A Vision of Green (Florence Vaine #2) (34 page)

“
That's Josh, we need to get him,” I say to Frank, as he nods and starts driving again.

The owlman is closing in on Josh, flapping its wings and swooping with sharp claws. Frank is an extremely good driver, I hadn't noticed before, perhaps because he's never driven me anywhere in such an extreme situation until now. He speeds alongside the owlman, rolls down his window and shouts at Josh to get in, just as Alex pushes open the door to the back of the van.

Josh's fear filled eyes dart to the van in recognition. He looks like he's just been presented with a miracle. The owlman swipes at his leg as he leaps in, shredding through his jeans and wounding him. He breathes heavily, his chest going up and down as he slumps in the back beside Alex and Caroline. Sweat pours out of him, and Frank is doing well over a hundred miles an hour in an effort to lose the bird-like creature as it flies and yowls at us overhead. I can hear him through Frank's open driver's side window. The sound sends a shiver over my body.

“
I fucking told you all,” says Josh, just coming down from the fear of being chased by a human sized owl. “I told you something bad was coming, but did you listen? No you bloody well didn't.”

Nobody answers him. We're in too much shock. Actual tears stream down his face, and he keeps looking back through the window, back to where his friend is lying dead on the road with his guts spilling out. “That thing...that thing killed Adam. Just killed him right in front of me.”

I can't take his pain, I can feel it pushing on me, begging me to make it go away. I turn around in my seat and grab a hold of Josh's hand. I squeeze his fingers tight, and look into his eyes. I can sense Frank watching us in his overhead mirror, but I'm too drawn to comfort Josh to look back at him. Then a phone begins to vibrate and everybody jumps. It's Frank's, he puts it on loudspeaker.

“
Sam where the hell are you?” he asks.

“
Frank,” Sam answers. “We're gathering as many people as we can at the school. Come to the assembly hall, have you got Flo with you?”

My heart warms at the fact that Sam cared enough to ask about me.

“
She's here,” Frank states. “We're near the school now, there was some massive bird thing following us but it seems like it's flown away. It looked like an owlman. We'll be there in two minutes.” He hangs up and we drive in silence. I'm still holding onto Josh's hand and even though Frank isn't looking, I can tell it's getting to him. Josh might irritate me at the best of times, but he's just seen his friend get killed, he needs someone to keep him from cracking up.

We zoom through the school gates, the car park is full of vehicles with people hurrying out of them, squeezing in through the front doors. I wonder how the Nephilim and Sam managed to get people here so quickly. Possibly they have the super power of persuasion as well as healing.

We have to stop a little away from the entrance since the place is so packed. When we hop out, a figure comes running at us out of the darkness, from the direction of the back of the school. Frank immediately leaps in front of me and Alex pushes Caroline behind him. Their protective instincts are all for nothing though, because it's only Benji. Although he doesn't look too good, there's a big bloody stain on his white t-shirt and his eyes seem mad and unfocused.

He stumbles on his feet. “You all have to help me, something's got Kevin in the gym. I don't know what it is but it's going to kill him.”

Frank and Alex go straight into action, pushing me, Caroline and Josh behind them and telling Benji to guide them to where Kevin is.

“
Are you hurt Benj?” asks Alex, as his younger foster brother leads him in the direction of the school gym.

“
I'm fine,” Benji replies, his voice sounds flat, not right. Also, his aura isn't as fiery as usual, it seems more like a matte orange. Perhaps he's just worried about his twin. We're going in through a side entrance of the school now, closer to the gym. Somebody slips their fingers through mine. Josh. He looks too much like a lost puppy, so I don't have the heart to pull my hand away.

My eyes focus on Benji walking ahead of us, his body seems jittery. I glance down at his shaky legs and I notice something beneath his feet. It looks like each step he takes leaves behind a pile of ash. I stop for a minute once I get to the first pile. Josh stops with me, and looks down to see what I'm doing. I pick up a piece of the ash, rubbing it between my thumb and forefinger. It's hot, boiling hot like it just came off of a volcano.

With the ash still on my fingers, standing in the middle of a darkened corridor of the school, I call to the others, “Hey, can you all wait a minute?”

Everybody turns around to face me, including Benji, but Josh and I are the only ones who can see him as his eyes go even more unfocused, black clouds out all the white. His body pulses and transforms into something long and huge. Seconds later a gigantic python is snapping its jaws where there once stood the human body of Frank's little brother. The others turn around and stumble away from it as its forked tongue flicks out with a hiss.

“
No fucking way!” Alex shouts, dodging the snake-like monster as it whips its head forward at him. He pulls a small knife from his back pocket and slashes across the snake's face, but this only works to anger it further. We all instinctively turn on our heels and begin running in the opposite direction. I can hear the snake slithering its way toward us, too fast. Up ahead I see a white light moving closer and closer. Then I make out Sam's tall form, gliding through the hall, a silver sword held high over his head, white light pouring out of it.

“
All of you get to the sides of the corridor, now,” he calls to us, wielding his sword with intent. I don't feel like coming to blows with such a weapon, so I slam my body against the wall to my left, as do the others. It hurts my still healing bruises. We watch as Sam collides with the beast, jumps past its head, higher than a human would ever be able to jump, and then slams down with the sword into its crown. The sword slides right through the python's flesh like butter, and it collapses to the tiled floor. Sam pulls his sword out of the serpent's head.

“
Is it dead?” Caroline whispers.

“
It's dead,” Sam replies gravely, slotting the sword into a holster that's strapped across his back.

“
You aren't a normal Guidance Counsellor, are you sir?” she goes on, rambling a little.

Sam gives her a sincere smile. “Not exactly.”

