Page 14 of Between Bloode and Death (Between the Shadows #5)

CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

While her vampires made plans to figure out what the hell a necromancer clouded with Darkness had up his sleeve, Hecate answered Mormo’s mental call for help.

Next to Morpheus, a goblin and lamia giggled while a satyr showed them magic tricks by making coins appear and disappear behind their ears.

The flapper slid them double hellfire shots, the fringe and sequins of her dress shifting in a whisper of naughtiness as she hurried back to Morpheus and Mormo, watching the pair with dreamy, dead eyes.

Just another night in the Grand Intersection of the many realms of existence.

Though the outside of the home on Mercer Island looked normal enough to humans, Hecate had need of something much more extensive to serve as her base of operations.

Leaving the upper floors to Mormo and their Night Bloode residents, Hecate had turned the basement into an office of sorts.

Only when she or Mormo were present, the basement turned into a wayside for those traveling from one plane to another.

Be that from the celestial, fae, hell, or death realms, Hecate oversaw thresholds.

I maintain borders with flair, she thought with amusement.

She’d decorated the central space as a speakeasy with dark burgundy, navy, and gold colors.

Ancient ash, birch, hawthorn, and spelled oak had been used to craft the furniture, the interior illumination a smoky blend of fae and artificial lighting.

Several bars, tables, and lounge areas provided refuge for the tired and thirsty.

From the main area, long corridors branched out, leading to different lands, times, and, in the case of death, states of existence.

Dead humans and those owing Hecate favors served drinks to all and sundry. In Hecate’s Place, anyone and everyone was welcome. Even the occasional demon.

Hecate didn’t fool herself that those who ventured from the hell realms weren’t up to no good.

But beneath all the veneration from those who worshipped witches, magic, and death, Hecate was a goddess of balance.

Her intrinsic power stemmed from her understanding that nothing could exist without an equal and opposite in its place.

Case in point. She watched serious Mormo scowl and do his best to argue with laid-back, laughing Morpheus.

Unfortunately for her assistant, he didn’t understand Morpheus’s powerful ability to seduce.

Morpheus was, after all, a god of dreams. He knew what most people wanted before they did, swimming in their deepest desires and hidden secrets.

Lately, Morpheus seemed to have developed an extreme interest in Mormo, who, as far as she could tell, had never looked one way or another at a romantic entanglement with anyone.

Too busy serving her, his goddess, as his mother had done before him.

Mormo worked tirelessly to keep the vampires in line while also helping Hecate keep the world in one piece.

Something a lot of her friends kept avoiding. The old out of sight, out of mind refrain ran rampant through the many gods she called friends.

Assholes.

Sure. Leave it to her, as if she didn’t have enough on her plate.

She closed in on Mormo complaining to Morpheus about what a hassle his job had become. A common enough grievance.

“I mean, they don’t listen. At all. Even when I come up with solid plans, Varujan manages to twist them. Orion and Kraft are smartasses. Duncan is too busy trying to pry everyone’s secrets from the darkest corners of the universe, and Rolf is an asshole.”

“Of course he is. He’s a draugr. That’s what they do. What of the reaper?”

Mormo snorted. “Khent? He’s no help. As smart as he is, he should be. But it’s like he lives to make my life more complicated.”

Morpheus chuckled. “Oh, don’t worry, sexy. Khent’s going to be plenty distracted soon enough.”

“First, don’t call me sexy.” Mormo scowled, a flush spreading over his pale cheeks.

“Second, please tell me you aren’t meddling again.

Every time our vampires dream, they mate and become less stable, not more.

You’d think the females would ground them.

But instead, our lethal crew loses it when anyone so much as talks about using their mates to stop world destruction.

It’s beyond irritating.” Mormo tossed back a shot of ambrosia, his long white hair settling over his back like the lightest of swan feathers.

Morpheus studied the line of his throat, his smile and his gaze filled with hopeful depravity.

As if Hecate needed to deal with a sexed-up Mormo on top of everything else.

“No, just no.” She approached, transforming into a young woman of Indian descent, her fingernails and toenails painted a deep blood-red color. The vampires had turned her on to red in a big way. “Leave him alone, Morpheus.”

The handsome god pulled back, a hand to his bare chest, the linen skirt he wore a throwback to ancient times when humans had worshipped him in temples and with sacrifice.

Mormo wore jeans and a tee-shirt, probably trying to appear more human.

