33 Chapter 33

When Luke heard the gunshots, all of his will to pee disappeared. He rushed out of the door that separated the toilets from the diner itself, followed by Vincent, who had his own gun out. Luke didn't even bother to care; he just hoped nothing terrible had happened.

He swung the white door with a small circular window open and his eyes widened.

Alex was still near their booth, slashing his sword at two flaming-haired women with sharp fangs and glowing red eyes. Annabeth was trying to help him, striking when there was a chance, but the little girl wasn't having any luck. Thalia was to Luke's far left, near the jukebox, now playing Free Bird as the punk girl fought the last monster.

Empousai, Luke thought. He knew of them. He'd fought one before near L.A., and had won by sheer luck after a truck ran her over. They weren't exactly expert fighters; Luke was sure they weren't very big fans of close combat. No, what made them scary wasn't their Mist Manipulation similar to Alex's little trick, nor their shapeshifting that allowed them to grow sharp claws for combat. They could Charmspeak.

Charmspeak was a scary ability, especially if the target was male. Just a few words and their victim would be under their spell. And the worst part? The only way one could fight this power was by sheer willpower. 

If you weren't confident enough, you had no chance.

"What the fuck's goin' on here?!" Vincent exclaimed. The dude raised his gun pointing it at the trembling Honey Bunny on the ground, then pointed it at Pumpkin who was still in a trance. His gun then went to the Empousa trying to kill Alex, and his mouth fell open. 

Who knew what he was seeing...

Luke was as confused as him, but he had to think, and fast. Who should he help first? He looked at Thalia. She seemed to have it under control, keeping the monster at a distance and using that to her advantage with her spear. Alex wasn't having the same luck.

"Why don't we stop and talk this out?" Sirelin asked with puppy eyes. 

Alex's sword arm faltered, stopping midway of what would've been a killer blow. She grinned, and Alectoria leapt for his neck, fangs bearing and ready to suck every last of his blood. He punched himself in the face, earning some drops of the blood they wanted so much down his nostrils, breaking the enchantment on him in time to raise his left arm. 

The empousa bit down on Alex's arm, only to break her fangs against the Nemean Lion jacket and shriek in pain. Annabeth took the opening and ran towards the stunned Alectoria. A claw swipe came bearing down on her, which she dodged with a slide. Sirelin went for another attack, but Annabeth was quicker, deflecting her clawed hand with her dagger. 

However, the little skirmish gave Alectoria enough time to regain her bearings. With a yell filled with rage, she tried to slice Annabeth in the face. The little girl wasn't paying attention to her surroundings, so the claws got dangerously close. But Alex was there, and he pulled Annabeth back by grabbing the back of her collar and flapping his wings, leaping back and creating some distance between them and the monsters. 

Okay, Luke decided, Alex was in deeper trouble.

But of course, when he unsheathed his curved sword from the scabbard that hung from his belt, he heard the door to the unisex toilet open. He whirled around, and Vincent did the same, his gun raised. 

"What's the noise all about?" a portly-looking woman asked, yawning and scratching her double chin as she walked towards Luke. 

Luke didn't let his guard down; he quickly raised his sword. The gleam of celestial bronze caught the woman's eye, and her nonchalance gave way to a deep frown. 

"What do you want, demigod?" she asked with a hiss in her tone, morphing to a similar form as her fellow empousai, even if she looked a bit more... sturdy. "We haven't even bothered you."

"Your friends got the party started without you," Luke said. "But what would that change? If you monsters keep coming after us without reason, what stops demigods from doing the same?"

The fat empousa sneered. "What stops them? The possibility of a peaceful death."

"What the fuck did they put in my coffee..." Vincent muttered.

==========

The second those empousai had shown their ugly mugs, Alex knew he was in for a heck of a fight. Their late-night snack stop in the diner had turned into a full-blown monster mash. 

He glanced away for a second. Thalia and Luke were squared off with their own monsters, which left him to handle the other two. Great, double the fun. He looked at Annabeth. She was clutching her dagger with such strength her knuckles were a pale white. No matter how much she'd been training with them, Alex didn't want to risk her getting injured, but she was staring murder at them, so he didn't know if he could stop her from doing something reckless.

Okay, enough retrospecting. Alex looked at the empousai again. The two were moving towards him with this creepy grace, like ballerinas if ballerinas were into murder and eating half-bloods. It would've been pretty were they not trying to turn them into kebabs. 

Exhaling, he kept his cool. He had a bit of an edge with his celestial bronze sword and powers; he couldn't do anything too fancy without exhausting himself, but it was enough to throw them off their game.

"Hey, ugly!" he yelled, hoping to distract them. It sort of worked. Sirelin made a beeline for him, but he ducked her attack, sending a shadow spike flying at her. It was more of a shadow splinter, really, but it did the trick, nicking her arm. That was enough for the power to spread and blind her for a few seconds. 

He immediately went for the kill, but Alectoria was smarter than Alex thought and blocked the attack against her friend with her claws.

The diner's light was too bright for Alex's liking. With a quick thought and a flick of his wrist, he sent another shadow spike at the nearest lamp, knocking it out with a shattering sound. The shadows grew, giving him a slight power-up. He felt stronger, faster, and way cooler. Not that I had time to enjoy it.

