Chapter 15: Fight for life

The next morning I opened my eyes to see Hailey sleeping peacefully beside me. Smiling at the memories of last night I kissed her forehead and rolled out of bed. Grabbing a housecoat that was on the floor and wrapping myself in it, I went to the bathroom to shower.

Once I got out of the shower I changed into a pair of denim shorts and a red t-shirt.

When i went back into the room, Hailey was sitting in bed, sipping an orange juice. She smiled at me when I came in.

"Morning," I said as I kissed her on the lips.

"Morning," she yawned.

I lay down and rested my head in her lap while she stroked my hair. I noticed that her expression was blank, as if she was deep in thought.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Her eyes focused again and she bit her bottom lip, "I'm nervous I guess. I mean, what's going to happen tonight?"

I sighed, "Who knows," I shrugged, "We have to get that ring from Dimitri. Once we get that from him them it should be easy to defeat him. After he's gone we can get rid of Kevin easily."

She nodded, "You make it sound so easy."

I smiled, "I can hear the others moving around in the kitchen, we should get up."

She nodded and finished off her orange juice quickly.

When we went into the kitchen, everyone was already awake and eating what looked like scrambled eggs. My mom was standing over the stove with a big smile on her face and egg mix in her hair.

"I haven't cooked for years!" she exclaimed.

"I can tell," Jack gagged on a bite.

It was true. We had had housekeepers and cooks for so long that my mom hasn't had to cook since I was like, five.

Hailey smiled and shook her head when she was offered a plate of eggs.

"Suze, Jesse," I said after breakfast, "Can you two, um…come with me and Hailey for a moment?"

They both nodded and we started out the door when my dad cleared his throat.

"Yes dad?" I asked.

"You four wouldn't be excluding us from anything now would you?" he raised an eyebrow.

I flushed slightly but shook my head.

"No dad, I just need to ask them something about…school."

My dad saw right through it, and I knew it, but he just sighed and went back to reading the paper.

Hailey, Suze, Jesse and I all sat out on the patio.

"We have to talk about what's going to happen tonight," Hailey said.

"We already know that plan don't we?" Suze asked, "We go to the park at midnight, get the ring and get rid of Kevin."

I sighed, "But we have no plan as to how we are going to do that."

"Slater has a good point," Jesse said to Suze.

Wow…he just agreed with me…

Creepy.

"Alright then," Suze sighed, "How do we get the ring form him?"

"Well, I think that if we were to corner him and secure him, then someone could just take it off," Hailey said.

"Yes, but that won't be easy," Jesse said, "The ring gives him all of the powers of a shifter and I doubt he will go down willingly."

"Well, we have to try," Suze said.

Everyone nodded.

"Now that we have that settled, we have to figure out our attack plan. Hailey, Suze and I can use our shifting abilities. Jesse, you could always bring a baseball bat I guess…" I said.

Jesse seemed a little hesitant at the thought of unwanted physical contact.

After a few moments of silence he cleared his throat, "What ever I have to do to protect Susannah."

Gag me…

"Aww, Jesse that's so sweet," Suze smiled and kissed his cheek.

…and gouge out my eyes.

"Ok then, so once we get the ring we won't have to worry about Dimitri anymore so Kevin will be our main focus. So one of us just have to grab him and shift to the Shadow Land, no big deal," Hailey said, "After everything is done all we have to do is shift back here, or walk if we run out of power."

"It's all planned out then," I said.

Everyone nodded and we went back into the house.

Jack ran up to me, "What were you guys talking about?"

"Nothing you need to worry about Jack," I said sternly.

He frowned, "You were talking about mediating weren't you? Why can't I talk to?" he asked.

"I just don't want you to get hurt, that's all. It would be better if you didn't know for now ok? I promise I'll tell you everything tomorrow," I patted his head.

He sighed and nodded, walking back to the couch and sat down.

Well, now that we have everything planned out, all we have to do is wait…

……………THAT NIGHT……………

Hailey pulled her lips away from mine and placed a finger on my lips, stopping me.

"What?" I smirked.

She smiled softly, "It's already eleven thirty Paul, we should be getting ready."

I sighed, "Time flies when you are having fun."

She smacked me playfully and crawled out from under me. She straightened her clothes and her hair and then turned back to me, laughing.

"What now?" I asked.

"Your hair is all messed up," she smiled and ran her hand through my hair.

I grabbed her wrist and pulled her to me, stealing a kiss.

Who knows when I would ever have her lips against mine again? If something happened to one of us tonight…this may be the last time I would get to be alone with Hailey…

"Hailey," I whispered.

