Chapter 12
As soon as Percy and Annabeth arrived in Chicago, they got to work trying to find the secret cache on the map. All Percy knew was that they were looking for something with Aphrodite's name on it with a dove underneath her name.
Chicago was huge, not as big as New York, but still huge for a city. As with any city, monsters were a risk and Percy knew that. Yet monsters were the last thing on his mind as he and Annabeth walked through the streets looking for Aphrodite's cache.
Percy mainly followed Annabeth since she had a map pulled up on her phone. She was able to lead them through bustling city centers and sketchy alleyways all the same. A few gangsters stared at the two but the second they saw Percy's glare, they backed off.
The weather in Chicago really wasn't any different from the weather in New York. Percy didn't mind the mild or cold weather that came with being up north but he hated the humid heat that came with being down south. He could tolerate the heat but he doubted he'd ever like it.
Percy looked around at every storefront they passed. He passed closed down convenience stores, fast-food chains, and big-name clothing shops. He figured the clothing shops would probably be there best bet but he also wasn't sure, Aphrodite could've set her caches up in jewelry stores and salons.
Annabeth cursed. Percy looked at her and noticed she was pressing the power button on her phone repeatedly but the phone screen stayed black. No matter how hard or frequently she pressed the button, the screen never lit up.
Annabeth groaned and turned to him, "My phone's dead."
Percy stared at the dead device in her hand, "You can try mine."
He handed the phone off to her and watched as she unlocked it with ease. She didn't even bother using his face to unlock it, she just entered in his password and went straight to the map app.
Percy couldn't help but silently thank Leo for making demigod-friendly phones. They were hard to make, hence why usually only cabin counselors had one, but they were fast and just as good, if not better than the phones in the mortal world. Not to mention, Leo made them free of charge.
"How did you know my password?" He asked her, he never told her his password.
Annabeth gave him a unimpressed look, "Percy, your password is just P3rcy_rul3s. I watched you unlock your phone a bunch of times."
Percy's face heated up, he never knew Annabeth's password. Either way, he didn't see anything bad coming out of her knowing his password, it wasn't like he had anything to hide, at least from her.
Annabeth continued walking. He really wasn't sure where they were going.
"Hey, quick question," He said, "How do you know where to go?"
Annabeth looked at him, "Leo's app has a tracker for all celestial bronze in the surrounding area. He meant for it to be used to find missing demigods or at least their weapons but I think we can use it to find Aphrodite's cache. A lot of her jewelry is made of celestial bronze."
Percy nearly forgot how rare celestial bronze actually was. He'd been around the stuff for so long that he forgot that it was basically non-existent in the mortal world.
"What about imperial gold?" He asked.
Annabeth nodded, "There's a setting for that but we're looking for celestial bronze."
Percy shrugged and kept following her. He looked around them to make sure there weren't any monsters sneaking up on them. It was clear now that he had the chance of running into old monsters especially after he ran into Geryon. He just hoped he didn't run into any of the bad ones, like Kampê. He wouldn't know what he'd do if he ran into her again.
He watched as a school bus passed by, all the kids inside wore matching blue shirts. They must've been going on a field trip or something. He couldn't help but wonder if there were a couple of demigods amongst them.
Percy's eyes darted around as he looked for any monsters or orange camp shirts. His training from Lupa never wore off, he knew better than to slip up now. Lupa taught him that things tended to go wrong the second someone let their guard down.
"Look, we're here!" Annabeth said brightly.
Percy looked ahead and saw a store up ahead that looked like it belonged out of a Barbie commercial. The building was shorter than the surrounding buildings but the pink and white Victorian building basically screamed Aphrodite's name. Above the doorway was a platinum dove along with golden letters above the dove. 'Aphrodite' was written in a font that was utter torture to Percy's eyes.
"So, what do we do? Do we just walk in there and look around?" He asked, eyeing the posters that advertised 24k golden necklaces for couples. He even saw a poster of Aphrodite herself showing off a ring on her finger.
"I guess—"
"Aw, look at this!" A girl's voice gushed from behind them.
Percy turned to find a familiar foe behind them and one that he wished would just stay dead. He would notice that curly hair and pretty face anywhere. Kelli stood behind them in a local high school's football jersey. She flicked her hair to the side and smiled at Percy but not before shooting a devilish glare at Annabeth.
"Going jewelry shopping are we?" Kelli asked, nodding towards Aphrodite's store.
"What the fuck do you want?" Annabeth asked, drawing her sword.
"First off, rude." Kelli said, "Secondly, when was the last time you two showered? I literally tracked you both down halfway across the city."
Percy's face heated up. The last time he and Annabeth had showered was back in New York. The past few days hadn't given them much of a opportunity to get a proper shower and he knew getting drenched in the rain didn't count as a shower.
"That's none of your business." Annabeth sneered, though Percy noticed the embarrassment in her cheeks, "Now get the fuck out of here."
"You came to my city, girl." Kelli said in a low but dangerous tone, "You're a guest here, remember that."
"It's a free country, I can go wherever I want." Annabeth countered, "Or is the concept of freedom too complex for your small brain? Maybe you should try toning down the make up a little, cake face."
Percy knew Annabeth had a aversion to make up or at least to the girls who used a ton of it. Apparently, she considered those girls as deceivers. Contrary to what most people thought, she wasn't completely against make up, she was just against pouring a entire make up kit on her face. He'd seen her wear make up before and it was almost scary how beautiful she could actually be. She was already amazing in terms of looks but with make up, she could absolutely win plenty of beauty competitions if she wanted to.
