Shrouded in Darkness

The Night of the Hellhounds

He moves close to me and lightly presses his lips against my cheek. It feels funny with his sunglasses in the way. The lenses bump into my cheekbones and Nico quickly pulls away again. I reach out to remove them from his eyes but his head leans back. "What are you doing?" he asks in a monotone, serious voice.

"Removing your sunglasses." i say reaching for them again. He continues to lean away. "It's alright Nico. Just focus on me. Nothing else. Just me." i say slowly trying to calm him down. He looks really tense and he appears to be grinding his teeth like he doesn't believe it will work. After a minute he sighs and tries to shake the tension from his shoulders.

"Ok." he says lowly sitting up regularly. I touch the sides of his glasses and slowly pull them from his face, never breaking our eye contact. He has bags under his eyes but if i can't remember if they were always there or just from lack of sleep. The darkness in his eyes seems to be intensified down here. Like black, curling smoke. A chill runs up my spin like I'm trying to remember something I've forgotten. I shake it away. I'm focusing on Nico now. He's staring at me blankly and i desperately want to know what he's thinking. I want to be inside his head. Inside his thought process. I want to now what he thinks of me. What he feels for me.

I have a feeling if i ask him he'll give me some vague answer or raise an eyebrow and not answer at all. His eyes flick down for a second then meet mine again. I know what he's saying without saying it so i lean in and press my lips against his letting the sunglasses fall into my lap as i put my hands on his neck. He kisses me back with the same amount of passion and seems to be trying to breathe in my very soul. He makes my heart race and my blood run cold. I didn't think any boy could make me feel this way.

A low growl stills me. I pull back from Nico our noses brushing as i stare into his coal black eyes with fear. Damn it. We got distracted. Anything could have appeared in the time we've been talking and kissing, for heavens knows how long. Nico continues to stare straight at me as i place the sunglasses in his hand and turn towards my right where i heard the growl coming from. "Hellhounds." Nico says lowly once his glasses are back on. Thalia has stirred and so has Percy he puts his hand into his pants pocket slowly. There's four of them. They all look like Mrs O' Leary except with dark red eyes, the color of blood.

"Can you talk to them?" i whisper to Nico.

"Sometimes. Doesn't mean they'll listen though." Nico looks like he's trying to stare through their souls, if they have souls. Probably not. I try not to make any sudden moves. The one in the center seems to be the biggest one and the leader. The other three seem to be waiting on some sort of signal as the leader paces back and forth slowly in front of us mouth foaming, teeth bared. I stand quickly and pull my sword free in one swift motion. We all react at the same time. The hellhounds demeanor hasn't changed.

"Let me handle this." i tell them slowly.

"You said you don't like using your sword." i shoot Thalia a look.

"Desperate times called for desperate measures." i mutter narrowing my eyes and turning back around. Nico puts a hand on my shoulder.

"I could use your sword." he says softly. I shake my head.

"It's fine. I'm not going in for a kill. Just to maim." a roar erupts from the leader's belly and he pounces. Nico and i jump apart and i bring my sword down across it's left shoulder. The hellhound howls in pain and stumbles backwards a bit disoriented.

The wound pours blood onto the ground like a fountain and doesn't seem to want to stop. The other hellhounds look on almost confused. They're no long in defensive mode they're watching their leader fall apart before them. With one last whimpering cry the hellhound falls down dead. I'm in shock. "I couldn't.. That wasn't nearly deep enough too.. I barely touched it." i say in astonishment.