~ Chapter Twenty-Three:
NERO
It was easy escaping Camp Half-Blood but it sure had its repercussions. Zarah and Adam set up a trap to stop the harpies following us - Adam controlled the earth and made a three-foot deep hole and grew over it grass and leaves. He then set up a miniature raincloud secluded by the tree branches, and Zarah hid a lightning bolt inside the vapour. Anyone who stepped through the trap would be shocked with a current powerful enough to set you unconscious.
"What if demigods are set after us?" I asked.
Zarah rolled her eyes. "Then boom, they'll join the harpies in Snoozeland for a bit. Stop fussing, Nero."
She was being rude again. Unwelcoming. As we'd left I'd smiled at her and she just spun round on her heel. What was going on?
One minute she liked me and was kissing me. The next, it was like I was some smelly oaf she was ignoring.
Adam hung back with me as Zarah went to 'deal with' the guard dragon Peleus. Adam had his powers and I had an amazing sword Leo had made for me, but Zarah offered to do it.
Adam waited until she was out of earshot.
"Mate," he said, "she's not worth it. She had a thing with Joey when she first came. Then, believe it or not, she tried it on with me."
"Shut up," I muttered.
"Nero, I'm trying to help you, bud. Zarah's bad news. She was actually about to kiss me, I think, when she got a phone call. Answered it. Hung up. And said, 'Hmm, you're not the one they were after.'"
I froze. "What?"
"Yeah. Apparently, she said the same to Joey."
"And were you planning to reciprocate?"
Adam gagged. "As if! Zarah's okay but she's a total cow. I like a laugh but there's something manipulative and cunning about her."
"So Joey liked her?"
"Joey freaking loved her," Adam said with a grin.
I stuck my hands in my pockets. I was wearing grey cargo pants and a white slim tee. Adam had given me an old red beanie of his, saying it had been his style before he realised the 'joy' of baseball caps. It sat nicely over my dark scruffy hair.
I glanced over at Adam. He had black hair like mine, and bright green eyes. I remembered the lad from the past with blonde locks and irises like sapphires. Who was he?
Adam stared back. Don't, I could hear him thinking. Don't ask me, cuz I know what you're thinking. Don't.
Then, Get the bloody hell out, Nero!
I shrugged in apology. He straightened his jacket - leather, over a grey t-shirt and dark jeans and sneakers - and walked after Zarah. I could see her, standing over Peleus. I could see what she was doing.
I focused my mind on hers and yelled, STOP!
Something bounced back. My head throbbed. Again. Zarah, STOP IT!
She didn't. I ran over, sword aloft. It was a beautiful weapon, and its proper term was katana. It was a lethal two-metre curved sword, silver with a brown leather grip and the Greek alphabet scripted along the blade.
Zarah spun round and stopped the electricity. Her eyes narrowed. "You gonna use that on me?" she snarled.
"Don't make me," I snapped. "You're torturing him!"
"He's a dragon!" she argued. "As if he gives a crap!"
"He has feelings!" I countered. I bent down. "You were electrocuting him to the point of death."
"Do you wanna get out of here or not?" she asked harshly. She zapped Peleus again with a long purple arc. I looked about.
"Adam?" I called. Panic began to balloon inside of me. "Hey, Adam?"
Zarah stood up, our argument momentarily forgotten. "What's wrong?"
"It's Adam, I can't see him."
"He's probably gone ahead to the woods," Zarah said with a roll of her eyes. "We're heading through there. It's the safest way to escape from here."
"Why would he go without us?" I asked. "Everyone knows about the monsters Chiron sets up."
"Don't worry about it, Nero!" Zarah said in frustration. "Gods, are you always this pathetic?"
"Are you always this rude? No, wait - you're not. One minute you're flirty and kissy, the next you're a total -"
"If your next word is a curse for female dog, then shut up now," Zarah growled.
"I'm just saying -"
"What?" Zarah laughed coldly. "Aw. Were you hoping for a relationship, Nero? A kiss is a kiss."
"You said you liked me. I intrigue you."
"Exactly. I didn't say I loved you. You're too full-on. I'm just in for a bit of fun."
"Well I'm not."
Zarah chuckled again. "Then that's your choice, babe."
