Pursuit: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 4) (17 page)

“For what?” My mother snapped. “I’ve been trying to get featherbag to help all day, and he comes out now? After you summoned your god?”

“I am not a jealous god,” Quetzalcoatl said, and the wind around us howled. “I was busy.”

“With what? Painting your nails?” Diana snarled, stamping her foot. “I needed you!”

“I’m here now. What would you have me do?” the giant serpent god replied, hanging his head slightly. Which was crazy, right? Had my mom seriously just browbeat a god? Had that really just happened?

My mother’s face dropped into cold detachment as she stepped in front of me, shielding me behind her body. “Kill Masataka Mawara,” she commanded, pointing into the distance.

A tremor rippled down Quetzalcoatl’s body as its immense bulk swiveled toward the bridge that led from the walled city of Lot to the killing fields. I craned my head around my mother and that’s when I saw him.

Masataka was striding forward across the silver bridge and while there was no one else with him, it felt like he was bringing an army. His Vajra surged over his body like a swarm of gooey ants. The royal medallion burned so brightly around his neck that it was like a miniature sun. His trident was in his hand, the brown metal glowing with inner light.

Quetzalcoatl turned back to my mother and shook its huge head, “I cannot kill him,” it paused, glancing at Dyeus. “The Sky Father cannot stand against him, either.”

“And why is that?” my mother growled. “You’re plenty strong.”

“Because Gaia will not let them interfere,” Masataka said, and even from several hundred yards away, it sounded like he was right next to me. “You’re strong, Diana. I won’t try to argue that, especially since the three of you actually overpowered one of our totems.” I saw him gesture at the various totems that littered the killing fields. “I guess I owe Warthor five bucks. He had said it was technically possible. But seriously, how was I to know you could call on Dyeus and Quetzalcoatl? How’d you find those spirits? Did you just flip through a book looking for storm gods and point at two of the big ones and say ‘I want that them?’”

“You know that isn’t how it works,” my father said. “The spirits pick us, not the other way around.”

“Sometimes,” Masataka replied, stepping off the bridge and onto the killing fields. He was only a few yards away now, and he shifted his gaze to me. “But not always.”

“Sabastin, what will you have me do? My time in your reality is fading quickly,” Dyeus rumbled, blinking at my father.

“As is mine,” Quetzalcoatl added, glancing from Dyeus to my mother. “But I can last longer than him.”

“Return,” my mother said, holding her palms out in front of her body. “Return to me Quetzalcoatl.”

The giant serpent regarded her for a long time. “Very well, Diana,” it said before exploding into a million scintillating splinters of golden light. Like magic, my mother’s weapons formed in her hands. The bone handled whip and javelin glowed with inner light as she took a step forward and pointed them at Masataka.

“If you take another step, Masataka, I will
end
you,” she said and the lightning tore through the darkening sky above us. “Go now and I won’t chase you. Go now and find some place to hide, and I will ignore you. I will not offer you this chance again.”

Masataka stopped and looked down at the dirt in front of him. He looked back up and smiled, teeth glinting. Then he lifted one foot and took another step. He glanced at my mother and took another step. “Oops,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “I didn’t quite catch that,” he said. “You were going to ‘end me’ now, right?” he asked and yawned.

The wind howled, ripping through the horizon and flinging sand across the killing fields as my mother exploded forward. My mother slammed into Masataka like a bolt of lightning, flinging him backward across the dirt. He hit the ground and skidded several feet before coming to a stop.

But my mother hadn’t stopped. She was still moving, and she leapt into the air, javelin raised above her head. She struck the dirt, burying the weapon halfway into the ground… but Masataka was gone. Just gone. He reappeared behind my mother and drove the spear-like end of his trident backward. It skewered my mother, tearing through her back and bursting out of her chest in a crimson spray.

She staggered forward half a step before reaching down and grabbing the bloody edge of Masataka’s weapon. Her other hand shot upward and lightning exploded from the sky, slamming down on her hand and ripping through her body. It burst from the trident in a flash of energy so bright that I had to shield myself from it even though I was pretty far away.

Masataka’s hand seized around his weapon, and his eyes went wide with shock as electricity arced through his body. My mother whirled, tearing the trident free of his hand as her whip lashed out, catching Masataka across the face. He grunted and fell to his knees in a splash of crimson, hands grasping the dirt.

