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Leo’s eyes followed Percy Jackson as he got up from his table at the edge of the cafeteria.
“Something’s weird with him,” Leo said, sitting up higher to get a better look. “He’s been acting funny.”
It wasn’t just the change in routine, it was in the way Percy walked; he glided now. It was uncanny. He wasn’t just an abnormally attractive teenager anymore. Leo didn’t know if he liked it.
Piper snorted and stabbed a piece of miserable-looking lettuce with her fork. “No he’s not,” she said. “He’s just going somewhere else for lunch. Are you jealous?”
Leo whipped around to look at her. “Why’d I be jealous?” he asked. “What’s there to be jealous of?”
She gave Jason a purposeful look. “Someone,” she said. “And I’m not naming names, but this mysterious person may or may not have a little bit of a flame for Percy.”
Jason narrowed his eyes over his sandwich. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course not,” she said, reaching over to pat Jason’s cheek.
“That’s not it at all,”
“Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt,” Piper said, laughing.
Leo shook his head. “Whatever,” he said. “That’s not the point. The point is that Percy is being weird and we need to find out why.”
“Where’s the we?” Jason asked. “Why are we involved in this? I didn’t sign up.”
He flicked his eyes toward the blackened corner of the cafeteria that the school still hadn’t managed to fix. “Because of my tendency to set things on fire?” he offered. “Didn’t you guys make a rule about not leaving me unsupervised on school property for longer than five minutes.”
“Five minutes is still too long,” Jason muttered. “But fine. We’ll go.”
“Yes!” Leo cheered. He pushed his chair back from the table. “C’mon then, let’s go before they get too far.”
They didn’t find Percy, but where Annabeth Chase was, Percy was sure to follow. They were proven right when they heard Percy’s voice.
“I can’t keep doing this.” Percy sounded upset enough that Leo’s heart went out to him.. Whatever Percy was dealing with wasn’t the run-of-the-mill high school drama. “Why do you keep bringing me them?”
“Because you need them,” Annabeth answered, crossing her arms over her chest. “And I’ll keep doing it. And you’ll use them or I’ll make you. I’m not losing you.”
Leo shared a look with Piper and Jason, who now seemed as intrigued as he felt.
“Look at me!” Percy bit out, stepping into the light.
Piper slapped a hand over his mouth before he could say any one of the curses that were threatening to pour from his lips. Percy was covered in blood.
The three of them shared a wide-eyed, panicked look. Almost all of the color had left Jason’s face. What the hell were they supposed to do with this?
As quietly as they could, they crept away. The moment they were in the clear, they ran down the hall and turned into the first empty classroom they saw. Leo slammed the door and they ducked under the window to hide.
“Okay, so,” he said, looking between Jason and Piper. “Shit just got real.”
“We can’t do anything,” Piper said, eyes still wide. “We can’t.
It’d be smart to do nothing, it would. Leo could admit that.
But he refused.
He shook his head. “We can’t do nothing,” he said. “And look! Percy said he didn’t want to keep doing it! We have to help him!”
“Dude,” Jason said, looking all too unimpressed. “I don’t think that makes this better.”
“What can we even do?” Piper asked. “I can’t get in trouble again this year.”
“You won’t! I promise!” Leo peeked out through the window for a second. “And this is important!”
“He was covered in blood,” Jason said, pushing his glasses up. “We could get hurt. This is serious. You know there’ve been stories going around.”
Leo snorted. “You don’t actually think those are real, do you?” he asked. “I mean, come on. Vampires aren’t real.”
“But Mother Lupa—”
“We all know she’s weird,” he said. “I’ve had some weird foster parents in my time, but Lupa’s a special one.”
“I’m just saying—”
“Stop saying then,” Leo interrupted. “Are you going to help me or not?”
Piper seemed to come to a decision. She put her hand in the middle. “Of course we are,” she said. “Just like always.”
Jason sighed and put his hand on top of Piper’s. “Can’t have you blowing the school up. Again.”
“Hey!” he said, adding his hand to the mix with a grin. “I didn’t blow up the school, it was just a teensy weensy fire in the chemistry classroom and I’ll have you know—”
“Uh-huh,” Piper cut in. “Whatever. Let’s make a plan to find out if Lupa’s onto something with those stories of hers.”
