Paladin (Graven Gods 1) (17 page)

As I approached, Calliope riding one shoulder, he laid steaks over the flames, his gestures quick and competent. His big hands were marked with the kind of calluses and small scars a man got when he did construction work for a living.

Definitely not the pampered kind of millionaire god.

Zanos-James looked up at us, his gaze keen on my face before he smiled. “Ah, you got the amnesia spell broken. Good to see you again, Paladin-Summer.” He took the hand I offered, bowing over it in one of those gestures only an immortal could pull off. His green eyes went intent as a cat’s, as if he was addressing me separate from Paladin. “I am deeply sorry for what you’ve suffered. Both your parents were great people. I counted myself fortunate to call your father my friend.”

“Yes… I, uh…” I had to stop and swallow the burning knot in my throat. “Thank you.”

Zanos-James looked around as a tall blond rose from the campfire where a circle of avatars sat. “And here’s Ulf-Mark now.”

“Summer!” A note of intimate joy in his voice, the man strode around the grill to meet me. Calliope hopped down from my shoulder, ducking aside, as if to give us plenty of room for our reunion. Being a Demi, Ulf-Mark was of course tall, broad-shouldered and ridiculously handsome. Examining that clever face, I recognized traces of the boy he’d been twelve years ago. His hair was a shining summer blond, and his winter-sky gray eyes were sharply intelligent. He was a head taller than I was, and a little more muscular than Zanos-James. He must have worked like hell to put on that much mass at his height. He’d be strong as a bull.

“Nice to see you again, Mark.” I hesitated, not sure how to greet my father’s god in this new body, then reached to shake his hand.

“Oh hardly!” He drew me into a warm hug, and I
felt
Ulf, his love for me so like my father’s. They’d always seemed intertwined, as there’d been no separating them.

At least until one of them had died.

But not both of them. My eyes stung.
Part of Daddy survives after all
. It was a comforting realization.

Odd that I didn’t see Paladin as part of my mother. Or perhaps it wasn’t really all that odd. There was nothing remotely motherly about him.

“
Glad to hear it
,” he said dryly.

Ulf aside, Mark wasn’t particularly fatherly either. While the god’s touch was familiar, his was not. As he hugged me, he felt tall and hard and muscular under the knit shirt and light windbreaker he wore. He didn’t exactly cop a feel, but there was something about the way he held me, as if he was giving it some thought.

Paladin didn’t like that one bit. He didn’t actually growl, but it was close.

I eased back out of the avatar’s arms, fighting Paladin’s need to shove the man away. Judging from his smile, Ulf-Mark was either unaware of the undercurrents or chose to ignore them. Probably the latter; avatars aren’t known for being clueless.

He cupped my cheek in one warm palm. “You look so much like your mother.” There was genuine sadness in his eyes, a deep well of grief. “I miss Barbara and Graham more than I can say. Theirs was a true marriage in mind, body and magic.”

As opposed to one solely for purposes of breeding.

The sadness lifted, and I had the impression it was Mark giving me that boyish grin. “It’s hard to believe you’re the same skinny little girl who used to run around with my sister.”

I grinned back. “How is Sara?”

“Doing pretty well.” His grin took on a note of pride. “She’s an avatar for the goddess Asmera. Married Idar-Scott last year, and they’re expecting their first child. Asmera-Sara says it’s going to be a boy.”

I blinked, floored by the idea of my tomboy buddy as anybody’s parent. This was the same kid who’d always carried her doll around by one foot. “Sara’s going to be a mother?”

“Yeah, sometimes it’s hard for me to believe too. But I guess we’ve all grown up.” He smiled back at me, so slow and sensual I felt the impact all the way to the toes of my boots.

If things had gone differently, we’d be married by now. Maybe I’d be pregnant with a child who’d eventually become Paladin’s Avatar.

Yet the idea of sleeping with some other Demi, feeling the touch of a man who was not Paladin…
No. Just no
.

Ultimately, though, I’d have no choice. This thing between Paladin and me was nothing more than a beautiful illusion.

As if sensing my chaotic emotions, Ulf-Mark smiled in grave sympathy. “All this must be really strange for you. I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose your entire childhood, even the memory of your parents wiped out of your mind.”

“Paladin didn’t exactly have a choice. It was that or let Valak get his claws in me, and that would have been a lot worse.”

