Another Love ─── L. Castellan

lxvi. i just wanted one morning where someone didn't try to kill me

"Y-You killed my trainee!" She yelled. "How dare you?"

Then she began to change. Her wiry hair turned into flickering flames. Her eyes turned red. She grew fangs, and I cocked my eyebrow. This was new, and it reminded me in a way of Mrs Dodd's less than fairytale transformation.

"I am Kelli, a senior empousa," she growled. "No hero has bested me in a thousand years."

"Did they not give you my file? I'm very good at beating things that aren't supposed to be beaten." I grinned, flicking Riptide back out.

"Such a pretty little blade," she said. "What a shame it stands between us."

Her form shimmered—sometimes a demon, sometimes a cheerleader, but I just raised my eyebrow. A cheerleader? She'd watched too many films portraying evil cheerleaders.

"Poor dear." Kelli chuckled. "You don't even know what's happening, do you? Soon, your pretty little camp in flames, your friends made slaves to the Lord of Time, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. It would be merciful to end your life now, before you have to see that."

"So you think my camp is pretty?" I touched my heart, smiling at her. "That's so sweet of you, Kelli."

"No!"

"Oh, don't be embarrassed," She lunged again, but I ducked and tripped her up, slamming Riptide onto her back. She growled, her hair burning in fire, before she yowled and disappeared in a ball of flames. "Wow, now that's just melodramatic."

I turned, finding Annabeth and Luke standing behind me.

"Morning Annabeth. Did you get your hair done? I'm liking the new braids." I grinned, putting Riptide away and embracing the young teenager, who beamed at my compliment. "How was the flight?"

"I'm so excited to get back to Camp," She tightened her grip on me, as I motioned behind Luke at Rachel who was rushing towards us.

"I see you held your end of the bargain." Luke rolled his eyes, before turning.

"Luke, wait up!" She called. Annabeth's smile melted, watching the girl with a raised eyebrow, before glancing back at me.

"Who is this?" She asked.

"Annabeth, this is Rachel. She's a friend?" Luke questioned, still looking slightly unsure himself. "Rachel this is Annabeth and Andromeda."

"Hi," Rachel looked at us, before turning to stare up at Luke with wide eyes that I recognised very easily. Someone had a crush. "You are in trouble and you still owe me an explanation!"

"Luke," Annabeth said coldly. "We should go."

"I want to know more about half-bloods," Rachel insisted. "And monsters. And this stuff about the gods." 

She grabbed his arm, whipped out a permanent marker, and wrote a phone number on his hand. Luke seemed in a state of shock, turning to look at me, but I shrugged. It was probably better that she knew what was going on so that everything could be explained and she'd be safer.

"You're going to call me and explain, okay? You owe me that. Now get going."

Annabeth shot Luke a glare as Rachel ran off, crossing her arms by my side. She looked at me, before turning to Luke and then back to me, as if asking if I was going to let this slide?

"Why was she there?" 

"Luke almost killed her last year," I told her, winking at my boyfriend.

"Yeah, thank you, that's not something I'm proud of." He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, looking around cautiously. He was tense, his fingers already drumming at my shoulder. "What happened to the two empousai?"

He opened the car, putting Annabeth's bag in the boots as the younger girl clambered into the back seat and slammed the door. Both of us winced, before I turned back to him.

"One died, the other, Kelli, vaporised herself and disappeared after saying some very weird things about burning the camp to the ground," I shrugged. "Cheerful people, those lot. They have a thing for me, I think. Stalking me and the like."

"I wouldn't call it stalking. Monitoring more like." Luke shook his head, as we stayed out of the car for a moment, leaning against the roof as he talked. "Sorry about Rachel."

"She's so got a crush on you."

"You know, this time I picked up on that." Luke held his hand up, showing the phone number as I snorted with laughter. "You gonna add her to the list?"

"Gonna have to start adding pages to that soon." I sighed, before blowing him a kiss as he chuckled.

"You mad about it?"

"Pretty sure you're not about to get with a legitimate child." I pointed out. "Plus, you haven't set a hellhound on her, so I know you still love me."

"One time! One time..." He rolled his eyes as I laughed, before shaking my head.

"We're still in a relationship, Luke. I have no reason to be jealous. You're not gonna cheat on me, you love me too much."

"You're right about that." He agreed. "I'd never do that."

"I know. I trust you, and I love you." I pointed out, before opening the car door. "Alright, back to Camp, Annie?"

"Yes. Finally."

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

So, new act. Andi is not bothered by anything in the slightest (she's done with everything in life) so Annabeth is getting annoyed on her behalf which is going to be very funny. Luke is also done with people having a crush on him which Andi is just loving.

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx