Chapter 4: Monsters
I was right, of course I was right. I shouldn't have doubted it for a second. It had been Ethan all along, that son of a bitch. Acting like a friend while he was the one that killed her. He had to be the one that killed her. He hunted us, he hunted demigods. Why? I only saw so little in that dream. What happened that made him hate us so? There were always questions like that. Always things I didn't understand, things I'd never understand. It was better to stop trying and just go with it. I got out of bed and walked to the sink located next to the bed I was sleeping in. I looked at myself in the mirror and was amazed by how I looked. Last time I looked at myself in this mirror I looked like a dead man walking. A year in the normal life did me good. I had meat on my bones, colour on my skin and there weren't dark rings underneath my eyes. All these things were rare for me. I usually looked like a ghost and now that I saw that I didn't it was weird. Of course I had looked like this for months but looking into this mirror it reminded me of how I used to look. I could also see how much muscle I gained as well. When I fought Samael in Phthonos' arena I thought I was as strong as I would ever be but I exceeded that limit. Truth was Sophie's training had made me a lot stronger than I was before even though I never really realized that. I washed my face and walked out of the cabin. I was still fully dressed, I didn't bother to undress the night before. Another thing that I was amazed about was that I slept through the entire night. The sun was high in the sky, something that rarely occurred when I woke up. Usually I went to sleep in the early evening and I woke up before the clock hit twelve. I used to watch the sun rise but I couldn't remember the last time I did that. I had changed so much and I hadn't even noticed it. Was it because I lived life without worries? Or was there some other explanation. I didn't know the answer to that either. All I knew was that I had to talk to Luke.
I found him in the forge which wasn't all that rare. It was heaven for any son of Hephaestus. Truth was they were all machine nerds, you could call it smith or anything you like it didn't change the fact. And for geeks like them the forge was perfect. There were parts of machinery everywhere. There was a old car that was being taken apart up ahead and next to me one of Luke's siblings was working on some kind of wall-e robot thing. Luke on the other hand was working on a basic sword. I couldn't imagine it was much fun for a smith of their calibre but Luke always said that there was nothing as satisfying as forging a good blade.
"Luke." I said with sweat running down my forehead. The forge was incredibly hot. The children of Hephaestus weren't bothered by that. I had seen one of them holding their hand in a flame for a minute before they felt heat at all. "I need to talk to you about Ethan." I was straight to the point as usual. If it was a serious matter I was like that. When it wasn't I could be a joker but this was a serious matter. I had seen through Ethan's eyes and he didn't have anything good planned for us. I couldn't think of anyone else that could have murdered Grace, and that was a serious matter. Luke nodded and dropped what he was working on. We trusted each other and when we said something was up it didn't matter what we were doing we dropped it and got talking. As we walked out I looked to the left to a steel door. The door led to a basement with a cage in it, my cage. I had spend a lot of time in there and I hoped I would never have to again. At the time I thought it was best but now that I had regained my freedom that cage was my worst nightmare.
Leaving the forge was a great relief to me personally. The heat nearly killed me. "So what's up?" Luke asked as soon as we were out of anyone else's field of hearing. These conversations were private and they had to stay that way. There were quite a few gossiping eavesdroppers around and the matters Luke and I had to discuss were too important to be heard by people like that.
"Ethan, who is he?" Dreams were reliable but not 100% reliable. I had to know more about Ethan before I drew my final conclusion. Truth was the way he spoke to me the evening before I wished he wasn't the killer. Having a guy like that as an ally would be a good thing. The second thing was the way I saw him kill the demigod boy and the way Grace was killed. He killed the other demigod with a quick and lethal stab to the neck but with Grace he decided to go ritual? I didn't understand that. Maybe that was because he had more time to kill Grace in the dense woods of camp half-blood or maybe he hadn't been the killer. That's why I had to know everything there was to know about him.
"Well he showed up here about two months ago. He was badly cut up and we didn't think he was going to make it. Mostly because he's not like us, he's mortal you see." I had figured that much out. Why would he hate demigods so much while he's one himself? So I figured he was mortal. "The daughter of Apollo that found him let him pass the barrier and he slowly started healing. He woke up not too long ago and he turned out to have the sight." Now that was something I never heard of.
"The sight?" I wondered what that was supposed to mean.
