by Amy Sumida
I could hear the longing in Odin's voice, and I knew what saying those words had cost him. So did the Wolf.
“Thank you, Odin.” The Wolf shook Odin's hand.
“One more zing,” Kirill came over to me. “Give me your hands, Vervain.”
I held out my hands, and Kirill slipped my rings on them; my wedding band on the left hand and my Ring of Remembrance on my right.
“Ty gave me zese to hold onto,” Kirill said.
I leaned forward and hugged Kirill; whispering in his ear, “Thank you. I love you, Lion.”
“You're velcome.” As soon as Kirill finished hugging me, he pulled the Wolf forcibly into a hug. “I know you're angry now, Brother, but I love you, and I'm happy for you too. I can't vait to see our children playing together.”
The Wolf shuddered and closed its eyes; hugging Kirill back for a moment before pulling away.
“Thank you.” The Wolf laid his hand on Kirill's shoulder. “I may be the wild part of Trevor's soul, but love cannot be split between us. I am Trevor, and he is me. You aren't just Pride to us; you're also Pack.”
The men shared a moment that eased a block of tension in my chest. I grinned gratefully at Kirill as the Wolf reclaimed my hand.
“We'll attend you,” Fenrir declared. “It's been awhile since we've had a good fight, and my teeth ache to tear that bastard's meat from his bones.”
The Wolf smiled at his father. “I get first bite.”
Fenrir laughed; a booming, proud sound. “That you do, Son.”
“I may need Torrent,” I said. “Can someone find him and bring him to Moonshine?”
“I'll get him.” Kirill kissed my cheek and then headed to the tracing chamber.
“Time to hunt,” the Wolf said to his father.
“Boy, looking at you makes me want to let my wolf loose.” Fenrir shook his head and smiled. He turned to the small group of Froekn and shouted, “You heard your prince; it's time to hunt!”
The Froekn howled as they followed their king and their prince into the Aether. A steady stream of us came stalking out of the door marked “Family Room” on the VIP balcony of Moonshine. It was night in Hawaii and the club was packed, but the gods on the upper level knew better than to stop us and ask what the hell was going on. All but one, that is.
“Vervain!” Elatha, King of the Fomorians, disengaged himself from his clingy date and hurried over to me. “What's going on? Do you require assistance?”
“Elatha?” I jerked to a stop and then stepped out of the way of the flow.
The Wolf growled and side-stepped with me; glaring at Elatha as he sized him up.
“Give me a moment,” I said to the Wolf. “I'll be right behind you.”
The Wolf gave Elatha another warning glare and then nodded to me and headed downstairs with his Pack.
“What are you doing here?” I asked Elatha.
“Having a night out.” He shrugged. “I've liked this place from the moment I stepped out of prison into it. It's charming and has lots of dark places to make use of.”
“Elatha,” his date whined right on cue.
“Give me a minute, my dear,” he said sweetly to her. When Elatha turned back to me, he rolled his eyes. “Tell me how I can help, Vervain.”
“We got this, thank you,” I said. “Go back to your date.”
I started for the stairs, and he followed me.
“That was a lot of werewolves and gods that just walked past,” he said shrewdly. “The wolves don't come out en masse for nothing. Why don't you want my assistance?”
“Because I'm not sure what it will cost me,” I said blandly.
I had a tenuous relationship with the Celtic Gods. Things had happened—bad things—and I wasn't sure if any of them really liked me anymore (besides Lugh). Not that I would blame them. I helped to stop a war between their two major divisions; the Tuatha and the Fomorians. And I had done it in a violent, gory way. I literally played with a body part in front of them; the foot of one of their goddesses. So, no; I didn't trust the Fomorian King to have my back. Then again, Elatha killed a friend of mine and stuck his silver arm on a wall so maybe the foot thing made us even. The crazy Celt might have even respected me for it.
“Vervain,” Elatha said sternly, “I will not tally favors with you. You saved my people from an endless war; I honestly want to help you.”
I considered Elatha and his words and then glanced downstairs. The end of our group was just disappearing out the exit. A Froekn bouncer who was guarding the door looked up at me expectantly.
