Chapter Four

At Spencer's Library many of the students that were studying had left to get some food or call it night. But one particular student was still there in the corner with many books piled high in the air. Pogue would have probably missed her if he hadn't noticed the fiery red hair sticking out. As he moved closer to the table he didn't find her writing notes or reading her textbooks, but instead Kylie's face laid flat against her book sound asleep. He would have laughed, but he didn't want to scare her.

Sitting down next to her, he tapped her arm to wake her. Instantly Kylie's face popped up with the page attached to her face. Looking around confused for a couple seconds, she glanced over to see Pogue with a smirk enveloping his face. Remembering where she was, Kylie peeled the page off her face quickly trying to hide the fact her drooling was the cause of the paper sticking. She asked disheveled, "What time is it?"

Pogue looked at his cell phone, "Almost eight." He continued to say, "Kate's been trying to get in touch with you for almost an hour now."

Kylie's face fell a little as she stuck her hand in her purse to retrieve her phone. "Hmm…I missed eleven calls. Lovely. How did you know I was here?"

Pogue shrugged his shoulders, "I guessed. Kate told me the places she checked and knowing you like the quiet, I figured you went to the one place Kate would never step into, unless she desperately had too." He stretched his arms out, "The Library."

Kylie rubbed her eyes to make them focus more and said with a small smile, "Very clever." Pogue was now holding Kylie's pen in his hand, tapping it on the table when she asked curiously, "Why didn't you tell her I was here if you had a hunch?"

Pogue eye's glanced over and he said a little smug, "Sometimes you just need a breather from her."

Kylie turned more toward him, "I thought you liked being suffocated by her love?"

Pogue laughed, "I love her, but sometimes I need my space." She debated with herself to ask and Pogue gave a chuckle, "Kylie I see the smoke coming from your ears. Just ask before you explode."

Kylie's eyes light up and yet held caution, "You sure? Because once I ask a question I like to get an answer or else it'll drive me mad not knowing."

Pogue slid his arms forward on the table, "I'll tell you what. I'll answer as best as I can."

She nodded her head and asked, "If you need a break from Kate, why don't you hang out with the boys then?"

He sighed, "I want too. I just don't find it cool how they treat or talk about Kate. And whenever we come to hang out it's like we're outsiders."

They sat in thought and Pogue asked, "What kind of research are you doing? World maps? Ipswich history? Mythology? I see you even threw some black magic books in there."

Kylie snapped out of her daze, "Well, I was trying to see if any of these books relate to Ipswich history."

"Interesting. Did you find anything?"

Kylie thought for a few seconds before answering his question. She really didn't want to reveal too much information just in case he'd inform Kate. Yes, even though most people believe Abby is just jealous, Kylie couldn't help but feel that Abby may be on to something. "Yes. I did. In Greek Mythology they mention the creatures called Hell Hounds. They're like these vicious dogs that are controlled by Hades. In this text," Pogue's eyes held recognition as she pointed to a book called Chronicles of Paganism: The Rise of the Witch, "it gives a brief description of bloodthirsty dog-shaped creatures that would arise from the ashes and tear apart humans for the thrill. Both these monstrous dogs have the same characteristics, such as having black fur with yellow demon eyes."

Pogue leaned closer, "So you think there are more connections of these myths to our history?"

Kylie shrugged her shoulders, "Maybe? Based on just the guardians' history, our gods and goddesses are from Greek mythology. So I believe there might be some truth to these stories. The problem is trying to sort them out."

A phone began to vibrate on the table and Pogue said, "You got a text from Tyler." She looked at her phone and gave a small sigh.

"Everything okay?" Pogue's eyes held some concern.

She smiled, "Yea, they're all hanging out at Nicky's."

Pogue flipped through a page in the text, "How are they?"

She replied, "They're okay. You know they miss you." His fist clenched,

"Not enough. Kylie, the only way I'm going to hang out with them is when they put some real effort trying to get along and stop bashing Kate."

Nodding her head in agreement, "I understand there's loads of tension and they shouldn't talk bad about Kate." Well at least in front of you two, she thought. "But if I may say, I think Reid only gives you a hard time because he might be a little jealous. It's always been you four and now it's four plus your girlfriend. I think to Reid if Kate's there all the time, it's basically killing the guy time."

Pogue shook his head, "No that can't be. I've been dating Kate since freshmen year; why would he act up now after all this time?" Because maybe you're blowing them off more often? Dragging her everywhere…Kylie wouldn't even be surprised if he brought Kate to one of their boy "secret" meetings at the colony house.

Kylie bit her tongue holding her thoughts so she wouldn't drive Pogue away. No one for over a year has had a decent conversation with him. Not even Caleb's talk at the picnic went so well. They talked about Pogue's dad if anything. Kylie shrugged her shoulders, "Maybe he just realized this will probably be your last year together since college starts? Or the fact you have a steady girlfriend and he's alone?" Pogue looked not convinced and Kylie said, "I don't know."

Pogue said, "Whatever Reid's problem is he should just shut up." Pogue was getting edgy and was leaning on the edge of his chair to get up. Kylie asked swiftly,

"But what about Caleb? He hasn't told you how to run your relationship or hasn't commented on Kate. He just asked for you to come and hang out with him."

He put his hands on top of his head, "I just can't do it. It would be too awkward, even if Caleb tried. Besides, it's not only the boys we're talking about here. When we all hang out, Rae can't hold her tongue and Abby…." His eyes began to water just thinking about her. "Well you know her opinion on the subject. No one likes Kate and I can't understand why. She didn't do anything harmful or even mean. Do you even like her?"

