Dogs and Goddesses Read online

  Kammani’s eyes trailed over the seats, finally locking on the empty one between the professor and Bug-Eyes. She took in a deep breath, and did not look happy. Daisy wondered if she and Bailey could make a break for it and maybe find a nice, sane obedience class at the Y, but she didn’t want to do it while Kammani was watching. Although Daisy didn’t really believe that the woman could shoot death lasers with her eyes, she kinda believed the woman could shoot death lasers with her eyes. She tightened her hold on Bailey’s leash and he yipped and scrambled his toenails on the floor, trying to rush Kammani.

  “Noah Wortham, my attendant, will assist”—her eyes locked on Bailey—“those who need assistance.” Her eyes trailed the room again, from woman to woman, and then she disappeared behind the heavy drapes as Noah emerged and walked over to the teenagers, who giggled louder. Daisy leaned toward the professor.

  “Times like this, I’m glad I’m not a virgin,” Daisy said, and the professor smiled.

  “Why?” the skinny brunette said, her eyes wide.

  “Oh, because of the sacrifice,” Daisy said, grinning.

  “What?” the brunette said, and her dog moved closer to her protectively.

  “Oh, nothing,” Daisy said. “Dumb joke.” Bailey jumped four feet in the air as Noah walked over to them, and Daisy shifted her focus to the cute trainer.

  “Why does he do that?” she asked. “That’s not normal, right?”

  “It’s normal.” Noah smiled at Daisy as he handed the brunette a dog cookie. “Hi, I’m Noah.”

  The brunette took the cookie. “I’m Abby. This is Bowser.” She gave Bowser the cookie and he inhaled it.

  “Hey, Bowser.” Noah shifted over and gave Daisy a cookie.“Hi.”

  Daisy felt her face spread into a goofy smile. “Hi.” Bailey scrambled his front paws over Noah’s knees, and Noah knelt down and petted him. “Hey, guy.”

  “His name is Bailey. I’m Daisy.”

  Noah looked up, his eyes locking on hers, and Daisy was grateful for the poor lighting as she felt herself flush. Criminy. It was like high school all over again, only this time with dogs. Bailey leapt up and slobbered all over Noah’s face and Daisy grabbed his harness and pulled him back, shoving the cookie at him to keep him off the cute trainer.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “He’s not my dog.”

  “It’s okay,” Noah said, wiping at his face. “Jack Russells are enthusiastic like that.”

  “Enthusiastic, huh?” Daisy said. “That’s some diplomatic phrasing.”

  “Let me show you something.” Noah motioned for her to kneel on the floor.

  Daisy glanced at the brunette, who had a wry expression that told Daisy she saw right through the whole thing; then she looked at the professor, who was observing them with detached interest.

  “Okay.” Daisy knelt down next to Noah as he put one hand on the tip of Bailey’s ear, rubbing it between his thumb and forefinger. Bailey sat down and panted quietly as though good behavior was something with which he had a passing acquaintance.

  “Big faker,” Daisy muttered to Bailey.

  “Sorry?”

  “Nothing,” Daisy said. “It’s just that he’s impossible no matter what I do, but you rub his ear for half a second and suddenly he’s calm.”

  “It’s a pressure point.” Noah took Daisy’s hand, and Daisy put a concerted effort into ignoring the tingles she felt at his touch. He guided her fingers to Bailey’s ear, keeping hold of them there, his touch gentle and yet oddly powerful. “Just put your thumb and forefinger on opposite sides and rub gently right … there.”

  Noah kept his hand on Daisy’s, helping her find the pressure point. Bailey panted happily, his focus flickering from her to Noah and back again. As their fingers moved in time together, the lighting seemed to change, to get brighter. The stone floor and walls seemed to shift to a less oppressive gray, and the heavy drapes seemed less black and more a deep, shimmering midnight blue.

  “Weird,” Daisy said, her eyes on Noah.

  “Yeah,” Noah said, his voice quiet.

  Then he stood, and Daisy looked up to see Kammani standing behind him with a tray of drinks, staring down at Daisy in disapproval. Kammani’s presence in the room was huge, and Daisy felt like a little girl being reprimanded by the teacher. Slowly, she shifted back up to her seat as Noah moved on to offer a dog cookie to the professor.

  “I’m Noah,” he said.

  “I’m Shar,” Daisy heard the professor say. “And this is Wolfie. Can you tell me—”

  “You will drink,” Kammani said, handing Abby a Dixie cup. She almost smiled at Abby—not quite, but there was approval in her eyes as she watched Abby take a sip—but when she turned to Daisy, her eyes were dark again.

  “You will drink,” Kammani said again, her voice sharper than it had been with Abby.

  “Why?” Daisy sniffed at the cup. “What’s in it?” Kammani stared down at Daisy; she seemed the type of woman who was not accustomed to being questioned. Daisy squared her shoulders, looked Kammani in the eye, and spoke slow and loud.

  “What. Is. In. It?”

  Light flashed in Kammani’s eyes, but Daisy didn’t back down. This woman had interrupted her flirting; she was not going to get away with intimidation tactics, too.

  “It’s a tonic,” Kammani said. “Very delicious. Drink it, and you will know.”

  “It’s really good,” Abby said.

  Fixed under Kammani’s gaze, Daisy raised her cup.

  What’s the worst that can happen? she thought, and drank.

  After half an hour of be-the-alpha-dog lecture from the very attractive Noah, Shar got tired of waiting for an opening to ask about Kammani Gula again. So when Noah called two little dogs into the circle, she slipped out of her chair and stole through the curtain in back of the altar to find Kammani, Wolfie padding behind her on the stone floor. The area behind the curtain was as large as the space in front but dark as all hell, and Shar was moving cautiously toward the back wall, her hand out in front of her to keep from running into anything, when Kammani spoke from behind her, making Shar start and Wolfie yelp.

  “You have left the others.”

  “Yes.” Shar turned, seeing the woman’s hourglass shape dimly in the gloom. “Could you tell me where you found the name Kammani Gula—”

  “I am Kammani Gula,” the woman said, a thrill in her voice, and Shar squinted to see if she was kidding. “You have not drunk your tonic.” She gestured to the gap Shar had left in the curtains, and Shar saw the full cup of punch she’d stashed under her chair.

  “I’m not thirsty. Look, I think it’s very creative”—weird as hell—“that you took the name of a goddess as your own, but what I need is your source, the place where you found her name.”

  She stopped as Kammani moved to the gap in the curtains to frown out at the teenagers who were making kissing noises at two new dogs. She raised her hand, and the dogs came daintily across the floor and into the darkness to her, leaving Noah dogless.

  He walked over to Daisy and said something, and Daisy handed him Bailey’s leash.

  I’m sorry I’m going to miss that, Shar thought, and turned her attention back to Kammani. “Okay. So what I need to know—” She stopped again, distracted as she saw the dogs up close: even in the dim light, they looked like tiny tan giraffes with fluffy white pom-pom crowns and little grinning faces, one taller and more slender, the other one shorter, with sharper, deeper, smarter eyes. “My god, those are Mesopotamian Temple Dogs. I thought they were extinct.”

  “Bikka and Umma,” Kammani said. “They are at my side always, to serve me.”

  Bikka and Umma smiled up at Shar, their bizarre little doggy faces alight with intelligence. Well, Umma’s was. Bikka’s bore a striking resemblance to Paris Hilton.

  Wolfie grumbled.

  “Right,” Shar said. “About Kammani Gula. I’m familiar with Gula, the Goddess of Healing whose sacred animal was the dog …” She looked down at the Temple Dogs again. “