"The ability to see through the mist." I think Luke understood that I didn't get what that was either so Luke started to explain. "The mist is a magical cover up system. You see some of the things that happen around demigods and monsters is unexplainable for mortals. So the mist makes it explainable if that makes any sense." It didn't but I just nodded. "Some mortals have the ability to see through that cover up system. They see everything as clear as we do, clearer sometimes. It's rare but it happens."
"And Ethan is one of the few to have that ability?" If so it explained a lot. Being able to see through this mist seemed to make it easier to spot demigods out of a crowd. It would definitely make Ethan a better hunter.
"Well, yeah." Luke said. "So why the sudden interest in Ethan?" So I told him about my dream. How I saw him killing the young demigod and how he thought of himself as some kind of hunter of demigods. I had no idea if that was a thing or if Ethan was mad but I figured Luke had an answer to that. "I understand the interest." Luke said. He seemed shocked. This was the second time I told him that a new arrival at camp was someone that intended to destroy it. I figured he would have gotten used to it by now.
"So this hunter thing, is that anything you ever heard about?" I asked him. If anyone knew stuff like that it was Luke. He was a smart guy and given I didn't have any children of Athena in my group of friends he was the go to guy when it came to stuff like this.
"Not in the last millennium. Back in the early middle ages when Christianity started to become big there was a small order of so called hunters that tried to kill off all demigods but they were a tiny group. Barely a hundred members I believe. They succeeded in killing a few demigods and after the slaughter of a small group of demigod mercenaries a few other demigods banded together and slaughtered the order. Since then no group of mortals have banded together to kill us all." Luke said. I believed him. He seemed shocked about what I told him. "So what do you think we should do?"
"We get to him as quickly as we can before he kills anyone else."
We looked for him everywhere we could think of except for the woods. The rest was easier to scout through. If we figured out that he was in the woods we would need more people. Luckily he wasn't in the woods, he was in the arena and the way we walked into him didn't really give him and points. There was a girl there blocking all of his attacks but she was barely doing so. Was he trying to kill this girl too? I had never seen this girl before. She had blonde hair and green eyes. She was average height and had light skin.
"Get away from her Ethan!" I yelled. I didn't know exactly what was going on but I didn't want to take any chances. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the black Zippo lighter that was in there. I turned the flint and the lighter changed into Shadow-edge. The sword that had served me quite well.
"What the hell!" The girl said. "Ethan's only helping, what is your problem?" I knew that it was a possibility that Ethan wasn't trying to kill this girl but like I said, I couldn't take any chances.
"Get away from him Dannii!" Luke seemed to agree with me on that. The girl listened to Luke. The girl apparently named Dannii stepped back from Ethan and left the arena. Ethan just stood there with his sword still in hand. Luke also drew his sword, well one of them anyway. This was the one in his watch, the one forged by his father. Tyche it was called if my memory served me well. It was the most beautiful sword I had ever seen. I had only seen it once before. Luke only used it in the final battle against Phthonos. I wondered why he used his best sword now, maybe this fight was more important to him than I thought.
"What is up with you two?" Ethan said. He tried to act as if he was surprised that this happened but you could see by the way he acted that he knew this could happen. He wasn't a great actor or he didn't even try.
"You hunt our kind for sport Raine, that's what's up." Luke said with anger in his voice. Now I understood why Luke drew Tyche instead of the sword hidden in the pinky finger of his bronze hand. To him this went beyond Grace. I remembered a line from the letter he wrote (the one I wasn't supposed to read but did anyway.) 'They're so young, though, and I feel like it's my responsibility to look out for them, like I would with any other demigod'.' Luke was like that. He cared about every demigod that walked the face of this earth. And Ethan threatened them. To him, this was war.
"Well then...I guess my cover is blown after all." Ethan raised his sword and sprinted towards us. He swung towards Luke who blocked with. Ease I hoped that this kept Ethan distracted so that I could attack him and end this fight early. Of course I was wrong. I aimed for his legs and swung my sword. Ethan blocked my attack with ease and raised his leg. He kicked me in the face and as I fell to the ground I saw him block Luke's next attack. Ethan was good, was he better than we were? Luke seemed to have trouble defending himself. Ethan attacked quickly and never the way you expected him to. He would try to swipe your legs but before impact he would quickly change direction and go for your side. I got up hoping that this time I could be a bit more of a challenge. As soon as Ethan saw the I was back up my feet he attacked Luke once more with his sword and simultaneously he kicked Luke in the knee. Luke remained on his feet but he was in a pain. Ethan took a step back from Luke but still held his sword at the ready. "You two can't beat me and I have no desire of hurting you any more. Just let me leave and I'll let you live." I didn't understand this at all. He hunted demigods, why wouldn't he want to kill us? Either way, I couldn't let him leave. Either he was going to die here, or I was.
