Blessings from Olympus

Clarisse followed Annabeth into the house, smiling. She always found it attractive when her girlfriend used her full name. Bonus points if she added "daughter of Athena" to the end. She nodded at the satyrs and shook their hands when they stood. "Clarisse. This is Annabeth."

"I'm Nigel, and this is Marcus."

"I've seen you somewhere before," Annabeth speculated.

"You follow the princes?"

"You went to Eaton with Prince Harry!"

"Yep. Best mates, us two. He's the son of Hermes, by the way."

"I knew he didn't look like his brother," Clarisse said.

"Can someone please explain what you're all doing here?" the professor asked.

"I'll leave you to it," Clarisse said. She made a circling motion with her finger. "Recon time."

Annabeth nodded. Turning back to the professor, she said, "We're here to take you to New York, and my brother to Camp Half Blood. We need to leave really soon."

As the satyrs and Annabeth argued with Priam's dad, Clarisse slipped back outside. She walked around the house, inspecting it closely for entrances and exits. She stopped when she found the balcony. If a demigod could get up there, a monster definitely could. She took a running start, used the birdbath as a leg up, and jumped. Too easy. "Shit," she grumbled. The place wasn't the most secure or defensible. She opened the nursery door (it wasn't locked or anything!) and looked around. Nothing seemed out of place. She walked through the upstairs library. Nothing out of the ordinary there. She was about to call downstairs and tell Annabeth that everything was secure, when the ground started to rumble. "Annabeth!" she called, spinning the sword of Odysseus into being.

"What the hell's going on?" Annabeth yelled up to her.

Clarisse carefully peaked around the corner of upstairs to the bathroom and nursery. Something odd was happening in the bathroom. The sink, toilet and bathtub were all overflowing and the water was swirling into a column. "Jackson! Annabeth, it's cool! You're idiot bestie just came out of the toilet."

"What?" all of the downstairs voices called.

"You know how to make an entrance, Jackson," Clarisse started to tease. Then she saw Percy's face. "What is it?" she asked, going battle tense again.

"We've got to rock and roll. Like now," Percy said, running past her and down the stairs.

Clarisse followed him down the stairs. It was obvious that Annabeth had told the professor of the plan, and that he'd refused. Everyone was glaring at each other….

Percy took out Riptide and pointed it at the professor. "Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. We've got to move, and quickly. You don't even want to know the monsters that'll be coming after us if we stay."

"How dare you?" the professor asked, eyeing the sword.

"This isn't up for discussion," Clarisse said, taking out her own sword. "You're coming with us if we have to drag you out of here."

"Didn't you hear what my mother said?" Annabeth asked. "Not to argue when help came? Well help's here. So stop arguing."

"Why'd you come out o' the toilet, mate?" Marcus asked, turning to Percy as if he'd just figured out what Clarisse had said. "We've got rivers."

"Yeah, but those are home to some of the monsters I don't want to meet."

"Got it."

"Marcus and I have a car," Nigel said. "We'll escort Professor Torres and the baby. You can take his care and ride behind us."

Percy ended up riding with the satyrs, since the professor's car was a two-seater. Annabeth drove slowly through the town, still weird-ed out that the steering wheel was on the other side of the car. "Where the hell are they going?" she asked, as the other car pulled over next to one of the many churches in town.

"No idea. Hold on," Clarisse said. "Keep the car running." She jumped out and dodged traffic, running after Torres. He ran inside the church. She finally caught up to him at the altar. "What are you doing?"

"Three weeks ago, I thought this was it. This was all there was to religion or supernatural things, or anything," he said, nodding at the cross. "Jesus, his followers, the Bible. This is one of the churches they shot Harry Potter in, did you know?"

"We don't have time for this," Clarisse said.

"My son is proof that there's more than all of this, and I have to keep him a secret to protect him."

"Your academic mind is in conflict with your parenting mind, I get it. But we're all siding with your parental mind, so let's go. And speaking as someone who's in the same boat as your son, I wouldn't want my mom using me as proof."

Torres glared at her. "I want to stay. You kids think you know anything about being a parent. You show up at my house like you…"

"Shhhhh! Keep your voice down. You're the one who doesn't get it! You have no idea what our world is like. You have no idea what we risked to come help you. So get off your ass and let's go."

"Language," a slimy, hissing voice said.

Clarisse turned slowly. Something was coming out of the crypt. "Get back to the car," she said quietly. "Now!" she pulled him off the altar and shoved him the opposite direction.

Professor Torres seemed frozen for a moment, but then he ran. The monster chased after him, but Clarisse slashed at it, and Torres managed to slip out the side door.

Clarisse circled the monster, not daring to blink. Head of a snake, the body of a leopard, the backside of a lion and the hooves of a deer—this was a Questing Monster. "You've been hunted by hundreds, maybe thousands, of demigods. Why the hell do you want to come after me."

"Well, I have insssssentive to make you my meal."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"A goddesssssss would like ssssomething you carry."

"Well she's not getting it."

"I beg to differ," the monster said, lunging for Clarisse.

LbN: Dun dun duuuuuun! Cliff hanger! Send reviews por favor!