"Nico, slow down!" I yelled.

"Come on! Push it! Give me all you've got!" Nico said, his sweat dripping over his muscles and mixed with mine as he pinned me on the floor. I groaned as I tried to push him off of me with my spear in hand.

"Ugh! Get off me di Angelo!" I wined. He laughed and released his hands from the floor and he fell fully onto me. I mean before he was just hovering over me but now, he was resting his full weight on me. He panted on top of me and I was breathing heavily as well.

"Alright." He said after a while. "Lets try again." He got off of me and wiped the sweat off his forehead and took a drink of his water. He helped me up and handed me a towel.

"Ugh! No way! It is too hot in here." I gestured around the arena. Nico raised his eyebrow as I grabbed his hand and pulled him through the tunnels and to the water. I jumped in and I pulled Nico in with me, his eyes widened with shock just before he went under. I held my breath and opened my eyes in the clear cold water. I saw Nico swirling around making a fuss and he was looking around. I made myself invisible and gripped the ends of his black skeletal shirt and counted to three.

One.

Two.

Three.

I jumped up and pulled his shirt over his head and wrapped my arms around his body.

"Ah! Holy Hades!" He yelled. And he turned around and I brought him under water.

'It's so cold Thalia!' I heard his voice in my head. I smiled and rushed up to the surface.

I flipped my hair back, and saw Nico come up and he wrapped his arms around me.

"How did I hear your voice in my head?" I asked.

"Um…" He said and he let go of me. I turned around to face him and he rubbed the back of his neck. "That is kind of my old pre-power. I didn't know I could still use it." He said honestly. I grabbed his hand and pulled him underwater again. He shivered and took his shirt off. And embraced me. He pulled me up above the water.

"Aw. Thalia's blushing." He teased.

"Shut up di Angelo."

We got out of the water and I ran back towards the arena. I heard Nico's footsteps echoing. I grabbed a dagger and waited flat against the wall next to the exit. He ran right past me and I jumped and held my dagger point at his throat.

"You played me?" he asked and he seemed a little frightened.

"Yep." I whispered. He gulped. He raised his hands behind his head and I loosened my hold and he gripped my wrist and my dagger clattered to the floor. He threw me over his shoulder and walked out of the arena. I was kicking and screaming at the top of my lungs while Nico was just laughing.

"I swear Nico di Angelo, you will freaking pay for this! You will wake up and you will be bloody cut in half!" I then proceeded to curse him out.

"Put me down you little shit! You are a malicious bastard! Gods dam it!"

"Hey, what is going on here?" Percy smirked.

"Oh nothing." Nico said casually. "Just training with Thalia."

"Put me down di Angelo or I swear I-"

"You'll what?" He asked. I found myself at a loss for words and stopped fighting and just relaxed my muscles.

"Shut up di Angelo." I murmured.

"Make me." He smiled.

"One day di Angelo." He shook his head, a giant grin playing across his lips. Nico came into the main room and set me down on a pile of blankets. He then leaned down and kissed my temple softly then lay down next to me.

"Nico." I start.

"Yeah?" He says propping himself onto his elbow to look at me.

"You remember when we were at Rainbow Organics? When I was running out an d I ran into you?"

"Yeah?"

"I walked into this room with cave walls and there were these figures that looked like you and Luke. And you wrapped your arms around me and you sounded drunk and you asked me something that scared me."

"What was it?" He asked. After I told him his eyes widened and once I was done he embraced me in a hug and kissed my temple.

"I would never do that. Ever. You understand?" I nodded as a tear slipped down my face.

"I think that hall way might have shown you what you wanted to see the least." I nodded.

"Hey guys it is getting pretty late." Jason said coming in from the other room along with Piper, Percy, Annabeth, Leo and Reyna.

"Yeah," Nico nodded. "So how did training go?"

"Ok, Piper pinned Jason." Percy said. I laughed. Jason blushed and turned to Piper.

"She has gotten pretty good, I must admit." Piper smiled and stood up a little straighter.

"Alright," Annabeth announced. "We should all get some sleep. We should try and leave tomorrow so we can get to camp." We all nodded in agreement and settled in.

"Goodnight guys." I said.

"Night." Leo said bringing Reyna closer to him.

"Goodnight." Said Percy and Annabeth in unison.

"May you all have pleasant dreams." Piper said.

"Uh, oh, goodnight guys." Jason blushed while staring at Piper. I lay down with Nico and he whispered in my ear,

"Goodnight." I shivered as his breath made contact with my skin. I closed my eyes and fell asleep instantly.

I dreamed of a redheaded girl. I saw her yell at her family to understand for once. To listen. To quit making fun of her. She ran into her room carrying a laptop, a binder, a sketchpad, a pencil and an Ipod. She set them all onto her bed closed the door and locked it.

"Nobody will ever understand." She murmured over and over to herself as she drew away on the white pages of the sketchpad. She drew a person. I recognized him from an old site I used to look at but I found myself dumbfounded, trying to remember the name. The person had two long horns, colored orange and yellow, sticking out of the top of his head. He wore a black shirt with a purple Capricorn zodiac sign in the middle, along with jeans with grey circles across them. He has wild black hair and stunning yellow eyes. His teeth were pointy and showing in a menacing and attractive smile. He wore white clown makeup to cover his face. The girl drew a pair of purple socks and some juggling pins before scribbling down the name, 'Gamzee Makara.'

