Julius POV
"Lady Artemis."
Artemis? Why did that name sound so familiar?
My mind started racing with thoughts, finally landing on one. That's right, Artremis the greek goddess of the hunt.
I looked around. All of the girls here were dressed as hunters, were they all cosplaying, but then why did they know about the white monster.
"Who is this Zoe?" the supposed goddess asked, her voice clear and commanding despite her youthful appearance.
"My lady I found him in a locker room," the girl who had dragged me here replied.
The girl or Artemis as the other girl had called her, crouched before me so our eyes were meeting each other. Her silvery grey and my ivory green. Her gaze was unsettling, like she was looking through me rather than at me, analyzing every piece of my being. It was both mesmerizing and terrifying.
"You're not infected by the Mormo."
"Mormo? Infected?" I asked, confused. Zoe, as this Artemis girl had called her, had also said something about a Mormo.
My wounds from the fight still stung, especially the cut above my eye. My muscles ached with every small movement, and being dragged across the school hadn't helped matters. But none of that compared to the confusion and disorientation I felt now.
Artemis didn't answer; she just looked up at Zoe.
"I was sure she was here."
Wait that god forsaken thing was a she! That twisted mask, those claws, that horrible whistling... it had been a woman?
"It was my lady," Zoe answered, her posture straightening slightly. "There is another reason why I brought you this... man."
She said the final words as if they were venom in her throat, her face contorting with clear disgust. Wow, rude much. I hadn't done anything to her except exist, apparently.
"He says he killed the Mormo."
At that Artemis looked at me once more, her silver eyes widening just slightly, the first real emotional reaction I'd seen from her.
"You did?"
"I did."
My voice came out confident, something I realized always happened, I never stuttered no matter the situation not because I was calm but simply because my voice didn't allow me to, I know it sounded weird but that was the only way I could explain it.
The adrenaline from the fight had worn off, and both pain and exhaustion were catching up with me fast. The memory of the monster's face, or rather, mask, changing rapidly flashed through my mind. That horrible whistling...
"You're not a mortal then," Artemis seemed to muse, her head tilting slightly as she studied me with renewed interest.
"Mortal?"
She cocked her head to her side. "Wait, you don't know you are a demigod? How did you even kill her then?"
A demigod? Me? The absurdity of it almost made me laugh, but the seriousness in her eyes stopped me. But was it really that crazy?
I mean monsters were real, whose to say what she was saying wasn't true either.
I pointed at my bag, which Zoe had been dragging along with me. It was weathered and torn in places, especially after tonight's events. But it held the one thing that had saved my life, our lives, Richter's and mine.
"The whip," I said, wincing as I tried to sit up straighter. "It kills them. Always has."
Zoe's and the rest of the girls' eyes moved to the bag. The atmosphere in the room shifted, tension thickening as all attention focused on my backpack. One of them who looked to be around 13, with auburn hair braided down her back and freckles across her nose, opened it up before bringing out a bronze whip.
The Vampire Hunter.
The girl handled it gingerly, as if it might bite her, and passed it to Artemis with reverence. The supposed goddess took it with much less caution, gripping it firmly and letting it uncoil toward the floor. Her eyes gazed the entire length of the whip as if assessing it.
"The whip of an empousi, a rare thing indeed," she glanced at me one more time before questioning. "How many monsters have you hunted?"
I shifted uncomfortably under her gaze, aware of the dozens of eyes on me, most filled with suspicion or outright hostility.
"I don't know, a few dozen more or less, when they do show up, they normally come in groups."
Faces in the circle exchanged looks of surprise. A few whispers erupted before Artemis silenced them with a subtle raise of her hand.
Artemis's eyebrow raised slightly, but she didn't press the issue.
"Why has no satyr come for you then? You have already been exposed. Weird."
Satyr? Like the goat men from Greek mythology? This night was getting stranger by the minute.
My head throbbed, both from the confusion and the injuries. I just wanted to go home, collapse into my bed, and get rid of my injuries.
"What do you wish we do with him, my lady?" Zoe asked, her tone still as respectful toward Artemis as it was contemptuous toward me.
The circle of girls tightened slightly, a few hands moving to weapons, which by now I already figured out weren't some props for a convention but the real fucking deal. I swallowed hard, suddenly very aware of how vulnerable I was.
Artemis fell silent for a few moments. The silence stretched uncomfortably, broken only by the soft sounds of weapons being adjusted and the faint whisper of breathing from several dozen throats.
Finally, a sigh escaped her lips. "We are going to Camp Half-Blood sooner or later, and Chiron would kill me if I just left a demigod to his fate, so you have two choices," she started, putting two of her fingers up. "The first is that you will leave fast; you will go to Long Island and find the camp. The second is that you follow us, and we will leave you at the camp when we get there."
Camp Half-Blood. Yeah I had no clue what she was talking about.
I looked around me, the women were staring daggers at me, some of them actually even had their daggers out of their sheaths.
One girl, maybe sixteen or seventeen, with a jagged scar running down her left cheek and fierce eyes, actually made a slicing motion across her throat when our eyes met. The message couldn't have been clearer.
If I stayed with whatever these people were, I was sure one of them would cut my throat in the night. Call it a sixth sense or animal instincts, but I wasn't going to risk it.
"I choose the first option," I said firmly, trying to keep my voice from shaking.
Artemis nodded, seemingly unsurprised by my choice. "Good choice. Then I will leave you with this knowledge. All Greek myths are true, every story, every poem, every god is true. You are a child of one of these gods; these are called demigods, and like all demigods, you carry the smell of divinity which attracts monsters to you like the Empousi and Mormo you hunted."
I sighed, processing her words. Greek myths were true. Gods were real. And I was a... demigod. Half god, half human.
Okay then.
At least I'm not insane.
Then I thought about Richter.
Well at least not fully.
I was relieved in a way, after all even when the monsters walked around in the public no one seemed to notice. I had always thought my mind was playing tricks on me, but no it was real, all which I had experienced and much more which I couldn't even dream of.
All was real.
Artemis continued, her voice matter-of-fact.
"This smell fades as you grow older, but it never truly leaves. Either way, your teenage years are the time in which this smell is strongest, and so there is a safe haven of sorts, a camp for demigods called Camp Half-Blood. It is on the north shore of Long Island, in a valley. You'll be close when you see a sign saying that Strawberry fields are ahead. There is a giant pine tree that dictates the true entrance of the camp."
I nodded, not really worried about remembering. I was always able to remember stuff when I wanted to. Besides I was tired from the fight with the Mormo. My body ached, my mind reeled, and all I wanted was to collapse somewhere safe and sleep for about a week.
Artemis handed me the Vampire Hunter, the rope that had been keeping me tied suddenly gone. I didn't even see her untie it, one moment it was there, the next it wasn't.
Eh, better not to question it.
I gripped the whip tightly. Thank god... wait, not god.
Gods.
Thank gods it didn't burn me like it did to the monsters.
Artemis and the rest of the women began to walk out of the cafeteria, seemingly finished with me. They moved with eerie coordination, like a flock of birds changing direction all at once.
"Wait?" I called out, a few hunters unsheathing their daggers as they heard my voice. "Why did you tell me all of this?"
Artemis raised her hand, her hunters sheathing their weapons at the act. She looked back at me, her mouth moved slowly as she spoke.
"Mormos are spirits of women who died in agony, live in agony, and feed on the agony and meat of others to remain corporeal and not vanish into nonexistence. They can only find peace in death. You gave her such peace."
That was all she said, and soon I was alone in the cafeteria once more.