The Circle

Chapter 2

I'll sometimes be using "Luke' instead of Lucian. Albeit, before time.

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Lucian and Jocelyn had just finished their training for the day and were heading home from the Institute. They had barely walked 100 yards or so when they reached a turning. They were laughing and talking to certain others in their batch, namely Maryse, Robert, and Michael. Suddenly two boys loomed up in front of them, whistling something off-tune. Lucian tensed. He knew them...both from the academy- Pangborn and Blackwell. Pangborn smiled sinisterly and said in a deep almost growling voice, " Hey...what's your name girl?", directing the comment towards Jocelyn. Jocelyn said in a very irritated and haughty voice," What's it to you?" Blackwell said," Whats a pretty girl like you doing with them ?" with a disdainful nod at the fuming friends of Jocelyn. Looking at Jocelyn with a slight smirk he said in a low tone, "Come with us...won't you now girl?"and started edging towards Jocelyn who began to back away looking slightly scared. Meanwhile Pangborn stood behind, his eyes shamelessly roaming Jocelyn's small frame.

Lucian said through gritted teeth, "Stop checking her out now and if you touch a hair on her head, I'll make sure you'll regret it."

" Oh, is that so?" said Pangborn striding forward and grabbing him roughly by the collar. " What are you going to do, boy? Fight us?" he sneered making his face look more animal-like than human and flexed his muscles. He almost lifted Lucian off the ground but then let him go laughing cruelly. Lucian crashed to the ground, stunned for a second. "Oops...perhaps not, little boy."Blackwell said. They turned back to Jocelyn who began to feel oddly vulnerable seeing her best friend on the ground.

Luke took out two seraph blades from his weapons belt, and said with unnatural force, 'Raphael' and 'Michael'. And then he shouted,"Fight me, and give me the best that you animals possibly can !" They turned towards him with looks of pure fury on their faces. Seeing that he had got their attention, he yelled, "Jocelyn,run". Hearing this cry from Luke, the turned to see Jocelyn had already taken off like the wind. Luke vaguely wondered if she would send help. He trusted Jocelyn enough to know that she wouldn't leave him alone in a fight that he could never win at any cost. He backed away from them, blade in each hand and they followed cracking their knuckles, eyes shining with hate. He knelt downwards and pushed his blades forth in a sweeping motion, nicking their ankles and causing them to yell in pain. They staggered and Luke tried to back away and run, but he had failed to notice a stone which made him stumble and fall on his back.  His blades flew out of his hand and skittered away and he desperately reached out towards them. But the boys were well trained shadowhunters who could bear pain. They recovered quickly and before Luke could reach for the blades, they quickly kicked them away. Pangborn started towards him but Blackwell said" Leave him to me."

He pulled Luke up by the collar, and just like mundanes serve at badminton, he punched Luke and let him go at the same instant. Luke flew and landed on the ground, his cheek bleeding and aching terribly. Luke knew what was coming next- a kick. He tried to roll away but stunned as he was, he couldn't do so in time. Blackwell said," Not so fast" and kicked him straight in the ribs. Luke hadn't winced till then but as the tip of the thick boots came in contact with his ribs, he yelled out in pain. Blackwell continued kicking till Luke stopped moving and struggling and just lay on the ground breathing hard. " That was for messing with us." he said. Together the boys moved away, leaving Luke lying in the dust cut and bleeding and regretting that the pretty redhead had run off so fast.

A little later Jocelyn came running, Robert, Michael, Amatis and Maryse on her heels. All of them had anxious looks on their faces. Seeing Luke, Jocelyn's face turned white. He was bleeding profusely from cuts on his cheeks, hands and legs. She drew his head onto her lap and stroked his bloody, matted hair with one hand and staunched the blood flow from a wound on his cheek with the other all the while reprimanding him gently for picking a fight with such strong boys. As Michael dressed Luke's cuts, unknown to Jocelyn, ignoring the pain in his face, Luke smiled in the dark.