Part II CHAPTER 6
"Good tuna fish sandwiches; he's the tallest man I've ever seen."
Tory laughed at Pam, who was gawking at Ash.
Ash shook his head at what had to be Pam's most commonly uttered phrase since she'd walked into the house with him. She'd said it four times already.
"Pam," Kim chided as she set the pizza on the coffee table. "You're going to make him self-conscious."
Pam set the beer next to the boxes. "Well it's not like he doesn't know. I mean at five nine, I know how tall I am. Tory's six one so we're allowed to gawk. It's not every day we meet a man who actually makes us feel like we're short, right Tory?" Pam stood up on her tiptoes next to Ash. "Kim, you're tiny and barely crack five feet. You have no idea what it's like to be tall in a world of average height men. I could finally wear heels!"
Ash laughed before he scooped her up in his arms and moved her over by the couch.
"Oh, good grief!" she said as he set her down. "I've never had a man pick me up before and not grunt like he's dying. I'm in heaven. Marry me, Ash, please!"
"I would say yes, but I come with more baggage than even Samsonite can cover."
Tory ignored them as she entered the room with her dig journals. She pushed the pizza boxes aside on her coffee table, then set them down. "All right, this is everything over the last year."
Ash knelt down and started flipping pages.
Tory leaned over his shoulder as she reviewed what he was looking at. "See, mostly pottery shards and fragments. A few friezes and some bottles."
Ash paused as he found one familiar piece that made his breath catch . . . it was Ryssa's hair comb that matched the one he'd found centuries ago. His heart clenched as he ran his hand over the photograph, remembering how beautiful she'd been with them in her blond hair.
"It's incredibly well preserved, isn't it?" Tory said, unaware of how much this one piece meant to him. "The pearls are even still set where they'd been. It looks like something you could buy today. The workmanship on it's incredible."
"Yeah." He forced himself to turn the page to see more pottery before he betrayed himself with misty eyes.
Then he found it . . .
"Where's this piece?"
Tory frowned at the deep, firm tone from Acheron. Looking over his shoulder, she saw an ornate gold dagger that Bruce had excavated. "That one is still being tested in the lab, why?"
"We need it."
Wow, his tone was more commanding than a general calling for war. "Is it that valuable?"
Ash hesitated. Not from her standpoint, but since it was a weapon that could kill anything that breathed it was extremely valuable to him and to other nonhuman entities who'd do anything to possess it. "Yes."
Pam rolled her eyes. "I don't understand you people and your old stuff."
Kim patted her shoulder. "It's okay, sweetie. We don't understand you and your BeGoth doll obsession either." She looked at Tory. "You should have been with us on our Leda Swanson quest. She dragged me to three states until we finally found the doll in a boutique in Alabama."
Ignoring them, Ash finished looking through the book, but he couldn't find anything other than the Atlantean dagger that could be important. But given that, why would a human in a car be after it?
No human would understand its significance . . .
And no nonhuman would have made this kind of mess and left it. They'd have simply attacked and tortured Tory until she told them where to find it.
It was baffling. But what else could they want?
More importantly, how far were they willing to go to get it? It was one thing to break into a house. Would they kill for it as well?
Ash stood up. "I'm going to walk around outside for a bit and check things out. I'll be back."
Tory nodded. "We'll save you some pizza."
Ash didn't comment as he left the house and used his powers to leave New Orleans and venture to Savitar's island where the sun literally never set. Magical in nature, the island constantly moved around the world as Savitar searched out the "perfect" wave.
As expected, Savitar was lying on his back on a surfboard out in the water, staring up at the clear bright sky as the waves rocked him.
Unlike the omniscient Chthonian, Ash wasn't a water baby. He hated surfing and lying under the sun. But he also knew that when in Rome . . .
He popped himself onto a board beside Savitar who laughed when he saw him sitting on the longboard. "You look so out of your element."
"I am out of my element. Much like you in a Seattle Goth club."
Savitar gave him a wry grin. "I'm never out of my element, Atlantean. And it must be dire indeed to get you in shorties and on a board. One day I'm actually going to get you to say 'Rad four-mill steamer, dude!' "
Crossing his arms over his chest, Ash laughed. "Not likely."
Savitar tsked at him before he returned to staring at the sky. "I've heard that before. So what brings you here, Grom?"
Ash ignored the surfing term that was usually reserved for kids under fifteen. Only Savitar could get away with calling him a youngster. "There's a woman-"
"Isn't there always?"