Gods and Monsters 3: The Rogue Demigod

Foreword

After the demigods had acknowledged Dhumavati and cured the gods of the deadly plague, they resumed their lives; hearts at ease, thinking that all their problems had been solved now that they were certain every god had been recognized.

But, little did they realize that evil never rests, and had even infiltrated among them, biding its time, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. They would soon lose their one of their own to the darkness, and whether they could reclaim him was anyone’s guess.

Prelude

Lio raced down the hall, footsteps thudding, echoing off the walls around him. The shadowy figure in front of him turned around the corner, out of sight. Lio stepped up the pace, and turned the bend himself. So close, he was so close. The hall stopped suddenly stopped in a dead end, ending in a wall. The figure stopped, searching desperately for a way out. But there was none. Lio grinned with satisfaction, now taking his sweet time, approaching the figure slowly.

           “Tamas.” he said, voice dripping with scathing dislike. Tamas slowly turned, a mischievous grin spreading across his face.

            “Why? Why did you do it?” Lio asked, glaring at him.

            “Why did I do what?” Tamas asked, his tone sweet and innocent.

            “You know what.” Lio snarled back.

            “Oh, you mean take down every god in history? Because it was fun.”

            “FUN? What do you mean, fun?” Lio snapped. Sensing that he was getting to him, Tamas stepped closer, grinning wider.

            “Oh come now, don’t play dumb. Surely you know? Haven’t you felt the urge?” he said, voice as smooth as silk.

            “Urge? What urge?”

            “The urge to be bad. Come on, admit it, it tempts you.”

            “Never! I would never turn evil!”

            “Oh really? So you choose to be good? Like that’ll last long.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “Being good is sooo boring. No fun at all. No pleasure.”

            “Yeah right.”

            “No, really. Think about it. If being good was so great and being evil so horrible, then why is there still evil, hmm? Surely you know why. You’ve felt it. Why else would you try to hard to be a bad boy?”

            “Felt what exactly?”

            “Evil. True evil. The tingle you get knowing you’re truly bad, the power, the laughter bubbling inside you, the greatness knowing that others cower before you, fear you. Feeling unstoppable, like you could do anything, be anyone, and nobody dare stop you. The thrill of it, the excitement, the adrenaline through your veins when you watch the pathetic few try to stop you, and you know they never will. Come on, don’t tell me that doesn’t appeal to you. Besides, what fun is goodness? Yeah sure, big hero saves the day, loved by all, blah blah blah. But after a while it’s not enough, the people need more, expect you to save their sorry lives. Always have to waste every spare moment of your time for them. And do they ever truly appreciate it? NO! They want more, you must do more, everything, more, more, MORE! Can you honestly tell me you want to live like that, be that person, the slave to everyone, or would you rather be the master, everyone bowing before you, giving you all you could possibly desire.” Tamas whispered, stealthily walking closer, seeing the web he was weaving around Lio. His mind was so easy to manipulate. As if he ever thought he could defeat him. Ha! He smiled at the torn look on Lio’s face, seeing the internal struggle. He had him. Now in for the kill.

            “Come, join us. Nobody will care. Your friends, those ‘goody two shoes’, you really want to waste your time with them? They don’t really like you, just using you. Like that freak, Nahele. Do you honestly think he likes you, especially with the way he treats you? He’s such a stupid wh-”

            “YOU SON OF A B****!” Lio roared, punching Tamas right in the face. His head snapped sideways and he fell to the floor, clutching his rapidly purpling jaw. Lio stood over him, breathing heavily with rage, both fists balled and ready to strike at the slightest provocation.

            “BE GLAD WE’RE AT SCHOOL OR I’D BEAT YOU TO A PULP! DON’T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT HER LIKE THAT! AND IF I EVER SEE YOUR UGLY MUG AROUND HERE AGAIN, I’LL MAKE YOUR LIFE HELL!” he thundered, then stormed off, fuming. Tamas laid on the floor and felt his jaw, moving it gently. It crackled loudly and Tamas grimaced, then grinned once more. He’d done it, he had finally gotten to him. Now it was only a matter of time.

Chapter 1

Lio stared absentmindedly at the teacher at the front of the class, not really hearing her words. His eyes wandered downward without his notice, then he realized he was staring at the back of Nahele’s head. Man, was he bored. He pulled out a loose sheet of paper and ripped off a corner, scribbling a quick message on it and crumpling it, then threw it at Nahele, bouncing it off her black hair. She whirled around and gave him a little glare, then picked up the paper, uncrumpling it and reading it.

Hi, it said. Nahele smirked and gave him a little wave. Lio tore off another piece of paper, writing on this one and throwing it as well. Nahele rolled her eyes and read it too.

           I’m bored, it read. Nahele rolled her eyes again and scrawled on the paper, throwing it back.

What the heck am I supposed to do about it? Lio grinned and threw another note.

Make it rain. Nahele threw a note back, and a rapid paper conversation ensued.

No, I can’t do that.

            Why not?

            I just can’t, moron. It’s not in my power.

            What can you do?

            Make a tornado.

            Then do that.

            Are you crazy? No!

            Why not?

            BECAUSE NO!

            Lio threw back another protest, which Nahele glared at, then slowly, deliberately, making sure that Lio was watching her, she picked up the piece of paper and ate it, chewing it up and swallowing it. Lio snorted with suppressed laughter, his shoulders shaking with mirth. Leave it to Nahele to do something like that. Obviously their conversation was over. Or was it? Lio ripped off another piece of paper and threw it at her. She snatched it out of the air without looking and popped this one in her mouth as well. Then all their other notes followed, as if she was disposing of the evidence. Then the bell rang, signaling the end of class and start of lunch. As they went out the door, Nahele sidled up to Lio.

“Dude, you have got to stop passing me notes in class, there’s only so much paper I can eat.” she complained.

“Well then, why do you keep eating them?” Lio teased.

“Because passing notes in class is against the rules and I have to get rid of the evidence somehow.” she replied.

“Why not just throw them away?”

“Because the trash can is not as secure as my stomach. Trash can be searched, my stomach not so much, at least not without a good fight.”

“Why so paranoid?”

“Because every bit counts, and you don’t know who is watching.” Nahele stated seriously, her tone indicating that the conversation was over. They went into the creepateria in silence, picking up their lunches and going to their seats of choice, Lio still following Nahele, determined to bug her still. He leaned over and gave her his most irritating grin.

“Now will you make a tornado?” he asked. Nahele glared at him.

“NO!”

“Why not?”

“Lio, we are not doing this again!”

Lio opened his mouth to make one more protest, but was cut short when Nahele picked up his roll and stuffed it in his mouth. Lio gagged slightly, then quickly chewed it and swallowed, ready to continue where he had left off, but abruptly shut his mouth with a snap and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender once he saw that she was holding an apple with a threatening look on her face.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” she said, then continued to eat her lunch. Lio chuckled silently, then finished off whatever food she hadn’t already shoved in his face.

Soon the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch and the start of their next class, which for the two was Physical Deaducation. They left the creepateria and went to the locker rooms to change into their gym clothes, then headed into the grimnasium with the rest of their class to wait for the teacher, Coach Igor. He soon came in, with his signature disfigured scowl on his face and limp in his stride, his peg leg clunking on the floor with every other step. He strode up and down the line of students, scowling as he looked at each and every one of their faces, and the students stared back, wary of what torture he had planned for today’s class. Finally he stopped in the middle of the line and yelled for all to hear.

“All right class! Today you get off a little easy. We have a relaxing exercise in store for today, because I don’t think any of you pixies can take anything harder,” he barked. Carly, an actual pixie, fluttered her wings and scowled with indignation at her kind being used as an insult, her steely gaze burning into the coach’s back. Coach Igor plowed on, heedless of what the class thought.

“Today, we play DODGESKULL! Now get out there and get to it!” he roared and the whole groaned. Yeah, dodgeskull, real easy, sure. They grabbed balls and lined up, waiting for the coach’s whistle. It came, high and piercing, and pandemonium began. Balls began to fly left and right, whistling from the amount of force that they were thrown. Several students were quickly taken out, with two to the stomach, three in the leg, and one with a resounding “smack!” to the face. Most, however, like Lio and Nahele were quite agile, gracefully avoiding the soaring projectiles. Lio looked over to his friend and noticed that quite a lot of balls were headed her way, and he turned to see the source. The torrent of rubber inflatables were coming from a group of three guys, a demon, a werewolf, and an orc, all of which were singling her out with deadly determination. But Nahele’s reflexes were too good, and she easily dodged them, looking almost bored. Then, after a near miss from the demon breezed past her face, she seemed to have enough, scooping ball after ball from the air and returning them. The orc was the first to fall, his feet knocked clean out from under him, then the werewolf went down, winded by a solid wallop to the stomach, and finally the demon, who caught one right in the face. The three snarled and advanced on the Hawaiian demigod, murder in their eyes, but a blast from Coach Igor’s whistle stopped them.

“Now, now, no time for sore losers! Go to the bench and sit it out!” he chided, and the three sulkily followed, casting death glares at the smug Nahele.

After a few more minutes of chaos, Coach Igor’s whistle blasted again, this time signaling the last few minutes of class.

“Alright everyone! Cleanup time! And I better see everything put away, or the entire class stays behind and scrubs the floor! I’m sure Ogrethor would appreciate it!” he bellowed. The class groaned and dragged their feet, but everything was put away, even the occasional ball that had popped with either an enthusiastic throw or from landing on a sharp horn, spike or barb protruding for a student’s body. Once everything was put away, they all filed out to the locker rooms, Lio and Nahele the last to leave. Then Nahele left, Lio trailing behind her, lost in thought. He found himself staring at the floor, gazing at three dark streaks, then he realized what they were. Stretching out across the ground behind her, three ominously dark shadows followed Nahele.

Chapter 2

Three dark figures detached themselves from a shadowy corner, silently running after Nahele. She suddenly sensed that she was being followed and whirled around, eyes wide with shock. But it was too late. Two pairs of hands grabbed her arms and slammed her into the wall, pinned in place by the orc and werewolf that had been harassing her before. The demon sauntered up slowly, savoring the moment, relishing her helplessness.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the freak. Hello freak.” he snarled and slapped her across the face.

Lio, in the meantime, was trying to dash over to her rescue, but the world seemed to slow down, as if he were running through molasses, then concrete, the closer he got, the slower he moved. Finally he came to a complete stop, frozen, completely paralyzed, too far to do anything. He was forced to watch, helpless, as the trio hurt his friend.

The demon snarled in Nahele’s face, leaning in so close she could smell his lunch on his breath, as well as the faint smell of hell-smoke that all demons bore.

“You made a fool of me today. I don’t like being made a fool of.” he hissed. Nahele glared defiantly back.

“Well, it wasn’t very hard considering how much of a fool you are to begin with.” Nahele remarked snidely. The teen demon flushed a deep angry red and roared with anger, then drove his fist as hard as he could into Nahele’s stomach. Lio screamed in silent anger, unable to make a single sound, straining futilely against the force that held him. Nahele doubled over, or at least as far as she could with the other two still holding her. The demon grabbed the front of her shirt and pulled her back upright, bringing his face close to her until their noses almost touched.

“Now, you better apologize to me for that, if you like you face the way it is.” he growled. Nahele remained silent, instead choosing to kick him in the shin. The demon roared again, shoving Nahele in the chest and pressing her into the wall, crushing the breath from her lungs. Then all the three jolted and leaped back, letting go of Nahele to shake their hands and rub their arms, as if they had been given a sharp electric shock. The demon shot Nahele a disgusted glare and motioned to the others.

“Come on, let’s go. No sense wasting our time with scum like that.” he grunted and turned to go, the others following closely behind like henchmen, shooting Nahele looks of puzzlement and a bit of fear. When they were gone, Nahele sank slowly to the ground, sliding against the wall, holding her stomach and wincing. Lio stumbled forward, suddenly released from the baffling force that had held him at bay, and he rushed over to her side.

“Dude are you okay?” he asked, deeply concerned. Nahele didn’t answer, keeping her eyes shut and letting him pull her to her feet.

“Are you okay?” Lio repeated. Nahele slowly opened her eyes and gave him a painful smile.

“Yeah, great. I’m perfectly okay, got abs of steel. Wouldn’t be surprised if he had hurt his hand.” Nahele chuckled, lifting her shirt slightly to reveal a set of perfectly toned abs. They walked slowly to the locker room together, where Nahele limped inside to change, Lio waiting anxiously outside. When she came back out, they walked slowly together down the hall.

“What was their problem? And who even were they? And what happened to me?” Lio asked, disgusted.

“Well, they don’t like me because I am transgender. Not to mention they don’t like the fact I like guys. I do know them, the demon-incubus to be exact- was Navi, the werewolf is Ripper, and the orc was Raugr. Very unpleasant guys, Navi especially, so you can see why he’s the ringleader. He’s actually the reason why you were frozen, he had you under sleep paralysis. It’s one of the ancient powers of the incubi and succubi.” Nahele explained.

“What? But how could he put me under sleep paralysis if I was awake?” Lio exclaimed, shocked.

“I dunno how, but his twin can do it.”

“Wait, he has a twin?”

“Yeah, a good twin, Ivan. Navi is the evil twin. Well, technically they aren’t actually twins, they are opposite versions of each other, Navi is from the whole other negative universe thing. Never mind that now, not important.”

“Hey, I know Ivan! He’s a really sweet guy, he’d never do anything like that!”

“Yeah, he wouldn’t. But his negative universe self would.”

“What do you mean by ‘negative universe self’?”

“Well, you see, there’s a parallel universe to the one we live in, where it is pretty much the same as ours, but like, the opposite, you know what I mean?”

“No I don’t.”

“Well, never mind then. I don’t really know how to explain it.” Nahele sighed, and the two walked out onto the lawn in front of the school, where they separated to go home, Nahele meeting up with her cousin Lani, then turning to wave goodbye to Lio. He waved back, then she was gone. Lio sighed, then turned and walked to his car, where his mother was waiting to drive him home.

Chapter 3

The next day Lio wandered around school, looking for his friends while he waited for class to start. Up ahead, he noticed a disturbance in the crowd. Students were pushing each other out of the way, looking down and hastily scooting to the side. Lio watched them curiously, moving in a little closer, but keeping a wary distance. Then the crowd parted before him, and out walked Lani and Nahele. Or at least Nahele walked. She was pushing a wheelchair before her, in which sat Lani, both legs bound in plaster casts. Lio gasped and rushed over.

“Yo, what happened to you?” he asked, worried. Lani gave him a wry smile, and motioned for him to follow. Nahele led them down an empty corridor, and once Lani looked around, making sure that they were truly alone, she beckoned for him to come closer. Lio leaned in eagerly.

“Can I let you in on a secret?” she said softly.

“Yeah, of course, we’re homies, remember?” he replied.

“Good. I thought I could, just wanted to be certain. You wanna know how I broke both legs?”

“Well, yeah, why else would I have asked?”

“Good point. I broke them in a car accident last night.”

“What! How?”

“Street racing. I was one of the drivers last night, then some jerk bumped me, and I ended up wrapping my Porsche around a lamppost.”

“Aw, dude, that blows!” Lio groaned in sympathy.

“Eh, it’s okay, I can heal, and my car is magical, so it magically fixed itself. Everything is all good. Well, almost. I have to race again tonight, stakes are crazy stupid high, and I can’t really do that with my legs broken. If it was just my left leg, it would be fine, but my right is busted as well. And you know driving is done with the right leg. Anyway, don’t know who will take my place. Nahele can’t, she’s already in the race, and I don’t trust anyone else.” Lani sighed and ran her fingers through her boyishly short black hair.

“I can do it.” Lio said softly. Lani whirled around and gave him a sharp look.

“What?”

“I can do it.” Lio repeated.

“You think you got what it takes?”

“Yeah, I’m sixteen and I know how to drive.”

“Age don’t really matter, street racing is illegal as is, regardless of age. What matters is can you drive at ridiculously high speeds?”

“I think so. Haven’t really tried. Mom won’t let me go more than five over the limit.” Lio admitted. Lani laughed at this.

“Trust me honey, you’re going to have to drive well over the speed limit!”

“Yeah, I figured as much, but how will I drive? I don’t have a car.”

“Don’t worry about that. That’s the stakes, the cars. You win the race, you keep your ride, or at leas that’s how it usually is. Tonight mine is the only one up for grabs. That’s why the stakes are so high this time, I crashed and lost my car, have to win it back tonight.”

“No worries, I’ll win your car back for you.” he assured her. She gave him a dubious look, her eyes piercing into his.

“You sure? You’re not exactly the most experienced.”

“That may be so, but I promise, no matter what, you’ll get your car back.”

“Whose car are you going to take?”

“He can use mine.” Nahele chipped in, looking at Lio coolly.

“Well, okay then. Now you two better head to class.”

“What about you? How are you going to get to class?”

“My legs are broken, not my arms! I can wheel myself there.”

“Okay, I’ll see you then.” Nahele agreed reluctantly, bending down to give her cousin a swift kiss on the cheek. Then the three parted ways, Lani going right and Lio and Nahele turning left, back the way they had come.

“Hey, thanks for offering to let me use your car.” Lio said, gently elbowing Nahele in an amiable way.

“Was no big deal. I owe you one, helping me out yesterday.”

“But I didn’t do anything, I couldn’t stop them!”

“Yeah, but you would have if you could. It’s the thought that counts.” she said, ruffling his hair fondly, then turned into her classroom, waving goodbye over her shoulder. Lio waved slowly back, a bit lost in a daze.

Chapter 4

The day passed in a blur, Lio in too much of a nervous excitement to pay much attention to his classes. Soon the bell for the end of the day rang and he sped out of class, searching the crowds for Lani and Nahele. He soon spotted them together and pushed his way through a mass of zombies to get there. He emerged, panting and slightly mussed on the other side, next to them.

            “Hey guys!” he greeted them.

            “Oh hey, good thing you showed up. We were talking about tonight, and we think that since you are probably going to be the least experienced racer there, Nahele will give you a few crash-course lessons about it. Ah…well maybe not ‘crash’ exactly, but you get the idea.” Lani said, Nahele nodding silently behind her.

            “Okay, but what will I tell my mom? I can’t say I am practicing for street-racing.” snorted Lio.

            “Seriously? You can’t come up with anything?” Nahele chided in.

            “What?” he replied indignantly.

            “You can just tell her you’re coming over to spend the night, hang out, sleepover, you know.” Nahele said, smirking. Lio groaned with embarrassment and texted his mom.

            Is it ok if I spend the night @ a friend’s house? he wrote. A few seconds later his phone pinged with a reply from Ammit, his mother.

            Ok sweetie. Bit of a short notice, but I guess it’s alright. Be safe and have fun! It read. Lio chuckled grimly. ‘Be safe’, like that was going to happen.

            “Okay, Mom says I can stay overnight. Let’s get this party started!” he announced, a huge smile across his face.

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *         

They were dropped off at a two story house with a long driveway, screened by tall, bushy trees. It was a wonderfully isolated place, but to Lio it didn’t seem to be the place that he imagined Lani and Nahele would ordinarily live. Seeing the look on his face, the girls explained.

            “We rent this place along with a bunch of other Hawaiian students. We don’t all get along super well, but it is a much better deal than trying to come and go between school and Hawaii everyday.” Nahele said.

            “Don’t you guys ever get homesick?” said Lio, who traveled through the Duat to get home everyday.

            “Sometimes, but it is very rare. We all keep our culture alive here, so it’s a lot like being back home.” Lani replied. They all got out of the car and went up to the house, Nahele helping Lani navigate in her wheelchair. Lio curiously eyed the pile of shoes outside the door, staring as he watched Nahele and Lani take their own shoes off and deposit them with the others.

            “Why do you guys take your shoes off? I mean, I don’t wear shoes myself, but why do you do that?” he asked.

            “Kind of a respect thing, sacred space, not to mention keeps the floors clean, so Haukea won’t give us crap about it.” Nahele said.

            “Ugh, I don’t like her. Most irritating cousin we have. Always so cold.” Lani groaned, rolling her eyes as she wheeled herself inside. As it turned out, Haukea herself was sitting on the couch in the living room, and having overheard her cousin, gave them an icy glare, then went back to reading her book, tiny snowflakes drifting off her body to fall and melt on the black leather of the couch. They passed her as they moved on to the kitchen, an icy breeze tingling their skin as it emanated from her.

