Someone Completely – Chapter 36 – Holes

Troy felt his heart pounding in his rib cage. He wondered briefly if this is what Gabriella had felt just before they were attacked or if she'd even been aware more than a split second before—He shook his head and brought his thoughts back to the present. If these kids were to be protected, he had to stay focused. He looked around at the faces he'd seen every day for years. They all seemed so young and fragile now. They all seemed so vulnerable.

His eyes stopped on Zeke. Zeke, his buddy, one of his closest friends was not only capable of helping him; he was here in the thick of the fight with him. Troy felt some grief for the pain Zeke also felt right now. He and Shar hadn't been officially mated yet, but they were definitely meant for one another. As if that weren't enough, Troy knew Zeke's mom had been in the preschool.

Then Troy's mind began running through the plan again. Zeke's dad had been among the best fighters in the pack. Troy finally remembered that Zeke's dad would already be out there fighting as well. Troy's eyes lingered on his friend and willed him to know he understood the pain to a degree. Troy made a decision within himself. Leadership was going to be left to his co-captain and the coach when this was over with. He and Zeke needed to be other places.

Then another boom followed immediately by another earth-rattling shaking. People began whispering about the building holding up and one boy asked if they could get out of there.

Troy shook his head side-to-side. He flicked his head toward a window that was in the classroom directly across from him. Zeke turned to look. Outside he could see glimpses of the battle and knew there was nowhere for them to go.

It was dark outside. It looked as though a strong storm had rolled in and claimed all the sunshine that had been beating down this morning. Now there was almost no light outside at all. A dark cloud of dust was saturating the air outside and simply blocking the sun's rays. Troy watched that window for any sign of the battle. He knew Zeke was watching the doors.

Big D had just taken down one more angel as it dove for the ground in an attempt to get away from the "good" angel it was fighting. Big D had done an old maneuver he'd learned years ago. Eduardo would crouch down like he was getting ready to pounce. No one ever thought anything of that. Instead, Ed would spring straight up as Big D used his back like a spring board to get some added height to his jump.

The angel had never seen him coming. Now, thanks to that puncturing and tearing idea, he'd downed another enemy.

Jack watched from the entryway of the school. He'd sent Chad and Jason to the other main entrance in the back of the school. He had Nate and Taylor and Martha ready with a variety of contraptions that Taylor and Martha had been working on all day in the auditorium under the lie of production and stage prop design. He stood here and another young wolf stood at the only remaining entryway. Jack was not appeased though. These were angels. They didn't really need a door to get into the building.

Danforth had been able to get to a phone just after the fight had spilled over into their territory. He'd told Jack about the "good" angels and their advice on fighting techniques. He'd also told him that they had explained a few things just before the preschool and elementary school had been demolished.

Weres were descendants of Gargoyles. Where ancient Gargoyles had only come to life to defend the sacred places of mankind and God; Weres had evolved the ability to transition and transform in order to protect their fellow man. In Jack's mind that had immediately clicked with Troy's thought that the younger generation was transitioning early to protect the children.

Jack had questioned him about his thoughts on these "good" angels. Danforth had told him that while he knew in his heart that they were on the better side of things, they were still willing to kill their own kind and were still willing to fight even in places where humans and Weres might be hurt or killed. He told Jack that he'd rather not trust them explicitly. He did, however, mention that they looked very much like he would have expected and that puncturing their wings was doing the job of keeping them grounded.

Jack watched now as a flurry of dust whipped into the air at the front of the doors. He knew they were directly overhead now. As he watched he began to make out the shape of wings batting maybe twenty feet from the door and ten feet off the ground. He was marveled for a moment. Then his Were instinctually responded to one as prey and the other as ally.

Jack waited for them to actually breech the building. He wouldn't join the fight unless he had to. However, if either set of wings entered this building in any way and he was going after the prey.

Taylor sat watching everything within sight. She had her bat in hand. She occasionally glanced over at Martha who sat shaking in fear. In Martha's defense, she was trying desperately to hide it, but her body simply couldn't be controlled entirely. Taylor had smiled briefly when she'd sent Nate to check on the student body. The big guy had stopped next to Martha and asked if she thought a hug would help her.

Chad paced. He wanted to be sitting with Taylor. This was all wrong. The Weres should have been split up and each placed with one of their human counter parts. As it was, Taylor could be killed before he could get to her from here. He'd seen Troy and Zeke when they'd been told about the preschool and elementary school buildings. He couldn't even breathe when he thought about Taylor being harmed. He couldn't believe Troy and Zeke hadn't just bolted as soon as he and coach had let go of them.

That was when the second boom had sounded overhead and Chad had begun to smell the beings fighting above them. He didn't know what to expect. All he knew was that they were powerful and had somehow gotten above his head. In fact, the entire fight seemed to be happening several feet in the air right now.

He glanced out and saw every loose dirt particle fly into the air. The wind from all of this must have been chaos.

Nate's father, Marcus, let out a growl as a bad angel flew toward him. He waited and waited and at the precisely right moment, he whipped a giant paw through the air and shredded a wing.

There were seven the "good" angels had told them that they were fighting against. So that meant that the Weres had downed at least four now.

Marcus looked around. Something was going to happen. It was going to be catastrophic. He just couldn't see the signs yet. He knew in his gut that something was about to rattle his world.

There was a breech in the school. It didn't come through a doorway. It came through the ceiling. One angel landed and lifted off again from inside the hallway adjacent to the gym. The hallway, Nate Johnson, had been running down to report back to Taylor.

Troy heard the implosion and then he heard someone screaming. He bolted for the sound. Zeke stayed behind. As he reached the pile of bricks and dust, he heard Jason yelling for the person to tell him where they were in the pile. Troy shook his head and began digging in the softest place he could find. He got a hold of Nate's sleeve and tugged a little to get his attention. Nate looked back at him and whimpered. Troy barely registered it as Nate said, "I can't feel my legs. I can't feel my legs!"