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Chapter -5- Power Players

Saturday, September 11, 2049 Cairo, Egypt ...

Sekhmet stopped in front of a broken mirror_._ She looked herself over. The red gown was in tatters, but covered the essentials. Her shapely, olive-skinned human torso was curvy yet tone. Her arms were effeminate yet athletic. Her legs were those of a runner.

Yet it was rare people saw her body. They typically only noticed her fangs, or the blood smeared on her lips, or her face - that of a lioness. Blood was caked in the fur, matted over the padding of her large nose, and ran down her chin, where fur faded to flesh on her neckline.

Her hands were covered in it, too, and it matched her dress. No one saw that - only the fangs and her face. She turned and eyed a topless crate sitting on the floor of the empty restaurant she'd just cleared.

Sekhmet stepped into the large box and crouched in it. She peered over the edge briefly and then emerged from the crate.

It was similar to one she'd curled up to sleep in last night. She liked boxes. They provided security, as an attacker could not come up behind her. She liked the crate because a box was like a blanket only she had breathing room. She liked boxes because it was comforting to feel embraced on all sides.

Why did cats like boxes so much? She had a hundred reasons why in her mind, but none was more important than the other.

She stretched her body and glanced back at the crate. It was almost as large as the trunk of a sedan she used two nights ago.

Her ears perked up. Something startled her from her musing. Footfalls came from the back. A pot clattered in the kitchen. Reverie over, it was time to return to her revelry.

She stormed through the aisles of booth seats and made her way towards the back, walking on the balls of her feet so as to ensure absolute silence. Excitement welled up within her chest and the rush of the imminent kill caused her heart rate to quicken.

She followed the scent of fleeing prey through the kitchen, ignoring all the other delicious smells. She saw a door at the back as it swung shut. The goddess broke into a sprint, and hit the door running.

Sekhmet emerged in an alley, confronted by people. The closest was an Asian woman with long dark hair, which, oddly, was beginning to turn white. The woman was accompanied by another - an Asian-dressed European-looking female with long red hair.

Both wore kimonos, both wore sandals, and both were armed with katana swords on their hips. However, these two women kept their hands folded to show they came in peace.

The lioness roared and looked around but saw no sign of the man she was chasing. She sniffed at the air and narrowed her eyes. "Where is he?"

"There was no one," said the first woman. "Sekhmet-sama, be at peace."

"Do you think you can trick me!" the lioness roared. She ended on a throaty growl, trailing off into a huff of frustration. Her nostrils flared and her ears laid back.

A third woman, adorned in a proper, lady-like westernized dress, stepped into the ally. "Goddess Sekhmet, I crave your indulgence. Please show clemency to Cairo. We have a greater good that requires your attention."

Sekhmet eyed the two Asian women, recognizing the redhead as a kitsune. Her golden gaze panned back to the one in the European dress.

The woman approached. She wore lace gloves on her hands, which matched the dress rather nicely. She curtsied and said, "I am Natalia Kincade. We felt it would be best for the women of our group to approach you because, at the core of your heart, you are still Hathor, protector of women. And we need you."

Sekhmet sniffed at the air. Her tail twitched with irritation. She eyed the three women then approached the first woman - the Asian lady with long dark hair, which was turning white at the roots. Sekhmet narrowed her gaze and approached, sniffing again. "You. I do not know your scent, I have never seen your face and I do not know your eyes. Yet you seem ... somehow familiar."

The woman smiled softly and bowed in respect. "Tamamo-no-Mae. We met the day of the attack. I have come to find you. I have your headdress. We need your help to take back the Celestial Realm. Without that realm secured, we cannot hope to resolve what is happening here, on Earth. We wish to stop the advance before Loki and his wife manage to..."

Sekhmet suddenly wrapped her arms around Tamamo and hugged her. "I am pleased you lived! Loki escaped the Celestial Realm and I feared he killed you to honor the request of his wife!"

Tamamo, locked within the body of Tamae, felt the fear of her host. She felt Tamae's worry of being embraced by such a fearsome blood-covered creature, no matter how demure Sekhmet appeared from her neck down.

Silence.

With the strength and confidence of Tamamo within, the Asian woman gently wrapped her arms around Sekhmet in reply. "We have not seen Loki. We were not aware he managed to find a way to Earth."

Sekhmet rested her maw atop of Tammy's head. "Their kind have a way known as the Bifrost Bridge. I managed to help another of the Norse gods to secure it. We prevented the invasion force from following their leader to Earth. Heimdallr was his name, I believe. A very noble warrior, that man. He lives up to his reputation as the whitest of the gods."

"Is that how you came here?" asked Tamamo. "Did you follow Loki?"

"I did. I lost him. He is a clever foe. Unfortunately, I learned I am no match against him, alone. I am unsure why he spared me. Also, I am trapped on Earth, now."

"We have a way to return to the Celestial Realm. We have a mirror in our possession that will make it possible to mount an offensive against the realm. And we have a team we can trust to fight alongside of us."

