Tendril Hearts (Immortals Book 11)

by LJ Vickery

  Laughing, Dumuzi picked up a stick and threw it with all his god strength. Archie went bounding away, his excited barks disappearing into the trees. Muze didn’t follow because once he got one hundred yards from Sienna, he’d be invisible again.

  The god watched his dog for a moment, then sighed. Dumuzi’s burst of exuberance slowly diminished, and as much as he tried to avoid analyzing anything, he couldn’t help but mentally chastise himself.

  Instead of being in the woods, he should be using this time to get to know Sienna. Any other god confronted with their Chosen would have done so. But to be honest, the prospect held no great appeal…and it wouldn’t make any difference to the outcome of their union. Familiar with each other or not, all the proper steps would be taken to join them together. They’d go through the amulet ceremony, they’d mate. Okay. Stop. There was a big “eww” in his brain contemplating that one. Mate with Sienna? Not on anyone’s life. Just because he was the baby of the gods and looked twenty-five, didn’t mean he was close to her age. Hell, he’d been around for over twenty-four hundred years, and Sienna was a mere child. The prospect of getting physical with her left him cold. And what did he know about virgins? Argh. Just the thought of that word made him want to poke his eyes out.

  He’d have to see her naked. Again, his gorge rose.

  When all was accomplished, Sienna would probably end up hating him and distancing herself—separate bedrooms, separate lives. That was the way it had to be, and considering his non-existent attraction to the girl, he could only illicit half-hearted regret for their disassociated futures.

  Dumuzi looked up to see if he could locate Archie but stumbled and went suddenly dizzy. Crap. He needed to watch out for roots now that they could actually get in his way. He shook his head, but the spinning wouldn’t stop. He forced himself to stop and think. Fear gripped his bones. He remembered these physical signs. He hadn’t experienced them with an actual body in hundreds of years, but if he was correct, he was about to turn. Archie hadn’t been around to warn him.

  “Archie,” he called. “Gods-dammit.” He toed off his sneakers and began to shuck down his jeans. “Archie.”

  Marduk. Mayday, he called out in a panic.

  Muze. We’ve got a situation of our own, here. Do you need help?

  Changing, Marduk. Dangerous. Send…help. His world spiraled into blackness.

  ****

  “Breathe deeply, Sienna.” Tess turned a worried face up to her husband who felt like he was being assaulted from all sides. He knew his face looked fierce as his wife kept after him. “Do you think it’s a panic attack?” When Marduk didn’t answer right away, his wife looked pissed and about to rip him up and down but was thankfully interrupted by the other human in the room.

  “Hell, no.” Riley cried. She’d been busy raiding the refrigerator but slid rapidly across the kitchen floor on her slippery socks and threw herself down beside her best friend who’d sunk to the flagstone surface. “She’s having one of those schizophrenic episodes where she hears the weird-ass voices.”

  “Dammit, Marduk. Call Nergal.” Tess supported Sienna’s back as the girl moaned horribly, holding her head.

  Before Marduk could answer, Riley spoke again.

  “Isn’t there something you guys can do? She hears your voices, too.”

  Marduk quickly formulated a plan of action but got blindsided again.

  Marduk, Sienna’s mother is down. We were just about to get into the car when she dropped like a rock. I can’t get anything out of her but garbled noises, and her aunt says these are the attacks she used to have all the time before she left Boston.

  Marduk received the evil eye from Tess. She had no idea all the shit he was being hit with, and he needed everyone to know. He opened an all-god channel.

  Dumuzi is ‘down’ in the woods―all the gods would know what that meant. Sienna’s mother is having the same thing happen as Sienna, and we need to split up to take care of it all. He gestured to the gods he knew could handle Dumuzi—Enlil who could turn into a bull, Anshar and Dagon who were both serpents, Enten, the polar bear although they teasingly called him the Yeti, and Shamash the golden leopard. Go find Muze and contain him. The group had the presence of mind to walk from the kitchen before changing skins, then quickly misted outside.

  Ladies, form a circle around Sienna and divert the external energies from her while the rest of us go to the aid of her mother. He turned to Riley, still speaking in his head. How long do these episodes usually last?

