"Camp Half-Blood?" Emmy asked, her voice a few octaves higher than normal.
"Yes. Now we really should be going, there will be more where that came from." Annabeth said gesturing to the pile of dust. Swallowing nervously Emmy nodded, adjusting her back pack.
"Okay, let's go." Annabeth smiled at her and lead the way out of the building. After exiting the structure they began to move at a brisk pace, trying not to draw attention. They made it to the end of the block before they were stopped by a scream. Not a human scream, but one that was straight out of a horror film. The sound resembled that of a screeching goat. It belonged to the creature that launched its self at Emmy, latching onto her back. The girl let out a startled yelp. She hadn't seen the creature before, it had looked like any normal teenage girl. But, now that it was on her back, she could see that was the total opposite of what this was. It looked like the first monster, but this time Emmy saw fangs out of the corner of her eye. It seemed she was being attacked by a Greek vampire. She felt, rather than told, her body thrust forward, bending at the waist. The force of her sudden movement threw the monster off her back. The monster rolled with grace and stood up. It let out a loud hiss, baring it's fangs. Annabeth cursed in a language unfamiliar to Emmy, but for some reason Emmy was still able to understand it. Emmy fell backwards as the monster lunged again, it landed on her chest pinning her down. The weight of the creature knocked out her breath. With her arms being held down on either side of her all she could do was thrash back and forth. Where was Annabeth? The question was answered by another hideous scream, and gold dust raining down.
"Emmy!" The girl's yell was almost drowned out by the sound of the monster laughing at Emmy.
"Aren't you a pretty little thing? Shame to waste it." Emmy once again began to thrash, her head knocking from side to side. "Stop moving." It croaked out, reaching a talon-nailed hand out pushing down on her forehead. Roughly it pushed Emmy's head to the side, her neck craned. Emmy swallowed looking straight into the monster's eyes, her breathing shallow. The creature looked down at her with a smile, its tongue flicking over its fangs. "You're going to taste great."
Emmy only had time to register her pain and the shrill sound of her own scream before she passed out.
Percy knocked on Emmy's door. The day before he had dropped Emmy off here. Now he was back because he knew they both had the same shift at the diner, and he thought it would be cool to walk together. After a few minutes there was no answer, not ready to give up he rang the door bell. From the other side he heard a series of bangs followed by a muffled curse. He could easily tell the voice didn't belong to either Annabeth or Emmy. The door swung open revealing familiar blue eyes and tan skin. "You again." Jade said looking him up and down. She retreated back into the house, leaving Percy on the porch.
"Nice to see you too Jade." He said with fake cheer as he entered the house. In the middle of the room was a pile of dust, gold dust. He froze looking at it, gold dust meant monsters.
"They're not here by the way. Disappeared yesterday. Left a not about camp or something, not that it makes any sense. I mean camp? In January? They also left this pile of dust. Now I have to clean it up before the landlord shows up. Where do you even get that much dust?" Percy was hardly paying attention as her rant continued, but one bit of information stuck out to him.
"Camp? Can I see that note."
"Sure, though it's not much use. They didn't say what camp, and like I said it's January. It was probably just a lame excuse they came up with last-minute." As she spoke she walked to the kitchen, she returned with a small slip of paper in her hand. Percy took it and scanned over it. The scrap of paper was scribbled across in familiar messy handwriting, Annabeth had written it, and in a hurry.
"Thanks Jade, but I have to go." He backed up a few steps then broke out into a run.
"Everyone around here is freaking weird." Jade said with a sigh. "Now, where is that vacuum?"
Percy hailed a cab, his panic slowly growing. What had happened? The gold dust clearly meant monster, but monster sightings were on the decline. All their known enemies had been defeated, and the monsters no longer worked together. If there was an attack wouldn't it be on Annabeth? Why would she take Emmy with her? He climbed into the taxi hardly paying attention to the driver. "Where to?" Percy looked up making eye contact with the driver through the mirror. The attractiveness of the women surprised him, but it wasn't something he could focus on at the moment. Absentmindedly he told her the address to camp, which to any mortal was in the middle of no where. The driver nodded and took off.
The drive was excruciatingly long, but when they finally reached the destination Percy realized he didn't have any cash. He could just run for it, but then he would feel bad. Though you think after you save the world a few times it would earn you some free taxi rides. Awkwardly he cleared his throat as they came to a stop. "Um, I don't have any cash on me." He looked into the rear view mirror nervously. The women shot him an aggravated look.
"That's too bad." Suddenly focusing Percy sat up straight as the women drew out her S's, like a snake. "I was hoping to get some cash off you, before I killed you." Percy didn't feel bad about not having cash any more.
Without another thought he opened the car door and bolted. If he could run fast enough he could make it to camp safely. Risking a glance back he was relieved to see the monster struggling to exit the yellow vehicle. His head turned back around just in time to keep him from running into Thalia's tree. A group of campers ran by him, probably to go handle the monster he just lead straight to camp.
Once inside the borders Percy looked around, where ever Emmy was she was probably with Annabeth. He ran to the nearest camper, a tall girl with black hair. "Do you know where Annabeth is?" The words left his mouth in a quick gasp.
"Infirmary." The reply was short and with a slight annoyed edge. Percy, not noticing, nodded his thanks and took off running again.
The son of the sea burst though the doors. Inside he found a small group gathered around one bed, all the rest were empty. A familiar blonde head stuck out from the rest. Percy walked up to the group trying to see what, or who, they were looking at. Before he could the blonde head turned, looking at him with sharp gray eyes. "Percy, she's going to be okay." In the center lay Emmy. Her black hair fanned out on the pillow behind her, her eyes were closed and her arms lay perfectly straight by her sides. On her neck there were two clear puncture marks, outlined in a sickly green color. A lump grew in Percy's throat as he looked down at her.
"What happened?"
"She was bitten by an Empousai, but I was able to get here in time that the venom didn't take full effect."
"But, I thought they only attacked men."
"Usually that's true, I don't know why this one went after Emmy." Percy was so busy trying to figure out what happened that he didn't notice when Emmy's eyes opened. They instantly widened as she looked around.
"Guys," Annabeth and Percy both looked down at her in surprise. "Where the crap am I?"
A slight smile broke across Percy's face, partly because she was talking and partly because she was acting like good old Emmy. "Emmy, welcome to Camp-Half Blood."