“Yes, I realize that, but… I’m just sorry, that’s all. My whole family grieved for you, and after I experienced Ulf’s memories, I felt the loss even more.”

Before the conversation could get seriously painful, Zanos-James picked that moment to interrupt. “First set of steaks are done, folks. Who wants theirs mooing?”

As we started queuing up for the food, Ulf-Mark rested a palm on the small of my back. I glanced at him, and blinked. There was nothing fatherly in the gesture.

And I wondered suddenly if Ulf wanted to resurrect our parents’ matrimony plans…

A couple of hours later everybody had stuffed themselves on steaks, hotdogs, hamburgers, and the various sides and desserts provided by the Demiclans’ cooks. And damned good cooks they were, too.

I got up to try to waddle off all that food with a tour of the surrounding clearings, ringed as they were with tents that served as shops for assorted enchanted goods.

You could buy anything from herbs and potions to magical weapons and armor, plus grimoires, gemstones and whatever else an inventive Demi might whip up to house some spell or other. Most of the work was breathtaking; immortality gave artisan gods a long time to hone their skills.

I found myself stopping to chat every few minutes, reacquainting myself with merchants I’d known from childhood. Every one of them seemed to remember my family fondly. I ended up buying a ring here, a chunk of fudge there, and stopping to admire magical weapons that made my fingers tingle with their power.

“
We need to stop here
,” Paladin told me when we reached one particular tent consisting of a canvas roof draped over wooden supports. A long folding table filled the narrow space, covered with polished quartz, gemstones and geodes of various sizes ranging from robin’s egg to bowling ball. All of them swirled and glowed with radiant magic. A vinyl sign draped the front of the table: “Cleansings, Scrying Crystals, Gemstones.”

A young blonde woman sat behind the table reading a romance novel. She looked up and stood at our approach, smiling. “Paladin!” She sounded so glad to see him I felt an instant stab of irrational jealousy. Mostly because she had the deliciously lush body and exquisite looks of a Victoria’s Secret model, though she wore a loose shirt and jeans that seemed designed to disguise her looks rather than call attention to them. “Back again?”

“Filled ‘em all up,” he told her, reaching into a pocket. He pulled out a small spelled velvet bag, embroidered with sigils and tied shut with silver cord. Opening it, he spilled out a handful of small rocks. Unlike the glowing stones on the table, they looked dark, as if something black and oily swam inside them. They also radiated such a sense of evil, I realized the spell on that bag must be powerful indeed to contain it. “How much?”

She spread a hand over them, cocked her head, then named a figure that made my eyebrows rise. The woman laughed. “I see you’ve got Summer in there too.” She gave me a friendly smile that made me feel a lot less paranoid. “Hey, girl. Long time, no see.”

I blinked. “Diane? Diane Delano?” She’d been buddies with Sara, Opal and me. We’d had slumber parties and gone to movies and giggled our way through the first half of our respective childhoods together. Demi kids of roughly the same age tended to pal around together, since the community wasn’t that large to begin with.

“Iva-Diane now,” she corrected. “Death goddess.”

That made me blink again. Artistic, dreamy Diane, avatar of a death goddess?

“Yeah, surprised me too.” Diane gave me a slow, bittersweet smile. “I missed you, kiddo.”

“I…” I broke off.

“Would have if you’d remembered me.” Her smile widened, grew less shadowed. “But hey, maybe we can get together and go see a movie or something.”

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

While we’d been talking, Paladin pulled a wallet out of my pocket and handed over a black credit card that had me blinking. I hadn’t known I could even get that thing.

Then again, I probably couldn’t. Paladin evidently had his own finances.

Diane swiped it through a gizmo attached to her cell phone, then handed over the phone and a stylus for a signature.

She picked up the stones, though I’d have hated to touch them with my bare skin. Her eyes flashed blue, then began to burn. Her hands glowed bright.

And the sense of evil drained away. She handed back the stones, now glowing brightly with the magic she’d filtered. “Boy, those guys really were assholes, weren’t they?”

Paladin grinned. “Pretty much. Thanks, Diane. Without you, I’d go
eeeeeviiiiiiiil
.”

She snorted. “Yeah. Right.”

He shrugged. “Pretty damned close.”

