I held Bill’s hand at the table. We had yet not spoken of what happened because each of us was assimilating the information. Processing it.

Shortly after we arrived back at the apartment, Eli and I made lunch for all of us, going through the motions by rote, thoughts many miles away. I warmed leftover homemade vegetable soup and Eli made various varieties of sandwiches, which he cut into smaller pieces and placed on a platter. Aaron made lemonade and within fifteen minutes we had a feast laid before us.

All of us ate like starving people. In a sense we were starved. The metaphysical endeavors were more tiring to the body than an ironman competition. We had to refuel just to be able to think clearly.

While eating, I kept running it over and over in my head. The house. The creek. The darkness inside the house. Phobos’s army. Bill and our new power base.

Mostly Bill. He was something more than he was when he entered the apartment only an hour earlier. Had it only been an hour? We forged a power base by combining our strengths. Now, we four were more than married. Joined, literally until death do us part.

I could feel Aaron recoiling from the intimate contact. Old habits die hard, I suppose. Once a selfish, self-indulgent person, always so. Or so it would seem. Aaron wrestled with his personal demons and had been for many years. He was conflicted between doing what he knew to be the right thing to do and what he simply wanted to do. Aaron’s stability came from me, but I was used to placing people in compartments, so I moved Aaron into a corner of my brain. I knew he was in my head, but he didn’t distract me.

I could feel Bill embracing the power, trying to fully understand. Like most humans, his thoughts were erratic, moving from one thing to another, showering me with a deluge of trivial information. It takes time to learn to control thinking and Bill was not old enough to have accomplished that, yet. I felt his struggle to conform to us. I moved him into another corner of my brain.

Eli watched me, both with his eyes and with his heart. He was more worried about me abandoning him than I had realized. When he helped Hephaestus to find Aphrodite and Ares together in the bed and then held them down, metaphysically, while Hephaestus chained them to bed, he greatly angered Aphrodite. Her special gift is love. She can literally love someone to death or give them life through love. Her power is sex. And she is one of the most powerful of us. Like a magnet, Aphrodite’s power pulled Ares to her because in ages past, Ares sought power above all things.

Aphrodite cursed Helios, his wife and all of his children after he told Hephaestus where she was and who she was with. Or perhaps it was while she and Ares lay exposed to the world that she uttered her curse. Helios’s thirty-eight children were cursed in love and from that moment, the woman all preferred lying with women and the men all preferred lying with men. All were made sterile, Helios included. Aphrodite even hinted at worse things done to the children of Helios, although she was never specific in that regard. Aphrodite was powerful enough to curse him and the next generation. His children blamed him for the unnatural state of their minds and all of them refused to have any contact with him whatsoever. Even Helios’s favorite son, Aeetes, refused any contact from his father. Aphrodite’s curse nearly destroyed Helios and I had spent years picking up the pieces.

She also swore that he would never be successful in love and that is the portion of the curse he feared the most. But, I’m more powerful than our dear, vengeful Aphrodite, second only to Zeus, himself. I allowed the anguished Helios to touch my heart and drew him in. I would not let go and I told him this via our mental connection. But, I knew I wouldn’t completely allay his fear. Nothing could ever do that. Helios was a broken man inside. In ages long past, he did what he felt was right and Aphrodite responded violently, leaving him deeply scarred. The years we spent together were not enough to completely heal him. Not yet.

We four ate until every drop of soup was gone, every crumb of the sandwiches consumed and every drop of lemonade drunk. Only ice remained in the glasses.

Finally, Bill started the conversation with a loud, “Holy Hannah!”

“Too right,” I replied. Relief poured over me at the prospect of talking about our ordeal.

“Okay,” Eli said. “We know where Phobos is, but we don’t actually know if he is guilty. I know he is guilty of a lot of things, but not specifically these most recent murders.”

“So, we need evidence,” Bill said. “Or we need a witness.”

“A witness could be someone who is in Phobos’s camp or Eli could be our witness,” Aaron said.

“That is true,” Bill agreed. “I won’t move on Phobos until I know he is the one responsible. The next step is still getting evidence. Eli, you know where Phobos is, now. Can you see through the wards he has set up? I mean anytime you want to.”

“Dunno,” he replied and his eyes lost their focus as he sought Phobos in his stronghold. Eli worked really hard to penetrate the barrier that was erected around the plantation house, but it didn’t work. Eli blinked several times to change his field of vision and said, “No. I can’t see him any better now than I did before. Apparently, I need all of you to see him.”

