A Taste for Blood (The Godhunter, Book 6) (26 page)

“
Oh fudge,” I said on a long breath and pulled Ryu closer. I was starting to shake as much as he was. He could've been one of those horror film corpses. This little beautiful child I was holding, made into a pile of meat and skin. I was going to kill that bastard slowly. “Hey,” I loosened my hold and looked down at Ryu. “You did good in there. You were super brave and smart. I couldn't have got to you without your help.”

“
I gotta tell Daddy-o,” he said proudly, all the horrors forgotten in an instant. How amazingly resilient children are. Put them through a nightmare, and they'll be fine as long as they get to be safe again. It becomes just another story.

“
Okay, we're gonna tell Mommy first though,” I said as I dialed. “I just hope she buys the right place at the right time story.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

We got Ryu home safe and sound. I thought Sommer was never going to stop hugging him or thanking me. She thought that I'd heard about Ryu's abduction and had gone looking for him with my god friends. That our magic had found him and saved the day.

Alex, Sommer's husband, had simply hugged me, swallowed hard and nodded his thanks before shaking Kirill and Trevor's hands. Then Ryu had to tell Daddy-o about how he'd helped take down the bad man with glasses and I was saved from looking him in the eye any further.

Sam, Sommer's eldest son, had even looked at me through a fall of his careless blonde curls(careless in that cultivated high school heartthrob way) with a fleeting glance of gratitude. High praise from the kid who rarely took off his headphones to do anything other than play his video games or talk to girls.

I felt like the biggest fraud. Yes, I did save Ryu but it was kind of my fault that he'd been in trouble in the first place. You can't tell me Tlaloc taking Ryu had been a coincidence. That Aztec asshole was fucking with me on purpose.

I was happy to see Ryu reunited with his family, though I drove away with a lump in my stomach, the terror of what might have been making me want to throw-up out the window like a drunken college kid. If we'd been thirty minutes later, holy fuck, if I'd listened to Trevor and rested before I tried to do that spell, Ryu would've been dead and skinned. I was on the verge of hyperventilating by the time we got home.

“
Maybe I shouldn't have human friends,” I said as we pulled into the driveway of my house in Kaneohe.

“
Why do you say that?” Trevor shut off the engine and took my hand.

“
I have so many enemies now,” I tried to breathe slowly, in and out, “they could all be in danger because of me.”

“
And they all know this,” Trevor spoke calmly, like you would to a crazy person.

“
They don't know
this
,” I
was
about to go crazy, “Sommer didn't know her children were in danger of being abducted by an Aztec god intent on seeing his priests dance in their skin. She loves me but I'm fairly certain she'd have run in the opposite direction if she'd known there was a chance of that ever happening.”

“
You can't control what others will do,” Trevor continued, the two in the backseat were quiet as church mice. “There will always be danger, whether it be Tlaloc or a drunk driver. Life is dangerous and it's the risk every parent takes by deciding to bring a child into this world. They risk that child being taken from them. You can't deny yourself friendship because of what someone else may or may not do to them.”

“
I hear what you're saying,” I was finally finding some calm, “but I don't agree. I have to think about this some more.”

“
Okay,” Trevor nodded, “let's get home to Pride Palace and take a hot bath. Then we can all climb into bed and get some rest.”

“
All of us?” Roarke piped up.

“
No!” The rest of us spoke all at once.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

“Crops are dying all over the U.S.,” Horus stood regally at one end of the library, his arms crossed and his face stern.

I'd had enough of meeting in the dining room, I needed a more cozy environment after last night's activities. So I sat huddled before the fireplace, face flushed but still needing the heat desperately. There was something so comforting about it, the bright flames dancing above the wood they consumed. A story in itself, of how the end of one life begins another and so on. When the fire died, its ashes would provide nutrients to the soil and help another tree grow. Circle of life.

No matter how hard I stared, concentrating on the beautiful heat, I couldn't get the picture of Ryu's solemn face out of my head. I couldn't stop seeing the rope burns on his tiny wrists or the cut edges of his mouth where the gag had been tied too tightly. I kept seeing those thick glasses that saw too much and the knives laid out in front of them. I suddenly had to swallow back a scream.

“
Vervain?” Odin was at my knee and I didn't remember seeing him arrive.

“
Odin,” I breathed his name like a prayer and sort of fell forward into his arms.

“
Shhh,” he rocked me and I closed my eyes tight. “We'll find him, he's as good as dead.”

“
I can't even track him,” I moaned. “The priests are dead and I didn't think to take Tlaloc's scent. I was too busy getting Ryu out of there.”

“
It's okay, Vervain,” he pushed me back so he could look into my face. “You don't have to do it all. You have people helping you, not just people, gods. It's one against all of us. He doesn't stand a chance.”

“
Huh,” I gave a sort of hiccuping laugh and pushed myself back in my seat. “You're right, I'm sorry everyone. I just needed to have a little breakdown.”

“
You're overdue,” Pan gave me a wan smile, his curls falling aside so I caught a glimpse of the horns they were hiding.

“
Okay,” I took a deep breath. “Where are we at? Any ideas?”

“
He seems to be making his way East,” Mr. T observed, looking at a map someone had laid out on the library's central table. “He's very methodical, almost too methodical. I believe he wants to be found. We already know he's doing this partially to get Huitzilopochtli back on his team. Maybe he's trying to give us a pattern to follow.”

