Hey ya peoples out there guess what? I'm not dying after all……and I got no Mc. Donalds. Damn. I wanted Mc. Donalds. Oh well…..I'll just write this chapter and eat my Funyuns and wait for Sarah to bring Doritos so I can dye the cottage cheese purple. Ha, makes no since I know, but my life makes no since.
Song-I put your picture away by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow
Annabeth's POV
"You've got to be freaking kidding me! Amber!" That was what we had hearing for about fifth teen minutes after Rachel agreed to help DJ, then Amber swooped in and pulled her behind a bush and the yelling commenced. Rachel was constantly yelling at Amber about something and every time Amber would laugh sweetly. A few minutes later they walked into our view and Rachel….did not look like Rachel. Her hair was brushed flat, very straight like fine silk and her eyes glowed like emeralds. Her clothes had changed from ripped jeans to nice kakis and a white shirt covered with a tight blazer. She was business-y but hot. I wondered how Amber did all that, then I noticed Amber's love bracelet on Rachel and the image distorted, Rachel looked like normal Rachel for a second.
"Oh that's cheating! She doesn't get to use Aphrodite love charms!" DJ yelled jumping to his feat and folding his arms like a pouting child.
"Yes she does so shut up." Amber ran her fingers through Rachel's hair, the straight hair, and smiled.
"Whatever cheater. She gets deducted points for cheating…..which means I'm still winning." Amber rolled her eyes and pulled Rachel over to the edge of the hill we had been hiding to monitor the Shadows activates and looked down. The monsters stayed in two groups, one on one side of the parking lot where they drank and whistled obnoxiously at pretty woman. On the other side of the parking lot was the more serious ones, they sat there staring at their cars and the other group of Shadows, occasionally one would get up and tell the others to be quiet but he would always get hit in the head with a Corona bottle. Rachel was going after the drunks.
"Okay here is the vile and the syringe Rach, be sure that when you kiss him you fill the syringe. Then walk away; put the blood in the vile and hurry to us. Be careful." DJ said handing her the instruments of choice. Rachel took a deep breath and jumped the slope, stalking down the hill slowly. DJ waited until her feat hit the pavement before he followed her tracks and shadowed her every step; he was Rachel's insurance. As long as DJ was following her nothing would happen. Erin and Brennion jumped the slope and headed for the quiet group of Shadows to stir up some trouble; I kept my attention on Rachel and DJ.
Rachel walked up to a short Shadow, one with a lot of muscle and little brains, and began talking to him. He looked at his friends every time he said something expecting them to laugh which they did, falsely. Rachel moved closer, dragging her finger in a circle around his chest, and knotting her fingers in his hair so she could pull his head down. Damn she was good at this. A quick glance to my left to check on Erin and Brennion; they had successfully beat all thirty Shadows and tied them up, throwing them in the back of their own SUV. They were racing across the parking lot to Rachel and DJ with their swords out, screaming things like, "Stop it!" and, "Let go of her!" Around me I barley noticed Amber and Nate had drawn their weapons and Amber was dragging me down the hill with her. This gave me a change to get a closer look on things, something had happened while I was looking at Brennion and Erin. Rachel had done her job, yes, she had kissed him but he had bit her after she pulled away. Like, in the neck, vampire style. Blood drooled from her arched throat and soaked into her now apparent tie-dye shirt lapel. Her hands shook violently and she was convulsing; the vampire-shadow held her tight and drank further, not phased in the least by her actions. His Shadow buddies crouched into a fighting stance and hissed holding out their claws for us to see. Where as my companions had their swords pulled and matched themselves up with each of the Shadows, Nate had an arrow notched and aimed at the vampire-shadows head.
"Let her go and I won't kill you." Erin said cold as ice, pointing her sword at the lead shadow. He pulled his face out of her neck, blood licked at his chin and dripped onto his bare chest, and smiled gruesomely.
"Why? You'll kill me anyway." He handed Rachel off to another Shadow who stuffed her in one of their SUV's. Erin watched them like a hunter tracking her prey, watching as he threw her though the back window harshly.
