“Let me be clear, I’ll take this as far as I need to, in order to stop them and safeguard this council and our people. I have no desire to slaughter the lot of them, or anything like that. Besides being wrong, it would ensure they’d seek revenge in their next lives, and it’d make the Egyptian and Hindu pantheons see us as a threat.”

  Nadia said, “You’re not wrong. I have no wish to be part of a massacre, but they’ll probably pursue vengeance anyway.”

  I shrugged, “They might, but I have some hope it might not go that way. Matthew lost his ruler, and he wants to establish his rule strongly. He has to do something, or he’ll look weak. But I think a part of him understands we did his pantheon as well as the world a favor. Insane gods are dangerous, insane tier-ones are unacceptable, especially a king. They’re more aggressive yes, but not suicidal. A part of him has to know what Viktor was doing would’ve turned all pantheons, all supernaturals, and all humans the world over against them. No one is that stupid, save in insanity.”

  Mandy said, “People can be really stupid.”

  I laughed, “True, but the next Odin if he’s sane, won’t be. You’ll have to trust me on that. He won’t thank us or be our friend, he’ll be a pain in the ass, but he won’t go to war out of vengeance for his past life. No more than Natasha did, for what was necessary.”

  I looked around, “Does anyone have an alternative to my proposed small escalation in policy, or that won’t fight with me if it backfires and causes an immediate war.”

  Kaya asked, “What if you just went and talked to him? I mean, I’m okay with your idea as a second option, a small escalation to back them off is a risk but also a hope, but shouldn’t we try a diplomatic route first? Perhaps you going to him to propose a peaceful distance will be all the political capital he needs to secure control, and to be the token form of vengeance for a death that he knows had to happen.”

  “It won’t work, but I’m willing to do it for the sake of your conscience. At least we can say we tried, right?”

  Kaya smiled, “Thanks.”

  No one else seemed to have anything.

  “Okay, I’ll do that today then, so we’re ready to go forward with the plan in the morning should it fail. Moving on to issue two. Freda or Nadia? The human situation?”

  Nadia said, “None of the government sanctioned research is yielding results. Save perhaps their testing into getting past our anti-bullet charms. They don’t have any gods to test for weaknesses, but they do have witches to cast those charms.

  “So far nothing less than a missile or tank round is really getting through, so their hopes of sniping us have been frustrated. Some of them believe they could win if they fight from the shadows and with surprise, but the collateral damage from the munitions required to break through a witch protection spell has them holding back for now.

  “The human first organization is getting closer to one that will embrace violence. While they don’t have access to weapons that would threaten us, the supernatural races would be vulnerable, which is a concern.”

  Natasha said, “My father could back that up. He’s been busier in more than just attacks on our gods. He’s been preventing more attacks on shifters, vampire mansions during daylight, and such.”

  I nodded, “My main concern is our gods, but I’m not heartless so applaud his efforts. If the humans turn on them, they’ll turn on us after that war reaches a conclusion, so we should frustrate those efforts for both reasons.”

  Freda waved, “The governments that were lost causes are still lost causes, but I’m making efforts to pull the others back from the edge, including our aid programs and awareness campaigns. Tensions are high right now, I’d liken it to the Cuban missile crisis over a hundred years ago. The humans are scared, but they don’t want to hit the button either. I think with time, the U.S. Mexico, Canada, and the European countries will slowly let go of their current paranoia and itchy trigger fingers. That said, a full out pantheon war might just set them off, especially if there’s a lot of collateral damage.”

  Mandy waved a hand, “We won’t contribute to it, and my rules of engagement are extremely clear. If one of our gods are attacked in a city, they’ll retreat out of it and draw the enemy to a safer place to fight.”

  “So the biggest danger there are countries like Russia or China attacking us if they have a breakthrough in weapons technology that can threaten us, and the human first crowd attacking the shifters, vampires, witches, and fae because we’re out of their league?”

