Gift From A God Ch. 09

For a second I thought he was going to get angry and do something unpleasant, but after a moment of silence between us, he cracked a smile at me and then laughed.

"What?" I asked. "What's so funny?"

"It's good to see you still have some fight left in you. I would hate to think I sat here all last night for nothing."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm not about to leave a job half-finished." He explained. "If I left you and you just kept walking on until you were right back in the situation I found you in last night, it would have wasted my time. And I don't like to waste my time. Not that I don't have enough of it, but wasting time leads to being lazy and I have far to much time on my hands to spend it being lazy."

I sat up, cross-legged and let my head sink down into my hands in a weary frustration. Nothing around me made any sense. He was right, I couldn't escape from my problems. Walking myself through the desert hadn't helped one bit and I had nothing to show for it but torn up clothes and a smell that would drop an elephant at a hundred paces. Damn I needed a shower.

"Who are you, anyway?" I asked into my hands. "It seems like I can't take a piss without running into one God or another."

"You do seem to attract a lot of attention your way, this is true. My most common name is Raven, but different people have called me different things through the centuries."

"That's why you look so familiar, you're Coyote's brother. He mentioned you. That bird last night, that was you too? Or was that a hallucination?" I looked up at him.

"No, that was me." Raven said.

"And the rabbit? The one who started reciting Jabberwocky. Is he a God to? Surely not every animal running around can talk and read."

"Fiver? No, he's not a real rabbit. Not in the traditional sense anyway. Think of him more as a spirit of the desert. One of them. He found a human once who could talk with him and the human taught him poetry. Now he's convinced that the only other humans that are worth talking to are ones who can recite poetry as well. It's sort of a mark of intelligence to him. Chances are that if you hadn't been able to answer him in verse he would have simply left you here to die.

"Fiver isn't even his real name, just something he picked for himself. He got the name from a book the human read to him."

"I saw this movie once, Jack Nickolson was in it. This lady came to his door and was talking about something, I don't know what it was now, but he looked at her and said 'Sell crazy somewhere else, we're all stocked up here'. That's how I feel right about now. I've got more crazy than I can handle and life is still finding new ways to pile it on. Fucking talking rabbits." He simply stared at me. "How is it that all this happens, all you gods running around and talking rabbits and water sprites and all of it...how does it go on and we don't notice?"

Raven snorted. "Humanity has traded mystery and wonder for science and logic. You don't pay attention, to put it bluntly. You've all become to busy with your cars and cell phones and Must See TV to take a moment and look around and be mystified by a thunderstorm. On the latter though, I can't say I blame you. Jennifer Aniston is pretty tasty." He winked at me. "Even my people, it saddens me to say. Some still keep the old ways, but there are less and less each passing year."

He got quiet and seemed to be looking into the past, remembering who knows what. "I'm sorry," I told him.

Raven blinked and refocused on me and said, "Oh, don't worry, it's not your fault. It's as it must be. Everything has its time and all things die. I'll probably even die one day, who knows. You, however, need to get back to your life. You solve nothing out here. Are you feeling well enough to transport yourself back to the city, or do you need me to take you?"

"No, I think I'll be alright." I said. "Can you tell me something though?"

"If I can."

"Do you know what's going on with me? Why I was chosen, what Set wants with me? What that thing was in my head. He's still there. He started talking to me before you showed up. Can you tell meanything?"

He took a deep breath and studied me for a moment, I guess deciding how much he wanted to share. "Well what do you think they have you for?"

"I've sort of pieced together why they do it, I think. They get some kind of power transfer, they're feeding off me or something."

"That's amazingly close to the truth." He stopped for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "Everything in the universe, all of it, has energy, protons and neutrons and all that. Even the rock you're sitting on, as dead as it is, has energy stored in it. Animals even more so, because they are alive. That life force gives them power. Animates them. And what are you if not a smarter version of animal. You follow?"

"Yes."

"When you move your body it expends energy. Very low amounts, even when you're exerting yourself, but energy nonetheless. It goes out into...nothing." He waved his hands up towards the sky to illustrate the point. "It just fades away into the background noise of the universe and is slowly absorbed. Think of dropping a pebble into a pond. The ripples spread out and you can watch them go, but eventually you can't see them anymore. The force is used up, the energy spent, and it's absorbed back into the passive energy of the water."

