Percy Jackson and the Curse of Lust

From the moment I woke up with a draft between my legs, I knew that something was wrong.

Lines colder than ice were digging into my wrists. Looking up, there was just barely enough light in the dim room to make out chains tethering me to the ceiling. The reason for the cool breeze I was experiencing downstairs became clear within seconds. I was as naked as the day I was born.

"Awake, are we?"

The voice sounded human, but there was something slightly wrong with it. The way it pronounced words wasn't quite right, as if the speaker just burnt her tongue really badly. As my eyes adjusted to the gloom I slowly managed to pick out my captor.

It was the same half-snake woman that had been dangling from the outside of the train. Similar to a dracaena, she was different in a few key ways. Instead of twin snake tails for legs, she slithered on just one. Where dracaena stood at the height of regular women, this one was nearly nine feet tall, bending forward slightly to keep from banging her head on the ceiling.

"Awake!" squawked another voice. "Awake! Awake!"

There was the other half of the duo that attacked Emily and I. Clopping sounds echoed through the room as the beast prowled back and forth. It had the body of a deer, down to four unassuming hooves, but with the head of a lion and an unnaturally wide mouth stuffed with razor teeth. It continued to squawk and repeat words, right up until the snake woman beat its snout with a fist.

"Quiet!" she hissed.

The lion-thing whimpered and cowered. The snake woman turned back to me. The way she smiled didn't make me any more at-ease than I had been.

"Sorry about that," she said. "Leukrokottas have the nastiest habit of never shutting up. It's just repeat, repeat, and repeat some more with them. Terrible to work with, I'm telling you."

"You had it imitate a baby, didn't you?" I asked, keeping my voice level. If I could just buy time for the others to catch up with us…

The snake woman blinked. She turned her head, looking puzzled, before realization dawned.

"Ah!" she said. "I see why you thought that. What a clever move that would've been. Unfortunately, I can't take credit. Leukrokottas don't just go around repeating any old person they hear, see. They only imitate their prey. It's a truly wonderful psychological tactic."

My blood went colder than the air on my lower body. 

A baby's cries. Prey. My fingers wrapped around the chains holding them still.

"I'm going to grind you to dust," I said.

"Well no, you won't," said the snake woman, "but grinding certainly will be involved."

While I was still deciphering what that was supposed to mean, the door banged open. A squad of four broad creatures stomped in. These I didn't need more light to recognize. The slap of flippered feet would give away Telekhines even in the depths of Nyx's Mansion.

"We did as ye asked," said one I took for the leader. He had a big horizontal scar across his graying snout. "This whole train has been trapped to Hades, Lamia. Any demigod takes one step wrong, and they'll be taking a few dozen mortals to the underworld along with them."

The snake lady — Lamia — only spared him a half a glance. "Good, yes. Well done. You can wait in the back now."

For a moment the Telekhines didn't move. Lamia looked back at them, raising an eyebrow. Somehow the extra acknowledgment didn't feel like a prize.

"Are you waiting for a thank you?" Lamia asked, her voice deceptively sweet. "She gave you to me to use as I see fit, not to coddle. Now go ."

Rather than erupt, the Telekhines forced their faces toward the floor and slapped their way toward the back of the room.

"More quietly!" Lamia snapped after them. She turned to me and sighed, a sneer melting back into a smile. "Sorry about that, sweetie. I'm afraid none of the help here is good for intelligent conversation."

"Intelligent conversation!" squawked the Leuokrokotta. "Intelligent conversation!"

The shout only earned it another smack from Lamia. I stared at the lion-like creature for a long moment as it turned silent and skulked away. Finally, slowly, I turned my eyes back to Lamia.

"What do you want with me?" I asked.

"Isn't that obvious?" Lamia said.

"I thought it would be. You're monsters. I'm a demigod. But you haven't eaten me yet, so it must not be as straightforward as I was guessing."

"Maybe we just wanted to take our time cooking you."

"That's possible. It's happened before. But I don't think that's the case. Who is 'She' and what does it want with me?"

