Chapter 38
A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I loved reading all of them! I got a couple questions from some people, but I'll answer those below. Thanks so much!
Aria's POV
The day of the dance was finally here. I think it should be called the day of doom, instead. It had a nice ring to it.
Bella was at home, with what everyone thought was a naturally-induced fever. Katie and I shared a devious look when we heard that. Carlisle and Esme had insisted that Edward still go to school, because there was nothing he could do for Bella.
"Just let the fever run its course," Carlisle had said. "I know how these things work."
I'd had to run out of the room just to control my laughter. I was feeling really evil that day.
Which resulted in a very agitated Edward driving me and James to school that morning.
"Dude, if you nearly run off the road one more time, I'm going to take Aria and run to school myself," James said, as Edward swerved dangerously near the edge.
He merely muttered an expletive under his breath.
"Seriously, Edward, you've gotta calm down," I said. "Bella's fine. It's just a natural fever."
"And I can't do anything about it," he growled.
James and I exchanged a look, but stayed silent. I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when Edward finally pulled into the parking lot. In his haze of self-induced anger, he couldn't see that Mike Newton was waiting to talk to him.
"Hey, Edward, d'you have a second—"
"No," Edward growled, side-stepping Mike and disappearing into the crowd.
Mike's gaze fell on James and I, and we just grinned.
"What's his problem?" Mike demanded.
"You," I said nonchalantly, strolling away.
The day passed by with little happenings, other than the entire school prepping for the dance, and Edward being unusually moody. By lunchtime, Alice and Rose were threatening to get him anti-depression pills if he didn't cheer up.
"Man, this is like the time before Bella," Emmett noted. "Cheer up, moody bastard."
Edward scowled at him.
"What do you mean, the time before Bella?" James said. "Was he moodier back then?"
Jasper chuckled. "Way more so."
I shuddered. "That can't be too pleasant to be around."
Edward scowled again, this time at me. I smiled innocently back at him.
"Anyway, dragging the topic away from Edward's moodiness, is everyone ready for the dance tonight?" Alice asked.
"Don't you dare say you have more work to do on me," I snarled. "I hate dresses."
James chuckled and kissed me on the cheek. "But you won the bet."
I'd filled him in on the fake bet when I used it as an excuse.
"Yeah, not good enough," I muttered. "Dresses, and makeup…demigods don't do that shit."
"The daughters of Aphrodite," James reminded me.
"Who?" Rose asked.
"Daughters of the love goddess," I said. "Their almost as bad as Alice."
"Worse," James said, thinking of Drew.
"Oh gods, don't remind me of her," I groaned. "She was horrible when she was going after Jason."
"Good thing he has a brain," James laughed.
"I know, right? And remember how she smelled?"
"Gods, she stunk up her cabin and the ones next to her for weeks."
"Who are they talking about?" Emmett asked, looking confused.
"Drew," I said. "Queen bitch of the daughters of Aphrodite."
"Wouldn't you be offending her mother if you said that?" Rose said.
"Nope," I clarified. "She doesn't like her either."
James smirked, thinking of the time we'd seen Aphrodite talk to Drew. Of course, no one had known we were there, eavesdropping.
Throughout the entirety of the day, Jasper swore he tried his best to make Edward cheer up, but nothing seemed to help. I told Edward that if he didn't stop glaring at every human brunette, I'd tell Lauren and Jessica, the two skanks of the grade, that he'd broken up with Bella and needed a date for the dance.
Surprisingly, he cheered up significantly after that.
As much as I'd wanted the day to go a lot slower, it was soon time for all of us to get home and get ready.
It was already given that Edward wasn't going to the dance, as Bella was in no condition to go. Carlisle and Esme couldn't very well force him to go, but Alice did try.
All too soon, I was dragged away from James and into Alice's room. Katie had joined us ten minutes ago, and now we were all closeted away in there. Bella was wrapped up in comforters on the bed, solely to keep us company. After all, none of us could really catch the fever from her.
I sat patiently as Alice primped Rose, and then Katie. The dress she'd picked out for Katie was truly beautiful, a dark red with a bejeweled neckline and waist. Her hair was twisted up a bit, all of her blond curls hanging down her back.
And then it was my turn. Alice forced me to sit down in front of the vanity mirror, with me grimacing every second. She swiped some foundation over my cheeks, and then mascara and eye shadow. She said I didn't need blush, since my skin already had a flushed skin tone.
