Gods and Mortals: Fourteen Free Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Novels Featuring Thor, Loki, Greek Gods, Native American Spirits, Vampires, Werewolves, & More (110 page)

As the group of teens got closer, Dr. Gilbert was telling Mrs. Holt that he was giving Dumbo a sedative and pain killer solution so that he could more safely maneuver around the animal. The water was shallow enough so he wouldn’t drown. Therese watched in horror as the vet stuck the giant needle into Dumbo’s neck. Dumbo flinched, but within seconds closed his eyes and lay still. The vet propped Dumbo’s head up on a rock to keep it out of the water.

Bobby wrapped a dry towel around his mother’s shoulders and convinced her to come out of the stream. Therese looked into Mrs. Holt’s anguished face and said again how sorry she was.

Mrs. Holt gave Therese a big hug and said, “Please don’t feel for a minute that this is any fault of yours. This could have happened to any rider.”

But it happened to me, Therese thought.

The group stood on the banks of the stream watching as the vet conducted his exam. Therese became aware—vaguely at first and then more acutely—that Than had his arm protectively around her shoulders again. Jen came up and put her arm around Therese’s waist from the other side. Bobby stood close to his mother with a hand on her back.

Eventually, the vet stood up and walked over to them. “It’s not good,” he said. “Maybe the kids should go inside.”

Mrs. Holt looked at Therese. “Than, would you please take Therese back to the house? The others can stay.”

“Please, Mrs. Holt. I want to stay, too.”

Mrs. Holt hesitated. Then she looked at the vet and nodded. “It’s okay, Dr. Gilbert. Go ahead.”

“Well, Dumbo has two broken legs, his right front and his left hind. His left hind leg is broken in two places, and I think a couple of ribs may be cracked as well.”

“Oh no,” Bobby groaned.

“What do you recommend we do about it?” Mrs. Holt asked.

“I hate to say it, Steph, but I think we’re gonna have to put him down.”

“No!” Therese yelled.

Everyone looked at her, Than tightening his hold around her shoulders.

“Stay calm for the others,” he said softly in her ear.

“What’s the alternative?” Mrs. Holt asked.

“A slow and painful death,” the vet replied. “He’ll never recover.”

A blanket of dread and grief wrapped itself around Therese. This couldn’t be happening, she thought. She covered her mouth with her hand.

Mrs. Holt walked back out into the stream beside Dumbo. She kissed his still and quiet cheek. “Alright, kids. Time to go back to the house. I’ll stay here with Dr. Gilbert. Than and Therese, it’s business as usual in the mornin’, okay?”

Therese slowly nodded. That would be hard to do.

W
hen the four
teenagers got back to the house, Than asked Therese if he could walk her home, and she said yes, glad for the company. She could have called her aunt, which would have been a good choice since she was wet and cold and really upset, but she wanted to be with Than. He had become quite good at comforting her.

She hugged Jen and Bobby before she and Than headed home, apologizing over and over for something she knew wasn’t her fault but had nevertheless left her with a horrible feeling of dread. She and Than were quiet most of the way. Dusk was falling, and the deer had come out in the tall grass across the road. Therese watched them with blank eyes.

Than broke their silence. “That’s the first time I’ve seen firsthand what happens when a person or animal dies. I’ve never seen how hard it is for those they leave behind.”

Therese’s thoughts went from Dumbo to her parents. She clenched her jaw to stay back the tears. “Very hard,” she muttered.

“I really am sorry, Therese,” his voice was low and husky. He stopped and took her hand. “I’m so sorry people and animals have to die. I wish there were another way.”

He seemed more upset than she had realized, as on the verge of punching something, and she wanted badly to fling herself into his arms and let them each wash away the other’s pain, but she checked herself. “Thanks.”

He released her hand and walked her up to her front screened porch. “Will you come early tomorrow for a swim?” he asked.

“I don’t think so.”

“You need to do something to heal the pain,” he said.

“You see your first death, and now you’re an expert,” she snapped, and then immediately regretted it. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. See you in the morning.”

Therese went inside to find Carol wrapped in a blanket on the living room couch watching a movie. “You alright?” Carol asked.

“I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”

“Are you sure? You don’t want to talk about it?”

“I’m sure.”

Clifford jumped from the couch beside Carol and followed Therese up the stairs. She turned off Jewel’s lamp and told her good night. Puffy was in his wheel already at work. Therese climbed out of her soggy clothes and went to her bathroom to take a long hot shower. Clifford stood outside the shower curtain waiting, as though he sensed she was upset and needed a friend.