“
What w-w-was that thing, Sam?” I interject, unable to drag my gaze away from the massive, hulking dead body.

His icy blue eyes focus in on me, and he seems relieved to find that I'm all in one piece. “It's called a Bori. An evil spirit that can mimic human form to fool its victims. It can turn into any number of monstrosities, but this is perhaps its worst,” he gestures to the giant dead snake. “Come on, all of you, I need to get you to the assembly hall where it's safe.”

Alex runs up to Sam and grabs him by the arm. “Where's Benji, is he okay?”

Sam gives him a confused glance, before understanding dawns on him. “That's whose form the Bori took, Benji's?” Alex nods. “He's fine, he's in the assembly hall with Kevin, John and Hayley.”

“
Thank Christ,” Alex sighs. A little bit of tension leaves Frank too.

In the assembly hall there are people camped out all over the place, sitting on plastic school chairs and even on the ground. They chatter frantically, and the most dominant emotion that hits me is confusion. They have no idea what's going on. But what keeps my attention most of all are the Nephilim, and that's not just the usual two I see hanging around with Sam; Nathan and Carol. There are more of them, at least ten or twelve, all dressed in black, standing around the perimeter of the room, keeping guard.

“
Where's your family? Are they here?” I ask Josh, who's standing beside me.

“
Last time I checked they were at home,” he says, his expression tells me he's still somewhere else, reliving the horror of seeing his friend die. Hopefully his family have kept themselves locked inside, I think to myself.

There are about two-hundred people packed into the assembly hall, not nearly close to the actual population of the town. There are still thousands out there at the mercy of the monsters that have emerged from the forest. My stomach twists. Frank comes and puts his arms around my waist, and I don't fail to notice the hard glare he sends Josh. He pulls me over to a far corner where Hayley is sitting cross legged on the floor with Kevin and Benji, as well as Alex and Caroline who have just joined them. John is standing on the other side of the room, talking with two stern looking Nephilim.

“
So you're actually saying some monster thing looked like me?” Benji asks Alex in awe, who has clearly just filled him in on the episode with the Bori, as Sam called it.

“
Yeah, and it would have killed the lot of us if it weren't for Sam,” Alex replies, ruffling his younger brother's brown hair.

“
And then it changed into a gigantic snake?”

“
Yes.”

“
That is so fucking cool,” he says, high five-ing his twin brother Kevin.

Hayley gives him a light smack on the knee. “Hey, enough of that language out of you mister,” she scolds.

“
Sorry,” he answers sheepishly, his cheeks going red at being caught swearing. He looks so young and innocent, you wouldn't think he had a demon inside of him. Now I understand why the Bori's aura had been flat orange instead of fiery like Benji's true aura, it had only been an imitation. I can't believe I didn't figure it out sooner.

Frank pulls me down to the floor, positioning me between his legs. My head rests in the crook of his neck. He holds me tight, his fingers reaching under my top to surreptitiously splay out on my stomach. “I'll kill to keep you safe, you know that right?” he whispers in my ear.

Nobody seems to be looking at us, except for Hayley, who gives Frank a wry raised eyebrow, telling him she knows exactly where his hand is. I can feel him shrug at her from behind me. He's not moving his hand. She shakes her head and looks away, a smile just about reaching her lips. She might be able to mother Benji, but Frank is too old for that. I wonder if she feels sad that her boys are growing up so quickly. I'm a little awkward at Frank having his hand so close to my bruises, but they aren't as raw as they had been, so it isn't too uncomfortable.

“
That's a very s-sweet thing to say,” I whisper back. “Sweet, and a little scary.”

His quiet laugh vibrates through my hair. He pulls my chin to the side, so that his lips can reach mine. He gives me a slow, lingering kiss, and for a moment I forget that we're in public.

“
Hey, get a room you two,” Alex calls over to us, and I pull away from the kiss. When I glance back at Hayley there's a slightly concerned look in her eyes, I hope she doesn't think we're having sex. Oh God, that's exactly what she thinks. I have never been more mortified.

“
I think I need to use the bathroom,” I say quietly to Frank.

“
I'll bring you,” he replies, helping me up. He walks us over to John to ask where's safest to use the facilities. John directs him to the toilets just outside the assembly hall. It's empty in the corridor as Frank holds my hand and walks right inside the girls' toilets with me.

“
Maybe you should w-wait outside,” I suggest, not too keen on the idea of him listening to me take a pee.

He looks at me, smirks, but says nothing. I suppose that means he's not open to negotiation. I slip inside a cubicle and do my business, before coming out and washing my hands. Frank laughs at my obvious embarrassment. When we go back out I hear a noise coming from the far end of the hallway. It sounds like a girl crying.

“
Do you hear that?” I whisper to Frank.

He affirms that he does with a silent nod, and takes hold of my hand again. With his other hand he reaches into the pocket of his jeans and pulls out a knife, similar to the one Alex had. At least they came somewhat prepared to defend themselves. I have nothing but my bare hands, which wouldn't be much use.

The crying increases and there's the sound of dragging, like a heavy sack being heaved across the floor. It sounds like whoever is crying is only a couple of feet away from us now. Frank does the sensible thing by letting go of my hand and reaching out for the light switch on the wall to our right.

Suddenly the hall is illuminated with the bright fluorescent bulbs and directly ahead of us is an animal dragging a limp body along with it. I don't recognise her at first, because her hair and clothes are full of filth, but when I see her face I can tell that it's Ingrid. When I look back at the thing that has a hold of her shirt in its mouth, I know that I'm finally coming face to face with the answer to Green George's riddle. The body of a lion, a human-like head, and a scorpion's tail. A manticore. The name Caroline gave it springs quickly to my mind.