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  “I’m counting on it,” I respond.

  He sits up with me still straddling him and swivels so he leans back against the couch, putting us eye to eye. His hands begin to slide, ever so slowly up my thigh, past my dress, to land on the bare skin of my lower back. Leaning forward I lock my lips to his, my own hands beginning to roam and explore his perfect body.

  Feeling restricted, I raise my dress up and over my head, throwing it aside. His eyes flame as he pulls me back in to deepen our kiss. I moan against his lips and dig my manicured nails into his back. He raises us up off the ground and I twine my legs around his waist as he carries me back down the hallway, pushes through the door to his bedroom and lays us on his bed.

  I wake to a start, to find myself, still in Rylan’s bed, wrapped around the man of my dreams. I look over at his bedside table to see it is 4.30 in the morning. Crap. I snuggle over and give Rylan a quick kiss and reluctantly climb out of his bed. I rush around his apartment grabbing my clothes and belongings and quickly get myself dressed.

  I pull out his toaster and grab two slices of bread, sliding them into their slots and pulling the lever down. I watch the bread cook intently, praying I don’t set off the smoke alarm. When the toast looks pleasantly burned to a crisp, I hit the lever, to bring the toast out.

  I place the burnt toast on a plate and scribble out a note, that I hope he likes it.

  Chapter 14

  You know those days, the ones that stay with you for the rest of your life, for all different types of reasons. Days such as watching your father being murdered before you very eyes, the day you fell in love or the day you were shot, taking down your father’s murderer. Well, today is one of those days.

  Its Wednesday morning and I sit in Ms. Peterson’s office with a worried Ms. Layton, our Guidance counsellor and all-around Barbie, who, I might add, has an everlasting and extremely frustrating crush on Rylan. Anyway, that’s beside the point. I sit here before these two women, after being called out of class, with absolutely no clue what’s going on.

  “Bianca,” Ms. Peterson starts. “I have asked you here as I have received some exciting news from The High Council members, in regards to the meeting you had with them following the examinations.”

  “Ok…,” I say, slightly confused, my eyes flick towards Ms. Layton as I wonder why she needs to be here for this. I mean she said it was exciting news right? That means it’s got to be good.

  “Ah, Ms. Layton, of course,” Mrs. Peterson says, noticing my confusion. “I’ve asked her to join in case you have anything you’d like to talk about afterward,” she says as dread begins to fill me.

  “Right,” I say slowly.

  “Anyway, we best get on with it so you can return to class,” she says. “I have received a letter from The Council explaining in great detail what is going on, they have also enclosed this letter addressed to you, which I’m sure will outline everything there is to know,” she says with a smile, handing the letter over.

  I look down at the letter which holds my fate in distaste as a bad feeling settles over me and that’s the moment I knew today would be one of those days I’ll never forget.

  “Well, go ahead dear. Open it up,” Ms. Peterson encourages.

  I flip the envelope over, slipping my thumb under the tap and open it up.

  I pull the letter out and unfold it with shaky hands.

  Miss Bianca Moore,

  It was a pleasure meeting with you all those weeks ago.

  As we discussed in detail, we would like to have you join The Guard as our official motivational speaker for the Combat Program.

  We understand, your views on the matter but do believe this is what is truly best for our people and the on-going survival of the human race.

  As discussed, this position will involve your full cooperation. You will be travelling all around the world to visit many of our communities and academies where you will seek out our junior students and deliver seminars and demonstrations. Full training will be given.

  As we are now well and truly in the second half of the year, it is imperative, that this training commences in a timely manner.

  The Guard has granted two weeks for you to make arrangements, complete any added training necessary and farewell your friends and loved ones.

  A car will arrive in fourteen days to take you to The Guard for your formal training.

  Warmest Regards,

  Jackson Lewis

  High Council Member of The Guard

  My hands shake as I finish the letter.

  2 weeks.

