by Brey Willows
Kera squeezed her eyes shut against the sudden tears forming. “Thanks for the pep talk. I don’t think I’ve ever been called so many names when someone is trying to cheer me up.”
Petra scoffed, and her smile was gentle. “I’m not trying to cheer you up. I’m trying to keep you from being a douche. You’ll be impossible to work with if you screw this up.” She nodded at the bodyguards, who straightened back into pay attention mode. “I’ll come with Ajan to dinner tonight, after I meet up with some old friends.”
Kera knew without asking Petra would be going to see the gods. “Tell them I said hey, and thanks again. It really did mean a lot.”
“Tis must owe someone a massive favor, if they really took you to the underworld. Like I said, don’t be stupid.”
Kera watched her walk away, appreciating as she always did the sculpted body and perfect ass. It wasn’t that ass she wanted to touch, though. It wasn’t that body she desperately needed to feel against her. She picked up her beer and headed to the beach. Nothing cleared her head like the ocean, and she couldn’t wait to get home and back onto her boat. She needed to process what Petra said. Was it true? Was she letting her bias against the gods blind her to anything good about them?
She sighed, missing Tis and thinking about her directing a room full of gods. That’s my girl. How do I fix this? She thought about Petra’s information about Degrovesnik. If he came after her, it might give her the chance she needed to deal with the bastard the way she needed to. If it’s self-defense, does that mean I won’t end up on the naughty list? The thought of facing Tis in her pissed off avenger form made her shudder. She had enough nightmares without having them fed to her by a fury. But even more, she couldn’t stand the thought of losing Tis completely. If I haven’t already.
Chapter Twenty-three
Kera threw the last of her luggage into the SUV and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She looked at her bodyguard, who leaned against the car with her eyes closed, her face tilted toward the sun. “No, I’ve got it, thanks.”
“Figured as much.” The bodyguard didn’t bother to open her eyes, but she smiled slightly.
Kera grunted and walked away to join Ajan and Petra. After dinner with her father, they’d drank themselves into the kind of stupor where everything sounds illuminating and brilliant, but Kera appeared to be the only one suffering from mild alcohol poisoning the following morning. It was beyond irritating.
Petra handed her a bottle of green juice. “This will help.”
“Help what? Help me puke out the poison?” Kera tried to wave it away, but Petra captured her hand and pressed the bottle into it.
“It’ll help us not want to kill you before we even make it to the airport.”
Ajan laughed and slapped Kera on the back. “I can’t imagine anyone more perfect to replace me.” At Kera’s glare, he held up his hands. “One day.”
The ingredients included spinach, garlic, and spirulina, among a zillion other things people shouldn’t mix together and ingest. But given the throbbing in her head and the way her stomach was threatening to revolt, she’d try it. She held her breath as she started to drink, but realized it tasted like apple juice and relaxed. She drained the bottle and nodded her thanks to Petra.
“That’s enough vitamins and protein to replace some of what you killed off last night.” Petra pointed at the line of SUVs. “I’m riding in the front car, Ajan is riding in the rear car with his daughter. Your bodyguards will be in your car.”
“What, no Vodun god taxi driver this time?” It had only been a week, but the day they’d arrived in Haiti seemed forever ago. Not exactly the way I’d planned on leaving. She swallowed the sense of loss she’d had from the moment Tis had flown off.
“They don’t tend to do you favors when you insult them.” Petra stared at her as though she knew what Kera was thinking.
“Is this little convoy really necessary? What are we going to do when we’re back at the office? Will I have someone attached to my ass all the time there, too?”
Petra shook her head and looked at Ajan. “You talk to her. I’m not officially in the position where I have to deal with it yet.” She went to the first vehicle and opened the driver’s side door. “Let’s go.”
Ajan gave Kera a quick hug. “We’ll figure out what to do when we’re back in the States when we actually get there. For now, one issue at a time, okay?”
