Read Online Unbinding by Eileen Wilks - Free Book Online Page B

too.”
    Benedict slid an amused look at Nathan. “Tastes like chicken?’
    “Not in the slightest.”
    “Benedict,” Dell said clearly. “I accept offer of you. Not men of you. You.”
    When Dell made the effort to form full sentences, she was being formal. Benedict seemed to recognize this. He gave her a small bow, then looked at Kai. “Anything else I should know?”
    “She’ll want to change back to her original form. Give her—” Kai interrupted herself when the chameleon started to go in the ladies room. “Use the men’s room!”
    Dell looked back at her, affronted. Females were very much at the top of the chameleon hierarchy. They were rarer than their male counterparts. Larger, too, and—according to Dell—smarter, stronger, faster, and better in every way. She did not like being mistaken for a male. “I know, but the cops might need to check out the ladies’ room. You don’t want to be interrupted.” She looked back at Benedict. “She’ll need a few minutes. I’ll let you know when she’s done.”
    Arjenie’s brow was furrowed. “Benedict, are you sure this is a good idea? You’re not getting into some kind of macho I-can-do-it-if-he-can game, are you?”
    “Probably to the first,” Benedict said, “no to the second.” That’s all he said, but it satisfied Arjenie, who went back to whatever absorbed her on her laptop. He frowned at Nathan. “Hunter. You have any idea what’s going on? I don’t see what the Great Bitch gets out of this.”
    Nathan looked faintly astonished. “You’re still thinking it was your Great Enemy behind this?”
    “Who else? Whatever the motive, it took a helluva lot of power to transform flowers to butterflies.”
    “Which attacked
Kai
. Who is not a target for your enemy.”
    “Kai and thirty or more other people.” Benedict was impatient. “Look, we’ve been through this sort of thing before. The opening salvo in one of
her
attacks often seems pointless, but who else has that kind of power to lob around?”
    “Itzpapalotl, for one,” Arjenie said.
    Benedict blinked. “What?”
    “The Aztec warrior goddess. That is, she’s the goddess of childbirth, but the Aztecs considered that the female equivalent of a warrior.” She turned her laptop so the screen faced them. It held the image of a being with a skeletal head, butterfly wings, and the clawed feet of a big cat. “It’s the butterflies. I’ve done a lot of research on the Great Bitch
,
and she’s never been associated with butterflies, not under any of her goddess names. Itzpapalotl has. Her name means obsidian butterfly, or possibly clawed butterfly. She’s particularly associated with the Rothschildia orizaba moth, which doesn’t look anything like the butterflies that attacked us, so we should keep other possibilities in mind, like Xochiquetzal, the Aztec goddess of pleasure and beauty, whose retinue is birds and butterflies, only the way these butterflies bit people doesn’t really fit. She was one of the few peaceable sorts in the Aztec pantheon. There aren’t many butterfly associations with any of the Western pantheon. There’s Psyche, of course, but even if she is still able to manifest—which doesn’t seem likely—her only association with butterflies is the wings she was sometimes depicted with.”
    The expression on Benedict’s face suggested he was about to get himself in trouble. “You don’t think we’ve had enough deities messing with us, you have to go looking for more?”
    “What I think,” she said tartly, “is that transformation on this scale means either an Old One or a deity is involved. Not necessarily an Aztec deity, but that’s a place to start.”
    Benedict’s expression darkened further. Kai spoke to save him from himself. “Dell’s ready.”
    “Okay.” He ran a hand over the top of his head, muttered, “Itz-papa-what-il?” and headed for the men’s room.

SIX

    A S soon as the door shut behind Benedict, the one next to it opened and a