Chapter 23

[Third Person's PoV]

–One month Later–

Annabeth was seen holding two daggers while looking at the group of 3 Empousas in front of her.

Annabeth remembered what Lucian had taught her about them, they were shape-shifting female demons with one brass leg and one donkey leg, they were known for seducing travelers.

"Look at that sisters, a little snack for the road has appeared before us"

"Hmm, I would have preferred if it was boy though, enticing them is always fun"

"Don't be picky now it's not everyday one of them offers themselves to us"

Annabeth didn't say anything when she heard them mocking them, she just ran towards them with her daggers.

One of them ran towards her extending their sharp claws with a feral smile showing her sharp teeth, while the other 2 followed closely behind.

The first one swung her claws towards Annabeth but she leaned back to dodge, while swinging her dagger towards the extended hand cutting it off from its wrist.

Causing the Empousa to scream in pain, while screaming she takes a step back, leaving her two sisters to go into a flying kick towards Annabeth.

Annabeth ducked and rolled underneath them, she spun around and threw her two daggers right on their backs when they landed causing them to shriek in pain and turn to dust.

"NOOO!" The remaining Empousa called out and ran towards Annabeth when she noticed she didn't have her weapons.

She opened her mouth showing her vampire fangs aimed for her neck to kill her and make her pay for what she did to her sisters.

As she was about to sink her fangs onto Annabeth she suddenly felt something sharp and cold penetrate her throat, "How…" was all she managed to say before turning into dust.

Annabeth flicked her dagger, shaking off the dust and let out a sigh of relief, "Luckily they reappeared right on time".

"Arise" Lucian said, suddenly appearing right next to Annabeth, dispelling his shadow cloak.

The three Empousas appeared in the form of shadows and bowed their heads before disappearing into his shadow.

"No matter how many times I see it, it always freaks me out." Annabeth said, shaking her head.

"You're just jealous that your demi-god abilities aren't as awesome or as showy as mine are" Lucian acting smug about his powers.

"Oh please I don't need strong abilities to be powerful like you, all I will ever need is right up here" Annabeth countered while tapping the side of her head with a smirk.

"Wait, now that we're talking about abilities I just realized that you don't summon ghosts or skeletons to fight for you like how I assume someone of your lineage would, why is that?"

Lucian just put his hands over his head and started walking ahead "No reason" was all Lucian said as he continued walking.

Annabeth jogged next to Lucian and narrowed her eyes in his direction. Lucian just turned his head away which caused Annabeth to gain a surprise expression before it turned into a teasing one.

"No way… you, the son of Hades, one of the big three, is afraid of ghosts and skeletons" Annabeth said, provoking Lucian, trying to see how right her words were.

Lucian's ears then turned slightly red with his head still turned to the side which cause Annabeth to start laughing,

"I was only guessing and trying to trick you. I didn't know I was actually right, Hahahaha" She said in-between her laughter.

"It's not funny." Lucian grumbled.

"You're right, you're right, sorry" Annabeth said waving her hand, "So why are you afraid of Ghost and skeletons"

Lucian's ears turned red once again, ashamed to admit this, "It started when I was like 4 years old, so three years ago. I wanted to try and see if I could summon skeletons or ghosts and such. I was basically testing out my abilities.

When I tried to summon a skeleton, instead of holding onto the ground to lift itself up, the closest thing it grabbed was my leg. It started pulling on it trying to lift itself but all it was doing was dragging me down.

If it wasn't for my mom being next to me and stopping it on time…" Lucian didn't continue and just shuddered at the memory.

'It was like it was trying to drag me down to its resting place telling me that that's where I belong, that I shouldn't be in the land of the living and turn into a skeleton alongside it. That same reasons is why I can't stand ghosts'

"I'm sorry for laughing" Annabeth said feeling bad for laughing at him, especially since he helped her when she was going through her phobia of spiders.

Lucian just sighed and patted her head and brought her closer into a side hug, "It's alright, it just means since we know each other's fear we grown closer"

Lucian turned to Annabeth and smiled "Right?"

Annabeth seeing his smile blushed slightly before smiling as well, "Right"

As they started walking enjoying the silence between them they suddenly heard an explosion in the far distance.

Lucian and Annabeth looked at each before nodding their heads and running towards they heard the explosion. While running Lucian summoned his scythe just in case while Annabeth had a hand on her daggers.

When they arrived they saw two older kids rolling on the ground in pain.

One of the kids was a boy with short sandy blond hair while the other one was a girl, who had short black hair wearing a punk rock type of outfit.

When Lucian saw them he instantly knew who they were, they were Luke and Thalia, the son of Hermes and the daughter of Zeus.

(Thalia Grace)

(Luke Castellan)

Annabeth stood by Thalia, while Lucian stood by Luke, they both extended their hands to them to help them up.

"It looks like you guys can use some help getting up"

Luke and Thalia both looked up from the ground still slightly distorted from the explosion and took our hands as we helped them up.

"Thanks" Luke said looking at me while Thalia did the same with Annabeth.

Luke stood close to Thalia as he looked at us with a bit of apprehension. Especially looking at our weapons.

Meanwhile Annabeth looked somewhat frightened while looking at Thalia's shield which had the face of a gorgon right on the center.

"Can you put your shield away, you're scaring her?" Lucian asked while shaking his head.

"Not before you put away your weapon" Thalia said with narrowed eyes.

"Fine." Lucian said, turning his scythe into a ring, "There, happy?" Lucian asked with a raised brow.

Thalia nodded her head before turning her shield into a wristband.

Lucian then grinned as he said, "Why don't we first start off with an introduction"