"Come north, little hunter." The voice was female, cold and harsh as a winter gale. "Give me my immortality."
Lisa glared at the trees around her, trying and failing to locate the source of the voice. "I'm not giving you anything." She trudged through knee-deep snow to a tree trunk and started to climb.
"You will give me everything." The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. "I am inevitable."
Wind swirled around her as if it were trying to pull her down. Lisa reached the top of her tree, staring over the tops of snow-laden trees. She twisted around to see that the forest reached halfway up a range of mountains. Above the snowcapped peaks, the Aurora Borealis glowed.
"I know where this is." Lisa said defiantly. "I'm coming for you."
"No!" A second voice rang through the forest. Lisa's heart jumped as she recognised the voice as Lanesra's. "Lisa, stay away! It's a trap!"
"Lanesra!" she turned left and right, but couldn't spot the hunter.
"Insolent girl," the voice snapped. "You'll regret that."
"Leave her alone!" Lisa yelled.
Her tree trunk snapped with a loud crack. Lisa screamed as she fell.
And woke with a start, shivering and trembling. She sat up in bed, her mind racing.
"Goedemorgen," Jordan said from the top bunk. "Sleep well?"
"Nee." Lisa rubbed her eyes. "Nachtmerrie." Nightmare.
She swung her legs off the bed, then frowned at the sheets. "Are these new sheets?"
"Nope." It was Alabaster, stretched out on the couch, who replied. "Didn't change them. Couldn't."
"What do you mean, couldn't?" Lisa jumped out of the bed. She stormed across the room angrily into the bathroom, slamming the door hard.
"Ten years with the hunt," Jordan rolled out of the top bunk, dropping to the floor. "What has that taught her? She hasn't changed at all. And she insists she's twenty-three."
"She doesn't act like twenty-three." Alabaster noted. "More like fifteen or sixteen."
"That's what happens when you join the hunt," Jordan growled. "You don't grow up."
The loud sucking sound of the toiletbowl came from the bathroom and Lisa yelped.
"I told her to close the lid," Jordan sighed.
"We should keep everything in the toilet," Alabaster suggested. "And empty it on Lycaon when we find him."
"In that case I'll go to the bathroom before you." Jordan laughed. "And avoid it after." He walked off to the coffee room to continue work on his suit.
Alone in the room, Alabaster picked up his cards again. Jordan wasn't the only one in need of an upgrade. The fight with Lamia had left him drained and depleted, and he'd only managed to repel her. If he wanted to destroy her he'd need better weapons.
He concentrated on the cards, channelling magic into them. Skilled as he was, working with magic was a long, complex process. What he had in mind would take a long time to produce, and that was assuming he didn't make any mistakes.
Through the bathroom door, the faint sound of running water reached his ears; Lisa was taking a shower. His mind drifted toward her for a moment, then the thought made him wonder when he'd last had a shower. He probably smelled like a locker room. He frowned and pushed the thought out of his mind. There was no time for distraction, much less a girl. Not even a girl like her. He focused on his cards again, feeling the energy build within them as he worked. This was it, he was sure. The weapon he needed to destroy Lamia for good.
The bathroom door opened, hinges squealing, but Alabaster didn't notice, immersed in his own world. It was only when the warm scent of water and soap reached his nose that he realised Lisa was right beside him.
Her fingers traced the edge of the bandage on the side of his neck. He froze.
"What happened to you?" she asked softly.
"Lamia got inside my guard. Almost sliced my head off." A shiver went through him, the combination of Lisa's close proximity and her feather-light touch.
"I'm sorry," Lisa jerked her hand backwards like she'd been scalded. "Did I hurt you?"
"No," Alabaster would have shaken his head if not for his injury. "Not at all."
"Did you manage to kill her?" she asked.
"No." Alabaster wished he had. "Flattened her face, though. She won't be looking so good for the next few decades."
"That didn't kill her?"
"She's hard to kill." Alabaster sighed. "Believe me, I've tried. With this, however," he showed her a card, which had the faint outline of a man. "I can crush her like a bug."
"What is it?" Lisa asked.
"A combat avatar," Alabaster replied. "Made from magic energy."
"What's a combat avatar?"
Alabaster paused, considering how to explain it to someone who didn't know magic.
"Think of it like a suit of armour made from magic energy," he said at last.
"Sounds cool," Lisa said. "Can you make one for all of us?"
"No. Non-magic users wouldn't be able to control it. It would dissipate like steam, or, more likely, blow up."
"I see." Lisa sounded disappointed.
"Hey, you two!" Jordan's voice boomed through the intercom, making both of them jump. "Breakfast."
"Will you stop doing that?" Lisa yelled.
(Line break)
Percy never made it out of New York.
