I started to feel the same awareness I had felt when Nate had started to follow me around. I ignored this for a very short distance and pulled Connor into the bushes of an unkempt garden. A tall, athletic girl walked past us talking on her phone, laughing and giggling. I decided to follow her. A few houses down the street she entered a yard and let herself into a house. She was not following us at all. I must still be a bit guarded from the Nate experience and the chat I had with Jophiel today.
Cutting across an oval, we made our way home slowly. We ate a late dinner and wandered to bed. The monotonous schedule of school was starting to bore me. The next place I moved to wouldn’t involve any schooling at all. I’ve had enough of conforming to stupid rules.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Nate
As I woke sometime later in the day, the heat outside made my mouth dry and my head pounded slightly. I still felt the normal aches and pains that a human would, but my threshold was a lot higher. Grabbing my phone, I found I had only been asleep for six hours—not nearly enough sleep. I got myself up and went over to the fridge to grab a big drink. The cold liquid felt refreshing in mouth. Two glasses later I set my alarm and attempted sleep again.
This time, when I woke, the sun was not streaming in my window, but was slowly descending. I woke before my alarm, but this didn’t bother me too much. I ate the same nutrition-lacking meal as yesterday, then showered, and got ready to go. I had a few text messages from Brandon asking if I would be coming back. I knew the answer to that question, but didn’t reply. I didn’t see the point in continuing with this friendship. I had misled these people about who I was from the start, and tried to remain neutral, but it was hard to not develop a friendship when you have many of the same interests.
I left approximately the same time I did last night and hid myself in a different tree. Tonight was also football night, and I could see that Simon’s car was still at training. I knew my old friends would be training also. Unlike Connor, Mark had a natural gift for sports and didn’t have to apply himself much. Unfortunately, though, he also lacked the passion to better himself. Connor was an endurance athlete and was easily running laps around the other boys, but he had to work hard at this. I could not see the girls anywhere. They were most likely off doing their own thing.
Like yesterday, Simon arrived at the same time. He locked his doors the same as yesterday and carried on with his overly fearful behaviour. With the information I had read about Indy from Connor, she rarely made a second appearance in people’s lives if they decided to pursue a different path and change their ways. I could not be one hundred percent sure that this was the case because I wasn’t sure I totally bought the whole story about her. I primarily pulled myself away from her because I didn’t like the way she had made me feel. Even if Indy was an angel, she wasn’t acting like one and that’s why I had to find some evidence to put before the boss. If this night didn’t show something of value, I may be going back to a worse mission in some crappy remote town with nothing to do to occupy my time.
Holding myself up in the branches, I remembered the first time I was on surveillance with the man who I had called father for many years. I was instructed to stop once I became a hunter. I had been forced to stand in the shadows of an old building while my fingers and toes threatened to freeze themselves off. The cold wind lashed against my ears, whistling tunes of frost bite and dry skin. Then my mind remembered back further to earlier days.
I had been eight when I attended my first karate lesson. I thought it was all fun and games. I learned fast not to take my eyes off the instructor and to follow all directions. At the first lesson, I was paired up with an older more experienced boy. This boy taught me a very valuable lesson. If I didn’t duck fast enough or hesitate to attack, I would end up with bruised eyes, a bleeding mouth, and bruised kidneys.
From that first lesson I paid the utmost attention and ascended from yellow belt to black in a very short time. Once I was an expert in the karate field, I moved on to boxing, then all other styles of fighting. Father thought performing push-ups was a good punishment when I misbehaved as a child. This would have been okay if it was only ten of them and not two hundred. When I perfected them, it was raised to three hundred. This was his way of conditioning my body and building muscle mass.
I had been thirteen when I started my official hunter training. I had been instructed on how to observe my subject unnoticed from a short distance away, and to drown out all sound, except for the subject that was under surveillance. I found this the hardest skill to master, but as time went by, I developed my own techniques. Instead of having fun like most young teens, I was taught to understand normal and bizarre patterns of behaviour in humans and to recognize the signatures of demons. Understanding behaviour was a crucial part. Not all demons have the ugly black signature, but they do behave differently than mortals and it can sometimes get tricky identifying them. If I had to make a choice about Indy being a demon at this point, I would have to say she wasn’t. In a court of law, you’re innocent until proven guilty, and even though I had caught her in the act about to beat up the university jock, I had to wonder if the reason was justified. In Indy’s rage I had heard her yelling at this guy about what he had done—he shown no remorse—and I knew this fuelled her rage. For now, I would have to sit here and gather more information.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Nate
Two hours into the surveillance and I was already over sitting in this tree. I would be here all night, and this boredom was driving me mental, or maybe that was the different sleeping patterns. Sleep and rest were supposed to occur at night, not chasing around a man who was petrified of his own shadow. I had sat in those boring uncomfortable trees for five nights now, and not once did he go anywhere after school, apart from training. Simon didn’t even appear to have any friends. I needed a new strategy. With only two nights left, I felt I needed a miracle.
