VII

Percy

"PEEERRCCYY" my best friend Grover bleated at me, as he tackled me from behind in a bear (or in this case goat) hug. I smiled and returned the gesture.

"It's good to see you to G-man, Ready to go to the movies?" I asked.

"You bet!" Grover cried enthusiastically leading the way. I don't get to see Grover very often any more now that he's lord of the wild. Whenever he has free time the first thing he does is to come visit me. I miss having my best friend around.

We were going to see that new Disney nature movie about marine life (Grover thought I'd enjoy it, go figure). He was busy telling me all about his latest adventures, as we stood in line for popcorn.

"You should have seen it Percy! The mountains and trees were spectacular!" Grover said in awe. I smiled at his enthusiasm enjoying his company.

"So that's your name… Percy" I stood erectly as I recognized that voice. I turned around to see Clary Fray, the new red-headed nightmare in my life. She was with Simon who continued to stare daggers at me with his dark eyes. Clary was beaming at me obviously proud of herself for learning something new about me. We just stood there staring at each other awkwardly for a moment before Grover broke the silence.

"Hi I'm Grover. It's nice to meet you..." he exclaimed politely extending his hand.

"Clary." Clary answered sweetly accepting the gesture while studying me closely out of the corner of her eye.

"This is my friend Simon." she said moving out of the way for her creepy friend.

Grover and Simon stared at each other strangely. They looked like they were sizing each other up, before reluctantly shaking hands. I've never seen Grover act rudely to anyone before, not even Tyson when they first met.

"So what movie are you seeing?" Clary asked cheerfully,

"The Hobbit, and it looks like we're going to be late. Nice seeing you." I lied quickly before ushering Grover away. Whatever she and Simon said afterwards fell on deaf ears, as I practically ran to our movie yanking Grover behind me. I didn't relax until we sat down

"Dude! We didn't even get refreshments, and you know popcorn containers are the tastiest." Grover complained.

"I'm sorry." I answered absentminded while glancing at the theater entrance every few seconds.

"What's with you and that girl? She didn't smell like a monster, maybe a little like a half-blood or maybe it was just the popcorn messing with my nose." Grover rambled.

"I've never seen you act so rude to someone. Tell me what happened, besides you owe me for skipping out on snacks." he continued said still miffed.

"I don't want to talk about it. I'll get you snacks after the movie my treat." I promised. He looked at me funny. The way he does when he's trying to read your emotions. It must have been hard for him this time because I had multiple feelings running through my mind.

"Can you stop staring at me like that?" I snapped. Grover just sighed real big, and put his hand on my shoulder. He looked at me with sad, imploring eyes.

"You didn't cheat on Annabeth with Clary did you?" Grover asked sadly. I was so surprised it felt like I was choking on air.

"Wh-what!" I asked hoarsely incredulous. "No no no dude no How could you possibly think that! No I've never, I..." I went on like that. The thought of cheating on Annabeth both disgusted, and horrified me. I could only imagine what she'd do to me if I even thought about cheating. When I was finally able to relax Grover answered my question.

"Well first of all, you weren't going to tell me (your best friend) anything about this girl. Second you seemed really uncomfortable around a girl that clearly knew you, and appeared to be checking you out. Third you've been known to have a thing for red-heads." Grover explained counting his fingers and smiling at me like I was some hot-shot ladies man. I could feel my face get red form embarrassment as I glared at him, ready to smack that smile off his face.

"I do not have a thing for red heads!" I spat indignantly. Grover just laughed looking really pleased with himself at my obvious discomfort. I sighed tiredly and rubbed my face trying to decide on how to proceed from here.

"If I tell you the truth you're going to think I'm an idiot, and I'm only creating more trouble for myself." I told him frustrated and defeated.

"Percy, We've covered that a long time ago." he replied with a smirk. I just glared at him thinking of ways to get back at him for all of this. I reluctantly told him everything since I first met Jace, and how I'm trying to keep the godly side of my life a secret from Clary and everyone else in Jace's world. Grover has always been a good listener, and never interrupted me during my spiel. When I finished he looked thoughtful for a moment before talking again.

