Anathema Pt. 02

His laugh is enough to make my thoughts slide sideways a little and I can feel my phase coming back. "We know it wasn't you."

We walk up to a small cabin that wasn't there a minute ago. It's almost cute in that way that says there's a witch who lives here who wants to eat small children. Anubis walks up and opens the door and holds it for me. A small voice in my head screams not to walk through that door. I've watched horror movies. Nothing good comes from walking through a darkened doorway. The rest of me says I better do what the death god says or I'll find out where naughty little Predators go in the end. I step through the door.

Sitting around a poker table are Hades, Osiris, and Set, of all gods. I don't know why, but Hades always strikes me as lonely. None of his pantheon visit him except for Persephone, and she's his wife so that doesn't count as a visitor. I phase completely in the presence of this much death and chaos. The elastic holding my hair pops under the strain, freeing my hair to float like the unweildy beast it is. My entire body is traced with black lines like the roots of trees and my fangs are long enough I can't close my mouth.

"Tone it down or she won't be able to talk through that mouth," Hades rasps. For some reason, he resembles the portrayal of himself from the Titan movies. He's still easy on the eyes, but also grungy. And his voice sounds like wind through leaves.

Set and Osiris look like they could have been the actors playing Egyptian pharoahs, and not the English speaking ones. They all look at me, then tone down the power until my fangs recede enough for me to close my mouth. Anubis walks around me to the fourth chair at the table, picking up some cards. He should really have them deal again. I wouldn't put it past Set not to have looked at the cards.

The god in question laughs, "Finally a modern child who knows something about us."

"We need you to find a soul and bring it back to us," Osiris says.

"Anubis said you let someone escape?"

They all glare at Anubis, who just shrugs and throws a gold coin to the pot at the center of the table. "We did not let a soul escape," Osiris snaps.

I step a little more around to the part of the table closer to Anubis and Set. Of the four in the room, I could touch them without dying. I think. Set wasn't exactly predictable. Touching Osiris or Hades would end me and I didn't want to find out how that would work since my physical body wasn't here.

"Were you playing poker when it happened? Was there an errant demi-god skulking around?"

"My nephew was not here," Hades snaps. That touched a nerve. No, if Hercules had been up to his old shenanigans I think Hades would have been a little more pissed off.

"Do any of you have a piece of this soul? I need something to go on in order to hunt it, and I'm going to need a work note."

Osiris lifts his hand in my direction with what looks like a lock of hair in his palm. I get the chills just looking at that hand, let alone getting close enough to get the soul piece. Thankfully, Anubis takes the hair and hands it over so I don't have to risk my life anymore than I already do. "Chicken."

"Don't you still owe me a lap dance for that hand of cards you lost?" I ask him, and Set bellows out a laugh that shakes the little shack around us. I look down at the hair in my hand. It's plain brown, tied with a bit of twine, and I suddenly wish for a little baggy or something to put it in because this isn't going to survive in my pocket. Set holds out the box the cards came in, and I take it without touching him. That works for the hair going in the pocket. "Any idea where I should look for this soul? Do they have a corporeal body up there? Were they human?"

"Look for it on Earth," Hades answers. "It was not one of our descendants, and everything there has a corporeal form."

"Earth is a lot bigger than when you were at the height of popularity." Sometimes, I wonder if my mouth is out to kill me.

"Earth is the same size it has always been," he replies. Then Hades holds out one of the gold coins, pinching one edge between his thumb and forefinger and dropping the coin in my upturned palm. "When you find the soul, get the coin in its mouth and it will come back to us."

I turn the coin over in my hand. It's heavy, which means it's real gold, and inscribed with all manner of fancy sigils and symbols that change every time I flip the coin over. Great. This is an original ferry toll. "Uhm, thanks for the coin and all but can I get an escort back to the gate? I have a feeling the entire River Styx is going to chase me for one of these."

The coin still goes in the pocket with the hair as I look at the four bored-looking deities. A soul escapes and they act like it's just another Tuesday. Maybe for them, it is. Then Osiris stands from his chair and walks to the door. "I will walk with you."

