Ash didn't respond. Rather, he vanished from the room where they had gathered, and took himself to his own realm. Katateros. It was the Atlantean heaven realm where their gods had once ruled their island kingdom and made war against the Greek pantheon.
It was here that Ash's mother, Apollymi, had destroyed her family over what they'd done to Acheron when she'd been forced to hide him in the human realm.
Using his god powers, he threw open the ornate doors at the main hall and walked across the foyer where the symbol of their power lay. The moment he did, his jeans and T-shirt turned into the ancient robes of his people and his own symbol of a sun pierced by three lightning bolts appeared on the back of it.
"Alexion!" he called as he entered the throne room.
His friend and servant appeared instantly. Barely three inches shorter than Acheron, Alexion had once been an ancient Greek soldier and was one of the first Dark-Hunters Artemis had created.
He was also the first Dark-Hunter who'd died without his soul. To save him from suffering over Acheron's mistake, Acheron had pulled him into Katateros, where Alexion existed in a noncorporeal form. While not ideal, it wasn't nearly as bad as the alternative.
His blond hair tousled, Alexion was still buttoning his shirt. "What's wrong, akri? You never bellow like that. Simi eat someone she shouldn't?"
Ash ran his hand over the dragon tattoo on his forearm that was Simi in her dormant state. She was his Charonte demon and his personal bodyguard.
But more than that, she was his daughter, and he would do anything to protect her from harm.
"No, she's fine. It was you I was worried about. Has anything happened?"
"In terms of what?"
Ash didn't want to scare him, but at the same time he couldn't take a chance on not warning his steward what might happen in the coming days.
"The gods might awaken."
Alexion froze for a full minute. Then he blinked. "You mean the creepy statuary in the basement is going to start moving around?"
"If they don't reset the calendar, yeah." That's exactly what's going to happen. And when they do, they're going to be pissed.
"Well, that sucks." Alexion sighed. "They're not friendly to us, are they?"
Ash shook his head. "They have one hell of a grudge against me and my mother. You, they might spare."
Alexion laughed nervously. "I'm Greek and they hate us so I'm going to take that as a major nugatory. They spent a lot of time trying to kill us. So how do we stop this?"
"We have to retrieve the son of Sterope from the Mayan hell realm, along with Sunshine's cousin."
Feigning laugher, Alexion slapped at his thigh. "You're hilarious, boss. You ought to do stand-up. Stop, stop, you're killing me."
Ash pressed his fingers to his forehead. Though he couldn't get headaches, right now, he swore he had a migraine. "Times like this, I wish you were corporeal so I could give you a head slap."
Alexion sobered. "In all seriousness, can you go there?"
"Yes and no. I can, but I don't know what my presence in that realm might unleash. The Mayan gods have been dormant like ours. But I don't know if that means they're asleep or on lockdown like my mother. If they're on lockdown..."
"A foreign god in their domain is an ugly thing."
"Exactly."
"So who would know the answer?"
Ash considered it. "The Chthonian in charge of them is dead. Thank you, Savitar, for that PMS."
"Ah ... So what Chthonian is in charge of South America, and are they friendly?"
"Ecanus, and he's not on our side. He's very much like Savitar and has withdrawn from the world to let things run their course. Since most of their gods aren't active, neither is he. So long as the other Chthonians stay out of his territory, he doesn't come down out of his mountain home."
"Ah ... So who do we know who can go fetch our boy?"
"I can go."
They turned to see Urian standing in the doorway. Tall, and lethal, he had long white-blond hair that he wore in a ponytail.
Ash sucked his breath in sharply. "You're the son of a god, too."
"Half-god, and I'm dead and soulless. I have no allegiance to any pantheon." Urian screwed his face up. "Except yours, of course, but no one gives a shit about the Atlanteans, no offense."
No offense ... why did people always use those two words whenever they knew they were being offensive, as if it excused their behavior?
Alexion laughed before he spoke to Acheron. "And here I thought I went out of my way to annoy you." He laughed again. "Dang, Urian, you make it look so effortless."
Urian flipped him off.
Ash ignored the two men, who argued like brothers most of the time. "You really want to go do this?" he asked Urian. "Last time I checked, you were all about killing humanity, not protecting them."
Urian shrugged. "My father readjusted my attitude. And you're going to need someone who can draw on major source powers to get them out of there. Someone who's used to going in and out of hell realms."