Idaho Springs, Denver Cereal V16 Read online

  Idaho Springs

  Denver Cereal, Volume Sixteen

  Claudia Hall Christian

  Cook Street Publishing

  Denver, CO

  by

  Claudia Hall Christian

  StoriesbyClaudia.com

  The Denver Cereal

  The Denver Cereal

  Celia’s Puppies

  Cascade

  Cimarron

  Black Forest

  Fairplay

  Gold Hill

  Silt

  Larkspur

  Firestone

  Grand Junction (Denver Cereal V1-10)

  Fort Lupton

  Fort Morgan

  Fort Collins

  Fort Garland (Denver Cereal V11-13)

  Olney Springs

  Manitou Springs

  Idaho Springs

  Alex the Fey Thrillers

  The Fey

  Learning to Stand

  Who I am

  Lean on Me

  In the Grey

  Finding North

  About Face

  In Deep (coming 2018)

  The Queen of Cool

  The Queen of Cool

  Seth and Ava Mysteries

  Tax Assassin

  Carving Knife

  Friendly Fire

  Cigarette Killer (2017)

  Suffer a Witch

  Suffer a Witch

  Copyright © Claudia Hall Christian

  ISNI: 0000 0003 6726 170X

  serial fiction originally published

  November 2016 — May 2017

  at DenverCereal.com

  Licensed under the Creative Commons License:

  Attribution – NonCommercial – Share Alike 3.0

  ISBN-13 : 978-1-938057-57-1 (digital)

  978-1-938057-56-4 (print)

  Library of Congress upon request

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE:

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  First edition © August 2018

  Cook Street Publishing

  ISNI: 0000 0004 1443 6403

  PO Box 18217

  Denver, CO 8021

  What’s happened so far

  Denver Cereal is an addicting, fun, sweet and crunchy serial fiction filled with the tension, drama, and love of urban life.

  The best way to catch up is to read Grand Junction, Denver Cereal Volume 1-10 and Fort Garland, Denver Cereal V11-13. They are very affordable and available wherever eBooks are sold. You can also read Denver Cereal online at StoriesbyClaudia.com.

  We used to write a section here that gave a synopsis of all of the previous books. Frankly, the synopsis’ wasn’t very good. More than anything, they deprived you of the chance to hang out in Denver Cereal for a while. We were only be spoiling your fun

  You deserve a chance to read all the crazy twists and turns, mischief, and wild adventures of Denver Cereal. These aren’t books to be accomplished or checked off a list. They are stories to be savored and enjoys.

  Get to it.

  We’ll be here when you get back.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Denver Cereal is provided free due to

  the generous support of our patrons.

  This book was created because of their support.

  Thank you to each of our patrons.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 439

  Chapter 440

  Chapter 441

  Chapter 442

  Chapter 443

  Chapter 444

  Chapter 445

  Chapter 446

  Chapter 447

  Chapter 448

  Chapter 449

  Chapter 450

  Chapter 451

  Chapter 452

  Chapter 453

  Chapter 454

  Chapter 455

  Chapter 456

  Chapter 457

  Chapter 458

  Chapter 459

  Chapter 460

  Chapter 461

  Chapter 462

  Chapter 463

  Glossary of Characters

  Chapter Four Hundred and Thirty-nine

  . . .uh . . .

  “Uh . . .” Tanesha said.

  Everyone groaned.

  “Just start when it started,” Seth said. “I’ll ask questions if something is unclear.”

  “Okay, that helps,” Heather said. “It started with my father, Eros. He created a shade of himself. Before you ask, that’s a sliver of himself. He sent the shade into the world at some point — we’re not sure when.”

  “But it sounds like you knew it was in the world,” Seth said.

  “I knew,” Heather said. “My grandmother, Aphrodite, and Hera knew. I also knew the Gods of War were coming out of their long sleep.”

  “How did you know that?” Seth asked.

  “Athena,” Heather said with a nod to the other woman.

  “What does it mean that the Gods of War were ‘coming out of their long sleep’?” Jeraine asked. “It sounds very . . . biblical.”

  “They are a lot older than that,” Perses said as he appeared behind them. “You’ve heard of ancient civilizations giving human sacrifices to the gods?”

  Almost everyone nodded. At the gruesome idea, Noelle grabbed Teddy’s hand and held it tight.

  “The sacrifices were for the gods,” Perses said. “The gods do not have physical form. They can only manifest in human bodies. Thus, the sacrifices. Once they had physical form, they would advise human elders and dignitaries how best to win a war.”

  “It never occurred to people that the Gods of War were behind every war,” Athena said. “It took me a few hundred human years to figure it out myself.”

  “Athena put them to sleep finally after the last world war in Europe,” Heather said. “They had been asleep until that whole Nazi thing. You’ve probably heard that they were very interested in the ‘occult.’”

  Heather nodded. Delphie, Sam, and Seth nodded, while the younger people looked on.