"Only you would have so much bad-luck as to have stumbled upon a totally different world, despite the mist and precautions set by the Gods." Grover laughed, before turning serious.

"I know everything seems fine right now Percy, but I strongly urge you to get out of this while you still can. You won't be able to keep your secret forever, and are you sure you can trust this guy. No offence Percy, but you have been deceived before." Grover continued.

"I just don't want to see you get in more trouble and get hurt as you have before." He added softly looking sad and apologetic.

I didn't know how to respond. Everything Grover said was true, and are points I have considered before. I also knew that getting rid of Jace is nearly impossible, and I didn't really want to. I liked talking to someone who has had similar hardships to me, and isn't a demigod but something else entirely. The potential danger is always there, but I've been in immediate danger pretty much my entire life how could Jace be anything worse?

I know I can trust Jace. I'm not the same naive kid I was when I was twelve and a few years after that. I've been on my toes around Jace for a long time, and I have only just recently began to relax. As for Clary I'll continue to keep her in the dark for as long as I can. So far to my knowledge Jace has kept his promise.

"Thanks for your concern and advice buddy, but I'm going to keep it up for as long as I can." I told him. Then a thought occurred to me.

"By the way can you keep everything I told you just between us? I mean I feel like if Jace is keeping me a secret I should have the decency to do the same, as much as possible." I asked. Grover didn't look happy about it, but he agreed to my request.

"Who is that Simon kid? He smelled like Nico minus the demigod part, and he didn't have I suppose it's Nephilim smell about him either." Grover mused. I blinked in surprise.

"What do you mean he smells like Nico?" I asked carefully.

"He smells like death." Grover said simply. I didn't know how to respond, something about Simon always seemed off to me despite how he seemed to hate me at first sight. This new observation from Grover made me uneasy.

"So, you don't think he's a shadowhunter?" I asked cautiously.

"He didn't have that powerful smell, like Clary but there was something there very faint, I might have imagined it, but I thought I smelled something similar to Clary there." Grover said itching his nose.

"He's not a monster. I know that much." He continued with a hopeful smile. I could see what he was really trying to say was."I don't know what he is but he could be dangerous. This is your choice to stay in cahoots with these people." I couldn't focus on the rest of the movie with these unsettling thoughts about Simon running through my head. I made it a priority to get Jace to tell me more about that kid.

At the end of the movie I bought Grover his promised popcorn, and we went to Olympus to see Annabeth together. True to his word Grover didn't say a word about what I told him at the movie theater, and I was able to put my unease aside. Just being with Annabeth during peace time can do that for me. She showed Grover her latest projects and we ate dinner at one of the cafes on Olympus.

I got home fairly late that night and was ready to crash and sleep away my worries. I turned on the light of my bed room to find Jace on my computer surfing the web.

"What do you want tonight?" I asked kicking my shoes off and walking over to see what he was looking up. He was drooling over a web page called "Malibu Beauties" which featured a bunch of scantily clad women.

"If my mom saw this I'd be grounded for eternity, turn it off." I said flicking him in the head. Jace just smiled.

"If there's one good thing about you mundies it's that you created the internet." He smiled. "C-mon Jackson even you have to admit your enjoying this." He added enlarging a photo depicting a bikini shot of Megan Fox. I just rolled my eyes.

"What do you want Jace?" I asked again. He continued searching through photos before asking his question.

"Clary said she met you at the movies today. She knows your name now, and Simon says that Grover dude you were with smells like a barnyard animal." He said with a smirk.

"Simon has a pretty good sense of smell then." I said lightly a slight glare appearing on my face. Jace suddenly froze as if he just realized he said too much, he turned from the computer to look at me. I was fiddling with riptide in pen form ready to attack at any slight move. Jace looked at the pen in my hands to my suspicious face.