He went to the rear car, where Kera could see his little girl already buckled into the passenger seat and playing on some device. Seeing the way his face lit up when he leaned over to kiss his daughter on the head made Kera well up again. She’d thought, for just a moment, she might have found that kind of…of…what? Caring? Love? Whatever it was, she’d had it with Tis, if only for a heartbeat. She sighed and got in the car.
One bodyguard was at the wheel, the other in the passenger seat. Kera slumped in the backseat, glad they weren’t a talkative pair. Saying good-bye to her father had been difficult, but he’d promised to come see her for Christmas, maybe even for an extended stay. She’d make it a point to get back from whatever country they’d be working in. That he was her only family had really hit home after he’d gone to bed, and she didn’t want to have to traipse through the underworld again in order to say good-bye next time.
She was dozing, enjoying images of Tis in the throes of an orgasm, when she heard one of her bodyguards swear. An accident ahead of them blocked the road, and two men appeared to be shoving and yelling at one another.
Petra slowed to a stop, well away from the accident. They’d taken Route Nationale 1 instead of going straight through the city, which should have meant they’d get there faster. But they’d passed the city and were near Fort Dimanche. That meant they’d have to backtrack to the nearest city road. Good thing Petra is so anal about getting to the airport early. Kera started to lean back, more interested in her previous thoughts about Tis’s body than getting to the airport, when she saw Petra jump from her SUV and run at Kera’s car, waving her arms. Kera heard “back up” but couldn’t make out the rest.
It was too late. An explosion rocked the vehicle, sending it flipping onto its side and skidding along the dirt and rocks beside the road. Kera was flung against the shattered window, since she hadn’t bothered with her seatbelt. Screeching metal and exploding glass filled the air. In the distance she heard gunfire and raised voices.
Shit shit shit. The SUV stopped moving, and she groaned as she tried to maneuver to her bodyguards. Neither looked conscious, and the driver’s neck looked wrong. Fuck. I never even knew their names. I’m such an asshole. She’d just managed to get her feet under her and was reaching toward the passenger seat bodyguard to check for a pulse, when the rear door above her was wrenched open. The person, backlit by the sun, reached in and grabbed her shoulders. She couldn’t help but cry out as she became aware of the pain in her left wrist and side. The man dragged her over the edge of the door and into the sun.
The world had become surreal. All three SUVs were mangled masses of metal, smoke and flames rising from the one Petra had been in. Masked gunmen trained rifles at Petra and Ajan’s daughter, who were on their knees. When Kera saw Ajan sprawled face down, unmoving on the pavement, her knees buckled and she fell to the ground, only to be lifted roughly back to her feet and shoved toward a black van with no windows. Only then did their attackers’ voices filter through her disorientation, and she shuddered. Degrovesnik. She took one last look over her shoulder at the trio on the ground before she was pushed into the van and the door was slammed shut behind her.
“Kera Espinosa. So nice to see you again.”
Fear threatened to overwhelm her, but she kept it together. “Degrovesnik. Couldn’t you think of a better way to get to me? This is rather messy, don’t you think?”
He grinned. “I like messy better. And this way, you got to see your friends the moment before they died. Just like before, yes?”
She closed her eyes and swallowed the bile rising in her throat. Pet
ra’s a goddess, kind of. She’ll get them out of this.
“Now, I need you nice and quiet for the rest of our big trip.”
One of his crew grabbed her from behind and pulled her arms up painfully behind her back. She screamed as he put pressure on her wrist, and she knew it was broken.
Degrovesnik held up a fat needle so she could see it. “To help you sleep. I want you rested when we begin chatting.”
He stabbed it into her neck and depressed the plunger. Within seconds, she began to feel woozy, and the bastard holding her let her drop to the floor of the van.
