Stories to be Rewritten: Elisabeth's Stories :Book 1 Lavenders and Pomegranates

Chapter 9

"ELISABETH?!" Nico was screaming at the top of his lungs as he ran through the dirt path to the grove, fallowing the blood and stumble patterns that were all that was telling him Elisabeth was heading in that direction. He could shadow travel, sure, but what if she never made it? What if she had strayed off the path and wasn't there? 'What if she was de-' He retracted those thoughts and steered them away from doom casting. She was alive, she was going to make it. All he needed to do was find her. She wasn't going to be alone like he was. Not for this. Not ever.

As soon as he made it to the grove, he stopped dead in his tracks. There was his daughter, pail skinned and sickly in the moonlight with crimson blood cracking brown across the side of her head. He could see where the greenish yellow bruises were forming from her being kicked, the evidence of at least two broken ribs plane and the way she was breathing..... She probably had a punctured lung as well.. She looked terrible, but that's not what made him stop. Someone else was there with her, standing over her, dressed all in black and the hood was up.

"I got you, Liz."

Nico stood in shock as the figure picked up his daughter in his arms bridal style, holding her close to his chest as her blood soaked face rested gently into it's shoulder. Then it turned to him. The figure had a mask on his face, making him look like a skeleton's skull that was twisted and morphed into a sad, apologetic look. It was hard to tell if he was human or not.

"....." It stared at Nico for only moments, then looked down at Elisabeth in his arms. "I swear by the River Styx and in my father's name that I will be taking her to the closest hospital I can find. I will leave you the address... Don't try to fallow." And as soon as its deep, dark words were said, it was gone in like a spirit. With Elisabeth.

Nico's eyes widened. Who was this thing? What was it?! Then his mind snapped out of his daze. His daughter needed a hospital, and someone had taken her. And not just in the normal way, but... Nico walked timidly over to the patch of grass the thing had stood on, and sure enough there were shadows. The thing had shadow traveled away with his daughter.

He thought he was the only one.... Maybe.... He threw these ideas to the side. No! For some reason, he trusted the stranger, and he knew his daughter was safe with it. His daughter's abuser was going to pay first. And he was going to pay in blood and sweat and bone.

"Who in The name of Hades was that!?"

Nico whirled around and saw Jason and Percy standing at the edge of the clearing, mouths agape and eyes wide. "I don't know..." Nico admitted, and walked over to them. "But I trust it, and I will hold it to its word."

Jason patted his shoulder gently. "It will be ok..."

Nico nodded, his fists clenched and his knuckles turning white. "Oh yes. It will be." As Nico pushed past the two of them as he disappeared into the shadows. Jason looked at Percy, and Percy back at Jason. They both knew something was going to happen.

Something really, REALLY bad.

Nick paced in his corner of the room, ripping at his finely trimmed blond hair as he started panicking. He had just kicked his girlfriend. He had KICKED her, not just once, but three fucking times! This wasn't right, he loved her! He couldn't hurt her at all! But... The blood on his shoes was enough to crash his beliefs into the ground... And the feeling he got when he did it... Did his father ever do that to his Aphrodite?

'Son, calm down...' He heard the familiar voice in the back of his head, his father's voice, his godly father who had not forsaken him yet. 'Remember, I am a jealous man... But to hit my Aphrodite is to hit my heart... Can you hit your heart?'

"But father!" Nick said in hushed whispers, kneeling on the cold iron floor looking at the statue of rare mettle that was made to represent his father, and looking up at it with tears in his eyes. "What do I do? I love her, but I can't stand to see her with other men."