Heart Pierced - Kayla Knowles (1)

II. Since When Were Daughters Of Apollo Blessed Like Daughters Of Aphrodite?!

When Colton opened his eyes again, the first thought he could think of was, what the hell just happened?

One moment, he was standing close to the crest of Half Blood Hill with his siblings after he had placed a headshot on a Colchis Bull.. at point-blank range.

The next moment, he was here, lying on a bed in the infirmary, staring up at the ceiling. It was.. mind-boggling to say the least. He blinked once, then twice.. just to see if he was dreaming or something. Nothing changed.

So I'm not dreaming then, he thought to himself. I somehow legitimately passed out in front of my own siblings after looking in the direction of a beautiful girl..

He didn't know why, but the memory of her, the last thing he remembered before he blacked out, seemed to cause his normally somewhat cold, partially empty heart to come alive like he never felt it had before, filling him with an intense feeling of desire, affection, and hunger. It took all of his restraint not to go stir crazy from it before he calmed down. What the hell? That was.. weird, he thought to himself.

Though to be fair, what he had seen had been so beautiful, she probably was a daughter of Aphrodite. From the beautiful red hair dyed partially bright green that flowed down a bit of the way down her back, blue bell eyes like the sea that you could get lost in, the way she carried herself in the lovely black dress that stretched down to her knees with elegance and grace.. even with lots of freckles, every single part of this girl screamed glamorous perfection in his mind, and he didn't know why.

He didn't actually consider any lady that was single at camp to be all that attractive to want to gain their affection prior to now, mind you. Sure, there were plenty of pretty ones at camp, but he just didn't feel like going after them. It was just the way he was, to the point that saying that being a kid of Ares so he was focused on war or that he was too busy training with Clarisse didn't count as excuses.

He must have been thinking a bit too long, because a familiar voice shook him out of his thoughts.

"You mind telling me what the fuck happened to you out there?"

Colton turned, and saw Clarisse standing over him, and just started sweating a bit. His sister was scary, yes.. but to have her standing over you when you're in a bed of any kind.. that was an extra kind of scary, even for him. But still, she wanted an answer, and he had to give her one.

"I'm at as much of a loss as you are in explaining why the hell I passed out after coming into eye contact with a beautiful girl.. because unless that girl was one of the goddesses in their divine form, then I have no clue.." Colton replied, dusting himself off and getting himself up out of bed, standing before his slightly taller and older sister. "How long was I out?"

"Few hours.. more or less.." Clarisse replied. "And that girl wasn't a goddess. She's Kayla Knowles, the daughter of Apollo."

Colton's jaw dropped in shock at what Clarisse said, and he'll admit, for someone who kept in touch with which celebrities were in the spotlight in the world outside of Camp Half Blood, he should have put two and two together sooner.

Kayla Knowles was a name that he was familiar with, because she had come up time and time again, both when he was out of camp and in it. The girl was said to be an archery prodigy, winning competition after competition since she was five years old. It wasn't surprising, considering that she was the daughter of Darren Knowles, a multiple time champion and Olympic Gold Medalist in.. you guessed it, archery. Plus, her father happened to have been an actor in several films mostly because of his archery skills, including even one of the Japanese Godzilla films from the 1990s as a cameo of himself.