I hope you guys enjoy my little twist in this chapter- you should do. Anyway, as always please do read and review, you all make me very very happen when you do. Also, just to update you guys, I am literally like fourty chapters ahead in my writing and it is still this book, so make of that what you will.
"You know." Percy glared at the monster, "For a man with three chests- and I can only assume three hearts-" she was pretty sure she remembered that being mentioned in the story, now that she thought about it, "You're actually a heartless bastard aren't you?"
"And you're a rude little girl-"
Percy drew Riptide from her pocket- it was in it's sword form by the time she was stepping forward, fully willing to swing it and slice the monsters head off when Orthus growled- and Percy faltered- the two headed dog was stood right in front of Nico- who was glaring fiercely at it- and it looked an inch away from biting her little brothers face off- Leo was yelling frantically in the gag, and Annabeth, Tyson and Grover were struggling helplessly.
"That's right." Geryon laughed nastily, "Lower the sword or your little brother's going to lose his face." and Percy gritted her teeth as she lowered Riptide, glaring at the monster with a gaze filled with hate. "That's a good girl." Geryon stepped closer, patting Percy's cheek mockingly, "You're going to fetch me a lot of gold." Percy wanted to swing, wanted to kill the monster- but that stupid dog was growling still, and she knew, she knew that even if she did kill Geryon the dog would kill Nico and that wasn't an option.
"If you touch me again I will slice your hand off." Percy snarled the words, and Geryon laughed, gripping Percy's chin and jerking her face forward, closer to his own, a nasty smirk on his lips as he dug his nails in hard.
"No. You won't. I could do whatever I like to you right now and you wouldn't do a damn thing to stop me darlin', because I have your precious little friends all tied up over there. So you're going to stop your wining and start behaving now before I order Orthus to tear."
And Percy felt her stomach twist painfully at his words- gods but he was an evil, manipulative bastard. And she hated him all the more because he was right.
But that didn't mean she had to take his crap lying down- so she sucked hard before spitting a gob of saliva straight onto his cheek- and Geryon jerked back, a shocked look on his face before he snarled, letting go of her chin only to swing, the back of his hand colliding with Percy's cheek, knocking her off balance and making her face snap to the side even as she steadied herself.
"How cute- Eurytion. The girl's starting to annoy me. Make sure she can't talk- I want her put in her place."
Percy's gaze flicked to the son of Ares, who was staring at her, a thoughtful look on his face. And she really didn't like her odds- she couldn't fight back because if she did Orthus would kill Nico. She was pretty much at the monster and the other demigods mercy right now.
"Do it yourself." the words made Percy's eyes widen in shock.
Geryon raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me," Eurytion grumbled. "You keep sending me out to do your dirty work. You pick fights for no good reason, and I'm getting tired of dying for you. If you want to take the girl down a peg then you need to do it yourself."
Geryon glared at Eurytion, his eyes narrowing. "You dare defy me? I should fire you right now!"
"And who'd take care of your cattle? Orthus, heel."
The dog immediately stopped growling at Nico and came to sit by the cowherd's feet, and Percy felt a rush of relief as her friends all let out muffled cheers at the son of Ares' words.
"Fine." Geryon's voice was angry and he was moving quickly, snatching to carving knives up and throwing them at Percy.
She almost laughed, deflecting one with her sword and ducking out of the way of the other one- which impaled itself in the picnic table an inch from Eurytion's hand, and Geryon was rushing towards the grill and Percy rushed after him.
The monster parried Percy's first strike with a pair of red hot tongs, lunging at Percy's face with a barbecue fork- and Percy moved just slightly to the side, tilting her head to avoid them as she stepped inside of his guard and stabbed him right through the middle chest, yanking the blade out quickly and moving back as he crumbled to his knees- and for a moment she thought he'd disintegrate the way most monsters did- but he just grimaced and started to stand up.
"Nice try princess, the thing is-"
"You have three hearts." Percy cursed, "And the only way to kill you is to take out all three" and her sword wasn't long enough to do all three at once.
As he got up he tipped the barbecue over, and Percy was forced to almost dance backwards to avoid getting burned by the coal that spilled everywhere, and Percy's gaze flicked to the others when she heard a muffled scream- a piece of coal had landed right next to Annabeth's face- and gods but Nico was struggling and trying to shift away- a piece had landed on his arm and he had to jerk frantically to knock it off.
Tyson was bellowing into the gag and trying to break free, and Leo was snarling while Grover thrashed- they were all helpless- they needed Percy to save them only she didn't know how to.
She lunged forward again, stabbing him over and over- but it did no good- she'd need to take out all three hearts at once.
She needed a plan- her eyes widened when she realized something- and of course!" she whirled around, taking off into the house- Geryon would follow her, she was pretty sure he was pissed off enough to want to kill her and that could be used. "Coward!" he cried. "Come back and die right!"
The living room walls were decorated with a bunch of gruesome hunting trophies—stuffed deer and dragon heads, a gun case, a sword display, and a bow with a quiver.
Geryon threw his barbecue fork, and it thudded into the wall right next to Percy's head. He drew two swords from the wall display. "Your head's gonna go right there, Jackson! Next to the grizzly bear!"
