Nico and Dr. Payne were still having their staring contest when I pushed myself to my feet.
"Um," I said. "As much as you two want to gaze lovingly into each other's eyes-"
"Dr. Thorn." Nico's voice was a gravelly whisper. His sword arm was trembling, the black metal of his sword quivering, leaving traces of shadow where it was. I couldn't see his face, but Dr. Payne/ Dr. Thorn/ the Manticore laughed as if the expression was something that amused him.
"The last I time I saw you, you and your sister were cowered behind Percy Jackson-" he spat the two words out with uncovered hate, "-unable to do anything. What makes you think you have the courage now, son of Hades?"
Nico didn't speak for at least ten seconds. His arms were still visibly trembling. Nico's voice was quiet when he spoke, leaving me to stare with a horrified kind of fascination. Son of Hades? Percy Jackson? All these names seem to put in casually. "If it weren't for you," he breathed out. "Bianca would still be alive." He took a deep breath, his voice still the deadly kind of quiet. "I've changed, manticore."
Dr. Payne's tail swished behind him, his eyes darkly amused. "Always looking for someone to blame," he chortled. "Your species don't change. Always thinking they're better than mortals, and that us monsters are even lower."
"Demigod isn't a kind of species, unlike you-" Nico began.
"Hold up," I interrupted. "This looks like a family reunion gone wrong. Can I be filled in, or do I just like, leave?"
Dr. Payne's expression abruptly changed when he turned to look at me for the first time. He didn't bother to cover the annoyance. "You. Insufferable girl, daughter of Zeus. Just as bad as your father. Worse, even, so annoying. Your mother hid you well, but no demigod scent can be masked forever."
"Literally none of that made sense to me."
Dr. Payne's tail lashed again, but this time, it was more angry than amused. His eyes, once multicoloured, were dark. "I have dealt with you for two years, demigod," he said. "Abiding the right times, looking for the clues. I will enjoy spilling your blood." He turned to look at Nico. "Move aside, di Angelo, and you can walk away unharmed. Stand before me and you will die with her."
Nico's knuckles were white as he gripped his sword. I still couldn't see his face, but I was kind of worried. Dr. Payne's offer sounded rather nice. Nico walk away unharmed. Leave a girl he met a couple of minutes ago. I probably would've taken it if I were in his place. The next couple of seconds were probably the longest and the worse of my life, and I dreaded that Nico would turn and leave. Why would he risk his life for a random girl? I didn't have any offer that would beat Dr. Payne's.
If Nico left, I would have nothing to defend myself with. There was nothing but lockers in this hall, and 4 locked doors. Unless I were to rip doors off their hinges and throw them at the manticore, then I was probably monster food, as Nico put it. I stared at the back of his head, wishing a random near-stranger would try to save me...which was highly unlikely.
I waited for the moment that he spoke. "I would say the same for you, Thorn," he said steadily. Why the hell was this kid risking his life for me? "Leave us alone or I'll send you to Tartarus myself. Your masters are gone. Atlas is once again holding up the sky. The Titans have been defeated. What do you want?"
Dr. Payne/ Dr. Thorn's (I was very unsure on his name by now. Nico called him Dr. Thorn, yet I had known him as Dr. Payne for two years.) lips peeled back in a disgusted snarl. "One last chance, you fool. You can't defeat me. The Earth Mother raised me from Tartarus, and she will again if you dare send me there again. You're on the losing side, child of Hades."
"Earth Mother..." Nico murmured, and at that moment, Dr. Payne leapt at him.
I thought he was dead meat. The manticore moved swiftly, haunches bunching to spring faster than I could catch. He leapt at Nico with a snarl, but in a blink of an eye, Nico had sidestepped, his sword still trained in front of him. His arm was no long shaking, and he looked rather relaxed for a person facing down a monster. Dr. Payne let out a dry laugh. "Good job, boy," he said. "Maybe you have improved. But it's not going to be enough. You just chose your fate by staying here."
