The Lost God

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: ATTACK OF THE VAMPIRE

Has anyone told you that France is a gorgeous place?

If no then I am telling you, it is indeed gorgeous.

Now I don't much about France except from the time I accidently listened to the teacher in history class when we were supposedly discussing about the French revolution.

My only source of knowledge about France came from Disney's Beauty and the Beast, which wasn't that impressive.

I honestly half expected to find myself in Belle's village right in the middle of Belle singing a song about she was just built different and find myself some baker that was selling baguettes.

The baguette part did come true. We did encounter a few bakeries on our way to the train station. Thalia, being the eldest among us, was forced to pay for the train tickets which she booked online. We still had some hours left before our train arrived so we headed to a restaurant near the train station.

There Thalia and Reyna both ordered potatoes dauphinoise, because apparently it is a vegetarian dish (I think it is at least).

Will ordered a Salade niçoise, although he couldn't pronounce it correctly (neither can I) and had Nico tell the waiter what he wanted. Everyone made fun of him for getting something healthy even here, but I didn't really see the point. It looked delicious.

Nico himself ordered a Quiche Lorraine, which I have never even heard of. He pronounced it correct, again. Is there anything he can't do?

Aaron ordered a Meuniére, which he could pronounce properly since he's a child of Aphrodite and as such can speak French.

Why can't I know a language without learning it that isn't ancient? Common dad, give me my additional language!

Meg, being an over enthusiast, order Ratatouille, Soupe De Poissons (which is apparently not poison soup) and Escargot; all for herself. At least she won't be taking portions of our food.

I decided to order the only dish I could pronounce properly, Ratatouille. Thank you Disney for making that movie. I really need to learn French.

"There are a lot of ghosts in this city." Nico informed us with a frown.

"Ghosts?" asked Aaron dumbly, like he couldn't process that sentence. Same dude, same. "Like dead people ghost?"

"That is the ghost I am talking about, yes." Nico replied nodding. "Usually every place has its ghost, but this place is almost as bad as Pompeii. Probably because of the Great Plague of Marseille."

Thalia raised her brow, "How do you know of history when you don't even go to school."

"Well he himself is ancient." Replied Will cheekily grinning at his emo boyfriend who rolled his eyes.

"I have tutors in the underworld." He replied. "No way dad would let his favourite demigod child go uneducated."

"How can you be sure you're his favourite?" asked Meg. "It might be, I don't know, Hitler?"

"He's the family disgrace. Sometimes dad watches him in his punishment in the gas chambers as he is being constantly suffocated surrounded by replicas of all the people that he killed in them while eating popcorn and cheering to torture him more and how he was a disgrace. Sometimes he gets me and Seph to join too." Replied Nico as if that question made absolutely no sense. "And I know I am his favourite because he literally told me so."

"Well when your competition is a genocidal maniac I guess there's not really that much of achievement." Replied Aaron. "Also your dad doing that is just something else. I don't even what to say about that."

"Its our family bonding time." Shrugged Nico. "Hitler gets made fun of while the rest of the three get some entertainment."

"Persephone doesn't turn into daffodils?" asked Thalia with a knowing smirk.

"Nah, we get along just fine now." Replied Nico with a shrug.

"Hold on." I stopped them. "A goddess turned you into a freaking flower?!"

Nico shrugged, "She's my stepmom. It was just her way of grounding me."

"Grounding-" I looked at him incredulously, then I looked at Will. "Our dad doesn't ground us by turning us into a flute right?"

Will made a thoughtful face, "Well, I don't think he's ever done that. He has turn some people into flowers, but they were his lovers. Yeah, I think we're fine."

Just then a waitress came to us, but it wasn't just some regular waitress. It was a woman with flaming hair, white skin, glowing red eyes, fangs, one prosthetic Celestial Bronze leg and one donkey leg and wings. She looked like a vampire. That was definitely not a good thing."

"What would you like to have, sirs." She asked. I didn't see why she wasn't asking us females.

I looked at my friends, my hand reaching secretly for my knives. Reyna and Thalia's eyes were narrowed, first one's thoughtful the other's ready to attack.

Meg was even more ready to attack whatever creature was in front of us.

Nico looked like he was also reaching out for his sword.

But Will and Aaron had different expression. They looked mesmerized, as if they were in some sort of daze.

"We have already placed our orders, empousa." Replied Nico.

So that's what they're called.

She frowned, "Why aren't you attracted by me?"

And then she went full on ready to attack him. Nico dodged and all of us girls got up, ready with our weapons. I frowned at Will and Aaron who seemed like they were still in a daze.

"Well you see," Nico replied to the white faced monstrous thing. "I am gay, honey. And I am not happy to have my boyfriend in your stupid enchantment."

"Urgh curse you homosexuals for not getting affected by us." Exclaimed the empousa. "Doesn't matter! I shall feast on you blood, son of Hades. Girls, lets show our hostility to these demigods."

Five more empousa joined, and Thalia and Meg straight off went to charge them. Reyna and I exchanged glanced, gave each other a nod and went off to fight a specific empousa.

I took out my knives, I have fifteen celestial bronze knives on me at the moment. Why? Because throwing knives is helpful but you can't always just go around picking them in the middle of a fight.

I jumped at her, throwing my knives at her constantly, but she kept on getting away. I noticed that Thalia's empousa had dissolved in dust, but the rest of us were still fighting.

Cursing, I ducked under a counter at the empousa threw some rocks at me. Very creative, I know.

I looked over to see one of the empousa secretly making her way towards my brother. Oh hell no, not happening. I threw the knife at her, hitting her straight in the chest as she dissolved into dust. The I took two water bottle from one of tables and threw it at the two dazed boys. The two blinked, before registering the scene around them.

Just then I felt fangs jug into my left shoulder socket. I yelped in pain, but stabbed the stupid creature with the knife that was on me.

I looked around and saw that the only empousa left now was the one Nico was fighting. She seemed to the strongest of her friends.

Just as Nico was finally about to stab her, she cackled, "You will pay for killing my trainees, demigods. You are never going to win the war that's about to start."

And then she exploded into flames like a Molotov cocktail. Waves of fire splashed over everything. I had never seen anything like this ever happen before.

Thalia cursed, "Fuck. She got away."