Thunder and Blood

26

Annabeth

"Leave that to me." Percy answers, staring at the boy with the tattoo, waiting. But the boy only glances at Stiles, then back to Percy.

"Will you bring him back?"

"Maybe." Percy answers. "I haven't decided yet."

"Where are you bringing him?" The redhead girl pipes up. 

"Somewhere you can't follow." 

The room goes quiet, no one knows what he means by that. I do. And the problem is that Stiles can't follow either. 

"Alright." Percy says, putting his hands together. "It was nice getting to know you guys, but we really have to be getting back now" He points at Stiles, the boy's eyes go wide. "You, let's go."

To my surprise, and apparently everyone else's in the room, Stiles stands. Even he looks shocked. He walks naturally, following Percy as he towards the front door. But Percy stops, grabbing one of the doughnuts from the plate on the table before continuing. The rest of the people in the room seem to be frozen in place, only able to watch as Percy leads Stiles past the bloody mess and towards the road. Blackjack comes trotting out of the forest, startling when he sees the monsters in pieces on the ground. 

Him and Percy have a conversation, not one that any of us can understand. And then Blackjack bows his head, nodding. Percy is already walking back to the house when he makes a motion with his hand. Behind him, Stiles' feet lift off the ground, he is placed gently on Blackjacks back by some invisible force. Percy.

"Come on, Wise Girl." Percy says once he comes back inside. "Let's get out of here."

I nod, looking back at the shocked faces of the shapeshifters as I leave. I want to forget it all, what Percy did to those monsters. I have to be dreaming. Bloodbending shouldn't be possible, not for Percy. Sure, he can technically do it, but never in his right mind would he actually use it. It's too dangerous, too powerful, he has to know that. 

I follow him to Blackjack, running a bit to catch up. "Percy." I say once we're standing beside the pegasus. "What was that?"

"What?" He glances at me, then throws Blackjack the doughnut he had taken. 

"Bloodbending, Percy. When did you start doing that?"

"I've always known how to do it," he says, petting Blackjack's snout, "but I had to show Scott's pack what would happen if they tried to stop me. I guess it worked." He gives me a cocky grin before gesturing at Blackjack's back. "Après vous." He says in French, after you. He holds out his hand to help me up, I take it. 

As we take off towards New York, I cling tightly to him, my arms around his waist. I feel better now, knowing that everything had been an act. The coldness on his face, the lust in his eyes, all of it had been to scare the group of shapeshifters in the house. The bloodbending had been so that they wouldn't try to stop him when he took Stiles. 

He's now back to his normal self, funny and sarcastic. 

I'm glad. 

I hope I never have to watch him bloodbend ever again. 

With the wind in my face, I have to reach up and wipe the tears from my watery eyes. I'm not crying, I promise. But when my hand touches my cheek, I realize something. 

I no longer have any cuts, not even a bruise. My face is healed.

It doesn't even hurt. 

I know Percy must have been the one to do this, but when? I know what his vitakinesis feels like, he's healed me with water before. But not once had he been in contact with water in that house. And then it hits me. He doesn't need water to heal me. There is water in my blood. 

When he had touched my cheek, running his thumb along my wounds, he had healed them. That's what the tingling feeling was. He had used his bloodbending on me. 

I don't know why, but my gut twists into a knot. 

He no longer needs water at all. He can kill any living thing just using the blood in their veins, like he did with the monsters. He can heal, bring things to life, make them move under his command with a single thought. 

And the idea of that scares me.