(A/N) Sorry about the incredibly long update I was on vacation and had to handle one of my other stories. Hope you guys like it.
So yeah I changed the summary because it made the story seem like it was just about Artemis and would center around her and her hunters, however that is not the case so I decided to change it.
Disclaimer: I OWN ONLY THE PLOT
Even heroes know when to be scared, and this statement was proven when a boy with black hair knocked on the man's door. He smiled, his expression wolfish, though the man supposed that it was intended to seem polite. His facial structure implied Greek origins, however his complexion was sickly pale, like a corpse's. His slick black hair glinted in the weak light of the waxing crescent moon, and his green eyes, which were like that of a raging sea, shone sinisterly. Had the man not been a retired demigod, one who had just traveled into the mortal world from Camp Half-Blood, he would suppose that the boy was harmless, stopping to ask for directions and whatnot. The man would also be oblivious to the wickedly vicious fangs that were revealed when he smiled, as well as the fact that his eyes glinted with malice that only monsters posessed. There was also the little black standard poodle puppy that sat on its haunches behind him, its tail bobbing back and forth, but once the man looked through the Mist he saw a hellhound that was almost as large as a tank, with glowing red eyes and a mastiff-like body structure.
The man, Kenneth Robinson, had no idea what this thing was, however it had big company, and therefore he decided to play it cool. "What brings a kid like you here out at this time of night?" he asked blearily, glancing at the clock. It read 12 o' clock exactly. He felt unprepared for battle, since all he was wearing was a loose T-shirt with the Superman logo on it and long, plaid pajama bottoms. He had neither armor nor a sword at his disposal; all of his weaponry and important demigod items were upstairs in his room, though he had a large bag of ambrosia and a huge container of nectar waiting in his fridge in case of emergencies.
"I strayed a bit off the road and I need help contacting my mom; I left my cellphone at home and I was wondering if I could borrow yours. May I come inside?" Ken, who was the son of Demeter, knew that inviting the monster inside was practically suicide, but then again refusing would come to similar results. He sighed, rubbing his eyes, but eventually he nodded and stepped aside, allowing a monster and its pet hellhound to walk inside. A potted plant, which was nowhere near the poodle, fell over as the hellhound's shaggy fur brushed against it. Ken gestured for the black-haired not-boy to sit down, and he smiled in faux appreciation, revealing those wicked fangs once more.
"What's your mother's number? Or father, for that matter?" the man asked, picking up one of his portable landline phones that sat on an end table nearby. He didn't expect the monster to answer, however he did it with memorized precision, much like a normal teenaged boy who knew his parent's number, though it wasn't that hard to memorize.
"666-666-6666. Unfortunate phone number, I know." he replied. How come I'm not surprised? Ken thought, shaking his head. He was about to dial when he paused, knitting his brows together.
"666 isn't an area code, at least not in the United States. Didn't it belong to a town called Reeves in Louisiana until 2007? There was a news story on it." The monster's lips tightened into a thin line, his green pupils slitting like a viper's and then returning to their normal shape. Okay that was a bit creepy, however the son of Demeter forced himself to stay calm. The little poodle puppy growled, its beady black eyes almost as terrible as the red ones it boasted as its form flickered and revealed its tank-sized mastiff form, but then it went back to a little poodle once more.
He held the phone up to his ear as it rang once. Twice. Three times. Ken wasn't surprised as it continued to ring with no response, and just as he was sure the answering machine would come on, someone picked up. Needless to say that Ken was more than startled, however with the monster watching him out of the corner of his eye he quickly recovered.
"Hello?" said a sleek, drawling feminine voice. Way too young to be a mother, specifically this boy's mother, for she sounded to be about his age, though there was something in her tone, something that all monsters had, that signaled that she was much, much older.
"Yes, ma'am I have your son at my house. He seems to be lost. Would you mind picking him up?" the son of Demeter said evenly, fighting a losing battle to keep the wavering note out of his voice. There was no doubt that, despite the fact that he could not, indeed, see her, this woman was also a monster, much like the one that was but two feet away from him. Ken wondered what the hell he was up against. The poodle was undoubtedly a hellhound, the biggest one he had ever seen in fact, however the boy was a whole new level of weird, and from a demigod's POV that must be crazy weird.
