Sorry it took me so long to update and that it was the after a cliffhanger. Anyway, please review this chapter. I'm dying to see what you guys think.
And now the long awaited update:
Nico turned as one of the men spoke. He would be able to follow the giant's trail easily. Maybe they could actually get some real rest before following it tomorrow.
"You're like them. Monsters."
Out of nowhere, Kaie hit him. Knocking him against the debris covered floor as a gunshot went off. As he tried to figure out what happened the world dissolved and he realized Kaie had used her ability that was similar to his shadow traveling.
He had assumed that they were similar methods but this was nothing like he had imagined. He looked around, almost as if in slow motion, as the world dissolved into a haze. His surroundings nothing more than streaks of color moving around them. Kaie was slumped against him, her hand gripping his forearm so hard, he knew it would leave a bruise. They stayed still for a split second while the world blurred around them like a paintbrush running through watercolors before everything went white, blinding Nico momentarily.
When the spots disappeared from his eyes, they were in the motel room. Nico was propped up against one of the beds while Kaie still leaned against him. She released her death grip on his arm. Delicate finger shaped bruises where already forming. He started to complain but stopped when he saw how pale she was. "You okay?"
She winced, tried to stand and dropped onto the nearest bed. "Don't think so." Fear flooded Nico and he knelt beside her, "Did you get hit?" She nodded weakly. "Back of my left shoulder."
Nico moved behind her to look at the area. The area was soaked in blood but the entry hole was clearly visible just under her left shoulder blade. He touched the area and felt her tense as she let out a hiss of pain.
"How much field medicine do you know how to do?" She asked between gritted teeth. Nico hesitated. He had never been injured badly outside of a major battle and a child of Apollo or Chiron had always been close by.
"Not much." He admitted after a moment. "I have ambrosia in my bag though."
"Not gonna work." Kaie bit out the words around another hiss of pain.
"What?"
Kaie half turned to look at Nico. "Like this, with the second implant still in, I'm almost completely human. They tiniest bit would kill me. Take the implant out and I'm back to being the true Gray Lady. A ancient immortal. It would be nothing more than sustenance. Either way it will not heal me like it would heal you."
"Crap." Nico sat back, digesting the information. Trying to find another answer. "I could shadow travel back to Camp and get an Apollo kid and bring them back." He said after a moment.
"You're exhausted now. You wouldn't have the strength." Kaie told him simply. "Just take the bullet out."
Nico froze, sure he had heard her wrong. "Sorry what?"
"Take. The. Bullet. Out." Kaie enunciated each word slowly. "Its a small caliber bullet and it can't be in to deep because it didn't pass all the way through. I'll walk you through it."
Nico sighed, realizing she wasn't giving him a choice. "Go to the nearest drugstore and buy a bunch of gauze, medical tape, tweezers, and hydrogen peroxide." Nico nodded, memorized the list and vanished into the shadows.
He chose a dozen miles away from the motel, they had passed it earlier while on the road. He knew instinctively that buying large quantities of first aid equipment near a roadstop that would be crawling with the police by now, would end badly. Quickly buying everything Kaie had said, as well as protein bars, they needed to eat sometime, Nico shadow traveled back to the motel room.
Kaie had moved to sit on the corner of the bed. Her blood soaked shirt was wadded up on the floor, leaving Kaie only a dark green bra that left little to the imagination. Despite the circumstances Nico's male instincts took over.
"Nico!" Kaie's voice snapped like a whip, bringing Nico back out of his head. "Eyes up here." She told him weakly, her face pale. Now that he could see that blood still leaked from the wound, he was no longer distracted. Well, no longer as distracted as before.
He cleaned the wound quickly, knowing the dangers of infection. A pile of blood and hydrogen peroxide soaked towels accumulated next to the bed.
