Chapter 17: R U Mine
Annabeth didn't know what to think anymore.
She sure had a lot of thoughts, a lot of ideas that skittered across her mind without any rhyme or reason, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was she didn't know what to focus on, what to accept, what to deny. She didn't know what to think.
There were a lot of things that were causing that, and most of them had cropped up just about the second Percy had left.
He door had barely shut behind him when she heard Thalia and Nico's footsteps sprinting down the stairs as the two practically fell over each other. They grabbed her hand, dragged her to the kitchen, slapped an ancient looking photo album in front of her, and there it was.
There he was.
She wasn't gonna deny it, nor was she gonna act like they'd believe her if she did. She just stared at the ancient photograph as thought after thought ran through her mind. She looked up, at Thalia, who to no surprise had been staring at her the whole time.
"I was right." She said. The words tinged with a mix of self satisfaction and nervousness that made her voice come out as a strained whisper.
Annabeth grabbed the album and slapped it closed as she closed her eyes tight.
"Thalia. I swear-"
"Annie, don't you even fucking start." The girl replied, opening the album back up and quickly flipping to the page, "Look at it. Look at it and tell me I'm wrong."
Annabeth looked, and opened her mouth, but words didn't come out. That mouth snapped shut when Thalia flipped the photo over and pointed at the words on the back.
Percy and Blackjack, 1971
She didn't want to believe it. She wanted to shut her eyes and slam the album closed and pretend that what she was looking at wasn't what was real, but it was, wasn't it? It was real, and it was there, and it wasn't something Annabeth could explain away.
Percy and Blackjack, 1971. That's what it said. Those are the words that were written in ancient pen on that ancient photo in that ancient album and...
It was too much.
Annabeth fell backwards, towards the counter. Thalia caught her as she fell, grabbing her by the back of the neck and catching her in her arms. She held her friend steady, clenching her hand tight as Annabeth took deep breaths. In and out. Deeply in, and softly out.
It was still too much.
She clenched Thalia's hand tight and turned to look at her friend, a look in her eye that said a lot before any words came out.
"His lips were so cold."
Thalia let her eyebrows furrow in sympathy as she teaced gentle circle in her friends hand. She reached over and grabbed her other palm, making Annabeth turn to look at her.
"Annie, look... I think that-"
She stopped talking suddenly as her eyes narrowed into a glare.
"Wait, what do you mean his lips were cold?" Her eyes narrowed a little further as Annabeth's face lost its colour, "Did you kiss him?"
Annabeth opened her mouth to answer when suddenly everything went out. The lights, the TV in the other room, the over, the clock on the wall. Everything. It all shut off so quickly it made everyone just about jump.
Thalia let out a low grumble as she crossed the room and flicked the switch.
"Powers out."
Annabeth took a breath to collect herself, "Yeah, no shit."
Thalia glared at her friend, "You didn't answer my question, Annabeth."
Annabeth crossed her arms and let out a breath as she crossed the kitchen, walking towards the door. That didn't seem to be acceptable to Thalia, who crossed the kitchen to get in front of her.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Annabeth shot a glare her friends way as she tried to scoot around, but thakia shifted to the side immediately.
"Home, Thals. I'm going home."
Thalia's hands shot out on either side of her immediately, "No you aren't. You might not be going home ever again. Nico, back me up here, would you?"
The boy sighed and held up his hands, "I actually want to go home, too."
Thalia's jaw dropped, "Are you kidding me?" Those same hands that were blocking the path were now thrown up in the air, "Am I the only sane person here? Am I the only one who wants to stay put in this vampire infested shithole of a town?"
Annabeth snapped her gaze to Thalia and jammed a finger at her, "Thalia, I want you to think for a second. If they were gonna kill us, wouldn't they have done it already?"
Thalia opened her mouth, and no words came out, so she shut it into a scowl. Annabeth pressed a little more.
"More importantly. If they were gonna attack, what good would having no power and no way to phone help do us?"
Thalia's eyes sharpened into a glare. A glare because she knew Annabeth was right. Annabeth sighed and looked over at Nico.
"I'm gonna take you home, then I'm gonna go home." She turned back back to Thalia, who's glare had softened a bit.
"We'll talk about this in the morning, alright?"
Thalia turned away from her for a moment before she turned back and reached out, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"If one of them even gets close to you, I want you back here. Immediately."
