The Blood of Athens (15 page)

Minnie hung up
at the same time. “That was Dr. Davis. She has to go down to the
police station to answer some questions. They identified the woman
Evan tripped over at the hotel. It was Mrs. Matthews.”

“
But Mrs.
Matthews came back with us on the plane,” Devon said.

Minnie shook
her head. “No. That was something else.”

“
That must
have been our Titan. He has Zach and June,” Jason said. “I have
to meet him at midnight. He wants to talk.”

“
He can't
talk over the phone?” Devon asked.

Minnie looked
at her watch. “Then we don't have time to chase down Spade. Let's
get back to Dr. Davis' house. We need a plan, fast.”

Devon and
Minnie ran back to the car. Jason lingered for a moment, staring out
across the park in the dark. There was no sign of Spade. Minnie
leaned across the seats and honked his horn.

“
Come
on!” she hollered. “Time's not on our side.”

“
When the
tiniest creature defends itself like this against a giant aggressor,
what ought we to do?”

-King
Agesilaus

xviii.

Zeus
had been warned of this battle for ages.
He had sired the hero
Herakles for this.
The Gigantomachy was fought to avenge
the
fallen Titans.

The
Gigantes shook the slope of mount Olympus.
One of them seized the
marble column that held
the roof over the palace assembly hall
and
cracked the marble.

Herakles
was not the only son of Zeus
to fight so boldly in the raging
battle.
A blur of gold streaked across the palace floor:
the
speedy Hermes.

The
Gigante, with his arms around the pillar,
did not see the spritely
god enter the room
but he felt the sandals' tread as Hermes
ran
straight up the giant's back.

He
only stopped his sprint on the giant's shoulders
as he raised his
golden sword above his head
and, plunging its gleaming blade into
the flesh,
killed the invader.

“
The test of
any man lies in action.”

-Pindar

XVIII.

Peter Hadley
watched the Buick Electra pull away from Dr. Davis' house. Most of
the Pantheon had gone home to appease their parents and then try to
sneak away again. Peter didn't bother. He didn't think his father
cared where he was after the fight. For all he knew, Mr. Hadley might
have been passed out drunk on the sofa.

Peter sat down
on the front step and stared into the dark. He processed everything
that had happened, from finding the body in the bathroom, to the
chasm that lead to the underworld, to making peace with Penny. And
now, once more, he was fearing for his life. When did it ever end?
When did they get to be safe? When did Penny get to be safe?

He was pulled
out of his thoughts by a familiar feeling, a sensation of cold that
sank beneath his skin and into his chest. He spun around to see a
spirit standing over his shoulder. It was Mrs. Matthews.

“
Oh no. No,
no, no,” Peter said. “I'm not going to be haunted by you. I've
done all of my English homework this semester.”

“
Jason's in
danger,” she said, her eyes wide. She placed her hand on his
shoulder. Peter felt the icy pressure, even though his shirt didn't
so much as crease. “It's a trap. The Titan can change shape. He’s
going to kill Jason and use his form to get to all of you.”

Peter looked
down the street. The old Buick was already out of sight.

“
Are you
sure?”

“
He used me
to get back here and he'll use Jason to get to each of you, one by
one.”

Peter
swallowed. He nodded. “Alright. Thanks for the warning, but Doc’s
not in the car. It’s Frank.”

“
Then he’ll
kill Frank and use him. Nobody is safe. Not you, not Jason, not
Penny. You have to act now.
”

“
I will,”
Peter said. Mrs. Matthew’s ghost, a being of cool blue light,
glowed brighter until she was a flare of white light. Peter squinted
as she grew brighter and then suddenly faded away until Peter was
left alone. He looked down at his hands anhe placed herd watched them
flicker out of visibility. When he was sure that no part of him was
left to be seen, he slipped into the house and grabbed the keys off
of the table by the door. Devon was asleep on the couch, baby Xander
dozing in his mother's arms. Celene had nodded off in the arm chair.
Only Penny was awake.

“
Peter?”
she whispered.

Peter wanted
to say something, but he knew that every word he wanted to say wasn't
fair to her, so he pressed his lips together and closed the door. The
keys belonged to Frank, and Peter started the motorcycle. He had
ridden a cousin's dirt bike years ago, when they still visited the
family in Hillsborough county; Frank's bike was heavier and more
powerful, but Peter found it almost the same once he got used to it.

He pulled out
of the driveway and down the street in the direction of the school.
He wasn't sure what he planned to do, but the cold feeling that had
settled in when the ghost of Candice Matthews had arrived just
wouldn't go away. Though he was sweating beneath his black canvas
jacket and Frank's too-big motorcycle helmet, Peter Hadley's heart
felt like ice.

Jason turned
off the bathroom faucet when he heard the rumble of a motorcycle
outside. He peeked through the blinds. Peter, looking like the Mouse
on the Motorcycle in comparison to Frank's fierce red Yamaha, was
pulling away.

“
Son of a--”
Jason grumbled. He ran down the hall and out the front door.

A purple
jaguar pulled in to Celene's driveway. Teddy didn't even have time to
put the car in park before Jason was at the door.

“
Hey, Doc,
what's up? Was that Peter on Frank's bike?”

“
Don't turn
off the engine,” Jason said. He ran around to the passenger's side
door.

“
Where are
we going?” Teddy asked.

