Shadow Walker (Neteru Academy Books) (55 page)

She looked away from Val as the vision ebbed.

“I said it was cool. So now you know.” He began stuffing his sweater and shirt into his backpack and turned to leave in earnest this time.

“No, it’s not cool for Al to do something like this to his best friend.” She didn’t know what else to say. The other things she’d felt within him were too deep and way too intense to name.

“Ex-best friend,” Val said. “Man thinks I’m gonna hurt his sister, so hey…”

Eyes wide and fascinated, Allie plopped down on the bleachers nearby.

“Where did he get some off-the-wall idea like—”

“I touched his shoulder, just like you touched my jaw,” Val said, frowning and turning away from her. “Didn’t know you had the gift too…guess a lot of shit is different since we got to school. But I just wanted to tell him something, wanted to get him off this crazy wolf-hunt mission and back on target with the light-binding thing. You know how it is—all us Specs are empaths. Guess how I felt was right up near the surface, and he spun and cold-cocked me for kissing his sister, but what his tiny brain couldn’t figure out was, it meant something. I wasn’t playing you the way he plays girls, so he got pissed. At least you know your big brother has your back, as messed up as his thinking is.”

“Stop!” Sarah shouted, rounding on Val. “Listen, I know you’re angry, and I know there’s other serious personal stuff going on,” she added, trying to preserve their privacy in front of Allie and hoping Val caught her drift. “But I need your help. You’ve said a whole buncha stuff I need to absorb, but I can’t right now—can you understand that?” She reached for him, needing to feel his acceptance.

“Yeah,” he said flatly, sidestepping her outstretched arm. “That’s exactly how I feel right now—too much filling my head. So…what do you need my help with?”

“Stefan never came this way that night the four of us were in the hallway!”

“How do you know?” Val looked from her to Allie, still sitting on the bleachers but leaning forward avidly.

“My talents are starting to come in. One of the things I’m starting to be able to do is shadow echo—see shadows, follow where people have gone.”

“Really?” Val rubbed his jaw, then winced. “I hear that’s really rare. They told us about it in Spec orientation. None of the professors here can do it, not even Nana Marlene. Al can’t do it, either. That’s deep.”

“Well, I can do it,” Sarah said proudly. “I can’t fly, but I can read the ground—and Allie’s been my scribe while we walked all over the school following Stefan’s trail, but it never got to the gym.”

“Trust me,” Allie said, joining them and shaking her head. “We walked this whole school like three times.”

“The night we got attacked, something came from back toward the boiler room, because Al and Tami were over there.” Sarah started walking, with Val and Allie following her.

“Right, they were up in the alcove, doing whatever,” Val said. “Me and you came into the hall from that way.”

Allie started writing.

“Tell your girl not to write that part down,” Val muttered. “She looks like she’s a reporter for the school paper or something.”

“Allie, chill,” Sarah said, walking back down the hall in the direction she’d gone with Titan Troy. “In the morning I had to go to detention,” she went on, picking up her earlier thread, “and that’s when I found out that exit stair and the hatch to the outside. There’s a lock code, but—”

“But somebody could get in, if they had the code,” he said, cutting her off.

“Which senior fliers, getting ready to graduate, probably would.”

“Valkyries?” Val said, nodding in agreement with Sarah’s assessment. “Definitely. They probably flew with the stable on a regular basis, and I doubt Titan Troy was assigned to escort them every time they wanted to go out. They would’ve been buff—the kind of guys to protect other people, not need protection themselves.”

“Gotta agree with you,” Sarah said.

“Buff? Buff!” Allie exclaimed. “These guys were monsters—like on steroids or something.”

“Calm down,” Val said laughing, flexing. “All Valkyries fill out the more they fly and do airlift reps—got that crazy Viking thing going on. Have to be able to dead-weight lift a man off the battlefield at full velocity. Valkyries are the best athletes in the school.” Val rolled his shoulders and strutted a bit. “By Upper Sphere, I’m gonna be cut like…ridiculous.”

“Focus,” Sarah said with a big smile, jettisoning the enticing image of an even buffer Val from her mind. “Okay…so what if the night the four of us got attacked someone came in from the outside, someone who knew the codes?”

“I could see that,” Val said calmly, walking toward the boiler room. “But how’d he get away? Once the water rushed in, it would be impossible to open the door against the water pressure.”

