Nico groaned, he couldn't find the bloody ghost. He'd been trying for a while but he couldn't seem to find the spirit, he just kept sensing the bloody redhead.
Maybe the redhead, Lydia, was the key to figuring out the spirit? Maybe, but even then he didn't know what she was. Maybe he should work that out first.
Nico pulled out a pen and piece of paper. He wrote down every single creature of death that he knew of and crossed off the ones he knew she wasn't.
Ok, what else did he know about her, besides her being a miracle worker? She went for a walk in the woods while she was naked, yeah, because that was always good idea. But why did she? It's not like it was a sensible thing to do. Lydia seemed like a smart girl.
Maybe she was drawn to something? Percy said Scott tracked her to his old house. So maybe she was drawn to the dead or places where death happened.
Peter Hale's death? Kate Argents death? Both of them? Or perhaps the Hale fire? Was Lydia drawn to the death of the Alpha wolf, the hunter's or the massacre of the Hale Family? All of them?
What creature is drawn to death? Hmm, he would have to I.M. Annabeth, maybe she would know.
Derek and Percy had walked from the school, both agreed they needed to talk in private and the school was too public. Derek gestured for Percy to follow him. Percy originally thought they were going to the Hale house, but ruled that out when Derek started walking in the opposite direction.
Percy followed Derek into what appeared to be an abandoned train station. He wondered why Derek living there when he could easily afford an apartment, a nice on at that.
"Why are we in an abandoned train station?" Percy asked. "Don't you have an apartment?"
"Not at the moment. I'm working on acquiring something but it's taking a while. As for the train station, everyone knows about the house," Derek said as he sat down on one of the abandoned train's seats.
Percy sat down across from his big brother. He noted that Derek said acquiring 'something' not acquiring an apartment.
"So what happen after the fire?" he asked, the question they both wanted answered, what happened to the other person after the fire.
"Laura and myself where taken in by a werewolf pack in L.A, their Alpha was friends with mum. I graduated from school. Laura got a job and a year later killed an Alpha which led to her becoming an Alpha. I went to college, but I left after Laura mentioned returning to Beacon Hills, then… well Laura was killed."
"By Peter, then Peter bit Scott, then Scott started dating Allison, and then Kate came to town. Then she tried to kill you, Scott and Peter. Peter killed Kate and you killed Peter becoming the Alpha," Percy concluded.
Derek nodded, confirming Percy's words. "You were there when I killed Peter weren't you? After I killed him, I saw you. Or I thought I saw you."
Percy lips curved into a smile. "Yeah, I saw the whole thing, from Allison sniping you with an arrow up until you saying…" Percy stopped talking. He took a breath before speaking again, "I'm the Alpha now," he said as he imitated Derek.
Derek scowled at him. "I did not sound like that," he said, offended.
Percy laughed, "Sorry to disappoint you brother, but that's a pretty accurate impression of what you sounded like."
"No it wasn't," he growled.
"Yeah it was. Would you prefer I said you sounded like Pikachu?"
Derek growled at his brother again.
"I know how much you loved Pikachu," Percy said as he smirked at his scowling brother. "Pika, Pika, Pikachuuuuu," he did an impression of Pikachu.
"Wait? No, Cora was the one who liked Pikachu, you liked Charizard," Percy corrected himself.
"And you like Blastoise, and pretty much anything involving water," Derek stated. "I believe it was connected to your weird water abilities. Do you…"
"Know why I have weird water powers?" Percy nodded. "Yeah I know. It's a long story."
"How about you give me the short version now, and you can go into the long version later," Derek suggested, and Percy nodded.
"Short version is; you remember after Talia bit me, she asked what happened to my family? I said my mother died and she told me that my father was 'lost' at sea," Percy explained as he made air quotation marks with his fingers when he said 'lost'.
Derek looked stoically at Percy, he was using quotation marks with lost, and he didn't use to do that.
"Not so lost?" he asked.
"Well not unless 'lost' means currently resides in Atlantis as its king, where he rules the seas because he is the God of the Sea, Poseidon," Percy said as sarcasm dripped from his voice.
Derek's eyes went wide. Did his brother just say his father was The Greek God of the Sea, and the king of the Lost City of Atlantis?
He had to be joking.
Derek knew the myth of werewolves being created by Zeus but he didn't believe that. His mother, uncle and older sister did, but he didn't. Gods didn't exist. Neither did Atlantis, okay so he never actually thought about Atlantis.
But Gods, deities, powers–to-be, higher powers whatever you wanted to call them didn't exist. But as he looked at his brother's face and listened to his heartbeat, both clearly indicated that he wasn't lying.
