Shot: A Novel

Chapter Three

                                                       -Ares- 

     "Pol, Sean get your asses moving now! We don't have all bloody night." I yell at them from atop the grassy hill. The tall golden grass going up to my waist made me itch at least it was no longer to my neck, but we needed to focus on moving faster. I stared at the two guys trudging up the hill and I stifle a laugh by pretending to cough. Sean scowls at me and Pol collapses on the ground, I sigh.

     "If you both are so tired then shall we exhaust another muscle?" As I say it I take off my leather trench coat and set it on a dry patch of dirt. I unfurl my black wings from my back and it rips my new t-shirt. I guess if I decide I need a shirt I will just buy one at a thrift store along the way.

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     "Ares, I feel them," Sean calls out from ahead. Pol and I were walking at a slower pace through the woods, making a game of jumping over fallen trees and trying not to fall on our faces. Sean is good at tracking people and feeling the things around him, so we sent him ahead, not that he was sad he is always complaining we are too slow and klutzy.

     "We are in the middle of nowhere! How can you 'feel' them out here?" Pol has never believed in Sean's abilities, I thwap Pol upside the head for being rude.

     "At least Sean is tracking the two girls and not food." Pol growls at me but doesn't say anything more. Sean grunts amused by Pol's sudden obedience.

     "Somehow when you say, 'tracking the two girls' it sounds like we are big bad pedophiles plotting to kidnap them," Sean says leaning on Pol before Pol pushes him away.

     "Well, that would be true, well everything but the pedophile part," I reply smiling, glad about the lightening of the mood.

      "Ares, there are few people even close to your age. In human terms, you are a pedophile to anyone. And I know this is business and not dating but still. I saw the way you watched the red-head." Sean says before walking on ahead. We had been too close to cities to fly, which made Pol depressed because he hated walking.

     "How much farther Sean?" I call up to him, changing the subject and leaving Pol behind to sulk with his aching muscles.

     "Less than a mile ahead, by the looks of it at they, are staying at a motel and there is also a general store nearby but that's it, well there is a lake about a mile and half that way." Sean points to our right towards the west.

     "Wonderful, the sooner we leave the happier I will be. So far I have not liked California." I grumble hopping over another dead fallen tree. Pol and Sean laugh as I flip them off. This might take a while, I had this feeling these two girls would not be cooperative with our plans.

                                                  -Aphrodite-

     "Aph, why a freaking motel?" Rachel asks me as we go into room seven at the Sly Park Motel.

     "Because, Rachel, there isn't a hotel so we are at a motel, plus being out in the middle of nowhere makes it harder for people to find us," I say as I throw the backpacks on the single king-sized bed before heading into the bathroom to make sure it isn't completely terrifying to stay at. I look at the bathtub and it was clean or as clean as a motel bathtub is going to get, along with the rest of the bathroom, and the room itself wasn't horrible. At least there weren't cockroaches.

     "Ok, fine but I will not stay here permanently. There isn't a prom or a skate park anywhere near here." Rachel grumbles unpacking her bag.

     "I wouldn't expect us to stay Rach; it is only for the time being until we know we are safe." Just as I say the last word someone knocks on the door and we both jump. I look to her as she pulls out two of her silver daggers. I nod and walk towards the door. There was no peephole and we don't want to risk looking out the window. Who would be here at one in the morning? Guess we would have to find out.