            “Would you like a drink? Soda, juice, iced tea, weird mystery thing that Moana made from what looks like seaweed?” Nahele asked, opening the fridge and rummaging through the stuff inside.

            “Uh, iced tea. And who is Moana?” he said, a bit weirded out by the last option.

            “She’s another cousin, daughter of Auntie Namaka.” Nahele explained, handing Lio a tall glass of tea. A tall, beautiful Hawaiian girl glided in, tossing her long black hair over her shoulder, reaching past Nahele to grab the weird green drink that she had been talking about.

            “Talking about me?” she asked teasingly, then turned to Lio with a big, beautiful smile.

            “Hi, I’m Moana, but you can call me Kai. ‘Moana’ has become a bit of an annoyance since the normies made that movie about a princess named that. No doubt they based her off of me.” she said, then walked elegantly out of the kitchen, seaweed smoothie in hand. Nahele rolled her eyes.

            “I swear, the only decent cousin I have is Lani here.” she grumbled.

            “Aw, you’re so sweet!” Lani cooed, batting her eyelashes at her cousin. They laughed and then turned back to Lio.

            “You want to go outside and have me teach you now, or later?” Nahele asked.

            “Now is good.” Lio replied, feeling a cold breeze on his back, his spine crawling as if under the reproachful glare of Haukea. Nahele led him back outside, then into the garage, flicking on a light to fill the shadowy space. What he saw before him made Lio stop short, mouth hanging open, deeply impressed.

Chapter 5

There, crouching in the space like a panther ready to spring, the artificial light gleaming off its polished surface, was a sleek black car. It was a BMW i8 Spyder, and its body was sleek, aerodynamic, and its headlights seemed to glare fiercely at those before it. It looked like someone had cut a swath of the night sky, plucked out all the stars, and gave it attitude. It was undoubtedly the sexiest hunk of machinery Lio had ever laid eyes on. And to think Nahele was willing to trust an amateur driver like him with it. Yep, that was just confirming that girl was crazy. Said crazy girl put a finger under his chin and gently pushed his mouth closed, snapping him back into reality.

“Are you sure you can trust me with it? And where did you get it? How can you afford it?” he managed to gasp out.

“I doubt you could make so much as a scratch. This baby is bulletproof. Or at least my edition is. I had it specialized. I didn’t buy it, it was a gift from Aunt Uli, goddess of sorcery. All my cousins got one.”

“You all got an i8?” Lio gasped, wishing he had a generous aunt goddess like that.

“No, at least not a real i8…” Nahele hesitated.

“Wait, so this is a fake?” he exclaimed, shocked.

“Not exactly. You see, the cars we got were shape-changers, an invention by Uli. They could take on the form of any vehicle we desired, as long as it was made of metal. So, this is technically just as real an i8 as any other, but a bit souped-up, it just wasn’t made by BMW. With such abilities they are more valuable than any other car, and Lani’s is the exact same way, so even more reason to win it back. Now, you wanna get this party started or what?”

“Heck yeah!” Lio said eagerly. Nahele popped open the driver’s door, which swung up into the and gestured for Lio to hop in. She went around the other side and took a seat in the passenger’s side. Lio gazed around him, admiring the black leather interior. Everything was so sleek and futuristic.

“Okay, we won’t be trying the car out just yet, I want to make sure you know what is what first. Got it?” she said. Lio nodded.

“Now, this is the steering wheel. You use it when you want to make a turn. Pull it left to go left, and right to go right.” she said. Lio glared at her. But Nahele pressed on, seemingly oblivious to his disapproval.

“The pedal on the right is the gas, you press it when you want to go. The pedal on the left is the brake, you use it when you want to stop. This is the gear shift, p is park, r is reverse, n is neutral, and the others are the other gears. This is the ignition, you turn it to make the car start.” she said, in the kind of tone one uses on small children and slow people. Lio finally burst out, interrupting her degrading lesson.

“Nahele! I know what the steering wheel is for. I know what the pedals are for. I know what the gearshift is for. I know what the ignition is for. I know all the basics of a car, I’m not stupid.” he growled. Nahele threw her head back and laughed.

“I’m just kidding! I know you know how to operate a car, if you didn’t I wouldn’t let you anywhere near this thing! Okay, since you know the basic parts of the average car, let’s go over the parts only found in this car. See this switch?” she said, pointing to a small metal switch just below the gearshift.

“Yeah.”

“That goes to this,” she opened the storage compartment below the switch and between the front seats, revealing a metal gas canister inside.

“This is a can of nitrous oxide. It helps speed up the car even further than normal. Only use it as a last resort, as it is very risky to drive at such high speeds, you can lose control of the car and die.” she said, looking him directly in the eye as she did so, her tone and face absolutely serious, giving him a moment for the gravity of it to sink in. It did, and he gulped at the thought.

“Now, if this thing leaks, there is one surefire way to tell. If you inhale it, you won’t be able to stop laughing.”

“What? Why?” Lio asked, confused as to why he would find a gas leak humorous.

“Nitrous oxide…laughing gas…geez man, don’t you ever pay attention during Mad Science?”

“Of course not! That stuff’s boring!”

“I should have known. Anyway, it is also used as an anesthetic, so you won’t feel any pain, which trust me, can be a very bad thing. If you get those symptoms, pull over immediately, forfeit. You can suffocate and die if there is too much gas in the car, it will replace the oxygen in your blood. And don’t think you can get away with just rolling down the windows. At that speed the pressure difference will suck. And don’t think the ac will help much. Basically, this whole thing is dangerous, so be careful out there. Got it?” Lio nodded.

“Now, would you like to take this baby out for a test run? Nothing too speedy, just to get used to the feel.” Lio nodded again, this time more eagerly. Nahele fished out the keys from her pocket and handed them to him, but before he could turn the ignition, Nahele suddenly grabbed his wrist to stop him.

“I almost forgot. I have to introduce you first. Magical cars are tricky, they must know and recognize you to work properly. Lio this is Maka’u, Maka’u this is Lio. Okay, now you can get started.” she said, releasing his hand. He turned the ignition and the car immediately started with a rumbling purr, quiet, yet belying great power beneath the hood. He smoothly shifted into drive and the car pulled elegantly out of the garage and down the driveway. The wheel turned easily beneath his hand and the car responded gracefully. So much power was under his complete control. It felt great. But there was another matter on his mind, and he brought this up to Nahele.

“Why did you have to introduce me to the car? Magic or not, that does seem a bit weird. And why does it have a name?” he asked.

“All magical things have names. You have heard of named swords, so why not named cars. Magic cars are temperamental and very loyal to their owners. If a car doesn’t recognize you, it might try to maim or kill you by driving out of control. Or it might transform into something you didn’t want, like a small tricycle. Talk about embarrassing. Since you have never seen my car before today, I had to make sure it would know you and wouldn’t misbehave at the race.”

“Okay, but what about Lani’s car? Will it recognize me? And if it would transform into something silly, isn’t that a good thing, since they won’t get a good car?”

“Lani’s car knows you, that one is a bit more trusting, and it knows you’re Lani’s friend from the times you rode in her car with her. It would be a hindrance to a thief, but also do you really want to have to go through the trouble of finding a single disguised magic car out of all the vehicles on Earth? It could be anywhere and anything!”

“Good point.” he said, and then on they drove in silence, Lio thoroughly enjoying every second he spent behind the wheel. He was even more excited for tonight’s race than ever before.    

Chapter 6

Lio and Nahele pulled slowly down the street, searching for the telltale crowds of people and sports cars. They soon found it in an empty parking lot, a dozen or so stalls filled with parked cars. Lio eyed the competition. Those were some mean looking cars, and their drivers looked like they meant business. He pulled into a stall next to a dark purple Bugatti, and killed the engine, stepping out to follow Nahele to the only conspicuous car there, a rather beat up looking pickup. There the crowd gathered, all pushing in towards the pickup’s owner. He managed to squeeze his way through to the middle, and saw that the center of attention was a fellow classmate, a weredog girl by the name of Jackie. She held a clipboard and was holding it out to one driver at a time, where they signed their names and a description of their cars. As he waited to sign in himself, he looked around at his fellow drivers and opponents. To his surprise, he recognized most of them. There was Serpentine Viper, his face unreadable as he watched the other drivers; Helen Ios, who tossed a strand of fiery red hair over her shoulder and glared angrily at anyone daring to look at her; Miya Hanzaki, who was strapping on a pair of athletic gloves; Haukea Ahu, whom he was surprised and shocked to see and who avoided eye contact with him; and even Clawrina Wolf, who seemed much too young to be able to legally drive, let alone race. Finally it was his turn to sign in, which he did as quickly as he could, feeling awkward as everyone’s eyes burned into him. He scurried back into the crowd and searched for more familiar faces. Then, to his shock, horror, and complete disgust, he saw two more he knew and wished he didn’t. There stood Ripper and Raugr, the werewolf and orc surly glaring into the crowd. He felt cold inside and it was all he could do to not fly at their faces and rip them to shreds. And where was the third of the Despicable Three? He searched the crowd, intent on finding the incubus’s face, but there was no match. It would seem the scum wasn’t here. Pity. He would have used another punching bag. Ah well, he would have to settle for kicking the butts of those two and get even with the third later. Now was the time to win it. Jackie raised her hands in the air to call for attention. The group went silent and gave her their fullest attention, even the most defiant of the group was still.

“All right, now that we got all the racers, we must go over the prize you are all racing for! If you will kindly look to the left on that there platform, we have Lani’s lovely cherry red Mustang, up for grabs! The rules are simple, come in first, get the car. Got it?” Jackie yelled. A cheer of affirmation rose from the crowd.

“Good! Race begins in five minutes! Drivers, to your cars! Any last minute touch-ups, do them now! When you are done, line up at the starting line!” she continued, then dropped her hands, dismissing the group. The drivers each went to their cars, Lio’s heart pounding as he checked the tires and the gas gauge. Everything appeared to be in working order. He sat down in the drivers seat and nervously patted the dashboard.

“Alright Maka’u? We got this.” he said, partly to the car and partly to himself. He turned the key, the engine faithfully roaring to life, seeming to give it a bit extra to reassure its driver. Lio watched the cars around him, clueless as to where the starting line was, and when the purple Bugatti next to him started up and drove off, he followed it and pulled up next to it once more, a line forming on either side of him. The race was about to start.

Chapter 7

A pretty werewolf ghoul in a tight, short, pink dress with long pink hair to match walked up, delicately balanced on ridiculously tall heels, checkered flag in hand. She raised her hands to get the drivers’ attention.

“Drivers, start your engines!” she yelled. All along the line was the sound of cars starting. Lio followed suit, reassured by the roar of his own car starting as well.

“Get set!” The drivers shifted from park into neutral, pressing the gas a couple times to rev the engines, seeking to impress and intimidate the competition. Lio pumped the gas a couple times, delighted with the deep roar that he got in response.

“GO!” the ghoul screamed, waving the flag wildly. Lio and the other drivers shifted into drive and gunned the gas, blazing past the excited werewolf. Lio slowly pressed down on the gas, and the i8 responded beautifully. Within a couple of minutes he was in the front of the pack. He whooped and laughed, stoked at his easy success. Or so he thought. Another driver, this one in a fiery gold Maserati with flames painted on the sides pulled up next to him, easily keeping pace. Lio looked over, shocked, and met the haughty gaze of Helen Ios. She smirked and pressed the gas harder, pulling up ahead. Lio growled and followed suit, matching progress. Once he pulled up a bit past her, she pressed on and pulled in front of him. They continued this for a while, Lio speedometer ticking from eighty to ninety to one hundred miles per hour. A sharp turn suddenly loomed up ahead, and Lio swore, turning his wheel just in time to avoid the oncoming telephone pole. He could feel his wheels skidding beneath him and his heart pounded, certain he would lose control and flip over to his certain demise. But the car was a tough machine, and its tires firmly gripped the asphalt, and he executed the turn wonderfully. Then out of nowhere, Helen’s Maserati smashed into his left side and he swore again, swerving back to compensate. Badly shaken, he took a few deep breaths to settle his nerves. Maybe she had been thrown off course by the turn too. He shook it off and continued driving. Then she was back, matching his speed perfectly. He looked over and saw her snarl at him, then jerked her wheel violently to the right. She smashed back into his car and he swerved to avoid her. What was her problem? This was a race, not a demolition derby! He pushed the gas as far as it would go, his gauge reading 140 mph. Helen zoomed up to meet him and collided with him again. Really irritated now, he jerked his wheel to the left and smashed her back. She gaped at him in anger and yanked her wheel to keep on the road.

She was soon back, trying to push him off the road. But he wasn’t having any more of her crap. He pushed right back, and for a couple hundred feet their cars were pressed together, screeching and shoving as they both tried to push each other off the road. The finish line was coming up, marked by bright flags, and finally, disgusted with her failure, Helen pulled away, keeping pace with him, then her car jerked and accelerated, blazing past Lio, blue flames spewing from the exhaust. So, she had a canister of nitrous oxide too, huh? Well, two could certainly play at that game. Lio flicked the silver switch, and his car jerked in response, and the car sped up, engine screaming as he blew past her, blazing across the finish line at 160 mph. The crowd around him erupted into cheer, leaping up and down and screaming. He downshifted the gear and eased off the gas completely, then applied the brakes, slowing the car to a stop, pulling off the road onto another parking lot and turned off the car, relieved, heart pumping hard with adrenaline. Helen soon arrived, pulling off the road and into another stall, giving him the ultimate death glare. Bit by bit, other drivers arrived and parked, until the last one, a hot pink Jaguar, pulled up. Then the drivers moved as one towards the platform on which stood Jackie, megaphone in hand and huge smile across her face.

“MONSTERS, GIVE IT UP FOR TONIGHT’S DRIVERS!” she yelled into the megaphone. The crowd roared in response. Jackie leaped down from the platform, grabbed Lio’s hand and pulled him up onto the platform behind her, then threw their arms up into the air, her strong grip crushing his numb hand, but he was too exhilarated to care.

“HERE IS OUR FIRST PLACE WINNER! GIVE IT UP FOR LIO DUAT!” she announced. The crowd roared again and chanted his name. He smiled wildly, caught up in all the excitement. He had won, he had really done it!

“Here are the keys, now go have fun!” Jackie said, handing him a keychain and pounding him on the back. He leaped down from the platform, and the crowd rushed up to meet him, shaking his hand wildly, pounding him on the back and slapping his arm companionably. Then the crowd parted, revealing Nahele charging towards him, a huge smile across her face.

“YOU DID IT!” she screamed and threw her arm around him. She lifted him off his feet in a surprising feat of strength, the pair laughing wildly. Then, caught up in all the emotion, Nahele kissed him. Lio’s ear seemed to ring, and after a moment, they realized what they were doing and Nahele quickly let go and backed off, blushing deeply and ducking her head.

“Yeah… I did it.” Lio said awkwardly.

“Yeah, you won, it’s great.” Nahele awkwardly mumbled back.

"Yeah, great.” They remained like this for a bit, the awkwardness of it almost palpable. Then Nahele looked up past Lio and frowned.

“Hey, isn’t that Tamas?” she said, pointing. Lio turned to look, and sure enough, the tall figure of Tamas pushed his way through the crowd. Another figure, this one of a ghoul, trotted up to him, and as a beam of streetlight hit her, Lio was shocked to se it was his main rival, Helen. She pressed herself against him and placed one hand against his chest, pouting up at him, saying something too low for the other two to hear. He smiled sympathetically and said something back, then kissed her hand, putting his arm around her, and they turned and walked away, Helen leaning her head against his shoulder.

“Ugh. Those two. So mushy and kissy.” Nahele grunted.

“Yeah gross.” Lio agreed, and they walked towards Lani’s red Mustang.

“Oh! Here’s the keys.” Lio said quickly, tossing Nahele both sets. Nahele tossed one back.

“Silly, you can’t give me both keys!” Nahele chuckled.

“Why not?”

“Well, I can only drive one car at a time.”

“Well, can I drive your car and you drive Lani’s?”

“My car is mine, and you have to drive Lani’s car, race rules. It’ll look suspicious if they saw me driving it, they’ll think I stole it, or arranged it with Lani.”

“But we did.”

“Yeah, but they don’t need to know that.” Nahele smiled, and they parted ways, Lio heading nervously towards the red Mustang. Nahele said these things were named and edgy about who drove them. Maybe if he knew what its name was, it would trust him. He looked at the keychain in hand for any clues. A small nametag glittered from the key ring. Lauahi, it said. He approached the car nervously.

“Hi, uh, Lauahi. It’s me, Lio. Remember me, Lani’s friend, rode in front passenger seat until Nahele showed up?” he said, feeling super awkward. He got no response, so he inserted the key in the door and unlocked it slowly. Still no response. He climbed gingerly inside and closed the door. Nothing. Then he put the key in the ignition and started the car. It roared to life, and remained a cherry red Mustang. He breathed a sigh of relief and drove it carefully off the platform, searching for Nahele’s black i8 Spyder. He spotted it, stopped just before it went onto the highway, waiting for him. Once he got there, they pulled off onto the highway, Nahele in the lead. They started the journey back to Nahele’s house, Lio’s insides feeling warm and happy with his victory… and a little something else.

Chapter 8

The two cars pulled up into the demigods’ driveway, both drivers feeling elated with their victories. Outside the door, waiting for their arrival, were Lani in her wheelchair and Moana, who had come with her to make sure she didn’t run into trouble with her unfortunate new set of wheels. They watched as the gleaming vehicles pulled up and parked in front of the garage, a huge smile spreading across Lani’s face as she recognized her beloved Lauahi, her treasured cherry red Mustang. Lio and Nahele got out of their cars and Lio bounded up to the two, an enormous smile on his face as well.

“You did it!” Lani cheered.

“I sure did! I told you I would!” Lio exclaimed, still a little breathless at having won the first time he ever raced. Lani beamed up at him and wheeled in closer, running her hand along the polished side of her reclaimed car.

“Ah, it’s so good to have you back my dear.” she said softly. She turned and wheeled back to Lio.

“Normally I’d give you a thank-you hug, but I’m a bit too low to do that. Maybe Nahele could do it for me?” she said, giving Nahele a teasing glance. Lio suddenly turned awkward, gazing at a rock on the ground with incredible fascination.

“Uh, yeah, she already kinda thanked me for it. Very thoroughly.” he mumbled, and Nahele intently studied a tree, her face turning a bit pink, which she was glad wouldn’t be visible in the dark.

“Oh? Did she now?” Lani said in an interested voice, her smile turning to one of mischief as she waggled her eyebrows at her blushing cousin.

“Oh shut up and get inside, Wheelie, it’s getting cold out here.” Nahele grumbled and pushed past them, walking quickly into the house, head held high with indignation. Lani chuckled and followed.

“Come on, champ. You’ve had a hard day, you need to go to bed. Hopefully not in the same one as Nahele.” she teased. Lio hid his face in his hands and a rude noise emanated from the house, indicating that Nahele had overheard and disapproved.

"C’mon Lio, I’ll show you to the spare room.” Nahele said in a disgusted voice, leading him down the hall to a staircase.

“You kids behave now!” Lani called, determined to have one last jibe at their retreating backs. Nahele rolled her eyes.

“She hasn’t even heard what actually happened and she’s already giving me crap. We’ll be hearing about it for weeks. That’s your room, by the way.” she said, pointing to a door on the right. Lio opened it to see a simple bedroom, devoid of any personal touches. It was quite comfy looking, with a large bed, dresser, desk, and plush rug that his feet sank blissfully into.

“The bathroom is at the end of the hall. You’ll need a change of clothes…I guess you could borrow some of my old stuff…from back when I was…you know…” she said, trailing off before she could say ‘a guy’, turning her head away awkwardly. But Lio understood and nodded. She looked back up at him and smiled.

“Might be a bit of a odd fit though, I’m taller than you.” she said, and indeed she was, by at least a good five inches or so. She ducked inside her room and rummaged through a box on the closet floor. She returned a bit later with a shirt and jeans.

“You’ll have to make do with wearing your undies twice. I don’t have any you can borrow, and besides, that’s just weird.” she said, handing him the clothes. Lio chuckled nervously and went into the bathroom to shower.