Kylie calculated her move as she said, "Yea, I do. But with her energetic and bubbly personality," she let out fake and bitchy side, "I can only take small doses."

He put his hand on the table to emphasize his point, "See, why can't the others be like you and understand we love each other?" She flipped another page in the text in front of her.

Love. This concept seemed lost in our group. Since their first rebirth, it was embedded in their brains that their duty to protect the Sons of Ipswich overcame their desirable needs. It would make them weak, vulnerable and distracted. Yet, over these three years Kylie couldn't deny the more they interacted with theses Ipswich boys, the stronger they seemed. Maybe the gods were wrong. As corny as it sounded, maybe love was a key part in winning. Glancing over, Pogue had his head on the table and she asked,

"Pogue?"

He looked up from his troubling thoughts, "Yea."

She inquired, "What do you do for your breaks then?"

He smiled, "I work on cars and my bike at the shop." Excitement lit his eyes, "I'm actually working on a 1972 Silver Arrow 3. Man, she a little rough, but when I get her in shape she'll be great…." He kept talking until he stopped mid-sentence, "You don't know what I'm talking about do you?"

She gave a laugh, "I was good up until the part where you started talking about car parts. I collect some cars, but I have no idea what makes a car go."

He cracked his knuckles and asked intrigued, "What cars do you own?"

She responded eagerly, "Well, I just bought the Aston Martin V-12 Vanquish and Bugatti Veyron 16.4 for this year." Pogue's jaw had dropped to the floor and Kylie added,

"And I have a Bugatti Type 41."

He shook his head in astonishment, "No way. The Bugatti Royale, that's one of the rarest cars in the world."

Kylie said with pride, "Yep, they made only 6 from the originally planned 25."

He asked excited, "What's the chassis number?"

"41.110." He recognized the name right away and said, "Coupe Napoleon."

Kylie bit her lip as she finally set the ultimate bait, "But I have only one prize possession I favor over all and there is only one left." Kylie was building up anticipation as she paused before revealing it, "A 1954 Oldsmobile F88 Convertible Concept."

"I thought it was sold to a John S. Hendricks?"

Kylie smiled, "I've had many names made to cover my tracks. It would be to suspicious if the same person over 300 years kept buying cars."

His face still was in awe as he tried to imagine each car, "Damn, girl. Why aren't you driving them?"

She leaned back in her chair, "Their collector cars; worth more than whatever Provost Higgins's weird new statue in the front of the school costs."

He was back to flipping the pen, "If you want, I could show you what a car is made of." Yes, they were bonding. She thought excited, 1 point for the covenant team, 0 for team Kate.

Delighted at the idea Kylie said, "Cool. That's something I've always wanted to do. And maybe you could see my cars?"

Pogue was beginning to get up out of the wooden chairs, "Really?" Kylie nodded her head at his excitement. "Sweet. Are you busy Saturday?"

Kylie again reached for her purse, but this time pulling out a planner. She scanned it quickly to see if anything was scribbled on that date. Pogue chuckled, "If you can schedule me in."

She glanced up, "It's crazy. I have work every day after school, training on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Yearbook and Dance committee is after school on Fridays and then I have to pencil in all the community services and hang out time with Kate. I feel like I don't have time to pee or eat anymore."

Pogue shook his head back and forth, "I don't know how you do all that. I'm good enough with school, the shop and swim. If it's too much you could tell Kate to cut down on community projects; though it is a nice thing to do."

If only it was that simple to just walk away. But she had no choice in the matter, Abby and her pledged to switch the people they were given to protect. She had to keep her friends close and her enemies closer. Huh, maybe that was Kate's angle….

Interrupting her thoughts he said proudly, "See this is why I love Kate. She's so caring for everyone." Kylie nodded her head, even though she disagreed. Sure when they went to the soup kitchen it was a great idea. Kate had good intentions it's just that she won't do most or any of the work. That would be Valerie Montgomery (her friend that quit the softball team) a new member like Kylie. But unlike Kylie, Val became a servant of the group. Hence why Kate never did stuff at the volunteer services; Val would do all the work for acceptance and Kate would get all the glory.

Actually, Kate had certain people she favored in her group. Kristen Mulligan was on Kate's good side by always retrieving the latest gossip. Kara Gallup , Reid's ex, was also on her good side since she would provide awesome trips to Paris, Miami, Rome, Cancun, or even to the Bahamas. Brittany Shiel seemed like an unknown in Kate's eyes; one day she liked Britt the next time Kate would rip her a new one. It was easy for Kate to get away with it because most times Brittany was too stupid to notice she just got insulted. The only reason why Kate kept her around was because she provided Kate a connection to get into fashion week in Paris; apparently her mother was some famous fashion designer. Notice all of these girls had to follow many stupid rules of what you can't wear, what you can't eat, who you can't associate with, etc. Whatever Kate said, went. With the exception of Kylie, she didn't know what she did or provided to this group, but she became Kate's best friend. It was a little unnerving why she was the favorite, making Abby and her suspicious of Kate more….

"Did you eat yet?" Kylie glanced over to Pogue, who was leaning against the chair. Her stomach gave a nasty growl and he said, "I take that as a no. Come on let's get some grub." She quickly gathered her belongings, and they both made their way to the cafeteria. For right now she had to take one day at a time and pray to unravel this mystery as fast as possible.