”
Cameron snickered and nodded toward the gods hiding in the forest. “And how many battle cries does it take to get a few Aztec gods to run?”
“We,” that slithery, slippery voice answered, “do not run.”
All of the gods who had retreated into the safety of the trees sprang at them, but Cameron was closest to the sleek, black jaguar. He lifted his arm and threw his Spear, which sank into the animal’s chest. The jaguar shifted and morphed into a man with copper skin and jet black hair, whose face was rounder than Quetzalcoatl’s but bore the same mystified expression from when Cameron had defeated him in battle with a spear. Tlaloc stumbled backwards, his dark eyes round and surprised as he reached for the handle of the Spear that had pierced his heart.
The other gods of Huitzilopochtli’s army immediately disappeared, and Badb, the Guardian of the Tuatha Dé, cawed one last time, a triumphant and victorious Battle Cry.
Chapter Nine
Aonghus knocked on the open door of Cameron and Selena’s room and smiled at the young couple. “Not interrupting, am I?” the love god asked.
Selena yawned but waved him in. “Of course not. I just needed some rest after healing hundreds of people with smallpox and getting attacked by a charm of hummingbirds.”
Aonghus snickered and raised an eyebrow at her. “A charm?”
“Don’t ask,” Cameron told him. “Kinda quiet around here. Where is everyone?”
“Well, everyone is busy doing one of two things: fighting an Aztec army that apparently involves Loki now or helping to prepare for your wedding.”
“Aonghus,” Cameron sighed, but Midir’s memories resurfaced with a sudden, painful force and Cameron lost whatever courage he thought he’d possessed to tell his former foster-son… or was he still his foster-son?... that he and Selena wanted to get married on their own terms.
He looked away from the love god who continued to watch him with the same adoration he’d always bestowed on Midir. No, he didn’t have the heart to disappoint him. He and Selena were hopelessly stuck living the life others wanted them to live.
But the love god’s first love had always been and would always be for the god who had raised him, and he’d been watching Cameron closely since the first moment they’d met in the Dagda’s palace months before. “It’s all right, Cameron. You’re afraid of telling me something, but you shouldn’t be. I owe you my life. You know this.”
“You owe Midir your life. And I must be a disappointment to you,” Cameron offered.
Aonghus laughed and sat beside Selena on the bed. “Not at all. I could tell right away how much of Midir still lives on in you. I’ve always thought had he been born a demigod and not a god, he would have even made the same choices you did.”
“Then don’t you know what’s bothering me?” Cameron asked, still hoping he wouldn’t be forced to tell him the truth: he didn’t want to go through with the wedding Aonghus was planning.
The love god tilted his head and studied Cameron for a few moments then exhaled slowly. “Do you remember the feast we had to celebrate Midir and Étain’s wedding?”
Cameron nodded and shot Selena a sly smile. “Happiest day of either of my lives. Of course I remember.”
“I was only trying to recreate that,” Aonghus told him. “Return something to you that never should have been taken away. I’m not trying to control your life.”
Cameron closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, too. “God, I must seem so ungrateful. You gave up half of Murias just so I could marry her the first time.”
“First of all, which god?” Aonghus teased.
Cameron smiled and pretended to think about it. “Me,” he decided. “Since I’m the one being so ungrateful for all you’ve done for us.”
Aonghus waved him off and said, “Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve only lived this one life. I can’t possibly understand the competing desires you must have. I should have asked you what you wanted first. We’ll put the ceremony on hold. Believe me: everyone will understand.”
“We want the wedding you’re planning, Aonghus,” Selena assured him. “Just on our time.”
“Then you shall have it, Sweet Goddess,” Aonghus promised her.
Selena yawned again and Cameron nodded toward the door. “We’ll let you sleep. I’ll go see if Dagda’s magic chef can top the last po-boy he made me.”
Aonghus rose from the bed just as his biological father, the Dagda, passed by the young couple’s room. “You’re back,” the Dagda said. “I thought I sensed you both here.”
“Yeah, and we kinda need to talk to you about something,” Cameron told him.
Aonghus flashed a devilish grin in the Dagda’s direction and told him, “Our young Guardians have just decided Earth is an awful lot of trouble and need a break. I’ll ask Dionysus to bring more wine.”
“That explains the last party,” Selena said.
Cameron smiled at her and asked, “You remember we had a party?”
“You’re going to pay for that comment,” the Dagda told him.
Cameron just nodded as Aonghus stepped into the hall, still claiming he would track down the Greek god of winemaking since everyone had been working too hard. The Dagda sighed at his son’s back then shrugged at the young gods. “What are you going to do? He’s a god of love and hasn’t had the chance to celebrate it for quite some time.”
Cameron bit his lip and felt his cheeks warming because they’d just told the poor god they weren’t ready for the celebration he’d been planning. He closed the door to the bedroom and changed the subject before the Dagda could say anything else about the ceremony they’d put on hold.
Besides, now more than ever, they needed answers from the Dagda, and this time, Cameron wouldn’t shy away from demanding the good god of the Irish come clean.
“Dagda,” he said quietly, “we need your help. Lugh doesn’t seem to be in Findias, or if he is, he’s remarkably well hidden. And Selena and I have to talk to him.”
The Dagda’s eyebrows pulled together as he glanced between his youngest gods. “Why do you need to talk to him so badly? I’m sure Lugh is there, but if he wants to be left alone, there’s nothing any of us can do about it though.”
“Dagda,” Selena said just as quietly, “I’m pregnant.”
The Dagda didn’t even let her finish. He clapped his hands together and exclaimed, “Already? What a blessing to our pantheon!”
“We hope so,” Selena continued. “But all Semias could tell us about our baby is that she’ll be a goddess.”
“I don’t understand,” the Dagda interrupted again. “He should be able to see more than that. Perhaps he was just distracted. We’ll go back and find out exactly what your daughter will be the goddess of…”
The Battle Cry (The Guardians of Tara Book 2) Page 8