Four Branches, Ch 3

Four Branches, Ch. 3

By: cory-crystaline440

We had just barely made it out of there. After I had frozen the other Psys, Allen and I made it across the lake thanks to another ice bridge I made. We were more focused on getting away then talking.

Sarah had already run ahead of us, but I could follow her scent. Japanese cherry-blossom (I got some for her because I drew her name at a Secret Santa party, okay?); it was the perfume she wore most often, and it didn't quite fit in an American forest of oaks and pines.

"Sarah?" I called out. Her scent was strongest amongst a group of red oak trees. A creek babbled beside the largest of the trees. The clear waters looked refreshing after the running I'd been doing. But that would have to come later.

A rustling of leaves and Sarah had jumped down beside us. Her features shifted back to normal form her Beta change. "Thank goodness you're alright!" She hugged me. I thought back to my female friends form high school and how that hug felt similar to theirs, love was in it, but more so like the kind a sister would give. And I returned it with one of my own, like a brother's.

"We put a lot of distance between us and them. So we should have some time to rest now."  I said as I saw Allen's heaving breathing. He didn't have the endurance Sarah and I did thanks to our Branch.

"Sounds like a great plan to me." Allen said.
I just glared at him. "Since we're done fighting…SINCE WHEN THE HECK ARE YOU A FIRE
PSY!!!"

Allen looked up in the way that people do when they're really thinking, scratching his goatee. "Let's see, today is Thursday, so Wednesday, Tuesday, always." He did his 'signature smart-crack smirk' as I called it. I responded with a deluge of water to his head.

I walked over to the creek and pulled a good bit of water up. My energy had returned quickly again. I made the water phase into steam and back into water, killing anything that may have been bad in it. Splitting the water into three balls, I placed them in front of all of us. "Just stick your face in and drink. It should be alright."

All of us took deep gulps of the water and soon we had each finished. We were sitting down on the ground with our backs against trees, Sarah and I listening to hear any oncoming danger. "So, always been a Fire Psy?" I asked my friend.

"Yep, born one. My mom is a Psy, remember?"

"Yeah, and your dad was a Vamp. So are you secretly a di-breed?"

"IS a vamp. That's not something you out grow. And as far as I know, no." Allen smirked again.

"Touché" I responded with my own smirk.

"Touch-ee" Came his reply.

"Toosh." We both laughed. We did that a lot, saying all the pronunciations of touché.

Sarah just looked at us with a bewildered expression. She began to laugh with us. She and I stopped laughing at the same time as we heard someone coming. I sniffed the air, and my heart dropped like a lead weight in a pool. I was doomed.

"Aw, how cute. You want some alone time with your boyfriend, Love?" a female voice asked from behind Allen's tree. Allen smiled as he stood up.

His girlfriend, Elizabeth "Ali" Jackson grabbed her boyfriend and they shared a kiss. "I'mma gets you." Allen told her as his usual response to her picking on me and him
being 'boyfriends.' Trust me, Allen and I are as straight as titanium bars.

I made a gagging sound as my usual response. You'd be surprised how many usual routines the three of us have. "Good to see you again, Ali." I said to her. I held my hand as a motion to Sarah. "This is Sarah Macorvus. She's one of my friends from the Academy. Sarah, this is Elizabeth, Allen's girlfriend."

"Ali. And, it's fiancé." Ali was quick to correct me.

"Unless I see something other than a promise ring, I'm gonna say…" Ali held her hand in my face to show the new engagement ring Allen gave her. "Well okay then. Congrats, I guess?"

"Thanks." The lovers said in unison.

"Um, not to be a damp rag on this reunion, but…OUR ACADEMY WAS JUST DESTROYED AND WE ARE
STILL ON THE RUN FROM A GROUP OF PSY-HUNTERS!!" Sarah Beta shifted as she shouted.

"Sarah! CALM DOWN!" I shouted back as I growled at her, Beta shifting myself. She changed back, her ears drooping slightly before she did. Alpha influence. Love it.
"Sorry, Wade. But seriously, we need to call the police, get some help and word out on what happened!" She fumbled in her pockets, but grew a sad face. "Prof. Cylan took my phone in class today. Wade?"

I shook my head. "It was in my locker in the gym. I was in the middle of Battle practice."

"Lucky for you two, we have ours. And I already called the cops." Allen held his phone up, showing the call history to 911. "They said they had heard rumors about stuff going on, and they would look into it. That was about 10 minutes before I showed up to help you."

"Then they are still a good twenty minutes away. Campus security isn't enough to handle something like that." Sarah said, the wind blowing the smell of smoke towards us. The campus, or something big, was still burning.

"Come on, my car is just a little ways away." Ali began to lead us to her car. She must have parked down one of the maintenance roads on the outskirts of the campus.

"By the way, how the bloody heck did you guys know about the attack, or this back road?" I asked Allen as we piled in.

"I had some connections. This is better explained later man. Trust me."

I accepted his answer for now. What else could I do? It didn't take us long to reach the main road. We continued driving, passing some speeding cop cars on the way that had their lights and sirens blaring. The interstate came up quickly and we headed down the road, blending in with the traffic.

"Wait, this isn't the way back to Hickory." I said as I noticed the exit numbers were going in the wrong direction.

"We're not going back there. Those hunters are probably tabulating a head count and know that they didn't hit their target. And now they're most likely heading to where they think you'll run off to." Allen said as he sent a txt. I think I saw the recipient was his dad.

"Wait, you mean they destroyed the campus coming after me?!" I asked Allen, in huge disbelief.

"Yep. Not just you though. The Academy had plenty of non-Pure Weres. You just happen to show off not being a Pure more than most."

"Dude, none of the students there were Pures. It's the Catawba Academy for WERES! Everyone there was a Were. No norms were there, not even the staff."

"He means Pures as in a Purebred of the Were Branch. Something big is going on with the Pures of all the branches, especially the Norms, and this was just the first step." Ali said. "Here's our exit."

We pulled off the Interstate and moved down the road. It quickly became very clearly unmaintained. We were moving down one of those back roads that only the people that live down them knows about.

"Where are we heading anyways?" I asked as both Sarah and I looked out the windows, for some clue as to where we were.

"Base." That's the only response that we got from Allen.