Read ARC: Crushed for Free Online Page B

of feet as the other students race to the meeting point. I start off to join them, but Jo’s hand on my arm stops me.
    “What?” I ask. She pointedly looks at my blood-stained clothes.
    Oh. “Good catch.”  I whip off my pants and shirt, shoving them in the single trunk I was issued to serve as All Things Storage, and grab a pair of sweat pants and a white tank-top. I also toss a pair of pants to Jo, as there are probably kids in our hallway.  She’s taller and has more curves, so they’re cropped and slightly booty-licious, but better than being pantless.  Jo dodges into her room to strap on her favorite sword and knife.  Students weren’t originally allowed weapons before they graduated – but the slaughter in North Carolina changed all that. I’m the only exception, which is fine by me.  Demons physically can’t use weapons, and though I can, I find them distasteful.  And unnecessary.
    We merge with the rest of the students as we reach the exit and spill into the field on the way to the new school. The headmaster hasn’t sounded the red alert, so we’re not in immediate danger. Still I, along with everyone else, watch the hills as we run toward the bunker. We’re silent but for the soft pant-pant of our breath as we strain our ears for trouble.
    Chi, Jo’s boyfriend, paces outside the entrance to the maze, pushing his hair out of his face.  Tall, buff, and blond, he’s a good-natured guy who favors comfortable clothes and difficult women. He exhales when he sees us and smiles in spite of the tense situation. It takes more than the threat of an invading army to dim his sunshine.  Jo doesn’t smile back, but she relaxes a little.
    “Ladies,” Chi says, overly formal as he falls in next to us.
    “Mr Dupaynes,” I reply with a regal head-nod.  
    Jo snorts. He nudges her with his elbow and she wrinkles her nose at him.
    Chi sticks with us as we jog with the crowd through the maze of half walls. When we get close to the central building, though, he gives us a funny little salute and peels off.  As an upperclassman with all his limbs in working order, his position is in the second to last ring.  Jo has to prove herself in classes before she can be added to the roster as a combatant, and I’m not to be trusted.
    Instead Jo and I continue into the main floor of the bunker, which, along with the second floor, make up the infirmary.  The polished white floors and walls seem to glow, despite the hordes of quasi-dirty children cluttering up the place. Instead of the giggles and whispers that interrupt the evacuation drills, the students are tense and silent but for the occasional whimper of a younger child. In their wide eyes and clenched hands I see the memory of the last time they had to flee from their school.  ”Jo, do you think – ” I turn to face her, but she’s no longer behind me. “Jo?” I twist, searching the crowd, then find her wild mess of hair on the other side of the room, moving with purpose. I put up my hand, to call her over.
    Then I realize that purpose isn’t to find me.
    Jo works her way to the edge of the room and, with a furtive look, slips out into a hallway.
    No choice for it, really – I slide around the room and into the hallway after her.
    I’m not familiar with this building, but Jo spends a lot of time in the infirmary. She walks briskly down narrow hallways and I creep after her, keeping on my toes and trying to match my gait to her uneven one, so the sound of her steps mask my own.
    The bam of a slamming door ahead brings us both to a frozen halt. There’s no mistaking the sound of boots coming this way.  
    It occurs to me, maybe too late, that if it does turn out to be a demon-attack, the half-demon caught skulking would not look good.
    Jo spins and, spotting me not ten feet behind her, starts.  She glares, swear words forming silently on her lips as she limps quickly toward me.
    Ah, yeah, it probably occurred to Jo as well.
    She doesn’t stop when she