A/N - Hey everyone, thanks for all the reviews, keep them coming! sorry about the wait for this chapter, i've just been really busy lately with my family, sport and work, plus i have to go back to school tomorrow (cringe). dont be alarmed if i dont post the next chapter soon as im going on a cruise this saturday for two weeks! happy reading!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I woke up feeling groggy in the unfamiliar surroundings. Callum was gone but there was a note left on the pillow.
R-
Didn't want to wake you. Let me know if you want to give training a miss tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully you're feeling better.
- C
Oh god how long had I been asleep? I couldn't even check the time as it appeared Callum didn't own a clock. The door slightly opened and Callum walked in. He looked suprise to see me.
"Oh hey. Did you have a good sleep?"
"Yeah, thanks for sharing your bed" I mumble not meeting his eye.
"That's ok, I like to share" he grins chucking his keys on the bedside table.
"What's the time?" I ask.
"About four o'clock. Why? Got a hot date or something?"
"I wish", I laugh, "just wanted to know how long I was dead to the world for"
"You had a rough morning"
"True." Finding out Sophia was my aunt was a major suprise. It was a good suprise though, but it still hurt that she had to keep it from me. I wonder if the rest of the academy knew that we were related. "Did you think anyone else knows that Sophia's my aunt?" I ask Callum.
He looks thoughtful. "I wouldn't think so no matter how much the girls here like to chin wag. I don't think the teachers would have a clue either" he replies.
"What I told you today...would you be able to keep it to yourself?" I ask slowly.
Deep crease marks formed on his forehead. "Did you think I was going to tell everyone? Do you take me for that kind of person who would tell everyone? I thought you new me better than that!" he replied seeming angry and upset.
"Sorry that came out the wrong way. I know you're not like that" I try to apologise.
"Then what do you think I'm like?" he asks quietly.
"Not too sure yet, but I think I'd like to find out" I smile at him. "Want to go for a run?" I ask.
"Now?"
"Nah at midnight. Yes now, when did you think" I laugh at him getting off the bed.
"I hardly think you're wearing the right clothes for running" he says looking down at me. I forgot how tall he was.
"I guess I'll have to change then" I say making my way out of his room.
"Wait" he calls out grabbing my arm. "Meet me around the shed ok? I've got a few things to do first."
I wonder what errands he had to do? "Ok. See you there in about twenty minutes" I say walking away with a big smile on my face. Being around Callum made me...happy, feel normal. It was exactly like being around Kovu. Oh Kovu, I had to tell him about Sophia and everything. I wonder what he would say. I'll have to set my alarm earlier tomorrow morning so I could have more time to spend with him. I went back to my room and got changed into skins and cami. It was suprisingly quite warm today.
Twenty minutes later I was waiting outside the tin shed, wondering where Callum was.
"I'm here" he whispers in my ear. I turn around in awe to face him.
"How did you sneak up on me like that?" I ask.
"That's just one of my many talents. I'll show you sometime of you want? It's what you'll have to learn if you want to be an angel of death" he tells me.
"So are you going to be an angel of death?" I ask.
"Sure am. I'm going to kill every single one of those mongrols" he says referring to the lycans.
"Oh" I suddenly thought of Callum in a fight with Kovu. I couldn't even think of what would happen. One would end up dead. I wonder which one it would be. Callum, a tall, lean vampire with swift and amazing skills or Kovu, a well built, muscular lycan. Both of which I considered to be close friends. Both of who I could trust with my biggest seccrets.
"What about you? Are you planning to be an angel of death?" he asks sounding interested in what I had to say.
"I'm not too sure yet. I'm not a big fan of violence"
"I think you should think about it though. It is quite an amazing job"
We start to run, picking up the pace as we go along.
"Let's go for a run in the woods. I'm getting sick of this scenery" Callum tells me.
"Nah, it's ok. I'm getting a bit tired" I lie.
"You're so bullshitting me. We've only been running for half an hour. You're not scared of going into the woods are you. I'll protect you." If only he knew the real reason I didn't want to go into the woods. What if Kovu was there? Would Callum think of me as a traitor just like him mom?
"Ok fine. We can go. I don't want to go too far in though" I compromise with him.
"Ok sure. We'll make it a short run today"
My heart was racing as we made our way into the forest. For the first
time in my life I prayed to god that everything would be ok, that Kovu
wouldn't be in the forest somewhere.
"Are you ok?" Callum asks me concerned.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine" I reassure him. He looks at me sceptically but
doesn't say anything.
