She told herself she would find out right after the impact.
Would it hurt? She thought. Would she feel the sudden shooting pain of her body when she went "splat" on the ground? Or would it be like falling in water as her soul fell deeper, leaving her carcass on the Earth?
Raven looked up and saw Jason's terrified face as he stood on the edge of the roof, his face white as a ghost as he watched her falling to her death. She frowned and wondered what he was thinking, what he was feeling as he watched her falling from the top of the school building. If she had the time to shed a tear and holler to him that she was sorry, she would. But death was just heartbeats away.
She squinted her eyes shut and waited for the impact. Something suddenly grabbed the back of her shirt and yanked her in another direction. She swung in midair for a few moments. Then all was still. Was she dead already? Was that what it felt like to die?
A growl snapped her out of her thoughts.
She pried her eyes open and turned her head, gasping when she saw the golden eyes and realizing she had just been saved. The werewolf gently put her down on her feet but after the fall she felt lightheaded and stumbled on her own two feet. Human arms quickly grabbed her to support her and she half-turned, smiling as she gazed into the bloodshot eyes of Jake.
"You know, skydiving isn't very fun without a parachute," he pointed out.
She tripped over her words as the blood rushed back to her head and tears finally welled up in her eyes. She felt her body shaking and she tried to speak, but her lips trembled too much for her words to be audible. Instead she let her tears fall and she swung her arms around Jake's waist, hiding her face against his bare chest and letting out her sobs.
"Rich?" Jake whispered. "What happened?"
"He… H-he d-d-dropped me," she stuttered and Jake's arms wrapped around her to try and reassure her.
"Jason?" Jake sounded purely shocked.
She shook her head. "Kyle."
"What was he- Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Jake pulled her back a step and she turned back, looking up and feeling her heart pull to a screeching stop as she witnessed Jason tackling Kyle off the roof of the school!
Raven instinctively tried to run forward but Jake pulled her back, covering her mouth as she tried to scream. Commonsense told her she had to stay silent; if humans ran out to see what was going on and saw what Raven was seeing now… Oh how the headmaster would love to yell at Jason more about breaking the rules and giving away the secret of the werewolves.
She had to remember how to breathe as the two boys wrestled in the air, falling down to the earth below. She bit her lip fiercely as Kyle got the better of the green-eyed boy and Jason became the one who hit the ground first. Raven yelped when she heard the gut-wrenching shatter of many bones and Jake spun her around, holding her against his chest so she didn't see the impact. The ground shuddered beneath their feet and Raven felt a lump embed itself in her throat. She broke away from Jake to see what had become of the two werewolves and she felt her stomach twist in several painful ways when her gaze rested on Jason, laying in a small crater with his whole chest caved in. Raven gulped and ignored Kyle laying a few feet away, slowly recovering from his injuries. She ran to Jason's side with Jake right behind her and she fell to her knees beside the green-eyed boy.
"That must have hurt," Jake mumbled.
Raven forced herself to breathe deeply and she looked at Jason's face. His eyes were shut and she reached her hand forward, gently brushing his black hair out of his face. "Will he be okay?" she choked on her breath.
"As soon as his body recovers, he'll be fine," Jake smiled down at her.
"Raven!" she looked up as Elaise raced over, her eyes wide. "What happened?"
Raven looked up but Elaise was quickly seized by Kyle. The Christian girl was pulled back and held against his chest by her throat. Kyle's other arm was still healing and he glared at the brunette. "You," he growled. "I still haven't been able to remove that doorknob from my bedroom door."
Elaise looked scared and she tried to force an innocent smile. "Doorknob? What are you talking about? I never put a silver doorknob on your door."
"Who said it was a silver one?" he said with a smirk.
"Oops," Elaise gulped. "But hey, that's what you get for raping my best friend! And for the record, putting your underwear on display was much more entertaining."
"I thought that was you," Kyle snarled in her ear and Raven felt panic rising in her chest. Would Kyle hurt Elaise? Raven didn't want to find out the hard way after he just dropped her from the roof. She looked down at the ground and smiled when she saw Elaise's shiny silver necklace beside Jason's head. It must have fallen from her pocket when Kyle grabbed her.
Raven picked the necklace up and held it behind her and she got to her feet and moved closer to Kyle. Jake gave her a warning growl but she ignored him. "Kyle, let her go," she tried and he turned his angry eyes on her. "Please?"
"Only if you ditch Jason and let me claim you," he grinned. "I know a very fun game we can play with many different positions once I have you stripped of your clothes."
The blonde chewed her lip and slowly reached her spare hand out to him. He seemed satisfied and he pushed Elaise away, reaching for Raven. She moved fast and whipped her other arm out, wrapping the necklace around Kyle's wrist and putting the cross through the loop to tie it. She pulled it tight and jumped back as the silver instantly started to burn his skin. He howled as smoke rose up from the burn and the two girls hugged each other tightly, stepping away from Kyle.
"You okay?" Elaise breathed.
"I think so," Raven answered. "You?"
"I've had enough excitement for one day," she tried to joke as they backed away from Kyle even more.