Tis. Baby, I’m so sorry. If there’s any chance on this earth you can hear me, I’m in trouble. Ajan and Petra are in trouble, too. And those damn bodyguards. Please, please hear me. It was the closest she’d ever come to real prayer, and she had no idea if it would work. After all, Tis wasn’t a goddess, as she’d often explained. As the world began to grow dark, she felt Degrovesnik’s boot connect with her side and flip her onto her back. Her head slammed into the metal wall, and she had no more time to hope.
* * *
Tis grew to her full height and extended her wings. She let her fangs show and her eyes turn, making it so everything and everyone was tinged red. “Stop.” She said it calmly, but the weight of it calmed the crowd instantly. Once they’d settled, she lowered her wings and looked around the room, making eye contact with the loudest of them. The moment she’d taken the stage they’d started yelling questions, and it had quickly erupted into a shouting match. Meg and Alec had moved onto the stage beside her, and she knew they were ready to defend her at any cost. Throughout the night, the variety of gods had raised question after question, several times arguing among themselves. They’d even had to break up a fight between a new, upstart god and an older one, when the young one had suggested the old one simply didn’t have what it took anymore. Tis was tired, and she’d had enough.
“Now. If we’re going to work things through, you need to listen. I’ll hear you out, and we’ll come to a decision.” The underworld gods were mostly clustered together at the right, although a few of them whose position in their pantheon was more fluid sat with the rest of their groups. “I understand you’re scared. I understand you’re frustrated, and you want answers. I understand you’re worried about fading and that things feel like they’re out of control. And you’re not sure if anyone is listening or going to help.” She watched as many of them nodded. She knew suggesting the gods were frightened could piss them off, but she also knew it was true and needed to be said. “Now you have some sense of what it is to be human.”
An uncomfortable silence filled the room. She waited for that to filter in before she continued. She flicked on the overhead projector. Ama had been taking notes all night, and during a break they’d worked together to come up with some primary questions, along with possible answers.
“The decision for the gods to move among the humans once again was not one made lightly. It was made because entire floors were fading, because followers had lost faith. The only way to show them that their gods existed was for you to show them yourselves. I, and the high council, still believe that to be true.”
Tis paused, not because she didn’t know what to say next, but because she had a sudden, emphatic feeling of danger, so intense it was like someone had thrown a blanket of cold moss on her. She tried to move past it, as the audience waited for her to continue. “Did you think it would be easy? Did you think there wouldn’t be any issues to deal with, or questions? Have you forgotten what it means to be not just a god, but one truly attached to their people?”
The feeling of unease and danger grew to the point she could barely focus. Her pulse raced and she grew dizzy. She held onto the podium. “Yes, there are difficulties. One of the main questions is what to say to people when they ask why you didn’t save their loved ones from cancer, or why you aren’t helping with the drought. You can’t answer without admitting to things humans can’t know.” She watched them nod and knew from experience the very fact they’d been heard would help calm them down. “I believe this is where we need to learn from those who are experts at deflecting questions with questions.” She stepped back and motioned the woman waiting to the side forward. “And so, I’ve asked Atropos to speak to you today. Many of you won’t have met her or her sisters. She’s one of the three Fates, the woman who decides how someone will die. They are, of course, also the creators of oracles and omens. Who better to tell you how to be vague?”
There were titters of laughter along with a general sense of awe and wariness. The Fates not only measured out the humans’ lives, they held an immense amount of power over the gods as well.
Atropos stepped up to the podium and began to speak. Tis moved aside and Alec put an arm around her and drew her off stage. “What’s wrong?”
Tis hugged herself and gasped for air. “I don’t know. Kera, I think. Something bad.”
Meg stood on the other side of Tis, and she and Alec wrapped their wings around her. “Concentrate on her,” Meg said.
Tis focused on Kera’s essence, the unique quality each human held from the moment they were born. She saw smoke, flames. Petra, kneeling over Ajan, her hands on his chest. Then, almost as though Kera was right beside her, she heard her plea. “Tis. Baby, I’m so sorry. If there’s any chance on this earth you can hear me, I’m in trouble. Ajan and Petra are in trouble, too. And those damn bodyguards. Please, please hear me.”
