I sprinted back to the car and didn't even waste time telling Alexa to floor it and get us out of there. She was already in gear and peeling out of the parking lot, tires spinning.  "This is bad," she said as we spun out onto the busy streets, light blinding in the Las Vegas  night.

"You think?" I gasped as I grabbed the gun from the waistline of my jeans and loaded some bullets, heads oddly steady as my pulse thundered in my ears. "Just focus on driving," I said even as I felt the acidic burn up my throat and chest. Why now do I get heartburn? I thought irritably as I rolled down the window and glanced back behind us for any pursing uglies. Nothing right now, but I'd learned a few things with monsters, sometimes they were the size of the average person, sometimes they weren't. Whatever made that roar could be pretty far away from us right now, that was some small comfort-!

I was airborne, lifting up in my seat, falling and tumbling along inside the cab of the Jeep like sneakers in a dryer. I heard Alexa scream in terror and in an ear-splitting crash and bang like the world's loudest drum set I crashed back to Earth and pain exploded all over my body as I crashed into the backseat, shards of broken glass grinding into my skin in bumpy, jagged edges. "Xander you okay?" Alexa called her voice croaky like a frog.

"Fine!" I groaned as pain hit me in waves. "I just think I broke my everything; we've gotta get out of here." I gripped the dented broken window pane of the smashed car and dragged myself through it, metal and glass ripping at my skin underneath my clothes.

"Where to?" she asked even as I heard her struggle out of the twisted metal and into the grassy ditch.

"Anywhere but here!" I exclaimed as I scrambled up, my lower back hitting the frame of the Jeep as I broke into a run,  not quite a sprint, but I was definitely going faster than a jog. "Hurry!" I shouted looking back at Alexa who looked shell-shocked. Green eyes wide, face a sickly shade of green. "We have to move or we will die here!" That seemed to get to her, because she sort of shook her head and took off after me catching up in a minute.  "You're fast," I commented as we moved, breaths deep, feet smacking against the road, the white headlights and neon lights of Vegas making it hard to see where I was going.

"Thanks, moms thought keeping me in shape in case of everything would be important!" she commented her breaths even as mine as her stride fell behind mine. Wasn't her fault, I was much taller than her, my legs just had a longer reach.

"Smart!" I said the word coming out more like a shout as I scanned the blinding horizon ahead of us for anything that wasn't human. Nothing, looks like we might be able to find a no-mans land and loose whatever was on our tail. Once again I was horribly wrong yet again; the same feeling that I'd gotten when I stole the key around the hellhounds collar grabbed me and I moved without even thinking about what I was doing. I slammed my shoulder into Alexa and with her forward momentum she crashed and rolled across the asphalt into the ditch, cussing and screaming the whole way down even as I felt a warm, massive, furry hand clamp around my body and raise me up into the air ribs cracking from a combination of the death grip and my heart beat going a hundred miles an hour when I saw that this thing was bigger than Chewbecca and had a bull head which didn't match the human torso.

"Oh fuck!" I gasped as it roared, it's breath hitting me in the face like a cloud of poisonous gas. I gagged, feeling the BLTs I ate hours earlier about to make a reappearance. My heartburn spiked to new levels of pain sending my spot on the pain scale from a two to a ten and I stared the half-man, half-cattle monster crushing my ribs. It's face was  as huge as it was ugly a gigantic snout protruded closest to my face was black, snotty and hand a huge black metal ring through it. The rest of his beefy face was surrounded by brown fur and his huge white-yellow horns curved wickedly and were as thick as my fist, two tiny black eyes stared at me with complete hatred. I wretched my arm free of his massive hand and glanced at the gun I had.

I'd loaded five or six bullets and this thing was huge, these pellets weren't going to reach his heart through all the fur, meat and bones. Wasn't going to get through his skull either...I thought of one thing and pointed the gun barrel down into one of his fingers, closed my eyes and pulled the trigger before I had time to realize how stupid this idea was. He roared with pain and  dropped like a stone, weightless like I was flying and I twisted in midair; this fall was probably going to kill me and if this half beef thing wasn't chasing us that wouldn't have been an issue. Alexa could've just handcuffed Thantos and I'd have made sure I avoided the Furies long enough for it to happen. But this thing wasn't scattered all over the Underworld and I had no idea how to kill it. I just needed to distract it long enough for Alexa to get away and get back home to her family and friends.

