Guardians: Angel Academy, #2

By Jamie Campbell

There are many secrets to uncover.

 

Posie Maxwell is having a terrible time at the Angel Academy of Excellence. She only just discovered she is a reaper and now demons sent from hell are attacking her school.

 

To make her life harder, shocking secrets are coming to the surface about her long-lost parents. Secrets that will change her life forever. If she can get to the bottom of the matter, she may just find what she's been looking for since she could talk.

 

With the demon war growing, Posie must decide whether she can really give up the guardian angel that has stolen her heart. Everyone says reapers are toxic to the guardians, how can she continue when she might be his demise?

 

In book two of the Angel Academy series, be prepared for blood, sweat, and tears as the academy—and Posie—is changed forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jamie Campbell
• Release date: Nov 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201127947

Jamie Campbell

Jamie was born into a big, crazy family of 6 children. Being the youngest, she always got away with anything and would never shut up. Constantly letting her imagination run wild, her teachers were often frustrated when her 'What I did on the weekend' stories contained bunyips and princesses.Growing up, Jamie did the sensible things and obtained a Bachelor of Business degree from Southern Cross University and worked hard to gain her membership with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.Yet nothing compared to writing. Quiting the rat race to spend quality time with her laptop named Lily, Jamie has written several novels and screenplays. Spanning a number of genres and mediums, Jamie writes whatever inspires her from ghost stories to teenage love stories to tantalising murder mysteries. Nothing is off limits.A self-confessed television addict, dog lover, Taylor Swift fan, and ghost hunter, Jamie loves nothing more than the thrill of sharing her stories.

Book preview

Guardians

JAMIE CAMPBELL

Chapter 1

I can’t stop seeing the dead bodies. Every time I close my eyes, there they are. I can’t believe how many reapers we lost at the hands of the demons.

Amalia has retreated to her bed again. She’s hiding underneath the covers and sobbing. I feel like a caged animal in this room.

I need to be doing something. I don’t know what I can do to help but surely there is something. If I’m cooped up for much longer, I am going to go insane.

Let’s move this furniture so we can get out, I suggest to the lump in the bed.

I can’t, comes the muffled reply.

I guess that leaves it up to me then. Our desks, bookcases, and chairs are pushed up against the door. We thought we’d need the barricade but it probably wouldn’t have worked against the demons anyway.

The furniture is heavy but I manage to slide each piece away and back to its original position. Meanwhile, Amalia continues to cry under her blankets.

Just as I lay my hand on the door handle, a deafening alarm sounds. The whoop-whoop is constant as it beeps out of the overhead speakers. I haven’t been here long enough to know what it means, but it can’t be anything good.

Amalia, what is happening? I ask. I have to nearly shout to be heard over the siren.

She pops her head out. We have to stay in our rooms until further notice.

That’s it? Why would they need a big siren to tell us that?

She’s already underneath the covers again. She’s a child if she thinks that will save her from anything. They probably don’t want us to see what the demons left behind.

The teachers must be stupid if that’s the case because we’ve all got windows and at least half of them overlook the grounds below where the major battle took place. I can’t imagine the other side of the school would have been exempt either, the demons were crawling around everywhere.

This room feels very small and only gets worse with every extra minute I’m forced to be in it. I hate small spaces. Is it getting too hot in here?

I keep thinking of Luca and Jesse. I hope they are both okay. I haven’t seen them since the demons arrived and their fireballs could have struck where they respectively are.

I can send one of them a message. I should have thought of it hours ago. I fish my cell phone out and start typing. Halfway through, I realize I won’t be able to handle waiting for a reply so I hit the call button instead to phone Luca.

It rings out.

Waiting it is then. I send him a message asking him to let me know if he’s okay. I’m going to worry about him even more now he didn’t answer the call. If he’s locked in his room too, shouldn’t he easily be able to pick up and speak to me?

I pace back and forth.

My stomach is tied up in knots with the unknown. Just how many reapers did we lose in that fight? Why did the demons leave? Are they going to come back? Plus, there is the huge matter of the wall separating us from the guardians that no longer exists.

Is that why they want us to stay in our rooms, so we don’t mix with the guardians?

So many questions and all I can think about are all the dead bodies scattered on the ground below. They died trying to save us. They fought so us students didn’t have to. They deserve to be honored as heroes. I hope their deaths aren’t just going to be glossed over.

The alarm goes off after five minutes. I can’t believe that is how long it’s been since it started. I felt every single second as if it were an hour.

Okay, I’m going to find Luca, I announce.

You still can’t leave, Amalia replies.

The alarm has gone off.

She pushes back the blankets and sits up with a scowl on her face, as if I’m stupid and she’s incredibly frustrated with me. The sound only lasts five minutes and then shuts off because it’s annoying. We have to still stay in here until they let us know otherwise.

How long could they force us to stay here?

