3
Their honeymoon was spent lovingly teasing and falling in love with each other. What began in a New York City apartment jumped the Atlantic for shopping in London, lunch in Paris and a tour of James's old haunts in Europe from Northern Germany to the Greek isles. Over centuries, many of his favorite locales had been lost to wars and progress. Modern dams rerouted rivers and flooded areas where he'd once lived, submerging ancient Germanic villages. Nazi armies had removed from existence towns Samantha once knew as a child. In Greece, James knew the real location of the Labyrinth, the route Theseus took to Thebes and the lost palaces of Agamemnon and Odysseus. Along the way, she asked him about lost secrets even of which even her family was unaware.
"What ever happened to the Golden Fleece?" She asked him as he drove his Lincoln convertible to the family estate. They could have mystically transported to the locale, but it was far more normal and less than disconcerting to people unaware of magic to arrive by mortal means.
"It was buried with the bones of Phrixus in Iolcus."
"The head of Medusa?"
"Bronzed into a weapon by my Aunt Athena."
"Pegasus?"
"Still alive…" James was watching for the crossroads to the family's American estate. "She's kept in the stables on the estate in Greece."
"Instead of on Mount Olympus?"
"I've never even been to Mount Olympus…" Jason answered. "My grandfather began relocating the foundations after mortals started mapping the world. He's moved them around half a dozen times since. He doesn't like the idea of some mountain climber suddenly appearing uninvited, but he does own property near the Mount Olympus in Washington."
"Where are they now?"
"Here…" Jason drove through the gates of Olympia Estate near New Thebes, Connecticut. In the distance obscured by trees, many of them hundred of years old, was a large mansion of mortal design, but incorporated into it was the Dorian columns, the Greek fountains and statuary and Mycenaean trademarks of Ancient Greece. It was like being on the Acropolis. Blocked from view by the trees were transplanted Greek halls connected by concrete paths linked to the main house by torches burning in the night air. A distant centaur lifted his head to their arrival and plodded out of view amongst several faeries flitting through the driveway and into the woods in the form of balls of light. The circular driveway was aligned with Grecian pillars covered in long-growing vines and in the woods of the vast estate were the signs of Ancient Greek temples lit by burning pyres. James parked near his Uncles Hermes' sports car and his Uncle Hades' hearse. On Earth, the former god of the dead procured errant souls in the form of an occult researcher. Who didn't arrive in Hades' realm willingly was usually yanked unwillingly from a haunted house on Earth.
"Looks like Uncle Hades is here." James answered casually.
"Uncle Hades?" Samantha appeared in a long dark blue dress with a white wrap. "Should I be worried?"
"No…" James guided her by the waist. "But don't talk to him unless he talks to you first. He's gets a bit melancholy… sort of like Edgar Allen Poe as a mortician…"
"Anyone I should be worried about?" Samantha glided from the courtyard past flowerbeds of every flower and bulb possible and up a tour of laid steps from an elaborate veranda of stone and concrete. From the drive and past fountains and wide walkways, she ascended to this modern version of Olympus, guarded by two high oak doors carved by masterful artisans. James pounded the doors once to announce his arrival and looked to Samantha lovingly as one of the mortal servants opened the door. As far as this young lady knew, she served a wealthy and eccentric family without any knowledge of their identities.
"No, course not…" James looked to her. "Grandfather loves mortals, especially the ones who know magic. He thinks they're hysterical. Uncle Ares can be nasty, but he's become much more tolerant considering all the times he's been stripped of his godhood."