He took a nice long shower, enjoying the warmth from the hot water, then climbed out and realized something. He had forgotten to get a towel. How embarrassing. He stood behind the door and pounded on it. A little bit later Nahele’s voice filtered through the wood.

“Yes?” she said, muffled. Lio sighed and blushed.

“I forgot to get a towel.” he said in a flat voice. On the other side of the door Nahele cracked up, and he could hear her laughter growing fainter as she walked down the hall. A minute later she returned and he opened the door a crack to grab it, making sure he was well hidden. He left the bathroom a few minutes later and knocked on Nahele’s closed door.

“I like the shirt, but don’t you think the pants are a bit short?” he said sarcastically. Nahele looked down at his hippo feet, which were completely covered by the overlong legs of her old jeans. She laughed and held onto the door for support.

“Yeah, I tripped on my way here.”

“Graceful.” she said, and started to close the door, calling out “Goodnight” before it was shut.                      “Goodnight.” Lio said back softly, then awkwardly shuffled back to his room, all the while trying not to trip over the pants again. He made it back without too much incident, and stripped down, going to bed in his underwear.

Chapter 9

Lio was abruptly awoken by the sound of someone pounding on his door. He jerked up into a seated position, not fully awake yet, but awake enough to recognize Nahele’s voice.

“Rise and whine, sunshine! Up and at ‘em! Gotta get going before the girls eat all the good food and leave us with the gross stuff!” she yelled. Lio groaned and rolled out of bed. Quite literally. He slowly picked himself up and put on his borrowed clothes, untangling his braids from their morning mess. Just as he was about to step outside his room, he tripped over the overlong pants again. Frustrated, he rolled them up to his knees, uncaring at how uncomfortable the rolls of denim were against his legs. He rushed down the stairs, his oddly shaped feet quickly pounding out a rapid beat on each step. He skidded into the kitchen and sat down in a rush, blowing a stray braid out of his face. Everyone else was gathered around the dining table, waiting for him. Lani, a couple places away from him to his right, raised an eyebrow at his demeanor.

“Let me guess, Nahele told you we would eat everything good before you got here?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he puffed.

“I can’t believe you fell for that. We would never do such a thing, we always wait for the last one, it’s respectful. She always does that to the newbies, she likes to see them panic.” Lani explained, rolling her eyes.

“What?” Lio exclaimed, whirling on Nahele, who so happened to be sitting just to his left, furious at being tricked. At the steamed look on his face, Nahele began to crack up, cackling wickedly as she buttered a roll.

“You dirty little-” he started, right before Nahele stuffed the roll into his mouth. She seemed quite fond of doing that. He glared at her and chewed up the roll, then silently dished himself more food, pretending to ignore her. But she just quietly laughed at this silent treatment and stole a strip of bacon from his plate. He frowned and stole a chunk of fruit from her plate in retaliation.

After they had gotten done eating and stealing each other’s food, the entire group cleared the table and headed out the door to go to school. They all piled into their cars, Lio riding shotgun with Nahele, Lio watching the landscape blur by as they drove.

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *         

After half an hour of driving, they arrived at their school, just in time to make it to class before the bell. Lio went to his homeroom and sat down in his normal spot. Then, to his surprise, an unfamiliar ghoul plopped her stuff down next to him. Hmm, she must be new, he thought, and paid it no more mind, too busy thinking about last night. At least, until the new ghoul interrupted his thoughts.

“Hi! You drive really well!” she said cheerily. That was it, no introduction or anything, just straight into something confusing.

“What?” he said, baffled.

“The races last night. I was there. Don’t you remember me?”

“Sorry, no.” Certainly he would have remembered her if she had been there, such purple hair was hard to miss, that shade wasn’t exactly subtle.

“Ah, my mistake. Not the best way to hit it off. How about I try again? Hi, I’m Kaasi.” she apologized, never dropping her cheerful tone even for a moment.

“Lio.” he replied simply, still feeling weird about her.

“Oh, it’s so good to finally meet the legendary champion. I heard some rumors flying around that that race had been your first time. Is that true?” she asked. Lio felt very uncomfortable that this unfamiliar vampire groupie was taking such an interest in him. He was sorely tempted to move, but there were no other seats open, and that would just be plain rude.

“I don’t know about legendary, but yeah, that was the first time I ever raced.” he said.

“Wow, really?” she gasped, much to his annoyance. Really, this fan-girl thing was getting on his nerves. She leaned in really close, until he could practically count her eyelashes, her cloying perfume wrapping around him. Ugh, that stuff smelled sickening, he hated perfume. He leaned back in response, wishing he could somehow escape. Maybe if he asked to use the bathroom.

“That’s very impressive, Lio.” she said softly, gazing at him with big adoring eyes. Urgh, she was really trying too hard. But one mustn’t be rude, so he stiffened his resolve and put up with it, and tried not to inhale too much of her perfume. Then she scooted even closer and put her hand over his. Now that was really too much. He quickly jerked his hand out from under hers and stuck it in his pocket, smiling awkwardly. It looked more like a pained grimace. Her hand had felt cold and clammy. Well, what do you expect from the undead.

“Um, excuse me…” he said, and raised his hand, praying to any gods who were in earshot, hoping desperately that the teacher would look his way. Sure enough, Ms. Volts, a Frankenstein type monster, looked directly at him, her gaze sharp over the top of her black glasses.

“Yes, Lio?” she asked, her voice commanding.

“May I use the bathroom?” he asked meekly.

“Certainly.” she replied with a permissive wave of her stitched hand. He eagerly leaped to his feet and rushed out as fast as he could without it looking like he was fleeing for his life. He hurried all the way to the boy’s bathroom and burst in. It was blissfully empty and he leaned against the wall, panting. That ghoul really freaked him out, and not in a very nice way. There was something about her that made his skin crawl unpleasantly, as if there was something off about her. He huddled in a corner of the bathroom and alternated between washing his hands and rubbing them, trying to erase the ghost memory of her creepy touch. He shuddered as he remembered her voice. It seemed to worm through his brain, sickly sweet, trying to hypnotize him. Yikes. He pulled out his phone and earbuds, blasting some of his favorite songs in an attempt to force out the slimy remnants of her voice in his head. He was in there for a long time, and he heard the bell signaling the end of class ringing dimly past the seal of his earbuds. He popped them out and cautiously headed back to his class to grab his stuff. He carefully peered into the room, keeping alert for the weird vampire ghoul. Thankfully, the room was devoid of all but the teacher, who eyed him, but said nothing. He gratefully gathered up his books and headed for his next class, hoping for a bit of peace there. If he had to keep running out of class like that, his grades would plummet, and Mother certainly wouldn’t be pleased.    

Chapter 10

Lio walked down the hall through thick crowds of students as he moved to his next class, Biteology, keeping an eye out for his friends and that vampire. He saw neither, which was a disappointment considering the former and a relief with the latter. He sat down at his spot, where he was surrounded on all sides, Bonny Yip to his right, Aletha Pendragon to his left, and Bruce behind him. The seat in front of him, he knew, would be occupied by Ike Doppler, who was a bit of an ass, but at least they had a mutual understanding, leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone. But to his surprise and dread, Ike’s spot was filled with that vampire girl, Kaasi. He groaned inwardly and tried to strike up a conversation with his other desk buddies. But Bonny was very shy and hardly said an audible word before blushing and freezing, petrified. Bruce behind him was cool if not a bit surly, but it hurt Lio’s neck trying to look back there so often. He gave up with those two and turned to Aletha. She turned out to be quite nice, if not a bit surprised at first with being talked to, then pleasantly warm as she grew comfortable with the idea, even if having giant wings made her dreadfully clumsy.

“Oops, oh dear, not again!” she said as her wing knocked her pencil off the desk for the fifth time. She stooped to retrieve it once more, and in the amount of time she was down there, Lio’s eyes wandered to the front, an action he regretted immediately as it happened. As if she had been waiting just for this moment, Kaasi made eye contact with him, and waved her fingers at him, a big, charming smile on her face, then winked. He gagged slightly, and quickly averted his eyes, then stooped to help Aletha, who seemed to have gotten her horns stuck under the desk. He helped her unstick her head from the table, and they spent the rest of the class in even friendlier terms. Every now and again Lio would look up, trying to see the notes on the board, but every time he did, Kaasi was there, trying to get his attention by acting flirtatiously. Eventually he gave up and started copying the notes from Aletha’s paper. Then the bell rang for his next class and he hurried away, sticking close to Aletha, hiding in the great furl of her massive wing in an attempt to avoid detection by a certain member of the undead. It seemed to work, or at least Kaasi found Aletha’s great height intimidating, for they went unbothered into their next class, Geogremetry. This time he was taking no chances and sat himself down in the thickest cluster of students he could find, surrounding himself on all sides with merfolk, werecats, and dryads. Feeling quite safe in his little bubble, he watched as Kaasi tried to push her way past a cranky ivy dryad, who shot her such a venomous look that she immediately back down and had to settle for the closest spot she could find to him, which was five seats away. He breathed a sigh of relief, then curiously sniffed the air, which was pleasantly perfumed with the natural fragrance of blossoms. He found that the lovely smell was coming from the cherry dryad to his left, and he gave her a small smile. It was nice to have a good smell to drive out that vampire’s bad smell from his memory. He went through this class in a peaceful bubble, feeling quite refreshed. Might have been all the fresh oxygen from the surrounding dryads photosynthesizing. Then the bell for lunch rang and he filed out with all the rest, then the dread and panic came snapping back at the creepateria, where he saw the vampire fighting her way through the crowds to get to him. His heart sank. Oh dear gods no, not again.

Chapter 11

Lio grabbed his tray of food and quickly searched the room for his friends, desperate to get to them before Kaasi got to him. Then he spotted them and hurried over, dropping his tray down next to Nahele and taking a seat beside her, scooting in as close as he could get, hissing in the surprised demigod’s ear, “Dude, you’ve got to help me. There’s this vampire groupie that has been stalking me all day, I can’t seem to get her off my back.” And sure enough, as if summoned by his words, there she was, standing with her lunch and characteristic overlarge smile.

“Yes, how may we help you?” Nahele asked, her tone blunt and cold. Kaasi started at the demigod’s unfriendly demeanor and tried to turn on the charm.

“Oh I just wanted to ask Lio something. Do you have a girlfriend?” she said, aiming the last bit at Lio. He choked on his food and swallowed quickly before he actually suffocated. Wow, she was getting personal. Nahele glared up at her, her eyes frosty.

“Yes he certainly does. Me. Now piss off.” she snapped, turning her back on the impertinent vamp, who blinked and turned away, walking back across the creepateria to sit at a different table. Lio let out a sigh of relief and turned to Nahele.

“What do you mean, ‘me’? Since when were you my girlfriend?” he asked. Nahele shrugged.

“Hey, man, I’m just trying to watch your back. I just said the first thing that popped into my head and hoped she found me scary enough to leave it alone. No big deal.” she said dismissively, but avoided eye contact with him. Lio grinned slowly.

“Yeah, sure.” he said sarcastically, but he let her be and they finished their lunch in silence. The bell for their next class soon rang, and they filed out, Lio heading to his next class, Music.

When he arrived, he went straight to his drums set, and taking his place behind it, brushing nonexistent dust from it fondly, picking up his drumsticks. They slipped perfectly into his hand, their presence reassuring in his hand, as if they belonged there. Ah, finally he would have some peace and quiet. Okay maybe not quiet, but definitely peace.

“Oh hey, you play the drums too?” a sweet voice said, shattering what little peace Lio had been able to regain. He looked up in horror, and sure enough, there was Kaasi, staring at him will her unsettling smile. His mind raced, trying to think of an escape. Well, he certainly couldn’t skip this class, he loved it too much, and he could try telling the teacher, but she wasn’t here yet, and what would he tell her? He absentmindedly started spinning his drumsticks in one hand, then it hit him. Quite literally. One of the sticks flew out of his hand and smacked him in the face. That’s it!

“Yeah, I do. Care for a demo?” he asked, drumsticks at the ready. Kaasi nodded eagerly and Lio started to bang out the loudest and fastest rhythm he could, making it impossible for him to hear much else. Kaasi tried to accolade his performance, but her voice was drowned out in the racket. He kept it up as long as he could, arms starting to feel leaden, then to his relief, he dimly heard the bell ring and their teacher, a skeleton woman named Ulna De Muertos, entered, electric guitar slung across her back. She looked at the furiously playing monster and smiled, then waved for his attention, signaling him to stop.

“Very good Lio, I love your passion.” she said, her voice heavily tinted by her Latino accent.

“Singers to the right please.” she said to Kaasi, pointing to the other side of the room. Lio hid a smile. Thank the gods for Ms. Ulna and her no-nonsense demeanor with new students. The others students trickled in, each dividing up into their instrumental groups. When everyone was in the room and in their places, Ulna raised her hands for attention.

“Okay, attendance. You all seem to be here, so next thing. We have a new student today, a singer, and as is our tradition in this class, we shall now hear her sing. Come on up, Kaasi.” she said. Lio looked over at the vampire ghoul, and felt satisfaction at the look of sheer horror on her face. But, she stood up gracefully and delicately made her way to the front of the class. Upon reaching the front of the class, she stood up straight, composed herself, tossed her hair over her shoulder and took in a deep breath. She opened her mouth and began to sing. And the world came to a stop.

Chapter 12

The words coming out of Kaasi’s mouth were in a language none there recognized, but the melody was breathtaking. She had the class under her enchantment, holding them merely with her voice. Lio struggled against its beauty, determined not to be seduced by its charm. But it was quite hard. He concentrated harder, and the song began to change, at least to his ears alone. Under the beauty of it was a certain nastiness, like barbed wire covered in fur. Shocked by his epiphany, he looked around the classroom to see if anyone else had noticed. But everyone was spellbound. At least, everyone but Charnelle. She looked rather uncomfortable and she looked over at Lio. Their eyes met and an understanding passed between them and she shuddered, showing that she too felt the dark undertones. There was not much either could do to disaffect the rest of the class, so they sat in uncomfortable silence until she was done. When the last note had slipped from Kaasi’s mouth and finished ringing around the classroom, the class remained silent for a moment, processing what they had just heard, then loudly showed their appreciation, bursting into applause and cheers. All except Lio and Charnelle, who still felt weird about the whole thing.

Ms. Ulna, however, appeared only mildly impressed.

“Eh, it was okay for an amateur. We’ll have you singing like a pro by the end of the year.” she said dismissively. “Now class, let’s work on that number we have been practicing this month. A one, two, one, two, three, four!” And with that, she waved her skeletal arms through the air, directing the students through their song. Lio, his part still to come, dug around in his pocket and fished out a pair of earplugs, then shoved them into his pointy ears. You had to be careful when the sirens got going, or who knows what you might end up doing. He had gotten them in just in time, as Aria had started up, her clear, high, beautiful voice threatening a few hearts and a few windows. Then her girlfriend, a feng huang named Meifeng, joined her, their voices interweaving into the most spectacular melody that slipped a bit past Lio’s earplugs and chased away the last dark strains of Kaasi’s voice. At least for now. Then Ulna’s hand waved his way, directing him to start playing, which he did with his usual gusto. Soon the entire class was going, the room vibrating with their music. It felt great, and Lio savored the feeling of the vibrations pulsing through his body, lighting up every nerve, his heart throbbing in time with the beat. He felt so alive, so in tune with everything. He soon got lost in the music and everything else ceased to exist. The class replayed their song several times, then the bell rang loudly, crashing Lio’s trance-like state. He rose and reluctantly put his drumsticks down, picked up his backpack and filed out of the class, heart filled with peace.

Charnelle appeared at his shoulder and walked alongside him as they went down the hall.

“Hey, Lio,” she said.

“Oh hey, wassup?”

“You heard it too right? In Kaasi’s voice. That mangled barbed wire thing.”

“Yeah, that was freaky. Grated on my nerves. What do you think that was?” he said. But Charnelle didn’t get a chance to reply. Her head suddenly began to throb painfully, and she sank to the side, leaning against the lockers as she clutched her head.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Lio asked, concerned at her sudden change in behavior. Charnelle didn’t respond, for she was far away. Her vision clouded over with another scene.

Two figures stood before her in a darkened room, like an abandoned office. She started as she realized she was no longer in the school hallway, and her breath caught in her throat as she recognized one of them, her heart pounding as she hoped desperately that she wouldn’t be caught. The figure to the right stepped into the beam of a weak overhead lamp, revealing sandy blonde hair and pale features that twisted into a look of sheer irritation.

            “Ike, really, that was the best you could do?” a dark voice said from the figure to her left. The monster to the right rolled his eyes.

            “Of course not. That vampire ghoul is the most irritating thing on earth, no wonder nobody likes her. And I hate being her, she makes my skin crawl with her flirtiness. And that voice, that annoying voice, yuck! I don’t think I can handle it much more.” Ike complained.

            “Well, Kaasi isn’t perfect, but did you at least manage to plant the root of evil in Lio’s mind?”

            “Yes, of course. I can do that much in her form.”

            “Good. You can take on whatever form you choose now, so long as you can continue to turn him. You may go now.” the dark figure replied. Ike gave a little bow of the head, then a violet aura shimmered around him then faded to reveal a vampire girl similar to Kaasi, but her hair hung around her jawline, and her clothes were less girly, with a leather jacket over a sparkly purple top, shredded jeans and high heel boots. She turned and walked away, disappearing into the shadows. The shadowy figure remained, standing in thoughtful silence, then his head shot up and he stiffened, as if sensing something was amiss. Then he turned suddenly and looked straight at Charnelle. He stepped towards her and threw back his hood, revealing dark chiseled features and brown eyes that glowed red.

            “You!” Tamas hissed. “Always interfering. Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to deal with you later!”

Charnelle stood up suddenly, stiff as a rod, her red eyes open wide with shock and realization. Then a hand appeared on her shoulder, causing her to jump and whirl around, surprised.

“Hey, calm down! What happened?” Lio asked. Charnelle relaxed and patted his hand before brushing it off her shoulder.

“Nothing, just a vision, that’s all.” she sighed.

“Really? Of what? You looked quite horrified while you were out of it.” he said.

“It’s not important. At least, not yet.” she said dismissively, then turned and walked away. Lio stared after her, confused. Something was not right, and she knew it, but what was her reason for hiding it?

Chapter 13

Lio woke up and rolled over, reluctant to get up. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut and clutched his head, his skull throbbing. He didn’t feel much like going to school today, but he knew his mom would not approve. He got up slowly, his head spinning, and gingerly got dressed, reflecting on his dreams from last night. It was so odd, even more than most dreams.

It had started out with him being weak, so very weak and helpless. He despised dreams like that. Then he was angry and lashed out, striking some shadowy figure. It felt good, and he felt stronger from it. More dark figures approached, and he punched these as well. It felt so good, so powerful, all who appeared before him crumbled or fell back, retreating from his growing might. He felt himself growing, taller and taller, and he soon towered over all. He looked out over a mighty kingdom, and he knew deep down that it was his, and only his. Nothing could stop him, he was invincible! Other figures surrounded him, only these did not retreat like the others, they crowded in close, cheering his name, hailing his superiority. A song, a voice so beautiful, rang through the air, weaving itself around him, speaking of his greatness.

Lio shivered and rubbed his head. That was weird. Not to mention, that singer sounded uncomfortably like Kaasi, but better. Yuck. He finished getting dressed by putting on his cap, then went out for breakfast with his mother. Ammit was waiting for him at the dining table, a spread of the local cuisine before her. He piled his plate with food and soon bolted it down, his conversation with his mother kept brief. He was late for school, and she was about to be late for work, dealing with those who were “late” in a different way. When he was done, he grabbed his backpack and raced outside. The outdoors was dark and hazy, as it always was, lit by a red glow from a colossal lava lake to the left. The air was filled not with the sound of birds singing, but of souls screaming, crying, hissing, whispering. Turquoise trees rattled in the wind. Strange shapes formed from the fog and bones crawled across the ground with a horrible clicking. Such was the nature of the Duat, his home. He concentrated, and the air around him shimmered and warped, twisting into a black swirling portal to the Overworld. He leaped through, the voices of those lost souls growing louder, then fading away, and he appeared a few dozen feet away from the front door of the school. He landed as gracefully as one could on hippo feet, wishing he could teleport that easily through the realm of the living, but it only really worked in the Duat. Pity really, the Duat became boring after a while. There were only so many lost souls a monster could handle. Almost made looking at the school ghosts unbearable.

