Heroes of Olympus

2

Demetri

Demetri was tired and exhausted. This girl was already a pain. Was she a daughter of Venus or something? No—she said that she already lived with her mom. Demetri tried to think of annoying fathers. Mars, maybe even Mercury. Ah, Baccus was a pain in the butt too. Well, Venus's counterpart was Cupid, the god of love. He decided to give up. He was sure she would be claimed by the time they arrived to camp. Maybe Lupa knew who her father was.

"You never told me your name," he said smoothly. It didn't seem fair that he told her plenty of facts and she leave him with nothing about her, except she lived with her mom and a giant Hellhound killed her mom and was after her now.

She snapped her head up at his voice. They already had been walking for a three hours in silence. "Oh, it's Lucille Devereux. I was born and raised in Washington, a little outside of Seattle. I'm, um, seventeen too." Demetri couldn't get over the fact that she'd survive this long, a demigod, without ever arriving at the Wolf House. How had she stayed like this?

"Lucille Devereux, eh? Sounds French." It had to be from her mom's name, none of the Roman gods were French.

"Yeah, my mom's grandparents were French. And after my dad left, she was too pissed have me take his name." Take his name, Demetri thought. He remembered that the gods came under false aliases.

"My mom left too, you know. It sucks, I know." The only difference was that Demetri knew who his mother was, whereas Lucille didn't. He felt a little lame to have a farmer mom—Ceres. For some reason she decided to name him after her Greek name—Demeter. He kind of liked the benefits, though. He could manipulate plant life, although with Gaea wakening, he was limited. Even a goddess of plant life and harvest couldn't control Mother Earth.

"You're lucky," she said. She sighed and looked down.

"Hey, chin up. You'll see your dad again." It wasn't really a promise, because with the gods, you never knew if they wanted to talk to you or not.

"I hope—" Lucille stopped abruptly, and immediately Demetri knew why.

Standing about forty feet away was the Hellhound from earlier.

"Oh my—"

"Gods dang it," Demetri muttered. He was tired from searching for this girl, and so he didn't know how much power he could muster up. Just because he could play with plants didn't mean it didn't tire him out. The Hellhound barked, and started towards them. Demetri tightly closed his eyes and formed fists. When he opened his eyes, he saw the roots of nearby trees spring from the ground and wrap around the large dog. Sooner or later, he assumed, Gaea would release the hound. It was an on-going battle, a demigod versus Mother Earth.

I just hope Lucille isn't some Cupid spawn and actually has some use. Please tell me she has some power. Dear gods of Olympus, whichever is your daughter, please, claim her.

Nothing happened. Lucille looked frightened. If she didn't do something, they would probably be doggie food. Demetri tried to tighten the roots on the dog. The dog whined.

Suddenly he felt a force fighting his.

Gaea.

In the distance, he saw a woman wearing earthen clothes. Her eyes were shut, and her lips smiled. Young son of Ceres, you dare defy my land? Silly demigod. Demetri blinked, and she was gone.

"Lucille! Do something!" Come on, claim her! he pleaded.

"I—I don't know what to do!"

"Release energy or something, hold out your hand! I don't know, do something! I can't do this anymore!"

Demetri watched Lucille hold her breath, tightly shut her pretty sky-blue eyes, and hold up her hand. Her body shook as she tried to muster all of her energy. They had probably roughly ten seconds before Gaea released the hound and they became fresh meat. Please, gods above, please.

A beam of light flashed from her hands, and struck the Hellhound. The dog fell back, and disintegrated into golden dust. Demetri's green orbs widened as he stared at the girl. Maybe she wasn't as useless as she turned out to be. She must be a son of Vulcan. She has to be. Vulcan—god of fire.

"Excellent job, Lucille!" he exclaimed with a wide grin. He walked over and slapped her on the back. She gasped and opened her eyes, confused.

"What?" She glanced around. "Where'd Beethoven-from-Hell go?"

Demetri's eyes formed a V. "You didn't feel any of that? Do your hands feel hot?" He grabbed her hands, but they did not feel burning hot. They didn't even feel warm. Okay, maybe not Vulcan.

Lucille snatched her hand away. "No," she said protectively, "was I supposed to feel hot or something? I mean, I feel a little tired, but nothing else."

Demetri had no idea. This was weird. Lupa would know—she always knew. "Well, glad to know you're not as useless as I thought at first." Wait. Did I really just say that?

A slap in the face followed immediately. Demetri obviously was not the ladies' man. Dang Ceres for being his mother instead of Venus. If he had been the son of Venus, he could have charmspoke her into—never mind. This girl was way out of his league. She annoyed him too—a little high voice, like a stereotypical cheerleader. Maybe she was the daughter of Cupid, after all, Cupid was the song of Venus and Mars, so she could have the charm of Venus, but the annoyingness of Mars. Just give up Demetri. You sound stupid. Just wait until she's either claimed or Lupa figures all of this out.

"Do you mind if we rest? I'm exhausted." He sounded weak, but after days of searching for this chick, he deserved a rest. Even Lupa would probably allow this.

Lucille shrugged. "I s'pose."

Lucille rested her back against a tree, whereas Demetri laid flat on the grass. Ah, the ground felt like home. He supposed this was another nice trait from his mother—he felt at home with the earth, but then again, so did Gaea.

"Young son of Ceres, go, search for the girl who runs from her opposite. Bring her home. Hurry, for your First Mother is awaiting your failure," Lupa said, her dark amber eyes boring into his emeralds. He nodded and was on his way.

If he wasn't mistaken, Lucille was the "girl who runs from her opposite." The "opposite" being the Hellhound, he assumed. He didn't understand, was she a daughter of Jupiter—much like Jason Grace? Jason...he'd forgotten about him. He simply vanished days ago, and no one was sure where he was. Strangely enough, they had a boy who was the son of Neptune—or rather, Poseidon. It was weird, but Lupa seemed to understand. He called the gods by different names—Poseidon, Zeus, Hades, Ares, Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis, et cetera.

Demetri came back to the present. Twilight arrived. Mother Ceres, protect me from Gaea with all of your might.

And slowly, he closed his grass-green eyes.