It was clear that nothing was happening during the night and there was a large portion during the day that I was missing. From the hours of 6:30am to 7:00pm this man was alone. I had to start thinking that he was guilty to force myself to see him as the man Indy thought he was.
I remember the way that Mark hated him and tried to convince me that it was not cool to be friendly with him. Maybe there was more to it than just a simple disliking for a teacher and coach. My mind was made up. Night surveillance was over. I didn’t like this, but I knew exactly who to contact, and we would have to work together, as a team.
Carefully scaling down the branches, I jumped the last meter, landing perfectly on my feet like a cat. I walked down the road a little; just enough that Simon's house was still in view. I called the dreaded number.
“Hello,” Connor said in a voice indicating that he didn’t know who was on the other end of the line.
“Hi, Connor, don’t hang up. I need your help. Can you meet me tonight?” I asked.
“Why? Is it about Indy?”
“Kinda, I’m trying to help her,” I said.
I must have said the right thing because Connor was making some excuse to leave and was coming to meet me. He wouldn’t be happy that I didn’t leave, but the alternative was worse. Less than a few minutes later, a car pulled up on the opposite side of the street and out came Connor. He tried to act all tough, but we both knew that if it came to a brawl between us, he had no chance. He may have been able to lay me out—if I didn’t have superhuman strength and wasn’t so fast.
Connor had his hands across his chest waiting for me to speak. His earlier feelings for me had never disappeared. He glared at me, getting impatient. He lost his patience and broke the awkward silence.
“I thought you left town, but here you are,” said Connor.
“Okay, so I’m spying on Mr. Hopwood, and I need your help distracting Indy,” I replied.
“What are you spying on him for?”
“I can’t just leave, my boss will be pissed that I didn’t do what I came here to do. So I was tryin
g to find some evidence against Hopwood. That way, I can give the boss a good reason to not kill her.”
“I suppose you found nothing,” said Connor.
“Yeah, well he is too scared at night to leave his house. Indy really did freak him out,” I said.
“There would have been a good reason why she'd hurt him. Why didn’t you just ask her? That’s just too easy, hey?”
“I need to see this with my own eyes or from a source other than her,” I explained.
“So what do you want me to do?” asked Connor, obviously not convinced.
“I want to watch him at school somehow, but I need you to occupy Indy for me,” I told him.
“Okay, but I am not going to lie to her,” he bargained.
“We have no other choice. It’s only while we are at school,” I said.
Connor looked at me. Then his whole expression changed and he displayed some extreme jealousy. Jealous didn’t look pretty on this boy.
“Why do you care all of a sudden how she ends up?” demanded Connor.
“I don’t care one bit, but I’m trying to do the right thing,” I replied. He moved closer now, invading my personal space. This was one thing I hated.
“Then leave if you don’t care,” said Connor. Anger was taking over him, and his face was turning red. I swore I could feel his rage seeping into me.
I didn’t want to challenge him, but I also wasn’t going to back down. I didn’t need to explain myself to him. I will try a different tactic with him.
“If you love her, you will help me.” He had to think about this. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t want to admit how he felt, or if he didn’t want me to know, but at the end of the day, he did love her. And it was that easy when it came to protecting her. Connor agreed to lie for the remaining two days. I just hoped that I found something worth lying over.
We both went our own ways. I didn’t go back to the tree. Instead, I was on my way back to the hotel to try and get a good night’s sleep. The next day was important. I could not afford to stuff up. Simon may be expecting Indy to be keeping an eye on him. I guess trying to be his friend was paying off because he would never expect me.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Indiana
I cooked Connor’s Pop Tart and yelled out to him for the third time. We really were going to be late for school today. He exited his room with his boxer shorts and no shirt on. I had never paid much attention to his body before, but I was kind of impressed. He didn’t have Nate's structured muscles, but Connor was built nicely. And he had morning wood. It was so distracting. I was slightly disappointed when he did find the shirt and pants he was looking for; I had to say goodbye to his fine physique.
He grabbed my keys and pushed me toward the front door.
“Are you going to do something with that hair? It’s a mess, Connor.”
“No, babes, I thought messy was the new look,” laughed Connor.
“It is, but that is a bird's nest. You can’t walk around like that,” I said, being completely serious.
Connor took no notice to what I had said and was eager to get to school again. This was not usual for him at all. I wonder if the phone call from his parents two nights ago had something to do with his current mood and secretiveness. He was definitely not telling me something, but I figured it was something to do with his parents. His family life was too effed up to worry about. He didn’t need me being nosy. We parked quite close to the school this time, and Connor wasted no time at all getting out. I hurried to match his fast pace.