She cut around the drawing and taped him to her door. She then started to draw another character. He had black shaggy hair and a black skeletal shirt. He wore dark jeans and All Star Converse. He had dark circles under his almost black eyes. He was smirking in a way I found comfortably familiar. She scribbled down his name, 'Nico di Angelo.' She then cut his out and taped him on her door. She then put her drawing set away and pulled out her Ipod classic and computer. She scrolled through her songs and I noticed the old scratches on the screen from being dropped a numerous amount of times. It was a hand-me-down from her older sibling. This I knew.

She finally reached the song, 'Flightless Bird.' By Iron & Wine. She opened her computer, running a scarred hand through her long amber hair. She pulled up the site Fanfiction and checked the news feed of stories. She clicked on her account name and noticed there was nothing for her to check. She clicked out of the web and went to her stories folder. In big, bold letters she typed.

'If you could only save me, I'm drowning in the waters of my soul.'

I woke.

"Thalia. Lets go we have to get out of here, fast." Nico said helping me up.

"Why?" I said groggily. "What's going on?"

"Come on." Annabeth yelled running to the exit. She boosted her self up, and then held out a hand for Percy.

"You have Riptide?" She asked him.

"Yeah." He replied.

"Do you guys all have your weapons?" We all nodded, heading for the exit. Once everyone was up and only Nico and I were left to surface, I heard a maniacal sound. A hungry roar mixed with the bleat of a goat, along with the hiss of a snake.

"Go, go, go, go!" Nico pressed. Annabeth helped me up, and then Nico appeared next to me.

"Run." He said.

We ran as fast as we could through the woods, desperately trying to escape whatever it was that was chasing us. I looked back swiftly and saw a menacing face of a lion with golden eyes. It had furry front paws and rams horns sticking out from behind it. The head of a goat swirled around next to the lion head. On the un-occupied side of the lion was a dragonhead. It's tongue flickering with smoke and blood as if it had just made a fresh kill, just looking at it made me feel panicky. In the back of its body the fur had broke away into little tufts until there was nothing at all except scaly green/gray flesh. It's tail ended with the head of a snake. And jutting out from either side of its torso, were two blue dragon wings. And riding on top of the beast, was Luke Castellan.

"Luke." I growled. "What is that thing?" I asked Nico, who was running right along side me.

"A Chimera. Half dragon, half lion, half goat, half snake, all terrifying." The Chimera roared/hissed/bleated and fire blazed at a giant tree in front of us, causing the tree to fall and block our path. The trees created a wall making so that we couldn't escape.

"Shit." Annabeth cursed. We were cornered. Nico unsheathed his sword and I held up my spear. I looked back and saw Annabeth holding her dagger, Percy gripping a bronze sword so tight his knuckles turned white. Leo's hands were blazing and his clothes were smoking, Reyna was at his side holding a golden sword. Piper held a dagger in her hand and Jason was floating in mid air above the monster, with a golden cavalry sword in his hand, just like Reyna's.

"Well, well, well." Luke cooed. "Look at you guys. Didn't think you'd survive this long."

"Luke, stop this!" Annabeth insisted.

"Why should I? The fun is just about to begin." He gave a cruel smile. The Chimera growled and a sound pierced the air.

Suddenly I heard hissing and hungry cackles. Bulky human looking figures appeared out of the shadows of the woods. The cackles grew louder along with the hissing. A flock of snake women appeared out of the shadows.

"What about family Luke!" Annabeth sobbed.

"What about family? Gods Annabeth, you really think I care about that petty promise?" He snapped. Annabeth glared at Luke.

"What about Selena? You think this is what she wanted? She saved your life and asked you to make a difference!" She yelled.

"I am making a difference. I'm making a world where the Olympians no longer have power. Where we can rule. You refused to join me, so now here we are." He spoke.

"She died for you! She saved your life and this is how you repay her?" Annabeth yelled in disgust.

"Doesn't matter now. She's gone. I am fulfilling my promise of making a better world, built how we wanted it to be. I guess you are no longer family seeing as you have betrayed us."

"Luke, can we hurry up. My sisters are getting hungry." Said a blonde cheerleader with a perky smile and her name sewn onto her uniform, 'Kelly'. Her image flickered. One moment it was human the next she was a monster with fire as hair and one leg was robotic, the other like a donkey's. Her eyes glowed red and pierced my soul.

"Yesss, betrayal. Letsss kill them." One of the snake ladies hissed. The bulky figures grew taller, larger. Five humanoids with one eye in the center of each of their heads glared at us hungrily. Most of them were bald, or had matted tufts of hair springing out of their scalps. A few had long hair but other than that they all looked the same with only a few other noticeable differences. All had crooked teeth and smashed noses the size of car battery. Most wore dirty loincloths and used chains to hold the fabric around their husky bodies, but others wore armor. Cyclopes

The snake women had green, blue, or red tinted human faces and bodies from the waist up, old cloths wrapped around their chests, but from the waist down they had green, blue, or red slithering snake tails.