I traded phone numbers and emails with Diane and we agreed to go out the following Saturday.

Feeling better about life, I headed back to the main clearing, where Zanos-James was holding court among his warriors. They sprawled in those canvas chairs you see at football tailgating events, the kind with a metal frame and a cup holder in one arm. There was enough magical power in the air to make the nape of my neck tingle.

And no wonder, given there were twenty warriors, male and female, most avatars of one god or another. Even those who were merely Demi radiated magic. It was a talented and dangerous crowd.

“There you are, Paladin-Summer.” Zanos-James waved me over, his smile as friendly as his eyes were sharp.

It suddenly struck me how strange it was to hear my name hyphenated like that. Especially since I was more used to hearing Paladin’s name connected to my mother’s. A pang shot through me, and Zanos-James’ gaze softened, as if he realized what I was thinking.

“
He’s always been perceptive
,” Paladin murmured as we dropped into the chair beside the big Avatar -- our usual place. “
There’s a reason he’s god of the city
.”

Paladin had told me he served as Zanos-James’s lieutenant in this paramilitary organization of Graven’s defenders. Which was why I wore a shoulder holster under my leather jacket and a knife in my boot. I’d probably have felt a little ridiculous if everybody else wasn’t wearing just as much hardware, most of it magical. As I settled into the camp chair on the Graven god’s right, Calliope jumped into my blue-jeaned lap. I immediately started scratching behind her ears, feeling a little less out of place.

Cal was actually one of several familiars among the avatars. There were also two other cats, three dogs, a wolf, and a black-footed ferret, all of them sprawled on or around their avatar partners.

I recognized several of them, particularly the huge white wolf with eyes like sapphires. His name was Nix, and he was sprawled at the feet of a gorgeous dark haired woman I belatedly recognized as Opal, Zanos-James’s daughter. She bore a marked resemblance to her father in the shape of her face and vivid green eyes, but she also radiated an air of tough competence that suggested the resemblance was more than skin deep. She’d always been serious and intense even as a kid, mostly because her avatar mother had died when she was very young. To make matters worse, her mom’s goddess had been devoured by the dark god who killed her. Zanos-James never got over her death, and Opal had grown up worried she’d somehow fail him and Zanos.

Opal noticed me watching her and came over, Nyx at her heels. “I heard you two finally broke that spell. Good.” She shook my hand, her grip firm and sure as Nyx and Calliope exchanged murmured comments. “He’s been worrying about that for months. Especially since Valak started actively stalking you a couple of nights ago. He was terrified the bastard would hurt you when he couldn’t do anything to help.”

“Thanks for watching his back for me.”

She smiled. “He’s a good partner. I’ve been lucky to have him.”

The note of affection in her voice sent a knee-jerk jolt of jealousy through me.

“
You’ve got nothing to worry about
,” Paladin told me. “
Opal doesn’t swing that way
.”

“
Opal’s gay?
” I asked, surprised.

“
Other way around. Our plumbing’s female, remember
?”

Opal laughed. “I’d love to know the conversation you two just had. That’s a really interesting expression you’re wearing.”

I felt my cheeks catch fire, and knew I was blushing like a cherry tomato. “Umm. Yeah.”

“And you’re not going to satisfy my curiosity.” She sighed. “I’m used to it. Occupational hazard of hanging around avatars.”

Before I groped my way out of that one, white wings fluttered overhead. Zanos-James’s hawk, Rizoel, came in for a landing as he held out a forearm for her. The bird apparently made a habit out of it, because he wore a thick leather bracer to give her a place to perch. “Opal,” Zanos-James said, and gestured her over.

“Looks like you’re off the hook.” Opal waved two fingers. “Later.” She knelt beside her father, giving the hawk’s head a stroke.

I’m not sure I’d have had the guts to do that
. Rizoel was the biggest fucking bird I’d ever seen, with plumage white as a snowbank. Her crimson eyes had a tendency to glow, either from reflected firelight or her own raw magic. I wouldn’t like to be on the receiving end of her claws or vicious beak. She looked like she could disembowel a bear.

“
You’re not far wrong
,” Paladin told me. “
Rizoel can do a hell of a lot of damage for something that only weighs about fifteen pounds. Then again, she’s also got a seven-foot wingspan. Impressive as hell
.”