A twig snapped to our left. Zarah turned round, hands alive with electricity. I tightened my grip on my katana.
Two kids slid down the hill beside us, both decked in full bronze Greek armour. One large kid's long dark hair could be seen tumbling out from beneath her helmet. The other was taller, leaner, and charging full-speed at us.
"Stop!" the plumper one yelled. A girl, eleven or twelve, young. The other reached us first.
"Names," she demanded. She held a spear and aimed it at us. "Names!"
"Nerovian Jackson," I said, dropping my sword to the floor. "Most call me Nero."
"A Jackson," the girl mused.
I looked over at Zarah. She now stood with her arms crossed, but I could see her hands twitching. She wanted to electrocute these girls. Hard.
"And her?" The older girl stabbed her spear in Zarah's direction.
"Zarah Venjovi," I said.
"They're... Bornes!" panted the other girl is she arrived at last.
"Bornes?" The older girl sniffed disdainfully. "Rani, run along and fetch Valdez."
"Run along, Fatty," Zarah said, smirking.
The girl in question, Rani, wavered. Underneath her helmet I could tell she was going red.
"It's okay, Rani," I said. "Hi. I'm Nero. We're actually looking for our friend, Adam. He disappeared about ten minutes ago."
"Then why the backpacks?" the bigger girl asked.
"Roz -" began Rani.
"Quiet!" Roz snapped. She took off her helmet and glared at me. She had pale freckled skin with a flame of red hair, not auburn like Rachel's but not ginger, either. She saw me staring.
"It's not dyed, before you ask," she said. "My human dad was a scientist. He experimented with some secret government drug on me when I was a baby, and gave me some undiagnosable disease that left me with this colour hair and a bunch of scars. He got put in prison for two years. Happy?"
Her eyes were an intense but pretty blue-purple. Another side effect.
She held out her hand. "Roz. This is my little sister, Rani."
"Little," Zarah mocked. I ignored her and shook the offered hand. Roz didn't bother offering to Zarah.
Rani removed her helmet. She looked relatively normal, with dark brown hair and brown eyes. She had freckled pale skin like her sister but the similarities stopped there. Roz looked slim and healthy, whereas Rani looked rather large. But I didn't care. Why should a kid worry about their weight? I wouldn't.
"Stop it," Rani said. "You might think you're all mighty because you're a Borne, Zarah Venjovi, but you're no different from the rest of us."
"And who's your parent?" Zarah taunted. "It's certainly not Aphrodite, tubby."
Rani looked at Roz, who laid a comforting hand on her sister's shoulder.
"My mother is Athena," said Roz, "and Rani's mother is Hecate."
"Two goddesses?" Zarah sneered. I spun round and swore at her, so she sloped off towards the woods. I could see her getting out a mobile phone. Were they allowed in camp?
Ignoring Zarah, I turned back and grinned at Rani. "Can you do magic tricks, like your mum?"
Rani shook her head. "I'm nine."
Wow. Younger than I thought.
"The backpacks?" Roz prompted, not lowering her guard.
"Full of meat," I lied smoothly. "We think Adam ran into the woods. In case we meet any monsters, we want to hold them off."
Roz raised an eyebrow. "Why would he run into the woods? Aren't you guys all fourteen or something?"
I lightly looked inside her mind. Rozanna Lucierra, aged thirteen. Fourteenth birthday in two months' time on the second of April. Daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom, and scientist Allen Lucierra.
I probed a little further into her past.
*
"This is Vorafengius, little Rozanna," cooed a man in a white lab coat with crazy soot-black hair. "It's a new drug designed to stop cancer. That's what you have, my beautiful baby. If this works, you won't die. Mummy has assured me."
Dr Lucierra held up a syringe and checked the measurements. Without warning or looking at his baby's face, he plunged the needle into her arm.
Baby Rozanna howled and screamed. A beautiful woman appeared at Dr Lucierra's side.
"Allen!" she cried. She scooped up the crying Rozanna in her arms. "What have you done to our daughter?"
"It... it was supposed to work..." Allen Lucierra looked very afraid and like he might vomit at any second.
Athena put down her daughter. "You have cured her leukaemia," she whispered.
Dr Lucierra raised a hand to his mouth. "My love, I am a genius..."