“
The school.
Peter's about to do something stupid.”

With a
baseball cap pulled down over his face, Frank Guerrero sat behind the
wheel of the Buick Electra, squinting in the dark at the exterior of
Olympia Heights Senior High. A light was on in the office at the
other end of the building.

Frank turned
the collar of his coat up to hide his face, walked to the fence
around the air-conditioning units, and checked around once before
starting to climb. The climb was easy, but he moved slowly to avoid
making too much noise. Frank wanted to catch this asshole by surprise
and knock his lights out before he could realize that it wasn’t
Jason who had pulled-up in the old Electra.

From the
fence, to the top of the air conditioner, to the awning, to the
conduit, to the roof, Frank climbed. He wondered if the Titan he was
meeting could merely fly up to the roof. When he got to the top, he
looked down. A pinprick of red light shone at him. Frank smiled and
slipped his hand into his pocket. All according to plan.

There was a
fixture on the roof, a large box that Frank assumed was the housing
for some electrical work. Next to it, in its shadow, stood a man in a
long coat. Frank couldn't see his face in the dim moonlight.

“
So,” he
said, raising his voice a bit and doing his best to sound like Jason.

The man
stepped out of the shadow and into the moonlight. His face was
moving, constantly shifting. It stopped, the features settling on a
remarkable facsimile of Candice Matthews’ face. His body was still
broad and masculine and the result was grotesque. “Looking for
someone?” he asked.

Frank grunted.
It was best not to speak too much, or he'd give himself away. He kept
his head tipped down. Surely the Titan wasn’t this stupid, right?
Frank was nearly seven feet tall.

The Titan
continued in his approach until he was standing right in front of
Frank. He smiled and his face began to shift again, slowly this time.
“You're not who I expected,” the Titan said.

Frank glanced
over the Titan's shoulder. Another flicker of a red laser light told
him that everything was in position. Frank’s eyes focused back on
the Titan and he stepped back in shock. The Titan was wearing Frank’s
own face.

“
You're not
the mortal,” he said, wearing a wicked smile. “You really should
learn to follow directions.”

Lewis crashed
into the Titan's back, tackling him to the ground. They rolled around
on the roof, falling into the shadow of a water tank. When Frank
grabbed each man by the back of the shirt and pulled them apart, he
found himself pinning two identical teenagers to the ground, each
held firmly under one large open hand. They were both Lewis Mercer.

“
Frank, it's
me!” one of them shouted. He grabbed the fingers on Frank's left
hand and tried to pull the hand off of his chest.

“
Bullshit!”
shouted the other. “He's a shapeshifter!”

“
Let me go
and I'll prove it by super-speeding.”

“
Don't! We
don't even know what the Titan can do. Don't let him go!”

“
Come on,
Frank, don't you know me well enough by now to know it's me?”

“
He's lying.
Can't you tell?”

“
Alright.
Just pummel the hell out of both of us. I'll take one for the team.”

“
I'm gonna
vote to
not
be
murdered by fists of rage, here.”

“
Frank,
whatever you do, just do it quick. We have to save Zach.”

The Lewis in
his left hand seemed to want what was best for The Pantheon. The
Lewis Frank knew was eternally loyal to Zach, right? Frank wasn't
sure what to do, but he figured that listening to both of them would
only make him more confused. He had to trust his gut. Frank took his
left hand off of the Lewis it held and struck the Lewis pinned
beneath his right hand.

The Lewis he
struck went immediately limp and fell to the ground, unconscious but
still breathing. The other Lewis, the one he had released, stood up,
reached into his pocket, and shot Frank with a taser. Frank went down
hard. As he lay panting on the ground, hundreds of thousands of volts
still coursing through his body with a benign-sounding click, the
face of the Lewis he spared began to
shift
endlessly.

“
Sorry,
Ares,” he said. His jacket shifted back from Lewis’ green track
jacket to a long black trench coat. “Wrong choice. Hermes should be
flattered that you think he's so selfless.” He began to pace around
Frank. “I was hoping for the mortal, but you'll have to do.”

“
A savage
desire eats away at you, drives you to murder, blood-sacrifice
proscribed by divine law, whose only fruit is bitterness.”

-Aeschylus

xix.

The
four brothers, Prometheus, Menoetius,
Epimetheus, and Atlas,
fought on both
sides of the war between the gods and Titans.
The
Titans fell back.

With
Prometheus on the side of the Gods,
The Olympians were sure to win
the war.
Menoetius, a Titan defined by rash acts,
continued
forward.

As
he reached the palace at Mount Olympus
he was met by the Olympian
King, Zeus.
Zeus stared him down with a thunderbolt in
hand,
clenched tight in his fist.

From
ten meters above him, Zeus hurled his bolt
and split the broad
chest of Menoetius in twine.
With his defeat the Titans were all
cast down
into Tartarus.

“
He is the
best man who, when making his plans, fears and reflects on everything
that can happen to him, but in the moment of action is bold.”

-Heroditus

XIX.

Peter climbed
the chain-link fence and scooted up the conduit just in time to see
Frank go down. The Titan stood over him, smiling and speaking
quietly. Frank twitched on the ground, unable to force his way
through the current of electrical impulses and compel his muscles to
move. Peter was invisible now, but he still had to be cautious. He
walked slowly, trying to minimize the crunch of his boots on the tar
rooftop.