Chapter 8
Nico ran to Grover, his face in a mask of panic and confusion. Unable to find were Jason and Leo had disappeared to, he decided to just find the two sneaks who set this up. "Ok, want to explain why the hell Percy just FUCKING KISSED ME?!" Nico roared over the music, gaining a few stares from a group of stoned demigods.
Grover grinned wide, sitting on top of Tyson's lap and drinking some type of alcoholic beverage while Tyson was drinking a Coke with some Nectar. "Dud, I told you! Percy needed some cheering up!" Grover hiccuped and winked at Nico. "I didn't tell you what kind."
Tyson, being a naive child still, nodded with a huge smile on his face. "Annabeth and him stopped talking. Percy said something happened and he didn't like her like that anymore. Something about a scarf and love magic I think."
"Hold on," Nico interrupted, trying to soak up all this new information as best he could, but was still really shocked from this bombshell that was dropped on him. "You're saying that Percy doesn't like Annabeth?" He couldn't help but feel a warm fuzzy feeling flow over his insides like a blanket, a smile spreading over his face.
"Or any girl, for that matter." Grover bleated, wobbling a little so tyson had to steady him by holding his hip gently. "Trust this Protector when he says, Percy has been having love drama, personal conflict with his sexuality, and lovey dovey dream. And it ain't with no girl!" He slung his arm around Tyson's neck as he almost fell onto the table, as he started to make up a rendition of one of these dreams. "O-oh Nico! I-I can't do this! We-oh gods- oooooohhhhhhh Nico! I love you- Nico! Nico! NICO!" Then he started to laugh hysterically in a drunken fit. Nico's face went red in embarrassment as the demigod stoners started laughing at the drunken goat-man.
"H-he said that?" Tyson nodded, setting down his Coke to hold Grover as he started to fall over laughing, a huge smile on his one eyed face.
"Yeah, he missed you a lot!" The smile started to fall a little of the lovable lugs face, making Nico realize how bad things were before the words left the Cyclops's lips. "He has been really depressed lately. I haven't seen him smile in a long time till he saw you when we got here." Looking over Nico's shoulder and around the immediate area, his eye grew wide with concern. "Where is he?"
Nico's face went pale in the darkness of the club. He had left Percy alone, probably hurting Percy worse with his sudden retreat to seek guidance on what to do, and possibly made his depression even worse. "I-I left him on the dance floor..."
Grover, now over his laughing fit and was starting to breath little easier, shook his head no. " I saw him stumble off little while ago. Maybe he went for a drink?"
Nico's anger rose, the thought of that Luna girl kissing Percy filling his mind. If that sea witch had her hands on Percy, on HIS Percy, there was going to be a murder: hers. Nico ran to the bar as fat as he could, weaving his way between the drunken creatures to get to the bar. But he found no sign of Percy, and Luna was talking to some weird looking white haired, wolf eared girl on the far end, sipping on some fruity little drinks and laughing like they had no care in the world.
"Hey!" Nico walked over to them, the anger still in his eyes that meant to intimidate them into talking, and butted into their conversation.
Luna smiles an annoyed smile, uninfected by the angry intimidation technique. "Hey, Nico, what up? How's Percy holding up? The drug should be wearing off by now."
Nico stared at her, not understanding what she meant. "Drug? What drug?"
"I heard you said he needed to relax, so I laced my lips in a nice drug that would make him relax when I kissed him. I guess I forgot to tell you." She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry bout that. But what you in such a hurry for?"
Nico was more shocked than mad, but that quickly was pushed to the side as he hopped back on track. "Have you seen Percy? I-"
"We saw." The wolf girl said with a foxlike grin on her tan skin. "You two were so cute!"
"But, after the kiss," Luna started.
"And you running, which hurt him soooo bad, by the way." The wolf girl added.
"This guy showed up out of no were."
"And helped him off the dance-floor like they were old friends!"
"We have no clue who he was, by the way." Luna interjected.
" He was tall though." The girl's fox-like face melted into one of remembrance, leaning her elbows on the bar and laying her head in her hands.
"And thin." Luna stated, not really caring about the description of the mystery man as she sipped her drink.
"And he had these most amazing gold eyes." The wolf girl grinned and snickered at her aquatic friend." Kind of like yours, Lu!"
Nico's already pale face turned even paler than a corpse's, not liking what could have happened after the stranger got Percy off the dance-floor. "Did you see where they went?"
" Yeah!" The wolf girl howled with laughter. "Snog Ally! Where every couple goes t suck face and 'get away from the crowd'."
Luna saw the horror in Nico's eyes, her joking facade falling into a serious look that made her look so much older. "Come on. I'll take you there." Jumping over the bar, Nico was surprised by the lack of sea dwelling qualities that nymphs usually had. Luna's short shorts showed off slender legs, but no scales or slickness that gleamed in the light. They were plain, pail skin tone, and not a single fin or scale on them. "Alex, take my shift while I sort this out."
