Harvest of the Gods (2 page)

Anubis' jackals were shifters but not like other shifters. Their first form was jackal, not man, so they have a more animal mentality. They could rise from the dead, over and over, and if they killed someone, that person would rise as a zombie intent on fighting for Anubis. It was a fearsome magic that had been difficult to fight, back when we were on opposites sides of the god war. I hadn't even considered the benefits of having Anubis on
my
side.

“
Wait,” I just realized what he'd said. “Five? You only have five of them?”

“
Al didn't fall at battle vith Eris,” Kirill's hand was on my shoulder, stroking it gently. It was such a cat comfort, that I smiled a little at him before I realized what had been said.

“
Oh, right,” I ground my teeth. “That was Demeter.”

Anger burned within me once more for the Harvest Goddess. She'd abused Kirill, kept Persephone in perpetual childhood, tried to murder Trevor, Hades, and my son Vali, and then finally killed my lion, Alfred. We'd been hunting her forever, it seemed, both the Intare and the Froekn combined, but she knew how to hide and no one had found any trace of her. It was truly an amazing feat since some of the greatest trackers in all the realms were on her trail.

“I'm sorry I could not take your other lion,” Anubis actually did look concerned. “I would spare you any and all pain if I could,
Miw-sher.”

“
Anubis,” I turned and sat back down on the hill, indicating that he should sit on the little hill across from me. “Please stop calling me kitten.”

“
Everyone else has some personal name for you but I cannot?”

“
Agh,” I ran my hand through my hair. “Okay, fine, whatever.”

“
Thank you,” he nodded regally. “Now, you may come and visit your men anytime you wish.”

“
I can?” I cocked my head at him. “And you'll let me leave when I want to?”

“
Yes, of course,” it was his turn to sigh. “I don't wish to enslave you anymore, Miw-sher. I promise you'll be safe with me. Ma'at would like to see you as well.”

“
Yeah,” I grinned at him mischievously. “What about Re?”

“
You are most cruel,” he made a face. “I'm surprised he hasn't approached you on his own, he talks about you nonstop.”

“
Huh,” I chuckled. “Nope, haven't seen him but I've been a little busy. You've heard about my recent discovery?”

“
Discovery?”

“
Tima is faerie.” Kirill smirked at Anubis.

“
Faerie?” Anubis frowned and then his eyes went wide. “You're one of the fey? That's not possible, the fey withdrew centuries ago.”

“
Yeah, it's a long story but you know how my soul is really Sabine, Odin's wife?”

“
Yes.”

“
It turns out that Sabine was fey,” I pushed down the dragon-sidhe part of me that wanted to rise up and roar happily at the announcement. “Sabine's mother hid her nature to protect her from the dragon hunters of that time but Aednat died before she could remove the enchantment and Sabine remained human.”

“
Dragon hunters? What would dragon hunters have to do with anything?” Then his eyes widened further. “Dragon-sidhe. You're a fey dragon?”

“
You got it,” I smiled.

“
And she's got new husband too,” Kirill was just having the time of his life. “He's dragon as vell.”

“
I beg your pardon?” It's funny how much the Egyptian god could sound like an Englishman on occasion.

“
Another long story,” I sighed. “I'm the last female dragon-sidhe and Arach's the last male. We ended up getting married. I don't want to go into it, it's a fey thing and as far as I'm concerned, it's only applicable when I'm in Faerie.”

“
So you're married to a fey?”

“
Fey
King
,” Kirill chuckled.

“
Will you knock it off,
Prince
Kirill?” I shot back at him.

I'd only recently found out that Kirill was the son of the Russian Tzar, Peter the Great. He would have ruled if Nyavirezi hadn't abducted him but Kirill didn't really like people to know that though and he growled at me as a reminder.

“Prince?” Anubis looked over Kirill like he might have missed something before.

“
Lion Prince,” Kirill sniffed and looked away.

“
So you have two Princes now?” Anubis rose a brow.

“
And a Faerie King,” Kirill happily averted the attention off of himself.

“
You married a Faerie King?” Anubis sat back against the hill/seat, hard. “Anything else I should know?”

“
Uh,” I thought back over recent events. “We killed Iktomi and Mica, that was difficult.”

“
Tima almost die,” Kirill announced succinctly but still melodramatically.

“
You what?” Anubis' brows rose.

“
Iktomi turned into a giant spider,” I grimaced. “I ended up killing him like I killed Eris.”

“
With the emerald?” Anubis' eyes went to the large stone around my neck, a gift from Odin. “Speaking of jewelry,” he reached into an inside pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a velvet pouch. “You seem to have lost not only your lions but your diamonds as well.”

He handed me the bag and I opened and then upended it in my palm. Millions of dollars worth of diamonds came spilling out, catching the ambient light in the club and flashing it back at me gleefully. I knew they were worth millions because I'd sold them not so long ago to help with the care and feeding of my seventy-three cats. Well, seventy-four if you count my actual cat, Nicholas.

The jewelry had been a gift from Anubis on the day we were supposed to get married(he blackmailed me with Trevor's life) and I'd kept them, as well as the other expensive jewelry he'd given me, until I realized that they'd fetch a nice price, even at resale, and although we had the club, I didn't want to take money from it for my Intare. The lions helped as much as they could but I knew it was my job to take care of them and that meant I needed money, lots of money. So I sold the diamonds(I kept the diamond shoes, they were too fabulous and kind of made me feel like Cinderella) but now they were back in my hands.

