Vampire Addiction (3 page)

Chapter Four: The Parthenon

After lunch at Babá’s café, where the only thing Gertie recognized was the gyro (so that’s what she ate), Hector drove Gertie, Nikita, and Klaus to see the Parthenon and other ancient sites.

He drove a red and white Mini Cooper—not what she expected for a boy of his stature, because he seemed too big for it. But it was in good condition, and the four of them fit comfortably. Klaus and Nikita insisted that she take the front seat so she had the better view of the sights as they drove toward the acropolis.

“Why didn’t you take your car to the bus station last night?” she asked Hector out of curiosity.

“Mr. and Mrs. Angelis didn’t want me to waste my gas when we were going to the same place.”

“That’s their way,” Klaus said.

“Mamá and Babá can be very persuasive,” Nikita added.

“So what made you decide to come to Greece?” Hector asked.

Gertie shrugged. “I didn’t decide. My mom did.”

“Is she from Greece?” he asked.

“No. She came to school here for a year, just before she married my dad. She loved it so much that she wanted me to come, too.”

“You’ll love it,” Nikita said. “Greece is the most beautiful place in the world.”

Gertie wished she cared more about seeing beautiful places, but, the truth was, she’d rather read. The adventures in books were always so much more interesting than the ones in real life—though she had to admit that if Hector lived in New York City, she wouldn’t mind having an adventure with him. Too bad he lived here.

“It’s especially beautiful at night,” Klaus said. “We have to take her to the rock to watch the sunset.”

“Don’t we have to catch the ferry to Crete?” Gertie asked.

“At ten-thirty,” Nikita said. “We have plenty of time.”

“It can be dangerous here at night,” Hector said. “But I guess if we stay together, we’ll be all right.”

“Dangerous how?” Gertie asked. “You mean like muggers?”

Hector glanced in his rearview mirror at the siblings in the backseat, but they kept their mouths clamped shut.

“Just stay with
me
.” Hector reached over and patted her hand, sending shocks of energy up her arm. “And you’ll be fine.”

Hector squeezed the car into a spot on the side of the road, and then they walked in the summer heat up toward the acropolis. The first thing they came upon was the Theater of Dionysus wedged in the southern slope of the hill.

“Dionysus?” Gertie perked up. “I thought the Parthenon was a tribute to Athena.”

“That happened after,” Hector said. “This area was first occupied by a cult of Dionysus. This is where drama is said to have been born.”

Although Gertie wasn’t a fan of sightseeing, she was a fan of the ancient Greeks and their mythology. She loved it almost as much as she did vampire lore.

“There used to be a temple for him here, too,” Nikita added. “But it got moved when they built the Parthenon.”

“Some people believe that Dionysus continues to hang out here, beneath the acropolis, in the secret caves,” Klaus added.

“Secret caves?” Gertie asked. She’d much rather see the secret caves than the broken old buildings.

Nikita and Hector both rolled their eyes at Klaus.

“Come on.” Hector continued along the path.

Gertie caught up to him. “Can we go see the caves?”

“They’re closed off to tourists,” Hector said. “And they’re dangerous, so no.”

When they passed the area leading up to the Parthenon, Gertie stopped. “Don’t we want to go this way?” It was the way everyone else was going.

“Later, before sunset,” Nikita said.

“I want to show you the Temple of Hephaestus,” Hector said. “It’s the best preserved ancient temple in the world.”

“And it’s special to him, too,” Klaus added.

Hector sighed and Nikita shook her head.

“Special how?” Gertie asked.

“Let’s go get something to drink.” Nikita slapped her brother on the arm. “It’s too hot out here.”

As they continued down the path, passing an enormous amphitheater they called the Odeon, Klaus said, “You guys are only postponing the inevitable.”

Gertie stopped just as they were turning onto a pedestrian street. “What are you talking about, Klaus? What are they not telling me?”

Nikita stepped in front of her brother and squared herself to Gertie. “Hector was born there. He’s embarrassed by the story, but Klaus doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut.”

“Oh.” Gertie followed them along the street toward a stretch of shops and cafés.

The teens were shining with sweat by the time they sat down and ordered drinks. Gertie asked for a Coke. Hector ordered a Frappe. Nikita and Klaus ordered water and insisted on paying the bill. But Hector pulled out his wallet and handed money to the waitress before either of the other two.

“You should let me pay for everything,” Gertie said after the waitress had left. “My parents gave me a credit card with unlimited credit.”

Nikita and Klaus turned red.

“But you’re our guest,” Klaus said. “We want to pay.”

“Yes, but…” Gertie was about to say that her parents had so much more money than theirs, but she bit her lip. “You are already having me in your home. I want to give something back.”

The Angelis kids smiled.
Faux pas
averted.

“Maybe next time,” Hector said.

They took their drinks with them as they walked down the road toward the temple. It was a fifteen minute walk, but the heat shining down on them and reflecting up from the pavement made it seem longer.

“Helios is bright today,” Hector said.

Gertie smiled. “The sun god, right?”

“She knows Helios!” Klaus said laughing. “This is great.”

“I know about all the Greek gods and goddesses,” Gertie said. “I love them almost as much as I do vampires.”

Hector flinched at her last statement but then tried to cover it up. As they walked further, however, he couldn’t seem to resist asking, “How can anybody love vampires?”

“I meant I’m interested in the lore. I love reading stories about them.” She told him about
The Vampire Chronicles
and some of the other novels she had read that had made her want to read Anne Rice. “Klaus and Nikita have the whole collection in their basement.” Then she added, “That basement is pretty creepy, by the way. We’ll have to ask Babá to get me the rest of the books.” She laughed.