As far as Leo was concerned, a man couldn’t be blamed for drifting off in class and missing being assigned his partner for the problem set when he had potentially world-changing mysteries to deal with.
Which meant that he couldn’t be blamed for jumping out of his seat when Percy sat at the desk next to him and scooted it over so they could both look at the worksheet.
“So,” Percy said, shoving the paper over with his sleeve-covered hand. He looked almost nervous. “Do you know what’s going on?”
“Uh-what?” Leo asked, blinking like a fool. Percy was even prettier up close.
Percy gestured at the worksheet. “In class,” he said. “It all goes over my head. There’d be no chance of passing this class if it weren’t for Annabeth, and I haven’t gone over it with her yet.”
Leo understood. He always needed to figure it out on his own too, the teacher was doing something called a “flipped classroom” and Leo hadn’t managed to make it through a single video teaching the material without feeling his eyes glaze over.
“Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on either,” Leo said, looking up at Percy.
Percy snorted, shaking his head fondly. “Great.”
Leo leaned back and raised his arms above his head to stretch. As uncomfortable as the desks were, they were back-cracking fantastic. Warm sun was streaming in through the windows and honestly? One of the top ten stretches he’d had.
To his side, Percy pulled the sleeves of his hoodie even further down his hands and yanked on his hood. Percy hunched forward over his desk. It was like he was hiding from the sun.
Realization hit Leo like a bag of bricks. Maybe Lupa was onto something…he’d certainly heard enough stories growing up that it couldn’t be impossible, could it? The blood, being too goddamn pretty, the sun…
Percy looked over at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked. “Is there something on my face?”
“No!” Leo rushed out, panicked. “You look great, what are you talking about? Your face is on your face, but that’s what looks great. But you have to know that, I mean look at you! But no, there’s nothing wrong or whatever. I was just looking because I like to look at things, especially pretty things like—”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Percy asked.
Leo bit down on his tongue in an attempt to stop the word vomit. “Uh,” he said. “You?”
“My face is on my face,” Percy said. Leo could barely see his face with the hoodie pulled down like it was. So, yeah, maybe Percy had a point in being so confused.
“Yes,” Leo said. “Your face is on your face.”
“And you were looking at my face because you like to look at things?”
“Pretty things,” Leo corrected, because his brain-to-mouth filter had never been very functional.
This was not how this conversation with Percy was supposed to go. He wasn’t even supposed to be having a conversation with Percy. He was supposed to be figuring out why the hell Percy’d been covered with blood in the middle of the school day. Jason and Piper were going to kill him.
He’d never seen anyone look as confused as Percy did right now. But Percy didn’t look offended. He seemed almost…interested…
“What are you doing this weekend?”
“Nothing?” Percy made it sound like a question.
“Would you like to do something?” Leo asked. “With me? Like a date?”
Percy blinked. He looked pleasantly surprised, even smiling. Leo took it as a good sign. “A date?”
Leo nodded.
“Uh, sure?” Percy said, brows furrowed together. “Does Saturday work?”
Still not convinced this was actually happening, Leo held up his hand and gave Percy a thumbs up. Smooth, thy name was Leo Valdez.
“Dude,” Piper greeted, pushing off the lockers as she fell into step beside him. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Leo nodded, looking behind him to watch Percy join Annabeth’s side and walk the opposite direction. “Something like that.”
“What?” Piper asked, quirking a brow.
“I have a date with Percy Jackson.
Piper laughed, drawing looks from a few of the people around them. “No really, what is it?”
Leo swallowed. “I told you,” he said. “I have a date with Percy.”
It took a moment, but Piper seemed to realize he was serious. “Huh,” she said. “I didn’t see this coming.”
“I didn’t either,” he admitted. “But it’ll be a good chance to learn more? Get close to him, ya know?”
She nodded, but the worried look didn’t go away. “Be careful,” she said. “Are you worried?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “But hey, there’s nothing I can’t handle! I mean, look at me!”
Piper looked him up and down. “Okay,” she snorted. “Good luck telling Jason.”