I could die for that, there are worse ways to go out. I aimed as best I could while falling however many miles per hour and fired a few times hearing the monster roar in pain each time. Guess this was more like  a paintball gun right now. It wouldn't kill, but it would cause enough pain to get a reaction. Good, he'd be focused on me for a while longer, I closed my eyes and waited to view the Underworld again and hoping I had some money in my pocket as the ground got closer and closer.

I crashed against the ground, feeling every muscle in my spasmed and twisted as I skidded across the cold road and screamed as everything inside me twisted in ways it was never intended to. I opened my eyes as I spasms continued and tasted blood inside of my mouth; sweet, coppery and salty all at once.  I groaned, the sound more like a gurgle as my body went back to normal and I heard the sound of cars rushing everywhere and my own thudding heart. I was alive? Okay this has been the weirdest day ever. How am I alive? I just fell twenty feet with nothing except the ground to break my fall? How was I alive? That didn't make any sense! People do not survive-! "XANDER MOVE!" Alexa shouted jolting me out of my confusion and I scrambled up, everything aching and burning as I got up to run away from the monster behind me, but then I stopped cold feeling truly like an idiot. d

 His beady black eyes zeroed in on me and he roared bowing his head like a normal bull when it was trying to spear a matador another idea popped into my head; this one would either work or get me killed but I had to try before this thing got Alexa in it's beefy hands. Her ητέρα sent her out with me in the hopes that I'd keep her safe, she'd never outright said it, but that had to be something she'd hoped for. This was her daughter, all parents, all good parents wanted their kids to be safe. I held my ground and pulled back the hammer on the gun, ready to go through with my plan. It broke into a run, grunting and roaring as it lowered it's curved horns-horns made for impaling and spilling guts-at me and I raised my armed hand, body shaking as the massive wall of meat hurled towards me and I forced myself to stay where I was.

I had to get close if this was going to work, ten feet, five feet, one. I held my breath and as I saw the points of the horns get too close I dropped to my back and fired the gun right into his beady black eye and a spurt of blood and eyeballs spattered all over me. I heard him let out a sound that made my stomach roil as I dove out under his beefy arm, gore soaking my clothes and I stared at the massive corpse with a bloody hole in his face. It sizzled and smoked across the massive corpse and I then allowed myself time to feel sick, limbs shaking as my adrenaline drained away, acidic taste in my mouth as I realized what covered, a pounding heartbeat when I realized I was still alive without Thantos being changed. I'd been alive the whole time, I'd never died. Not this time; why?

I stood up, knees shaking even I as I heard Alexa shouting my name while the monster smoldered. "I'm fine!" I shouted even as I felt heat spread across every inch of my body; white light surrounded me and I felt myself go into the air and become...well I had no idea. I just knew I was super warm and I had a feeling Hesita was behind this. Then I crashed down, all the light and heat gone as I hit the body of some guy in Greek warrior costume. We slammed to the ground, the metal of his costume sounding like a cymbal against the floor and I stood up off him as he laid where he was; knocked out.

I  stifled a groan and survived my new surroundings, noticing gleaming stainless steel counters and really good smells. A kitchen, I quickly decided glancing around waiting for anyone unwelcome to come in. I'm in a kitchen. I felt warmth bite into my arm and yanked back my bloody sleeve; seven words greeted me. Take his clothes and join the party, I looked down at the guy I'dknocked out and winced in sympathy for him. "Sorry dude," I whispered as I started stripping down his armor and clean undershirts moving as fast I could in case there was a Greek god of kitchens I didn't' know about, I had a party to crash and three ancient hags to find.

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Sorry this chapter is kind of weird, I'm not super fond of how the chase scene turned out but eh...I have alot of inspiration for the next chapter so I want to work on it ASAP! What did you think about this chapter? I'd love to hear it so please don't forget to COMMENT and VOTE!

Write on! =)