Chapter Fourteen
Farren
“W ell, it’s official, something big is going on, and it affects everyone, not just royalty,” Loki mutters.
“It might not be the same two things. It’s entirely possible that something different is happening with royalty,” Rival suggests.
Storm gives him a dry look, “It’s too big of a coincidence. Come on team, get changed, and we’ll meet out in the hallway. Let's get this over with.”
There’s a thrum of excitement that permeates the air around us. We may be going out on a mission earlier than students have done in the past, but we’re ready. At least individually, we are, but as a team, we might have a few hiccups.
My smile widens at the prospect of a proper fucking fight. Storm sees it and, of course, tries to make me lose it.
“You need to hurry up, Farren. No time to make yourself pretty,” he smirks.
“One, that makes no sense. When has Farren ever taken longer than us to get ready, and two, you know as well as I do, Farren doesn’t have to do anything to make herself pretty, she’s beautiful,” Reaper chastises, shaking his head and striding into the locker room while I stare after him.
He just called me beautiful, me!
“Pathetic,” Storm scoffs as he stomps past me.
“Uh oh,” Loki mutters, pure joy in his tone. They’ve witnessed enough of our sparring matches by this point that they know I’m not going to let that slide.
“Hey Stormy,” I call sweetly, knowing the name winds him up, which is why I use it. Despite himself, he stops and looks back over his shoulder at me. “I’ve met some pricks in my time, but you, sir, are an entire fucking cactus.”
The guys burst out laughing, and Storm turns red, but I swear I see the corner of his lip twitch slightly like he wants to smile.
That’s become my new favourite game, trying to see if I can get him to smile a genuine fucking smile at me.
Something other than the stoic facade or anger he usually aims in my direction.
Deciding that, for now, my point has been made, I strut past him, trying not to look smug so I don’t start a full sparring match, and we never get to the Headmaster.
My mood has definitely improved now there’s a possibility of a good fight.
Although now that I’m thinking about it, the chances of our first mission being one that requires us to use any of our combat skills are pretty low.
It’s more likely that we’re going to be sent to settle a dispute using words only, which is not my strong suit, and in the mood I’m in, I may very well end up setting someone on fire just to entertain myself.
As I get dressed, I send up a quick plea to whatever god will listen, asking them to please let the job be at least mildly entertaining.
The smug smile I managed to keep at bay earlier returns full force as I realise that I’ve beaten Storm in getting ready. It’s not long until all the others, including Storm, are in the hallway, and I open my mouth to tease Storm as he glares at me, practically daring me to say something.
“Don’t start you two. We need to get going,” Reaper warns, and I mime zipping my lips closed as we quickly make our way through the hallways and towards the Headmaster's office.
“Do you think we’re the first to get a mission?” Loki asks.
“I think we would have heard before now that teams were being sent out before their last year,” Rival replies.
“You know what this school is like. Anything that is remotely interesting makes its way around the academy within seconds. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone knows by the time we get out of the meeting. ”
“I hope the dining hall is still open when we get out. I’m hangry,” I mutter.
“Don’t worry, Darlin’, if it’s not, we’ll get something ordered to the room,” Killian reassures me, wrapping a tattooed and muscled arm around my shoulders and pulling me in close.
Storm strides through the door into the reception area with purpose.
“The Headmaster will be ready for you in a minute if you’d like to take a seat,” she says in a bored voice.
The guys seem slightly taken aback that they’ve been asked to wait, and I’m reasonably certain it’s because they’ve usually been seen immediately.
Still, we all sit down on the plush velvet chairs lining one wall just outside of the Headmaster's office. I wouldn’t put it past the Headmaster to be trying to play some sort of mind game with us.
Trying to build up the anticipation or psych us out and make us nervous before he tells us what the mission is.
Not for any other reason than it seems like it would be something he’d enjoy doing.
Even if that is what he’s doing, I think he’s massively underestimated us.
Unlike most teams that have only been together for a week or so, we were lucky enough to click almost immediately and seem to share the same excitement for a fight.
I’m also aware that these guys have been through more than they’ve let on and are more capable in real-world scenarios.
The Headmaster makes us wait for at least half an hour, and by the time he finally calls us in, the guys are twitchy. Not from nerves, or at least not that I can tell, but from anticipation. On the other hand, I just feel like my stomach is going to eat itself.
He ushers us into his office like we’re on a timeline despite having made us wait for so long to see him.
When we’re all positioned around the room because, of course, he doesn’t have enough chairs in the room for all of us, he regally takes a seat behind his desk, steeples his hands and just looks over us all.
Storm, clearly having had enough, steps forward, “You wanted to see us, sir?”
“Yes, of course. There’s been a level one rogue vamp spotted around the edges of the next town over.
Due to recent developments, we’ve decided to start sending younger teams out like we used to do, and we’re sending your team in to deal with it.
As you are aware, level one is the lowest threat level, so you should have no issues,” the whole time he speaks, his eyes watch Reaper and I closely, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why but it instantly puts my guard up.
“When do we leave?” Storm asks.
“First thing in the morning, we anticipate that you’ll be back by lunch and can resume your usual class schedules assuming none of you has sustained injuries that need seeing to,” this time his eyes stay on me, and there’s an unmistakable glint in them that sends a prickle of warning down my spine.
I am relatively sure that he’s up to something, but I keep my face blank as if I’ve noticed nothing out of the ordinary. I’ll wait until we’re done here and ask the guys to see if they’ve noticed anything. There’s a chance I may be being paranoid.
“We’ll be ready,” Storm replies firmly, his eyes narrowing slightly at the Headmaster.
It looks like it might not just be me who has noticed something off.
“I do not doubt it. Reika, my receptionist, has a file for each of you detailing the location and the target,” the Headmaster informs us.
Storm nods and then turns to leave, the rest of us following his lead, and it's not until the door shuts behind us that I finally stop feeling the Headmaster’s eyes burning into my back.
Storm grabs the files from Reika, not bothering to hand them out yet as we all make our way back to the room.
As soon as the door shuts, he hands out the files, and I quickly flick through mine.
There really isn’t much information in it.
Just the name of the village, the forest it's been seen in, and the level the vamp is. That’s it, a single piece of paper in a file.
I know I’m new here, but we’ve had mock case files given to us in lessons to study and familiarise ourselves with them, and every single one had more information in it than this one.
Reaper throws his folder down on the table, a frown to rival Storm’s on his face, “Okay, first, that file is completely fucking useless. They’ve left out a lot of stuff that should be in there, and second what was up with the Headmaster?
He kept looking at Farren and me like he knew something that we didn’t. ”
“I thought it was just me that noticed that,” I reply.
“No, I did too,” Killian adds in.
“He’s up to something that much is clear. We need to make sure that we have our guards up,” Storm orders.
“I agree, something isn’t right, but we don’t have any evidence to be able to question it. We’re just going to have to do this job and hope that he hasn’t left anything vital out,” Mayhem suggests.
“Good idea. We can handle almost anything he throws at us,” Rival adds. “I’m going to order food. What do you guys want?”
We all put in our orders, and while we are waiting for it to be delivered, we start talking about the plan for the mission.
“It seems fairly straightforward. As the Rogue is a level one, we can just behead the fucker, and he’ll ash. We’ll take the horses rather than a carriage, one because it's less conspicuous and two because it’s quicker,” Storm lays out the plan efficiently.
Despite all his misgivings, he was born to be a leader, and I have no problem with following him.
“That sounds good. The only thing I’d add is that since we’re fairly sure something dodgy is going on, we need to make sure we bring supplies for staying overnight just in case we get caught out for some reason,” Killian suggests.