𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐔𝐒 - luke castellan.

xviii, almost caught

a l m o s t  c a u g h t
venus.

━━━━━━━

The door opened and Venus turned to look at it. A sigh of relief escaped her throat as she saw Annabeth, with the shield in her hand, and Percy. They walked towards them and she kept the shield on the table.

"Where's our ride?" Percy asked.

"You're kidding," He said as they walked out and saw a giant truck. Ares clicked his fingers and the door opened. 

"Get in. Don't. I really don't care." Ares said. "But in a few hours, this thing is gonna be at the Lotus Casino in Vegas. Hermes hangs there. You play your cards right and his personal driver can get you to L. A in minutes," 

Luke's dad.

"Here. Clothes. Cash. Drachmas to summon Hermes. I'd wish you luck but would good would it do you?" He asked.

"We're not gonna fail," Percy said, shaking his head. 

"Don't worry. Your dad had plenty of kids he stopped caring about once he lost interest," Ares said. "You'll have lots of company."

"We're not gonna fail," Percy repeated. "And I'm getting pretty tired of you saying it."

"Percy," Grover warned.

"You think you know who I am, but you don't," He said, walking closer. "And if you aren't careful... you're going to find out,"

"Percy," Grover said as they walked to him. "So, thank you for the emotional abuse and the cheeseburgers..." Grover said.

"And the milkshake," Venus added.

"And the ride. We're gonna take you up on that, too," Grover said. They climbed the truck with a few grunts. "Hey, do you think we could get some paper towels or something, it's not that nice here."

"Hey, Ares? Thank you," Venus said, sarcasm in her tone as she smirked. For exposing your own ass.

He glared at her and then clicked his fingers the door slammed shut. They walked deeper into the truck, Venus covering her mouth and nose.

"Well... this smells," Percy said.

"If it gets us where we need to go, that's all that matters," Annabeth said.

"Assuming Ares was telling the truth," Percy said.

"He wasn't," Venus said, uncovering her mouth.

"Not entirely, at any rate," Grover said. "He was holding something back,"

"How do you know?" Annabeth asked.

"Because I think I got it out of him. We know who stole the master bolt," Grover said.

Annabeth and Venus sat on a box as Annabeth tried to use the Iris message while Percy woke up from his sleep. "Can you find out where we are?" Annabeth asked. Grover looked out again. 

"We're almost there," He said as Percy looked around before sitting next to Venus. 

"There. I've got a signal," Annabeth said as she tilted the crystal, and colors formed on the wall. "Toss it, seaweed brain," She said to Percy. He glanced at her before flipping the coin towards the wall and it disappeared.

"This will never stop being weird," Percy said.

"If you want the gods' attention, you have to pay for it," Annabeth said, "Oh, Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering," Annabeth prayed and quickly enough, it was accepted.

"Okay, show me camp half-blood. Chiron's office," Annabeth said, the colors shifted before they saw... Luke.

"Luke?" Both Venus and Percy asked, he turned around. 

"Venus? Annabeth, Percy? Are you okay?" He asked, his voice echoing.

"Yeah, we're fine. Where's Chiron?" Annabeth asked.

"Chiron's holding camps together with both hands. Everyone thinks we're going to war so the cabins are taking sides," Luke explained. "Please tell me you're calling with good news."

"We know who stole the bolt," Percy said.

Luke tilted his head, before calmly asking, "How do you know?"

"We were stuck with Ares, and Grover got him talking and we got it out of him that he knew who the thief was but was covering for them. And who would he cover up for other than-" Venus spoke.

"His favorite daughter," Luke said. "Clarisse is the lightening thief,"

"Chiron's gotta arrest her, find out what she knows," Percy said. "There's more to this than just the bolt, something bigger,"

Annabeth looked at him, "Don't ask me how I know, you just gotta trust me," Percy said, looking at her before looking at Luke.

"Okay, I'm on it," Luke said. "So, Ares, huh? How was that like?"

"Well, compared to the chimera on Monday and Medusa on Sunday, could have been a lot worse," Percy said.

"Medusa was Saturday," Annabeth said. Venus stared at the blank wall before sighing and covering her eyes.

"I thought Sunday," Percy said.

"No monsters on Sunday. Monday you died in the river," Annabeth said.

"Yeah, Hades gives his workers a day off. So sweet," Venus joked.

"Right, so, Medusa on Saturday," Percy said.

"Guys, what is this?" Luke asked.

"What?" The three asked.

"When did you turn into an old married couple?" He asked Percy and Annabeth. Venus laughed, I thought the same.

"Overall, it was bad but not worse," Venus said, answering Luke's other question.

"Of course, it was bad for you, Venus," Luke smirked, teasing. Venus wanted to throw a rock at him for that.

"Not to change the subject, but I'm gonna. We could use your advice on something, we're headed to Las Vegas to find your dad-" Venus's eyes widened along with Annabeth's, and she moved the Iris message away in Annabeth's hands, Luke disappearing from the wall.

"What was that about?" Percy asked.

"You can't ask Luke about his dad," Annabeth said.

"Well, now I certainly can't," He said, looking at the empty wall.

"If you tell him we're going to see Hermes, he's gonna try to talk us out of it," Annabeth said. "We don't need that right now,"

"Yeah, Luke has a complicated relationship with his father," Venus said.

"They don't get along?" Percy asked.

"At all," Annabeth sighed.

"No one in our group gets along with our parents," Venus said.