Page 46 of Between Bloode and Death (Between the Shadows #5)

CHAPTER

FORTY-FIVE

Hecate glared at the idiots taking up space in her convoluted life.

They kept multiplying.

Morpheus wasn’t as great a double agent as he thought he was.

Mormo didn’t help, so argumentative about everyone’s interference he made her head hurt.

Loki—well, that one needed no explanation. But in order to prevent the current end of the world from happening, she needed his help. Thus Rolf had been recovered at the god’s behest.

“Son?” Mormo glanced from the god to Rolf, noting the lack of resemblance no doubt. “Well, that would explain a lot.”

“I’m not his kid. Are you kidding me?” Rolf stood and brushed off his jeans covered with dirt and—

“Is that a finger bone?” Morpheus blinked.

“Um, I think so.” Rolf tossed it.

Never one to condone a mess, Mormo murmured a spell, and the bone disappeared.

“Why am I here?” Rolf asked, his dark eyes flashing with annoyance. “Khent is heading into a dangerous situation.”

“We know.” Hecate sighed. “Look, if Khent does what I fear he’s going to do, chaos is coming early.”

“Oh, like Christmas coming early?” Rolf grinned.

Morpheus started laughing with Loki until Hecate glared them both into silence.

Mormo looked tired by it all. “Khent can’t save Valentine. If he does, the world goes to shit. Clear enough?”

“No,” Loki and Rolf said as one.

Loki paused, and Rolf sat back down with a wave at the trickster. “No, no, please. Let the old man ask his questions.”

Loki flipped him off. “If he were my son, I’d have strangled him with his own intestines by now.”

“Oh, I get it. I do,” Mormo said with feeling.

“But he’s mine in spirit, so what can you do?” Loki sighed. “Hecate, you came to me for a favor. One I’ll grant. You know my price.”

She glared at Rolf, who stared back at her in confusion. Oh, the little rat. He knew what he’d done but kept pretending he didn’t. “You owe me for this,” she told him, seriously annoyed.

Fortunately, he got her message because he cringed and leaned back before standing and pretending he hadn’t been afraid. Because of course, vampires didn’t know fear.

Though truthfully, he was probably pretending to be afraid to make her happy.

She sniffed.

Rolf smiled at her. “You really are very scary.”

“Oh, shut up, Rolf.”

“Look, Khent’s mated his human. I like her. More, I like her for him. She’s a little powerhouse.”

“Filled with the power of a forgotten god. If that god comes back, we don’t need to wait for the Darkness That Comes,” Hecate said. “We have life and death in all our realms for a reason, Rolf. And Loki.” She glared at him. “Don’t think I don’t see you trying to weasel your way around this.”

The trickster god shrugged. “But Hecate, think of the chaos that would ensue if we all started coming back to life.”

“Hold on.” Rolf looked at them all, settling his gaze on Hecate. “You’re telling me if Khent saves Val from death, then a thing worse than the thing you gathered us for will become a thing that ends all things?”

Mormo glared. “Stop being confusing on purpose.”

“Yeah.” Morpheus slung his arm around Mormo, who shoved it off. “What? I was trying to be supportive.”

Hecate pointed a finger at the troublemaker she secretly adored. “Rolf, we don’t have time to play around. Go stop Khent from being a reaper who thinks he’s in love. You love shitty endings, don’t you?”

“Well, yeah.”

Yet she didn’t trust him. “We don’t like it any better than you do. But Khent can’t have his mate living in this world without dire repercussions. The deity trying to return was banished for a reason.”

“Why the hell don’t any of you stop him then?” He stared at them with suspicion. Not a stupid vampire after all.

“We can’t,” she said before Morpheus came up with a lie too stupid to be believed.

“She means we won’t,” Loki corrected. “We agreed a long time ago not to interfere with other pantheons. Thus your goddess doesn’t stop you from making mistakes or hooking up with weird creatures you take to mate.”

“Oh, you’re really calling our choices weird?” Rolf snorted. “Didn’t you once turn into a mare and give birth to Sleipneir, Odin’s eight-legged horse?”

“Please. That was a long time ago.”

Morpheus shook his head. “Um, guy, you also have monstrous kids. A giant wolf, a half-dead daughter, and a snake so big it’s wrapped around the world, hiding out in the oceans.”

Loki frowned. “I’m hearing a lot of judgement here.

” He glared at Hecate. “You, pay your debts. I’ll take the boy where he needs to go.

” He whistled and the eight-legged horse appeared.

“Ahem. Nobody needs to be narcing to Odin that I’m borrowing his horse.

Yeah, I’m talking to you specifically, Morpheus. ”

“Well, I never.” Morpheus grinned at Mormo, who grinned back before becoming serious once more.

Mormo nodded at Loki while mentally asking Hecate, Should I keep him here?

What no one realized about her subtle magician was that he had the power to lock down gods.

The stallion sighed with pleasure at sight of Loki.

“Hey, sweetie. Mommy’s here.”

Everyone groaned.

She sighed and mentally replied, Let him go, Mormo. We have work to do.

Loki jerked Rolf onto the back of the horse and disappeared.

Hecate watched them go through a passage invisible to all but the Liminalities, those deities concerned with the in-between states.

While Rolf rode to his duty, Hecate had more pressing matters. “Morpheus, I need you to get a message to Varu and the others. And Mormo, would you please bring a certain eagle shapeshifter to me? I have a deal I think he’ll find interesting.”

Morpheus bowed and left.

Mormo studied her with discerning eyes. “You know Rolf won’t obey you. The world will end. Valentine and Khent will live only to die in the fires of—”

“Don’t say Mordor.”

He gave a faint smile. “Fires of Chaos.”

She sighed. “Yeah. But nobody’s perfect. And we sometimes have to choose the best worst choice if we want to live to fight another day.”

“Your wish, my goddess. I but live to serve.” He bowed and took her hand in his, kissing the back of it.

“I wish all my lovelies were as wonderful as you, Mormo.”

He flushed and disappeared to do her bidding.

“So don’t be mad when you serve as payment for a particular favor that’s cost me more than I’m comfortable paying.”

With a sigh, she went back to her Crossroads and put out more fires, praying to the fates that Khent—and Rolf—would do right by the poor little human who never had a choice about how her future would play out.