Daughter of the Sea God

Chapter 17

Soon enough Nico awoke, looking slightly better than he had about an hour prior. My mom, being the nurturer that she is, fed us both and made us promise numerous times to stay safe before finally relinquishing us back into the world of danger and not-so-mythical myths.

"Your mom seems really cool," Nico said, smiling softly. I could see something flash through his eyes. Sorrow? Jealousy? I wasn't sure. I didn't know much about his history, but I knew it wasn't really a happy one, judging by the sympathetic looks he often got from campers.

"Yeah, she's the best. A little overbearing sometimes, but she just wants what's best for me," I replied, smiling back as we walked down my driveway.

"She reminds me of Sally- Percy's mom," he added when he saw my confused look. I nodded in understanding. We walked out of my neighborhood, crossing the street into the slightly scary part of town.

"So my dad's got a type then, huh?" I joked, trying to laugh off the uneasiness that was causing my stomach to knot and the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up. I could see Nico cringe at the word 'type'. I knew the story about Nico telling Percy he wasn't his type. Still cracks me up. I grinned at him, not regretting it one bit as he scowled at me. I just shot him a cheeky wink as we walked into an alley dark enough for shadow traveling. But where it's dark enough for shadow traveling, it's dark enough for monsters. I heard a slithering sound and I whipped around, seeing a humanoid creature... without legs. In their place were snake-like, dragon-ish trunks. Attractive. A/N: The sass is real in this chapter.  

"Scythian dracaena," Nico muttered, unsheathing his sword. "We stayed too long. We've probably attracted all monsters within a five mile radius," he rushed out. In that moment the she-dragon decided to attack. Weird, normally they want to give some lengthy speech about how much they'll enjoy killing you. But no, this one was straight to the point. (Okay, bear with me I have no idea how to describe the weapon dracaena use, so picture is attached for your convenience.) She lunged at me, being closer, and swung her double-edged, spear-like weapon as Nico moved in front of me, deflecting her attack and countering with one of his own.

"Thanks," I breathed, quickly turning my necklace into my trident. Figured it'd be better to keep as much distance between me and that she-dragon as possible. Nico was holding his own against the monster, but he still wasn't fully recovered from shadow traveling so much in one day. I moved out of Nico's protection and thrusted my own weapon at the dracaena. She saw my attack and intercepted with her shield, moving back so she could fight both of us. Nico, having the shorter weapon, moved closer. Big mistake. She caught him in the shoulder with her weapon and he hissed in pain. "Nico!" I cried out, running in front of him. Now I was pissed. I fought with a new fervor. I slashed then rolled away from her attack. She managed to snag my shirt, making a ripping sound, but I stabbed, forcing her to moved back out of my range. I ended up on her left side, the side without the shield, but out of the range of her weapon. Perfect. I threw my trident like a javelin, catching her in the neck and piercing right through it. Thank the gods I took that javelin throwing class, I thought as she hissed and turned to dust, leaving her weapon behind as a spoil of war. I flipped my trident back into a necklace, putting it on and grabbing the weapon lying on the ground before turning to Nico. He was on his knees, hand over the wound on his shoulder, which was bleeding and starting to turn a sickly green color. "Can you shadow travel us out of here? There's definitely more coming," I said, kneeling down and moving his hand away from his wound. I cringed at the pus starting to ooze out. I ripped off a part of my already ripped shirt, wrapping it around his shoulder to staunch the bleeding.

"I think so," he mumbled, eyes unfocused. He looked pretty out of it. I examined the spear. It had to have some kind of poisonous coating to be having this effect on him. I moved to his un-wounded side, wrapping his good arm around my own shoulders and letting him put his weight on me as we stood. Luckily, the alley was fairly dark so we wouldn't have to move to shadow travel. 

"Nico, focus. Camp Half-Blood," I told him, hoping he could think straight enough to get us there without us ending up in China. He nodded and I felt the darkness take over once more.

A/N: Okay, I know this is short, but I've got stuff to do, so this is the best I could do for now. I'm trying to write whenever I can. Thank you for your patience, my amazing readers.