  Nadia nodded in agreement, “Not so much the fae, because out of sight out of mind. They don’t interact with humanity much, while vampires, shifters, and witches live in human cities and have careers and jobs amidst the humans.”

  “Mark seems to be leading on that second problem. I’m fine with that, since it’s not internal to the race and technically outside the remit and authority of the council. However, anyone have any thoughts on how to help there and represent our implied interests, especially if things break and they start a violent war. A war that will paint us with the same brush when the supernatural races inevitably fight back as they should.”

  Nadia shrugged, “Right now it’s a police matter, we can’t punish them until they act. If it becomes a war against a terrorist group, then I have the data and the people to wipe out their leadership. That should stop them cold.”

  I nodded, “We’ll hold off on that until hostilities start, good call. Anyone have anything we can do now?”

  Natasha said, “I can offer to help him with his current level of efforts, if he ever needs to be in two places at once I can interfere in the second situation.”

  “Perfect. Okay, I’ll go sue for peace, and let you all know via an e-mail how it went, and whether or not we’re on for tomorrow’s slap down. That was all I had, anyone else have an issue I’m not aware of for the whole council?”

  Who knew, maybe Kaya was right. If I was honest, it hadn’t even occurred to me to try. She was sweet, naïve, but it was a useful naivety. She’d come up with ideas and approaches the rest of us wouldn’t, because truth was truth, and the rest of us on the council were all a little jaded. Don’t get me wrong, the whole trio as well as Freda shared the same principles I held, but she held a far more optimistic outlook of others than we did.

  Point being, I’d go talk to Matthew simply to make her more comfortable making suggestions, and so she didn’t hold it back to avoid being shutdown or mocked. A possibility on the old council with Steven and Bruce around.

  And who knows, it might even work.

  No one had anything for the council, but Mandy stayed seated as the others left one by one, and when we were alone save Misty, I turned to give her full attention.

  Mandy asked, “Umm, do you think I could get about thirty of your power sources, the house sized ones. Your invention has a strong synergy with one of my projects. Two of them really, but it’s a larger combined project, and it will work much better than the fusion reactor I designed.”

  I blinked, “Fusion?”

  She shrugged, “Not cold fusion or anything ridiculous like that. I mean like sun fusion. Umm, anyway, if it works, I’ll show it to you.”

  “How do you shield from all the radiation, not to mention all the heat. The edge of it would be what, about five thousand degrees, and several million inside the reaction?”

  She said, “A singularity. All that heat and radiation are contained by it save the resultant gamma and X-ray burst, which are shielded and converted. I’m also collecting energy from the singularity with quantum phenomena, otherwise it’d be a net loss in power generation, but I don’t want to get into that. But the fusion reactor requires a lot of hydrogen fuel, while yours just needs a little magic.”

  I nodded, completely blowing off the idea that to create a singularity she’d also cracked artificial gravity through science, not a spell.

  “Okay, I can do that. Do you want a remote charging sphere connected to all thirty, or one for each, or none at all.”

  She blinked, “You can do that? The first one would be… fantastic. How much?”

  “I’ll bill you for the resources, consider my effort and magic as a favor, I owe your family a debt.”

  She looked confused, then her eyes widened, and she laughed, “You know, from Natasha’s point of view she owes you for Faith.”

  Well, no one ever said the goddess of Wisdom was slow on the uptake.

  I frowned, “How so?”

  She said, “She loves giving away her gifts, lives for it. You also gave one of her friends and someone she admires a happy home, family, love, and helped her find peace with a mantel she’d come to hate. That is priceless, from Natasha’s perspective.”

  “That doesn’t make me any less grateful for the gift, so I suppose we can call it a wash. Alright, we plan to market them for five grand in forty years, though it might be higher when adjusted for the interim inflation, that’s the current value. Then the only favor will be selling them to you under the table before they’re commercially available.”

  She grinned, “In return I’ll offer you the same, with the products I intend to roll out eventually, anyway.”

