Notes: Written for the Monsterriffic Competition on the Percy Jackson and the Land of Writing forum. Probably confusing, definitely a little incoherent.

monsters incorporated

1.

Magic always feels strange against his skin- there's a brush of electricity, a half-formed shimmer of not pain as much as discomfort, all wrapped up in an overall sense of otherworldliness. Or at least it used to be. If you were constantly exposed to otherworldliness for years, how much of it could be called otherworldly anymore?

He still struggles to open his eyes at the prickling, and finds that it's a lot harder than it should be. Then there is pain spreading over his legs, his arms his back- and when he tries to leap up and scream at the suddenness and intensity of it, his body only jerks.

Then there's a steady murmuring and soft lips closing over his, and the pain fades enough so that he can let himself slip back into the darkness again.

2.

The first time he actually sees her, she's sashaying into his chamber (it's dark and curtained and mildly menacing- a perfect fit for a Titan general) in a red dress. The lamps on the wall (he blearily makes a note to talk to his minions about the marvels of electricity) glitter off luminous dark skin and wild black curls, and a mouth set in a smile as predatory as it is seductive.

Luke reflexively fumbles for Backbiter, and realizes that his eyes may have recovered (mostly), but his arm certainly hasn't. He's on the bed, paralyzed and helpless as the monster (that at least he's sure of) stalks towards him; and he's somehow less bothered about that than he is about looking like something the cat dragged out.

It stops uncomfortably near to him, and gives him a smile flashing perfect, white teeth.

"Hello, handsome," it tells him. "I'm Kelli, and I'll be your supervisor for the rest of this recovery."

3.

Most people who are thrown off Mount Tam by angry daughters of Zeus are not supposed to breathe again in their lifetime. On the other hand, most people who have been thrown off mountains aren't earmarked to be the living vessel of the primal Titan.

The empusa (he's never encountered any before, strangely enough- he was so sure he'd fought every possible monster in the universe) are servants of Hecate. Kelli tells him that they drain life from others to feed themselves, and that every act of magic is basically polarity so they can, with enough time, apply their abilities to him and heal his injuries.

There's a lot of ritual animal sacrifice involved, but after three years in the Titan army, Luke is pretty much used to the blood.

There's also a lot of kissing involved because, she says with a smile, she's a succubus and that's how her magic works.

4.

There are these little points in time, fleeting and barely coherent, where the kissing stops being something between a chore and an atrocity, starts being something good. Where he finds himself forgetting her fangs and her legs, focusing instead on her lips and the heady thrum of danger she brings with her. His body is, somehow, fully capable of forgetting he fact that she's far from conventionally attractive when the mist doesn't mask her, in favor of marveling at her power.

His rational mind is balking at the whole thing, of course. Possibly cowering in a ball somewhere in the back of his head.

It still takes six separate instances of him smiling on reflex when she comes in before Luke acknowledges his crush on the empousa.

5.

She notices.

Of course she does.

She says nothing about it, but he knows she knows, from the way things become less businesslike and more heated, always stopping right before he reaches the point where he convinces himself that he's not imagining it, that everything is just as platonic as it always was.

She smiles in a way that makes his breath hitch a little, he can't take her eyes off her when she moves. Her touches linger too long, the kisses become deeper than strictly necessary.

Then she steps back, and tells him with barely muted glee, that the titan lord's host body is to be revered; leaving him breathless and shaking and on the verge of cursing.

He can tell it amuses her.

6.

When he's feeling well enough, she takes him to a restaurant in Boston. They have food, they look at each other's eyes. Kelli talks to him about days long gone and things she has seen, and the waiter smothers an amused, knowing smile whenever he looks at them.

When they step out and into a darkened roadway, he's filled with good food, feeling happy and healthy and not in pain for the first time in ages. Kelli smiles, and announces casually that she's starving.

The boy is lured from the lit streets with nothing more than a smile (teenagers, yeesh), and his face contorts from lovesick sappiness to horrified and on the verge of a scream; right before Kelli smiles and sinks her fangs into his neck.

7.

Luke thinks, later, that he could have stopped her.

At the very least, he could have done something other than standing there and watching while she drained a life away.

8.

Kelli comes and she smiles at him, and an idiot mortal's unmourned death makes perfect sense.

She has to eat, after all. And she was more important than him.

9.

Kelli goes, and he blames himself. Kelli comes, and he accepts.

Kelli doesn't kiss him, not anymore. The treatment is over, she assures him, she's just making sure there haven't been any glitches. This sort of thing hasn't ever been tried before, after all.

10.

He finally realizes it when he wakes up in the middle of a night, sweating from a nightmare and staring shakily at the ceiling.

She's a monster.

She's never showed any interest in him.

Thalia. Annabeth. And all the hurt that comes with them.

He's not in lust.

He's enthralled.

11.

The next time she comes, he's prepared. Fists clenched and body rigid, and more than that, he knows what she's doing. She notices this at once, and laughs.

This time, she comes closer to him, moving in a way that she has avoided ever since Boston. It makes his heart speed up and his reflexes pause, and before he knows it, her fangs are touching his neck.

Luke stills. He can hear himself breathing, and nothing else. The empusa is inhuman, capable of existing without noise of any description.

"Don't feel too bad," she purrs, and it's only the part of his head telling him to nor make sudden movements that tear out his jugular that stops him from flinching away, "We have that effect on young men. And it took me forever to get into your head- you should be proud, I suppose."

He shudders and moves away, potential throat-ripping be damned.

12.

Kronos tells him later, slightly amused, that it took him enough time to figure it out. The incident is then effectively dismissed from everything but his mind, leaving behind disquieting memories and wants and quicksands of confusion to wade through.

A test, he tells himself. It was a test, to see how much awareness he had of himself and his surroundings. How much autonomy he had over his own thoughts. Preparation, of a sort. Reconnaissance, maybe. Charting out the territory Kronos intended to conquer.

He makes the mistake of blurting it out, and the Titan laughs at him. Kronos doesn't even try to pretend it was otherwise, he -it?- had no need to do anything of the sort.

0.

Sometimes, after, she tries to touch him. Only her eyes are filled more with mocking than with want, and he's learned to pretend that she disgusts him, rather than showing her how much she terrifies him.

He's faced things that can tear his heart out, watched his friend die. None of that scared him as much as she did- how his thoughts were not his own, how he could dismiss every atrocity in the name of affection.

Luke learns how much he values his mind.

He knows that he's agreed to trade it to the titan lord, who probably wanted him to learn it, wanted him to dread his future as the his days become numbered.

1.

He doesn't want to- he's done too much and lost too much. Burned too many bridges to have preserved the ability to rethink his actions.

But much like he can't stop his stomach from fluttering at Kelli's smile, he can't stop his mind from forming the thought.

Maybe this was a mistake.

End Notes: Apologies if that was not what you expected? :D Been wandering around enchantment/mind-control territory lately (among others; my mind's been a particularly cheery little place lately), and it kinda bled out into this one.

Also sorry if the numbering confuses you. It's half half-baked (heh), quarter ordered and quarter arbitrary. If I were you, I would not try to make sense of it.

Um. Review? :D