Viper Moon (38 page)

The phone in the kitchen rang. Abby kissed me on my forehead. “Sleep.”

So I slept, slept without pain. Healing sleep, contented sleep. Tomorrow? Flynn. I wanted Flynn tomorrow and all the tomorrows.

 

I was asleep, but I woke when Flynn came into the bedroom and lay beside me. His face was serious. I snuggled against him and he held me tight.

“Will you marry me?” he asked.

“No. I can’t.” I tried to push away, but he wouldn’t release me. I relaxed. I was where I wanted to be.

“Why not?”

“I love you so much, but we’ve only known each other for days. Not weeks or months. We have a relationship built on danger. On high drama. Like living in a movie.”

“Cass, a mortal’s relationship with
life
is built on danger. The past few days would make a good movie, I suppose. If we could ever tell anyone about it.”

I stroked his cheek with my hand. I told him something I rarely acknowledged. “I’m terrified. I don’t think I’m biologically suited to being a cop’s wife. Or any man’s wife.
Wife
means doing important things with a family. Not just returning a child. What if we have children?”

“Then they will have a mother who has the ability to protect them in a dangerous world.”

He kissed me, long and sweet. When he finished, he said, “No, you’re not suited to being anything but what you are. That’s who I want. We’ll make it, Cass. There’s no one else for me. Only you. Please.”

How could I resist that? “Okay, I’ll marry you. But we have to wait at least six months. Maybe a year.”

“Fine. I love you, Huntress.”

“And the Huntress . . . no. Just Cassandra. Cassandra loves you.”

Flynn glanced at his watch, then drew away from me and sat up. “Damn. Another meeting. I slept for a few hours; then the chief called. They gave me a promotion for finding the guns. More work to do. And I’ve been appointed to the mayor’s task force on organized crime.”

“That should be easy. Call Dacardi and ask him to fill you in on the details.”

“Very funny.” Flynn took my hand and squeezed. “Bunch of pompous asses in city hall. I’m a cop, not a bureaucrat.”

“Any discussion of the Barrows? What happened last night? No one heard the noise? Saw the lights?”

“Not a word. As far as I’m concerned, it’s like Dacardi said—what happened in the Barrows will not be on the afternoon news.” He brushed my hair from my face.

“Would you like to stay with me?” I asked. “Since we’re engaged. At the apartment? I’ll give you a key.”

“I’d like to, Cass. And I’ll take that key. I’ll be there as much as I can. But I’m going to have to stay close to Mama for a while. She’s scared something will happen to Selene again.”

“Something has happened to Selene. She’ll never be the same.” I sat up and rubbed my cheek against his. He smelled clean and wonderful.

“Selene wants to talk to you. You seem to have impressed her.”

“Abby would be best to do that.”

His body tensed, and I knew the reason.

“Selene is not a Huntress, Flynn. Abby might teach her some serious shit, but I won’t ever let her run through the sewers. I promise.”

I hesitated to bring up the next thing, but I required a little honesty from the man I’d agreed to marry. “Does Selene know you’re her father and not her brother?”

“How did—?” He drew a breath, then slowly let it out. “No. I was eighteen. There was a girl. She was older. I loved her, wanted her—and knew it was a mistake a week after we were married. I thought she was on the pill.” He bowed his head. “She didn’t want Selene. I managed to keep her from having an abortion by giving her money. She left the day after Selene was born. Mama took over raising her. Couple of years later, I divorced her. She hasn’t returned and I haven’t looked for her. I should have told you, that first night when we made love.”

“I’m not the one you need to tell. Why keep it a secret?”

“Mama was afraid it would hurt my career. I think she wanted to pretend Selene really was hers—and my dad’s. She missed him so much. I didn’t care—then. I had Selene, could watch her grow, be with her.”

“You’d better talk to her, Flynn. Soon. She’s going to feel betrayed no matter what you do, but she’ll recover. She loves you.”