Leo froze mid-step. “Hey!” he said, chasing after her when his body caught up with his brain. “That’s not fair! You’ll help me, won’t you?”
She kept walking.
“Piper!”
For all that Leo had thought about finding someone and dating them—it haunted him sometimes, how much he wanted it—he’d never actually gotten this far before. He didn’t know what to do. What did Percy expect? Was he supposed to have a whole plan ready to go, point A to point B?
But there was a festival of some sort, and who could turn down carnival food and a death trap of a ferris wheel? Leo was proud of himself for this one.
Percy smiled when they got there, so Leo counted it as a win. Leo: 2, Love God With A Grudge Against Him: 0.
First things first, Leo was hungry and he wanted to see if Percy would eat food. Could he? Was that something vampires could do? If Percy was even a vampire, which Leo wasn’t sold on, but the suspicion refused to leave.
“So,” Leo said, grinning so wide his cheeks hurt. “What do you wanna do first?”
Percy stopped, frowning as he looked around. Just when Leo was about to say something, Percy pointed at the ferris wheel. “That,” he said. “It looks like fun.”
Fun was not the word Leo would use for the rusting metal beams and the missing screws, but no one could call him a coward.
Percy, almost hesitatingly, held out his hand for Leo to take and they made their way over. Percy’s hand was cold, and Leo filed it away.
In almost no time at all, they were in a car and making their way around. The carnival lights shone and reflected off of Percy’s normally green eyes, now shining golden. Something about it sent shiver down Leo’s spine, the feeling of prey recognizing predator.
But Percy looked over at him and smiled and Leo’s mind went blank except for how happy Percy looked, how free. The tension that seemed ever present was gone and Leo never wanted it to come back. It was like the rest of the world melted away as he lost himself in Percy’s green-gold eyes.
“Hey,” Percy whispered, leaning a bit closer. “This is fun.”
Leo nodded. “It is.” He pulled his gaze away from Percy’s eyes to look at Percy’s lips. “A lot of fun. We should do it again some time.”
“We should,” Percy agreed, perfect lips quirking up. His eyes darted to the side. “Oh, looks like we’re at the top of the ferris wheel.”
He didn’t know what was on his face but Percy must have seen something because he leaned in. The next thing he knew, Percy was kissing him, and it was better than anything he could have ever imagined.
For his own sanity, he ignored the faint taste of iron.
Leo hated the library. It was too large and too quiet and every move he made had him feeling like some evil librarian was going to emerge from the stacks and yell at him, but Piper liked the illusion of productivity so it was where they spent their study halls.
Jason flipped his knife over in his hands.
Piper rolled her eyes. “You know you shouldn’t have that,” she said. “They’re going to take it. Again.”
Jason grunted.
Before Leo could try to fill the awkward silence, they were joined by someone Leo would really much rather avoid.
Annabeth Chase cut an intimidating figure on the best of days, and now after they’d all seen her insisting Percy do whatever got him covered in blood? Well, Leo wasn’t inclined to assume the best.
“You,” she said, glaring right at him.
He swallowed. “Yes, he said. “Me.”
“Don’t do this to Percy.” She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned in. “He has enough to deal with right now.”
“But—”
“I don’t care,” she cut in. “Leave him alone.”
And then, before he could say a single thing back, she turned on her heel and stormed out.
“So,” Piper asked after Annabeth was out of sight.. “Did you at least learn anything?”
He swallowed, looking down at the pencil in his hand. “His eyes are shiny?”
Piper groaned and planted her face into the book.
Leo was wandering the school, waiting for Piper to get out of her club meeting. The burning smell of too much chlorine hit his nose as he got closer to the pool. All of a sudden a door further down the hall slammed open.
Instead of the athletes after practice he expected to emerge, it was Percy, covered in blood and looking like he was seconds away from a mental breakdown.
Leo gathered his wits enough to reach his hand out. “Hey,” he said. “Is everything okay?”
Percy didn’t even look at him, the panicked look on his face not fading as he hurried down the hall.
“Hey! Percy!” he called. “Come on!”
Nothing. Leo tried to ignore the rising well of hurt. Given the circumstances, he couldn’t really blame Percy—they’d only been on one date. But it still hurt. A lot.