  “A couple of hours, uh…” A couple of hours, she amended, so everyone could hear her.

  Right. As soon as Sienna is under control, get her up to her room. We’ll have her mother back here as fast as possible. He was pointing at gods, preparing to leave when…Shit. The roaring outside brought his head up and everyone else’s. The fracas in the woods shook the house. Holy hell, Marduk spewed. This is one serious cluster-fuck.

  As evidenced by his declaration, King Waylon and his five Lauernley guards burst into the kitchen at a run. Marduk tried to ignore Riley’s horrified expression—it would take far too long to explain the blue pigment right now—and focused on another helpful faction.

  “What would you have us do?” Waylon asked Marduk without preamble. The need for expediency cutting through any bullshit.

  “Do you have anything up your sleeves that will mute the noise filling the area? It’s going to attract a lot of outside attention, and that’s the last thing we need.”

  “You know it. We’ll throw up a water barrier,” the blue King assured Marduk. “The liquid will deaden the noise, and it should be sufficient to keep gawkers away.”

  “Gawkers. Yeah. Right.” Riley’s own mouth had been hanging open, and her voice came out small as she repeated the words, her nostrils flaring. Lenore took charge.

  “Don’t lose it on us now, girl. You’ve faced jail, the land of the giants, and voices in your head. You can’t let a few errant roars and a bunch of blue guys ruin your record.”

  Riley’s head bounced up and down in an exaggerated affirmative.

  Great, thought Marduk. She looks like she’s going down for the count. More damage control. Before dealing with her, he instructed, Dorian, take a handful of guys and get to the airport. Fix things with Sienna’s mother as fast as possible and get back here.

  Marduk felt impotent staying put, but it couldn’t be helped. He had to get to the root of the problem and dig up answers.

  Nergal. If the thunder god could have screamed, he would have, but it was hard to regulate volume with head talk. He had to suffice with making the call as imperative sounding as possible, and it wouldn’t hurt to embellish. Get your ass up here, pronto. That should light a fire under the king…and probably earn Marduk a beat-down for his insolence. Marduk realized, a little late, he should have warned their guest.

  “Riley. Don’t freak out,” Candy had the presence of mind to squeak out. “The largest guy you’ve ever seen is about to pop in—” The explanation stopped there due to the sudden rent in the air.

  Shit, yeah. Cluster-fuck.

  Nergal, King of the Underworld, appeared in the kitchen with a pissed off look on his flushed face and a roar of anger. Riley scrambled backward, placing her ass firmly up against the dishwasher, shrieking in surprise.

  “What the fuck.” Tears made quick tracks down her face as she tore her eyes away from the enormously pissed off king. “Please. You guys,” she appealed to Tess and Candy. “Make this all stop…” she moaned.

  “You bet, sister.” Candy’s face twisted angrily. She raised herself up, strode straight to Nergal and poked him in the chest.

  “Stop looking so bloody…kingly,” she seethed. “You’re scaring our guest.” The royal head of the Underworld looked momentarily nonplussed, but with a fast perusal of the kitchen, took in Riley’s ashen face and Sienna’s downed body before grabbing Candy’s hand and gently bringing it down to her side.

  “I’m sorry for the attitude. I can see things ar
e tense here. But to understand, I was just about to start interrogation of Nedu when you called.” Heads nodded all around.

  Nedu was a traitor who had been working with the gods’ longtime nemesis, Beletseri, and the king was trying to get to the bottom of some very bad and very ancient shit. The outcome of that shit would either have them going to the rescue of Beletseri―who had been captured by an egotistical shape-shifting madman―or leaving her to languish in the Malaysian climes, eating bugs for the rest of her eternal life—kind of a big deal.

  “So, fill me in on what was so important, I had to be summoned abruptly?”

  “This…” Marduk―not apologizing―pointed to the twitching, fetal bundle on the floor that was Sienna. “…is Dumuzi’s Chosen.” Sienna wouldn’t know what that meant, but the king stepped a little closer.

  Brave soul and good friend that she was, Riley moved swiftly and protectively to Sienna’s side while Marduk continued. “She, and her mother who is en route, suffer from hearing evil voices in their heads, and we have a good idea where they might be coming from.”