"Percy, what's wrong?" he asked carefully.

"Who is Simon? or the better question is what is he?" I asked angrily. Understanding seemed to dawn on his face, and he looked conflicted.

"Simon is a vampire." He said simply watching my reaction.

"Why are you friends with a vampire!? I thought you Nephilim didn't like downworlders. This better not be a trick." I growled holding riptide tight in my hand and giving him my best glare. Jace cautiously shrunk back from me. I could feel all the water in the pipes around me waiting for my command. Jace looked at me carefully before continuing.

"What do you mean by a trick? I'm not lying to you when I say he really is a vampire." Jace said flustered not understanding why I was so angry.

"How do I know he's not going to come after me or something? I know he hates me, that much is obvious." I spat. Jace stood up, and my reflexes kicked in as I jumped back uncapping riptide and landed in a crouched defensive position in a matter of seconds. Jace looked completely surprised and a little hurt.

"Percy what's wrong? Why are you suddenly acting so distrustful of me? What have I done?" Jace asked carefully watching me for any sudden movements as I was doing to him.

"I've been tricked and deceived to many times in my life. I'm not taking any chances." I growled. Jace had an unreadable expression on his face as if he was quickly trying to come up with an answer.

"I swear on the angel that I have never lied to you and never will." He dared to take another step forward and I unconsciously took a step back without breaking my concentration.

"I consider you a friend Jackson, and I'd never hurt you or send someone to kill you. I saved your life for crying out loud! Did you forget that?" Jace said flustered.

"You kept information from me. That's the same thing as lying in my book." I said not budging.

"I didn't tell you about what Simon was, because I figured you wouldn't come with me to the dinner if I told you he was a vampire. I thought you would see him as a monster, and would be uncomfortable. I'm sorry, I'll tell you everything from now on I promise." He said with his hands up like he was being arrested.

"Why does Simon hate me then?" I demanded.

"When you and Simon first met he was jealous of how Isabel was completely ignoring him, and drooling over you during the entire dinner. He's probably annoyed by the fact that Clary is always talking about you and trying to figure you out." Jace said dismissively. "He hates me as well if that makes you feel better." he added with a smirk. I continued to glare at him, searching for a sign of dishonesty but found none. Maybe I was over reacting, and I just let Grover's words get to me. I lowered my sword slowly and turned it back into a pen. I sighed rubbing the back of my neck.

"I'm sorry for acting like that Jace. It's just from my experience you can never be too careful. People I thought were my friends would either trick me or keep information from me. A guy I thought was my friend tried to kill me on multiple occasions. A girl I thought was on our side turned out to be acting as a spy for Kronos. I just have to be on guard." I said sadly sitting on my bed in embarrassment and shame.

"I understand dude don't worry about it, but are we cool now." He asked carefully.

"Yeah were cool." I replied. Jace sat back on my desk chair looking thoughtful. A silence hung in the air, and just when I thought I couldn't take the silence anymore. Jace asked me a question.

"How did you know Simon wasn't human? You didn't really get that just from my barn animal comment did you?" he asked. I managed a small smile.

"No, I didn't I figured it out when Grover told me that Simon smelled like death. Grover is a satyr." I answered.

"You were hanging out with a half goat kid, and you were suspicious of me being with vampires?" Jace asked skeptically.

"Well yeah when you put it that way I guess" Percy said sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. "By the way not all monsters are evil. My half brother is a Cyclopes, and I have a pet hellhound. So maybe I should've given Simon a chance" I added mainly because I wanted to see Jace's shocked face.

"Okay now I know your just making this stuff up." He said looking at me skeptically with his old smile back on his face. I laughed all awkward suspicious feelings gone, as I fell back on my bedspread holding my stomach with my fits of laughter. I know it was pretty hysterical, but I really needed a good laugh to lift my spirits at that moment.

"I've asked myself that same question many times, my friend." I replied when I could speak again.