He looked at his iCoffin and almost jumped out of his scaly and furry skin in shock. Two minutes till school started, and his homeroom was all the way on the other side. He madly dashed up the steps and raced down the hall, weaving and occasionally smashing around and into the school’s zombie population, frantic to get to class in time. He made it, but just barely. Just as he skidded through the door, the bell rang loudly. He slipped into his seat with a relieved sigh, then stiffened up as he remembered the events of yesterday. Oh no, was Kaasi here too? He searched the room with dread, but he couldn’t spot so much as one flash of her violently violet hair. He sank back with relief, then his eyes flicked to the door and he stiffened up again. There! That purple! Walking right through the door! But the vampire that was sporting this particular hair color didn’t look completely familiar. Her hair, while being the right shade, was the wrong length, cropped short along her jaw. Her eyes, while being the same color as Kaasi’s, were not even the slightest bit flirty, but flinty. Her fashion sense was totally different too. Kaasi dressed like a girly irritant, this vamp actually dressed cool, more like Lio’s style with ripped jeans and a leather jacket. She did share a fondness for glittery purple shirts, however, but it was toned down by the rest of her style. She looked much cooler and tougher. And she was headed his way. Yet again, the only available space in the classroom was next to him. She completely ignored the teacher’s severe gaze at her being late and plopped down next to him, pulling this and that notebook out of her bag without giving Lio so much as a glance. Lio was perfectly okay with being ignored, he still wasn’t fully comfortable with the idea of another vampire so much like Kaasi being near him. Said vampire was still searching her bag for something, shoving her arm almost to her shoulder as she rummaged, a look of annoyance on her face. Finally she pulled her arm out with a soft curse. Only now did she acknowledge Lio’s existence.

“Hey, uh, do you by any chance happen to have a pencil or pen or something I can borrow?” she asked, awkward with having to interact with someone.

“Yeah, sure.” he grunted and handed her a pen.

“Thanks. I’m Kei by the way, just thought you might want to know who you’re lending stuff to in case you have to hunt me down to get it back.” she said.

“I’m Lio. You might want to know who you’re borrowing stuff from.” he replied.

“Cool.” she smirked, and that was the last thing they said to each other for the rest of the class. The silence was rather awkward, but Lio was cool with that. Better awkward silence than awkward invasion of his personal space. The class went by without much event, then the bell rang, and they filed out for their next class. For the first time ever, he went to Hiss-tory with a spring in his step, remembering he had this class with Nahele. And also, it seemed, Kei, since she too had walked into the Hiss-tory room and taken a seat. He searched the faces of the other students, looking for one in particular. And sure enough there she was, Nahele, sitting up in her usual spot. And instead of taking his usual spot in the seat above her, he decided to hell with assigned seating and sat down next to her, heart fluttering.

“Hey.” he said, beaming.

“Well, somebody looks happy to see me! What happened, is this the real Lio? Or have you been replaced by an ALIEN?” she replied dramatically, eyes wide as she leaned away from him as far as she could, almost falling out of her chair, her joke about aliens earning her an offended glare from Astranova.

“Aw, come on, dude! Really?” he said back, exasperated.

“You know I’m kidding.” she said, sitting back up and giving him a friendly punch in the arm.

“Ow!” he whined jokingly.

“Weakling.” she shot back, then the bell rang signaling the start of class.

Chapter 14

Class passed by without either of the two noticing, as they were too busy bugging each other to really pay attention to class, only occasionally glancing at the front long enough for Nahele to take notes. And every time she did, Lio would snatch the pencil right out of her hand and she’d have to wrestle him to get it back. He soon stopped after the fifth time, when Nahele threatened to bite him, her teeth bared in a snarl. He edged away from her and tossed her pencil back, eyes wide in mock terror. Then they annoyed each other in a variety of little ways until the bell rang for the end of class. Up next was Dead Languages. Boring. But at least Nahele had this class too.

They took a seat, Lio yet again ignoring the seating chart and sticking close to her side. They pulled out their books, heavy dusty tomes that made them sneeze, and pretended to be paying attention, ignoring Mr. Rotter’s instruction on the various nuances of snarling and coughing. They were already confident in their linguistic skills without having to learn some bizarre apparently lycanthropic dialect. Lio was certain he would never need that sore throat of a mess when he would someday work in the Duat. So, instead they goofed off, Nahele doodling on her paper and Lio gazing off into space, reflecting on life, which wasn’t something he usually did, but life had been so odd recently.

Of course, there was him and Nahele. It was obvious that they liked each other, he certainly liked her, and from her reaction on race day, there was no doubt the feeling was mutual. They were just too awkward and shy to make it official. Maybe someday soon they’d find the courage.

Then there was yesterday. Who was that weird vampire ghoul, and what the heck was her deal? First totally invading his personal space (thank the gods Nahele made her back off), then her strange singing? How come he and Charnelle were the only ones to notice? What had they even noticed? A memory of Kaasi’s song sprang unbidden into his mind, echoing through his skull with its eerie resonance. Suddenly, his head began to throb as the song’s shadow grew louder, drowning out the noises of the classroom. He doubled over, grimacing, as he tightly clutched his skull, as if trying to keep his head together, literally. After a few moments, a cool hand touched his shoulder and the headache eased, the strains of song fading away. He raised his head and met Nahele’s concerned brown eyes.

“Dude, what happened?” she asked softly.

“I don’t know. I was just thinking, then BOOM! Headache.” he said, shuddering.

“What did I tell you about thinking? Now you’ve overexerted yourself!” Nahele joked, but it was plain that she was still anxious about him. He sighed, suddenly tired and leaned his head against her shoulder, not caring anymore what anyone may think. It was an oddly refreshing action, as if she was recharging his own energy. Well, whatever it was, he sure felt a lot better.

The bell announcing lunch rang, breaking through everyone’s thoughts and causing a mad scramble to leave. Lio and Nahele leaped up and hastily shoved their belongings in their backpacks, then joined the crush of students on their way out.

“Hey, hey Lio! Wait up!” a voice called, and Lio whirled around to see Kei shoving through the crowd towards him, a hand outstretched towards him holding his pen.

“Your pen. Sorry I took forever to give it back.” she apologized.

“Nah, it’s cool. Thanks.” he replied, reaching out to take it. Their fingers brushed every so slightly as he took his pen back, and he jolted as if electrocuted. His headache suddenly returned tenfold, his vision blacked out, his sense of balance was gone, and a horrible keening shriek lanced through his brain, like Kaasi’s song, minus all the pretty bits. He swayed and collapsed, tightly gripping his temples as he reeled. Nahele quickly caught him, holding him close as his head spun, unable to regain his feet.

“Dude, what’s with you? This is the second time you act funny today!” she asked, her voice gentle yet concerned. He slowly straightened up, holding tightly to Nahele, his vision not quite back yet, grainy like static on an old T.V. He shook his head to clear it, and looked at her, his face fearful.

“I’m not sure, but I think I can guess. Gotta wait though, I’ll tell you when we have a bit more privacy. It’s weird and I don’t want the whole school to know.” he said. Nahele nodded and they walked to the creepateria, arm in arm, just in case Lio collapsed again and only for that reason. No, really.

Chapter 15

Lio and Nahele sat down with their lunches at the most isolated table they could find, huddled up in a corner.

“So, what’s happening?” Nahele asked again.

“I am not fully certain yet, but do you remember that vampire ghoul yesterday? I think it has something to do with her, she makes me feel something I never did before.”

“Oh?” Nahele asked suspiciously, her eyebrow raised as she gave him a doubtful look.

“No, not that way. You know I like only you. No, she makes me scared, and I never get scared…okay maybe since that one time my mom got sick, but nothing like that since then. Anyway, yesterday, that vamp-Kaasi’s her name, by the way- was in all my classes, including Music. She got up and sang in front of the whole class, and everyone liked it…except me…oh, and Charnelle.” he explained.

“Well, that just shows you and Charnelle have good taste in music.” Nahele joked.

“Seriously though! It was so weird, it sounded great at first, then I kinda blocked her out, then it was so freaky! Her song turned dark! It was like I could hear evil in there! Me and Charnelle both heard it! And it won’t stop, it keeps popping back into my head! And every time it does, I get this gnarly headache. Speaking of which, after class I talked to Charnelle, and while we were talking, she collapsed too! She didn’t want to talk about it, but think maybe she was affected like me? And maybe we weren’t the only ones! Maybe there were a few others who got it as well!” he gushed, eyes widening. Nahele remained carefully neutral, not wanting to get excited and make things worse.

“Do you really think there were others? Did anyone else look like they heard it too?” she asked.

“Well, no,” he said, deflating with disappointment.

“Well, maybe they were just good actors and didn’t want it to seem like they knew anything was amiss.” she hastily added, not wanting Lio to think he was alone in his insanity. “Let’s go ask Charnelle what happened to her.”

They got up and searched the creepateria, and sure enough, there she was, sitting with their other friends and laughing at something someone had said. They wove their way between the tables until they were at her side, Lio tapping her shoulder to get her attention. She looked up, surprised, freezing mid-chew.

“Hey, uh, can we go outside, the three of us?” Lio asked, waving at her, Nahele and himself. She nodded, and looked to the others, who gave their own nods of assent. They knew and trusted Lio, certain it was something important and that he had his reasons for speaking only to her and not them. Those guys were such good friends.

Lio led the trio outside the creepateria into the hall, which was blissfully empty of students and Mr. Ogrethor, the cranky custodian.

“Okay, so I was wondering if you remember last music class?” Lio asked.

“Of course! It was only yesterday after all!” Charnelle laughed.

“Yeah, but do you remember Kaasi’s singing?”

“Yes, kind of hard to forget that creepy tune!”

“And remember how you collapsed after class when we were out in the hall?”

“Well, yes, but that was because I had a vision, not because of Missy Sparkle Pants’ lack of talent.”

“Yeah, but did you happen to get a headache?”

“Yeah, but so what?” Charnelle replied, her tone becoming evasive. Lio knew that he had struck a chord with her and pressed on.

“Do you normally get headaches when you get a vision?”

“Well…no…that was the first time.” she said slowly.

“Aha!”

“What do you mean ‘aha’? What aha?”

“I’ve been getting headaches myself, especially when I remember that class! Though for some reason I got another one when I bumped into Kei.”

“Who’s Kei?”

"A new vamp girl. Looks a bit like Kaasi, but way cooler and less weird. Or at least until she zapped me.”

“Weird. Well, I haven’t been getting any more headaches, but I believe you. Something was definitely off about that ghoul. I wouldn’t worry about it since Kaasi has left. Anyway, we should get back in there before somebody steals our food. Nice talking to you again.” Charnelle said dismissively, then turned and walked back into the creepateria, leaving Nahele and Lio to ponder over her words. But she hadn’t told them everything. While it was true that she had no more headaches, she wasn’t sure that Lio’s situation was quite over just yet. Kaasi may be gone, but it sounded like the other one was now here. So soon, she hadn’t expected to see her so soon. It was quite unusual and normally someone trying to disguise themselves would have done better, like wait a day or two before showing up again. It was too odd for a new student to last only one day, then disappear and be seemingly instantly replaced by another. Shoddy work, somebody could catch on. She knew what Tamas was like, he wasn’t the careless sort, so why the rush, surely there was a good reason behind this? Whatever it was, it seemed that Lio wasn’t quite off the hook yet.

Then her head throbbed, just like it had yesterday.

There stood Ike, in the same dark room in front of the same dark figure.

            “Phase two?” the dark voice asked.

            “Complete and successful. You should have seen him reel, like I hit him with a cattle prod.” Ike replied.

            “Ah, good. Anyone onto you yet?”

            “No, Kei is a much better persona than Kaasi. Less obvious and more normal.”

            “Very good. Keep up the good work and it won’t be long before the root takes an unshakable hold. Then we’ll have him, we’ll show them that I am unstoppable. Now go!” the dark voice hissed. Ike gave a short bow and turned around, a violet light glowing around him dimly, then faded away to reveal the same vampire ghoul as before, the second one with short hair. Then he/she was gone and the dark figure turned once more, his glaring red eyes locking with hers, making her unable to look away, and she gasped as sharp pain lanced through her skull.

            “Tsk, tsk, tsk, dear sister, hasn’t anyone told you it is not polite to eavesdrop on the business of others? I do hope you at least have the sense to keep your overlarge mouth shut. No matter, I will have removed you soon enough. Soon dear sister, soon.” Tamas said, then the room faded away to black, his glowing eyes the last to disappear. The world slowly came back into focus and Charnelle stood up straight, rubbing her forehead, then making her way back to her seat. No, Lio had not seen the last of his troubles, and it seemed, neither had she.    

Chapter 16

Lio and Nahele went back to their table and sat down, slowly eating as they silently contemplated what Charnelle had just told them. But before they could say anything about it aloud, the bell rang, and they got up, threw away their trays, and went to class. They had no more chances to discuss much of anything, as they now were back under the torturous tyranny that was Physical Deaducation. And today, they had casketball. A little safer than dodgeskull, but they were both certain that Navi and his two henchies would find someway to make it painful. After they had changed and regrouped with the class in the grimnasium, they split into two teams, and Lio and Nahele were both thankfully on the same team. Nahele was one of the first to get chosen, as despite some conflicts some may have with her gender identity, there was no doubting that she was easily one of the tallest there, at a sizable 6 foot 8 inches, and it seemed, still growing. No wonder how she had gotten her name, which meant “forest” in her native tongue.

They split up and the game began. Coach Igor blasted his whistle and the two teams were off, trying to steal the ball from each other. Little ‘Uku Li’i was there too, weaving between the player’s legs. Lio felt sorry for her, surely she was too short to play properly being a menehune and all, but to his surprise, she did quite well, ducking beneath players and attacking from below. Many a monster was paying attention to those at eye level and weren’t suspecting to have the ball stolen from down under, so it was easy pickings for the Hawaiian fairy, who would then pass the ball to Nahele, whose height made scoring a basket quite easy.

In a few minutes they were up by several points, the opposing team eating their dust. Unfortunately, said opposing team just so happened to have Navi, Ripper and Raugr, and they weren’t looking too happy about it. Yet more humiliation from the freak. Lio spotted Navi nearby and shivered at the look of sheer hatred that he was giving Nahele. He was surprised she hadn’t caught flame by now.

Then Coach Igor’s whistle blasted once more, signaling that the game was over, and Lio and Nahele’s team had won. Their team cheered and high fived one another, with special attention given to Nahele and ‘Uku Li’i, who were being slapped on the back and lifted in the air, much to Nahele’s amusement and ‘Uku Li’i’s dismay. When they finally hit the floor again, Lio went to Nahele’s side, beaming, but keeping a wary eye on the fuming demon. The class filed out and headed for the locker rooms, and this time Lio saw it coming. There the three were again, trailing after Nahele, hoping to catch her off guard and teach her a lesson again. He felt the paralysis once more as Navi tried to freeze him to keep him from interfering, but this time Lio wasn’t having it. He pushed against the force, quickly becoming angry at Navi’s audacity. Before it could solidify, Lio managed to break through the invisible wall, feeling the metaphysical fragments tumbling around him. Just as the three reached Nahele, he reached them, charging full force and slamming Navi into a wall, with much more force than necessary. Navi swore loudly and shoved the Egyptian demon off of him.

“What the hell’s your problem?” he bellowed, furious.

“Keep your filthy hands off her!” Lio yelled back, equally furious.

“What’s it to you? How are you going to stop me?” Navi retorted.

“Like this.” Lio said, pulling back his fist and driving it straight into Navi’s face, powered by Lio’s frustration at being to helpless the first time, and his outrage at someone daring to pick on his girl. He heard a sickening crunch and felt the cartilage of Navi’s nose give way beneath his knuckles. Hot sulfurous blood gushed down Navi’s face, horribly dark against his pale skin. He touched his face and swore even nastier when his fingers came away red. He swung at Lio’s head, anticipating a solid hit…but Lio wasn’t there. His fist breezed through air, and Lio reappeared on his right, then drove his fist into Navi’s stomach. The incubus doubled over, too winded to swear and Lio turned away from him, gesturing to Nahele to leave. Navi’s buddies stepped forward to block him, but quickly backed down when Lio threatened to lunge at them as well. He took Nahele’s hand and led her out of there, scowling in disgust as he eyed the three.

As he walked down the hall, Nahele’s cool hand in his, he replayed the fight over and over in his mind. It had actually felt good, finally not being helpless to just watch and not act. Navi was lucky Nahele was there, or else Lio would have given him a much harder time than just two hits. How dare they! How dare three guys gang up against one ghoul? That was so unbelievably cowardly! Pity he didn’t get a chance to punish the other two, but maybe they would take their leader as an example and leave them alone.

Nahele stopped suddenly, and Lio, lost in thought, kept going until he was pulled back by her grip on his hand. He looked up at her in surprise and saw that they had reached the main entrance…and that they were still in their gym clothes. He reluctantly met her eyes, expecting to see her giving him a look of fear or disgust, but to his amazement, her eyes were gentle and even a bit…was that admiration?

“Our rides are here,” she said, nodding her head to the group of cars in the school’s driveway. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” And then she leaned down and kissed him, just a fleeting brush against his lips, but still enough to shock him. he just stood there, frozen, staring at her, then she gave him a shy smile and let go of his hand, then bounded down the stairs as gracefully as a gazelle and trotted across the asphalt to her car. She looked back at him and gave him a small wave, which he returned dazedly. Then she got in her car, started it up, and was gone. He walked slowly down the stairs and to his mother, who was waiting for him next to a swirling portal of darkness. They leaped through the dark vortex together, stepping into the Duat and home.

Chapter 17

Lio, early for class today, stepped into his homeroom, and the teacher looked up at his arrival.

“Oh, Lio, Headmistress Bloodgood wanted to see you in her office.” Vivian Volts said shortly, her voice soft and sad. Lio’s heart sank and his stomach felt heavy. That could not be good. He turned and stumbled his way to her office, reluctant to get there, but also fearful of what would happen if he didn’t. Finally he reached her door and knocked softly. The door opened and out stepped Navi, with a bandage on his nose and a smug smile on his face.

“Oh you are so going to get it.” he smirked as he went past. Lio growled then stepped in. Bloodgood looked up and her face was sad and weary.

“Ah, yes, Lio, please have a seat,” she said, beckoning towards the chairs in front of her desk. Lio sat down, his feeling of dread increasing tenfold.

“Lio, I have been told of a most alarming incident within these halls. Someone has told me that you had been getting in fights with other students.”

“Let me guess, it was Navi?” he growled, his anger at that incubus overruling his anxiety.

“Well, yes. Lio, do you realize the consequences? This could mean suspension.” she continued.

“What! But he was fighting more than me! I was fighting in self-defense! He was just picking on people!” Lio exclaimed.

“Is that so? What happened?”

“Well, yes I did fight him yesterday, but that was the second time he tried to hurt her. I was trying to protect her! He beat her up the first time and I couldn’t stop him! He was somehow projecting a force field to stop me! The second time I was trying to stop him before he could hurt her!”

“If that is true, then why hadn’t you told anyone the first time?” she asked. Lio remained silent and glowered sullenly at her desk. She sighed and popped her head off, placing it on the desk.

“Well, if you will tell me who this ghoul was, then maybe I can tell what happened and pass a better judgment.” she sighed.

“Nahele.” Lio said quietly, reluctant to get her involved in this mess, hoping she would understand.

“You may go now.” Bloodgood said softly, and Lio got up slowly and left, still heavy with dread. He trudged back to class and sat down, sitting in a zombie-like trance throughout the whole class, Ms. Volts occasionally giving him a concerned glance, then her classroom phone rang, and she picked it up, nodded and put it back down. Then the bell rang, and she approached Lio.

“Bloodgood wants to see you back in her office.” she said. He just nodded numbly and made his slow way back to the headmistress’s office. He pushed her door open, and there sat Nahele, who gazed at him with worry. He sat down next to her, barely registering her presence.

“Now, Lio, Nahele confirmed what you told me. It seems as though Navi was the one who started this mess. But you do realize that even still, you acted violently and must face the consequences. Since you were trying to act in self-defense, I will lessen your punishment. You will not be suspended, but you will have detention today, and I must call your mother. I will talk with Navi about this later. He seems to be quite the repeat offender. You two may go now.” she said, dismissing them. They left her office and walked a bit down the hall, then Nahele stopped him, turning him around and forcing him to make eye contact with her.

