The first victim was located in New Orleans, fairly close to a nearby graveyard, so Nico shadow travelled there. It was always easier to suddenly appear in at a gravesite, since people meant they saw spirits wandering around all the time. He'd been surprised when he arrived, though, as it felt like there was another presence there. It was a feeling of death, too strong to come from a mere demigod. But Nico couldn't see anything, not anyone, so he shrugged the feeling off as suspicion and started on locating the victim. As he walked through the graveyard, he noticed that the spirits all seemed anxious, restless even. Nico didn't know why they acted like that, he wasn't sure he even wanted to know the reason for their abnormal behaviour, restless spirits were never good. He kept his guard up and exited the graveyard.

As he walked, he went over the information in his head. The first cheater of death was a man in his late thirties, going by the name Davis. He was a son of Hekate and had used the mist to cloak himself for ages, as well as using magic for resurrection of himself after he had died a whole of five times. As well as cheating death, the man had also killed a lot of children, using the blood from their hearts to fuel his magic. Nico thought he sounded powerful, it took great skill to manipulate the most like he did, and he made sure to keep his guard up as he neared the house.

He crept up the stairs and peeked through one of the windows. He saw an empty kitchen and the entrance to a living room. He bent down and put his hand on the handle, feeling a deep magic run through his hand. He withdrew his hand quickly and decided on shadow travelling into the house instead of breaking in - he probably wouldn't get far doing that, since the handle would detect his entrance. He stepped forward into the shadows - since it was the middle of the night, it was dark all around - and stepped out onto the floor on the inside of a small toilet. He listened intently before opening the door and stepping out. It was dark, very dark, but Nico could see perfectly. He slowly made his way into the living room. A sofa sat in a corner, in front of the television, and a single lamp sat beside a bookcase. No other furniture was present, just a large, fluffy carped that stretched across the whole floor.

He was just about to take a step into the room, when he noticed a presence behind him. He whirled around, but was too late as a hand folded around his throat, the pressure slowly squeezing his windpipe.

"What the hell are you doing here, kid?! Who are you?" The man, presumably Davis, stared at him, his eyes the colour of dark red wine. "A demigod obviously. How did you get in here?"

Nico focused, which was difficult with a hand cutting off the air from his lungs. He felt the earth beneath them rumble before the wooden planks split apart and a stone smashed into Davis' hand. The man screamed and let go of Nico, the demigod falling to his knees as he gulped in air.

"You little-" the man started, but didn't utter a word more when a skeletal hand shot up from the ground and grabbed his leg. Davis was dragged down a few feet and started squirming to get out. Nico let him be and went into the kitchen. He looked around before he found a small but harp knife. He grabbed it and walked back into the living room.

"You can't kill me, boy. I have lots of magic prepared to resurrect me if need be-" he shut up when Nico cut a small gash into his left cheek.

"Who said I was gonna kill you? I only have to extract some information from you." That wasn't entirely true, but Davis would be more likely to cooperate if he thought he wasn't going to die.

"Who are you, kid?"

"My father is Hades. My name is Nico di Angelo."

Davis looked him up and down before chuckling, "You're a son of Hades? Now I've seen everything." Nico glared, he didn't like people making fun of his family.

"I just need to know a few things, Davis, and I'll be on my jolly way home."

"You're not getting anything outta me, kid. Forget it."

Nico sighed and let the earth drag Davis a bit longer down. The man was now slightly below him and Nico could look down at him. "I don't think you quite understand your position, Mr Davis. I'm here on behalf of my father, who is mad with you having cheated death five times. But that's not the only thing you've done, is it? You've used the blood of children to fuel your magic, right? You killed them by tearing out their hearts and then using the blood from the heart for your magic."

Davis grinned a manic grin, his eyes wild, "You sure do know your stuff, huh? Your father tell you that?"

"It doesn't matter how I know, what matters is that if you're not willing to tell me what I want to know, your life is over." He threw the knife from hand to hand, feeling the weight in his hand.

"You can't kill me, kid."

Nico smirked, "That's just as good, it gives me more time." With that he made more skeleton hands grab Davis, his arms and legs becoming immobile, he even had one grab him by the waist to keep him completely still. He then walked over to Davis and used the knife to cut open the man's shirt, the skin beneath tensing up. Nico let the tip of the knife touch the skin at the middle of his chest, barely penetrating, to touch the flesh beneath. He applied a little more pressure and slid the knife downwards, the blade leaving a bright red line behind. Blood ran down the man's chest and dripped onto the carpet, the crimson colour already staining it. Davis yelped in pain but was otherwise silent, that meant Nico had to work harder.

