Chapter 3-

I looked up into the sarcastic eyes of my older half-brother. It was strange seeing him there. Here, rather. In my house, my bedroom, and I had just been about to call him "Mom." Great way to meet a relative, huh? I could do nothing but blink up at him trying to piece together how he could have gotten in my house. I mean, I knew he could just come and go pretty much anywhere he pleased, but how did he get my address? Why was my older half-brother in my house?

"Nasty fight with Mom?" Ash's amusement grew a bit tense and his emotions were becoming uneasy. He must be mistaking my shock for arousal, I thought. Oh, gods, that's awkward.

I put the heel of my hand to my forehead. "Yeah. You have no idea. Generally, I don't want to, you know, kill anyone or anything. The pain and agony that goes along with it is too much for me, so, when I say that I want to kill my brother, sister, and now, my mother with a passion that outshines my brother's dumb ball of fire, it's a little odd." I snapped my mouth shut as I realized that I had started babbling. Quietly, I muttered to myself. "I'll just shut up, now."

When Acheron picked up my guitar, I struggled not to yell and throw a hissy fit. My guitar was sacred to me. No one touched it, not even my mother. He let out a low whistle. "Very nice. I always did like the Hummingbird. Good model, awesome sound." Ash sat on the very edge of the bed and strummed a chord. When he started strumming the chords to Shinedown's "45," I began to hum along. I couldn't help it; I was a goddess of music, so I generally sang anything that had words when I heard it.

I perked my head up a bit to watch Acheron, shyly. Gradually, I began to relax. Art had that effect on me. By the time he'd gotten to the first chorus, I was singing. I could see Ash getting into the song, and the fact that he was relaxing as well made it easier for me to give into the pull of the music. In my mind's eye, I saw a story unfold as lyrics floated from my lips into the air. I felt the sadness and longing that had been written into the lyrics and it came out in my vocals. With the last strum of the song, I realized that I had tears running down my face, yet again.

I hastily hid my face and wiped the moisture away from my face. I turned around and smile weakly at Acheron. He was watching me carefully, calculating. I laughed tepidly. Pointing to myself I proclaimed, "Goddess of the arts. And Humanity. Basically, I'm what Apollo and Artemis should have been. Supposedly, if you combine the two personalities, you have the ideal person. According to my bitch-mother, that's what I am." I sighed, feeling the loss of my Ria and the betrayal of my mother. Feeling more pessimistic, I added, "Though I feel more like the spit-upon product of a whore and a womanizing god, hidden from the world for ten thousand years because my mother was 'protecting me.' Yeah. That's bullshit." I flopped back on my bed and stared at the ceiling. If I seemed rude, I honestly couldn't have cared. At that moment, I just felt worthless, unnecessary. I felt . . . wrong, too, like I wasn't supposed to have happened. Like that odd child that's conceived when their mother is on the pill. Often times, when it's later in a marriage, the kid will be labeled a "surprise;" but when it comes right down to it, the kid was an accident, plain and simple.

Ash nodded, understanding. "What's wrong?"

I glanced over at him and then away. He was still a bit rigid, even after that pleasant jam session. I closed my eyes and put an arm over my face. I retorted, "Other than everything? Or do you mean the more pressing wrong?"

"Whichever one you need to talk about more."

I snorted. Ladylike, I know. "Well, first off, why are you here? Not that that's a bad thing, but, if I'm not mistaken, you didn't even know I existed up until sometime today."

Acheron nodded. "My daughter—"

"Katra," I interrupted.

I heard a frustrated sigh. Before he continued, I added, "Don't worry, at least you didn't have your daughter stolen from you by your jealous half-sibling only to be told that your mother had actually sanctioned the kidnapping and lied to you. Oh, and the icing on the cake would be if you couldn't even go to said daughter because you are unable to enter another god's temple without an invitation."

My tone was off-hand, but he heard the bitterness that entered my voice at the end. "Yes. Katra told me that her aunt who she had met at my mother's had finally been allowed to reveal her presence to me."

"Did she also mention that I'm also now in service to both you and your mother?" I chuckled unenthusiastically. "Fabulous woman, Apollymi. I have to say, she certainly knows how to strike a bargain. I've worked with her for centuries, and not once did she let me near you except to watch you from afar."

"So you are the one that's been spying on me for so long. What, since the Bronze Age? Longer?"

"Not too much longer. Perhaps more towards the Stone Age. I was watching in the background when you began caring for the first Dark-Hunters."

Ash sighed and turned more toward me. "Well, at least you did a good job of it. I never could figure out who it was." He quirked his head to the side.

"Apollymi?" I looked to my half-brother for affirmation. Ash's expression was a tad bewildered, but not by much.

Slowly, he replied, "Yes . . . how did you know?"

While pointing to my head I smiled wickedly. "Always on call. No matter where I am, I always have service, I never drop a call, and I don't have to pay any surcharges. Except in, you know, blood, if I do something wrong, but what's life without a bit of pain, eh?"

"So I'm not the only one! See that? And here I thought I was the only person who had voices in their head."

I laughed outright and ticked off names on my fingers. "Would you care to compare notes? I have the Great Destroyer, my mother, my brother, his twin sister, and, on occasion, Katra. On a bad day I also have my ex-husband's voice in my head, but that's a different story." I sat up and faced Acheron with my legs crossed.

