Chapter: 22: Picking Sides
When choosing between two evils, I always like to take the one I've never tried before-Mae West
Thank heavens for the contact list in my phone cause there was Dr. A. What was happening to Thrace was too horrid to allow Rafe to shield me from the truth. He picked up on the second ring. “Dr. A, this is Calli. I need to ask your advice about something. It’s important, confidential, and not related to school.”
Dr. A replied cryptically, “I’ve been waiting for you to realize that we are on the same side.”
“Dr. A, I don’t have time for riddles. Can you meet me at the Redford Branch of the Detroit Public Library in 15 minutes?” I asked him.
He immediately replied, “If you get there first, try to get a private study room and bring homework, so it will look like we are working.”
I admired his cunning and answered, “Good thinking. I will see you there in 15. And thanks for meeting me on such short notice.”
I grabbed my backpack and gym bag and ran out the door as I called out to my parents. “I’m headin to the library to study--too many distractions here. See ya at seven sharp.”
Just as I secured our study room, Dr. A walked in and shut the door. I sat down warily before he said, “You better make it quick, Calliope…. somehow I don’t see Hermes leaving you alone for very long these days. And I take it that you don’t want him privy to this conversation.”
“I’ve already told Rafe this. I just didn’t like his answer. He’s hiding something from me, Dr. A. Maybe you can tell me what it is. I have a friend that went to a rave at Eastown Theatre, and since then has been experiencing black outs. When he wakes up, he’s bruised and beaten.” I explained to Dr. A without directly meeting his eyes.
“Was he bitten before these black outs?” Dr. A inquired as my shocked gaze finally met his concerned one.
“Yes, but that was weeks ago. I thought memory loss only lasted a night. And why would he wake up beaten and bruised,” I queried.
“What has Hermes told you?”
“He said he would find out if any of his brethren are responsible. What has Rafe not told me?” I demanded.
“A lot. But Hermes indicated to me that he didn’t want to overwhelm you with too much information about his world, and that you agreed,” Dr. A stated.
“I don’t need to know every nitty-gritty immortal fact all at once, but I need to know what the flock is going on,” I explained emphatically.
“What has Hermes told you about Ares and Apollo?”
I was starting to get a bit miffed because Dr. A seemed to be having a problem giving me a straight answer by playing 20 questions. So I revealed my exasperation by asking, “What’s with answering my question with another question-- Just tell me what you know!”
“I’m sorry Calliope if this is frustrating, but I need to know how much you’ve been kept in the dark.”
Words just streamed out of my mouth as I explained everything I learned from Rafe about the “bizarro world” as I liked to call it.
“That was quite a mouthful, but what do you know about immortal possession?” Dr. A questioned.
“Possession? You mean when it comes to the soul that I carry for them?” I asked perplexed.
“Ah. Hermes has not told you about the immortal’s greatest weapon. When an immortal bites a human, he or she can call that human to them for up to a week. The length of time depends on how powerful the immortal is. Far more ominous is that the Olympians and demigods then can possess the human for short periods of time. Ares has exploited this gift and turned it into a nightmare for the young adults of this city. He has created his very own Coliseum at old Tiger Stadium. Teenagers possessed by demigods become gladiators and have to fight for immortal spectators. When one or both of the teenagers is beaten unconscious or dies, the demigods are kicked out of their body completely unscathed. I think Thrace has unknowingly participated as a human gladiator, and the fact that he is still alive tells me that he has won his matches so far. There is absolutely no guarantee that this will continue to be the case. Apollo and Hermes have tried to stop these barbaric matches to no avail.”
I was stunned. I literally couldn’t speak for several minutes. I actually thought I was going to hyperventilate. I started taking deep breaths as my hands clenched into fists. “Why would Rafe lie to me?” I choked out.
Dr. A just shook his head and said in a mocking tone, “Humans are unpredictable. He doesn’t know what you would do. He’s probably trying to stop it without telling you the truth.”
“How do you know so much about this since you are also a mere human?”
“My son wasn’t so lucky in winning his matches. He was a fighter like you, but not strong enough to win all his battles. I went looking for answers. I found out that we live in a war zone, and nobody even realizes it. We lose about one teenager every couple of weeks. I keep track of the names and have gathered others who have experienced similar loss. Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and friends—we’ve all lost loved ones at The Corner. We will bring Ares down and all his supporters if we can. I’ve been collecting information on Ares. The time to act will be soon. Apollo and Hermes have provided valuable information, but when it is all said and done they will protect their own. For you, it has already come down to human vs. immortal. Who will you choose, Calliope?”
“I will do anything to save Thrace! But, how do I do it? You have to help me,” I begged.