Sekhmet released Tamamo and grinned broadly. Her Cheshire smile was a pearl-white grin surrounded by macabre makeup. She turned to Natalia and Sinopa, curtsied to one and bowed to the other, respectively. "I came to Earth to trail Loki. When I arrived, he defeated me in combat and escaped. I am deeply sorry."

Natalia shook her head. "Mythology states that only Heimdallr defeats Loki, but at the cost of his own life. You are lucky to have survived."

Sekhmet's ears lowered. This time, instead of swiveling back, they sort of drooped in shame. "He stood over me and told me to be a god to Egypt, where I belong. He said I have no business trying to be greater than I am capable, and said I do not belong fighting wars that are none of my concern. He left and I healed my wounds."

"Then what?" asked the redhead.

Sekhmet feigned a toothy frown. "I became distracted by the state into which Egypt has fallen. Only small cults worship Ra and my brethren. This new system of belief is..."

Tamamo held her hands up. "Please, these attacks must stop. New religions rule the Earth, now. Islam, Christianity and Judaism are the largest, and are based on the same belief in the existence of The Creator. These religions are very popular and they are here to stay. We cannot fight them. We have too much on our plates."

"They are not religions!" Sekhmet roared. "They are ideas with followings! They are perverted ideals over the One True Creator, which is only a myth, even amongst our kind!"

Another woman, no, a girl appeared, as though out of thin air.

Sekhmet tensed up. "You materialized from nothing!"

"I did," said the girl. She had canary blond hair, a fashionable yet short skirt, and her blouse was too small for her busty frame. "I'm Karla."

"Are you a god?"

The youthful female folded her arms with a smile. "If I say no, are you going to create a giant confection creature out of sugar to step on the mosque across the street? Because I have it on good authority, when someone asks if you're a god, you say ... yes!"

Silence. Everyone stared at Karla.

"Ah, no, I'm a succubus." She coughed into her hand and looked away. "But I have no problem fighting gods if I have to. Girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do."

Sekhmet stared at the young lady for a moment. "You are too young."

"I stopped aging around my mid-teens. I'm turning four hundred fifty years old at the end of next month."

The Egyptian goddess nodded in understanding. "My mistake. I thought only gods were able to look like young humans. The fact you appeared out of nowhere and looked so young - that is why I asked."

"If you're saying I look like a goddess, then thank you. You're a sweetheart. I'm only in town for the layover. I'm headed to Ethiopia with the Parker siblings. I just wanted the chance to meet a legit Egyptian goddess before I leave." Karla glanced at Natalia, cleared her throat, and then offered a curtsy. "I'll see you again soon." Karla moved closer to Sekhmet and spoke in a soft voice so Natalia would not hear her. "We'll hang, we'll bond; we'll look at LOLCATS on the internet. I have a plane to catch."

"Very ... erm, very well," said Sekhmet, offering a simple nod to Karla.

The redhead's fox ears lowered, half disappearing into her hair. She covered her face with her palm and muttered. "It is a guilty pleasure and should be avoided for the sake of wasting one's valuable time."

"You know you love it, Sinopa." The succubus reached into her handbag, she withdrew a small glassy looking device, and thumbed the surface. Karla approached Sekhmet, moved adjacent to her and held the device out in her hand. "Hashtag selfie!" She paused, then added, "Smile, beautiful! Let me see those pearly reds!" The device clicked. And, without another word, Karla vanished.

Sekhmet blinked. "That one is boisterous."

"Errant," Natalia murmured softly. She turned to Sekhmet and spoke in a normal tone. "She is a lovely young lady at times. However, she has adopted the persona of a brash, rebellious teenaged girl to cope with her difficult past life."

"It does not appear difficult to me," Tamamo said.

Sinopa frowned. "She lost the love of her life, she lost her children one at a time, and she lost the husband who fathered them. We are lucky she hasn't become bitter and impossible."

"She evolved away from bitter and impossible, thankfully." Natalia mirrored Sinopa's frown. "Before that, Karla was sexually assaulted, then learned to cope with the fact she will never have a realistic relationship. Later, she learned to kill and went through a century period where she was rather dark. It overcame her. She was consumed by rage. It wasn't until the turn of the twentieth century when she truly came out of her past and became the girl I helped to mold alongside Nathanial. I am not ... quite sure what turned her into this, ah, playful, boisterous girl, but it is refreshing to see her seize life and enjoy her humanity."

Sinopa folded her hands. "Chance and Peri Lynn molded her into the playful girl you see now."

"Mm, she was rather business-like and overly-flirty in the early 1900's," Natalia said.

"The flirty side remains," Sinopa mused with a shake of her head.

Kincade turned to Sekhmet and said, "I am a vampire, my dear. Standing outside in broad daylight is uncomfortable. Let us abscond to my private chartered plane. I will pay the pilot and his small crew to look the other way regarding your feline appearance."

Sinopa cleared her throat and said, "We should tell them she is in costume for a film part in California. That is where we are headed, so that is best."

