I'm Being Kidnapped by a Demon. Lovely, huh? (Under Revision)

Chapter 19

((Cody's POV))

"Alright guys. Who’s our team captains?" Leo rubbed his hands together in excitement.

When no one spoke up, I heaved a sigh and raised my arm high. "Right, I'll be the other one, I guess. You two get first pick." Gracie and I walked to the side a few feet to separate ourselves from Leo's team.

"Who do you want, sweetheart?" I asked her quietly. Her brow puckered as she considered.

She bounced, smiling. "Kaycie!" I should have known. The water nymph glided over to Gracie's side and gave her a high five. She nodded to me, smiling.

"Melissa." Leo called. I frowned when he said this. Since it was slave football, our rules were different. Powers were completely legal here and Melissa was a witch, which could cause deadly problems for our team.

I didn’t let Gracie pick this time. "Jaden." The boy smiled and strode over to our side, clearly pleased. That should even things up. Sorcerers were legendary.

Leo merely raised his eyebrows; He clearly could tell what I was doing. "Lauralie." He smiled. The dark vampire strode forward her face blank and went to Leo's side. I mentally cursed. Vampires are totally unfair.

Since it was Gracie's turn to pick, I truly hoped she thought this one out. She appeared to be doing just that, her head turned to examine Leo's team and then she examined the remaining players. "Haley and Celina!" She finally clapped. A smile appeared on her face once more.

"Gracie, honey, you can’t pick two-" Leo cut me off before I could finish.

"No, let her. It’s fine." He nodded to Gracie's hand maids, letting them join our side. I had to admit, I was very impressed with Gracie's thinking. Two vampires against one. Pride made my chest swell up.

Leo considered his next choices carefully, clearly worried. "Jackie and...." He looked over everyone again. Poor Tucker was trying to make himself look taller. His eyes pleaded to be pick. Leo smiled. "Tucker." The young boy shouted in triumph before dragging Jackie over to Leo, his tail waving at high speed.

The end result of the choosing landed us with Kaycie, Jaden, Rachel, Haley, Celina, and Holly. The other team was Melissa, Lauralie, Kaisue, Tucker, Jackie, Ellie, Adri and Akemi. Our team was one short but Gracie assured me that Alec was playing too. That statement made me roll my eyes. How in the world was he supposed to play?

Our referee was a servant who played his part as a guard. Though I wasn’t familiar with him, I didn’t worry like I usually would have. Flying lessons with Gracie flashed through my mind too often for worry. The ref blew his whistle loudly and we all gathered around the football. "Coin toss." He replied gruffly. "Cody calls it.” He flipped the coin high into the air.

"Heads." I said automatically watching it drop in the ref's hand. He peeked at the end result.

"Heads it is. Cody's team gets the ball. Let’s play some football!" Everyone cheered except for Gracie and I. She merely jumped up and down, clapping excitedly; I smirked softly.

"What’s the game plan, coach?" Jaden asked eagerly.

I looked at him blankly. "Uh..... I ain’t got one. Improvise!" I commanded but looked away when Gracie tugged on my sleeve. "What’s the matter, sweetheart?"

"How do you play?" She whispered with a worried look. I laughed and smoothed her hair.

"You get the brown ball," I pointed to the football. "And try to get it all the way over there." I pointed to the opposite end of the field where two trash bins marked the touchdown zones. "Just don’t get touched." At her curious frown I demonstrated putting both of my hands on her shoulders. "If someone touches you with both of their hands then they tackled you and you have to stop running. The other team is going to try and stop you from getting the ball over there. You have to stop them from getting a goal. Got it?"

Gracie nodded eagerly. "Can I fly?"

A smile lit my face. "Of course. I'll fly with you." I gripped her hand and we jogged toward our side of the field. Most of our team got down and ready in random spots along the field while Leo's team was all organized. I turned around and whispered in Gracie's ear. She grinned and nodded, excited to try out our plan. Shouting some nonsense words and numbers I finally called hike.

The ball passed under my legs and up into the air where Gracie hovered. She shot off toward our goal like a missile while I struggled to keep up. Since we could fly, we had to stay within reach as part of the rules. My angel glided along the grass quickly approaching the goal.

Leo jumped in front of her.

I growled shooting forward faster than before, tackling him to the ground before he could touch her. "Hey! It was supposed to be touch football!" He complained.

"Yea for Gracie." I smirked. "You don’t look like Gracie." I looked up at the sound of our team cheering; Gracie had made her first touchdown.

*****

"Did you see me?! I was like going super-fast! Like an arrow!" Gracie bounced as we walked back to our room after the game. Funny I had never thought of it as ours before.

Oh well.

"Yea I saw you! You scored the winning touchdown!" I congratulated warmly. She beamed, even though there was a smudge of dirt on her flawless cheek. When we entered the room I wetted my thumb and wiped it off. Gracie giggled and made a big show of rubbing her cheek to try to get off my "cooties" as she put it. There was an old touch of understanding deep in her eyes. I had no excuse, but I couldn’t help myself.

Without thinking, my hand came up to caress her now spotless cheek. Her giggle and smile died and she looked up at me uncertainly. All child-like innocent was gone from her expression. It wasn’t the kind of uncertainty that I had feared. It was different, as if you weren’t sure of what was happening.

I stepped a bit closer leaving a gap still between us. The air was charged with electricity as we continued our little staring contest, if you wanted to call it that because not one of us was blinking.

The door burst open and we both jumped away from each other. Dr. Jenkins stood there panting, his medical case in hand looking like he had just run a marathon.

"What’s the matter Jenkins?" I questioned somewhat concerned. He waited to gain his breath back before answering gravely.

"Gracie's in danger."