Artemis Child

Artemis Child Ch49

Not only was this place an HQ of the hunters, it was also that of the Amazon warriors. They praised Athena for their great battles, and other forms of dominance.
They did, however, seem a little touchy about the hunters. The hunter's believed men were not to be touched, the Amazons believed men were to be their slaves. I'm not one to pick sides, if a guy will cook for me and pay for Netflix then that's all the slavery I will need from him.
Neither of them liked my answer when ever they asked me to pick a side. So I spent even more time alone forging for the army of, daddy issue girls here.
"Hey." Thalia said snapping me back from my thinking. "Hey." I said back with a smile. "You aren't really feeling the flow of female control are you?" She asked with a sad look in her eyes.
"Yeah, it's just not me. I like being around both genders and out doing them, not being in a strict zone that despises anything with a gear shift between its legs." I explained back. "Artemis did want you to join us. You are a great fighter, a perfect weapons smith. And she believed it could help you forgive her."
"Forgive her for what?" I asked a little confused. "Ares got it in her head that her son would join forces with Gaia and bring the gods down by using his ring to absorb the mist." She said but didn't want to continue.
"And....?" I demanded her to explain nicely. "So she made him take the hit to his chest." She finished.
For a few seconds I couldn't breathe. Literally, I had forgotten how. My lungs moved, but no air was taken. 'She killed her own son? No Ares got him killed. No, immortals in general. The are merciless, even to their own kin.'
"Take me to camp." I said firmly. "But she..." Thalia tried. "She will not get my forgiveness." I said and harshly breathed in through clenched teeth. "Can't you just see it through her point of view?" She asked, but I didn't answer.
I turned to leave, but she grabbed my shoulder. 'Do you feel threatened?' My other voice spoke in my head.
As if to react to my emotions, my wings erupted from my skin and spread out. Thalia reacted by pulling a weapon out of reflex. I launched into the forge and used the fire to disappear.
I came launching out of a backyard BBQ grill, in the middle of a summer party. I don't know why, but no one seemed to notice a dark haired teen with a twelve foot flaming wing span, materializing out of their grill.
It was probably better that they didn't, therapy was expensive for a whole family. This allowed me to head to camp without any problems.
I had shifted through the fire in a way that made no sense to me, but I was going to take it cause I wouldn't have to cross the Gulf of Mexico, and go all the way up to camp. Instead I can fly across a city or two til I got there.
I looked down at my hands, they looked similar only my veins pulsed like fire. It somehow didn't bother me nor did it side track me.
There was a slight pain on my cheeks, but I ignored it til I landed. I touched down in an open area that made me see something frightening.
In the reflection of a small park fountain, I saw myself. My lips were pulled back into a wicked evil smile. My smile near the very sides were stitched to a permanent spot. My eyes were black with a purple pupils, and the black moved around like a liquid. My hair flowed behind me like something out of movie. It flickered and swayed every direction, the tips seeming to disappear in the wildfire of movement.
I launched back into the air to continue me trip back. It was probably only a few days til August. Cory would have been eighteen, if not for the mishap.
Just starting to think about that made my fire burn more. Anger at his mother and sorrow for his stupidity.
Hours past, my back ached, and there was this annoying feeling like I was being watched. Suddenly a flash swooped down in front of me.
I hovered to look at what came past me. "How does one smell like us, look like a human; yet, shine like a goddess?" A voice said. Looking over I noticed a large being standing in a flaming chariot.
He had a shoulder pad that was the shape of a dragon's head. He wore gold armor, and held a whip that was three times longer than him. He was at least fifteen feet tall.
"Huh?" I asked the being as I tried to analyze what or who it was. "I am Helios. Original master of the sun. I have been released from my punishment by my brothers. I caught a glimpse of your brightness, and suspected it was Apollo. Although now I am interested in what you are." He said, he didn't even try to hold anything back.
"I busy, so I must be off." I said and snapped my wings harder to get distance. A crackling sound echoed next to my ears before I got far. I turned to see him twirling the whip, ready to use it.
"I will not be ignored. What are you?" He said and tightened his grip on the whip. "Someone who has had a really bad day." I said and unhooked my axe from my waist.
"I can't hit you unless challenged. Is the motion of you pulling out a weapon a order of challenge?" He asked with a flashy smile.
Octavian stood with a smile that made his bright toga, ugly.
(Camp Jupiter) "There must be some nest of monsters near by. Their always is, we welcome their challenge, but you will gather them up. All of them. And you will lead them to the Greek camp. You should be ready in four hours. We have mobile transportation devices made by the Vulcan children. If you do not get there by the dead line. I will send our greatest hunter apon you." He said and stabbed a SPQR blade into a small table.
"Hey, you get what you get. Monsters won't be to fond to work with demigods." I said and grabbed the blade. I stabbed it into the table myself to mock him.
"You are already wasting time." He said with a smile that meant he wanted me dead, but I didn't know why.