We run further into the forest, picking up the pace. I'm starting to
relax now. I guess I was just worrying over nothing.
"Do you hear that?" Callum asks me snapping his head to the side.
I hadn't heard anything. "No. Why? What do you think it was?"
"It was probably just my imagination. Don't worry about it" he says
laughing at himself. I give a weak smile. We keep jogging until Callum
suddenly stops. His eyes search the forest and I can feel him casting
out his senses. His arm grabs mine frantically.
"Someone's here" he whispers, "go back to the academy now. Tell Sophia."
He shoves me behind him.
"Im not leaving" I spit at him.
"I don't want you getting hurt. Leave!" he orders glaring at me.
I flinch at his words before staring him down. "No"
He stares back until I see his face soften, "has anyone ever told you
that you're the biggest pain in the arse"
"All the time" I smirk back.
"Stay behind me ok? If I tell you to run, you run. Understand?"
"Perfectly" I say trailing behind him. Quietly he walks deeper into the
forest with me following. We both cast out our senses and
find...nothing.
"It's gone" I state the obvious.
"It will be back, unless it's cloaking itself"
"What? You can cloak yourself? How come you never taught me that?" I ask
loudly. His cool hand clamps over my mouth before whispering, "now is
not the time to winge unless you want to end up dead"
I nod and he removes his hand away from my mouth. I hear a sound. It
sounded like a branch snapping, not too far away from us. Callum looks
around. He must have heard the snapping branch too.
"Watch behind you ok" Callum tells me grabbing my hand in his, leading
us forward. There's a blurry shadow standing before us and Callum lets
out a hiss. The figure chuckles and steps closer. Callum inches away,
his eyes turning dark.
"The mighty Kovu without any bodyguards, that must be a first" Callum
states as the shadow steps forward. I gasp. It's my Kovu. He looks
different. Not so friendly, more deadly. He eyes up Callum before
glancing at me. He is in shock aswell and his head cocks to the side
studying us. I realize that I'm still holding Callum's hand and wonder
what he must think of that. I quickly release it and Kovu smirks.
"Hello Callum. Long time no see"
"Why are you on our grounds Kovu? Has your daddy sent you to do his
dirty work?" Callum hisses.
"Do you want me to say hi to your mom for you?" he retorts and I sense
Callum tense up. I grab his bicep. "Let's just go ok?" I beg him. This
is not the Callum I know. He looks completely different. His features
are sharper and his eyes are dark, almost black. He looks like a
killer.
Callum turns to face me, "Run back now. Warn Sophia there is an attack
on the school as Kovu is not that stupid to come here alone."
"No" I say quietly looking into his eyes, "let's both go back and tell
Sophia. Kovu won't hurt us. He's outnumbered."
Kovu laughs, "Like that would stop me. Why don't you go back and tell
Sophia Callum, and Ruby can stay here with me"
"How did you know her name?" Callum asks sternly.
"Wouldn't you like to find out"
Before I knew what was happening they both collided with each other.
Callum was holding Kovu down, ready to take a bite out of his neck. Kovu
rolled away just in time and kicked Callum in the torso. He let out a
hiss and went to take a swing. He smacked Kovu square in the ribs and I
heard a crunch. Kovu yelps and inches away, straightening himself up,
before lunging for Callum again. He crash tackles Callum to the hard
ground and I see Callum wince.
Shit, shit, shit! What do I do? I don't want to just stand here
watching. I have to make them stop somehow before they kill each other.
"STOP!" I shout walking over to them rolling on the ground. Kovu's
pinning Callum down taking punches. They ignore me and keep throwing
punches. I try to get Kovu off Callum by tugging him away. Kovu, in
defence mode, turns around and clips me around the face. I step back in
shock. He just hit me! My face was stinging horrifically and I felt
tears well up in my eyes. The fight stopped and both boys were looking
at me with painful expressions. Callum looked dangerous and with his
strong arms, shoved Kovu back, pushing him into the tree with a loud
thud. Kovu, looking worse off then Callum, groans and slumps to the
ground. Callum runs over, lifts me up into his arms and runs back to the
academy. On the way back he face doesn't soften and I shudder.
"Are you cold?" he asks.
"No, I'm fine" I say. He doesn't say anything else for a while.
"I'm sorry, it's all my fault. I put your life at risk. I should have
never forced you to leave the grounds", he apologises as we near the
academy.