“All right, come along if you want,” I said. “I'm here to track a murderer.”
“You are?” Elatha's deep-sea eyes lit up with excitement. “Excellent! I haven't had any fun in ages.”
“What am I?” His date huffed.
“A lovely distraction, my dear,” Elatha kissed his date on the cheek and then started walking away with me.
It said a lot about how gorgeous Elatha was that the goddess just pouted instead of bitch-slapping him or storming off in a huff. One of Elatha's titles was the Beautiful Prince of Darkness with the Golden Hair. Yeah, it was a mouthful, but it was also accurate. He was one of those gods with huge amounts of magic that was so powerful it didn't have to decide to be one thing or even make sense. Elatha was a sun god but also a god of darkness and the sea. He supposedly fathered a lot of gods, but I wasn't sure how many of them were his actual children. Things like that get misinterpreted by humans a lot. I was only certain of one of his offspring; Bres, the god everyone—including Bres' wife—had thought was dead. That is until he broke the Fomorians out of their prison and set them free. And he'd done it right here in Moonshine.
But I digress.
Elatha was Fine with a capital F. He was so beautiful that people stopped dancing, talking, and drinking (some mid-drink) as we moved through the club. He was a little too pretty for my taste, but I still had to admit that the man was mighty attractive. And he could kick serious ass too. It wouldn't hurt to have him along on our Katila hunt.
I nodded to Bobby—the Froekn bouncer who was holding the exit door open for us—passed through the entry room, and went through another exit door to the front of the club. The Wolf was waiting for us there; the rest of our group had already gone to the parking lot behind the club.
“You picked up a stray,” the Wolf said as we went to join the others.
“Says the werewolf,” Elatha huffed. “I offered my assistance to your wife, Prince Trevor. She mentioned something about a murderer.”
The Wolf grunted as if he didn't need any help. But when we found the others, and I explained Elatha's presence to them, they were happy for it. As gods on the human side of the God War, it was always nice when another god wanted to help us. And you never knew when another pair of eyes and hands might just be what tips the balance in our favor.
“Someone has been killing my family,” Azrael said to Elatha. “And then he attacked Trevor; right here. Vervain is going to track him, and then we'll hunt the bastard down.”
“I can't wait!” Elatha rubbed his hands together as everyone frowned at him. “Ruling a peaceful people is boring,” he said in response to the looks.
“Well, don't kill our quarry,” Azrael said. “One of us gets the pleasure.”
“As you wish.” Elatha held his hands up. “May I subdue with force?”
“Sure, have at it.” Azrael rolled his eyes.
Elatha grinned and clenched his lifted hands into fists as he shook them excitedly.
I ignored the kill-negotiations as I called my dragon up and used her senses to sniff out Katila. I immediately saw Trevor everywhere. I scented lots of Froekn, actually, and a few humans who must have wandered out back. But I didn't pick up any other gods. I growled and searched again... and again... and again.
“What's wrong, V?” Torrent asked in concern as he came around the side of the building with Kirill.
“This isn't possible!” I shrieked. I turned to the Wolf, “You
're certain you were back here when you were jumped?”
“Absolutely,” the Wolf said.
“I don't see a trace of anyone else,” I said. “Not any gods who shouldn't be here,” I growled in frustration. “How does he keep doing this?”
“This murderer has eluded you before?” Elatha asked with an intrigued tone.
“I've been to two other places where we know he's been, and my dragon senses—senses that have never failed me before—couldn't find his trail,” I said.
“It's just one man behind this?” Elatha asked.
“We think it may be two gods,” Odin said. “A goddess named Dhumorna and her son, Katila. The son somehow managed to possess Trevor. I hate to admit it, but it has confounded us.”
“A god possessed you?” Elatha's brows lifted as he looked at the Wolf. “You; the Froekn Prince? No; that's not possible. He must have had help. To send your soul into a human's body is difficult, especially without their permission, but to possess a god's body with magic inside it is nearly impossible. Believe me; I've tried.”
