The Battle Cry (The Guardians of Tara Book 2)

by S. M. Schmitz

  “I already killed Sleipnir,” Cameron complained.

  “Sleipnir wasn’t nearly that big,” Badb pointed out.

  “I’m thinking a spear isn’t going to kill this one,” Jasper guessed. “I’m going to shoot it.”

  Cameron nodded. “Go for it. And while you’re doing that, I’m going down to the pawn shop to look for my own firearm.”

  “Your aim won’t be nearly as precise with a gun,” Nemain argued.

  “It was just as precise with your sword,” Cameron countered.

  Nemain shrugged. “Lucky throw.”

  “Would you two shut up and do something before my entire hometown is demolished by a freak of nature?” Selena shouted.

  “Technically,” Cameron corrected and every god except Selena sighed heavily. She just narrowed her eyes at him so he decided not to tell her it wasn’t really a freak of nature since nature hadn’t created this eight-legged horse.

  “Let’s chase it from the neighborhood,” he said instead. “Get it away from people and their homes.”

  Thor gripped Mjölnir in his hand as his eyes blazed toward the mutant that kicked at another roof. “Definitely Loki. Magni, I hope you’re able to restrain me from killing the bastard this time.”

  “Throw Mjölnir at him,” Cameron suggested. “Get his attention.”

  Thor lifted his hammer but another loud crash from behind them made them spin around to see what had caused the collapse of a different roof. A second eight-legged horse rose up on four of its back legs and whinnied at them before striking another house with its hooves.

  “Ok… who’s bastard number two?” Cameron asked.

  “I think,” Badb murmured, “that would be Volkh.”

  “Badb,” Cameron groaned, “you say that like I should know who he is!”

  “Slavic shape-shifting god,” Nemain answered. “And I think Badb is right.”

  “Slavic,” Selena whispered. “Then we were wrong. Perhaps the Battle of the Gods never ended after all.”

  “I don’t think it did,” Badb agreed. Her sword appeared in her hands and she gripped the hilt tighter as she addressed Thor and Magni. “Don’t let Loki get away. All of the Guardians can go with you except Cameron and Selena. We’ll take care of our old enemy who’s allied himself with the Devil.”

  “Just to be clear,” Cameron interrupted, which caused Badb to sigh heavily again, “who is the Devil now? Loki or Huitzilopochtli?”

  “Huitzilopochtli,” Badb answered. “Obviously.”

  “Good to know,” Cameron said.

  His Spear appeared in his right hand as he watched the Sleipnir-impersonating god trample another house. Selena whimpered and covered her mouth in horror.

  “I know that house,” she said through her fingers. “Aunt Tara’s old friend from high school lives there.”

  “It’s eight-thirty in the morning,” Cameron said in an attempt to reassure her the shape-shifting monstrosities wouldn’t hurt many people as long as they stayed within this neighborhood. “Most people are likely at work.”

  It was probably wishful thinking on his part, but he had to try something to calm Selena’s fears because if she broke down now, he’d never be able to kill the asshole god who was destroying house after house down this street.

  “Volkh!” Badb yelled at the shape-shifting god. “Your cowardice in battle is so legendary, you must pretend to be a giant animal to combat one of the Mórrígna!”

  Cameron didn’t dare point out that Badb shape-shifted into a crow with a terrifying battle cry in order to disrupt her enemies during battle.

  He wasn’t really stupid.

  Most of the time.

  The horse raised its forelegs and whinnied in response. When its hooves fell on the street, the ground shook, and Cameron had to grab onto Selena’s arm to steady himself again. Sleipnir Number Two—or perhaps Number Three since the original Sleipnir was Number One and Loki claimed the second spot—began to gallop toward the Irish gods, only two of whom were capable of fighting him.

  Selena balled her hands into fists and gritted her teeth. “This is my home, asshole! Somebody give me a weapon!”

  “Selena…” Badb said, but Selena screamed, “Give me a weapon, Badb!”

  Cameron had no idea where the extra sword came from, but Badb reached across him and handed a sword to Selena.

