A Trickster's Daughter

Chapter 17: Bitchcraft

December 24 2007, Manchester, New Hampshire, United States

Gabriel was in the kitchenette with Maya making a slew of freshly made Christmas cookies. Both were covered with flour, spices, and egg here and there. They could never seem to bake without becoming complete messes themselves. Neither Gabriel nor Maya really celebrated the religious aspects of Christmas, but more the general meaning behind the holidays. After all, as far as Maya knew, her Dad was the Norse pagan god of mischief and chaos, why would he actually celebrate a Christian holiday? No, Gabriel had started celebrating after Maya was born as a way to celebrate what they had together, family. It also helped that there were lots of sweets and goodies and presents.

They were about to start icing the gingerbread army they created, when Maya's phone went off. Looking at the caller ID she saw that it was Bobby. Quickly wiping as much gunk off her hands she answered the phone.

"Hey Bobby, Merry Christmas!" she greeted happily, sticking her tongue out when her Dad rolled his eyes in exaggeration.

"Merry Christmas My." Bobby chuckled. "Listen, this isn't much of a social call as it is more of a business one. I need some confirmation on a bit of info on a type of pagan god."

"Oh, sure thing, and if I don't know," She looked at her Dad as he tried to shake his head no, even making exaggerated 'no!' movements with his arms. "I'm sure my Dad would love to help." He threw his arms up in defeat and pouted. Maya rolled her eyes, putting her phone on speaker and on a clean spot on the counter.

"Thanks kid. The boys seemed to have stumbled upon a winter solstice god, Hold Nickar. Someone's been given a shop owner meadowsweet wreaths to sell—"

"MEADOWSWEET WREATHS?!" Maya shouted in disbelief. "You gotta kill the fucking bastard with an evergreen stake! Don't got a stake? Use the fucking Christmas tree and shove it up his ass!" Maya ranted. Then she began ranting about setting their house on fire. Gabriel casually grabbed the phone and took it off speaker.

"Sup Hunter." He greeted cheerily as he watched his daughter rant angrily, even if he was mad from the memory of what happened as well, Maya honestly looked like a puffed up kitten when she was trying to rant angrily.

"Loki, what's got Maya all riled up?"

"Couple a Christmases ago Maya had gone to a local shop and bought a really nice smelling wreath." Gabriel waited, knowing Bobby would make the connection.

"Balls." Bobby cursed. "Meadowsweet?"

"Yep. I was away most of that night, but got home just in time to find Maya gone and hear some loud thumping across rooftops. I tracked him down and tackled that asshole. Told him he should know better than to snatch another god's kid, half-human or not." He finished with a growl.

"Was Maya okay?" Bobby asked concerned.

"Yeah, a bit shaken up, but she was alright. She was, however, royally pissed off when I told what he wanted her for."

"Of course I was PISSED! He wanted to EAT ME! Do I really look that delicious?!" Maya yelled, throwing her arms up in exasperation.

There was a pause of silence between Bobby and Gabriel over the phone.

"Did you get that?" Gabriel watched as his daughter fumed. Yeah, just like an angry puffed up kitten.

First vampires, then pagan gods that demanded human sacrifice. Does every human preying monster on this blue marble want to eat her? Can none of them tell she ain't all human and probably shouldn't eat her? Or, does she have an invisible sign that said 'Come eat me! I'm delicious!' Were Maya's general thoughts.