We drive to the park quickly.
After we park, we crowd around Cace's laptop, checking the map again.
"Chris, or at least, the phone is still here."
Zane digs around a bit and pulls out a notepad.
Cace hands him a pen and he quickly draws out the area.
"Ok, me and Aria will go to directly to that spot," he says, pointing to the map.
He draws two circles on his map.
"Cace and Gianna can come around the other side in case he tries to run."
Zane draws two squares and some arrows.
"We'll be on the phone the whole time."
We all nod and Zane grins.
"Let's get this started."
We climb out of the car and go to where Zane pointed out on the map.
We split up and immediately call Cace and Gianna.
Zane sneaks around a couple bushes and checks his phone.
"It says he's right around..... Here!"
We turn a corner and spot Cace and Gianna on the other side of the park side.
We spot Chris leaning against a tree, his face towards us.
Zane grabs my hand and we duck behind a bush.
"Where's your phone?"
I shrug. "It's probably in his pocket or something."
Zane lifts his head for a second then ducks back down.
"It's in his hand."
He holds up his phone to his ear and listens for a moment.
"Cace said he's talking to someone. He almost didn't notice him; the person's wearing a really dark hoodie. Like shadow dark."
Zane looks at me meaningfully.
"Reapers."
I think for a moment. "Tell Cace and Gianna to go back to the car; I think we can handle this."
Zane nods once. He tells Cace and we spot them leaving us, sending us reluctant glances.
Zane grips my hand and we quickly move closer to Chris.
We listen in to him.
"Yeah, I got it. The dumb girl thinks I'm actually interested in her."
The other person lets out a gruff noise.
Chris holds his hands up in surrender. "Sorry, sorry. Here's the phone."
Chris holds up something. My phone.
I clench my teeth. Zane puts his hand on mine.
I take a breath.
I see Chris roll his eyes. "I can handle it. Did you forget? I set a building on fire. Fire."
I glance at Zane, eyes wide. Zane looks at me. He mouths, "Facility."
I nod slowly. I feel my body heat up.
He killed Elliyot. He almost killed Dad.
I squeeze my hands into fists and growl.
Zane is beside me, his face contorted in anger.
We listen carefully.
We hear a gruff voice. It sounds strangely familiar.
"We need more power. And you need to be more careful. Sucking up souls like that."
Chris scoffs," Please, I can handle myself. Those girls' souls were perfectly safe."
The gruff voice grunts. "Not all girls are stupid."
"That Aria girl sure is."
I burn inside. I growl under my breath.
"Someone's here."
Suddenly, a scythe swings above me.
Zane reacts fast, tackling me to the ground and covering me with his body.
I breathe out; I can feel my face heat up.
Zane grins down at me. "This is not how I imagined this moment."
I roll my eyes.
A scythe swings at us again.
Zane rolls us over and I jump up, summoning my scythe as I do.
"Well, well, Princess. Can't stay away from me, can you?"
Chris smirks at me, holding his own scythe. A muddy brown handle inlaid with chocolate diamonds. It's silver tip glints at me like a smirk.
I grip my handle tighter.
Zane jumps up next to me, growling at Chris.
Chris grins strangely. It looks like his face is splitting open, like a million knives have taken place of his teeth and it's tearing apart his mouth.
"Oh Zaney boy, you act so tough. It's hilarious."
Chris licks his lips and charges.
I run up to meet him and our scythes bounce off each other. He smirks and brings it back up to swing at me.
It rushes at my legs, cutting them.
I shriek and blood soaks my jeans. I buckle and try balance myself with my scythe.
Chris leers over me. "That was for earlier."
Zane roars and charges forward.
He jumps and strikes Chris in the head.
Chris screams and falls. He pulls himself up, breathing hard.
Zane kicks him in the knee, hard. Chris screams again and falls again.
"Don't touch her."
Chris breathes hard as he looks up at Zane's angry face.
"I didn't even want to. Do you see what she looks like?"
I rush forward, slapping him across the face. His head swings to the side.
"That was for being an ass. But you can't help that," I add.
Chris looks up. "Well damn."
I slap him again. And again.
Zane catches my hand on the third time.
"As much as I like seeing this and as hot as you look doing it (Zane winks), we gotta get back."
I nod. I kneel down and dig in Chris' jacket.
I pull out my phone and see it blown up with messages.
I look up suddenly. "Where's the other guy?"
Zane looks around. "He must've left while we were fighting."
I stand up and point to Chris. "What about him?"
Zane thinks for a bit. "Well, you did slap him pretty good; we should just leave him here."
He thinks again. "Take his keys though."
I grin and Chris tries to struggle as I dig through his jacket. (A quick slap fixes the problem).
I pull them out and Zane pulls me up.
He looks at my legs, which are still bloody and my jeans are torn.
"What about this?"
I shrug. "I'll just say I wasn't paying attention and I ran through a rose bush or something."
Zane looks unsure but shrugs. "If you say so."
We push Chris to the side and we head back to Cace's car.
Gianna and Cace are waiting outside the car, sitting in the grass.
They jump up when they see us.
"Did you- what the hell happened?!"
I shrug, trying to look sheepish. "I ran through a rose bush."
Gianna raises her eyebrows. "Seriously?"
I smile, embarrassed. "Whoops."
She sighs. "Did you get the phone?"
I hold it up and grin.
"Awesome!"
She gives me a hug and we follow the guys to the car.
YOU ARE READING
Prep School
Fantasy15 year old Aria is not your ordinary teenage girl. She's not exactly normal but she doesn't stick out either. She has powers. Powers that mortals like you and me can't handle. When she moves to a new school, she has to learn how to control her powe...
