Re-uploaded after takedown on October 17, 2015.
Disclaimer: I do not own neither Twilight, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or Heroes of Olympus. All rights go to Rick Riordan and Stephanie Meyer, respectively.
…ooOoo…
Heroes of Olympus – Trilogy of Blood
Book 2: Rites of Blood
Chapter 1 – Of Monsters and Vampires
February 2010 – Somewhere north of Seattle
The snake-haired ladies were starting to annoy Percy.
They should have died three days ago when he dropped a crate of bowling balls at a Bargain Mart. They should have died two days ago when he ran them over with a police car. They definitely should have died a few hours ago when he cut off their heads in Lincoln Park.
All the same, they would return, reforming and taking shape minutes after he would kill them, forcing him to flee. It was a sickening game of cat and mouse, with the difference that the mouse fought back and the cat had multiple lives. Sooner or later though, the lives had to run out. At least, that was what Percy prayed for.
Not that he was getting an answer.
Percy stumbled as he ran up a hill, but quickly caught his balance once more and kept running. He'd only survived this far because the two snake-haired ladies – gorgons, they called themselves – couldn't seem to kill him either. Their claws didn't cut his skin, and their teeth broke when they tried to bite him. But Percy couldn't keep this up much longer. Soon he would collapse from exhaustion, and then – as hard as he was to kill, he was sure the gorgons would find a way.
Where to run?
He scanned his surroundings. Under different circumstances, he might've enjoyed the view. To the south, the trees and mountains of the Olympic National Park stretched as far the eye could see, Twilight descending over the forest. To his right, there was a small city whose name he didn't know, filled with several hundreds of people who didn't want their morning interrupted by two monsters and a filthy demigod.
Should he try to cross to make it to the water?
It was tempting. He could feel the power of the sea over the horizon, and it was making him slightly giddy. Water always revived him, but salt water was the best. He'd discovered that when he strangled a sea monster near Grey's Harbor. If he could reach the bay, he could make a final stand. Maybe he would be able to drown the gorgons.
But the shore was at least two miles away. He would have to cross an entire city.
He hesitated for another reason. The she-wolf Lupa had taught him to sharpen his senses – to trust the instincts that were supposed to guide him south. Unfortunately, his encounter with the gorgons soon after leaving the wolf house in Sonoma Valley forced him to turn north, and away from his objective, his memories, and Annabeth, the only person he remembered from his past, as his memory was frustratingly dim. The wolf had promised he would see her again and regain his memory – if he succeeded in his journey.
Obviously, things were not going as planned. He was going in the opposite direction, after all.
The wind changed, allowing Percy to catch the scent of reptile. About a hundred yards down the slope, near the edge of the city, something rustled in some bushes – snapping branches, crunching leaves, hissing.
Gorgons.
For the millionth time, Percy wished their noses weren't so good. They always said they could smell him because he was a demigod – the half-blood son of some Roman god. Percy tried rolling in mud, splashing through creeks, even keeping air-freshening sticks in his pockets so that he would always have that new-car smell; but apparently demigod stink was hard to mask.
Turning away from the city, and by extension, the sea, Percy ran into the Olympic forest at a dead spring, slowing down to avoid branches and have sure footing. How in the Hades had the gorgons managed to get in front of him? He wasn't sure, and he really didn't want to find out. Hopefully he could lose them for a while in the forest; in fact, if there were gods in the sky, maybe he could get the first few minutes of sleep he'd had in days.
Yeah, when pigs fly. And somehow, Percy knew that pigs did fly.
Finally, darkness settled in, and Percy could barely see in front of him. Kneeling, he slung his backpack off his shoulders and opened it, examining its contents. He'd managed to grab a lot of supplies at the Napa Bargain Mart: a portable GPS, duct tape, lighter, super glue, water bottle, camping roll, a Comfy Panda Pillow Pet (as seen on TV), and a Swiss army knife – pretty much every tool a modern demigod might want. Unfortunately, the flashlight he had picked up had suffered the grueling fate of being Gorgon chow a few weeks prior, so he was going to have to improvise.
A few minutes later, he had made a make-shift torch out of some scattered firewood and the pillow pet. He really hadn't wanted to use the pillow pet, as he had become quite fond of it, but really, he didn't see much choice; it was either lie down and die, or keep moving. And to keep moving, he needed light.
And God said, let there be light, Percy thought as he ran off once more into the forest. So far, trouble had avoided him, and he was glad for the respite, short as it was. Suddenly, a twig snapped, and his head snapped in the direction of the sound. A few moments later, he heard a distinct hiss and snarl. Looking around, he realized that on three sides, he was surrounded by trees, but behind him a huge boulder blocked the way. He'd managed to get himself cornered.
