Vampire

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LOUIS HELD NICO'S hand for the rest of the meal. Nico didn't let go. Instead, he even held on tighter, which surprised Louis. Nico's hand was really, really cold. So much so that Louis had to resist the urge to ask Nico if he was a vampire.

Louis compleatly zoned out for the rest of dinner, his only thought was about holding Nico's hand. He found it strange, as usually Nico Di Angelo didn't occupy his mind so much.

Reyna was the one who brought him back into reality.

"The games begin!" Reyna announced. The campers cheered and rushed to collect their equipment from the stacks along the walls.

Louis and Nico stood up, letting go of each other as soon as they stood. "You're like a vampire." Louis whispered.

Nico looked at him as if Louis had been the one to kill his sister. "Don't say a word of this to anyone, Fortune Teller."

Louis laughed at the stupid nickname. "Yeah but-"

"Shut up."

"Shutting up, Vampire."

"So we're the attacking team?" Percy asked over the noise. "Is that good?"

Hazel shrugged. "Good news: we get the elephant. Bad news—"

"Let me guess," said Percy. "The Fifth Cohort always loses."

Frank slapped Percy on the shoulder. "I love this guy. Come on, new friend. Let's go chalk up my thirteenth defeat in a row!"

"Horary." Louis said with as little enthusiasm as Nico.











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ONCE THEY GOT out of camp, the Fifth Cohort formed two lines behind their centurions, Dakota and Gwen. They marched north, skirting the edge of the city, and headed to the Field of Mars—the largest, flattest part of the valley. The grass was cropped short by all the unicorns, bulls, and homeless fauns that grazed here. The earth was pitted with explosion craters and scarred with trenches from past games. At the north end of the field stood their target. The engineers had built a stone fortress with an iron portcullis, guard towers, scorpion ballistae, water cannons, and no doubt many other nasty surprises for the defenders to use.

"They did a good job today," Hazel noted. "That's bad for us."

"Wait," Percy said. "You're telling me that fortress was built today?"

Hazel grinned. "Legionnaires are trained to build. If we had to, we could break down the entire camp and rebuild it somewhere else. Take maybe three or four days, but we could do it."

"Let's not," Percy said. "So you attack a different fort every night?"

"Not every night," Frank said. "We have different training exercises. Sometimes death ball—um, which is like paint-ball, except with...you know, poison and acid and fire balls. Sometimes we do chariots and gladiator competitions, sometimes war games."

Hazel pointed at the fort. "Somewhere inside, the First and Second Cohorts are keeping their banners. Our job is to get inside and capture them without getting slaughtered. We do that, we win."

Percy's eyes lit up. "Like capture-the-flag. I think I like capture-the-flag."

Louis laughed. "Oh you poor person. If you think this is like capture the flag, your in for a real treat."

Hazel looked him up and down, confusion crossing over her face. "Didn't Reyna ban you from playing?"

"Yeah, but don't remind her! If she doesn't notice then I'll be fine."

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