  2 weeks and I’ll be taken away from my training, from my chances at graduation, from my best friends, from my sister. In 2 weeks I’ll be taken away from the man I love.

  My breath becomes staggered as a lone tear slides down my face. I grip the letter and run from Ms. Peterson’s office with her shouts of protest following me out into the hall. My tears grow heavier and I know I am on the verge of sobbing. Wiping at my face with my sleeve, I run as fast as I can across campus and into the Combat Room.

  I barge in and come to a standstill as I find the room full of students, mid-session. Thirty sets of eyes land on me, curious as to why the Guards precious poster girl is crying her eyes out in the doorway. Crap.

  I search out Rylan, suddenly unsure of what to do as I grip the paper tight.

  He looks at me, a storm behind his eyes as he tries to work out what could have possibly driven me to this state. “Ben,” he says, stepping towards me. “Take over, the rest of you get back to work,” he snaps. The class immediately jumps to attention, doing their best to look busy.

  He makes it over to me and ushers me out the door, closing it behind him. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I shouldn’t have come.”

  He leads me away, around the side of the building. As soon as we are out of sight he wraps his arms around me. “What’s wrong?” he asks urgently.

  Unable to actually discuss it, I hold the letter up for him. He takes it from my hands and begins reading. His face falling, the further he gets. “Shit,” he curses.

  “Yeah,” I agree.

  He holds me tight against him as the tears continue flowing down my cheeks. “I’ll work this out. Don’t worry. It’ll be ok,” he soothes, though I don’t know if he is trying to convince me or himself.

  We stay locked in each other’s embrace for who knows how long when he says he needs to get back to his session. He walks me back to my dorm, places a kiss to my temple and makes sure all the tears have finally dried up. Before leaving me to my own reckless thoughts.

  By lunch I have gotten control of myself and join Jacinta and the boys in the cafeteria, bringing my letter along with me.

  Jacinta immediately rushes me, the moment I walk through the door and sees the splotchy, red rims around my eyes.

  Daniel hops up next asking if he needs to kick Rylan’s ass while Trey hovers behind us looking as confused as ever.

  “Come and sit down,” I tell my bunch of misfit friends, indicating to our table.

  “What’s the matter? You’re scaring me,” Jacinta says.

  I hand her the letter, sure that if I start talking about it, I will open the floodgates once again. Her eyes widen and her hand comes to cover her mouth. “Oh my god,” she whispers, dropping the letter on the table and flinging her arms around me. Her own tears beginning to fall.

  The boys grab the letter and read it together. Daniel jumping up in outrage once he is done. “They can’t do this,” he demands.

  “Well, apparently they can,” I mutter as Jacinta lets go.

  “What did Millie say?” she asks.

  “I don’t know, I haven’t had a chance to talk to her yet,” I say, my eyes beginning to water at the thought of breaking the news to my beautiful sister. Daniel reaches over and takes my hand, while Jacinta squeezes me back into another tight hug, giving me all their support.

  Trey looks thoughtful and focuses his gaze on me. “Can you appeal it?” he asks.

  “May
be, Rylan mentioned something about that not long ago, but I’m nervous. I’m in a really great position to receive an amazing assignment after graduation and if I deny them now, where does that leave me later on?”

  “Why does it have to be you?” Daniel asks. “Isn’t there some other woman, who has already graduated who can do it? I don’t know, maybe someone who is already qualified to do that shit?”

  “Probably,” I scoff. “But they want their new celebrity, use my skills for that crap rather than actually put me on the front lines where I can make a difference.” Anger starts to boil inside me the more I discuss it. I shoot up from my table and cross to get some food when a scowling Luke gets in my face. I make sure to shoulder charge him as I pass, praying that I get paired with him for today’s session.

  Getting myself some lunch, I head back to my table, hoping they have finally changed topics, but no. I’m not that lucky. “There has to be something about it in The Guard Law books in the library,” Jacinta says.

  Trey scoffs. “I doubt The Guard are going to supply us with books on how to go against them.”

