Green Tea and Black Death (The Godhunter, Book 5) by Amy Sumida Page B

healing herself,” Teharon pronounced as he sat back. “I was hoping it would be so. The drink from the Grayel has given her recuperative powers. It just took awhile to battle such a deadly disease. She’s going to be fine.”
       “ Zank you,” Kirill wept and hugged me tighter. His musky lion scent, like sawdust and citrus, enveloped me, calming my racing heart.
       Trevor sat back, stunned. “Sweet mercy,” he breathed out through the hand covering his face. “I thought I’d lost you. I…” he stumbled up and looked down at me with wide, tear drenched eyes.
       “ Trevor,” I could feel my body condensing, my blood flowing cleaner and removing any traces of infection. “Don’t go. We need to talk about this, come back home.”
       “ Vervain,” he backed up and my heart fell. “I can’t go through this again. I need to…” he backed away further and faded as he traced out.
       “ Trevor!” I tried to get up but my whole body had gone limp with the drain of energy it took to heal.
       “ Shhh,” Kirill rocked me and exchanged a worried glance with Teharon. “He’ll be back, Tima. He has to come back.”
       “ Or he’ll die,” I whispered, right before passing out.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Ten
     
       The shrill ring of the phone seemed louder than usual in my sleepy head. Like a blow horn to the brain. I groaned as I reached for it. What the hell time was it? I squinted at the clock as I held the receiver to my ear. 1:37 am. Kirill snuggled closer to me under the covers.
       “ Hello,” my heart ramped up; a phone call in the early hours of the morning was never good.
       “ Vervain?” It was my cousin, Jess.
       “ What is it?” I sat up straight in bed, effectively waking Kirill and upsetting Nick at our feet.
       “ I’m sorry to wake you,” there was a distinctively uncomfortable pause. “Grandpa just passed away.”
       “ What?” I knew my grandpa wasn’t doing so well. Jess had moved out here from Ohio to help Grandma take care of him. He hadn’t been looking too good lately and I’d thought I was prepared for his death but my shaking body was telling a different story.
      “ He’s passed away,” Jess continued through my shock. “Grandma’s not taking it so well. I thought you might like to come over while we wait for the doctor to arrive and pronounce.”
       “ Yeah,” I wiped my hand over my face and felt Kirill’s arm snake around me supportively. “I’ll be there in fifteen.”
       I hung up and looked at Kirill. I fought gods and all the creatures created by them but losing my grandpa was the hardest battle of my life. He wasn’t just my grandpa, he had raised me. My mother had me pretty young and never married the man who may or may not be my father(I'm still not sure how the magic Odin performed to bring me back had worked), so my grandparents were my second set of parents really. I’d lost my possible father years ago and that was hard but my heart knew my real Daddy had just died.
       My birthday was six days away.
       “ Vervain,” Kirill wiped at my cheeks and I suddenly realized I was crying. “What happened?”
       “ My Grandpa’s dead.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Eleven
     
       I held my grandmother as she cried into the phone. She was listening to my aunt and her preacher husband pray. Oh yeah, did I neglect to mention that although my mom was a witch, my mother’s family are all staunch Christians?
       My mom was the black sheep and I followed in her footsteps happily. A path the rest of the family was determined to ignore we even traveled. As I listened to Aunty Dorris launch into a round of praying “in tongue”, I thanked all the powers that be that I was Pagan. Now that I was technically a Goddess, I guess I was as Pagan as they came.
       For all of you fellow Pagans out there, let me just educate you