A/N: The last few days of holiday are upon me, as I go back later than a lot of people. No idea how I'll get into school with all this snow though…

Disclaimer: I own nothing. COTRK belongs to Jenny Nimmo. Mel, Reuben, Brice, Lola, Maia, Rufio, Leela and Orlando belong to Annie Dalton. Other things I may use belong to their respective owners.


Playing by the rules

Mel's P.O.V

West side of city clr of dark activity. Quick scan outside city boundaries b4 returning 2 base.

East area clr. Recent activity found, dark, but not deamonotic. Returning 2 base.

Overall city scan complete. Minimal deamonotic activity recorded. Little dark energy in the area. Returning 2 base.

Any1 thought how 2 explain this 2 Charlie? The sooner the endowed understand the danger; the sooner they can take measures against it.

I flipped through the text messages that were suddenly flooding my phone. Both the heavy and the light scans showed what we had already expected: the demons had not made a base near the city. However, they were serious about enrolling in Bone academy. This would cause problems.

I flipped back to menu and started compose a text of my own, before sending it to all of the team.

Charlie will b discussed base. Get there now!

I sighed. This could be a long day.

***====The time it takes for grass to grow later====***

I sat. Already having to sit, that was a bad sign. This was the easy part. If I had to sit now, what would I have to do later? Lie down?

"We need to discuss some sort defense system. Remember, this is for everybody, not just us." I always hated this part. Thinking of something, then finding out how long it is until it fails.

"Stay in groups. Demons pick people off one by one." Lola had given the classic answer. And the only answer for humans.

"How can we kid ourselves? It the only thing humans can do. So much of this is going to be up to the four of us. One of you," I said, waving a hand at them as I stood up to leave the room. "Get Charlie's lot here in under an hour. We have even more serious explaining to do."

I stood and turned to the door. One hour. Sixty minutes. Three thousand six hundred seconds. Such a short space of time to compose myself before it all come rushing out.

Slow.

Soft.

Time is of the essence. Small touches of calm time, among the frantic, enough to keep sane, enough to regain calm.

***====Under the apple tree in Liv's garden====***

Emma's P.O.V

Liv and I were stretched out beneath the apple tree in her garden. The sun was beaming down with all its might, as if were trying to make up for all the times it had been hidden behind grey clouds. A slight wind rustled the leaves of the tree above us and somewhere a bird, I'm sure it was a thrush, was singing out its heart. Liv was trying to get me out of the shadows, to no avail, to get me to sunbath. I was reluctant to move. Being fair skinned, I knew that the sun would easily burn me.

"Five minutes in the sun. Five short, measly minutes aren't going to burn you. You're ghost pale," She said, lifting one of my arms, before I snatched it away. "At least get some colour into that skin."

"Liv, the only colour the sun makes me go is red or pink. If you make me go in that sun for five minutes, than I'll be peeling in five days time." It was true; some days I wasn't sure who was more of an albino, Billy or I! But Liv was not taking no for an answer.

"That's rubbish!" She cried. "You're just pasty because you stay indoors, stuck reading or drawing all day. You just need a little sunlight on your skin, it'll bring out some colour."

With that, she proceeded to try and drag me from under the tree. I clung to the grass, long enough that it should have been mown a few weeks ago, and tried to dig my heels into the soil.

"Come now, my dear," Liv said in her best 'Old Woman's,' voice, "You don't want to make me tickle you."

I squeezed my eyes shut, expecting an onslaught of Liv's fingers. Instead, I got a prickling felling at the back of my neck. I was- we were being watched.

Liv seemed to have felt it too, I realized as I opened my eyes. She was standing over me; hands inches away from my stomach, stock-still. I used Liv to pull myself to a standing position, then, turned to face behind me, where I was sure the person was.

Nothing. No one there. I could have sworn I heard a giggle, from above me. I raised my head.

She was sat on one of the tree's boughs, feet swinging under it, hands clutching it, so she didn't fall as leant forwards, towards us. Barefoot, white dress so pure in the dappled light, wings invisible, she blinked back at us. Black curls, long and loose behind her, green eyes glinting like emeralds, skin too dark to be Melanie.

Lola.

"You must come now," she said, her voice almost songlike, "We are waiting for you."

***====Meanwhile, at base====***

Mel's P.O.V

I hated giving orders to my friends, those that should be my equals. I hated acting tough and cold to them- though sometimes I couldn't tell if it were an act or not. I didn't want to stalk out of the door, without once looking back, but I knew I couldn't face what was behind me.

Blindly, I stumbled along the deserted corridor in front of me. My hands found a door, and I fumbled with knob to get it open. The room inside was barren. Paint was peeling off the walls; the floorboards were dusty beneath my feet. In the centre of the room was a bed frame, with an old, sagging mattress. I made my way to it.

