I stood beside Bronte, gently stroking her nose while we waited. The horses twitched with restless anticipation, eager to be moving, again.

Eli fed Euos a piece of apple to settle the great beast. “We’ll be going soon, old dear,” he said to the great black. For all his size, he was a gentle horse that carefully took the piece of fruit from Eli.

Abraxas nearly vanished under our gear because Eli chose him to be the pack horse, saving Sterope for Ares to ride.

Ares appeared beside Eli, close enough to cause the latter to stumble and I was once again reminded why teleportation is a dangerous method of travel. Unless you knew exactly your final destination, you could end up in a bad place. The possibility always existed that a person could reappear inside a tree or a mountain. If the person didn’t panic first, they could simply transfer out of the situation. It is possible to occupy the same space as something else, but the consequences could be bad on a molecular level. That is why traveling by teleportation feels like we are flying apart. Maybe teleportation is the wrong term and it should be psychoportation. Regardless of the name given, it is a treacherous method of travel.

Ares muttered a few curses and Eli said to him, “Be careful!” The horses pranced out of Ares’s way and dust and leaves flew, with hurricane force, away from Ares. “I would suggest an alternative method of travel,” Eli said, sourly.

Ares sounded accusing when he said, “I thought you were in a hurry.”

“Not that much,” Eli countered, brushing brown leaves from his coat. “Anyway, take Sterope. And let me transport us this time.” Eli used his psychic abilities to check where we were going before he transported us. He always did. Maybe that is why he is so good at transference.

Ares had changed his clothes and he now wore black leather pants and a black T-shirt that announced his love of ZZ Top under his leather coat. He had a small tote with him, presumably filled with personal items. His hair was clean and hanging free. His chin was stubble-free. The cowboy boots on his feet were well worn and looked comfortable. He grabbed the pommel of Sterope’s saddle and swung up onto her back.

Eli urged Euos forward and the other horses followed him. He headed down the mountain until he found a fairly clear spot between the trees. Three moose, one with huge antlers and two younger males with less impressive racks, stopped their posturing. I don’t know if a battle was going to ensue because I thought moose only battled during mating season. At the sight of the four horses, the three moose moved away into the forest, not really running, but definitely getting out of the vicinity of the huge horses.

Euos broke into a run. Ares glanced at me, a grin spread across his face and he allowed Sterope to have her head. Bronte followed, with Abraxas bringing up the rear. We ran over the meadow and suddenly, we were airborne. Helios quickly transferred us to his valley in the Caucasus, where it was just past sundown instead of early morning. Eli landed Euos near the barn and walked the great beast inside before dismounting. By the time Ares and I arrived inside, Eli had the oil lamp burning and was removing the saddle from Euos.

It simply seemed as if a day had passed when in reality, it was only a scant few minutes since we abandoned our camp in Alberta. The time differences didn’t seem to bother Eli as much as they did me or maybe he hid it well. He was, without a doubt, the master of psychoportation and all of its ramifications.

Ares caught me as I slid from Bronte’s back and then assisted us with settling the horses. When the great horses were brushed and fed, Eli stabled them and we three walked to the cabin.

I lit the oil lamp with a very modern disposable lighter. Eli was saying to Ares, “We can use this cabin as our base of operations...”

“No,” I interrupted. “Bouncing across time zones from late afternoon back to early morning is beastly on the body. I would rather not. Besides, I think it is important that we get closer to the show if we are going to stop Phobos and his gang. That is, as soon as we find him.”

Ares said, “In this, Eli, I agree with Athena. Your mountain retreat is very nice, but I think we need to place ourselves in the thick of things.”

Eli regarded Ares and said, “I was thinking of you and your departure from society. It may be a shock to return to the city.”

Ares laughed. I’d forgotten that his laugh was large and loud and friendly. “Helios, I haven’t been in my cabin in Alberta for the past five hundred years. I have visited cities. I know about electricity, airplanes, microwave ovens, smartphones, television, the Internet, and, well you get the picture. The age of technology hasn’t arrived without me knowing about it.”

“Okay, then. Shall we proceed to our apartment in Norfolk?” Eli asked.

Ares turned a frown in my direction. “Norfolk, Virginia? Why Norfolk?” he asked me as if he thought our choice was insane.