“Oh, Lio, I’m so sorry! If only I hadn’t kept quiet, you wouldn’t be in this mess!” she said softly, then pulled him into a tight hug, holding him as close to herself as she could. He was still stiff with shock at first, then relaxed and leaned into her, taking comfort in her presence. He fought back tears and they held onto each other tightly.

“It’s not your fault,” he whispered. “I should have done something. I should have warned you. I should have stopped them.”

“As it is, it is no use wishing to undo what is past. It has been done, and we must move on, have faith in the future.” Nahele whispered back, kissing his cheek,  then releasing him and pulling back, then took his hand and walked down the hall by his side, taking him to his next class, Biteology.

He took a seat in the same spot he had last class, in the middle of Bruce, Bonny, and Aletha, but made no attempt to talk with any of them, too sick with worry. His mom would be upset. He hated seeing her upset. Aletha looked at him with concern a few times, but he paid no attention to this, doing his work with the halfhearted automatic air of a machine. His next class was spent the same way, not noticing that in each class was Kei, in place of Kaasi, and before her, Ike.

Lio spent lunch in a sad daze, picking at his food and leaning on Nahele in silence. Sure, he had always presented himself as a bad-boy, but now that he was actually experiencing what that was truly like, he wasn’t altogether sure that he liked it much anymore. He didn’t even give much enthusiasm during music class, going through the movements without really paying them much attention, completely missing the fact that Kei had taken Kaasi’s place here too, but favored rapping over opera. Ms. Ulna noticed his demeanor, and eyed him with concern as she conducted the class. Then the last bell rang. He trudged out of the classroom and headed back to Bloodgood’s office to await the rest of his sentence.

"Ah, Lio,” she said when he arrived. “Your detention is with Coach Igor in the grimnasium. You’ll go meet him there now. I contacted your mother. She wants to talk to you as soon as she can.” Lio nodded morosely and headed to the grimnasium. Ironic that his detention would be there, considering that was where his trouble started. He pushed open the door and saw to his surprise that he wasn’t alone.

Chapter 18

 There, with a broom in her hand, was Kei, standing next to Coach Igor, both seemingly having waited for his arrival. Coach Igor handed Lio another broom and instructed the two to sweep out the entire grimnasium, and that when they got done, they could mop as well, then he turned and left them to it. When he was gone, Lio turned to Kei, talking while they swept.

“What are you doing here?”

“Same as you, detention.”

“Yeah, I figured, but what did you do?”

“Eh, I don’t remember, doesn’t matter, it’s not my first time. Just got to remember, it’s not a jail sentence, and it isn’t suspension or expulsion either.”

“Yeah, I guess not. Still not too great though, don’t know what I’m going to tell my mom.”

“What did you do to get here?”

“I got in a fight.”

“Really? And you only got detention? Why?”

“The other guy was worse, I was just defending myself.”

“Who was the other guy?”

“Guys, plural, but they were Navi, Ripper and Raugr.”

“Ah yes, I know them. I hang out with them sometimes, don’t really know why, don’t really like them. They are horrible, love to gang up on people, and have a history of it. Alone they are pretty bad, but together they are worse, they follow Navi, and he’s the worst. I can understand why Bloodgood let you off easy, they probably got suspended.”

“Really? What are they like?”

“Well, let’s see. Navi is an alcoholic, despite the fact he’s underage. He lies about how old he is to get into bars, even has a fake ID, then he starts a bar fight and gets banned from coming there ever again. There has to be at least several dozen bars he’s banned from for life. Then there’s Ripper. He loves to gamble, even though he isn’t too good at it. Three years ago he once ran out of stuff to bet and put his cousin up as stakes. He lost, and it was to Raugr too, which brings me to Raugr. Horrible guy, abused the poor ghoul until a centaur finally came and rescued her. I only waste my time around them so I can get intel on the people to avoid.” Kei sighed. Lio just stared at her in silence, shocked at how anyone could be so disgusting. But, here it was, and to think, they all hated Nahele. He had to protect her, what would happen if she fell into their hands. He shuddered at the thought, then burned with anger. If they ever dared to so much as glance at her, he would beat the daylights out of them, regardless of what the cost maybe. There was absolutely nothing he wouldn’t do for her.

            Kei leaned over, grinning broadly, pausing in her sweeping.

            “By the way, that was a lovely job you did there on Navi’s face. I have never seen so spectacular a purple. He looked like he ran face-first into a brick wall! Pity you didn’t manage to do Ripper and Raugr as well.”

            Lio chuckled at the memory. Navi’s face had been quite bruised this morning, and the swelling had reached his eyes, making them puffy and pinkish. And that bandage had topped it all off nicely. He hoped it still hurt that accursed incubus.

They soon finished sweeping and began to mop, swabbing the floor in companionable silence. It looked as though Lio had made a new friend, or at least an ally, even forgetting that weird shock and headache he had gotten from her yesterday. When they finished, Coach Igor returned, releasing them to leave for home. Lio and Kei walked out, waved goodbye to each other, then went their separate ways, Lio’s heart sinking once more as he saw his mother waiting in the parking lot, dark portal to the Duat swirling beside her. He joined her and they stepped through, the howl of undead voices twisting around them.

Chapter 19

Lio and Ammit stepped out of the portal into the darkness of the Duat, walking towards their house, a simple stone structure carved with hieroglyphs. Ammit led then into the kitchen and sat Lio down at the dining table, sitting in the chair next to him.

“Honey, what happened?” Ammit asked softly, knowing she need not elaborate.

“It wasn’t my fault.” Lio replied stubbornly, leaning back and crossing his arms tightly.

“But what happened?”

“I was trying to defend her. They were ganging up on her, three against one. It wasn’t the first time either. They had beaten her up before, and I couldn’t stop them! I couldn’t stand by the second time, I had to save her!”

“Who was being beaten up?”

“Nahele.”

“Do you have feelings for her?”

“Yes.” Lio admitted reluctantly, embarrassed to be making such a confession to his mom.

“I see. Well, I do not blame you. In our family we have a strong sense of justice, comes from punishing the wicked. And this is amplified when you are in love with the one being hurt, so I understand. I am not angry with you, from what I heard from the principal, these guys were known for this behavior. But remember to be careful in the future. You of all monsters should know that those who do wrong get their punishment in the end. Who knows, someday you may have to eat their hearts, but that day is far off. You are better than they, remember this. Protect her if you must, but avoid fighting when you can. Understand?” Ammit said softly. Lio nodded.

“Good. Now come here.” she said, rising to her feet and holding out her scaly tan arms. Lio got up as well and let her pull him close, his mother plucking the cap off his head and planting a kiss on his forehead before plopping the hat back down where it was. She released him and he stalked off to his room, heart slowly lightening with relief. His mother wasn't angry, and he wasn't suspended either. Yeah, it had sucked at the time, but everyone still cared for him. He would be okay.

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *         

Lio spent the rest of the day in contemplative silence, eating great quantities of the curry Ammit had brought home from the nearby restaurant run by an Indian ghost, keeping completely quiet the whole time. Then he showered and went to bed in silence, the muted wailing of the dead soothing him to sleep.

His dreams were strange, a repeat from a couple nights ago.

            He was weak once more, not as badly as he was the first time. It seemed as though punching that demon’s face had given him a little extra dream-strength. He felt more in control, and he felt as though he could gain more strength if he did it again. There was that shadow again, no wait, two shadows, no three! It was that despicable trio, and he surged towards them with the unstoppable power of a tidal wave. He swung at them, passing through their shadowy forms, the shadows collapsing and dissolving. Song twisted around him, more beautiful than before, no longer twisted, but simply lovely. Was this what they heard? It was nice.

            Then another shadow emerged. He lunged towards this new adversary, determined to defeat this opponent as well, but the shadow easily dodged his swing. A deep silky voice filled his head.

            “Now, now, don’t do that. You won’t take any pleasure in striking me. But I can give you more power, even more than you would gain from defeating those weaklings. I can make you great, I can make you invincible. No one would dare hurt her again, you can keep her safe, forever. You love her, I know you do, wouldn’t you like to keep her safely by your side?” it whispered.

            “Yes, I do. I love her, I want her to be kept safe.” Lio said softly back, sounding almost hypnotized.

            “Good. If you wish this, then you must surrender. Surrender to me and surrender to the music. You hear that song, right? It haunts you, but it won’t leave until you surrender to it. You have been making a mistake, fighting it, but you mustn’t anymore. It will make you strong, it holds the key. Follow the song.” the voice whispered.

            Follow the song…follow the song…. follow the song….

The words echoed through his mind like a mantra, and he woke up. His head felt fuzzy and he rubbed his blurry, burning eyes. He groaned and slowly sat up, squinting out the window. It was still dark outside, but then again, the Duat was always dark, that was kind of part of the whole afterlife thing. But it didn’t seem as if Ra had passed by just yet, so he collapsed back down, rubbing his head and thinking about what he just dreamt. Wow, that was weird. He recognized that creepy voice, but who was it? He struggled with this for a moment, but the answer eluded him. Eh, maybe it wasn't important. He rolled over and slipped back to sleep, this time blissfully void of any dreams, weird or otherwise.

Chapter 20

A blinding light blasted through Lio’s window and he bolted upright, squinting out his window at the source. There, passing down the red river, was the sun boat of Ra, glowing brightly with light and warmth, beckoning the new day with its magnificence. Crap, he was going to be late. Time was a funky thing down here, you never know what time it really was Upstairs, but he liked to make sure he was up there the same time as the sun. Sure he lived in the Eighth Gate, four gates from the end of Ra’s journey through the Duat, but he liked to give himself the extra time to struggle his merry way through the dead to his usual portal.

He leaped out of bed, scrambling to put his clothes on despite the fact he was half asleep, realized that he was trying to put his jeans on in place of his jacket, and once he had put on his pants where they really belonged, rushed out the door, his hippo feet slipping and sliding on the polished granite floor. He managed to steer himself into the kitchen, collided with the table, and snatched several cinnamon rolls before his inertia sent him out through the door. He managed to regain his footing on the blackened dirt, scattering a group of misty spirits with his sudden arrival. He bit into one of the cinnamon rolls, chomping off half of it in one bite. He walked down his usual path to the portal, going at a much easier pace now that he was outside.

A sulfurous breeze swept across the river, bringing with it sparks thrown from the surface of the nearby fire lake. The sparks burst and faded as they collided with the turquoise leaves of a nearby tree. He had never truly noticed how lovely his home was, but it really did have a certain hellish charm to it. Then a moaning like the wind that just passed by, only louder, reminded of why he was here. The dark portal swirled before him and he stepped through, clinging tightly to his breakfast so it wouldn’t get ripped from his grasp by the magical forces that allowed his daily inter-dimensional commute.

He stepped out at the school stairs and raced inside, gulping down the last of his breakfast. He managed to skid into his homeroom and his seat just before the bell rang. He let out a sigh of relief and relaxed, sinking into his seat.

“Hi there.” a voice next to him said. He started and turned to see who it was. There sat Kei, with a slightly awkward smile of concern.

“Oh, hi.” he replied.

“How did things go with your mom?”

“Not bad actually. She wasn't very upset, just told me to take care in who I punch.”

“Pity. It would be nice if you could cream the other two as well. Speaking of which, I hear you kicked butt at the race.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Those two were quite sore about it. Care to do it again? It’s kinda funny watching them get all upset. There’s going to be another race tonight, if you want to come.”

“Yeah, I guess I would. Those are starting to grow on me. Oh wait, I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t have my own car.”

“You can borrow mine.”

“Thanks. I seem to be borrowing people’s cars for racing a lot recently.”

“So, see you tonight? I’ll come get you.” Kei offered. Lio thought about that and what Nahele would think about him being picked up by another girl.

“Nah, I can teleport. Just tell me where.”

“Downtown, a couple blocks south of the Maul. There’s an abandoned warehouse with a large parking lot. We’ll all meet up there.”

“Sounds good. I’ll be there.” Lio agreed, and Kei grinned.

“I’ll look forward to watching you kick their butts. It’ll be great. I’ll be sure to catch their tantrums on video to show you tomorrow.” Kei laughed. Lio laughed with her. Maybe vampires weren’t so bad after all. Then, as if triggered by that thought, the ghostly memory of Kaasi’s song rang through his head, winding its way between his thoughts until it was the only thing in his mind. He grimaced and poked his forehead. Okay, maybe not all vampires. Some still really sucked. Follow the song, echoed the dark voice from his dream, weaving into the singing. No thanks, there was absolutely no way he was going to follow that racket anywhere. As a matter of fact, he was now determined to avoid opera at all costs.

Chapter 21

Lio leaped out of the shadow vortex, arriving at an almost equally dark parking lot, lit by only a few unbroken streetlights, and the headlights of all the cars parked there. It was a sharp contrast to the last race. That had been very bright, lit by not only streetlights and headlights, but floodlights that had been strung up and powered by car batteries. A shadowy silhouette appeared out of a thick swathe darkness and came towards him. At first he stepped back, certain it was the strange being from his dream, but a weak beam from an overhead streetlight revealed it to be Kei, and he relaxed, but only just a little. Vampires still made him uneasy.

“Ah, you made it! Good!” Kei greeted him.

“Wouldn’t miss it!” he replied cheerily.

“Come on, I’ll take you to register with the coordinator.” she said, gesturing him to follow as she turned and walked back the way she came.

“Is it Jackie?”

“No, this race was organized by someone else.” Her tone was final, like the slam of a coffin lid, and Lio gulped, but he didn’t dare pursue the topic. Who was this coordinator, and why did it sound so ominous? He almost lost his courage, but the memory of the thrill he had felt when he drove fast combined with the chance to get even with Navi’s gang was too rich an opportunity to pass up and he followed. Their feet pounded against the asphalt, echoing off the warehouse, the sound lost and lonely.

She led him to a pitch black Mustang, as dark as Nahele’s car, but unlike hers, this one had an air of maleficence. He shivered, but approached it, as this was where all the other racers where gathering. The group was actually quite small, even smaller than the group in the last race. The crowd parted as he approached, revealing the monster they all surrounded. Lio stopped short and gasped with horror.

There stood Tamas, casually leaning against the black beast of machinery, his wicked face as handsome as ever as he gazed at Lio a lazy yet mischievous way, as if he had all sorts of plans for the Egyptian. Lio backed away, shocked.

“You!” he exclaimed.

“Yes, me. Long time no see.” Tamas agreed, his smile growing wider.

“What are you doing here?” Lio demanded, earning him a few raised eyebrows and hushed laughs from the other drivers.

“Same as you, I’m part of the race. Now, are you going to sign up or not?” Tamas said, holding out the clipboard to him.

“No! I refuse to have anything to do with you!”

“Aw, come on! Please?”

“No! Not after what you did!”

“Come now, I thought we were friends? Forgive and forget and all that?” replied Tamas, putting down his clipboard on the hood of his car, coming over to Lio and putting his arm around his shoulder, his voice silky and inviting. Lio threw off his arm and backed as far from the evil demigod as he could, a wall of racers forming behind him to stop his retreat. He looked wildly about him. the other drivers smiled, slow and easy, and to Lio’s horror, he saw that they all had pointed fangs. Vampires! All of them! He even recognized a few. There was Ellavamp, Lissavampy, Nellavamp, Lenard Smith, and even Percival and Tessa! Tessa gave him a cruel and haughty smile, and sashayed over to Tamas, leaning her head against his shoulder and placing her hand on his chest, cuddling up protectively to him. This dimly registered in Lio’s panicked brain. Wasn’t Tamas dating Helen? But Tessa’s demeanor suggested he was dating her instead. He didn’t have long to ponder this though, for Tamas sighed in mock surrender.

“Ah well, I was hoping you’d think otherwise, it would have made this a lot easier. But, looks like I have no choice now. Guess I should have seen this sooner.” he sighed, and dissolved into a thick cloud of black smoke. The smoke spun towards him at a surprising speed, soon surrounding Lio completely. It stung his eyes and burned his throat, making his head swim. He hastily clapped his hands over his nose and mouth, and squeezed his eyes as tightly shut as he could, sealing out the smoke.

But, supernatural or not, even a demon demigod of the afterlife needs to breathe, and he was forced to take a quick breath before he fainted, sucking air in as quickly as he could from between his fingers. But it was just enough. The black smoke slipped in through the tiny gap and into his lungs. He gasped and coughed his hands flying from his face as he pounded his chest to get the smog out. More flew in swirling thicker and faster around him. His head spun and his lungs felt like they were on fire. His eyes felt like they were being melted by acid and his ears rang. He coughed, hard, forcing out the toxic pollutants, but with each cough was a pained wheeze, and this just brought more smoke in. His head pounded with the lack of oxygen, and his vision faded to black. He collapsed onto the asphalt and lost consciousness, the vampires forming a ring around him. The black smoke trickled from his lungs out of his nose and open mouth, merging with the thicker cloud that surrounded the poor Egyptian demon. The cloud condensed and reformed into the figure of Tamas, who stood over him and clucked his tongue, shaking his head with pretend pity.

“Poor guy, if only he would have listened to reason.” He said as he gazed down at Lio. “Ike?”

“Yessir?” Kei said, stepping forward and giving Tamas a sarcastic salute.

“Pick up this sorry mess and put him someplace less dirty, maybe on your hood?” Tamas ordered, and Kei bent down, scooping up said sorry mess and hauling him off to a purple Maserati, dumping him on the hood and patting him on the face.

“Come on, stupid, wake up! I haven’t got all day!” she growled, her voice gruff and deep, revealing her true identity. Lio stirred and Kei’s voice shifted, resuming its female tone. He groaned and his eyelids fluttered as he slowly came to.

Chapter 22

Lio groaned and slowly opened his eyes, the murmuring figure above him slowly coming into focus.

“Hey, wake up!” Kei said, her red eyes furrowed with concern.

“Unk.” Lio grunted. He slowly raised his hands to his pounding skull.

“You okay?”

“Mmnyah.”

“What happened?”

“Idunnopfff…” he slurred. And he really didn’t know. He tried to remember what had happened before he blacked out, but it was all so fuzzy. His brain hurt even more, as if the effort was too much for it. He slowly sat up, Kei watching him closely.

“I think you should go home, I don’t think you can drive in your condition.” Kei said, her hand on his shoulder, holding him up so he wouldn’t collapse again.

“No, I’ll be fine. It’s clearing up already.” He jumped off the hood of Kei’s car and staggered as he landed. He shook it off and walked away, his gait unsteady and weaving, as though he was very dizzy. Kei shook her head in exasperation and followed him. They arrived back at the black Mustang and sign-up crowd. Lio managed to make his way back into the middle of the circle, reaching out to grab the clipboard from Tamas, who watched him carefully, judging his reaction. But Lio didn’t seem even the slightest bit upset about the evil demigod’s presence.

“You okay there?” Tamas asked, staring intently. Lio just nodded and impatiently gestured for the clipboard. Tamas handed it to him, a slow smile spreading across his face. Lio hastily scrawled his name and walked away, still rubbing his temples. Tamas watched him go, and when he was certain he was away far enough, gestured for Kei to come close.

“Keep an eye on him. He’s been turned, but it might take a couple minutes for it to properly stick. Until then he’ll be a bit disoriented. He insists on racing, but we can’t having him wrapping himself around a tree just yet, he still is useful, so give the car a bit of a magic assist, okay? Just a quickie spell to keep it on the road. Got it?” Tamas said softly.

“Check.” Kei affirmed, and followed Lio out to her car. He was leaning against the driver’s side, but quickly straightened up once he saw her.

“Here’s the keys. I’ll do a quick inspection before you get going, gotta make sure these ruffians didn’t pop the wheels or anything.” she said, tossing him the keys and crouching down next to a tire, squinting as she pretended to examine it for leaks. When she was sure he wasn’t paying attention, she whispered an incantation over the wheel, which glowed slightly then faded back to normal. The only difference was that the tread thickened and the tire puffed up a bit, re-inflating to the proper pressure. She then popped open the hood and pretended to examine the engine, whispering another spell over this as well. All the dirt and grime flew off, the oil changed itself and even the wiper fluid refilled. She went around the whole car, muttering under her breath, the car rejuvenating in response. Soon it was as good as new if not a bit better. She nodded to Lio, who was already in the driver’s seat, keys ready in the ignition.