Acheron's face hardened after the mention of "twin sister." Inwardly, I winced. Damn it. His tone turned cautious, "Who's your mother?" Ash was trying to be sly, but it was already obvious what he was really asking.

With a smile, I answered, "Well, since you and I both know, you're really asking about my siblings let's see. I'm related to you and the Fates on my father's side, and my mother is Leto, so I'm despairingly also related to Apollo and Artemis." I giggled. "Feel free to leave at any moment, now, just like everyone else has, all my life: my husband, my mother, my siblings, my so-called friends. Ha! That's the joke of the century."

I grabbed my guitar and started playing a complicated melody I had been working on for the past few days. I heard footsteps move quietly out of my room. I ignored the familiar pain that bloomed in my chest. Never was it easy to deny the lonely ache that cascaded through my soul—do gods even have souls?—when I was left on the fringe of things. I seriously hated my life some times. I mean, what was the use in being part Atlantean when you were also the daughter of a Greek titan of motherhood? There's no power there, no ability to make a difference in the cosmos. That was left for my petty siblings. If they died—which I sorely wished they would do, the twins especially—then the universe would go out of whack.

When a drop of moisture hit my guitar, I shut my eyes tightly against the emotional and physical pain. Ash's own turbulent emotions weren't having a positive effect on me, either. There was guilt, anger, disgust, and horror there, all jumbled together. He hid it well, but what can you hide from an empath?

I damn near hit the ceiling when Acheron sat back down beside me and put a hand on my shoulder. I stared at it in astonishment. He never touched anyone. Ever. It almost seemed as though contact with others brought him physical agony. Ash scrutinized my face carefully, his face strained. I swallowed and inquired quietly, "W-why are you feeling guilty? You do not know me, nor have you any past experience to trust a sibling. I do not understand." I bit my bottom lip to hide its trembling.

A gasp left my lips when he hugged me tightly. This—this was just not normal for him. I had guarded and watched over this man for thousands of years, and not once had he voluntarily hugged anyone. My sister, obviously, forced him to do it. Bitch deserved the "pain" he put her through.

I shook my head and hugged him back burying my face in his shoulder as he answered in a low tone, "Because I know what it's like to always be on the periphery. And obviously, you hate your siblings as well; just because of that, you can't be all that bad."

I felt like a little girl at that moment. I still looked like the twenty year old that I usually did, but I felt so small. I was only an inch taller than Diana (much to her displeasure), so my brother towered over me, even when sitting.

I pulled away to give him space. Ash didn't have to talk to tell me that he was becoming uncomfortable. I stood up and looked around helplessly, trying to figure out a way to not seem like an emotional twelve year old. Sniffing and wiping my face, I asked if Ash would like anything to drink—after which I forcefully smacked myself in the forehead realizing that, unless I planned on bludgeoning my sister and stealing her blood, Ash couldn't drink anything I had to offer. Out of nowhere, I snapped and realized what might help endear myself to him.

"You like kids, right?"

Bobbing his head warily, Acheron nodded. "Yes, why?"

My grin was triumphant. "Because I have an entire network of orphanages running throughout the world. Want to meet some kids? You can pick a location off my computer." I motioned to the piece of machinery in my office next door. Ash raised his eyebrows.

"A network of orphanages?"

"Yes, sir. Name a continent and I can tell you the total number I have there. They're all under different names, and only the managers know that they're all connected. I make regular donations to all of them, twice a year to keep up their funds. Sadly, that also means that I have to make damned sure none of my 'minions' are stealing the money for themselves."

Ash gave me a considering glance before retorting slyly, "Antarctica?"

It was hard not to roll my eyes at him. "Obviously, no. Oh, you wouldn't happen to know anyone in Germany, who wants any kids, do you? I have a bunch of kids in Berlin in need of homes; not many people in the area are adopting, and I can't really raise the kids. Not aging tends to raise suspicion."

Without waiting for his reply, I put out my hand, and then inquired "Shall we? You can meet some of them if you'd like. And, once you know where they are, you can go to anyone of them and volunteer, hang out with the kids, whatever. We aren't that well staffed. Anywhere."

Ash jerked before rubbing his shoulder. With a nod, he placed his hand in mine and I smiled, flashing us into the secret room and office I keep in all of my locations. He glanced around and then back at me. My eyes strayed to his shoulder. There was something about that I should be remembering . . .

My brother followed my gaze and raised an eyebrow at my inquisitive expression. He nodded with an eyebrow cocked, "Yes, it is a shoulder. Where are we, anyway?" And now he was back to switching the topic.

"The German orphanage I told you about. We're in Berlin. You can speak German, right?"

With a roll of his eyes he strode toward the only door in the room. Over his shoulder he come back with, "Natürlich kann ich Deutsch sprechen!" Translation: "Of course, I can speak German!"

I chuckled as I followed and led him into the small, hidden staircase that led to the Orphanage manager's office. Maybe this could be a mechanism for convincing Ash that I hadn't inherited the total bitch gene that seems to run in both sides of my family. Gods know how I needed someone not to turn their back on me. Ash could be my last hope. With his back turned to me on the stairs, my sly smile dissolved to leave the worry that seeped through my body from my damaged soul; like a poison, my anxiety twisted and turned within me until I was sure my innards had become lead weights in my stomach.

Please don't shun me, too, Ash. I may not survive it.