  “Fair. I have to admit I’m curious what they’ll be powering.”

  She smiled, “Oh, you’ll definitely be invited to the unveiling. It should be excellent free marketing for your devices as well.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  She stood up and waved, before teleporting out.

  Outside of the deal, I’d also made a little progress. Now Natasha and Mandy trusted me from that block of the council. I had hopes Gary and Kaya would join that number, but I doubted I’d get anyone else’s. Not their full trust anyway, but they might come to trust I have no intention of trying to seize back all control over time.

  Lianne came in from outside, and she smiled as I pulled her into my lap for a kiss.

  “You’re playing with fire, sir,” she said breathily when it broke, her eyes flashing in desire.

  I said casually, “The room is still booked for twenty more minutes.”

  She giggled, then bit her lip with both longing desire and uncertainty. I saw the moment her lust overcame her sense of worry at semi-public sex, as she twisted her body, straddled me making her skirt ride up, reached for my pants, and started to cast a one-way muffling spell.

  No doubt, so the rest of the hotel wouldn’t hear her screams.

  She was already breathy for it, and quite manic, and this was one of those times she’d be in control, ride me hard, and put me away wet.

  She was mesmerizing…

  Chapter Four

  It was a clear day out, blue sky for as far as I could see off the coast of Iceland. Lianne and I hovered at a thousand feet, and I was constantly checking for plots. What I was doing was a little dangerous, they did have five tier ones. Meeting in the sky was almost a guarantee their earth and water tier-ones wouldn’t choose to act against me, but that still left three of them that would be capable in the sky. Still, to ambush me they’d need to plot it out and discuss it, at least for five against one.

  If Matthew attacked me off the cuff, well with Lianne powerfully enhancing my shields I was confident we could win or bug out before dying.

  I’d contacted Matthew through text though, and so far, his intentions were honorable. It honestly felt more like a moment of parley before a war to me than anything else, but that could’ve just been my low expectations of success in this endeavor. I had no power to read the future, just my experience and the past telling me it was a dangerous waste of time.

  If a manageable one.

  Even my ruling mantel said it was a waste of time. At least, as far as gaining peace, but it was probably worth doing just so we could claim the high moral ground in the human world. I’d be recording it after all, or rather, Misty would.

  “Three seconds, baby.”

  A bright white sphere appeared about twenty feet away, and when it cleared Matthew was there. He was wide shouldered, six foot four, with short blond hair and blue eyes. Very muscled, and he looked rather wary beneath the bluster of his arrogant look.

  I nodded in greeting, “Thank you for meeting me. It’s my hope we come to an understanding about the increasing attack attempts the last few days on my pantheon.”

  Matthew scowled, “You have some nerve coming here and saying that, after what you did.”

  I shook my head, “You mean regretfully doing what was necessary to preserve our place in the world? Insane gods can’t be allowed, we have too much power, and the humans can certainly make our lives a lot harder, even if they couldn’t defeat us in battle. Viktor had your pantheon on a path of destruction in his insanity, picking fights with every other pantheon, humanity, and the four supernatural races, all at once. If I had waited or held my hand, it would’ve been far worse in the end.

  “We’ve had to remove more than one of our own gods for a similar reason in the beginning.”

  Matthew sneered, “Justify it however you want to yourself, my people demand vengeance.”

  I nodded, not calling out his lie. It was his leadership and support of harassing my and the other pantheons more and more every day. He knew nothing of my power over knowledge, nor his dead king’s. No more than my council knew.

  “When it was just the troublemakers being dicks, independently, I was more than happy to just avoid the drama. But when it’s at least countenanced by you, if not encouraged, I can no longer take a path of peace in dealing with attacks on my gods. If I can’t count on you controlling your gods, I will. I have no quarrel with you, or your pantheon. I did what I had to do to preserve the delicate balance between the races of this world and the wary peace we enjoy, with no rancor in my heart.