What monster class could it possibly belong to?
Dracaenae? No; the monster before him was neither female, nor snake-legged, and as far as Ken knew, dracaenae could not shape-shift.
Dragons? Nope; they couldn't morph into humans. Dragons, though cunning, were the burn-you-to-a-crisp-and-eat-you-first-ask-questions-later type.
Drakons? No; same situation as dragons. And they weren't very smart, either. Certainly not smart enough to form a plan as complex as this one.
He had gone through every reptilian monster that he had ever been taught about, however there was no match. They either didn't have snake eyes or had snake eyes but weren't smart enough for human speech. Ken didn't want to battle the monster too soon, for he had no idea how to kill it, however he knew that by the time this beast's "mother" came, he wanted to have his trusty, double-edged Celestial Bronze sword, Virgo, in his hand. For now he needed to make the monster comfortable in order to make sure that his death was, at least, delayed somewhat. He sat on the couch across from the monster's and folded his hands in his lap, unsure whether he was fit for hand-to-hand combat with a monster that was obviously very powerful. He decided to strike up conversation, see if the monster would give away secrets because he thought the demigod was going to die anyway.
"So…I take it you don't get out much?" he asked, trying to be the least suspicious he could possibly manage. When the boy seemed confused the demigod gestured to his sallow skin, which, judging by his Greek face shape, should've been a very vibrant olive. Ken, even to himself, sounded very suspicious, and if the monster hadn't already known of his ancestry, he certainly was apprehensive now. Despite this the boy let on no sign of wariness, and he instead smiled sadly.
"No, other kids don't really like to hang around me." Ken fought the urge to say, "I can see why," however he only smiled politely and nodded.
"Yeah, I can relate," he sighed. "Other kids treated me like a freak show, but trust me, kid, it gets better." For a moment Ken swore that the monster chuckled with amusement, but he singled it out as a trick his ears were playing on him. There was a long, drawn out, and increasingly awkward period of silence where the only thing that could be heard was the sound of the huge hellhound's breathing, which was much akin to the sound of an old steam train chugging along. Ken had no idea what else to say, and the monster was obviously not willing to strike up conversation, another key factor to its intelligence. Finally, after what Ken estimated was twenty minutes, he rose to his feet.
"I'm going to the bathroom. Tell me if your mom comes." However Ken was only saying that because it felt like what a normal host would say. In truth what he really wanted to discover was that the monster was gone when he came back down, or that it was all some sort of twisted nightmare. When he was being completely honest with himself, he knew that he wasn't ready for this type of battle. His powers were useless, for one could not make vines grow within a house, and potted plants gone mad would not be much use since they weren't anchored to the earth.
Mom, please. If you're listening, I need help. I'm not sure whether it's just a monster I've forgotten about or whether it's something that I've never seen. But it's powerful. I'm not one of the Seven. I'm not strong enough to fight this. So please…I don't want to die. He hoped his prayer did not go unanswered like most of them did, but he prayed anyway as he ascended the steps, which creaked and moaned under his weight. When he finally reached the top of the steps he felt much worse; there was a monster in his house. The one place that was supposed to be safe, and it was sitting on his couch downstairs. Waiting. As Ken quickly walked into his room and grabbed the hilt of his sword, which was propped up against the corner, he wondered why the monster was taking its time with attacking him. Somehow this reserved politeness ws even worse than a whirl of teeth and claws, which Ken was trained to handle. He had not been trained to handle a monster that negotiated.
That's when he heard the doorbell ring. He stiffened visibly, his hand clamped over his sword, and he heard the telltale click of the door being unlocked from the inside. Not a word was uttered, however there were now two sets of feet trotting on the floor below, joined by the click-click-click-click clicking of the poodle's stubby nails, which, in truth, were foot-long razors. Ken decided that it was best for him to stay upstairs rather than go down and confront them, for once he got down there he would no doubt be ambushed. He was unsure of whether he could handle one of the beasts, however when there were two of them he was royally screwed. There was a long tense period of complete and utter silence, with only the sounds of crickets chirping and tree frogs croaking breaking the veil.