She only slipped up once, while threatening the Telekhines, but I hadn't missed it. Lamia said that 'She' had given the Telekhines to her. That alone might not have seemed like much, but it was actually pretty major. Monsters almost never worked together, especially powerful ones like Lamia clearly was. For her to be taking orders, that meant something major was on our tails. Combined with my current imprisonment, something I didn't understand was clearly at work.

Lamia shifted slightly. She covered it well, but I could tell the question made her nervous.

"Don't you worry a hair about that," she said. "You'll find out soon enough. For now, I want you to focus completely on me…"

The way she purred the words set my spine tingling. I'd heard that tone before. A lot, actually. Mostly within the last week. I was suddenly very conscious of my lack of clothes and the way Lamia was looking at me.

She slithered closer, agonizingly slowly.

"Aren't you excited?" Her eyes were fixed way lower than I would've liked. As she approached, her lips pressed into a deep line. "You would've been," she said. "In my prime no man could keep himself from staring! I put all those little harlots you're traveling with to shame. I even seduced the king of the gods!"

"Yeah," I said, "because that's hard."

She ignored me completely. "His jealous wife could not handle it. She stole away my poor children. But Zeus truly loved me. He granted me this lovely form so I would never be alone again. I could steal away errant children for all of eternity!"

"Everybody's happy."

Lamia beamed as if I'd been serious. "Precisely!"

She was close to me now. If there'd been any doubt about where her eyes had been aimed, that was gone now.

"Here," she said suddenly. " This should get the ball rolling!"

Up to now, she'd been wearing a simple red t-shirt over her human upper half. She tore it off over her head, revealing an upper body just as scaly as its lower counterpart. There were lumps roughly shaped like breasts, but they were made of hard green skin with nipples that looked like shriveled cactus flowers. Lamia looked proud, right up until she realized my dick was staying just as flaccid as it had been before.

"Why is nothing working!" she complained.

"Can we leave?" asked a voice from the back.

Even the Telekhines were looking slightly disgusted. Who knows, though. That could've just been because Lamia had too few flippers and not enough fur.

Lamia wheeled on them. "I told you to be QUIET!"

The Telekhines all flinched back. The leader clasped his hands into fists, snout pointed floorward.

"Apologies, Ma'am," he muttered.

"You know, I once heard from a Telekhine that you hated my father," I said. "After you made his Trident he let you get locked away. But now you're here, serving another master that doesn't care about you at all."

The leader growled, but wouldn't look up at me.

"Don't focus on them when I'm right in front of you," Lamia said with what might have been a pout.

"Is getting walked all over your favorite pastime?" I asked the Telekhines. "Do you enjoy it or something?"

"Of course not!" snapped the leader, finally looking at me. 

"Prove it," I said.

"Look at me!" Clawed hands grasped my cheeks, jerking my face forward. Lamia's bladed nails cut thin wounds onto my face with their grip. "Aren't I beautiful? I've always been beautiful! Zeus told me so. Only before the change, come to think of it… But I haven't changed that much, have I?"

"If you have a single ounce or respect as the smiths that forged Kronos's Scythe and my father's most powerful weapon, dig it out," I said, talking past Lamia even as she held my head straight. "Show this two-bit snake that Telekhines don't take flack lying down!"

"STOP TALKING TO THOSE HORRIBLE SEA MUTTS!" Lamia screamed.

The shriek was so loud that she had to take a moment to catch her breath. In that pause, a single powerful howl rose up, pinging off the enclosed walls. Three more quickly joined it.

"Who are you calling mutts?" demanded the Telekhine's leader. "Get her, boys, and we'll tell the boss that the demigods did it!"

They charged. The leader pulled a sword off his back as he crossed the room. The others weren't even armed, relying on just their claws.

"I'll pluck your scales off!" shouted the leader.

"Raaaaaaaah!" roared four voices.

That was a problem, because he only had three friends.

The author of the fourth battle cry, the Leukrokotta, pounced on one unlucky seal-dog, pinning it to the floor and quickly biting its head off. When said head turned to dust in its mouth, the Leukrokotta raised its head back and cried like a baby.

The other three telekhines reached Lamia. One went down to her claws before he got the chance to do anything. The leader swung his sword, but Lamia leaned out of the way looking bored, although she was forced to let go of my face.

