Shadow Walker (Neteru Academy Books) (12 page)

But even though the man had hailed her dad like he was a friend, Sarah noticed her father only stepped forward a little. The men were eye-to-eye in seconds, clasping each other by their right forearms in a warrior’s handshake.

“Long time,” her father said, but, oddly, he didn’t smile. He released the man’s arm and stood a little taller.

“Long time, Rivera. You and your lovely wife have to visit Italy soon.” He beamed at Sarah’s mother. “I know we no longer use the old names for the places that once were, but some habits die hard.”

Sarah’s mother offered him a cautious smile in return. “I understand and hate using the new city names too. It seems to give in to their illegitimate power to have restructured the world.”

“Yes, and that’s why we’re all still fighting.” He offered her a slight bow with an even wider grin before looking at Sarah’s father again. “The Mediterranean is beautiful this time of year. Vatican City is almost rebuilt. Resources are plentiful. Way better than the water-logged, burned-out place in that Massachusetts-Connecticut complex I used to own.” Without waiting for her father’s reply, he turned to her mother again, but this time took up her hand. “And of course we’d love to host the legendary huntress. As always, I am honored.”

So this guy was a fake Italian imported from the US mainland? No wonder her father wasn’t feeling him at all. Sarah could sense her father’s energy bristle as she spied the man’s expensive watch, and she looked at the soft leather slip-on shoes and fine linen suit again. What kind of warrior wore that kind of get-up? One thing for sure, the man had airs and was getting under her father’s skin.

“Thank you,” her mother said with an arched eyebrow, and then calmly extracted her hand. “I hear your boy is coming this year.”

“Yes,” the man boasted, sticking out his barrel chest farther. “Wil placed right in on the Varsity track team plus tested strong in dual talent divisions—Tactical and Specials—so the old water dragon finally made up her mind, recognized the boy’s genius and put him in Specials. Then she looked at his scores again and put him right in the Shadows corps.”

“Counselor Zehiradangra,” her mother corrected with a narrowed gaze, ignoring all of the man’s prattle about his son’s accomplishments. “Not ‘the old water dragon.’”

“
Perdonarlo,
lovely Neteru, I forgot that you are still close to your oracle. I meant no harm, but she is a bit…pazzesco.”

“This is our daughter, Sarah,” her mother said, allowing the slight against her old friend to pass without further comment. “And this is my niece Tami— Jack Rider and Tara’s girl—you’ve met them—and my nieces Hyacinth and Allie. This is Mr. Archer.”

The girls muttered hello, waved with the tips of their fingers and gave the man tight smiles.

“
Bella, bella,
pleased to meet you, young ladies.” He smiled at her mother again, and then turned away to glance toward the cars. “As soon as Wil gets his gear, I’ll have to introduce you to my boy. Nothing like a son, right, Rivera?”

Sarah almost thought she heard her father growl. As she glanced across the courtyard, trying to figure out which kid could possibly be Mr. Archer’s son, she saw her uncles frowning. Her uncle Jack was chewing a stick the way he always did when he wanted a cigarette in the worst way. Uncle Yonnie’s fangs were showing, and Uncle Mike was rolling his shoulders like he was loosening them up for a heavyweight bout. The rest of her aunts and uncles were passing dirty looks between them. Apparently there was bad blood between this Mr. Archer and her family.

“So, what’s going on with the Rogue-class Guardians who’ve gone missing around town?” Mr. Archer asked. “We all have a right to know, given that there have never been disappearances like this so close to the school. Plus, I heard two students bought it? I also heard that there’s a countrywide dragnet out, since some witches and Fae are missing, too. It’s as if—”

“Michael,” her mother interrupted, glancing around at the girls, “this is a discussion for a sealed area.”

“Right—not in front of the kids,” he said, with an awkward shrug. “But sooner or later they’re going to have to learn to hunt, and that tragedy is just a part of life. Can’t shield them forever. I would have taken Wil on a demon excursion if I had a lead on where it came from. I take my boy hunting with me all the time. Hell, your kids should be veterans of at least one demon hunt by now, given that they grew up in the Neteru compound.”

“What risks you take with your kid is your business,” her father said through his teeth, eyes changing. “Meanwhile, the situation is under investigation, and we’re coordinating with Guardian teams across the globe.” He gave Archer a pointed look. “We’re not ruling anything out—including Morrigan involvement.”