Poor Casey was standing there pretty much by herself. Mark and Corrina were wrapped around each other, their tongues engaging in mass saliva reproduction, and Brandon and Nessa were being all cute leaned up against the tree. I slung my arm around Casey.
“How long has this revolting display be going on for?”
“Long enough. I’m glad you’re here,” said Casey.
“Indy, you know very well that if Nate was here you would be down each other's throats,” said Mark.
Mark was right—we would be down each other’s throats, but not in the loving way. He would be trying to kill me, and I would be trying to find a way to piss him off. I just smiled sweetly and tried to brush off the comment.
“I have a good suggestion! Why don’t Casey and Connor go out on a date?” said Mark.
Connor tried to politely wriggle out of this suggestion without hurting Casey's feelings, but she wasn’t holding back at all and made her emotions heard. I didn’t like the suggestion either. If he got some girlfriend, our time would be cut short and that nice sight I saw this morning definitely would not happen again.
“No offense, Connor, but yuck … totally yuck. We played in the mud together as toddlers,” said Casey. I was so glad to hear Casey’s rejection.
“And besides ... it's not too big either, if I can remember kindergarten properly,” Corrina teased.
From what I had seen this morning, that was certainly not the case. He had grown in many ways since kindergarten. I had been displaying an odd smile on my face, wiping it off quickly, but it was not fast enough. Connor had seen me. The look he gave me in return was strangely confused.
This morning was turning out to be a hoot, and the bell hadn’t even rung yet. This may be a fun day after all. The conversation centered around the same rude comments ‘til the morning bell rang. Grunting and groaning loudly, I headed toward Mark. On our way to Personal Development I realized that the upside of this day was that this was the second to last lesson ever. Hopwood would no longer be my teacher, and saying that felt wonderful. Mark didn’t seem too happy attending this class either. I never asked him why though. I just assumed he disliked the man because of the way he held football training. His methods were not very good. He made the boys do laps then just practice throwing the ball around for an hour. It was the holiday camps that helped our team excel. Hopwood made attendance compulsory, and at the end of the year took all of the glory for the championships. The coach had been too busy trying to develop a cheerleading team for the school that he nearly won the argument. The parents rejected the request due to the expense of uniforms and the need for a choreographer.
As we filed our way into the classroom, Hopwood had a little smile on his face. I wondered what he had planned today. To my surprise, it was nothing. He rented the latest new release from the DVD shop, and we were going to watch it. As he turned the light off, which didn’t make much difference, he stood at the back of the class while the opening credits came on. The movie pulled me into the story.
I could not believe our luck today; Hopwood was doing semi-normal teaching. I turned around to see what he was doing and was slapped in the face immediately by my discovery. He was leaning over, staring into one of the female student's cleavage. She was totally absorbed in the movie. I felt so stupid for letting him make me think he was doing this for our benefit, when it was purely for his own pleasure.
Mark swore next to me and shook his head. He had seen the same thing I had—were the boys more aware than what I had initially thought?
Then something happened that I was least expecting. Mark grabbed his bag and stormed out of the classroom. He mumbled a few words under his breath that I missed. I didn’t know if I should have followed him or not, so I made the split decision to stay in class and let Mark deal with this in his own way.
When the bell rang, I headed to our next class hoping to see Mark, but he didn’t turn up. This was not the usual Mark. I knew if he was going to wag school, he would want us all to do it with him. I joined the rest of the gang at lunch and asked Connor and Brandon if they knew anything. They didn’t. Corrina was a little pouty that he didn’t ask her to join him, but I think she had some other activities on her mind. I think that was probably the furthest thing from his mind at the moment.
I had noticed that by the end of lunch Connor was back to his usual self. The secret he had been hiding for the last few days seemed to have been resolved, and he was his usual chatty self again
.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Nate
Connor was acting strange. I had noticed it and so had Indy. I wasn’t sure if she would demand answers, and then he would crack under pressure. His movements were rigid and rough today. As their car pulled up at school, he literally jumped out and ran to their friends. He was a terrible actor. Indy had caught up really fast, though, and as arranged, I was hiding back ‘til the classes went in.
I could see our group laughing and joking today. I missed that interaction and normalcy. Having nearly no human contact over the last week was not doing great things for my social skills. The school bell rang, and Indy became instantly annoyed. She went off to her first class for the day. Once all of the students were inside, I positioned myself closer to the classroom she was in. Her annoyance was justified. I had forgotten that the seniors in the advanced class had Simon today.
Heavenly Hell (Heavenly Hell Book 1) Page 14