I shiver and Anubis starts to cluck quietly while Set laughs his ass off. I guess it's a good thing he's in a good mood. The chicken routine steels my spine, though, and I walk for the door, stopping right beside Osiris like I'm not about to pee my pants at all. "Hey, Nubi? I think I'll take that lap dance on the dock for all to see when I bring back the soul you let escape."

That shuts him up.

Walking with Osiris is quiet. Even the silver robes he's wearing are silent as we head for the gate. The water of the river seems to swell towards us and I wonder if I was right, that the souls who couldn't pay the boatman would have come for me.

"Yes," Osiris says, bringing my eyes up to his. "You would not have made it to the gate, and we cannot go into the world for this soul."

"Don't you all have reapers up there or something?"

He doesn't answer, and we keep walking. It hadn't seemed to be this far on the way with Anubis, but I haven't even seen the dock yet. I guess I'm not going to see the dock this time because after a couple more minutes we stop by the VW Thing.

"The soul you seek has been twisted and is cold," Osiris says before I can touch the door handle of the vehicle. "That coin will not pay Charon. It will send the soul here to stay for all time in the Styx, but you must bring the coin back to us once the soul has left Earth."

I turn and look at the river, all but changing course as the souls within reach for the coin in my pocket. I shiver. I was going to send a soul into that on purpose. "How many of them are there on purpose?"

"Three." I blink up at him. That was an oddly specific answer. "You honor the dead, Predator. Do not lose that. Know that this soul will be in the River for it's crimes because the scales deem it so."

One last look at the river, at the death god standing in silver robes before me, and I turn and get into the VW Thing. Shutting the door and hitting the unlock button shunts me back to Earth. I sit there for a minute, going over what had just happened.

A soul had escaped. Not been rescued, not been sent out for some asinine meddling on the part of the gods. Escaped. Was this why the others had refused this case? Had there been some memo I missed about not going to the Underworld lest I get pulled into some soul hunt for the gods?

Jay and Silent Bob are getting antsy so I open the creaky door and step out into the Armpit. Billings is still in his car because to him, I just sat in a rusted out car for a couple minutes. I walk toward his little sedan, pulling the leather jacket off as I go, then I stop. I forgot to get a note for work. Turning back, I go to one of the wraiths.

"I need one of you to pop over and get me a work note from one of the gods, please," I say.

They don't even bat an eye. One of them pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket, "Anubis said not to call him Nubi."

I look down to see a highly calligraphic note explaining that I was on special assignment and all four of them had signed it. Anubis dots his i with a little heart in case that ever comes up on Jeopardy. Thanking the wraiths, I walk over to Billings' car and drop into the passenger seat.

"That didn't take long," he says.

"Time is different in the Underworld," I show him the watch on my wrist. I was down there for nearly ten hours.

"What did you turn back for? I thought that was against the rules or something."

"That rule is only for shenanigans. I wasn't busting a soul out, so turning back is no big deal. I forgot to get a work note."

"Work note?"

I hand him the paper before he can put the car in gear. "I think there's a reason no one else would take the Underworld hunt."

"You have a note excusing you from regular duties signed by gods."

"And it's only Tuesday." I take the note back. "We need to go to the office."

"You going to walk in phased like that?"

I look down at myself, then pull the visor down for the little mirror. My eyes are solid black pools in a racoon mask that looks like I was aiming for smoky eye and achieved Mad Max. I snap the visor back up, "It'll take a couple hours for it to regress. This happens when I'm in the presence of the anathema gods."

"The what?" At least he's driving while he asks all the questions.

"Anathema. Untouchable. Anubis can be touched without killing me, and his power doesn't usually make me phase fully. But Hades and Osiris are anathema. Throw in Set with them and I was fully phased down there for a little bit."

"You haven't finished the case you went down there for, though."

"Yes, I did," I say. "My job is to find the soul and get the location of the body so they can have a medium summon the soul and ask questions. I did that, and that's part of why we need to go to the office. I can't go back to the Underworld until I finish what the gods have tasked me to do."

That's when it hits me. There are five Predators capable of going into the Underworld, and we don't live geographically close. I wonder if the others have a coin in their pockets and a piece of a soul.

