“That's enough.” He pushed Fake-Me onto her back and fell upon her savagely.
She helped him get his cock inside her and then he began a rapid thrusting. Fake-Me held him tenderly, kissing his neck and the line of his jaw as he pumped away. He kept glancing at me and changing positions so I could get a better view as he alternated between fucking, rubbing, and sucking Fake-Me. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Narcissus came, shouting triumphantly, and then collapsed over Fake-Me. She met my eyes over his shoulder and smiled. It gave me the damn shivers.
Then the shivering ran through Fake-Me—her whole body blinking in and out of opacity rapidly—and Narcissus perked up.
“Someone's knocking!”
“Knocking on what?” I watched him warily.
“On my metaphorical door.” He chuckled. “Come along, dearest, I want to introduce you to my friends.”
Dearest? Well, I guess it could have been worse. He could have been a god of the dead with the power to control my body. Been there, done that, don't want to go there again. At least I'd been attracted to Anubis, Narcissus just got more unattractive the longer I was around him. Have you ever had that happen before? A guy gets uglier and uglier the more you get to know him? It wasn't even Narcissus' murderous nature that was turning me off. Gods know, I've been attracted to murderers before; Trevor tried to kill me the first time we met. Instead, it was Narcissus' moronic psychoticness that really made me want to hurl. Yes; I know psychoticness is not a word but it should be and now, it is. You're welcome.
Back to the moron.
As we walked, my horse track outfit of jeans and a T-shirt changed into something that belonged in the 1950s. Peptol Bismol pink gingham clung to my torso in a tailored bodice with short sleeves and a stand-up collar, and then it ballooned out in a fluffy skirt equipped with enough crinoline to outfit an entire ballet troupe. Around us, the bedroom disappeared and Narcissus' receiving room took its place. Except, he had it dolled up in a style to match my dress... and his new suit. Stiff orange couches crouched around his precious pool on shag rugs, a laminated pedestal table held a brass pendant lamp that shed light on a large, kitschy ashtray in the shape of a tiki, and a sideboard held crystal decanters of liquor and a red-enameled seltzer bottle.
“Sit down, dear.” Narcissus escorted me to a loveseat.
“Now, I'm in an episode of Mad Men, and he thinks I'm his little woman,” I muttered under my breath. “This just keeps getting crazier.”
Narcissus didn't hear me; he was too busy concentrating on whatever he had to do to answer the knock. I watched the hallway expectantly and wasn't at all surprised when the Gay Gods and the Bottle Water Goddess walked in. I should have killed them when I'd had the chance. Why had I listened to Silenus?
Disani was in the lead with Qaus and Gish close behind her. She was Amazon tall with pin-straight, black hair hanging to her narrow waist. Her ivy eyes burned bright against the background of her dark skin. She was beautiful but had a cruel, careless look to her face. Careless as in; she didn't care about her beauty or what anyone thought of it. I thought back to what I'd learned about her and agreed that description fit her. Disani was hardcore.
The Supreme Goddess of the Kafir, Disani ruled both Fertility and Death. The myths say that she killed her own son; beheaded him because he was the product of rape... by a demon. I blinked as I recalled the rest. Disani was a psychopomp; she carries the souls of the dead. Sweet Tarts! Why hadn't I thought of her when I'd been investigating the demon deaths? We were specifically looking for psychopomps. Not that it mattered; we found the man behind it all. Katila and his crazy, demon-killing mommy, Dhumorna. But the similarities were striking, especially to Dhumorna who had been known as the Destroyer of Demons.
Gish and Qaus had been harder to find information on. They were gods whose worship had truly waned and hardly anyone remembered them anymore. Gish was the Afghani God of War. He was known to be a great warrior but was equally renowned for his stupidity and graceless manner. He looked the part; burly, dark, and mean. But he walked in proudly, his chest bare except for a rainbow slash across it that held on his quiver of arrows.
Qaus was the wild card of the group. He didn't have War or Death as one of his magics, and there was even less known about him than Gish. All I could discover was that he was an Arabian Weather god who was associated with rainbows; which is why I jokingly referred to Gish and Qaus as the Gods of the Gays. Anyway, he used to be depicted holding a thunderbolt as he sat on a throne flanked by bulls so I assumed he had some kind of storm magic and may have even ruled his pantheon. He was swarthy and attractive with sparkling, eyes that shifted through the colors of the rainbow. I couldn't look at those eyes for long, they were too dazzling. Disani appeared to be the leader, but I had a feeling that Qaus was only allowing her to think that she was in charge. He seemed devious and deadly. As I sized him up, he was doing the same to me.
“Welcome!” Narcissus said. “Please join us. Allow me to introduce Vervain the Godhunter. Dearest, this is—”
“Qaus of the Arabians, Gish of the Afghani, and Disani of the Kafir,” I cut him off.
I specifically mentioned Qaus first to let him know that I'd deduced who secretly ran his group. Gish and Disani sputtered, but Qaus smirked at me.
“AKA the Gods of the Gays and the Bottle Water Goddess,” I went on.
Everyone gaped at me in confusion then. Even Narcissus stared at me in shock.
“Do I really have to explain this again?” I huffed. “I thought at least you would get it.” I waved at Narcissus. “What with all the human brains you've been consuming, you Zombie Egotist.”
“Zombie...” Narcissus gaped more.
“They're rainbow gods,” I explained. “A rainbow is the symbol for gay pride. And Disani sounds very similar to Dasani; the bottled water. But it's not funny if I have to explain it.”
“It's not funny at all,” Disani said.
“Oh, it most certainly is,” I argued with her. “I have several people calling you by those names and chuckling as they do so.”
Disani's dark skin flushed to mahogany. “I thought you were going to kill her?” she snarled at Narcissus.
“I've taken her magic.” Narcissus shrugged. “It's good enough.” He looked back at me. “Zombie?”
“Because they eat brains.”
“Oh.” He blinked and then chuckled. “I like it.”