"You should have thought of leaving peacefully before you killed Grace!" Anger took over. Something I knew I couldn't afford. My ever burning rage was my greatest flaw. And now I was unleashing it all on Ethan. I charged towards him and gave it all I had. I cut and stabbed but it was no use. Ethan was better than I was but I was angrier than he was. Anger clouded the mind, the saying was true. I had no idea what I was doing. But anger did make you a hell of a lot more willing to kill someone. I didn't stop attacking for a second and the truth was I had more stamina than he did. For one I was a demigod, that was quite an advantage. Secondly he smoked full time for almost 5 years now. I didn't know that fact at the time but it was a factor which made him weaken down while I was still giving everything I had. Shadow-edge collided with Ethan's weapon another time when he realized that he had to end this quickly. He turned his blade and cut the outside of my fingers making my drop my sword. It wasn't a deep cut but it made me flinch. That second I wished Erebus hadn't given me a fingerless glove but just a glove. It was looking bad for me, I had no weapon and our demigod hunter still had his sword. The lucky thing was that I could grab his wrist without getting my hand cut off. It was a risk but one I had to take. My hand moved lighting fast and as soon as my hand was close enough I grabbed his wrist and twisted it. I heard Ethan's wrist break. I had never broken anyone's wrist like that before but some heavy training and a lot of anger apparently made it possible. Ethan was defenceless and with a broken wrist he wasn't going to be able to defend himself any time soon but it wasn't enough for me. I wanted to hurt him even more. I wanted to kill him! So I hit him, I hit him with my bare knuckles until he was on the floor. I kept hitting him even when he was nearly passed out. Even when he was nearly dead. I heard Luke
calling, telling me to stop but I didn't listen. I just kept hitting. I kept hitting until I felt a pain in my right shoulder. Ethan had stabbed me with his last strength. I felt the pain but not as bad as I should have. I was slipping away. I couldn't feel the pain in my shoulder, I only felt a terrible pain in my head. I had been having migraines for a while but this was the worst I ever head. My head felt like it was splitting into two. The pain I felt is indescribable all I know is that when the pain was gone, so was I.
Colt looked at the dagger stuck in his right shoulder. That shoulder had been stabbed so many times it barely hurt any more. Of course Colt never really cared about pain. He enjoyed it more than it bothered him. "Is that it? I beat you to shit and that's all you've got? Truly Ethan, I'm disappointed." Behind me Luke's face changed. The change in my voice was obvious. The sadistic calm sound was something I had never been able to get out of my voice. But Colt did. Luke knew that he was back. Colt was back...
"Don't look so surprised Luke." Colt looked Luke straight in the eye. Ethan was half dead already so Colt didn't really find him very interesting any more. He would pay for the stabbing later. Probably by being stabbed in multiple places. He'd start with the shoulders, then the hands and feet. And after that it would probably be some improvised stuff. Colt was looking forward to that already. It had been too long since he felt the rush of making someone bleed. He had been locked away for almost a year...a year! That was a lot of missed mayhem. It was time to start catching up.
"You...you're dead. Angel killed you!" Luke said. He didn't want to believe it, he couldn't believe it. Colt being back, that was the nightmare of all of us.
"Killed me! Ha!" Colt mocked. He loved to do that. He especially loved it when he was mocking a person I called friend. "He beat me and temporarily locked me away but as long as I'm in his grapefruit he'll never kill me. As long as he lives, I live." Colt sounded as arrogant as ever. He seemed to have been standing still while the world had aged a year.
"Luke, Angel!" If I had a voice I would have screamed I would have told her to run. I didn't want her to see me like this. Sophie couldn't see me like this.
"Sophie get out of here!" Luke tried to yell. Luke would rather die than have anyone else meet Colt the way he had too many times now. Of course if no one else came Luke was dead meet. In a fair fight I didn't know if Colt was better than Luke but Luke's leg was injured. In a weakened state Luke couldn't defeat Colt. Colt would kill Luke after some horrible torture. Truth was, Sophie coming closer had probably saved his hide.
"Sophie Brighton. At last we meet." Colt said. I could imagine Colt wanted to kill Sophie on quite a few occasions when we were living in the same apartment but until now he never had the strength to take over. Now here he was standing 30 feet away from here.