"Yeah," she leaned her forehead against mine.

"I love you, you know that right?" I asked.

She smiled and kissed me again, "Yes Paul, I know that. I love you too."

I kissed her again, hugging her.

"What's with all the mushy stuff all of a sudden?" she pulled away for a moment.

"Just in case we don't make it through the night," I whispered in her ear as I kissed her neck.

She sighed, "Don't go jinxing us before we even get started!"

I laughed and back her up into the wall, kissing her again. She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me back.

I loved the way her lips felt on mine, the way her body felt against mine. I loved everything about her.

After a few more minutes of making out she placed her hands on my shoulders and pushed me back softly.

"We really have to go now," she whispered.

I sighed and hugged her one last time before we walked out the door where Suze and Jesse were already waiting.

"Ready to go?" Suze smiled.

"I guess so," I said.

We walked quickly to the park, keeping our eyes opened for any of the Gemini that might be hiding in the shadows. Surprisingly enough, there was no one…

When we entered the park a thick fog rolled in and I grabbed Hailey's hand. It was cold as ice and she was shaking.

Suddenly there was a soft laughter coming from ahead of us and we all stopped. Jesse tightened his grip on the baseball bat he had.

There were footsteps and then Dimitri stepped out of the fog, Kevin at his side, but otherwise alone.

"So you actually came," Dimitri hissed.

"We were the ones who made the appointment, of course we came," Hailey hissed back.

Dimitri laughed again and stuck out his hand, "Let's begin, shall we?"

Nothing seemed to happen until all of a sudden Suze let out a scream. When I looked at her it looked like she was being pressed in between to walls. And they continued to close in on her.

Hailey raised her hands and sent a powerful force at Dimitri that struck him in the stomach. His concentration immediately dropped and Suze fell to the ground gasping, Jesse at her side looking murderous.

"How did you do that?" I whispered to Hailey.

"It's just like the barrier, just concentrate on sending it at him instead of around him."

I nodded.

Dimitri recovered quickly and his eyes squinted and a park bench was hurled at me. I put up a barrier and it fell to the ground.

Hailey screamed beside me and I looked to see Kevin. He had an arm around her neck and another around her waist.

She flailed trying to get him off of her. Then she put of a barrier around Kevin and hurled him across the park.

I remembered that she had done the exact thing to me when I had kissed her in my room a while ago.

Kevin was immobile for a while so the four of us charged at Dimitri. He shifted behind us and struck Jesse in the back of the head. He gasped in pain and then fell to the ground, unconscious.

Suze looked scary as she lifted the bench Dimitri had thrown at us with her power and threw it back at him.

He waved his hand and a barrier knocked the bench to the side.

I concentrated on the ground beside Dimitri and shifted beside him. He looked at me, surprised, and I punched him in the jaw, sending him flying into a tree.

He got up rubbing his jaw, smirking at me.

"Paul, shift!" Suze yelled.

I got her meaning and shifted beside Dimitri again, grabbing one of his arms.

Suze shifted to his other side and grabbed his other arm.

He couldn't shift now, not without shifting us with him.

Hailey approached us, her arm raised. She placed a barrier around Dimitri so he couldn't use his own barrier to knock Suze and I off him.

He lay there, struggling against the barrier and glaring at Hailey who kneeled in front of him.

Grabbing the hand the Suze was holding onto she smiled and pulled off the ring.

The color in Dimitri's face drained as he realized what had happened.

"Give it back you bitch!" he lunged him self at Hailey, who had dropped the barrier.

Before he could reach her I put a barrier around her and Dimitri ran face first into it.

He picked himself up off the ground and held his nose which was now bleeding badly.

"Suze, can you take care of Kevin?" I asked.

She nodded, "Gladly."

She walked up to Kevin who was still suffering from the effects of the barrier. She knelt in front of him and grabbed his arm and closed her eyes. She collapsed on the ground and I knew that she had shifted.

She opened her eyes and got up a few seconds later, rubbing her head.

"Post shifting head ache?" Hailey smiled.

Suze shook her head, "No, that guy just screams really loud!"

I smirked and Hailey and I turned back to Dimitri while Suze went to Jesse who was still on the ground.

"You think that you've won? Just because you've taken the ring from me?" he yelled and his voice echoed through the night air.

I shrugged, "Pretty much, yeah."

"Well I'm not done yet," he hissed.

And with that he pulled a gun from his jacket pocket and aimed it Hailey.

Bastard…