“Whoa… Morrigan? That’s big,” Archer said. “So does that mean the missing are presumed dead?”

Sarah stopped breathing as she felt her parents’ fears snake through her. Kids had died. They were only looking for bodies now, not the missing. Oh, God! No wonder her parents had been so freaked out at breakfast this morning.

“Now you know exactly why you don’t take untrained kids on a mission like that,” her mother said coolly, without answering his question, and then glanced at the girls. “You don’t take them hunting when you aren’t sure what predator you’re after. As my husband said, it’s still under investigation.”

Archer allowed a smug half-smile to creep onto his face before he cast a look of pity in Sarah’s direction. “Understandable why you wouldn’t take your child on a hunt. My apologies. Again, perdonarlo.”

Quiet tension strangled the group for a few seconds.

“So how’s the rest of your team?” her mother finally interjected.

Archer swept up her mother’s hand and kissed the back of it. “Grazie for asking.”

Sarah’s silent prayer was simple: Dad, don’t start…not here. Even if the guy is a complete jerk. Sarah’s attention bounced between her father, her mother and the interloper who too slowly dropped her mother’s hand. Who was this dude, putting the moves on her mother and grating her father’s nerves? There was definitely some history here.

“There’s my boy,” Michael Archer announced with obvious pride.

The father might have been a self-important windbag, but the son…
Oh…my…God
, Sarah thought. She couldn’t have looked away if she’d tried.

“Hey, I’m Wil,” he said, striding up to the group and extending his hand toward Sarah first. “You new this year, too?”

She just nodded and shook his hand, loving the feel of it as she stared up into his sea-green eyes. Something about the warm slide of his palm against hers stopped her breath. A perfect jawline made a cleft in his chin, and it was clear that plenty of sunshine and exercise had added a beautiful copper glaze to his olive-toned skin. A thicket of black hair framed his handsome face, and his chiseled body reminded her of a Roman warrior.

“Come meet the Riveras and some of the kids from their compound,” Wil’s father boomed. “We fought together some time back when New York first got invaded. Our teams from Connecticut and Massachusetts reinforced their squads before the East Coast just got too bad.”

Carlos put two fingers in his mouth and whistled for Al and the boys to join them. Archer turned to greet the boys, and Carlos stepped closer to his wife. “That was a long time ago, and from all the Italian he’s dishing, you’d think he’d never been stateside,” Sarah’s father said, leaning down and muttering in her mother’s ear.

“This is Mr. Archer,” her mother said, employing diplomacy. She quickly introduced Al and the other boys. “And this is his son, Wil.”

Nervous energy finally made Sarah draw her hand out of Wil’s hold.

“This is my family,” Sarah said to Wil, feeling awkward.

“Nice to meet you,” he said in a pleasant tone, and then they shook hands all around.

“Is your daughter in Wil’s group?” Mr. Archer asked in his too-loud voice.

“No… not this year,” her mother said carefully.

“Well, what talent division do they have you in? Ah, wait, let me guess, Clairvoyant, I bet, like your beautiful mother?”

Humiliation tore at Sarah. “No, sir, actually, I’m a Blend.”

“No…” Mr. Archer said, recoiling, and then released a dramatic sigh as he turned to her dad. “Well. We can’t all be…special, can we, Rivera? Maybe some talent will evolve, but I would have thought for sure—”

“She’s still in the process of being tested, Archer.” Her dad’s eyes were turning silver at the edges, beginning to spark at the rims of his irises.

“It’s cool,” Wil said, giving his dad a quick frown before turning back to Sarah.

Her face felt warm. If she could just disappear… Then, to make matters worse, her brother slapped Wil five.

“Yo, man, I hear you’re in Specials division, too—can’t wait to see what you’ve got.” Al stood back and rubbed his chin with a wide grin on his face.

“Likewise, dude,” Wil said. “Heard you have a crazy flight pattern that nobody can touch.”

“I do a li’l something,” Al said, clearly pleased and nodding toward his friends. “Val’s not bad on the wind, either.” His smile grew wider as he nodded over at some girls he’d just been talking to. “Word travels fast, bro. Heard you were in the same compound with them for a while before Boston fell and that you have some serious tactical game yourself.” Although Al smiled, it was obvious in his tone he hadn’t expected to encounter a kid that could best him. Her brother drew himself up a little taller before delivering a compliment. “Enough to land you in Shadows.”