"So you're the notorious Colt. You don't look very impressive." Sophie said. I wondered how long the talking would last. Truth was even though I was worried for Sophie there was little reason to be. What ever Colt said to her I imagined Sophie could think of something worse to say back. She could be a real bitch. And given she always beat me in sparring I figured she had to be a better fighter than Colt. I didn't really have a thing to worry about.
"That's cause Angel doesn't look very impressive. But he is isn't he? Beat the baddies and saved the day. It makes me sick." Colt was probably genuinely feeling sick when he thought about me beating Phthonos. After all Colt had teamed up with Phthonos after all. He wanted to cause mayhem all around the country with good old Fiffy but I stopped him and locked him away for a year. If he hated me before that hate must have doubled now.
"And he probably feels sick when he thinks about the stuff you did. You two really do balance each other out." Sophie said. I knew she had a big mouth and the truth was a clash between a daughter of Aphrodite and Colt was interesting. It was like watching mean girls go at it.
"Well not really. He might not let you know but I'm inside that head of is. He misses the old days. The times he wanted to slit your throat, I truly lost count." Colt was just thinking things up as we went. He usually spatted out lies but this was just idiotic. "Of course you wouldn't mind if either of us did that would you know? I mean hell, there's little keeping you here. Jake's gone, Dean's gone, and now poor little Grace died. Another one bites the dust." Colt laughed. Sophie clenched her fist. Colt was getting to her. She couldn't let him piss her off. That's when he was most dangerous. "Don't you want to go to your friends Sophie? Cause it can be arranged if you like." Colt said with a sadistic smile.
"Don't let him get to you Sophie." Luke said. There wasn't much he could do. He couldn't fight with his leg. He could only hope that Sophie wouldn't fall for Colt's trap.
"Hush Luke, I'm talking to the lady. And anyway you have no right of speaking. You lost your cool after I said two things about Maria. That really sucked by the way, I had so much more stuff to say." Colt said this time grinning at Luke. Maria was Luke's source of strength but also his greatest weakness.
"Don't worry Luke, this piece of filth can't say anything to hurt me." Sophie said. Colt and I both doubted that. Colt was good at this stuff. He loved it and had a natural talent for it. I didn't understand how he did it but he always found a way to read a person, find their weaknesses and exploit them. "He's just trying to find a way to hurt me but because he has no idea how to do it he just shoots and hopes he hits the target. It's pathetic. You should stop with trying to paint Angel's reputation black. I've been living with the guy for a year. I know he's not like that, he's not like you." I didn't think Sophie would defend me like that. Truth is in the entire year we lived in one apartment she seemed to keep her distance from me. I lived with her for a year but I didn't really know her that well. I always thought she disliked me or something but here she was defending me against Colt. Or maybe she was just defending herself and using me much like Colt was. Sadly I never got a look inside her head so I will never know.
"Let me tell you something you don't know about saint Angelus. You know he's never been with a girl in that special way? Nearly seventeen and still a virgin, it's pathetic isn't it?" Personally I saw it as a choice and lack of opportunity. Truth was there never seemed to be place for that stuff in my life. I was probably one of the few 16 year old who rarely thought about getting a date with the high school hotty. Of course Colt was ready to deny that. "But there he was living with a daughter of Aphrodite. Can you imagine it? In the room next to his was an incredibly fit girl having her beauty sleep. You can not imagine how many nights he spent alone in his room thinking about you. So disgusting."
"Wow you just compared Angel to any regular teenager. Get your stuff together Colt." Sophie defended me again although I could see that she was far more disgusted by this story than the last. Luckily both were lies.
"That's just it though, he isn't a normal teenage guy is he? He's Angel our great hero who never does anything wrong and saves the day. It sucks to find out that pure heroes don't exist doesn't it?" Colt was speaking nonsense now, to me it was nonsense anyway. If anyone wasn't a pure hero it was me. Mostly because of him but even when he was gone I wasn't pure. Pure just wasn't my kind of thing.
"We don't believe in fairy tales Colt. Angel has his bad sides just like we all do." Luke said. Colt was getting annoyed by him. He didn't care about Luke right now. So he wanted Luke to stay out of this conversation.
