2. I Fight A Werewolf Minus a Silver Bullet

I took the prism out of my drawer and opened the window. I held up the prism till the sunlight hit at just the right angle. A rainbow shot out and hit the corner of my bedroom. I grabbed my spare golden drachma, the one I kept in case of emergencies, and threw it into the stream of colors.

"Iris, goddess of the rainbow," I said, "accept my offering."

The rainbow shimmered.

"Show me Chiron," I requested. "At Camp-Half Blood."

I waited, expecting the image of my centaur teacher to appear. I was surprised when the rainbow actually spat my golden drachma back out. As it clanked on the floor, I heard a woman's voice say, "I'm sorry, but the person you've requested is unavailable at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience." Before I could respond, the rainbow itself disappeared.

"Great," I muttered. "So much for reinforcements."

I put down the prism and grabbed my jacket as I left the room. I went back into the kitchen where my mom and Thalia were packing a knapsack with supplies, bandages, snacks, etc. I had given Thalia my last ambrosia square so she had started healing; her arm was out of the sling. But the cuts on her face and back hadn't gone away yet. Lycaon must have handed her quite a beat-down.

Thalia looked at me. "What'd Chiron say?"

"He was unavailable."

She frowned. "Unavailable?"

I nodded. "Don't ask me why."

"So no help from Camp then?"

"Nope. Looks like we're on our own."

Thalia sighed. "Great."

My mom, ever trying to be the positive one, spoke up. "Well you're welcome to stay here, Thalia, till we can reach Chiron."

Thalia shook her head. "Thanks, but no thanks, Ms. Jackson. There's a good chance Lycaon followed me into Manhattan. My scent combined with Percy's would bring him straight here."

I stared at Thalia. She was right. With her being a daughter of Zeus and me being a son of Poseidon, thereby making us the two most powerful half-bloods on the planet, aside from Nico de Angelo, our scents would pretty much be a beacon for Lycaon or any other monster. As I thought about it, I wondered why my mom's apartment wasn't under attack already.

I clenched my fist. "We'd better go, now." I couldn't keep the anger out of my voice. I thought, What if Lycaon had found Thalia before I got home? How could she put my mom in danger like that?

I grabbed the knapsack off the table and made a beeline for the door. "You comin'?" I called to Thalia.

She regarded me. "Yeah. Thanks, Percy," she said bleakly. She knew I was in a bad mood but couldn't tell why.

Once we got to the street we hailed a cab. The driver was a pudgy dude with a mild accent. He reminded me a little of Dionysus, minus the pungent smell of wine.

"Where to?" he asked.

Thalia gave him the address of a park in New Jersey. We drove through the city for a while. I didn't talk to Thalia. I just stared out my window at the Empire State Building till I lost sight of it.

"Okay, I'll bite, what's wrong?" Thalia's voice jarred me from my thoughts.

"What?"

"What's wrong?" Thalia repeated. "You seemed pretty ticked back at your mom's place."

I glared at her. "Nothing," I muttered. "No big deal."

"Obviously not. Come on. I know you, Percy."

"Uh-huh."

"Look will you just tell me so we can fight about it, patch things up then go back to being friends like we always do."

Okay, so she does know me. I sighed. I was about to explain it to her when our cab suddenly screeched to a halt. Our cabby cursed as he slammed on the brakes.

"What's going on?" Thalia asked.

"Some kinda accident," he replied.

I rolled down my window. I could see several cars backed-up in front of us, a few with smoke coming out of the hoods. The drivers were standing around arguing with a police officer. They were shouting loud enough for me to catch

"I'm telling you, a big hairy whatever, just ran out into the road—

"Some nut in a costume—"

"—like a big dog—"

Big dog?

Uh-oh. I nudged Thalia. "We gotta go."

She frowned. "What? Why?"

Before I could answer her, I heard the loud thud and the entire car shook. Two sets of claws pierced the roof of our cab then ripped it off like it was construction paper. The cabby screamed, leaped out of the driver's seat and took off.

.Lycaon stood at least seven feet tall. He was built like a man, but covered with matted silver-gray hair. He had long sharp claws where his fingers should have been. His head was that of a timber wolf, which snarled fiercely. His yellow eyes glowed at Thalia hungrily. He looked nothing like I'd expected him to. I figured he'd be like the wolf-man from those cheesy old horror movies, with an absurd amount of facial hair and obviously fake fangs. But one look at his mouth and I knew those canine teeth were real and could easily rip into my flesh like a knife through butter. The thing that seemed odd was that he was wearing a leather pouch, with the strap running sideways across his body, but I had bigger worries than that.

"Daughter of Zeus," he growled in a voice that barely sounded human. "How long did you think you could outrun me?"

Thalia stared at him with a mixture of horror and anger. Cautiously, she moved her hand towards her metal bracelet, while I reached into my pocket and grasped Riptide.

"What do you want, beast?" Thalia said in a tone that barely masked her fear.

I almost thought I could see a smile on Lycaon's face. "Revenge, of course."

He regarded me for the first time. "Well, well, well. Perseus Jackson, the son of Poseidon. Another child of the three sons of Kronos who shouldn't exist. No wonder the scent was so strong." He licked his muzzle with his blood red tongue. "This will be tasty meal indeed."

"Just try it, Scooby. You'll make a nice rug, I'm sure."

Instead of replying with another quip, Lycaon lunged swiping his massive claws at our heads. Thalia and I opened our doors and rolled out of the taxi. As I landed on the street I could hear mortals all around me shouting and scrambling to get away. I stood up and uncapped Riptide. The bronze blade extended and I swung at the roof of the taxi.

Lycaon anticipated my attack. He leaped up so my blade hit nothing but air. He landed on the hood of the taxi. Thalia had Aegis and her spear extended and jabbed at him but he grabbed the spear out of her hand and delivered a strong kick to her shield, sending her flying. She slammed into the side of a van parked nearby.

Lycaon advanced on her. Thalia groaned and raised her shield. The sight of Medusa's face embossed on it should have made Wolf-Man whimper like a puppy, but it didn't faze him at all.

I jumped over the hood of the taxi. I came up on Lycaon from behind ready to slice him in half. He turned on me, grabbed my arm and twisted. I cried out in pain and dropped my sword. Lycaon's grip was like a metal vice. He spun and hurled me down the block like a javelin. I hit the side of a building then landed face first on the sidewalk. I started to get up but Lycaon pounced on me. He shoved my head to the ground with his heavy paw. He brought his face close to mine, baring his gleaming white teeth, leaning in for the kill.

"Prepare yourself for Hades, son of Poseidon."