Green Tea and Black Death (The Godhunter, Book 5) (22 page)

  “
There are potions that can be made,” Trevor's eyes were narrowing.

   “
And Anubis vould know zem, da?”

   “
Most likely,” Trevor grimaced.

   “
I don't want you to be angry,” I touched my hand to Trevor's cheek. “I only told you so you would know what we suspected in case it ever comes out as the truth.”

  “
How can I not be angry?” Trevor growled. “If you're right, Anubis nearly succeeded in tearing us apart again and I blamed you for something that wasn't your fault.”

   “
Maybe,” I shrugged, “but I look at it more like he failed again and now I'll be more wary of him. Look, I'll confront Anubis about this all in good time but right now, I just want to be happy with my wolf, who it feels like has been away from me forever.”

   “
I'm good with that,” Trevor grinned and picked me up. “Then we can get to the part where you start showing me how amazing you think I am.” We were halfway down the hallway when he yelled back to Kirill. “Aren't you coming?”

  
The soft pad of eager feet echoed toward us.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

   “
Plague comes to Paradise!” The news reporter announced in horrified glee. “A total of four cases have been verified but local authorities are concerned that there may be several more victims who were unable to make it to a hospital for treatment.”

   “
Oh shit,” I breathed out as I sat down in front of the TV.

  “
The CDC has been working hard to find the source of these outbreaks and they believe them to be connected to infected rodents in the Chinatown area. They advise residents to be wary of contact with any rodent in or outside of Chinatown and to handle dead animals with the greatest care. If you find a dead rat, use gloves or a tool to collect the body and then turn it in to your local police department or hospital for proper disposal. You may also turn in the bodies to the Hawaiian Humane Society, where they can safely dispose of the remains.”

   “
Crap, crap, crap,” I jumped up and looked over at Kirill and Trevor. They were wearing matching expressions of dismay. “What do we do?”

   “
Should we call someone?” Trevor asked.

   “
Who vill ve call?” Kirill shook his head.

   “
Ghostbusters?” I couldn't help it, had to be said. “Yeah, okay, okay, we better call in the God Squad.

Chapter Thirty

  
Pride Palace was the perfect place for a god meeting. The dining room was huge, as were most of the public rooms, so we could seat everyone comfortably. We had lots of food to offer and I had to visit my lions anyway. It was a win-win situation.

 
Most of the palace was done in a very Ralph Lauren, British safari style, with lots of polished mahogany, accented with some bamboo pieces, and topped off with a lot of mosquito netting. There were no mosquitos in the God Realm, I had no idea why we needed so much netting but then I hadn't been the one who designed the place, that was Nyavirezi. May she suffer eternal damnation and never rest in peace.

  
Anyway, the dining table was a beautiful, shiny, mahogany,  set with crystal candelabras and fine china. The room was painted a light khaki with bamboo side rails, and large bay windows that curved out toward the breathtaking view of an African-like landscape.

  
I was staring out those large windows at a herd of elegant, long-legged antelope gathered near the lake, so I didn't hear my name at first.

   “
Vervain?” Trevor nudged me.

   “
Oh, sorry,” I looked back at all my gathered friends. “Things just seem a little hopeless with Xi Wangmu, I'm losing focus.”

   “
It's never hopeless,” Teharon smiled gently at me.

   “
There must be something we can do,” Persephone gnawed at her lip and then turned to her husband, Hades. “Can't you just burn all the rats, Sizzle-Butt?”

   “
No,” I waved my hands wildly. “Chinatown has a bad track record with fire. The last time the plague was here, the government thought they'd only burn a section of Chinatown down but the fire spread and everything went up in smoke. I can just see a bunch of burning rats running through the streets like little furry arsonists intent on repeating history. Not a good idea.”

   “
Plus, they'd never get the smell out.” Horus sniffed.

   “
There are some parts of Chinatown that might be improved by the smell of burning rodent,” Ull grimaced.

   “
Most of it's pretty clean now,” I shook my head at Thor's stepson. “It's just hard to keep it that way when there are so many bars and homeless in the area.”

   “
Whatever the state of the town may be,” Pan smoothed his T shirt so that the arrow pointing to his crotch was straight. Above it, were the words:
A deed without a name
. “We need to do something, and fast.”

   “
If only there were some kind of rat god who could pull a Pied Piper for us,” I harumphed.

   “
Hold the presses,” Brahma sat up straight in his chair. “There
is
a rat goddess.”

   “
You're kidding me,” I gaped at him.

   “
No, and I happen to know her,” he started grinning like he knew her really well. Or, as was most likely the case, he wanted to get to know her better. “She's a Hindu goddess and her name is Karni Mata. She doesn't involve herself in the war because she still has tons of followers.”

   “
The Rat Goddess has lots of followers?” I was starting to get a little squidged out. “Dare I ask how they worship her?”

   “
Oh the usual,” Brahma waved his hand. “We'll have to go to India to see her though. She hardly ever leaves the temple, she really likes it there.”

   “
Okay, I'm willing to do anything at this point,” I shrugged. “You all gonna come along?”

  
There was some coughing and shuffling while the rest of the God Squad looked away, anywhere but at my face. I narrowed my eyes on everyone as I started to have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. How bad could this lady be, that no one wanted to go see her?