But that was a lot easier to ignore with the whole ‘Percy covered in blood’ thing. That was what had started this all, wasn’t it? Steadying his shoulders, Leo made his way for the door Percy ran out of.
The smell was bad; Leo had always kind of assumed the swim team locker room would be that bad considering they couldn’t get sweaty the same way other people did, but somehow the chlorine just made it worse.
Or maybe, as he walked further into the locker room and turned a corner into a locker bay, the worse was the blood running toward the drain in thick rivulets from a body. Leo covered his nose and inched closer.
There was a chunk missing from the guy’s neck, almost like someone had taken a bite…
He stumbled back, almost tripping on a shoe left out. He got his phone out of his pocket. Pulling up his group chat with Piper and Jason was muscle memory.
They had a codeword for this type of situation. He’d insisted on it.
Time passed slowly, but Leo was frozen in place until he heard footsteps running down the hall toward the locker room.
“Leo?” Jason called from the other side of the room. “You in here?”
“Yeah,” he called, croaking a bit. “In the back.”
“Leo!” Piper cried, rushing over. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Leo said, lifting his hand to point at the dead guy. “But we have a problem. I saw Percy running out of here, covered in blood. I came to investigate, and, well…”
He watched as their eyes followed his finger and what they were seeing registered.
“Oh,” Piper said, sounding faint. “This is why we can’t leave you alone, you know. Do you know him?”
“No.”
“I don’t either,” Jason said, stepping closer for a better look.
They heard a weird shuffling sound. Leo looked down to find the previously-assumed dead guy crawling toward them. He was frozen in place and, looking to Piper and Jason, he wasn’t the only one.
They stood frozen as the guy crawled forward.
“So,” Leo squeaked. “Maybe we should have been thinking zombie?”
“I don’t think now’s the time!” Jason said, backing up into a locker. “Help me!”
Piper picked up the shoe Leo had tripped over earlier and threw it at the body’s head. It was useless.
“I don’t know!” Jason cried out. “Something!”
Leo kicked the body, but that only seemed to make it mad, crawling closer to Jason.
He kicked it again. Piper joined in, reaching down to try to grab the body’s wrist. It couldn’t keep going much longer, this had to be some sort of instinctual desperation considering how little blood was left.
The guy pulled at Piper’s hand, but Piper was stronger, holding it back.
Something more extreme than panic seized the half-dead guy, and it surged forward with its last bit of energy. Jason chose that moment to step in and help.
That was his mistake.
The victim’s last hurrah was locking its jaw around Jason’s ankle. Jason kicked the body away and it fell back without another sign of life. A line of blood trickled down Jason’s ankle where the creature had broken skin.
“Well,” he squeaked. “Do you think some disinfectant will be enough?”
Lupa had apparently taken a dog bite as an excuse, and wrapped Jason’s ankle in gauze after disinfecting it and making Jason swear the dog didn’t have rabies. Leo didn’t know why Jason was so adamant about avoiding the doctor, and as each day passed with Jason looking worse and worse, he was getting angry about it.
It was about a week later that Leo decided he’d had enough.
“Dude,” he said, poking Jason in the shoulder. “This is not good. You need to get it looked at.”
“It’s…fine…” Jason said, voice barely a whisper. He looked down at his sandwich, untouched just as they had been for the past few days. “It’s just a rough patch.”
“Are you sure about that?” Piper asked, pressing her hand to Jason’s forehead. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”
“Totally,” Jason insisted. Or tried to. The word didn’t quite make its full way out before his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed forward.
“Jason?” Piper asked, tone rising. “Jason!”
Leo reached out and shook his shoulder. No dice.
“Uh, Piper,” he said. “He’s out. I don’t think this is good.”
Piper nodded, biting at her lip worriedly. “Yeah, I don’t think so either,” she said. “We have to take him somewhere.”
“Where?” Leo hissed. “The nurse? She knows how to deal with kids lying about a headache to get out of a math test. I think this might be a bit beyond her.”
“We can’t take him to a hospital!” she insisted. “They’ll ask too many questions!”
“What can we do then?!” he asked. “We can’t stay here with him! Look at him!”