Once she was well out of the way, he started up the car, the engine roaring to life with a ferocious growl. It wasn't quite the same as the last car he drove, that one was power, but more like a partnership, working together smoothly, but this was like power barely restrained. He could feel the heavy layers of spells on the vehicle, keeping it on the road. He frowned and shook his head to clear it, and the sensation fell away, as if it had only been his imagination. He shifted the car into drive, then rolled up to the starting line. There weren’t as many drivers in this race as there had been the first time, but their cars looked as intimidating as their owners, which is to say, very. But he wasn't worried. He was certain he could take these guys. Painted skulls on your hood? Ha! That’s cute. He dealt with skulls and their undead owners on the daily, paint didn’t intimidate him! All the drivers shifted into neutral, then stepped on the gas to rev their engines, showing off their power. Then, a vampire ghoul, Soulia Energy by the looks of her, stepped up in front of the line of cars, flag in hand. She smirked at them, then raised her arms.

“On your mark!” she yelled. Everyone watched her, hands on the gearshift and feet on the brake.

“Get set!” Everyone shifted into drive.

“GO!” she shrieked, throwing her arms down, whipping the flag towards the asphalt. Everyone slammed on the accelerator and blazed past her, doing their best to pull up first early, pressing their cars to speed up as quickly as was machinely possible. Lio gripped the wheel tightly as he pushed the pedal towards the floor, muttering encouragement under his breath.

“Come on, c’mon!” he hissed. The car seemed to respond to his pushiness, like “Oh you want speed? Here you go, I’ll give you speed!”. The Maserati slowly picked up speed, overtaking everyone else. As he passed her, Nellavamp snarled at him, her pale face scrunching up into a horrible mask of anger. Her running mascara, which normally looked sad, now was intimidating, like war paint. She pressed the gas harder and brought her blood red Bugatti up next to him, coming uncomfortably close. Then on his other side, another Mustang pulled up, and Lio looked over to see who it was. Grinning cockily back at him was Lenard, who gave him a flirty wink then pulled in front of him, mirroring Nellavamp, the two cars coming closer in a pincher move. Lio snarled back and shoved the gas to the floor, sending the Maserati zooming up ahead before they could touch him. The wheel began to vibrate slightly, and his grip on it tightened till his knuckles turned white, his hands locking until he felt like he’d never be able to let go. He had never been this tense about driving since the first time he had gotten behind the wheel. He cast a quick glance behind him in the rearview mirror. There, only a few feet away, were both Nellavamp and Lenard, both glaring at him and slowly gaining, ready to catch up to him and try the pincer crush again. But he sure as heck wasn't going to let that happen. He looked up ahead, and could see the finish line, only about a quarter of a mile away. He pressed the gas as far as it could go and the car blazed over to it.

"C’mon, c’mon!” he muttered again, teeth tightly clenched, entire body tense. In a few minutes he had passed the line, going well over 100mph. He completely let off the gas and began steadily applying the brakes, knowing he had only a hundred yards or so to come to a complete stop. He pressed the brakes harder and the stench of burning rubber filled the interior of the car. It began to slow, wobbling almost out of control the whole while. Eventually he got it to stop, and pulled off the road to park. One by one, the other drivers followed, getting out of their cars and jogging back to the finish line and the waiting crowd. When Lio was within sight, the crowd slowly began to cheer, first with one or two, then the whole crowd going into a roar. He grinned breathlessly back until his face hurt. Yes! Only his second race, and he won again! Two out of two, what a great record. If he kept this up, he’d become a racing legend!

With his head swimming with such thoughts, he reached the crowd, who pounded his back and yelled their congratulations in his ears, deafening him, all the while pushing him to the center, where Tamas was waiting. When he arrived, Tamas spotted him and raised his hands for silence, which he got quite quickly.

“And here’s our winner, Lio Croshiph Duat!” he yelled, grabbing Lio’s hand and raising it into the air, making certain everyone knew, which they already did. The crowd cheered once more, all eyes upon the Egyptian, eyes that gleamed in the dark. They looked almost…hungry, but Lio didn’t notice, too caught up in his exhilaration. Then he spotted Kei, weaving through the crowd towards him, an amused smirk on her face.

“I did it!” Lio cheered, throwing his hands in the air with jubilation.

“You don’t say? Alright hero, calm down so you can hear me.” Kei said calmly.

“Yeah?”

“It’s getting late, and we are expected in other places, so the victory party will be continued tomorrow. I’ll pick you up at the school parking lot and take you there. Got it? Good.” she said, then turned and walked away without getting Lio’s response. He pushed his way out of the crowd, still giddy with glee, walking into the night towards his portal to home, not looking back so much as once.

But in doing so, there was something he missed. When they were sure he was out of earshot and line of sight, Nellavamp and Lenard stepped forth towards Tamas.

“Ugh, that was awful! I hate losing! This had better have been worth it!” Nellavamp groaned.

“Yeah.” Lenard agreed. Tamas smiled at the two as if they were two children who had not gotten a chance to play with their favorite toy.

“Does this make it better?” he said sweetly, pulling a wad of hundred dollar bills from his pocket and waving them in front of him. The two vampires put out their hands expectantly, and Tamas peeled off several bills, giving some to each and tucking the rest back into his jeans. The vamps counted their money, about 400 each and nodded slowly with grudging approval.

“You’ll get away with it this time, but next time, I better get a bit more.” Lenard said, giving Tamas a dark look.

“Same.” Nellavamp hissed.

“Now, now children! Don’t be greedy! Uncle Tamas can only give you so much allowance! Now go, you’re job here is done! And I expect to see you at tomorrow’s party, we must have all hands on deck!” Tamas said mockingly, dismissing the two. They grumbled, but turned away, walking down the street to their cars. Tamas watched them go, grinning nastily, the moonlight glinting off his white fangs.

Chapter 23

Lio yawned and stretched, feeling content with the world. His head was back to normal, and for the first time since he had punched Tamas in the face, he had a normal dream instead of his usual weird nightmares. And it was a Saturday, and he had a party to go to. He leaped out of bed and started pulling on his clothes. Just then his phone buzzed and he fell over trying to put on pants and reach his phone at the same time. He managed to grab it before he went down, and checked the screen as he lay on the floor. It was a text from Nahele.

Hi.

            Hey.

            Wassup?

            Going 2 a party.

            Cool! Who’s holding it?

            Tamas.

            Wait wut? U sure that’s a good idea? Tamas is evil.

            I’ll be fine, no worries. Luv u, bye! Lio texted back, then put his phone down and focused on hunting down his hat.

When he had finished finding all his wardrobe, his went to the kitchen to wolf down his breakfast, which he was done with in about five minutes flat.

“Love you Mom, bye!” he yelled over his shoulder before he burst out the front door. Ammit stared after him, her mouth silently working with all the words she never got to say. Lio had never done that, even when he was in a rush he found some time for her.

He raced down the path, leaping over skeletons and zigzagging past turquoise trees, blazing through ghosts as if they weren’t there, the dead turning to watch him go, confused. There wasn’t anything chasing him, so what was his rush?

Finally he came to the spot of his usual morning portal, but nothing was there. He had a clear view all the way down to the Hall of Judgment, completely uninterrupted by the swirling mass of shadows he was hoping for. He frowned, puzzled, then remembered that he only got automatic portals on weekdays…and today was Saturday. Great. Looks like he was going to have to do it himself. He closed his eyes and concentrated, envisioning the school parking lot. He summoned up all his will and released his desire into the universe. He opened his eyes eagerly. There was…. nothing. He huffed in frustration and tried again, thinking about the school so hard his ears popped. Then there was a tugging in the pit of his stomach and his bones fizzled with energy, then both sensations faded. He opened his eyes once more to finally see the dark portal before him, a bit unstable and not to elegant looking, but nevertheless, there. He leaped through before it could collapse, the usual sound of souls shrieking blurring together, and he emerged at the school parking lot. He grinned broadly at his success, then his eyes rolled into his head and he passed out.

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *         

Lio slowly came to, woken by an insistent nudging from something at his ribs. He opened his eyes to see a purple haired vampire staring down at him, and realized that the thing poking him was her foot.

“You sure pass out a lot.” Kei said, partly amused. “Now come on, we haven’t got all day.” She turned and walked away, not waiting to see if Lio would follow. He scrambled to his feet, rubbing the back of his head as he jogged after her. She arrived at her car and got in, Lio hopping into the seat next to her.

“So, where are we going?” Lio asked as they headed down the road.

“It’s a secret, you’ll find out when we get there.” Kei replied mysteriously.

“Okay cool.” Lio said, staring awkwardly out the window, wondering when they were going to get there, not the least bit suspicious of where “there” may be.

Chapter 24

“There” turned out to be a dance club, down an alley and out of the way. Kei nodded to the bouncer, a burly troll dude, who nodded back, his dark sunglasses glinting in the light. They stepped into the club and Lio was nearly blasted back out by the sheer volume of electronic music blaring from massive speakers. Strobe lights of every color imaginable, including ultraviolet, flashed from the ceiling, threatening to give one a seizure, and the room was packed with teens, all swaying and dancing in time to the beat, their collective body heat making the place stifling. All in all, it was ultra cool. Kei led him onto the dance floor, weaving between bodies, Lio struggling to keep up, or at least keep her in sight. As he passed through, he spotted Donny and Amy dancing together, Donny staring at his girlfriend as if he still couldn’t believe she was dating him.

“Hey man!” Donny greeted Lio, sounding a bit dazed. Lio managed a nod back before he was swept away again.

Finally he made it to the other side, which was mostly clear of people, except for a group of monsters around one table. And seated at the head of the table was Tamas, smiling wickedly with his arm around Helen, who was sitting on the arm of his chair, leaning against his with her arm draped lovingly across his shoulders, her eyes condescending. There was also Navi, Ripper and Raugr, eyeing Lio closely, but he paid no mind to any of this. When he reached the table, Tamas beckoned Lio to sit in the chair before him. Lio sat. Tamas then leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table and interlacing his fingers under his chin.

“So Lio, how do you like my domain?” he asked, his voice silky.

“It’s pretty wicked.” Lio said appreciatively. Tamas laughed and leaned back.

“ ‘Wicked’ is all we do here. How would you like this to be your life as well?”

“Well, I don’t know…” Lio started.

“Oh come now! Look around you! Daily parties, all the friends and music a monster could possibly want. It’s the teenage dream, all right here!” he replied, spreading his arms expansively. Lio looked back at the dancers. Yeah, it sure did look fun. And his favorite song was playing. He looked over to the DJ stand and saw that his classmate, Andromeda-42, was the one mixing the music, her glowing visor flashing in the multicolored. She was very good at what she did, probably the best for miles around. There was no way things would get dull with her around.

“Don’t tell me this doesn’t appeal to you?” Tamas nudged. Lio nodded slowly.

“It does.” he admitted.

“Very good! Sugar, drinks!” Tamas exclaimed, snapping his fingers for service. A purple succubus appeared, a tray with several glasses in hand. Tamas grabbed one, then gave another to Helen, and passed the last to Lio. Lio stared dubiously at the colorful liquid.

“This isn’t alcoholic, is it? Because you know we’re underage.” he said suspiciously.

“Nah, course not! It’s better, it’s enchanted!” Tamas said, knocking back his own drink, Helen sipping slowly beside him. Since nothing weird seemed to happen to them, Lio took a cautious sip. It was quite nice actually, cool, fruity, and a bit floral, like perfume, but not disgustingly so. Then a tingling ran through him, starting from his feet and racing upwards. When it reached his face, it tickled his nose and he sneezed, nearly spilling the drink. Everyone chuckled at his reaction. Tamas waved at the succubus, who went to Lio’s side and sat down, perching elegantly on the armrest. Uncomfortable with her proximity, he looked up at her, about to say something about it. But when he met her glowing green eyes, all thoughts of protest vanished from his mind. She smiled seductively down at him and he found himself smiling back.

“Lio? Lio!” Tamas called, snapping his fingers in front of the dazed demigod’s face.

“Hzuh, what?” Lio said, tearing his eyes away from the demoness, startled. Tamas smiled at him, amused.

“So, what do you think?” he asked.

“Of what?” Lio replied, still a bit dazed.

“The drink of course.”

“I like it, what’s it called?”

“Nymphaea, I do believe. Have some more.” Tamas replied, eyeing him carefully, glass raised to his lips. Lio obliged, the blue liquid cooling from the inside out. He soon drained the glass, and set it down regretfully, wishing he could have some more. It was wonderful stuff really. He felt so peaceful and content. Sugar took off his hat and stroked his hair, her touch sending tingles down his spine.

“So, tell me, would you care to join me here? You can have all this, whenever you want. Do we have a deal?” Tamas asked.

“Yes.” Lio agreed.

“Excellent! Now go, dance, have fun!” Tamas exclaimed delightedly, and Sugar took Lio by the arm, pulling him to the crowd of dancers, swaying along to the beat. Lio stood there awkwardly for a moment, wondering what to do now, but everyone seemed to be having such a good time and the music was so catchy, he found himself joining in, the beat carrying him away. They danced together on the crowded floor until another ghoul popped up, a blonde haired werewolf whose blue eyes were fixated on Lio with significant interest.

“Mind if I cut in? Thanks doll.” she said, pushing Sugar aside without waiting for her response. Sugar rolled her eyes in disgust, but the two were already lost in the crowd. She slipped through the dancers and headed back to the table.

“Ah, there you are. Have you gotten it?” Tamas asked.

“Yes.” Sugar replied, holding up a few strands of golden hair, placing them in Tamas’s outstretched hand. Tamas fingered the strands, chuckling softly to himself.

“But…” she continued.

“But what?”

“Will he remain here? Are you sure you got him?”

“Of course! He’s under a triple enchantment! Between my smoke, that drink, and your lovely charm, he’s a goner. And when I finish with these, he won’t be going anywhere…ever again.” Tamas replied, holding up the strands to the light. They gleamed gold, reflecting the multicolored lights.

Chapter 25

Lio was racing down a dark alley, chasing a hooded, shadowy figure. He could hear its panting, the frantic heartbeat, the smell of its fear in the air. Lio grips his knife more firmly, sensing the chase was about to come to a close. Sure enough, a solid wall loomed ahead, the bricks firmly blocking his quarry’s escape. The figure turned slowly around, pale face fearful.

            "W-what do you want?” the figure asked, voice quivering with terror.

            “You know what I want.” Lio growled back. The figure shook his head, large eyes fixated on him, his hood slipping off, revealing pointed ears.

            “The medallion! Hand it over! I know you have it!” Lio roared, bodily slamming the elf, pressing his knife against his throat, the cold steel biting into his skin. "C’mon!” Lio pressed, pushing the knife a bit harder. A thin red line appeared against the snowy skin, and the elf fumbled in his pocket, then pulled out a silver medallion, engraved with arcane symbols and hanging from a thick silver chain. Lio snatched the relic from the elf’s trembling hand, then took his knife away from his throat. The elf sank to the ground, gasping for breath and holding his throat. Lio turned and walked away, tossing the medallion in the air and catching it, admiring the way the light glinted off the metal.

            Lio walked down the block, and turned into another alley, heading towards the dance club. He pushed through the crowd of monsters, weaving purposely towards the back. He emerged near the tables, where Tamas was waiting expectantly.

            “Did you get it?” Tamas asked coldly.

            “Of course I did.” Lio scoffed back, placing the medallion in Tamas’s outstretched hand. Then his vision went black and he keeled over, eyes rolling into his head.

Lio came to, everything slowly coming into focus. He saw Tamas leaning over him, face scrunched with concern, and he swore he saw him slip something silvery into his pocket. But everything was still so blurry, it must have been his imagination. Then he realized someone was stroking his head. A beautiful vampire ghoul was staring down at him, pouting prettily with worry.

“Are you okay down there? You passed out again. I think you’ve been dancing too hard. You haven’t been getting enough liquids, you must be dehydrated. Soulia, grab him a drink, will you?” Tamas said, aiming the last bit at the vampire holding Lio’s head. Soulia reached over to grab something out of Lio’s line of sight, then brought it back and pressed it to his lips. Lio sipped carefully, and he recognized it as the blue drink they served here. It was so sweet and cool, soothing his worries away.

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

Lio was in the ruins of some ancient Egyptian temple, following a crumbling staircase down a dark, secret tunnel into the Earth. At the bottom was an altar, with the statue of some long lost god standing in an alcove. It was probably some distant relative of his, but he paid it no mind, instead focusing on the section of wall beneath it. He ran his fingers over the hieroglyphs, then pressed a few of them, and they sank into the stone, then the wall slid back, the chamber filling with the noise of stone scraping against stone. The weak light fell upon another small cabinet like chamber, in which a black stone knife, glowing with an unnatural light. It was obviously ancient and sacred, meant to be left alone, but Lio grabbed it anyway, stuffing it into a pouch at his side. Then a portal appeared next to him and he leaped through, reappearing in the dance club.

He awoke on the floor once again, being tended by Tamas and one of the many ghouls that stayed by his side. The ghoul poured more blue liquid into his mouth and all ill feeling faded away.

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

He was at a monastery somewhere in Tibet, raiding one of the altars for a brass vajra, slipping it into his pocket, grabbing a nearby phurba, committing a great act of sacrilege in doing so. Then he disappeared before the monks arrived.

He was one the floor once more, Tamas prying both relics from him, one from each hand.

And so on the next few days went, each day a new sacred item pillaged from some holy place or other. Sometimes it was just something as mundane as someone’s wallet.

A sword.

A spear.

A trident.

Cash.

A hammer.

A chalice.

A crown.

A stick covered in runes.

Another trident.

A feathered robe.

And worst of all was when he woke up covered in blood with a gruesome lump clenched in his hand. When he experienced this one, it took ten glasses of the blue drink and being tightly held by Sugar to keep him from going nuts, tears streaming down his face. Tamas tried to reassure him by claiming that one of the vampires must have accidentally spilled their dinner on him, Tessa watching him distastefully-and a little bit hungrily- over Tamas’s shoulder. Lio sobbed regardless, rocking back and forth as he tried to get the bloodstains off.

Chapter 26

Lio had been missing for fourteen days, with nasty reports of him popping up, robbing someone, then mysteriously disappearing once again. His mother, Ammit, had been searching for her son in the Duat, and his friends looked in the land of the living. But, nobody has yet to find him, and they were growing frantic. On the fourteenth day of his disappearance, his friends got together, determined to search for him as a group, and they wouldn’t take failure for an answer.

“Hey guys, I got your text, what’s going on?” Kimmy asked, the last to arrive for Lily’s hastily called group meeting. Lily, Lani and Nahele were already there, all three looking stressed and strained, Nahele’s eyes dark and haunted looking.

“It’s about Lio. He has been gone for so long, two weeks, and the rumors we have heard about him…I’d hate to think of what has happened.” Lily said. Kimmy’s eyes widened.

“I’ve heard about that! It’s horrible! We have to stop him!” she said, her voice growing with hysteria.

“How are we ever going to stop Lio if we can’t even find him!” Nahele exclaimed, almost ripping her short hair out in frustration.

“I don’t know! I’m not omniscient!” Kimmy wailed back, equally distressed. Then Nahele looked straight at her, her eyes wide with realization.

“You might not be, but we all know someone who is.” she said slowly.

“Charnelle!” they all exclaimed in unison.

“One problem. I haven’t seen her around for a while, and she’s in my homeroom. Has anyone else seen her?” Lily said. Everyone shook their heads.

“What are we going to do now?” Kimmy huffed.

“How about check the attendance records in Bloodgood’s office?” Lani suggested. Everyone stared at her, aghast.

“How on earth are we going to do that?” Kimmy asked, her face scrunched into a look of confused disgust. Their discussion was interrupted by a splash of water against the nearby lockers, signaling the arrival of Sue Nami, Bloodgood’s ruthless assistant. She rushed towards them, her face twisted into a fierce snarl.

“No gatherings of non-adult entities in the hallways!” she screeched.

“Ah, I think there’s our answer. Kimmy, you must put her under mind-control.” Lani said in a low voice.

“What! I can’t do that!” Kimmy hissed back, but was unable to say more as the irate water monster was finally upon them.