Amalia shrugs. For as long as they want, I guess.

I’m certain the walls are closing in on me now. Every few minutes they get an inch tighter. I pace some more. I open a window for some fresh air. I check my phone for the millionth time—still no message from Luca. I take some deep breaths.

Nothing works.

Animals in zoos must feel this way.

Are the demons going to come back?

Where the hell is Luca?

Is Jesse safely inside on the guardians’ side of the school?

I’m going to go insane.

An hour passes. Then another.

Finally, an announcement comes over the speakers. "All students to assemble in courtyard B immediately. Attendance is mandatory."

My hand is on the doorknob faster than I can blink. I’m one of the first in the corridor outside. I don’t wait for Amalia to climb out of bed, I just take off down the hallway.

Instead of going to the courtyard like we were told to, I veer toward the male dormitories. Knowing Luca is safe is far more pressing an issue than whatever they have to tell us right now.

People are streaming through the corridors and eager to go in the opposite direction than I’m headed. I weave my way through and push on until I reach his room.

The door is open but nobody is there. Would Luca or his roommate leave it open? Maybe they left in a hurry, like to run into a battle with the demons?

Images of what could have happened to Luca swim in my head. I can still picture all the dead bodies scattered in the yard. Was he amongst them? I don’t think so but some of them were so badly injured it was difficult knowing who they were from my bedroom window.

I have no choice except to turn around and head for courtyard B like I was told to. At least they might have some answers for me.

By the time I get there, most of the school has already assembled. I linger in the back, scanning the heads of those ahead of me and trying desperately to recognize any as Luca. He has to be here.

After I’m certain the damn boy isn’t here, I scan the area beyond the courtyard. The field where the battle happened has been cleared. All the dead bodies have been moved and the grass looks wet, like they took a garden hose to it to wash away all the blood.

I guess two hours was all they needed to right the grounds again. It’s going to take a lot longer to rebuild the cafeteria and all the other buildings that have been damaged.

Our school looks like a missile hit it. I’m going to thank the lucky stars that it was the cafeteria and not the residential buildings that took the hit. Otherwise, the death count could have been astronomical.

I hope they’ve checked the bunker underneath the cafeteria for people that may be trapped or crushed. It happened early into the fight so hopefully nobody had made it there yet.

It scarcely feels like less than a week since I first stepped foot into this place. So much has happened and I feel so attached that it feels like it’s been a lifetime. None of the foster homes I stayed in felt anything like what I feel here.

Guardian Tremain stands on a balcony overlooking the courtyard. She has a bandage on her right arm and blood matted in her golden hair. She looks like she hasn’t slept in a week.

A hush runs over the students assembled as we eagerly await news. Surely something big has to come after a fight like that. They can’t just move on like nothing happened. We all saw it.

She finally steps up to the microphone and clears her throat. Thank you for your attendance, students. As you know, our school has come under the attack of a group of demons.

Guardian Tremain pauses as she tries to keep herself together with little more than sheer will. Nobody says a word as we wait patiently. I’m already dreading what could possibly come out of her mouth next.

She takes a deep breath before she speaks again. We are officially at war.

Chapter 2

War. It’s a three-letter word that sounds so unoffensive. Just one syllable that rolls off the tongue rather nicely. Unfortunately, it is the exact opposite.

The moment our principal mutters it, voices erupt into chatter around me. The sea of students was not expecting her to openly admit that we are in a war against demons sent straight from hell.

How on earth do we even compete with them? They have the devil behind them. We have some weapons that are great for a history lesson but difficult to wield in an actual battle.

Guardian Tremain waves at the crowd for some quiet again. We hush so she can speak. Today we have witnessed the deaths of twenty-two teachers. Twenty-one reapers and one guardian. They will be sorely missed and their courage will not be forgotten. These unprovoked attacks have been escalating, which has forced me into the position we now face.

Maybe I would have been safer being homeless on the streets as a human rather than here at a school for reapers. I never would have suspected that to be the case. How ironic that this is the situation I face now.

I have spoken with the general of the demon army. It is he whom I faced today. He agreed to a ceasefire of one week. After that, he cannot promise his army will be so generous.

That must have been the confrontation I witnessed earlier. Demons. I now believe all the scary stories I read about late at night while locked in my room as a kid. He was terrifying and I’m surprised he actually agreed to anything.

Tremain continues, I will be doing all I can to reach a peaceful agreement. However, we must also be prepared for the worst-case scenario. You may choose one of two things today. You may return home to seek refuge with your families. Alternatively, you may stay and prepare with our faculty.

That gets everyone talking. The voices start off as a low din and escalate as everyone gets louder to be heard over the noise.

I take a few steps back from the crowd so I can think more clearly. If they are actually giving people the option of leaving, they can’t expect this whole thing to end well. Attendance at this school is compulsory—as I was told several times.

Giving us the option of fighting is equally as surprising. They have