  “It took a while, and I had to put them away from human eyes . . .” Athena said. “In their slumber, human beings have learned to get along with each other. Now, wisdom rules over war, now.”

  Athena nodded.

  “How did all of this unfold on my daughter, Honey, and Jill?” Seth asked.

  “We’re getting there,” Tanesha said.

  “My father’s shade laid millions of spells throughout the Castle,” Heather said.

  “I thought you cleared those with the Sword of Truth,” Noelle said.

  “So did we,” Heather said. “When Honey, Sandy, and Jill were taken, we realized that we’d missed the purpose of the shade.”

  “He was harvesting for souls for the Gods of War,” Athena said.

  “Why them?” Seth asked.

  “They had made themselves ready mentally for the transformation ceremony of marriage,” Heather said with a note of finality. “And, they are my best friends. He wanted to stick it to me again.”

  “You and Tanesha are best friends,” Jeraine said, irritably. “Should he have taken her?”

  “Why don’t we put that aside for a minute?” Sam asked. “Let’s see what they have to say.”

  Jeraine nodded.

  “As you probably know, the Gods of War sent their page to capture Honey, Sandy, and Jill,” Heather said.

  They pointed to the screen Abi had created, and they watched Honey, Jill, and Sandy talk to the page of the Gods of War.

  “He’s annoying,” Nash said under his breath.

  “So there we are,” Heather said. “We went to the Gods of War. T
hey were restless but not quite awake. They had no idea what woke them and were not happy that they were waking up. In their minds, they had taken care of humans for a long time and were more than sick of doing it.”

  Heather nodded.

  “We decided that the easiest and safest thing to do was to hide Sandy, Honey, and Jill,” Athena said. “I was able to comfort the Gods of War and get them to settle down. With any luck, they would have fallen fast asleep again.”

  “So we slipped through time and hid Jill, Sandy, and Honey,” Heather said with a nod.

  “Which is how we ended up having a wedding at all,” Tanesha said.

  “But . . .” Heather’s eyes flicked to Perses.

  “I forgot to temper my voice,” Perses said in a remorse laden voice. “And . . .”

  “Now’s a good time to show what happened,” Heather said.

  She nodded to Abi and gestured to the screen before the fire. The scene began to unfold.

  The picture began to slowly clear. The image seemed to resolve somewhere in the altar of the amazing church. For all of the activity, there was a kind of solemnity and silence to this moment. Sandy was walking down the aisle with Seth. The plain silk of her mother’s wedding dress rustled as she moved. Honey and Jill stood on one side while Jacob and MJ stood on the other. They were slightly turned to watch. When Seth and Sandy arrived to the middle of the aisle, the couples turned toward the priest.

  “Who brings this woman to this marriage?” the priest asked for the third time.

  “Her father,” Seth said, as they had practiced. “Me. Her mother is here in spirit.”

  The priest nodded and Seth went to sit next to Ava. Aden stepped next to Jacob.

  The priest opened his mouth and the page of the Gods of War appeared in the rafters of the church. The page seemed surprised to have landed in a church in the middle of a ceremony. He floated down to the aisle of the church. His face reflected a mixture of surprise and delight, as if he was delighted to have such a large group of humans to mess with. He smugly strutted toward the front before realizing that no one could see him.

  He glanced at the audience. Lord Perses sat with his eyes intent on the wedding. There were a few Goddesses, including that meddling Athena, intent on the process. He smiled. Whispering an easy sleeping spell, he put the audience into a trance. In the audiences mind, they were watching a wedding. They wouldn’t wake up until long after he was gone.

  All he had to do was touch the proxies, not get caught, and the Gods of War would manifest again. He reached his hand out to touch the closest bride — Sandy. His fingers crept ever closer to her. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something in the aisle.

  He whipped around.

  There was a black and white cat sauntering down the middle of the aisle. He gawked at the cat. What was this place where animals were allowed to sully their chapels? Shaking his head, he turned back to the front of the room. He had lingered too long. He needed to grab his proxies and get out of there.

  “You do realize that any arrangement you made with Eros is not going to be upheld,” the cat said in clear words.

  The page of the Gods of War turned to look at the cat. Shaking to clear his head, he returned to his task.

  “He has retired,” the cat said.

  “That doesn’t matter,” the page said to the cat. “We will jump to a time when he wasn’t retired. Easy.”

  The page shook his head at the cat.

  “Oh?” the cat asked.

  The cat seemed surprised. The page turned to look at the cat.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” the page asked.

  “Touch her and find out,” the cat said with malice.

  Shaking his head at the cat, the page touched Sandy. She disappeared from the chapel. The priest gasped in horror. He raised his hands toward the page.

  “Away demon, I cast you out!” the priest said.

  Honey disappeared. The cat meowed and the crowd awakened. The page raced to touch Jill. The crowd was on its feet. A few human warriors stepped toward him. He gave them a smug smile and reached out for Jill.

