Bloodlines

Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Today is the day I came home to see my family after twenty years. I had sworn to never return home, but after a letter my elder brother sent me, I had to see my sick mother.

I ran through the harsh wind, feeling the bitter wind against my hair and the ice pelting my skin. I stopped in the dead of the night and saw the now standing empire in the place of my village. I saw an enormous coliseum that stood in my village. I glared up into the sky and I saw lighting soar through the black clouded sky. He knew I was here.

I kept myself strong as I sped through the new village, making sure nobody saw my run through. I felt my heart pump as I heard high pitch screams from miles away ring in my ear. I stopped running as I immediately thought about the worst case possible. Zeus got to my family.

I ran inside the small home and busted through the door. I looked around and saw heads scattered all over the concrete. I screamed again as I recognized at least two of the heads—my father and sister. I felt myself begin to sob uncontrollably as I knelt down by my sister's head and I stroked her red hair.

Cordelia and my father were dead. My mother and my oldest brother were all I had left. I ran throughout the house and Tiberius was nowhere to be found. I ran towards the bedroom and I finally saw the worst death of them all. I ran into my mother's bedroom and found her on the floor. There was a gash in her stomach the size of Olympus and her neck with a bite mark on it.

"Mama!" I ran by her side and I cradled her in my arms. Her red-greying hair was all over the place as her weapons were scattered all over the room. She had fought back.

I started to sob uncontrollably as I stood up and screamed her name in agony. I felt like my heart was just ripped out as I digested the fact that my entire family was dead. I had no one. Tiberius was probably dead, and I was never going to see him again. I felt my breathing become shortened as I stared at my mother's corpse.

I ran out of the house as I felt my tears stop and my body stop moving. I wiped my tears away as I felt my emotions completely shut off. I felt my veins pop out under my eyes as I stalked through the trees, and soon fly through the sky as I took off to Asian Minor.

***

Maddie gasped awake in her bed as she stared at the wall, thinking about what happened to Annabeth's family. Maddie glanced weirdly at the journal, disgusted at what Zeus did to Annabeth's family—Maddie's family. All those relatives that were slaughtered were also Maddie's, and Maddie understood why Annabeth was the way she was. Vampires usually turn off their emotions to deal with insane grief, and Maddie remembered that Luke had done that when Annabeth murdered his family. It was completely understandable why Annabeth turned hers off.

Annabeth had lost her mother just like Maddie in some attack, and Maddie understood Annabeth's grief completely. It seemed like the both of them were very close. Annabeth even came back to visit her mother on her death bed, but it didn't turn out to be a happy reunion. It was heartbreaking to read, and it made Maddie think back to the day her own mother was killed by Caleb. Maddie's heart ached just like Annabeth's.

Maddie got up from her bed and started to get ready for the stupid career fair her father was forcing her to go to. She rather to stay in bed then listen to a bunch of career options she will never have. As a hunter, that was her only job once she was reinstated and healed up. The only thing Maddie was bringing up a headshot and audition tape just in case some Broadway producer shows up, and she knew it was stupid; however, there was nothing wrong with being prepared.

Maddie's phone started to buzz and she picked it up. She saw it was Luke calling. Maddie picked up the phone and answered. "Hey."

"Are you finally going to listen to my theory about Clemens?" Maddie heard Luke ask her with annoyance over the phone. Maddie rolled her eyes at his theory. He was way off about Clemens's involvement in The Eclipse because she was the President of The Hunter's Council; why would she want to kill her own kind? Maddie and Hope were positive that Clemens was having an affair with a student instead of killing people, and that was because their first day back Maddie and Hope witnessed Clemens getting cozy with Daniel.