“Well? Were my words not understood? Get out of the way or else get deten-Oh.” Sue Nami snapped, breaking off mid-sentence as she made eye contact with Kimmy. Her eyes grew wide and her face slackened, her mouth falling slightly open as Kimmy’s mind took hold. Then she turned abruptly and went back the way she came, her progress continually reported by Kimmy as she steered the assistant through the crowds of students.

“Ah, she just splashed Toralei and the werecat twins. They don’t look very happy about it. Okay she’s at the office, thankfully Bloodgood isn’t there. We found the attendance book, she’s flipping through it…. there! Shavokar, Charnelle! Wow, eighteen absences in a row! That’s going to be a parent-creature conference, and a possible suspension, ouch!” Kimmy said, her a faraway look in her eyes as she kept track of Sue’s actions.

“Enough about that, get out of her! We’ve got what we need.” Lani said, and Kimmy blinked, severing the contact between her and the headmistress’s assistant. She reeled and held her head, swaying precariously in place.

“Ugh, she had such a foul mind. All sloshy and weird, I got seasick!” Kimmy exclaimed as Lily rushed to catch her.

“Well, that just confirmed what we all suspected. Charnelle is missing too. We are no closer to finding Lio now.” Lani sighed, resigned.

“Argh! Pity we can’t just sniff them out!” Nahele hissed in frustration.

“Hey, that’s it! Sniff them out! We can find someone who can track them using smell!” Lani said, her face lighting with excitement.

“Yeah, but who? I doubt the werewolves have strong enough noses to pick up their scent after so long.”

“Maybe not the wolves, but maybe a god. Who do we know among the demigods that has a sniffer that strong?”

“Hey, what about Anuntehp? She’s the niece of Anubis, and she’s in my class. If anyone would know Lio’s scent, it would be her!” Lily said. They all agreed and jogged down the hall in search of the Egyptian demi.

“Say, I don’t know who Anuntehp is. Could you describe her to me?” Nahele asked.

“Sure! For one, she has a striking resemblance to her uncle. She has black fur, a fluffy tail, black hair in a shaggy Mohawk, brown eyes, dresses like a guy in all black, and has a big old gold amulet around her neck. Not too hard to miss.” Lily replied. They continued to search the hallways in silence, the only noise being puffed breaths and the slapping of their shoes on the tile floor.

“There, that’s her!” Kimmy exclaimed, pointing to a ghoul that fit Lily’s description, who was busy sifting through her locker. They came to a halt around her, panting, and she turned abruptly and jumped, startled by their sudden appearance.

“What’s going on? What are you guys doing?” she asked, holding her books close to her chest like a shield, eyes wide and wary. Kimmy panted a moment longer then replied.

“Sorry…not time to explain much…very long story…but we really need your help… emergency!” she gasped. Anuntehp still eyed them with caution.

“And why exactly do you need me?”

“You have a great sense of smell and we need you to find someone for us.”

“Why not ask a werewolf? They have good noses too.”

“They’re not strong enough, it has to be you.”

“Why? What do you want?”

“We have to find Lio. You have to sniff him out.” Nahele chipped in earnestly. But Anuntehp shook her dark head.

“No can do. Haven’t picked up his scent in weeks. It’s like it has been scrubbed off the face of the planet.” she said. Everyone’s shoulders bowed, hearts sinking.

“Wait! What about Charnelle? Can you find her?” Kimmy suggested, and everyone’s hopes rose again.

“I don’t know. Who is this Charnelle?”

“She’s a vetala, a kind of Indian vampire. We have to find her, she’s missing too.” Kimmy replied. But Anuntehp was shaking her head again.

“I dunno. Asian monsters are out of my jurisdiction, I only do Egyptians.”

“Oh come on! She’s dead, well, undead, so you should be able to find her, Asian or not! Besides, aren’t the dead all the same? Just do it for Lio!” Kimmy exclaimed, frustrated at the jackal demigod’s stubbornness.

“Alright, for Lio.” Anuntehp agreed, then put her books back into her locker. She faced them again and put her shiny, black, jackal nose up into the air and took a deep sniff. She turned her head this way and that, rotating like a satellite, sniffing the air with her quivering nose the whole time. Then she stopped suddenly and took several big whiffs, squinting as she concentrated. Then her big ears shot straight up.

“Got it! I got her scent! Weak, but definitely there! Come on, let’s go!” she announced, eyes bright with success.

“What, now?” Kimmy protested, shocked.

“Yes, now! The longer you wait the staler the scent! We must get going before it’s lost! Besides, if you delay, there’s a greater chance something worse can happened to her.”

“But what about our stuff? It’s still in the classrooms!” Kimmy pressed on.

“Trevor can handle it. We gotta go NOW!” Lily butted it, grabbing Kimmy’s hand and dragging her down the hall, the four following Anuntehp and her magical nose.

Chapter 27

The five burst out of the main entrance and into the parking lot, Lani now in the lead as she raced towards her cherry-red Mustang.

"C’mon guys, we’ll take my car!” she yelled over her shoulder. Everyone piled in and buckled up, Lani starting the car and blasting them out of there, tearing down the drive. Anuntehp rolled down her window and stuck her face out of the car, sniffing for Charnelle’s scent.

“Turn right!” she barked and Lani swerved right, onto the highway. They blazed down the asphalt, guided through turns by Anuntehp’s nose. Trees started to spring up on either side of the highway, then thickened into a forest.

“Left, here!” came Anuntehp’s sudden command, and Lani swerved off the highway, onto a sketchy looking dirt road, then stopped.

“Why did you stop? She’s down that way! I’m certain of it!” Anuntehp exclaimed, staring at Lani in shock.

“Yes, I don’t doubt it, but there is no way a Mustang can handle potholes like those!” Lani sighed, staring pointedly at the deep holes that were profusely scattered across the road.

“Alright Lauahi. We need a Jeep.” she continued, patting the dashboard. At first there was a moment of awkward silence, then the car began to shift. It slowly rose from the ground and the seats flowed and shifted from luxury to functionality. From a sleek shape, the body of the car took on a more boxy form, and after a few visual details were altered, the transformation was complete. Lani hit the gas and they went hurtling down the road, bouncing as they ran over potholes. The forest grew darker and eerier. As students of a monster school, they were used to such things, but even this was creepier beyond what they knew, and Kimmy shivered, gazing at the twisted shadows around them.

“This place gives me the creeps, and not in a good way!” she whispered. Nahele chuckled awkwardly beside her, clutching her elbows for comfort.

“It kind of reminds me of a place back home. Down in Opihikao, in the Puna district down by the coast, we have this beach park, Mackenzie. That place is crazy haunted. Normally that wouldn’t be too bad a thing, we all talk to ghost at school on the daily, but the ghosts there are really unfriendly, they won’t talk to even monsters.” Nahele said softly. Kimmy shivered again and scooted closer to her.

“There are many ghost stories about that place. First, it was the site of what is called ‘The King’s Highway’. Ancient Hawaiians used to use it to travel from one side of the island to the other. And some say that the same travelers never stopped using it, even hundreds of year after death, tramping down the path at night as ‘Night Marchers’. Then later on, the park itself was built by convicts in the 1800’s. Many died of dehydration and disease, then their bodies were buried somewhere in the park. And later there were the murders. Lots of them. All brutal, and the bodies rarely found. People see floating lights, people walking through trees, campfires that aren’t actually there; heard ghostly voices from lava tubes, footsteps outside with no one there, bloodcurdling screams; their tents are shaken, they’re choked in their sleep, their dogs freak out. It’s all very freaky.” Nahele continued, weaving a spell around the hushed group, all of whom were listening intently to her words, eyes wide and wary as they searched the trees.

“It’s actually a lot like here.” Nahele finished, causing many to gulp in fright. But Lani pressed on, driving the group further down the road, determined to find their missing friend. Then the trees suddenly parted, revealing an overgrown clearing tangled with weeds. In the midst of the clearing was a small shack, old and falling apart, wood walls rotting, tin roof rusted and full of holes, windows shattered and dark, staring like shadowy eyes. Rusted unidentifiable metal parts littered the grass around it, mixed with a few mangled pieces of furniture.

“Oh great. There just had to be the creepy haunted house. Couldn’t be complete without one.” Nahele said sarcastically.

“Please don’t tell me she’s in there.” Lily said. Anuntehp sniffed the air.

“Yep, sadly.” she sighed. Everyone groaned and very slowly got out of the car. When Nahele, the last of the group, got out, Lani snapped her fingers and the car rapidly shrunk until it was no bigger that her phone. She slipped the vehicle into her pocket and turned to go, then noticed everyone’s weird stares.

“What? I don’t want it to go missing.” she protested. Then, as a group, everyone tightly holding hands with someone else, they made their way towards the creepy house, Anuntehp sniffing the air. She pushed the door, which slid open with a hoarse rusty screech, sending cold chills up everyone’s spine. They stepped inside cautiously, looking around the room, taking in all the eerie ambience.

“Wow, this place is really freaky. School is freaky too, but that is a quaint freaky. This is seriously freaky.” Kimmy whispered, wishing she were at home, safe in her family’s bright temple with Suka, their giant parrot standing guard outside.

They walked across the room, carefully looking behind things and in cabinets, searching for any sign of Charnelle. Then Anuntehp spoke up.

“Here.” she said simply, pointing down at the floor. The others gathered around her, staring at the floor. There, cut into the wood of the floor, was the square cutout of a trapdoor. The dark wood was covered in strange, menacing symbols drawn in a mysterious liquid and the door was held shut by a large, serious-looking iron lock. At the sight of it all, Kimmy shuddered and pressed herself against the person closest to her, who so happened to be Nahele, who put her arm protectively around her friend and pulled her close. Anuntehp took a deep breath, gathered up her courage and bent down, grabbing hold of the lock and giving it a sharp twist. It broke with a sharp Ping! and came off in her hand. Then she quickly threw back the trapdoor, and it hit the floor with a loud Bang, the others flinching at the loud noise. The trapdoor opened up to a deep dark hole. They leaned over to look down in it then shrieked and leaped back. Out of the impenetrable darkness, two large red spots glowed back up at them.

Chapter 28

The sound of footsteps against wood echoed through the ruined shack. The red spots rose upwards and the weak light hit them, revealing that they were really a pair of eyes glowing from the head of a white haired ghoul, who four of them recognized. Charnelle emerged from the dark depths, rubbing her backwards wrists.

“Finally! Took you guys long enough! Do you have any idea how boring it is down there, no food, water, light? It got really dull after I chewed through the ropes-very gross stuff, rope, very unappetizing, too dry, and bland, very stringy, wait, where was I? Oh right, I chewed through the ropes on my hands and feet! Well, at least the ones on my hands, I untied my feet, very awkward trying to bring your feet that close to your face. After that, there was nothing to do.” Charnelle rambled, chiding the bewildered group, her demeanor surprisingly calm for someone who had been imprisoned underground.

“Aren’t you upset at being trapped underground, with nothing?” Lily asked.

“Why should I be? I don’t need food or water, and I am nocturnal. I don’t mind being underground at all, as a matter of fact it’s quite like home. Vampires are very comfortable in confinement. No, the only thing that bugs me is that my idiot brother had the audacity to stuff me down there in the first place.” Charnelle replied, shrugging.

“Wait, Tamas put you down there?”

“Of course! Who else would?”

“Why?”

“Because he knows that I can see all and will try to use that to meddle in his business. You all might have seen those sigils on the trapdoor. They are designed to prevent my ability to see the future and reduce my undead strength. He’s quite a prat, Tamas is. Let’s go, the sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can give him a good kick.” Charnelle said, striding confidently out the door, not waiting to see if the others followed, which they did. Then she came to the clearing and stopped, her backwards hands on her hips as she stared at the emptiness.

“How did you guys get here? Fly?” she said, raising her eyebrow with amusement.

“No, we have a car.” Lani said, pulling out the miniaturized vehicle from her pocket. She tossed it to the ground and it expanded back into full size, then sifted into a van to accommodate all six ghouls. They piled in, then Lani steered the van back down the road, bumping over each and every pothole as she drove as fast as she dared.

Soon they arrived back at the school. The instant Charnelle stepped out of the car, she collapsed, a vision hitting her with the force of a telepathic eighteen-wheeler. The other ghouls caught her, eyeing her with caution, waiting expectantly for her verdict. After a few minutes or so, she rose unsteadily, holding her head.

“Okay, so I got a vision.” she said rather obviously. The others tensed, waiting on tenterhooks. “It’s about Lio. I know where he is.”

“Really? Where?” Nahele said anxiously.

“I can’t say, just in case Tamas is watching. But I can tell you this, you can’t come.”   

“What? Why not? He’s my boyfriend out there! I can’t just stand by!”

“Tamas is expecting you to try to rescue Lio, so his henchmen are waiting for you. Well, he expects Lio’s friends to get him, but he has focused on you. He knows you are strong and desperate. People will do anything for love.”

“Well then, I won’t go. But someone else will.” Nahele said, her tone indicating that this conversation was over.

Chapter 29

Nahele drove up her driveway and parked in front of the Hawaiian demigod mansion, taking a deep breath as she looked up at it. She got out and entered, then climbed up the stairs and headed into her room.

She went into her closet and kneeled on the floor, reaching into the darkest recesses of the closet and pulled out a cardboard box, placing it in front of her. She stared at it for a long time, reluctant to open such a heavy reminder of her past. But she had to; Lio’s life was at stake. She pulled open the flaps and reached inside, pulling out a dark grey suit, the cloth still in good condition despite being all folded up in there for over a year. She stood up and reached into the closet once again, grabbing a hat from the shelf, hidden as far back into the shadows as the boxed suit had been. She began to strip, then, upon looking down at herself, snapped her fingers and made a roll of bandage appear out of thin air. She wrapped this as tightly as she could around herself, flattening her chest as best she could. It had taken her forever to get those, many treatments to show the slightest bit of femininity, and here she was, hiding it all. She pulled on a button up shirt and then the suit, pulling on the kind of black dress shoes that were frequently associated with government agents. She gazed into a mirror and brushed her hair up into points, then topped it with a fedora. There, in the mirror, stared back her self from one year and six months ago, when she had been a guy, her face fierce and totally masculine. She squinted and her image rippled, revealing black geometric tattoos etched across her face. She knew the same transformation had occurred over her whole body, revealing many more designs across her entire form. She shivered at the sight. She felt so naked without that illusion protecting her secrets. She walked down the stairs and out of the house without looking back, heart heavy with shame.

She arrived back at the parking lot, where the others were awaiting her return. Lani had known her from before, as they were cousins, but as Nahele got out of her car, more than a few eyebrows raised and jaws dropped. For Nahele had transformed from an awkward tomboy ghoul into a gorgeous young man.

“Dude, you look like some kind of islander mafia. Where did you get that outfit?” Lily asked.

“Never mind that, what’s with the tattoos?” Kimmy asked, staring at the lines of black triangles that decorated her friend’s face.

“The tattoos are not important. Let’s get going, the longer we wait, the more Lio could be in danger.” Nahele said coldly, sliding into Lani’s van. Kimmy looked at Lani, confused, but Lani just shrugged and got into the driver’s seat, the others following after her.

Charnelle, in the front passenger seat, was giving instructions to Lani.

“Okay, head out of the school. Now turn left and keep going.” she said. Lani obeyed and headed down the road. Soon the trees turned to buildings, and in twenty minutes or so, they were in the city.

“Turn left here, now right, then straight two buildings. Okay, we’re here.” Charnelle said, her voice sad. Everyone gazed out their windows to see where they were. To their left was a dark alley, empty except for one cruel looking male troll leaning casually against the wall, and everyone’s hearts sank. Alleys never meant anything good, especially dark ones.    

Chapter 30

The group got out of the van, Charnelle in the lead. The vetala ran her hand across the wall as she walked, searching for the entrance to where Lio was hidden. She stopped just a few feet away from the troll, who eyed her suspiciously. She stared right back at him, eyes narrowed in thought. When he saw the size of the group, the troll stood up straight, no longer leaning against the bricks.

“Ey, what are you doing here? Get lost!” the troll grunted angrily. But Nahele wasn't taking any of that attitude.

“None of your business.” she growled, her voice deep and gravelly.

“It is if you’re trying to get in. Who the hell are you? yYou sure as hell ain’t on my list.” the troll snarled back. Nahele leaned in close, until her breath tickled him.

“No, but you’re on mine. Of people I have to beat up if they don’t get out of my way.” Nahele replied. Her voice was so cold even her friends shivered, and the troll shifted uneasily, looking nervous, or at least as nervous as a troll wearing dark sunglasses could look, which wasn’t very. He moved aside and turned away, pretending that they no longer were there. Nahele nodded with satisfaction and turned to the now-present doorway. Charnelle stepped inside first, everyone else following closely behind, and they were nearly blasted back by the sheer volume of music that greeted them. Once their ears had adjusted, they stepped further in, partly disoriented by the throbbing lights. The dance floor was packed with monsters, many from school, but none paid them any attention, except when they were rudely elbowed out of the demigods’ way. Charnelle wove through the dancers, heading straight for the middle, on the trail of some mysterious lead.

Then they spotted a dark demigod, who was watching them closely, his face revealing his distaste. Tamas. Nahele’s stomach burned with anger, and the crowd seemed to sense their combined hatred, stopping their revelry and drawing away, creating a clearing around them. Nahele spotted Lio standing to Tamas’s right, Sugar tightly gripping his arm, glaring at her, and Nahele’s rage increased. She met Tamas’s eyes, which narrowed with fury.

“You!” they both spat. Lightning crackled up and down Nahele’s arms, ready to be hurled right at the evil demigod’s face. But before she could, he exploded into a cloud of thick black smoke, swirling angrily towards her. The crowd around them shrank even further back, crying out with alarm and doubling over, coughing as the poisonous fumes entered their lungs. Nahele frantically searched for a plan. She thought about hurling the lightning at him regardless, but it would certainly go through and hit someone, maybe even Lio. She looked at him as she said this, meeting his bewildered green eyes, and a random thought hit her. What was it that he asked her to do? Make a tornado, his voice whispered in her head.

She concentrated, imagining the vortex she’d need. It was a crazy idea, but it just might work. Let’s see now, they were in the Northern Hemisphere…that meant that winds moved widdershins. She spun her finger counterclockwise through the air, imagining that she was stirring it. It swirled around her hand eagerly, a slight disturbance at first, but slowly growing as she fed it her power, until it was a visible funnel cloud, small and confined to the room, but big enough to tug at everyone’s clothing. She released it and it spun towards the smoke, sucking it up and isolating it to the middle, concentrated into an angry spinning cloud.

The cloud thickened and took on human form, then hardened until Tamas stood in the middle of the miniature tornado, snarling angrily at Nahele. He slashed his hand through the funnel cloud, dispelling it, then turned and ran, heading to the back of the club. Nahele was about to follow, then she looked back at Lio. He was staring incomprehensibly at her, Sugar still holding onto him possessively. Nahele approached them, glaring directly into Sugar’s eyes. She felt the air shift around her, growing sweeter with cloying scent. Sugar was trying to seduce her, Nahele realized, but it wasn’t taking hold because she didn’t realize that Nahele wasn't an actual guy. Nahele stepped closer, her eyes blazing with fury, and Sugar’s eyes widened with realization, then she let go of Lio, turned and ran away as well. Lio just stood there, staring at Nahele, baffled. Then she realized another thing, the purple succubus had him under her spell as well. Nahele snarled and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him close.

“You’re MINE, gods damn it!” she growled, then kissed him, pressing her lips fiercely against his, holding him as tightly as she could. She poured all her emotion into the act, all her anger and love, and Lio jolted as lightning jolted through him, burning its way through his body, purging out the strains of Tamas's darkness, and leaving his bones tingling. The air crackled and filled with the powerful scent of a million flowers and trees, the world’s worth of nature in one breathe, blasting the dark fog from his mind. She finally pulled away, and he shook there shakily, staring at her in awe.

“Nahele?” he whispered, then collapsed on all fours, throwing up violently, emptying his stomach of its vivid blue contents.

“Wow, you kiss that badly?” Lani said, eyebrows raised as she watched his violent reaction.

“No! His body is just purging the poison from itself. I forced it out.” Nahele replied. Lio stopped hurling and slowly regained his feet, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He looked up at her and beamed, his joyful smile lighting up the whole room.

“Nahele!” he exclaimed, stepping towards her.

“Now, now, no more kisses until you wash your mouth out!” she chided, holding out her hands to stop him. “Oh, who am I kidding, I missed you.” And with that, she gave him a quick peck on the lips while the others made noises of disgust.

