A/N: Well, here's a longer one to make up for the last mini chapter. I only own Cassie.
Dawn.
The first rays of sunlight filtered through my window and I automatically got up, put on my boots and jacket, and—oh.
I let my head slam against the wall, realizing that I'd have to get a new routine in play. Silently as I could, I opened the door to see silent halls. Gathering up a change of clothes, I snuck in the girls' shower room, where I hoped there'd be hot water.
The plumbing gods seemed to be in a good mood, seeing as warm water assaulted my form as I stepped in. I almost took off the amulet, but I remember changing in broad daylight with no warning—something I'd prefer to keep from happening again.
Done with my shower and stepping into my clothes, I returned to my room to see a tiny black-haired Jenna examining my copy of Paradise Lost. "What are you doing here?!" I demanded, snatching the volume away before she had a chance to damage it.
"I was up," she said as if it explained everything.
"What did I say about touching my stuff?"
"You only limited it to the alcohol, pills, cigarettes, knife, motorcycle, and boobs. Nothing about books. And this one is confusing. Are you a virgin?" she asked out of nowhere.
"No…"
"Okay then… how many guys have you slept with?" she seemed deep in thought.
How the hell was I supposed to keep track?! Was she including my mom's customers who overstayed their welcome? Or one night stands? Was it just boyfriends she was counting? "Umm… a lot…"
"Then how many girls have you slept with?"
What was with this kid? "None. And what's the big idea, anyway?"
"Just getting to know you." She put on a show of innocence with big, soulful eyes. I almost rolled my own.
"Jesus Christ…" I grabbed her by the wrist, found Drake's room, and knocked impatiently until a tall the tall blond answered the door, with a serious case of bedhead.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" he asked drowsily.
I slapped him. "Drake, focus. What do kids like?"
"How'm I s'possed to know? What did you like as a kid?"
"In case you don't remember, I didn't exactly have a normal childhood."
"Just ask her what she likes."
"But—" The door was slammed in my face. I bent down to her height. "Okay, kid. Waddya like?" Her eyes brightened and she reached up before I swatted her hands away. "Rule Number One."
"Sorry." She got cheerful again suddenly. "But I like anime!"
"Okay then." I led her to the living room, where Mephisto kept a giant collection of the stuff. "Pick your favorite."
She grabbed a DVD and I put it in, not caring to look at the characters or the title. For every five minutes of anime you watch, you lose a brain cell, said my old friend, probably the only straight edge in the entire town. I leaned back and relaxed, hoping she wouldn't bug me.
A teenage boy, about 17, with brown hair that fell over his eyes smashed an empty bottle, cutting his hand. "Do it. Save his life," he demanded of a shadowed figure. All I could see of him were luminescent green eyes and a gleaming smile. He flung his injured hand, blood spilling on a paper with an indefinable darkness coming off of it. I was screaming at him. I didn't know why.
"Don't do it! Don't be an idiot! Do you have any idea what you're getting into?!" I ran for him, but strange arms made of black smoke held me back. This wasn't the first time I had the dream. I've had it quite a few times over the past couple years, but never understood what it meant. Both figures were vaguely familiar, but now the grinning one was even more so.
"Sensei?" I heard a childish voice call, and something poke my face.
"What?"
"The girl with the weird horns says that Astarte is here."
I sighed, getting up. As I strode to the door, Jenna followed, skipping behind me.
I managed to only catch part of the sentence. "… I thought we could, well, go to the beach."
"The beach?!" we all yelled. They were excited; I was dreading it. Sun, water, sand in the unmentionables… So that's what the bikini was for.
I retreated back to my room and put on the swimsuit, wishing I had gotten a one-piece instead. Due to my time on the road, I was sickly and anorexic-looking, because all the food I had was a value menu at a fast-food restaurant once a day. In fact, now that I looked at my reflection, I could count the bones in my ribcage. And not to mention how pale I was. I put on one of the tank tops and pairs of shorts as a cover-up. As per Astarte's instructions, we all met at the entrance to the academy, where Jenna managed to find me.
"Why don't you take off your necklace?"
I sighed. The kid was going to find out sooner or later… "You're an exorcist, right? What do you know about Zarathos?"
Her normally cheery expression darkened. "That no one crosses him and gets away with it. That seeing him is a death sentence."
"And now you know he's my father." Her eyes nearly bugged out of her skull. "See, most half-breeds have control over when they change. It's one of the basics. But I'm not. So Astarte gave me this to keep it away, so I don't hurt any more people. But if you ever see me losing control, promise me that you'll run away as fast as you can."
"I… I promise."
"How are my favorite ladies of the bunch?" Drake, who was now awake, snuck up on us. Or, me rather, since Jenna didn't seem shocked in the least.
I jumped out of my skin. "Jesus Christ, Drake! Care to warn a girl?"
He rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly sheepish. "Sorry. So what were you telling our resident pervert?"
"Just about safety precautions if I were to slip."
