Harvest of the Gods (10 page)

“
Oh,” I sighed, deflating with relief. “Good. Thank you.”

“
They're your family, Minn Elska,” he leaned over and kissed my cheek. “They love you.”

“
I love them too,” I took a deep breath. “Okay, now let's move on to helping my other family. What should we do about Kanaloa?”

“
Don't worry, Tima,” Darius flipped back his shoulder length blond hair in a very surfer way and smiled. “We got this.”

Chapter Seventeen

I was looking over the collection of video surveillance equipment with Trevor, Kirill, and the Intare chosen for the mission, when Darius walked into the common room. I glanced up to nod hello and then did a double take.

He was wearing a beige trench coat and a fedora, very Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade. He struck a pose at the end of the table and smirked at me.

“I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble,” he quoted Sam Spade perfectly.

“
That's cute, Bogie,” I smirked back, “but you're not after the Maltese Falcon, you're after the Hawaiian God of the Sea. You need to look more beach and less black and white film star.”

“
No problem,” he threw open the trench to reveal the board shorts he was wearing beneath. “I'll save the trench for later.”

“
You better put some pants on if you wear it later,” I looked him up and down, “or you'll have people thinking you want to show them your privates, not be a private eye.”

“
It does look a little pervy without the long pants,” Aidan, one of my lions, observed.

“
Even with the hat?” Darius looked distraught.

“
Especially
with the hat,” Aidan rolled his eyes.

“
Alright, you spoilers of sport,” Darius pouted. “You ruiners of fun, you poopers of parties-”

“
Enough!” I held up my hand before he could go any further. “The annoying ramble is my schtick and I will not stand by and watch you defile it.”

“
Funny you should use the word defile,” Aidan was shaking his head at Darius, “because that's one of the first words that popped into my head when Dare started opening that trench. I paired it with the word innocence though.”

“
Yeah,” Trevor looked like he'd tasted something sour, “I'm right there with ya, buddy.” He fist bumped Aidan.

“
Hey,” Darius looked affronted. “This is a very cool look.”

“
Ven you have pants,” Kirill gave Darius a bland look. “Not so much vith shorts no one can see.”

“
I give up,” Darius yanked off the trench and threw it over the back of one of the couches. “Just give me my damn camera.”

“
Here, you can have one of the waterproof ones,” Trevor divvied out the spy loot as the lions went over their plan of attack.

Kanaloa was known to prefer Kailua Beach, leaning more toward the Lanikai section which was in front of a very posh residential area. We suspected that he had a house in the area but hadn't been able to confirm it yet. It was one of the things the boys were going to try and ascertain.

They were going to trace into Moonshine and use the van Trevor kept for when we had to do anything in Hawaii in a group. They'd drive out to Kailua and basically hang out at the beach all day, stalking the Hawaiian god.

So the four of them headed out and Trevor, Kirill, and I got to stay home for once. It was a strange feeling, sitting back and waiting for someone else to get the job done but this was one time I just plain couldn't go along, Kanaloa would recognize me in a heartbeat. Plus, I hated the beach.

I know, I know, who could possibly hate the beach? Especially when I was born and raised in Hawaii. Well, I've ranted about this before so I'll save you the tirade and just sum it up by saying that I don't like the sticky feeling of salt on my skin or the burning blast of the sun, and I really hate that evil sand that gets in places you didn't even know you had until the motivated sand discovered it. The SSS I called it, salt, sun, and sand. Okay, I'm done.

“
So what do you guys wanna do?”

“
Actually,” Trevor got serious. “I wanted to talk to you about that crazy guy we have staying with us.”

“
Oh,” my face fell, “you mean Griffin.”

“
Yeah, Griffin,” Trevor gave me a sympathetic look.

“
I understand, Tima,” Kirill said and he did, he would understand better than anyone because he was Griffin at one point. The only difference was, I was able to save Kirill through the lioness magic. I didn't have that bond with Griffin.

“
I understand too,” Trevor took my hand and led me over to one of the couches while Kirill followed. “I know you you think if you just wait long enough the answer will come but you can't save everyone, Minn Elska.”

“
I know I can't save everyone,” I sighed, “but that doesn't mean I just give up either. He's still alive, that counts for something.”

“
Barely,” Trevor's lips thinned out. “He tried to kill himself the other day.”

“
What?” I gaped at him. “When? Why didn't I know about this?”

“
Only Teharon knew,” Trevor shrugged, “and he just told me.”

“
Tima,” Kirill took my hand. “He vants to die, maybe you should respect his vishes.”

“
Did you want to die?” I settled my gaze on Kirill and he had the grace to blush.

“
Da,” Kirill's teeth clenched. “I vanted to die but I also vanted to kill. I vas insane, beyond hope of redemption from all but my Tima. You cannot  do same zing for him, he is human.”

“
What did Teharon do?” I sidestepped Kirill's point.

“
He's put him into a sort of recuperative state,” Trevor shook his head. “Vervain, that's not a way to recover from mental illness and yet Teharon's afraid to take him out of it for fear of him harming himself or trying to harm others. This man needs to either be put down mercifully or put into a human hospital.”

