So this is 38 minutes late, sorry guys! But let's work on US time and assume this was posted on Friday, kay? :)

This is the chapter where we meet Hel's significant other, so a little bit more background, but it all kicks off next chapter, promise! Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Three

I dealt with the nice armed policemen responding to a call about a lunatic with a gun – John got a particularly vicious foot stomp for that – by writing it off as our kid brother's childish joke. I made them tea, gave them a custard cream and sent them on their way.

John was still sulking because I refused to explain about my visitors, and John was unbearable when he sulked so I escaped to Tam's.

Tam was my favourite person on the planet. She was louder than me, which was saying something, and had this huge, sparkling presence that filled whichever room she chose to occupy. She only lived ten minutes away by car and as I drove over, the setting sun lighting up the rolling, leafy countryside, my mind drifted to the one problem between Tam and I, a problem I'd successfully managed to ignore for the last two years.

Tam was obnoxiously, arrogantly, gorgeously human. As much as I'd tried to suppress my divine side, I was still a demigod. Not that that had any effect on me. Being both a daughter of Aphrodite and a determined tomboy didn't make for best usage of whatever magic gifts my mother had given me. But I would never, could never, tell Tam about the gods, the same way I could never tell Alex or John. The idea of subjecting them to that kind of knowledge was too painful. Besides, even though she didn't know the truth about my mother, Tam knew me better than anyone else.

She lived in a renovated farmhouse, a vast sprawling collection of whitewashed buildings, gravel drives and neatly trimmed topiary in tall, geometric pots. Her mother let me in with her customary judgemental sniff.

Tam was in her room, a large south-facing room in pale pink streaked with light from the dying sun. She was lying on the bed with her laptop. I went and stretched out next to her, pressing a kiss to her jaw as she flung an arm over my waist. "How are you?" I asked, watching the way her blonde hair caught the light. She was beautiful in a way I could never be; blonde, dark eyed and tanned with an athletic figure. I had always dimmed next to her brilliance; my ginger hair and skinny frame no match against her.

"Erugh."

I smiled, leaning up onto one elbow to brush her hair away from her face. "What's wrong?"

"Life. Life is what's wrong." She sat up and leant back against the headboard, huffing. "My race has been cancelled."

"Oh no, how come?"

She opens her arm and gestures for me to sit next to her. I do so, curling into her side, my free hand playing with the hem of her top. "Chazza and Soph failed their drug tests."

I couldn't suppress my snort of laughter. Charlotte 'Chazza' Wolheim-Stone and Sophia Louise Lumley were part of the set Tam was a resigned member of, namely posh little rich girls, collectively looking as though they'd stepped out of Jack Wills' adverts. Conceited, self-absorbed and shallow, I wasn't their biggest fan; I got enough of that from my mother. Tam and I both went to school with them; the kind that attended private single sex schools in Warwickshire. Tam was different though, which was why I loved her. She didn't give a damn what anyone thought her to the point of rudeness.

She let out a huff of amusement with me, both of us well aware of the girls' drug habits.

"So it's completely cancelled?" I asked.

"Yep." She sighed miserably, sagging against me.

"I had a visit from my mum." I don't know why I told her; I just needed to share at least some part of my life with her. I never felt such a compulsive need to share as I did with her. I was usually a very private person, but not with her.

"Hm?"

"She was her usual self. She wants me to go to school in America for a bit."

"Why?"

I leant back so I could see her face. She was looking at me in confusion, not fear. That's how strong our relationship was, she wasn't afraid of losing me because she knew it wasn't an issue; even if I did leave we would stay together. "Some sort of prep school she thinks will be good for me, complete bull of course."

She laughed and went back to her laptop, her arm still tight around me. I was nodding off, able to relax for the first time since two American demigods had appeared on my doorstep, when she closed the laptop and turned to me. It had grown dark and I could only see her outline against the night sky through her window. Smiling, I reached out for her.

"Tam? Will Helena be staying the night?"

Tam smirked into my neck. "I imagine so, Mum."

Tam's mother didn't reply, but the pause before the sound of her footsteps back down the corridor spoke volumes. It was hard to pinpoint exactly what she disapproved of more; that I was a girl or that I didn't act like one.

"You're doing that thing again; I can practically hear you thinking, Helena." Tam whispered.

"God, don't call me that! You sound like your mum."

"Please stop talking about my mum. Hel." I did as she asked.

I woke up slowly, Tam draped over me. The girl was a furnace and I groaned, trying to shift out from underneath her without waking her up. Achieving my goal – she slept like the dead – I sat on the edge of the bed and stretched, noticing that it must be about midday judging from the amount of sunlight streaming through the windows. I stumbled to her en suite where I showered and dressed.

Fully awake and feeling like a human being again, I went back to the bed to check my phone.

Shit.

Fifteen missed calls from John and seven from Alex, all in the last half an hour. With a glance back at Tam where she lay, stretched out, the sheets around her waist, looking more divine than any god I'd ever met, I went back into the bathroom and shut the door behind me.

John answered on the first ring. "Hel! Where the fuck have you been! Those kids are back and they're- They're-"

"John, slow down. The boy and girl from yesterday? They're back?"

"Yeah, and they're fighting!"

"Each other!"

"No! A- A- cow."

"A cow."

"Well, it looks like a cow, but I swear it just breathed fire, and Hel you need to get here right now!"

Jesus Christ. "Ok, John I'm on my way, and whatever you do, don't go outside ok? Leave it them, they know what they're doing."

"Who the fuck are these people, Hel? Fire-resistant cow tamers?"

I winced. "I'll explain everything when I get there, I'm on my way."

"Hurry!"

I hung up, swearing under my breath as I went back into Tam's room, picking my jacket off the floor and retrieving my car keys before shrugging it on. I leant over Tam, shaking her shoulder gently. "Tam." She blinked awake sleepily, "I have to go, I'm sorry. I'll see you later?"

She nodded before pressing her face deeper into the pillow. I couldn't help but smile as I kissed her temple before running to my car.

Fire-breathing cows, what the hell?

sajere1: Thank you for the review! Literally made my day! I put the rating to be on the safe side, hate people who get upset by language, but have changed the rating now. Thank you! I'm really glad you like it so far :) I struggled a little bit with fitting it in a non-US setting, but so happy you like how I managed it! Hope you enjoyed the new chapter :)