— XI. KAYLA & LAMIA: FAULT —
"—gods! Why the fuck do you kill us! All of the fucking time!" the demigod screamed, voice breaking as she ran from the monster.
"Why do we kill you?" Lamia asked, offended. "Us? It's you demigods who are at fault for this!"
"Wha—" Kayla's question was cut off by her scream, as she dodged Lamia's fireball. "How is it our fault?"
"All I wanted was to sponsor a gods-damned book!" Lamia shouted. "Half of us monsters just want to be done with this cycle of death and regeneration. Hells, Medusa went and started her own damned business to get away from it! And you still hunted her down and killed her!"
"Medusa was turning people to stone!" Kayla defended. "She attacked Percy!"
"Oh, so demigods get to defend themselves?" Lamia asked rhetorically. "I've seen empousa and hellhounds just laying about, living life in the little ways they can, and then bam!" it was punctuated by Kayla's shout as she dodged down an alleyway. "A little demigod shows up, determined to slaughter them! Gods' sake, can't you just leave us well enough alone?"
"You eat people! And demigods!"
"Not for years!"
Kayla gaped, "You can't be serious!" She threw herself over a fence and kept running, barely avoiding tripping over an empty crate. Lamia flew after her, half running from wall to wall, leathery wings outstretched and flapping in time with her footsteps.
"What, you think we don't realize how poorly eating you bastards goes for us?" Lamia snarled, "Two deaths in and the smart ones stop coming after you, start setting up shops and businesses instead. I've been running fucking homeless shelters! And still you stupid little bastards come a-hunting!"
"You were going to kill him!" Kayla defended herself.
"Kill who? My son? I don't kill my children!"
"Just other people's children then?" Kayla tripped face-first over a fallen bottle and rolled back onto her feet in one smooth motion.
"Not in years," Lamia complained, "after my first death, the madness Her Majesty inflicted on me washed away. Funny how death does that to you. I couldn't imagine killing children after that. Demigod bastards who try to kill me? You're fair game. But children? Not if I can help it."
"Sounds like bullshit to me!" Kayla criticized, dodging when she heard Lamia's shriek of rage. "I don't believe any of you are capable of being anything but monsters!"
"Oh? You don't?" Lamia snarled. "What do you call that filthy little cyclops? The harpy? The centaur and satyrs and dryads? What are they if not monsters? Is it just the fact that I don't look human enough for you? That I killed someone three thousand years ago? Look to your trainer! Look at Chiron, or that bitch Lupa, or any of them! You think they're guiltless? That they haven't slaughtered demigods and humans because it suited them? You delusional child, you don't get to pick and choose who the monster is!" Lamia slammed feet first into the demigod, knocking her to the ground and kicking her sword away, one clawed hand gripping her wrist as the other tightened around the girl's throat.
"You wretched little worm, I should gut you. I would be well within my rights to." Lamia hissed, wings flared as her hand tightened enough to snap the bones in the demigod's wrist. She ignored the pained cry and muffled pleas. Lamia laughed, cold and mocking. "Who would have thought? The horrible monster, the one sparing a demigod. If you come and disrupt my life again, demigod, I will tear out your heart and eat it."