I gave Elatha a surprised look, and he shrugged.
“We suspect that Katila's acquiring power from the demons he's murdered,” I said. “Their magic could give him more power than a Froekn, even a Froekn prince, and may also give him the ability to possess people.”
I wasn't sure if it was the best idea to tell Elatha so much about our troubles, but I couldn't see how it could hurt and something was telling me to share.
“This is getting more and more interesting,” Elatha said. “I can see how acquiring a demon's power might allow him to possess a god, but I've never heard of anyone but you taking a god's magic, Vervain. Again; I've tried.”
I gave him another look.
“There wasn't much to do in my underground, undersea prison.” Elatha grimaced. “But, as far as the tracking goes—or the lack of it, rather—I think I may have a theory for you.”
“You do?” I asked in surprise.
“I met a god once who seemed to have no magic of his own; no talent. He was a child of gods; brought into his pantheon too late to be assigned a magic by human belief,” Elatha said. “He had nothing beyond the basic god abilities. Or so he initially thought. It turned out that his magic was a talent for disappearing; for going unnoticed. It was so subtle, that he hadn't picked up on it until he was over a century old. He simply thought that people didn't like him, that he was forgettable when actually, it was his magic wiping his path clean after he walked it. One of the aspects of his magic was that it left no trace of him behind; no scent, no hairs, no footprints. It was as if he had never been there.”
“How are you able to remember him if he was so forgettable?” Odin asked.
“Oh, after he recognized his magic for what it was, he was able to harness it and control it,” Elatha explained. “He could turn it off and on at will; as with any magic.”
“That would certainly explain this.” I waved my hand around me.
“Who was he?” Odin asked. “This god who could erase his tracks.”
“He was Fomorian, but you wouldn't know him,” Elatha said. “He died before we were imprisoned. I've never met another god like him, but once magic pops into existence, it tends to replicate itself; like an idea had by several people at once.”
“This theory would also explain why Brahma hasn't been able to find Katila,” I said to Azrael. “Katila has probably been very careful about not being noticed.”
“So, how do we find an untraceable god?” Azrael asked.
“The same way you found him the last time.” Elatha shrugged. “Make him find you.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Elatha returned to his date—after making me promise to contact him if I needed backup in the future—and then we went home; Fenrir and the Froekn, and the rest of us to Pride Palace. It was a grim procession that marched out of our tracing room. The Intare were anxiously waiting for us; for me. They were thrilled to have me home and even more thrilled to hear about my pregnancy, but when I told them that I'd failed to track Katila, several of my lions headed straight outside to shift and go for a run to release some pent-up aggression. I thought about joining them, but I was too hungry to go out as a lion; I'd end up killing an antelope. That would have been fine—Gods know I've eaten my fair share of raw meat—except that I was in the mood for a nice hot meal followed by an even hotter bath.
My husbands, Re, Toby, and I had dinner together—a bit awkwardly—and then Re and Toby went home. The rest of us trudged upstairs; collecting Lesya along the way. My daughter was so excited to see me that she nearly pushed past her exhaustion, but by the time we reached the top floor, she was passed out in my arms.
Kirill put Lesya to bed while Odin and Azrael went to their own beds, and the Wolf and I went to shower together. Nobody said anything about the fact that this would be the first night that Trevor's new alpha rules would go into effect. We didn't even bring it up to each other. I had a feeling that the Wolf wanted things to feel normal; the new normal. So, we climbed into our enormous bed, had a round of savage sex, and then fell asleep entwined together.
When morning came, the Wolf was still enveloping me with his body. I felt safe, warm, and loved, but most importantly, I was happy to be home and back in my human mind. We were sleeping on our sides—me nestled into the curve of the Wolf's body—with his arms and legs tangled with mine. His face was buried in my hair on our pillow; his breath soft on my skin.
