Just as it looked, Gabe wasn’t coping well with this news. No, quite the contrary. He had drown into self-pity. Angel sighed. It was probably high time that she took things into her hands. She got up and strolled over to Gabe, who was preparing a second drink. She grabbed the glass from his hand and poured the contents carefully with a steady hand back into the whiskey bottle without spilling a drop, and then she closed the bottle again looking sternly at him. To her surprise, he didn’t protest or tried to stop her.
“So,” she drawled.
“We're in pretty deep shit and I'm sorry to say that it's only because you easily lose control, so you'll probably have to agree that our last chance is the fact that I will take care of things from now on and we will keep your ass a little more in the background.” He started to protest, but she came very close to him, holding her finger close to his mouth.
“Think about it, it's your last chance, otherwise your stepsiblings will be placed in front of your nose. I don’t think that you are interested in that happening." He nodded, “What are you suggesting?”
"Leave it all to me, get out of the picture and relax. You can’t afford to get any more negative attention. Your father and his people have their spies everywhere watching you. We have to stay in the background and I'll try to get this prophecy in my possession and track down Gregory.”
I already have a plan how I will do it.
"What’s the plan?”
When he looked at her, she saw the flicker of interest in his eyes.
“No my dear, you're going to stay out of it. Just try to behave until some grass has grown over the matter. Nobody is going to find out that you have caused the chaos in the city and eventually, the mysterious events will go down in history as unusual weather conditions with the exception of killing Alex and Sebastian, not to mention the fact that Sebastian’s house has been burned to the ground with his whole family being in it. You have wiped out Sebastian's family, Gabe. Don’t get me wrong, but you seem to be prone to spontaneous actions, although I thought that you had been taught differently in this fine Swiss boarding school. Anyway, what happened can’t be undone, but the police will investigate the incidents and conduct interviews in school. Since both Alex and Sebastian were at the Scarborough High and Alex was found dead on the school grounds. So you have to keep a clear head and stay calm if the cops should happen to interrogate you or whomever.”
She looked at him sharply, “I hope you can do that and I think it’s clear to you what is at stake. It is important that they don’t suspect anything and that there is by no means any connection to be discovered leading to one of us concerning this crime. Oh and by the way, I'm going to have to watch Greyson a little closer. I don’t like the way he acts around Leyla. He is clearly into her, which is unacceptable for a Vulture member. She is on Gregory’s side and Greyson will have to decide where his loyalty and priorities lay, or we will have to get rid of him. We don’t need any traitor within our clan. We have enough trouble as it is.”
Gabe frowned, “What do you mean by getting rid of him? Didn’t you just tell me that we don’t have to attract any attention?”
Angel smiled and Gabe couldn’t help but get the shivers just looking at her.
“Don’t you worry Gabe. I told you I would take care of things. I ‘m just watching him for now. So relax and yes, we must be extremely careful and we need to keep low profile until everything gets back to normal. I suggest that we just hang out at lunch for half an hour on the lawn outside casually. If something important comes up, Luke will text you”
Gabe's head snapped up.
“Why Luke? You know damn well that Luke is no good and he can’t be trusted.”
“Relax Gabe,” Angel looked pissed.
“I know what I am doing and what is at stake. Luke will do everything I tell him, because he is someone who has no problems taking orders.
I have to go now, get some rest and pull yourself together.
I’ll see you tomorrow at school. Let's hope that the Scarborough high is still there,” she laughed.
“Oh and I have to call daddy, he will be pleased to hear that I have taken the lead of the mission by now. He knows that I always keep a cool head, no matter what. He'll inform your dad about the new situation which will temporarily get your head out of the loop.”
She reached for her Gucci bag and blew him a kiss.
"So then see you tomorrow babe and for the record, don’t do anything stupid! Ciao Bello!”
She disappeared through the front door, leaving Gabe behind. Gabe was furious.
Angel was a real bitch and had been waiting patiently for him to fail the lead of the mission. On the other hand, maybe she was really his last chance. As much as it annoyed him, she was always in control, more than he would ever be. And if he managed to stay calm, it was probably the best opportunity for him to get back on top, staying in the background calm and relaxed, as Angel had told him to. The only question was how he could get his quick temper under control. Maybe he should use Gary's services once again and consider these little blue pills. He had helped him once before to get out of a mess when things seemed to go out of control in boarding school. He hesitated because he knew how difficult it was to stop using these little pills, but what the hell. He needed something to give him the inner peace he needed. There was too much at stake. He reached for his phone and dialed Gary's number.
After the Storm
Leyla Brooklyn and Melissa had met on the subway in the morning. The protection and rescue workers of the city had done a great job. Although there were still some shrubs, plant parts and other objects along the road and on the sidewalk, but apart from that, it looked almost back to normal if you considered that there had been a storm raging over the city late yesterday afternoon. Leyla was even glad to see Melissa. Everything that reminded her of normal everyday life and that things were being back to normal was welcome. In this case, even annoying Melissa. She hadn’t spoken to Shane, but Mila had assured her that he was ok. Her conversation with Brooklyn and Melissa turned exclusively around the storm and they were wondering whether the school had gotten its comeuppance.