He cursed and pulled his pen out of his pocket.
The pen didn't look like much, just a cheap regular ballpoint, but when Percy uncapped it, it grew into a perfectly balanced bronze sword. The leather grip fit in his hand like it was custom designed for him, and etched along the guard was an Ancient Greek word Percy somehow understood: Anaklusmos – Riptide.
He'd woken up with this sword his first night at the Wolf House – two months ago? More? He'd lost track. He'd found himself in the courtyard of a burned-out mansion in the middle of the woods, wearing shorts, an orange t-shirt, and a necklace with strange clay beads. Riptide had been in his hand, but Percy had had no idea how he'd gotten there, and only the vaguest idea who he was. He'd been barefoot, freezing, and confused. And then the wolves came…
Right next to him, a familiar voice jolted him to the present: "There you are!"
Percy stumbled away from the gorgon in surprise, almost falling to the ground.
It was the smiley one – Beano.
Okay, her name really wasn't Beano. As far as he could tell, he was dyslexic, because words got twisted around when he tried to read. The first time he'd seen the gorgon, posing as a Bargain Mart greeter with a big green button that read "Welcome! My name is STHENO," he'd thought it said BEANO.
She was still wearing her green Bargain Mart employee vest over a flower print dress. If you looked just at her body, you might think she was somebody's dumpy old grandmother – until you looked down and realized she had rooster feet, or looked up and saw the bronze boar tusks sticking out of the corners of her mouth. Her eyes glowed red, and her hair was a writhing nest of bright green snakes.
The most horrible thing about her? She was still holding her big silver platter of free samples: Crispy Cheese 'n' Wieners. Her platter was dented from all the times Percy had killed her, but those little samples looked fine. Stheno just kept toting them all across California and Washington so she could offer him a snack before she killed him. Percy didn't know why she kept doing that, but if he ever needed a suit of armor, he was making it out of Crispy Cheese 'n' Wieners. Those things were indestructible.
"Try one?" Stheno offered.
Percy fended her off with his sword. "Where's your sister?"
"Oh, put that sword away," Stheno chided, "You know by now that even Celestial Bronze can't kill us for long. Have a Cheese 'n' Wiener! They're on sale this week, and I'd hate to kill you on an empty stomach."
"Stheno!" The second gorgon appeared so fast on Percy's right he didn't have time to react. Fortunately she was too busy glaring at her sister to pay him much attention. "I told you to sneak up on him and kill him!"
Stheno's smile wavered. "But, Euryale…" She said the name so it rhymed with Muriel, "Can't I give him a sample first?"
"No, you imbecile!" Euryale turned toward Percy and bared her fangs.
Except for her hair, which was a nest of coral snakes instead of green vipers, she looked exactly like her sister. Her Bargain Mart vest, her flowery dress, even her tusks were decorated with 50% off stickers, but her name badge read "Hello! My name is DIE, DEMIGOD SCUM!"
"You've led us on quite a chase, Percy Jackson," Euryale said, "But now you're trapped, and we'll have our revenge!"
"The Cheese 'n' Wieners are only $2.99," Stheno added helpfully, "Grocery department, aisle three."
Euryale snarled, "Stheno, the Bargain Mart was a front! You're going native! Now, put down that stupid tray and help me kill this demigod. Or have you forgotten that he's the one who vaporized Medusa?"
Percy stepped back. A few more inches, and he'd have his back against the rock itself. "Look, ladies, we've been over this. I don't even remember killing Medusa. I don't remember anything! Can't we just call it a truce and talk about your weekly specials?"
Stheno gave her sister a pouty look, which was hard to do with giant bronze tusks. "Can we?"
"No!" Euryale's red eyes bored into Percy. "I don't care what you remember, son of the sea god. I can smell Medusa's blood on you. It's faint, yes, several years old, but you were the last one to defeat her. She still has not returned from Tartarus. It's your fault!"
Percy really didn't get that. The whole "dying then returning from Tartarus" concept gave him a headache; of course, so did the idea that a ballpoint pen could turn into a sword, or that monsters could disguise themselves with something called the Mist, or that Percy was the son of a barnacle-encrusted god from five thousand years ago. But he did believe it. Even though his memory was erased, he knew he was a demigod the same way he knew his name was Percy Jackson. From his very first conversation with Lupa the wolf, he'd accepted that this bat-shit crazy messed-up world of gods and monsters was his reality. Which pretty much sucked.