After the meeting with Annabeth, he spent the rest of the day scouring the city with Blackjack, searching for anything that might lead him to Thalia and the missing hunters.
No luck. The city bustled as usual with people and cars. Christmas was around the corner and everyone was in a festive mood. Stores and supermarkets were filled with New Yorkers stocking up for the big celebration, but there was nothing to indicate any magical activity, not even a single monster. Try as he might, Percy kept coming up empty.
Night began to fall by the time Percy pulled Blackjack into a doughnut drive-in. Both of them were exhausted. Percy could barely keep his eyes open. Blackjack's coat was slick with sweat, making him shiver in the cold winter air.
B-Boss, the pegasus's teeth chattered as they trotted out onto the road, doughnuts in hand. I don't feel so good.
"Yeah, me too," Percy murmured. He forced his head up, trying to get his bearings, and realised that he was only a few blocks from home. "I think we'll call it a day." He sighed in defeat.
Yeah, Blackjack agreed. Good call.
He flew the short distance to his Mom's apartment block on Upper East Side. Blackjack headed back to Camp Half-Blood to spend the night.
"Mom! Paul!" he yelled as he pushed open the door.
Nobody answered. The apartment was dark and silent. Percy guessed that, like everyone else, they were out shopping for Christmas.
Percy was too tired to eat his doughnuts or take a shower. He tossed the box onto the coffee table, collapsed onto the couch and fell fast asleep.
The next morning, he woke to the sound, or rather smell, of pancakes.
"Mom?" he mumbled.
The sound of his mother's laughter came from the kitchen. "Told you it would wake him up."
"Well, I can't say I'm surprised." Paul's voice sounded slightly hollow and muffled, and Percy guessed his stepfather was speaking, as he normally did during breakfast, with his coffee cup almost to his mouth. "Even a zombie would wake up if he knew you were making pancakes."
"Hi Mom, hi Paul." Percy appeared in the kitchen doorway, blinking sleepily.
"Aaaaand he's awake!" Paul said cheerfully.
"Just in time." Sally smiled at him as she piled pancakes onto a plate. Percy moved to take a seat, but Sally blocked him, levelling the spatula against his chest.
"Shower first." she told him.
Percy nodded and stumbled toward the bathroom, tripping on Paul's chair leg halfway there.
"Oops."
Sally sighed. She pressed her fingers against the kitchen tap opening and pulled the handle, spraying a jet of water five feet across the kitchen into Percy's face.
The effect was instantaneous. Percy blinked, his eyes opening fully. His posture straightened. "Thanks, Mom."
"That's a good one," Paul laughed.
"It was either that or dump a water jug over his head." Sally turned back to the stove. "Wakes him up instantly."
"I'll remember that the next time he passes out on the couch." Paul chuckled.
The three of them talked over breakfast. Percy filled them in on what had happened at Camp: the hunters' arrival, Nico winning the game and later capturing the assassin, then Thalia's disappearance and the hunters' capture.
"It's just one thing after another, huh." Paul shook his head.
"Yeah." Percy crammed half a pancake into his mouth. "Bad enough that the assassin killed close to half of them. Now the entire hunt is missing. It's like someone's trying to exterminate them."
"In your world, that's never a coincidence." Sally remarked.
Percy jumped out of his seat.
"What is it?" Sally asked, startled.
"My doughnuts." Percy went back into the living room, but the coffee table was empty. "Where'd they go? I put them right here."
"Oh, those?" Paul and Sally shared a look. "We thought you'd gotten them for us."
Percy's eyes went wide. "You didn't eat them, did you?"
"I'm afraid we did." Paul said sheepishly.
"Not all of it." Sally pulled the box out of the fridge. "There's still one left."
"One," Percy gasped. "I bought five! That's eighty percent gone!"
"Sorry," Paul apologised. "They were just so good."
"We'll buy you another box." Sally reassured him.
Percy returned to his chair, cheered slightly by the promise of reinforcement doughnuts. Sally put the last doughnut onto his plate. "Enjoy."
He'd just crammed the last piece of doughnut into his mouth when the doorbell rang.
"That's fast." he mumbled. "Did you order a delivery?"
"No," Sally shook her head, puzzled.
"Who'd ring so early in the morning?" Paul got out of his chair and headed to the door.
Standing on the doormat was a thirteen-year-old girl. She rushed inside the moment the door opened, then scrambled to close it the moment she were inside, slamming the bolt across.
"Whoa," Paul said. "What is this, home invasion?"
"No," the girl gasped, panting hard as if she'd just finished a hundred-metre sprint. "It's…right behind me."
"What is?" Paul asked, bewildered.
