"Exile" (book two of the Storm Decology)

"Monsters aren't our friends"

"Do you have the other one?" I yelled to Clarrise. I sheathed my swords and started running towards the nearest bronze bull.
    "Yeah I got her" She yelled back, jamming her spear into the second bull.
    The bull huffed at me, digging his hooves into the ground and lowering his head. He charged at me head on. I stood, waiting for the right moment. As he charged past me, I grabbed his horn and used all my strength. I used not only his, but also my own weight to drag him down. I swung my right leg over his body and placed my palms on his scorching hot skin.
    I channeled my power into my palms, conducting and controlling electricity, feeling run through my veins into my palms. The bull twitched as its body and conducting wires began to melt. I pulled εκδίκηση out of my scabbard and plunged it into the melted nape of the bulls neck.
    The bulls knees buckled beneath me as it powered down, or died, or whatever magical bronze bulls do.
    I stood up and looked at my hands, they were red, must've burned them a little bit.
    "Clarisse!" I yelled while jogging up the hill. Instead of Clarisse, I saw Percy. Riptide was out and a . . . a cyclops was next to him. Instantaneously, I pulled out my swords again, more monsters inside our borders.
    "Don't hurt him," Annabeth said, jogging up to me. "He's a friend"
    I scoffed. "Monsters aren't our friends" I sneered. I turned to go back to my cabin. My border patrol was over and I just wanted a shower.
    "Hey, Vic?" Percy said, he stepped towards me hesitantly.
    "Hi Percy" I said, I swallowed and saw him looking at me. His sea green eyes were scanning my appearance it seemed. It definitely wasn't much. I had a cutoff camp half blood shirt tank top on, with a pair of black jeans and Thalia's jacket tied around my waist. My hair was messy and I probably had dirt or something on my face.
    "What uh, what happened to your hair?" Percy asked, pointing to the very obvious haircut I had gotten.
    "I cut it" I said awkwardly. This was very awkward.
"It's called a pixie cut Punk" Clarrise sneered as she wiped the tip of her spear on her pants.
"So why didn't you write to me, at all?" Percy asked.
    I cleared my throat. "I was busy" That was a lie. The truth was I was scared, I was scared Percy wouldn't trust me, wouldn't like me anymore because of how close Luke and I are . . .were. How close Luke and I were.
Clarrise came up to me and gave me a pat on the back. "C'mon kiddo, we've got to start carrying the wounded to the big house, let Tantalus know what happened"
I sent a quick look towards Percy and saw how confused he was. "Tantalus is our activities director" I explained. I wiped my hands on my pants and winced slightly, I must've burnt myself.
"Kiddo, you good?" Clarrise asked. She grabbed my hands and turned them over. "That's just a little burn, it'll be fine once we bandage it with a bit of gauze" Percy's face was even more confused.
"But Chiron is the activities director, and where's Argus? He's head of security, he should be here"
"Argus was fired" I said, I looked towards the pine tree, that held my sisters soul. The needles were still yellow, the pile of pine needles had only grown since last night. I knelt beside the tree and tried to drown out Clarrise and Percy's arguing. I closed my eyes and pressed my hand over the puncture mark in the center of Thalias tree. I swallowed and ripped off a small chunk of my shirt. I tried my best to mop up the green sap that was oozing from the tree.
Someone has poisoned my sisters tree, and they will pay, I will make sure of that.