  The priest screamed at the page again. This time, he showered the man in holy water. The first to get away, Paddie rushed down the aisle with Katy on his heels.

  “Bring them back!” Paddie said.

  He held the sword in front of him and pointed it at the page. The page gave the child a cocky grin. He touched Jill at the same moment he was hit by a blast of the Sword of Truth. The power of the sword hit him square between the eyes.

  “Thank you,” the page said to Paddie.

  He tried to disappear, but was unable. He whipped around to look at the cat. The cat shrugged at the page.

  “I would say that I warned you, but why waste my breath?” the cat asked.

  “Bring them back!” Paddie screamed.

  “You will bring them back!” Katy said.

  “No, I won’t,” the page said.

  With every passing minute, the audience was gaining on him. His nemesis, Athena, was now standing next to the cat in the hallway. There was a fairy-human child standing next to Hedone, Eros’s ungrateful daughter. The page felt an unfamiliar tingle of fear run down his spine.

  “I am the powerful one here!” the page said. “I command the Gods of War.”

  “Are you sure?” the cat asked.

  The page began to sputter with rage. He tried again to disappear. This time he was successful. He jumped to where he’d left the brides.

  They weren’t there.

  But the cat was.

  “Where are they?” the page asked.

  “Who?” the cat asked.

  “I need to fulfill my job,” the page said without bothering to keep the anger out of his voice. “I am to bring the proxies to the Gods of War! Without me, they cannot come into being.”

  The cat laughed. The page rushed around looking for the brides.

  “Has it ever occurred to you that the time for a world at war has passed?” the cat asked. “Has it occurred to you that the reason you are having these issues is that the Gods of War do not want to manifest?”

  The page snorted.

  “Just shows how little you know,” the page said. “The Gods of War always wish to live.”

  “There’s where you are wrong,” the cat said.

  “Did you say something?” the page asked, still franticly looking around for the brides.

  The cat laughed again.

  “Why do you laugh?” the page asked.

  “They are not Gods of War,” the cat said. As the cat grew, he seemed to transform. “They are Gods of Life who have been misused for war. They have sucked the resources out of an abundant world which they created in order to continue to perpetuate the myth that they are Gods of War!”

  The page warily watched the cat.

  “How did you not know this?” the cat asked.

  “You’re wrong!” the page said.

  “No,” the cat responded. “This is not a world created in war. This is a world created in peace and love. It’s been misused.”

  Shaking his head, the page jumped away from the cat to the next possible place for the brides. The cat followed.

  “I guess, I’m confused,” Seth interrupted the playback. It halted in motion. “What does this have to do with my daughter?”

  “Everything,” Athena said.

  “But . . .” Seth said.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll get there,” Heather said lightly.

  Seth scowled and the show started again.

  When the cat landed in the new location, the page of the Gods of War rushed the cat. His eyes filled with murderous rage, he grabbed the cat by the scruff of his neck. The cat laughed at the page. The page picked up a stone ready to bash the cat when he heard a noise. Unwilling to miss a chance to kill this meddling cat, the page smash the cat with the rock.

  The cat was no longer in his hand. The rock was still in motion. The page bashed his hand with the rock. He yelped in
pain. Someone cleared their throat. The page whipped around to see where he was.

  He was standing in the chamber of the Gods of War. In a trance, the brides were standing next to the resting place of the Gods of War. The cat was calmly sitting at Sandy’s feet. At the sight of the brides, the audience at the Castle shifted uncomfortably.

  “Is it done?” the page of the Gods of War asked.

  He rushed to the resting place and stopped short.

  “What is happening here?” the page asked. “The Gods are . . . gone.”

  The page rushed to the brides. He leaned into each of them and then shook his head.

  “They haven’t taken form!” the page said. “This has never happened before.”

  As the page paced back and forth in front of the brides, a giant hole appeared in the floor. The page was so focused on his ruminations that he didn’t notice the whole. Athena materialized next to Honey. With her eyes on the page, she touched Honey’s shoulder and covered her mouth. Honey awoke with a jerk.

  “Shh,” Athena said.

  Athena nodded to the page. Honey nodded. Athena pointed to the hole. Honey gave Athena a “really?” Athena gave her a firm nod. Shrugging, Honey jumped through the hole. When she was gone, Athena moved to Jill. She went through the same motions with Jill. Jill jumped into the hole. Sandy and the cat were left.

  “I just can’t figure out . . .” the page said to the cat without looking.

  He fell silent and started pacing again. Athena quickly went through the motions to free Sandy. She was about to point to the hole, but Sandy reached to take her cat with her. Cleo licked Sandy’s cheek. Nodding, Sandy jumped into the hole.

  This time, the page saw the movement out of a corner of his eye. He looked up and the brides were gone.

  “Should we stop it here?” Athena asked Seth. “I don’t wish to bore you with anything that doesn’t include your daughter.”