The boy snarled as he shook his arm, throwing the necklace away from him. He held his injury firmly for a few moments, wincing as the pain set in. Raven eyed the severe burns but frowned when they healed up. He set his sights on the two girls again and his lips drew back in the makings of a snarl. They yelped when he shifted into werewolf mode and crouched down, snapping his jaws as if he was going to kill them.
With a snarling bark, two more lycanthropes shot past Raven and Elaise and tackled Kyle. Raven turned back to the crater but Jason wasn't there. She couldn't help but breathe with relief as she looked back at the three wrestling beasts and told herself one was Jason, perfectly healed and ready to tear Kyle's throat out with Jake's help.
"They're gonna be seen," Elaise hissed as the two werewolves attacked Kyle. Raven shied away when she saw one furry creature scratch another and she wasn't sure which one was which.
Elaise was right, the blonde thought. If the three boys were seen by humans, the headmaster would have their tails for sure! She bit her lip and prayed they all had enough commonsense to stop, or at least fight in their human forms.
"What happened?" the brunette asked Raven again.
"Kyle dropped me from the roof," Raven explained, feeling shivers of fear crawling under her skin. "Jake saved my life and Jason tackled Kyle off the roof too."
The two girls had to move back even further as the three boys fought it out with teeth and claws flashing everywhere. Elaise's face was pale. "Kyle dropped you? Why?"
"He wanted Jason to 'un-claim' me," the blonde added the air-quotes. "And if he didn't, he was going to basically kill me. Jason didn't know what to say and Kyle let me go."
Elaise clearly didn't know what to say and they turned back to the fight. Raven blinked when she saw a blur and her heart raced when she saw Eliza, in her human form, run over to the fighting werewolves. The golden-eyed girl grabbed one of them by the tail and used all her strength to pull him back, throwing him to the side. The other two froze and took a few quick steps back before changing back into Jason and Jake. Eliza snarled at them angrily and turned to Kyle, seeing him leaning against the wall for support, his bare chest heaving as he too changed back to human.
"To the headmaster's office, all of you!" she snarled.
> "It's his fault!" Jason snapped back, glaring at Kyle. "If he didn't-"
"Move, pup!" Raven jumped when Eliza barred her teeth at the green-eyed boy. She had never seen Eliza so angry.
Jason snorted and quickly approached Raven, gently pulling her out of Elaise's hold. He cupped the blonde's face in his hands and Raven could see the fear written in his eyes. "Are you okay?" he asked quietly, kissing her forehead. She nodded. "I'm so sorry. I should have heard him coming up the stairs."
"It's not your fault," she told him firmly, doing her best to keep her voice strong. "Let's just go see the headmaster."
Jason glared up at the building to where the headmaster's window must have been. Raven turned her head and looked up, seeing the old man standing there, watching them with fury written all over his face, even from such a distance. The green-eyed boy muttered something under his breath and Eliza grabbed Kyle, already dragging him to see the head werewolf. Jason glanced over at Jake and nodded to him before the two boys ushered Raven and Elaise after the cranky lycan that split up the fight.
Raven looked up at the boys and still saw that they wanted to tear Kyle apart. If Eliza hadn't stopped it, would they have done just that? Raven thought. She also looked them up and down, seeing no injuries. She wondered if they had even been hurt at all when she saw no blood on them.
"You do know we're gonna need to keep a closer watch on these two," Jake mumbled to Jason. "Who knows what Kyle will try next?"
"If he tries anything again I will publicly tear out his throat in front of the entire school," the green-eyed boy threatened menacingly. "But I agree; we need to make sure Kyle can't get anywhere near them."
"At least if we stay off the roof there's not too much danger…" Raven spoke up.
"I can get my boys to watch them whenever we can't," Jake said, completely ignoring the blonde. "Then we have Eliza and the girls… If Eliza gets over her hissy fit with us."
"Who can blame her?" Elaise pointed out. "You changed into werewolves on the oval!"
"Kyle changed first," Jason snorted. "We were protecting the two of you."
"I doubt the headmaster will see it that way," Raven chewed her lip, knowing exactly what the headmaster would say. He would yell at Jason and tell him how irresponsible he is, that changing in the middle of the school was unacceptable and he could have given away the most important secret of the refuges. Headmaster Smith would doubt Jason's allegiance once again and Jason would get angry. Raven hoped he would stay calm just enough for the older man to notice it was for a good cause.
Eliza led them all up the stairs instead of taking the elevator and Raven kept up decently well. Her legs were still shaky from her freefall towards death but she was only starting to breathe heavily on the last flight of stairs. She was adapting well to the school, she thought. She told herself that she would have to thank the Physical Education teacher for all the hard lessons that she struggled through in the beginning.
Nerves bit at her heels as they reached the top of the last flight and approached the headmaster's door. Many times Raven had stood there eavesdropping on the conversations between the head werewolf, Jason, Storm and sometimes Der. She had never understood what their talks meant, but now she knew their secret. Now she had no need to eavesdrop and get in trouble because she had already promised to keep the secret and not tell any other human.
