Chapter 27

By the time they all got back on the dance floor the crowd was so thick by the stage that the only room left was to the back between the refreshment tables and the Royals. There was plenty of room there as every other halfblood creature in attendance seemed to want to give their cold observes a wide birth. Unfortunately that left his crew with no choice but to take up the space left in front of the creepy Fae.

Quinn yelled jokingly, "Hey look we have air conditioning, "as he cocked his head in their direction.

That seemed to lighten the mood and it was lightened even more so when Kyle started a silly dance off with all the guys.

They lost their minds when Quinn started big steppin' and doing the silly walk from Monty Python.

Zach couldn't help smiling. Thinking thank God they'd been there for him when all this went down. He didn't know what he would have done without them.

Just then the band started to play a slow dance and he bravely grabbed Lauren's hand before Quinn could and led her slightly away from the other guys.

When he found a secluded spot for them, he bent down so she could put her arms around his neck and he whispered, "I hope you don't mind I stole you from the guys."

She looked up at him her eyes shining and said a little breathlessly, "Any time."

There was never a time in his life where he wanted to kiss someone more, but he was too scared to take that next step. What if it ruined their friendship?

With his heart pounding in his chest he stepped back a bit to try and clear his head.

His head was starting to hurt and all of a sudden he was feeling shaky for other reasons than being too close to Lauren. The humming sound was back so he practiced his deep breathing exercises Helsing had taught him, but instead of going away it intensified the sounds coming through and he thought great you're going to spaz out in front of the entire school -- both night and day.

He grabbed his head reflexively when he felt a sharp pain to the temple and heard a female voice in his mind.

"Bash we've got to go it's almost time!" She hissed.

He didn't know where the voice was coming from, but she sounded pretty scared.

Then he heard a male voice as cold as an arctic breeze say, "Lily let him think. If he doesn't set this right we're all F'N done for."

What the hell Zach thought as he started searching the room for the people that might coincide with the voices in his head, but he only saw his classmates dancing happily with each other.

Even the guys were doing a weird slow dance all huddled together.

Zach snorted and thought chill man just cause you're hearing voices again doesn't mean you have to get paranoid about it too.

He took a deep breath when the next voice came through it was a man's voice that said, "Once this is set we have two minutes to get out, is that understood?"

Zach stopped swaying to the music making Lauren look up at him strangely.

He held a finger up in the universal gesture of give me a sec.

Okay what had he heard exactly?

Someone was scared, sounding frantic really . . .

Saying their running out of time . . .

Then something about setting something . . .

Then someone had said once it's set they had two minutes . . .

Had two minutes to what . . .

The frantic one said they had to go . . .

There setting a timer and two minutes to get out . . .

That's when he felt it -- A magic field around the dais where the Royals sat.

THE ROYALS . . .

It was pulsing like each pulse might be the tick of a clock.

A CLOCK . . .

And Zach lost his mind.

He grabbed Lauren by the wrist and ran over to the cluster of his friends and bellowed:

"bomb!"

to their shocked faces.

As his eyes did a quick scan of the room he nearly broke out in tears when he realized that he and his friends were furthest from the exit and there was no way they were getting out in time.

Just then he saw the five night school students with Greek tragedy masks deftly weaving through the crowd for the door and he thought you F'n bustards!

He hadn't realized he'd sent that out telepathically until he saw the African American guy in the Greek tragedy mask look back.

Which gave him another idea.

He pushed the next thought into everyone's head

BOMB!

It must have worked, because everyone in attendance immediately stopped, took a nano second to absorb the information, and then promptly started screaming and stampeding for the only exit.

But it was too late for his crew he knew where the bomb was -- he could feel it.

The magic was pulsing right next to their feet -- just under the front of the dais.

The councils guard converged on the Royals.

And then he felt the final pulse.

It was unmistakable and his crew hadn't even made it halfway to the door.