He gripped the knife harder, pressing the tip hard into the man's flesh. The blade tore up Davis' skin, blood and flesh oozing from the wound. Nico smirked at the yell of pain he got and pulled the knife out of the man's flesh with a sickening, wet sound.

"You're crazy, kid," Davis breathed out. His muscles tensed as he tried to rip his limbs away from the skeletons.

Nico laughed, it probably sounded slightly crazed but that was to be expected in this situation, "You're calling me crazy? I'mnot the one cutting out the hearts of children."

Davis glared and screamed in pain as Nico burrowed the knife to the hilt in his right kidney. The younger demigod didn't react as blood gushed out over his hand, only twisted the knife inside the wound, widening it. Davis' breath came out in gasps, saliva dripping from his bottom lip. "You don't have to do this, boy."

Nico pulled the knife out and wiped the blood on the carpet, "Oh, but I do. My father asked me, you see. And I was at a lack of things to do, so I agreed to take this task. You're just the first one, there are countless like you after I'm finished here."

Davis stared at him and was about to say something but didn't get there as Nico pushed the tip of the blade into his solar-plexus. There was already a wound from the first cut there, and Nico let the blade slide inside, twisting it in the process - the metallic scent of blood filled Nico's nostrils. Davis cried out, and tried to pull his arms free. He succeeded in loosening one, with which he struck Nico with, in the face.

Nico touched the place the stike fell, tentatively prodding for further damage – he found none, other than a bit of blood forming on the skin. He looked at the other. Davis was panting, his hand pulling the knife out of the wound. Nico grasped for his sword, but remembered his father's words and grabbed the dagger beside it. The black blade felt light in his hand and he experimentally slashed it through the air.

"Think you can kill me with that, kid?" Davis spoke up, a pained smirk on his face.

Nico walked forward and made the skeleton grab the man's arm again, "Only one way to find out." With that he drove the blade into Davis' chest, straight into his heart.

Davis' body convulsed and tensed in a rigid position. His mouth was open as if to scream, but no sound came out. His eyes were wide, and stared at Nico, fear etched into them.

Nico looked down at the dagger and saw that the blood seemed to be absorbed into the blade, making it glow dark red in the darkness. He pulled the dagger out of Davis' body and watched as the man dissolved into black dust on the floor. The carpet was now stained with the dark dust, the particles fastening in the drying blood.

Nico stared down at the blade and dragged his finger over the flat side of it - it felt both hot and cold at the same time. He sheathed the dagger in his belt, beside his sword, and made his way out of the house – the magic had dissappeared when Davis had died, making the trip an easy task.

Once outside, he stretched his arms before walking down the steps, his jacket riding slightly up in the process. A movement in the corner of his eye made him snap his head to the right. A large forest stretched out before him, the tall trees making the forest floor completely dark. And there, in the darkness, Nico could swear he could see two big, narrow, and yellow eyes stare back at him.

A shiver went down his spine, his skin rising to form goosebumps. The same feeling he'd had in the graveyard rushed his senses, making his hair stand on end. He could do nothing but stare, transfixed by the golden eyes in the dark. He shuddered and felt his hands shaking when the eyes dissappeared into the forest, growing smaller and smaller until Nico couldn't see them anymore.

He let out a breath, and bent down to rest his hands on his knees – he hadn't felt a feeling like this in a long time, a feeling of fear. He dreaded that feeling, only bad memories followed in its wake. The fear of his father had made him almost sacrifice Percy, and almost drove him insane at times.

He swallowed and straightened up – his hands had stopped trembling, which was a good thing. He inhaled deeply and focused, fusing with the nearby shadows to travel back to the Underworld. The unsettling feeling hadn't fully left him yet, but he wanted to get away as quickly as possible. He hadn't felt anything like this in a long while – sure he'd seen glowing eyes in the darkness before, but none of them had made him feel like this, like those eyes belonged to a being that was incredibly powerful. He told himself not to dwell on it anymore, but couldn't quite shake the feeling away, even as he arrived in his father's palace.

Whatever the creature was, he had a feeling this wasn't the last time he'd see it.