Protected One Series: Book One- Protected

Reaper

     "Soooo.... what are we going to do?" I asked. Blake stretched a little, "Hunt." Huh? "We're searching for the Reaper I sensed," Zander said simply. "I'll go with you," I said, while leaning against the window. "No, you aren't," Zander said. "How am I going to be protected if both of you are gone?" I asked. Blake nodded, "She's got a point, Zander. We might discover the Reaper," Blake said. I suddenly thought of something. "Hey, Blake... Your school doesn't have class today?" I asked him. Blake laughed, "Heh, Nope. I'm 18. I've already done my time and graduated," he said with a smug grin. Oh.

                                                                           ~

     We all came to an agreement. We would all go. If something happened, I'd run to their house, or hide. We followed Zander's "nose" and ended up at the park. Zander's expression became dark, "Stella... go hide..." What? I became slightly scared. I hid inside the treehouse, and peeked through a hole I found. I saw a sleek black panther walk out. This thing was huge. It was at Zander's chest, and he's like, 6' 5". The panther looked around, and then stopped to stare at Zander. It's eyes were emerald green. ... how familiar... I couldn't think of why I thought that. I shook my head, and listened to Zander speak, "What are you doing here, Reaper?" A real Reaper?! 

     The voice seemed familiar too, but it was also different. It's hiding its identity, I heard Zander's voice say in my mind. "You already know. I came for that girl," it said. "Do you even know if she's really the Protected One?" Zander asked. The panther paused, and looked towards the place I was hiding. It began to slowly walk towards me. No! No! No! No! No! I heard Blake talk, "Listen Reaper, we're not dumb enough to take the girl with us." Zander was suddenly next to me. He put a finger to his mouth, telling me to stay quiet.

     I shut my eyes, trying to calm down, but it wasn't really helping. "Where'd the other Protector go, then?" the Reaper growled. I shuddered. "He might've gone to check the hideout, or to talk to the official, who knows," Blake said. I could imagine him shrugging, taunting the Reaper. ... What do we do? Zander didn't answer. Instead, I felt his handcover my eyes. At first I heard Blake say something, but it ended with a deep growl. And then, it was like small pause in time.

     I couldn't really breathe. As quick as the pause came, it was gone. I was able to breathe again, and Zander uncovered my eyes. We were at their house. "That was an A Class Reaper," Zander said, sitting across from me. "What's 'A Class'? How could you tell?" I asked him. "A Class is a ranking. For Reapers it's A through C. As for Protectors, it's 1 through 3," Zander answered, pausing a little, "I could tell he was A Class, because both B and C calss don't have what is called a 'a protective shield'." I thought for a moment, "What does that shield do?"

     Zander seemed a bit frustrated, "We're not able to read their thoughts properly. This ability it extremely rare, so there's only so many A Class Reapers. Besides, knowing what they're thinking isn't really enough. They'd still be, for the most part, able to deflect my attacks easily." What about Blake...?! Zander stood up, "He'll be fine... at least I hope so," he said, muttering the last part, "For now, hide out upstairs. I'm going to help Blake." He walked with me upstairs. "Wait a minute, you're leaving me?!" I asked. "Calm down. I'll know if you're in trouble, besides, my partner may be in trouble at the moment. Now go sleep or something," he said.

     We were in his room, now. I sat on the bed, "... uhh, it's 9:00... A.M. Why would I sleep?" I asked. Zander looked at me, "Stella, you don't have to. I just said stay here, as in, stay in the house. Blake and I should be back in a little bit." Before I got to say anything, he dissappeared in a blink of an eye. Great... I have no idea if they're going to be okay or not. I stood up. I looked around Zander's room. It's bigger than any average room, making me wonder what the Master Bedroom looked like, if they even had one. He had an average desk, an expensive looking, black Mac Laptop, one of the newer Samsung Galaxies, and one of the newer Iphones. 

     There were sketches scattered around his desk. He probably drew these. I sat down in his desk chair, and studied the sketches. They were so... beautiful... The onne that caught my eye was a drawing of a girl. She was sitting on the ground staring up at the stars. At the angle she was at, you couldn't see her face. Next to her was a guy... He was leaning on his hand, and insted of staring up at the stars, he was staring at the girl. As I stared at him more, I realized that it was Zander. The expression on his face was so... sad. 

     At the top of the picture, it said, "I'll always watch over you..." I stared at the picture for another minute, and decided to explore downstairs. I walked out, and noticed a couple of other rooms. I walked over to the one on the right of Zander's, and opened the door. I took a quick look around. I guess this is Blake's room... His shirt from last time is lying right there... Unlike Zander, Blake was a bit cluttered, but it wasn't too bad. He just had a lot of stuff. He had a boolkshelf, and a few books lying on his desk,

     I closed the door, and walked to the room on the left of Zander's. I opened it, ad looked aroun. I was a girl's room... Who lives in this room...? I couldn't remember if Zander said anything about it. Whoever she was... she was very fashionable. She had an Ipod Touch on her desk, and a couple of shelves full of CDz. She had some movies, and a purple Mac Laptop. I closed the door, wondering who this 'mystery' girl could be. The other room that was there, was a bathroom. It had a huge tub/shower, and that was all that fascinated me. I closed the door, and walked to the room at the end of the hall, and by the staircase. 

     I opened the door slowlys, and peeked inside. It was just an empty room. I mean, it had a bed, a desk, and a small couch. That was about it. I shut the door, and finally headed downstairs. I passed by their kitchen, which was also huge, and a study room. Why is their house like this? Are they rich or something? There was one room that really interested me. I stopped and opened the door. I glanced around. There was an acoustis, electric, and bass guitar. Weird... I saw a drumset, and a grand piano. I walked over to the piano, and ran my hand across the smooth keys, remembering how my dad and Mason both helped learn how to play.

     I pressed on a key, and listened to the smooth sound of it. I pressed a few more, and decided to head back. I walked bak up to Zander's room, and looked at the sketch from earlier. This is really nice... I don't know how long I had been staring at the sketch, but when I heard someone's voice talking, I slightly jumped back. "Huh?" I asked, seeing Zander in the doorway. He looked really beat up. There was a long gash  from his right shoulder to his wrist, there was a cut by his eyebrow, and a makeshift bandage on his stomach. "Oh my goodness! Are you alright?!" I exclaimed, my mouth agape.

     He just nodded, "Yeah... C'mon. We're staying downstairs." I didn't argue. We got downstairs, and I saw Blake lying on the couch. He was holding his left arm, and staring up at the ceiling. "Why the hell did you not get cleaned up?!" I asked, sligthly furious. I didn't really listen to what they had to say, and tried looking for a first-aid kit. What the hell happened with the Reaper?!