A/N: *shifts uncomfortably* So, uh, a bunch of you sort of got the wrong idea about when I was gonna be done . . . so, um, I'm not actually done writing this. By I have two more chapters, I meant I have two more completed chapters, not I have two more and this is done . . . that'd be a very sudden and abrupt ending . . . I actually have a lot more to write I've just hit a block with this one chapter, 'cause I can't figure out what to add to make it reach my appropriate length . . . sorry for the confusion! I will, however, admit I am planning to do a sequel at some point! Now go ahead and read, and enjoy!

Percy: A Bloody Secret

I awoke suddenly the next morning feeling bewildered. I couldn't remember falling asleep; I was just suddenly asleep. But I could remember the dream I had.

In my dream, Artemis had visited me - well, sort of, more like her voice and the feeling of a presence. She told me that in the morning I'd receive some news and that Annabeth and I weren't to let on we knew certain things. We were to act as if we only knew what we had been told, because otherwise it might ruin things. I didn't fully understand, but I guessed it would make sense when it came time.

Straightening up I found I had been sleeping against Annabeth and she had been doing the same. Looking around our campsite, I saw the fire was completely dead and I was the only one awake. That meant we had been sleeping without anyone on watch, a very dangerous thing. Annabeth had probably fallen asleep the same time as me, as well as by accident. Hunter was looking like he had passed out, due to his injury; which was covered by a blood soaked wrapping. And then there was Cora.

Cora looked like she had been the only one to move. She had moved over a couple feet, and I knew she wasn't an active sleeper. Then there was the strangest thing of all. Her army green jacket with multiple pockets was off. That was a shock, she never took it off, even to sleep (she, ah, refused to take someone else's clothes . . .). She was holding it in her arms, as it to keep it close for comfort. I wondered how she took it off, being asleep and all. Unless she was a sleepwalker, which I knew from experience she wasn't.

Still perplexed by my sister's weird night time antics, I finished looking around the site. There was a small sack near the campfire pit. I wondered what was in it, but didn't look – at that moment. The ground was damp – as was I – from the early morning dew and I saw what looked like footprints and paw prints. What were foot and paw prints doing here?

As I was struggling to get into a comfortable position, without waking Annabeth up, she did. She looked at me confused and I motioned for her to be quiet, gesturing to Cora and Hunter. When she saw them still fast asleep we both moved away from them so we could talk quietly without waking up the others.

Well, it's more accurate to say I moved away and Annabeth silently inspected the prints and everything else that had changed during the night. When she was done she came over and sat next to me. I wrapped my arm around her waist; she was shivering slightly in the cool damp air.

We sat in silence for a minute before I told her about my dream from Artemis. She was about as confused as me, and I didn't blame her. I was the one who got the dream and it made no sense at the moment.

Sometime later Hunter woke up. In his sleep he had looked calm, and now I saw he was still in some pain. He had done a pretty good job of masking it the night before, probably to not worry my sister any more. Hunter looked tired, and his bandage was bleached scarlet red. Unfortunally, I knew we'd have to wait until Cora woke up to change it.

Cora woke up much later, which I found odd since she was normally an early riser. When she did finally wake, it seemed to take her a minute to get her bearings. She yawned widely, as if she hadn't slept at all. Then looked at us confused.

"How come you guys aren't eating?" She asked us. I stared at her like she was a nut case.

"Eating? Did you forget? We have no food," I pointed out. Cora tilted her head and looked at me strange.

"What are you talking about? It's –" she stopped short as realization of something hit her. "Oh, right, only I was awake then. Well, there's food in the sack; enough for a day." That was all I needed to hear. I was starving!

I dived at the sack and ripped it open. Inside was a bunch a different thing; a loaf of bread, some apples and other fruits, juice boxes, water bottles, granola bars. The basic food needed for quests. I let a cheer and was about to stuff a granola bar in my mouth when Annabeth decided to go all cautious. Come on, it's food!

"Wait a minute," Annabeth said. "Cora, where did you get the food from?"

"I got it from . . ." Cora's face clouded over. "Well I don't really know her name. But I know the girl, she's from my past!" I froze and stared at her.

