Chapter Twenty Four
Kavon parked the SUVin the weedy field. At one point someone had used it for baseball, and the wear pattern from kids running the bases was still visible. The weeds in the hard-packed path grew shorter and lacked the cheerful yellow and white flowers in the rest of the field. A green sedan was parked near what used to be home base.
Mason Butler got out of the driver’s side and raised a hand in greeting as Kavon parked the car outside the diamond. “Is he waving at us?” Darren asked softly.
“He’s a sociopath,” Kavon said through clenched teeth. He turned the SUV off. “Are you ready?”
“Maybe,” Darren said. His claiming mark itched, so he assumed Bennu was near. Kavon caught his hand and gave it a squeeze. Darren smiled at him and then they both got out.
“Agent Boucher,” Butler called across the field. “Agent Oberton. I was surprised to get your call.” As Butler smiled, storm clouds gathered and the skies roiled. That wasn’t ominous, not at all.
“Mr. Butler,” Kavon said. “I hadn’t realized you were a shaman. That explains your aggravation at the New Christian Conservative Party’s desire to kill everyone with Talent.”
Butler’s smile grew. “They aren’t the first to try,” he said. Nebulous forms appeared in the clouds, and the shape of a skeletal head formed before lightning flashed and the illusion vanished. With a cry, Bennu appeared over the field, and a half second later, Kavon’s bull materialized and then transformed into his mastodon form. Their combined power would have terrified any shaman on Earth, but Butler’s durance had defeated both of them and Pochi. Darren hoped the hummingbird was waiting for the right time to attack. That was the tactically smart move.
“No, they aren’t,” Kavon said.
As Butler walked closer, Bennu cried and beat the air with his wings. Darren pulled on the bond they shared to force Bennu to wait. Darren felt the bond stretch until it verged on painful and then Bennu circled around and retreated to a position behind Kavon’s bull. He gave an unhappy warble before landing near Kavon. Kavon was over six feet tall, but Bennu was considerably taller in his ancient form.
Once Bennu landed, Butler strolled toward them. Darren moved closer to Kavon and rested a hand on his arm. The physical contact opened the bond and Darren felt the wary caution fill the space between them. Darren hoped that the shields Rima and Coretta had built would hide them, and failing that, that Butler would be distracted with the stronger power signatures of the guides in front of him.
Butler stopped around where the pitcher’s mound had once stood. “I didn’t think it would take this long for you to call. I was getting bored.”
“I’m here now,” Kavon said.
Butler sucked air through his teeth. “I wasn’t actually talking to you. Maybe you think your position on that trumped-up magic council makes you a big deal, but you have an Earth-born guide. You keep that bull of yours calm or you’ll see it ripped to shreds,” Butler threatened. “The old gods have traveled the universe learning and fighting and gathering power, so your guide is no match for them.”
“No guide is a god,” Kavon said firmly. The storm intensified and began to swirl so an eye appeared right above them, allowing the sun to shine down in the middle of the maelstrom.
“Your poor, stunted thing certainly isn’t.” Butler looked at Kavon’s guide with a show of pity. “This world certainly corrupted the children born on this planet’s spirit plane. However, the real gods are as powerful as the old stories tell. You know that, don’t you Agent Oberton?”
Kavon stepped in front of Darren, blocking Butler’s view.
“Maybe they’re powerful, but they will never be gods,” Kavon said firmly. “Your guide can leave or you can watch it die.”
“My guide is more of a god than yours, Agent Oberton,” Butler shouted. Darren fought an urge to come out and confront Butler. They had to play for time so the others could get into position, but Darren was fighting an unnatural fury that stole his breath.
Butler continued. “Bennu and Huitzilopochtli. Anzu remembers them vividly. He remembers how they turned Earth into their personal playground and then destroyed so much of it.” Thunder cracked overhead.
“Your guide inspired more death and war than these two,” Kavon said.
An itch built under Darren’s skin. His foot started to jiggle as he tried to resist the urge to fight. He wanted to punch Butler. The man had no right to say those things about Bennu. None.
“You know nothing,” Butler said. “Anzu never hurt anyone. Maybe some people couldn’t control their impulses, but that’s not his fault. But those monsters you’re choosing to align yourselves with killed thousands. Maybe tens of thousands. How does that fit with your reputation as serving justice? I believe in curiosity. I believe in research. Do you want to know what I’ve learned about the guides the Talent community reveres?”
“You’ve lost your credibility as a reliable source,” Kavon said.
Butler laughed like that was the best joke he had ever heard.
Kavon raised his hands. Protective power gathered around him. “Your guide and his friends corrupted the world with so much power that the human race had become monsters.”
“Listen to yourself,” Butler said with delight. “Do you think the NCCP needs the power of creatures from another reality to become corrupt? Did the witches burned in Europe or hanged in the United States actually have Talent? Did anyone in the Cambodian killing fields need magic to swing a machete? The human race is corrupt without the help of the old ones. But what do we call them? The ifrit. The demons.”
“Humans are capable of evil, but for every Hitler, we have a Mother Theresa,” Kavon said. Darren curled his fingers around Kavon’s waistband as he fought back a pounding in his head that drove him to attack. He recognized Bennu’s influence, but that didn’t make it any easier to fight the urge.
“You really are stupid,” Butler said. “Mother Theresa is the woman who said she saw something beautiful in seeing poor people accept their own suffering. She refused to give dying patients enough pain medicine because she believed that all they needed was God. Come on, Boucher. If you’re going to argue that the evil is from the old ones and not humans, you have to do better than that.”
“I don’t have to prove anything,” Kavon said. “You attacked a federal agent. Either you surrender and then we both have to explain a lot of difficult truths to the mundanes in charge of the government or I will kill your guide and leave you to suffer.”