  While Marduk was talking, Glory, Charlie, Quinn, Obedience, and Dani-Lee went elbow to elbow with the goddesses already on the floor, surrounding Sienna and sending protective energies inward from their circle. It worked like a charm—Sienna’s body unclenched at once. Her eyes popped open and her refocused gaze targeted Nergal who had moved to kneel by the group. She blinked twice.

  “Tell me what the voices sound like.” Nergal’s voice was soothing, compelling. “Can you recall any of their words?”

  Sienna stared at the stunning, seven-foot-tall god with the chestnut-hued ponytail and bronzed jewelry. Marduk wondered if she’d freak out again, but her speech, though strained, didn’t collapse.

  “The voices are always low…guttural,” she whimpered, remembering. “They hurt, and you can’t get rid of them until they decide they’re finished.” She blinked and looked around at the circle of women. “Except you guys made it stop.”

  Hadn’t he and the gods experienced the same thing in Hell? Marduk grimaced.

  “The loudest one…the voice that seems to be in charge chants the same thing over and over.”

  “Can you repeat it?” Nergal’s aura was all soft and tender. He could obviously feel how close to the edge Sienna remained.

  “I can because it’s always the same…it’s saying something that sounds like ‘ugly doll.’” She managed to screw up her mouth. “But it’s more like ‘uggla dwall.’ Does that mean anything to you? Does it make any sense?” Sienna pulled herself up now, with the help of Tess, and accepted a glass of juice being thrust into her hand by Absu who had also remained behind.

  Nergal and Marduk exchanged worried looks.

  Nergal translated. “Goddess, mine. What the fuck?”

  Marduk was equally confused. “That’s nothing we’ve run across before.” He blew out a long breath. “And it’s my understanding this has been going on for quite some time.” He pointed to Sienna. “She says her mother has dealt with it for years. And speaking of which, when her mother gets here, we need to make a timeline of events. I have a very strong feeling Dumuzi’s episodes might be tied into this somehow.”

  Huxley’s voice cut into his train of thought.

  Sienna’s mom is under control, he confirmed. We’re headed home.

  Thanks, Hux. Marduk turned his attention back to Nergal. “We’ll have a general assembly in my meeting room to hash this out. At some point, Sienna and her mother will have to be brought up to speed and told…about Dumuzi.”

  “She doesn’t know yet?” Nergal sent an incredulous look from the recovering girl to Marduk.

  “We thought it would be best to wait for her mother’s arrival, and things have been spinning out of control ever since.”

  “Whoa. Yeah. Like totes cray-cray,” Riley piped up, clearly having recovered her equilibrium. “I feel like I just dropped some really heavy-duty acid,” she admitted, and Marduk had a feeling they’d caught the girls just in time. If there had been any more unsupervised episodes to “numb,” especially with substances stronger than marijuana, there could have been some really bad long-term consequences.

  Riley wasn’t finished with her tirade. “And I don’t know who you are,” she pointed accusingly at the king, “but you have to stop being so hot. Do you know you’re in danger of ruining my whole future sex life? None of the guys at school can come close to you on a scale of one to smokin’.” She crossed her arms belligerently across her chest.

  Nergal let out a deep chuckle that resonated around the room and had Marduk groaning. The king’s vocal vibrations would ramp up the damp panties in the room. The thunder god didn’t want to remember, but Tess, his own darling wife had told him if he didn’t exist, Nergal would be the one her wet dreams would revolve around. Fucking king.

  “Okay. Enough.” Marduk reached his limit. “His liege doesn’t need his ego stroked any more than it already is. Ladies, it’s time for you to take Sienna off for some rest.”

  “Uh-uh, not even close.” The girl in question struggled to her feet and stood glassy-eyed and swaying, but there was no mistaking the set of her mouth. “I’m not going anywhere until my mother arrives, then we’re going to be attending this meeting you’ve called. I have a feeling most of it will be about us, so don’t even think I’m going to miss it.” She dug her feet in, and all of a sudden, Marduk saw goddess written all over the girl’s visage. Not only that, but her eyes became flecked with the same kind of gold as Sham’s. Marduk would not be the least bit surprised to find out―when a DNA test was performed―Sienna and her mother were descendants of the big cat man. That would also make them distant relatives to Candy. His head spun. Damned fun with genetics.

