“Like stories about us, the stories about vampires have gotten distorted over the centuries,” Aaron told Bill. “Hollywood helped with that to the point they made vampires sexy and desirable. So, every person who is just one step away from being a misfit suddenly wants to be a vampire because they think it will make them into something special. It is a common story of people trying to be something different from what they really are.”

“I got that part,” Bill said. He had been unconsciously nodding as Aaron spoke to him. At least he was listening. “Wait just a second, though. You don’t think Phobos is a real vampire, do you?” Bill asked all of us.

Aaron answered, “Not a vampire in the Hollywood sense, but a vampire in that he leeches off his followers. He sucks the life out of them. A psychic vampire. Maybe a more accurate term is blood worshiper.” Aaron took a deep breath and then continued. “Now, we see blood worshipers everywhere. Just walk down a city street at night and you see the people on the fringes. You see black capes, black lipstick, tattoos on faces, and hair dyed black. That is just part of it. It is an attitude they possess, too. In fact, many times these fringe-dwellers actually believe the fantasy life they have created for themselves.”

“Yeah, I know that, too,” Bill said. Bill stood up again and paced across the kitchen several times. Without stopping his pacing, he asked Aaron, “So what do all these pretty speeches mean? Are you planning to help me catch a murderer or what?”

“To find Phobos, we have to go to the fringes,” Aaron answered.

“What exactly are you saying?” Bill asked.

“You can’t do it,” Aaron said to Bill. “You look like a cop. You smell like a cop. You feel like a cop. You wouldn’t get within a thousand yards of any of them.”

“You planning an undercover mission?” Bill asked.

“I suppose that is as good as anything else to call it,” Aaron conceded.

Bill shook his head and then pointed a long finger toward Aaron. “No. I can’t let you do it. I can’t let you play cop here. I can get your advice and even your help, but I can’t let you go in, armed to the teeth, and start killing people. For you, it’d be murder and I don’t think you want to get a life sentence. I’m a cop. We find the bad guys and bring them in. We don’t kill the bad guys.”

Aaron stood and raised his voice, slightly to give emphasis to his words. “You can’t bring Phobos in. He will simply teleport away. The only way to stop him is to kill him.”

“Isn’t there some way to stop him from teleporting?” Bill asked. I expected him to argue and was mildly surprised when he didn’t.

“Yes,” Eli and Aaron said at the same time. “But, I would have to get close enough to him and he isn’t going to let me, I can assure you,” Eli added.

Bill let his breath out in a rush. “I know this is going to be a different kind of search, but you will not do this alone. I say again, you are not cops. I have been trained to handle bad guys. It’s what I do.”

Aaron’s breath matched Bill’s. “And I am telling you that your methods won’t work on Phobos. Do you think you are the first cop to try to find him? No. Many have tried and many, many good cops have died as a result.”

“Maybe I am the one who can finally do it.” Bill insisted.

“You can’t. Not alone,” Aaron said.

Bill inhaled to once again argue his point.

“Wait,” I said. The argument was counter-productive in the extreme and I had heard enough. “This is all very interesting, but none of us even know where to look. Eli, have you tried to see Phobos recently?”

“I haven’t tried in a few hundred years. He is not... pleasant... to watch.”

“Pleasant?” Aaron asked. “You got a way with words, Eli.”

“Try it now,” I suggested.

I watched his face cloud over from the things going on inside his head. Memories or dread, I wasn’t sure. It was painful to see the thoughts on the inside leak across his beautiful face. He finally nodded. “Give me a moment...” he said as his eyes lost their focus as if he were looking at something millions of miles away. His brows knitted together and the muscles in his jaw tightened. He took a deep breath and held it. I watched his face which normally had a ruddy glow grow brighter red. Veins stood out on his forehead. When he breathed again, it was ragged and shallow. Sweat formed and ran like rainwater down his face to drop off his chin. I don’t think any of us in the room breathed while we waited for Eli. I felt the energy building leaving a trail of gooseflesh up and down my arms. Or maybe pinpricks were a better word. Tiny and biting, the energy trickled along my arms and down my back. I rubbed my arms because the hair standing up is uncomfortable.

He shook his head, flinging sweat drops across the table. “I just can’t see him. It’s like he has put a barrier up that I can’t penetrate.” Eli’s voice was raw and rough. I rose and drew a glass of water for him. He drank it down in a grateful gulp. I pulled in a great draught of air, feeling as if I had exerted as much energy as Eli.

“What if we combine our power?” Aaron suggested, mopping his own brow. “You can see, but I have greater metaphysical strength and our quiet little Athena has more still. Why do you think she and I were both part of the twelve great Olympians? Power.”