Eliza pushed the door open without knocking and Kyle turned his head, glaring at Jason. The green-eyed boy snarled at him and squared his shoulders but Eliza growled, shoving Kyle into the room first and following him. Raven took a deep breath and walked in with her friends. Eliza and Kyle were on one side of the room and Jason kept Raven with him on the other side. Elaise and Jake stood close to them and they all looked up at the headmaster, still standing at the window and looking out.
"Sir," Eliza bowed her head respectfully.
At first the old man didn't make a move to acknowledge them, but Raven felt shivers crawling up her spine when she heard his rasping breath. "Do you boys realize how badly you have threatened our secret?" he said.
"We were protecting the girls," Jason growled and gestured with his arm to Kyle. "Did you see what he did to Rich-"
"I know exactly what he did!" the headmaster silenced him, spinning around to glare at Jason. "The three of you changed on the oval! Anyone could have seen you!"
"He was going to attack the girls first," Jason challenged. "He changed first-"
"That's no excuse for the two of you changing!" the headmaster snarled. "You know better. Both of you! You disappoint me the most, Jason."
Raven growled at that. "That's not fair!" Everyone turned their heads to look at her. "You're acting as if this is all Jason's fault!"
"Raven, what he did-"
"What they did!" she yelled at the headmaster. "Kyle dropped me from the top of the fucking school then he changed first! Jason and Jake were both just protecting me and Elaise and you know about Jason's temper! It wouldn't have happened if Kyle hadn't almost killed me and you're blaming Jason! It's not fair and you know it!"
"Raven, calm down," Jason whispered in her ear, but her temper was quickly rising to boiling point.
"No!" she grumbled. "It's not fair on you and it's not fair on Jake. It's Kyle's fault!" she turned her angry gaze onto the bigger lycan and Kyle drew his lips back in a snarl.
"You need to understand what they've done," the headmaster tried, but the blonde girl wasn't giving him a chance.
"I know what they did," she snorted. "Just because I'm a human doesn't make me stupid. Kyle dropped me from the top. Of. The. Roof. Why isn't he getting in trouble for nearly killing me?"
"Get over it," Kyle scoffed and Raven glared at him.
"Go choke on silver and die!" she spat back at him.
Jason gently grabbed Raven's arm and pulled her into him. "Stop, please," he softly pressed his lips to her cheek. "It's okay."
The headmaster set his blue and golden gaze on the blonde and Raven stared him down. "Kyle is equally in trouble. As is Jake."
"Now why is that so hard for me to believe?" she sneered. "Oh, that's right, because all I'm hearing is: "Jason, you know better", "Jason, you disappoint me", "Jason, Jason, Jason"! I'm not hearing anything else. Why are you so determined to find every reason to blame Jason for everything?"
"You really need to stop," Eliza warned her. "Raven, you're not helping this."
"It's because he worked for the vampires, isn't it?" Raven ignored the golden-eyed girl. "Instead of being a heartless sack of old fur, try being a little sympathetic; just enough to realize how much Jason is trying-"
"Raven, stop!" Jason snapped and the blonde's body quivered. She quickly took a few deep breaths but grumbled and wriggled out of Jason's hold.
"Fine," she whispered and stormed out of the room. She heard footsteps rush after her and Elaise appeared beside her. Neither of them said anything as they took the elevator down and made their way to their dorm. Raven couldn't believe how unfair the headmaster was being! Why was it always Jason that was getting his head bitten off when it wasn't even his fault?
They entered the next building and took another elevator back up, reaching their room. Raven looked around the room and felt the shivers again. She hated being here without Jason and she could still feel the aura of Kyle and Boulder. She grit her teeth and walked in with Elaise, sitting down on the couch.
"You okay?" the brunette asked.
Raven nodded slowly. "I just can't believe what happened… If Jake didn't save me I'd be dead right now."
Elaise smiled sympathetically. "He still cares about you, even if you can't be his."
"I know," she sighed. "And now Jason's in the most trouble, as usual."
"It'll blow over," Elaise offered. "It always does. We know that Jason is good and God knows it to."
Raven forced a smile and nodded. "Thanks. I guess we should get some homework done while we're here."
They both went to their rooms to get their bags and Raven
stopped at her door. Her eyes trailed over to her bed before she could stop herself and she bit back tears, choking on the bile that rose up in her throat. She could just picture herself on the bed, stripped of her clothes with Kyle forcing himself on her, laughing at her as she locked her jaw from the pain. The things he forced her to do… The pain he put her through… Kyle reminded her of her dad, and it wasn't a pleasant thought.
She walked into the room and picked up her bag, reminding herself that she had lost Rover too. She must have dropped him back at the vampire house, and here was no hope for getting him back. Nobody said anything about it and Raven wondered if she could ever get another teddy to replace Rover.
Shaking the thoughts away, she made a quick escape from her room and rejoined Elaise on the couch. They pulled out their text books and made a start on their homework. At dinner, Raven and Elaise sat away from the werewolves. After the way Jason had spoken to the blonde, Raven wanted to keep her distance in case either of them snapped at each other because of what happened in the office. Jason kept an eye on her the whole time; she caught his eye on several occasions. She avoided looking at Kyle and whenever her thoughts trailed to being dropped from the top of the school, she dug her nails into her palm and focused more on the pain.
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