Everything is Changing

Laelaps

         Maggie's Point Of View
   I was still in Nico's arms. I looked at my mom. She was taking pictures. Suddenly, Nico kissed my cheek. I smiled. After he stopped kissing my cheek I looked at my mom again.
   "So can we stay here tonight?" I asked.
   "Yeah. Where is everybody going to sleep?" My mom asked.
   "Well, Nico and Aaron can sleep in my room. Or Aaron could sleep in the middle room." I said.
   "Is there going to be any hickey giving tonight?" My mom asked. I laughed when I saw Nico's face. His cheeks were bright red.
   "No. We have to get some sleep for the mission tomorrow." I said. Nico still hasn't put me down.
   "Okay. Where is Aaron?" My mom asked.
   "He said he was going to look for leads. I will go look for him." I said. I kissed Nico's cheek. He put me down. "I love you babe!"
   "Do you want me to come with you?" Nico said.
   "No. I'm okay but I'm going to need my driver's license." Nico grabbed his bag and searched through it. "And the keys."
   "What driver's license?" My mom asked.
   "You have a driver's license?" Claudia asked.
   "Camp Half-Blood is amazing like that." I said.
   Nico handed me my license and the keys. I kissed his cheek again. I was about to walk away when Nico pulled me back towards him. He kissed me on the lips. I kissed back.
   "You didn't think you were getting away that easy, did you?" Nico asked.
   "No." I leaned up and kissed him again on the lips. "I love you, Nico."
   "I love you too, Maggie. Be careful. Call me if you need me for anything. I will be there in a minute." Nico said.
   "How? What if she's sixty miles away? Then you can't be there in a minute." Claudia said.
   "Yes. I can." Nico said.
   "How?" Claudia asked. Nico was about to show her when I put my arm in front of him.
   "Here. Let me demonstrate." I said. Nico put his hands up and bowed as if to say the master is at work. I love that boy so much! "He can do it the same way I can do this." I shadow traveled to the other side of the room.
   "Okay then." Claudia said.
   "Okay. Love you guys. Bye." I said then walked down to the car. Will said we should look for abandoned building with a lot of plants. I drove around for a little bit then found one as I drove up I saw Aaron walking away from it. I pulled over and got out of the car. I made sure to lock it. I went up to Aaron.
   "Find anything?" I asked.
   "Yeah. Someone definitely lives in there. However, they are not there right now." Aaron explained.
   "Well there aren't any buildings close to this one so it is a good hideout. And there is a field behind it. Did you investigate it yet?" I asked.
   "No. Shall we?" Aaron said.
   "We shall." I said.
   We walked into the field behind it. Once we got to the line of trees we looked around to make sure no one was following us. We went through the trees. We walked for about three minutes before stumbling upon an opening. It wasn't very big but the grass and plants were growing weird in this opening.
   "I think our child of Demeter has been practicing here. We should ca—" I was interrupted by a loud roar. I looked up to see Laelaps.
   "We have to go. Now." I said.
   "Why?" Aaron asked.
   "That's Laelaps. She is a female dog always destined to catch her prey." I explained. "When I say three start running. Okay?"
   "Okay." Aaron said.
   "One...two...THREE!" I yelled, we started to run.
    She caught up to us pretty quickly. I held out my hand to Aaron.
   "Take my hand." I said, both of us still running.
    He took my hand. Thanks to the trees we have shadows for me to use. I was just about to completely take us in the shadows when Laelaps's claws got the back of my leg. I cried out in pain. We got into the shadows and away from her. When we got out of the shadows we were at the car. I fell over and almost hit the ground. But I didn't. I looked up and Aaron was two inches from my face. He was looking at my lips. I stood up. I unlocked the car and climbed in to the passengers side. Aaron got in the driver's seat. We both looked at my leg. It was bad. I tried to heal it with light and it only hurt more.
   "I can't heal it." I said. "We need to get home. I need Nico."
   "Okay. I'll get us home." Aaron said.
   He started driving. We were fifteen minutes away from my house. He took a wrong turn so that added another minute. When we were two minutes away, I called Nico.
   "Hello. Maggie? What's wrong?" Nico sounded worried. I heard my mom ask what was wrong in the background. Nico said he didn't know yet.
   "We are two minutes away. I need you to come get me out of the car. Tell my mom to get two towels we can throw away. And tell Erik to get peroxide and bandages." I explained. I heard him tell everybody what to do.
   "Okay. Everything is ready. What should I do now?" Nico asked.
   "We are outside. Come get me." I said then hung up.
    I opened the door and got ready for Nico to get me. He took one look at my leg and carried me bridal style up the stairs and into my living room in less than a minute.
   "Nico. I need you to try and use your powers to heal me. I tried to use mine and I couldn't." I explained.
   "Okay. Ready?" He asked.
   I nodded my head. He concentrated on the cuts. The light in the room started to grow brighter. He was using the shadows. All of the sudden, a searing pain came from the cut. I cried out and Nico stopped immediately.
    "I'm so sorry Maggie." Nico said.
    "It's not your fault. It must be the affect of Laelaps's cuts." I said.
    "It was Laelaps?" Nico asked.
    "Yep. We have to do this the old-fashioned way now." I grabbed the peroxide.