"What did you do?!" Alectoria asked, baring her fangs.

"Oh, you don't know?" Alex smirked. "Shadows are kind of my thing."

Holy, that was cringe.

The empousai didn't seem too thrilled about his little light show. They hissed, which he guessed was their version of trash-talking, and tried to hit Alex with charmspeak. "Oh, handsome demigod, why don't you come over to our side? It's much nicer here," one purred, her voice all syrupy sweet like a cat lady talking to the twentieth stray of the week.

For a second, he almost wanted to. Almost. Who wouldn't want to join the monsters' side, right? Then he remembered: 'Oh yeah, they're trying to eat me'. So, he did the only sensible thing — he punched himself across the face again. Hard. "Focus, dude," he muttered to himself because nothing said 'get it together' better than a self-inflicted wake-up call. 

"Nice try with the tricks, fuckface!" Alex yelled back at them, shaking off the daze.

The battle dragged on, and he was starting to feel it. Dodging, weaving, slashing with his sword — it was tiring. Had he been in a one-on-one fight, he could've made quick work of the empousai, but together, they were tough, and didn't give him even a second to catch his breath. Their teamwork was immaculate: when one was pushed back, the other covered for her; on the verge of death, the other would save her skin. They would both attack him at the same time, and Alex would struggle to defend.

It was almost ironic: he'd shamed Blink for lacking teamwork, but now, he was the one fighting against a well-oiled machine.

What could he use to disrupt the cogs of that machine?

With a swift motion, he moved his left arm to the front, its silver bracelet gleaming even in the dim light. "Aegis!" he summoned, and a large bronze disk appeared. The empousai's eyes widened and they recoiled. Guess they weren't expecting the jumpscare.

The fight got serious — he parried a heavy overhead strike from Sirelin and then tilted his head to avoid Alectoria's stab before swinging his sword. He danced around their attacks, using the shield to stun them and then going for an attack of his own. Alex felt the happiest when he had a blade in hand; it felt like a missing part of his body, just like what he first felt when he got his wings.

Every strike felt closer to ending the fight, but these creatures were tough.

Finally, after he pushed Sirelin back with the shield, there was an opening. Alectoria lunged too eagerly, and Alex sidestepped, bringing his sword down as if it were a guillotine. It connected with the neck, looping the empousa's head off. With a flash of light and a shriek, she turned to dust.

"One down," he panted, barely a second to catch his breath before the other was on him.

Sirelin tried her luck with charmspeak again. "Give up, little hero. It's futile."

Alex's legs began to weaken as the empousa's voice filled his head, smooth and dangerous. She made each word feel like a tightening grip. 

"Please," she whispered, stepping closer. Her clawed hand reached out, not to hurt, but almost kindly, as if she was offering a gift. "Just let go. It's so much easier than fighting."

Her words clouded his thoughts, tempting him with the idea of stopping, of ending the constant running and fighting. It seemed appealing, like the comfort of sinking into a warm bath and letting it all fade away...

He tried to shake off the confusion, but it was hard, like swimming against a strong current. His sword felt incredibly heavy, too heavy. The idea of dropping it and embracing peace seemed good.

"That's right, dear. Just a bit more. Let go." She said, kicking Annabeth in the gut and sending her tumbling across the checkered floor. 

He was almost convinced, on the verge of giving in. His vision blurred, the edges of his sight growing dark, not from his powers but from the effort it took to resist her charmspeak. It would have been so easy to just close his eyes and surrender.

Sirelin's clawed hands got dangerously close to his neck. Alex flinched, trying to move, but at the same time, he didn't want to. A part of his brain screamed for him to move, another for him to just relax. The ring on his finger hummed—

*BANG*

Gunfire echoed again, and every fight stopped for a moment. The fat empousa, who had Luke pinned against a wall and was about to drain his blood, turned to look, and that gave the Son of Hermes enough time to stab her neck, making the monster explode in a cloud of dust. 

Erynthis had one of her thick claws digging deep into Thalia's left thigh when she flinched. Thalia took the chance and headbutted the empousa and shocked her, placing her hands on the monster's neck and discharging enough electricity to stun her. That opening was all the punk girl needed to drive her spear through Erynthis gut, adding more golden dust to the floor.

As for Alex, the hold Sirelin's charmspeak had on him broke when a bullet pierced her neck. It didn't do any damage at all except stun the empousa. Alex drove the edge of his shield against her face, her mouth and nose sinking into her skull, before slashing his sword across the monster's chest.

When the last empousa disappeared, Alex sighed and groaned at the same time. Then he remembered the bullet and looked to his left.

Jules was standing there, holding a smoking gun in his hand. He lowered it, looking at the old manager that was peaking over the counter. 

"Now, I do believe in the respectful enjoyment of one's meal, which is, by all accounts, a divine blessing. So, when I bit into my seemingly innocent muffin, I was expecting, perchance, a bit of blueberries and perhaps chocolate chips. Instead, I find myself questioning the very fabric of reality... so, I gotta ask, with all due respect:" he pointed the gun at the manager, "What the fuck did you put in my fuckin' muffin?"