Alex Anderson The Last Son of Zeus (10 page)

BOOK EIGHTEEN

THE MAGICAL ITEM

Alex and Bos sat in the Taco Loco watching Fiona eat.

A waitress walked by right as Bos slurped the remainder of his Coke. "Oh Miss, mas
fresca
por
favor." Bos kept his gaze on Fiona.

"Yeah, me too," Alex said. "May I have some more?" Alex kept his gaze on Fiona too.

"What are you
drink
--"

"Sweet Tea."

The waitress seemed to grin and took both glasses. "
Sí
, senores."
 

If the stares
creeped
the little
goth
-god out, she showed absolutely no sign of it.

In fact, if the events of the past hour
creeped
her out, she showed no sign of it. They just fought a
Gongoza
, witnessed the destruction of half the school, barely made it out without anyone noticing, and now she just sat there.

Eating tacos.

"So, Fiona," Bos cleared his throat and clapped his hands together, "anything you
wanna
tell us?"

Fiona held up a hand. "Let just say I'm a god and leave it at that. You wouldn't like it if I told you more."

Bos jabbed Alex's side. "She wants to leave it at that. Okay that's cool. Okay, I get that, Cause WHAT ELSE COULD THERE BE TO POSSIBLY FUCKING TALK ABOUT!"

Most of the restaurant's patrons looked in their direction.

Bos looked at the closest one, a nine year old boy, and flexed his muscles at him. "Do
somethin
.'"

The kid looked away.

Fiona
sighed
"Zeus…"

The waitress returned with their drinks and left. Fiona lowered her voice, "Zeus sent me to keep an eye on you. To protect you."

Alex leaned forward. "You've always been. It's always been Athena?"

"No."

Alex felt a pressure build in his gut and work its way to his chest. "When then? How long have you been
this whatever
you are?"

"How long do you think?"

"The car crash," Alex said.

Bos nodded and winked at Alex.

The car crash I caused. The car crash that almost killed her DID kill her. She's this weird thing now and it's
all my
fault. Why didn't I just--

"They were her decisions, Alex." Fiona's eyes bored into him. "It was her decision to come over, it was her decision to become intoxicated, and it was her decision to leave while intoxicated."

"Becoming this… What you are. Was that her decision?" Alex said.

"No. She had no say in the matter of merging."

"Merging? You mean Fiona's still kinda--"

"Yes, Alex. I'm still 'kinda.'" Fiona broke a taco in half. "When I merge with a mortal, I'm half Athena and half someone else. I am Fiona. I am Athena." She laid the tacos on opposite sides of the plate.

"How long will you stay this way?"

Fiona shrugged. "Until Zeus tells me not to."

The pressure in Alex's chest intensified. "What'll happen to Fiona? She comes back right?"

Fiona bit into the smaller of the two taco halves.

"She'll come back, right?"

"I specifically said 'you wouldn't like it.'"

"My guess is
you're not liking
it either. Or am I wrong about that scene in the library?"

A long silence passed.

Could Alex do something about this? The normal rules didn't apply to this new world he was in. People were super-strong and super-fast. If a god joining with a person kept her from dying, why couldn't there be a way to save Fiona later? He would find a way. He had to.

"Okay!" Bos slammed his hand on the table. "So look, are we like
gonna
do something or just sit here until she-bitch turns half the city into stone?"

Alex looked at Fiona...
Athena
. God, what was he supposed to think?

She...It... The god looked back at him. A hint of mascara still smudged her cheeks. "What do you know about
Gornads
?" he said.

"
Gorgons
."

"Fine. Whatever. Gorgons. What do you know about them?"

"They're human. Female. Usually someone young. And someone menstruating."

Bos held his straw between his teeth. "
Naaaaasty
."

"Who does it? Who turns them?"

"That I know of?
 
Aphrodite and--"

"Hera?" Alex said.

"Me. I created the curse, but Hera's changed it. Somehow she made this one come after you."

"Will it ever change back?"

"In a way. The curse is linked to something personal that's on the female's body at the time of transformation. Sometimes it's jewelry. Sometimes it's clothing. It's always something tacky. But if the person becomes human again, she will never truly be the same. If provoked in some way, she can revert back. If that happens..." Fiona shrugged and took another drink.

"So we find the something personal, then what?"

"We destroy it."

"Okay, but it could be anything," Alex said. "She--it--whoever didn't have anything on her except the tampon."

Bos chewed his straw. "
Naaaaasty
."