"Cake face?" Kelli asked, her eyes growing wide with offense, "Even for you, that's low."
"Just leave!"
Kelli licked her lips, "No way. I see a meal, I get a meal."
"The I'll make this quick." Annabeth spun her sword in her hand before taking a stance.
Percy drew his own sword and stood next to her, watching Kelli as she looked between the two of them.
Kelli charged but it wasn't at Annabeth. Instead, she spun on her heel and sprinted at him, her fangs bared and ready to pierce his skin. She jumped back just in time as Annabeth nearly brought her sword down on her head.
"Bitch!" Annabeth yelled, kicking Kelli in the side.
Kelli shrieked, "That hurt!"
"Good!"
Percy decided to cut in between their little spat with Riptide, nearly slicing Kelli in two. He cursed under his breath as she jumped back just in time.
"Annabeth, do the thing!" He yelled.
"What thing?!" She yelled back as she sliced at Kelli, who dodged the attack.
The two demigods took turns striking at Kelli, but she proved to be hard to hit. She was like a annoying fly, she dodged and rolled out of every attack they launched. By now, both demigods were working up a good amount of sweat. Cars honked as people yelled for them to stop fighting.
"I've had enough of this crazy bitch." Annabeth growled.
Kelli snickered at their tired expressions. Percy bet she found this whole thing so funny.
"Hey, Kelli, your shoe is untied." Annabeth said.
"Huh?" The empousa looked down at her shoes, only for Annabeth to ram her sword through her chest.
"Ha! Dumbass!" Annabeth yelled victoriously.
Percy stared at the whole situation with a look of disbelief, that was the most elementary move he'd ever seen yet it worked.
Kelli looked up and shrieked before exploding into a confetti of yellow dust. Her high school jersey fluttered to the ground, a hint of perfume drifted in the air. It was that sickly sweet smell that had nearly gotten him killed the first time he'd met Kelli at Goode.
"Murder!" A person across the street screamed, "Those two just murdered a girl!"
"Son of a bitch." Percy cursed.
Annabeth grabbed his hand and sprinted towards Aphrodite's shop, "Come on, let's get in the shop before the police show up."
Ω
The sound of police sirens were muffled through the walls of the store. Blue and red lights flashed through the storefront's windows, illuminating the counter and displays. The diamonds and gold in the displays glinted with expensive shines.
Soft smooth jazz played through the store. Percy wasn't sure why he expected anything less than that. He should've expected the sultry posters on the wall, like the woman with red lipstick goading for him to buy a ring for a special someone or maybe the attractive blonde that advertised half off on promise ring sales.
Percy sat behind the counter, his heart beating as he imagined the cops walking around looking for them. Annabeth sat next to him, her knees pulled close to her chest.
"We've been here for hours." Percy complained.
"Percy, we've been here for only five minutes." Annabeth said.
Percy crawled over to the edge of the counter and looked around to see what was going on outside. He watched as the officers who were called to the scene climbed into their patrol cars and started to drive off.
"Annabeth, they're leaving." He said over his shoulder, "I think we're good."
Annabeth sighed, "Finally."
She climbed to her feet and walked around the container, looking into the displays. She shook her head and walked from display to display. Each display she looked at seemed to make her only more desperate. Eventually, she was running to the other displays.
"Annabeth?" He asked, watching as she ran.
"No, no, no." She said as she looked into the last display. She turned to him and said, "Check the backroom!"
"Alright." He turned and walked to the backroom of the jewelry store. He wasn't sure what the ring that they were looking for even looked like but he assumed there had to be something special about it.
He gently pushed open the door to the backroom and sighed out of disappointment. The door led to nothing but a small office. On one side of the office was a desk with a old monitor as well as some coffee tan file cabinets. On the other side of the office was a shelf of jewels, jewels like golden eggs the size of Percy's fist all the way to statues of dragons with sapphires for eyes.
Percy walked over to the shelf and looked at each item. He even checked if the eggs could be opened. Eventually he reached the end of the shelf and huffed, there was no ring. He had a feeling some of the jewels were enchanted but they weren't at all what they were looking for.
He turned and walked over to the monitor. He tapped the keyboard a few times but he didn't hear the computer boot up.
"Figures, it's dead." He grumbled.
There had to be something he could use to find what they were looking for. The last thing he wanted was to go all the way to New Orleans only to find the ring wasn't there. Then they'd really be screwed.
That's when he pulled one of the side drawers to the desk open. At first, he didn't see anything important in there, just old sales catalogs and faded Hermes express slips. He rummaged around, eventually finding something of value. He pulled out a year old express slip. The date was faded and there were a few tears but the words were still legible.
The form basically confirmed that the ring wasn't in Chicago and the reason why was because it was all the way in New Orleans. The only thing he found odd about the slip was that Aphrodite herself didn't fill it out. Eros's name was in the signatory box.
"Hey, Annabeth!" He called, "I found something!"
He heard Annabeth walk over before the door opened.
"What'd you find?" She asked, "I searched behind the counter and didn't find anything."
"Well, take a look at this." He said, handing the slip to her.
Annabeth took the slip and started reading it. She flipped it over to see if there was a back before folding it and shoving it into her pocket, "Looks like we're going to New Orleans."