"You're serious?" he asked in a surprised tone.
"Yeah, I'm half werewolf, half god, a demigod who instead of being half human is half wolf. I had a hard time believing it, the first time someone told me that. But the huge number of SUV sized hellhounds chasing me, that humans thought were poodles is a good mind changer. Here maybe this will help," Percy said and brought out Riptide in pen form.
Derek just looked at him blankly. "That's a pen," he said slowly, as if Percy was mentally deranged.
"That's a pen," Derek repeated, Percy rolled his eyes. "How is a pen meant to prove Gods?"
Percy uncapped the pen, and it transformed into a three foot long celestial bronze blade.
"A pen that becomes a baseball bat," Derek looked confused. "How does that prove gods?" he asked, "I mean it's not normal. But it doesn't really scream divine intervention."
"You see a Baseball bat, Scott and Stiles see a baseball bat. But I know a huntress and a redhead that would claim this is a sword."
"Then they need to get their eyesight checked," Derek said dryly.
"You need to use your real eyes," Percy suggested. Derek just stared at Percy and his brother stared back.
"Fine, but this will not…" Derek stopped talking as his eyes turned red and saw Riptide for what it was… a sword.
"It's like the hound that mum saw when she saved you. She couldn't see the hound and I couldn't see the pen's true form, without the wolf." Derek was surprised, a pen that became a sword. While that was weird, much like a baseball bat it didn't prove the existence of divinity.
"Doesn't prove gods exist, just proves you know people with magic."
Percy sighed, "I'm never going get you to believe am I?" he asked even though I knew the answer.
"Sorry, I'm just not a believer. But I trust you, so you say God exist, God exists."
"Well God - capital G, God. No idea, that's a different matter. A metaphysical thing," he repeated what his mentor had told him. "Gods, as in multiple beings, beings that control the forces of nature, and human endeavors, like the Immortal Greek Gods of Olympus. They are smaller issue."
Thunder rumbled in the distance. "Oh shut it, ya drama queen." More thunder rumbled louder than before.
"So Zeus, Poseidon, Hades? They are real?" Thunder rumbled.
"Shut up!" Percy shouted at the sky, "I'm trying to have a conversation here."
Derek was confused at Percy's weird behavior.
"Names have power, especially around demigods," Percy explained. "Well this might take a while for you to digest."
Derek gave Percy a look that said, 'You think?'
"What about something you can digest easily?" Percy asked his big brother.
"What?" Derek asked.
Percy's eyes turned red. "I'm an Alpha, became one when I was fourteen."
Now Percy being an Alpha was something Derek could believe. Percy was a natural leader when he had to be. But he had first killed when he was fourteen. Derek was fifteen when he had killed Paige. That had a bad effect on him, hence how Kate was able to seduce him and make him tell her about his family and when they would all be together.
"You killed when you were fourteen? God that's rough." Percy nodded, it would be hard to kill when you were fourteen. But Percy had never killed anything with a soul, he never killed any demigods, just monsters, and they had no souls.
"Yeah fourteen, rough. But I got over it."
"How big is your pack?"
"Well I'm a werewolf, my cousin, Nico, is a werecoyote I bit him accidentally just shy of my sweet sixteenth. He's the only one who's actually a shape shifter in my pack, the rest are demigods. My version of a Druid is a Centaur," He stated.
"Why haven't you turned more People? More demigods?" He still didn't fully believe Percy but he trusted him, so he went along with it.
"Because I never needed to, I don't just go around randomly turning people. Every injury that could be cured by the bite could be cured by Ambrosia and Nectar."
Derek had no idea what Ambrosia and Nectar was. They sounded familiar, maybe something he learnt of when he was younger, and maybe one of the myths his mother told him.
"Ambrosia and Nectar are the food and drink of the gods. Now how about we go running like we used to, in honor of our family? I know Laura used to love kicking your ass when you guys raced. This time I'll beat you in her honor," Percy boasted.
"Laura only won because she knew all of the shortcuts in this forest. But alright, may the best Alpha win," Derek said as he accepted the challenge.
"Where are we racing to?" he asked as he left the train and started climbing the stairs, Percy followed him.
"To the house," Percy replied, and they stepped out of the train station.
"Good Luck," the brothers wished each other before spiriting off. Percy smirked as he and Derek went different ways, he wouldn't have done this with Derek next to him, he trusted his brother, but first he wanted to see what type of Alpha he was. Would he be like Talia, and himself, would he be like Peter would have been, or something else. Ok so he was sure he wouldn't have been like Peter.
