Claire covered his mouth with her hands as she struck him several times in the back with a piece of glass. He dropped me to reach for her.
I kicked him in the face. I tried to kick him again, but he grabbed my foot and twisted it; I fell to the floor. He grabbed my head and slammed it against the tile floor. My ears were ringing and blood pooled in my eyes. I blinked several times to clear the dizziness from my head.
A second later he fell on top of me.
“Get up we don’t have very much time,” said Claire. She rolled him off me and pulled me to my feet.
“Thanks for not ignoring me. I didn’t know if you were awake, so I kicked you.”
“I wasn’t asleep. I was waiting for him to come in here.” Claire searched Ivan’s pockets until she found the car keys. She tossed them to me.
“Go to the academy and tell them what’s going on, then meet me at Pratt Labs. Trevor will want to make sure you didn’t run away.”
“I am running away.” A sense of relief flooded me when I felt the metal car keys in my hand. Wiping the sweat off my hands I crept to the front door.
“No, you are getting help and coming back to the lab to help me with the virus. You need to be there by eleven. Come back with supplies so that Trevor thinks you went for more supplies.”
“He won’t fall for that.” We need help but I don’t feel right about leaving her alone to face the demons. What other choice do I have? “Come with me to the academy.”
“He will fall for it because you’re going to show up. If you don’t, he’ll kill me and come to the academy and kill you—all of you. He’s not going to be satisfied with just killing the vampires.” Claire ran her hands through her hair and pushed me toward the door.
“What will you do about the other guy when they find him dead on the floor?”
“I don’t know but they won’t kill me, at least not until I make Trevor the vampire virus. We both need to be at the lab before I do that.” She opened the front door and pushed me out into the hallway.
“Arianna don’t be late,” Claire said and closed the door.
I couldn’t find the car anywhere. The only place I didn’t look was in the woods. Going into the woods at night in a city that was crawling with vampires and werewolves wasn’t the smartest thing to do. If Trevor’s men find me standing here on the sidewalk there goes our chance for rescue, and he’ll kill both of us.
Running, I didn’t stop until I was deep in the woods. Slowing down I clutched the keys between my two fingers; ready to stab anyone that popped out in front of me.
“Arianna, what are you doing here?”
Is that her? “Aiko, I don’t see you. I can’t talk now. I’ve been taken hostage; I’ve got to get out of here and I suggest you do the same.” I rushed forward running through the woods. I spotted the truck parked underneath the tree with some tree limbs covering it. Tossing the branches off the windshield I unlocked the car. A black werewolf jumped out from the tree and landed on the hood.
I dropped the keys. Bending down without taking my eyes off the werewolf I felt in the dirt for the keys. I couldn’t feel them. The wolf began to change. It was Aiko.
“Come on, get the keys and tell me what you’re doing here,” said Aiko. She hopped inside the passenger open window.
Finding the keys, I jumped inside. “My sister’s boyfriend kidnapped me and my friend, and he’s forcing us to make the vampire virus so that he can kill all the vampires. If we don’t do what he says he’ll kill us.”
“How did you make the virus while at the academy?”
“I didn’t make the virus. I used to work at the lab. It’s a long story. I need to warn the academy. My sister’s boyfriend is up to no good and they need to stop him. Angels fight demons so it’s our job.”
“True but you can’t give him the virus to kill the vampires. The werewolves and vampires need each other. Who do you think protect and keep order down here,” said Aiko?
“This doesn’t concern you. I need to get to the academy quick.” I drove down the street, but she grabbed the steering wheel, and I slammed on the brakes.
“What are you doing? If Trevor and the rest of the demons come to the academy, we’re dead.”
“We need to kill this Trevor guy.”
“True but I need to warn the academy so that they can formulate a plan before I meet my friend at the lab.”
“You plan to give this Trevor guy the virus? I can’t let you do that.”
“Let me. This has nothing to do with you. I’m going to show up at the lab because if I don’t my friend, the one who made the virus, will be killed. She’s the only one that can make a cure and I will help her, but I have got to keep her alive.” I started driving again.
“Where is this Trevor guy? How do I find him?”
“I don’t know. He’s my sister’s boyfriend.”
“You have to know so where is it, tell me?”
“I don’t know. If I had to guess, I would think the information might be in my sister’s diary, but I really don’t know.”
“Let’s get the diary and give it to the headmaster at the academy so that they can find him.”
“Fine.”
“What were you doing way out here?”
“I smelled your scent and tracked you. I was coming over to the academy to tell you, thanks for whatever you said to Malcolm to change his mind about giving me to Orion.”
“I didn’t do anything. I told him he should listen to you and your feelings, but he didn’t care what I said.”
“Wrong, he did. That night he found me and he apologized. He said he was wrong. I have been with Maximus for over ten years and I have never heard him apologize,” said Aiko.
It took forty minutes to arrive back in the city. “Do you think the car will be safe here?” I looked around the garage. I’m not sure how she knew this garage was still operational to hold a car, but I was glad it wasn’t out in the open. Trevor and his men could be anywhere.
“It’s fine. Stop worrying.”
