Knight of the Black Rose (41 page)

"He's still going on about the sensors...and he doesn't want to tell if family about us," Alex told them. "I don't get it...he's lived with us all these years...he's my dad and now...all because the world knows, he's a shamed of us,"

"Maybe...I don't know...worried about what people will think..." Will suggested. "Not that we are...but some are worried about how all of this is going. Dad said a lot of people have left Earth, moving to Alliance Worlds. He also said that he could find something for your mum if she wanted,"

"Really?" Alex asked surprised. "Does she know?"

"Course, he told her...your dad weren't happy about that," Will told him. "My dad told him, that he had to decide what he wanted to do, because he was only hurting you and your mum the more he dragged his feet like this,"

"Wow...I know you said that he said he would look out for her, but I don't know..." Alex said kind of speechless.

"We're all friends, it's what we do," Will told him, this time it was him who stopped Lucy before she could get past them. "Lucy..."

"Have you guys eaten yet?" Lucy asked looking over where they were doing the food.

"Have you found out anything about the rose?" Will asked her.

Lucy quickly looked around hoping that no one was listening to them, but that didn't really mean anything if they weren't looking over at them, they could still hear everything that they were talking about; and she didn't want them all knowing what they were up to.

"We should talk about it later," Lucy told them, trying to get them to move off as she wanted something to eat now that she had stopped. "Jess, Ella; we're getting something to eat!"

"And why can't we talk now?" Will asked quickly before the other two girls came over.

"In case someone hears," Lucy told them.

Troy looked around at everyone, no one was even looking over at them."I doubt that anyone will hear us, or even care what we're talking about,"

Jess ran over to join them with Ella at her side, who was just a little shorter and wore a long sleeved red and purple dress with a matching body warmer over it, her hair was styled like Lucy's in a bob framing her face.

"I think someone's a little paranoid," Alex teased.

"About what?" Ella asked confused.

"She thinks that someone will over hear us," Troy said off handily.

"If you are up to something, we'll be putting a stop to it before you even get a chance to do it!" Stuart shouted over to them as he walked by several feet away grinning broadly at them. "Lucy, you should know better!"

Lucy waved dismissively at him, looking pointedly at the others, as though that had just proved her point.

Alex turned around staring after him, walking away with a couple of other men. "How did he even know...?"

"You can't really get away with much around here," Ella told them as she came up on Lucy's other side as Jess went around to her other, and they walked over to the food, with the guys looking around nervously now. "Okay...that just looks as though you’re up to something, you're not helping,"

"Hurry up, I'm staving after all that dancing," Lucy told them over her shoulder.

They slowly followed after them, not saying much as if worried that someone would overhear them.

"How many of these people do you actually know?" Troy asked.

"All of them," Ella answered.

"Same," Lucy agreed.

"Only a handful," Jess admitted. "But they always seem alright, I mean whenever I come over,"

"Why, what's wrong?" Lucy asked.

"Nothing...just wondering." Troy answered.

"Have you seen my dad?" Will asked them, as he hadn't seen him for a while and hoped that he hadn't been called away and had forgotten to tell him.

Lucy pointed over to the far end of the clearing, where the last bonfire was. "He's over there with my dad,"

"Oh...okay..." Will said following the direction that she had pointed out, and a little surprised that she had known that, but she had always been good at finding people, not that he knew how she did it.

There was a little bit of a queue for the food when they got over there, with Mark and his third Pete cooking, everyone waited in order no pushing or arguing.

"Hey Mark," Lucy said brightly smiling at him, making some of the others turn around.

"Lucy...come up front," Mark told her, as he grabbed a large tray and started to fill it with a selection of food.

Lucy walked around the others in front of them, her friends following closely behind her, and still no one said anything about her pushing in.

"This should be enough for the lot of you for now," Mark told her as he handed the tray to Will and Troy to carrying, while Pete handed her knife and forks. "If you need any more, just come back over; enjoy,"

"Thank you." Lucy said smiling, before she walked off with the others for an empty bench.

"See, I told you, you're everyone’s favourite," Ella told her grinning, pointing out an empty bench behind a group of talking men.

"And just why is she everyone's favourite?" Alex asked.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Lucy asked him.

"Well...err..." Alex said, not sure how to answer her question and just waved her off as they all sat down, and started on the food.

They talked about what they had been doing during the holidays while they ate, now that they had finally stopped; but it wasn't long until there was a buzz of activity going on behind them, phones ringing and people running about.

"I want security doubled now!" Mark shouted.

"I'll be back in a while Mark, call if you need me!" Stuart shouted across the clearing before he and several others teleported away.

Glen rushed over to their table along with Charles and Troy's dad. "Will, something's happened...I'll be gone for a while, but you can stay here,"

"Troy, when your mum says it's time to leave, you listen to her, and I'll be home as soon as I can," Lando told him.

"Is it bad?" Will asked.

"We'll talk about it later," Glen told him, then the three of them stepped back and teleported.

"Dad could have at least say goodbye to me," Lucy said upset that he hadn’t spoken to her.