Tamamo nodded in agreement. "Brilliant, Sin-Chan."

Natalia smiled. "Yes, that will work. Come with us, Sekhmet. I will retrieve a burka for you and..."

"No! That is part of the reason I've killed so many men here!"

Silence.

Tamamo frowned. "We should have asked Karla to take us to the airport. Let's take the alleyways."

As if on cue, Karla appeared, leaning against the alleyway wall. She had a relaxed posture, arms folded beneath her generous bust, and ankles crossed. "I knew you guys needed me."

"How...?" Tamamo blinked.

Natalia smiled. "You thought ahead. Well done, Karla. I am most pleased."

Karla smirked. "What, you think I'd just leave, and miss out on all the juicy gossip about everyone's favorite sex demon? As if..." Karla grinned, knowing her words shamed the group for speaking behind the succubus' back. "No big deal. We're all mature women, here, right?"

Sekhmet stared at Karla. "Your ability to teleport is most impressive," she said, changing the subject.

"I know, right! Now!" Karla preened. "It helps to take a deep breath if this is your first time," she paused and glanced at Natalia, adding, "or first time in a while." All at once, the group disappeared.

A flit or images and sensations occurred, including the odd sensation of displacement and weightlessness. It was brief.

Once they appeared at the tarmac for chartered planes, Natalia turned to Karla and curtsied. "I see your abilities have evolved. Last I saw your teleportation ability, you had to touch others to take them with you."

"You must've forgot, Mistress Kincade. Back in 1999, when you rescued us on the side of the road from that limo crash? It was around that time that I was just starting to flex the ability to teleport others without touching them."

"Mm, your memory is as sharp as ever, Karla. I see you've continued to work with Methos. He is an excellent teacher." Natalia frowned, realizing she used the wrong word tense. She grimaced.

Karla frowned. "Yeah. Well, not anymore. I just started to trust him, too. Whoever killed him is going to answer to me."

"I wish to be there when that happens," Natalia said. She leaned close to Karla and kissed the girl's cheeks. "Be well, my wayward girl. Keep the Parker children alive in Axum."

"How did you know where we're going?"

"You said you were here on a layover to Ethiopia, Karla. Obviously, you are going to the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. Remember to shield your eyes."

"Wait, I thought the whole Ark of the Covenant rumor was just a bunch of special effects in the first Indiana Jones movie?"

"Little one, the guardians who live confined in the chapel are known to have cataracts in their eyes at death. Sometimes they are blind by the time they die. You can find that information in almost any encyclopedia. It has been common knowledge since before the internet."

"Jesus..."

Natalia nodded. "That is why you must shield your eyes. Something radiates from within the ark. There is a great deal the academic community does not understand about it. Please take the proper precautions - that goes for the Parker children as well."

Karla returned the two chaste kisses. She stepped back from Natalia, curtsied, and then vanished.

Natalia turned to the other women. "Sekhmet, we have your headdress in California with the mirror. Come, we will fly there."

"Fly?" Sekhmet's eyes widened. Her pupils dilated.

Sinopa frowned. "Have any of you ever had a cat in an automobile? I have a feeling this will be a most awkward experience."

"Oh dear." Natalia sighed through her nose and then nodded towards one of the nearby charter jets. "I brought a sedative for myself, but I will gladly give it to her, as this will be Sekhmet's first time flying."

X

X

2:30pm Back in America...

"You blew your entire paycheck on beer? Are you serious?"

Albert DeLioncourt sighed in frustration. "It's my goddamn check." He had been waiting two weeks for this check to buy alcohol. He pushed his left hand into his pocket because he couldn't control the shakes he experienced due to the alcohol withdraw. "I'll have rent soon."

"You'll have rent now, Albert! Seriously, what kind of roommate does this? We're supposed to be friends!"

"We ain't fuckin' friends. We just live together! So stop with your goddamn lies."

"Lies? I'm trying to be nice!"

"Well don't! I don't need your goddamn charity! I just..."

"You've got one week."

"What?" Al narrowed his gaze. "You're serious?"

"One week. Get me the money for rent in one week, man."

Al pushed his way through the living room and grabbed his laptop. He shoved it into his satchel then went to his room and took a few pairs of clothes, wedging the unfolded fabric into a duffle bag by his bed. "You can't kick me out of here. I'll have your money. Hell, I'll give you double, but I ain't staying here with someone who doesn't understand me."

"Dude, you're playing the victim. Don't do that."

"Fuck you, I'm not a victim. I'm not some ultra-liberal whiney douchebag who sucks money off the goddamn government while living at home like a piece of shit. I work hard for that beer and I work hard just to stay afloat!"

"Al, dude, you have to get your drinking under control. You've been sober for four days and I was really proud of you!"

"I was broke for four days, goddamn it!" Albert shoved another handful of unfolded clothes into his dufflebag then zipped it shut.

"Where the hell are you going?"

