Destiny Descending

amazement. “Why would you think that?”
“Don't remember what?” I asked innocently as I lowered my hand.
“Vervain, you may have wiped the humans' memories clean, but you didn't touch us Gods. I remember. We all remember what happened. Vividly.”
“Great Scott,” I whispered in horror. “I thought I just left the memories of my loved ones alone.”
“You missed a bit more than that,” Qaus said grimly. “And there will be hell to pay for the oversight.”
“I was evil,” I growled. “I fought myself and won, and then I put everything back to the way it was. I fixed as much of my mistakes as I could. What more do they want from me?”
It had been a few months since evil had consumed me, and I had turned into the Dark Star—a psychotic version of myself. Months since I'd tried to take over the world and rule the Gods. I had caused a lot of damage and killed a lot of people, but the Trinity Star had nearly drained itself dry to fix everything. It had even raised the dead and now, it lay dim and dormant inside me. Recovering, hopefully. If not, I had lost a significant amount of power to make things right. I would have been fine with that, but now it looked as if I might need that power.
“You showed your hand, Godhunter, both with the doing and the undoing. The other gods know what you're capable of now, and they're not happy about it.”
“If they know what she can do, then they should be scared of her,” Trevor reasoned. “This should mean the end of the God War.”
“You and I both know that Gods don't work like that.” Qaus shook his head. “Some might cower and head for cover, but most will want revenge for being humiliated. They'll want Vervain dead so she won't be able to do this again.”
“Why are you here?” I asked Qaus wearily. “You wanted in when I was trying to rule the world, but why would you come to me now when I'm back to being myself?”
“Because I like you, Vervain. You impressed me; both with your magical strength and the strength of your convictions. Evil or not, those traits don't change. You were good to me, even when you were bad. So, I've come to warn you. They'll be hunting you now, Godhunter.”
“Who?” Trevor demanded. “Who's after my wife?”
“To start, the Mesopotamians. She hurt them the worst. They want blood.”
“If that's what they want, we'll give it to them,” Trevor growled. “We'll tear them to pieces and drown them in it.”
“Then you'd best call in your allies.” Qaus grimaced. “The Mesopotamians are a rather large group.”
“Close to a thousand, if not more,” I murmured.
A chill went through me. I thought I'd weathered the storm. I'd gone too far this time but, somehow, I'd managed to make it back, and I thought I had fixed all the damage I'd done. I should have known better; I always end up paying a price. This time, I thought that price was Toby—he left me when I brought Viper home—but now, it was looking as if Toby was only the beginning.
“We'll be fine.” Trevor pulled me against his side and kissed my forehead. “You fought yourself and won. This will be nothing compared to that.”
“Thank you for the warning, Qaus.” I stepped out of Trevor's embrace to offer my hand to the other god once more.
Qaus shook it this time. “You're welcome, Vervain. I wish you luck with them.”
“That's it? You're just leaving?” Trevor asked in surprise.
“This isn't my fight, Wolf Prince,” Qaus said firmly. “I may like your wife, but I'm not about to die for her.”
“We appreciate the warning.” I glanced chidingly at Trevor. Then I frowned. “How did you get here, by the way? I re-warded the palace not too long ago.”
“I went to Moonshine. Everyone knows that's the easiest way to reach the Godhunter.”
“Ty texted. I traced there and fetched him,” Trevor added.
“Maybe we should close the club for a little while,” I suggested gently.
Trevor scowled at me.
“I'll just leave you to it then,” Qaus murmured as he stepped past us.
“Qaus,” I called after him, “are you going to be okay? They might come after you too.”
“I'll be fine, Vervain.” Qaus winked at me. “I know how to make myself scarce.”
With that, the Weather God strode into the tracing room and gave us a demonstration of how quickly he could do just that.
Trevor turned to me. “You want to close the club?”
“Just for a little while.” I sighed. “I'm tired of fighting.”
“Oh, here we go.” He rolled his golden wolf eyes.
“What?” I growled.
“You say that after every battle.”
“Well, it's true after every battle.”
“And then you go and fight anyway.”
“Not this time!” I snapped and headed for the front doors. “You always want me to stay here when I'm in danger. Well, you have your wish, Honey-Eyes. I'm gonna pass on this fight.”
“You're gonna pass?” Trevor asked in shock. “An entire pantheon is after you, and you're gonna pass?”
“Why aren't you happy about that?” I turned on my heels to face him.
“Because we can't do nothing,” he argued. “Yes, I want you to stay at Pride Palace until we fix this, but that doesn't mean that I want to just hide here and do nothing.”
“Oh, so I have to hide but the rest of you get to go out there and risk your lives?” I countered.
“Yes, that's why you have us,” he snarled.
“Is that why I have you?” I lifted my brows at him. “Because I can't fight my own battles? I need you big, strong men to fight for me, huh?”
“You know what I mean,” Trevor's voice started dropping into werewolf range; rumbly and growly and terribly sexy when we weren't arguing. Dang it, it was sexy when we were arguing too.
“No. We're sitting this one out.” I slashed my hand down decisively. “All of us. The club is half yours so if you want to risk our employees by keeping it