"It's not your fault. We don't have to tell anyone about this. We can
just say we were training" I offer.
"NO! I will own up and suffer the consequences. You got hurt today. I
should have snapped all four of that mongrols legs off" he says. I can
tell he won't budge on this one.
"Im fine. He just gave me a little slap. It must look worse than it
really is" I lie. I can tell he doesn't believe me. Maybe Callum can
read minds or something.
"Can you read minds?" I ask him.
He laughs, "No, I can just sense people's emotions. I guess I can teach
you that aswell. There's a lot you need to learn about our powers."
Callum was right. I hardly knew anything about the powers I had.
He put me down when we reached Sophia's office and let out a long sigh
before knocking on her door.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Come in" I hear Sophia's soft british accent from behind the door.
Shaking I grab the brass handle, turn it and push the door open.
Sophia stands up abruptly and she must tell by our grim expressions that
something is wrong as deep lines have formed on her face.
"Tell me exactly what has happened" she says, keeping her voice low.
Callum pulls out a chair for me and I collapse into it with a huff. He
also takes a seat, without the dramatic effect.
"Kovu Gossard was in out forest" Callum says gravely staring right at
Sophia. Kovu Gossard - that has a ring to it. Hang on wait, what was I
thinking. Kovu is the enemy now. I must not see him again even though I
desperately wanted to. He had this charisma to just draw me in, hook,
line and sinker.
"Did anything happen? Are you or Ruby hurt?" she asks worried.
"No, we're both fine. Ruby took a hit to the face though. It's all my fault, I was the one that forced her to go into the forest" Callum tells
her and I wince at the memory of Kovu hurting me. He didn't mean to hit
me and it didn't hurt all that much.
"It's not your fault Callum, you wouldn't have known something like this was ever going to happen", she tells him before whispering," So I take we're going to be under attack soon"
"WHAT? THERE'S GOING TO BE A FIGHT" I can't stay composed any longer.
"Its ok Ruby. The students are safe here, but yes they might try and
attack the school. Don't be alarmed though and lets just keep this
between us three ok?"
I just nod stupidly at Sophia.
"Are we going to call in reinforcements?" Callum asks Sophia.
"Yes we will have to. Hopefully this won't alarm the students to much",
she then looks at me, "Ruby, I want you to have extra sessions with
Callum. You are improving greatly but I need you to be able to protect
yourself" she says secretly.
"It's ok I told Callum you're my aunt" I blurt out.
She stares us shocked, darting her eyes from me to Callum. "Oh I see"
she finally says. She gives me a quizzical look and I get what she's
trying to say. I shake my head embarrassed. She wanted to know if we
were going out. She lets out a sigh and it occured that she must be very
protective of me, no matter how much she liked Callum.
"Is that all Headmistress?" Callum asks.
"Yes, you may both be excused" she says winking at me. We leave the room
as fast as possible.
"What was she trying to say to you secretly" Callum asks curious.
"Oh I don't know" I say. I'm a terrible liar so I wasn't suprised when he
could see right through it.
"Liar liar. You can tell me the truth. I won't tell anyone" he laughs.
How do I say this? "She wanted to know if there was...err... something
going on between us" I say instantly regretting it.
"Oh" he lets out. He must be...speechless? Mortified? Something along
the lines as that, as he surely wouldn't like me in that way.
"Yeah, oh" I reply. Great come back Ruby. You're so witty and
intelligent.
We're silent for the rest of the way to my room. Why did he even walk me
to my room anyway? It's not like there would be any lycans hiding around
the corner. Maybe he felt protective of me, like a big brother.
"So, are you still ok if we have a training session tomorrow?" he asks
as we stop outside my door. Do I invite him in or just give him a hug or
handshake? I was so hopeless at this guy/girl friendship thing.
"Yeah it's fine" I say nodding my head.
"I promise I won't pressure you into trouble tomorrow anymore" he gives
a boyish grin, making his deep green eyes light up.
"What can I say I must be a trouble magnet" I shrug laughing. He smiles
at me again before starting to walk away.
"Hey Callum, thanks for this afternoon" I shout after him.
He turns his head around, "Don't mention it. I'd do anything for you" he
says gently, his accent making him sound sweet and romantic. I give him
a smile but I think I'm too slow as he's already just about to turn into
the next corridor. Why is it that both Kovu and Callum made my heart
beat faster and make me like them so much? Why can't there be one simple
answer in life? I hate making choices, I usually regret my answer.