“I am looking!”
“We’ll order an uber,” Piper said, rushing the words out. He could see the idea forming in her brain. “My dad logged in on my phone for emergencies. I think this counts.”
“An uber to where?”
“My house,” she said, nodding. “He’s not home. He rarely is, but he’s on location right now.”
“And how do we get Jason to the uber?” he asked, gesturing toward all six feet and two-hundred pounds or so of all-American hunk that was Jason Grace.
She looked at him like he was an idiot. “We carry him.”
“Carry him?” he asked, gesturing between the two of him. “Us?”
“We have to,” she said.
Piper walked around the table until she was on Jason’s other side.
“Bring his arm over your shoulder,” she said, pulling Jason’s hoodie over his head.
Jason wasn’t as heavy as he looked; he was heavier. Leo felt like his spine was compressing by the second. This was what he got for ignoring Jason’s invitations to go lifting.
If they got out of this, he was about to swear to Jason to never miss a gym day again in his life.
They, somehow, managed to make it out of the cafeteria.
“You know,” Piper huffed as they dragged Jason between them down the hall; dragged was the correct word. Jason was too tall for this. “This isn’t what I meant when I said I literally carry this entire friend group on my back.”
“Our backs,” Leo said. “Definitely both of us doing this right now. He owes us for this, so much.”
Leo wasn’t the religious type, but prayers poured out of his lips as they managed to make it out of the school without issue.
The uber driver gave them an exasperated look, but sipped his diet coke in silence while he watched them struggle.
“See if you get a tip,” Leo muttered under his breath.
Piper slapped his chest. “Leo,” she chided. “Don’t say that.”
He rolled his eyes and slid in after Jason, closing the door behind them.
Between him and Piper in the back seat, Jason’s eyes fluttered open. “Wha—”
“Jason!” Piper cried, leaning in. “How are you feeling? Are you okay? We’re going to my house so you can rest.
“Okay,” Jason murmured, rolling his head to rest on Piper’s shoulder. “Love you guys.”
“Love you too,” Leo said, trying to ignore the overwhelming feeling of dread.
They reached a stop light and Leo locked eyes with the uber driver in the rear-view mirror. “Sure he’s okay?” the driver asked. “I could take you to a hospital, ya know. Won’t make a difference to me as long as you pay.”
Piper scowled. “He’s fine.”
Leo hoped she was right.
Leo had never before appreciated the elevator in Piper’s house as much as he did right then. Getting Jason up the front stores had been bad enough, but the second floor might have killed him.
They managed to get Jason in Piper’s bed with minimal struggle. Leo did the respectful thing and didn’t comment on the clothing Piper had strewn all over the place, even ignoring the familiar magazine she kicked out of sight.
Leo took Jason’s shoes off while Piper propped him up on a pillow.
“What do we do?” he asked, poking at the white gauze around Jason’s ankle. It didn’t seem to be bleeding, but who knew what that meant. He wanted it to be a good thing, but Jason looked deader than the thing that had bit him.
“I don’t know,” Piper said, brows furrowing together. She sat on the edge of the bed and raised her hand to the side of Jason’s face, stroking his cheek. “I don’t know.”
A moment passed in silence. Leo didn’t like the feeling in the room, but he joined Piper and Jason on the bed anyway, reaching down to grab Jason’s hand.
This was his fault, wasn’t it? He’d been the one who wanted to know what Percy was doing. All because of some stupid crush that he’d only half known he had. He’d been the one to go into the locker room after seeing Percy like that. What else had he expected to find? He’d known it wouldn’t be anything good, and yet…
“Jason?” Piper asked, leaning forward, syllables harsh. “Jason!”
Leo looked up.
“Jason!” Piper tried again, slapping his face. “Wake up!”
Jason didn’t budge.
“No…” Piper trailed off, shaking her head and slapping him again. “No!”
Leo didn’t want to do it, but curiosity had always been his downfall. He’d never been good with not knowing. He let go of Jason’s hand to press his fingers to the inside of Jason’s wrist and waited.
One, two, three...
Nothing.
He inhaled a sharp breath.
Piper’s head snapped toward him. “He’s okay,” she insisted. “He has to be.”