"To drink my beer and live under a goddamn bridge. Maybe I'll look for my goddamn kid who never writes to me because they can't take two goddamn seconds on a social media site under their fifty different aliases to say hi. How about that?"

"Where are you going, Albert? So I can come pick you up when it rains later tonight."

AL smirked. "How about..." he trailed off and said the first thing that came to his mind. "San Francisco, California."

"I thought you said you're not an ultra-liberalist?"

"Yeah, I'm not, fuck you very much." Albert shoved an extra pair of shoes into a side pocket on the duffle bag then shouldered both his bag and his knapsack. "I'll go wherever I want. I'm a goddamn tax-paying hard-working man. And you ... you're standing in my way." He approached his roommate, who stood in the doorway, pushed by, and headed for the front door.

Albert picked up his case of beer he'd just bought, and walked outside, slamming the door shut behind himself. "Ain't my goddamn fault I lived with a ... a douchebag."

He glanced back at the apartment building then pulled a piece of paper out of his front pocket, unfolded it, and glared at the words on the paper. It was a letter from some fancy lawyer, who had the same last name as his ex-wife's maiden name.

"I knew that woman would eventually come after me for _something_but ... this?" He started walking towards town. "How the hell do they even have DNA to prove it? That was over twenty years ago! Well, we'll settle this goddamn B.S., and if all they need is a goddamn cheek swab, then we'll prove real quick I don't have any other kids but the one who barely talks to me as it is."

Al continued walking. He glanced up at the city skyline in the distance. "Yeah, we'll go down to the Department of Human Resources and prove real-damn-fast with a goddamn cheek swab." He drew out his cellphone and looked at the time on the display. Two hours before they close ... he had time.

He opened the first can of beer from the six-pack, snapped the top and killed the can as he walked. He crushed it, put it back in the box and fished out the second can. It was only a few miles ... he ran the mile-run in fourth grade gym class in, what? Six or seven minutes? He figured he could get there with plenty of time to spare.

His mind began to wander as he walked. What if he really did have another kid out there? What would they be like? What would their name be?

X

X

Meanwhile, District Coast, Historical Washington DC ...

Aimee stretched a bit and rested her head on Rama's right thigh, looking up at him. "You think we'll find your father? I mean, do you really think he came here? This place is desolate. Half the coast doesn't even have power."

Rama ran his fingers through his girlfriend's hair. "I've always wanted to see Washington DC. It's ... there is so much history here. It sucks that a thousand miles of water has made such a difference to America."

Aimee grinned up at him. "I think it's a little closer to two thousand miles, Rama. The postcard said Washington DC was once thirty-seven hundred miles from Normandy. Now France is just a hop-skip-and-a-jump that way," she said, off-handedly gesturing towards the water.

"Seriously, though, Aimee. You're the best girlfriend ever. You came all the way over here with me to find my dad. I love that you just dropped everything and went on this road trip with me." Rama's right hand was across the backrest of a park bench, facing the ocean. He brought it down and rested it on her hip.

She curled up on the bench, head on his thigh, looking out over the water. "We're on an adventure together. I've had a lot of fun."

Rama looked down at her with a serious expression. "There is no way I would have had enough money to come here and look for him. I only had three grand in savings. We wouldn't have been able to pull this off without you. You're the most amazing girl I've ever met."

Aimee grinned, smitten with the boy, and loving the praise. "Yeah, I know, I am pretty awesome." She felt comfortable enough to joke like that with him, and loved being able to be herself with him. "It's just green paper. If we're smart with it, we can make it last."

"This is where he came ashore. I wish I knew all the details. But he was right here, right in DC, and he lived through whatever crap happened to him at sea twenty-five years ago. I wish my carrier got reception in this city. It's like you have to be rich to get cellular service here."

"Yeah, but don't worry. We'll call your mom tomorrow." Aimee trailed off and grinned. "You remember that mugger earlier? God the look on his face when he realized we're werewolves. That's what he gets for telling us to go into that abandoned building, though. That was really satisfying."

Rama laughed. "We can't tell anyone about that, back home. They would be so upset if they found out we exposed ourselves to a street mugger."

"Yeah, yeah. I know. It's totally our secret." Aimee drew quiet and gazed out at the sky, watching the last vestiges of the sun dip behind the ocean horizon. "Beautiful. I'm glad I got to see this with you."

"Yeah. This is definitely the best vacation ever. You ready to find a hotel now?"

"Yeah, I'm ready." She sat up and stretched. "You know, you're going to be the only one between the two of us with a biological dad. My biological mother said mine dropped off the face off the planet. I think it was because she didn't want me to meet him. She said I was forbidden. That's why I'm glad I got the chance to be raised by the werewolves."

"Yeah, I can't imagine life any other way. My mother was always very proud of our heritage. How did you find out anyhow? Were you with your biological mom when you had your first transformation or something?"