Lieutenant Bower is sitting at his desk looking more tired than usual when I walk in. Billings has been going off that I can't just barge in, but I can, and I do. Partially phased as I am, nobody's going to stop me. He looks up with his fingers pressed to his temples, "Tell me you finished this assignment?"

"There's a vacation spot on a river off Highway 123 south of Seguin, you'll want to have divers search for a body weighted down by concrete. Cause of death will be drowning if there's enough left to tell that sort of thing." Then I put the note on his desk and slide it over to him. "I'm off until I finish this."

The door opens and Lucy steps through and I catch a glimpse of Billings waiting outside, looking frustrated. Her eyes narrow on me and then she focuses on the note. "You expect me to believe you've been given a note from God?"

"No," I say. "I've been given a note from gods. Plural. As far as I know the Christian God doesn't go to the Underworld much. He's got his own death deity controlling that aspect of things. Any other hunts will have to be put through other trackers. I'm off the table."

"It's authentic, Lucy," Lieutenant Bower says. "We have those signatures on file as being real, though I'm not sure why Set is on there. If she were lying, she'd have put something better than a chaos deity."

"He plays poker with the other three," I say, and the lieutenant points to me as if that proves his point. I shrug, "You can bring Hermes in to confirm if you don't believe me."

"And if the soul the medium calls up isn't the killer?" Lucy asks. "We might have to send you back to the Underworld for more information."

"Not until I'm done with their work," I point to the note. "I can't set foot in the Underworld until my task is complete."

"And what task, pray tell, is that?" She's spitting acid.

I open my mouth to answer, but I can't. Hot damn, there's an actual geas on me. It's not the first time, so I'll just have to figure this one out and how to talk around it. "I can't discuss it."

"You mean you refuse to discuss it," she sneers.

"No. I mean I can't. It's an assignment from three death deities and a god of chaos. There's a geas attached. You know, for a witch you're really not good at this stuff. I thought your kind had rituals that called on Set, and you've never seen his signature?" I tsk at her, and this seems to make her angrier. "I'm willing to bet the others that are strong enough to go to the Underworld also can't get there now."

The woman looks like she's going to explode, so I just let my phase go a little further. Shame, too, because it had already started to recede. She stops her little hissy fit and swallows as she looks at me. At least she stopped sputtering. I don't care if I scare her.

I turn back to Bower, "We all good here?"

"Will you be able to hunt outside the Underworld?" He asks.

"No." I don't even need the geas to tell me that. "It's never a good idea to ignore the requests of the anathema gods."

"We do not use that term," Lucy snaps. I guess it's something in this whole thing she can latch on to.

My laughter seems to send her into another fit. "Cute. They call themselves anathema, Lucy. I doubt they care what you call them."

I reach for the door handle and Lucy actually backs away from me. I resist the urge to lunge at her and say 'boo', but barely. Then I remember what Osiris said about the soul I'm hunting, that we're all hunting. Twisted and cold. I look at Lucy, phasing a little more as she trembles in the corner, but her soul looks normal. So I let the phase regress back to where it was when I got here and walk out the door.

Billings is leaning against a desk talking to one of the other agents, and looks up when I walk out. "I didn't think she'd rush in there like that."

"It's fine. I need to get home and get out of this leather."

"I was wondering why you wore that," he says as we walk out of the building. He hadn't parked in the garage, so we got to use the front doors.

"It's cold in the Underworld. The coat is lined, and the leather is just in case I fall. I do not want to find out what happens if I get scraped up in the Underworld."

"So Hell is frozen?"

"First, the Underworld isn't Hell. Second, it looks like a tropical rainforest this time of year but feels like the depths of a glacier."

We get in the car and he pulls out into traffic, heading toward my apartment. "What do you mean about the time of year?"

"What did you major in before joining the Bureau?"

"Uh, Criminal Justice and Forensic Science."

"Take any comparative religions or just get lost on Wikipedia? It's not the best source, but it is a source and they have some of the stories right."

"You lost me," he shifts gears as we get on the interstate. At least he's still listening and not just trying to get into a religious argument.