"Yeah," I said. "I see what you mean."

"You are the pebble. Since you have been given these powers, you are creating a lot bigger ripples. That little pebble now becomes the size of a car. Whenever you use one of their gifts it sends off that energy. Zeus, and in turn, the rest of his brood, harness that energy and feed off of it. Instead of floating off into the cosmos, it is channeled directly to him."

I'd figured about as much, although he did fill in a lot of gaps for me. I still didn't know why though, so I asked him.

"The power, plain and simple."

"But what do you need it for, you're Gods."

"But we aren't worshipped anymore. Most of us. Worship is an act that expends energy. When it's spent in worship, it is like a gift of power to us. The same is true for animal sacrifices. It makes us stronger. When the life is released it is sent to us. Why do you think that was the rage for so many millennia? We are inherently powerful just being who we are, but worship, sacrifice, and people like you amplify our strength. Zeus does it for exactly that reason.

"It's why Set wants you. He doesn't have the power or the resources it takes to find a human on his own, so he hangs around like a hyena, waiting for larger animals to bring down the prey and then coming in to steal the carcass if he can."

"I see."

"Zeus should have told you this, or had Hermes tell you, when you were gifted, but he fears you will betray him if you know the details. It takes a lot of work searching for a human that can handle the power they've placed in your hands. It takes a special human to handle the gifts. If the wrong person is chosen and the gifts bestowed their mind will be destroyed and their soul obliterated and scattered into the void of the universe. I've seen it happen before, it is a horrible way to die. It might take them decades to find another human, assuming they choose correctly, or if they lost you to Set or some other second rate god or goddess."

"It would have been nice to know this upfront," I said moodily.

"Probably," Raven said, "but what if you used that knowledge to try and find yourself a better deal? Humans have a surprising capacity for greed. You find Set and offer your newly bestowed powers to him in exchange for whatever he might be offering and Zeus is left high and dry. Surely you can see his position?"

"Yeah, but that's stupid," I argued. "If he had just been upfront with me about it, I would have trusted him more. All this cloak and dagger bullshit doesn't make me want to be his friend. What reason has he given me to trust him?"

Raven nodded his head in agreement. "You're probably right, but Zeus doesn't necessarily think that way. He fears that everyone will betray him at the first opportunity, exactly as he would if the situation was reversed. He would rather not take the chance at what he sees as a certainty that you will betray him given the chance. He gives you only the bare minimum of knowledge that you need, and tries to hide the fact that there are options open to you. Not that I would call Set an option. And neither should you," He said pointedly. "Zeus isn't really isn't so bad as far as us deities go. You've just got to get past his flaming narcissism and mistrust of all those around him.

"Now," he said, "I've run my lips enough for one day. It's not my style to get mixed up in the affairs of other Gods. It's much safer to avoid these kinds of things. For as old as he is, Coyote is still foolish that way. He put himself in a great deal of danger by warning you about Set. It's not what you would call...polite in our world."

"He said he owed Hermes a favor." I told him.

"Yes, well he sure picked a dangerous time to repay it, putting himself between Set and something he wants."

"Have you two made up?"

"I'll probably pop over and see him after awhile. I'm never really mad at him. Annoyed, yes, but never really angry." He said.

"Then why do it," I asked. "That's why he owed Hermes a favor, he said you were after him for messing with your girlfriend and Hermes helped him hide out."

"It's all part of the game, human." He said with a tranquil smile, as if that explained everything.

I was chaffing under all this human/mortal stuff. It didn't seem like it was to much trouble to ask to be referred to by name. "I have a name, you know."

"All you mortals look alike to me." I glared at him, but found him grinning back at me.

"Will I go crazy again?"

"That's up to you. You fought it off once, you could do it again."

"What was it?"

Raven shook his head and brushed his hands off on his jeans and stood up. "Nope, sorry, that's all you're getting out of me. I've said enough. It's time for me to leave and for you to get back. You've been missing for almost two weeks, people are getting worried."