Blue walked over to the table and looked at the path revealed from what we'd garnered off the news reports. “If he continues in this manner, this town here should be his next stop. Millersburg, Pennsylvania.”

“Okay,” Vali, my adopted son, strode over to the table. If there was one thing Vali was good at, it was hunting. “So we stake out the farms, lay a trap, and wait.”

“
What kind of a trap?” Hades' interest was piqued and my interest was piqued when I saw the shirt he was wearing. It read:
Hotter Than Hell
. I hid my chuckle behind my hand.

“
I'm not sure,” Vali shrugged. I thought Huitzilopochtli could help with that since he knows our prey best.

“
What can stop the rain?” Blue shook his head like it was impossible.

“
But the farms are facing drought, not rain,” Mrs. E added. “We don't have to stop the rain, we need to bring it forth and I can do that.”

“
Is that what you do?” I just realized that I'd never actually seen a clear example of Mrs. E's magic.

“
One of the things I can do,” she laughed. “My magic is rejuvenation, gentle rains, and warm winds. Tlaloc isn't the only rain deity there is.”

“
But bringing the rain will only put a bandage on the situation,” Blue cleared his throat. “If you're even able to overcome his magic. Tlaloc's power is not just bringing rain, he has the ability to bring a good harvest, rot the fruits on the trees, dry out the land, or freeze it all. He used to gift these powers to his priests by filling four pitchers with them. When water was poured from these pitchers, they'd carry the magic straight to the crops.”

“
Wait,” I sat up as a thought occurred to me. “Mrs. E may not be able to stop him but what about using his own magic against him? Could we use one of those pitchers to repair the damage he's done?”

“
Technically, yes,” Blue cocked his head, “but I don't know if they even exist anymore.”

“
Do you know where they used to be kept?” I prompted. “Back when Tlaloc was worshiped beside you.”

“
Tlaloc had a special altar for him alone on Mt. Tlaloc, 44 miles away from our pyramid,” Blue looked like he was remembering something that hurt. “It was connected to the pyramid by a road which is long gone. I could trace us to the cave he used, that should still be there.”

“
Okay,” I nodded, feeling better with something to do. “I don't think we all need to go, just a couple of us to watch Blue's back. If there's no pitchers, we'll come up with another plan. Also... he had a mountain named after him? What the hell?”

“
I'll go with him,” Vali offered and Vidar nodded, ignoring my outrage over the naming of geological formations after evil bastards.

“
Be careful,” my heart did a sharp clench. I didn't like the idea of sending my sons out to hunt a child killer. I knew they weren't children but they were still
my
children and it's hard for a mother to look on her babies as anything but.

“
We will,” Vali kissed my cheek and Vidar smiled reassuringly. He knew exactly what I was thinking.

“
Let's go then,” Blue led them out towards the tracing point.

“
So if we do get these pitchers,” Odin started the conversation again. “What's the plan? We visit all the farms he's destroyed and sprinkle them with good harvest water?”

“
No,” I finally joined everyone at the table, pulling my chair away from the fire. “We have to stop him first, that's priority.”

“
So we stop him how?” Brahma shoved his hands into the pockets of his slick suit.

Fire, I instantly thought, but no, that would only wreck more havoc on those poor farmers. I had to tamp down the urge to burn, to release the heat that curled inside me. I needed to think about rain. That was Tlaloc's main power, the base of his magic, and once you knew the foundation of magic, you could figure out how to topple it. So rain, what could stop the rain? Wind could direct it but we needed more than that. We needed a magic that was Tlaloc's antithesis.

“Does anyone know of a spell to absorb water?” I mused. “If we can attack Tlaloc with some kind of absorption or dehydration spell, we may be able to dry up his magic, at least temporarily. Long enough to stun him so we can go in for the kill.”

“
An absorption spell,” Persephone repeated thoughtfully. “I may know of one. I've used it to help soil retain moisture but I think we can alter it for our purpose.”

“
Persephone, I could kiss you,” I exclaimed. “That's perfect. Does it need a focus object or just a chant?”

“
It's a chant but we could probably condense it into an object, making the object absorbent, so that when it touches Tlaloc, it will suck him dry.”

“
Could we put it in an arrowhead?” I finally had a plan forming.

“
I think we could,” she grinned back at me. “In fact, I'm sure we could.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

By the time Blue, Vidar, and Vali returned from their escapade, we'd infused twenty arrows with the power of absorption. Straight from the Intare weapon room, they were brand new, aluminum shafts and steel tips. The steel was the only part infused with magic, so the archer would be able to hold the arrow without accidentally releasing the power. They were laid out on the table, on top of the map, just waiting for someone to pick them up and shoot them. I knew just the man for the job.

“
We found them,” Vali put two earthenware jugs down on the table, looking at the arrows with interest. “What are these for?”

“
In a moment,” I smiled at his eagerness. “First, let's take a look at those pitchers.”

Vidar silently put the other two down and stepped back, he wasn't much of a talker, but then Vidar did mean
The Silent One
. I looked over the pitchers, one was pristine, the water in it, fresh and clear. The next was black with mold, the only clear spot on it was the handle, and inside, the water was murky with filth. Then there was a dusty pitcher, filled with liquid in which sediment swirled endlessly. The last one had frost on it, the frigid water inside, sealed with a layer of ice.