Before we got started, I removed Bill’s notebook from the inner pocket of his jacket. I picked up the pencil that was alternately in his hand and on the table. On the first blank page, I wrote a phone number. “If this goes bad, call this number. Don’t take us to a hospital. They will want to run a bunch of experiments on us or something because we aren’t quite like a human on the inside.”

I saw the questions flash across his face and wondered which one he would ask me first. “Not human? How are you different?”

“I am not going to take the time to go into it, but our blood is different, our organs are in the same basic spots, but shaped a little different. Different enough that doctors notice.”

Then, he asked the second question I knew he would. “And whose number is this?”

“Zeus’s satphone,” I said simply.

His eyes got wider and his mouth hung open again. “You mean the Zeus? The real Zeus? You just gave me Zeus’s phone number?” You would have thought I gave him the private phone number of his favorite rock star or maybe the President of the United States.

“Yeah, that Zeus,” I replied, chuckling.

Aaron smiled at Bill and said, “It never ceases to amaze me that people meet me and they go, ‘Oh you’re just the god of war, Ares,’ and then they meet Zeus and they are all, ‘You are Zeus? King of the gods? Lightning and thunder Zeus?’ Even now, he has a power that is...” Aaron shrugged his shoulders and then said, “I can’t even think of the right word.”

Bill shook his head and then said, “You’re right. It’s more impressive to have Zeus’s phone number than to be sitting in the same room with Athena, Helios, and Ares. Sorry, guys.” Bill grinned at the three of us. Bill’s display of hero worship worked wonders in easing a lot of the tension that had built up in the room.

“Let’s do this,” Eli said around a chuckle. He was obviously in a much better frame of mind.

I turned to Bill and said, “What you saw a few minutes ago will get exponentially worse with another of us added to the fray.” Then, “Eli, why don’t you start this show,” I suggested. He nodded.

We three joined hands, Eli’s strong, but soft and Aaron’s rough and weather-worn. Eli held my eyes with his, but I felt Aaron inside, watching. Aaron was almost like a wide-eyed child as he observed the ritual of Eli and me joining our minds together. Eli and I did this as a matter of routine, although most of the time it was during sex. That was the time he and I were most vulnerable and most open at the same time. It was the moment when we shared our thoughts and feelings and dreams. It was an extremely intimate time. And we shared these moments with Aaron, my brother-enemy. Aaron was always the child of Zeus who was not trusted completely. He was violent when I knew him well. He loved the surge of battle and loved leading the troops onto the killing field. He didn’t think of the opposing side as a people, but rather as the enemy which had to be destroyed, as useless as chess pieces.

He was brave and courageous, but he was reckless when he was younger. His violence is one of the main reasons I started helping the villagers and townspeople to defend themselves against such as he. In the Peloponnesian Wars, Aaron always helped the Spartans and I helped the Athenians. For all of Aaron’s zealous effort, time and again, his armies were defeated by the Athenians. Maybe it was because the Athenians were fighting for their homes while the Spartans were simply warriors spoiling for a fight. One man defending his home is far more powerful than ten trained soldiers.

But, there was a different Aaron now. He was a man broken by the love he shared with a dark-eyed beauty more than five hundred years ago. It was she who showed the god of war that his violence was simply self-serving and not truly helpful to anyone. In an age when it was still honorable to be a soldier, she convinced him that soldiering was not the path to follow. But, she died before she gave him a new path and Aaron had been seeking that path since Rada died. I felt a glimmer of hope in his breast, that perhaps fighting a new kind of battle was his destiny.

We merged closer and I could feel Eli near me, almost hovering to keep me from delving too deeply inside of Aaron’s psyche, which, of course, was impossible in our current circumstances. I reassured him that Aaron held a place in my heart only as a brother and not as a potential lover. Eli was a comfortable place to go. Familiar in that favorite bathrobe and slippers kind of way. I knew him well and I wasn’t afraid of him or afraid of finding out new things about him. Eli meant home to me.

Then, I felt Bill. He placed a hand on my shoulder and one on Aaron’s. We moved aside enough to let him in and then Bill held my hand and Aaron’s on his other side. I still clung to Eli’s hand, sure and safe, and now to Bill’s hand, with its long skinny fingers and sinuous veins. I could swear that I could feel his blood flowing under my fingers.

I felt Eli’s contempt for Aaron start to rise as he remembered the incident when Ares and Aphrodite were found together by him. They lay on the bed naked and Hephaestus had chained both of them down. Then, Hephaestus moved the bed into the Great Hall of the Olympian palace, displayed for everyone to see. Eli’s contempt was that Aaron didn’t respect the bonds of marriage between Hephaestus and Aphrodite. Aaron didn’t love Aphrodite nearly to the extent he loved Rada. Eli felt that Aaron was only using Aphrodite for his own pleasure, disregarding the intense love she felt for him.

I reminded Eli that Ares was much younger and his whole life was about self-indulgences during the Golden Age. No, he didn’t love Aphrodite and was more interested in the conquest than in the woman’s heart. That was long ago and Aaron was not the same man as Ares, the self-centered god of war.