"I've been out here for two weeks?" That seemed impossible. As hard as I tried I could only pick out a few individual days of my life since I left the hospital.

"From what I understand you spent three days knocked out in the hospital, and since then you've been out here. You know your way back, I trust?"

"Yes," I told him. "I'll be fine."

"I would leave you with this little bit of knowledge though."

"What's that?" I looked up at him.

"Guilt is perhaps the most worthless of all human emotions. Even we cannot go back and change the past. Instead of feeling guilty about your mistake, vow to never repeat it. Make amends if you must, but do not waste your energy on guilt. It serves no purpose.

"Oh and don't litter."

He winked at me and then his body shimmered and reformed until he was back into the shape of the bird. Very Dracula-esque. His wings flapped to keep himself aloft; they must have been four feet long from tip to tip. He circled our little campsite twice and then took off to the north, becoming nothing more than a black speck after just a few moments and then not even that.

"I wonder where his clothes go when he does that...?" I said out loud to no one. I got to my feet, the dirt that was caked to my pants coming off in large flakes, and looked around. Raven was right; I couldn't stay out here. Much to my surprise I found that I didn't really want to die. Now that I had some food in me and was back to relatively normal health, I wanted to stay that way. You could almost say I was happy to be alive.

[So glad you decided to live.]

*Fuck-off, I didn't do it for you.*

[We're together now, you and me. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.]

*You try any shit like that again and I'll jump us into the sun.*

[Yeah, whatever. Get us out of here, you stink so bad even I can smell it.]

*I mean it.* But he was silent. I felt him retreating into the back of my mind, like a spider scurrying down his hole. Waiting. I left it alone; I figured I'd have plenty of time to deal with him later.

I picked up the trash, dumped out the rest of the water on the smoldering embers of the fire, and jumped.

"Hey Kristel."

Kristel gave a start and spun around from where she'd set her keys on the counter top to see me sitting on the couch in the dark.

"Stephen? Oh my god, where have you been!" She rushed over and sat next to me and curled into my arms. She smelled so good. Her spring scent worked it's way into my body and started to warm a place inside of me that I hadn't noticed was cold until that moment. I wrapped my arm around and held her close. "I was afraid you were dead. I woke up and you weren't here and the cops were banging on the door–."

"Why were the cops here?" I asked her.

"They were doing a door-to-door of the entire complex." She said. "They wanted to know what happened to the swimming pool area, they were asking if anyone had seen anything. I went out and looked after they left, you should have seen it. It looked like someone came through with a bulldozer. They were a little curious why you weren't around. They've called a few times, I think you're the only one left they haven't spoken to."

"I'm not worried about that." I told her. "If they call again I'll talk to them. Have you been okay?"

"You mean besides worrying about you? Yeah, peachy, great, never better. Just fine, thanks. Why didn't you call me or something." She looked up at me and her eyes were wounded. "Your old job called and said that they had to let you go, your sister has called several times looking for you and I have to keep playing it off. I didn't know what I was supposed to tell her."

"I'll call her."

"Where did you go?" she said quietly. She really had been worried about me. Color me surprised. I wasn't used to this new and warmer Kristel. We'd spent so much time not talking, not being close or sharing anything about ourselves, that I was still having trouble getting used to the fact that underneath she was soft and delicate. She missed me.

And what exactly was I supposed to tell her? Well Kristel, this fairy thing see, it tried to take over my mind and I went crazy and blew up the pool and almost came back and raped and killed you but instead raped and nearly killed some twenty-one year old college student and spent the last two weeks half-dead in the desert before I was saved by a talking rabbit and a big bird that fed me teriyaki chicken. Yeah, sure.

"I..." Shit. Nothing was ever easy. "Some things came up. It had to with the powers; it's part of what I can't tell you. If I could I would but..."

"Stephen, are you okay? You seem different. Did something bad happen?"

The memory came back to me of standing in front of her bedroom door, with that thing riding my mind, and smelling her through the wood. The memory of how close I had come. A shudder broke through my defenses and she felt every twitch.

"Steve?"