"Think about the story of Hades and Persephone. When Persephone goes to the Underworld, the Earth has fall and winter. When she comes back, we have spring and summer. Northern hemisphere because Greece and Rome came up with these stories. The Underworld is lush and green right now because Persephone is home with Hades. When she goes back to her mother in the world's most convoluted prenuptial agreement, the Underworld will have a dry spell and the earth will revive again."

"I thought you said Hades was one of the anathema gods. He's married to Persephone, isn't he?"

"She's a goddess, so I'm pretty sure that whole untouchable thing doesn't matter. I'm not a goddess, I know exactly how mortal I am. I'm not about to high five the god of death."

"But you can get a lap dance from Anubis?"

"He's not anathema," I glance over at him. "Why? Jealous? You want a lap dance from him instead?"

"I don't think I would survive." He takes the exit toward my street. "How do you know which ones are anathema?"

I think about that. It's not like I had asked them, or had any kind of training for this. "It's a feeling, like getting too close to fire. That little voice in my head telling me not to touch the hot thing gets super loud when I'm around the anathema gods, and I sometimes fully phase when I'm around them."

He pulls into my apartment complex and parks in a guest spot. "You need to feed again."

"Not really," I get out and pull my keys out of my pocket and head into the little place.

Billings follows and shuts the door, "I know you weren't feeding on Agent Gantry because of his kid, but you don't have to starve yourself with me."

"I'm not starving." I pull the card pack and the gold coin out of the pocket of the jacket and drape it over the back of my couch.

My room is just big enough for a queen size bed and a nightstand stuffed into the corner opposite the door, with a clear path to the bathroom though I usually go in from the second door in the living room. Otherwise I bump my knees on the bedframe and that shit hurts. Yes, I could have a smaller bed, but this one fits and why would I want a smaller bed? I have this one all to myself, with nobody hogging the covers. The room itself is dark, painted a neutral gray with charcoal bedding and touches of dark teal and purple here and there. I drop the hair and coin on the nightstand and start getting undressed.

I twist the latches on the busk of the corset, happy this one is old enough to have formed to my body so I don't have to relace it every time, and set it on the bed. From my closet I pull a bra and tank top, then a comfy maxi skirt. After all the leather, I need something that breathes. Once I'm dressed and have pulled my hair back in a loose ponytail, I take the corset out and drape it over the back of a chair then take my coat to hang it up. I'm avoiding the heck out of that lock of hair in the little box, and Billings sitting on the couch watching me move around my space.

"I need to make a phone call," I say, and he just nods and looks like he's settling in. I remember when G was first assigned to me. He had been like this, trying to get me on a feeding schedule or something. Billings would learn eventually. Grabbing my phone, I scroll through my contacts. It's an embarassingly short list.

The phone rings twice before a woman answers then promptly yells at someone in the background. "Kaya?"

"Hey, Nelda," I say. We don't know each other well enough to meet up for fun, but well enough to talk about our crazy existence over the phone sometimes. "I need to ask you something."

"Shoot, girl," then she yells at a kid to stop swinging something around. "Can't promise I can answer, though."

"I understand. Been to the Underworld lately?"

"Can't talk about that one, but yes, I've been. So have the others. We figure we're on the same assignment?" She says it like a question.

"Yeah, I think so, too," I sigh into the phone. "You taking the north into Canada, I assume?"

"And you south into Mexico, yes ma'am. We got a newbie down in South America who got the same thing and freaked, but Jacques helped him out."

"Not often you meet an anathema god on a hunt. Can't blame him if he's new."

"You're the only one that meets the big scaries, Kaya. At least as far as I know," something crashes in the background and she yells at another kid. I forget how many she has, but only like one of the little monsters stays calm when she's on the phone. "I think Anubis showed up in full jackal regalia. Scared the bejeezus out of the kid."

"Poor guy. I might have to meet him and share some stories about Anubis. Did we all get the same items?"

"A piece and a..." her voice trails off. With the kids there, the geas would still be in effect so she has to struggle to find a word it'll let pass.

"A piece and a piece, yeah." I provide.

"Don't you have a keeper? How did you get to say something?"

"Keeper's here, but I've worked around a geas before. Don't kill the little pipsqueaks, Nelda."

"They remind me everyday why some species eat their young. Bye, girl," then she hangs up.