Annabeth gave her a soft smile, "What're you, my mom?"
Thalia smiled right back, "Damn right I am."
They held that stance for a moment, before Thalia dropped all pretense of toughness and pulled her friend into a hug. A tight hug, tighter than Annabeth had ever felt before.
"Be careful, Annie." She whispered into her ear, "I mean it."
Annabeth smiled into her friends shoulder, "When am I ever not?"
She could feel Thalia smirk into her shoulder, "When you made out with Nosferatu."
Annabeth pulled away with a frown, "We didn't make out, Thalia."
Thalias grin only widened, "Oh really? Tell me, Annabeth..." She poked her first in the stomach, "...does he taste like blood, or what?"
Annabeth shook her head with a sigh and motioned Nico over, "C'mon Nico. Let's get a move on."
They left Thalia's and got into Annabeth's truck. It was a quick drive from Thalia's to Rachel's, maybe five or so minutes, but it was enough for Nico to break the silence between the two.
"Do you think she's right?"
Annabeth was quiet for a moment, before she let out a deep sigh.
"I don't know what to think anymore, Nico."
The silence returned after that, with only the heavy rainfall on the truck and the sound of windshield wipers providing noise for the pair. Nico let out a sigh as they pulled up Rachel's driveway and followed it with a smirk.
"What did he taste like, by the way?"
Annabeth parked at Rachel's driveway and let her gaze drift over to Nico's. She held it there for a moment their eyes locked in a silent battle of attrition, before she looked forward and smiled softly, her cheeks flushing a little.
"Like whiskey." She said, "Like whiskey and Caramel."
Nico smiled a little more as he opened the car door and stepped out into the rain. He turned back to Annabeth as he shifted his coat on his shoulders.
"Well, just between you and me?" He wiggled his eyebrows, "I hope you get seconds."
She forced a frown to hide her smile, but the blush said all Nico needed to hear. He shot her a wave and walked up Rachel's porch, stepping inside and closing the door behind him.
Annabeth sighed to herself as she shifted the truck into drive and pulled away, silently whispering a response even though she knew he couldn't hear.
"Yeah, you and me both."
She drove up the driveway. Up and away from Rachel's house as she pulled onto the highway and started the long drive home. The long, quiet, lonely drive. The drive where she had nothing to do but listen to the rain on the windshield and the soft sound of the radio.
Nothing to do at all. Except think, and christ almighty, was she ever thinking. She was thinking a lot, about very little. Well, that's if she could even call Percy very little, but he wasn't anymore, was he?
Had he ever been very little to her?
She sighed out a grumble and pulled over to the side of the road, putting her truck in park and shutting the thing off so she could sit there in the silent darkness and really, really think about this. Think about it hard, like she always thought about things.
What if Thalia was right?
That photo... man, it really just threw a wrench in everything, didn't it? It drew a blade and held it firm and slashed it through any preconceived illusion Annabeth had unknowingly and unwittingly created for herself. It decimated it. Pulverized it. Even as she sat there trying he hardest to rationalize things, everything she tried to think of just didn't quite stick.
Maybe that was just the long lost brother Helen had spoke of? That made sense, sure. But even if it were possible, it just didn't shake the possibility that their Percy was that Percy, long lost and now finally found. That person, standing in that photo labeled 50 years old. That was Percy. It wasn't some lookalike or a distant relative, no. That was Percy, it had to be.
She let out a grumble as her head dropped againt the steering wheel, her thoughts refusing to shut up and let her rest as they knocked back and forth in her brain. She had to have sat there for what felt like an hour, her mind having a minor breakdown as she debated her state of reality with itself.
She sat there until she noticed something. Something moving in her rearview mirror. The squinted and adjusted it, getting a better look at the figure, and when she made him out, she'd be lying if she said it didn't make her at least a little nervous.
It was Luke. The guy from the bar, who'd hit on Thalia and gotten a little too handsy with Nico. He was there, walking through the rain in the middle of fucking nowhere with a look on his face that said way more than his words probably ever could.
It wasn't a happy look.
It was a heavy and sorrowful look. A look of anger, of frustration. A look of regret. A look that she didn't know how to feel about.
She watched as he walked, right up next to her truck as the rain soaked him to the bone. He stopped, not even a few feet from her door. He stopped and he stood, staring straight ahead off into the distance, in the direction of Annabeth's home.