"Good point." And then she attacked. Erin had jumped so quickly I nearly missed it and jumped side ways so that she came up on his left flank instead of his front and buried her sword in his shoulder up to the hilt, all while in the air. Her feet hit soundlessly and she broke into a run for the SUV, this was when the others attacked the Shadow warriors. Once their leader fell I expected them to scatter but they didn't, they fought harder. Amber had whapped some guy in the rips so hard he coughed blood and fell dead, a controlled hit. She had burst his lung. Nate had abandoned his bow and taken out his weird spherical blades and danced them across two throats and paralyzed another guy by cutting the sinew from the back of his knees. Brennion had taken a Shadows blade and attacked six Shadows at one time, to each one he kicked the legs out from under then decapitated expertly. DJ was the one that has given Nate and Amber their weapons back and was throwing Brennion his ring as he fought, and then he pulled his knife and ran up the thigh of a Shadow so he could knock him on his back and shove his knife in its mouth. Percy was in a combat, sword to mace, beside me. He ducked underneath the Shadows blows and slid Riptide between its ribs. A clean kill.
"Ha ha, that's the best you got? Your pathetic man." Amber taunted as she raced past me laughing like a mad women, she ran backwards so she could watch the Shadow she was fighting get mad and trip over himself. She laughed harder as she helped him up so she could knock him down herself with a well placed punch. Then she smiled at me and skipped off twirling her staff around her back. Erin raced across the parking lot with an unconscious Rachel in her arms; she laid her at my feet and told me to watch her while she went to fight. I bent and genitally touched the two puncture wounds on her neck that were about the diameter of a pencil's lead point. She stirred and grabbed my hand trembling and let out a weak scream. She thought I was the vampire.
"Shhhh, Rachel it's okay, it's just me. Calm down." Her hand slipped away and she went back to sleeping. Wow….she was cold. Literally. I wonder-my thoughts were interrupted by a scream. I jerked my head up and saw one of the Shadows holding Erin by throat but he also had his claws buried deep in her torso, where Slovea had clawed her. It was the Shadow Erin had stabbed, he hadn't died, for some reason he looked very much alive and he was smiling.
"Idiot," He said to Erin digging his claws in deeper, "Don't you know you can't kill a vampire with steel?"
"Excuse me? Demons die quite nicely from steel and for your information that's-" He squeezed tighter cutting her off.
"Do I look like I care what it's made of!?" Nate and the others were all too engrossed in their own fights to notice what was going on.
"You seem familiar….have we met before?" He leaned in closer to look her face over with cat like eyes, dilated much larger than humans could have ever gotten. She made something in-between a snort and a choke.
"No really? Could it be because you were one of the thugs that killed my parents?" She was letting so much anger flow through her words it was like poison that tainted the shadow-vampires nerves because he flinched.
"Oh….you were that little girl that kicked me in the balls when I pulled you off your mom." Erin glared at him.
"Damn, I should have killed you," He shrugged, "Oh well, I'm about to do now what I should have done then." Then he flashed his teeth, a gruesome smile that was full of blood stained molars and bicuspids though, his two canine teeth where larger than normal but thinner. Sharper. Dangerous. And they were moving slowly closer towards Erin's neck….just a couple more inches…one more…his lips are on her neck….
"Stop." It was what I was thinking but it was not my voice. It was next to me and when I looked I expected to see Nate or Amber but I didn't. I saw a Shadow. He was shirtless and well built; he was someone who had trained his body to be his only weapon. He had three stars tattooed on his bicep and a dragon on the back of his should that curled lazily around it and breathed fire onto his neck. He had chocolate colored hair and blazing eyes to match, they were trained on the scene in front of us. His river colored jeans were ripped and looked to still have a piece of rope tied through one of the holes in them. I recognized him because he was one of the reserved Shadows, one of the ones that had stayed on the other side of the street away from the violent vampire-shadows and he looked mad. Very mad. "Let her go." The shadow that held Erin looked up at his adversary beside me with a lazy smile.
"Trenton Bay I presume," Trenton nodded, "Go away, I'm eating." Then he dipped his head into Erin's neck again but never touched her because Trenton was already standing there grabbing his head by the hair. The muscles in Trenton's arms tightened under his pail skin and he pulled the vampires face up to stare at it with unwavering hate.