But Hector’s face was serious when he asked, “What happened in the basement?”

“We heard a noise,” Gertie said. “In one of the coffins.”

“It was probably just a rat,” Nikita said, avoiding Gertie’s eyes.

“But that coffin is heavily chained,” Gertie objected. “How would it have gotten inside?”

“Rats can eat through just about anything,” Hector said. “Oh, look. See the temple over there?”

They couldn’t get to it from that side, so they had to go around to the east for a few more minutes. Once they reached the ruin, Gertie thought it was worth the walk. It looked exactly as it must have once appeared in ancient Greece, except for a few cracks. Standing in the same spot where others once stood thousands of years ago was surreal.

After they walked around and read some of the plaques, Hector returned to the front of the temple and sat on the ledge looking out over the landscape below.

“See that jumble of rocks down there?” he asked.

Gertie sat beside him and looked down the hill at a maze of stones in the grassy hillside.

“That’s the ancient agora,” he said.

Nikita and Klaus joined them on the ledge.

Nikita said, “It was like the town square of ancient Greece.”

“It’s where our ancestors would go to have fun,” Klaus said.

Hector laughed. “Like all they did back then was party.”

They all laughed.

“They had to have fun some time,” Klaus said.

As an American, that was one thing Gertie didn’t have: because her ancestors were immigrants, she couldn’t walk around in her hometown and reflect on the ancient past of her heritage. She had to go to another country to do that.

Gertie really wanted to ask Hector to tell the story about the day he was born, but she didn’t know him well enough, and she didn’t want to embarrass him. She supposed she would have to coax the details out of Nikita later.

They spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the acropolis and then had some dinner at one of the cafés. Gertie was able to convince them to let her pay with her credit card. At seven in the evening, they climbed the hill up to the Parthenon. Most of the other tourists were leaving to catch their buses and ferries and taxis, but there were still some milling about and enjoying the drop in temperature on the now windy hill.

They walked around inside, all three of them inundating Gertie with information, and then Klaus called everyone outside.

“Let’s climb down to the rock,” he said. “The sun is close to setting.”

“Don’t you mean Helios is about to sink in his cup?” Gertie teased.

“Wait,” Nikita said. “First Hector should tell Gertie about his great-grandfather. It happened right here.”

“What happened right there?” Gertie asked.

“Oh, okay,” Hector said. “But first, look over there. That’s where Athena and Poseidon had their famous contest over who would become the patron god of this city. Have you heard the story?”

Gertie nodded. “That’s where it happened, huh? Poseidon gave them a salty river and Athena the olive tree. So where’s the olive tree?”

“They’re all over this area,” Hector replied. “We have the best olive oil in the world.”

“Now you sound like Babá,” Nikita said.

“But it’s true,” Hector argued.             

“Can we go to the rock now?” Klaus asked.

“Wait, his great-grandfather’s story,” Nikita prompted. “Go ahead, Hector.”

Gertie was beginning to get the feeling that Nikita was in love with Hector.

“Oh, right,” Hector said. “Well, during World War II, the Nazis occupied Athens.”

Klaus came over and put an arm around Gertie. “And his great-grandfather was guarding the Greek flag when the Nazis ordered him to take it down.”

Klaus was the same height as Gertie, and he looked at her, eye-to-eye with a cute smile on his face. She hadn’t noticed his deep dimples before. Was he flirting with her? Or just being friendly, like Mamá and Babá and Nikita?

“So did he take it down?” Gertie asked Hector.

“He did,” Hector said. “He took it down, put it on, like a badge of courage, and jumped to his death, right down there.”

“He was standing on this very spot. Right, Hector?” Nikita said.

Hector nodded.

“Can we go to the rock now?” Klaus, who still had his arm around Gertie, asked.

“Let’s go,” Hector said, leading the way.

They climbed down from the flag platform onto a dimpled, raw ledge of rock jetting out from the acropolis just below the Parthenon. According to Nikita, teenagers liked to come hang out here some evenings, sometimes with an iced chest of beer or bottle of wine to share—always in groups and never alone. Tonight, there were no others, and the few tourists above them were already making their way down along the path on the other side of the hill.

Every part of Athens was visible from this spot except the west, but the view of the sun dipping down behind the Parthenon from here was spectacular. She sat between Klaus and Nikita, with Hector on the other side of Klaus, all dangling their legs over the cliff edge. It was peaceful and beautiful up here, as the tiled rooftops sparkled in the evening sun and the lights of the city slowly began to twinkle as dusk settled.

The city below was not quite sleepy, however. Gertie could see cars, people, smoke from chimney tops, and lots of other signs of human activity. She looked at her phone for the time.

“I thought this place closed at eight-thirty,” she said.

“We can climb down from here,” Klaus said, showing his dimples, apparently happy for the adventure.

“Too bad Dionysus can’t come out and bring us some of his wine,” Gertie said with a laugh. “Thanks a lot for giving me ideas, Nikita. I’m thirsty now.”

The other three didn’t laugh, so Gertie added, “Just joking.” She thought Europeans were more open-minded about the drinking age; maybe she was wrong.

They were quiet then as the wind lifted their hair in its breeze and cooled them down.

That’s when Gertie noticed two people climbing up from the hillside toward them.

Hector stood up. “Don’t say anything to them when they come by.”

Gertie bent her brows. They’d been surrounded by people all day. What made these two any different?

“And don’t make eye contact with them.” Klaus stood up too.

Gertie gave Nikita a quizzical look.