by LM Wilson
“She’s beautiful.” The awe in my voice shocks me more than her beauty. “I know her from somewhere.”
“We all do.” Angel steps out of the shadows to my left and reaches his hand out to touch the girl. “Something strange is going on. I keep losing huge chunks of time and then there’s this feeling, like I’ve forgotten something important.”
“Do you think it has something to do with her?” I ask nodding towards the girl in Chase’s arms.
“I don’t know. All I know is that she’s important for some reason.” Chase stares down at her as he speaks. The look of devotion on his face mirrors the one that Angel is wearing. Whoever this girl is, she really is important to all of us. I just can’t figure out why.
“This is just too fucking weird. We need to find someone who can help us.” Angel plucks a leaf out of the girl’s hair before turning his gaze to me. “What about River?”
I’m shaking my head before he even finishes asking. “No. He’s been acting really strange lately.” I sigh and scrub my hand down my face. “I think we need to go to someone no one would expect us to go to.” I stare off into the trees trying to think of someone who fits that description. “We need to go see him.”
“Raine…?” Chase doesn’t need to voice the name; we all know who I’m talking about.
“I know, but what choice do we have? Someone is obviously messing with our minds. He’s the only one who can build a block and retrieve the memories we’re missing.”
“I don’t like this.” Angel grumbles.
“Me neither, but what choice do we have?”
I never thought I’d be doing this. Out of all the students to ever come to Abaddon High only one has ever stayed beyond his graduation. No one goes near him or the cabin he has out in the woods. He’s the boogieman that hides in the shadows as far as the student population is concerned. Hell, even some of the teachers use him as a warning on what not to do.
“Does anyone know where his cabin is?” I stop walking and look back towards the woods behind us.
“Rumour has it somewhere on the east side of the grounds.” Angel points off to our right and I suppress a shudder.
“Through the woods we go.” I mumble as we go deeper into the creepy woods.
That makes sense I suppose. As far away from the students as you can get.
♡
I do not recommend trekking through the woods on a hot summer’s day. I sure as hell do not recommend said trek taking place with an unconscious girl in your arms. I shift the girl’s weight, trying to find a comfortable way to carry her but it’s no use. She may look small but after twenty minutes of carrying her she feels like she weighs a tonne.
Angel steps up beside me and shakes his head. “Pass her over, I’ll carry her for a bit.”
I don’t argue, I did the same to Chase twenty minutes ago after all.
I almost groan with envy as we finally arrive in a clearing with a cabin in the middle. Angel was lucky to only have to carry her for a short time. Although how I felt when she was in my arms kind of makes me feel sorry for him only getting a short time with her.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
Since when do I pine over a girl?
I glance at my watch and again find myself fighting back a groan. It took us nearly an hour to find this place. Please let it be worth all this trouble.
“What are you kids doing here?”
I look up and up. No easy feat considering I’m almost six-five. The guy in front of us has to be the right guy. I can’t imagine there being too many guys that are nearly seven feet tall and live in the middle of the woods here at Abaddon Academy.
Bandit Greyson.
The only known Sabretooth shifter. No one knows how old he really is or even where he came from. Rumours have it that he graduated long before Doc went to school here and Doc is a couple hundred years old. Angel and Chase tried to work out how old Bandit was once and the closest they came to was that he was as old as the school, which is over five hundred years old.
“We need your help.” I hesitate before taking a step forward. He notices but doesn’t point it out. I feel like a pup approaching an alpha for the first time. Not that I usually have that kind of problem, I am after all an alpha in my panther clan.
“Now why would a bunch of guardians and the princess want my help?” He glances at each of us and shakes his head. “Where’s your fourth?”
“Fourth?” I ask staring at his far too big yellow eyes. Guardian? Why the hell does that sound familiar?
“Four guardians to protect her.” He nods at the girl in Angel’s arms.
“There’s only the three of us.” I grunt as he continues to make us stand here like idiots.
Angel shifts the girl in his arms again and nearly drops her as Bandit shouts, “Hey kid, come out from behind the tree or I’m not going to help any of you.” His voice booms into the woods making birds scatter from their perches in the trees around us. I follow his gaze to a tree not far from the clearing. A guy around our age steps out and into the light.
He’s familiar.
As familiar as the girl.
“Four guardians.” Bandit nods his head and then turns his back on us. “Come inside and put her on the couch. I’ll tend her wounds.”
Wounds? I spin around to stare at the girl in Angel’s arms. I don’t see any blood. Nor do I see anything that could be considered a wound anywhere on the girl. Angel frowns down at her but doesn’t stop moving towards the cabin’s front door.
All of us do a sharp intake of breath as we walk through the doorway. The inside looks nothing like the rustic outside. Shining wood floors, high cathedral style ceilings and the brightest, most offensive red painted across the walls. Bandit leads us into what I assume is supposed to be a living area. There’s a long wooden bench seat with cushions tossed randomly along it against the far wall and a huge fireplace opposite. I’m not kidding the thing takes up half the wall. The wall to the left of the door is filled with more books than I’ve ever seen inside a person’s home.