A torrent of light brown flakes flew in from under the door. Paul stumbled backwards, his white and pink bunny slippers covered in brown dust. The girl cried out as the flakes came together in the middle of the room, swirling like a dust devil to form a short, pudgy creature that resembled a toddler, except that this creature had brown flakes for skin, glowing green eyes and fangs.
"A karpos!" Paul backed away.
"Tremble before the power of wheeeat!" the little creature hissed, then froze.
Percy's sword stuck out of the centre of its chest.
"I eat wheat for breakfast." Percy told it. "Every day."
"No…" the little fellow looked crestfallen, almost cute. "Every day…" The karpos dissolved into flakes.
"Oh, there goes the carpet." Sally shook her head at the pile of weetabix. "I'll get the broom."
There was another knock at the door.
"What now?" Paul backed away from the door, unwilling to let in any more surprises.
"Jean!" a guy's voice yelled from outside. "Are you in there?"
"You know who that is?" Percy asked her.
It's Alex," the girl, Jean, nodded. "My, um…"
"Satyr?" Percy filled in.
Jean nodded.
"I see." Percy capped his sword, crossed to the door and opened it.
"Sorry," Alex the satyr clopped inside, holding his pants up with one hand. "In my panic I ran two floors up. Are you ok?"
"Yeah." Jean clasped her hands together. "Thanks to Percy Jackson."
"Percy Jackson?" Alex turned around and came face-to-face with the son of Poseidon, who'd been standing behind the open door. He jumped.
"Hi." he stuck out his hand. "Alex Grove, New York group. Sorry to barge in unannounced."
"It's fine." Percy shook his hand. "Was there anything else apart from the karpos?"
"No, just the one." Alex glanced at the pile of flakes that Sally was beginning to sweep up. "I have a wheat allergy," he said sheepishly. "That's why I couldn't handle it."
Percy smiled faintly. "I take it you need my help getting to Camp Half-Blood?"
"Yeah," Alex admitted. "We probably would. A young half-blood in the open would attract all sorts of monsters."
Percy sighed inwardly. He was supposed to begin heading towards Ohio today. But he knew he couldn't leave them undefended.
"All right, I'll come with you." Percy promised. "Is your house nearby?" he asked Jean. "If it's not too far we'll make a stop for you to pack a suitcase."
"I'm only a few blocks away." Jean said.
"Right then," Percy jerked a thumb towards the kitchen. "Let me finish my breakfast and we'll head over."
Jean's house was a small apartment on the third floor crammed with parcels and boxes.
"My Dad does eBay," she said embarrassedly. "A lot."
She disappeared into his room and came out a short while later lugging a suitcase.
"That was fast." Percy remarked.
"I don't have a lot of stuff." she shrugged.
Percy helped her navigate the suitcase through the stacked eBay boxes. Alex opened the door, then froze.
Two grey wolves sat on the doormat, eyes trained on them.
"Holy shit!" Jean jumped out of her skin. She ducked behind her suitcase.
"Wait." Percy stared at the wolves, recognising their sharp gaze and tense, confident posture. "They're Roman wolves. Lupa's. Jean, you must be a Roman demigod."
Jean blinked. "There are Roman demigods?"
"I forgot to tell her about that," Alex muttered sheepishly.
"Yes, there are." Percy gestured her to get up from behind her suitcase. "You need to follow them to the Wolf House in San Francisco."
"San Francisco?" Jean sounded horrified. "That's all the way at the West Coast!"
"Don't worry." Percy said. "Once we get to Camp Half-Blood I'll call some pegasi to fly you over."
The wolves followed them all the way to Camp.
Percy only discovered this when they arrived at Half-Blood Hill. He got out of the car to see the two grey wolves sitting on the roof. They jumped to the ground as the others started to get out, scaring Jean, who yelped and fell back into the car.
"Seriously?" Percy said.
"How did we not notice them?" Alex edged nervously around one, which seemed to be trying to drill holes into him with its stare.
"Stalker wolves." Percy shook his head. "That is just creepy."
(Line break)
"There's loads of them." Alabaster muttered.
The Javelin had arrived at last at the captured hunters' location, allowing its powerful cameras to capture a live feed overhead view of the enemy camp. Jordan, Lisa and Alabaster stood around the rectangular table/touch screen in the middle of the coffee room, staring down at the live feed. None of them liked what they saw.
The enemy camp was a haphazard sprawl of tents, camper vans and some igloo-like structures that looked like they'd been built by a three-year-old. Lycaon's wolves patrolled the perimeter in a hundred-metre radius, supported by groups of gryphons flying in v-formation. Above the camp, storm spirits gusted about haphazardly as if they were drunk.
The camp itself was populated by a mixture of other monsters; cyclopes and six-armed Earthborn, ten-metre-tall giants.
"Hyperboreans." Jordan tapped the screen, scowling. "Ice giants."