"I don't have the time to be nasty." Fiona said. "And besides, it's simply too fucked up. I'll just kill her and be done with it."

Alex leaned forward. "No, you can't. This is somebody. Look, if there's a chance, even a little
one, that
we can save this chick, that's what we need to do. It's what we've got to do."

Fiona wiped her mouth with a napkin and placed it on the table. "We?"

Alex shifted in his seat. "Yeah, we. Bos?"

"Dude, you had me at tampon."

"Alright," Alex said. "So, what do we do? What do we do when we get the thing?"

"Destroy it."

"Just destroy it? That's it, no fancy spells or anything?"

Fiona stopped chewing. "Why the hell would you need spells to destroy a tampon?"

~ * ~

This is not Fiona.

Alex, Bos and Fiona walked out of
Toco
Loco. The sun was setting behind the
restaurant,
and it along with their fast pace reminded Alex of a Michael Bay movie.

Bos fished his keys out. "Okay, I'm thinking we need guns to bring this thing down, Alex. Lots and lots of guns, preferably Uzis."

"Uzis won't work. Only bladed weapons will kill the beast."

It looks like Fiona
.

Alex put his hand on the Satellite's door handle and stopped. "We're not killing it. But, wait a minute, why won't we kill it?"

Fiona pointed an imaginary gun at Alex. "If I choose to kill someone with something as crude as a gun, Alex, it's impersonal. It takes no effort. I simply squeeze the trigger."

She extended her index and middle fingers and poked them into Alex's chest. "But a blade requires the effort of my entire body. It therefore connects with my soul. The weapon, in essence, becomes an extension of my soul. It's the only way the beast can be killed. It's the only way we can be killed."

It doesn't sound like Fiona
.

Bos leaned over the roof of the car and pointed at Alex. "Dude, that's totally awesome. I'm so shooting you with a gun this weekend. I just
wanna
see it."

Alex sat on the passenger seat. "You're not shooting me with a gun. I've been shot once already and it freaking hurts."

Bos plopped in the driver's seat. "Why? Man, this is totally fucking hot! You can do the Superman thing. You know, put your hands on your hips and I'll pump a few rounds in your chest."

Alex looked at Bos.

"Come on, dude. I'd do it for you."

Fiona crawled into the middle of the rear seat and shut her door. "Can we go hunt down the Gorgon that's turning innocent people into stone, please? I think that would be,
y'know
,
loverly
."

It does sound like Fiona
.

Alex shook his head. He didn't know what to think. So he just stopped thinking. "Let's go."

~ * ~

Bos slammed on the brakes and the satellite screeched to a halt in front of the red light. "Any ideas where we find this thing and its magic tampon?"

"They like dark places," Fiona said. "Dark places where there are no people."

"Dark places. Check. We're just looking for someplace dark at nighttime. How
fuckin
' hard can that be?"

"The steel mill," Alex said. The others gave him a blank stare. He couldn't blame them. For some reason, something he had no way of knowing seemed perfectly obvious to him. "The old steal mill. It's been abandoned for years. It's the perfect place."

"Right on." Bos turned the wheel and hit the gas before the light turned green.

~ * ~

It took them six minutes to get there. Six agonizing minutes Alex had to think about how he could keep from killing a fellow student or, more importantly, keep the fellow student from killing him.

Bos's
car creaked to a halt. The old mill consisted of ten large buildings that were side by side. Their beige colors were spotted with large areas of rust, holes and broken windows. The large stacks seemed to be the only thing withstanding the passage of time.

Alex saw Gorgon's tail slither inside a window. "There, right there! Punch it!"

Bos yelled like a
Wookie
and hit the gas. The Satellite threw gravel in every direction and skidded down the embankment.

Fiona put her hands on the guys' shoulders. "
Remember,
don't look at its face!"

The Gorgon saw them through the window and disappeared into the darkness. Its screams somehow managed to drown out the roar of the Satellite's engine.

"Wait, turn out your lights and pull down there on the opposite side," Alex said.

Fiona looked over Alex's shoulder. "This plan is flawed."

Bos gunned the engine and they headed to other side of the building. "Whatever, I dig it. What the hell are we doing?" He slapped the dashboard and the headlights turned off.

"Right here. Stop right here."

Bos skidded to a halt in front of a window.

"Stay here." Alex jumped out of the car and disappeared around the outside corner of the building.

"Alex! Wait, Alex!" Bos said. "Why do I feel so vulnerable?"