The ground beneath our feet rumbled, and my mother smirked, leaping into the air. Hurricane-like winds exploded into being, lifting her high above the killing fields. Boney wings tore from her back in a spray of black ichor. They caught the air and held her aloft. With an almost casual effort, my mother tore the trident free of her body and flung it away.

“Go fetch,” she called and threw her hands outward. Lightning tore from the heavens and slammed into Masataka. He threw his arm up, catching the magic on his Vajra shielded arm. It glowed like a solar flare for a second and he pawed at the ground, smiling.

“I forgot that you were a demon, Diana. For a moment, I forgot,” he said and his voice was loud even over the howling wind. “Soshi Kuruma!”

Totems tore free of the ground all around us, spinning upward in the air. The totems began to glow with effervescent light, each with a different color as they formed into weapons of various shapes and types. Masataka reached out and plucked an immense golden longbow from the spinning armory. As he pulled the string back, blue lightning formed where the arrow should have been.

“Die Storm God,” he said, launching the arrow at my mother.

“Diana!” My father screamed as the arrow ripped apart in mid-air turning into two, then four, then eight arrows. Splitting and multiplying over and over until the sky was filled with arrows that chased after my mother like homing missiles.

That was the moment my father snapped. He flung his hand out, and as he did so, the giant eye of Dyeus evaporated into mist. My father’s weapon Storm Heart flew through the air. It hit Masataka square in the back, pitching him forward into the dirt.

My father jerked backward on the ribbons of his spear, and the hooks on the weapon dug into Masataka’s Vajra and flung him backward at my father. My father’s foot lashed out, passing through the spot Masataka had occupied only a second ago. Without thinking, I drove my left hand out.

My fist caught Masataka in the side of the head and sent him sprawling to the dirt. “You just keep using that shadow step don’t you?” I said as my father shoved me behind him and twirled his spear in front of him like a baton. Electricity licked along the edge of the weapon, snapping and crackling through the air as my father flung the weapon forward in a wide arc.

Masataka dodged, and the spear changed course, suddenly darting to the left. The purple and blue ribbons wrapped around Masataka, tripping him up. He sprawled to the dirt again as my mother slammed into him like a hurtling comet.

She caught him square in the back with both fists, punching him down into the sand of the killing fields. The arrows came down a second later as my mother grabbed hold of him and flung his body in front of her. Masataka’s arrows slammed into him and exploded.

I turned away because it was so bright that spots danced in front of my eyes. As the dust cleared, my mother stood there, her boot on Masataka’s neck. He wasn’t moving but his eyes were open. “You came here to kill my child, Masataka Mawara, and you foolishly thought you could beat three of the most powerful Dioscuri by yourself?”

My mother stared down at him for a long time before moving her foot a fraction of an inch. He gasped and then like a crazy person began to laugh. “No,” he coughed between fits of laughter. “I want you to kill me.”

“That is something I can do,” my mother said, kneeling down next to him, her knee on his throat. “I’m going to crush you throat and leave you here to die, alone and unwanted.”

“Something’s wrong,” I said.

“Diana, don’t do it,” my father said at the same time. My mother turned, glaring at both of us. “This is too easy. Masataka isn’t this stupid,” my father added.

“What’s the matter with you two? We need to kill him now, while we still have the chance.” My mother very nearly screamed in frustration.

“Something’s wrong,” I said again and stared at Masataka for a long time. “I don’t know what it is, but he wants you to kill him. Why?”

“Because if he dies, then you will die too, Lillim” Caleb’s voice echoed across the killing fields. We all turned our heads to see Caleb standing there. “That’s what he isn’t telling you. Something about the spell they did to bring you back tied your lives together. If he dies, so do you.”

“You mean I’m bound to a psychopath that wants to kill me?” I screamed and watched as my mother removed her knee from his throat.

“It doesn’t matter, my daughter,” Sabastin Callina said, wrapping one arm around me and hugging me close to him. “I’ll put him in a deep dark hole, somewhere he can’t escape.”

“It’s Masataka Mawara, Dad. He can escape from any hole you put him in,” I cried, suddenly so angry I didn’t know what to do. So we were just supposed to let Masataka live even though he killed his brother and tried to kill me because to execute him would make me die? That was crap!

