It's Either War or Peace

“Let’s go! This fight is over!” I yelled so Katie could hear.

“Zoey Cornell!” she yelled threateningly. “If I ever see you again, mark my words…”

I started a curse in my head in Ancient Greek against all the vampires that existed. It was something like: To all vampires not from the underworld, be prepared because no abilities to run as fast as you can or push to kill will be allowed in battle. In fact, you will run and punch like a normal human while battling. The only exceptions are when you’re fighting own kind, werewolves, or you take the demigods’ side in battle.

I laughed at the end of the curse. The other demigods who understood were laughing too. Nico looked at me, sad.

“Nico, what is wrong?” I asked.

“My hellhound. He’s dead,” Nico said. He sniffled. “He was killed in battle protecting me. Rip killed him but I know it wasn’t on purpose. He was just doing self-defense. I know how to kill a vampire for sure now, too. But it’s brutal.” He looked at me, pupils shaking like they usually do when someone’s about to cry.

Grover stood up and touched the monster with two fingers. “May the wild god Pan be with you.” The monster turned into a tree and was quickly taken by Grover to Camp Half-Blood.

“What the heck, I want the carcass!” Lee yelled, giving us a my-dad-is-the-god-of-healing look.

I rolled my eyes and whistled for the pegasi. Guido, Blackjack, and Dante came. We hopped on their backs after Percy retrieved his sword and flew away. Nico decided to shadow travel.

The vampires saw all of this happening.

* * * *

We soon arrived at camp early in the morning. Very early in the morning. No one was up. Our trip took two hours. I didn’t get any sleep. No one did.

I got to my cabin. Chiron was there.

“Chiron, I know this looks bad but-” I started but I had to stop. Chiron suddenly turned into a man and a woman.

“Athena. Poseidon,” Percy said, coming up from nowhere. He kneeled.

“Get up son. Great job following your younger sister,” Poseidon said.

Percy nodded and stood up.

“I honor you both with this,” Athena said.

“A pet owl and a fountain?” I asked in awe. The fountain sprung to life outside while the owl was now perched on my arm.

“Yes, but you still have one choice to make. I cannot help you choose the wide choice because we have to go. The sun is coming up,” Athena said. She smiled and she and Poseidon both vanished, leaving us with a salty smell from the saltwater fountain.

“So what do you choose?” Percy asked.

“I guess I will kill Jackson. I’m going to need fire,” I said.

“I got it. But why?”

“I don’t know. Just this feeling I have. Remember how Jackson had a fire ready when your sword was in Alice’s stomach?” I asked. Percy nodded. “By the way, who stabbed that into her?”

“Jackson did,” Percy said.

“Thought so.” What, with the way the vampires were acting. And Katie doesn’t seem like the type of person to kill for no reason. “Anyway, maybe that fire was to burn Alice?” It was just a guess.

“I guess,” Percy said. “There’s only one way to find out. We’ll go back later tonight.”

I nodded and lied down on my bed after setting the owl on the backboard. Percy and I both fell asleep, Percy in his own bed. I had a dreamless sleep. When Percy and I woke up again, it was night time.

A knock came at the door. Groaning and getting annoyed by the constant hooing, I got up and opened it. The knocker was Lee.

“Hey! I knocked, and knocked, and knocked,” he said.

“Shh! Sneaking out again. Can’t get caught,” I whispered.

“Hermes.” Lee smiled and I quietly laughed.

Percy left the cabin and Lee and I only had to wait a few minutes for him to come back. A girl about my age was on his tail.

“Got her,” Percy said. “Campers are mad the fire went out but what they don’t know won’t hurt ‘em.”

The girl had a certain warmth to her. It felt nice.

“Hi young demigod. I am prepared to help you,” the girl said. “I am Hestia, goddess of hearth and home.” She sighed happily.

I gave her a warm smile.

* * * *

“Katie Vereeka! Show yourself or I will call you a coward!” I yelled. Percy laughed. I turned to him. “What?!”

“You are really cheesy,” he said. I playfully punched him.

We were all back in the tiny meadow we left the vampires in early this morning. When I said we I meant me, Nico, Grover, Lee, Percy, Annabeth, Mollee, and Hestia. Pretty much everyone who was here before.

“Katie Vereeka!” I screamed. “I agree! I’ll do it! You can trust me!”

