(A/N) You know, I don't care that I'm late on updating.

And guess what? I don't care that I don't care.

JK HAVE MERCY I AM A TERRIBLE UPDATERERER-ER

When Will woke up he was in a numbing stupor at first, not really asleep but not fully awake either. The son of Apollo twitched as his lids fluttered, his blue eyes bleary as his vision blurred and then sharpened, though at first he was pretty sure he was dreaming. He was lying on his side, the stones below him cold to the touch, and his breath clouded the air, curling and twisting like a thin ribbon and then dissipating into nothing. His lips were aching and chapped, and his tongue darted out to soothe them, his whole body aching as he pushed himself to his hands and knees. His clothes were filthy, covered in dirt as if he had been dragged across the ground like a deer carcass being dragged by a coyote, and when his memories slowly began seeping back to him, he wondered if that was the case.

The room, or should he say, cell, was about the size of a large walk-in closet. It was made entirely out of stone bricks, riddles with cracks, and moss clung to it here and there, though it had long since withered and browned. A small window was set high against one wall, open except for two bars as thick as Will's fist. It let all of the cold air in and cast a small square of bright yellow light onto the floor, signaling that it was morning, though the morning of which day was the real question. As Will recalled the battle with Perseus, a bout of anxiety crashed over him, and for a moment he thought he'd start hyperventilating; Perseus had said that there were more demons out there, whom he had freed, and that included this very unappealing "Mother" character who the demon had hinted ate the most humans. Will had to admit that he was truly puzzled; Perseus ate humans as well, and he certainly would be more than content with devouring a helpless demigod. So if that was the case, why weren't bits and pieces of him floating around in Perseus' stomach acid?

"Why am I not dead?" he asked no one in particular, after making sure that the only one in the room was him, though despite this he wasn't surprised when he got an answer.

"Because you're no use to us dead." Will whirled around, facing a corner that he was positive had not been occupied before. Perseus flicked away something that he had been picking his teeth with (Was that a sharpened human finger bone?) and rose to his feet, still as imposing as he had been before. Will was slightly taller, but when it came to a test of strength and power Perseus would easily best the son of Apollo. In fact, the demon was more than capable of flooring Will and snapping his neck with a flick of his wrist, as easily as if he were breaking a toy, and that scared him a bit.

Perseus made no attempt to slide from the shadows, eying the patch of sunlight wearily, and when he saw will staring he chuckled, "I burn easily. And no, I'm not a vampire and you cannot kill me by pushing me into the sunlight and holding me there. I see it in your face so don't even try, not that you could succeed, of course." Will pursed his lips, shocked that the demon had said exactly what was on his mind. "No, I cannot read minds I can just read body language very well. It's a skill you develop over thousands of years."

"Touché," the son of Apollo replied simply, and Perseus made a rumbling sound deep in his chest that clearly stated if dragons could chuckle, that is what it would be like. In fact, it actually sounded as if Perseus was genuinely humored, and Will hoped he could keep it up in order to not be devoured.

"You humans, and demigods, for that matter, amuse me to no end," Perseus stated, his eyes sparkling with curiosity, "Your mortal lives are so precious, so short, and yet you still manage to scuttle along like tiny ants in a colony, each doing the work that is needed for the world to run," he regarded the blond-haired boy for a moment, his head tilting slightly to the side, "Yet you still manage to be entirely oblivious of a whole world. Demigods, of course, are the few that have grazed the surface of what they are facing, but that is like calling a puddle of rainwater an ocean. There is so much you have not yet discovered…." His voice trailed off in such an eerie way that Will flinched, and Perseus grinned coldly, revealing two sets of razor-sharp teeth.

"So, um, Mr. Perseus-" the demon almost immediately cut the son of Apollo off.

"Please, refer to me by my mortal surname that Mother assigned me. Jackson, if you may."

"Mr. Jackson, you don't happen to know where my, err, friends are?" he questioned hesitantly, not wanting to anger the very savage an unpredictable creature, each word in his voice weighted and measured to a T.

"You mean the blonder blond and the one that's gay for you?" Perseus asked, completely serious. His words were genuine, and there was of sign of sarcasm anywhere on his face. Will spluttered for a moment, taken aback, feeling the blush as low as his chest.

