Alex Anderson The Last Son of Zeus (16 page)

BOOK THIRTY-TWO

MEANWHILE...BACK ON OLYMPUS

Apollo looked at Hera. "Well, did it work?"

She stepped aside, allowing him to see the television. Once again, she was grateful Hermes hooked cable up in Olympus last year.

There was President Tree, addressing his nation.

"My fellow Americans, it has come to my attention many of you think I am no longer qualified to hold the office of President. You are probably right. In fact, I'll bet many of my closest friends and family members think the same thing." He reached under his desk and produced a flask. "None of
the them
like me. Hell, I don't even think my wife likes me. She hasn't gone down on me since the inauguration." He took a pull, wiped away stray drops from his chin. "But, I digress."

"Over thirty minutes ago, I launched a
nuc-nuc
...a bunch of missiles against our terrorist enemies in the Middle East. I'm
gonna
kill those terrorist sons of bitches once and for all. Best part is there's nothing you or any of the peace loving pussies can do now except sit back and watch the show."

Hera rubbed her hands. "Perfect. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a little errand to run."

BOOK THIRTY-THREE

A FATE FROM THE FATES

"What do you mean Alex has to die?" Fiona stepped forward. Alex hadn't even noticed her hair was blue until now.

"Hey, you don't want a post-nuclear world. It's the only way," Zeus said. He produced another ball and suddenly a mitt appeared on Fiona's hand. "You
wanna
play?"

Alex stepped back.

Fiona threw the mitt away. "We'll find another way. We'll find another way and he will not die." She pointed a finger at Alex. "You will not die."

Alex stepped back again.

"It's already been written, sweetheart." Zeus kicked the ball of yarn to Fiona. "See for yourself."

Fiona unraveled the yarn and held a section close to her face. Her eyes widened.

"I'm ready to go now," Alex thought his voice sounded hollow.

"Alex..."

"I'm ready to go, now!"

Fiona jumped.

She looked at Zeus and dropped the yarn beside her discarded mitt.

They both left the god to his musings.

~ * ~

"So what happened?" Bos asked after they returned. "You see any undead poontang in there. Yeah you did. I bet it was freaky, wasn't it. Come on, it was freaky."

Alex walked right by Bos. Bos, quite possibly for the first time in his entire life, didn't say a word.

Fiona stayed on his heels. "Alex, these things are never completely set. You can still beat this. I know you can. You are not going to die."

Alex saw fear in Fiona's eyes. Fear that threatened to take him away from her and, as a result, away from the world. Hell, it threatened to take the world away from the world.

"Okay," Alex said.

Fiona raised her eyebrows.

"Okay, let's go, we have a job to do," Alex said.

Bos stepped between them. "Does somebody mind
tellin
' me what the fuck's
goin
' on?"

"Okay,
Bos
, here it is," Fiona said. "The gods want a war. Well, we're going to give it to them. They have pulled out all of their collective stops. They think they can just run over us because Zeus isn't here? They're wrong. Dead wrong. And we're going to--"

There was the sound of screeching tires in the parking lot. Fiona and Bos turned to see Alex leaving in the Satellite.

~ * ~

"
They're fucking crazy!

Alex barely swerved in time to avoid hitting a Volvo. The driver gave Alex the finger.

Dumb fuck. If he only knew. If they all only knew. If any of them only knew. Hell, there's no way
they can
know, now is there? Only I can know. Mr.
Demigod,
cursed with the knowledge. Cursed with being all
goddy
, and cursed with...with

Dying.

I'm
gonna
die.

Zeus said it. I have to die to save the world.

Well, the world can go to hell. I'm just sixteen. What the fuck do I know about the world? Why do I have to save it? Aren't there people with careers for saving the world? Don't you need a
fuckin
' PhD in world saving? What the fuck am I
gonna
do?

Alex didn't know what he was supposed to do, but he sure as hell knew what he was going to do. He was going to get his mother and get the hell out of Athens. The rest of the world could hang. Somebody else would save it. That was what other people were for. He would come back and get Bos and Fiona if they wanted to come. But he had to get his mother first.

BOOK THIRTY-FOUR

MOTHER VERSUS MOTHER

"Alex?" Sophie called as soon as she returned home. It was a stupid thing to do, but what else was there?

After the RO drug her into the office, it took the secretary two minutes to verify that Sophie was, in fact, telling the truth. Unfortunately, the truth wasn't good enough for Officer Purdue. He and the school counselor wanted to interview Sophie and find out about her home life and, more specifically, Alex's home life.

That was when Sophie lost it.