Once she was dry and in her nightshirt, Therese cuddled with Clifford on her bed. She felt bad for snapping at Than when he was only trying to help. She was also worried he might not like her anymore. Why did she have to be so rude? She took the stringy stuffed animal toy lemur from where it hung on the headboard post and wrapped it around her neck. She couldn’t stop her mind from replaying the tragedy with Dumbo over and over. Her mind went from the tragic events on the pasture to those at Huck Finn Pond. Therese closed her eyes, wishing she could die, too.

Before she had fallen completely asleep, she felt a presence other than her pets in her room, and her eyes snapped open. The moonlight washing into her room wasn’t bright, and she could see no one. She could have sworn she felt someone standing over her bed looking down at her, about to touch her face. She stopped breathing to listen, but after seeing and hearing nothing more but Puffy running in his wheel, she closed her eyes and told herself it must have been a dream.

A
fter leaving Therese safely
at her door, Than went to her room and, in invisible mode, conversed with the hamster and the tortoise.

“I love her,” he said in each of their tongues. “And she’s hurt. Please comfort her. Can you please?”

“If she picks me up!” The hamster said, as he ran round and round. “Good human! Good human! I’ve known others, and she’s good! If she picks me up, I’ll lick her with my tongue!”

Than turned to the tortoise, which now said, “She’s loving and tender. So gentle and loyal. I try as best as I can to let her know I love her, too.”

A noise came, and then Therese entered. Than softly thanked the animals, and listened as the tortoise said a bit more. Then Than took his leave.

He soared down past the abyss, past Cerberus and the gate and down to his father’s chamber in such a state of fury that the bats swirled down from their perch and made their escape into the cold night earlier than was usual. Although Hades must have foreseen his son’s arrival, he still showed surprise at his son’s rage, the son whom he was used to seeing as the more temperate of his two boys. A tinge of guilt ran through Than as he told himself to show more control.

His sister Alecto stood in the shadows beside their father. Her fire-red hair stood up in a Mohawk and contrasted with her deep black, beautiful eyes. A choker of black stones adorned her neck and similar stones served as buttons in her leather jacket and tight leather pants and high-heeled boots.

“Thanatos?” Hades asked. “Alecto was just apprising me of her progress in a number of the Furies’ pursuits, including the killer of your girlfriend’s parents. But something tells me you are not here for a report.”

“Have you found him?” he asked his sister.

She shook her head.

“Why are you here?” Hades asked Than.

Than tried to think how to put his sorrow and his shame and his desperation into words, but no words seemed to fit the caged and raw emotion he had never before felt. Finally, seeing his father was in a patient mood, Than swallowed and said, with more control and less rage than he felt, “I used to envy the humans their short lives. Their deaths make their lives more meaningful.”

“You no longer think it now?”

“I still think it, Father. Death is better than immortality, a yoke only we gods must bear.”

“I can’t see your thoughts, son. You must speak them.”

“Death is good for those who die, but not for those left behind. Why haven’t I understood before tonight the depth of that pain? If a horse could raise so much anguish in my mortal heart, I can only imagine what the loss of a parent or child would do. Father, I’ve ignored countless prayers from billions of souls because I felt there was nothing I could do; but I’m a god. Surely there is something?”

Hades looked down his thin nose at Than. He scratched at his beard and, Than could see, stifled a smile.

“Are you laughing at me?” Than said, moving dangerously close to his father.

Alecto stepped back, further into the shadows.

“Not at you. At the whole cosmos.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Than asked.

“Son, nothing is free. Everything comes with a cost. As you have said, the mortal creatures of the world, at least the good ones, are fortunate that their lives end and their souls spend the rest of eternity in near oblivion; unlike we who must endure our mundane tasks forever. You said yourself that the brevity of their conscious lives makes their journey more meaningful than ours. We are like caged hamsters in a wheel, spinning, spinning, spinning. Humans have but one spin, one go, one bright moment and then the flame goes out.

“The advantage of mortality is clear to us, but not to them, and that is why those left behind suffer. They miss the company of their loved ones, but it is the feeling that the deceased no longer exist that hurts the most. This is the cost mortals must pay. Let me put it to you this way: Mortality is better than immortality, but only the immortal have the ability to see this, and there lies both the irony and the cost of human happiness.”

Than shook his head. “So there really is nothing then? Nothing we can do to ease that cost?”

“If there is a way we gods can ease that burden, it is by inspiring this understanding into the human heart. I don’t know if it is possible, though. They have such limited minds.”

Than sat at the foot of his father’s throne on the hard, cold rock awash with defeat.