"How about we call it a draw?" he said, "I can't kill you. You can't kill me. Besides, it you're Medusa's sisters, like the Medusa who turned people to stone, shouldn't I be petrified by now?"
"Heroes!" Euryale said with disgust. "They always bring that up, just like our mother! 'Why can't you turn people to stone? Your sister can turn people to stone.' Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, boy! That was Medusa's curse alone. She was the most hideous one in the family. She got all the luck!"
Stheno looked hurt. "Mother said I was the most hideous." That made no sense to Percy, since they were basically twins. Not that he was going to check that later.
"Quiet!" Euryale snapped, "As for you, Percy Jackson, it's true you bear the mark of Achilles. That makes you a little tougher to kill, but don't worry, we'll find a way."
Percy blinked, and the image of his back popped in head for no reason. "The mark of what?"
"Achilles," Stheno said cheerfully. "Oh, he was gorgeous! Dipped in the River Styx as a child, you know, so he was invulnerable except for a tiny spot on his ankle. That's what happened to you, dear. Someone must've dumped you in the Styx and made your skin like iron. But not to worry, heroes like you always have a weak spot. We just have to find it, and then we can kill you. Won't that be lovely? Have a Cheese 'n' Wiener!"
Percy tried to think. He didn't remember any dip in the Styx; then again, he didn't remember much of anything. His skin didn't feel like iron, but it would explain how he'd held out so long against the gorgons.
Just then, there was a lumbering sound, and a giant shaggy-haired ogre emerged out of the foliage. It was about eight feet tall, and it only wore knee-length surfer shorts. Its skin was sunstroke red, and covered with tattoos of dragons, hearts, and bikini-clad women, though his chest was dominated by one that said Joe Bob RULZ. It was carrying a huge club that looked like it had been made from the bone of an even bigger creature, and it smiled when it saw Percy, baring pointy teeth.
It laughed, "Ah, it seems we meet again, Perseus Jackson! I've been waiting for some tasty demigod, and you've just volunteered to be my dinner! Even better, you don't have your one-eyed pet around you!"
"Hey!" The two gorgons whirled to look at the giant, "We were here first!" Euryale cried.
The giant blinked at them as if it had just noticed them, "So?"
Cue the argument. Percy had no idea what the giant was, but he definitely knew that he was at a major disadvantage. With the two gorgons on each side, the giant in front of him, and the rock behind him, he was trapped. On top of that, it was three against one. Hopefully though, the argument between the three could prove to be enough of a distraction for him to make his getaway. If he did have to fight, Riptide would taste blood again, but he would prefer to also have a defensive weapon instead of a torch, like a shield, or a branch, or… His eyes landed on Stheno's large silver snack platter.
Hmm…
Stheno caught him looking. "Reconsidering?" she asked, "Very wise, dear. I added some Gorgon's blood to these, so your death will be quick and painless."
Percy's throat constricted, "You added your blood to the Cheese 'n' Wieners?"
"Just a little," Stheno smiled, "A tiny nick on my arm, but you're sweet to be concerned. Blood from our right side can heal anything, you know, but blood from our left is deadly-"
"You dimwit!" Euryale turned away from Joe Bob, as Percy decided to call him, "You're not supposed to tell him that! He won't eat the wieners if you tell him that they're poisoned!"
Stheno looked stunned, "He won't? But I said it was quick and painless."
"Never mind!" Euryale's fingernails grew into claws. "We'll kill him the hard was – just keep slashing until we find the weak spot. Once we defeat Percy Jackson, we'll be more famous than Medusa! Our patron will reward us greatly!"
"As long as I get to eat him and get revenge for my brothers, I'm happy to help," said the giant.
"Fine," Euryale relented, "But we get the tracker awards! We've been chasing him for months!"
"Fair enough."
Percy gripped his sword. He'd have to time his move perfectly: a few seconds of confusion, burn Euryale, grab the platter with his left hand…
Keep them talking, he thought.
"Before you slash me to bits," he said, "who's this patron you mentioned?"
Joe Bob sneered, but didn't say anything. Euryale elaborated, "The goddess Gaea, of course! The one who brought us back from oblivion! You won't live long enough to meet her, but your friends below will soon face her wrath. Even now, her armies are growing in numbers, and will soon start the march south. At the Feast of Fortune, she'll awaken, and the demigods will be cut down like… like-"
"Like our low prices at Bargain Mart!" Stheno suggested.
