Cpov

After a week of relative calm, I knew I should have expected something to go wrong. All week I was on edge waiting for some sort of disaster to strike, and it finally did.

"Why is it always me?" I asked jerkily throwing one of my daggers between the eyes of a hellhound. It exploded into yellow dust, but I had to duck as another sprang forward.

All I wanted was to go to the grocery store, but instead, I ended up trapped in an alley with six hellhounds.

"Why can't you attack someone else for a change?" I yelled stabbing towards the next, which managed to block the blow with its massive claws. "Go bother Will!" I shouted forcing it back.

I threw myself on the ground as it dove for me, it's jaws open, ready to tear out my throat. Just as I was about to drive my dagger into it's underbelly, it vanished. And I was covered in disgusting yellow powder. I heard a high-pitched yelp, and saw a third hellhound disappear.

"What the-?" I started but I cut myself off as I was forced to focus on the remaining monsters, bent on my blood.

One charged, racing at me with unimaginable speed, then took a swing at me. I dodged the attack and pierced its side. It howled with rage and turned on me. But before I could even react, there was a hissing sound, a flash of bronze, and the beast was gone.

I turned in utter confusion, only to see Will, not two feet away from me, with his sword drawn and a look of intense irritation on his features.

"How do you keep finding me?" I asked him in blank shock.

"Can you please focus, Cali?" he asked sounding annoyed. "There's still two left."

He was right. I tightened my grip on my remaining dagger and faced the remaining hellhounds. They growled, their hackles raised and their eyes glowing blood red. Suddenly, they charged and Will and I jumped into action.

It was a lot easier with him. Fighting monsters was always better when you had someone to cover your back, and Will was the best.

"For the love of the Gods." Will said panting, watching as the last monster exploded into dust, and looking extremely annoyed. "Only you Cali could attract six hell hounds. An entire freaking pack. I mean one would have been bad enough but six?" he asked to no one in particular then he glanced at me. "How the hell does this keep happening to you?"

"How should I know?" I asked defensively. "Maybe I should be asking you how they find me, you always seem to."

"Are you complaining?" he asked gesturing around at the wrecked alleyway as his sword shrunk back into a ring.

"No." I admitted but I looked away from him. Even I couldn't deny that I had been in trouble. If it had been one monster I would have been fine, even two, but six… Well, that was a different story.

"We should get out of here." He said. "This place is a wreck."

It was true, though the buildings on each side were abandoned, we'd smashed several windows, and caused quite a bit of wreckage and noise. It was only a matter of time before someone came to investigate.

"Yeah." I agreed retrieving my second dagger and they transformed into a claw clip with which I put up my hair. "You don't look so great either."

His clothes were ripped, he was covered in dust, and he was bleeding through his shirt from a cut on his right arm.

"Thanks for noticing." He said scowling.

"Just come here." I said impatiently. "And take off your shirt."

"Buy me dinner first." He said with a smirk and I glowered at him.

"Just do it."

"Ok, ok," he said pulling it off and I saw several faded scars, on his arms and across his chest. No doubt from all the quests he'd been on and monsters he'd fought. I stared at him.

"What?" he asked raising an eyebrow and I blinked.

"Huh? Nothing." I said quickly feeling myself go red. Had he always been that in shape? I'd never really noticed before, but it did present me with an unfortunate question. Was Will hot?

"Alright." Will said giving me a strange look. "Did you want this?" he asked holding up his shirt.

"Yeah." I said tearing off one of the sleeves and then tearing it into strips. "Give me your arm."

I wasn't nearly as good with injuries as a child of Apollo but my summers at camp had taught me a few things. I made a bandage for his arm, which would help with the bleeding.

"That should be good enough to at least get you home. Do you have any divine food?"

He nodded.

"Take some. That should fix you."

"Thanks." He said reaching for his shredded excuse of a T-shirt and I noticed something I'd never seen before. On his back across his shoulders in bold gothic letters was the word 'Chaos.'

"You have a tattoo?" I asked in shock and he stiffened.

"I keep forgetting about that." He muttered pulling on his shirt and avoiding my gaze.

"How long has that been there?" I asked with interest.

He didn't answer.

"Aw c'mon tell me." I said curiously.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Please?" I asked sweetly and flashing him a smile. Charmspeak might not work on Will, but I was a daughter of Aphrodite after all, and he was still a boy.

From his expression I could tell he knew exactly what I was up to. He looked pretty annoyed, but also as if he wasn't sure what he wanted to tell me. Just as I'd figured it wasn't going to work, he spoke.

"I got it when I was fifteen."

"Really?" I asked in surprise.

"Before we moved." He added.

"Oh." I said frowning. "Does your mom know?"

"Yes." He said stiffly.

"Did she ground you?" I asked amused.

"No."

"Then what'd she do?" I asked not exactly sure why I was so interested, but I'd met Will's mom before. It was kind of unavoidable when we were neighbors, and while she was very nice, she seemed like one of those people you didn't want to make angry. And from her personality, I knew that something like this, would make her very angry.

"She kicked me out."

"What?" I asked in shock but he ignored me. He'd already started walking back to the road. "Hold on a second." I said in disbelief as for the first time in living memory, I followed Will. "She kicked you out?"

"Yep."

"I don't believe you." I said frowning. Will was the perfect son. His mother loved him more than life itself. She was at every track meet, every parent teacher night, volunteered to chaperone every dance or class trip, and was on the board of the PTA and unlike most kids, who would have been humiliated by this sort of involvement, he put up with it. Even seemed happy about it. "Your mother would never kick you out."

"Well believe it." He said stopping and looking at me.

"But why?" I asked confused. "I mean, I know she can't have been happy about it but really it's not THAT big of a deal."

"I'm done talking about this Cali." He said shaking his head. "I'm going home. You should too. Odds are if there were that many hellhounds after you, there's going to be more monsters around here somewhere. We're both in danger here."