I really hated being a girl sometimes. It took me an hour to get ready before I decided that I looked good enough for my date with Glen. Three times I threw my clothes on the bed and just wanted to give up before I settled on some dark skinny jeans, a grey long sleeve V-neck, and some cute black ankle boots. I ran out of my bedroom and stopped in my tracks. My mom was in the living room but she wasn't alone. Sally Jackson, a really pretty woman in her early forties with light brown hair and pretty dark eyes, was there with her son Percy, aka my older brother, and Annabeth. “Uh, hi. What are you guys doing here?”
Percy got up to his feet and draped his arm over my shoulders. He was a good five inches taller than me and way stronger so the weight of his arm was annoying. “I heard my baby sister's got a date. Did you think I was going to miss that?”
I ducked out from his side and groaned. My eyes, so close in color to his, narrowed dangerously. “You're annoying, you know that?”
He grinned. “Yeah.”
Annabeth laughed from the couch. “Don't worry, Naida, I'll rein him in.”
I gave her an appreciative smile. If anyone could control Percy, it was Annabeth. And as much as I loved Percy, if his girlfriend didn't keep an eye on him I was so going to kill him.
There was a knock at the door and I froze. I shot Percy one more panicked look and I didn't like the mischievous grin that spread across his face- although that was his usual smile. “Please be normal,” I hissed as I ran to the door.
Glen leaned easily against the door frame. He looked good in his jeans and the black T-shirt. “Hey.”
“Hi,” I nearly swooned.
“Naida, are you gonna invite him in?” Percy yelled. I felt my face turn bright red. Glen smiled at me. I stood at the door as long as possible but of course Percy came up behind me and crossed his arms over his chest so that he looked intimidating. “You're the boyfriend?”
“Uh, well, we haven't really gone out or anything.”
I rolled my eyes. “Ignore him. Glen, this is Percy, my idiot brother.”
“Your brother?”
“Half brother, really. It's not important,” I said quickly with a wave of my hand. “Let's just go before he decides to be even more of a nuisance. 'Bye, Mom!”
I grabbed Glen's hand and rushed out the door, slamming it on Percy's face. Surprisingly, Glen kept his fingers lace with mine as he walked with me down to the stairs and even as we rode the subway. It was nice to just talk with him and relax and be normal. He didn't let go of my hand until we got to the outdoor ice rink. “I hope you know how to skate,” he said almost sheepishly.
I grinned. “Of course I do. I may be a fish for the most part but I'm good on the ice, too.”
He laughed and we rented some skates, which he insisted on paying for. It was nice to have fun with a cute guy, but I had this nagging feeling in my gut, like I was forgetting something. I did a pretty good job of ignoring it through most of the night.
“I'm glad you agreed to come out tonight,” he said.
“Me, too. But you suck at skating.”
Glen laughed.
Then everything turned to Pegasus poop. It started out innocently enough, just a dog barking. A little girl shrieked and grabbed onto her dad's legs as the giant beast came bounding up. The thing was as tall as me, skinny enough to see each rib poking against his silvery coat. The greyhound's beady black eyes were filled with hate looking straight at me. There was a reason I wasn't a dog person.
“Crap,” I muttered. “Uh, Glen, I gotta go.” I took off before he could respond, pushing through families and couples as the demonic dog chased after me slipping only a little on the ice. I pulled out my barrette and clicked it open so that it was my incredible sword. I paused at the gate to the rink for only a second to cut into the skates with my blade and started running barefoot through New York.
I ended up in Central Park which was probably the best I was going to get in New York. The trees acted as a maze and there weren't many people around to get hurt. My biggest problem, though, was that there was pretty much no water around. The last time I'd faced this monster I had only gotten away because I was on the Pacific Ocean, which had pumped me up like a shot of steroids or something and then had carried off Laelap. Now, I was pretty much on my own.
The long howl of a hound scenting its prey sent shivers up my spine. I gripped my sword tightly in my hand. I knew that this stupid dog had a personal vendetta against me and I was cursing my luck; of everything that could attack when I was trying to be normal, it had to be the demon dog. Well I wasn't going down without a fight, even if I was way outmatched.
The dog barked as it pounced at me. I brought my sword in a wide arch and grazed it's side. The fight went pretty back and forth and I was getting tired. Where was Annabeth when I needed her?
“Okay, this is getting old. What do you want?”
The dog growled at me in response. I couldn't run from a dog that always caught its prey and the stupid thing wasn't dying. Laelaps lunged at me, its razor sharp teeth latching on my sword arm and shaking it like a rag doll. I screamed and it felt like my whole arm was coming loose from my shoulder and before I realized it, my ice sword was gone. He dropped me and my socket popped. It loomed over me, drool dropping from between its rubbery lips. I was dead.
Another shrill screech broke through the near silence of the park. The greyhound's ears poked up curiously and it growled deep in its chest. As I looked up at the bright neon-lit sky, a giant bat shape swooped down, knocking Laelaps away from me. I sucked in a breath as the dog turned on the demon-looking bat woman.
Yeah, bat woman, nothing like Batman.
Her face was that of an old woman with beady black eyes in her wrinkled face and thin lips that had pointy little teeth sticking out of them. Her silvery hair was pulled back in a bun so that her forehead looked like it was stuck in her hairline. Her body was feminine but she had claws on her feet and giant leathery wings coming off of her arms.
She hissed and the dog barked back. I watched as they circled each other, ignoring me which I was fine with. Then the impatient dog lunged at the weird bat creature. She barely moved as her talons decapitated the demon dog that had haunted a few of my dreams.
I stared in horror and I think I might have screamed because her dark eyes turned to me. She studied me for a moment and didn't seem impressed. “Relax, child. If you didn't notice, I just saved your life.”
I'd heard about this monster. Nico had told me about them when he was explaining the Mist, the magical stuff that warped mortals' perception so they didn't see monsters and things, and I remembered telling him that this thing wasn't something I'd ever wanted to see. I waited until I was sure I could talk without screaming before I said anything. “You're a Fury, aren't you?”
“You can call me Mrs. Dodds.”
“Why are you helping me?” I knew I shouldn't push my luck but from everything I'd heard, these things weren't to be messed with.
“Because you are important to Nico di Angelo.”
My jaw locked and I rolled my eyes. Just the mention of him made me annoyed with how much I missed him. “Minotaur crap. If I was important to him he'd be here.”
She stared at me with those creepy black eyes. “You don't know, do you?”
“Know what?”
The Fury, Mrs. Dodds, whatever, narrowed her eyes at me. “Stupid child. Have you even been paying attention to what's really going on in our world?”
I shrugged easily and narrowed my own green eyes. “Nope. I've been trying to ignore it all.”
She hissed at me. “Nico deserves better than a girlfriend that doesn't care enough to know what something's wrong,” she snapped before disappearing in her own thick shadow.
What. The. Was That?

Notes

thank you for the comments, Evil espresso drinks and Thalia grace
fyi, i update a ton faster when i get comments so let people know that Naida's back ;)
luvz yaz :)