Hades asked, “A horse’s death has brought you to me in fits?”

Than looked up, ashamed. “Hip winked at me as he took the soul of the creature, completely ignorant of the pain we were feeling. How many times have I been so calloused as that?”

“Never. You and your brother are very unlike each other, as I am to mine.”

“It wasn’t the horse’s death that hurt so much as the pain I could feel in the humans left behind. That and the overwhelming feeling of helplessness. And also the rage that I, a god, could do nothing.”

Hades smiled. “I am familiar with the feeling. I suppose it is good that gods are humbled now and then.”

Than said nothing.

“How goes it with the girl?” Hades asked.

Than, used to being honest for so many centuries, could not find it in his heart to lie. He glanced at Alecto, unsure if he wanted her to hear, but went on and said, “I love her, but I’m having second thoughts about teaching her to love me.”

Hades lifted a brow. “You find her unworthy?”

“No. Just the opposite.”

“I find that insulting and despicable. Don’t weary me this way.”

Than stood up. “You don’t understand me because I can hardly explain myself. What I’m trying to say is that she loves the Upperworld and its inhabitants more than most humans, and I worry I would make her into a despondent wife down here.”

“There is no other kind of wife down here,” Hades said. “Remember that.”

T
herese woke
up sore Wednesday morning. She climbed out of bed, stiff and in pain. She replayed the events of the previous evening over in her head and shuddered. Maybe she should stay home. She picked up the phone and called Jen.

“My mom warned me you would call,” Jen said on the phone. “But she says it’s really important that you come this morning. You’ll heal a lot faster if you do. Moping around all day will make it worse. My mom had to threaten Bobby for the same reason.”

“But I’m in pain,” Therese objected. “I hadn’t gone riding in a year. And I fell down and hurt myself, remember?”

“We can’t make you come,” Jen said, “but my mom will be very disappointed and really upset. It’s your choice. Don’t forget we still have the Wildhorse Saloon tonight. I’ve gotta go.”

Therese groaned. She couldn’t have the entire Holt family angry with her, especially when she still felt guilty over what had happened. She kept thinking if only she had been in better control of Dumbo, things might have happened differently. Reluctantly, she threw on some clothes and sneakers and headed downstairs. She shared some breakfast with her aunt before they and Clifford climbed into Carol’s car. She kept her eyes out for Than as she absently made two braids in her hair, but didn’t see him along the dirt road. When they reached the tall grass across from the Holts’ house, she craned her neck to see if he might be swimming. His golden figure glided through the water. After she climbed from the car and thanked her aunt, she followed Clifford across the field to the lake where Than was swimming.

“Come in,” he said when he saw her watching him from the bank where his clothes sat piled in a heap. “It feels great.” His eyes sparkled in the sunlight, and his wet hair and body glistened.

Sometimes a weird feeling that he was merely a product of her imagination made her long to touch him to make sure he was real. “I didn’t wear a suit.” She was relieved he wasn’t mad about the way she had snapped at him yesterday. “But maybe another time.”

He swam toward the shore and stood up where the water grew shallow. His skin glowed as the sun behind her sprayed its rays across his wet body. Therese turned away from his beauty. Sadness still hung over her.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m sorry I snapped at you yesterday.” Her voice cracked.

“No apology necessary.”

She waited for him while he climbed into his clothes. She tried not to steal glances at him, but she failed miserably. Clifford came up to Than for some affection.

“Hi, Clifford.” Than patted the dog’s head. Then he turned to Therese. “Ready?”

They walked across the tall grass and dirt road to the gravel drive leading to the Holt house. Than asked her a few more questions, like what was Clifford like as a puppy and she as a little girl. He laughed when she told him about the time she lost Jewels in the woods and had actually called 911 and the person on the phone thought Therese was talking about a younger sister.

“I got in a lot of trouble for that,” she said. She looked over at him and took in his grin. It unnerved her, but she managed to ask, “Have you ever gotten into trouble?”

“Never,” he said.

“Never ever?”

“Nope. I’ve always been good. My brother, on the other hand, well, that’s another story.”

“You have a brother?”

“A twin. But we’re not identical. I got the good looks, the sense of humor, and the charm. He got the more devilish qualities.”

Although Than was laughing, like he was only joking, Therese froze in her tracks.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

She’d heard something like that before. A chill moved down her back. “Um, nothing.” She shook her head, reminding herself that what she was about to suspect was entirely impossible, but as she looked at Than through the corner of her eye, she could have sworn he was laughing at her.

Jen and Bobby were coming from the house at the same time Than and Therese approached the pen. Mrs. Holt was already in the pen working on the General.

