Dead After Dark (Companion #6.5)(106)

Her gaze tracked to Trey just as he turned to cover Evalle’s back while she fought hand to hand against three demons, slashing off one’s head with a kick of her boot. Vyan swung his blade in a wide arc toward Trey’s head.

Sasha screamed at the top of her lungs for Trey to watch out. He spun toward her, Vyan’s blade barely missing him.

“Behind you!” Sasha yelled.

Trey whirled around fast and knocked Vyan to the ground, pinning Vyan with the sword at his throat.

Ravana bellowed, “Kill him and you will face me, Belador! Demons, cease!”

All fighting slowed. The trio of Belador fighters backed up to one another, weapons ready to continue. The creatures slobbered blood, dropping down to all fours and pawing the ground again.

“You any better a warrior than him, Ravana?” Trey chided.

Ravana took a step forward.

“Enough!” The booming voice that rocked the park bounced from earth to the heavens and back. A man stepped from thin air and Sasha’s jaw dropped at the striking vision. Men shouldn’t be beautiful. Shimmering mahogany hair hung to his shoulders. He brushed his hand over his head in an impatient gesture and his hair flew back into a ponytail, a leather tie holding it in place. Smooth olive-toned skin covered his cut body and the sharp-angled face. The scar slashing his forehead only added to his mystique. Mediterranean-blue eyes were Asian shaped. He had to stand close to six-foot-six and strode into the midst of the war zone as though he owned this planet.

“Hey, Sen. How’s it hangin’?” Tzader called to the new arrival.

Sen glowered at him then swept his gaze over the battle-field. “You are all at fault for warring among civilians.” His glare dared anyone to challenge him. He wore a leather vest, chain belt with skull engravings, and snug jeans that suggested he was hanging just fine to answer Tzader’s lewd question. He shoved both hands to the heavens, flexing those rockin’ biceps, his face hard and his voice terse when he spoke, yet undecipherable. The rainstorm continued, but the water fell away from where they congregated. He’d thrown an invisible canopy over them.

“Anyone so much as twitches a muscle and I’ll dust you,” Sen warned and sharpened his gaze at the grumbling demons. “You think Fene is bad? Just piss me off any more than I am now.”

“The Beladors broke the truce,” Ravana charged.

Sasha leaned forward, ready to take on that lying bastard, but Lucien moved an arm to bar, his eyes locked on the field.

“Kill me now, for I have nothing left to live for,” Vyan ordered Trey. “I failed my people and deserve to die.”

Trey stared down into the tortured eyes of a man who had lost his woman and his family. “No. There’s been enough bloodshed.” He turned to the man who had just arrived. “Good to see you, Sen, but this is not a VIPER issue, yet.”

“It is when a war breaks out in this world,” Sen answered.

“The Beladors broke the truce,” Ravana yelled again.

“The Kujoo lured the Beladors into a battle and tricked them,” Brina shouted back from her hologram state.

“You will solve this now or I’ll call for a tribunal,” Sen ordered, clearly in no mood to hear anyone’s gripes.

Trey sighed. That would really turn this into a FUBAR situation. If the Celtic and Hindu entities that ruled the Beladors and Kujoo respectively did not resolve this issue, a tribunal made up of three entities unrelated to the problem would be called upon for a decision. That was the only way all these powerful gods and goddesses had managed not to destroy one another or the planet over the past millenniums.

“Call forth your rulers,” Sen ordered.

Brina opened her arms and bowed her head. “Goddess Macha, please grace us with your presence.”

A swoosh noise drew everyone’s gaze up to where a giant swan glided down from the heavens to land gently at the site. Red hair flowed in waves to the waist of the elegant woman sitting upon the bird’s back. Her iridescent gown glowed, illuminating the canopied area when she descended from the kneeling swan.

The Celtic goddess Macha had arrived.

All eyes turned to Ravana, who did nothing.

“Call your ruler, Ravana,” Sen said in a tone not to be mistaken as a mere suggestion.

“No. You have no say over me or the Kujoo people,” Ravana scoffed. “If you want to end this, punish the Beladors by sending them to live beneath Mount Meru and I will ensure that my people uphold the truce from now on.”

Trey shook his head. Ravana obviously didn’t know Sen.

Sen snarled and morphed into another form, one ten feet tall with a curved neck and bony face that popped further out of shape when he bared a mouth full of sharp teeth. Hair covered his shoulders and the back of his hands that turned into claws, but the lower half of his body remained human.

Trey had heard of his beast-state, but never witnessed it. He glanced at Sasha. The admiring gaze she’d cast at Sen earlier was gone. She shrank back in horror.

Evalle, on the other hand, smiled and said, “Cool.”

And that’s exactly why men will never understand women.

“Shiva, please bless us with your presence,” Macha called out in a melodic voice.

Ravana stared in horror as a low rumble rolled across the earth and the ground trembled. Light speared through the canopy from different angles, the origins far out in the universe. When all the points met in one spot, a slender man in a white silk tunic, flowing pants, and bronze sandals appeared. Gleaming black hair fell neatly to his neck. His eyes were small like black beans, but filled with a thousand years of understanding and no apparent malice.