Pheonix/ Percy P.O.V.

The fire flickers, low and warm, as I sit my turn watching camp. We had set up here, on a cliff overlooking the ocean, after nearly two days of nonstop travel. I lean back against the tree behind me as the moon rises over head, casting the waves in a silver and midnight light. I smile, looking around at the people I considered my brothers. Our rag-tag group had started small, with only me and one other but over the last three years had grown till we now numbered near a dozen.. I stare into the stars, thinking of how it all started.

~ Flashback~

I sat on the fire escape, once again throw out of the apartment because of one of Gabe's poker games. I shiver thinking of the... less than desirable characters that came over every now and then, giving me weird looks when I walked by, or " accidently" brushing against me. Whimpering, I close my eyes and bury my face in my arms, letting my worn and holey hoodie soak up my tears. Crying never helped anything and almost always made it worse. I had learned that the hard way. A round of victorious shouts sound from inside, and I jump, not expecting the sudden noise as I cower closer to the rusted bars, even though they irritate my bruises.

I sniff as I think about my mother, wishing she still cared for me. She was great until around my eighth birthday, but something made her snap. Maybe she just saw a bottle of alcohol and said ' Fuck it', I don't really know. But by the time I turned nine she had gone from stopping the beatings, to ignoring them, to outright laughing and joining in. By the time I was ten I wasn't allowed to go o school and since Mom didn't work any more I would go a day the three without food. But just because I never did well in school didn't mean I didn't understand, quite the opposite actually, I understood all of it I just couldn't put it on paper. I still wanted and liked to learn, so when I wasn't begging or scavenging for scraps I was lifting books from the library to sneak into the apartment to read. Right now I was rereading the Harry Potter Series. Again. For the seventh time. In Greek.

I jerk when a crash sound through the alley, on the fire escape across from mine is a boy, about my age. We stare at each other for several minutes before he's suddenly in front of me. I take a moment to look him over. Pale skin, black eyes and hair, dressed in all black. He holds out a hand to me and I take it, hesitant, but my instincts screaming for my to trust him.

" Hiya, im Nico. Nico Di Angelo." He smiles at me, revealing pearly white teeth. he sits with hiss legs tucked under him.

" Percy. Percy Jackson." I spot something sticking out of his pocket. " You play Mythomagic?"

He nods excitedly.

" Yeah." He stares at me a moment, head cocked like he's trying to decide something. " Wanna live with me? I don't have a place to stay but we can fight monsters and goon adventures and be awesome and find other like us together."

We stayed up the whole night, planning and plotting and talking and just being kids again for the first time in a long while. The next morning I gathered my measly belongings and we left. We had decided almost immediately that you would need a different name if you were part of our group. You could keep the first letter it just had to be either Greek or Italian. Over the next year and a half we gathered ten other, almost half of them girls. But about three weeks ago we had gotten on the bad side of a witch and she had turned the females well... male. So now we were an all guy group. The name thing had gotten a little confusing after a while and we had made a list.

Nico Di Angelo- Nuncio

Percy Jackson- Pheonix

Leo Valdez - Lysander

Luke Castellan- Lucio

Clarisse La Rue- Callias

Annabeth Chase- Atalo

Silena Beauregard- Sophocles

Will Solace- Westus

Charles Beckendorf- Cadmus

Pollux Vino- Pallas

Thalia Grace- Tharin

Katie Gardener- Kyrie

~ Flashback Over~

I smile thinking of my recently celebrated birthday, being the youngest it meant that everyone in the group was officially over sixteen.

A loud CRACK! has me on my feet with my dagger drawn in a split second. Keeping my eyes on the suddenly dark and skeletal trees, I slowly make my way over to Kyrie, nudging him and motioning for him t wake the others, which he does, slowly and quietly and not before drawing his own weapon. They each rise, one by one, drawing their weapons. Nuncio comes up beside me, his hand- and- a- half sword glinting like green fire in the dim light. Lysander really did have a talent for making blades.

CRACK!

SNAP!

I spin around as more branches break. I pause at the sight before me, because there, are the five most beautiful people I've ever seen. All pale skin, long limbs, and flowing hair, their enchanting. But what catch's your attention, what makes your heart freeze are the eyes. Red eyes, deep as the blood smeared across their hands and faces. They lunge, and my world is consumed by fire.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Three days later, vampires around the world fall to their knees.