Aimee grinned. "Okay, I guess we've been together long enough to bare all my secrets. No, I only lived with my bio-mom for a few years. She couldn't afford it, so I moved in with her sister. That's where the werewolf blood comes from. Mom's parents were, mom's sister is, but mom never went through her first transformation. I lived with my aunt for a while, and she paid for the test to see if I would."

"There's a test?"

"If you're not from pureblood, you have a reduced chance of being a werewolf. Mom didn't get the gene. And, yeah Rama, it's 2049, babe. There's a test for just about everything now. So my aunt had me tested for the gene, and that's how they knew I should be raised on a reservation. Mom was pretty weird about it when she found out."

"Does she treat you bad?"

Aimee shrugged. "We talk every now and then. I mean, she has pictures of me in her house. She still has a lock of my baby hair. I guess she still thinks of me as her daughter. But she's always broke, she's always trying to get on financial programs. She's always trying to get money from the government. I'm glad I didn't grow up like that."

"I like your aunt," Rama said. "She's a nice lady."

"Yeah, my aunt made a great mom. I got lucky. My mom was controlling and weird. And she's super religious. Everything in her life is posturing and church. I can't deal with that. I'm glad I didn't have to."

Rama eased off the bench and offered his hand to her. "Me too. I'd rather grow up knowing Fenris is my spiritual guide than to believe in the whole New Test biblical thing. I know enough about it to know it's not for me."

"That's because you're a werewolf through-and-through and you know no other way to live your life. My bio-mom got rejected from this life because she was missing a gene. She found Jesus. I can't knock her for it, even if I don't subscribe to it quite the same way."

"Fair enough." He put his arm around her shoulder and they walked together towards downtown DC to find a hotel. "I was so gun-ho about coming here and finding him but..."

"Yeah," she said. "There are no answers here."

Rama nodded in agreement. "It's a big city and this isn't the kind of place someone would choose to hang out unless they had no choice. Maybe we should go home in a few days. I want to see New York first."

Aimee pressed the side of her face against his chest. "Are you sure you're ready to walk away from this search?"

"Yeah. I think I've got all I need in Seattle. My mom, the reservation ... and who knows, maybe ... if he's alive ... maybe he'll find mom instead of the other way around. But running off and checking out Washington DC was a lot of fun. Heck, it was educational, too."

Aimee pushed her hand into his back pocket as they walked. "Let's focus on our future together. I mean, those guys that attacked the diner pretending to be FBI? That was not cool - they're still out there. Just because we're below the radar doesn't mean much."

Rama frowned. "I'm not afraid of those guys. I'm more afraid of them attacking the reservation than attacking me. I won't hold back on them. I'd go full tilt and ruin those guys."

Aimee laughed. "You've never killed anything more than wild animals before, Rama. But ... I appreciate the big-man talk. It's cute."

"Pfft! Cute? I'd have no compunction about ripping into those guys in the black military gear if they came at us. No remorse. None at all."

Aimee grinned. "Compunction hmm? I like when you use big words."

"And you liked that I took you to the Pentagon on Patriot's Day." He grinned back.

"Yeah. That was wild." Her voice lowered, reverently. "The film they showed at the visitor center was amazing. A little graphic, but amazing. I'm glad we could donate a few dollars to the box."

"What were they collecting for anyhow?" asked Rama.

"Well, in two years, it will be the fiftieth anniversary of when the terrorists attacked America," Aimee explained. "So they're trying to raise restoration donations and they're trying to set up something big for the future so they can find a way to bring tourists over from the mainland in 2051."

They continued their conversation as they headed into town. The couple followed an old, abandoned highway. Grass and weeds grew up through cracks in the aging asphalt. In the distance, the remains of the Washington Monument loomed over the skyline, encased in scaffolding.

X

X

Saturday, September 11 Seattle, Washington ...

Ulfey rested her head against Rufus Darken's shoulder and sighed. "I hope they come home soon. God, though, what if those men who attacked the camp go looking for them? Or what if they come back to the reservation and find it destroyed and freak out because they can't find us? I'm just starting to worry, that's all."

"How is he?"

Ulfey looked up at Rufus then closed her eyes again. "Confident like you. God help anyone who tries to hurt that girl on his arm."

Rue grinned. "What's she like?"

"Aimee? Heh, she's smart as a whip. She's really good for Rama. He's smart, but she's exceptionally bright. So he tries to act smart for her. It's young love, Rue. Nothing like what I had growing up. I'm so happy for them."

"So they're really out looking for me, you think?"

Ulfey laughed softly. "Sort of. He wanted to take her as far away from here as possible and get his curiosity off his chest. We had no idea you were going to show up in Seattle. But I'll tell you right now, that's not the only reason he took that girl over there."

"Oh?"

"No, Rue. She's very book smart. She's never seen the old historical capital of America. So he wanted to take her. But he's going to propose to her. He even hunted down her crazy-ass biological mother and asked her permission. I love that girl to death. If I have to have a daughter, I want it to be her. She's a great girl. You'd like her."

"I wanna meet him."