Tis opened her mind so her sisters could see and hear the same things. She focused on Kera and felt her moving, saw the walls of a vehicle. More than anything, she felt Kera’s terror and anguish like firebrands along her nerve endings. And she was in pain, so much pain. And then, nothing.
Tis jolted from the vision and stared at her sisters. “Where did she go?”
Alec frowned, clearly thinking. “I think they knocked her out. It’s too complete for her to simply be asleep.”
Meg’s eyes were unfocused. “Hold on. I’m talking to Petra.”
They waited, and Tis looked at Atropos, who held the audience captive with her lesson on rhetoric.
“You are gods. Don’t forget that when you’re scared and uncertain. You’re goddamn gods. You don’t have to explain yourselves to anyone, and you can damn well remind them of that. Simply say there are things humans aren’t meant to understand, and it isn’t their place to question the ways of the gods. There are reasons, and they must have faith. Faith is the foundation of the love and support they get from you, and you need to remind the snotty little primates of that whenever you can. Sure, be humble if that’s what your followers want, and phrase it with goopy flowers and kindness. But for the rest of you? Take charge, and tell them they’ll know what they need to know when you want to share it with them and not before. Some things are only knowable after death.”
Panicked as she was, the lecture made Tis smile slightly. That was exactly what the gods needed to hear. Getting an audience with Atropos hadn’t been easy, but once she’d convinced the secretary, Mnemosyne, how dire the situation was, the three Fates had met with her in a glass walled conference room overlooking the sea. They’d known she was coming, and they knew why. In fact, they already knew the outcome of the whole damn thing, but they’d let it take its course. Tis wanted to shake each one of them and demand answers. An ancient Greek had once taken their all-seeing eyeball and only given it back once they’d given him the answers he needed. Tis wished she could do the same, but an all-seeing eyeball was beyond archaic now. Today each of them sat at a massive desk with several computer screens on each and the constant hum of computer servers beneath their classical music station on the radio. No one, not the gods, not the furies, not even Zed, pushed the Fates.
“Okay. Petra says the bastard who took Kera before, ambushed them. Because she’s still mostly human, she couldn’t stop them, but she protected the other two people who were hurt. She says they took Kera in a black van with no windows, and they took the road that leads to the military b
ase.”
They stood there silently. “What do I do?” Tis finally whispered. “I can’t leave in the middle of this, but I can’t just let them take her, either.”
“I can go,” Alec said. “Let me see if she’s at the military base.”
Tis shook her head. “Meg, can you ask Petra to do it, please? It doesn’t make sense for us to go when we’ve got someone there. See if any of the Vodun gods can go too. We have to know where she is before we can do anything to help her.”
Meg hugged her tightly. “That’s my wonderfully logical ice queen of a sister. I’d already be halfway across the ocean ready to rip people’s heads off.” Meg closed her eyes to concentrate on her mental conversation with Petra. “She says she’ll head there now, and question whoever is around. She’ll also get hold of the loa to help. The four other survivors of the attack have been taken to the hospital, so she can do what she needs to do.”
Atropos held up a book to show the audience. “If you want more information and guidance, our new book, Answers for Gods, is available at reception and through our website.”
Alec began to laugh. “The Fates have a website? Did you know that?”
Meg and Tis shook their heads, and Atropos left the stage to thunderous applause. She joined them, and her wide smile disappeared the moment the crowd could no longer see her. Her eyes reverted to the misty night sky, and her serious, ancient self was back in place.
“My dears,” she said with a mysterious smile. “Don’t look so stressed. Everything will work out in the end. It always does.”
“But who will it work out for?” Meg asked.
“And isn’t that always the question?” Atropos tilted her head and stared at Tis. “We never know what’s just around life’s corner or what choices we’ll have to make.”