  Cameron gaped at her and tried to remember if Étain had ever even held a sword. He didn’t have long to search his memories because Volkh’s massive size meant he could cover the distance between them quickly. Cameron lifted his Spear and threw it at the chest of the horse where he assumed its heart would be. As always, his Spear landed exactly where he’d intended, but the size of Volkh prevented his Spear from penetrating deeply enough to reach its heart.

  Volkh emitted a horrifying screech and stamped its forelegs against the pavement, buckling the street as it landed. Selena’s anger consumed her, and Cameron could feel it bursting from her like the fallout from a nuclear explosion. She stepped toward the beast, and he and Badb had no choice but to follow her.

  His Spear returned to his hand and he hurriedly threw it again, this time aiming for Volkh’s eye to partially blind the giant horse, hoping it would help to protect his girlfriend. As his Spear pierced the large, black orb and Volkh screamed that same terrifying sound, he noticed something strange about the goddess he’d known and loved for over two thousand years. She had the same glow as Ares when he’d been prepared to kill those soldiers in New Orleans.

  “Badb?” he whispered.

  “I see it,” she whispered back. “Just help her, Cameron.”

  Cameron retrieved his Spear and threw it. He couldn’t aim for the other eye because the god had turned his head away from him. He just had to hope he was hurting him enough to distract him so that Selena could go through with whatever she was planning.

  And what she was planning became painfully evident as she ran toward Volkh by herself.

  “Selena!” he screamed. He ran after her, but Selena suddenly dropped to the ground, sliding beneath the giant, freakish horse. She swung the blade of the sword at one of its forelegs, and as the bottom half fell to the ground, Cameron stopped running.

  He was so shocked by Selena’s actions he hadn’t even noticed Badb wasn’t beside him anymore. He didn’t notice until he saw the black bird circling above Volkh’s head, crying so loudly that half of Georgia must have heard her. Even as an ally and friend, her battle cry sent shivers down his spine and he watched as Badb cawed and lowered herself closer to the dazed horse.

  A bright yellow glow beneath Volkh tore his attention away from the war goddess and her famous battle cry. Selena had risen and swung her sword at a different leg, dismembering it as well. The hide underneath the horse began to smoke and the hairs charred and curled, and only then did he realize Selena was channeling his power just as he’d often channeled hers to help her heal.

  She swung her sword at one more leg as it teetered then the ghastly horse burst into flames.

  “No,” Cameron moaned. His legs felt weak. He tried to order them to run to her side, but they wouldn’t obey. “Selena…”

  She grabbed his hand, surprising him because he hadn’t even noticed her appearance by his side, and shot him a self-satisfied smile. “What? You didn’t think I’d torch the bastard before getting out of there, did you?”

  “Good God, Selena, don’t ever scare me like that again,” Cameron sighed, throwing his arms around her.

  He sensed Badb’s presence behind him and heard her add, “Selena, that was by far the most badass thing I’ve ever witnessed because you had to overcome your own nature to do it. You are officially my hero.”

  Selena snickered then looked behind her where the rest of the Guardians should have been. “Loki took off. We should meet up with them. Honestly, I’m not sure I could do that again. It’s just… this place will always be home.”

  “I know, love,” Cameron said soothingly. “We all get that. But Lo
ki knew this is where you were raised. I suppose he could have found out by looking you up online, but I suspect somebody told him.”

  “Exactly,” Badb agreed. “Somebody like a two-faced, piece of shit traitor who is going to find the blade of my sword run through his chest very soon.”

  “Um,” Cameron responded.

  “Shut up, Sun God,” Badb teased. “I’m getting revenge for this one. Nobody betrays my family.”

  Cameron grinned at Selena and told her, “Remind me never to cross Badb.”

  “Same here,” Selena agreed.

  “Like either of you could,” Badb laughed. “There’s not an evil cell in your body.”

  “So our asshole traitor has told the Aztecs about Selena and me meeting in New Orleans and that I’m from Baton Rouge and that she’s from Villa Rica,” Cameron said. “I don’t think I have a choice now. I need to get to Austin and force Logan to get out of that city.”