Jake came over sitting next to Alex, looking around quickly making sure that everyone else was busy before he lent forward. "There's been an attack in one of the cities, it's bad as well,"

"What do you mean it's bad?" Will asked.

Jake looked around again and then whispered. "I heard them saying that people have been killed,"

"Killed...people?" Troy asked.

"Are you sure?" Lucy asked.

"That's horrible...wait a minute...that guy said to increase security here?" Jess asked a little panicked looking around, everyone rushing about.

"It's not near here, but they're just increasing security anyway...and several of the others have gone now, so they need to make sure that the rest of us are alright," Jake told her.

"I thought it was just killing plants and animals," Troy said. "Do you think they'll be alright?"

"Dad and the others are good, nothing can get them," Jake told him.

"Dad said that animals had been killed in the village before we came home," Will told them.

"Yeah I heard that, but they weren't killed by that thing, they weren't black...but just killed and some of them had disappeared," Jake told them.

"I don't want to talk about this anymore..." Jess said pushing her food away. "Maybe we should find out what we're supposed to do now,"

"We'll probably just stay here, until they want us to leave," Jake told her, then looked at his sister. "How many do you think they'll put on security?"

"Probably half a dozen more, just tightening it up," Lucy told him, knowing that he was asking her what they were up to and not just asking her opinion.

"You know, they're kind of acting as though this sort of thing happens all the time," Troy said.

"I was just thinking that," Alex agreed.

"This village is kind of joint to the one on Earth; they want to be prepared in case anything happens," Jake explained.

"Oh, okay," Troy nodded as though that explained everything.

Alex scanned the crowd of people for his parents and was pleased to see that they were stood with Troy's mum. "Mum will probably go back with your mum,"

"Probably," Troy agreed.

Aaron walked over to them in a large blue coat with Arvin at his side, who was scanning the area as though he was expecting someone to jump out at them any second.

"Lucy, Jake; your mum wants you to go back to the house," Aaron told them.

"Clair's already gone ahead with Benjamin," Arvin told them. "Will and Ella, you can come as well,"

"What about me?" Jess asked in a small voice.

"You're Jess?" Aaron asked, and she nodded. "Your mum's over there, with Lucy's,"

"Sorry Jess that the party's been cut short," Lucy said as Jess stood to leave, they hugged quickly before Jess ran over to her mum.

"You two must be Troy and Alex, they said they're setting up doorways back to your house," Aaron told them.

"Okay then," Troy said as he swung his leg over the bench standing up with Alex, Will quickly followed suit even though he wasn't leaving with them. "We'll see you in a couple of days,"

"You'll have to tell us what ever happens here," Alex told him.

"Nothings going to happen here," Aaron assured them.

"They mean if they hear anymore on what's been going on, why everyone’s been called away," Arvin told him. "Smart kids,"

"See ya later," Lucy said smiling slightly as they walked off, then Will came around to join them as they walked back to her house.

"You've got nothing to worry about," Arvin told them.

"Oh yeah, Lu; dad said that he wants to talk to you again when he gets back," Jake said as though it was an after thought.

"He spoke to you before he left?" Lucy asked annoyed, not that she was surprised even if he had only been a couple of feet away from her, he had always kind of treated her different than the others.

Chapter Twenty-Three

New Year was over and everyone had gone back to school disappointed that most of the celebrations had been cancelled, but considering the increase of attacks and now on people, they understood why they had. There had been loads of things about all of the attacks in the papers, though what was a little surprising was that nothing had been in the human papers, which meant that whoever had been sending all of the information into them hadn't had anything to send in over Christmas. They had also found out after their parents had come home, that none of the people had been killed, only drained a lot of their life force putting them in coma's; doctors were working around the clock to try and save them.

Will was also pressuring Lucy to find out whatever she could on the black rose that had been left in his room, but so far she hadn't found much out only that it was made up of at least a dozen different ingredients telling them that it had been made for something, but she hadn't been able to figure it out yet and she was spending hours in the library studying. Will had told Lucy that he would meet her and help, not that he would have any clue what he was looking for, but he couldn't really leave her to do all of the work. Troy and Alex had told him that they would meet him later, as they still had some homework that they needed to finish, so he had left them back in the common room telling them that they would meet up for dinner.

The library was deathly quiet; Will had always found it kind of creepy and wondered how Lucy could spend so much time in here and how she managed to find anything, considering how many books and files there were. The shelves themselves were over ten foot tall, and you needed ladders if you wanted anything off of any of the higher ones, but somehow she had always managed to get everything she needed, except for this rose, not that he was going to hold that against her.

Will stopped suddenly in the middle of the aisle, no idea where he was or where Lucy was, she had told him what section she would be in and what general direction it was, but he was starting to think that he had gone the wrong way because he hadn't seen anyone for about ten minutes, nor had he seen a sign that she had told him to look out for. He stood there debating what to do, when someone touched his shoulder making him yelp and jump out of his skin as he spun around.

"Did I scare you?" Seth asked smirking with his arms folded and holding a piece of paper.

"What do you think? Creeping up on me like that...and with everything that's been going on," Will shot at him as he straighten himself, wishing that he hadn't just done that in front of him.