The Haven High Book Series (Wattys2017)

Chapter 27

Thank God Lauren was able to reopen the port door in the desert or none of them would have made it out alive. Next time they'd have to think these things through better. If they kept this behavior up, none of them would reach legal drinking age.

One by one they went through the door with Lauren at the rear. There was a bit of an argument between Quinn and Zach over who would go second to last, but Zach won by the simple logic that he could fly and if something happened he would have a greater chance of getting her out of the desert. Quinn didn't remotely look like he liked the idea, but he had to concede his point.

Once they were reunited, Xan called back the creepy old dude, after Zach insisted that they should stay together at least until they were all certain that Liam's gang was gone. Even Xander came with them, which made for a very cramped awkwardly quiet ride, but this time it wasn't caused by a mordant magical butler. this time it was because they all knew without a shadow of a doubt that they had just had their asses handed to them – Liam had waved a few fingers and they were powerless.

But they were not powerless they had just taken down a ten foot DEATHWORM. Yet Liam kept doling out asskickings to them like they were candy. Poor Lauren looked heartbroken. She spent the entire ride staring at her folded hands in her lap, Quinn and Zach sat on either side of her trying to console her, but she was frankly just that -- inconsolable.

Lauren looked up then and met Megan's eyes, and when she spoke she sounded as defeated as they felt, "I'm sorry guys I couldn't break that spell. I'm going to start looking tomorrow for the counter-spell and if I can't find it I'll devise a protective charm to ward against it, I promise." Lauren looked straight at her making Megan cheeks burn with shame at the memory of the kiss that wasn't.

Which reminded her, "And we need to keep what happened in the desert to ourselves, Cameron doesn't need to know what Liam did to me." Megan took a moment to make eye contact with each person in the vehicle, they nodded in agreement; she even looked into the Domovoi eyes in the rearview mirror for good measure. Surprisingly, he nodded silently to her like he understood and agreed to do the same.

Xander dropped them off one at a time, but Megan refused to be driven home. She intended to stay with Cam tonight and every night until she found a solution, because if she didn't . . . well if she didn't, she didn't want to think about that -- Too bad so sad if her step-monster didn't like it.

It looked like Lauren was going to have a few visitors at least for the foreseeable future. Megan would have to tell Cameron's father about the deathworm and the addiction, but not tonight, tonight she was exhausted and she wanted nothing more than to rest in Cameron's arms.

When they pulled to the curb in front of Lauren's house, only Xander, Lauren and Megan remained in the back of the vehicle; they were the last to be dropped off. The domovoi came around the vehicle to open the door closest to the curb and her and Megan got out, but when Megan looked up she saw the front door wide open. Her heart leapt into her throat when she recalled she'd watched lauren lock it herself earlier.

When she went to run in thinking only for Cam, Lauren grabbed her saying, "Wait it might be Liam's crew."

That didn't deter her that only spurred her on. With everything he'd said about him earlier she wouldn't put it past the crazoid to do something to him. With that thought she tore out of Lauren's arms taking giant leaps with her crutches and eating up the distance as fast as he stupid legs would allow.

When she entered the house she tore up the stairs to where Cam was being kept to see that the guest room door was wide open with no sign of his father or Cam, but there was writing on the wall.