Nico felt a twinge of guilt every time Kaie shifted in pain. By the time he was working on getting the bullet Kaie had resorted to biting on a shred of towel to keep from biting her tongue. He used a thin stiletto blade Tyson had made for him years ago and the tweezers to find the bullet and work it out. Not the best method but Kaie had explained how to do it simply enough.
After several minutes of tense silence, Nico managed to pull the small lump of lead out. He quickly started to pack gauze on the wound as the blood flow increased.
"So how do you know about bullet wounds?" Nico asked out of curiosity but also to distract Kaie.
She spat out the small wad of cloth and grimaced. "I've been shot before." "
What?" Nico hadn't expected that.
"Not in this life. The one before my previous one." Kaie told him after a moment.
"When was this?" Nico couldn't stop his curiosity.
Kaie glared at him as he finished taping gauze to the wound. She stood stiffly and moved to the other side of the room, away from him, and rummaged through her bag with her right hand.
Nico stayed on the bed, annoyed. "Give me some specifics." He heard her sigh despite the distance before she turned back to look at him.
"1777."
Nico's jaw dropped. "Any connection to the Revolutionary War?" He tried to be nonchalant and failed.
Kaie smiled wryly "Some. An important demigod needed to be kept safe from a certain threat." She lay down on her side, careful not to bump the wound, on the bed Nico sat on. He hesitated then fell backwards to lie on his back. They were only a few inches apart.
"So you were shot?" Kaie nodded. "First one hit my leg." She hesitated, her eyes unfocused. Nico knew reflexively that she was remembering.
"Why did you get shot?" Nico prodded softly after a moment, hoping that talking about it would help her vent everything trapped in her memories.
"Had to make sure he stayed safe. It was the only way." Kaie murmured quietly, almost as if to herself. Her eyes were starting to drift shut. "Almost didn't see the second one in time to stop it too."
Her eyelids closed and Nico realized she was already asleep seconds later. Nico was left alone with the gut instinct that the second one had been fatal for Kaie in that life.
He started to drift off but was interrupted by his phone going off. He scrambled for it, hoping the noise didn't wake Kaie.
"Yeah?" He walked into the bathroom and closed the door to muffle the sound.
"How is everything?" Annabeth's voice came over the speaker. "Good. We've stopped for the night. Let me transfer this to IM?" "Sure thing." Annabeth hung up and stuffed Nico the phone into the back pocket of his jeans before pulling out a drachma.
He turned on the shower and left mist fill the room. "Lady Iris please accept this offering." He threw it into the mist and it vanished. "Annabeth Chase, Camp Halfblood."
The upper half of Annabeth's body formed in the mist, she grinned broadly upon seeing Nico. "You look exhausted." She told him with a grin which vanished when she saw his hands. Blood from taking care of Kaie's wound had begun to dry. "What happened?" Her voice was serious and she gave him a death glare.
Nico filled her in on everything, the Chimera, the Hyperboreans, Kaie getting shot, and the important fact that they could directly track one of the deathgate creatures now.
"Rachel's getting worse." Annabeth told him after digesting his information. "She says the future keeps changing so fast she can't get a decent look at it."
Nico nodded, unsurprised, before opening up to the person he viewed as a big sister. "This whole thing is a mess but my gut's telling me it's gonna get worse before it gets better. I don't think Kaie will want to get more demigods involved because of whatever happened last time she lived, but if my gut's right we're going to need help from the senior campers."
Annabeth agreed and promised to start preparing the senior campers in case they needed to move quickly as well as do some research into Kaie's last life. She and Nico were both too intrigued.
She was about to end the IM but she could resist needling Nico first. "So its Kaie and not the Gray Lady?" She cut off the mist generator in the Athena cabin, Nico's red face being the last thing visible through the connection before it dissipated.
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Well? Please Review. With everything going on in my life post surgery I've been struggling with the storyline so reviews really help keep me focused. And to my best reviewer ffsah1: sorry again about the cliffhanger and thanks for the well wishes. It was spinal fusion surgery. I've been stuck on my back for almost two weeks which is why I couldn't update.