The following evening I woke up to find a letter and a small box sitting on my nightstand. I noticed that signature sigil of Hermes and opened the letter smiling. It was two letters, one from Annabeth and the other from Chiron. Chiron's letter was full of ways to decompress and messages to pass along to Anastasia and Nolan. It made me feel relaxed, and I set the letter down on the nightstand. Annabeth's letter was more personal. She wrote how I shouldn't be saying sorry to her and that it's okay to feel how I do. How it made her feel wanted when the first person I told about the fledgling ghosts was her. She then described how the Stolls got a little richer after the call ended. They had a bet about how long it will take me to figure out that I like men. I felt this wave of relief come over me, and I looked over at the box. I opened it to find that it was filled with golden drachmae and a note.

Keep them informed

-Dad

I placed the box inside my dresser and got ready for the day. I had almost forgotten about Mrs. O'leary until she was waiting with Cammy for Damien and me to get some breakfast.

"You think she's going to follow you around?" Damien asked, and I looked over to see he was ready to go.

"Oh, probably," I answered and then smiled at Damien. "It will give me some leverage over Aphrodite."

"Oh right," Damien said as we walked out of the room and started for the common room. "What's your plan about that?"

"I don't know," I answered and took a deep breath. "I need to talk to Zoey about that. And about Elizabeth."

"Our lives are going to get crazy," Damien said, and I chuckled a bit, nodding.

"Definitely," I responded, and the two of us saw Stevie Rae and Zoey eating some sugary cereal.

We walked over and sat down after getting our breakfast. I tried my best to ignore the stares that Mrs. O'leary was getting. I looked up and saw that Zoey was looking at Mrs. O'leary with a curious expression.

"My uncle sent my dog to Oklahoma because he's buddy-buddy with Nyx," I said and then chuckled a bit and bit my cheek. "And I freaked out about the wine and everything that happened last night after leaving you with Erik. In any case, what is our plan about Aphrodite- she needs to be stopped."

"I think we have to do some Reconnoitering," Zoey said, and I saw Damien's and Stevie Rae's expressions change. "You and I can join the dark daughters and take Aphrodite down from the inside."

"I don't think that's a good idea." Stevie Rae said as she turned her gaze to her lucky charms. "Do you even know how you can take her down?"

Zoey furrowed her brow and shook her head, "No, but then again, everything needs a plan."

I went to speak up when I saw Aphrodite, Terrible, War-Like, and Wasp walking over to us. I made myself sit up a bit straighter, and I smiled when the four of them saw Mrs. O'leary sleeping at my feet while both Nala and Cammy lay on her back. I smiled at them and focused on my cereal.

"Zoey, Percy, gosh, you two left in such a hurry last night I didn't get a chance to say bye," Aphrodite said in a sickly sweet voice. If she was going to put on an act, so was I. "Sorry you didn't have a good time. It's too bad, but the Dark Daughters and Sons aren't for everyone."

"Actually!" I spoke up in a perky voice doing my best to channel Apollo. "We had a great time last night."

"Yeah," Zoey said, understanding what I was putting down. "Thank you for inviting us; we were just talking about how we were going to accept your invitation."

Aphrodite's smile falters, looking at the two of us, "Really?"

"100 percent," I said and then tilted my head a bit to sell my innocence. "I mean, I can't wait for the next gathering; I was going to ask Neferet when I talked to her about my bloodlust."

"Plus, I bet she'd love to hear about how you made us feel so welcome." Zoey continued, and I looked over to see that she wore an innocent look on her face.

"There's no need," Aphrodite said, and her facade started to wear. "I am the leader and know our schedule by heart. Our Samhain celebration is tomorrow. Zoey, wear your dress, and Percy, wear your suit." She emphasized the "your" towards Zoey, and I couldn't help but smile. "Meet at the rec hall right after dinner, 4:30 am sharp."

Terrible, War-like, and Wasp all looked at us shell-shocked as Aphrodite turned around and led them away. Once they were out of sight, I looked over at Mrs. O'leary, who looked just as annoyed as I felt.

"She can not be what Nyx wants in a High Priestess," I said to her, and she gave a soft bark back in agreement.

"Hag from hell," Zoey said in agreement, and the four of us stood up, setting on our way to our first period.

Zoey and I walked to Neferet's office together after class, and she and I were able to talk alone about what we saw and experienced. We definitely both saw Elizabeth, and we both had some sort of bloodlust. Zoey left something unsaid, but I didn't press her. I wanted her to come to me directly, not pull things out of her. We entered her office, and Neferet looked up and smiled when she saw the two of us come in.

"Thank you for the cat stuff for Nala," Zoey said, and Neferet chuckled a little bit.

"I'm not who you should be thanking; Skyler is the one who told me she was coming," She simply said, and that's when I noticed the orange ball of fluff batting at Mrs. O'leary's paws. "Nala is a perfect name for her." I looked up to see that Nala jumped up onto Neferet's desk, disorganizing the papers she was grading.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Zoey said, and Neferet just waved her off.

"No worries, Zoeybird," She said, and I saw how Zoey relaxed and looked like she had tears in her eyes. "Cat's are always welcome; Percy's dog is an interesting addition."