"Hang on, what?" I choked out. Did I just hear her say a girl from her past? Was she serious? She met someone from her past? Why wasn't I awake for that, I would have liked to pry some answers out of whoever it was!

"I'll start this from the beginning," she said. For the next half an hour we all sat there eating why Cora told what happened in both French and English.

When she finished, I had nothing to say to her. I couldn't think of what to say to her.

I knew from the description exactly who her visitor had been. I knew Annabeth knew her too. She was a close friend of ours. Though how she and my sister knew each other I couldn't fathom. It did explain a few things, but unfortunally Annabeth and I couldn't discuss them. We both knew that this turn of events was what Artemis had been warning me about.

With Cora little revelation, we also figured out where to go next. We had originally been planning on going to Phoenix, but had had no clue what direction to go in. Now we knew we had to go northwest; which according to Annabeth, made the most sense seeing as we had just come from the Superstition Mountains.

Now that we had our plans in order, there was only one more thing needed to be done before we headed out. Rewrapping Hunter's wound.

It wasn't an easy task. He was still a bit panicky about people touching it. Well, not too much Cora. But they could actually talk to each other and their friends so I guess that would make sense. So Cora and Annabeth took I don't know how long to unwrap and rewrap his wound.

Okay, they didn't unwrap the bandage exactly. Turned out the wound was still bleeding and if they took off the bandage it would destroy the blood clot. So they had to use Cora's dagger to cut off as much as they could then bandage it again.

For some reason during this whole time Cora still hadn't put her jacket back on. I think she was just too busy and distracted to remember. She was constantly doing something.

When we were finally almost ready to leave, Cora suddenly jumped to her feet and looked around alarmed. I opened my mouth to ask her what was wrong when I heard it. A long, lone wolf howl. I immediately tensed and looked around warily. I gritted my teeth and tried not to freak out to much.

See, the thing is, I really don't like wolves. Not just because we had to fight mutant wolves and werewolf king Lycaon in the previous war; but because of what happened when I first woke up after Hera took my memory. I woke up in the Wolf House surrounded by prowling wolves – they may have been gentle but it was still a shock. Ever since then, I haven't been the fondest of them.

A minute later, there were multiple more wolf howls. They came from all directions. Then I heard the light trampling of many feet. They grew closer and closer. The trees rustled noisily as the wolves raced closer. Suddenly they stopped. I knew they were close, but for some reason they didn't attack. I knew they were waiting for us to come out.

Quick as a flash Cora pulled out her sword and it grew to life in her hand. She looked over at us and blinked in confusion when she saw our unequipped hands.

"Aren't you guys going to draw your weapons?" She asked us. I coughed nervously.

"Um, Cora," I said. "Werewolves can only be harmed by silver. And you're the only one with silver weapons so . . . we can't help you." Cora put one hand on her hip and looked at us.

"Seriously?" She asked. I shrugged and nodded. "But, Percy, you're invincible, couldn't you just bash them or throttle them or something?"

I frowned. "And what? Leave Annabeth and Hunter undefended? I'm not going to do that. You'll just have to fave them alone," I said. Cora glanced at us worried before her eyes drifted to her belt. She switched her sword to her left hand, pulled out her dagger and looked at it for a while. I watched her curiously. You know, I never noticed before but my sister was really muscular for someone so thin; never saw the muscle before when her jacket was on.

Cora closed her eyes and suddenly tossed me her dagger hilt first. I caught it with surprise and looked at her confused. She opened her eyes and looked at me sidelong.

"Just in case," she reassured me. I raised my eyebrows at her.

"Why don't you let someone help you then?" I asked, because she didn't normally seem okay with someone using her weapons. Cora shrugged.

"I just don't want to leave you guys unarmed . . ." From her expression she was worried and I knew she was also suspecting I didn't like wolves. Guess I'm not a master at masking my face either. Since I didn't have a reply, Cora raced off into the trees.

I really did not like waiting. It's horrible to not be able to join in a fight. Most people would be glad, but I've just grown so accustomed to fighting it feels odd to not be. It was even worse because everything had happened so quickly that Cora never explained everything to Hunter so he was just sitting there looking lost and woozy. At least the kid knew about killing werewolves.