"You've fought them before?" Alabaster asked.
"Once." Jordan said curtly.
There looked to be about two hundred monsters in total. Jordan, Alabaster and Lisa had seen bigger armies when Kronos and Gaia rose, but with only three of them there the odds of victory looked slim.
"So, what's the plan?" Lisa asked.
The Javelin's missiles can blow them all up," Jordan said dismissively. "But not until we get the hunters out of here."
"Can you locate them?" Lisa asked Alabaster.
The son of Hecate shook his head. "There's a heavy enchantment around this area. It was hard enough to track them to this place. Finding their exact location is impossible."
"That place is crawling with bodies." Jordan said. "My heat sensors are useless."
"I have an idea." Lisa said. "I'll go down there. They'll put me with the rest of the captured hunters. Once that happens, you'll bungee-jump in to save the day."
"No." Jordan said flatly.
"Why not?" Lisa asked. "They're not going to kill me. They would have killed the other hunters already if that's what they wanted."
"I'm not letting you go down there." Jordan shook his head. "Too dangerous."
"It's the only way!" Lisa protested. "It's impossible to sneak past all those monsters."
"Those monsters," Jordan told her. "Would love for you to go down there. They won't kill you. They have worse things in store."
"But once I find them-"
"You're not listening to me."
"I know you're afraid something will happen to me-"
"I know what will happen to you."
"Stop treating me like a kid!" Lisa screamed into his face. "I'm not thirteen anymore!"
"Stop." Alabaster intervened before the next salvo of arguments could begin. "We've no hope of fighting the enemy if we can't stop fighting among ourselves."
"I'm not letting you go down there."
"She doesn't have to," Alabaster said decisively. "Because I've got a better idea." He pulled a card from his pocket. On it was a crude drawing of a girl.
He tapped the card. Green smoke spewed from it, swirling to form a live-size girl in silver camouflage that looked the splitting image of Lisa.
"Hello," the mistform said. "I am Lisa van Staal."
The real Lisa took a step back, eyes wide. "What-"
"We'll let this mistform get captured instead of you," Alabaster said, satisfied. "And once that's done we'll swoop in to rescue the other hunters."
"That looks exactly like me." Lisa shuddered.
"That's the point."
"It's creepy."
Alabaster touched the card to the mistform, sucking it back into the card.
"Why exactly do you have a mistform of my sister?" Jordan asked pointedly.
"Thought it might come in handy." Alabaster said unconvincingly. "If everyone's in agreement?" he looked round the table. Jordan and Lisa nodded.
"Right then." Alabaster clapped his hands together. "Suit up."
The tent flap was abruptly thrown open, letting in a harsh glare of sunlight along with a burst of freezing winter air.
The fourteen hunters inside were mostly asleep, huddled against each other to preserve warmth. Their captors had stripped them of their warm winter gear, leaving them exposed to the biting cold. A few of them had already developed hypothermia. These hunters were in the centre of the group, covered on all sides by their sisters' shivering bodies. The outermost hunters in the group, the ones most exposed to the cold, suffered in silence, counting down the hours minute by minute until they either fell asleep or the time came to switch positions with their warmer comrades inside the huddle.
Three of them were still awake and cried out in fear as the tent flap opened, shielding their eyes against the sudden light.
As suddenly as it had opened, the flap shut, leaving them to blink spots out of their eyes. Something hit the ground with a thump.
"Who's there?" one of the girls called out, a tremble in her voice.
"Hello," the reply was bright and cheery. "I am Lisa van Staal."
"Lisa?" one of the other hunters, woken by the brief commotion, lifted her head.
"Yes," the mistform's cheerful tone sounded like an advertisement for children's toys. "I am here to rescue you!"
"Oh, no," Lanesra, her worst fears realised, started to sob. "No. Lisa, I told you not to come!"
"Don't worry!" the mistform chirped. "I am here to rescue you!"
"That doesn't sound like Lisa." one of the hunters realised.
"They've beaten her senseless," another guessed.
"Lisa?" Thalia's newly-woken voice came from the darkness. "Lisa's here?"
"Yes," Lanesra sobbed. "She came despite my warning. Oh Lisa, why?"
"You should be glad she came." The new voice was male. All the hunters froze. "Otherwise we would never have found you."
"I am here to rescue you!" the mistform parroted.
"Alabaster, shut that thing off." Jordan sighed. "That does not sound like her at all."
The mistform fell silent as Alabaster sucked it back into his card.
"Who's there?" Lanesra called fearfully.
A pair of glowing eyes appeared out of the darkness, blinding white lights that had been built into Jordan's helmet. "My name is Jordan van Staal. I'm here to rescue you."
(Line break)
As always, thanks for viewing! Leave a review if you have any comments or feedback.