"And what about your bad sides Luke? Your obsession with getting yourself into Elysium? Or the fact that you can't protect a single person you care about? Or this is a golden oldy, the fact that you don't care about anyone but that skank you call your fiancé? Come on Luke, you came back but did you really think Angel forgot about you leaving him behind to die? He needed you, everyone needed you but you rather returned to your misses than continue on a tough path for the greater good. But of course when she told you you were being an ass you returned. Seriously Luke have you got no will of your own?" Truth was, about this Colt wasn't lying. Luke was my friend and I always understood why he lost faith in the quest at that time but he left me behind. He wasn't willing to give it all if it meant he might not be returning home. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. At that moment it wasn't a saying that applied to Luke. "And then the promise Angel so bravely made. Dying as long as you returned home. Of course you weren't willing to offer him the same kind of defence. You'd rather fend for yourself than for a friend. Unless it's Maria of course, you'll die for her." Colt was getting to Luke again. He could get to Luke so easily because I knew Luke pretty well and Colt knew about everything I thought about Luke. And this was something that popped into my mind frequently although I tried to forget it. It was something that I saw as a major flaw to the near perfect Luke Ford.
"I thought you were talking to me Colt. Leave Luke out of this will you." Sophie said. She was obviously tougher to get to. I wondered how she got so tough. After all Colt had said some things that were pretty horrible yet she didn't seem to be bothered by it at all. Luke on the other hand seemed to have turned inside himself. He knew what Colt said was true, this one he couldn't deny or twist around. Every word Colt had just spoken was the truth, and Luke hated it.
"We were but he was so rude to interrupt so I thought I'd give Mr. English a piece of my mind." Colt said as he turned his focus back to Sophie. "Now where were we?" Colt tapped his chin with his middle and index finger before speaking again. "Oh what the hell let's just skip to the fun part!" In a fluent motion Colt pulled the dagger out of his shoulder and threw it towards Sophie. She dodged it easily. She reached for her necklace shaped like a heart. Like many jewellery in the demigod world it appeared normal but it wasn't. She rubbed the necklace and it changed from a simple object to a bronze sword. Colt made his way to Shadow-edge and was ready for a fight. I figured he would stand no chance, Sophie was a great fighter. I never got through her defence anyway. Sophie was the one to charge. She held her sword low going for an upwards cut. Colt could see that coming easily. As seen as she was close enough for shadow-edge's reach he locked her sword underneath his and kicked her in the stomach. Without setting his foot down he brought his leg higher up until it was higher than Sophie's face and he brought it back down shoving his heel into Sophie's face. Sophie dropped her sword and fell to the ground. "I expected better from you Sophie. I mean all those time you beat me in sparring. You didn't really think Angel was giving it his all were you?"
"Sophie!" I heard Luke scream. He tried to come closer with Tyche still in his hand but as soon as he tried to lean on his injured leg he collapsed. I was pretty sure Ethan's kick had broken it. Of course Nectar and/or ambrosia (drink and food for the gods and miracle medicine for demigods) would fix it pretty quickly but we didn't have any of that in arm's reach.
"I hope you're going to enjoy this Luke. I think you'll find me skinning your sister in law quite a good show." Colt smiled.
"I'll kill you if you hurt her! I'll kill you!" Colt wasn't impressed by Luke's threats. He kicked Sophie in the ribs to make sure she would stay down and slowly made his way to the dagger she dodged. On his way there Colt imagined how he was going to torture her. He couldn't decide where to start the skinning. The chest or stomach would be the easiest to begin with but she would die pretty quickly and he wanted her to watch her own skin come off. Once he reached the dagger he had chosen to start with her arms. Not the easiest place to start but at least it would be a view that would haunt her for the rest of her afterlife. Colt turned around and made his way back to Sophie. "Are you ready love, you'll never forget this trust me. After all I can't imagine anyone in the underworld forget the way they died. Especially given how spectacular this one is going to be." Colt laughed sadistically. When he was only a few feet away from Sophie something stopped him. Something had grabbed him by the neck. It was cold and strong, steel. It was a chain or something like that and as soon as Colt realized that he knew what was happening. He was pulled back by the person pulling him at the other side of the chain. He was being reeled in like a fish in a pond. He tried to resist but his neck muscles weren't all that strong. Colt realize now how cruel keeping a dog on a leash was. He was pulled to the ground by one incredible pull. When he landed on the ground he looked up and saw a 17 year old guy with brown hair. The guy was strong looking and had a man's face even though he wasn't even an adult by American law. "Hello Maxi! How have you been?" Colt said with a screeching voice. After being pulled by his throat with a steel chain his voice was slightly messed up. Maximus Meridius answered Colt's question by pushing his foot down on Colt's face making the lights go out.