"Gee, I wonder why…." Samantha entered into an incredible hall with a black and white parquet floor and decidedly Greek furnishings. The grand staircase seemed supported and crafted from marble. The walls were decorated in incredible paintings dating from the Renaissance and tapestries from Medieval Europe. The décor could have come from a museum. There were vases depicting events from Greek legend: the slaying of the Gorgon, the death of the Minotaur, the sacking of Troy… Bronze statues of Hermes alighted tables with period lamps. A bust of Jupiter rested at the bottom balustrade to the second floor. Rooms, and halls and corridors seemed to stretch forever, giving views of much more greater space. It was greater a place for any mortal man… it was a mansion crafted by godly hands with incredibly baroque furnishings and priceless artifacts seemingly hundreds of years old. Through this grand place were its hosts and guests garbed in mortal disguises… tuxedos, suits and expensive gowns. The women were beyond flawless… exceptionally beautiful with exquisite bodies and slender arms like Grecian statues brought to life. The men, most of them sporting intensely black beards and purely brown hair, were all tall and powerful in build as if they were bodybuilders touched by time, but no one had a semblance of silver hair. Not a white hair between any of them. Their features were granted character by slight aging in the form of beards and wrinkled faces, but there was not a single true aged man in the gathering. In their presence, Samantha felt unworthy… she felt as if she did not deserve to be here.
"This place is…." She could not think of the right word. "Oh my stars, I think I'm getting light-headed…"
"I'm sorry…" Jimmy supported her. "This place is a bit overwhelming at first. The house in Seattle isn't so bad."
"You have other homes…"
"Of course," Jimmy continued. "Almost everyone has their own individual casual residences, but we also have regular estates in England, Rome, Paris, Crete and St. Petersburg. I have a lot of relatives…."
"So, little brother…" James's older brother, Eros, had strided up to him in a tuxedo from a part in the guests. He was six feet tall with bold blue eyes, short blonde hair and the steely jaw of James Dean. "This is the current wife… the witch."
Samantha's eyebrows rose in surprise.
"How'd you know?" James asked.
"When was the last time anyone kept a secret in this family?" He looked over to his sister, Harmonia, with two of the Muses. They had been competing with each other to get the attention of Taran Jarrah, the mortal son of the Sumerian thunder-god, Ninurta, in attendance. His relationship with a Japanese sea goddess had fizzled out and Aphrodite had invited him to the gathering meet other prospective female Immortals. None of the Muses were married right now and neither were any of the seven Pleiades. It was going to be a very interesting party.
"Does anyone mind that I'm a witch?" Samantha asked as James handed her a glass of chardonnay.
"Are you kidding?" Eros looked distracted by the Russian love-goddess. "Aunt Hecate is so hysterically happy that she and Aunt Circe are finally talking to each other!" He excused himself and moved forward to switch to a Slavic tone to woo the goddess. Samantha turned toward her new husband with a curious quirk to her eyes.
"Aunt Hecate?"
"She's the daughter of Titans, just like grandfather…" James sipped his chardonnay and nudged her forward to meet his family and old friends. Amidst famous figures as Demeter and Persephone, Hercules and Balder, Ammon-Ra and Kwaku Ananse, there were the younger immortals… Cassandra Reason, Apollo's daughter by a Native American earth-goddess born during the Seven-Years War, Jerrold Odinson, the youngest son of Balder and Nanna of Asgard born during the Crusades, James's half-sisters, Sara, Jessica, Gwen, Alicia and Christina… the youngest among them born during the Salem witch hunts. The most stunning part of meeting these deities was discovering how they appeared in person. Anubis, the Egyptian-funeral deity was present as a guest of Hermes. He was seven feet tall and bald with the lean athletic figure of a sports star. Hermes himself had short reddish-blond hair and spouted one sarcastic line or comment after another as if he were a comedian holding his tongue. Zeus himself was tall and powerful with fiery red hair and a beard; his frame and size about to burst from his suit. No matter where he went… to converse with Ukko of the Finnish gods or lend his wisdom to his adult grandchildren, he was watched over by Hera, tall, brunette and Junoesque in her long French dress. If she did not keep an eye on him, he was apt to vanish upstairs with one of the female guests. For once let it be a party that did not end by storm, tornado, hurricane or some other natural disaster. No knowing how these parties usually ended, Samantha enjoyed meeting one of the Sirens and the grandson of Medusa. Jimmy's sisters asked if she was interested in having children by their brother and offered to bless the child the same way the Fates had in the past. According to Gwen, a few of the children the Fates had blessed in the past were MacBeth, Beowulf and the princess who served as inspiration for the tale of Sleeping Beauty.