  “
Okay, what gives?” I finally got someone to meet my gaze. Surprise, surprise, it was Thor.

   “
It's the obvious reason,” Thor grimaced. “I've never met the woman and I don't think anyone else but Brahma has either.” The rest of them nodded and started meeting my eyes once again. “I'm sure she's delightful but come on, Vervain. She's the
Rat
Goddess, what do you think is going to be inside her temple?”

   “
Oh, right,” I sighed. “I hate rats. I mean, I'm an animal lover and I don't want to go out and kill them all or anything but I really don't like them. They give me the heebee jeebees. I think it's the eyes and those hairless tails. Tails shouldn't be hairless unless the whole animal is hairless.”

   “
Exactly why no one wants to go with you,” Trevor laughed. He was the only one, well him and Kirill, who hadn't freaked out. “They're just animals. Really tiny ones. Nothing to be afraid of. Sounds like snack time to me.”

   “
Don't even think about it, wolf,” Brahma warned in a serious voice. “Kill one of her rats and you'll face her wrath. She's very protective, especially of the white ones, says they're her tribe or something like that.”

   “
Her tribe?” I had this horrible image of someone trying to mate with a rat. Impossible. Right? Yeah, gross and impossible. Oh, I was starting to feel sick.

   “
I can't remember the whole story,” Brahma frowned, “but I think it was something to do with a dead child. She wanted to save him and Yama said he'd already been reincarnated, so she couldn't have him back.”

   “
Yama?” Mr. T asked.

  “
He's a death god,” Brahma waved it off as if the death god wasn't important. I hoped he stayed that way, I really didn't want to meet another god of the dead. “So she bartered with Yama that all her tribe would be reborn as rats until they could be reborn back into the tribe.”

   “
What the hell?” I looked over at Kirill and he just shrugged. “Why rats? Why not cats? Sounds similar but in reality, it's so much better. Cats live pampered lives, rats not so much.”

   “
Who knows?” Brahma shrugged. “You can ask her yourself but I wouldn't recommend it. She gets offended when anyone speaks disparagingly of her rats.”

   “
Okay so no smack talk about the rodents,” I nodded. “Anything else we should know before we go? And we're
all
going, by the way. You little chicken shits are not leaving me to do this alone.”

   “
But, Vervain,” Pan whined.

   “
I'm a falcon god,” Horus smirked. “I'll go but I won't guarantee my good behavior.”

   “
Yes you will, Feather Face,” I glared at Horus. “We can not fuck this up. We need this woman's help and you will all be on your best behavior. Do you all understand me?”

 
I glared at everyone and was rewarded by a chorus of,
yes, ma'ams.

   “
Zis is silly,” Kirill shook his head. “How bad can be?”

Chapter Thirty-One

   “
It's beautiful,” I was standing in front of the Karni Mata temple in Deshnok, Rajasthan, India.

  
It was a rectangular building with a square room sticking out from it's center as the obvious entrance. On top of the square was a covered balcony with gorgeous marble railings that spread out to crown the whole building. There were arches everywhere, marble carved with intricate designs, and the courtyard in front of the temple was tiled.

  
There were also a lot of pigeons. I don't know why that shocked me, I should have expected it. I always referred to the birds as flying rats. It kind of made sense that they'd hang out together.

   “
Just wait,” Brahma led us through the tourists and temple-goers milling about.

  
We went inside, which proved to be an immediate relief from the heat, and I was once again overwhelmed by the beauty of the place. There was sculptural relief artwork everywhere, carved right into the walls. Delicate designs covered entire sections of wall  built with projecting arches and framework. There were silver and gold inlaid into the marble and incredible pictures of the goddess cut out of the stone.

  
I was so focused on the beauty, I almost ran into Brahma's back when he suddenly stopped. He was having an argument with a little Indian man. They were both gesticulating wildly until Brahma waved a hand over the man's face and he walked quietly away.

   “
What was all that about?” I asked.

   “
He wanted us to remove our shoes,” Brahma gestured to his immaculate loafers. Then he surprised me by doing a Vervain impersonation. “That's
so
not happening.”

  
I laughed and followed him further into the temple. He was right though, I wasn't about to remove my shoes in this place. It was clean, I'll give them that. I didn't even see any rats but still, the thought of one running over my bare foot was enough to keep my shoes on.

 
I was enjoying more of the artwork when I finally saw them. Rats, they weren't swarming over my feet or anything, but they were there. Every dark corner or hidey-hole had dark eyes peering out of it. They watched us warily as we passed and sniffed the air like they knew who we were. Then we came to the inner courtyard.

  
Again, so beautiful. It hard a drop-down floor tiled in a black and white checkered pattern. Outlining its perimeter were intricate wrought iron railings and huge marble pillars. In the center of the floor were gigantic bowls of what looked to be milk and some bright yellow rice dish. All along the rims of the bowls were rats. They were leaning over the sides and eating the food or drinking the milk. Some were even going for a swim
in
the milk. Amidst all this, sat a man in a red turban, covered in rodents. He was smiling and petting them like they were treasured pets.

  
I gasped a little and pulled back. That's when I noticed that the railings weren't empty either. Hundreds of rat bodies infested the iron, climbing in and out, weaving their furriness through the delicate scroll work. Some just hung on the metal, staring at us.