The last subordinate lunged at her and managed to slice a few scales off of her hip, but the damage was too shallow to slow Lamia down. She didn't even use her own claws on him, just hit him over the head so hard that he slammed into the floor and dissolved.

The move offered an opening. Bringing his sword around, the leader swung again while Lamia was distracted. He got closer this time, if only by a little bit. Lamia still dodged easily. She struck out, slicing his throat and ending the short battle.

"Was that worth it?" she asked an audience that couldn't hear a thing. "You've gone and ruined the mood."

But I was already moving. My feet reached down, grabbing the handle of the Telekhine's sword on the floor with all ten toes. I hurled it up, and whether by skill, luck, or the blessing of some unknown god, managed to get catch it in my hands. Twisting the handle, I used it to cut through the chains holding me to the ceiling, freeing myself.

I stumbled back, still holding the sword between Lamia and I. Unfortunately, I couldn't do all that much with it. I'd cut the chain holding me to the ceiling, but my hands were still bound together, and slicing that part would take a lot more precision and effort. As good as I was with a sword, fighting with both arms stuck together was too much for me.

So I ran.

"There's nowhere to escape to," Lamia said, slithering after me. "We're stuck in here. The sooner you accept things, the happier both of us will be."

"Yeah, I don't think that's going to work for me," I said. She lunged, and I darted to the side, avoiding her grasping hands. She pulled back and clicked her tongue.

She lunged for me two more times, and I managed to dodge both. Unfortunately, my legs got tangled after the second one. I clattered to the floor.

"Look at that," Lamia said. "You've fallen for me."

There was hardly any space between us. I dug out my last resort. 

Twisting, I threw my borrowed sword at Lamia's face. She swiped it away dismissively.

"Giving up?" she asked.

I kicked off with my legs, sending myself sliding across the floor. I skidded at least ten feet, crossing the cramped compartment. Lamia slithered after me.

"Fool boy," she chided. "I don't know why you insisted on making this so hard, but you've done it now. Get him!"

The command was meant for the only thing in the room other than us. The Leukrokotta had watched our chase in silence since finishing off its Telekhine. My last escape had sent me dangerously close to it, giving me a view of parts of the monster that I really could have done without dangling between its legs. 

The Leukrokotta stared down at me. I held my breath. If I was right…

"Get him already!" Lamia was still slithering toward us. "Hold him down until I get there! I know you're not too dim to understand me. One word from me, and mother will cast you so deep into Tartraus that you'll never crawl out again!"

The Leukrokotta stood up off its haunches. It opened that creepy, unnatural mouth, giving me a view of multiple ridges of flesh-speckled teeth. 

Just as it pounced, the monster spun sideways.

It hurled itself across the gap at Lamia, landing atop the snake woman before she could react. Its hooves battered her sides while its fangs aimed for its neck.

Lamia barely managed to catch the monster by its neck, arms straining as she held it at bay. "No! What are you doing?"

I caught my breath, trying not to show how relieved I was that I'd been right.

"It only repeats its prey," I said. "Those were your words. You were too arrogant to think that could apply to you, too, and that's how you were wrong. You should really hit your subordinates less the next time you come back."

Lamia glared at me.

"You won't escape from her," she said. "No matter how far you run, or how hard you struggle, all of it is useless. Escaping me only delays your fate. Mother wants you. And what Mother wants, Mother gets!"

Her arms gave out. The Leukrokotta's fangs came down, ending Lamia's time on earth. Standing above the dust pile, the Leukrokotta turned its head to the ceiling and howled.

It was so distracted that it never noticed me picking up the Telekhines sword until I buried it deep into its back. The howl cut short.

Breathing hard, I dragged myself to the wall and sat down against it hard. I positioned the sword facing up with the handle between my legs. Slowly, I worked my chained wrists up and down against the blade. The entire action was horribly suggestive, but I didn't have much choice. After minutes of work, the chain finally fell away.

I struggled to my feet and made for the door the Telekhines entered from. I brought the sword with me, just in case. Before their death the monsters talked about traps. Even now, I'd have to keep my guard up.

Which is why I froze with my hand on the handle. I sniffed the air again, wondering if I'd imagined it. But no, I hadn't.

I smelled smoke.

And that was all the warning I got before the train exploded.