"Maybe you didn't hear me," Trenton kneed the vampire in the rips crippling his strength and making him drop Erin, "I said stop."
"Hey Trent, long time no see," Erin winced grabbing her stomach, "Thanks."
"No prob, go check on your mom, I'll take care of jerk-face here." Erin nodded and raced towards me with her arms held out; she tackled me to the ground just as a dog jumped over our heads, it would have hit me had I been standing up. Erin pushed air between her teeth in annoyance while she pulled me back to my feet. The dog circled us.
It was about the size of an average fifth grader and looked….odd. It had no hide just a thick layer of muscles that were visible for all to see. Acidic drool flowed through its oversized teeth and burned into the pavement filling the air with a putrid odor. It had no ears just round metal plates made of bronze in their place. Where its eyes should have been were hollow sockets, a swirling darkness was inside them giving it the look of an evil dust bunny. And the most disturbing thing? Its heart. Two positive and negative charges attached to another metal plate, this one made of silver, jutted from its chest with clear wires hooked to it, every once in a while a blue current shot through wire making the dog move faster and jerk a whole lot.
"Um what is that thing?" I barley got out before the dog let lose a savage growl that echoed in my ears long after it had passed. Erin stood in front of me with her sword out, circling with it.
"It's the Shadows dogs…..kinnda like the Nazis and German Sheppard's, only these are mutated monster dogs….half hellhound and half ghoul. Great huh? An undead tank, gotta love it." The dog didn't advance but it snapped at Erin's feet tempting her to fight it, it had higher thinking.
"How do we kill it-" It jumped. A blur. Something was on top of me. We were rolling and I could hear growls as well as screams. Not pain screams but taunting screams. Two hands grabbed my shoulders and steadied me, it was Amber. She held me against her once we stood, protecting me like a child which I found silly considering I was older than her and not scared at all. Trenton and Erin fought side by side, Erin with her sword and Trenton with a white pistol, they would dance around the dogs flanks shooting and slashing then throw each other their weapons when they dog would start to figure out their style. It was going well, the dog was staggering and mercury leaked from its wounds, it was dying. That is, until Erin got woozy from her loss of blood and fainted.
"Erin!" Many voices screamed including my own. The beast let out a triumphant growl and snuffed Erin with its fleshy nose, licking a bit of her blood to see her taste. He liked it. Trenton jumped on its back and shot at the base of its skull but it swatted him away and into a SUV leaving it dented and him bleeding from a head wound. Amber screamed and ran to him. Nate was not about to let Erin be eaten by any monster soon, he slid under the dogs chest taking Erin with one arm and swiping at the wires with his circle blades, then safely coming out on the other side. The dog went ridged. It began yowling and clawing at its head, the plate on its chest began folding in like an aluminum can that was used for boiling water then dropped in cold water. He folded in on himself, turning to black power and slipping through the pavement.
"Ir al infierno demon filth." Trenton, who had been to helped to his feet by Amber, said spitting on the little traces of the dog. I glanced at him and noticed two things; one, his rips had been scratched badly and were already bruising and; two, Amber had her arm tightly wrapped around his waist to hold him up, she was also blushing like mad but had her head turned away so he couldn't see. Percy and Brennion had rushed to Erin and Nate to check on her while I felt DJ slip under my arm and fasten his arms around my waist. He looked very scared.
"DJ, she's going to be okay buddy," I said in an attempt to comfort him, "She just lost a lot of blood, she'll wake up in a couple hours." He looked at Erin as if noticing her for the first time.
"Th-that's not what I'm worried about mom," He pulled a bloody piece of paper from under his now black and blue blood stained shirt, "It's this. I found it on one of those Shadows." The paper was leafy, thin and tired from use, and it had only a few quick words scribbled on it visible under all the blood. It said, "Shadows call war….five and thirty….twenty shields…..war on Camp Half-Blood….two days." It was a declaration of war on my camp and it was going to happen in two days.
Hahahah, best cliffy ever! But not as good as the one about Kiley, though this one is still pretty darn good if I say so myself and I just did so boom! Boom? How lame is that! I need to get off the candy…..anyone know if there is adapt for candy eater's?
