Chapter Four
My men don't hate Blue, not anymore, but there's still some residual animosity over what he'd done to me before I used my love magic to help him let go of his wrath and heal his soul. Huitzilopochtli had once been on the other side of the God War, and he'd been damn good at his job. He'd also been absolutely looney tunes. But he's come a long way since then and even settled down with his old flame, Eztli, Goddess of the Blood Moon. They're both Aztec Gods but in different ways. Blue is from the Aztec Pantheon while Eztli was an Aztec who Blue had accidentally turned into a vampire—long story—and then had been made into a goddess. Still, they both might be able to help us.
I wasn't ready to bring Austin to Pride Palace even though I was fairly certain that he was a good guy. I'd been certain about Sin and that had ended badly. Oh, and I don't mean sin the naughty behavior, I mean Sin the Babylonian God of the Moon. He'd screwed me over because he wanted to screw me. Yeah, it was all kinds of screwed up. Anyway, that situation had shown me that sometimes I trust too easily. And I was a mother now, I can't afford that risk. Besides, I didn't think Austin was ready for another trip through the Aether; his first experience had made him puke. So, I told him to get some sleep while we went back to the God Realm and met with our friends.
We gathered in our usual spot—Pride Palace's dining hall. The place was big enough to hold all of my lions and only a few of them had joined us so the room was nearly empty. That being said, the God Squad had grown significantly from when I'd first become a member. It used to be just Thor, Pan, Horus, Mr. T, Mrs. E, Brahma, and Persephone. Finn, Teharon, and Hades joined us soon after. Then we picked up Morpheus, Teharon brought his girlfriend Karni Mata, Brahma reluctantly brought his wife Sarasvati, we kinda acquired Torrent, who brought in his girlfriend Artemis, and Horus brought Hekate, who he married. Oh, and let's not forget Blue. He was my contribution and Eztli was his.
Huitzilopochtli (Blue's actual name), the Aztec God of Sun and War, sat beside his wife, Eztli, both of them looking magnificently exotic with their deep tans and glossy black hair. Eztli had crimson eyes—oddly enough, they were the color Blue's eyes used to be. After I released all of the badness inside Blue, his eyes had changed to jade-green and took him from creepy hot to smokin' hot.
Blue shifted that beautiful stare toward me. “There are several snake gods in my pantheon, Vervain, but I can't imagine any of them attacking humans like this. What would be the point?”
“Sacrifices?” I countered.
“You can't make a sacrifice to yourself,” Blue said sternly. “You know that.”
“No, but other gods have found ways around that,” I reminded him.
“But if it's the snake god who's doing the killing, how can he get around it?”
“Perhaps he's sacrificing people to another god,” I said with a look at Kirill.
We'd gone on vacation in Russia and Latvia only to get entangled in a plot involving gods who were sacrificing people to other gods.
“There are Maya Gods too, V,” Torrent interrupted. His acid-green eyes moved as if he were reading something in the air before him. Torrent is the God of the Internet and as such, he can access it at any time, without the use of a computer. “There is Kukulkan—”
Eztli inhaled sharply and Blue took her hand as if to comfort her.
“What I say?” Torrent stopped reading to look over at Eztli. “Did I pronounce the name wrong?”
“No.” Blue cleared his throat. “It's a personal—”
“Kukulkan is another name for Quetzalcoatl,” Eztli cut off her husband. “They are the same god.”
“Quetzalcoatl and my wife had an... unfortunate run-in a long time ago,” Blue said stiffly.
“It says here that he's your brother.” Torrent was reading again.
“I thought all of your brothers were...” I left it hanging because I didn't want to bring up the horrible battle in which Blue's hundreds of brothers—yes, hundreds, that's what immortality can achieve—attacked his family and killed his parents and sister.
“They are all dead,” Blue confirmed. “The myths say Quetzalcoatl is my brother; he is not.”
“The myths say that because they were close.” Eztli sent Blue a look.
“Before I learned of the incident between him and my wife, we werelikebrothers,” Blue explained.
“Well, it looks as if you've got a bunch of serpent gods in your pantheon,” Torr went on in his innocent way, totally missing the grim undertone of the conversation. “There's one who's a Goddess of War and one who is a God of Hunting.”
“Coatlicue and Mixcoatl,” Blue said. “Coatlicue is also a fertility goddess and Mixcoatl is Quetzalcoatl's father. I suppose it's possible that one of them has made a pact with another god to trade sacrifices but wouldn't we be seeing other deaths then? Other odd deaths, I mean.”
“Perhaps not. Gods have ways of making bodies disappear,” Thor's deep voice had a hint of thunder in it even when he spoke in a moderate tone.
Thor sat at the head of the table, in between Odin and Hades. I liked him to sit in a position of honor since he had formed the Squad. He'd left it for awhile because of some issues with his daughter, but he was back now and nearly back to his old self.
“There would be reports of missing people,” Odin, Thor's father and my husband, noted.
Now that Odin was clean-shaven, he looked as if he were Thor's brother. In fact, the resemblance was uncanny and a little unsettling, especially when they sat beside each other. The only things keeping them from looking like twins were their hair and eye colors. Odin's hair was dark chestnut with golden highlights while Thor's was strawberry blond, and Odin's eyes were an amazing peacock shade that shifted between emerald, sapphire, and amethyst while Thor's eyes were a blue-green that reminded me of Caribbean quartz.
“Not if they chose people who wouldn't be missed,” Brahma countered as he smoothed his close-cropped, dark beard pensively.