The springs groaned as they took my weight. I pressed my face into the musky material. That was when I heard the footsteps.

Someone had just entered the room. The hinges of the door squeaked a little as they protested about being shut. There was a click as the door closed. A rustle of clothing as the person turned. Then there was silence, but I could feel their hot gaze running over my back. Still I did not look up.

The footsteps started again, padding softly, like a cat, only just loud enough for me to hear, to quiet for a human to hear or make. They paused when they reached the bed, level with me. I felt the springs compress, heard them groan as they took the weight of a second person.

Then there were hands. Fingertips delicately brushing my hair off my shoulders, exposing my neck. The contact was enough to tell me who this was.

Rueben- through his fingers I could feel the gold reaches of his mind.

There was no need to speak. Our minds were connected. Not quite one, but defiantly not two separate entities.

His fingers were warm against my skin, slowly and lightly running down from my neck, over the thin cotton of my tank top, until they reached my lower back. Then he started to apply pressure, only a little, rubbing small circles over my back, my neck, my shoulders, working out knots from muscle I hadn't noticed were tense.

I tried to relax more, but survival instinct refused to let my sense dull when I was, potentially, in some sort of danger.

"We can't get through to any of N.A.T.S.' bases here." Both his hands had come down to my hips, touching the bare skin between my jeans and where my top had ridden up, fingertips just brushing under it, asking for full skin-to-skin contact. "There are 50% less dimensions touching this one than average, and the wards around it are quite strong. You were lucky to end up in such a secluded spot from that scatter portal." Yeah, sometimes the universe so sets you up.

"Lucky, my ass!" I snorted at him.

There was silence from him for a few seconds, before he spoke again.

"Nah, luck can't be that cute." I could picture his grin.

"Flirt." I murmured quietly, only just loud enough for him to hear.

There was movement at that. He slid forward from his position kneeling over me, to one where he was half on top of me, half alongside me. I could feel his breath tickling my neck.

"But you know you love it." As he whispered in my ear, he moved a hand that had been casually draped across my waist and down my hips. He gave me a firm squeeze, as if to prove his point.

I raised my eyebrows at that, then remember he couldn't exactly see that. He chuckled. I realized I had forgotten about our mind link. He growled playfully into my ear and began to nibble round its outside. Hands pulled my tank top over my head, leaving my top half in only a bra. His mouth started to rain kisses upon my neck and back. I flipped myself over, underneath him and finally his lips met mine.

And when you're like we are, all barriers sort of, just melt. The bond we share, touchable, but not breakable. The words rang through our heads -if we still had those- only not as words, as a burst of thought- some pure form of energy that ran along the edge of creation. And we were just two more souls locked together in an embrace of kisses and touches.

***====Meanwhile, at The Heights====***

Strong sunlight didn't go well with Brice. Seriously, the kid would fit right in on the set of a cheap horror movie. Walking around in a dark library- that was him, but strolling round The Heights in the summer- strenghth sun- not his scene at all, you could tell he just didn't belong.

Still, he had a job to do. And he wasn't foolish enough to go back to Mel empty handed; that had happened before and was a mistake he hoped never to repeat again. Yet, one hour to round up all the endowed children on The Heights, tough call. Luckily for him, all of them, minus Liv and Em, were gathered in Gabriel's house, for reasons that were yet to be explained- he wondered if they ever would be. As he neared the residence, he could hear the children's laughter; ironic how simple shining light could turn teens into toddlers.

As Brice walked behind the Silk residence, he could see a fine spray of water making rainbows in the air above the garden. They were having a water fight. He sat in silence on the garden fence, waiting for them to notice him.

It took all of five minutes for them to notice he was there. An incident with a stray water gun, he was ashamed to admit; there was now a long wet stripe down his black t-shirt. He stared at the offending streak and the material steamed. His eyes lifted back to the children. They seemed, to him, to shift out of his gaze, as if he would fry them too.

"Mel is waiting for you now. She wants everyone back at base in 15 minutes. Stay or follow, it's your choice, but remember, if you're not there, it's my ass that ends up shoved into the deepest pit in hell." That was all he said before he turned on his heel and left, hoping there was a crowd of endowed children following him.

Long sentences weren't Brice's thing either, but relaying orders, stalking away, being a general freak and occasionally disappearing into thin air like a vampire in a bad movie; that was the essence of Brice.


A/N: Ok.... Really weird thing happened. This document decided to be 'difficult'. When I uploaded, it had no bolding, centre text, blank lines ect. I left it overnight and it sorted itself out. No idea how.....