His long, hooded robes and Lord-of-the-Rings deco period had been overly dramatic. Even for Mormo.

“Hecate, how lovely you look, as usual.” Morpheus took her hand, leaned over it, and kissed it, all while studying Mormo from under his lashes. “Absolutely gorgeous.”

Mormo, bless him, deliberately turned his back on the god. “Hecate, I’m glad you’re here. We have an issue.”

She sighed. “When don’t we have an issue?”

To her relief, it turned out the Tuatha de Danann had problems with Gwyn Ap Nudd, an infamous archer and battle strategist who’d helped train the Night Bloode upon their inception.

Apparently, Gwyn had been spreading false tales about being needed in Seattle instead of heading back to the fae realm to take part in the Wild Hunt.

“I told Lugh to talk to Tyr, because one of our waitstaff saw them chatting a few months ago,” Mormo said.

“Then one of the valkyries started throwing punches, accusing me—if you can believe that—of trying to seduce her sisters in Asgard. I’ve been so busy here I haven’t left the city, let alone this realm. ” Mormo huffed.

Morpheus tried not to grin. Oh, he knew something.

Hecate took even breaths, determined to keep her calm. “Just tell me, Morpheus.”

“I can’t be certain, but it sounds like Loki’s up to some mischief. That or Rolf is having way too much fun with your magician, dear Hecate.”

“Rolf?” Mormo frowned, his expression darkening like a thundercloud. “That little blond bastard. I’ll end him.”

“Can I watch?” Morpheus stared at Mormo as if a dying man who’d just found water in the desert. “You are so hot when you’re mad. I mean, that rage is just…wow.”

Mormo stomped away, swearing in languages long dead.

Hecate would have gone after him, but she had more pressing matters to fix. “Hold on, Morpheus. I know I asked you to help me with my little project, but timing is everything. I thought we’d agreed to wait on Khent. Rumor has it he’s dreaming. What are you about with my reaper?”

“Your reaper?” He laughed. “Hecate, as much as you love your vampires, they barely tolerate you.”

“I know. That’s what makes them so charming.”

“Charming?” He scoffed. “You’re losing it.”

“I know.” She groaned. “No one but you is listening to me about the Darkness. It’s coming closer, Morpheus. All that stands between it and us will be the Night Bloode. We have to find that last Bloode Stone.”

He paused. “Have you tried talking to Ambrogio or Selene about it?”

The creators of the powerful magic in the Bloode Stones would of course have been her first choice. “You don’t think I’ve tried? No one has seen or heard from the pair in thousands of years.”

“I could look for you.”

She waited.

He just watched her.

“Go on. You’ll look for me, but only if I give you what? What’s it going to cost?”

“Ah, I’m so glad you asked.” His sly smile made her instantly wary. “You lend me Mormo for a few years when this wraps up. I swear I’ll give him back.”

“Unharmed.”

“Unharmed.” He nodded.

“Why Mormo?”

Morpheus shrugged, but his casual act didn’t fool her in the slightest. “He’s so organized.

So on top of things. My administration could use some work.

” He paused. “Zeus has been on my ass about not getting everything done I’m supposed to.

A total fabrication. I think Aries has been filling his head with nonsense, but then Perseus, that dick, sided with him.

And now I’m in a little spot of trouble. ”

She snorted. “I knew there was a reason you’ve been hanging around here so much lately.” The past few years, the god of dreams had been found cruising through her speakeasy, heading out to any number of realms when normally he’d spend his time off in Olympus.

“Please, Hecate. I just need a decade or two to let the old man cool off. I was thinking of visiting the Titans for a bit, but they’re not too happy with me either.”

She couldn’t help grinning. “What did you do to them?”

“Nothing.”

“Morpheus.”

“Well, Iapetus is always bragging about having created mankind, which is suspect on so many levels I won’t even get into. So maybe I encouraged his brother to—”

“Which one?”

“Cronos.”

Hecate sighed. “Not smart.”

“Cronos gets pissy so easily. It wasn’t hard to encourage him to kill his brother. I mean, he did slice off his own father’s genitals.”

She cringed, recalling how most of the Titans had actually been conceived.

Morpheus continued, “I think Iapetus was half convinced he could restore some version of him and his siblings to power over Zeus and his lot.”

“So you ‘maybe’ started a new civil war between the Greek gods and the Titans.”

“Well, when you put it like that, it sounds bad.”