I got up and walked out the area we were in. Two guards got ready as if threatened. "So are you two strong men going to walk me to my car?" I asked them like a small girl, with a flirty voice. Their expressions didn't change, but the motioned for me to follow.
Marc ran up to me and did what everyone wanted to do. He took a swing at me. He may have been big, but he had no close combat practice. I used his momentum to launch him over me and into one of the guards.
He rolled to his feet. "I trusted you. You were a monster this whole time. I lost my family to things like you. My sister is the only one left, and I let you get close to her too." He got one of his arrows out.
"Marc, wait. I didn't know. I have no memory of any of this before camp. I would never do anything to hurt your sister." I said with my hands held up in a surrender form.
"I looked up to you. Like a challenge that Victoria always said I would get..." He moved forward.
"Stop!"
Everyone stopped what they were doing near by. Lexi was running at full speed to her brother. "No. He isn't a monster. He doesn't want to hurt anyone. I can tell, he is serious about the things he talks about in his sleep. What kind of monster would cry out a name in the night and grip his pillow?" She said, and made points that seemed like it would be embarrassing, yet they helped.
"But Octavian..." Marc tried.
"I don't give a damn what Octavian says about him. If he is a monster, then the person Kacie, he crys about must be one too." Lexi said and then the world span.
'Kacie?' The name echoed in my head. The picture of the girl showed up. There was spark and another voice in my head awakening. 'Cory, don't forget me.' The words said in my head as a drop hit water.
A ripple rang out like a chime, there was a sound of screams.
I remembered the nine months I lost. It was a cold night. I was shivering near a coffee shop, I had stolen a phone. I wasn't proud of it, but everyone thought I murdered my family, so what was one stolen item to the list.
I was searching up odd jobs to collect money. That was until I heard something fall behind the dumpster to my far left.
A girl started to cry. Out of instinct I went to see the problem. There kneeling down on gunk and old coffee stuff was a teenager my age. She had curly dark hair, and was crying over her white dress. I had no idea why she wore a dress in the cold.
"Hey what's wrong?" I asked her.
"Why?...Why do I have to be like this?" She asked a question back. "What do you mean?" I asked to avoid a question I had no idea about.
"Why does my family have to kick me out? Why do I have to lose everything because I'm different?" She wiped her eyes. They didn't stay dry long once she saw her dress.
"Now, this is ruined like my life." There more tears came out.
"Sshhh. Hey , it's not that bad. You are living right? If you don't go on living, how will you ever be remembered if you don't survive?" I asked her and helped her to her feet.
I wiped of the coffee grounds, but that only made a mess. I decided to side track her from the dress. "How bout you walk with me to your house and I will help you sort ya'll stuff out." I offered to her.
"You would do that for a stranger?" She asked me a little confused.
"I'm Cory. So, if you tell me your name we can be friends instead of strangers."I offered my hand out for a greeting. "Names Kacie." She said and shook it.
We walked to her house, maybe for a hour we talked. She had so much on her shoulders. Both her older brothers got scholarships to Yale; yet, she wanted to peruse a career in journalism. Her family didn't like that, and tried to change her.
Everything was going well until she had led me into a construction sight. "I'm sorry." She said and stopped.
Standing there waiting were three people wearing bandanas, which allowed only their eyes to be seen.
"They.....they know who you are, well what you are." She was afraid, and they weren't human. I could tell by their eyes. A name popped in my head. Thralls.
One rushed forward to shut her up. I moved forward to block her from getting the hit. The fist hit me like concrete, and sent me backwards into her. She landed onto a steel bar used for cement placement.
She let out a scream. I grabbed my ring, hoping it would do something. Sure enough it turned into a spear like last time.
I swung an caught one in the lower ribs. It cut threw like clay, and the thrall burst into a pile of dust.
The others removed their clothes to reveal themselves. They began to grow to seven feet tall, with stone bodies. They had no human parts, just concrete plain parts.
One hit me from my left, and I hit the side of a cement mixer. I tried to attack back, but I didn't know how to fight with this weapon. A cement fist flew at me, and I blocked it with the spear.
I was sent back against a stone wall, which knocked the wind out me. I crunched over and weezed to catch my breath. One tried to take another swing but I ducked and brought the spear upwards cutting it into ash.
The last one's hand transformed into giant claws, and hardened into tips. This one slash at me, giving me no time to react, caught me in the shoulder. Then when I turned to clutch my burning shoulder, it slashed my lower back.
I rolled in pain and cut its legs with my weapon, then brought the rest down on its head as it fell.
I got up to check on Kacie. She was bleeding in pools. The steel pierced her back, just next to her spine.
"Kacie, oh god." I grabbed her and tried to get her up. "Come on, you can survive. Let's get you back home."
"No, I can't. You have to do something for me. Forgive me." She said, blood made its way out her mouth and stained more parts of her dress.
"Already done, now come on." I said and pulled gentle afraid to hurt her. "Then one more thing." She said and called me closer.
"Cory, don't forget me." She said as the life left her eyes.