The Haven High Book Series (Wattys2017)

Chapter 27

By the time they all got back on the dance floor the crowd was so thick by the stage that the only room left was to the back between the refreshment tables and the Royals. There was plenty of room there as every other halfblood creature in attendance seemed to want to give their cold observes a wide birth. Unfortunately that left his crew with no choice but to take up the space left in front of the creepy Fae.

Quinn yelled jokingly, "Hey look we have air conditioning, "as he cocked his head in their direction.

That seemed to lighten the mood and it was lightened even more so when Kyle started a silly dance off with all the guys.

They lost their minds when Quinn started big steppin' and doing the silly walk from Monty Python.

Zach couldn't help smiling. Thinking thank God they'd been there for him when all this went down. He didn't know what he would have done without them.

Just then the band started to play a slow dance and he bravely grabbed Lauren's hand before Quinn could and led her slightly away from the other guys.

When he found a secluded spot for them, he bent down so she could put her arms around his neck and he whispered, "I hope you don't mind I stole you from the guys."

She looked up at him her eyes shining and said a little breathlessly, "Any time."

There was never a time in his life where he wanted to kiss someone more, but he was too scared to take that next step. What if it ruined their friendship?

With his heart pounding in his chest he stepped back a bit to try and clear his head.

His head was starting to hurt and all of a sudden he was feeling shaky for other reasons than being too close to Lauren. The humming sound was back so he practiced his deep breathing exercises Helsing had taught him, but instead of going away it intensified the sounds coming through and he thought great you're going to spaz out in front of the entire school -- both night and day.

He grabbed his head reflexively when he felt a sharp pain to the temple and heard a female voice in his mind.

"Bash we've got to go it's almost time!" She hissed.

He didn't know where the voice was coming from, but she sounded pretty scared.

Then he heard a male voice as cold as an arctic breeze say, "Lily let him think. If he doesn't set this right we're all F'N done for."

What the hell Zach thought as he started searching the room for the people that might coincide with the voices in his head, but he only saw his classmates dancing happily with each other.

Even the guys were doing a weird slow dance all huddled together.

Zach snorted and thought chill man just cause you're hearing voices again doesn't mean you have to get paranoid about it too.

He took a deep breath when the next voice came through it was a man's voice that said, "Once this is set we have two minutes to get out, is that understood?"

Zach stopped swaying to the music making Lauren look up at him strangely.

He held a finger up in the universal gesture of give me a sec.

Okay what had he heard exactly?

Someone was scared, sounding frantic really . . .

Saying their running out of time . . .

Then something about setting something . . .

Then someone had said once it's set they had two minutes . . .