Chapter 5

"So I was right.", said Annabeth smugly.

The room was deathly silent for what felt like hours.

Carlisle finally broke the silence. "So, Annabeth, what brought you to that conclusion?"

Her eyes roved the room, looking for specific reactions before deciding on an answer.

"I just knew," she shrugged.

Edward and Alice looked petrified. Emmett and Rosalie looked shocked. Jasper looked intrigued. Esme seemed to feel nothing at all, and Carlisle was the epitome of calm.

"So, wanna go for a walk?"Annabeth suggested.

It took a moment for the others to shake off their shock and get moving. They all murmured and made their way to the door.

We walked the way to a trail in the middle of nowhere. There was a board at the beginning, but it was too hard to read.

I squinted my eyes and gave it a go. "A-ala Shuck-Shups? "I tried.

Edward glanced at me concerningly. "Percy, you're dyslexic?"

"Wow. Took you long enough.", I grumbled.

Annabeth laughed and said, "Percy's a little touchy about his dyslexia. A lot of people had given him a hard time for it."

We walked for a while, "Where the Hades are we?" I asked loudly.

Realizing my mistake, I slapped my hand on my mouth.

Alice raised an eyebrow. "Interesting choice of words, Percy."

Rosalie, the pretty one, glared at me menacingly. Had I said something wrong? She was looking at me like I had squirted permanent marker ink in her face.

I tried covering it up. "O-oh, well, my step-dad, you see, is an English teacher. His sayings stuck around for some time." I chuckled nervously.

Annabeth pulled my arm. "Percy and I are going to go by ourselves for a bit, if that's alright."

"Finally, that small talk was killing me.", she groaned.

Suddenly, she yelled, "DUCK!"

If it had anybody else who had asked, I probably would've hesitated. I probably would've died right there, in the wet grass.

A growl came from the bushes. A group of pale creatures surrounded us in a circle.

I drew Riptide, and Annabeth unsheathed her drakon-bone sword, putting on her invisible Yankees hat.

"Let's do this."

EPOV

Obviously, I could not have permitted Bella's guests to wander around the woods unsupervised. Victoria was near, and Bella would be inconsolable if Percy died, or something. After waiting for them to leave, I ran behind them and watched from the cover of the trees. And I was right. A large group of vampires much larger than our coven surrounded them. There was no way they were making it out alive. Why hadn't Alice seen this? I was going to interfere until I saw the looks on their faces. It was pure confidence and certainty. They stood back to back, as they drew… A ruler and a walking stick. Never mind, they were going to die. Until, I noticed that Annabeth had entirely disappeared. I fell back in shock. How was this possible?

Then the fight began. Percy was like a whirlwind, hacking, stabbing, slicing. He then conjured a hurricane and blew the vampires down. An invisible form was taking down as many vampires as Percy was. She finally reappeared and sighed. All the vampires had turned to dust after even just a touch from the ruler or stick. Amongst the carnage that had just ensued, she plopped down with Percy and opened her backpack to pull out a ziploc of golden Jello squares. She took out one and popped it in her mouth and one in Percy's. As they chewed, their faces glowed like ethereal immortals. She rested her head on his shoulder and whispered " Bella's probably waiting for us. Lets not keep her out in the cold, waiting. They walked back together, hand in hand. Who were they?

And what did they want from us?