“Have you ever done that before? Do you know what it does to the body and the mind?” Eli asked.

“I know it can be done. It was tried several times when Olympians and Titans alike wanted to overthrow Zeus. But, his metaphysical strength is greater than all of ours combined... which is why he is king,” Aaron said, “And why we all still quake when we think about him.” Aaron flopped back into his chair at the dining room table.

“Yes, it can be done. That isn’t what I said,” Eli said. “I asked if you knew what it does to the body and the mind. When you combine metaphysical strength, you become a part of the person you are combining strength with. A link develops that can’t be broken, ever. Do you want to be eternally connected to Athena and me? Is that really what you want? You and Athena have always been opposite sides of a coin. You two have rarely been in accord.”

Aaron slammed his hand down on the table. “Phobos is my son and he is doing unspeakably evil things. He must be stopped. He has to be. If it takes my becoming a metaphysical slave to two others, the price is well worth it. Phobos must be stopped.”

“You know the only way to stop him is to kill him and if you are linked to the person who kills him, you will feel it,” I said, placing my hand over Aaron’s.

“You think I don’t know that? You think this is easy for me?”

“I don’t think any of those things,” I said, keeping my voice quiet and even. “Do you want to be connected to Eli and me?” I asked.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“I don’t want to be, no, but I don’t see that I have a choice. Maybe a better question to ask, Sister of Light, is do you and Eli want to be connected to me?” I raised Aaron’s hand in my own and rested my cheek against it.

“I don’t mean to interrupt this sweet love scene, but there are killers running around the city,” Bill said. “Besides, if this Phobos is so bad, why hasn’t anyone done anything before now? Why wait until now for you to get involved?”

“Maybe it took getting the right people involved,” Eli said. “We never were before, you know. I have never tried to go against Phobos. I don’t know any Olympian or Titan that has.”

“Then, I think it’s high time, don’t you?” Bill nodded as if agreeing with himself. “Let’s get the metaphysical show on the road.”

I looked at him and said, “You can’t understand what we are contemplating, Bill. This joining we are talking about it’s like...” I hesitated, searching for the right words, “Like a Vulcan mind meld that doesn’t go away. Do you understand the level of trust that entails? Eli and I have done it with each other many times. Eli and I are already connected and always will be. To invite another into this union is not something that is done lightly.”

Eli nodded and then said, “The connection between Athena and me is a connection of love, trust, and understanding. The connection we share is real and strong. I can feel what she is feeling and sometimes, I can even see what she is seeing and hear what she is hearing. There is love there, yes, but it goes far beyond love. I guess what I’m saying is this bond is more about trust.”

Bill looked as if he were trying very hard to understand us and our world. It was like trying to understand color when you had been blind your entire life. “So, with your connection, you aren’t actually in her head all the time.”

“Well, yes, I am,” Eli said, “But, I can separate her from myself. I know which thoughts are hers and which are mine. It takes a little bit of practice, but it is workable. Adding another individual will increase the risk exponentially.”

“Risk?” Bill asked. “What risk?”

“The risk of losing your personality, the quintessence of what you are,” Aaron said. “As thoughts merge, it is increasingly difficult to determine which thoughts are your own.

“There is always risk,” Eli added, agreeing with Aaron.

“It takes a strong person to not become completely absorbed by another,” I told Bill.

Bill’s mouth hung open and I don’t think he even realized it. We three watched him struggle with all the information we had given him in a short period of time. “But, you do this and we can catch a killer?”

“Dunno,” Aaron said. “I don’t know if I can see Phobos any better than Eli can. I don’t have the sight that Eli does. This metaphysical stuff doesn’t always work like we would want it to.”

“Let me ask you this,” Bill said. “Where’s all the blood coming from?” He asked the question as if he had just thought about it. I had already wondered the answer to that question.

“You mean the blood found with the body parts?” I asked him.

“Yeah. The blood that gets flung all over. Where’s it coming from?”

“It’s human blood, so it is coming from people.” I suddenly knew where he was going with this line of thought.

“Human blood? From people? What people?” Bill asked.

“That, my dear friend, is a very excellent question,” I said.

Bill nodded and I realized we were watching part of his own investigative process. “So what are you saying? That there are more victims? I mean someone has got to donate the blood. Oh, wait. Unless it can be conjured up, magically.”

I shook my head in the negative. “Bill, listen. There are some things that can’t be conjured and blood is one of them. Real human blood has to be made by the human who owns it. Even modern science can’t manufacture blood. Yes, they can make blood substitutes, but not blood. Blood has special properties. Blood is sacred to more than one religious sect. There is a reason for that. In the Bible, for example, in the original Greek text, the Aramaic and the more ancient Hebrew, the words blood and spirit are interchangeable. Spirit is that part of a person that makes them unique from every other person. It is the personality.”

