Warrior's Rise Read Free

and what he was.
    He took the portable CD player Colt was offering him and put the headphones on. “What am I listening to?”
    “ Cannibal Corpse. Check it out.” He pressed play.
    Darien frowned at the name, then jumped in his seat as ear-splitting death metal invaded his ears. He yanked off the headphones and shook his head. “Holy crap, Colt,” he muttered, thrusting the headphones back to his friend.
    Colt frowned. “I thought you liked rock music.”
    Darien rolled his eyes. “I like rock music. Not rampaging murderer music.”
    Colt looked offended and placed his hand in a theatrical display over his chest. “Do I look like a rampaging murderer to you?”
    Darien smirked and was about to turn his attention back to the window when the seat in front of him was suddenly invaded by a tiny Japanese girl with glasses and a slender girl with pigtails. He smiled. “Hey, Aki.”
    “Hey Darien!” the Japanese girl exclaimed. “We finally made it all the way around the bus! We were talking to everyone.”
    “I noticed,” he said. He let his eyes graze over the girl with the pigtails again, and he gave a shy smile when she met his eyes. “Hey, Lucy,” he murmured. “Make any new friends?”
    She waved her hand. “Aw, it’s cool to say hello to everyone. I like to make the new kids feel welcome, but you guys know you’re my people.” She grinned and high-fived Colt.
    “Where’s Doug?” Colt questioned.
    Lucy thrust her thumb towards the front of the bus. “He’s giving a lengthy lecture to a seventh grader about why Anakin Skywalker descended into the dark side.”
    Darien smirked. “Some things never change, huh?”
    Lucy grinned and rested her chin on the back of the seat. “This is your last year, isn’t it?”
    He looked up at her and nodded. “With any luck I might actually graduate next year.”
    She giggled. “How was last year? Schoolwise and stuff?”
    He shrugged. “More of the same. Dad telling me how lame I am. Jocks throwing me into garbage cans.”
    “I had the varsity quarterback give me a swirly,” Aki volunteered.
    Colt frowned. “They actually do that to girls?”
    She shrugged. “I guess. It wasn’t so bad once you got past the smell.”
    Colt and Darien gave a simultaneous wince.
    “Check it out, guys, we’re here!” Lucy exclaimed.
    Darien looked out the window and sighed in relief. Finally, he could get off the bus and start his summer out right. It was the last one he would spend with his friends. He wanted to make it the best it could be.

Chapter Two
     
    The other counselors were tools. Logan could tell. One of them looked like Merlin on crack and the other one looked like she should be living in a cabin with a bunch of cats. Heck…maybe she did. The only one who looked normal was Willow. She was so hot. Slender, regal, curvy in all the right places. She looked like a dancer, graceful. He wanted to run his fingers through her lustrous auburn hair. Too bad she’d told him she wanted to bury him in the desert and then kick him in the cajones. That was a first. He’d never had a woman reject him like that before. He almost didn’t know what to do with it. Maybe she was a lesbian… His stomach knotted at the thought. He sure hoped not. That would be such a waste of a gorgeous woman. A woman like Willow Avaris was made to be loved by a man… A man like him.
    His lecherous thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a big, yellow school bus. He heaved a sigh and put his clipboard behind his back, adopting a no-nonsense pose that he hoped inspired a little intimidation. He had no intention of making these kids think that he was a pushover like the other two lameoid counselors.
    The doors opened and the saddest bunch of reject kids ambled off. He suppressed a groan. This was his worst nightmare. At least three fourths of them were wearing glasses and were paler than the undead. Almost none of them had any muscle mass, and the ones who weren’t pathetically scrawny