In The Dark Of Night

Chapter Nine - The Race

 

Chapter Nine
The Race 

But men are men; the best sometimes forget

~William Shakespeare

He stayed, staring at the phone for so long that his eyes began to water. 

Don't come home, Faye had told him - screamed at him. Just don't come home!

What in the hell was going on?

Something at his core was numb as his mind flickered through scenarios, each getting more and more gruesome - all the murders that were happening, him being accused of one, him not there at the Academy to protect them... Jamie and Faye unarmed.

He squeezed his eyes shut and hissed out several unprintable words, phone gripped so tight that its screen was malfunctioning slightly.

"Hunter?" A light, airy voice drifted lightly down to him, and Cale's head snapped up, expression tight and cruel, hands balled into fists.

Before him stood the Fae male, Jaden, who had been charged with escorting him to Wynella and then escorting him from the Gathering. The Faerie's face was hard, but his eyes flicked uneasily over Cale's hunched form.

"As you have finished your meeting with Wynella Morningstar, you have been asked to lea-"

Cale's fist had snapped out before even he himself had registered it. The Fae went down, hard, blood - a greenish-black colour - oozing from his now broken nose and eyes wide with unmistakable shock as he lurched backwards, away from the deadly threat leering over him.

"Cale!" 

He spun to see Wynella, all dark skin and dark hair and beauty, standing just behind him, clutching at a light frock billowing about her tall, slender frame, her facial expression alarmed. 

"What are you doing?" She gasped, dark brown eyes huge and trained on him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Cale saw a flash of movement, and stepped ever so slightly to his left. Where he had been just seconds ago, a long, thin staff came crashing down, emitting green-blue sparks from its tip, scorching the ground beneath it. 

Jaden's face, furious, was bloody, and he swung the staff up, directly ad Cale's head.

On reflex, Cale's knees bent, then he moved up, so swift that Jaden never had a chance, hand shooting out and grabbing the hilt of the staff and twisting it free of the Fae's hand.

Jaden stumbled back as Cale straightened up, staff twirling in his hand, the sparks suddenly leaping ten times larger than they had just seconds ago, moving towards the fallen Fae.

And then Wynella was in front of him, hands outstretched, her expression firm, and Cale halted in his steps, frigid golden gaze darting from Wynella to the cowering Jaden behind her. 

"Enough." She spat, her voice colder than he had ever heard it. "Just stop."

Behind her back, Jaden's bloody face stretched into a grin. "Yes, Hunter. Attacking a Fae unprovoked is in direct violation of the Agre-"

"Screw the Agreement." Cale's gaze was on Wynella, his voice so electric, she rocked back a bit. Then he rose and a knee and swiftly cracked Jaden's staff in half over it. "And screw this. I'm leaving."