"I'm not-"

"Don't lie," Perseus' tone was so vicious that Will nearly stumbled back, "I hate liars."

"Ok, no lying, got it," the son of Apollo fought to keep the waver out of his voice, but to no prevail. "But I would also like to know whether they're safe." Perseus' eyebrows quirked a bit, which Will didn't think was very consoling in the least.

"I suppose," the demon said, his voice trailing off eerily. "What do you think?"

"I think you should take these snide remarks and shove it up your-" Perseus mimed zipping his lips and all of a sudden Will's voice wouldn't work, as if he were a mute. He panicked for a tense moment that seemed to last for eternity, opening his mouth put having nothing but a puff of air escape his lips, and the demon looked around, bored, as if he'd seen this reaction a thousand times and was just waiting for the bout of anxiety to pass. Eventually, the son of Apollo managed to reign in his frantic breathing before he started to hyperventilate, though his heart was still beating hysterically.

"Now, let me tell you what's going to go on around here," Will stiffened, gulping, as Perseus said this, though the demon didn't acknowledge him, "Mother assigned you to me, obviously because she wants the more powerful ones to herself, and I think we should make a pact; I feed you if you feed me." At Will's utterly bemused expression, the demon rolled his eyes and sighed, his shoulders heaving with such exaggeration that he may as well be the star of a melodrama. He waved his hand as if waving away a question and all of a sudden Will could speak again, wondering why Perseus even bothered to zip his lips if he wanted to uphold conversation.

"What do you mean by 'feed you'?" Will asked incredulously. "I am certainly not killing innocent people in order to feed the likes of you-"

Perseus cut him off sternly, "Who said anything about killing people? It's getting boring; now just becoming a hassling necessity." His words sounded genuine, but Will had read enough lore to know that demons lied.

"Are you going to eat me?" Will cried, backing up a little, though he wouldn't be surprised if the demon said yes and then pounced.

Surprisingly, though, Perseus made a face, "Eat a demigod? Gross! Only the oldies have developed a taste for demigod. Sure, your blood is the best thing since sliced human, but your flesh is disgusting." For some reason Will found himself offended that his meat was considered revolting to Perseus, though almost immediately after he felt really embarrassed that he'd felt that way. Astonishingly oblivious to Will's behavior, Perseus continued, "The godly blood is delectable, but it makes your skin tougher and more resistant to teeth and claws as a natural adaptation, and every demon with taste buds knows not to eat a demigod. Terrible indigestion afterwards. Awful. Just awful."

Will felt weird discussing how demigod and human flesh tastes with something that is the embodiment of all that is unholy, though he didn't voice his thoughts out loud, less he anger Perseus and have him drain his blood vampire-style. Then it dawned on him, "You want me to give you my blood and in return you feed me?"

"Seems like a fair deal," the demon said, shrugging. "A mutualistic relationship, if you will. Benefits both of us."

"But I'll be losing blood every day. That's bad for blood pressure," Will stated in a rather doctoral fashion, Apollo's genes kicking in.

"What's a blood pressure?" Perseus questioned, and he was serious, though as a demon, Will noted, he didn't really have to worry about that kind of thing.

"Why are you even doing this anyway?" Perseus shrugged, and Will was beginning to become quite irritated by his behavior. When the demon saw the blond-haired boy's expression, he almost immediately became defensive.

"What? I don't ask questions around here. 'Mother knows best.'" the green-eyed humanoid seemed agitated just by the mention of his mother. "I just carry out the orders and do as she says like a 'good little boy' and whatnot. She scares the crap out of me."

"I've noticed," Will replied, wringing his hands behind his back, terrified out of his mind. He was going to have a mutual relationship with a demon? He was going to let a demon ingest his blood and allow it to survive just to save his own skin? Would Perseus drain him vampire-style or would it have a satanic-like ritual to it?

The last one was an honest-to-goodness question, though it would never be answered as the demon waved, uttering a very abrupt, "Toodles," and shadow-travelling out of the cell, leaving him alone with just his thoughts.