Daughter Of Light- Book 1: PJO

Chapter 22: I Ease Drop on a GOD

I groand as my senses came back slowly. Everything hurt, my body was sore and my head felt like I had hammers banging inside my skull. I raised a shaky hand and hesitantly touched my head. I felt a strip of cloth wrapped tightly around the giant gash in my head. I blinked my eyes open. There wasn't much to see. What looked like Raph's glowing bronze sword my bow laying beside us on the cement floor and a regular old flashlight for light. I blinked a few more times, and finally my vision came into focus.

"Ahh sleeping beauty is awake." A deep voice said above me. I focused up on the vouce. Raph was leaning against the wall, my wrapped up head laying in his lap.

"Aww. You think I'm beautiful? Thanks hot stuff." My voice was dry and scratchy. It made me cough a bit which made me wince.

"Stop talking. Will said to drink some water if you wake up. Then another nectar juice box."

"Where is he?" I asked, feeling panicked suddenly. I tried sitting up, Raph had a hand on my shoulder and kept me laying down in his lap.

"Sleeping. He did what he could in the dark. But you two are kids of the sunshine god, you need UV light to heal. Will did what he could."

"Oh...ya... Okay...as long as he's still here...what happened?"

"You passed out."

"Yes clearly." I tried to roll my eyes but that made my head hurt. "After that."

"Carried you for a bit, we had to find a place Will could try stop the bleeding and whatever. This weird cement room was the best place we could find in a time crunch. Your head was bleeding quite a bit."

"How long have we been here?"

He shrugged. Leaning his head back against the wall, he looked tired. "Dunno. Time is weird in the Labyrinth. Maybe a few hours in here but a few days in the real world? Maybe a few minutes. No idea."

I frowned. "How...how long were you and Clarisse down here?"

"A week in real time."

"I'm...I'm sorry for dragging you back in." I said quietly. I slowly pushed myself to sit up and shift to lean against the wall beside him.

"Why? I volunteered. Someone is threatening my home. I'm not going to sit back and let others fight for me."

We were quiet, he took his sword and started polish it with a scrap of cloth.

"Why'd you do it?" He finally asked, his dark eyes searching mine.

"Do what?"

"Take the rock? Dive over me?"

"Oh. Umm..." I stamared. "I dunno. I saw it falling. Easier then trying to warn you. I dunno." I shrugged. "It was just instinctual. Does it bother you that I did?" I asked hesitantly.

"No. Would've done the same. I just wanted to know."

"Know what?" I frowned. I was confused, not like I had alterier motives. Not like my concussion and bleeding was a benefit to our quest. He just stared at me with his dark intense eyes for a moment, then placed his sword on the ground by his feet and pulled his knees up his arms draped over his knees and laid his head back with his eyes closed.

"You're very different than Clarisse."

He rolled his head and looked at me. I wanted to look away, but his dark gaze kept me captive. We were shoulder to shoulder, only an inch or two apart, I could feel his body warmth. I saw a small smirk slide onto his face. My cheeks burnt I was glad it was dark.

"I'll take that as a compliment, Sunshine."

"She's just a bully to people, she's no different than every kid in every school I went to. You stay out of fights, she forces them and then gets mad when she loses."