"Better than joining Gaea," Nico snapped. I scrambled back from them, wondering if I should just turn and run. Then again, if I just left Nico here, that would be the most cowardly thing I had done. Not only had he just chosen to stay, risk his own life, and save a girl he barely knew, but Dr. Payne also seemed associated with some bad memories. I remembered how he had said shakily, 'Bianca would still be alive.' Bianca. Was that his sister?
"You and your puny gods may have defeated the Titans, but they're no match for a goddess like Gaea! She gave birth to the Titans! The whole earth is her! With the giants on her side, the gods will look like nothing. Ants, to a giant," Dr. Payne leapt at Nico while talking. Nico somersaulted away, his black sword flashing at an incredible speed. A cut appeared on Dr. Payne's side, a deep one. I stifled a scream, but instead of blood, something brown and dry poured out.
I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be relieved or scared that dirt was, in fact, pouring out of the wound. I pushed myself to my feet and stumbled away from them, staring at Nico's sword and the dirt trickling towards the ground. The wound was already starting to knit together.
Nico seemed to be equally surprised. His eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the dirt. "What-" he began, momentarily distracted.
Dr. Payne laughed. "Fool," he growled, and his tail lashed out towards Nico. A scream of dread built up - it was traveling right to where his heart was. Maybe I had only known Nico for about ten minutes, but everything he had done was rather heroic and I couldn't watch him die.
I would've never been able to dodge the tail. Fortunately, Nico wasn't me, because in a flash, he had moved out of the way - not exactly fast enough, though. The barbed end of Dr. Payne's tail caught onto what was most likely his arm - it was too fast for me to catch - and the tail itself was lashed across his chest. The sharp part had missed its original target, Nico's heart, but from the whiteness of his face, I guessed that his arm was bleeding and cut. With one flick, Nico was sent into a wall. I let loose the scream that I had been holding when he collapsed to the ground, unmoving. His sword skidded from his hands and towards me.
Nico's sword lay at my feet, and I bent down and scooped it up, holding the blade awkwardly in front of me. It felt too heavy for me - how did Nico fight with this? - but nevertheless, I faced Dr. Payne. My arms shook, though it was mostly because of fear.
"I'd say 'bring it on,'" I chewed my lip, "but I think I'd rather have you not 'bring it on.'"
Out of the corner of my eye, Nico's hand seemed to move. My heart gave a jump -- for a moment I had thought he was dead. I tried to stop staring at him, but out of the two others in the room, Nico seemed more pleasant to stare at than Dr. Payne.
"I'll spill your blood," Dr. Payne promised. "I'll mark this wretched school as mine for centuries. I will be able to feast off mortals for centuries that dare stray near my ground."
"Um," I shifted my weight, trying to think of things to say that could possibly stall my inevitable death, "can you use someone else's blood? Because I'm currently using my blood and it's actually really useful. I don't like sharing either, if that's what you're talking about."
Dr. Payne let out an angry snarl. Like, literally a snarl. "Your head must be thicker than I thought. Demigod blood has power. A child of Zeus. I can mark my land for centuries and maybe a millennia."
My head was whirling as I tried to wrap my fiver around everything. Why my blood? I wasn't anybody special. Why would he want to mark his land? Land was bought, not marked. Of course, I had better things to worry about than how land was gotten.I licked my dry lips, trying to think of something to say. Nico was still down - had I imagined him moving? "Ummm," I said. "Uh, let's see-"
Dr. Payne attacked me. I don't know exactly how it happened, but he sprung at me. With a yelp, I ducked and raised my sword and waited for death. But, Dr. Payne leapt straight over me, to my surprise. I stumbled up and tried to look brave while pointing Nico's sword at him.
"Stop trying to kill me," I demanded. "It's rude! What did I ever do to you? Apart from annoying you for two years."
