I started pushing the elevator button for the top floor over and over as if that might help it go faster.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Despite my protests that I already had four gods with me, and I didn't need anyone else to accompany me, Odin insisted on joining us. Trevor was in Hawaii, checking in on our nightclub, Moonshine, Azrael was with his parents, and Kirill was watching the little lion girls so that Fallon and Samantha could have some alone time. That left Odin. I think he was more bored than anything so I gave in.
Triton's boat was in a warehouse/workshop near the docks in Mar de Plata. It was another sunny, humid day in Argentina; the weather even warmer down by the shore than it was in the mountains. I could see glittering water through the warehouse's open bay doors; the scent of salt and fish wafting in on the breeze. People who haven't been to the ocean imagine that it smells fresh. They're wrong. It does smell fresher than, say, a smoggy city, but the ocean is a soup of life and death seasoned with the filth humans carelessly toss in it (I've dated Navy men; don't even get me started on what the military tosses into the ocean). On land, you can bury the dead and flush away waste, but in the sea, dead things and waste just float around until they disintegrate and become a part of the sea-soning. Anyone hungry for some shellfish?
Honestly, I didn't mind the ocean so much as long as I didn't have to swim in it. The salty-death odor was diffused by the vigilant breeze, and the heat was tolerable within the shade. Yeah, I was fine; it was the boat that wasn't doing so good.
It was called the Sea Nymph but it looked more like a Sea Witch now. The boat was chocked up on curved, wooden supports; displaying the holes in its hull. There was damage all over the thing; as if it had been tossed over boulders. But the main injuries were on the bottom where there were long tears through the fiberglass that went straight through. I could see the layers upon layers of material that had to be penetrated before the bilge could be reached. The fiberglass was frayed like ratted hair; creating a fringe around the wounds like a torn sweater. Scrapes abounded as well; whole sections of paint removed as if someone had chiseled them away. A few barnacles clung to the sides despite their precarious position. Barnacles are tenacious bastards.
“Can this even be repaired?” I asked.
“Sure,” Triton said. “It'll take a lot of work and money, though. I'm hoping I won't have to repair more of them. Do you smell anything, Vervain?”
I closed my eyes and shifted into dragon mode. She rose up inside me and when I opened my eyes, Triton gave a surprised gasp. I suppose I should have warned him about the way my dragon tended to shift my eyes into hers; fiery irises with slit pupils. But Triton didn't say anything; he just stepped out of my way, and I moved forward.
I had Triton and Poseidon's scents stored in my head to rule them out from any I found. I was looking for another god smell that didn't belong. I saw it immediately, and it wasn't the golden haze I'd tracked from the mine. This trail was turquoise; bright and clean. It smelled like water to me but not salt. This was a water god—no; a water goddess—who wasn't connected to the sea. So, what was she doing wrecking a fishing boat?
I followed the trail with my eyes; out of the warehouse doors and then back out to sea. It went hazy a few miles out; dragon sight was exceptional but it still had its limits. That didn't matter, though; the trail came back in to shore. It looked as if I didn't need Torrent, after all. Just a car.
“I found her,” I announced. “Do you happen to have a car that can fit all of us?”
“Right this way.” Triton rushed out of the warehouse and over to a beat-up van.
A faded logo of a trident was painted on the side of the van; over the words: Trident Fishing. Triton slid the side panel open to reveal a surprisingly clean, but seat-less, interior. Hades helped Persephone into the back before following her inside, and then Donnie and Odin climbed in. I took a moment to notice that Odin's ass was even nicer than Donnie's. Then I shook myself for such silliness and got into the passenger seat. I needed the window so I got to ride up front. Triton jumped in the driver's seat, started the engine, and I pointed him in the direction of the trail.
We followed the trail up paved roads heading inland. This goddess had a car. She also had money because her tracks led into a very well-to-do residential area. Mansions rose up around us; unusual modern homes gleaming beside enormous castle-like Tudors and columned palaces.
The trail arrowed straight through a metal gate toward one of the more modern houses. I didn't know that it was modern at first; it was hidden behind a shield of massive palms, full-topped trees, and thick bushes and it was also set back from the road a ways. It wasn't until we disabled the gate and drove up the winding drive that we were able to see the unique design.
It was a double-tiered oval of glass and enameled white material (I have no idea if the material was metal, cement, or wood; just that it was shiny). The structure rose out of a pond like Aphrodite's clam shell. The pond appeared to be natural and was connected to a river that wound through the palatial lot as if it