“Yeah, but look at the walls,” Allie said, running her hand along a series of vertical metal tracks that marked the hall on the way to the boiler room. “They’d’ve thought of everything, so wouldn’t they have some kind of safety doors between the ocean mural and the boiler room?”

“Hell yeah,” Val said, running over to where Allie stood. “The doors leading in and out are built like nautical hatches, so before you get to them, there’d be a series of spinner-sealed off the boiler room and preserve the heating and cooling systems.”

“Which means that whoever attacked us had time to get to the hatch and then the drop-downs went back up automatically once the water receded.” Sarah pulled out her scrunchie and walked back and forth, opening her mind, focusing on the face of the dead Valkyrie with the beautiful gray eyes.

But his wasn’t the face she saw. The attacker’s traces were faint echoes now, like visual whispers. What she did see made her hug the wall. It was huge, hunchbacked and feral—and it had definitely came through the back door. The moment the fear slammed her system, she saw Beep and Bop peek out of a corner.

“It’s okay,” she said to her Collectors, knowing that no one else could see.

“You okay?” Val asked hesitantly, watching her cringe against the wall like she’d seen a ghost and then walk over to the code pad.

“I’m sure they changed the code for security purposes once those kids got killed, Sarah,” Allie said, though she sounded unsure. She hung back as Val hurried to Sarah’s side.

When Sarah spoke, her voice sounded very far away. “But if you could hear like a dog, or a wolf…”

“I’m part vamp,” Val said proudly. “I hear pretty good, like the best of the Audios, and no worse than Al and Miguel. Heard his fingers hit the pads and then did a little stealth to watch his movements.”

“You saw the code pattern when Titan Troy put it in this morning?”

Val smiled. “That was gonna be my secret, but, yeah…I think I mighta seen a li’l somethin’.”

“Put it in,” Sarah said, looking at him.

Allie walked away. “All this sounds way too personal.”

Val gave a low, sexy chuckle and punched in the code. Allie and Sarah stared in amazement as the tumblers clicked.

“Oh, you are dangerous,” Allie said, impressed.

“Criminal,” Val said with a wicked half-grin.

“Can you open the door?” Sarah looked at him. “No offense, but that thing that attacked Al looked really, really strong, like Titan Troy strong, and even he had to really try to get the thing open.”

“I got it, no offense taken,” Val said, but he definitely sounded like he’d taken offense anyway.

Straining, his sneakers sliding on the ground in fits and squeaks, he pushed against the hatch spinners.

“But somebody with werewolf strength could get that open, if they had the code, right?” Sarah asked.

“I said I got it,” Val said between clenched teeth, and slowly but surely, the huge spinner began to turn as the door eerily creaked open. “See,” he said between heavy breaths. “No problem.”

“Look, man, it’s almost dusk, and they’re gonna be doing roll call right before dinner,” Wil said, standing on the platform under the library with Alejandro, Donnie and Tami.

“I don’t know if this is a good idea,” Tami said, craning her neck and shielding her eyes against the last of the sun.

“Listen, just be cool,” Al said, and then kissed her quickly before turning back toward Wil. “Plenty of time for me to make a reconnaissance flight as long as you and Donnie work together to try to get a beacon inside the perimeter, and Ayana’s girls and Miguel go on keeping old Mojo mind stunned over there.” He nodded in their direction.

“One flight only, on this side of the dead zone, and hurry up before the light goes and you lose visual,” Wil warned.

“I’ve got night vision, dude. Don’t worry. Just juice up Donnie’s and my PIUs and see if you can get a pulse back from the ones that’re out there.”

“Be careful, okay?” Tami said in a worried voice.

“I got this, baby.” Al gave her a dashing smile. “All Neteru warrior,” he said, slapping his bare chest.

Wil stood next to Donnie. “Al, man, I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Hey, guys, before you lock the hatch, could we go see ‘em?” Allie’s eyes searched Val’s and Sarah’s faces, her voice so plaintive that they both smiled.

“They are really beautiful,” Sarah said, hoping Val would humor her friend. But as she stood there, and the more she thought about it, a crazy plan began to hatch in her mind. “What if we talked to Mr. Milton about taking the Pegasus out with his Peguni to do a fly over to look for—”

“Are you crazy?” Val said. “You’re scaring me, because you’re sounding too much like your brother.”