She didn't know what it was that compelled her, but Annabeth couldn't help but roll her window down a crack and speak to the man.
"Hey... buddy."
He didn't respond. There wasn't an ounce of change in his posture, nor a fraction of change in his face. He just kept his eyes locked ahead as he stared off down the highway. Annabeth shifted uncomfortably in her seat, checking the doors to make sure they were locked.
"You, uh... you lost? If you are, I can tell you you're headed in the right direction, at least."
There wasn't an immediate response. Instead, he closed his eyes tight, clenched his knuckles so tight they cracked, and grit his teeth into a frown.
"I did something terrible."
His words caught her off guard, making her lean a bit into her window.
"What?"
His eyes opened, remaining locked ahead.
"I hurt somebody, just as I was hurt. I thought it would help, but..." His gaze fell as his head dropped in the rainfall, "...I did something terrible."
Annabeth couldn't help her curiosity. She rolled her window down a bit farther and got closer to the man.
"What did you do?"
He kept his gaze locked on the ground as another sentence mumbled put of him.
"Do you think heaven is real?" His eyes raised to hers, "Sometimes I wish it were, because it would mean they're somewhere that makes them happy."
His eyes gazed off into the distance, locked on some invisible monument of his attention that she couldn't see nor possibly imagine. He let his lip twitch softly as his eyes softly closed again.
"But if it were real, then... the other place is real too." He looked Annabeth dead in the eye, "and if it is, I'll never see them again."
She couldn't answer. To be fair, she had no idea what he was talking about. But with how he was talking she got the feeling that, even if she did have some frame of reference, it would do her no good.
He gave her a glance, but he didn't say anything else. He just turned ninety degrees, facing away from her now, and simply walked off. Out into the desert, into the darkness, and out of Annabeth's line of sight. She watched as he went, but the second he was out of sight she rolled up her window, turned the truck on, and floored it.
That was weird. Weird enough to scare her and weird enough for her to push the speed limit all the way to her house.
She got there late. Real late. Late enough that the lights were out, both the ones inside and the ones that normally lit the driveway.
Annabeth got out of her truck, fumbling with her keys as she approached her door. Her nerves were shot, that much was clear to anyone who might've been watching. It was also pretty clear that there was exactly one goal on her mind. Getting inside, and locking the door behind her.
She got to her door and flipped through her keys, struggling to find the right one as the rain soaked her hands and, though she didn't want to, she shot the odd look at the house next door.
All the lights were out, and she didn't know how to feel about that.
She eventually got to her house key, but of course those nerves weren't done with her, because she slipped and dropped them right on the door mat. She cursed to herself and dropped down to grab them, before a voice rang out behind her that made her blood run cold.
"Hello Annabeth."
She snapped to her feet, keys in hand, and whirled around.
There she was. Zoe. Standing near soaked in the rain in the leather jacket as the storm continued to rage around them. She had her eyes locked on Annabeth, unwavering and unmoving as a look of vacant stoicism laid over her face.
She didn't move, not at first. She simply let her eyes trace gentle lines up and down Annabeth's body. Sizing her up before anything else.
They both were quiet for a moment, before Zoe clicked her tongue and snapped her eyes to Annabeth's.
"I know what you want, Annabeth."
That caught her off guard. Enough so that she took a step back to collect herself.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
The words were bullshit, and they both knew that. Still, Annabeth would have preferred to avoid conflict, especially with Thalia's theory still present in her mind and she figured feigning ignorance might grant her some leniency.
It didn't.
Zoe took a step forward, clearing the meager distance Annabeth had put between the two of them. Her fists clenched, hard enough for Annabeth to hear the girls knuckles crack in her hands, and she could practically hear her teeth groan in her jaw as a scowl etched across her face.
"He's mine. He is mine, and he always will be."
The words were angry, greatly so. But they had another emotion clearly present too. Worry. It sounded less like she was threatening Annabeth, and more that she was trying to reassure herself. Zoe closed her eyes, shutting them tight as her body loosened and her voice softened.
"He was mine, and you ruined it."
If Annabeth wasn't petrified beyond belief and at Percy fueled odds with her, she'd have honestly considered consoling her.