Bill nodded and then said, “So, we do things my way.”

“What would you do next?” I asked.

“I would get a search warrant so I could check out the house. We won’t find anything, but maybe just knowing we are onto him will slow him down.”

“Bill,” Aaron said. “Don’t assume Phobos thinks like a human because he doesn’t. Knowing the police are looking for him will amuse him, only. He knows he is inviolate. If you get too close to him, he will simply vanish and start again in another city at another time, leaving his so-called followers behind to take the rap for him. We have to do this another way. I don’t know how, yet. I need to think about it.”

Bill said, “But, if I get a search warrant, I can go inside the house and look around. That would be a benefit when the war actually starts.

“Why not recruit one of his followers?” I asked. “If we can get to one of the people in his camp...”

“Probably won’t work,” Aaron said. “Phobos binds people to him with a metaphysical rope, for lack of a better word. Remember Renfield in the movies? Well, that metaphysical binding creates a Renfield. A creature that is so devoted to his or her master that they would willingly die for that master. It is a heady thing to have followers who will give you the ultimate sacrifice.”

Bill nodded and then asked, “Are we ignoring a fabulous resource? Can Zeus help?”

Aaron laughed out loud, Eli was amused and I heard myself laughing at the statement. Aaron asked Bill, “Hero worship?” He clapped Bill on the back and then said, “Bill, my friend. Zeus will not interfere. He allows us to handle our own problems. Most of the time he steps in only if someone is about to die... when he steps in at all. And then it depends on who was about to die. I mean look at the number of times he saved Heracles and Perseus.” I felt the bitterness more than heard it in his voice.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I gave Aaron a shocked look and asked, “You don’t mean that you still hold grudges against Heracles?”

Bill’s mouth hung open. “Heracles? You mean Hercules? The Hercules?”

“He’s doing it again,” Eli said. “It's so cute when you worship my relatives.” I heard the faint sarcasm in his voice. “You humans have got to stop doing that.”

“Yeah, it’s the same Hercules,” Aaron said. “To answer your question, Athena, no I don’t still hold grudges against Heracles. I used to have the typical Daddy-always-liked-you-better disease. I thought if I could discredit Heracles in Zeus’s eyes that Zeus would love me more. It took me literally hundreds of years to realize that my jealousy wouldn’t make Zeus love Hercules less.”

Bill nodded and then said, “Hercules is your brother...” There was a question at the end of that statement. It was already too easy to forget Bill had not known us for thousands of years.

“Half-brother,” Aaron corrected. “My full siblings are Eris, Hebe, Eileithyia, and Hephaestus. Eris has always been one of Phobos’s favorites. Hebe is married to Hercules even after two thousand years. Hephaestus is pining away for Aphrodite. Zeus won’t grant them a divorce, so they are still together. Eileithyia is single and living in Monaco.”

“I’m impressed,” Eli said. “I didn’t know you kept up with your brothers and sisters.”

Aaron grinned at Eli and then asked me, “What about you, Athena? You don’t have any full siblings. Do you keep up with any of Zeus’s children?”

“I hear from all of Zeus’s children from time to time. The notable exceptions are Eris and Enyo,” I told Aaron.

“And you?” Bill asked Eli. “Who are your siblings?”

“Two sisters, Eos and Selene, and a brother, Titan, although you would know him better as Atlas.”

Bill shook his head. “There are way too many people to keep up with. I would love to see one of your family reunions one day.”

“If the old hostilities are still alive, then it would be similar to watching the Jerry Springer show, I would think,” Eli told Bill.

“Of course, a lot of the old hostilities are still there,” Aaron said, “and a few new ones that the poets never wrote about.”

“Sorry to get off track,” Bill said. “The question remains, what do we do next?”

“What about simple surveillance?” I asked. “Have someone watch the house to see who is coming and going. There was only one road and humans would have to travel by that method. The Olympians could teleport, of course. There are a number of humans and humans have to eat once in a while. Someone will go to the grocery store, eventually.”

Bill said, “Not forgetting old- fashioned police work, we can talk to business owners near the house. They may know something. Police work is pounding the pavement and asking lots of questions. Um, Eli, where is the house?”

Eli grinned and then said, “Across the river from Jamestown. Eastover.”

“Yeah, it would be,” Bill said. “Why couldn’t the bastard live a little closer to Hampton Roads?”

“My guess is, too many people,” Aaron said.