  “Believe what you will about that, but also believe this. The attacks on my people will stop, one way or another.”

  He shook his head, “Do you think I’m a fool?”

  “Yes, but which of my statements made you ask?”

  He flushed red at that, and Lianne covered her mouth to muffle the giggle.

  I shook my head, “A part of you knows I’m right, otherwise you’d have continued in his footsteps. You’ve yet to put the supernaturals here under your control, mess with the human government here, or demand all your gods move here and never leave. I realize backing down isn’t palatable, it may anger some of your truly foolish gods, but…” I shrugged.

  He was also a fool because he was pushing a war he couldn’t win. Well, to be fair he didn’t know I’d see everything coming, he may have believed he could take out enough of our tier-ones in the opening moves to be a difference maker if it came down to it.

  Regardless, he should’ve waited until his pantheon was complete to make a move like this. More than that, starting a war with us and the Egyptians at the same time just proved he was a fool. A desperate one, a fool making choices to preserve his power, because his gods demanded action out of misplaced outrage, instead of to preserve his life and do what was right for his people. I didn’t say any of that out loud, because I wasn’t about to advise him on how to become a more dangerous and cunning opponent.

  “Anyway, I’ve come to say what I needed to say, to deliver my warning and intent. I don’t know if you mistook how I dealt with your troublemakers as weakness, but that grace stops now. There will be a cost, from now forward, if the plotted attacks continue. Are we done, or would you like to clarify why you think I think you’re a fool?”

  Not that I didn’t already know. He thought I did have a quarrel with him and his pantheon, and that I was playing games. He knew Viktor had been insane, but he also foolishly didn’t fear the humans at all, so didn’t buy my reasoning on it.

  He was also obviously struggling with his anger, since he hadn’t spoken at all since my insult at agreeing with him, if not for the reasons he assumed.

  Matthew snarled, “There will be an accounting.”

  Right, we’d reached the threat part of the conversation.

  I nodded soberly, “There really will. It’s sad you think I owe you for doing your pantheon a favor, and there will be an accounting for any unprovoked attacks on my people.”

  He just couldn’t see it that way, and I supposed I didn’t entirely blame him for that. He had illusions and outrage, and no power to discern the truth. That amateur hour leadership I worried about. I kind of expected actually, which is why I’d always thought needing to take out Viktor was the worst-case scenario to resolve his aggressive actions. But an insane god ruling a pantheon would’ve been even worse.

  At least he’d been honorable enough not to break our parley truce.

  I teleported home, not bothering to wait for his rebuttal, neither of us was going to make the other see the light from their point of view. Of course, I was right. Yes, I knew there was irony in there, but it was also just true. I had the power of knowledge, and he was misjudging me, my intentions, and the danger that Viktor had represented to all of us, including himself and the Norse pantheon.

  “Misty, package that up and send it to the council, let them know we’re on for the minor escalation tomorrow if the attacks continue.”

  Misty replied, “Yes, sir.”

  I’d let Mandy handle it, but I’d also be ready to move in, just in case the enemy brought in reinforcements. That was the danger of course, the whole thing could snowball fast into a war. If it happened in constant spur of the moment orders in response and counter-response, I wouldn’t be able to manage it very well with my knowledge power.

  So clearly, if Mandy was counter-attacked, I’d move in, wreak havoc, and order a withdrawal. That would short-circuit the snowball effect, and I could take the time to see what was coming next.

  I headed down into the basement, I needed to make thirty of the house sized magic to electricity converters all linked to a common charger. Then I think I’d be calling it a day, assuming nothing else crazy happened.

  Aubrey looked fantastic in a cute red summer dress that hugged her torso, revealing half her top heavy C cup cleavage. She was otherwise barefoot, and I was fairly sure she didn’t have a strip of clothing under it. It would make for a fast strip and shift, but she really wore it well. I loved her tight petite body, and her beautiful face with strong cheekbones and full lips.