I didn't even know what that meant.
Thankfully, Alice didn't do much damage to my hair. Just curled at the ends, and pinned at the sides, letting the rest fall down my back. I'd asked her to keep it out of my face, since trying to fight someone with hair in your face was really not easy.
Then I was forced into my dress. It actually settled very well on my body, and I was able to strap a dagger to my upper thigh comfortably. Alice and Rose both were surprised when Katie and I stocked up on weapons, with Katie carrying both a knife and a pistol, loaded with celestial bronze and normal bullets.
"What's the need for the weapons?" Rose asked, eyeing my dagger uncomfortably.
"Protection," I said. "I've already had things go wrong too many times." I turned to Katie for help strapping the throwing knife to my back. If I needed to, I could yank it out and hit a target at the most, fifty feet away from me.
Unfortunately, I had no place to hide a shotgun, which would have been helpful in this situation.
"Is James carrying weapons too?" Alice asked.
"Of course," I said. As far as I knew, James had a dagger and a throwing knife on him, just like me. He wasn't really trained to use a pistol or a shotgun.
Katie finished securing the knife to my back, making sure it wouldn't poke me.
"I guess we're ready," I said, looking at Bella. "Are you sure you'll be okay?" I asked her.
She nodded. "I have Edward, I'm good."
Katie smirked, exchanging a glance with me.
Someone's gonna be busy tonight, she thought, her mind straying towards the gutter. I made a face at her.
The rest of the guys were waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Carlisle and Esme had insisted on pictures, but James and I had told them no way. We didn't do cameras.
As the rest were getting their pictures taken, James and I stood off to the side.
"I'd say you were beautiful, but we all know how true that is," he whispered to me.
I smiled, before turning serious again. "D'you have all your weapons?"
He nodded, gently pressing on my back to make sure my knife was there. "Are you ready to execute our 'distraction' plan?"
I smirked, pushing my hips against his briefly. "Ready."
"Alright, let's go," Emmett said, oblivious to our little side conversation. We all piled into his huge Jeep, with James and I having the back row entirely to ourselves.
Time to get started, I thought, leaning forward to kiss him after we put our seatbelts on.
We didn't keep the kiss chaste for long. Soon, his tongue was probing its way into my mouth, and I opened up gladly. He ran his hands over my waist lightly before pulling me to him roughly. The seatbelts made it odd to maneuver around, but we made it work.
After a minute of going on like this, Alice poked her head over the seat. "Hey, guys, could you get a room or something? Jasper's having a hard time over here."
I smiled to myself, and James smiled too. Neither of us pulled away, and I could hear Jasper swear under his breath.
Mission accomplished.
James was nearly on top of me in the backseat, but I kept leaning up, attempting to have as much access to him as possible. I think I moaned once, I was kind of past caring at that point. It made me curse Chiron for making us wait two more years.
Once we reached the school, Jasper quickly scrambled away from us. Only problem was, there were couples making out all over the parking lot.
Emmett, Rosalie, James, and I all laughed, and Jasper groaned. He quickly pulled Alice into the forest. James and I exchanged a triumphant look, while Emmett and Rosalie cracked up with laughter.
Once we were inside the gym, where the dance was being held, the two of us and Katie split off from the rest of the family.
"So, what now?" Katie asked.
"A waiting game," I said. "Emmett and Rose will disappear soon."
We only had to wait five minutes. After watching them grind on the dance floor in a way that should be inappropriate to even watch, Rosalie came to find me.
"Hey, Aria, Emmett and I are going to…"
"Don't even try explaining, just go," I said. "We'll call when we want to get home."
Rosalie drew me and James into a quick hug before scampering off with Emmett to god-knows-where. Actually, scratch that, I'm sure that even the gods at this point wouldn't want to know what they were doing.
"And now we go into action," I said eagerly. The room was dark, but light enough that I could still see outlines of people and how they moved.
"Alright, here's how its going to go," James said. "Katie, you're going to stand alone on the edge, but we're going to be not far away from you on the dance floor. You'll keep tensing whenever someone comes too close to you, and reaching for the place where your dagger should be. Then, Aria and I will listen to the heartbeats of people around us, and whoever spikes, we follow them."