He grabbed Lauren and threw her in front of him, but there was no help for his friends that were spread out over an eight foot line to either side of him waiting their turn to get out through the narrow door. The crowd had taken on a funnel shape in their panic with his squad at the very back.

He felt the wave as he reached his arms out to his new best friends, and a guttural scream of anguish ripped from his throat, he thought if only he could throw them all in front of him like he had done Lauren. They might survive.

It was at that thought his body started to vibrate furiously, truly vibrate and out of his shoulder blades shot a blinding white light.

The royals hissed behind him, as the light shot out seven or eight feet to either side of him, it morphed in seconds to ethereal wings as he swung them forward and enveloped the crowd.

This is it he thought as Lauren wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered

"Zach what are you doing?" through her tears. She struggled to pull him toward the door to safety, but he had a death grip on her and his feet firmly planted. This was where he had to be.

The explosion rocked him forward as he fought to stay upright and hold on to all the people in the back row. All eyes were on him as waves of blue light shot over their heads and hit the wall of the stage completely destroying everything it touched.

Then it happened.

Instead of a magic wave Zach began to be pelted with sharp metal shards that were ripping into his back, shoulders and legs.

He threw out a mental image in his head of a solid wall and willed his wings to become more solid to stop the borage of metal flying towards the others.

But the shards were ripping him to shreds and he could not stop them all. They were breaking through the magical construct of his wings.

Frantically he realized he couldn't keep them solid enough and metal shards were hitting his friends. Kelly's beautiful face had a huge gash in it, Kyle had taken a huge shard right to his heart and was going down, Trav moved into stand in front of him. Cam was hunched over Meg in her crutches as she fought with him to let her go so she could protect him for once. His back was covered in shards and lacerations, Connor had thrown Brenna down on the ground to cover her with his body while he had his hands thrown out to the side as far away from her as he could manage. Even now he refused to touch her. The metal shards were chewing through his gloved hands as the blood flew, and it flew everywhere. The blood of his friends flew in his face and in his eyes and he screamed to muster the strength to remain standing.

Zach couldn't bring himself to look at Lauren, because if he saw her hurt, it would break his concentration, and he would never be able to keep the rest of the shards from breaking through.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity it stopped and all Zach could hear was the wailing of the wounded in the crowd.

He quickly scooped Lauren up in his arms and spun her to inspect her for damage when he saw that she was relatively unscathed he nearly crushed her tiny little body to him in relief.

She had gashes on her hands and arms from throwing her arms around him, but she'd live.

With her still in his arms he let down his guard and his ethereal wings dissipated, leaving hundreds if not thousands of metal fragments to clatter to the ground.

Zach hissed deep in his throat when he realized not all of the metal had fallen to the ground. He could feel the metal embedded in his back, shoulders and legs.

He couldn't check the condition of his other friends or help them in any way, because of the hundreds of shards that had pierced into him, and his all too fragile skin.

The entire back half of his body felt like it was on fire, aside from his neck and head. Lauren must have protected those areas with her hands.

Just then the teachers came rushing over to help the injured, when Conte tried to take Lauren from his arms so he could examine him, Zach refused to let go of her.

When Conte tried to pry her out of his arms so he could help him,  Zach decided he was having none of that, and threw him across the room as if he was a rag doll and not an over two hundred pound man.

It took Lauren to talk him down as he hyperventilated and trembled in shock.

"Zach I'm fine," Lauren screeched, "let them help you, Goddammit!"

It might have taken some time to convince him in his state, but for le Fay.

She was her usual impatient self.

She just walked briskly over to him, lifted a cold finger to his forehead, and simply uttered, "sleep."

And that was exactly what he did.

Tune in next update to find out if Zach survives his grievous injures.

********************THANKS FOR READING***************

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I want to start recommending great books that I've found that haven't got a lot of reads yet and truly deserve it. So here it goes:

These Mortal Threads by FaithLackey

A Human Abroad by Bummblecat

The Vampire's Nightmare by anndentonauthor