Chapter 21

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

Nico was busy pacing the length of the alley and I was leaning against the brick wall. We had been waiting for Lucas for at least twenty minutes now. I could tell Nico was nervous about taking two people with him into the shadows. I would be too if there was a possibility that one could be lost in the shadows forever.

I hear approaching footsteps and look down the alley. Lucas was making his way over, stepping over broken beer bottles and other trash.

"So, how do we do this?" he asks.

"Take my hand and don't let go. No matter what. When we step into the shadow, it will be extremely cold, dark, and it will feel like your skin is being peeled off of your body. It only lasts a couple of seconds though." I say.

Lucas takes a deep breath then nods his head. I could tell he was a bit anxious, but he was trying to hide it. I couldn't blame him. The first time I shadow traveled, I had been scared out of my mind.

"Ready?" Nico asks.

"Yep." I say, hitching the strap of my backpack up on my shoulder.

Nico holds out his left arm and I grab his hand. Lucas hesitates a second before grabbing my free hand. Nico starts to walk towards the dumpster's shadow. Then, we build up speed and start running towards it. We plunge in and it's complete darkness.

I feel Lucas's grip tighten on my left hand. It was icy cold and it felt like my skin was being peeled off, nothing out of the ordinary. Well, not for me or Nico. I couldn't say the same for Lucas.

I'm suddenly blinded by a bright light. I squint my eyes open and see that we're in a small, wooded area. Behind us, there's the sound of rushing water. I look and see that there's a river. In front, through the trees, I can see the back of a building. A very large one at that too.

Nico was bent over, breathing hard. His skin looked like all the blood had been drained from it. I let go of Lucas' hand and open my bag, getting out a bottle half-full of nectar. I hand it to him and he takes a sip, the color instantly returning to his skin. He hands the bottle back to me and I stuff it back into my backpack.

I look to my left and see Lucas standing there, looking shell-shocked. I wave my hand in front of his face and he seems to break out of his trance. He shakes his head and looks at me.

"I never want to do that again." he says.

Nico and I chuckle.

"Well, I think that's the spa. Come on, guys." I say, walking forward and waving at them to follow. I hear the crunch of leaves and know that they're behind me.

I break out of the trees and start walking faster towards the entrance. The Emerson was even bigger up close. It was a two-story building that stretched about as long as two football fields. There was a silo and a barn-type building farther down on the left.

I reach the back entrance, with Nico and Lucas on my heels. There's a doorman and he opens the door, looking at us strangely. It was so luxurious inside. There's an open bar and restaurant, a ginormous lobby, and a TV room. The floors are golden quartz, and the walls are a light beige.

I walk over to the desk and the receptionist looks up from her magazine.

"Yes?" she asks.

"Hi. I'm looking for Michelle Hale. Do you know what room she's staying in?" I ask.

"Are you visiting?" she asks.

"Yes ma'am. We're friends of hers." I say.

"One moment." she says.

She types on the computer and peers at the screen. It was like deja vu of earlier today at Beth Israel.

"She's in room 235. Would you like an escort up to the room?" she asks.

"No, that's fine. Thank you ma'am!" I say, turning away from the desk and to Nico and Lucas.

I point to the elevator and we walk over. I press the call button and a few seconds later there's a 'ding'. The doors slide open to reveal a very upscale elevator. And when I say upscale, I mean upscale.

The walls are mirrors and the floor is made of the same quartz that was in the lobby. There was even one of those guys who press the floor buttons for you! He presses the second floor button and the doors close. It starts to glide upward.

Suddenly, the elevator jerks and then stops. The lights flicker, but don't go off. 'Great' I think, 'The elevator broke.'

Instead of pressing the "help" button, the man turns to face us and he grins, revealing sharp, pointy teeth. This was no normal button pressing elevator man. This was most likely one of Callie's minions. Just my luck to get stuck in an elevator with one.

"What do we have here?" the man says, only it sounded like a woman, not a man.