"Sounds great," Katie said. "Now you two go enjoy yourselves while I pretend to be paranoid."
I laughed and pulled James onto the dance floor.
"Y'know, I might actually enjoy this if we weren't on duty," James said, his hands twining around my hips for the slow song that was playing.
"Me too," I agreed, placing my hands on his shoulders. Out of the corner of my eye, I kept watch on Katie. She was standing unobtrusively on the edge, not attracting a lot of attention. But I knew that there were some people who were undoubtedly watching her.
Someone who I couldn't identify brushed her shoulder accidentally, and she immediately tensed and reached for her left forearm, but her dagger wasn't there.
See, for demigods, we keep our weapons on the inside of our non-dominant arm, so that we can reach it at a moment's notice. But, that only works if we're wearing long-sleeved clothing. Which Katie was not at the moment. Her hand brushed empty air, and I saw her eyes widen before settling down again.
"She's a good actress," I commented under my breath to James.
He nodded, agreeing quickly.
The second time it happened, I began listening for heartbeats all around us. Only one seemed to have an irregular rhythm. I searched around with my ears, trying to pinpoint it, until I came to a halt.
"Sean," I muttered under my breath. "Of course."
"One down, an unknown number to go," James said. "I'll keep an eye on Sean."
The third time someone passed by too close to her, Katie jumped and immediately reached for ankle. Where a gun would be, if she was wearing boots. Demigods often did that.
Two more heartbeats spiked. I searched around quickly, praying that it wasn't fluke.
Lauren and Tyler, the slutbag and her pimp. James chuckled at that, but I made sure they were also helpers. Both of them were staring at Katie, looking slightly worried. Exchanging one quick glance, they both made a beeline for Eric Yorkie at the same time.
"Looks like we've got our four," I said. "Let's make an exit. If there are any more, they'll follow."
James immediately took my hand and led me off the floor. We made our way quickly to Katie, and dragged her out as well.
"Get prepped for a fight," I said, hurrying to a deserted hallway far from the gym. They'd know where we were.
"They're all human," Katie said. "They're just helping the monster?"
"We still don't know who the monster is," James said.
"Money on Banner controlling it," I said. "But we'll deal with him later. Incapacitate these people and then take them to the safehouse."
I heard footsteps approaching, and immediately took a position right next to the corner.
"—I swear, the third one is a half blood," a female voice said. Lauren.
"She was reaching for her gun every time," Sean added. They were getting closer.
Eric Yorkie rounded the corner first. I'd never talked to him, the pimply-faced freak. I knew he'd had a thing for Bella when she first came here, which made him even worse in my book.
With a yell, I launched myself into a spin kick, drawing out my dagger somewhere in between. I grazed his shoulder with the blade, hitting his chest with my foot. He immediately fell, screeching in pain.
Katie had taken on Lauren, with James on Tyler. With Eric temporarily down, Sean was now the only one left.
"Well, Aria, we meet again," he said, grinning evilly.
I didn't reply, focusing all my energy on attacking. I attempted an uppercut, but he grabbed my arm. When I tried again with the other arm, he grabbed that too. Thankfully, I was in close enough proximity for a kick. I kicked his chin upwards with my foot, earning a grunt of pain from him. Wrenching my arms free, I punched his gut twice in quick succession, knocking all the wind out of him as well.
Unfortunately for me, I'd underestimated his training. When on the ground, he knocked my legs out from under me, and I went sprawling on the floor. Quick as lightning, he rolled on top of me, pinning me to the floor. He got in a few good punches while he was at it.
I still had my dagger in my hand, and he didn't know it. I twisted one leg between both of his and tangled us up so that he couldn't escape, and then stabbed the upper part of his arm. Very fleshy, that part. Also bleeds a lot.
Sean bellowed with pain, grabbing out randomly for me. I pulled myself up, and to finish it off, kicked him in the head. He stilled, still bleeding badly from his arm. I could deal with that later.
Katie had taken down Lauren with ease, seeing as she was such an airhead. James was still fighting with Tyler, who obviously had more muscle than I thought. Locking eyes with James, he knew of my plan instantly.
I took a few steps back, and then launched into the air to grab onto Tyler's neck. He yelled with surprise, and tried to twist around, but couldn't, giving James a free opening to stab him. He was down within seconds.
