Knight of the Black Rose (45 page)

Will shot out of bed quickly scanning the room, but he was back in his own bedroom and everything looked normal, he seemed back to normal. He shook himself as he threw back the covers and swung his legs over the side of the bed, telling himself that it was just a dream, a strange dream, but a dream none the less.

"Lights on," Will told the computer as he walked across his room to see if the others were up yet, he so didn't want to go back to sleep after that. It wasn't that it was overly scary, it had just felt wrong, he had felt wrong in that dream.

He opened his bedroom door onto the living room to find both Troy and Alex awake and dressed, and they both looked as though they were heading out already.

"You're up," Troy said surprised.

"Just...why didn't you wake me?" Will said annoyed as he started for the bathroom.

"We did, but you just seemed dead to the world, so we let you sleep," Alex told him.

"We were leaving you a note," Troy told him, picking up the piece of paper. "We're getting breakfast then going over to the stadium to watch the match, seeing as we weren't doing anything this morning,"

Will looked at the two of them, he kind of knew what they were talking about, but it was as though his brain was on a go slow and he hadn't caught up to them yet. He shook himself, thinking that it must be the dream and the book that was still bothering him.

"Fine, I'll meet you there," Will told them dismissively.

"Are you sure, we can wait now you're up?" Troy asked him, a little worried considering what had happened last time they had gone ahead of him.

"Yeah, its fine...I'll be fine," Will told him. "But wait for me in the food hall, I won't be long,"

"Sure," Troy said smiling, feeling a little better about that plan, as Alex headed for the door. "You know where to find us,"

"Biggest group there, yeap; I think I'll be able to manage that," Will said smirking as he headed into the bathroom, wanting to be only a couple of minutes behind them as he was only going to throw on some clothes.

About five minutes later Will was practically falling out of his bedroom dressed and his long hair falling forward into his face because he hadn't had chance yet to tie it up like normal, he had the band in his hand and could do it while he walked over to save himself some more time. He wanted something to eat before they went to watch the Firmasca match, which he really did want to watch at least one, but with everything that kept happening, that hadn't happened yet.

He walked over to the door and went out, then making sure that it was locked behind him before he headed for the stairs, but he stopped as he reached the top. It was kind of an odd feeling looking at them now considering what had happened on his way back from the library, which had only felt like last night, but if they were going to watch the match then it must be Saturday.

He just couldn't remember much of the week, which meant that nothing interesting must have happened to him. Except perhaps for him now being afraid of walking down the stairs, he shook himself knowing that he was being stupid and went down, but perhaps a little faster than he normally did, leaving his hair for now not wanting to distract himself and not caring if anyone saw him with it down. His dad might be bothered about what people thought of his long hair, but he didn't, in fact he liked it this length, otherwise he wouldn't have bothered to grow it out in the first place.

He jumped down the bottom two steps and then ran across to the door and out into the morning air, he looked about as he gathered up his hair to plate it wondering if there was anyone else running late, but he couldn't see anyone as he walked around the dorm in front of their own. He could feel the temperature dropping which made him stop wondering if he should go back for a jacket considering that they were going to be probably sat outside for a couple of hours, but he didn't want to be any more late so decided that he could live without it for one afternoon.

Will took another two steps then stopped again as he looked down, the ground, the grass that he was walking on was turning black; he froze panicked not knowing what to do. He kind of knew that he should at least try and run, but it was like his body didn't want to move, he tried but nothing and he suddenly felt so tried. He heard some sort of shriek that seemed so far away but at the same time so close, his vision blurred and his body felt like it was going slack then was enveloped in blackness.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Will was barely aware of what was going on around him, he was sure that he could still hear shrieking of some sort and there were other voices that he couldn't make out either, he felt so heavy and light at the same time. He tried to open his eyes but couldn't as though that task alone was too much for him, he couldn't move either; but even if he could it wouldn't have done him any good because he was so tired, he just needed to go back to sleep.

The doors to the hospital section flew open as Glen stormed in, quickly scanning the empty beds for the one that held his son; as soon as he spotted him at the far end of the room he rushed over to him closely followed by Hunter.

"Glen please, you need to calm down," Hunter told him.

"My son was attack by that thing, and you want me to calm down?" Glen asked mockingly. "I want to hunt it down and destroy it for harming him, not calm down,"

"We're doing everything that we can to locate it, there are dozens of teams searching the school grounds and the island," Hunter told him.

Glen stopped and looked down at his son, relief washed over him when he saw that he wasn't like the others who had been attacked, he hadn't turned black, which meant that there was still hope for him to wake up.

"As you can see, he was found before any real harm was done to him," Hunter tried to assure him. "It still took energy, that's why he hasn't woken yet...but he was lucky Glen,"

"Lucky," Glen said. "Sure...when it shouldn't have even gotten in here in the first place,"

"I know, our defensives are near unstoppable, but it's getting in and out as though they're not even there," Hunter told him angrily.

Glen nodded, he had heard all that before, but now he needed to know about his son. "You said that students interrupted the attack?"

"Yes, Lucy Shepherd and a couple of her friends," Hunter said rubbing his ears, they weren’t as bad as the others, but still one never did used to that sound. "They're being treated from the shock of her shriek. Which we also believe that was what helped scare this thing off,"

"She and the others were told not to show themselves," Glen told him, wanting to be annoyed but he couldn't if it had saved his son.