"I'm sure I'll be the prettiest thing here." now if only Percy was any good with a bow- but maybe she didn't have to be- she'd spotted movement at the other end of the hall, a familiar flash of green and red darting behind the corner.
She needed to get Geryon out of the way a minute, it wouldn't have to be for long, just long enough, so she launched herself at him, sword clashing with one of his knives as she forced him backwards, managing to dart around so that he turned his back to the hall, yelling loudly to drown out the padding footsteps and the sound of the bow and quiver being tugged down off of the display.
There was a tense moment when Percy thought he's spotted something out of the corner of his eye, so she stepped backwards, feinting as if she'd twisted her ankle, faking a stumble- and Geryon's eyes shone with the light of victory as he lashed out, catching her across the face with a heavy fist that sent her flying to the ground hard- her jaw throbbing in pain. Then his foot was on her chest and he was smirking nastily down at her.
"See little girl. You're nothing special after all. You couldn't defeat me-" and Percy could see Kayla drawing the bow and arrow out of the corner of her eye and she smirked as she spat out the blood that had flooded her mouth from her teeth catching her cheek and cutting it open.
"Maybe I couldn't. But you forgot something Geryon."
"Oh have I?" the monster laughed mockingly, "And what would that be little princess?"
"You forgot about Kayla fucking Knowles." and the arrow flew straight and true- it hit the right side of his chest, and with three thumps the arrow passed clean through each of his chests and flew out of the left side- and Percy let out a bright almost hysterical laugh as the monster's face turned a sickly shade of green and he collapsed to his knees and crumbled into dust- only covering her face with her arm stopped her from inhaling monster dust- and then all that were left were three aprons and an oversized pair of boots resting on her chest. A moment later Kayla was at her side, tossing the boots aside.
"What in the names of the gods is going on here?" the daughter of Apollo burst out, "Holy crap what-"
"You just saved my life." Percy accepted the hand Kayla offered and let the other girl help her sit up.
"Are you okay?"
"I'll be fine- I'm tired as Hades and my face hurts but I've had worse."
"Where's Nico? Are you here alone?"
"Outside tied up- and no I'm not. Annabeth, Grover, Tyson and Leo are here too. We were sent on a quest-"
"Gods." Kayla let out a breath, "Are they okay."
"They should be, I don't think Eurytion was going to hurt them."
"What is all this about?" Kayla asked, "Geryon helped us- I know he's a monster but he gave me nectar and ambrosia to help heal my infection-"
"I'm sure he did." Percy muttered the words, "Alabaster and the Titans would probably pay less for damaged goods-"
"Oh." Kayla's eyes widened, "Oh that- oh that bastard-"
"Let's just be glad he forgot you were asleep in there." Percy pulled the daughter of Apollo into a hug. "It's so good to see you in person- I had a dream about you and Nico- most frustrating thing ever."
"Well we're fine- and I feel fine now, a bit shaky but nothing to stop me from continuing- we're looking for Clarisse and Will."
"I know." Percy shook her head, "You won't find them- they made it out at camp-"
"They did?" Kayla's voice was relieved as they got to their feet and started making their way back through the house, Kayla still clutching the bow and quiver as Percy explained what had happened- how they'd ended up on the quest and finding the ranch.
When they made it outside they saw Eurytion still sat feeding Orthus scraps- their friends still tied up and struggling, Nico screaming with rage into the gag, there were no shadows so he couldn't even shadow travel to try and help. Leo wasn't much better- though rather than fury he was having to try and calm himself- Percy could see his clothes smoking slightly- he clearly knew that if he lost control he could hurt the others, as for Annabeth, Grover and Tyson- well all three of them were thrashing frantically and Annabeth was near tears.
"Really?" Kayla's voice cut over Nico's muffled furious screaming, "Seriously Di Angelo. I'm asleep for like, a day, if that and you get yourself tied up by some monster- what would you do without me?" she gave a grin that made Percy let out a laugh- and Nico's face lit up at the sight of the two of them, a stream of muffled words slipping out- and Annabeth's terrified tears turned to sobs of relief, and a moment later the two girls were crouched next to their friends, untying them all- Kayla started with Nico, giving him a tight hug once he was free, while Percy untied Annabeth first, before moving onto Leo and Tyson.
There were hugs all round when everyone was freed, and if they all clung to Percy a bit too tight- well she would hardly complain. For a while there she'd been terrified she was going to fail- and she knew her strange little family would have been terrified for her safety.
"How?" Annabeth was the first one to actually manage to speak properly- other than gasped thanks to the gods that Percy and Kayla were okay, "How did you kill him? I remember the myth, Geryon-"
"I didn't." Percy gave a small grin, glancing at Kayla, who was almost preening, a proud grin on her lips as she brushed her vividly colored hair out of her face
"That would be the badass Miss Kayla Knowles who did that, shot him straight through all three hearts-"
"Kayla-" Nico's voice was deathly serious, a grin on his lips, "Have I ever told you that you're awesome-"
"You have, but hey, you could always pay to do it more." Kayla winked.
"Well-" Leo gave his best flirtatious grin, "They should call you Cupid because I think you just shot me in the heart-"
And their was a collective groan at Leo's words, and as Kayla burst out laughing and lightly punched Leo's arm, Percy let herself feel hope.