JASE'S POV!

I felt like I was flying. I was weightless. Looking down, all I saw was shadows. I looked like the Arai. The beast in front of me looked hideously like a mixture between fully-monstered out Rhode and a miniature Nyx. And she was standing above my little brother.

My instincts kicked in and I swept the monster's feet out from under her and scooped Oscar up. My parents were standing, watching with open mouths. Leo was there too, holding Calypso behind him. She was holding a bundle; a crying bundle. I didn't take the time to ponder this.

"Who are you?" the monster screeched. Its sword was raised above us, ready to chop my bro in two.

I growled at her and glared. "I warned you. I warned you all, I warned you not to touch my family." I remembered the threat I'd made to Medusa. I told her to spread the word. And by the look on this monster's face, she did. I felt Oscar wriggling in my arm. I had to resist the urge to drop the act and coddle him or coo at how much I'd missed him.

"Impossible, you died! Akhlys killed you!" the monster insisted. I had no idea who this monster lady was, or why she was after my family but she was, so she had to go down. How did she know about Akhlys? Word must spread fast through the monster community.

"It doesn't matter. Dead or alive, I will hunt you down and kill you if you touch my family." I took a moment to glance at the shocked figures watching us. "Don't you dare think that you are excluded from that threat just because you weren't in the pit when I made it." I tried not to flinch at the flow of memories.

Jase, you've got to hurry! I'm losing it!

Instead of the Arai, the voice I heard belonged to Grover. I nodded, despite the fact that I knew he couldn't see me.

"You want a real fight? Leave my family alone, come find me. I didn't trek through Tartarus, navigate the Labyrinth, face my literal worst fears, fight with the blood of my ancestors and die just to come home to you in the place of my family. So come and get me."

I finally let myself look at my brother. His eyes glinted with happiness. I wasn't sure if he recognized me but I chose to believe that he did. I kissed his forehead. As soon as my lips made contact with his head, I felt myself being torn away. I quickly set him down, then lunged at the monster. I felt my hand wrapping around her neck, then we were both pulled back.

When I emerged back into the Walmart parking lot, Grover obviously wasn't expecting me to bring along a giant monster with me on the return trip. He screeched and fell backwards into the bushes.

"Luke is going to kill me!" he yelped.

"And Charlie is going to kill me!" I added.

As the monster raised her sword, I realized that my dagger was still in the bag that Charlie was carrying.

"Monsters don't hurt mortals, right?" I asked.

"Not unless a mortal can see them and tries to attack," Grover said unsurly.

"Do you have a weapon?"

"I have my reed pipes!"

"Then we've got to make a new plan. Follow me!" There wasn't any water around. No sewers, no rain puddles. I was determined not to use my other powers, so I bolted for the safety of the yellow light emitting from the Walmart sign.

With Grover on my heels, I barged through the front door and ran like a madman into the center aisle. I weaved through the freezer section and pushed shopping carts out of my way.

"There's a mountain lion loose in the store!" I screamed. People reacted quickly. They filed frantically through the doors, yelling and pushing. Luke was helping them out, but nearly fell over when he noticed who'd yelled the warning. Charlie nearly ran past me with his arms full of frozen waffles and Almond Joys.

"There's no mountain lion, is there?" he said glumly.

I pointed behind me. "Just run!"

Charlie took my word for it. He threw his collection behind us and bolted. As we ran to the toiletries section he pulled my dagger from the bag and tossed it to me. Once we were backed against the wall, I raised it and got ready to fight. We'd both forgotten it was there when we split up.

"Ready?" Luke yelled.

Just then, the fire alarm went off. Flashing lights and screaming alarms were distracting, but the sprinklers going off made up for it. I used my powers to grab the water and hold it above me in two large fists. Charlie held his hands in front of him defensively. He had his sword from Bob and Damasen that he was pretty good, but Charlie usually tended to use his powers instead. He hadn't had the same training I had.

"Just one more of you Jackson men than I thought," the beast growled.

"What do you mean? Why were you trying to kill my brother!?" The thought made me want to kill her now, but I needed to know her reason for attacking.

"I must kill the male legacies of Poseidon, to keep him in power. His sons will want to overthrow him. I can't let that happen, so I decided to take care of it. Triton was easy, Nyx is going to take care of the cyclops, and I was going to take care of the Jacksons. I thought you were dead, this has become a minor inconvenience," she said.

I threw my arm into the air and facepalmed. What was it with all these ladies and killing Poseidon's kids? At least Rhode didn't discriminate between his daughters and sons.

"Triton is dead?" I asked. I didn't know Triton very well, but that doesn't mean I wanted him dead. He gave me a weird shell thing when I was little. My dad pranked me by convincing me I could use it on the vending machine at school...

"He will be soon. It's a slowly acting poison, he will die and he'll never know why."

"Who are you?" Charlie asked. He set a hand on my waist and pulled me back. Triton was still alive. That's good.

"I am Artemisia."

I racked my mind for information. Thankfully, I could just steal from the Arai's stash. The little devils had actually been pretty useful lately.

"You took out three ships in your own fleet just to evade capture from the Greeks. You blinded the man you loved as he slept just because he didn't love you back, then threw yourself off of a cliff because of it. Guess you have a thing for falling for guys who don't return the feeling," I sassed. She didn't seem to understand sarcasm.

Artemisia threw her arms to the side like a toddler. "Poseidon will love me once he knows what I have done for him!"

"Yeah, I'm sure killing his favorite son will totally earn his favor."

"Exactly! Now lower your weapon and let me kill you!"