"She said that it was an automatic reaction," Hunter told him, and he believed her as it was normal for a female to shriek in such a manner if they were in danger, so that they would stop it and also call for aid at the same time. "Stuart's questioning her now with Domnus. The problem is, she didn't see anything except for blackness...kind of like a cloud,"

"Maybe she was too far away, or it put up some sort of projection of itself so that others couldn't see its true form," Glen suggested as he looked back at his son sleeping. "Do they know how long he'll be like this?"

"I'm afraid not at the moment; they're still running tests as we speak," Hunter told him. "You can stay with him as long as you like, I'll have the others come and report to you if they find anything,"

Glen nodded as he pulled the chair next to the bed forward, before he sat down. "Thanks Adrian,"

"Just call if you need anything," Hunter told him looking at them both one last time, before he turned and left closing the doors behind him.

Hunter stood for a moment outside the hospital ward gathering himself, he had been relieved when he had seen that Will hadn't been drained of life and was just in a deep sleep, he wouldn't had wanted to tell his friend that he had failed him in looking after his son. He might not have children of his own, but all the children at the school were his responsibility, which meant that he would do anything for them. He collected himself as he went to meet the others, he wanted to know if Lucy had given them anything else, as he was sure that if anyone could have gotten something from her then it would have been Stuart, not because he frighten her but because she trusted him probably more than she trusted them.

He walked along the corridor to the office at the end where he had been told they were taking her, as her friends had been taken to the next ward down the corridor to his right. He would want to talk to them as well when they're hearing returned to them tomorrow, but for now, she was their only lead. So when he saw Stuart and Domnus coming from the office already and she was no where in sight, he wasn't at all pleased, quickening his pace to join them, needing to know what had happened.

Domnus looked up as he heard him approaching. "How's Glen doing?"

"As well as can be excepted, considering," Hunter answered. "Where is she, Lucy...I thought that you were going to question her?"

"We did, but she couldn't give us much more than before," Stuart told him.

"What I don't understand is why Will," Domnus said. "He's a first year, with little knowledge of his powers. Unless that was it, they thought him an easy target,"

Hunter shook his head, he wasn't convinced of that, not considering how many times that Will had been involved in all of this, there just had to be more going than they understood. "Is Glen working on anything important at the moment?"

"You know I can't tell you that?" Stuart told him frowning.

"Think about it. He's just been pulled away from his work, and probably won't be going back out there until Will wakes up," Hunter told them. "Is it serious enough that anyone would want him out of the picture enough to do this, but without directly hurting him. A second play if you, so that they won't draw attention to what they're really after?"

Stuart looked as though he was thinking the whole thing over until he finally spoke. "Fine, I'll check Glen out. You know that I might not be able to tell you anything; but we'll do what needs to be done. And Adrian, Domnus; keep Lucy and the others safe,"

"Of course," Domnus said respectfully, before Stuart disappeared and he turned his attention back to Hunter. "Do you really think that all of this is some sort of distraction?"

"Honestly, at this point I haven't got a clue, but considering that what ever it is has gone after him a couple of times now, I can't think of anything else that adds up," Hunter told him. "He has to be a target of some sort."

"The people that were attacked before Christmas, have no link to him, the Ryker family or his job," Domnus told him. "Unless they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, test subjects; we just can't connect the pieces on this one,"

Hunter nodded, he had looked over everything as well; Stuart had told them himself that they had checked everything out several times, but so far it just all seemed random except for these attacks at the school. "I have a couple of things that I need to do, I'll check in on Glen later,"

Domnus nodded before he walked away, wondering what he was going to do even though he had just told him that he had things to do, in truth he didn't have a clue what he was supposed to be doing. He needed a solid target to attack and defeat, this waiting around for something, wasn't his style.

Lucy was getting annoyed with all of the questions they were asking her, she hadn't meant to reveal that she wasn't human to them, and especially not so soon either considering that they were so new to all of this and with whoever it was that had been leaking all those stories. She sat apart from them in their common room going over all of her notes about the plants that she had found and also about the rose, of what it was made up of, but she still wasn't getting anywhere; but it wasn't helping that she was so distracted by the fact that they all kept looking over at her.

"Come on Lucy...you might as well tell us," Jasper shouted over.

"Yeah, they heard you...humans don't sound like that," Duncan told her.

"It doesn't matter, does it?" Troy said annoyed as he got up finally and went over to join her. "I'm annoyed that she didn't tell us, but that's fine...she saved Will. She can tell us whenever she wants,"

Lucy looked up at him surprised, and smiled; she had been expecting him and Alex to be the most angry with her, but they seemed alright. "Thanks," It was Jess who hadn't taken the news very well, especially considering that she still won't tell her what she is.

"So, Lu what you working on?" Alex asked as he sat down joining them.

"It's all that stuff I was doing remember, before Loring sent it off to the scientists," Lucy told him. "They still haven't found a cure..."

"And what, you think that you could?" Alex said sarcastically, making Lucy look at him as though she was going to attack him; he held up his hands. "Sorry, I didn't mean anything. But, seriously Lu...what can you do, what they haven't?"

"I don't know...but I do know that I don't like just sitting around doing nothing," Lucy told him and then glared over at the others who were still watching her, as though they half expected her to change into some sort of unspeakable creature. "Look at them, and they actually expect me to tell them what I am?"