I gripped a huge guy by the back of his neck, tearing the packet of toilet paper from his hands before forcing him out through the gate with a cry of rage and a kick to his spine. He fell sprawling in the gravel and as I swung back to look for another opponent, I suddenly found myself face to face with the wrong end of a shotgun.
Everything seemed to fade away from me apart from the view down that barrel and the curled lip of the asshole holding it.
His finger twitched on the trigger and my cold heart leapt as I saw my death coming for me.
A roar of defiance caught my ear just as he pulled the trigger and before death could find me, the gun was knocked aside.
The blast of the gunshot cut through the air with a finality which should have ended me, but it didn’t.
Monroe bellowed like a Viking warrior as he tore the shotgun from the asshole’s grip and turned it on him like a bat, slamming it into his face and breaking bones with every strike he delivered.
A savage smile tore at my lips as I moved forward to help him drag the guy through the gate.
Monroe caught my eye for a moment and I didn’t see a teacher looking back at me. I saw an equal, a beast just like me, a Night Keeper. I tossed him a smirk which acknowledged him saving my ass then turned away from him as I looked for any more of the thieving fuckers who had come to test themselves against the monsters who owned this school.
I leapt up onto the roof of the old Ford Mustang as the crowd of students and staff surged closer and I failed to spot any more of the townsfolk amongst the crowd.
Brown’s office was still burning behind me despite the toilet paper prank seeming like it belonged in a different lifetime. The orange glow of the flames flickered over the crowd and the warmth of the fire brushed along my spine as I looked out over everyone.
“Is that all of them?” I roared and every face in the crowd turned to look at me standing above them.
Some of the footballers started cheering and whooping in victory as I swept my gaze over the masses.
Monroe climbed up beside me, his T-shirt torn and blood splattering his face. He wore a savage expression which dared our attackers to try again, his chest heaving with exertion as his dark gaze took in the crowd.
“Who made the mistake of thinking we’d be easy prey?” I roared and the students screamed their approval. “Who dared to come and challenge the Night Keepers?”
Blake leapt up onto the trunk of the red Mustang with Tatum’s gun in his hand, pushing his fingers through his black hair as he surveyed the crowd just as keenly as I was.
“Did they think we’d just bow down and let them steal from us?” I bellowed and a chorus of nos tumbled over me.
Kyan moved in front of the car, dragging Bait by the scruff of his neck and throwing him in the dirt by the wheels like some kind of sacrificial offering.
“Caught one trying to run,” he snarled.
Tatum followed him, her eyes wild and fierce as she looked up at me, Blake and Monroe on top of the car. My heart pounded as I dragged my eyes over her. This strange and beautiful creature who’d cast a spell on all of us. She might just be my undoing. Or even my salvation. The only thing I knew for sure was that she was my obsession and I wouldn’t be relinquishing my claim on her for any man or beast.
Kyan leapt up onto the hood of the car. He’d lost his shirt somewhere and his tattoos glistened with blood as he swung his baseball bat over his shoulders and roared his victory to the moon.
The gathered staff and students howled with him, clamouring and cheering the four of us for coming to their rescue. We might have been tyrants in our rule over them, but true leaders always protected their flock. And if that meant we had to step up and fight to keep this school safe from the savages beyond our gates, then it was clear that we would.
The crowd before me parted and suddenly Headmaster Brown appeared, pushing his way between the raucous students and staff members in his pristine suit and tie.
“Get down from there now!” he shouted, pointing up at me like he truly believed he had some authority to tout after hiding throughout that war.
I looked at him for a long moment, a sneer curling back my lip.
“Who here is grateful to Headmaster Brown for stepping in to protect you when shit got bad?” I cried, pointing an accusatory finger at him.
The crowd booed and hissed at him, causing colour to rise along his thick neck and crawl right up over his bald head.
“We need to maintain order, Mr Memphis!” Brown shouted. “Get down from there right now! Monroe, would you kindly assist in-”
“Where were you?” Monroe demanded in a voice colder than ice as he glared down at his boss. “Where were you when the students you vowed to protect needed your help?”
The crowd jeered and booed again, screaming out for the same answer.
“I was taking stock of the situation and-”
“Not good enough!” Kyan bellowed, swinging his baseball bat into the windscreen of the car and shattering the glass so that it flew over Brown and he was forced to scurry back.
Tatum had backed away, standing by Bait to our left but her heated gaze burned me as she continued to watch us, her eyes drinking in the sight of the Night Keepers showing the full extent of our power. We ruled this school completely. Not some washed up, ex-army douchebag who’d clearly left his courage behind with his balls when he’d quit the military.
“I’m the head of this school! I’m in charge here!” Brown bellowed. “If you don’t get down from there this second, I’ll-”
Blake fired a bullet into the air and Brown fell back onto his ass as screams tore out all around us before the crowd fell deathly silent.
“You’re not in charge of me,” Blake snarled.
“Or me,” Kyan echoed.
“Me neither,” I agreed in a deadly voice, not even needing to shout now that the crowd were holding their breath like they thought we really might kill the son of a bitch.
I turned my head slowly, looking at Monroe beside me, his face a stony mask of rage as he glared down at the man who should have been here to protect the students from all that had happened to them and hadn’t been.
“I think what we need around here is new blood,” I said loudly. “A real leader to take up the role of Headmaster while we fight to stay alive throughout the spread of the Hades Virus. A man who came and fought on the front line for us. Who put himself between all of you and those who’d come to hurt you!”
The crowd roared again as they realised what I was saying and Monroe frowned as he met my gaze.
“You can’t just allocate things like that,” he growled, but the hunger in his eyes said he wanted it.
“Like fuck I can’t,” I scoffed. “I’m Saint Memphis. My father is the Governor of the state. My mother runs the school board and they’re already in the process of voting Brown out. If I tell her you’re the man for the job then it’s done. So what’s it to be, Monroe? Are you with me?”
I held out a hand to him and he eyed it like it was the cloven hoof of the devil. Which in all honesty, it might as well have been. Because he knew as well as I did that this was so much more than a job opportunity. It was a commitment to a life as one of us. But in reality, he’d already made that commitment when he slid that knife into the rapist in the catacombs. He was one of us already. And something about that seemed right. Like he’d always been destined to become a Night Keeper anyway and tonight had just confirmed it. The legend said there should be four of us after all and I was willing to put my faith in that even if others might have thought I was insane for it. But that was the thing about faith. So long as you believed something was real, it was. That was all there was to it. And I believed in the Night Keepers more than anything else in this world.