Lady Athena growled. "This was not ingenious in any way, Allen. Look at the baby. Look at your handiwork."
Allen Lucierra picked up the baby. "The Vorafengius could not have done this," he insisted. "It was supposed to cure her."
"That it did," Athena said coldly. "But in doing so you have changed her appearance. Her hair is the colour of flames. And look at those eyes."
"What about them?"
"Look closer, Allen."
Dr Lucierra peered over the crib. Baby Rozanna's eyes flew open. Her eyes were the colour of blood, changing to that of gold, then orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, white and black.
*
Merely a second had passed. Roz stared at me funny. "Hello?"
I blinked. This power had its advantages but sometimes, some things should remain private.
Roz hadn't felt my presence like Adam and Dad had. Why was that? Was it a male thing?
She brushed her fiery hair to the side with her fingers. "I don't believe you," she said firmly.
"Roz," her sister said uncertainly.
I sighed. "Please let us go find Adam. Please."
Rani searched my eyes. I tried sending her a little message. I'M TELLING THE TRUTH, I PROMISE!
It didn't work because she didn't react. Huh.
I picked up my katana and called Zarah over. She closed her mobile and pocketed it, avoiding my eye.
She smiled with even pearly-white teeth at Rani. "Sorry, dear," Zarah said sweetly. "I do apologise. Forgot to take my Xanax this morning."
"I hope that's a joke," Roz snarled. "Drugs aren't prohibited unless prescribed my anyone over sixteen from the Apollo cabin."
"Dr Solace himself," Zarah assured. "Normally I pop six."
"Six?" I repeated with a gasp.
Zarah paused, just for like a millisecond, then laughed jauntily. "Did I say six? Sorry; I meant two."
She wrapped an arm around my waist. "Let's go fetch Adam, babe." She nodded towards the woods.
"I should alert Chiron," Roz insisted.
"Go ahead," Zarah said confidently. "Take the path back to the left. You'll get there quicker. If your sister goes the other way, she can get my pills for me."
Rani trudged off to the right. Roz hesitated.
"It's okay," I said gently. "When you return, shout us."
Begrudgingly, Roz disappeared from the way Zarah, Adam and I had come from.
"At last!" Zarah said, snaking her arm away. I grabbed it.
"You've sent Roz along where the traps are!" I hissed.
Zarah groaned. "Shut up, Nero, okay?"
She nodded towards the woods. "Now.
"Come on."
***
So new charaaaacters!! I've got plans for Roz and Rani Lucierra - they're not hugely important in this book, but they will be in the next.
A little Narah romance, but that was heavily touched on in the last chapter or so, and this focused on the two new girls.
Esme chapter coming up! We'll find out some more on Zarah, Drake, Adam and Esme herself.
Sorry I'm short updating, back at school this week :( so maybe one to two chapters a week guys, my apologies.
Hey. If you're looking for some books to read, try the GONE series by Michael Grant. They're difficult to get into as they really reach out to you on a very emotional level sometimes. It is about children of young ages and a lot do die, so you've got to withstand that. Also, there is sexual content in the later books so you do need to be mature. These are young adult novels, meaning they're more aimed at and adapted to those in perhaps their twenties; however, as a fourteen-year-old, I really enjoyed them. The protagonists and antagonists are all very dimensional. It's all thrilling.
If you're not into getting involved in a series or looking for a different genre, try Before I Die by Jenny Downham. I have never cried as much at a book as I did during that. Again, a very grown-up novel with explicit language and a lot of sexual content, but it's about a girl called Tessa who is dying of terminal cancer, and she's got a wishlist of some amazing emotional stuff, so give it a whirl because I loved it.
And finally, if you just want a nice comfortable book to read in bed before lights out, why not give The Eleventh Orphan by Joan Lingard a go? I read that when I was eleven, I think, and I still enjoy it now and again. It's for people from ages 11-16, I believe, and a nice relaxing book about a young girl named Effie who began in the world without a penny to her name and no parents, and she's taken in by these nice people called Ma and Pa Bigsby. It is younger than the above books I mentioned but I like reading it by the fire.
Hope these suggestions are helpful and I hope you like this chapter!
- Lauren xx