BLOODSHOT . . . piper mclean

11.

EDEN REALLY WISHED the dragon hadn't landed on the toilets.

Of all the places to crash, a line of Porta-Potties would not have been her first choice. Probably in her bottom 20. The chemicals were bad for her complexion. A dozen of the blue plastic boxes had been set up in the factory yard, and Festus had flattened them all. Fortunately, they hadn't been used in a long time, and the fireball from the crash incinerated most of the contents; but still, there were some pretty gross chemicals leaking out of the wreckage. Eden scrunched up her nose and summoned it away for Leo, taxing about ninety five percent of her strength, before sitting down and trying to set the snow on fire with a lighter because burning things was fun while Leo was working on whatever.

"Not my fault," he muttered. "Festus, you're making me look bad."

Then he opened the control panel on the dragon's head. "Oh, Festus, what the heck?"

"What?" Eden called. "Did somebody fuck him up?"

"Yeah, I thought you wouldn't be interested in this stuff."

"I'm not," Eden said. "Just wondering if we, oh, never had to fly again. That would be nice. I need some coffee so I don't like or something."

She took out her thermos and sipped it, sighing as she stared at Leo. She really felt sick, and it wasn't just the air flight. Eden wanted to be back at camp, surprisingly, and she wanted to talk to Connor and Rachel and go shoplifting and lay in bed and talk with him and paint with Rachel and she wanted a home to go back to. She wanted someone to care about her like he did to her, she wanted someone more permanent she could depend on that wasn't herself. Selfish as that was, she wanted those things.

Eden just wanted a home. More than money. More than fame. More than immortality.

She sighed. She really needed to have a drink with Connor when she got back. She hated that she did it, but she'd supposedly gotten it from her mother or whatever, plus, this is a stressful situation. If she ever got back. Maybe she needed someone to stop her addiction. Maybe she needed another one.

Maybe she needed someone else to be addicted to.

"Enough, Valdez," Leo's voice cut through her head, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. "Nobody's going to play any violins for you just because you're not important. Fix the stupid dragon."

"What?" Eden frowned. "I'd play a kazoo for you. Do you want me to demonstrate?"

Leo snorted. "What kind of kazoo?"

"Leo, what the fuck?"

"Eden—"

"You know what, keep working, you dirty minded idiot."

Eden got so involved with thinking and drinking her coffee and fixing her makeup and setting the snow on fire when she heard a voice.

You're wrong, Leo, it said.

He fumbled his brush and dropped it into the dragon's head. Eden stood up, but she couldn't see who'd spoken. Then she looked at the ground, naturally. Snow and chemical sludge from the toilets, even the asphalt itself was shifting like it was turning to liquid. A ten-foot-wide area formed eyes, a nose, and a mouth — the giant face of a sleeping woman.

"What the fuck." Eden said, inching closer to Leo and Festus, staring down at the . . . the thing.

She didn't exactly speak. Her lips didn't move. But Eden could hear her voice in her head, as if the vibrations were coming through the ground, straight into her feet and resonating up her skeleton. This wasn't something that she'd faced ever, even during the stupid war. She hated it here. Every single part of this shit.

They need you desperately, she said. In some ways, you are the most important of the eight — like the control disk in the dragon's brain. Without you, the power of the others means nothing. They will never reach me, never stop me. And I will fully wake.

"You." Leo was shaking so badly it looked like he had a vibrator in him or something. Immediately Eden had hated it here that she thought of that since then. Fuck the dirty conversation they'd had before. "You killed my mom."

The face shifted. The mouth formed a sleepy smile like it was having a pleasant dream. Ah, but Leo. I am your mother too, and Eden's — the First Mother. Do not oppose me. Walk away now, both of you. Let my son Porphyrion rise and become king, and I will ease your burdens. You both will tread lightly on the earth. You can sleep, Eden, and you will be rewarded with everything you could ever want. None of them would survive without you both.

Leo grabbed the nearest thing he could find — a Porta-Potty seat, which was absolutely disgusting — and threw it at the face. "Leave us alone!"

The toilet seat sank into the liquid earth. Snow and sludge rippled, and the face dissolved.

Leo stared at the ground, waiting for the face to reappear. But it didn't. Eden let out a strangled noise. "The fuck—"

Then from the direction of the factory, she heard a crash — like two dump trucks slamming together, or like when Eden and Connor wereshoplifting in the mall and they accidentally got caught when he had knocked a pile of boxes over. Metal crumpled and groaned, and the noise echoed across the yard. Instantly Eden knew that Jason and Piper were in trouble. Well, uh oh.

Walk away now, the voice had urged.

Her stupid hero complex wouldn't let them die in there. Eden completely blamed Percy.

"Not likely," Leo growled. "Gimme the biggest hammer you got."

He reached into his tool belt and pulled out a three-pound club hammer with a double-faced head the size of a baked potato. Eden quite liked baked potatoes.

"Do we have to go?" Eden asked.

Leo frowned at her. "Eden."

Eden rolled her eyes. "Fine. As long as I get to blow their brains out."

Leo jumped off the dragon's back and they ran toward the warehouse.