The so called "man" started to transform. His clothes begin to look transparent until there is nothing there. His feet fuse together to form one large serpent tail. It's skin morphs to a disgusting, scaly, greenish brown from the waist down. From the waist up though, it's skin is as white as porcelain. What looked to me like angel wings protruded from it's back.

Lucas, Nico, and I are backed into the corner farthest away from the creature. I have my dagger out since firing an arrow didn't seem like a wise decision in such small quarters. Nico has unsheathed his pitch black sword.

The serpent thing cackles. I wanted to rip my ears off because it sounded so horrible. It sounded kinda like a fork scraping against a china plate.

"You thought we would make it this easy for you? Foolish demigods!" the creature laughs.

"Who are you?" Nico demands, a deadly glint in his eyes. I wouldn't want to be a monster when he had that look on his face. It was truly terrifying.

"Who am I? I am Lamia!" the thing shrieks.

I vaguely remembered Lamia's story. She was one of Zeus' lovers and he apparently hid her away in a cave when Hera was around. Somehow, Hera found Lamia and turned her into this monster and killed her children. Lamia is said to have lured men and children into her cave and devour them ever since.

"You work for Callie, don't you?" I say, stepping forward a bit.

Lamia laughs again. "Oh, yes. You could say I work for her." she says.

Lamia advances and Nico jumps forward and slashes out at the creature. It snags the edge of her green skin and black blood oozes out. She gives a high-pitched screech and backs away, looking at the sword with disgust. I step forward so that I'm side-by-side with Nico.

"Yes. I've heard of you, son on Hades. You two make quite a pair." she says, gazing at us with something that looked a bit like jealousy.

"I had that once. But Hera had to step in a turn me into this." she says, gesturing to her disgusting body.

"That's why I joined Callie. She promised me that I'd get to slay the Olympian queen myself, watch her golden blood flow over the throne room floor. She said I could bring my slaughtered children back. She too experienced something quite similar." she was babbling now.

I glance over at Nico and raise and eyebrow. He nods his head slightly. That meant, "Go". I leap onto Lamia and stab my dagger into her arm. Once she was over the initial shock, she started howling.

I feel a jerk and realize the elevator has started working again. We'd have to make this quick if we didn't want to give the people on the second floor a heart attack.

"Nico!" I shout over Lamia's screams.

Before Nico could get to her, Lucas comes up and pulls out a glimmering, Imperial Gold sword. He makes a quick swipe at her waist. With a sickening 'shlock', her whole body falls to the floor then crumbles into yellow dust.

Nico and I stare at Lucas in astonishment as he kicks the dust across the floor. He looks up and there's pure hatred burning in his blue eyes.

The elevator dings and comes to a stop. The doors slide open and we look at each other then step out of the small space and into a large hallway. I look at the sign on the wall and see that rooms 200-250 are to the right. I start walking in that direction, ready to finally have my mother back.

A/N:

I completely forgot it was Saturday! I'm such a bad person. What did you guys think? What do you think Lamia meant when she said Callie had something similar happen to her? And how do you think Lucas got his hands on that sword? So many questions!

Have any of you ever felt like you're suffocating from all the things going on in your life? I've felt like that lately. I've been so busy with school, writing, and taking art classes that I've felt like I haven't had much time for anything else. To top it all off, there's these two boys who come to the pottery class I take and they're constantly insulting me. They're 12 and 9 btw and they're brothers. Ugh.

Anyway, I made the wrong mistake a few weeks ago of talking about how I hate being called goth because I'm not. I'm a sort of artistic punk. So they kept calling me goth, over and over again, and I literally almost cussed them out last Saturday when they crossed the line and called Green Day a goth band... That band is pretty much my lifesaver and I'll be damned if I let someone insult them (and me) like that. I was so fucking angry you wouldn't believe. And my best friend was sitting across from me, and she knows how much I love Green Day, and she tried telling them to knock it off. Eventually, I called the teacher back and she told them to stop. But, we didn't have class this week because of spring break so my self-esteem had a little time to heal before Thursday when it's likely the insults will start again.

Reviews are appreciated, as usual. :)

XOXO,

Mrs-diAngelo25