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stupid mutt Poki take the blame, but Namaka knew the credit was all hers.
    Just like that demon lover of Pele’s. All hers in a very short time. Namaka called her sea monster and crawled atop the great beast’s neck. Then she merely pointed, and they flew across the waves to the big island of Hawaii. She would capture the demon hunter and make all of them pay. His suffering would be Pele’s suffering, and there was absolutely no reason Namaka couldn’t enjoy herself in the process.
    Nope. None at all.
     
    * * *
     
    Locan stirred. It was the smell that woke him, a rank, seaweed stench that seemed to fill his nostrils and made the air too thick to breathe. He rose up on one elbow, aware of Pele sleeping soundly beside him, aware, too, of the powerful sense he was no longer alone with the goddess.
    Something else waited in the shadows. Something large and scaled, the source of that foul stench. Reaching for his dagger, he called out, a silent cry for help to Jett and Addie. Then the foul air forced him back. It closed off any sense of light or dark or anything at all, beyond the fact he was falling.
    Falling for the longest time. He didn’t remember hitting the ground. No, he didn’t remember anything at all.
     
    * * *
     
    “What’s the matter with that damned dog?”
    Jett blinked sleepy eyes and stared at her as Addie dragged herself out of a nightmare. Something had happened to Locan. Something terrible, and Azrael was whining and licking her face, and . . . Oh, crap! “Locan. Something’s got Locan. He called for help . . .”
    “That’s what woke me up. Guess he quit blocking us.” Jett leaned over and patted Azrael’s big head. “Thanks, boy. Good dog.”
    He was out of bed and dressing before Addie’d fully come awake, but it didn’t take her long to get her clothes and weapons in place. “What now?”
    “We see what Pele knows.”
    “Az? Take us to Pele. Now!”
    The hellhound scrambled across the slick obsidian floor with Addie and Jett following close behind. They raced along the dark obsidian toward a pale glow. Pele lay facedown atop a rumpled bed, either sleeping or unconscious. Her arms and legs were bound in long strands of seaweed and the air carried an unnatural stench.
    “Pele? Goddess! Wake up.” Jett unceremoniously shook her shoulder. She groaned and turned her head away. He slapped her right buttock, hard enough to leave a mark. She jerked and groaned again. He slapped the left, leaving a pair of matching handprints.
    She finally raised her head and glared at him. “You dare strike me? Pele, goddess of . . .”
    Addie got in her face and shouted at her. “Goddess of nothing, damn it. Where’s Locan? What’s happened?”
    Pele frowned and tried to sit. She tugged at the smelly seaweed binding her to the bed and cursed. “That bitch. I’d recognize her beast’s stench anywhere.” Then she stared at the thick stems with glowing eyes and the burnt weeds fell away from her wrists. Turning her body on the bed, she took care of the ones holding her feet just as easily.
    “What beast? What bitch?” Jett towered over her, practically quivering with rage. “Who has Locan?”
    Pele growled low in her throat. “The stink is from the sea monster that carries Namaka across the waves. Namaka is my older sister, goddess of the sea. She hates me. She wants whatever I have.”
    Addie shot a heated glance at Jett. “Where would she take Locan?”
    Pele waved her hand in a direction that covered about half the planet. “It’s a fucking big ocean. I have no idea.”
    Furious, Addie got right in the goddess’s face. “Why didn’t he call for help? We can’t telepath to one another. Have you been blocking us?”
    Pele’s eyes went wide and she snarled. “Of course I have. You are not allowed to speak words I cannot hear. Be gone with you. Take that disgusting beast. Where is Poki?” She glanced about the large room, growing more agitated by the moment. “Poki? Where are you?”
    The