"Guys," Percy started.

"Yeah?" We all said.

"Lets kick ass." We all nodded and ran for whatever monster was in sight. Reyna, Nico and Piper attacked the five Cyclopes, trying to veer them away from the others. Leo was throwing fire at the legion of snake women and every time the fire hit one of them they would hiss and fall to a glittering pile of golden ash, and be swept away by the breeze. Percy helped him by forming water out of thin air and trapping them in a watery prison before he sliced them with Riptide. Annabeth, Jason and I started hacking away at the Chimera.

I pierced my spear right through the lion's mouth on the Chimera and it roared in outrage, and pain. It evaporated into golden ash and Luke was flung off it's back into a tree hitting his head and falling unconscious. I turned around to see more monsters of all kinds surrounding us.

"Perfect." I murmured. I heard a cry of pain. Nico collapsed to the moist floor and held his side. A snake woman had stabbed him in the back with her dagger, when he was fighting off a Minotaur.

"Nico!" I yelled out an earsplitting scream. I ran over to him stabbing every monster that got in my path. I reached him and cradled his head in my arms. More monsters were oozing from the now completely dark woods.

"Thalia." His voice was weak and raspy. My rage grew inside as the monsters started to cackle with glee at the sight of the son of Hades. "I'm sorry." He whispered and he closed his eyes, his breathing ragged and his breaths short. I got up and my vision went red and blurred with anger and tears. I held up my spear and lightning clashed down coursing through my veins and the shaft of my spear. With a burst of energy everything went white and every monster in a twelve-mile radius of me was disintegrated. My clothes were charred and I collapsed to the floor, and just before I blacked out I saw Leo, Percy, and Annabeth running over to me.

I opened my eyes, facing the ceiling on the floor. I got up vexatious as expected. My back was aching and my lip was open vein. I was back at my house. I looked around to see my room completely as I had left it. I sat up a little too quickly, my head started throbbing and my vision was fuzzy. I got up and my clothes were the same ones I had been wearing when I was fighting off the monsters in the forest. Still covered with soot and pine needles.

"What the hell?" I whispered to myself. I went to my bathroom and looked at my reflection in the mirror. I washed my face with cold water, brushed my teeth, fixed my hair and reapplied my makeup. I got dressed in some clean clothes; black skinny jeans, Nico's Green Day shirt and my black converse. I raced down the stairs to see my mother sitting at the kitchen table wearing the same clothes as she had when Nico had just moved across the street about a month ago.

"Goodbye. Try not to get beaten up too badly. I have a co-worker coming over for dinner." She smirked. "What the hell are you wearing? Why are you so dirty?"

"What the hell? Is this some sort of joke or something?" I demand.

"What do you mean?" She asked. I looked at the calendar and the last day that was crossed out was April eighth. Today was the ninth, the same day Nico and Percy moved in across the street. I ran out the door and saw a black car. A boy stepped out of the driver's seat. He had black hair, and brown eyes and he wore just about all black. He caught my gaze, and just stood there. He slowly closed his door, and another guy got out from the passenger's seat. He followed his friend's gaze to me. He had sea green eyes and he wore a green shirt, black and white converse and blue jeans. I ran over to them and hugged the boy wearing black and said,

"I thought you were dead." He looked shocked at first then hugged me back.

"I'm still recovering a bit." He smiled pulling up his black Day of the Dead shirt. He had bloody gauze wrapped around his frame covering a deep cut.

"Oh my gods Nico." I say. "I thought you were dead." My eyes start to sting and I burry my face in his chest. Percy walks over and hugs me.

"Good to see that you still remember us." He hugs me before carrying in his guitar case. His mom comes out and takes a box full of picture frames out of the moving truck parked down the street. She smiles at me and walks through the door of the house.

"So, you were worried about me, huh?" Nico teased.

"No." I said, my face growing hot."

"Mhm, that's why your blushing?" He smirks.

"Shut up di Angelo."

"Make me Pineco-" He didn't get to finish his sentence because I put my hand on the back of his neck, pulled him closer to me and gently crashed my lips against his. He set his hands on my waist and kissed me back. We pulled away for air and he stared wide-eyed at me.

"I told you I would." I smiled at him. He blinked as if he had just come out of a trance before smiling back widely.

"Come on," He said after a while. "Let's ask Sally to make us some blue cookies." He said brightly and boyishly. I rolled my eyes and grinned as we walking through the door, his arm around my shoulder and my arm around his waist.

"I love you." He whispered in my ear.

"I love you too." I whisper back.

Hello mortals! I am so sorry for not updating in forever, but I have had a lot of stuff going on lately. Just your everyday drama you know, idiotic and unnecessary guy problems. Lots of end of the year confusion.

So! This was the last chapter of Demons! Most of you have probably given up on reading this story, and I am sorry that it took so long. but if there are still a few of you still reading this; Thanks for sticking around. I think this has been my best story yet.

Later.

~ 4ever-and-always-invisible.