“First of all, who do you think has control over your friend?”
“I believe her name is Aglaea. She’s one of the three Graces or something. At least that is what Rafe said the night she was with Thrace.”
“That’s not good, Calli. She is powerful, and her sisters make her even more dangerous. And, she is one of Ares's darlings. I don’t know how they could stop her without arousing Ares's wrath. What night do the black outs usually happen?”
“They happen a couple times a week, but he wakes up bloody and beaten on Sundays.”
“So Saturday is her designated fight night. We have to work fast if we want to stop him from fighting. First, you need to confront Rafe and find out his plan. In the meantime, we need to follow Thrace to find out where he goes when he is called. You can’t stop her once she’s in The Corner because security is too tight so we have to get to them at her staging area.”
“I think his two friends are the other two Graces victims. Can’t we just stop the guys from going to them?” I inquired logically.
“Yes, we could lock them up and throw away the key for the night, but the Graces would still be able to sense where they are and come to find your friends just to punish them. Distance or circumstance won’t matter.”
“Isn’t it better to get the Graces on our turf? We are much more likely to have the element of surprise as well as numbers in our favor if we ambush them.”
“That is a very good point, but with time running so short, we have to be realistic. There are only three possible ways to break their tie to your friends: 1) Keep the guys away from the Graces for a week and the tie is temporarily broken—until they find and bite them again. And they will very quickly, because they win respect and power at The Corner. 2) Tell Ares you exist and ask him to stop the Graces from using your friends as gladiators as a favor to you. 3) Kill Aglaea and her sisters by any means possible. So, I will ask you again. How much is Thrace’s life worth to you?”
I just stood there and silently shook my head as I pondered this horrific dilemma. “Basically, I can either try to kill 3 demigods or barter with Ares the God of War. Are those really my only options, really?”
“You never answered my question, how much is Thrace’s life worth to you?”
I narrowed my gaze at him and without hesitating for I second I replied vehemently, “To me, his life is worth my life! I doubt Rafe or Apollo would agree, so my guess is that any plan they come up with makes sure that I am not exposed to Ares.”
“That certainly will be their
intentions. First step: confront Rafe tonight and find out the plan. Do not tell him you are willing to come up with your own plan. Otherwise, he and Apollo will put their energy into stopping you rather than saving Thrace and his friends. Second, the Graces are demigods; you can’t really kill them permanently. But, based on immortal policy, they will not be allowed back in Detroit for their next go-round. To be honest, the easiest way to kill them without retribution is to let them bite you. They will depart instantly if you are really a Muse.”
My eyes widened in shock and once again I’m floored. “If they bite me, they die then are reborn somewhere else?”
“Yes, your blood is poison to all but your Olympian. But you would have to get them to bite you not break your neck during the fights.”
“We could realistically try options 1-3 all at once. Try to hide them, if the Graces show up, fight them, and let fate decide. We will have to find a way to separate them, so you can take them on individually. If they bite you, then problem solved if they try to kill you then just say ‘I’m a Muse’—problem solved. You leave their fate up to them. We can have back-ups armed and ready if they try to kill you rather than bite you.”
“Thanks, Dr. A, that is really comforting,” I snarked.
“My guess is they would try to bite you, but they are used to killing humans during their matches. You’d just be collateral damage. Of course, this would all hinge on whether you are really a Muse and if you are willing to put yourself in mortal danger.”
As he spoke the words my phone rang, I looked down saw it was Rafe and mouthed his name to Dr. A. I picked up the phone and said “Hey, Rafe. What have you found out?”
“Where are you? I swung by your house and your car is not there.”
“I’m at the library. Why don’t you meet me at the gym in about 20 minutes, so we can talk?”
Rafe cautiously replied, “Sounds good. I will see you soon.”
After I hung up I looked at Dr. A and asked, “Should I tell him I know about possession and The Corner?”
Dr. A pondered this and finally said, “Question him vigorously. Look him in the eye. Tell him that you want the truth, and there will be consequences, if he lies because too much is at stake. If he doesn’t offer the information, you know it’s because they are going to protect you at the expense of your friend. Don’t fall for the ‘trust me’ plea because he is going to use it fervently.”
I absorbed his advice and replied, “How do we stay in contact from here on out?”
“Call me from your home phone tonight to tell me how it went. Not your cell phone. It’s too easy for him to get a hold of your call log. We can figure out some unsupervised time for us to meet this week. Good luck and Godspeed, Calliope.”
“Dr. A, how could you be friends with Rafe and Apollo when an immortal killed your son?”