“How did you know about her?”

“Math. You’re thirty-one. You said she was six when you graduated from the academy. It would’ve been difficult for your mom to have her. Took me a while, but I think about you a lot.”

Flynn relaxed. “You’re on my mind constantly, too. You’re going back to your apartment?”

“I’ll be there tonight. I do want to marry you, Flynn.”

He suddenly grabbed me and held me tight. I gave him a serious kiss.

“Oh, how’s Robert?” I asked.

Flynn laughed. “Insky took him to the emergency room and they gave him some valium. Didn’t have any place to go, so Insky took him to his house. He said Robert confessed to a lot of shit, cried, begged Insky to help him ‘make things right,’ and fell asleep. When he woke up, Robert
said
he couldn’t remember anything, but he was muttering something about a serpent when he left.”

“Damn. I was hoping to get my PI license back so I could make some money. You think Robert will try to stop me?”

“No. Insky said we shouldn’t worry. He has enough dirt on old Robert to last a few years, at least. You think you need the license? It caused so much trouble before.”

“No, it didn’t. Robert caused the trouble. I was fine. I was fine. Oh, did you ask Selene about the Goblin Den card in her room? It set me on a good path.”

“A friend of hers gave it to her. She’d never been there. Apparently it’s some sort of preteen fantasy to get in the Den.”

“Sure.” He laughed, then kissed me long and hard.

After he left, I rose, dressed, and went to the kitchen, where Abby insisted on fixing me breakfast.

“Carlos called last night while you were sleeping. I went to Riverside and smoothed out some memories.”

“The four kids?”

“Yes. Two were in foster care. Parents were on the way to get the others. Richard’s insisting that the two in foster care stay with him, and his father has enough money to make it happen. He’s a fine young man, that Richard.” Abby set a plate piled high with a two-day supply of food in front of me.

“Richard has guts. Like his father.” I picked up my fork and my mouth watered. On second thought, maybe the food would last only until supper.

“Did you tell Flynn that the kids were okay?” I asked. “That a couple are staying with Dacardi?”

“Yes. He seemed to accept everything without concern.”

Later, filled with Abby’s tea, toast, cheese, and fruit, I walked out to the woods and sat on the grass beside the spring. I smoothed my hand over the spot of fresh earth that marked Nefertiti’s grave. Last night’s rain left everything fresh and green. Maybe the heat wave had broken.

“Are you here?” I spoke to the air.

“Were you worried?” The Mother stood across the spring in the woods. Sunlight sparkled in her hair, blond as Michael’s this morning. I could have sworn it was much darker last night.

“No. I guess you can take care of yourself. Why haven’t you shown yourself to me like this before?”

“There was no need. I don’t want my . . . people . . . to depend on me too much.” She gave me a radiant smile. All the birds in the garden suddenly broke into song.

“I hate you,” I said, but I spoke without any real passion.

“That is your right. Do you still wish to serve me?”

“What else would I do? What about Abby? She needs her power back.”

“She never lost it. Her power comes from the earth, but not directly from me. When she could no longer sense my presence, she’d lost faith in herself.”

“And Dacardi calls
me
a bitch.”

“It’s a term of endearment—for him. You’re a bit more honest with me.” She tilted her head and the birds sang. “What do you think of him? Your Warlord.”

“My Warlord? He’s made of better stuff than I thought.” I leaned back and stretched out my legs. “Did you have Selene kidnapped?”

“No. Once it happened, I saw the possibilities.”

“Such as having Richard in the same place so I could use Dacardi.”

“I whispered in a few ears.” The Mother laughed again and I’d swear the garden, the trees, the grass and flowers stood straighter and taller. “It is complex. And truly, it did not end as I had planned. I trusted you, Huntress, to know and do what was right. Even if it cost your life.”

“You manipulated, is what you did. Playing chess with us. With our lives. With children’s lives.” I knew she didn’t understand.