"Professor Neferet," I said, looking at her feeling a bit awkward. "I'm just as confused as you are; one moment I'm freaking out because I drank blood and liked it, the next my uncle Hades is sending me Mrs. O'leary as an ESA essentially."

"Nolan explained everything to me last night," Neferet said in a gentle voice that turned all my worries away. "Now, why did your bloodlust upset you so much?"

When she asked me that question, I replayed the night before. Why had that got to me so badly? Then it hit me. I didn't know what it was when I drank it. It was familiar, but I couldn't recognize it.

"Because I thought it was just wine, then recognized the taste," I started to say, and Neferet nodded, watching me. "Then when I was told what it was, it terrified me because It seemed wrong for me to like it as much as I did."

"You were not told there was blood in the wine?" Neferet asked, and both Zoey and I nodded in response. "That was incredibly irresponsible on Aphrodite's part; I will talk to her about that-"

"No!" Zoey practically screamed, and Neferet looked at her, and Zoey cleared her throat. "I mean, I don't want you to talk to her about it; it's not like we both didn't like it, and I don't want us to be seen as tattletales."

"Zoey, you liked the wine as well?" Neferet asked, zoning in, and Zoey nodded, causing Neferet to stand up and move to a bookcase, gathering two textbooks. "Then I must put you on the same track that Percy is going to be on. You'll have some extra homework every week as I want you both to study the Sociology 415 textbook. If either of you has any questions, discuss them with me."

"Yes, ma'am," I said, suddenly feeling a wave of anxiety wash over me.

"You both should know that experiencing the blood lust this early is a good sign," She said and focused on Zoey for a bit. "You'll also find that your desire for blood will be just as frequent as your desire for brown pop- or anything with caffeine."

"Jeesh! Do you know everything?" Zoey exclaimed, and honestly, I was starting to wonder how much Antiope told the vamps here.

"Our goddess has gifted me greatly," Neferet said with amusement in her voice. "I can pick up bits and pieces of things from others, like how you still need to tell me something." Her words were pointed towards Zoey, and Zoey nodded. I could tell she wanted to speak about it alone.

"Er, Professor Neferet, I hate to interrupt," I started, and both Zoey and she looked at me. "But if it's alright, I don't have anything else I'd like to discuss-"

"Percy, you are excused; let Professor Nolan know that you were with me, and Zoey will be a bit longer," Neferet said, interrupting me with a smile.

I nodded in respect and made my way out of her office, heading my way to Drama. When I got to class, Professor Nolan greeted me and then led me into her office, where she placed a cell phone in front of me with a smile. There was a note next to it, and I picked up the message as Professor Nolan left. I was so confused, but the letter made it a bit clearer.

Sea spawn,

How are you able to use a phone but not have one yet? Consider this a gift.

-Hermes

I placed the note in my bag then took the cellphone to see it already had two numbers in it. I felt a lump in my throat and dialed the one labeled as my mom. It rang for a bit, and I was worried Hermes forgot to inform my mom of the gift. I was prepared to leave a message when I heard my mom's voice pick up.

"Hello? This is Sally Jackson-Blofis; what can I do for you?" I smiled at my mom's voice and then cleared my throat.

"Mama? It's me, Percy? Hermes got me a cell; I just um, I needed to talk to you." I could feel the tears forming in my eyes and brought a hand to wipe them. Thank Nyx that I wasn't using Iris messaging.

"Percy! Oh, baby, is everything okay?" I heard my mom's voice grow soft and Paul's voice in the background, asking if I was okay.

"A lot of things have happened all at once," I said and then started to explain everything that happened: the Dark Daughters ritual, the blood lust, and even Elizabeth. I learned my lesson at age twelve of hiding things from my mom. She just listened to me and gave her point of view. We both decided that Elizabeth was something to not focus on for the time being and that I really should be taking the bloodlust thing as a good sign. My nerves ultimately settled talking with her, but a nagging feeling started to creep into my mind.

"There is something else," I said and rubbed my neck, taking a deep breath. "I think that I might be into men. I don't know, but I've started noticing things more while I've been here, which caused me to think back to certain things- but then I know I was into Annabeth. So I'm just really confused."

"Percy," My mom said; her voice sounded gentle, and I could almost hear the smile. "You can be into both women and men. There is nothing wrong with that or unusual about it." I responded to her words, but she spoke up before I could get a word out. "I love you no matter who you fall in love with. You just promise me that you'll introduce them to me."

"Okay," I said, my cheeks feeling hot and wet. "I promise I'll introduce them to you."

"I love you, Percy," My mom said over the line, and suddenly the voice changed, and I then could help but smile.

"You call us any time you need," I heard Paul say, and it caused the tears to come down more. "We are just one phone call away."

"I'll call you guys if I ever need to," I said, my voice cracking, unable to hold back just how much this phone call meant to me.

"Percy, everything is going to be okay," I heard Paul say, and I smiled. "You're the son of Posideon and a kick-ass kid. You got this."

I heard my mom laugh in the background, which caused me to laugh as well, and then she took the phone back from Paul to say our goodbyes. I told them goodbye placing the phone in my pocket and sitting in Nolan's office trying to come down from the overwhelming emotions of hearing my parents' voices again.