He smiled sadly at my question, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend in this case. We are all working on a common goal—to destroy The Corner. If it were not for Hermes and Apollo, I would be dead. Their willingness to help me, and their information on what happened to my son gave me purpose when I had none. You cannot say all humans are like Jeffery Dahmer just like you can’t say all immortals are as vicious as Ares. Both Hermes and Apollo have honor and are trying to protect humans. However, in this case, they want to protect you more than Thrace and his friends.”
“That is what I am afraid of, Dr. A. And that is why I need your help,” I said as I headed for the car to meet Rafe.
Luckily, I arrived at the gym in about 10 minutes so I had time to plan my interrogation strategy. As much as I wanted to fight him right now, I also needed to make contact with something to get my anger out. I grabbed the Muay Thai Pads from the closet and wrapped my hands as I thought about the questions I needed to ask. If I asked what he had learned so far, it would be like asking him to lie to me. Clearly, he did not want to tell me about the ability of immortals to take possession of humans. So I was going to have to lead him there without giving away what I know. Rafe walked in just as I was finishing warming up. He looked tired. I wanted to go wrap my arms around him to comfort both him and myself, but I needed to stay focused.
He smiled at me with a wistful expression that usually had me smiling back, “I take it we are not sparring today?”
I smiled as I said, “I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that what you are going to tell me is going to piss me off. I figured we could kill two birds with one stone. You talk. I hit.”
“That works fine, Calliope. You ready?”
“Let’s start with kicks, and let’s start with who has been biting Thrace,” I took him off guard as I threw him the pads to hold. He grabbed them and put them on as I got into my stance.
I started with front kicks, and it felt good to actually make contact with something. Rafe answered cautiously, “It was Aglaea, again.”
I immediately shot another question at him before my next kick. “She would have had to do it multiple times a week. How did she find him to bite him again, and why would he end up all beaten up?”
I think my questions drove him backwards more than my kick, “We think he attended another rave--the night we went to the haunted farmhouse.”
“Ok. That was one time. How did she track him down so that he would have multiple black outs per week usually days apart?” I wouldn’t get all the information out of him at once, so I was trying the baby step method.
He hesitated and took a deep breath before he said, “Calli, another fun immortal fact is that once we bite you we can call you to us for a short period of time.”
I was impressed that he confessed one piece of the puzzle to me, but we had three more to go: possession, The Corner, and the plan. I wanted him to trust me enough to confess all. I was leaving our fate and my life in his hands without him ever knowing it. “Put the target down and look at me. Ring….Ring….Is Thrace on that harpy’s speed dial? Explain calling to me.”
“Calling involves making the human come to where the immortal is because of the shared blood and chemicals.”
“How long can she call him after she has bitten him?” I inquired.
“With human vampyre it’s only a day, with demigod it’s a couple days, with Olympians it’s a week,” Rafe confessed.
Time to pull the trigger on the next question. “So if she is so attached to him because she’s calling him all the time, why is she kicking his eyas on a regular basis?”
He seemed to ponder this for a moment before he lied to my face. “I don’t think she deliberately tries to harm him. I think she just gets overzealous in their amorous activities.”
I was pissed at the lie he just tried to get by me on the chance that I would be too uncomfortable talking about my ex’s sex life. I just spit out, “Put the targets up!”
I released my disappointment for a couple of minutes by punching and kicking the pads as hard as I could. When I was done, I bent over to catch my breath and to calm my temper. I straightened and looked him directly in his eyes as I loudly clarified, “Rafe, my mom’s a nurse, and I have a black belt in karate. He didn’t get those bruises from a little too active foreplay. He got them from someone punching and kicking him. So stop sugar coating and don’t ever lie to me again.” I made sure my gaze was locked with his the whole time, just as Dr. A advised me to do.
“I didn’t get to personally examine him like you did, Calli. But Aglaea is not known for punching and kicking her humans. She is known for getting a little carried away in other areas. I was just posing a possibility,” he said in a snit.
“What happens in your world on Saturday nights? He always wakes up Sunday morning bruised and beaten.”
“Saturday is much like any other day to us since most of us don’t usually have a typical work week. And the last time I had contact with Aglaea was at the rave when you and I first got together.”
Both of those statements were likely to be true, and both of those statements were evasions to keep me from learning the truth. It was
clear that Rafe was not going to tell me about possession or The Corner. My bitterness was boiling over. I had to focus because it was time to get to the plan—after I got to hit him for a while. “Put the targets up!” Another ten minutes went by again before I was ready to deal with the plan.
“What is the plan to save Thrace?” I snapped unable to hide my anger.
“Apollo and I haven’t worked out the details yet. We need to shadow Aglaea and learn her patterns before we decide on a course of action,” Rafe said matter-of-factly.
