My heritage was actually of the Nephilim, but by choice I lived the life of a Seeker, not a Phantom. We've lost many Seekers in the war, those who do so much for the price of freedom that they forget exactly who they are fighting for. The evil overtakes them like it so easily does our kind, and they are forever lost.
My job as a fighter was to kill those who informed and those who threatened us. All together Headquarters had only about fifty of us who walked around killing. The rest pushed paperwork, or as Adonis strongly put it, "Sat on their butts all day and act like idiots." I didn't say we were perfect. The Greeks called us gods and demi-gods, the Romans followed suit, and modern day society would most likely call us freaks, vampires, or superheroes. You name it, we've been called it.
Adonis constantly complained about the ones who refused to fight. Hercules was his biggest complaint, since he did nothing with his life except try to convince Hollywood producers to make another movie about him. He was an actor, always had been, but even he wasn't the worst. No, the worst had to be Achilles, ever since that, uh, incident, he'd walked around with a chip on his shoulder the size of the Grand Canyon. If and when we did see him, he was drunk. Nobody was really sure if he would go with anyone to Eden when everything was said and done. Not that it mattered, considering it could be thousands of years before we even got a glimpse of Heaven.
Adonis pulled into the drive-through and ordered the usual: two cheeseburgers, three large fries, and water. For some reason, any sort of soda made Seekers drunk, as if we'd just had a barrel of rum.
"Penny for your thoughts, Thena?"
"You sure you want to know?"
He lifted his perfectly-arched eyebrow and shook his head. "How long have we been doing this?"
"Oh, please don't make me count the years," I grumbled, pulling out a hot fry.
"Yes, reminding you of your age is a sore point. Sorry for forgetting. You know you can always go pout with Achilles if I'm aggravating you."
"Not fair!" I yelled. "Do not pair me with him. Just yesterday Dionysus said the entire room was a pig sty from that guy. I don't see why he can't just get over it."
"He lost the Trojan War and the woman he loved, Thena. People don't just get over things like that."
I shook my head. "Yes they do. It's been over ten thousand years!"
"Ah hah! See? I knew I could get you to mention age!"
I threw my fry at his face and stuck out my tongue. "You never play fair."
"I'm Adonis. Whoever said I'd play fair?"
"Do you really need to remind yourself who you are over and over again? Yes, you are Adonis. Congratulations. People love you. Women swoon in your presence."
"I thought the real estate agent was going to have a stroke." He passed me the water as I took a big gulp and tried to talk at the same time.
"I could have sworn she was going to. You need to learn to back off sometimes. Humans aren't used to your…"
"Perfection?" he offered.
I threw another fry. "No, your presence."
Adonis shook his head in disgust. "You'd think after all the movies Hercules has been in, they'd be used to it by now."
"One." I held up my finger. "I think you're jealous. Two, eventually people are going to start noticing he doesn't age, so his film career is basically over, and three… well, three, the movies are kind of good."
"If I have to see another Brad Pitt movie, I might go insane," he lamented.
"Shh!" I swatted him. "You can't just go around using their names together.
"Oh yes." Adonis's voice got quiet. "Because people will really believe me when I say an A-list movie star is really a Nephilim."
I smacked him on the arm and took my cheeseburger out. "When do we have to be back to Headquarters?"
"Ten minutes ago."
I groaned. "Please tell me you're lying. We can't be late again, or they're going to give us the worst assignments!"
He looked at me as if to say every assignment was the worst assignment, which is only partially true. In return, I gave him a pitiful "I hate getting into trouble" look.
"Fine, let's go." He started the car in the direction of the Pike Place Market, downtown Seattle.