“
You just shoved them into a pouch,” I slid them carefully back into the velvet. “Jeesh, Anubis, didn't they give you the boxes?”

“
They were too bulky to carry in my jacket,” he rolled his eyes, “and it wouldn't have been as dramatic.”

“
Now I have to go find some boxes for them,” I grumbled.

“
Will you cease? I'll give you the damn boxes,” Anubis huffed. “Miw-sher, if you needed money, you could have asked.”

“
Like I would have asked you for money,” I scoffed. “I figured I might as well get something out of being tortured by you.”

“
Vervain,” oh he used my real name, “you said you forgave me all of that.”

“
I have,” I shrugged, “but I'm not stupid. I haven't forgotten.”

“
Fine,” Anubis exhaled in a loud huff. “I've accomplished what I wanted to today, you know about your lions and you have your jewels once more. I guess I'll leave you in peace but if you need anything, Miw-sher, I'm eager to prove myself to you. Don't hesitate to call.”

“
Anubis,” Trevor had arrived.

“
Wolf Prince,” Anubis nodded.

“
You want a drink?” Trevor motioned to one of the werewolf waitresses as I gaped at him.

“
A drink?” Anubis looked startled as well. I think the only one who wasn't surprised was Kirill but then there were times when he knew Trevor better than I did.

“
Sure,” Trevor walked over and sat down beside him. “I think it's the least I can do after what you did for us.”

“
What I did?” Anubis wasn't sure if he could trust this new Trevor and I didn't blame him. Trevor had previously barely tolerated him, which had been a step up from wanting to kill him, but he hadn't ever been friendly.

“
Coming to our aid,” Trevor frowned at him, then gave his attention to Natalie, the waitress. “Can you bring us a bottle of champagne? Four glasses, thank you.”

“
You want to drink with me?” Anubis looked back and forth between Trevor and me.

“
Well, I'm not saying I want to be best friends or anything,” Trevor shrugged and smiled at me, “but I've learned to appreciate those who want to keep Vervain alive. You do want her alive, don't you?”

This was a dangerous and loaded question. Anubis had previously insinuated that he was waiting for my death because then I'd be all his. With Kirill's new information though, I now knew I could go with Azrael or Odin, and Anubis knew that I knew it. I was curious to see what he would say.

“Of course I want her alive,” he didn't miss a beat and I released the breath I didn't realize I'd been holding. “I want her free to live and be happy, not restrained in any way.”

“
Then I think we should drink to that,” Trevor nodded with a glint in his eye.

I shouldn't have been surprised by Trevor's deft maneuvering of the situation, he was a Prince after all, and a werewolf, two things which contributed to tactical and political capabilities. I was surprised though, happily, and extremely proud. If I hadn't been a goddess and known the truth about gods, I would have wanted to say a prayer of thanks for Trevor being in my life. As it was, I just counted myself lucky. I glanced at Kirill, very lucky

Chapter Three

When the Angel of Death came for me, I wasn't ready to go.

“
Can you give me a few more minutes,” I asked before I gave Azrael a quick kiss. “I need to grab a couple things.”

“
No problem, I can be patient.” He grinned broadly and took a seat on the wide bed.

Since we were at Pride Palace, the bed was on a stepped platform and had four posters. Azrael looked fabulous on it but then he pretty much looked fabulous wherever he was. His short black hair was styled casually, his diamond eyes were sparkling, and his sleekly muscled physique was shown to its best advantage in the worn jeans and T-shirt he had on. The wings helped too, they were out on full display, a black frame for his gorgeousness.

Death was finally getting a vacation. Michael, yeah the archangel Michael, said he'd keep an eye on things while we were gone. Az had given him the scythe and everything. I didn't know he could do that but Azrael assured me it would be fine on a temporary basis. Mike could use the scythe to harvest souls and take them to their appropriate afterlives, he just couldn't give comfort to the bereaved. They'd have to deal with their grief all on their own.

Maybe I should feel bad that the Angel of Death wouldn't be there to comfort people in their times of need, but I didn't. Azrael worked hard, taking his position very seriously, and he was a compassionate man. He deserved some time off, and as far as I was concerned, I'd saved humanity repeatedly. They've given me enough grief that they could deal with some on their own for a little while, and give me some alone time with my angel. I'd dealt with enough trauma on my own in the past month, didn't I deserve a little comfort too?

So we had a week all to ourselves. No godhunting, no werewolves, no faeries, and no werelions. No problem. I was looking forward to some quiet time with my angel. I glanced over
at Azrael's biceps and grinned. Maybe some not so quiet time too.

“
Vervain,” Trevor came into the room with a serious expression on his face.

“
Oh no, no, no,” I held a hand up to stop whatever he was about to say. “Not another word. I'm going with Azrael to Barcelona and I'm going to finally see the Sagrada Familia Cathedral before they finish it, goddammit! I don't care what major catastrophe has happened. The Godhunter is off duty!”

“
We got a scout back,” Trevor's expression didn't change. “They found Demeter.”

“
What?” I dropped the leather jacket I was about to pack.

“
We sent out four Froekn,” Trevor's jaw clenched. “Only one made it back. She killed the other three.”

“
Shit,” I whispered.

“
I know you want to go with Azrael but we need you to come down and see if you can track her, your dragon senses are stronger than our Froekn now. We need you, Minn Elska.”

“
Az,” I sighed and looked over at the angel, “a small detour?”

“
Let's go get that bitch,” Azrael smiled. “Then we'll really have something to celebrate.”

“
I love you,” I sighed and both of them said it back.