"Oh. Seeing your other side was not a good time."
"Being the other side is an even worse time," I shot back. When I saw he backed away, I felt kind of guilty. "Sorry. That's… kind of a touchy subject for me."
I felt a tap on my shoulder and saw the girl who I recognized as Yuki. "Watch this," she said with a small smile as she took the beach ball she was holding and threw it hard at her head.
"Yuki-san! I know you don't like my father but for Satan's sake get over it!" She yelled. Yuki merely glared at her. "Alright everyone into the vehicle." I was expecting a yellow school bus to pick us up, or maybe a coach bus, but what we got was way better. A long limo pulled up and I gawked at it. I had hardly ever seen one, except for when the gang lord's son would rent one to impress his lay of the day on homecoming. "What? I'm a queen. I don't do minibuses."
As we piled in, Drake and I found a seat in the back next to Ron. "Hey," he said with a nod
"About time you recognize us," I said jokingly, "After the way you up and left."
"I could not handle the awkward of a perverted nine-year-old girl groping my teacher. It was kind of scarring."
"Did someone say 'Perverted nine-year-old'?" Jenna said, scrambling in so that she could sit next to me. This kid… "Your eyes look weird. You have weird friends, sensei."
"Sensei?" he mouthed raising an eyebrow.
"Long story," I mouthed back, shaking my head.
He looked at me up and down. "And I thought I was skinny and pale."
"Spend two years with one meal a day and spending your days on the road and see how pale you are."
Drake busted in. "So why aren't you excited to be going to the beach?"
"I haven't been to the beach for four years on a trip with my boyfriend. And when that happened, I spent the next two weeks with sand where there should never be sand. And I burn like a ginger."
"Where was that?"
"Jersey shore. Where else?" I heard something. "What's that?"
"I think Astarte is trying to start karaoke."
I bent over the back of the seat in front of me. "Astarte, care to let me try one?" A fox tail reached back as I took it and scrolled through it. J-Pop, J-Pop, J-Pop, what's this? I grinned. About time I taught these kids what good taste is. "Don't want to hear about it Every single one's got a story to tell. Everyone knows about it From the Queen of England to the hounds of hell And if I catch it coming back my way I'm gonna serve it to youAnd that ain't what you want to hear But that's what I'll do And the feeling coming from my bones Says find a home" Ron, recognizing the song, even sang along before…
"'Cause we all just wanna be big rockstars And live in hilltop houses driving fifteen cars The girls come easy and the drugs come cheap We'll all stay skinny 'cause we just won't eat And we'll hang out in the coolest bars In the VIP with the movie stars Every good gold digger's Gonna wind up there Every Playboy bunny With her bleach blond hair And we'll hide out in the private rooms With the latest dictionary and today's who's who They'll get you anything with that evil smile Everybody's got a drug dealer on speed dial Hey hey I wanna be a rockstar Hey hey I wanna be a rockstar" Meiko and Leon sang happily. It wasn't as good as 'Seven Nation Army', but it was tolerable. Then something weird came on and I saw Jenna singing it. Of course, she would sing that.
Now on the beach, where the sun blinded me, Astarte and Mephisto changed back. "Go get changed and meet us at the beach. Girls, I'll send Shabriri to ensure none of the boys can watch you getting changed." Right. Just trust that teenage boys won't sneak up on a bunch of girls getting changed. You'd think that the queen of an entire realm would be smarter than that. "Don't worry. Shabriri is blind. He can't see you. But he'll be able to smell and hear the boys." With that, we headed off into separate tents. Changing was simple for me, since I just had to take off the cover-up, but I heard a whistle from near the flap to the tent…
There he was. A pink-haired exorcist with a perverted grin on his face. I think his name was Shima or something like that. All the more innocent girls took their towels in an attempt to cover themselves and screamed. I had no such inclination. I picked him up by the front of his shirt and pulled him to eye level. "Umm… hi?"
I just glared. "Bad choice, asshole. Real bad choice." I tossed him out the tent and to the bat demon guarding us. I heard him scream. He screamed like a girl. When we all ventured out I saw Meiko go to Mephiso, who was holding out a giant article of clothing. I laughed a little. Typical dad behavior. Even though I never really had a father…
Astarte gathered us around two beach volleyball courts. "Now, for this exercise I thought I'd try something different." Her tail moved from behind her to show two volley balls. "You lot are going to work in teams and play volleyball. This will build communication between you and teamwork as well as overall fitness." She threw a ball at me and one at Leon.
"Teams are as follows; Team one is captained by Cassandra and consists of Drake, Hotomi, Megumi, Eda and Kaito. You are on the left court on the side furthest from me. You are playing against team 3, captained by Nao and consists of Jenna, Ron, Yuki, Saturn and Autumn. You are on the opposite side. Your referee is Bon and Yukio." As the groups moved off, she turned to the remainder. Jenna just stared at the two, both shirtless.
She waved her hand to let them go. They took their places on the courts. "Begin" With that, the games began.