“Come on, Sarah,” Allie said, looking between her and Val, “Be serious. Like, that’s why Aunt Valkyrie and your mom are out there covering the area from the air. Seasoned warriors, okaaay.”

Sarah’s shoulders slumped. “All right. Fine. It was just an idea. I hate feeling like we’re all helpless, and the only person taking action—my brother—is taking the totally wrong action.”

“If you’re gonna do something insane, I’m out.” Val folded his arms over his chest.

“Me, too,” Allie said, stomping a foot. “The only way I’m going out there is if we’re just going to look at the beautiful horses, not try to attempt a raid with them. Promise me, Sarah.”

“Okay, okay,” Sarah muttered. “It was just an idea, like I said.”

Allie’s shoulders relaxed. “I bet they are really pretty.”

“They’re magnificent,” Sarah said, staring toward the door.

Val shrugged and looked up the steep steps. “Okay, but it’s getting late, so it’d hafta be a quick run. And that door is really hard to open, so…I don’t know. I don’t have a flashlight, so when I shut the hatch behind us, it’s lights out till we get to the top, and that’s assuming I can get the hatch up there open—could take a while.”

“Can’t you just leave this one cracked while we run up, see the stables, then come right back.” Allie’s pleading gaze went from Sarah to Val.

“It would be easier,” Val said, considering the battle he’d fought to open the door.

“That’s a hell of a security risk,” Sarah said. “I dunno.”

“All right,” Allie said, dejected. “Some other time, like five years from now, when they lift the outdoor ban.”

“What could it hurt, Sarah?” Val said, letting out a long breath. “Right now, while every staff member and most of security is in emergency meetings or working round the clock on research, this is the emptiest I’ve seen the halls. No reason for any students to come here even without the place being on lockdown. If there was ever a time to go for it, it would be now, and I think Mr. Milton would be cool with us coming.”

“Do you see anything?” Donnie yelled into his PIU, squinting toward the waning sun.

“No,” Al radioed back, diving low enough to buzz the fields.

“Tell him to come on, call him back,” Wil said in an urgent tone. “This was stupid, and it’s not gonna work.

Donnie pointed at Al. “You see how strong he is? You see that wingspan? Like…those aren’t Valkyrie wings, his mom is part Powers Angel. Those wings don’t even get dirty.”

“Call your buddy back before I do!” Wil said, then dropped the Tactical magnetic charge he was creating and that was arcing between his PIU and Donnie’s. “I’m serious. Before he gets hurt.”

“All right, fine,” Donnie said, and then spoke into his unit. “Wil said to come back. He wants to stop—and if he convinces Ayana’s girls to stop, Miguel won’t be able to keep Mojo stunned by himself.”

“Tell Wil to stop being a wuss,” Al shouted back, squinting. “I see something moving, man. Something right near the edge of the dead zone.”

“Tell your boy to get away from there!” Wil shouted. “It’s demon distortion. The forest is crawling. If he gets too close, the negative magnetic pull will drag him in like a whirlpool! Get him outta there!”

“I know they say three times a charm, but three times in one day?” Mr. Milton smiled at Sarah even as he shook his head. “Well, your friend is in for a surprise—I just brought them all in, barn’s full.”

Delighted Allie ran behind Mr. Milton, but Sarah and Val hung back. Sarah wanted to ask him about potentially using the horses to help create a wider search party, but the look on Val’s face made her temporarily hold her thoughts.

“That was nice, what you did for her. She really feels left out, with ‘Cinth sick and everything. This means a lot to her.” Sarah stepped in close to Val, glad he hadn’t put his shirt back on, and touched the dark bruise on his face. This time he didn’t pull away. “I’m so sorry. I wish I had healing powers like my mom so I could just erase what Al did. He was wrong.”

“You do have healing powers,” Val said quietly, staring down at her.

“I was gonna ask you about that, laddie—quite a shiner. Who gave it to ya?” Mr. Milton said, surprising them with his proximity and raising his eyebrows in a way that made Sarah and Val jump apart.

“Long story, sir,” Val said, clearing his throat and walking down the barn’s center aisle.

“Always is, laddie,” Mr. Milton said thoughtfully.

“Oh, my goodness!” Allie exclaimed, running from one stall to another. “They’re beautiful!”

“Watch out for—”

Allie’s scream made every animal in the barn erupt in whinnies and start kicking their stall doors. She hit the ground butt first as Sophocles charged out of his pen, pawing the ground, clearly ready for war.