Chapter 11

"Okay, relax, Thunder Twins; deactivate your powers."I held up my hands. "They feel very strongly about decaf,"I called over to the onlookers.

People laughed and shook their heads before slowly going back about their business.

"You meeting Sif is not a good idea,"Thor lowered his voice again, and then his forehead wrinkled. "And I'm the God of Thunder, Ull is the God of Justice."

"Whatever."I shrugged. Justice? I don't know why I was surprised; Ull did have a sense of fairness about him, but... "I just can't picture you blindfolded and holding scales."

"You can't?"Ull waggled his brows at me and smirked. "Do you want to?"

"Well, maybe blindfolded."I waggled mine right back.

Thor rumbled angrily like a brewing storm.

"As amusing as all of this has been,"Horus's voice had gone so dry that I feared for his safety near any open flames. "Can we return to the reason for all of us being here… in DC… in October?"

"Sorry."I stuck my face down over my coffee cup to regroup. "I'll need a quiet place to work on this."The little white stone felt good in my hands; almost happy to be there. I wondered where it had come from. A river rock definitely, but which river? "I'll need some supplies too."

"Ull's got a place here,"Thor said. "It's why I called him in."

"I didn't notice you making any phone calls before we left,"I said and then winced under the look everyone gave me. "Oh yeah; right. God to god direct, huh? So much better than AT&T."

"He's my son."Thor raised an amused brow. "I have the right with him. I can't manage it with everyone."

"Did the documents say who was coming in on the job?"Tsohanoai asked.

It was the first time Tsohanoai, aka Mr. T, had spoken in awhile so I was a little startled. He'd been playing the strong, silent type well but his voice was pleasant; comforting. I wanted to tell him that he should use it more often.

"Yes."Thor didn't look too happy.

I felt the cold creeping back with that look.

"Huitzilopochtli himself will be coming in,"Thor announced.

"Is that a single, a plural, or a sneeze?"I gave Thor a lopsided grin to try and tease his own smile back.

Yeah; I know that I've been complaining about Thor's smiling but when I wasn't the one making him frown, it wasn't nearly as much fun.

"It's a single."Thor's lips didn't so much as twitch; damn it.

"So, that's good right?"I asked.

I looked around and suddenly realized that everyone had the same sick expression on their face; as if someone had just told them that all the coffee was Kopi Luwak. You know; the stuff they make from coffee beans pooped out of a civet cat. What a horrible job those coffee makers had; sifting through civet poo all day to harvest coffee beans. I guess I rather do the sifting than the drinking, though.

"We can totally take out one god,"I continued merrily. "There are nine of us; he won't stand a chance. Hell, I'll tell you what; I'll get this one. You all go home, and you can take out the next bad guy."

I smiled brightly.

No one laughed. No one smiled. No one even breathed. Tough crowd.

"This is not just any god, Vervain,"it was Mrs. E who finally answered me. "This is Huitzilopochtli. He's very dangerous."

"What is he; Mayan?"I really needed to brush up on my gods. You'd think that I'd know them all by now, but trust me when I say; there are a lot of gods.

"He's an Aztec god of war."Mr. T reached over and took his wife's hand as he spoke, and I was shocked to see that it shook. "He killed all of his brothers when they took part in his mother's murder."

"Okay."I frowned. Someone avenging their mother didn't sound so bad to me. "So, he's a mama's boy, and he killed his siblings. They couldn't have been very nice if they murdered their own mommy. It sounds to me as if he was justified."

"Justified, maybe, but it was his mother, not theirs,"Ull took over. I guess he felt that it was his area of expertise. "The reason he killed them is not the point, Vervain. The fact that he managed to kill them is."

"Oh? His brothers were pretty bad ass, huh?"

"They were all gods like him, just new at the time, but he was the youngest."Horus must have felt left out because he flung in his two cents, sounding like a professor lecturing first years. "The question you haven't asked yet is; how many brothers Huitzilopochtli had."

"Fine; I'll bite,"I huffed. All of these head games were getting to me. I generally preferred a direct approach to my conversations. "How many brothers did Sneezy have?"

They all looked at each other and then away from me; all except for Horus, who seemed to find pleasure in my anxiety.

"Huitzilopochtli had four-hundred brothers,"Horus announced. He smiled grimly and, just for a second, his pupils turned to tiny bird dots. "And he had one sister who he adored. She was not so lucky. Coyolxauhqui was killed along with their mother, and in his grief for her, Huitzilopochtli cut off her head and flung it into the sky to become the moon. He sent their brothers up to be the stars and pay attendance on her for eternity."

The cold feeling spread throughout my whole body.

"That's just a story, though, right?"Was that high, squeaky sound my voice? Crap. I cleared my throat and tried again. "I mean; that's one of those human-influence things, right? Where we made up a story to explain the universe, and you guys are strengthened and influenced by it but it didn't actually happen that way. If all the stories were really true—completely true—then we'd have all kinds of deities up in the sky; doing everything from pulling the moon with a chariot to living on it."

"Yes."A flash of some kind of emotion passed over Horus' face; a minute but surprising shift from his usual scorn. "But most of those stories have a kernel of truth. It's how your people came up with them in the first place."

"So, he really did kill all four-hundred of his brothers?"I asked. I needed to lie down, or put some Baileys in my coffee, or lie down with some Baileys in my coffee and a straw.

"Yes."Thor's hand crept around mine.

"Four-hundred?"I asked again.

"Yes."

"Wow."I blinked.

"Yes."Thor's hand squeezed mine.

"His father really got around,"I said.

Oh, come on; someone had to say it.