Godhunter Read online

  I shook my head, “You're using a fungus and earthquakes to rationalize wreaking even more havoc?”

  “You act as if every war on the planet were my fault,” he placed his elbow on the table and rested his chin firmly on his fist. “Do you think the violence would simply disappear if I left all alone? Do you think you humans could live in peace with each other?”

  “I think it would be more peaceful than having a crazy Aztec pulling the strings.”

  “Ah, so now I'm crazy,” he pursed his lips in thought. “Your reaction proves my point.”

  “I know I'm going to regret asking this,” I sighed, “but what do you mean?”

  “Humans will never be able to live peacefully,” he matched my sigh but added more dramatic flare. “A more belligerent creature has never been birthed. You people actually search for reasons to go to war. I merely direct the current, I do not make the waves.”

  “Bullshit,” I scoffed.

  “Cuss all you want,” he smiled. “Deep inside you know it's true. Humans fight over everything. Property, sex, and especially religion.”

  “Because you so-called gods provoke us.”

  “You think we made you fight over us?” He raised a brow. “Do you really believe that I found a band of humans, got them together, led them toward a homeland, and then told them to go find others to fight with? Do you think I asked to be the God of War? Do you truly think I wanted to be drenched in blood?”

  “Maybe not at first,” I frowned in confusion. My war was black and white. I fought gods because they made my people fight each other. I didn't appreciate Blue adding some gray to the picture. “But when you stopped receiving so much worship, you had to find a way to get more energy out of us and so you started this manipulation.”

  “Yes,” his face tightened into serious lines, “I do what I have to do to survive. I at least have a reason for warmongering. Your people however, would fight for no reason at all.”

  “There is always a reason.”

  “Always a reason?” He laughed scathingly. “There are times when we would cease our manipulations as you call them. We don't need to constantly feed off your energy, you know. Do you know what happened when we did? Boxing was invented.”

  “Boxing?”

  “Yes, you know,” he waved his hands impatiently. “With the ring and the gloves and such.”

  “Yes, I know what boxing is,” I growled. “So what?”

  “So because your people didn't have anything to fight about, they started fighting as a sport. They'd beat on each other just to see who was the stronger. Two men hit each other until one falls down and doesn't get up and not only do your people call this a sport but they flock to watch it in droves. They bet on the outcome and then fight with others over winning or losing those bets. Of course, it started much earlier than that. The Romans had their gladiators, I just thought you might relate to the boxing thing. Your people hate better than they love. They wallow in it while love is tossed aside so easily. I simply make use of it, of your own natures. ”

  “You manipulate everything don't you?” I was shaking, I was so angry. “You think you can manipulate me by twisting the facts to suit your purpose. Yes, we can be violent, we can hate with such passion that it crumbles cities to dust. We study the ways to kill and we teach them to our children. Then we take pride in the learning. We can be horrible and truly evil but that is only one side of humanity.”

  I took a deep breath and clenched my shaking hands til they stilled. Blue eyed me with the strangest expression, a slight furrowing of his forehead and a snake-like intensity in his eyes. He nodded for me to go on but didn't say a word and I was a little shocked to see his own fists clenched on the table.

  “We are good at hating,” I started again, “but we are so much better at loving. You say we fight over property and religion. I say we love enough to give those things up. Prince Edward gave up the throne of England to marry an American woman. Lady Godiva humiliated herself for her husband. The Shah Jahan ordered his kingdom into a two year mourning period when his wife died and then built the Taj Mahal in tribute to her. We'd sacrifice anything for those we love. You say we toss love aside but even in war, in the midst of hate, men have jumped onto grenades to save their comrades. You've accepted sacrifice from humans for far too long, you've forgotten that you're not the only ones we sacrifice for. We sacrifice ourselves for each other.”