“It was a place we had never lived before. It is a conservative area and not given to a lot of progress in thinking. It tends to be a quiet city. We actually chose Norfolk by an age-old method. We threw a dart at a map.” I smiled.

“You threw a dart at a map?” Ares’s voice was laced with incredulity and his eyes grew wide.

“Yes. In fact, the past seven or eight moves have been chosen the same way, although I almost stopped that tradition when we ended up in Odenville, Alabama. That area was a little too traditional for me. We only stayed there for about five years before we chose Norfolk as our landing site.”

“How long have you been in Norfolk?”

“Nearly as long as we can possibly stay in one area. Almost thirty years, now. People will start to notice we aren’t aging fairly soon.”

“And where, next?”

“Don’t know. We haven’t decided to move, yet,” I told Ares.

“If you two are ready...” Eli gestured toward the door. He blew out the lamp and then suddenly, we were in our apartment.

“He really does that very well,” I said to Ares and Eli rewarded me with a hug. My last statement had been in English instead of ancient Greek. English seemed like the appropriate language for my apartment. Eli and I rarely used Greek when we were at home. Switching from one language to another was like flipping a toggle in my head. Once I spoke in English, my thoughts were in English and I would even dream in English, I knew. Eli never said anything about the transition, but it must have been just as easy for him.

I saw the paper on the dining table an instant before Eli picked it up. It looked like it was torn from a small notebook with the top edge frayed and a corner missing as if it were left behind when the note-writer tore the page out of the notebook. I knew who wrote the note before Eli handed it to me. “Apparently, we forgot to lock the door downstairs,” he said. The fact is, we never locked the doors because our valuables were elsewhere and there was no human who could hurt us, anyway.

I read the note—Sorry. Call me. Bill. The handwriting was small but bold as if he were used to writing small in an effort to fit all of his thoughts into his tiny, ubiquitous notebook.

“Dammit!” I swore. “Right before you transferred us to the barn last night,” I said to Eli, “I thought I saw something at the top of the stairs. It may have been Bill. He may have seen us disappear.”

“If that is the case, then maybe it will lend credence to our story,” Eli told me. He grabbed my shoulders and shook me gently. “Don’t look so worried. We tried to tell him who we are, anyway. I wonder why I didn’t think of showing him our abilities before. It would have saved an argument.”

“This Bill who left the note,” Ares said, “He is your policeman friend?”

I nodded.

Ares simply held my eyes with his for a moment and then looked away. “Nice little place you have, here.” I heard the faint emphasis on the word ‘little.’

“I don’t have to live in a palace to be happy, Ares,” I countered.

“You know, you should probably call me Aaron. It is more fitting with American society,” he said.

“That’s why I use the name Eli instead of Helios. But, she is still Athena and always will be.”

I sat at the dining table and put my head in my hands. An ache had started at the back of my skull and it was still just barely midday in Norfolk. From under my hair, I said, “What do we do first?”

“Maybe you should call your friend,” Eli suggested. “This is his party that we have decided to crash.” He put my cell phone on the table in front of me.

I reached for the phone and pressed the speed dial for Bill’s number. Instead of saying hello, Bill answered with, “Where have you been? There’s been another one. Two, in fact, this time.”

I sat up, suddenly very attentive. “Where are you?” I asked him.

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“About ten feet from your front door. You really should lock it before you leave, you know. You never know what kind of suspicious characters may be lurking around, just waiting for an opportunity to walk in.”

“Come on up when you get here,” I said and then swiped the connection closed. To Eli and Aaron I said, “Bill will be here in a few moments.” I paused as the impact of what Bill had said penetrated my aching head. “He said two more died.”

Aaron hung his head and Eli stared toward the top of the stairs. I heard the door at the bottom open and close and then heavy footsteps. He stopped when he saw Aaron

I rose to my feet. “Bill, this is my brother, Aaron.”

Aaron rose to his feet and said, “Aaron Battle.” Aaron reached a hand toward the detective who still wore the same suit he had on yesterday, except today, it was far more wrinkled. Bill grasped his hand and shook it, but he was watching me.

“Okay. The truth, Athena. Is that your real name? I mean the one you started with? I mean, are you the Athena?”