"You will. They'll eventually come back to Seattle. I just wish I could get a hold of them and let them know we're not on the reservation right now because of the attack. I'm just glad they weren't here when it happened."

"Yeah ... so you think he'll like me?"

Ulfey lifted her head from Rue's chest and arched her brows at him. "What's not like to like? You know, I've always wondered if we'd be compatible outside of that one-night-stand we had. Twenty-five years is a long time to wonder. And then you show up, and we just..."

Rufus smiled and finished the sentence for her. "Work perfectly."

"Yes, exactly." Ulfey closed her eyes and put her head against his chest again. "There are less than ten werewolves left in the continental United States, Rufus. I'm worried for our son."

"You wanna find the wolves of Anchorage?"

"No. They're targets, now. I warned them on the phone, now I will do my best to stay far away." Ulfey sighed and looked off to the left.

Rue watched her wandering eyes. "Talk to me, darlin'."

Ulfey closed her eyes again. "I'm worried for our race. Maybe we should move to some secluded tropical island and have a lot of babies. We could move back to the mainland later." She offered him a grin, eyes still shut. "I can hear your expression of confusion. I know, I was a lot more serious when you met me twenty-five years ago. A lot has changed."

"How so?"

"Are you kidding?" said Ulfey with a grin. "I hung out with a teenaged boy in Athens. Rama took the edge off - I was playing video games and, for a while there, I almost forgot what morning chores were like. I never had much of a childhood because I was being groomed as a proud, noble warrior wolf. And then I ran off, raised a boy, and had a normal life."

Rufus simply listened.

Ulfey sat up and put her palms on his stomach, brows arched. Her eyes shined with concern. "Rue, do you think that's part of the reason we lost the village? I mean ... if I took my heritage seriously, I might have been the warrior I was groomed to be, then they might not have killed damned near everybody in the..."

Rufus lifted his hand and put his fingers on her lips. "Every wolf on that reservation grew up being the epitome of a warrior. They died, and _you_survived. Maybe it was twenty-five years of eating YiaYia's damn chocolate cakes that somehow saved your life. You can't blame yourself. That shit'll eat'cha up inside."

"I guess. YiaYia said Rama would grow up to become some sort of leader to the surviving wolves. And some part of me felt like, if I just gave him a normal human childhood..."

Again Rufus finished her sentence. "...You thought you'd somehow give him a normal adult life? Funny how it's all happening the way it was foretold. So stop worryin'. That's how we know our son survives."

"Rufus, I didn't raise him the right way. I gave him an appreciation for our heritage, and for Fenris, but I didn't raise him to be a soldier."

Rufus kissed her forehead. "Good. Soldiers make lousy generals. I hate to say it, because the guy was the biggest dick in history, but Adolf Hitler was never a soldier. He was a military bike messenger. If you bred a soldier, you'd have trained him to die in the ditches for a cause he believes in. That's what soldiers do. Rarely do pawns become queens."

"As disturbed as I am you likened our son to Hitler, I think I see your point." Ulfey rubbed her forehead.

"I was just using an example of someone whose story is known by the whole world. Anyhow, stop worrying about Rama. I'm glad ya' didn't train him to be a soldier. Instead, he'll become his own man and fulfill whatever prophecy YiaYia saw for him. Don't beat yourself up."

Ulfey sighed. "I'm not the same woman I was when we had that one-night-stand."

"I like you more, now. Playful, relaxed, and sure of yourself. You were so stiff back then." Rue paused then asked, "Can you still hunt, though?"

She smirked. "Better than you."

"I forged myself in my own fire - I went on a walkabout in Australia in the late 1990's. I trained myself to become the best damn hunter I know."

"You were a loner, so you didn't know many hunters."

"Girl, I'm a bonafide badass."

Ulfey smirked. "You trying to say you're better than me, Rue?"

Rufus grinned. "Only one way to find out. There's a good bit of woods outside of Seattle. Why don't we go for a little camping trip?"

"What about when Rama comes back?"

"Darlin', you got a cellphone, don't you?"

"Well, yeah. But I haven't been able to reach him with it."

"Only two carriers have service on the District Coast. Stop worryin'. You'll get a call from him once he's back on the mainland." Rufus offered her a smile, adding, "The plague thing you're worried about - that hasn't spread to the District Coast. They're safer there than they are here."

She took a deep breath then sighed and nodded. "You relax me. Ironically, you stressed me out twenty-five years ago. We cheated on my fiancé," she said.

"He was gay."

"That was no reason to cheat on the man, Rue." She smirked. "We missed morning chores the next day."

"We were busy conceiving the savior of our race."

Ulfey's smirk broadened. "You have an answer for everything, huh?"

"I just see the sense in some things." Rue pulled Ulfey's head back against his chest. "We got a few hours until dark. You wanna head into the forest and have some fun?"

"Maybe." She grinned. "Hunting or camping?"

"All of the above, momma-wolf." He waggled his brows suggestively.

X

X

San Francisco, California ...