“What happens if we locked him up so he couldn’t answer her call?”
“We would be better off by either bargaining with her or distracting her with a more athletic specimen. She has a short attention span when it comes to human men. Trust me….whatever plan we put in place, we will protect Thrace from Aglaea.”
I started untaping my hand so I wasn’t meeting his eyes when I lied, “I do trust you, but we are talking about my best friend’s life. I want to know the plan.” I finally looked up to meet his gaze.
He threw the targets down and put his hands on my waist as I immediately leaned my forehead into his chest so he wouldn’t try to kiss me, “I will tell you as soon as it is in place.”
“Thanks,” I muttered into his chest then “I have to get home.” I pulled away from him and went to pick up my bag.
Just as I reached the door and started to open it, Rafe pulled me back into the room, leaned my back against the door and my front against him, and laid his forehead on mine as he begged me, “Please, Calli. Don’t hate me for what others of my kind are responsible for. That is not me! The only two things I desire in life right now are your affection and to protect you from the depraved aspects of my world.”
Because of both of those desires, Rafe would never come up with a plan to save Thrace that included my participation in any way. And as disappointed as I was, I understood. I finally gave him what he wanted to hear, “I don’t blame you for the evil deeds of that harpy. And my world has plenty of depravity with its serial killers and child molesters, and you don’t judge me by those examples of the human race. I will let you protect me from your world as long as it doesn’t endanger other people I care about.”
He smiled at me with his eyes blazing before he kissed me as if he was still pleading for my understanding. For several minutes, I got to escape this horrific dilemma. After he had temporarily bedazzled me, he finally said in a husky whisper, “It’s a deal.”
As I drove away, I planned what my next move would be because clearly I was on my own.
I called Dr. A from my home phone and discussed Rafe’s explanation of events. After I got done with my recap, Dr. A finally chimed in, “Yes, the Graces will probably feed off their decoys, but they have gladiators in Thrace and his friends that have won several matches so far. They will just find them again when their gladiators lose.”
“I need a Plan B then. Will you be on Team Calli?” I begged.
“Of course, my dear. I know you are disappointed in Rafe, but you are his Aegis and he must protect you at all costs—even if Thrace is the cost.”
“His What?” I inquired in a confused manner.
“Aegis: The person who he is sworn to protect at all times. As far as plans go, I already have people out scouting Aglaea doing Team Calli recon,” Dr. A explained.
“Ok. I will call you tomorrow so we can use the recon to develop Plan B. Thank you so much, Dr. A. I owe you!”
“I want to take down these parasites even more than you do Calli, and you have given me the chance. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
I snarked, “Same Bat Channel,” I could hear him laugh as he hung up.
I called Thrace next. I chose my words very carefully—trying to be a creative storyteller/liar. “My friend thinks the girls that you’ve been meeting up with are hooked up with dealers who are into selling and experimenting with designer club drugs. He thinks that you guys might be their guinea pigs. So that’s why you keep having black outs. It’s the drugs in your system. They said some of them could last up to a week.”
“So I don’t suppose he knows why we keep ending up beaten up?” Thrace inquired with relative calm.
“We can only guess that to test your physical capabilities while you are on the drug, they probably had you fight each other or them.”
“You think we fought them,” Thrace asked incredulously.
“My friend thinks they have had some type of martial arts training. He’s seen them in action before, as have I that first night.”
“Do you think if we stay away from the raves they will leave us alone?” Thrace asked in an almost desperate tone.
“Not without some assistance. You are their human science experiment right now. If they lost you, they would have to start over again. They would come looking for you, and my guess is that they could find you easily. My friend thinks that he can provide a distraction that will make them move on from you and your friends.”
I heard him take a deep breath on the line, “Ok, Calli. We’ll play this your way. Tell me what I need to do.”
“Well, for now just be yourself and don’t plan on going to anymore raves this week. Oh, and be extra nice and helpful around the house. I’m suppose to be a good influence this week,” I replied.
Thrace laughed then turned serious, “Thank you for doing this for me. I’m sorry I dragged you into my mess. Apparently, my taste in women has gone down hill after you.”
“Thrace, I’m am just grateful that you are not shutting me out. I missed you, you big flock-up,” I said in an amused tone.
“I will see you at school tomorrow, Cal.”
“Nite…Nite…Termite,” I said wistfully.
After I got off the phone, I tried to concentrate on my homework, but I only managed to finish the morning class assignments. I would work with Rafe on the afternoon assignments during study hall. As I closed my eyes, I couldn’t get the vision of Thrace battling for his life at The Corner out of my mind. However, in my nightmares, he was battling Rafe, and no one walked away.