“When I tried to tell you that yesterday, you got totally pissed off and stormed out of here after calling me a weirdo.”

“I said I was sorry in the note I left for you,” Bill said as if the entire disagreement was somehow my fault.

“I read it. Now, are you ready to listen to me?” I asked Bill.

“Yeah, after you answer a few questions. If you are Athena and that is your brother, that would make you... who?” Bill looked squarely at Aaron. He totally dismissed the differences in our assumed last names.

“I used to be called Ares,” he replied.

Bill nodded and then said to Eli, “And you?”

“Helios.”

Bill flopped into a dining room chair and then said, “You have any more of those beers?” Eli nodded and pulled open the refrigerator. “I saw you leave, yesterday. Well, I saw it when you left. Just one second there and the next you were gone. I have seen magicians and other psychics try to convince me they can vanish, but you really did it. You didn’t know I had crept up here with my tail between my legs to apologize. You must be the real deal.”

“I was just saying to Athena that if a couple of parlor tricks would have convinced you, I would have tried that instead,” Eli said to Bill. “In fact, you could have come with us when we went to collect Aaron, here.”

“And where was Aaron?” Bill replied to Eli, but he looked directly at Aaron.

Aaron answered, “In Alberta, Canada, but I think they went to the Caucasus Mountains first.”

“And what is in the Caucasus?” Bill asked me.

“That is where Eli stables his horses,” I replied.

“Horses. You mean the horses? Look, I may believe that you are the sun god ‘cause all I have to do is to look at your eyes without contacts in. I mean they are all yellow and sparkly and almost hurt my eyes. I assume you use contacts to tone it down?” Eli nodded and Bill continued. “But, you don’t pull the sun across the sky in your chariot.”

“Never did,” Eli replied. “That was just part of the stories you heard about us. And yes, I still have my horses.”

“Wait. You mean the same horses?”

Eli nodded watching Bill’s reaction. I had to give him credit. Bill really was trying hard to understand what was happening. He looked at Eli for long seconds before turning away from him.

Bill addressed the god of war, next. “And you are the god of war. What are you doing with... wait, she is the goddess of war.”

“I was the goddess of defensive war and of wisdom. It was the latter trait that Zeus prized the most and the former that humans prized.” I emphasized the ‘was’ in both sentences. I took a deep breath and then said to Bill, “Humans elevated us to the status of gods. We were sent here simply as teachers, but the experiment went terribly wrong. We, as a race, have a few psychic abilities and that is all we ever had. The humans we taught thought we were... extraordinary... because of our psychic abilities. Maybe we were extraordinary. Whatever the reasons, we allowed ourselves to be worshipped.”

Bill frowned and said, “A few psychic abilities plus the ability to live forever.”

“Our species is long-lived,” Eli conceded.

“So all of you are still creeping around?”

“Most of us,” Eli told him.

“‘Most of us,’ you say?” Bill asked.

“Yes. Most of us.”

“But, not all.”

“No, not all.”

“If you are immortal, then what happened to the others?”

“I said long-lived. Not immortal. Immortal implies forever undying. Long-lived means that we can be killed.” Eli was patient in his explanation. Just like he was explaining something to a child, he only told Bill what he wanted to know at that moment.

“Are all those Titans really dead?”

“I am a Titan and I am not dead. But, no, most of the Titans were never on Earth, to begin with. My parents, for example, have never lived here. Athena and Ares were born on this planet. I am a Titan and they are Olympians. Two different races from the same planet. It’s the eyes that give us away.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down as if just glancing at him without his contacts wasn't enough to prove his other-worldliness.

Bill nodded as he stared at the bubbles in the beer bottle. “I want you to know that I am still having a hard time with this. All I really have is your word that you are who you say you are. But, I know Athena and I know she doesn’t lie.” He looked in my direction and added, “I feel really bad about accusing you of lying. Even when I said that I knew it wasn’t right. I mean, there is something about you that is... different. But, I’m a cop and I deal in facts, not stories. Not myths.”

“Bill, it’s okay,” I told him. I sat at the table and so did Aaron. Eli busied himself with making coffee because it was still morning for us. “What we have to do now is to find out who is behind the killings. Any questions or doubts can be addressed later.”

