A War Against Volto - Sequel to While You Sleep (Complete)

Ashley Waters

After that, time seemed to speed up as we each chose a gun and holster from the vault that Raven had installed for me.

"Damn, you look hot right now, Trouble," Gabe announced as we, along with North, Silas and Luke, piled into the Jeep. "Any chance that I can convince you to go with me to the range one day soon?"

Luke bounced, knocking into me as I finished clipping myself into the middle seat, "I want to come too. I'll even take a camera so that we can preserve the moment."

"Count me in," Silas grinned, turning in the front passenger seat to wink at me. "Hey, Aggele, have you learnt any good jokes lately?"

Smiling happily, I shook my head, "No one tells jokes like you. Have you got one?"

"I haven't had a chance to look up new ones but give me an hour in Ashley Waters and I'll probably have a few new ones."

North grunted, "Any that you learn from this place will not be told to Sang."

I gigged, "Raven is one of my best friends. I doubt anything Silas comes up with can match some of the jokes I've heard from him. And, besides, Ashley Waters is a lot different now with Hendricks and McCoy gone. I think you'll be surprised."

"Oh, what the fuck are they doing here?" Gabriel exclaimed, peering harder through the window. "And why the hell did they have to bring the wicked witch of the east with them?"

Leaning across his lap as we pulled into the car park of the high school, I let out a quiet groan as I realised exactly who he was talking about. I'd managed to get a message off to Axel the night before but he hadn't had a chance to reply and now it appeared that Kayli had decided to talk to us in person.

Oh, joy.

North parked next to Mr Blackbourne's BMW, sitting with his arms crossed as we all watched Kayli start waving her arms around in agitation, "What the hell do they see in her?"

"Shh," I cautioned. "There's obviously something special about her. They've all been together for nearly a year now. And don't forget that her brother is missing - she's probably just too worried to not want to sit around waiting."

"Well, if she starts in on you like she did the other night, I'm going to break my code and slap the bitch," Gabe growled.

Shaking my head, I waved for them to start unloading as we saw Mr Blackbourne and Dr Green head towards the Toma team.

"...where the fuck he could be! Why would this psycho want to hurt my brother?" I heard her yelling as we all stepped up onto the springy green grass which had been laid not long after the new principal had taken over. In fact, a lot of changes had been made to the school and I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride while looking over the rebuilt baseball field and the empty area which had once been overfilled with trailers. My boys had had a lot to do with making it all happen even if they hadn't been around to see the results of their hard work.

"What the fuck are you on about?! Wil would never be involved with something like this," I snapped back to the matter at hand abruptly, wincing as Kayli's loud roar battered at my ears.

"Miss Winchester, none of us believe that Wil has hurt anyone - in fact, the clues suggest that he is now also a victim, but there are indications that when Volto first appeared, your brother may have played a big part in assisting the person we are now hunting."

"This is fucking bullshit," She raged. "It's all because of you, isn't it?" Her eyes swung towards me, lips pulling taut. "I worked out ages ago that he used to have a crush on you and because you were all delicate and broken, my poor brother probably got roped into some weirdo's scheme to 'protect' you from the big, bad Academy."

"Seriously, lady, what the fuck is your problem?" North intervened. "And how the fuck did you get accepted into the Academy with that kind of shit attitude."

"North," Marcus warned, mismatched eyes flashing.

"Enough, all of you," I sighed, rubbing my fingers against my suddenly aching forehead. "This will get us nowhere so if all you have to contribute are accusations, Kayli. Is there a particular reason why you are all here? How did you even know that we'd be here today?"

"I called Mr Toma as a follow up from last night but I didn't realise that you'd be joining us," Mr Blackbourne chastised gently.

"Sorry, Owen," Axel shook his head. "Kayli wanted to help with the search and we've already told her not to interfered. Your team is lead on this."

Luke and Nathan stood side-by-side peering up at the building. "So where do we start?"

"I think we should go and introduce ourselves to the new principal and see if we can access a copy of Wil's hard file reports." Victor suggested, his eyes still a dull glow.

"Brandon," I looked over at the twin slouching against wall of stairs. "Can you call Detective Sager and have him search out any mention of Wil in Hendricks' files. There might be some clues in there that we won't find anywhere else."

"On it," He replied, eyes lingering on Kayli's face before he shook his head.

I wasn't sure what was going on with their family and since it wasn't really my business, I waved everyone on. "You know that it's going to look suspicious with all of us here."

"Why don't you just disappear then?" Kayli sulked, pushing away Blake's hands as he tried to guide her into his chest.

"For fuck's sake, Kayli, can you just give it a rest?" Raven exploded. "We get that you have a problem with Sang but whatever it is that has your panties in a bunch isn't important right now. Can you think about someone else for once? Wil is missing, again, and instead of being helpful, you're out here taking potshots at the one person working her ass off to try and find him."

"Raven," She gasped in shock, stumbling in her black boots. She tried to reach out to him but his dark eyes stayed hard and cold.

"I've nearly had enough of this shit."

"Raven!" She cried, going to step after him until Axel dropped a hand onto her shoulder.

His face was drawn in sadness as well as exhaustion, "Just let him go for now, Kayli. There's something else going on and he's not ready to talk so I think it might be good to just give him some space."

Seemingly at a loss for anything else to say, Kayli withdrew into herself and nodded, finally accepting Blake's hesitant embrace.

God, it hurt my heart to see my friends struggling but there was nothing I could do if they didn't want to change their relationship themselves.

Glad when Silas grabbed my hand, I waited for Mr Blackbourne and Axel to finalise the plans before we heard the bell ring.

"It's now or never, kids," Sean prompted gently, his happy demeanour firmly in place.

"Welcome back to Ashley Waters," I snipped, relieved when some the tension leaked away and the majority of the boys laughed. Even Mr Blackbourne allowed a rueful smile to escape.

Checking my watch as we stepped into the crazy corridors, I realised that it was time for lunch and pushed at my lip thoughtfully. "Hey, guys. Why don't you go onto the office? I think I'll head straight for the cafeteria."

"Any particular reason why?" Corey asked, speaking for the first time since we'd arrived.

"I remember a few of the people that Wil seemed friendly with and since everyone's a lunch right now, I figured I go out and chat to them instead of twiddling my thumbs in the office."

"Go," Mr Blackbourne nodded after a short deliberation. "In fact, take the boys with you. The student body seeing you all again might shock them enough to have their guards dropping."

I watched North and Silas exchange grimaces, "Maybe he got expelled."

"Who?" Brandon asked, pausing in the process of pulling his phone out to make the call to our local, friendly detective.

"Rocky," We all intoned in return, breaking out in laughter as something unreal started to creep in. A year on and we were back, only this time we were hunting a different monster.