Soon enough, Katie came out of the shadows. Her whole clan followed her: Rip, Renee, Jackson, Taylor, Demi, Joe, and Alice (I eavesdropped on a few things to figure out everyone’s names). I moved forward slowly. Hestia and I were outnumbered by a lot. Eight to two. How unfair. I looked at Hestia who was on my tail, ready. She was still in twelve-years-of-age form.

“Zoey Cornell,” Katie said. I nodded. “Don’t you remember what I said?”

“Sure I do. Charge at me. Feel my wrath. The question is, do you remember what I said before we all left?” I asked. The vampires inched closer to me.

“It was in Greek,” Katie said.

“I said that now during battles that are against us demigods, you run and punch like a normal human. Yay for curses!” I beamed. The Chicago Coven and Alice’s eyes widened. Ha ha. One point of for me. “Now, another thing. I now want Jackson dead.” I gave Jackson a quick glared that said you’re mine in an unattractive way. He looked confused. Jackson walked forward, pushing Katie out of the way. She gasped and glared at him.

“Now you want me dead too?!” Jackson exclaimed.

“Well, Katie and the rest of your family do mostly. But I’ve grown onto their decision,” I said.

I walked closer to Jackson slowly. I touched my bracelet and my sword came from a quick wave that splashed only the vampires because Percy and I muttered “dry” to ourselves. I stabbed into Jackson’s wet boot. He tried to show no pain. It didn’t work. I gave him a cold glare.

“You don’t know how to kill me,” Jackson said, pushing me away roughly.

“Wanna bet?” I asked.

I was ticked off my now. Of course I knew how to kill them. I lunged forward and he ran slowly. Thank goodness for the curse. I ran closer and he punched me, leaving me behind. I kept running. Finally, I jumped on his back with my eyes open. Suddenly, I felt dizzy and fell off.

“Demigod, it is now the end of your days,” Jackson said, grabbing my sword.

It was quiet. Percy was about to yell but Jackson lunged at me until the sword shocked hum and he fell to the ground. Hestia knew it was her queue to start a fire. She did in a matter of seconds.

“Hestia, I’m about to throw him in!” I yelled.

The vampires knew what I was about to do. Then stupid Jackson had to ruin everything and wake up. He pushed me back and kicked me in the ribs. I was hurt. Jackson started scratching me until he drew blood. I knew what to do. I put my sword away and touched my bracelet again, pulling a wave with me. It healed me perfectly.

I stood up again, ready. My medium brown with black tips hair was drenched along with my black shirt and green shorts. I ignored it all. I felt powerful at the moment. Very powerful. I ran full speed to Jackson and sliced off his leg. No blood was there. He looked at me, worried. I took a deep breath and stuck my sword through Jackson’s stomach. My ribcage began to ache. I fell over, holding it. I was hurt again. Ignoring it, I stood up. I couldn’t breathe but I could not give up. I would not let Olympus down. I couldn’t stay up but the fire was still burning. I ran forward and jumped on Jackson. He looked at me, regretting his actions from the past. I was going to ask for more info but I wanted this to be over. I stabbed him repetitively. I wouldn’t stop. He screamed in terror. I couldn’t believe myself.

Jackson’s pieces finally fell to the ground, the last of his screams still ringing in my ears. I couldn’t feel my legs, my ribs felt crushed, and I could barely breathe. Katie ran up to me and helped me throw Jackson’s pieces into the fire since he was starting to put himself back together. The fire cackled loudly and got stronger after each piece was put it. When we were done, everyone except Taylor clapped and cheered.

“You are a good person Zoey Cornell,” Katie said. She offered me a hug but I refused.

“This may be the end of our war, but our kind will never agree. We hate empousa so stay out of our way. Katie Vereeka, consider us in piece. For now,” I said. I wobbled away to everyone else. The pegasi were there. “To Camp Half-Blood Guido. You too Blackjack and Dante. Just keep me away from this place. Far, far away.”

With that, all of us left the scene. From the sky I saw Alice hugging Katie but Katie didn’t seem happy. Did she want to be my friend or something? Rip was in shock. Demi walked excitedly to Joe. Renee cried of happiness without the human tears.

I looked at Taylor. She stood away from everyone. She looked pissed. Then it rang to me. Jackson was her mate. She was coming for me. I didn’t need to know a lot about The Twilight Saga and vampires in general to know that.