“Sure. The lady says to address doubts later and I just go along with it. I gotta be freaking crazy.” Bill said as he reached for his little notebook. He read a few lines and then said, “This time it was here in Norfolk, the two dead guys. They were standing on a street corner, waiting for a bus, when pow! Blood and guts are shooting everywhere. Another witness. An old lady was sitting on her front porch and body parts got all over it and she was pissed about it. The old broad could care less about the two dead guys. She wanted to know how soon it was all going to be cleaned up. I guess it is too much for a human brain to grasp; all that blood.” Bill read another page and said, “This time, it was two black guys, both early twenties. They were friends, but as far as we can tell, they didn’t know any of the other victims. There is still no connection between the murders.”

Aaron said, “You are looking for a normal connection, like all of them belonging to the same club or frequenting the same restaurant, right?” Bill nodded. “Maybe you should look for another reason why they would be interesting to the killer.”

“Another reason? What other reason?” Bill asked.

“Maybe it’s not what they have in common that is the common thread. Maybe the common thread lies with the perpetrator.”

“You watch too much TV,” Bill said to Aaron and Aaron simply grinned. “I call ‘em what they are. Killers. Murderers. I don’t whitewash it for the TV audience. Now, what do you know about the murderer?”

“Are you a hundred percent certain it is Phobos?” Aaron asked.

“I am not sure about anything. I am sitting in a kitchen at 12:30 in the afternoon drinking beer and talking to a bunch of Greek gods, trying to find out who is doing this. I don’t know about you, but I feel weird as hell as it is. But, we don’t have any answers. I mean if I went to the Captain with this stuff, he would have me locked up somewhere, nice and tight, for my own protection. That’s why I contacted your sister in the first place. All the normal investigative techniques ain’t working. She is the one who suggested it may be Phobos.”

“I tend to agree with her,” Aaron said. “Phobos is my son and I taught him a great deal about war, but he went an entirely different direction. His tastes are bizarre. When I say Phobos, I mean all four of them—Phobos and Deimos plus, my sisters, Enyo and Eris. Even thousands of years ago, they did... things.”

“Things?” Bill prompted.

“Yeah. Enyo and Eris would dress in red before a battle and they would smear their bodies in blood and entrails ripped from human victims. And yes, they had to kill someone to get their... decorations. They loved mutilating bodies. And, even among humans, that kind of behavior tends to get out of control. It takes more and more to satisfy that need inside.”

“So, what? You a psychologist, too?” Bill asked.

Aaron shook his head and then said, “My gig was warfare. For me, it was like playing a video game only with real people. It was a chess game. Moving pieces on a playing field to gain the best advantage. It was strategy, not blood, which drove me. Studying strategy meant I had to study people and what they did. Not only what, but the why behind the what. Why do people go to war? What makes it attractive? All those questions had to be answered for me to be a proper general.”

Bill had been scribbling notes in his notebook while Aaron was talking. “So you started wars so you could play a few games?” Bill’s voice was contemptuous.

“Yes, I provoked a few battles in my day, but humans reached a point where they didn’t need me to do that. They had their own reasons for fighting. All I did was choose a side and help them win. But, I am not the one on the firing line here, and what I did a thousand years ago has no bearing on today.”

“Right, right. OK. Tell me more about this Phobos.”

Aaron started telling Bill about vampires and he once again threw his pencil across the table. “Vampires? You’re telling me about freaking vampires? You gotta be kidding me. I mean, Jesus Christ!” Bill stood and paced across the kitchen several times. The three of us sat at the table, each with a cup of coffee, watching him come to terms with what Aaron was saying. “I can hear Cap now. ‘Bill, you’re a moron.’ And he’d be right. I am a moron to listen to this. Vampires? You’re telling me that Phobos and his friends are a bunch of vampires and you just expect me to believe you. And you know the worst thing about all this? I do believe you because it makes sense. It can’t make sense, but it does make sense.”

Bill sat at the table and then said with great feeling, “Shit!” I watched him think about it and ponder what he had heard. I watched him reason it out in his head. Finally, he asked. “So how do we catch a vampire? Find their daytime resting place and put a stake through their heart?”

“Well, in essence, yes,” Aaron said.