Aris Falcon folded his hands behind his back, staring out at the city from the penthouse suite of the hotel. "I haven't left my work in over two decades. I'm not sure what I'm getting into here, with you, but if what you say is true, I'm certainly willing to entertain your claim."

The man in the recently-purchased suit and tie moved alongside of Falcon, looking out of the city. "Human cities glow with a splendor that is most impressive, but they are nowhere near as decadent as Valhalla."

"Valhalla is the afterlife isn't it?"

"It's a great city, built up around a great hall, ruled by Odin. Its splendor is beyond words. Even Mount Olympus cannot compare to the breathtaking expanse of Asgard. But Odin and Frigg are no longer able to leave that section of Asgard. They are practically confined to their throne room."

"Human pop culture depicts Asgard as the city."

The man shook his head. "Asgard is the world. Valhalla is the grand hall, the heart of the city where Odin dwells and ruled. Yes, I have become familiar with the pop culture of humanity regarding my people and myself. I rather liked the way they fashioned me to look. The helmet with the enormous horns coming off the top - it served to amuse me."

"You were not offended?"

"No, Aris. I look forward to walking among humans, although I will not order them to kneel. I will simply kill any who do not worship me. My wife will join me soon. We will start the world anew here, on the surface. And you will live beneath the sea, yes?"

"Yes. I have worked my entire life to prepare for what I found beneath the waves. You cannot imagine how hard I..."

"I can imagine, Aris." The man turned to face Falcon and said, "I have spent almost your entire life preparing you for this."

"What?" Aris furrowed his brows in confusion. "You helped me?"

"Every step of the way. Tied to that rock in the hot springs, my wife brought me news and did my bidding. She put things into place. Sigyn protected you and helped arrange occurrences that molded you. I conspired and toiled and tricked, and arranged such things so that your mercenaries would be successful. Interesting, that word - 'thing'. It means 'an assembly' but English has an amusing way of rolling off the tongue; many words now have many strange new meanings. Do pardon my prattle. You are the first human with whom I have conversed at length, since my arrival, Aris."

Falcon replied with a blank expression.

"What? You thought you, a simple human who stole immortality, would be able to bribe local police officers, military soldiers and mercenaries for hire, and, somehow, a human attack force would be enough to take down and kill a hundred thousand supernatural people?"

"The element of surprise. Training and preparing. The esoteric community, as a whole, was banned from using their abilities. They weren't coordinated and had no idea we were going to..."

"They had their own government, comprised of powerful, ancient warriors!" said the man. His tone grew calm again. "Do you know my name, Aris?"

"If you are who you claim, then you are Hveðrungr."

The man smiled. "I haven't heard that name in a very long time. Your kind has taken to calling me Loki, and that will suffice. But do you know how I was able to help you? Do you know how I guided you into helping me?"

"You ... tricked your way to get what you wished?"

Loki shrugged and turned back towards the beautiful view over San Francisco. "I can shift my shape to anything I please."

"Any shape?"

"I make you see what I wish you to see, if the shape is too difficult for me. Your kind calls me a trickster god, but I am much more than that. I will lead the Jötnar to war. I am a leader, Aris. I am a loyal husband. I am a tactician. I am a general. I have begun the war on the Celestial Realm. I swiftly lead the Jötnar to seal away the other gods, making it so they could not fight back against my forces. I will rule the Vanir, the Æsir, and then I will rule the Celestial Realm. But I cannot defeat all these deities on my own. So I will rule the surface of Earth, and with the strength of my future worshippers, I will become powerful enough to force my godly peers into subjugation."

"Why did you help me?"

"Because you helped me, Aris. You have been my pawn for the last century-and-a-half. You have done everything I have required. You were loyal without question, and you never once asked why?"

"I was just a child a century-and-a-half ago."

"I know. But I saw great things in you. And I was right. I will give you what you desire - free reign to work as you see fit in the city owned by the first humans. They are the only creatures older than myself, and it is their kind that invented my kind. And then they invented the supernaturals that barred my kind from Earth. And I vowed to return. To do that, I needed to kill off the supernatural population and their governments."

Falcon licked his lips. "And that's where I came in?"

"You played your part perfectly, Aris. Well done. You can return to your city beneath the Atlantic and toil away for all eternity if that is what you desire. I will ensure that my worshippers will till the coast you've drawn out into the Atlantic Ocean with you. They will turn it into fields of grain and you can sustain yourself with that. The rest of the world is mine. That is my deal."

Aris looked back towards San Francisco. "All these years you've been guiding me?"

"Aris, yes. When you had barges out in the ocean, one hundred years ago, and you were leading the construction of New Atlantis? I suggested to you that the location should be in a part of the ocean shrouded in legend. It was known that many ships sank there. And with the help of Isaac, you brought down enough aircraft that the legend grew."

"I see now why scholars believed you to be a trickster god. But you're right, Loki, they were wrong to give you that name. You were simply shrewd and you knew how to manipulate a situation to your needs."