  “Yes, very moving,” he frowned as he searched my face, “but you forget that most of your greatest love stories end in hatred. Guinevere betrays her husband for Lancelot and the King tries to burn her at the stake. Cleopatra is just as untrue to Julius Ceasar and kills herself over the mess she made. Even the renowned Napoleon and Josephine split up due in part to adultery. Troy was demolished for the love of one woman and King Henry VIII killed his wives so he could trade them in for new ones. Then his daughter Mary tried to bring the Spanish Inquisition to England to please her Spanish husband. You love fiercely because you cannot, even in this, separate yourselves from your hate.”

  “These are extreme examples,” I gritted out. “Stories are told about things that are unusual or shocking. You don't hear the millions of simple stories of how everyday people struggle through life, standing beside each other faithfully until the day death finally parts them. How sometimes their love is so strong that even death cannot stop it. Their souls find each other again in the next life, searching the world until they are once more with their beloved. The reason I fight you gods is not hatred, it's love.”

  “Look at you,” he huffed. “You don't fight for love! You sit there so indignant, judging me, hating me. This is what I meant by you proving my point. You blame me for all this bloodshed so that you may have a reason to hate me, to kill me. You heard one side of the story, discovered one little piece of the puzzle, and you lifted it up and shouted 'Aha! I've found the problem!' and you decided you'd fix it without ever stepping back and taking in the whole picture. You can't admit that I may be right because then you would lose your reason to hate. It has nothing to do with love! If there is anything else, it's fear that motivates you.”

  “No,” I stood up and he followed suit. “I’m not going to sit here and listen to you rationalize your actions to me. And I'm certainly not going to listen to you tear apart mine!” I pushed my chair back and started towards the house. When I heard him following, I sped up. I’d almost reached the glass doors when he grabbed me and swung me around.

  “Don’t run from me, little witch,” his hands squeezed my upper arms tight. I was going to have more bruises. “It’s useless, the sooner you learn that the better.”

  “Maybe you’ll catch me in the end, Blue,” I used his new name deliberately and felt a small twinge of satisfaction as his jaw clenched, “but it’s not useless. As long as you’re chasing me, you won’t have me and I intend for you to not have me for as long as possible.”

  His hands tightened for a second and then he smiled. It was an icy smile, smug and devoid of any other emotion. He let go and stepped back to bow to me. “Then by all means, run, little witch, run.”

  I looked up and the heat in his eyes terrified me. When they began to glow, I turned to run, lifting my skirts up as I went. Through the open doors I shot and his laughter followed me mockingly. He was so sure of himself that he was giving me a head start. I glanced at the closed door to the hallway and realized why he was so confident. I still couldn’t leave the room. I screamed at the door in frustration and the door clicked open, swinging wide on silent hinges.

  I gaped for the space of two heartbeats before I gathered enough wits to grab the box that held my weapons and bolt out the door. In the hallway, I almost ran straight into Aphrodite. She steadied me and then pointed down the hall. Had she opened the door? Blue’s startled shout carried to us and she gave me a push. I mouthed “thank you” and she nodded with big exasperated eyes, pointing again before making a shooing motion. I smiled and ran in the direction she indicated. Hooray for sisterho
od, I guess even Goddesses could feel it. The stone room was just a little further. If I could make it there, I could trace out.

  I entered the room and threw a quick glance back over my shoulder. Aphrodite was nowhere to be found but Blue had just entered the hallway. Our gazes met for a second and in his eyes I saw shocked defeat. He knew where I was headed, he knew he’d miscalculated, and he knew he’d never reach me in time. I was already chanting the spell to send me home when I hit the spot where we traced in. Instantly, I was sucked through, dissolving into the Aether with the sounds of Blue's anger nipping at my heels.

  I blinked at the blinding Hawaiian sun, back in the same alley I started in days ago, and I began to laugh. I laughed like a raving lunatic. A couple passing by glanced at me and then quickened their pace. Not such a bad idea for me as well. I needed to get out of there.

  I ran from the alley, garnering a few startled gasps and stares. I heard one little girl ask her daddy if I was a princess, which almost started me on the hysterics again. Instead, I held it together long enough to reach the parking lot where I’d left my car. Oh crap, it was going to cost a pretty penny to get my car out. At least I'd parked valet. I always do when I go hunting, so I don't have to worry about my keys. The guys knew me there, so losing my ticket wouldn't be a huge problem either. When you drive a Jag (yes, I kept Ku’s car; surprise, surprise, no one reported it stolen) and you’re a woman, you tend to get noticed. I also had enough sense to leave my purse in a hidden compartment in the trunk.

