Rewritten

Chapter 15: Torn

Upstart Either an altered or member of the public who works to overthrow or undermine the actions of the Hunters.

"What are you hiding, Fee?"

I slammed my locker shut, whirling towards Connor. He stood right in front of me, arms folded. I'd hoped that by arriving early to school today I could avoid him, but clearly I had no such luck - Connor was extremely stubborn when he wanted to be.

When I did face him, it was with a scowl,  my features schooled into an expression of annoyance.  "Nothing," I moved to push past him.

Naturally, he stopped me by grabbing my arm.  "If it was nothing,  you wouldn't have avoided my calls for the rest of the weekend. If it was nothing, you wouldn't have kept it a secret. Don't treat me like an idiot, Fee, because if it was nothing,  I wouldn't have had to cover for you!"

Although he spoke low enough that only I could hear, it was obvious to the rest of our peers that we were in the middle of an argument.  I cringed when I realised that everyone was staring at us with intrigue, clearly wondering if they were about to witness a break up between one of the school's hottest couples.

Connor evidently noticed my discomfort,  because he gave them all dirty looks that had them looking away. He then took my hand, pulling me into an empty classroom. Once there, he came over to where I sat on a desk, resting his forehead against mine and placing his hands by my sides. From this close, I could see the bags under his eyes: a sign that he hadn't slept since the day he'd been forced to lie to Christie.

To protect me.

Recalling how he'd managed to get me to agree to lie for him last time,  I tried to move. Connor seemed to have a power over me at times that I didn't completely understand. Either way, it wasn't a good thing. He anticipated the move, however, reaching up to cup my cheek with his right hand. His warm brown eyes implored me to answer truthfully.  "Please, Fee. I need to know."

I gasped when his lips moved to my throat. Almost forgetting the reason why he was doing this. "Connor -"

Someone coughed, and Connor instantly moved back whilst I jumped, moving to fix my hair. Both of us turned towards the doorway, where Nick stood with Madame Bordeaux, my French teacher. I winced when I realised that this was her classroom.

"Both of you have detention!" She roared, her face red with fury. "This is a school,  not a brothel!"

If I wasn't on the receiving end of her rant, that would have had me on the floor laughing. Instead,  I glared at her, slipping into the role of pissed off cheerleader. "We weren't that bad."

She gave me a dirty look.  "That hickey on your neck says otherwise." When my hand shot to my neck in horror, she shook her head. "Get to class."

I don't think I've ever exited a classroom faster in my life.

Outside the room, Nick burst into laughter. "You two's faces...!" he chortled. When neither Connor nor I laughed with him, he shrugged, straightening up. "I need to speak with you," he told me, the playfulness vanishing.

 With that, my day went from bad to worse. The last time I'd spoken to Nick, he'd taken me to Marcus, who had gone on to threaten me and my family. It had put him on my radar as someone who was potentially more of a threat to Art than the Hunters. Whilst the latter had a reason to attack me personally, Marcus didn't seem like the type who'd kill you first and ask questions later - no, he seemed more like the kind of guy who'd kill your family one by one to get you to do what he wanted.

And that scared the hell out of me.

It wasn't a conscious move for me to move backwards towards Connor, but he instantly picked up on my fear, glaring at the boy in front of me. "Anything you say to her, you can say to me."