5) Time To Go *Red*

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I watch Rowland carefully as we made our way around the mountain to find the rest of the group. Every time he looked at me hunger filled his red eyes making the hair on the back of my neck rise. Ugh, vampires, they’re almost as bad as Percy.

“Hey, flea bag,” I heard Percy yell and I looked up to see a familiar cocky grin on his face. Speak of the devil.

“Hey, fish face,” I retort brushing past him. “Don’t tell me you lost wolfy boy.”

But as I finish my sentence I’m knocked to the ground as Wolfy licks my cheek, now if he was a puppy this would be cute. But no, he was a couple hundred pounds and his breath smelled like decaying vamp food, making me gag a little.

“Alright, Alright, I’m happy to see you too now get off me fat ass,” I say, laughter overtaking me as i push him off and sit up.

I turned back to Rowland to see he was eyeing Nico now licking his lips “Don’t even think about it” I threaten and he smirks in response.

“Red, who is this?” Nico asks, confusion and slight hostility written on his face.

What am I suppose to say? This is Rowland, he’s gonna help us save Annabeth then I’m letting him bite me? No, I think I’ll skip that part.

“He’s our guide, he saw Puck pass by a few days ago,” I give half of the story, “so start guiding.” Rowland shrugs and follows my order, heading into the woods with us following.

“Red, I’m not sure if it’s because you don’t pay attention or if you really are just stupid, but haven’t you noticed our guide is a vampire?” Percy whisper yells at me.

I roll my eyes and give him  a look “ He’s the only guide we got, unless you can find someone else he’s helping us.”

“And this blood sucker is helping us out of the kindness of his heart? That doesn’t sound very likely.” He frowns “Why is he really helping us?” he questions.

“You ask a lot of questions Percy.”

“Yes, but questioning is what has kept me alive this far,” he says while pushing his nerdy glasses up. “Now, answer me,” he demands.

“You also worry to much,” I scold, starting to get annoyed. “As i was saying, he knows the land the best of us. Trust me, I have more reasons to kill him than you but you saw what happened to Juniper. Percy, how would you feel if that happened to Nico?” I ask, knowing this will sell the idea of letting Rowland tag along with us.

Percy’s face turns almost as pale as Rowland’s is naturally and he takes off his glasses. Wiping sweat from his brow, he consents and walks over to Nico and puts his arm around the black haired boy, pulling him to the back of the pack. Seeing him walk, he’s holding his unused arm awkwardly.

“Percy, did you hurt your arm while you were out,” I ask, irritated he of all people would do this. Looking up at me, anger flashes through his blue eyes. I can tell he had a stinging retort ready for me, but Nico pulls him tight and whispers in his ear.

“Yeah, when I went to get Nico your mutt and I ran into each other,” he grumbles. “Seeing as he’s thrice my size, I aggravated the injury you gave me at camp.” Unhappiness and pain reflected on his face as he tried bringing his arm to push a stray lock of hair off of Nico’s nose.

I just now notice we had stopped moving, and look for Rowland. Stretching up my frame to look around the trees I see him standing next to Nico and Percy.

"If Red will allow me, and with your consent, I can fix that for you," the vampire suggests. "It won't hurt, some say they even feel great pleasure from my help."

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