Loki folded his hands, gazing out over the city with a smile. "Exactly. I know how to get my way. And I am patient. Oh, I am so very patient. That is where the pop-culture version of my likeness was most incorrect. I learned patience as I sat in the hot springs, tied to that boulder for ages. And now? I have to change mythology, as my fate was not written to end well."

"Oh?"

"I am to fight another god, named Heimdallr. We slay one another. Well, just because the worshippers believe it to be true does not mean it must end that way. I have manipulated the situation because I have had a very, very long time to sit and ponder, during my imprisonment in the hot springs. And I will survive Ragnarök. Do you know what it means? The term, Ragnarök?"

"Fate of the gods?"

Loki nodded. "Yes. We are approaching the Ragnarøkkr, the 'twilight of the gods,' and our kind is fated to die. All gods. The Norse mythology follows the deaths of my peers, the Vanir and the Æsir. But in truth, all the gods die during Ragnarök. I simply do not know the smaller details of their demise."

"How do you plan to cause such?"

"I have had Sigyn bring me texts on other pantheons. I studied them so I could exploit them. The Shinto gods, for example, have been locked away inside of a cave once used by their sun goddess, Amaterasu-omikami. Once I learned how to exploit the mythologies of the other deities, I strategized a way to lock each of them away in their sanctioned section of the Celestial Realm."

"You've not killed them?"

"Some died. The Roman gods were not quite as mighty as their Greek brethren. Some died. I allowed the Jötnar leeway to kill the gods that they were able. The rest will die when I introduce myself as the One True God of this planet. I will cure the sick and slay the deranged. I will perform miracles."

"Why?"

Loki replied with a charismatic smile. "You see, human worship has a side effect, Aris. The other gods will be forgotten. That is the ultimate plan. The deities will grow weak and disappear, forgotten. I will grow strong."

"I see." Aris looked down to the street level far below. "And what of my people in the Atlantic?"

"I told you, I will leave you alone. Aris, how would you like to be a demigod?"

"Excuse me?"

"You have obtained fantastic powers, stolen from the supernaturals that your people have killed. If your city of humans began to believe you are godly, you will be reborn as a Celestial being. Worship is the key. Human worship, en masse, will create a god. If they believe in you, they create you as a god. I would allow you to rule the Atlantic as a demigod on my Earth. It takes time for your lore to develop, but eventually you have your own mythology and you are born again as a deity."

"I've not considered that." Aris licked his lips, keeping his eyes on the city instead of Loki.

"Humans who ascend to godliness must die. That is why so many stories of deities involve resurrection. Your human body must die. Your mind cannot handle eternity. But when you are reborn as a god, you can manage the burden of true immortality."

"I will consider it."

"For now, you should wake up."

"Excuse me?"

Loki smiled. "I said you should wake up, Aris."

San Francisco dissolved into confusion and darkness.

Aris Falcon sat up in his bed, covered in sweat. He wiped his face with the backside of his hand. Aris turned on a lamp on his nightstand. His eyes immediately fell upon a hand-written letter on a nearby chair. The parchment was penned on an elegant scroll, unfurled to display the finely crafted calligraphy.

Falcon slid out of bed and took the top section and bottom of the scroll, lying it on his bed.

He read the words, "I am your dreams. I am your inspiration. I am your hopes for a better future. I am your gateway to godliness. Our kind is split over whether or not to believe in a One True God. I prefer not to believe in what I cannot see, feel, touch, or truly understand. I hope understanding has been reached between the two of us. I am trapped in this realm for only a while longer. But my offer is genuine. Do you recall the mirror owned by Natalia Kincade? She re-obtained it from the Esoteric Council in 1999. I require that mirror to be in your possession. It will act as a beacon that will allow me to travel with ease to Earth. While some gods have the ability to traverse the umbra plane between the Celestial Realm and Earth's physical plane, I am not one of them. Find this mirror and release me from the Celestial Realm. When __your enemies use _ the mirror __ to _travel _ to _my _ realm _, I _ will _have _ the _opportunity _ to _sneak _ past _them _ and _arrive _ on __Earth._ As __it _ stands ,_ they _ believe _I _ am _already _ here _. _I visited_ Sekhmet __in _ her dreams __ when _she _ arrived _by _ means _of _ the _Bifrost _ rainbow __road._ She __now _ believes herself __ unable _to _ fight _against _ me _. _Afterward ,_ I __tricked _ her into __ attacking _humans _ for __reasons I will explain later._ Find __this _ mirror ,_ my _ friend. Then we will finally speak in person the way you just saw in your dream. Be well, Aris._"

The letter was signed 'Loki,' in simple scrawl.

Aris traced his thumb over the parchment, smearing the ink of Loki's signature. The rest of the letter appeared to be dry. He ran his finger over Loki's signature again, but it was now it only smudged. Seconds later, the ink became completely dry.

Aris swallowed and rubbed his face. Nagging words at the back of his mind reminded him of Loki's offer ... to become a demigod.

---

Next Chapter: https://www.sofurry.com/view/778351