“
Humans can do nozing for him,” Kirill shook his head.

“
So I should just kill him?” I looked at them in shock. “Just give up and put him down like a lame horse? No, I won't.”

“
You don't have to be the one to do it,” Trevor met my gaze with a steady one of his own. “You know you don't have to do all the dirty work.”

“
We're not killing him,” I stood and glared at two of the men I loved more than anyone else in all the realms. “Don't either of you dare touch him without talking to me first either. Do you understand me?”

“
I understand,” Trevor sighed.

“
Nyet,” Kirill growled and stood to face me. “Ve vill vait on killing him but don't speak to me or Trevor like zat. Do you understand me?”

Holy shit. I gaped at Kirill a moment, me and Trevor both. Who the hell was this man? And yet, he was right.

“Okay,” I reached out and touched his shoulder gently. “You're right, I'm sorry I spoke like that. I just can't have his blood on my hands. Give me some time to think of something, I just have a feeling that he's important, that if I kill him now, I will regret it later.”

“
Vhy didn't you just say zat?” Kirill smiled and pulled me into a hug. “I trust you. Ve trust you and ve trust your instincts. If you say you need him to stay alive for now, zen ve keep him alive.”

“
I'll let Teharon know,” Trevor nodded. “Kirill's right, Minn Elska, you could have just told us that.”

“
Yeah well, I have brief moments of stupidity.”

“
Brief?” Trevor raised a brow and I pulled out of Kirill's hug so I could punch him in the arm.

Chapter Eighteen

The roar of battle rushed in my ears and my war magic lifted up inside my chest in excitement. The scent of musk and man was on the breeze and that called to me as well but it brought a different magic to the surface. My lioness. I had to push her back down, I didn't want to change into a lioness today. I needed to get some training in as a woman.

I looked across the training field we had set up to the side of the palace. It was battle maneuvers day and we had my lion army split in two, Fallon leading one half and I the other. Darius would normally be leading them as I watched but since he was out on his spy mission, it was up to me to take his place and I can't say I wasn't thrilled.

I trained one on one with the Intare at least twice a week. When people are out to kill you practically all the time, and those people happen to be gods and faeries, you need to make sure to keep up the survival training. So I practiced with wooden swords and sometimes in lion form with differing partners so I didn't get used to anyone's style but knowing how to maneuver in a battle scenario was important too and I was glad to be actively participating.

We had started these training sessions at Roarke's suggestion and he took great pleasure in watching and critiquing us. I didn't mind because generally, his critiques were helpful. It was nice to have a cat-sidhe advising you on battle technique. In Faerie the term cat fight has much more menacing connotations and Roarke was a Prince of the cat-sidhe, a title earned through battle skill not given by birthright.

His skill was evident when he was on the training field with the Intare and though you'd think he was way outclassed, a cat among lions, no lion ever got the better of him and he earned the Intare's respect quickly. They now listened to every advice he gave, concerning warfare at least, and he was a welcome participant on the training field. I looked over to where he was watching on the sidelines and gave him a smile.

“
Attack!” I shouted and led my side forward in a controlled run.

Fallon's group launched forward as we did and met us in the middle. It was a spectacular clash of lions and men(and two women, me and Samantha, who was on Fallon's side of course). I had a portion of my Intare in lion form and the rest in man, this gave us the best of both worlds and it was a technique we had adopted to the point of being automatic. Fallon's side was mixed as well so it was an even playing field. We had each come up with our own tactics though and it was that which would win the day.

I was excited to see if my idea would work and I nodded to the group of lions to set the plan into action. They ran in formation toward the edges of Fallon's group and Fallon's group turned to face them, half expecting us to split and try to hem them in from both sides but the group I had sent was large and didn't all stay to fight. As they ran around Fallon's army, lions broke off to keep the perimeter as the rest ran on. They made a complete circle around Fallon and his fighters, coming back around to meet up with me and my Intare who had remained in human form. We penned them in in less than two minutes.

It was a done deal from there.

Chapter Nineteen

“So he does live in Lanikai,” I looked over the video the boys had collected of Kanaloa walking out of a beautiful two-story house right on the beach. “Who's that with him?”

There was a lovely raven-haired beauty on his arm, clad only in a string bikini and looking fantastic. I swallowed back my envy over her perfect body(yet another reason I hated the beach, all those gorgeous women in bikinis flaunting their stuff) and looked closer. There was something off about her, her features looked too perfect, almost like plastic.

“We don't know,” Darius answered, “but we think she's fey.”

“
What?” Alarm bells went off in my head, this was looking worse and worse for Kanaloa. “Why do you think that?”

“
She has some kind of glamor going on,” Dexter, one of my lions, shook his shaggy blond hair out of his eyes and nodded to her with his nose. It was such a surfer move, I wanted to applaud. “But it's not god magic, we think it's fey.”

“
Damn,” I looked over the footage again and sure enough, when I focused I was able to catch subtle glimmers around her. They were very brief as the camera couldn't hold onto magic as well as a god made device could have, but they were definitely there and they were definitely faerie. “You're right, she's a fey. The question is, what kind of fey?”