“Okay.” I kissed him goodnight then whispered, “Thanks for coming to comfort me.”
“Always, my love,” Odin vowed. “I willalwaysbe there for you when you need me.”
It was exactly what I needed to hear, and he knew it. More importantly, it was true and I appreciated the reminder.
“I love you, my sweet raven,” I whispered against his lips.
“I love you too,TrinityStar.” Odin nuzzled my face, then pulled back and traced away.
“So, we have a group of snake-shifters burrowing their way up from Mexico to follow people around and kill whoever turns around to look at them,” Finn surmised. “At least one of them recognized Vervain and doesn't like her, if that ambush is any indication. They may or may not have spotted us earlier today but either way, they attacked Viper so they know we're their enemies.”
“If they didn't before, I think jumping one of their guys tonight made it clear,” Trevor muttered.
“The fact that it's a group of snakes and not a single god is important to note,” Azrael said, then looked at Torrent. “Torr, do any of the Aztec or Maya Gods havegroupsof weresnakes? Perhaps a race of demigods who are children of one of the serpent gods?”
Torrent spent a few seconds sifting through the Internet, then blinked and refocused on Az. “No. There are single serpent gods only.”
“We've been investigating the wrong pantheon,” Azrael concluded.
Chapter Ten
“All right, Odin's investigating his lead. Vervain, can you text Blue and tell him to call off the Och-Kan interview?” Thor asked.
“Sure.” I slipped out my cellphone. “Hopefully, he's somewhere with service.”
“Torrent, we need you to look into pantheons with large amounts of snake gods or demigod snake-shifters,” Thor continued.
“Like the Nagas?” Torrent asked.
I lowered my cellphone and stared at him heavily. The Nagas were a peaceful race of Hindu snake-shifters who lived in an underground city and rarely came to the Human Realm. I'd once saved a bunch of them from Vanaras—a group of monkey-shifters. There was no way that the Nagas were involved in this, and I conveyed that through my eyes.
“I'm not saying it's them.” Torrent held up a placating hand. “Just godslikethem.”
I took a calming breath. “Sorry, Torr, I'm still a little upset about Viper and it's making me touchy.”
“It's okay, V,” Torrent said sweetly. “I understand.”
“And, yes, Torrent, similar to the Naga,” Thor answered his earlier question.
“Got it!” Torrent grinned. “And I'm on it!”
“The man was dark-skinned, but I don't think he was Indian,” Brahma mused. “Not my kind of Indian nor the Natives here. His features were wrong for those races.”
“You got a good look at him in human form?” I asked in surprise.
“I wouldn't say it was agoodlook.” Brahma grimaced. “It was a quick look but it was enough for me to be certain that the snakes are not from Central America as we'd originally thought. You're right, Azrael, we were looking in the wrong pantheon. And you're also correct, Vervain—these snakes are not Nagas. Regardless of my glimpse of the man or my opinions, the fact is that Nagas shift into cobras. No exceptions. And that snake was definitely not a cobra. Therefore, the Naga are not the snakes we're looking for.”
“These are not the droids you're looking for,” I murmured.
“What?” Brahma asked sharply.
“Sorry. Please ignore that movie quote outburst.” I went back to texting Blue.
“If these aren't the droids—I mean thesnakes”—Hades grimaced at me—“then who are?”
“Torrent, focus especially on pantheons from Africa, the Middle East, and Australia,” Thor told him. “We're looking for gods with darker skin tones.”
“That sounded horrible.” I winced.