Leo shook his head. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen somebody die.
But it wasn’t supposed to be Jason. Never, ever Jason.
Piper’s face twisted into something unrecognizable and she let out a sound Leo knew he’d never forget.
He defaulted. He’d never been able to rely on being liked, but useful was something he was very good at. Shaking, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, dialing three numbers that’d been beaten into his head since he was a child.
”911, what’s your emergency?”
“Hi,” he choked out. “My friend…he just got really, really sick. We thought he would sleep it off. He, uh, got bit by something the other day. But we went home to check on him, and…well…he’s not okay.”
Piper sobbed from where she was crushing her face against Jason’s chest.
“I don’t know what to do,” he said, even as funeral arrangements ran through his head. He was only a kid then, but he knew how this went. “Please help me. He’s my best friend. My best friend is dead.”
It went exactly as he’d known it would. Piper hadn’t let go of his hand for a single moment in the past week or so and he was more than okay with it. He needed something to ground himself. To anchor him, to hold onto against the wave of self doubt and accusation he knew was waiting for him.
This was his fault.
But there was only so long they could cling onto each other, tears falling down their faces and their chests both sore for how long they’d been crying. He’d lost energy for sobs, but he still ached with them.
The funeral passed by in a blur. It was him and Piper alone in the front row, and for whatever reason, the only thing Leo could think of was all the answers Jason never got. He knew he’d had a Dad, knew he had a sister out there supposedly. He’d been searching for her. And now he’d never find her.
She’d never know. Did she, whoever she was, know he had a brother?
He lost track of time—who could expect him to keep it? But he knew enough had passed when he looked up to find him and Piper alone in their row, her dad standing in front of them, frowning.
“Pipes,” he said. He’d left set to come support Piper. Leo would give him that much credit as a dad. “Come on, it’s no good staying here.”
She squeezed his hand harder. Leo mirrored her.
“But—”
“I know,” Piper’s dad said.
Leo believed him. Piper didn’t talk about her mom a lot, but it was common knowledge that Tristan McLean had vowed to never look at another woman after losing her.
He let go of Piper’s hand. She fell forward into her dad’s arms.
She looked back and caught his eyes, he nodded. She deserved rest. She didn’t need to keep worrying about him.
Idly, Leo reached into his pocket and pulled out Jason’s knife. He wasn’t sure exactly when he’d first grabbed it, but he’d kept it on him since. Jason only had him and Piper, really. Sure, Lupa and the others at her house, but they didn’t know Jason. Not like they did.
He must have been less alone than he thought, but maybe it was the same thing that’d had him chasing Percy in the first place that made it so he didn’t notice the other.
“Hey,” Percy whispered, sitting down in the seat Piper had just vacated. He had flowers in his hand, a cheap grocery store bouquet. It should look like a joke, but even him sending there sent those same strange flutters down his spine.
Leo flicked the knife open. “Don’t know what you brought those for,” he said. “It’s not like they’re going to make a difference.”
“I’m sorry,” Percy said, frowning deep. To his credit, he looked like he genuinely meant it, but Leo wasn’t in a forgiving mood. Not when his best friend was lying fresh in the ground.
“This is my fault,” Percy continued. “If I hadn’t—”
“It is,” Leo interrupted. He looked up, wanting to see Percy’s face. It’d been so recently he’d been blushing like a damn fool while kissing Percy on a ferris wheel, but life came at you fast. “Thanks for seeing that, I think. But the last thing I want to give you is a thank you,”
Percy winced.
Leo flipped the knife in his hand again. And then, before he could second-guess it (or even first-guess it), he caught the knife so it was pointed toward Percy and jerked his arm forward. The knife went in easier than he’d expected.
He didn’t know what someone was supposed to sound like when they were stabbed, but it soothed something deep in his chest. Maybe this is what Rosa had meant when she said something was wrong with him.
He pulled the knife out and wiped it on Percy’s sleeve.
Leo didn’t even know if Percy could die. If he couldn’t, he thought Percy might understand. There wasn’t anger in Percy’s eyes, only resignation as the flowers slipped out of Percy’s hands to the floor.
They both knew he deserved this, because Jason sure as hell hadn’t.