It was painful just sitting there, listening to the fight happening all around us. I could hear trees breaking, wolves howling and snarling, things crashing into each other with dynamic force. Every once in a while there was the growling voice of a transformed wolf. Sometimes that happens, for whatever reason.

I hated just waiting as Cora fought the beasts. I had no idea of how the fight was going, and I had no real way to know either. Unless I was willing to enter the fight.

Time passed and eventually the forest grew quiet. It was a relief to know that the wolves were beaten back. There was a snapping whine and a final, unhappy growled threat. Then it was silent. All three of us looked at each other, the same thought passing through our minds; where was Cora? A moment later we heard plants rustle and footsteps. A tree shook and Cora stumbled into view breathing heavily.

She stopped at the edge of the trees and forced herself to stand up straight. She held it for a couple seconds before wincing and bending over. Her sword was gone and she was clutching her upper left arm tightly. I could just see red blood through the cracks in her fingers. She walked over to us swaying and collapsed on the ground. A moment later she was on her back trying not to let on she was in pain. She didn't do a very good job.

"What happened?" I breathed in shock. This was another reason to dislike werewolves. They not only did this to friends before, but now they did it to my sister.

"Lycaon scratched me when he retreated," Cora mumbled. "I just got unlucky." Well that was typical Lycaon; he always liked to do something before retreating. Unfortunally whatever he does that causes pain, it causes a lot of pain.

Annabeth cast a worried look at me. "That's not good," she said. "Lycaon sometimes imbues his claws with some type of poison that's deadly to mortals. We need to clean that out right away." That definitely got my attention. Since when does Lycaon have some type of poison? Nobody ever tell the sometimes-invincible-sometime-not guy things.

Cora managed to cast a mildly annoyed glare at Annabeth – probably wishing she had mentioned that before – then bit back a quiet moan. Annabeth cast a glance at me before kneeling down next to Cora. She murmured something to her and I saw Cora weakly nod.

Cora shakily pulled her hand away from where it had been placed, revealing what her wound actually looked like.

There were three short but deep slashes a couple of inches apart on her upper arm. They weren't bleeding too badly but – but something wasn't right. The top slash was bleeding scarlet blood. In the middle slash, the colouring was off; it wasn't as rich a red, more of an orange colour. And the last slash was bleeding . . . was bleeding . . .

"Golden Ichor," I breathed. "You're bleeding golden Ichor." All of us were frozen; we were too shocked to move. It – it was impossible. She was bleeding the blood of gods and the blood of humans. All I could do was stare; all any of us could do was stare. It was – it was just impossible, this wasn't natural.

Cora looked at us bewildered through half closed eyes. "What?" she choked out, looking down at her arm in amazement. "Oh dear gods. How – how is this even possible? It's – it's –" She couldn't even find a word to describe it, none of us could. We were in silent shock for a minute.

"I don't understand," Annabeth whispered eventually. "This isn't possible; a person can't have two types of blood in them, not even a demigod. It doesn't make any sense . . . how could . . ." Annabeth was off in strategic-daughter-of-Athena mode.

"Hello? In pain here, care to fix me up before you answer the impossible question?" Cora muttered. I was too shocked to even move or help and Annabeth was already lost in her own world so she got no response.

Sighing, Cora said, "Hunter, pourriez-vous me donner l'aide? S'il vous plaît?" Hunter, being pulled out of his staring stupor, saw that no one else was doing anything and since he was asked to quickly helped Cora pour some Nectar on her wounds and tie it up; miraculously doing this with minimal usage of his left arm. Cora remained quiet after that.

When we were about as ready as we could possibly be with the shocking revelation of Cora's blood, we quickly headed off in the direction we were told to go in. We were silent the whole time, thinking through the possibilities, trying to make sense of everything. It was hard to believe, but this whole time, Golden Ichor, the blood of the gods, had been flowing through my very own sister's veins.

A/N: *taps chin* I hope this wasn't over doing things, because I did question it briefly. I do have a reason for the Ichor though, it just relates to Cora's past so you can't find out for now . . . it doesn't affect her mortality though. She's still the same as any other demigod, just with a different blood type. Just clearing that up for now. *smiles* It'll make more sense later on. Now, let me know what you thought through either a review or fav or alert! I don't care which, I just want to know! I'll see you all next for the final completed chapter.