The wolf girl's ears perked in alarm. "Oh hell no! TREVOR!" A tall man in a lab coat looked up from his glass of blood red wine, a curious and bored look on his face. "TAKE THIS SHIFT TILL WE GET BACK!" He nodded, hopping over the bar and as he took his coat off twelve arms poked out of his sides as he started his shift.
"You got it boss." He said in a dreary voice that sent chills down Nico's spine.
Nico, now starting to become curious of these two strangers, decided this wasn't the time to question them at all. He fallowed them as they weaved and bobbed there way through the crowded area till they came to a rusty old door. The "Employee's Only" sign spray-painted over with green letters in greek, the words forming in Nico's head. "Snog Ally". On hand on the nob, keys already in her other hand in case she needed to unlock it, pulled away as the door opened into the small, dimly lit ally. Alex and Luna exchanged looks of shock, the confusion plain on there faces.
"Didn't you lock it before we opened?" Luna asked.
Alex nodded her head furiously. "I did! Swear on the gods I did!" She whined furiously.
Nico's eyes adjusted as he stepped out into the ally, scanning it slowly to make sure nothing was missed, not a single detail overlooked. He smelt the fresh blood before he saw it, the crimson staining the far wall across from him, a pool of the scarlet liquid at least a few inches away from were Nico stood. Luna's hand grabbed his shoulder and jerked him behind her.
"I smell blood. Lots of it." Alex sniffed the air. "Fear and depression too..." Her eyes widened, her tan hispanic skin tone going a little paler on her face. "I smell death."
Nico's heart stopped in his chest. 'No... No he can't be- he couldn't be-; His thoughts were cut off when Luna pulled out a Celestial bronze dagger out of her DocMartin boots.
"Stay here, Nico." The weird nymph said as she started to scout out the ally, every muscle tense and ready to fight, and her companion took to examining the scene they had found, trying to catch up on a stale scent of the attacker or Percy.
Nico walked a little away from the scene, deeper into the ally opposite Luna had went. He was scared and freaking out over what he had seen. 'Why hadn't Grover felt this happen?' Nico's thoughts were wandering, his feet planting into the ground as he realized the reason. Grover was drunk, too drunk to function as a Protector efficiently, so Percy could be dead and they wouldn't know it. Nico started to feel the cold grip on his heart as he started to fear the worse.
"Nico." A deep voice echoed in his mind, one he was not used to hearing for a long time. "Nico, fallow the trail." Looking down at were his feet were planted, Nico realized that there was a trail of blood, like someone had tried to crawl away from the attacker. 'Or after him.' Running after the trial through the the darkness, he fallowed it to a dumpster a few feet form the ally's end, where he could see the bright light of the street as a car drove by. And as the light bounced into the ally from the headlights, he stopped dead in his tracks.
Laying against the dumpster was Percy's body, bleeding, bruised, and eyes were closed, and he didn't look like he was breathing at all. "Percy!" He screamed as he ran over and kneeled beside the crumpled body, checking his pulse to see if he had a pulse at all. 'Please, gods, let there be-' He felt a slight 'thump' against his fingers as Percy's pulse reached Nico, weak and depleting. "Luna!" He screamed back into the dark ally, not even able to see the faint light off the doorway he had entered through. "Luna, I found him!"
Luna, without even a hesitation, darted out of the darkness, a spark of hope in her eyes. "Oh thank the gods! Good work." Assessing the damage, she screamed back to companion who was still trying to find the attacker's sent. "Alex! Get some water! HURRY!"
And like a blur, Alex was beside them with a huge bottle of water in her hand, uncapping it fast and handing it to Luna. Luna splashed Percy with it, watching as the water slowly travel over his body, repairing all the damage that was done to his physical body.
Nico held Percy close while the water slowly fell off of him, leaving no trace of ever being there, tears flowing down his face. Tears of rage, at himself for leaving Percy alone and at the man with the golden eyes that did this to him. " I swear..."He said lowly, as his eyes became as cold as a snowstorm, whispering lowly so only Percy could hear. "Whoever did this to you, he will pay."
Luna, paying no attention to the demigods at all, slowly rose to her feet. "Alex," She looked into her friend's green eyes with a stern look. "WE need to get them somewhere safe." Like they had planned for this to happen, she pointed to the roof. "We need to take them there.
The wolf girl sighed. ""fine. Nico, or whatever the hell you call yourself, move it!" She shoved Nico away from Percy's seemingly sleeping form forcefully, picking up the Son of the Sea God like he was a rag doll. "Fallow us if you want to live."