The Four Protectors

Two

We were told to gather at Ms. Hamilton's office at 2:00 in the morning. 2:00 in the morning. What a wonderful start to my very first mission.

I looked like a mess to say the least, with my hair up in an actual messy ponytail and dark circles engraved below my eyes. Azriel had the nerve to look completely professional and well groomed. Ms. Hamilton glanced between the three of us and Azriel with a look that clearly read, 'Why can't you be more like that?'

If I hadn't hated the woman before, I hated her now. Then again, I hated everyone at this ungodly hour.

She wanted us to near the hostage site before we had to bunker down. Desmond couldn't be in the sun after all. She'd arranged for a dirt-truck for transportation and argument ensued over who would drive.

When I threatened to fly up their noses if they didn't let me drive, I won.

The boys sat shoulder to shoulder in the back in silence as I took the exit onto the highway. It wasn't as awkward as before but we still didn't really know what to say to each other. I was about to turn on the radio when Cassius reached out from the back and stopped me.

"Let's play two truths and a lie," he suggested nervously.

There were a thousand retorts that came to mind with that idea. One, we weren't in middle school. Two, none of us were drunk. And three that game dredged up painfully awkward memories that weren't worth pondering upon.

"I'd rather die," Desmond said.

"You're already dead," Azriel pointed out.

I chuckled at that. Desmond shot Azriel a glare but didn't retort. The suffocating silence resumed and Cassius sat back in his seat again, a childish frown on his mouth.

It bothered me and so I opened my mouth, regretting everything before I even said a word.

"I once transformed into a bee and stung my little brother 5 times because he's a little piece of shit. I sprouted a tail in the middle of potions class and knocked over a vial of laughing gas. I've never flown up anyone's nose, that is before I flew up Azriel's," I said.

There was dead silence for a solid minute like I'd just asked the three of them to mentally calculate the square root of 33. I shot a glare at Cassius through the rearview mirror and he finally scrambled to reply.

"I want to believe the last one's true, so maybe the middle one's a lie," he said timidly.

For one of the most powerful werewolves in the grade, he sure was soft-spoken. He turned to Desmond and Azriel with wide pleading eyes. It turned out that the puppy face didn't just work on me.

"I agree with Cassius," Azriel said slowly.

Desmond just nodded. Evidently, a verbal reply wasn't worth it. I took what I could get though.

"You're all wrong. The first one's a lie. I don't have a little brother," I said.

I fully expected another dreadful silence to stretch through the car. However, Cassius leaned forward in his seat, his attention directed towards me.

"So do you have any siblings," he asked.

"No, you?"

"Yeah I've got three older brothers but they're all out of the academy now."

"That must have been nice, growing up with a big family," I said.

Family was a sensitive issue for me, considering I didn't have any. The family I did have was gone now thanks to a car accident. My knuckles tightened on the wheel almost subconsciously.