  Marduk noticed, almost as an aside, the roaring in the forest had stopped. He didn’t know if it was due to the Lauernley’s containment field, or if Dumuzi was back under control. He attempted to connect privately with Enlil.

  Status report, Enlil?

  Muze is back to normal or as normal as he ever gets. There was a chuckle. And he returned to us rather abruptly, I might add, which is more than I can say for the serpent boys. Now Enlil sounded exasperated with Anshar and Dagon. They’ve gone off together somewhere to raise holy hell. I told them to be back at the compound in half an hour. I think they understood me.

  Marduk ran a hand back through his long dark hair. Sometimes being in charge really sucked. He shook his head, squared his shoulders, and indicated the kitchen doorway to Nergal. The king took the hint and began the exodus to Marduk’s office.

  Okay. We’re giving it a half an hour. Meeting. My office. Everyone shows up. This is not a request.

  Chapter Seven

  Dumuzi came awake slowly and looked up. The sun was still low in the morning sky, so he hadn’t been out for very long. Maybe he’d behaved himself. The god turned his head and looked into the eyes of a bloody, pissed off golden leopard—or not.

  There was a loud snarl, but then the huge cat was yanked back by a firm, unrelenting hand. “Cut the crap, Sham.” Enlil’s voice came from behind the big feline’s tensed body, and Dumuzi relaxed onto the forest floor. “Don’t mind him, Muze. He’s just being a pussy because you beat down his ass.”

  Dumuzi forced himself to sit up, running a hand through his spiky, disheveled hair. “Fuck, Sham. I’m really sorry, man.”

  The cat gave what looked to be a shrug, sat back on his haunches, and proceeded to morph back to god. Muze heaved a sigh of relief. “Is everybody else okay?” He looked around and saw only Enten, who was also slowly sucking polar-bear fur back into his pores. Dumuzi’s mouth fell open. “You’re shitting me, right? Marduk only sent you three to deal with me?”

  “Hell, no,” Enlil grinned, his horns still thrusting up from his skull, making no effort to hide his bullish nature. “Anshar and Dagon were here too, but you snapped back to yourself so quickly, they had to go amuse themselves elsewhere. You know how it is when the serpents are on a ro
ll.”

  Dumuzi’s eyebrows went up. Enlil shrugged. “Yup. My guess is George’s Bank.” The god named an underwater ridge off the coast of Cape Cod, renowned as a productive fishery. “Hopefully, they’ll come back stuffed and happy.”

  There was a smothered expletive from the now morphed leopard, and Dumuzi stood up, moving to where Shamash sat with a hand pressed to his face to staunch the blood flow. The vegetation god’s voice came out gruffly.

  “I really am sorry, Sham.” He looked at the deep gouge, running from the corner of Shamash’s lip up to his temple. “But thanks for getting in my way.” He peered closer. “I think we need to get you back to Dr. Dani. That gash is definitely stitch-worthy.”

  Enlil agreed, “Yeah, let’s get you transported, cat-man.” He turned amused eyes to Dumuzi. “And it’ll suck to be you, Muze. When Quinn sees what you’ve done to her pretty man’s face, she’s going to strangle your stamen and pulverize your pistil.”

  A strange, warm feeling passed through Dumuzi’s chest, and he gasped out a laugh. Leave it to Enlil. It had been years since any of the guys had poked at him with a vegetation or swamp jokes. They used to do it all the time…but not since he’d become so introspective and secluded. It felt strange…and good to be teased again. He hoped it would continue, he kind of missed it.

  “Right. It’s lucky for you there’ll be no permanent scar,” Shamash growled, hamming it up. “But you’d better watch your ass next time we face off—Leopards never forget.”

  “I thought that was elephants,” Dumuzi handed him the straight line and lent a hand to pull his cat friend to his feet.

  “Shit. You’re right. I forgot.” Shamash came up and punched Dumuzi in the arm. “Just like I’m going to forget this ever happened.” He touched his bloody face and allayed Muze’s fears. “Don’t worry. We’re good.”