Our only problem left was Yorkie. He was stirring, trying to sit up, but I rushed over to him and hit him with the flat side of my blade. He was out cold in seconds.
I straightened up and sighed. The hallway was covered with blood. Thankfully, not too much of ours, though all of us sustained minor injuries.
"We need to get them to the safehouse," I said. "Anyone got rope to tie them up?"
James picked the lock of a nearby janitor's closet, and returned quickly with the appropriate part of rope to tie them up.
"Thanks," I said, smiling. We quickly tied them up, and then realized we had no way of getting them to the safehouse.
"Shit," Katie swore. "Why didn't we think of that?"
"I didn't think there would be four people," I admitted. "Anyone feel like contacting their godly parents?"
James and Katie both looked at me.
"Your dad's the most likely to listen," Katie pointed out.
I sighed, and James tossed a drachma to me. Why did I always have to be the one to Iris Message gods?
With a little effort, I soon had a rainbow going with the halogen lights and water from the water fountain.
"O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering," I prayed. "Show my Poseidon, god of the sea."
I was immediately shown his underwater palace.
"Aria," my father said, surprised at me contacting him.
"Hello, Father," I said. "I know this might not be the best time to ask, but I really need a favor."
He folded his arms, a sign that he wanted me to continue.
"See, we captured four humans, and we need to get them back to the safehouse, and we can't," I said. "Would you mind helping us?"
He considered it. "You should have planned out your strategy better."
I hung my head. "I know, Dad. I'm sorry. We'll plan better next time."
"Be sure of that," he said. "Now, you said four humans?"
I nodded.
"Don't forget to fill Chiron in on what's happened," he reminded me.
"I will. I'll also make sure to contact you if something major happens," I said. "Thanks, Dad."
He nodded. "Get ready." He swiped his hand across the mist, disconnecting the Iris Message.
I barely had time to tell Katie and James to be prepared before the entire world faded to black around me.
A/N: Phew, long chapter! I'm almost tired just writing about the fight! I hoped you guys liked that, please leave a review to let me know! I also will have Sean's POV on the entire thing, and maybe Lauren's, Tyler's, and Eric's, too. Though it'll just be the fights from those POVs. Let me know!
Fic Rec: The Handcuff Bracelet by Lykodracos - Having escaped to Forks, will Bella find solace in dark Edward Cullen? How hard will Edward have to fight to keep that which he longs to claim? Rated MA for lemons, language, drug and alcohol content. Tattoos with meaning, leather worn well- enjoy!
This is an amazing story, I really suggest you all give it a shot. Has lots of meaning behind it, don't be fooled.
Review Replies:
lil Miss Mysterious: did you like the sparks flying? I would have made the make-out session a little steamier, except, well…I'm not changing this to an M rated story :P
HuntressofArtemis192: See, updating without reviews means I don't know how much my readers like the story…and I just can't write like that. Lol, I kinda wish I could just yell at anyone who read but didn't review XD
Guest 1: See, I'd like it to count for one thousand too!
Twilightedfan: Sorry I haven't responded earlier for your reviews, I just wish that FFN would let responses to Anon reviewers go through. My break is almost over, too. I'm gonna miss updating every day =(
Cynthiacullen: I'm so glad you liked the stories! They're some of my absolute favorites! Yes, I only try to rec completed stories, I don't like waiting too long :P I'm such a hypocrite. The Handcuff Bracelet is actually not completed, but I rec'd it anyway. It's too good
Bookworkultimate: thanks!
Ninja4eva: I'm glad you like the story! Sorry for the delay
Mae2551: Erm…I'd rather not have the furies after me, thanks. I hope you don't die of suspense, I'd rather like you alive to read the story :P
Sitshakov: I updated! Happy? I'm also in the middle of Rise, I'll get back to you once I've finished it.
Guest 2: I actually live on the West Coast, not on the East. The time difference is actually 3 hours, not 6. So, right now, it's 3 o'clock here, but in New York, it's 6 o'clock.
Katie: I updated! And I had you in mind when I named the Daughter of Apollo Katie :D Just a little present to my fav reviewer!
Guest 3: I love your conciseness. I did update!
Greenafied: Aww, thank so much! But please, get some sleep. Don't kill yourself! :)
I LUVS NATURE: I'm so happy you like it! Enjoy the story :D
Anyways, my readers: until next time! Review! :)