Zoe took a deep breath to calm herself, and Annabeth watched as her body loosened even further. She tucked her hands in the pockets of her jacket, drawing a deep breath as she met Annabeth's eyes again.
"He can have you..." She said, her voice barely hiding any anger, "...but on my terms. For as long as he needs to... to get you out of his system."
Annabeth opened her mouth to answer, but Zoe wasn't done.
"And when he's done with you. When what you have has run it's course, for as long as it needs for him to come to his senses. For him to realize it'll be me, not you, who will stay until the end, then he'll come back where he belongs..."
She took another step forward and leaned in, pressing her lips right up to Annabeth's ear as gentle, vicious words softly flowed from the girls lips.
"... with me."
She pulled away, taking the opportunity to meet her eyes with a stare that felt like it meant to kill. Zoe smiled. A wry, cold smile rhat etched across her face as she laid a gentle hand on Annabeth's shoulder.
Annabeth tensed at the touch immediately, feelingher heartbeat raise in her chest as her breathing did the same. Zoe watched her lips, letting her gaze trace its way down to her chest as Annabeth's heart continued to batter against her ribs. There was a look in her eyes there, a look that Annabeth didn't like at all.
A hungry look.
Zoe shut her eyes as her lip twitched into a sneer, before her face settled and she forced a smile.
"Don't worry." She said softly, "I don't do anything myself if I can get someone to do it for me."
Those were the last words she left her with before she turned and marched back up to the house next door, walking right in and slamming the door behind her.
Annabeth didn't waste any time, she found her house key, stuck it in the lock, gave it a turn, and marched right in. She was terrified. Too terrified to think, too terrified to rationalize, too terrified to focus.
Too terrified to notice her door was already unlocked.
She dropped her keys in the bowl and marched straight to the kitchen, leaning heavily on the counter as it all kinda just set in.
Zoe, Percy, her. The whole situation that they had just snapped its non existent fingers and started making sense. Well, Annabeth wasn't stupid, and despite what Percy had said regarding the Persian girl next door she had her suspicions. Her suspicions that had more or less just been confirmed.
She drew a deep breath and rose up off the counter, deciding then and there that she was gonna figure this out. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and did something she should've done a while ago.
Called Percy.
She opened the fridge, pulling out a carton of orange juice and unscrewing the lid as she tucked her phone under her ear. It rang as she took sip, before the line went dead. She grumbled and held the phone up to get a look at the screen.
No service
She sighed, setting the carton down as she texted him a quick call me when you see this. She leaned against the counter again, checking for any other messages when she noticed something.
Someone was sitting in the living room. It was dark, but she had some idea of who it was.
She sighed to herself and spoke, "Hey dad."
There wasn't an answer, so she turned away, "How was your day? Mine was... Interesting to say the least."
She grabbed the carton and made her way back over to the fridge, opening the door to put it back.
"I think I've got a theory about our neighbours. Well, more Thalia does, and man, I don't know if I'm crazy or if-"
She stopped talking when she closed the door and saw it. A handwritten note, pinned to the fridge door that she'd somehow missed before, but couldn't help but stare at now.
Went to Helen's for the night, I'll be home in the morning.
-Dad
Her blood went cold. Ice cold. She turned back to the living room and the figure was gone. That set something off in her.
She reached behind her, initially reaching for a knife in the knife block before her Thalia influenced thoughts got the best of her and she instead yanked open a drawer and grabbed a silver knife from their fancy dinnerware.
She started making her way to her room in a rushed pace before another sound drew her attention.
"Annabeth?"
She froze immediately, right where she was, and turned to the voice. She reached out to the wall to flick on the lightswitch, and there they were.
Drew and Katie, holding each other tight as they shivered with fear on the couch.
Annabeth let out a shaky breath as all pretenses of hiding faded and she quickly approached her friends.
"Drew, Katie, what the fuck." She hissed, "Where have you two been? Everyone's been looking for you."
Drew raised her eyes up to Annabeth. The girl looked horrible. Pale skin and gaunt features with certain glint in her eye that showed an emotion Annabeth couldn't quite put her finger on.
"You need to go." Drew whispered as tears welled in her eyes, "You need to go now."
Annabeth opened her mouth to speak when another voice rang out from behind her.
"Well look what we have here."
Annabeth whirled around, knife still tight in her grip, and was met with a sight she didn't want to see.