"No, I'm fine. I promise, it's just been a rough couple of weeks. I'm sorry I didn't tell you anything, it was sort of sudden and I didn't have a chance to call you. I did miss you though. I thought about you a lot." I brought my hand up and ran it through her hair, tucking a strand back behind her ear and letting my fingers form around her neck.

"Really? What about?" She pulled a little tighter to me.

"How you sing to yourself sometimes when you're moving around the house. The way you'll start the day with your hair up and then have it down by the afternoon. And something I just found out recently, how soft you look when you're sleeping."

"Aw, babe that's so sweet."

"I've been thinking."

"About what," she asked.

"We should get a bigger apartment." I told her. "Or a house maybe, out in Scottsdale. Or, fuck it, how about Rome or something. This place just doesn't seem fitting to someone who makes as much as I do now. And there's no reason why we have to stay in Phoenix."

"You think? How much money do you make, anyway? If you don't mind my asking."

"Umm...a lot. It's not just one job that's paying me now, it's more like twenty something. If I did my math right, I should be a millionaire by the end of next month."

"Holy shit!" Kristel exclaimed.

"I know, huh. What do you think I should spend it on?"

"I think that that's something we can talk about later," she said. I liked that she didn't care about the money. She kissed me softly on the neck and the feeling brought the hairs up along both my arms. Her hand came up behind my head and pulled it down to hers. Our lips met and our tongues greeted like long-lost friends. My heart stepped up its rhythm and I began to breathe hard through my nose. I pulled Kristel tight to me, suddenly needing her close. I needed something clean and pure after the nightmare I'd been through. I twisted and eased her down, laying myself along side her, letting my hands roam as our kissing continued. I stopped briefly to catch my breath and look at her.

Her hair was long and golden spread out against the black leather. Her eyelids came open slowly and her sapphire eyes gazed lazily up at me. I pushed back the hair off of her forehead and we sat for a moment in silence.

"It's not fair to kiss a girl like you do and then leave, you know that, right?"

"I'm sorry, babe. Anything I can do to make it up to you?"

"Oh, I don't know" She said slowly.

I began to unbutton her shirt and when I had it about halfway down, began to kiss her neck. She placed her hands up on the back of my head and let her fingers play through my hair. I kissed the hollow of her neck and then worked my way down between her breasts while she thought over what my penance would be. I gave my lips a little magic tingle as they worked so that each touch against her skin spread sensuous warmth through her body.

"I was thinking that –Oh wow– that you could do that –Mmhmm– that thing you did in the Arch. When you made it feel like there were –God that's good– hands and lips all over me." She sucked air into her mouth as I worked my way up the mound of her tit, pushing her bra aside with my nose.

"That can be arranged." I mumbled into her flesh.

I picked her up and cradled her body in my arms and got up to go in her room. She put her arm around my neck and peppered my neck with kisses as I walked the short distance. She was doing things with her tongue that made it hard to keep walking.

"A little impatient, are we?" I asked her.

"It's been a lonely two weeks."

So very lonely. I brought her in the darkened room, only a dull light working through the curtains over her window from a light outside, and placed her gently down on the bed. I picked out the candles she had spaced around the room on various shelves and table-tops and, with a little mental flick, brought them all to life. Soft orange light danced in the corners and bathed her skin in their tender radiance. An intoxicating aroma of Lemongrass, Eucalyptus and Vanilla filled the room and we both breathed in deep.

She lay waiting in the bed, the light and shadows playing across her skin in wonderful harmony and again I was taken by the subtle beauty of her. Her eyes were deep blue pools of sensuality that glimmered in the candlelight, inviting me in. There was solace in those eyes. She didn't know what I had done, of the life I had almost stolen. I could escape into her eyes for a time and everything would be all right.

No words were spoken as I picked up each foot and took off her shoes and socks. She lay still as I unbuttoned her pants and slowly pulled the zipper down and began to slide them over her hips and down her legs, leaving her plain white cotton panties on for now. I moved my hands over her thighs, simply taking joy in caressing her softness. I finished unbuttoning her shirt and spread it open and exposed her stomach, again letting my hands ride over her skin, feeling the tickle of peach-fuzz as it ran over the ridges in my fingertips. I felt her stomach quiver as her breath quickened. I'd tickled her a little.