"Samantha…" James returned to his new wife escorting his mother to meet her. "I want you to meet my mother…"
"Your mother…"
"Dearest, Samantha…." Aphrodite was so petite in person. Barely five feet and five inches tall, her long blonde hair hung down her back to the floor, and her dress left nothing to the imagination. It just barely concealed her female parts and made sure it revealed every voluptuous curve of her body. She had large open blue eyes and her doll-like features were very suggestive of every blonde Hollywood sex symbol from Marilyn Monroe to Betty Grable. "My baby boy says you have made him so happy. I like that very much!"
"It's a great honor to meet you, Lady Aphrodite…" Samantha could not help but curtsy.
"Darling, I have not been a goddess since…" The love-goddess effervescently shined with much joy and frivolity to be in her youngest son's presence with his wife. "When did Constantine become a Christian?" She asked her son.
"March 30, 313 AD." Jimmy answered. "Or as Aunt Athena calls it, the day the lights went out…."
Samantha lightly smiled but she didn't get the reference.
"The day the lights when out…" The love-goddess missed some of things with being worshipped, but posing as a famous heiress surrounded by celebrities and sports figures almost made her feel like a god again. "Yeah, that's what she called it, and yet, she didn't hesitate to lift a sword when it came to protect the Early Christian Church when father asked her."
"So, Christianity doesn't bother you?"
"Why should it?" Aphrodite never stopped shining with emotion as she talked. "Almost all of their holidays were originally pagan festivals. Do they bother you, Samantha… as a witch?"
"No, course not…." Samantha had even met St. Nicholas, the spirit now known as Santa Claus. "My family loves Christmas, but not as much as Halloween!"
Jimmy and his mother shared a smile of memories that had together.
"The truth of the matter, Samantha," Jimmy held her by the waist. "Almost every pantheon of immortals has their own name for the Hebrew Yahweh. We knew him as Eternity, my father's family called Gimle and the Egyptians called him Aton… Almost every appearance of angels in the Bible was actually members of my family carrying on work in his name. Some of us even attend regular Sunday congregations."
"Father respects Christianity very much…" Aphrodite was sipping wine from a glass. "I think it's because he's trying to make up for all those Early Christians the Romans slaughtered in our names."
Samantha opened her eyes wider to be learning all this facts. In one night, she was learning more about the heritage of the Immortals of Earth than about the sketchy beginnings of her family's origins. They both had much in common. They both were long-lived, they both had a propensity for magic and they both lived in a higher social hierarchy that mortal man. The only difference was that long before her ancestors were viziers, magicians and masters of sorcery to mortal kings, Jimmy's ancestors were teaching civilization and culture to mortal man and becoming the parents of the first ruling families of Earth. She raised her glass of chardonnay to sip through her ruby lips, but her eyes turned abruptly to notice one figure in particular. She was shorter than Jimmy's mother and posed of midnight black hair, all of it brushed backward from her white face into a dark mane of flowing dark hair. Her brown eyes were intense, her blood red lips and eyes the only true color in her face. Her body in a black bare shouldered long evening dress was young and petite with a bosom pressed upward by her every breath. Her name was Eris, but the Romans called her the goddess of strife. Homer called her Discord. Aristotle called her Enyo. She noticed Samantha immediately upon arriving the back way at her father's residence. One lingering look and she glided over to her brother, Ares, brooding and watching the room. Collar unbuttoned, tie hanging loosely, the former war-god trussed in mortal attire had sworn by the waters of the Styx to behave himself for the family's yearly gathering, but he did not need to like it.
"So, you have your godhood back…" Sister met brother.
"Yeah…." Ares mugged aggravatedly disgusted and annoyed with her. "With no thanks to you!" He reached up behind her and grabbed her long black hair, holding her in place from wandering away. "I ask for one little war between the Aztec and Voodoo gods and what do I get… arrows in my back, blow darts in my hair and an Aztec axe in my…."
"How long was it before you could sit down?"