Suddenly, Bill took charge. “All right, I am going to get a list of questions together for you to ask the locals.”

“What about you?” Aaron asked Bill.

“Don’t worry, I will be right beside you asking even more questions. If we all go to different businesses, then we can cover a lot more ground, a lot faster, than if I was going it alone. It’ll take a couple of hours to drive there.”

“Ok,” Eli said. “Athena and I both have cars. Aaron, who do you want to ride with?”

“Athena,” he said without hesitation. I didn’t miss the deep frown that crossed Eli’s face. I sighed and grabbed his hand. Would he ever change?

“I will drive my car, too,” Bill said. “Um... this connection we have. Can I contact one of you with just my mind?”

“Well, yes and no,” I said to him. “It’s not like a telephone call, but we will know if you are in trouble, or need us for something. If you get into trouble, Eli is probably the best one to call. He can transport better than Aaron or me. But, if he is not available, don’t hesitate to contact us.” I drew in a great breath and then said, “Bill, listen. This is new for you. This connection. It is a great power, but like all great powers, it comes with great responsibility. You cannot die, suddenly, or inexplicably because you may take one of us with you.”

“Or all,” Aaron added.

I felt a pang of horror that coursed through Bill. He voiced what he was feeling. “But, you guys are immortal and I am not. You mean when I die, I am going to take you with me? That is unacceptable.” Bill backed away from all three of us until he was trapped in the kitchen with nowhere else to go.

I walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder, “Bill, if we know you are going to die through illness or injury or simply old age, we can protect ourselves. We can shield you if one of us is close to death. I said, if you die suddenly, we are in danger.”

Eli said to him from the dining room, “So, Bill, don’t take a lot of unnecessary chances just because you feel like Superman. You can still die if you get shot.”

Aaron added, “Bill, you are part of a power group. What is the word for a group of four in power? You know, like triumvirate?” Aaron looked at me for his answer.

“Well, it is an obscure word rarely used. Quadrumvirate,” I said.

“Quadrumvirate,” Aaron repeated, allowing the word to roll around in his mouth. He nodded and then repeated, “Bill, you are part of a quadrumvirate. You have to take your fellows into consideration at all times.”

Eli grinned and clapped Aaron on the shoulder, “How would you know? You are new at this, too.” He grabbed his car keys from the hook beside the door and headed toward the back door.

Bill walked toward the stairs, saying, “I am parked on the street. I’ll meet you in the alley.”

I followed Eli down the back steps where our cars waited in the alley that ran behind the backyard. The four women were gone and the backyard was empty. I raised a hand toward my manager who watched us out of the open back door to the store, knowing she would take care of things in my absence. She waved back. “Will you be back here later?” She called out to me.

Aaron paused and waited for me while I crossed the small yard to Julie. Julie Adams was middle-aged, probably somewhere near sixty, with her gray hair hanging straight and long and her blue eyes sharp. She wore a long flowing multicolored skirt made of ruffles and cotton and a white peasant blouse. Her wrists were covered in silver bangles and her neck was encircled by at least fifteen strings of tiny beads in a rainbow of colors that matched her skirt. “Is there a problem, Julie?” I asked her.

“No, no problem. The bank deposit has to be made...” She began.

“You take care of it. Just close the store early. I probably won’t be back for the rest of the day.”

“All right,” she said. Then, seeing Aaron leaning on the back gate she asked, “And who is that?”

“Oh, I am sorry. I am very rude.” I motioned for him to join me and he pushed away from the fence. As he neared, I said, “Julie Adams, this is my brother, Aaron.”

“Aaron Weaver?” she asked him.

Aaron grabbed her hand and gallantly kissed the back of it. “No, dear lady. I am Aaron Battle.”

“Julie manages my store better than I ever could,” I told Aaron.

“I’ll take care of everything while you are gone, Boss,” she said to me. And that is why Julie is such a great manager.

I opened the back gate and stepped into the alley, with Aaron on my heels. The city-issued trash cans and recycle bins dotted the way on both sides of the alley that was only wide enough for them and for a vehicle. Bill waited in his battered old sedan, having pulled it into the alley from the street and Eli sat in his new blue Corvette, waiting for us. Neither asked what Aaron and I had been doing. They simply knew.

Aaron and I got into my Blazer and I backed into the alley behind Eli’s Corvette. It was a small parade, but an important one. We had to find and stop a killer that, quite possibly, couldn’t be stopped.