The members of team one huddled in together. "Right, Megumi, you should be at the back as you're quite strong. Eda, you join her but stay on the right side whilst Megumi goes on the left." I ordered.
"What about me?" Hotomi asked. I nodded, a plan forming in my head.
"You and Drake will take the centre back whilst Kaito and I stay towards the front." She said.
"So, we strike fast and we strike hard?" Megumi asked. Another nod was the answer. They all nodded and broke the huddle before taking their positions. On the other side of the court, they had arranged themselves so that Nao, Ron, Yuki and Saturn were at the back whilst Jenna and Autumn took up positions near the front. I held the ball ready to serve as Yukio blew the whistle he had. She threw the ball in the air and smashed it over the net towards the space just beside Yuki. Nao dived to the side and hit the ball back up into the air.
Autumn!" He yelled as he hit the ground. Autumn nodded and leapt up, smacking the ball with an open palm.
"Megumi!" Drake yelled at to the muscular girl who struck it back over the net. It was hit back by Jenna who jumped up high enough to catch it by standing on Nao as he got up. The ball came spinning back towards Kaito who hit it back with such force that it created a small crater where it landed just out of the reach of Yuki.
"Point One goes to Cassandra's team." Yukio stated. We all cheered. Good starts usually meant good finishes. I noticed, however, that Nao's team was in a huddle now.
"Okay, we're going to have to tighten up. They're planning something and I don't like it."
True to my prediction, they got the next two points, as our defense was getting sloppier. "Huddle up." as we all gathered, I said, "They're putting holes in our defense. We've gotta patch them up. Hotomi, back up a little. You too, Drake. Katio, move up. Alright, let's get back those points!" As we all returned to our places, the game resumed. I won't bore you with the details, but we won by just one point.
"God, that was close," said a panting Drake, hands on his knees as he tried to recover. "Care for a dip?"
I shrugged. "Why not?"
As we climbed into the frigid water, Drake shivered. "I'm outta here!" he said before I held him back.
"Man up. This feels amazing." To me, it did, at least. The fire in my bones was somewhat quenched, and I felt like a normal teen swimming.
"Uh, Cass?" he pointed to the water around me.
"Oh…" the water was steaming up around me as I blushed. "It's a body temperature thing."
"How come you didn't invite me?!" cried Jenna as she swam up to us. "And why is the water all warm here?"
I grinned. "I'm just hot like that." Drake poked my shoulder and pointed to the beach. A wolf with bat wings ran at the other students. "I think we should get out now." Once we reached the shore, we were surrounded by Astarte's familiars, where we could hardly see or hear anything. "What's going on?" I asked.
"Revenge-set demon who's mad at Astarte for the whole Lilith thing," said one of the students.
"Why do you keep calling her that?" Eric suddenly asked. "Even we exorcists know that Satan chose her as his heir. She is the rightful queen. Why can't you accept that?"
"Astarte doesn't seem to have a problem with him following us around," I muttered under my breath, remembering the tormented look on Moreau's face.
"My mother has bore several of Satan's children. Yes, they may not have been the eldest or the strongest, but because she held his favor, we believed that when he was choosing an heir it would be one of her sons. But because she." She pointed at Astarte. "Was born before the heir was chosen and looks so much like the one who bore her, she was chosen. She stole it from my brethren." She snapped. She let out a roar and ran towards Astarte. What happened next, I don't know since the view was blocked.
"I didn't kill your mother in cold blood," Astarte insisted. "She went after my sons and wanted to kill me. She wouldn't listen to reason and performed treason. That is the only reason why I performed that punishment and killed her. Because she was a traitor against the crown and was determined to kill me and then my sons. I only acted as a mother should." The rest of the conversation was lost from the two running out of breath.
Until Rin yelled, "But Mephisto!" the demon, Mikzuki, simply laughed.
"Is that the name you're going by now? I so prefer your real name." Mikzuki looked up at them. "Samael."
Everything came crashing down. The nightmare—no, the memory played again, with all the blank spots filled in.
A 17-year-old, with brown hair that fell over his gray eyes, a mirror of my own, smashed an empty bottle, cutting his hand. "Do it. Save his life," he demanded of a figure who was previously cloaked by darkness. It fell away, showing a clown in pink, white and purple, with green eyes and a harlequin grin. He flung his injured hand, blood spilling on a paper with an indefinable darkness coming off of it. The contract, I realized with horror. That's why I was screaming at him. He was selling his soul.
"Don't do it! Don't be an idiot! Do you have any idea what you're getting into?!" I ran for him, but strange arms made of black smoke held me back.
"Your father's name was Johnny Blaze. He was a stunt biker when he was younger, until his father got sick. To save his life, he sold his soul to Samael. Not much longer later, his father died during a stunt. The first several years passed without occurrence. He married, he became a father. Until the Trickster had need of him." Moreau's slurred words entered my memory.
A/N: Please Review!