"I'll let you know when it happens." Ares let go of her hair and ambled as if he had saddle sores to munch on deviled eggs and Bavarian sausages baked in tiny biscuits. "Because of Xena, I miss out on umpteen wars, including the best one of all of them, the so-called "War-to-end-all-wars," and because you can't keep your clothes on, I can't escalate Vietnam or Korea into anything bigger because father discovered you having sex with that Aztec nut."
"His name is Huitzilopochtli, and he thinks I'm more beautiful than Xochiquetzal." Discord beamed with dirty thoughts.
"Like I said… he's a nut!" Ares commented to tear down her personality then took another deviled egg and began eating it… his younger sister staring at him as he did so.
"I put one of my hairs in that egg you just ate." She commented.
Ares started coughing and choking on her vicious prank, rushing over to a potted plant and choking up anything that was in his throat. He turned round to glare at her, his eyes flared, teeth bared and eyebrow arched disgustedly arched. Over three thousand years and they were still getting on each other's nerves. Take away their godhood, immortality, vitality and mystical powers and they were just another brother and sister who hated each other but for no real reason to press each other's buttons.
"The second you're not looking…" Ares waved his finger in her face. "I'm giving you a pimple right where you'll never find it."
All his brunette brat of a sibling could do was narrow her eyes to warn him against trying. She pretended to be distracted, shifted her weight to her other leg and perused the room. Hermes and Anubis were talking to Oshun and Oya from Africa, the Incan deity Bachue was conversing with Quetzalcoatl under the portrait of Zeus painted by DaVinci and three of the Muses came through in almost perfect single file to head upstairs. Her eyes soon locked on her nephew Jason and his current mortal bride talking to his mother and their father. Father Zeus seemed enchanted by Samantha, taking her hand and kissing it to give his blessing to her union with her grandson. It seemed only a few decades ago that Discord was showing the young demigod how to start forest fires and pick fights, but then his mother shipped him off to Asgard and his father to get him out of her influence. The boy had become a man, and she was still more than interested in him.
"Is that the witch our nephew married?" She asked. Ares turned round with a glass of scotch.
"Yes…" He answered curtly before returning to standing surly in the corner. "But she's not a true mortal witch… she's a direct descendant of one of those practitioners Poseidon drove out of Atlantis… She has longevity, but she's not immortal." Ares downed the Scotch in one shot and raised his eyebrows piqued with interest. "Question is…." Ares popped a piece of calamari in his mouth. "What can we do to make their relationship even more interesting?"
"We could turn him into a woman…"
"I said interesting… not moronic…"
"We could introduce her to his third wife." Discord suggested. "She swore she'd return from the dead if he ever tried to marry again."
"Well, she didn't, did she?"
"We could turn her into a kid?"
Ares turned and looked at Discord. Just want stupid suggestion after another. He narrowed his eyes disgustedly at her.
"Tell me again why I let you hang around me?" He asked her.
"Because everyone else hates your guts." Discord confessed.
"Yes, I'm sure that's it…" Ares denied the truth and turned round as his nephew's wife and his sister finally met. Immortal beauty met mortal mystical beauty. The war god started shining with an idea.
"Why didn't I think of that?" He mumbled out loud. "Wait… I think I did."
"What?" Discord asked.
"We got a trip to make…" Ares turned out the back way without her, leaving the party to entertain itself. Aphrodite met her son's wife and loved her, hugging her and kissing her as another daughter. Cupid reacted a bit curious since she had never really warmly accepted his wife. Samantha was just a bit taller than the love goddess. The immortal diva bubbled with effervescent gaiety and good will and stood as if she were a younger sister to her own son.
"I'm so sorry I won't get to meet Jimmy's father." Samantha confessed.
"Those Viking-gods are unpredictable…." Aphrodite never stopped smiling except to sip her wine or pass a grape through her ruby lips. "They won't show up unless there's a fight to watch."
There was a sound of a skirmish from the hall to the ballroom. Jimmy and Samantha noticed it.
"Between gods… not sisters in a fight over a guy…" Aphrodite added.
"Mom, that's Sara and Jessica…"
"I know, honey…." Aphrodite ignored them to better appreciate meeting her new daughter-in-law. "But if I keep breaking them up, they're never going to learn their lesson, will they?!"