  Selena and Badb both nodded seriously. “I don’t see a huge horse traipsing through Villa Rica, so I’m assuming Loki dropped his disguise,” Badb said. “He probably took off as soon as his partner in crime got torched.”

  “I don’t know,” Selena replied slowly. “I may not see a horse roaming through town, but I do see smoke near the Gold Museum and I don’t think it should be smoking.”

  “I guess we should…” Cameron closed his mouth and bit his lip as he found himself near the museum, surrounded by the other Guardians who had chased Loki here.

  “So we’re going right now,” Cameron observed smartly.

  Selena nodded. “Obviously.”

  “Why is the museum on fire?” Badb asked.

  “Why do you think?” Thor replied. “Loki took off so we followed him here and he hid inside. As soon as we approached the building, he set it on fire and disappeared again. This is his plan. He wants us to follow him so he can destroy every building he goes into.”

  “That’s a really bad plan,” Cameron said. “What if one of those buildings is full of dynamite like on Yosemite Sam and he blows himself up?”

  “Cameron,” London responded, “you are no longer allowed to speak. Ever.”

  “Good luck with that,” Jasper muttered.

  Cameron flashed a mischievous grin in London’s direction and added, “We’ve got the Road Runner over here. Let’s send her in and find out if there’s any dynamite in there. Or a coyote who’s insanely bad at planning devious plots to catch annoying little birds.”

  “So now I’m an annoying bird?” London shot back.

  Cameron held up his hands defensively. “I was just talking about cartoons.”

  “You said we’ve got the Road Runner over here,” Thor pointed out.

  “Father, please don’t encourage him,” Magni groaned.

  “I hear that an awful lot,” Cameron said.

  “Because you never shut up,” London pointed out.

  “Are we really just going to stand around and watch an historic museum burn to the ground?” Nemain asked. “Because none of you could shut up?”

  “I guess I should probably stop it,” Cameron agreed.

  Even though they could hear the fire trucks’ sirens, Cameron immediately extinguished the flames then looked around the skyline. With Huitzilopochtli and his allies still masking Loki, none of the gods could sense him, but if Loki wanted to lead them on a destructive chase through the town, he’d have to get their attention somehow. And if he noticed how quickly Cameron put out the fire he’d started, he most likely wouldn’t use fire again.

  “There,” he said, pointing to what appeared to be a funnel cloud forming even though the winds were calm.

  “Loki isn’t a weather god,” Thor said. “He has more help in this city than we realized.”

  “Great,” Nemain groaned. “We’ve already confirmed they have the help of the Slavs, so are we taking bets on this one?”

  “Sure,” Badb agreed. “Because I’m almost positive we’re about to battle Varpulis.”

  “Of course we are,” Cameron retorted. “In fact, I was just thinking, ‘This looks like the work of a god nobody’s ever heard of and can probably be smited by Jasper.’”

  “Smote,” Selena corrected.

  “Obnoxious asshole,” Jasper reminded him.

  “Tornado,” Nemain sighed.

  “Oh God,” Selena breathed. “That’s where the elementary school is.”

  As the Guardians appeared before the school, the emergency alarm went off. The small group of children who had been raising the flag in the schoolyard dropped the rope and backed away from the flagpole, but their confusion and panic quickly became evident. They had no idea what to do.

  And the tornado was spiraling toward them.

  Selena suddenly vanished, and when Cameron glanced toward the flagpole again, he noticed the children were no longer there. The tornado paused as if rethinking its course then headed toward the main building of the school.

  “What kind of sick bastard attacks children?” Cameron shouted.

  “Find Varpulis!” Badb shouted back. “You have to kill him now!”

  “He’d better not be a snake,” Cameron mumbled. He took a deep breath and attempted to clear his mind so he could concentrate on sensing a god that had help in being masked. The vortex spinning toward a building filled with young children prevented him from being able to think of anything other than, I have to save those kids.

