Chapter 23
I woke up to someone shaking me not too gently. "I'm up, I'm up." I told Adrian as I gradually sat up.
"What you singing?" Adrian asked me again and I sighed.
"I don't know." I said yet again. Since I'm an Apollo camper everyone decided that I have to sing at the Camp fire tonight. I had absolutely no choice in this matter and since I've never sung in front of anyone in my life I could be terrible for all I know. I really don't like singing which is strange with Apollo being my dad and all. Ok I'm rambling now.
"Ok, ok. Just hurry up and get dressed. Your working with death kid on something top secret today aren't you?" Adrian told me hinting at the fact that he wanted to know.
"He has a name you know. Now get out so I can get dressed." I ordered Adrian who held up his hands.
"I'm going." He said backing out of the room. It seems all the other girls have already left. I sighed and grabbed some clothes out of my bag and quickly changed into them before heading into the bathroom to brush my hair, teeth and do everything else I usually do. I'm pretty sure you don't want to hear about that.
Once I was done I jogged out of the Apollo cabin and to the pavilion where Adrian waved me over when he caught sight of me. "Finally." He complained glancing down at the non-existent watch on his wrist.
"I was six minutes." I told him and he shrugged.
"Six minutes is a long time." He defended himself. I raised my eyebrow at him and took a sip of my strawberry milkshake. I think I'm growing addicted to these things. "You not going to eat?" He then asked noticing my empty plate.
"No, I don't feel so good." I lied. The truth is I really didn't want to eat the bareable food I don't even need and I'm nervous. Yes, I'm nervous. I was spending the entire day starting to learn how to used the powers I had gained from being blessed by Hades. That means spending the entire day with Nico since I'm pretty sure Hazel doesn't like me very much. Usually, when someone glares at you they don't like you.
"Ok." Adrian shrugged seeming as if he could tell that I wasn't telling the truth but deciding not to push it.
"Arabelle." I heard Hope's voice call and I looked up to see her heading towards me.
"Hey Hope." I greeted her and hugged her when she reached the table. She hugged me back before going to join the Hermes table.
"Sister?" Adrian questioned.
"No she's my cousin." I replied finishing off my drink. "Anyway I'm going to get going see you later." I told Adrian who waved goodbye since his mouth was crammed full of food. Boys...
I stood up and began to make my way over to the Hades cabin when thankfully I spotted Nico heading my way. I didn't really want a run in with his sister. "Hey." I greeted Nico when he stopped next to me.
"Hey." He replied.
"Where do you want to go?" I asked since I didn't really know.
"There's a clearing north-east of here in the woods." Nico suggested and I nodded quickly glancing around to make sure there was nobody about. There wasn't.
"I'll meet you there." I told him before shooting off into the woods after a mountain lion I smelt a few minutes before.
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I found the clearing by tracking Nico's scent meaning even though I hunted I still got there only a few seconds after him. "Hunting?" He questioned and I gave him a confused look. "You have..." He trailed off pointing to the left corner of his mouth. I licked my thumb and rubbed the corner of my mouth.
"Gone?" I asked and Nico nodded.
"What do you want to work on first?" Nico questioned a few seconds later.
"I don't know, whatever you think will be easiest I guess." I replied.
"Shadow travelling." Nico said after a short pause. "I guess it would be easiest since you can already travel by light."
"So... What should I do?"
"Err... Try walking into a shadow while thinking about where you want to go." Nico suggested and I nodded. I backed up into the shadow behind me while thinking about the other end of the clearing. Surprisingly, I felt the shadow almost allow me in and the familiar feeling of shadow travelling over took me. I stepped out of the shadow and looked around in disbelief. Seriously? Canada?
"I'm guessing you didn't mean to go to a mountain." Nico said suddenly appearing.
"No. It's Mount Logan in Canada. I came here once with Abby and Hannah as part of the quest." I told him sadly looking at the view from the mountain.
"It's cold up here." Nico commented.
"It is about -28°C." I said as he turned so his back was towards me. An idea popped into my head and I bent down and collected up some snow before throwing it at Nico. It hit the dead centre of his back which was to be expected. Demi-god with vampire precision.
"Did you seriously just throw a snowball at me?" Nico asked turning around. I would have replied but I couldn't. I was laughing too much at the look on his face. It was a mixture between shock, dies belief and amusement. Why amusement? Because he threw one back at me.
That is how a fully fledged snow ball fight broke out.
The two of us continued to launch snowballs at each other both successfully managing to cover the other in flakes of snow. I was in the middle of creating another snowball when I caught scent of something. A sweet unmistakeable scent. Vampire.
"Vampire." I said to Nico just loud enough for him to hear and not the unknown vampire. Silently, I made my way over to Nico making sure not to make any noise what so ever. It wouldn't help but it made me feel slightly better. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a brief flash of brown hair before it disappeared again.