“I’m beginning to think Maximus was right. You don’t worry enough.” I closed the garage door and walked south three blocks. Glancing at my watch it was three in the morning. We had time but not nearly as much as I wanted.
“Why don’t you get Maximus and meet me back at the academy?”
“I’m going with you just in case you run into any vampires or demons. This plan you guys have concocted seems to be hitched to the two of you living.”
“Suit yourself.” I stopped when I saw mom’s front door. It had been so long since I saw it.
“What’s wrong?” Akio looked at me then looked around.
“Nothing, it’s been a long time since I saw our house and I haven’t heard from my mom since we left for the academy.” Reaching my bedroom window, I jumped up and slid the window open.
“Do you always leave your bedroom window open and unlocked?” Aiko stepped inside and closed the window. She went to my side of the bedroom and started opening the drawers.
“Kyra always snuck out and stuff while I was sleep. This is her side.” I pointed to the left side of the room. There were more of Kyra’s clothes that was left. Had she been coming here and sleeping?
“Don’t touch anything. I think Kyra has been here, so I can’t alert her that we’ve been here.”
Rummaging through her third dresser drawer I found her diary. I closed the drawer and looked at Akio smiling. She was frowning and pulling her sword.
I shook my head and pushed her underneath the bed and crawled under it just as the window slid up. Aiko was starring daggers at me and holding her sword ready to pounce out from under the bed.
Pink ballerina shoes appeared before the bed. The window was closed and I heard her humming to herself. She didn’t sound upset in the least or worried about me. My own flesh and blood sister wanted me dead. It was something I couldn’t wrap my head around. How could she hate me when all I’ve ever done is sacrifice everything for her?
Looking at Aiko, I pointed to the shoes and mouthed Kyra.
Kyra walked out of the room. Her footsteps faded as she walked downstairs. She came back in the room snacking on some potato chips and drinking some juice, pacing back and forth in front of the bed.
What is she doing? Craning my neck at a ninety-degree angle I could see her. She had something in her hand but dropped it in the trash.
“Damn.” She bent to pick it out of the trash when she peeped out of the window, then suddenly ducked. The thing fell back into the trash and she scrambled to her feet. She stopped in front of the bed.
I looked at Aiko who gripped her sword tighter. Looking around Kyra had everything under the bed, but there was no way to prevent her from finding us if she climbed under here.
My heart pounded. She would scream and if that was Trevor, Aiko and I were as good as dead.
She dashed to the closet and closed the door.
The window opened and several people climbed inside. Black boots walked toward the bed. There were several tennis shoes that approached the bed.
It looked like there were five demons in here. Six, if we count Kyra as a demon.
“Someone was here recently because the light was on.” The guy in the gray shoes walked over toward the dresser and started going through it.
“What if she was still here?” I saw the pair of boots stop and sit on my bed. After a second he got up and walked over to the pile of clothes on the floor and tossing them around.
“Where, is she under the bed?” The guy laughed.
“Guys less talking and more searching.” Trevor turned and walked over to the photo of Kyra and me on my nightstand. He picked it up and opened the drawer. Once he found the scissors, he started cutting the photograph. When he held up the photo it just had Kyra in it. I gritted my teeth. Kyra and he deserved each other.
“What are we looking for Trevor?”
“Just search the room and be quick. It looks like someone’s been here. I don’t want her to come back here and catch me in her room.” Trevor walked over to the window and looked out. He looked down and picked something out of the trash.
“I knew it. I could tell when she came out of the school dressed differently that she was up to something. She’s pregnant.”
Is this what Kyra meant by losing everything? She had slept with a demon and gotten pregnant. She can’t be that stupid. The baby in her stomach could be anybody’s. Trevor might be more faithful than Kyra.
“Who’s the father?” The guy in the gray shoes backed up from Trevor while holding up his hands “You two broke up. Just because you weren’t seeing anyone doesn’t mean she wasn’t sleeping with other guys.”
“I could feel her and my life force within her. I knew that she was pregnant with my child. That’s why she’s been wearing oversized clothing.”
“You’re happy that she tried to hide her pregnancy from you?”
“She can’t hide something like that from me. She doesn’t understand what that means, but she will soon. Let’s get out of here.”
“Are you going to leave that in the trash?”
Trevor opened the window and jumped out. His men followed him and the last guy closed the window.
A few minutes later, Kyra came out of the closet. She held one hand over her stomach and the other over her mouth.
“How did he know? I didn’t even know and I still had my period this month,” said Kyra. She stomped her foot and walked to the window. She climbed out and disappeared into the night.
I slid from underneath the bed. “That was a close call. I need to get to the academy. Kyra is probably heading there now.” I flipped through the diary until I found an address with Trevor’s name next to it. They copied the address down and closed the diary.
“Some girls just don’t need to get pregnant. Do you think the baby is Trevor’s?”
“Yes, or Maximus’s. He has spent time with Kyra and she was throwing herself at him.” I slid the window up and hopped outside. The night air was cool against my skin, but I was busy looking around. I didn’t trust Kyra not to pop out from the bushes and stab me.
“Most girls throw themselves at Maximus. He has that effect on girls, but he wouldn’t date Kyra. He’s into you.”