Leyla and Brooklyn glanced at each other, but as long as Melissa was there, they could forget any confidential conversations. When they approached school from the Subway station, first thing they noticed was a police car parked right outside the entrance. There were no cops in sight, but some kids were standing around close to the car whispering, apparently wondering what the cops were doing at school. Leyla and Brooklyn looked at each other clearly confused and Melissa made up the wildest guesses what the cops were doing here. Meanwhile, they had arrived in front of the entrance, where Aiden sat together with Jason and James on the banister. Aiden immediately got up when he saw them coming. His eyes on Brooklyn, he came over towards them.
“Hey, are you okay?"
He put his arm around her shoulders and nodded absent to Leyla and Melissa.
"Hey Aiden,” said Leyla.
“Good morning to you too. We are all doing exceedingly well. Thanks for asking.”
Aiden made an embarrassed face.
“Sorry, but if I see Brooklyn, the rest of the world just fades away.”
Leyla laughed, at least he was honest.
“Oops. Guess that means your liaison is official now, my two love birds?”
Melissa cackled like a chicken.
”Liaison! That sounds pretty indecent.”
"Oh come on Melissa, why don’t you shut up?”
Leyla interrupted her, shaking her head.
“What exactly are the cops doing here this early in the morning?"
She looked around but no one seemed to have an answer to her question.
As the bell rang and they headed for their classroom, Leyla stepped up a notch and disappeared as quickly as she could into the classroom. She had seen Greyson strolling along, from the corner of her eye, apparently trying to get an opportunity to talk to her. Brooklyn came a few minutes later, sitt
ing down beside her.
“Where have you been? I have just talked to Aiden and suddenly you were gone.”
Leyla looked at her amused.
”Well, that’s all right. I could be eaten by a zombie and the two of you wouldn’t even notice.”
Seeing Brooklyn’s long face, she laughed out loud.
“I am joking; I had to take off because of Greyson.”
Brooklyn looked relieved, “Thank God. I thought you were mad at me. I wanted to ask you if you could come with me to my doctor's appointment on Friday?”
Leyla nodded, “Sure thing. I’m certainly not letting you down and I don’t think you want Aiden necessarily to tag along to the doctor.”
“No, I need Girl Power to get through this. Oh and by the way, talking about Girl power, have you done your homework in the whole mental confusion?”
Leyla placed a hand over her mouth in horror.
“I totally forgot. I don’t even remember what it was. What is wrong with me?”
Brooklyn laid her hand on her arm soothingly.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. With all sorts of mess you had going on…. Shane, the storm and Gregory….”
They were interrupted by the appearance of a scary looking man all dressed up in black. Everything about him was dark; black stringy hair, piercing dark eyes, and a long pointed nose.
There was something crow-like about him. His face was deadly pale and he didn’t look as if he was much into outdoor activities. He was wearing a black shirt and black denim pants. On his left index finger, he wore a silver ring with skull and crossbones. All in all, he looked really scary. Wasn’t Halloween still some months away? Leyla thought shuddering. He looked at the group of pupils and the sound of his shrill high-pitched voice was shuffling through the room. “I'm Mr. Moonworthy and I will temporarily be teaching as a delegate for Mr. Blane, who had an accident with a falling tree during the storm yesterday. Therefore, he will be gone for some time until he feels better.”
He wrote his name on the blackboard and his claw-like long nails curled around the chalk stub. Leyla couldn’t get rid of the feeling that this crow-like substitute teacher stared constantly in her direction.
Maybe she just imagined it, at least she hoped so. She looked around, but no one else looked particularly shocked until now. Her train of thought was interrupted abruptly by a loud knock on the door. The principal, Mr. Forster, came in with two serious-looking cops and the new substitute teacher became even paler around the nose than he already was.
“Excuse me, Mr. Moonworthy, those officers have a few questions concerning the events after the summer festival." Moonworthy stepped aside in order to let them pass by. One of the two police officers, a chubby middle-aged man without any hair on his head started talking.
"As you've all probably have been informed in the meantime, there has been a case of murder during the festival and one of the students died. We have done some research and investigations have been completed. We have come to the conclusion that although there was no obvious infringe by external forces, it is a murder case.”
There was an awkward silence and the students looked shocked from one to another.
“You might wonder why we came to the opinion that he was murdered. We found, in fact, no murder weapon, but the autopsy revealed that the victim had been poisoned before he died of a heart attack, most probably caused by shock.”
Leyla and Brooklyn looked at each other briefly, uncertain and Leyla could have sworn that Angel twitched briefly in front of them. How was that even possible. Maybe it had been the stuff Angel put into the bowl. They knew that Gabe had struck Alex down with lightning. The officer continued talking.