There were four figures standing in her home. One of them was a slim, black haired boy. Probably a few years younger than Annabeth from the looks of him, but that pretense of normalcy was squashed by the black eyepatch that sat over his left eye, and the trails of blood that leaked from under it.
He was flanked by three things. They weren't people, no not even close. These were things. Slim, lean, leathery things. Barely female and barely humanoid with silver tracksuits covering their bodies. Their lips were thin, their eyes were wild and glowing, their teeth, when they bore them, were razor sharp needles. Even were essentially identical, besides their hair colour. One had black hair, one had red, and one had silver.
They were monsters. No, thats not what they were. Annabeth knew exactly what they were. They were exactly what her friend had been trying to warn her about, but that she'd been too stubborn to accept
Vampires.
She backed away from them, moving towards the window next to the fireplace as the boy and his creatures followed, him taking the front ad he approached Annabeth. He spoke to her directly, gesturing at his patch.
"You like it? Compliments of your boyfriend."
He grit his teeth and pulled his face into a sneer as he stood over her.
"I will admit, when Zoe gave me this task I was over the fucking moon. I mean, the opportunity to turn that piece of shits side piece? What a treat."
He grabbed Annabeth and pulled her to her feet by her arm, holding her up close.
"I wouldn't worry. You'll get plenty of time with Percy now. Until Zoe decides you've had enough of him, and then?"
He jerked his thumb at the creatures,
"You'll be one of these... if you're lucky."
The boy grinned as he bore his teeth and Annabeth watched in horror as a pair of fangs grabbed out of his jaw and descended into his mouth.
She knew what was gonna happen, what he was gonna do, and she didn't know if it was either last ditch resistance or sheer force of will that drove her next move, but she mad either anyways.
She stabbed the knife right into his shoulder.
He hissed as it entered, letting out a guttural screech as he grabbed the now smoking knife and pulled it from his shoulder.
"You fucking bitch." He snarled, "When I get my hands on you-"
He stopped talking, pretty suddenly, and Annabeth didn't have time to register why. All she could do was watch as his eyes turned to the window and widened.
Right before a fireaxe burst through the window and impaled itself into his chest.
The boy barely had a chance to let out a cry and reach for the weapon before the one who threw it burst through the window right after it.
Percy. Soaked in rain and missing his coat with wet hair matted against his forehead and sticking to his shin. Annabeth had a lot of unrational thoughts run through her head. She wanted to cry in happiness, she wanted to thank him, she wanted to grab his collar and pull him into another kiss.
But instead, all she could do was watch as he swung a right hook into the boys jaw so hard that half his teeth shot out of his mouth as blood splattered all over both Percy and Annabeth. Percy hit him with so much force the axe even flew out of the boys chest and impaled itself into the floor.
The boy flew back, smashing through the kitchen table and knocking it over as he slammed into the wall. Percy shot Annabeth a look for a split second before a sneer pulled over his face as he turned back to the creatures.
She could see his face, not from the way he was facing, but considering the move he'd just made and the way he was standing and the fact that he'd just blasted through the window like a bat out of hell she got the feeling he was here for a reason.
To get some killing done.
He took a step back, reaching down and tanking the axe free. He held his hand up behind him, making a clear message to Annabeth: stay behind me, before he raised his hand to the creature and motioned them towards him.
They obliged.
The redhead and the black haired one both descended immediately, diving at his chest with all the fury of a rabid dog. He swung the axe immediately, catching the redhead at the shoulder and nearly removing the limb. The other creature slammed into him as the redhead screeched and scurried away.
Percy grit his teeth, grabbing the creature by its mouth as it pushed him up against the fireplace. The silver haired one attacked too, diving at Percy. He gave the balck haired one a shove and caught the silver haired one mid lunge grabbing a fistful of its hair and slamming its face into the fireplace, splattering more blood over Annabeth.
He drew its head back and slammed it again before the black haired one regained its senses and lunged at him, clamping its teeth down on his shoulder.
Percy grunted in pain as the black haired creature crawled towards a wall, then crawled up it, dragging Percy who still gripped the silver haired creature by its hair.
Percy let out a low growled swung up with his free hand, jamming his thumb into the creatures eye.
It screeched and dropped him, letting him fall to the floor. He wanted no time getting a grip back on the silver haired creature, that tried its best to scurry away. He planted a knee on its back and kept a fistful of its hair, holding it in place as his free hand smashed a nearby table to pieces.