“Its magic. You’ll get used to it. I’m sure you’ll be spending a lot of time out here over the next two weeks.”
“Why would we do that?” I ask turning away from the bookshelf to face Bandit.
“To train. That’s why you’re all here right?”
“Actually, I have no idea how they found their way here, but they don’t know what is going on. I kind of tweaked their memories a bit.” The guy who was hiding in the shadows says in a small voice.
“Why the hell would you do that?” I ask finally realising why the guy seemed so familiar.
“Because my sister was planning on killing them all.”
Kill us all? I glance over at the girl again. Why the hell would anyone want to kill a pretty little thing like her?
“So, you thought fucking with their memories would keep them safe?” Bandit shouts making the windows in the wall behind him rattle. “Look at her!” He gestures to the girl Angel is gently laying out on the long bench seat. “You’re all supposed to fucking protect her.” Again, that tickle of memory tries to surface. I push it down as Bandit storms across the room and leans down, shouting in the new guys face. “You don’t deserve to be a guardian.”
“I thought I was doing the right thing.” The guy is practically pissing himself. I can’t help the smile that lifts the corners of my lips.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” He shoves the guy in the chest and I watch as he stumbles back a few steps. Bandit’s long legs eat up the distance between him and the girl in a matter of seconds as he turns his back on the guy. I watch curiously as he places his hand on her brow. “You didn’t just mess with them, you’ve severed her connection to them.” He closes his eyes and growls under his breath, “You better hope it’s not permanent or the whole world will pay for your ignorance.”
♡
Chapter: Joey
The first thing I see as my eyes open is the biggest, scariest, yell
ow eyes. A scream rips from my chest as I try to scramble back away from those creepy orbs.
“Whoa, calm down princess.”
“Who the hell are you?” I ask, my voice trembling. This guy is huge. I’m not kidding, if I didn’t believe in big foot, I sure as hell would after seeing this guy. He’s not fat or anything, just really tall. Built too, I swear he could bench press a car if he wanted to.
“Bandit Greyson.” He does this half bow thing that makes him seem even bigger. “Truly a pleasure to meet you princess.” My cheeks turn pink as he bends further at the waist and gently touches his lips to the back of my hand. I stammer out a reply but my words are nothing but garbled nonsense. Wow he’s intimidating.
“Bandit’s over five hundred years old.” I recognise Angel’s growl. It’s coming from somewhere behind me and I turn so fast that everything starts to spin. I throw my hand out expecting it to collide with the back of the couch only my hand goes straight to the wall.
“Careful there. Can’t have such a pretty princess falling, now can we?” Bandit grabs my shoulders to help steady me and I again find myself blushing. He’s seriously good looking. He even puts Doc to shame in the looks department. I’m not sure if it’s his muscular build or his angelic face, but despite his creepy yellow eyes, I find him adorable.
“I don’t want to talk to them.” I hiss at Bandit as I turn my back on the guys. He glances over my head and I stifle a giggle as he gives the guys a believable death glare. I swear it’s the kind of glare that would make a lesser man piss themselves. Couple the deep lines in his brow with his height and those huge muscles and hell, even I’m a little scared of him.
Okay, so that’s a lie. He’s just so adorable that I don’t think I could ever find him scary.
“Joey-.” Angel begins. A note of confusion in his voice as he says my name. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’d only just remembered my name.
“Nope. Not interested in anything they have to say. Jerks and bullies, the lot of them.” I speak directly to Bandit, pretending the others aren’t here.
I know it’s immature and petty but seriously after everything they have done, they deserve so much worse.
“Come on beautiful, you can’t hold that against us. We weren’t exactly in our right minds.” Out of the corner of my eye, I see Chase trying to get closer but Bandit lets out a small growl, freezing him on the spot. Bandit’s growl reminds me of those tigers you see at the zoo. It sends a shock wave of fear up my spine but when he looks back at me with a soft expression on his face, I again find myself admitting that he’s adorable.
“Babe, give us a chance to explain.”
“Don’t you babe me, Raine Abaddon. You were the worst of them all. The way you’ve been acting….” I trail off, my hands shaking with how angry I am at him.
“Exactly what did these boys do to you?” Bandit asks sitting down beside me.
I glance around trying to figure out where the hell I am. The last thing I remember is running through the woods, trying to find my way back to my dorm.
Ok, so technically I’m looking around to avoid answering his question, but no one really needs to know that, right?
The walls are the strangest shade of red I’ve ever seen. I swear they look like the bright red of fresh blood. Even the furniture is weird. The seat I’m on spans the entire wall and is made from solid wood with no cushioning for your butt or back, just some random throw pillows. Across the room, along the wall where the door is are bookshelves built directly onto the wall. It’s the cute little touches that grab my attention though; above the giant fireplace are three framed photographs, a little unicorn figurine and what looks like an old clock that isn’t ticking.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I can’t help you all if I don’t know what happened.”
I sigh. I know Bandit’s right but I really don’t want to relive the last few weeks. Hoping just a general explanation is enough, I blurt out, “I’m not a tattletale.”