"Gah!" Euryale stormed towards her sister, and Percy took the opening. He threw his torch to the giant, who howled in pain and anger, grabbed Stheno's platter, scattering poisoned Cheese 'n' Wieners, and slashed Riptide across Euryale's waist, cutting her in half.
He raised the platter, and Stheno found herself facing her own greasy reflection. "Medusa!" she screamed.
Her sister Euryale had crumbled to dust, but she was already starting to reform, like a snowman un-melting. "Stheno, you fool!" she gurgled as her half-made face rose from the mound of dust. "That's just your own reflection! Get him!"
Percy slammed the metal tray on top of Stheno's head, and she passed out cold. Hopefully, since she wasn't dead, she wouldn't wake up anytime soon. One down, two to-
Slam!
The giant's club slammed into his back, and he was thrown into the air, hitting a thick tree and snapping it in half. Percy hit the ground face down, dazed and with no control whatsoever of his limbs. Even though he (surprisingly) was hurting that much, there was an annoying burn near the small of his back, opposite his navel.
Unfortunately, the giant wasn't done playing with him yet, and it brought the club on his back, smashing him into the ground.
The resulting crack was heard for miles around, though it had nothing on the scream of agony that followed.
…ooOoo…
Elsewhere…
A few miles to the west from where the young hero was being cornered, a creature flitted through the night as it hunted. She moved to fast for the average mortal to be able to see her, but if she had stood still, they would have described a goddess.
And stand still she did, when the sound of foreign agony reached her ears.
Bella Cullen nee Swan prided herself in her ability to be able to resist the singing of blood, even after over seven years of having achieved her full year as a newborn vampire. She was one of the few members of her family to actually be able to resist the smell of freshly spilt blood.
The female Stregoni Benefici called upon her ability now.
There was no doubt in her mind that the scream had come from a human. What kind of torture was the poor creature being submitted to that would create such agony? For a moment, the thought of the Italian Volturi vampire coven presented itself in her mind, along with the fear for her daughter, but it was quickly cast aside. Alice would have seen them coming, she thought, so what's going on?
The wind changed directions. In a way, curiosity was the fatal flaw of the common vampire, and Bella was no exception. The strange smell of reptile and another equally repulsive smell piqued her curiosity, and she found herself running through the forest once more, her hunt forgotten. It wasn't until she was almost to the site that she realized that her hunting instincts had alerted her of human blood in the area, but it only served to make her run faster. If she heard correctly, the scream was from a young human, less than twenty years old. And judging from the heartbeat, which she was close enough to hear now, they were dying.
And then she saw the creatures.
Hesitating for a moment, and a moment only, Bella silently jumped into a nearby tree so that she could get the advantage of height. It wasn't until she was settled into her perch that she saw the broken body of a young handsome teenage boy, barely older-looking than her daughter. His eyes were closed, but his body looked like it was no stranger to pain, if the multiple scars were anything to lead by. What scared Bella was the unnatural position of his legs, and the fact that his heartbeat was slowly diminishing. The image of her daughter, Renesmee Cullen, entered her mind, and rage took over her senses.
She let out a snarl, and the three monsters looked at her in surprise.
They died quickly. They were no match for her speed and strength, and they never even realized what was going on until they died, the two rooster-foot creatures crumbling into dust, and the ogre dissipating in a column of flames, which she was keen to avoid. When the dust mounds tried to reform, she kicked at them, and the deed was done. Bella glanced at where the creatures had stood before, her mind whirling in confusion. She'd never seen anything like them, but to be honest she wasn't surprised at her ignorance – time and time again this world had thrown surprise after surprise at her and her family, so in a way she'd become rather immune to them.
Then she turned to the boy. He was almost dead, his heartbeat stuttering. At this point, there was no doubt in Bella's mind that only one thing would save him, but she knew that if she took him to her father-in-law, he would not survive, even at her speed.
There was no hesitation as she kneeled next to him, she turned him face up, and exposing his jugular, sank her teeth in his flesh.
It was difficult, at first. The resulting keening sound surprised her, as it was the sound of vampire skin tearing, but she had no doubts in her mind that he was human when his blood filled her mouth. Immediately her bloodlust raged, the burn in her throat almost taking control as she was tempted to swallow-
Her throat heaved, disgust welling in her stomach as something in the boy's blood repulsed her. Sure, there was an incredible scent to it, something that she was sure no other human she'd smelled had, but in the background there was something else that lurked under the surface, something that made Bella's skin crawl and had every instinct in her body scream for her to let go, to run away and leave this boy's body behind to die and eventually rot.