He grabbed a chunk of wood and drove it through the creatures chest, making it give one last screech of pain before it burst into flames and dust in Percy's hands.
Percy rose to his feet, drawing heavy breaths, before the red-haired creature dove at him from the front and tackled him to the ground. It raised its hands and slammed them into his chest, making him grunt in pain as he swung a backfist hard enough to dislocate the things jaw.
It screeched as it flew off him, but Percy had to time to collect himself before the black haired one grabbed a fistful of his shirt and threw him out of the house into the yard.
The two monsters followed him out the window and Annabeth took that as her chance to escape. She crawled across the floor to her room, desperately shuffling along the floor as she mad when way over to Drew and Katie, who'd been paralyzed on the couch in fear.
"C'mon guys." Annabeth hissed to them, "We gotta get out of here."
Drew looked at Annabeth a somber look in her eye as she shook her head.
"It's too late for us." She said, as she grabbed a fistful of Annabeth's shirt and pushed her away, "Save yourself Annie. Don't waste this on us."
Annabeth tried to answer, to say something to them. Some argument, or some response, but Drew pushed her away further as she rose to her feet. Katie followed closely and the two girls turned away from Annabeth, to the boy with the eyepatch who'd gotten up.
He looked horrible. Half his teeth were missing and his jaw was cocked off to the side at an unnatural angle. Drew and Katie dove at him, holding him down with as much force as they could as he snarled in response.
"Go!" Drew shouted, and Annabeth didn't waste any time, immediately sprinting towards her room.
Towards her gun.
Breathing hurt.
Percy didn't have to breathe. He hadn't had to breathe in decades, nearly half a century. It want something he needed to do so much as it was an instinctual thing. Something his body just did when he did things that would make a human breathe.
Exercise. Stress. Nervous situations. They all made him breathe. But fighting? That really brought it out of him, made his lungs start pumping.
Breathing hurt right now, and it hurt even more when one of the hunters landed a boot on his chest.
He flew back from the blow, crashing against the Chases fence and feeling his body just about give up then and there. He wanted to give up, to give in. He wanted to run off and lick his wounds and hope that Annabeth would forgive him.
But that wasn't an option, it never was, and maybe that's what rose him to his feet and made him catch the redheaded hunters punch and break it's arm at the elbow.
It screeched, a horrible guttural noise that was like steel tearing apart. He cracked another punch into its jaw and drew his arm back before black hair landed a kick to his midsection and smashed him halfway through the fences post.
He groaned as he made impact, and that groan turned to grunts ad the two monsters got on top of him and started punching.
They landed blow after blow, punch after punch, they cracked him over the head and scross his chest, scratching and striking as much ad they could and there was a moment there, for just a second where he though it was over.
He thought that was it.
But his mind wouldn't let it end. It wouldn't let him give in or give up. It wouldn't do anything but whisper words into his ear. Words that woke something up in him, that made his bruised eyes burn with tears and his bloody teeth grit and his knuckles crack as his hands clenched into fists.
Get up four-eyes. She needs you.
That was all he needed, the solitary boot in his ass that made him catch both the hunters attacks, one in either hand, and swing both their bodies over his head. One of them impaled on the fencepost, bursting into flames immediately, the other smashed through the fence itself.
He grabbed the third hunter, wrapping his arms around its head and jerked his hands, breaking its neck so badly its head rotated around 180 degrees.
It stumbled forward and fell to its knees, giving one last sputtering cough as it cleared blood onto the ground, before it collapsed onto the ground dead.
Percy wasted no time. He sprinted back to the house, leaving throug the window. He took note of the two girls who laid on the floor, blood leaking from their wounds ad they wheeled deep breaths before a noise snapped his attention in the direction of Annabeth's room.
A scream.
He went to move, but suddenly everything that had just happened to his body fully registered in his mind.
Ow.
Lots and lots of ow.
Enough that, even though he wanted to sprint, all he could do was pick up a shank of wood off the ground and limp towards Annabeth's room. He grit his teeth, bearing the pain as he got closer and closer. It all hurt, every bit of him. More than one rib was broken and more than one knuckle was too and if he had to breathe, it wouldn't have been fun, considering he was pretty sure he had a punctured lung. Didn't matter, he'd heal. He always did.