  “What are you talking about?” I ask, attempting to open my water bottle.

  Daniel takes it from me and with a flick of his wrist has it opened in moments and hands it back to me, after he takes his own sip. “Thanks,” I mutter, darkly. He gives me an award winning smile, but I see the sadness behind his eyes.

  “I think I can figure out more about appealing The Guards request,” Jacinta says. “There has to be a loophole or something.”

  “I don’t know, we can try, but like I said, I don’t want to risk hurting my chances after graduation.”

  “Who’s to say, they make you do it after graduation even if you appeal it now. It couldn’t hurt to look,” Daniel says.

  “Ok, fine. I’ll come and help you look after training,” I promise.

  Trey gives me yet another funny look. “You sure you’re ok to train?”

  I fix him with my most lethal glare yet. “Of course, I’m ok to train. Would you like to be my partner?” I ask.

  “Calm down, I was only checking,” he defends.

  Ten minutes later the bell rings signalling the end of lunch. The boys and I get up and head towards the door with Jacinta trailing behind us. Trey and Jacinta give their usual ‘too hot for the cafeteria’ kiss goodbye as Daniel slings his arm over my shoulder. “Really? You ok?” he asks.

  I rest my head on his chest as he pulls me in tighter. “Yeah, well figure it out. And if not, between the four of us and Rylan, I think we can kick enough ass to get me where I need to be,” I laugh.

  “Yeah,” he agrees. “We’ve all got your back.”

  We make it to the door and push our way through just in time to hear Luke whining to Rylan about needing the session off because he has a sore shoulder, which in turn is my breaking point. I fall into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Daniel, who is grinning at my display, lifts me up and out of the doorway to let the other students pass.

  Once I eventually calm down, wiping the happy tears from my sore, puffy eyes, I join the rest of my group. I glance at Rylan who gives me a questioning look. I give him a little nod, letting him know that I’m ok. He studies me for a short moment before getting started on the session.

  As Rylan explains what we’ll be focusing on, I feel Luke glaring at me from across our small group. I train my gaze on him and shoot him a wicked grin, just as Rylan begins pairing our group up. He must put two and two together as he pairs me with Luke.

  Luke huffs away as I get the nod of approval from Rylan to kick his ass, allowing me to take my frustrations out of Luke. The D-Bag is never going to know what hit him. I grin as I approach him, “How’s your shoulder?” I taunt.

  “You’re going to regret the day you ever decided to mess with me,” he scowls, jumping straight into the fight, not bothering with formalities.

  Let’s just say, two hours later, I had Luke begging for the end of the session.

  Trey and Daniel join me as I make my way up to the library to help Jacinta search through all the old Guard textbooks. “You look happier,” Jacinta comments as we sit down at the table.

  “Yeah,” I smile. “Rylan paired me with Luke.”

  “Ahhh… Enough said,” she laughs. She reaches down and hauls the biggest textbook up off the ground and slams it down on the table in front of me. “Here,” she says. “I thought you could start with this.”

  Dread fills me but is replaced with amusement at the looks of complete horror on the boy's faces as Jacinta repeats the process with them. Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.

  Nope. I was wrong.

  Two hours later my head is aching and my tummy rumbling. “Have we done enough for today?” I groan, knowing if anything I should be thanking them for their help.

  “Yeah, I think I’m done too,” Trey says. Jacinta looks up at her man giving him some kind of heart breaking pout “Don’t pull that on me, babe, I’m exhausted. I’ve done more research just this afternoon than I’ve done all year.”

  Jacinta huffs and makes sure we will all be here tomorrow. She grabs a handful of books, demanding the boys help her carry them. Once she has signed all the books out, we head back to our dorm with the boys trailing behind us, whining about how heavy the books are.

  “Thanks for doing this,” I say to Jacinta.

  She gives me a sad smile. “You don’t need to thank me. You’re my best friend, you know I’d do anything for you.”