“Just tell me.” He snaps like a father telling a child off. I blush again as I finally say, “They bullied me and others. They laughed while others did it too.”
“Bullied how?” He snarls, giving the guys another death glare. He is seriously good at that; I wonder if he’d teach me how to glare the way he does. Might have been useful if I could have shut just a few of those assholes up….
My mind goes back to two weeks ago when it all started. I feel like I’m there all over again and as I lose myself in the memory, tears leak down my cheeks.
I’d left the nurse’s office with my heart breaking. Angel had seemed so cruel and detached as he told me “Whatever we had is over.”
That night I tossed and turned so much so that I ended up tangled in my sheets. I literally tripped out of bed the next morning. My morning routine went by in a daze of hurt.
Back when I was a normal girl with my mum, I would dress in dreary clothes as though they were a shield. Unfortunately, here I can’t. I’m stuck having to wear the ridiculous white blouse and plaid skirt uniform that leaves me feeling even more exposed.
As I made my way to the cafeteria to get breakfast, I heard people snickering and carrying on behind me. I glanced up, curious what was going on. One girl laughed right at me and asked, “How could you ever think they’d be interested in someone like you?” Not knowing what was going on, I kept walking, pretending not to have heard her.
I made it through the lunch line before anything really bad happened.
A tall blonde girl steps right into me. Knocking my tray and everything on it into my chest. Her “Oops, sorry.” Was so snidely said that no one would have believed her. I knew then that something was going on, but I still couldn’t figure out what. It wasn’t until I was storming over to the garbage bins that I heard him. Raine’s booming laughter echoed all around me in the sudden silence of the cafeteria. “Did you see her face. I swear she was about to cry. I can’t believe she actually thought we’d be interested in a stuck-up bitch like her.”
My heart shattered. I may not have known the guys long but after everything we went through, I felt like we were becoming friends. I should have known better. No one in here is trustworthy. After all this place is known for its delinquents and troublemakers.
The whole day moved on like that. People pushing me in the hallways while making snide remarks. I felt like I was being punished for believing guys like them could be my friend.
By the time dinner came around, I was so over everyone’s bullshit that I returned to my room and refused to eat.
Tuesday came and went with much the same antics. It wasn’t until I was crossing over the oval heading to Elemental Studies that I ran into Raine again. Being an igniter meant that we were meant to be partners but as I approached him, that same blonde girl started laughing. I stopped halfway to Raine and listened to what she was saying to Doc. “Can you believe the nerve of Joey Kale. Fooling everyone into thinking she’s an igniter. What a lying bitch.”
I pulled my sleeves back to prove that I wasn’t using any ignition sources but my fire wouldn’t come. I spent the whole lesson being ridiculed for lying to everyone and even Doc told me I should’ve been more honest about my lack of abilities.
It went on like that for days. I began hiding in the back of every classroom, always the first to arrive and the first to leave. During the evening hours, I would hide away in the library. No one would talk to me unless they were being cruel or making fun of my lack of abilities. Abilities which seemed to work perfectly fine the moment I was away from everyone else.
“Joey?” Raine asks bringing me out of the memories.
“I hate you.” I whisper before rushing out of Bandit’s cabin. I have no idea where I am or how to get back to the dorms, so I just sit down on the steps of his veranda, with my heart shattered and my eyes stinging with unshed tears. “I hate this place.” I whisper as I stare at my hands in my lap.
“Please let us explain Joey.” Angel begs as t
he guys all follow me outside.
“Why? You’ll just make fun of me again. Or worse, act like you don’t know me at all.” I growl, refusing to even look at them. I lift my hands and allow the flames to climb along my skin. The warmth they give out isn’t enough to burn, but it’s enough to take the chill out of the air.
“Miranda was controlling all of us. She had Malachi suppress our memories. That’s why we couldn’t remember who you are.” Chase sits down beside me and I flinch as he puts his hand on my lower back.
“Couldn’t or can’t?” I whisper, needing to know if they remember me.
“Can’t. Bandit hasn’t been able to figure out how to reverse it. He’s never had to before.” Angel replies dropping down on the step below Chase and me.
“Chase was able to resist, but Raine and I weren’t. We were talking about it all while you were asleep.” Everyone is silent for a minute, then Angel adds, “There’s a way to stop her from doing it again.”
“I don’t even care anymore. I just want to go back to my room.”
“We can’t take you back.”
I open my mouth to tell them to fuck off, but Chase cuts over the top of me, “We can’t take you back yet. We need to fix this before she gets her claws into us again.” Chase says it with so much regret in his voice that I almost believe him.
“Joey, how about you stay here tonight, you can use my room while the guys and I have a little chat.” Bandit seems like a really nice guy, so I nod to let him know I’d like to stay.
Honestly, what choice do I really have? Wander the woods and get lost again?
♡
Chapter: Raine
Bandit takes Joey into the back room so she can shower and get some rest, while the rest of us file into the living room to wait. I can’t help feeling like everything would be better if we had our memories back.
I turn to the new guy and ask, “You messed with our memories, any chance you can bring them back?”
“I’ve never done that before. I could end up giving you false memories which would just mess you all up even more.”