“I gave you Flynn. Do you really want to know the details?”

“No. It’s done—for now.” I had one thing I desperately wanted to know. “My vision when the Darkness spoke through Hammer. It happened in the Barrows, but—”

“I have access to your memories, Cassandra.”

“Did I throw my daughter, my child, in the fire? Was that really another life, or a demon’s trick to weaken me?”

“I never asked for sacrifice.” Anger rose in her voice and the garden grew colder. She sighed and things went back to normal. “Huntress, my power—and it
is
great power—lies in the land. I will not control any human. Free will is paramount, a directive from the Great Master. Abby, you and all the others must choose to serve me. That allows me to guide my power to them. I cannot compel you.”

She drifted across the spring and onto the grass. Her bare feet made only the slightest impression on the blades.
Innana
, the Darkness had called her. She sat beside me, her body moving with inhuman grace. As the breeze lifted, I caught the scent of flowers, sweeter and cleaner than any I’d ever smelled in Abby’s garden.

“When you were dying in that alley, I saw my grand scheme collapsing. As I healed you, I realized you could do what I could not: go into the Barrows. And I could go with you, and not break my own word.”

“So you stayed in me. And Aiakós—what’s he to you? Your lover?”

“That’s not your business, Huntress. Don’t you have enough male problems of your own? Will you choose between them? The son of a demigod and the son of humanity? You’re my daughter and I’d not think ill of you if you took them both.”

Now what did I have to say to that? I laughed and felt better than I had in weeks. “There is no choice. I love Flynn. I care for Michael, but I don’t love him. You were in me when I made love to Flynn, here in the garden?”

She smiled. “Yes. He is a fine man. One of my better children. Perhaps I can yet do something for Michael.”

“He’d be safer if you left him alone.”

“He does not seek safety, any more than you do. You have given me a gift, Huntress. I saw the world through your eyes. Things will be different now. I will”—she laughed—“make arrangements.”

“That’s pretty scary. Why are you telling me all of this?”

“You have the right to know. You, my Huntress, through the ages, thousands of years, have been constant. Every life you have ever lived, you have served me. Others have served me through one life and tried to destroy me in the next. You are the only human I could have entered as I did.” She held out her hand. “I have a gift for you. This is what really happened. Be still. Watch. Believe this is the truth.”

I felt the Mother’s presence enter my mind, taking me back in time.

I cried out as I came back to myself.

“I’m not in charge of souls,” the Mother said. “I simply take what’s given to me. I use and often reuse it, and I will, until this ground beneath my feet is dust swirling again among the stars. I say again, you have every right to hate me. Some of my other servants do. They see a far darker image than you. It will change nothing.” She disappeared.

Abby came running into the garden. She’d heard my cry.

She dropped to her knees beside me. “What’s wrong?”

I shook my head. I couldn’t speak.

“Why are you crying?”

I wiped my eyes. “I’m fine. Abby, go make some potions for me to take home.”

Abby shook her head. “I don’t know if I—”

“Yes, you can. The wicked witch of the dirt is back. And your spells damn well better work.” I shouted that last sentence into the fragrant air. The leaves and shrubs around me shook with laughter—or maybe it was only the wind.

 

Abby and I sat in her kitchen and mourned Nefertiti a little longer. We both cried again. I called my mother and father, maybe wanting to touch people I loved. Both were glad to hear from me, and I promised to get home for the equinox celebration. I told them of my engagement to Flynn, and Mom was so joyful, it almost made me feel guilty about not getting married before.

“What are you going to do next, love?” Abby asked.

“I’m going to get my PI license back and go to work. I still have my contacts in the Barrows, and I’m tired of poverty.” I was also an honorary member of the Slum Devils, at least as long as that dirty bastard Snag could beat off the competition and stay Big Devil. In the back of my mind I’d always wondered if I couldn’t do something to control them and lessen the impact of their evil.