Chapter One
I hadn't been home to Hawaii in a few months. After the rise and fall of Dvaraka—Krishna's golden, island city—neither I nor anyone in my family wanted to go anywhere near an island for awhile. But Trevor—my werewolf husband—and I owned a nightclub on Oahu, and we had left it in Ty's care for too long. We needed to check in on Trevor's younger brother and see how Moonshine was doing. It also happened to be date night for Trevor and me.
I have five husbands and two boyfriends; don't judge. One of my husbands lives in the Faerie Realm with our twin sons, and my boyfriends each have their own homes, but my other four husbands live with me. We have a schedule for things like dates. Tonight was Trevor's night, but we decided to have our date at Moonshine so we could handle some business along with our pleasure.
“I thought you were never coming back,” Ty joked when he saw us.
“You mean; youhoped,” Trevor teased back before he hugged his brother. “How's it going here?”
“Same old.” Ty shrugged. “How's it going with the God Squad? You guys recovered after sinking that city?”
“All we did was ward the city,” I corrected. “Krishna is the one who destroyed it.”
“And there's no recovering for him,” Trevor said grimly.
“He did the right thing,” Ty said. “That city could have destroyed the human race.”
“Possibly,” Trevor agreed. “But let's not talk about all that. Tonight is date night for Vervain and me. Let's get through whatever business needs my attention so she and I can get—”
“Down to business?” Ty cut Trevor off with a chuckle. “Yeah; I gotcha. Come on back to the office; I'll show you the numbers from the past few months.”
Trevor and Ty headed behind the bar while I got comfortable on a tree trunk bar stool; swinging side to side on it while I surveyed our club. I left the running of Moonshine to Trevor because I had other things to focus on; like the Mai Tai that was placed before me. The Froekn—aka werewolf—bartender winked at me before hurrying off to fill his orders. I grinned gratefully and took a long sip. Oh yeah; date night was off to a good start.
Then the Goddess of Blessed Death sat on the stool beside me.
“Hello, Vervain,” Macaria said calmly.
I choked on my Mai Tai.
Macaria was Hades' daughter. Her mother was Nyx; a winged Goddess of the Night. Both Macaria and her mother had assisted in the attempt to raise Dvaraka so they could get access to its Atlantean weaponry and machines. They had employed some pretty underhanded techniques to keep my friends and me out of their way. As Trevor and I had just been discussing with Ty; Krishna had destroyed the city with our help and spoiled their plans. Most of the gods who had conspired to raise Dvaraka had died, but Macaria and her mother had escaped. Wings come in handy for escaping exploding islands.
I got up and punched the evil bitch in her smug face.
Macaria flew back into the bar; causing the nearby patrons to pull away in shock. The bartender waved them even further back and then called our bouncers over to help. Meanwhile, Macaria recovered quickly; standing up and shaking off the hit. Her smirk had disappeared, but she didn't seem to be surprised by my reaction. And she shouldn't have been; in addition to betraying her own father, trying to raise Dvaraka, and ruining my drink, Macaria had also tried to seduce my husband, Azrael. Not because she desired Az, but because she wanted to distract the God Squad from investigating Dvaraka. The bitch was devious... and really dumb to walk into my club.
To get into Moonshine, all supernaturals had to make an oath not to use their magic; no spells beyond a basic glamour. Glamour was sometimes necessary since Moonshine was also open to the human public. So, light magics like glamours were allowed, but nothing violent; Gods couldn't attack someone inside Moonshine.
At least,shecouldn't. Being owner had its privileges; I had made no such oath. I pulled back my fist to hit Macaria again, and she held up her hands to ward me off.
“Okay!” Macaria growled. “I get it; you're pissed.”
“I'm pissed?” I snarled at her. “No, I passed 'pissed' a long time ago; I'm furious—red-hot dragon furious—and I'm going to take my fury out on you.”
“Boss, you okay?” Jared, one of the Froekn bouncers, asked. He had come up with three other guys. “You want us to throw her out?”
“I got this, Jared,” Trevor said as he and Ty joined me. “Just watch over our patrons.”
“On it,” Jared said as he motioned for the bouncers to spread out in front of the curious club-goers.
“I only came to warn you,” Mac said as she dabbed at her bleeding nose.
“Right.” I rolled my eyes. “You came here to do me a favor.”
“It's not for you,” Macaria whispered as she lifted her chin.
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Stay the fuck away from my husband.”
“Which one?” She shot back.