“Wait a second. Are you saying the personality is in the blood and not the brain?”

“Are you saying it’s not?”

Bill actually glared at me. “I didn’t come here for a Sunday school lesson.”

“Of course you didn’t,” I told him. “Bill, what I am saying is that there are many more than your visible victims. The others can be anyone from volunteers to... whom? the homeless? The people who have died spectacularly were somebody. They had friends and family. Your blood donors are likely nobody. Did you ever check to see if the blood at the crime scenes was the same blood or blood from different people? Or did you just check to see if the blood was the same as the victim’s blood? Is the blood from crime scene to crime scene from different people?”

Something crossed Bill’s face and he reached for his cell phone. “Now, that is something I can go to Cap with. Is there somewhere I can go to use the phone in private?”

“Why not use the porch?” Eli said as he pointed to the back door. Bill was out of the door in two long strides. Eli turned his attention to me and Aaron. “Athena, when we join, you don’t have to be a part of it, you know.”

“Yes, I do,” I said. “Each of us has different strengths. My metaphysical abilities are the most highly developed as far as telepathy and empathy. Yours, Eli, are more physical. Aaron has brute strength that will augment both of our abilities. What I am saying, Eli, is that we three have to work together. Do I want to be joined to Aaron for eternity? I don’t know. I would almost rather read him, first, to see if I can live with what he has inside. A thousand years ago, I would have said, absolutely not. Now, Aaron is someone different from the man I used to know.”

“An improvement, I hope,” Aaron said to me. Again, his eyes held something I had very rarely seen in him. Humor. I smiled back at him.

Then, Eli said what I feared he was most worried about. “I don’t know if I want to share that much of you with another man.”

I leaned over and placed both of my hands on his. “Eli, you are the man I love. Nothing will change that.”

“I know that,” Eli said. “I know you will still love me. But will you love him, too?”

“I already love him. From the moment I touched his mind and saw his sad, sad story when he lost Rada, I have loved him dearly like I never loved him before. He is my brother. We share the same father. I was never close to him or to any of my other brothers—Hephaestus, Apollo, Dionysus, Hermes, Heracles, Perseus and Minos—None of my brothers, although at one time or another most of them courted me. Our father had twenty sons and twenty-nine daughters. I wasn’t close to any of my siblings, except Nike, although I love them all marginally. Eli, my dearest, I will not love you less.”

“That isn’t exactly what I was worried about,” he said. He dropped his eyes, unwilling to explain further what he was feeling. Nor did he get the opportunity. Bill entered, his face grimmer than before. Eli said, quietly, “Athena, we will talk.”

Bill spoke rapidly, “Ok. Here’s what Cap said. The blood found at the scenes is all different from each other. Each scene had three or four different people’s blood mixed together. Athena, how does the blood get there?”

“Teleportation,” I told him.

“And how are they killing the people from a distance?” Bill asked me.

“It is also a psychic ability. I have heard of the ability, but never experienced it, except when Zeus executed someone with it. It is a very quick and painless way to die. One second alive, the next one dead. Zeus doesn’t kill with thunderbolts like the myths say. His weapon is a lance of metaphysics. Either Phobos or one of his companions may have the ability, too.” I took a deep breath and then said, “Phobos has always been more hands-on when it comes to murder. He likes torture and rape. All four of them do.”

“Which four?” Bill asked.

“Phobos, Deimos, Enyo and Eris.”

There was a stunned silence in the kitchen. Finally, Aaron said, “If not Phobos, then who?” I knew he wasn’t asking me directly, but rather addressing the thought I threw on the table.

“We have among us,” I said slowly to Bill, “any number of dark creatures. But, all of them are like Phobos—killing close.”

“Unless the thrill for them is killing the victims to obtain the blood,” Aaron said.

“Now, there’s a thought,” Eli said.

Bill cleared his throat and then said, “I hate to say this, but you three are talking it to death. All of this is speculation. I say, you contact Phobos and find out what he’s up to. If he is clean, then we can look at other places for the murderer.”

Eli rose to his full height, towered over me from my seat at the table. I had braided his hair for him while we were still in Alberta and the heavy braid was now draped over his shoulder like a pet. His face was impossibly beautiful, with every line and curve a masterpiece. His nose was delicate and his chin soft, but he wasn’t in the least bit feminine. He reached a hand toward me and I grasped it, allowing him to pull me to my feet. To Aaron and Bill he said, “We’ll be right back,” but he never took his eyes off of mine. He led me out of the back door to the porch that Bill had just used to make his phone call.