“Mornin’, Than. Mornin’, Therese,” Mrs. Holt said.

“Mornin’, Mrs. Holt,” they replied.

“Than, you go ahead and get started on Rambo. Therese, Sugar’s waiting for you.”

Jen and Than entered the pen and shared their good mornings all around. Jen said she had just gotten off the phone with Ray who said he and Todd would definitely be joining them at the Wildhorse Saloon tonight to hear Pete’s performance. No one mentioned anything about what had happened the night before.

M
rs. Holt drove
up in her Suburban at seven o’clock Wednesday evening. Therese climbed down the front wooden steps and entered on the passenger side. Bobby sat in the passenger seat wearing his cowboy hat and a short-sleeved Western shirt. He smelled like soap and had a huge grin on his freckled face as Therese climbed into the seat behind him. Jen laughed as soon as she saw what Therese was wearing because they wore almost the same thing: same dark blue shade of boot-cut jeans, same red Justin Roper boots, and nearly identical white blouses, except that Therese’s had a round neckline whereas Jen’s had a v. Both wore their long hair down, and although Jen’s was straight blonde and Therese’s was curly red, they fell to the same length, to the center of their backs.

“We do this all the time,” Jen said.

“It’s almost eerie.” Therese grinned.

“Are you wearing Oscar De La Renta, too?” Jen asked.

Therese shook her head. “No, it’s, um, it’s called Haiku. It’s what my mom wore. I’ve been wearing it a lot lately.”

The two girls looked away from one another.

“It smells nice,” Mrs. Holt offered.

Therese’s heart skipped a beat when she referred to her mother, but now that they were pulling up the gravel drive to the Melner cabin, it sped up considerably, more than making up for the skipped beat.

Jen explained, “Than and one of his sisters are riding with us. His other sister had plans.”

Mrs. Holt’s reaction expressed Therese’s same sentiments when she said, “Lordy, Lordy, look at those two.”

Than’s sister wore a tight black leather mini-skirt, black go-go boots, and a red silk blouse with spaghetti straps. Her blonde curls were wound together in a thick bun on her head, a few strands spilling out of the bun down to the nape of her neck in a wild cascade. Her lips matched the red in the blouse. The rest of her rather fierce face seemed void of makeup. Her skin glowed like her brother’s, but hers was fairer, almost white.

Like the white witch from Narnia, Therese thought.

Even in that conspicuous outfit, Than’s sister could not outshine her brother. His clean dark wavy hair gleamed with golden highlights in the evening sun and danced against his strong jaw line. His pale blue cotton polo seemed to match the crystal in his eyes, and together with his white trousers, emphasized the golden hues of his magnificent skin. His brown boots and matching belt were the same shade as his hair. Therese climbed out of her seat and into the back to make room for them.

Before Jen could do the same, Than said, “Jen, why don’t you stay there with my sister. I’ll climb in back. I don’t mind at all.”

Jen’s face looked like a mixture of giddiness and jealousy.

Then Than said, “Everybody, this is my sister, Meg.”

They took turns introducing themselves to Than’s sister, who was courteous if not friendly. “A pleasure,” she said.

Therese could barely breathe in the third seat next to the golden boy. She almost thought, “Golden god,” but then her memory of the dreams and the fear of insanity made her shrug that word out of her mind. It made more sense to her that she had felt him coming, that she had had some kind of prophetic dream about a new crush, than that she could have been communicating with gods.

He gave her a friendly smile, and this made Therese shiver with excitement.

“You look and smell so nice,” he whispered.

“So do you,” Therese replied, unable to think of anything original with her heart going a million miles an hour against her rib cage.

Meg turned around in her seat and gave him a disapproving glare. Than looked away from Meg and from Therese to stare out of the window.

Meg’s face looked vaguely familiar to Therese: Her pale skin and unruly blonde hair and dark red lips. “Oh my God!”

Everyone turned to look at Therese.

“Is something wrong?” Mrs. Holt glanced at her from the rearview mirror.

“No. No, nothing’s wrong.” She bit the inside of her bottom lip, not wanting to utter her thoughts. Than’s sister looked uncannily similar to the strange looking woman in the forest who had called her name and frightened poor Clifford a few weeks ago. How embarrassing if she had simply been frightened by a guest at the Melner cabin. On the other hand, how would Meg have known Therese’s name?

But hadn’t she also seen her reflection in the glass at the police department? No. Of course not.

Than said, “The sun looks so beautiful when it drops behind those mountains across the lake. The pines seem to twinkle.”

