Death and Relaxation (Ordinary Magic #1)(99)

Once a god picked up their power, they were off vacation and had to leave Ordinary for a year, just enough time for this old world to circle the sun from point A to point A. It wasn’t a part of the contract the gods signed to get into Ordinary; it was just the way god power worked.

I’d asked Dad about it once and he’d shrugged. There were things about god power even we Reeds couldn’t understand.

Crow had agreed to unlock the three gods’ powers, and his, as soon as we made a plan for how to find Cooper. I didn’t think any god had ever given up their vacation time for a Reed. Or at least Dad had never spoken of it.

Which meant this was a really, really big favor. One I didn’t know how I’d repay.

“No killing,” I repeated.

“You don’t have to worry about them, Delaney,” Jame said with a predatory flash of his teeth. “The day a god can out-hunt a Wolfe is the day I give it up and move to Cabo.”

“Better tell your boyfriend to pack his sunscreen, then,” Thorne said.

Thorne wasn’t actually Odin’s son, or maybe in a way he actually was. Thorne had picked up Thor’s god power about eighty years ago, and he and Odin had come rumbling into town and taken their first vacation together. Thorne had taken to Thor’s power with an instant delight, as happened with most people newly godded. He even looked every inch the tall, powerful, yellow-haired Norse warrior, and always called Odin father.

His day job was owning and running the music and record store in town.

Ben sucked on the back of one fang, staring at Thorne like he was considering a Merlot to go with dinner. “Want to put some money on who’s going to bring Cooper down?”

“Nobody’s going to bring Cooper down,” I said. “He comes back alive.”

“Yes,” Thorne said, “of course. We shall bring the quarry in without a scratch. How much money do you have, Firefang? Enough to make this interesting?”

“No,” I said, “we will not make anything interesting while we hunt for my ex-boyfriend.”

“Make what interesting?” Crow, who could sense a bad bet going down a mile away, had to join in.

“Just a friendly little bet,” Ben said with a smile that would freeze a mortal in place. Unfortunately, neither Crow nor Thorne were mortal.

“Between friends,” Thorne agreed. “My father and I against you and your boyfriend.”

“Gentlemen, please,” Crow scolded. “Money makes for a boring bet.”

“Shoulder devil.” I scowled at Crow.

Crow winked and gave me a big grin.

“Doesn’t have to be money.” Ben licked his lips, his eyes flicking to the side of Thorne’s neck as if he were imagining sinking his fangs in all the way to bone. The other Rossis in the room chuckled and Jame shifted to press his wide hand on Ben’s lower back, maybe reminding him that if there was going to be someone getting bit, it was going to be his lover, not some random thunder god.

“You don’t have the stomach for it, bloodboy,” Thorne scoffed.

Jame growled. Ben glowered.

Crow snickered.

“You’re the one who needs daddy at his side,” Ben said.

Odin snorted and shook his head, his arms crossed over his chest. “Thorne doesn’t need me to win his fights.”

“If we don’t believe you?” Crow mocked.

“Boys,” Herri said, sighing, “reel it in. You can cheat each other blind or bite each other bloody, or beat each other boneless after we find Cooper.”

“No biting,” Jame growled, his hand fisting in the back of Ben’s shirt. “That’s off the table.”

Both Ben and Thorne huffed like little kids who’d just been told to clean their rooms.

“Name your price—” Thorne started.

“What’s the plan, Delaney?” Herri asked.

I threw her a grateful look.

Myra spoke up. “The last person who saw Cooper said he was hitching north out of town. That was a day ago. He could be in Canada by now.”

“How long have you got before boom?” Sage tipped her blonde head my way.

I didn’t point out that she made it sound like it was a death sentence. I didn’t point it out because she was not wrong.

“Today. The power needs to be in a new vessel by midnight tonight.”

“Plenty of time,” she said. “We’ll find him, Delaney.” She smiled, showing a lot less fang than Ben, a dimple popping in her cheek.

“Do you have a successor in place?” Odin asked casually.

That was the other big consequence I’d been avoiding. I hadn’t trained anyone else in how to be a bridge for god power. Myra and Jean hadn’t shown any signs of being someone who could pick up those duties. Though the ability always passed down the Reed bloodline, we were the only Reeds in Ordinary.

That didn’t mean we were the only Reeds in the world, though.

“If I go down, someone will show up on Ordinary’s doorstep, confused, and needing some guidance for how to re-vessel a power gone rogue. I expect you all to be very helpful to him or her.”

“Not gonna happen,” Crow said. “We might gain a new Reed—maybe even one with a sense of humor—but we’d lose our police chief. Then who would we make pity-judge the rhubarb contest?”