What was she supposed to say? Alex's father, a.k.a. Zeus, has recently come back into the picture and caused an endless amount of hell that her son has been lying about for the past four months? Of course not. So instead, Sophie did the only thing she could think of.

She told Officer Purdue, the counselor, and the rest of Athens Central High School to go straight to hell.

She then pulled out her cell phone and called her lawyer.
A lawyer that, God bless
him, had Sophie out of there and to the spot her son was supposed to be waiting fifteen minutes later. Sophie didn't know how he did it. She didn't care how he did it.

What she did care about was that Athens Central had somehow misplaced her son.

She went off on everyone within earshot. Shortly after, she left the high school and looked for her son. She spent four hours looking for him, but didn't really remember any of them.

Bos' parents didn't know where he was and Fiona's aunt didn't trust Sophie enough to tell her anything. Sophie asked the aunt where she lived and she replied by hanging up the phone. It was a cell number, so matching it to an address online was impossible.

Sophie had no choice. She had to wait for her son to come home and explain himself.

He'd better do one goddamn good job.

The
pain from his last words were
still with her, but they had been surpassed by worry hours ago. Sophie flicked the light on in the living room.

Hera was there, sitting on the couch.

Sophie barely stopped herself from screaming. She knew Hera, and more importantly knew what she was capable of.

"Hello, Sophie," Hera said.

Sophie took a gamble. "Where's Alex?"

Hera stood. "I don't know and furthermore don't care. Not at the moment anyway. I wanted to have a conversation with you. You know, just us girls."

Sophie ran.

She made it as far as the kitchen before Hera's hand clamped around the back of her neck. Hera turned Sophie around and slammed her against the refrigerator. Pictures of her and Alex fell to the tile.

"I always found it strange, my husband's desire for mortal women. I used to actually look for some sort of pattern in his mates. It was my hope if I could emulate these qualities somehow, he would have no need for distractions. Can you imagine such a thing?
Me
imitating
you!"

Sophie gargled a little as Hera's thumb pressed into her windpipe.

Soon I realized there was nothing at all wrong with me. Oh no, it was him! He could have had anything he desired, but he chose the plain over the godly. Do you feel plain, Sophie Anderson? Do you feel how plain you are as your life slowly ebbs away?" Hera grinned, a large, open mouth grin.

It was that moment Sophie shot half a bottle of mace into Hera's mouth.

Hera gagged at the foam and threw Sophie onto the stove. She rolled onto the floor with the falling pots and pans. Hera coughed and vomited the mace out of her throat. The goddess seemed incapable of speech, but her eyes spoke volumes to Sophie.

Sophie ran for the car.

The entire way, Sophie expected Hera to grab her by the neck again, but it never happened. Her shaking hands unlocked the car door and barely found the ignition. She started the Cherokee and had it backed out of the driveway right as Hera walked out the front door.

The front door?

Sophie had been around the gods long enough to know if they were pissed enough they didn't walk through doors, they
made
doors. Hera could have torn through the exterior walls as if they were made of paper. Why didn't she?

Alex...Hera was waiting on Alex.

Her son would return home, and Hera would be waiting for him in the darkness of a perfectly fine looking house.

Hera stood twenty feet away from the front of Sophie's Cherokee.

I love you, Alex
.

Sophie put the Jeep in drive and slammed into Hera.

And the garage door.

And the three support columns inside.

Smoke rushed out of the Cherokee's crumpled front end. Sophie heard one of the vehicles many liquids gush out of the bottom. She raised her head without even realizing it had been resting against the steering wheel. She opened the door and eased one foot out. Blood dripped from somewhere above her eyes.

She had no idea if it was enough to kill or even stop Hera. The windshield was too busted to see out of, so there was really just one way to find out.

The Cherokee shifted back three feet.

Hera stood at the front, shoving the vehicle away from her body. One arm hung limply at her side and there were scrapes all over her face.

She walked toward Sophie.

Sophie backed away and looked around for something, anything that could help. Her eyes finally settled on a chainsaw.

She grabbed it off the shelf,
puling
half a dozen empty cans down with it.

She heard Hera limp closer.

Sophie primed it and pulled on the ripcord. The chainsaw screamed once then died. "Shit!"

Hera kicked a piece of the broken fender out of her way as she limped even closer.

Sophie tried the cord again. It screamed a bit longer, but died again. "Shit!"

Sophie thumbed the choke right as Hera grabbed Sophie's shoulder.

The chainsaw cranked. It was the most beautiful thing Sophie Anderson ever heard. Sophie brought the chainsaw around in a wide circle, aiming right for Hera's face.

Hera slapped the chainsaw away, grabbed Sophie's jaw and broke her neck.

The body fell to the ground and Hera's only regret was that she couldn't kill it twice.