CHAPTER I: TROUBLE WITH THE HELLHOUNDS OF LOVE

8:32 a.m., Athena's cabin, in my bed

I woke up, yawning. Percy's warm arms were still securely around my waist, his breathing deep and slow.

"Sleepyhead," I laughed, tousling his raven locks. "Wake up." Most of my cabin-mates were gone.

Percy murmured something and stirred sleepily. "What?"

"Time to get up," I said, stretching out like a cat.

He rubbed his eyes. "Oh...well, in that case, morning, Annabeth."

I laughed. "Morning, Percy."

We shared a brief (nothing like the ones we shared earlier!) morning kiss (blech! I realized I had terrible morning breath, whereas his smelled like mint—I needed to ask him where he got his toothpaste) and he quickly escaped to his cabin. I sighed, watching him go. We didn't actually do anything in bed (other than kiss for long periods of time, is what I mean); we just liked sleeping next to each other, feeling each other's warmth.

However, Mr. D disagreed. "Revolting! Are you planning to get pregnant before you're twenty-one?"

He had threatened suspension if we were caught sleeping together. But that didn't stop stubborn, persistent, adorable Seaweed Brain.

My cabin-mate Allie was awake as well. I guiltily looked at her.

"He came again, huh?"

I nodded reluctantly. I knew I was asking a lot from her—she was risking suspension in keeping her mouth shut. But she approved of him, because—"He's the hottest guy in camp!"

"Today, I am going to pick out what you wear, Annabeth Chase," she suddenly announced, eying me beadily. "It's the fireworks today, remember?"

Uh, yeah, it's only the biggest dating event of the year in Camp Half-Blood. And of course, Seaweed Brain had 'gallantly' asked me to it—though I suspect he was under the influence of a certain satyr and a son of Hades, who was camping out in the Poseidon cabin for now. (They'd sent an Iris message to the gods to make sure it was okay, so fortunately, no one was going to be blasted into dust.)

"Oh. My. Gods." I realized the impact of my selection of clothes. "Hey Allie, mind if I throw on a T-shirt and some shorts real quick and ask Sile—I mean, Rosie for help?"

It was hard, accepting that Silena was gone. Rosie was the next-best Aphrodite camper, though.

Allie nodded, and I threw on some clothes and disappeared.

Percy was "just" coming out from Poseidon's cabin with Nico close on his tail. "Hey, Annabeth. Sleep well last night?"

I winked at him. "Maybe."

"I'm going to grab some breakfast," he said. "Wanna come?"

"No, I needed to go to the Aphrodite cabin real quick about some, uh, advice."

He didn't seem to notice anything. "Okay. See you." He pecked my cheek real quick and sauntered off.

I kept my mission in mind and walked to the Aphrodite cabin. I'd never really been here before, except for cabin inspection.

I hesitated, and then opened the door.

Instantly, a pack of hellhounds jumped on me. I barely had time to swear in Ancient Greek when they began gnawing at my arm, little heart-shaped charms dangling from their collars. Collars? "Whoa!" I shouted as I pulled out my celestial bronze knife.

Usually, the faint glow scares some away but these paid no attention.

I parried and slashed for my life, running across the fields to the pavilion. "PERCY!" I yelled.

He came, looking confused and with some maple syrup on the sides of his lips, but when he saw what was attacking me he instantly uncapped Riptide and ran to my rescue.

In three and a half minutes, they had all vaporized into dust. Percy and I stood there panting heavily—well, me more than him. It helped to be invincible, I supposed.

A couple of Aphrodite campers ran out and looked confused. Then they realized what had happened. "NOOOO!"

Chiron came out, his expression bewildered. "What is going on here?"

"Chiron," a pretty camper with long, flowing brown hair and almond-shaped brown eyes said, "Annabeth and Percy just killed the hellhounds our mother instructed us to keep safe!"

"Belle—" Chiron started.

"They just killed them, like that!" the other girl exclaimed as she snapped her fingers. She was significantly shorter and had blond hair and blue eyes, but was just as pretty.

"Daisy, I am convinced that Percy and Annabeth had no idea whatsoever of what they were facing. They thought only that they were under attack, and they were correct." Chiron firmly said, and turned to us. "You just killed the hellhounds of love, if you were wondering."

"The what of what?!" Percy exclaimed.