He got to Annabeth's door and swung it open and there was Ethan, looming over Annabeth with his hands on her throat.
Percy didn't waste time. He crossed the room in a heartbeat, and kept that theme in mind as he drove the steak he had straight through Nakamura's heart.
The boy stiffened, falling into Percy's grip before he burst into flames just like the others.
Percy took deep breaths through his probably broken jaw, finally letting himself double over and clear the bood from that jaw, spitting it at his feet. He put his hands out as he fell towards the wall and watched as Annabeth slipped out from under him and made for her bed.
"Annabeth." He wheezed, raising a hand towards her, but that was all he could get out before she reached under her pillow and pulled out a pistol, pointing it directly at him.
He drew a shaky breath, letting his eyes flick up to hers as it finally laid itself out there, right between the two of them, just waiting for him to claim it.
The truth.
"Annabeth..." He began, but she wouldn't have it. She cocked the hammer back on her gun, giving it a small shake as she kept it trained on him. He stiffened about as well as he could with a body full of wounds.
"No Percy. Don't even try." Her voice was shaking, barely holding back all the emotion that threatened to spill forth, "Don't you even try to lie to me."
He took a step forward, the same sympathetic look shining in his eyes. He didn't want this, for either of them, yet here it was, wasn't it?
"Annabeth, please..." He pleaded with her, but she just held the pistol tighter.
"Percy." Her voice was firm, yet soft. He knew what she wanted, before she even spoke.
"Tell me the truth."
He was still for a moment. A painful, slow, drawn out moment, before she's hands fell to his sides and his gaze fell right along with it.
"Alright." He replied, his voice a hollow droning sound. He took a step forward, then another, raising his eyes to meet hers again.
The pistol started to shake in her hands. She backed up, into the wall behind her, but he kept moving, kept getting closer until the barrel was pressed right up against his chest.
There was a quiet moment, a moment where their eyes remained locked where her grip on the gun slipped and the barrel dropped a little, but he reached up to catch it and rose it back up to his chest.
Then gripped it tight and pulled the trigger.
It went off, blew a hole straight through his chest, and she waited.
For a sound.
A response.
For him to cry out, to fall over, to stumble back. To die. To do any of the things you're supposed to when you're shot.
But he didn't, he didn't do anything, even as the fresh hole in his chest sizzled ever so slightly.
He kept his eyes locked on her as his lips twitched. He ran his tongue over his teeth, rolling it around in his mouth as he worked something into his jaw. He leaned forward, held out his hand, and spat it out, right into his open palm.
The bullet.
He dropped it on the floor, right in front of her, and the silence was so present that they both heard it clink as it hit the floorboards.
It was too much. Annabeth felt the pieces fit together, the pieces in her mind that had been there from the start, but hadn't clicked into place until now. Or maybe they had, and she'd just been too distracted by her heart to let her mind start making sense.
She felt the gun fall from her hands, heard it clatter on the floor, and watched as his eyes kept locked on hers. Her hand shook as she raised it, all while her eyes dropped from his. They met at the same spot, right over his chest, as she pressed a hand against it.
The hole was already gone. She choked back a sob, but the lack of a wound wasn't the reason. It's because of what she felt in his chest.
Nothing. No heartbeat, not even a whisper of one. It wasn't like she'd thought at Thalia's, not at all. He didn't just have a weak heartbeat.
He didn't have one at all.
And that was it, that was the exact moment it all kinda just hit her square in the chest for the tulruth it was. It had already been too much, but now?
She couldn't help it. She passed out, falling straight into his arms.
He caught her with a soft grunt as she landed right on a soft spot, where one of the hunters had planted its boot. He picked her up immediately, taking note of several things he'd been too busy getting some killing done to notice.
They were here. The clan, they were here and they were coming for her. He felt panic creep up his throat, but he forced it back down. This wasn't the time to freeze up, this was the time to act. He'd made his decision, and he was going to live with it.
He held Annabeth bridal style, stumbling towards her door as he grit his teeth, feeling that pain he'd felt before shoot bolts of lightning through his body. He tried a bit, over the pile of ash and bones that had been Nakamura. He scowled at the corpse and considered spitting on it, but knew dhag wouldn't do any good.