Rolling my eyes, I handed her the keys. “Here, you take the diary and give it to Maximus, so you guys can plan. I wrote the address down, and I’ll give it to the headmaster.”
Trevor
Today was going to be a great day. It didn’t feel like a normal day because I’m going to be a father. I have never thought about creating life and yet I feel whole. Maybe this is the something that has been missing in my life. I’m not letting anything, or anyone, spoil my mood. Ivan should have called by now, but I haven’t heard from him. He probably took Claire and Arianna to the lab and if he did that’s good. The quicker they make the vampire virus the better. I cannot wait to test it out.
It’s only fitting that this should end where I first met Kyra. My watch says its two in the afternoon and Celeste is not here. For a girl with superpowers, she sure is hormonal. You would think that she would be here early since today is the day I make the human’s regret messing up her life. Derrick Grand and his father Myron Grand played Valcrum, screwing up people’s lives. Well, there are consequences for doing that.
Picking up my phone I walk to Dylan’s room. He has not been the same since Phil died, and I don’t know what to say. I wonder if he regrets being my friend. Rapping on the door twice, I walked inside before he invites me. His room is the only pristine room in the house. The books he managed to collect are neatly stacked on the dresser and his California king-size bed has the sheets folded military style.
The toilet flushes and the bathroom door open. Dylan flops back on his bed.
“I’m going to Pratt Labs where Claire is making more of the virus. You should come and get out of this room.”
“I don’t want to leave the room. I’m tired.”
“Dylan you have been sleeping for four days and you hardly leave the bed. There is no way you are still tired. You are depressed.”
“I’m mourning. You have thirty-six demons with you, so you don’t need me.”
“I’ll always need you, Dylan.”
“Close my door on your way out.”
“Just say it. You blame me for Phil’s death. I was not the one who killed him.”
“If it was not for you, we would not be down here, and he would still be alive.”
“You are here, stuck on earth, just like them but you did not try to kill me.”
“The day is young. Don’t tempt me.”
“I will call and check on you later. I will leave twenty men here just in case there’s an attack on the house.”
Closing the door, I head down the hall. Dylan has been my best friend for centuries. If there is anyone that knows me, it is him. I have got to fix this void between us. Each day he drifts farther and farther from me.
“Let’s go. Marco, Jae-Ho, Vihaan, Ted, Jake, you’re with me. The rest of you stay here. Call me if there is trouble.”
We arrived at Pratt Labs thirty minutes later and I still did not have a message from Ivan. He was proving to be incompetent. Sliding my phone out my pocket I decided to call him.
“Don’t tell me Ivan didn’t call you,” said Vihaan.
“Nope.”
“How are we going to get in,” asked Marco?
“Someone will let us in.” I slid out of the car and slammed the door. There was no use in letting the phone ring when I could just knock on the door. It was hot outside and there wasn’t much shade. The dang crows were everywhere hoovering in the trees like a dark omen. I hated crows. They always peck your flesh from your bones when you are dead
I knocked on the lab door. Frowning I looked at Ted. Ivan had better not have let Claire escape. She did not seem like she was opposed to making more of the virus. Why would she? If it was not for her the virus would not have been created. The door swung open and Claire stepp
ed aside.
“Come in.” She stepped aside and walked back toward the lab. She looked at the men with me.
“Where is Ivan?”
“He is not here.” Claire walked in the lab. There were several batches of the virus and several beakers on Bunsen burners.
“Arianna, do you know where Ivan went?” She looked up, shook her head, and immediately went back to heating the liquid in the burner.
“This batch over here is enough to take out the vampires in Jonesboro. The batch over there is just a start to begin to rid the city of vampires for good,” said Claire.
“Ted call Ivan again. If he does not answer head down to the hotel.”
“He’s probably still with Kyra,” said Arianna.
“What?” I strolled over there and yanked her to her feet.
“He mentioned something about her being in trouble but that was earlier. He said that he didn’t trust her,” said Arianna.
Why would he go see Kyra without telling me? He is stupid but not that stupid. Ivan has always been a woman chaser, but he would not risk his life to chase Kyra, would he?
Kyra left you. She can see whomever she wants. Did you forget that she hates you? I would not be surprised if she is sleeping with Ivan now.
Victoria why are you in my head? I thought you were ignoring me. Keep ignoring me.
“Did Kyra come by the hotel last night?”
“They had a suite next door, so I don’t know. I did not see her,” said Claire.
Arianna was shaking her head yes, and Claire was shaking her head no. One of them was lying. Which one is it?
“I heard a female voice late at night at around three in the morning. I’m a light sleeper and Claire sleeps like the dead. It could have been Kyra, but I don’t know who it was. I know I heard passionate screams,” said Arianna.
Kyra was a screamer. The rougher I got with her the hoarser her screams became. Ivan has always been the sneak out the back-door kind of guy, but Kyra wouldn’t do that to me. She loves me. I have never seen her as angry as she is right now. She did not tell me she was pregnant. Kyra might be capable of much more deception than I give her credit for.
Shape Shifter’s Demons in the Mist: Angel Academy Page 23