"The hellhounds of love, dummy," said the older one, Belle. She looked distastefully at Percy.

"What, your mom decided to be nice to Ares for once and let you guys keep his hellhounds healthy and rested to rip our throats apart?!" he yelled.

"Percy—" Chiron began.

Belle fixed her amber eyes on him, narrowing them slowly. "I know about you, Jackson. 'An interesting love case', as my mother describes it. But just because you're the son of awesome and amazing Poseidon, it doesn't mean you know everything, and it certainly doesn't give you the right to make up fantasies for things that you don't know!"

"Belle!" Chiron exclaimed.

Percy laughed mirthlessly. It was cold and full of hatred. "So old Ares has decided to give you a lesson in who to treat nicely, has he? What, your mom got tired of your dad and sent him in as a replacement to babysit people who have no experience in the real war and the real world, who just sit back and fuss over their eyeshadow and makeup and clothes all day?!"

"Percy!" Chiron pleaded.

Belle clenched her slim and soft white hands. "You may feel great, throwing the weight of your Big Three demigod status around. But I feel—and certainly many others as well—that Aphrodite is the most important. For without her, you and that girl you call the love of your life would be nothing but coldness."

"Don't drag her into this!" he spat.

"Acting heroic, are we, Jackson?" the brunette beauty taunted. "What, can't save your own skin this time so you decide to save your girlfriend's?"

Breathing heavily, Percy stared her down and a wave of cold, icy creek water doused Belle—and Daisy, for good measure—from head to toe. "Yeah," he answered. "I am."

"Perseus Jackson!" Chiron cried.

It was hard to see who looked more stunned—Belle or Daisy. No doubt this was the first time they'd gotten on my boyfriend's bad side.

Percy clenched his jaw, looking like he might have regretted losing his temper.

"What I find interesting," Chiron finally mused, "Is why Annabeth was at the Aphrodite cabin in the first place."

He glanced reproachfully at me. I felt Percy's warm arms snake around my waist.

"Who cares what she was doing?" he said shakily. "Maybe she just forgot some architectural scroll there, or something. Camp inspection, remember?"

Thank the gods he was smart sometimes and not always having his brain filled with kelp—or seaweed, whichever one you prefer.

"That was a week ago," Chiron replied skeptically. "And I'm sure Annabeth would have noticed."

Curse myself for having such a well-renowned and excellent memory.

"She has lately been busy upon a new discovery in Daedalus's laptop," Percy announced. "That fire-powered catapult, right?"

I nodded and said, "Yeah—I just found out the password for the file. I haven't been very focused on my scrolls of late, but then I wanted to—"

"Compare it with your own design," Percy finished. "Which she suspected she'd lost the day of the inspection, because that was the only other time she'd had it with her. She wanted me to sort out her scrolls, you see, and she had requested me to walk with her."

Yes! We made an excellent lying team, if I do say so myself. His hand took hold of mine.

Chiron accepted this excuse after looking straight into my eyes and thinking deeply. I felt a little uncomfortable with him staring at me like this, but I figured he could detect lying. Uh-oh. But the moment passed and he dismissed us.

"Belle and Daisy, I will inform Aphrodite of this. But I will not mention Percy or Annabeth. And I forbid you to speak of it as well. When asked, you may only say that it was an accident involving some archers shooting some arrows in the wrong direction when the cabin doors were open. Swear on the River Styx."

The girls looked murderous, but they did as told.

"Good. Now go and eat breakfast!" he said and we walked off.

"Sorry about that," Percy said in an undertone. "I didn't exactly handle it very well, did I?"

I pressed my lips to his cheek. "It's okay. Belle is a jerk. Hello, the hellhounds were trying to kill us!"

"Kill you," he corrected. "Besides, Ares has a big influence, especially on Aphrodite's kids. I think."

I snuggled up against him as we sat down at the breakfast table. "We make good partners in crime," I whispered in his ear.

"Crime?" he laughed.

"We lied to Chiron," I said, piling some pancakes onto my plate.

"But you are working on the fire-powered catapult. And we did do the cabin inspection together. And you did make me sort your scrolls. And you did say that you thought you'd lost one." He protested.

I picked up Seaweed Brain's fork and speared some of his pancake and as I fed him, I answered heavily, "It's not Chiron I'm worried about, though. I'm more worried about Belle and Daisy. There'll be more trouble from them, I'm sure of it."