Bobby chuckled and shook his head. “I’ve never heard that one. Twinkling pines, huh?”

Jen snickered.

Than glanced at Therese, and she gave him another smile. She didn’t like the way Bobby and Jen had laughed at him. “I know exactly what you mean,” she whispered. “I never get tired of sunsets here.”

Meg, who spoke without turning, startled Therese with her loud condemning voice, “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. They never vary.”

Jen glanced back at Therese to give her the “What’s with her?” look. Than caught it too and chuckled.

The drive to the dance hall from Lemon Reservoir Dam took a little less than twenty minutes down winding country roads flanked by tall trees. Therese felt Than looking at her when he wasn’t watching the scenery through his window. She liked the attention and was beginning to allow herself to believe he really could like her. Normally, this would be enough to make her nervous, but compounded with that were her insane and persistent suspicions about his connection to her bizarre dreams.

As they pulled into the parking lot, pretty bare since it was still early and a Wednesday night, Therese asked Jen, “Todd and Ray are still coming, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, they said they were. Oh, look! They’re in Todd’s truck!”

The bright yellow fifty-seven Chevy pickup towered over the other vehicles from its heightened position on a lift kit including giant mag tires with thirty-inch rims. Jen and Therese piled out of the suburban and rushed over to meet their friends.

“Come on,” Therese called to the others. “You guys have got to see this!”

“Hello, down there!” Todd shouted through his window as the truck bounded into a parking space. He rolled up his window when he came to a stop.

“Oh my God!” Therese and Jen giggled, shaking their heads in disbelief.

Bobby and Than came up behind with Mrs. Holt and Meg bringing up the rear.

Therese laughed as she watched the long and lanky Todd jump more than a meter to the ground from the monster truck.

“Of all the colors in the universe,” Ray said laughing. He came around the cab to join the group gathered on the driver’s side. “I kept expecting the truck to transform into a giant robot.”

“It’s awesome!” Therese exclaimed. “I mean, wow, Todd!”

“You don’t think it’s a little extravagant?” Jen asked. “It’s a bit big.”

Therese gave Jen a warning look.
Don’t hurt his feelings
, her look said.

“That’s kind of the idea,” Ray said. Then he added, “Think he’s compensating?”

Todd slapped Ray on the back. “Thanks a lot, Ray. Don’t forget I’m your ride home.”

Therese noticed the second and third looks Ray and Todd gave to the newest members of their group. Jen introduced them, and then they all went inside the saloon. Everyone but Mrs. Holt had to wear a special red bracelet made for minors. Therese was relieved to learn that Than wasn’t twenty-one. She wondered how old he was. She thought maybe eighteen. She thought she might get up the nerve to ask him tonight.

Pete’s band was still setting up equipment on the stage, so the music that carried throughout the dance hall was a prerecorded mix of songs usually played over the radio. Just now, Lady GaGa’s voice had Jen jumping up and down.

“I love this song! Let’s go dance!” Jen pinched Therese’s hand and pulled her toward the dance floor.

Therese grabbed Ray’s hand and shouted, “Help! You guys have to come, too!”

Ray and Todd made it to the edge of the dance floor but refused to go any further. Only a few others were dancing, as the place was pretty empty. Jen pulled Therese onto the floor, and Therese, not wanting to disappoint her friend, cheerfully made a fool out of herself as she bounced her hips and swayed her shoulders to the music. She stole a quick glance at Than to confirm he was watching. She could feel him laughing at her, but his eyes seemed pleased, like he was admiring her.

Jen sang with the song, waving her arms in the air.

Pete flashed them a smile when he noticed them on the floor. He gave Therese a thumb’s up, so she mimicked it back to him. As embarrassed as she was to be one of the few people dancing, she also, and unexpectedly, felt free. Just a few weeks ago, she wouldn’t have thought it possible to smile and have fun. She knew it was temporary—that tonight in the quiet of her bedroom—well, not complete quiet, for Puffy would be exercising in his wheel—she would not be able to avoid the flood of memories that would fill her with dread and bring that panicky feeling gripping at her chest. She wouldn’t think of that now!

“P-p-p-poker face!” she cried. She could do this. She could go on pretending that everything was fine and she was free.

Therese stayed out on the dance floor with Jen for one more song, and then the two of them joined the others at the bar where they all got pops. Therese was relieved for the sake of Pete and his band by the arrival of more and more patrons as the hour grew later. By eight o’clock, there was a decent crowd, and swirls of cigarette smoke began to fill the air, Mrs. Holt contributing her fair share of it. The sheer number of bodies on the dance floor brought the place alive.