Percy started running at full speed which made him look like a blur to humans and shape shifters alike.
Percy was whistling when his brother arrived at the Hale house, "Hey Derek, you're slow."
"Or like Laura you cheated," Derek suggested.
Percy raised an eyebrow in mock offence, "I would never cheat. Also we never agreed on a route, so technically I couldn't have cheated." Percy was smiling.
Derek stared at Percy and accused him anyway, "Cheater."
Later that night Percy and Derek were about to head to their respective houses, when they picked up Scott's, and another unknown wolf's scent.
"Is that your beta?" Derek asked.
Percy shook his head, "My beta's a werecoyote, coyote, not wolf."
The brothers broke out in a sprint, Percy lead the way.
Both of them could smell the hunters and where there were hunters, there was a trap in the waiting. Percy saw Scott, and the omega hanging from a tree. Percy grabbed Scott and threw him over his shoulder.
"What are you doing? I can help him!"
Percy let Scott down as he disappeared behind a tree. "No you can't. It sucks Scott, but sometimes you just can't," Percy whispered.
"Derek, hold him," Percy said and forced Scott into his brother's arms.
"I'll distract them, and then you guys go. I'll see you tomorrow," Percy stated.
"Perseus…" Scott was surprised when he heard Derek's voice, it was soft and there was concern in it, and he wasn't trying to hide it. Percy smiled and handed Derek a small disk.
"Your last Christmas Present from Laura?" Scott was kind of freaked out by Derek at the moment.
"It has kept me safe for years, and I always return for it," he stated, before he ran of silently.
As he ran around the side of the hunters, he held the integration, and he saw the wolf be sliced in half.
"I guess Scott got that demonstration after all," he muttered to himself.
What worried him more was Gerald announcing, "No code, not anymore."
It was hypocritical, Kate could destroy an entire family no problem, but wolves kill one hunter and they were the bad guys.
After he arrived at a destination far away enough from the Hunters, he roared. Not very loud, well not for him. He was pretty sure Derek would have to physically keep Scott's mouth shut. Beta's had a tendency to roar back after Percy roared even if they weren't his pack, which they weren't, unless their name was Nico di Angelo.
Then he ran off at full speed. When he was far enough away he leapt into a tree and started jumping from tree to tree, as soundlessly as possible. He arrived where he wanted, the creek.
"Bye-bye Argents," he spoke as he dove into the water, and swam away.
He walked out of the lake, where the hell was he?
"Percy," Nico's voice called from behind him, but he wasn't the only voice.
"Hey Percy," Annabeth called, she was with Nico.
Percy turned and saw an I.M. Annabeth and Nico were sitting on the couch in the safe house. "Hey what's up?"
"We did–" Annabeth started before she was interrupted.
Nico shook his head, "I did it. She confirmed what I believed."
"No you came to me with your logic, and I pieced it together," Annabeth argued.
"But you were just confirming the theory that I had," Nico pointed out.
"You had no theory…"
"ENOUGH!" Percy exclaimed. "What are you two going on about?"
"The Miracle Worker," Nico Smirked.
Percy scowled, "You're not letting that go are you?"
Nico's smirk grew, "Never, fatal flaw."
"Fatal flaw?" Percy and Annabeth voiced together.
"Nico your fatal flaw is grudges," Annabeth stated.
"Yes, I will have my revenge," he stated light heartily, Percy was confused what revenge Nico was looking for?
"This is revenge for being bitten."
"Wait, I thought not telling me you knew me when I had my memory wiped was revenge for the bite. Also why revenge? You're faster, stronger, your back to your olive skin instead of being paler than a ghost, you heal faster, you can eat and drink more ambrosia and nectar than other demigods–"
"Actually children of the Big 3 can naturally eat and drink more ambrosia and nectar than other demigods," Annabeth clarified.
"Really?" the cousins asked in unison.
Annabeth nodded, "Yeah."
"See, why so much revenge?"
"Son of Hades," was the reply the son of Hades gave.
"So why is this girl a miracle worker?" Annabeth asked, Nico smirked at her question.
"Nico di Angelo, shut up," Percy growled.
"No," he stated, "Percy has a crush on her."
Annabeth smiled, "Really?"
Percy just grumbled, "My dating life is nobody's business."
"Dating life?" Nico laughed, "Huh. In three and a half years since Annabeth asked you out, you've gone out with one other person for three months. In the forty two months since you were first asked out. Three months, nigh four, is your dating time total. Ergo, you have no dating life," Nico deduced.
"Shut up, what is Lydia?" Percy asked.
Nico held up a book.
Banshees
The messengers of Death.