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Then, Aaron’s anger rose, a real and palpable thing, like a writhing snake wiggling its way between the four of us. I stepped in between Aaron and Eli, blocking Aaron from Eli. Aaron was still angered that Eli sided with Hephaestus and helped the latter find him and Aphrodite together. For Aaron, it was a bitter defeat in his personal war. Then, I showed Eli the deep memory that Aaron had of Rada. He approached her slowly and carefully, he quietly negotiated with her father for her hand, he touched her with gentleness and gratefulness, he treated her with almost brotherly affection and chasteness. He respected her and the rules she was raised with. On their wedding night, he simply held her close to him as they slept, not forcing himself on her. That came several weeks later when she was truly ready for him.

Eli seemed surprised to see this part of Aaron and I felt his anger slip away. I felt Aaron relax instead of reacting instinctively to obstruct Eli’s efforts; the one man he thought was opposing him.

I showed Aaron the love that Eli and I shared. A thousand tiny moments from Eli brushing my hair to me braiding Eli’s hair. Eli making my breakfast and me making his dinner. Eli holding my hand when I watched a sad and silly movie that made me cry. Me holding his hand when he anguished over the loss of his children’s affection. I showed Aaron what it was like to be loved by Eli Morning.

Bill was the newcomer and both Aaron and Eli resented his arrival into our group. I realized it was me who called Bill to us. We needed Bill’s justice to further stabilize us. Bill was a completely dedicated policeman who truly wanted to help the helpless, the victims, the weak, the small, the people who were dominated by another in any way. His anger at the as-yet-unknown killer was real and large. I saw his childhood as a cop’s son and felt the envy he had as he watched his dad leave for work. I saw him in college, refusing to get involved with a beautiful black girl because he was committed to his degree. As an adult, he was solitary in his pursuit of what he perceived as evil. He was relentless in his questing and ruthless when he found his murderer. He was a man who cared about the human race and wanted to preserve it. He wanted people to never live in fear for their lives. He wanted peace and harmony for every human and he worked hard to achieve that.

Eli and Aaron accepted Bill into our group.

We were suddenly off the floor and floating in the middle of the room. As quick as a thought, Eli led us across the city that sped under our feet faster than anyone would think possible. I also knew he was going slowly because Bill was with us. Bill didn’t understand. Rather than resentment, Eli felt compassion for Bill, William Clarke Townsend. Bill was terrified, but on another level, he did nothing to hamper our progress. His was a kind of courage that is rare. I felt Aaron’s strong respect for our new found friend and companion.

Then, we stopped. The sensation of movement was halted and we hovered over a house that had been standing for at least two hundred fifty years. It was an old plantation home located somewhere. I didn’t need to know the location because Eli did.

It appeared as if we were looking at the house through a dirty window and I knew this was the effect of the wards that Phobos had placed around the building. Weather and time battered the house. The bricks were sound enough, but the wood that had once been white turned gray with age and neglect. It felt like decay and death. Everything about the house said, “Go away.” The wards were strong.

Eli dropped us lower and the air was suddenly clearer. Aaron guided us through the wards that protected the old, old house.

I took in more details of the house that was once an old and proud plantation house. Even now, no electricity illuminated the house that stood near a creek of considerable size. Weeds grew right up to the door. Near the house stood slave quarters that seemed to have been repaired in recent years. New wood stood in sharp contrast to old. Footpaths from the smaller dwellings to the main house were clearly visible where the grass was worn away to dirt. All these things I saw because I looked at the house through Bill’s eyes. A cop’s eyes. Eyes that never missed the tiniest details.

Then, I felt him. I felt Phobos sleeping, his dreams filled with the things of nightmares, crawling and malevolent. He didn’t awaken at our approach and it was then I discovered his fatal flaw. He was convinced of his own inviolability. The second thing I was aware of is that he may be unassailable. He had an army of humans and Olympians with him. At least fifty people lived in the old plantation home. Phobos would not be an easy catch.

Eli hovered a little longer while we four got a feeling for the house and the grounds. A plan would have to be formulated based on our observations. I pictured Bill scribbling in his notebook, and Aaron setting up the pieces on a chessboard.

We had several advantages. The inventor of chess stood on the side of right. A master general. A master strategist. Aaron was all those things.

We had Eli whose second sight was so strong it was legendary. Eli could help with our movements and our planning. When we moved on Phobos, his talents would be the most important.

We had Bill who was our paladin, our enforcer of justice. He was our personal grounding force that would keep us all in check when our own zealousness took us over and our enthusiasm threatened us. Bill played by the rules.

And there was me, Athena of Athens, former goddess of defensive war. I could keep all of us safe. I was as skilled as Aaron when it came to strategy, even though our objectives were always the opposite. He attacked, I defended. I was called the goddess of heroic endeavor because I often helped heroes of legend achieve their own quests. These new heroes—Eli, Aaron and Bill—suddenly became mine to protect and mine to assist in their heroic endeavors.

We all donned the metaphysical cloaks: Eli was early warning and surveillance. Aaron was attack. Bill was justice and righteousness. I was defense and protection.

Suddenly, I knew we could succeed in our undertaking. We could defeat Phobos and his followers.

In an instant, we were back in my apartment. The change was sudden and abrupt. The four of us held on to each other for a few moments to keep from falling over the table or chairs.

Nearly as one, we headed to the kitchen to find something to eat or drink.

For my part, I felt as if I had just run a race from Athens to Marathon and with bad news to tell at the end of it. I pulled a sweet, sweet soda from the refrigerator and downed the contents in a few quick swallows. The cold liquid seemed to surge into my starving cells and I felt instantly better. The loud burp that followed set everyone to laughing at me.