  I hurried to the valet booth and Jimmy smiled up at me. Jimmy was an old surfer who’d spent his life on the waves and finally woke up one morning to realize he was forty years old with no marketable job skills. So he was a parking lot attendant and he was surprisingly happy about that.

  “Hey, sista,” he jumped up and grabbed my keys. “Wassup wit’ da kine?” He motioned to my dress. “What is dat?”

  Jimmy spoke in the thick local dialect known as Pidgin. It made me smile every time I heard it come from his very white face. The surfers had adopted it but originally it was a way for all the different immigrants to understand each other. It was a mix of English, Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, and Portuguese. Tourists thought it was funny, some even thought it made people sound ignorant, but I loved it. My ancestors had come here to work in horrible conditions, with people from many different cultures and they had triumphed together by making a new language and a new culture all of their own. The language was a part of their legacy and it was also the sweet sound of home to me. I'd take it over Blue's cultured accent any day. I smiled brightly at Jimmy.

  “I was at an early Halloween party,” good thing it was October. “What do you think?”

  “Looks sic!” He ran off to get my car as I laughed.

  Jimmy pulled up quickly because he always parked my car near the front. “ ‘K sista, here ya go,” he jumped out and I popped the trunk to retrieve my purse.

  “How much?” I fished in my wallet and hoped I’d brought enough cash.

  “Five bucks,” he grinned, “I went lose your ticket cause you so pretty in dat dress.”

  “You’re so full of it,” I laughed and slipped him $25. That was another reason they all remembered me, I tipped big, “but thank you.” I threw the box with my gloves in it on the passenger seat and jumped in.

  “No worries,” he waved as I drove off.

  No worries indeed. Turns out I didn't need the ruby slippers after all, I had my very own Glenda. Out of respect for her saving me, I sent up the first prayer I'd ever made.

  “Thank you, Aphrodite,” I whispered as I stepped on the gas. “There’s no place like home.”

  Chapter Ten

  I drove home carefully. I always drove carefully now that I had Ku’s Jaguar. Although if I ever did get pulled over, I wasn't above using magic to get me out of trouble. I went over the Likelike (pronounced lee-kay-lee-kay not like-like), the trees crowding the road on the way to the tunnel. Long branches stretched out, reaching, grasping at me like an angry Aztec as I passed, then shaking angrily in the rear view mirror. I tried to blink my eyes free of the crazy halucinations as the dark mouth of the tunnel gulped me down.

  I sped through the poorly lit passage and almost slammed the brakes when a pair of red eyes appeared in the gloom. I swallowed a scream as I realized it was just the brake lights of the car in front of me. I took a shaky breath, slowing down around the last sharp turn before bursting out into full sunlight again. A wave of relief hit me as I wove down the mountain. Sheer lush peaks soared on my left and a steep drop fell on my right, allowing a great view of Kaneohe, where I’ve lived most of my life.

  The sun was out in full force on this side of the island, gilding the verdant slopes and framing the rapidly growing city at the foot of the mountains. So much light was more unusual than you’d think. Kaneohe rarely went a day without at least a sprinkling of rain. The mountains caught passing clouds expertly and liked to wring them dry before letting them go on their merry way. Having grown up in the wet conditions, I loved the rain and would normally have hissed in the face of so much sunlight but after shedding the dark feeling of pursuit, the sun shining my way home seemed a good and welcome omen.

  When I finally pulled into my drive, my head thumped back against the seat heavily, half of me didn’t quite believe I could escape Huitzilopochtli so easily. My heart finally got the message that it could relax and my mind used the opportunity to process the last 72 hours. It had been a wild ride, even for me. I had actually allied myself with gods and even kissed a couple. I shivered through the memory of Thor’s wild kiss and groaned through Blue’s. I still didn’t know what to make of the Aztec. He’d been so sincere in his beliefs, so uninhibited in his passion but then had been offhandedly cruel and terrifyingly cold in his scientific reasoning.