“Ew! How can you do that? I mean, I’m all for love, but, gross!” Kimmy said, making a face. Nahele looked at her over her shoulder.

“There’s worse things in this world, like that scumbag we just let get away! Now after him!” Nahele said, then led the way after Tamas.

Chapter 31

The demigods and vetala started after Tamas, following Nahele off the dance floor towards the back, where sat a few tables and chairs, glasses of some blue liquid sitting on silver trays. Lily paused y one of the tables and picked up a glass, furrowing her brow as she delicately sniffed it. She recoiled at the floral scent and threw the glass to the floor, where it shattered, spilling its contents on the polished wood.

“Lotus! Ugh! Smash all the glasses!” she exclaimed, sweeping the top of the nearest table, sending more glasses to the floor.

“Why, what’s the big deal?” Kimmy asked, she and the others staring at her in confusion.

“Haven’t you ever heard of the Odyssey? On the island of the Lotus Eaters, Odysseus’s crew ate the lotus flowers and forgot everything, they lost sense of time and never wanted to leave. This drink is nectar extracted from those flowers! They must have been what kept Lio here this whole time!” Lily replied angrily, smashing every glass she could find. The others gasped in horror and joined her. Soon the floor was covered in broken glass and bright blue nectar, the smell of flowers filling the air. That done, they resumed their pursuit of Tamas. Lio spotted a flash of tan skin and black hair, and pointed victoriously in that direction.

“There!” he exclaimed, and they all rushed to the spot. Lio got there first, cornering the evil Indian, who smiled innocently at him. Lio ignored this and slammed his fist as hard as he could into Tamas’s jaw. His dark eyes rolled into his head and he collapsed, unconscious. A violet aura glowed briefly around him, and he paled, turning into a blonde, pale-skinned monster boy. Lio stared at him, confused.

“Ike! Tamas was using him all along!” Charnelle exclaimed, looking sadly down at the doppelganger’s still form. So that’s where the annoying dude had gone, in disguise for Tamas’s vile work. No wonder he’d been unable to make it to class.

Then Lio spotted Tamas again, heading down a secret passage to heavens knows where. He was certain it was really him this time, and they all set off in pursuit, Lio in the lead once more. He soon caught up to the demigod, just a few steps behind, determined to break his nose just as he had Navi’s. Tamas cackled as he noticed that he was being pursued, certain of his escape. He turned a corner, and ran-SMACK! -into a tanned fist, falling to the ground, face bleeding freely from his split lip. Nahele stepped out from behind the corner, her face set with grim satisfaction. Tamas lay on the floor, looking sheepishly up at the towering demi. But before anyone could do anything, two female voices squealed with concern, and two sets of footsteps hurried towards them. They turned to see Helen and Tessa racing towards them, their eyes wide with worry. They both dropped to their knees beside Tamas, concerned.

“My darling!” Tessa exclaimed.

“Sweetheart!” Helen cried. Then they both looked at each other, then Tamas’s sheepish face, then back at each other.

“What are you talking about? I’M his girlfriend!” they both exclaimed.

“No, I am!” they replied. They glared at each other, then back at Tamas. He chuckled nervously and dissolved into a swirl of black smoke, which floated down the passage as fast as it could, leaving behind a very disappointing empty space behind.

“You don’t mean-” Tessa started.

“That two timing son of a b-” Helen interrupted.

“I’M GOING TO KILL HIM!” Tessa shrieked.

“OH NO YOU DON’T!” Helen bellowed back.

“AND WHY NOT?” Tessa snapped angrily.

“BECAUSE I AM GOING TO KILL HIM!” Helen roared, then both ghouls turned and raced down the passage after Tamas, both determined to give him a piece of their minds, or more accurately, their fists. The others watched them go, surprised that their rescue mission had been interrupted by the bad guy’s two jilted girlfriends.

“Well? Are we going to go after him?” Lio asked.

"Nah, I’m sure those two got it, there won’t be much left of him when they get done. Let’s just release these poor dancers. They’re under the same spell, they drank lotus nectar too.” Nahele said dismissively, turning back to the pulsing dance floor.

“How are we going to release them? You can’t kiss everyone here.” Lio replied, glaring at her, daring her to defy him.

“No, but there is another way. We must first take out the DJ.” She replied, weaving through the dancers.

“But what did Andromeda do? Surely she’s innocent.”

“Andromeda is, but that isn’t Andromeda-42 up there.”

“How do you know?”

“She’s on tour in Asia, with Kara as her bodyguard.” Nahele said, reaching the DJ stand. She raised her hand, summoning a ball of lightening to threaten the android with.

“All right you, get lost!” Nahele snarled. Andromeda-42 turned and glared at her, or at least as much as a robot wearing a visor could, which wasn't very much at all.

“Oh, and why should I? Everyone loves me, I am the famous Andromeda-42, they’ll riot if you kick me out.” the android replied haughtily.

“They would, if you were Andromeda.” Nahele replied, then heaved the turntable off the stage, tumbling it backwards into Andromeda’s metal chest, knocking her to the floor.

“Get up Vanadium-43, and get out of here!” Nahele snapped, hurling lightning uncomfortably close to the android, leaving a blackened patch on the polished wood floor. The android glared at her again, and her form shimmered and changed, revealing that her appearance had been no more than a hologram. In her place was another android, this one glowing blue and purple instead of rainbow, and dressed in a flowing, luminescent silk dress, but other than that, looking almost identical to Andromeda-42, albeit with a nastier look on her face.

“May I introduce to you Vanadium-43, Andromeda-42’s rival.” Nahele announced, waving towards the angry android on the floor.

“I am indeed Vanadium-43, and much better than anything Andromeda could ever wish to be! I should be the one on tour, not that lousy bucket of bolts!” she exclaimed, her visor turning red with anger.

“Ah, put a cork in it and get out!” Nahele snarled, her eyes murderous, and Vanadium leaped to her feet, bolting past the demigods and out the door.

“Now, let’s get to work!” she said, watching the android go.

Chapter 32

Nahele took a deep breath, closed her eyes and began to hum deep in her throat, the sound vibrating through everyone’s lungs. The dancers slowed, looks of slight confusion on their faces, as if they all had suddenly remembered something important, but couldn’t quite fully remember what. Then her voice pitched higher, slowly at first, then higher and higher until their ears rang. Then she began to form words, but none in any language they recognized. Two more voices joined her from the crowd, weaving into her voice in a three-part harmony, and two figures stepped forth from the crowd, revealing themselves to be Aria and Meifeng, their eyes also closed as they sang along. The melody was beautiful and complicated, raising all sorts of emotion, making everyone stir and twitch with nervous energy. Lio’s heart pounded as he listened. The sound was fantastic, it made him want to run and shout and laugh hysterically, and it him feel as if his heart was about to burst with joy. Memories flicked through his head, reliving all sorts of wonderful times. Then the song changed again, lower and slower, soothing instead of exciting this time. All the raging emotions faded away, replaced by calm and clarity, and the crowd closed their eyes, swaying contentedly to the song. Then it ended, and the last note faded away slowly, leaving everyone feeling peaceful and happy. The crowd slowly broke out of their spell, looking around them and at each other, glancing at watches and phones, then jumping as they saw the time, and rushing out the door, realizing they had been expected back home weeks ago. Lio watched as a few of Tamas’s goonies took advantage of the exodus to hide their own escapes, keeping an eye on Ike’s mop of blond hair, sticking out like a tan flag. That guy had been quite a troublemaker, disguising himself as Tamas so that they’d chase him instead, allowing the real Tamas to get away. But where was Kei? The vampire ghoul’s purple hair was nowhere in sight. Then he jumped as someone tugged on his jacket sleeve. He turned to meet Charnelle’s red eyes, which were staring at him with concern.

“There’s something I ought to tell you.” she said, her voice low to keep the others from hearing, and pulled him a bit away from them, making sure they were out of earshot.

“What is it?” Lio said as softly.

“You know Kei and Kaasi? Well, they weren’t actually real,” she started slowly.

“What do you mean?”

“They were actually both Ike in disguise. I had a vision about him and Tamas, and it showed Ike taking on their shapes.”

“Really? Wow, that’s disturbing. Why did you keep that secret?”

“I don’t know. I see now that I shouldn’t have, it might have saved us quite a bit of trouble. I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay, we’re all fine now. I’m glad you told me late than never. Let’s go back to the others.” Lio said, patting the vetala reassuringly on her shoulder before turning back to the rest to watch the last few dancers trickled outside, the demigods following them and heading back to their car. Charnelle followed more slowly, shaking her head in disappointment. He still didn’t get it, did he? Ah well, hopefully he’ll realize it. Soon.

Chapter 33

The demigods met up in the hall at school the next day to talk about the events of yesterday.

“Hey Lio! How you doing today? How did your mom react when you got home?” Nahele called, beaming at her boyfriend.

“Great! I never fully realized how foggy Tamas was making my mind. Mom was stoked to have me back, she hugged me so tight I don’t think my ribs will ever be the same again!” he replied, rubbing his chest as it ached with the memory of his mother’s enthusiasm. Everyone laughed and he smiled. It felt good to be back with them, chatting casually and of his own free will. He glanced over at Charnelle, whose face was tight with worry, her red eyes boring into his own, as if trying to tell him something. Then he remembered what she had told him yesterday about Ike and the vampires. Hiss eyes widened as a suspicious realization dawned onto him.

“Nahele?” he asked.

“Yeah?” she replied, smiling happily.

“Doppelgangers take on the appearance of actual people, right?”

“Most of the time, yeah.”

“And Ike is a doppelganger, right?”

“Well, duh!”

“So, you know how he took on the appearance of Kaasi and Kei? You don’t suppose that by any chance…”

“What?” Nahele asked. Lio quickly explained what Charnelle had told him.

“Oh my gods!” Nahele gasped, her eyes growing wide as she realized the implications. “Those ghouls! They could be real! If they are, we have to find them! They might be in danger!”

Charnelle stepped up, clearing her throat to get their attention.

“Um, I think I may have an idea of where they are.”

“Where?” Lio and Nahele demanded, perfectly in sync.

“When I was locked up in the basement of that abandoned house, I could feel the presence of other beings down there. I dismissed it as rodents or spiders or something, but when I think back on it, they felt much larger than that. I think they may be somewhere down there.”

“We’ve got to go get them!” Lio exclaimed.

“We can take my car, I know the way. Charnelle, you go tell the others where we’re going, then come meet us down in the parking lot, we need you to come too.” Nahele said, turning to race down the hall, Lio close behind. Charnelle ran the other way, searching the crowd for their friends.

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They pulled up at the ruined shack and hopped out of Nahele’s car, which she then shrank and slipped into her pocket to keep it safe. Lio stared at the ruined building. It was enough to give monsters the creeps, and he shivered at the thought of what could possibly be in there.

“Freaky place.” he muttered.

“I know right? I was locked in the basement.” Charnelle said cheerily, boldly striding towards the open doorway, the smashed bit of wood that once had served as a door hanging from one rusted hinge. Lio and Nahele followed her inside, Lio quickening his pace to keep up. He didn’t want to go in there, but better to be in there with company than out in the equally creepy forest alone. He delicately stepped inside to see Charnelle staring down at the rotting wooden floor. There was a trapdoor, covered in eerie symbols. She just stood there, staring at it, not making a move to open it.

“Why are you just standing there, open it.” Lio said.

“I can’t. It’s charmed against vampires.” Charnelle replied, unmoving. Nahele stepped forward and boldly threw the trapdoor open, the wooden hatch slamming against the floor with a loud Bang!  Lio looked down the dark hole, his eyes adjusting from the gloom but still unable to see a thing. Charnelle led the way down, marching confidently down the stairway. Lio followed more cautiously, carefully placing one foot before the other, slowly poking his way through the darkness, Nahele following behind. When they reached the bottom, everything was pitch-black, and Charnelle’s voice emanated from the shadows.

“Hm, it would appear a bit darker than I anticipated. Can anyone make a light?” she said, her voice mildly interested. A pinkish light filled the room and Lio turned to see Nahele holding up her hand, a glowing flower floating just above her upturned palm. The light chased away the shadows of the basement, and fell upon two huddled figures, two sets of eyes glowing back at them.

Chapter 34

The rosy glow revealed two ghouls, seated back to back on the floor, bound with rope and gagged with grimy cloth shoved and tied into their mouths. Kaasi looked terrified to see them, but Kei glared defiantly at them, daring them to do their worst. They were in terrible shape, pale even for undead, dark circles under their eyes, the skin around the ropes raw and spotted with bruises from previous struggles against their bonds. Lio moved cautiously towards them, both pairs of eyes watching him closely. He carefully tugged the gags out of their mouths and undid their ropes, dropping them to the ground. The two vampires struggled to their feet, pushing against each other’s backs to help them up. They rubbed their wrists and Kei glared at them, less defiant and more concerned now.

“Kaasi, Kei? Are you guys okay?” Lio asked.

“What? Who’s that?” Kei snorted, her face twisted into a look of scoffing confusion.

“What? But aren’t those your guy’s names?”

“No! I’m Adrasteia, and she’s Aoide.” the vampire said.

“Oh. But then where did the names Kaasi and Kei come from?” Lio said, turning to give Charnelle his own look of confusion.

“You know how everything about this situation was all mixed up. Nothing is as it truly should be.” she replied cryptically. Lio glared at her, then his face relaxed and his eyes widened as his brain processed her words. The letters of the two names rearranged themselves in his mind. Kaasi…Isaak, Kei…Ike. They weren’t real names, they were just anagrams of Ike’s name! That rotten little shit! He didn’t even have enough creativity to make decent names! And to think, his real identity was there all along and Lio was too thick to notice. Wow, that was embarrassing. He cleared his throat and turned back to the two vampire ghouls.

“Well, you’re free to go. We can take you back to the school, if you like.” he offered.

“That’ll do nicely. I do have to pick up my car, it’s been there since we got kidnapped by that filthy halfblood.” Adrasteia said calmly, Aoide nodding behind her. Charnelle flinched at the remark about her half-brother. Halfblood was such a harsh term, especially when said with that much contempt behind it.

Lio led the way back up the stairs, the two vampires close behind him, Nahele once again the last in line, closing the trapdoor behind her, then seemed to think better about it. She closed her hand, making the glowing flower disappear, then leaned down and grabbed the spelled chunk of wood, ripping it from its hinges with one violent twist, then threw it into the air and blasted it with a bolt of lightning, incinerating the mass of evil sorcery to nothingness. The others jumped and stared at her.

“What? It’s one less piece of wicked junk in this world, and good riddance too, I’d say!” she said, head held high as she silently dared the others to argue with her. But there was a general murmur of agreement all around, and they headed outside the shack, the vampires squinting against the blinding sunlight, throwing up their arms to protect their eyes, their skin smoking slightly as the light touched their cursed bodies.

“Oh dear, I totally forgot! Here, get in quick!” Nahele exclaimed, slipping her miniaturized car from her pocket and tossing it to the ground, the vehicle expanding rapidly to normal size. Nahele took her place in the driver’s seat, Lio hopping into the passenger’s side next to her, leaving the three vampires to sit in the back, Charnelle squished awkwardly between the other two. The five remained silent on the way back, all the way to the school.

They pulled up to the parking lot, and everyone filed out, the two vampire ghouls walking away without so much as a backwards glance.

“You’re welcome.” Lio grumbled as he watched them go. They had just gone through all the trouble of rescuing those two from being imprisoned in a basement in a creepy old shack, and they didn’t even give so much as a thank-you.

“Bah, they’re vampires, of course they’re rude, what do you expect?” Charnelle said casually, and the other two stared at her, surprised that she’d say something like that about her own kind.

“But aren’t you a vampire?” Nahele said, eyebrow raised.

“What, no! I’m a vetala! There’s a huge difference!” Charnelle sniffed with mock indignation, then turned to leave, throwing one last smile over her shoulder to them. Lio sighed and leaned against the car.

“Well, it’s gotten late, school’s out, guess we all have to go home now. I hate having to travel by portal, but it’s the only way to reach the Duat!” he groaned, eyeing the swirling, screaming vortex of darkness that had appeared nearby.

“You know, you don’t have to live there, in the Duat, if you don’t want to. I mean, the house I have with my cousins has a ton of extra rooms nobody is using, they’re just there gathering dust…I mean, if you’re interested.” Nahele mumbled awkwardly.

“You mean come live with you?” Lio asked playfully, sensing her discomfort.

“Well, yeah, that was the general idea.”

“That’d be great, I’d love that! I’ll ask my mom tonight.” he replied, then leaped through the portal.

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“Honey, are you sure about this?” Ammit asked, her eyes wide with sadness and worry as she took in the sight of her son standing there, a large packed bag over his shoulder.

“Yeah Mom, positive.” Lio replied.

“Oh, my baby boy is already moving out, and he’s not even eighteen yet!” Ammit fussed.

“Mom! It’s only part-time! I’ll be here on weekends, well, some of them, and I’ll be back during breaks! It’s only for school days! Besides, you won’t have to spend so much energy opening a portal to school for me everyday!” Lio protested before his mom could get too embarrassingly mushy.

“Oh well, I suppose I can survive. It was bound to happen soon enough. Come here, let your mom give you a hug goodbye!” she said, rising to her feet and sweeping Lio into a crushing embrace, planting kisses all over his face. Lio wrinkled his nose, but didn’t stop her, squeezing his mom as tight as he could. Finally she let go, stepping back and wiping a tear from her eye.

“You be safe now, dear, and don’t forget to come see me!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine, I’ll be in a house full of powerful demigods, it’ll be great. Love you mom, see you.” he said, then stepped out of the house and through the portal awaiting him, his mom tearfully watching her son slip through the dimensions and seemingly out of her life.

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Lio stepped out of the roaring tear in the fabric of space-time, and into the second story hallway of the Hawaii demigods’ mansion, where Nahele was waiting for him.

“Got all your stuff?” she asked, eyeing the one bag he had.

“Yup!” he said, lifting it into the air.

“You sure pack light, unlike some of our classmates who insist on packing five bags of shoes.” Nahele remarked, and Lio laughed. “Anyway, remember, the room you stayed in last time?”

“Yeah?”

“That’s yours now.”

“Sweet!” he said, entering said room and dropping his one bag on the bed. “I have all sorts of plans for this place, red paint on the walls for one, then probably take out that wall…”

“Lio, NO. We’re not allowed to do that.” Nahele chided.

“I’m kidding, it’s perfect. Now, what’s for dinner?” he replied, smiling. It was good to be in his new home.

Chapter 35

Lio and Nahele were curled up on the sofa, eating cookies while watching a rather poorly done old horror movie on T.V. with all the lights turned off for maximum scary effect, as that movie needed all the help it could get.

“Hey, look, it’s my uncle!” Lio joked, pointing when the demon car in the film blew up, revealing a monster in the flames. Nahele let out an amused snort in response. They remained silent for a moment before Lio spoke again.

“Nahele?” Lio asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Yeah?” she whispered back.

“Are we dating?” He could barely see her in the flickering light from the television screen, but it was enough to see the look of outrage on her face, her eyes wide and staring.

“Are you kidding me? Of course! I sure as hell wouldn’t kiss you so much if we weren’t!” she exclaimed.

“Really? When did we start dating?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe the time we first kissed, you moron!” she said sarcastically.

“Oh. Just wanted to be sure.” he replied. Nahele picked up a cushion and whacked him in the face with it.

“OW!” he cried, laughing and trying to block her further attacks. Then the light suddenly came on.

“AH!” they both yelled, folding up their arms to shield their eyes from the sudden burst of light.

“Are you kids behaving yourselves? It’s awfully dark in here!” came Lani’s teasing voice, and they looked over to see her standing by the light, finger still on the switch. Kai and a few of the other resident demigods were standing there, waggling their eyebrows suggestively, earning them a hurled pillow from Nahele.

“Get your minds out of the gutter!” she snarled, and Lio laughed harder, clutching his stomach and falling over.

Yeah, it was good to be home.

The End.

Characters

First row: Lio, Lani, Jackie

Second row: Serpentine, Charnelle, Ike

Third row: Helen, Meifeng, Aria

Fourth row: Tessa, Sugar, Andromeda-42

Fifth row: Donny, Amy, Soulia

Sixth row: Trevor, Kimmy