I knew the exact moment when the Wolf woke up. I was only half awake myself—in that hazy state where I'm deciding whether I want to get up and brave the world or try to sink back into my dreams—and I felt the Wolf nestle his face more firmly against my neck; brushing back my hair with his nose so he could press his skin to mine. My neck is one of my favorite erogenous zones, and hot breath on it is enough to make me wake up raring to go. I sighed and rubbed back into him; smiling in satisfaction when I felt his hard flesh against me.
The Wolf growled a little—low in his throat—and the vibration against my neck sent shivers down my body. I angled my head up, and he moved over me to set his mouth on mine. The scent of man and wolf tickled my nose—sending me further into that rapturous place the Wolf had built for us; a place where I was instantly wet with wanting—but there was something else there. Another scent I couldn't pin down. I wasn't quite awake yet so I didn't process it at first. I was too busy enjoying the early morning attention.
The Wolf pulled away and lifted himself above me as he eased me onto my back beneath him. His eyes were glowing honey-gold and after they traveled the length of my body, they fastened on my face. His hand went to my temple and brushed back the sparkling stripe of starlight in my hair. I could see the glimmers reflected in his shining eyes. He smiled possessively. Then I was stroking the curves of his biceps—making my way to his broad back—as he brushed a fingertip over my lip gently.
“I will never tire of kissing you,” the Wolf murmured in his sleep-roughened voice. “Your lips are made for kissing; full and soft. And for biting.”
The Wolf leaned down and nipped at my lower lip, and I laughed softly.
“Tell me a secret,” he whispered in my ear. “Something you've never told anyone.”
I blinked in surprise. Trevor and I knew each other better than any human couple could; we had the Froekn mating bond and the bond of Blood to Heart connecting us. And now, we had the melding we'd shared at the lake. We could sense what each other needed. But I realized that sensing someone's needs was vastly different than knowing their deepest secrets. We had merged further than we'd ever done before, but there were still things that the Wolf didn't know about me. It seemed that he needed to know something that could be his alone.
I didn't have a lot of secrets from my husbands but there was one little thing.
“Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I go to my house in Hawaii, and I sit in the backyard and stare at the stars,” I confessed.
“You do?” The Wolf
asked in surprise as he settled onto one elbow. “Why?”
“Because I think they're the most beautiful when seen from there,” I said. “And I like sitting in that silence, communing with them; just me and the stars.”
“Why haven't you told us?”
“I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings,” I said. “It's a private moment that I take for myself. I don't get a lot of those around here.”
“No; I imagine that you don't,” he said softly. “I can give you that peace, Vervain. I can give you anything you want.”
I went still; searching his eyes. The savagery was gone—both the wild love and possessive fire. But this wasn't Trevor either. Even when Trevor was dominant, his wolf peeked through; I'd seen him several times before, and now, I knew what to look for. No; the Wolf hadn't receded for the man; this was someone else entirely. I took a deep breath and finally registered that other scent. It wasn't so much a smell as a lack of one. There were empty places within Trevor's musk of wolf and man.
“Katila,” I whispered.
That beautiful, beloved face above me twisted into an unfamiliar smile; a smile that was greedy and covetous. You may think that's the same as being possessive and jealous, but it isn't. Greed is selfish and covetousness is the bitter envy of what you don't have. Possession has a root of adoration within it and jealousy can be a primal way of expressing the fear of losing someone or something you treasure. There was no affection or fear here. No treasuring anything. This man looked at me as if I were a thing to use and amuse himself with. Part of him wanted me because it meant taking me away from his enemy and the other part wanted me for my magic.
“What do you want?” I asked Katila calmly, even though my heart raced. “Why are you doing this to us?”
“You helped murder my father, Godhunter,” he said with a scowl. “All of you. But I know now that it was fate pushing us together. I was meant to rule Hell, and you were meant to rule beside me. It's so clear to me now that I'm shocked I didn't see it before. A triple-souled woman born of a faerie and then of a human; touched by a god and turned into a goddess. You hold the Trinity Star in your chest; something so powerful that its magic cannot be completely fathomed.” He stroked my starlight hair again. “You're a faerie queen and a queen of beasts, but it's your dragon who convinced me. Hell is meant to have a dragon ruling it. You were born to be my queen.”