After a few seconds the vampire appeared about twelve metres away from us. I gently slid down into a defensive crouch a couple of metres in front of Nico and quietly hissed at the vampire in warning. The vampire also slid down into a crouch and bowed her head slightly to show me she meant no harm. Both the other vampire and I stood up neither dropping eye contact.
She was around 19 years old with slightly wavy mahogany brown hair and golden eyes standing at around 5'6. I frowned recognising her from somewhere. "Chloé?" I asked confused and the vampires eyes lit up in recognition.
"Your Arabelle aren't you? Carlisle told me about you." She said and I nodded. "Which means that your Nico."
"How did you find us up here?"
"We heard noise coming from up here so I came to investigate." Chloé told me. "Perhaps you two would like to come with me to our house before Nico becomes ill." Chloé said talking to me. I guess it was to be expected for a vampire to talk to another vampire instead of a human. I glanced at Nico before nodding.
Nico took a few steps forwards until he was next to me and gave Chloé a slightly wary look. "Canadian Covern. They're like cousins to the Cullen's. Carlisle turned Chloé back in the 1600's. After a while Chloé left Carlisle and created her own coven." I muttered to Nico just loud enough for him to hear and not Chloé. Nico nodded slightly and the two of us began to follow Chloé down the mountain.
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After only around twenty minutes of walking we reached a stunning modern house. From what I could tell there was seven more vampires inside the house. A 20 year old dark haired man came out the house and straight towards Chloé kissing her on the forehead.
"Kevin, this is Arabelle and Nico, the ones Carlisle told us about. Arabelle, Nico this is my mate Kevin." Chloé told us all.
"The newborn and the human right?" Kevin asked Chloé who nodded.
"Danielle, can you get a blanket?" Chloé called before gesturing for the two of us to follow her and Kevin inside. Nico and I followed the two into a stunning modern living room. A blonde vampire entered the room throwing the blanket she had to Chloé who passed the blanket to Nico.
"Anything else you need?" The girl, who I assume is Danielle asked.
"Can you get some dry clothes for Arabelle and ask Steven if he can get some for Nico?" Chloé requested and Danielle nodded.
"Sure. Come on Arabelle." Danielle said. I glanced over to Nico before following Danielle up a flight of stairs and into a stunning bed less bedroom which was too be expected since vampires can't sleep. "Can I dress you up? I don't usually get to dress people up because Chloé won't let me and well, getting attached to humans never seems to end well for our coven." Danielle asked.
"I guess, but no pink." I warned her. She laughed but nodded and headed over to her closet.
"Here, go get changed. Bathrooms through there." Danielle told me throwing me the fabric. I caught it and headed through into the huge ensuite bathroom. How rich are these people?
I sighed and used my vampire speed to change out of my wet clothes and into the knee length red dress, tights and black flats. It wasn't as bad as I had feared but I don't usually wear dresses so it felt strange. I fiddled with my necklace as I looked in the mirror and frowned. I looked much more girly in a dress than I usually do.
After looking at my reflection for a second longer I headed out of the bathroom and back into the bedroom. "It suites you, I like it." Danielle told me before knocking on the final door in the room. "Steven I know you heard everything so move your butt." Danielle called and there was a sigh from behind the door.
"Fine." The voice called.
"Steven will get your human friend Nico dry clothes. Come on." Danielle told me heading out of the room. I followed her down the stairs and back into the living room.
"Ah, Danielle is Steven coming?" Chloé asked her.
"Yes he should be. I'd give him a minute, you know how lazy he is." Danielle replied. Chloé nodded as I went to go and sit down by Nico who still had the blanket draped around him.
"Hey." I said quietly.
"Hey." He replied as another vampire entered the room. The vampire passed clothes to Chloé who thanked him before heading over to us.
"There's a bathroom second door down on the left where you can change." Chloé told Nico who nodded in thanks and took the clothes from her and left the room.
"He's your soul mate isn't he?" Chloé asked and I nodded slightly awkwardly.
"How did you know?" I asked her as she sat down next to me.
"It's really obvious. How you protected him when I arrived, how he's always the first and last thing you check up on. How, when you left with Danielle he got more tense because, 1, he was worried about you and 2, because he trusts you and obviously he doesn't trust us." Chloé told me and I swear of I wasn't a vampire right now I would be rather red in the cheeks. I never really noticed just how much I actually blush until a month ago when I first met Nico.
Both Chloé and I became increasingly silent when Nico entered the room clearly having not heard any of the conversation. His clothes weren't that different to normal but his t-shirt was a dark blue and he was carrying his aviator jacket since it was probably still damp.
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"Bye Arabelle, Nico." Chloé told us as we reached the bottom of the steps leading out of the house.
"Bye Chloé and thanks." I replied and she smiled.
"It's no problem." Chloé said before heading back inside. Nico and I walked until we were about half a mile away from the house then stopped.
"Clearing?" I asked Nico who nodded before disappearing into the shadows. I then let the light consume me. When it faded I was back in the clearing from earlier. I glanced up, the darkness of the sky telling me that it was only about half an hour until curfew.
The good thing about all of this? I had definitely missed the Camp fire.