For one, he barely had the energy, and for another, there was blood in his mouth. He didn't know if that was how that worked, or if it was how any of this worked , but the last thing he needed was a mouthful of his blood raising Ethan from the dead.
He stumbled out her door, crashing into dhe wall and forcing his legs forward towards her door. He got to the living room when he heard something.
Something that terrified him.
Something that made his blood go even colder than it already was. Something that awakened an idea in his head that had been put there by that reflection that kept getting more and more rational by the day. A pair of familiar, repetitive sounds that echoed out from the living room, right from the two girls that Ethan had turned.
A pair of heartbeats.
Percy ahuffled over to the couch, softly placing Annabeth on it, before he stumbled over to the girls, practically collapsing onto the ground as intense, ragged breaths drew in and out of his lungs.
This wasn't possible. He wanted to believe it, but didn't. He wanted this, but couldn't accept it. He raised a shaky hand, untrusting of his ears considering the blows they'd taken, and pressed a finger to Drew's jugular.
And there it was. As clear as the days he recoiled from, as steady as the cycle of misery his life had become, as present as the eternal life he was chained to.
Was chained to. Was. Because there it was.
A heartbeat.
He couldn't hold it back anymore. The fear, the confusion, the relief, the panic. He grabbed Drew by her shoulders and gently shook her awake. She woke with a scream, wrapping her hands around her throat as she ripped deep breaths in and out of her lungs.
Percy kept his hand on her neck, gently tracing his fingers over the spot he knew was there. The bite wounds.
They were closed.
His hand recoiled at the feeling and he let out a shaky breath as it all came crashing down into him. The brutal, cruel truth that he'd been to stupid to put together and too ignorant to entertain. The fact that had been looking him in the face, and that his reflection had somehow known was the truth.
He closed his eyes and dove into his memories, trying to remember all the ones they'd lost. There hadn't been many. Zoe was safe, always had been, and led them away from danger before it could arrive. There had been deaths, sure, but it was always suicides. New blood that couldn't handle it. Anyone old was kept safe. Anyone that had turned anyone else, they were always kept protected.
Kept away from danger.
Kept alive.
The truth was there, it always had been, just beyond his reach, beyond his realm of comprehension, but it was always there. Waiting for him to reach out and claim it.
Kill the one who turned you, and you're free.
He rose to his feet, gritting his teeth as hot, miserable tears prickled at his cheeks.
No. Not like this.
He snapped himself back to focus. He didn't have time to waste dwelling on this. His priority was laying on the couch, passed out, not even a few feet from him, and not even a few hundred feet from the clan. It'd only be a matter of time before they investigated the gunshots and realized what Percy had done.
Percy didn't need to think before he moved.
He grabbed the two girls, dragging them into a closet. Drew sputtered out a protest as he moved but he flashed his fangs and sparked his eyes and she silenced herself. He ran to the kitchen and grabbed a few fistfulls of the Chases silverware, ignoring the burns as he returned to rhe closet and handed them the cutlery.
"Stay here." He said, "If they come in, use this."
Drew took a shaky breath, before she nodded firmly.
Percy shut the door and drew his hands across the wood, carving a familiar shape into the oak that made his fingers sizzle as he moved. He had a theory in his mind as he drew the symbol on the door.
A cross.
He tested his theory and reached for the door handle, satisfied when it made his hand smoke and burn at the touch.
He ran back to the couch, grabbing Annabeth with a groan as those bones of his took their sweet time pulling themselves from his organs. He carried her to the door, plucking up a stake of wood as he grabbed her keys and made for the door.
He didn't bother with the handle, leaning back despite the pain and kicking the door off its hinges. He ran to her truck, opening the passenger seat and tucking her in before he ran to the driver's seat. He was about to get in when he felt it.
A gaze. Her gaze.
He looked up, slowly raising his eyes to her window, and there she was.
Zoe. Watching as he moved, watching as he put Annabeth into her truck.
Keeping her eyes locked on his.
He could see she was crying, and from what he could make out, they didnt look like regular tears.
They looked like tears of blood.
He forces his eyes away from hers and got in the truck, turning it on and peeling out of the driveway, before gunning it down the road.
It didn't matter, how far he drove or how fast he went, it didn't matter. He knew the truth now. The cruel, brutal truth. The truth that followed him even as he floored the accelerator, daring to pull him back to the den.
There was a way out.
But why? Why did it have to be this?