  Cameron ignited an enormous wall of fire in front of the school and the tornado paused again as if confused by the sudden conflagration. Inside the school, he could hear the terrified screaming of small children, and his fear mixed with his guilt that he’d contributed to their terror but he didn’t know what else to do. If the tornado attempted to break through his fire, he felt fairly confident he could drain the energy from it and reduce it to nothing more than a breeze, but he’d never battled a force of nature before. Remembering the first time he’d found himself battling an Aztec army, he settled on the only solution that might buy him enough time to find Varpulis and end the danger against this school.

  “Dagda,” he whispered to himself.

  “Where the hell am I?” the Dagda asked. He blinked at Cameron’s massive wall of fire then asked, “Am I in Hell?”

  “Georgia,” Cameron answered. “If it were Athens, Georgia, I’d say close enough.”

  “Cameron!” Nemain shouted.

  Cameron nodded toward the tornado. “We think Varpulis is trying to destroy this school with a tornado. You’re the only god I know who can create and control them as well. What do we do?”

  The Dagda’s eyes narrowed at the spiraling funnel and his cheeks flushed in anger. “Leave the protection of this school to me. Varpulis has to be around here somewhere if he’s controlling that tornado. Find him and kill him.”

  “Believe me,” Cameron agreed, “as soon as I see that bastard, this Spear is going through his heart.”

  He was mildly curious as to how the Dagda would protect the school, but he didn’t have time to stick around and find out. The roar of the tornado Varpulis had created continued but he noticed it no longer moved, as if the Dagda’s own will over the weather had paralyzed its destructive course. With the Dagda’s assurance he could defend those kids, Cameron finally cleared his mind enough to concentrate on finding a hidden god.

  And he found the coward less than a mile away atop a different elementary school. Cameron didn’t give him a chance to react. He immediately threw his Spear at the god who had threatened hundreds of children, but intentionally missed his heart. Varpulis fell to his knees, clutching the wound in his chest, and the roar of the tornado the Slavic god had created fell silent.

  Cameron stormed to the fallen god’s side and pulled him to his feet, his eyes round with fear.

  “Let me go,” he begged. “You’re on fire.”

  “You were willing to kill children,” Cameron hissed. “You should burn in my fires before burning for eternity in the fires of Hell.”

  V
arpulis screamed as the fire spread from Cameron’s arm to the Slavic god’s body and ignited his clothing. There was something so human about the way his skin blistered and charred, and somewhere in the back of Cameron’s mind, he heard a familiar voice, the most familiar voice in either world. He would know and respond to that voice no matter how much his own anger had consumed him and transformed him.

  And then she was beside him.

  Selena reached for his arm and gently pulled it away from the Slavic god who still screamed from the agonizing pain of being burned alive.

  But Cameron’s fires still didn’t hurt her. They could never hurt her.

  “Love,” she said gently, “just end it now. We will always be better than gods like him, and we don’t let others suffer.”

  Cameron inhaled slowly as he looked into Selena’s blue eyes, so full of the love and confidence she had in him. He nodded and allowed his fire to consume the god who deserved a worse fate than the one he suffered. “You will always be better than any god I’ve known. But I’ve told you before, Selena. What worries me… what’s always worried me is that in the end, I’m not.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Thor pushed his beer bottle in a small circle on the wooden table. He hadn’t even taken a sip from it yet, and Cameron kept waiting for him to say something about their inability to capture the world’s most infamous trickster god. But Thor’s despair over Loki’s repeated escapes kept him silently brooding across the table. London finally picked up her bottle and sipped from it then slammed it down, sending sprays of frothy beer onto Cameron and Athena’s arms.

  Athena wrinkled her nose and grabbed a napkin to wipe it away while Cameron arched an eyebrow at the young Greek goddess, wanting to break the depressing silence even if it were only a smartass remark.

  “Beer’s that bad?” he asked. “Thor’s buying. Order a different one.”

  Thor lifted his head long enough to grunt at him.

  “How can he keep doing this?” London exclaimed. “It’s like these Slavic gods are just disposable decoys. Keep throwing weaker gods at us so he can cause as much trouble as he wants.”