The manticore snarled. He now looked more lion/scorpion than human - long jagged teeth protruded from his gums. He still spoke in the human voice though. "What did your ever do to me? You demigods! Do you know how it felt back in Tartarus? Aware of everything, unable to see or talk, unable to move, slowly reforming. Your species did that to me!"
I guess it was some kind of demigod instinct that all demigods have or something, because I suddenly saw how I could stab Dr. Payne. I had already forgotten about his dirt wound, or else I would have never taken the risk. While Dr. Payne was rambling on about what demigods had done to him, I leap at him.
He noticed too late, raising a gigantic lion's paw to bat me out of the way. I ducked and stabbed him as hard as I could.
Slowly, Dr. Payne looked down on the blade. He tilted his head, as if genuinely curious. Then, with a horrific laugh, he ripped the blade out of his chest, where I had stabbed him in the heart, and cast it away like it had been a toothpick.
Then, turning to me, he raised a giant paw and batted me sideways.
I didn't even have time to scream when I crumbled to the ground, pain exploding from my side. I could feel the warm substance of blood trickling down my side, the liquid viscous and warm. I could feel my shirt, inconveniently white, already being dyed to red.
Dr. Payne loomed over me. "How fast you 'heroes' fall," he gloated, "the son of Hades at least put up a decent fight. You couldn't even stand for a minute."
I tried to sass him back, saying something like how I didn't have magical healing powers and that I actually had blood for blood, but the the pain was too much and the words didn't come out. I could feel tears prick the corner of my eyes and I tried to choke them back. I didn't want to cry, but it hurt too much.
"Gaea is rising," I heard Dr. Payne say. I didn't know how I knew -- my head was bowed -- but the manticore had raised a paw for the killing blow.
That's when Nico came in with his clapping.
"What-?" Dr. Payne looked at him confused. With much effort, I raised my head.
Nico's face was as white as a sheet, but he was standing and not dead, which was kind of what really mattered. I didn't want to be responsible for his death.
Nico clapped his hands three times, and stepped back. For a moment I thought he was clapping for my death, applauding something that Dr. Payne had said.
Nothing happened for a second. Dr. Payne stared at Nico in confusion. Then a fissure split open on the ground.
If that wasn't enough, the skeletons were. The split in the ground wasn't too wide or long, but it seemed to go down forever, like an endless abyss. The light from the school didn't even light it up. Then the zombie/skeletons climbed out, and I momentarily forgot about my wound and leapt to my feet with a shriek.
The zombies, seven in all, straightened up and turned to fix its gazes in my general direction. They were revolting -- ripped pieces of robes that hung, rotting, from their bodies, flesh falling and in some place, revealing bone. Four of them had unhinged jaws, and all of them carried rusty weapons. Their eyes were hollow and unseeing, but they all looked at me, or possibly Dr. Payne.
They started in my general direction and I backed away nervously, almost crashing into the manticore.
"C'mon!" Nico yelled. "Hurry, idiot! They won't hold him for long."
Taking one last look at the skeleton zombies and Dr. Payne, who was now being harassed by them. He looked more annoyed than in pain, but the skeletons were doing their job of stalling the manticore and letting Nico and I escape. Each stab with their rusty weapons seemed to enrage him more than hurt him, but they kept the monster busy.
Nico grabbed my wrist and we ran, me stumbling every two steps, trying not to show the pain of the wound. It didn't feel too deep, but it hurt bad. I had never been cut this bad.
We burst outside into the cool night air, Dr. Payne still howling after us. We ran across the soccer field.
Halfway across the field, I stopped, wheezing and panting for breath. The last thing I wanted to do was to slow him down, seeing how much of a burden I already was. But the wound inflicted by the manticore hurt too much. Nico," I gasped, "stop. Please."
He stopped, regarding me with unreadable dark eyes. "Fine," he said. "hopefully Annabeth will find us. You okay?"
I nodded, though I didn't feel exactly 'okay.' Though, I was holding up perfectly fine before I saw the winged horse.