  It didn't help that his assessment of my motivations for fighting gods had struck a chord of truth. Hadn't I just admitted to myself that fear was a huge part of it? I wondered if he'd wrung that from my mind when he'd made himself at home there earlier. And let's not forget about the way the bastard had hit me.

  The memory of Thor took over and I grasped it greedily. I much rather think about the way it felt to be held by him, the heat of his skin contrasting with the cold rain. I trembled, I actually trembled like some nympho perv. What kind of a god-chasing slut was I turning into? I covered my face with my hands, trying to block out the sexy images. I hadn’t made love to a man since before the episode with Ku. It was just too difficult to get close to someone without explaining my strange lifestyle. I mean what was I supposed to say? “Hi, I’m Vervain. I’m an artist and a Virgo. I like Moroccan food, Roger Moore best as 007, and hunting gods.”

  My friend Jackson always said, “If a woman isn’t having sex, it’s because she doesn’t want to.” Well sure, I could go out and pick up a guy for the night but I just didn’t like casual sex. I botched it up without fail. The two times I’d tried had both resulted in long-term relationships. One guy I'd even told up front it wasn't going to be more than one night. He called me the next day and asked how many times he could call before it was considered stalking.

  Wrapped up in sex and ex thoughts, I didn’t see Thor until he rapped on my window. I screamed like a little girl.

  “I’m sorry,” he held up his hands and tried hard to look apologetic while suppressing a huge grin. “I was just wondering when you were going to get out of the car.”

  I opened the door and flowed out in a loud rustling of fabric. Before I could say anything, I was wrapped up in two beefy arms and pulled off my feet. His clean, electric scent filled my nose and I pulled it in greedily, instantly winding down to a state of perfect calm. Muscled chest filling my arms, a steady heartbeat pounding through him into me, and fiery hair caressing my face as his cheek pressed into the top of my head. It all sang a song of solace and seduction. Standing there with him, I felt like I’d truly come home. I had to remind myself that I’d just met Thor. I didn’t know him well enou
gh to feel this comfortable.

  He put me gently on my feet. “Let’s get inside.” He leaned over me and the car door clicked softly shut before he maneuvered me to the porch.

  “What are you doing here, Thor?”

  “Let’s get inside first,” he kept a firm hand on me, scanning the neighborhood as we walked.

  I found my keys and fumbled with the lock. The keys jingled in my hand and I stared down accusingly at my shaking fingers. Warm fingers closed over mine and Thor gently took the keys from me, opened the door, and ushered me inside.

  The interior was dark, cool, and smelled faintly of nag champa incense. I let its welcome sink into my bones. The house was small by mainland standards, only three bedrooms, but in Hawaii it was a fair size. More importantly, it was all mine and I loved it.

  Gauzy white fabric draped down the living room walls and up the ceiling to peak at the center around a Moroccan lantern I'd outfitted with an electric bulb. Directly beneath the lantern was a low, inlaid wood table and gathered around the table were sofas, in the original sense of the word… low Middle Eastern couches with bright pillows in a rainbow of colors. The dark carpet was overlaid with Persian rugs up to where it met my kitchen and the Middle Eastern theme faded into plain Eastern.

  My kitchen table was heavy wood, hand-carved with oriental dragons. The walls were bright crimson, adorned only with an antique wedding kimono. Red drapes in the exact same shade as the walls hid the window that looked out onto my back yard and kept the sunlight out completely. A graceful vanilla orchid stretched elegantly out of a china pot in the center of the table, its fragrance adding its own welcome. I frowned a little when it occurred to me how similar my dining room was to Thor’s.

  “Ummm, Vervain?” Thor was still standing in the doorway.

  “Enter Thor and be welcome,” I recited the ritual words that granted him limitless access. I could always renew the wards and revoke his welcome in the future if I had to. That made me feel better. I just didn’t trust any hot gods yet, at least not completely.