“According to our investigations, Sebastian di Santo, a friend of the victim, must have witnessed the murder and was chased while he run off heading home. His pursuers, that we believe were also the murderers of Alex Genovese, tracked him down. His house was set on fire and burned down to the ground. The fire department couldn’t save anyone staying in the building.
There have been four victims. However, there seems to be a testimony that has seen someone who has been following Sebastian di Santo at this particular time just before his parent’s house was set on fire. According to the testimony, there are several suspects. Today we are going to run various interrogations. We will inform each teacher previously during the breaks, who will be interrogated at the principal’s office. We ask you to follow the call immediately so that we will be able to avoid delaying the investigation. Thank you in advance for your help to clear up this terrible crime.”
He nodded and left the classroom together with Mr. Forster and the other officer. Angel pulled up her shoulders still shuddering. That was just what she needed now. First, Gabe losing it and second, the autopsy showing remains of the potion she had added to that bowl and third, someone apparently had seen them follow Sebastian and had dropped the dime. Her new role being leader of the Vultures didn’t allow letting something like that happen. She would have to find out about who was the tattletale and then think about what to do about it. It could actually be any of those who were at the summer festival.
She had to tread carefully. The idea just hit her and made her smile. She was a woman that could handle a subtle procedure. She smiled contemptuously. Gabe always used the sledgehammer approach, which unfortunately most of the time had the unwanted effect of a boomerang and got back at him, hitting him with a whole load and full force right in his smug face. No, there were other ways to get even with somebody or to make them shut up. Death and destruction were definitely not her thing. She raised her hand and asked Mr. Moonworthy if she could go to the bathroom. She looked around to see if anyone was in sight, then she pulled out her phone from her waistband. She called Mr. Forster and made an anonymous testimony in a high-pitched voice. Now, no one would suspect her or the Vultures anymore. A smug smile on her face, she went back to the classroom.
A crow named Moonworthy, or how to expose a witness?
This Tuesday morning seemed to drag on forever. Leyla was about to fake a stomachache and go home. Perhaps it would cheer her up to pass a few hours in front of the TV. Everything was so complicated. Gregory and Shane were gone. Brooklyn was pregnant and had her own problems. They all expected Leyla to be the strong one, having everything under control without as much as flinching. Somehow, she knew that is was her own fault, because she truly liked appearing cool and callous to the world, which of course was a protective mask to keep her from getting hurt. Yet now, her cool wall crumbled badly because her whole controlled world seemed to fall apart lately. Her life had been so much easier before she was drawn into that savior Akando story. Sometimes she almost wished Gregory had stayed in Italy and then she was ashamed thinking that way. He was the last person on earth to be blamed for this whole mess. Finally, he had almost been killed being poisoned and all and she felt as if a part of her was missing since he had been gone.
She missed him so much that it hurt. All she needed urgently was a shoulder to lean on, but no one was there, not even her parents who also had been involved in the story which she had never ever wanted to happen.
She worried that something might happen to them. She had never been so depressed in her life, she sighed loudly. From a distance, she heard a voice that grew louder and louder until she got startled back into reality from her dark thoughts and saw Mr. Crow Moonworthy standing right in front of her desk. Staring at her with his stabbing little black eyes, she felt Brooklyn’s worried look. Apparently, she tried desperately to make her understand that Moonworthy had noticed her mental absence.
“Miss Johnson, maybe you can tell me the answer to my question. Or is my way of teaching too boring for you? I had in fact the feeling that you were miles away.”
Leyla didn’t have the slightest idea about the question and he was well aware of it. This crow didn’t seem to like her at all. She tried to find frantically a vaguely appropriate response, which was quite difficult as she didn’t know t
he question. Angel had turned around facing her and clearly enjoying the situation. She smiled sardonically at her, pointing her thumb down.
“Well, we are all waiting anxiously for your explanation. Miss Johnson, enlighten us.”
To Leyla’s vast relief there was a loud knock at the door that saved her from humiliating herself in front of her classmates. Mr. Moonworthy spun around to open the door. He didn’t even bother to hide the harsh tone in his voice, when he saw one of the cops standing in front of him.
“Officer, I thought you said the interrogations would take place during the breaks?”
He was visibly upset and mainly annoyed that his opportunity had passed to bawl her out. Why else would he be so rude to the cops. He must have realized that he was being unfriendly which probably didn’t please the cops while they were investigating in more than one case of murder and hadn’t interrupted him for some trifle. The cop was still standing in the doorway looking sternly at him and Mr. Moonworthy understood that it was better to cooperate than to get in trouble himself. He cleared his throat.
“Is there a problem, Officer?”
"In fact, we do have a few questions for one of your students. We have new insights and we are thinking that she might be able to help us further in our investigations; therefore, we would like to interrogate her now, because it is kind of urgent and can’t wait. Of course if the students are writing a test at the moment we will wait to the break.”
ELEMENTARY VIRTUE: The Savior Page 26