If Lasse’s place was a comfortable home, Poseidon’s palace under the sea was a museum. Large cavernous rooms were filled with artifacts – many of them thousands of years old. Jason tried to imagine a smaller version of Lasse running around the pale halls, but the place was so big, he wondered how the young boys never got lost.
“Is there anything Sei doesn’t have down here?” Jason asked as he peered at a large war chariot, the kind pulled by horses back in the time of Alexander the Great.
“Oh that,” Lasse laughed. “It was a present from Alexander, or Sebastian, I’m not sure. I’m telling you now, don’t ever ask my dad about any item. He’ll talk your freaking ear off about it. Most of the stuff you see here came from wrecked ships, but my dad still has a seductive charm about him. This for instance,” he pointed to a thick gold coronet studied with rubies. The central stone had to be as big as Jason’s palm.
“A gift from a worshipful lover,” Lasse laughed. “Of course, he didn’t last any longer than any of the others, but the silly fool thought he could buy his way to an extra night in Poseidon’s bed.”
“Old Sei not keen on repeats?” Jason picked up a coral encrusted dagger, similar to what he’d seen at Lasse’s home. Even with the damage from the sea, it was a beautiful piece and was probably worth a fortune. Jason hefted it in his hand, saddened that the damage had changed the balance of what was an expertly crafted weapon.
“You know,” Lasse leaned on the wall, his gaze fond as his looked around at his father’s treasures. “Thinking back, I’m sure Abraxas and possibly Baby’s father are the only ones dear old dad had back for repeat visits and I know with Baby’s father, we’re talking maybe three nights over three hundred years. Abraxas was the one he slept with most often because my dad was always at the breakfast table the morning after his visit to me, and Poseidon was never one for turning down a free fuck.”
“But Abraxas and Poseidon weren’t mates?” Jason put the dagger back where he found it and sauntered over to lean on the wall next to his mate. “Is it possible they had feelings for each other?”
“Am I rubbing off on you already, having these romantic notions?” Lasse shook his head. “I honestly don’t know. As a kid, I never asked, and as I got older it didn’t seem like it was any of my business. I know there were feelings on Abraxas’s side. There’d never been any gossip of him being with anyone else in the thousands of years he tried to stay in contact with us. Hearing he’d found his mate was a pleasant surprise to be honest. I was glad he’d finally found someone for himself, and his mate Jordon is a little sweetheart who adores him.”
“Whereas Poseidon was the god our parent’s warned us about,” Jason smiled to show he was teasing. “Who was Baby’s other father? Wasn’t that one of….” He racked his brain trying to remember.
“One of Aphrodite’s boys, yes. Himeros, god of desire.” Lasse shook his head. “Poseidon must have been having an off day when Baby was conceived. Not that Baby wasn’t cared for the same as all of us; but that was mostly me and Nereus’s doing, along with Artemas. Let’s just say Himeros didn’t take kindly to being knocked up.” He pushed himself off the wall and Jason leaned into the hand Lasse curved around his chin.
“Enough about family history, okay? I brought you down here for us to have some fun and show you the sights. If we start talking about my half-brothers and sisters, we’ll be here all night.”
Jason turned his head slightly and licked up Lasse’s palm. “Can I just ask…ugh, I feel like a nut job even thinking about it…but…nah, forget it. Let’s go swimming.”
“What?” Both of Lasse’s hands were now framing Jason’s face and yet the panic that normally came from being confined in anyway failed to hit. “We’re mates. You can ask me anything and if it’s in my power to provide then I will.”
“I know you didn’t want to talk about family but seeing all this stuff…I have to ask. It’s about my sister.” Jason inhaled sharply and then said quickly, “Before she was mated many artists at the time made images of her likeness. She was considered a very beautiful and talented woman. After…,” Jason sighed. “Many years after she reverted to her stone form, I went hunting for one of those images – something to keep as a remembrance of her. I never found anything, but we lived handy to the Nile. It was possible some of the art work was shipped.” He looked around at Poseidon’s treasures. “Is there any chance at all something of her likeness might have found its way down here? I had no idea Poseidon kept so much from so long ago and some of the art work would be quite big, carved on stone, it would have survived, or a statue maybe, or even an etching on a jug.”
Jason snapped his mouth shut before he made a complete fool of himself. The chances of Poseidon, the god of the sea, making a point to keep the likeness of one woman was so remote it was laughable, and yet surrounded by so much history, Jason couldn’t help but feel a spark of hope.
“I wouldn’t know, my mate,” Lasse said kindly. “Look around you, Poseidon has hundreds of these halls, all filled according to his desire that has nothing to do with the age of a piece, the region it came from, or any type of order at all.”
Jason’s heart sank. He hadn’t realized Poseidon was such a disorganized hoarder.
“But,” Lasse tucked his arm around Jason’s. “I know exactly who to ask. While I spent my teenage years swimming around with the Mer guards and getting into mischief, my older brother Artemas took it upon himself to catalogue Poseidon’s treasures. He’s fanatical about records which probably stems from his other father. Knowing him, the information can be found on some dusty scroll somewhere only Artemas knows about. Come, let’s see if he’s in the library. I’d like you to meet him.”
Family. He wants me to meet someone from his family. Shit. I should’ve kept my mouth shut and just gone swimming.