The Devil's Mate

Chapter 1

Running through the empty halls, I race against the clock to reach my classroom on time. Stupid alarm clock...it was the sixth clock this month I'd unknowingly destroyed. Mum keeps on saying I pushed it off of the nightstand but I don't see how it melted into a liquid this morning.

Turning the dial on my locker and quickly getting frustrated when the door won't open due to the blasted rusted lock that I had yet to fix. Determined not to get lectured today, I stand back, run my shoulder into the rusty door and pray that I don't break the door. Slowly like those doors in horror movies, my locker door creaks open. Quickly giving my shoulder a rub to prevent the huge bruise which I know will develop despite what I do, I put my jacket and school bag into the cramped space and take out my things needed for Chemistry.

Quickly checking that my long brown hair is still in the low ponytail I had put it in earlier, I can't help but sigh when I see the almost anaemic looking complexion of the plain brown haired girl with tiny gold flecks in her eyes staring back at me in the tiny locker mirror as she breaks out in a cold sweat as she breathes through her lips that were previously pink and soft when she left her home are now pale and chapped.

I didn't even get any colour in my cheeks despite running all the way here. What am I? A vampire?

Slamming the door shut once the needed materials are piled into my arms, I make a dash for the second level for my first lesson, Chemistry with Mr Banks. Rounding the corner of the second level hallway of the science block, I struggle to find the will to continue to run for the last classroom. With my legs burning and my lungs working double time, I have just given into my fate when I slam head first into a wall and I fly back a few meters back. Damn it! That bloody hurts!

"Hey!" A deep male voice murmurs from above me."You alright?"

Warm hazelnut brown eyes that shine in excitement stare down at me, bulging muscles strain against his thin black T-shirt as this Adonis of a male specimen holds out a long-fingered hand stretched out towards me.

Taking it subconsciously, I feel a jolt of electricity go down my spine spreading a warmness through me as it travels leaving little tingles in its wake. The feeling lingers as he continues to hold onto my hand, his grip tight but gentle enough that it doesn't hurt me. It does however tell me that he does not want to let go.

"Oh!" I gasp when he suddenly tugs on my hand launching my small, 5 foot 4 frame against his probably 6 foot 2 body. My breasts that press very suggestively against his muscular chest allow me to feel the low vibration that emits from his chest which I can only compare to a purr of a cat . "Sorry."

"It's alright," he mutters, the excitement in his eyes fading replaced by a coldness. "My mistake."

A wave of relief washes over me when he says this, and I take it to mean that he didn't take my stumbling the wrong way. Noticing that his eyes lack the elation that was present when he was towering over me, I realise that his once warm eyes are now distant and guarded.

I am about to ask him what's wrong when the bell for the start of first-period sounds and any thought of asking him leaves my mind as I jump out of his arms, mutter a quick thanks and goodbye before I completing the run into the Chemistry classroom just as Mr Banks walks in from the back door which is connected to the Staff Room.

"For once," he murmurs as I walk past him to my seat. "You're exactly on time, Ms Heavenly."

"I try my best, sir," I respond breathlessly, taking my seat.

Sighing heavily as I flip open my books to the page on the board in a pretence that I'm listening. Why pretend? For one, all I can seem for focus on since leaving the guy in the hallway and the way he felt pressed against me...the tingles...and the way my hand felt in his...

It's almost like his presence has hypnotised my mind to think of him and only him—and some part of me even wants to go to him for some reason or other.

By the time the bell rings for lunch, I realise I have no idea what has been going on all day, caught up in my own world, that is filled with warm hazelnut eyes and an electrifying sensation that constantly runs down the length of my spine with every appearance of the man in the hallway.

Two hours later when class finally ends, I note how today will be one of my less productive days considering two hours of chemistry just passed by and I have no idea what was being said.

Heading dejectedly to my locker which I open to retrieve my Greek Mythology textbook for my next two hour lesson. I am thrown off guard when a stack of about ten papers fly out, picking them up, I quickly scan them over and realise they're not mine. A bright yellow sticky note in my locker catches my attention.

In a horrible, chicken scratch kind of handwriting, someone wrote in probably the most suspicious kind of way. 'Read me'