  “I know, but I’m worried were doing all this and it won’t get us anywhere,” I confess.

  “Have a little faith. If it’s there. I’ll find it and then we can stick it to The High Council.”

  “Ok,” I smile. “Just don’t stick it too hard, I just want to graduate, not get kicked out altogether,” I joke.

  We finally make it back to our dorm room, even going through the front door with the boys behind us. After a little sweet talking to the dorm matron about their helpful tendencies, they are just as quickly ushered out by the old bag.

  “Are you going to have dinner with Millie?” Jacinta asks as I take some painkillers for my headache.

  “Nah, I’m going to crash. Besides, she has a test on Friday, so I should let her concentrate. I promised her we could hang out on the weekend, so I’ll tell her then. Actually, maybe I should ask Mum to come visit on Sunday and I could tell them both.”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” she muses. “What do you think your mum will say?”

  “Hah,” I scoff. “You know her, she’ll be thrilled that it takes me away from the front lines.”

  “Come on,” she scolds. “You need to give her a little more credit than that, she just wants what’s best for you. She’s scared of losing you, especially after what happened to your dad. But I think you’d be surprised after she saw what you were capable of at your examinations, I think she is a little more accepting of you being on the front lines.”

  “Really?” I ask, shocked at her revelation.

  “Yup. You should have seen the way she was cheering. I mean the first few fights she was a nervous wreck, but once she realised how well you hold your own, she was all for it, screaming for you to ‘kick em where it hurts!’,” she laughs.

  “No way. You’re lying,” I grin.

  “Scouts honour,” she says laying her hand across her heart with a smile. “She was nervous all over again during the weaponry skills though, but then you got all fancy and kicked his sexy butt.”

  “You know,” I laugh. “One of these days you’re going to have to stop checking out my boyfriend.”

  She shrugs her shoulders, not sorry at all. “No can do, Peach. He is a fine piece of man meat.”

  I shake my head at her enthusiasm.

  She suddenly gets all serious. “Did you want to come with me for dinner?”

  “No,” I sigh. “I am so emotionally exhausted, I’m just going to eat something small and climb in bed.”

  “Ok,” she says, giving m
e a quick hug. “I’ll bring you back something yummy,” she adds, always knowing just how to cheer me up.

  Jacinta grabs a few things and not before long disappears out the door. I pull out my phone and send mum a quick text to organise a day together on Sunday. Once she has responded, the exhaustion begins taking over. I strip and redress into my pyjamas, climb into bed and let the exhaustion claim me.

  Chapter 15

  I wake early on Thursday morning, my stomach in dire need of food after my early night. I climb out of bed and dress in my workout gear, taking a quick glance in the mirror, I’m pleased to find my red, poufy eyes from the night before have returned to their normal stunning selves.

  I rummage through our small kitchenette for anything that will put a halt to the loud grumble coming from my tummy. Finding a banana, I annihilate it in no time, washing it down with a glass of water.

  By now, of course, I’m running late. I dash out of my dorm room and out into the cool breeze of the morning, making a mental note that I will need to start bringing a jacket along with me. I make it to the gym, just in time to see Rylan exiting it. He glances down at his watch when he notices my arrival.

  I grin up at him knowing what’s coming and momentarily get blindsided by his stunning good looks. “I swear, you get later and later every day,” he comments.

  “You can’t rush perfection,” I joke, indicating the length of my body.

  His eyes travel up and down my body, following my movements. “Bianca, you look like you just fell out of bed.”

  “Ok, ok… I was hungry,” I whine. “I fell asleep before I got the chance to eat.”

  “You good now?” he asks, referring to more than just my stomach.

  “Yeah,” I say, then notice the field markers in his hands. “What are we doing today?”

  “Come on,” he says, indicating with a nod of his head to follow along. “We’re working on your agility, so we’ll be on the oval today.”

  Damn. Now I really wish I’d bought a jacket.