She held strong, however, and she pulled her teeth out when she was sure that the venom that coated them had entered the boy's bloodstream. She licked the wound, wincing at the delicious/repulsive taste of blood and the venom in her saliva proceeded to quickly healed it, sealing the venom inside his body. She then moved to the boy's wrist, proceeding to repeat the process multiple times in different pressure points, each time with the same keening sound of steel tearing, the boy's skin as tough as a vampire's. Her deed done, she leaned back, the boy in her arms as she spit to the side what little blood there was in her mouth. Finally, she waited, listening to his slowing heart.
After a few seconds, it jump started, and she knew first-hand the pain he would be feeling as the venom changed him.
It was until then that she noticed her phone vibrating. Looking at the caller id, she figured that her sister, Alice Cullen, had seen her do what she had done with her precognition abilities.
"Bella, what's going on?"
Bella ignored the question, "Alice, tell Carlisle to prepare for a guest. I've managed to get the venom into his system, and I've got a bad feeling that he's going to wake up soon. I'm on my way." She hung up after that, and after pocketing her phone, she scooped the now-shivering teenager into her arms, taking off at a run towards her new destination.
A few minutes later, she heard the sound of running, and she recognized their owners immediately.
"Edward, Nessie," she called at a normal volume, not slowing down. Her husband and child quickly caught up to her.
To say the least, they were surprised when they saw the human in her arms.
"Alice called. Bella, what…?" Her husband, Edward Cullen, trailed off, when he saw the boy.
"I'll explain everything, right now we need to get him to the house," she interrupted him, not stopping or taking a breath to answer. Edward complied, glancing at his teenage-looking daughter. Renesmee Cullen, or Nessie for short, had her eyes trained on the boy in her mother's arms, not knowing the significance of the event she was witnessing, or her role in the events to come.
A few seconds later, their objective was in sight and their pace quickened. The family of three jumped over the river bordering between the property and the forest, their leap something to be seen in its grace and fluidity. At least, that was the case of Edward and Bella, as when Renesmee landed she stumbled slightly. They quickly ran into the house, where the rest of the Cullen famiiy waited. Her family's expressions when they saw the boy ranged from concern, to surprise, and in one case, anger.
"What happened?" asked her father-in-law, Dr. Carlisle Cullen, as he took the boy's limp body from her arms.
"He was attacked," she said, waving her hands anxiously, following the Cullen elder as he took the body to his study, which had already been redecorated in preparation for his new patient. "I heard the scream when I was hunting, I just ran to him, there were these things standing over him-!" She stopped, taking a breath she didn't need to calm herself down. "Carlisle, I'm sorry, I couldn't let him die. His back's broken, I could feel the bones when I was carrying him, and those creatures-"
"Creatures?" Carlisle glanced at her as he set the boy down on the operating table in the room. Already he was flitting around, grabbing syringes and filling them with morphine, judging from the scent.
"I don't know what they were. I've never seen anything like them before," said Bella as the rest of her family crowded around behind her. She glanced at Alice. "Did you see…?"
"No," came the distressed answer, "I called because you just disappeared. When you showed back up, part of you was blurry, like when you were pregnant with Nessie." Alice shook her head, her expression troubled as her husband, Jasper, held her close. "I'm sorry."
"No, it's alright…"
"What in the world?" Carlisle's words brought Bella's attention back to him, where he was holding a syringe with a bent needle in his hand.
She immediately knew what happened. "His skin is like ours," she said. "It was tough. Felt like biting into… well, another vampire." Her eyes landed on the boy. "The monster that did this to him… it was big. Like, really big. His back must've taken a big hit for it to break the way it did."
Just then, the front door opened and a new, heavier set of footsteps made themselves known, climbing up the stairs. "Here comes the mutt," Bella heard Rosalie mutter, making her smile slightly – she and Jacob had really never gotten along.
"Bella, what the hell?"
She turned towards the voice, and glared at Jacob Black, local wolf shape-shifter, in annoyance. Jacob was glaring at her as well, but for different reasons. "Bella, the treaty-"
"Can screw itself for all I care. Jake, if you had seen the things that were attacking him, you would've done the same." At his expression, she sighed. "If it helps, I'm sorry for breaking the treaty, but there was no other choice. I'm sorry."
His answer was cut short by the sudden scream of agony in the studio. Bella whipped her head around, looking at the teenager, who had started to writhe on the table in agony, legs limp. It's starting, Bella thought, It's starting, and now it won't stop until it heals him… changing him…
And turning him into one of us.