Then the same voice that he had confronted on the phone said, "Alright, son of Demeter, I suggest you drop this game of hide and seek before it gets out of hand, and mind you my son and I are very good seekers." Trembling from head to toe and still in his pajamas, Ken slowly made his way down the stairs, clutching Virgo in his hands as if it were a lifeline, which, in this case scenario, was probably true. His breathing had turned ragged and his heart was beating frantically against his ribcage, and there was no doubt that the monsters could hear it, as well as smell the fear that was pulsing off of him in waves.
Ken turned the corner and came face to face with his visitors. The Mist was still doing its best to make the hellhound look like a normal dog, however Ken was only more intimidated by the fact that its form kept flickering from devil dog to standard poodle and back again. The boy was still there, however he wasn't trying to be polite anymore. His viper eyes gleamed with a cold, sick amusement and his lopsided grin was anything but playful as his fangs gleamed in the light. He stood beside a girl who looked about his age, even though she had referred to herself as his mother. Her hair was the color of rust, with a sprinkling of freckles to match, that was tied back in a messy bun, and her eyes glowed an unnatural blue, her pupils matching that of her son's. She did not show teeth when she smiled, her lips pulling into a thin smirk.
Ken finally managed to find his voice. "W-w-who a-a-re you?" The hellhound let out a few chuffs that were quite similar to laughter, and the boy joined in soon after. The girl, who was obviously the leader, held up her hand and they both silenced.
"My name is Lily, at least that's what most mortals call me. My real name is Lilith, and here is my son, Perseus," she told him as if they were two old friend having a causal conversation. "Of course, he isn't my only son. I'm the Mother, I gave birth to all. Most of my kind call each other 'brother' and 'sister', but I am Mother, and Mum, or as you Americans like to say it, Mom, always knows best for all of her children. Isn't that right, Perseus?"
"Indeed it is, Mother Dearest," the boy replied, not a hint of sarcasm in his tone. That was very odd, considering that even for a monster it seemed like the type to be sassy and sarcastic, however this monster either had so much respect for its mother that it was strictly obedient and polite or the monster feared her above all else. Ken's money was on the latter, however he was more concentrated on his very, very big problem; how the hell was he going to survive this? He couldn't beat the quote unquote "mother", which only reminded him of the dark days of Gaea, Mother Earth, and her giants. Gaea had to be defeated by the seven, and he certainly wasn't one of the seven.
"Listen. Ken," she said, her voice sweet like the potent scent of a carnivorous flower luring unsuspecting prey to its death. "I have a problem. You see, it's incredibly hard to mother such a great mass of children, and all of my children need to feast on flesh and blood regularly," she chuckled when she saw the horrified expression on Ken's face, "However when we consume more powerful blood, we do not need to feed as often."
"G-g-get to the point." Ken managed to choke out, leveling his sword at the two monsters.
"You need to know that we demons, stop looking so shocked we're a very common part of folklore, have just been released from Hell, with the help of my favorite son, here," she ruffled Perseus' hair in a very motherly way, though Perseus did not seem too happy about it, "and we need food. If we eat all the humans up we'll all starve for the rest of eternity, so I decided to do a little thing I like to call insurance. Each family gets their own demigod, with strong, godly blood in their veins, and that demigod provides for the family for the rest of their days. The demons, of course, cannot suck them dry as a raisin or tear them to pieces like the norm, however the suffering of a select few will save an entire world of people."
"So what are you saying?" Ken's voice was growing stronger, however Lilith finally grinned, revealing fangs that would cause saber-toothed tigers to crawl into a corner and weep.
"Oh, I don't want to go on monologue-ing like those classic villains in the movies, revealing all of my plans in the process, so I'm just going to say that you're the experiment."
Ken didn't remember much after that, but what he could decipher from the shifting haze was Lilith's cruel cackling. Then everything went black.