“Or we do things my way,” Caleb said, a huge grin on his face. He bent down, leaning close to Masataka Mawara and poked him in the chest. “The Prince and I talked it over. And you know what we realized? You’re a dick.”

Caleb stood, and his waved one hand. The scenery around us melted together, sliding into itself like gobs of melted crayons. Then it all snapped back together, flicking back in place like a humongous rubber band. The air whipped around us, crashing down on me like a tsunami, driving me to my knees in the dirt. Masataka screamed, his body arcing upward. Blue fire lit across the ground, swallowing both of us in icy heat.

“What are you doing?” my mother yelled, turning toward Caleb, her eyes narrowed in fury and began stomping toward him.

“Cleaving the bond between them,” he said amiably. “See, us gods.” Caleb jerked a thumb at his chest. “Bound them together. I’m just… unbinding them. Well,” Caleb added, smirking. “The Blue Prince is doing that. He thinks it will be delicious.”

“Then what happens?” my father asked, glancing from me to Masataka as blue fire danced across our skin.

“Then you do whatever you want to Masataka and it won’t hurt Lillim?” Caleb offered with a shrug.

The blaze died away, leaving me in a rush. I lay there, sweat clinging to my body and shivered as the cool air struck me. Beside me, Masataka seemed to be in no better shape. He rolled over, his face still in the dirt, hands clutching at the soft sand. He turned his head toward me, and his face was split by a grin so large that I couldn’t believe the size of it.

“Finally,” Masataka cooed, his Vajra beginning to glow the color of rusty metal. “Finally, the chain is broken. I’d come to terms with the fact that killing you would kill me. It’s why I’ve been going about it in a somewhat non-serious way. But now, that won’t be a problem.”

Masataka Mawara stood, getting to his feet in a flash. He inhaled, breathing in deeply through his nose. The whole of Lot shuddered, shaking beneath our feet. He lifted his left hand, and his trident was just there.

“Mom,” I screamed as she turned toward him, hands still gripping her weapons. Shock burst across her face.

“Boo,” he said, driving his trident up under her ribcage. The triple prongs exploded out her back, just under her neck. He released his hold on the trident, and my mother fell back against the dirt of the killing fields in a fountain of blood.

Chapter 16

“I’ve been planning for this moment since the day you were born, Lillim,” Masataka Mawara said. “And this time, there won’t be any demons to save you. I’ve gone ahead and sent your buddy, Ordain, back to Hell.”

He stepped over the fallen body of my mother as breath shuddered out of her. My heart stopped then and everything faded into a sort of weird gray color. I tried to speak, tried to move my body but I couldn’t do more than lay there, only now, I couldn’t see because tears were clouding my vision. No. I swallowed and shook my head. That wound might look bad… but it was my mother. She could heal that, right? Right?

I looked up at Masataka, and my blood pounded so hard in my temples that I thought I was going to explode. I tried to move toward him. How dare he do that to my mother! Demonic healing or not… he didn’t have to stab her like that.

“What have you done?” my father asked, his voice strained with so many emotions it was hard to quite pinpoint one. Anger, sadness, fury, despair? Take your pick, they were all there.

He took a step forward, and the sky around us darkened. Storm Heart blazed in his hand like a living bolt of lightning, making shadows leap across the horizon.

Masataka waved his hand and pretty much every Dioscuri in Lot appeared around us. So there had been an army with him. Somehow, he’d hidden all those people with glamour.

“Seize him,” Masataka commanded. The army surged forward. So many people pounced on my father that it was hard to see him under the mass of Dioscuri. More stepped up beside me, but none of them touched me because I was still too busy curling into a ball on the ground.

“To answer your question, Sabastin, I was hoping tall, blond, and dopey there,” Masataka said, glancing at Caleb, “would cleave our bond. I knew he wouldn’t let you kill me, not if it meant destroying Lillim too. So I hid the army. I kept placing all of you in ridiculous situations over and over so he’d release me.” Masataka flicked his wrist, and the shadows seemed to bend around him. “Admittedly, I was starting to lose hope. But I knew Diana wouldn’t be able to resist. She’s like a feral dog.”