“Not too shabby.” Wil smiled and gave his dad a warrior’s handshake, then waved good-bye to the rest of them, his gaze remaining on Sarah for a moment. “Nice to meet you. See you inside.”

Wil’s smile lingered in her mind even after he’d turned away. It was a nice smile, a genuine one, just like his voice. It was so clear that he was nothing like his rich, boastful father. She watched him bound across the courtyard, her brother and the guys from their compound following in his wake, but felt her heart sink a little when she saw him quickly surrounded by Melissa Gray and her treacherous crew.

“Have they done medical tests to see what’s wrong with the girl?” Mr. Archer asked with false concern.

Her father was about to explode, she could tell, but her mom came to the rescue before her father could draw a breath—maybe before he could draw blood.

“Michael,” her mother diplomatically interrupted, “we really must get all these kids settled before they put us parents out. And as you can imagine, we’d like to spend as much time with them as possible. Please tell the members of your compound that we said hello.”

Sarah just stared after her mother for a moment as she turned on her heels and headed inside the Great Hall, sure that she wanted to get away from Wil’s father but not so sure what would be waiting for her at school.

S
arah, Tami and the rest of the gang crossed the huge courtyard and began the climb up the steps that led to the Great Hall. A gazillion thoughts pinged through Sarah’s brain as she made her way up the steep incline. They had already learned that students were missing, not just Guardians. But now they also knew that some of those students had died. Wil Archer’s dad had spilled the beans, and she could tell that her parents were as pissed off about that as they were about his airs. She couldn’t wait to get somewhere private so she and the girls could talk. But Wil… A quick stumble pulled Sarah’s focus back to the narrow incline, lest she miss a step and really fall.

The scene was at best organized chaos. Parents were trying to keep up, some much more agile than others. Inside the Great Hall at last, Sarah’s attention ricocheted from three hundred extremely curious and excited students to the strange beings sorting the students’ luggage according to dormitories.

Petite Panlike creatures held clipboards in their dainty hands, as their small, shiny hooves rang against the highly polished stone floors. Tiny faeries in rainbow hues double-checked luggage tags, while short, muscular elves kept a luggage assemblyline going out through a passageway.

Sarah and Tami shared a look. Their aunt Valkyrie was hovering about, smiling and excited as she reunited with old friends on the luggage detail. They’d all heard her speak of the Land of Nod—another dimension that existed alongside theirs—but they’d never actually seen a being from there. They’d just learned in home-school history that the veil between Nod and their own dimension had been torn in one of the bigger battles between the Light and Dark realms. Her mother had given sanctuary to many who once lived in Nod, and according to her parents, that was how Aunt Val met Uncle Yonnie—a Valkyrie and a Vampire, go figure. The bizarrely beautiful combination had made Valencio.

Ayana had told them a lot about what they could expect, but hearing about it and actually seeing it with her own eyes were two entirely different things. There was simply no way she could have prepared her mind for beings that seemed as though they’d stepped right out of the pages of an ancient mythology textbook.

Sarah glanced toward the hall entrance, where light poured in, wondering what other types of creatures her mother had given sanctuary to once the shielded dimension of Nod had imploded. It was so strange how all of the stories she had once blown off now had meaning, now had life. No one had really listened to Aunt Val’s tales about Nod before. Who wanted to sit around listening to a bunch of adults rehash the past? All the kids in the compound were always in a rush to do their own thing. But this… This was like watching fairy tale creatures magically come to life.

“Don’t stare—and they are
not
‘creatures,’” Hyacinth whispered, reaching around Allie and Tamara to squeeze Sarah’s elbow—hard. “They like to be called beings. They’re no more creatures than our Aunt Valkyrie is, so don’t even think of them that way. It’s rude.”

Sarah simply nodded, too overwhelmed to protest as she stared around the Great Hall. Massive stone walls surrounded them, polished until they shone like glass. Fast-moving gold- and silver-etched hieroglyphics told a story that she could only intuit in fits and starts, each wall and column bearing a different language from antiquity. Some she knew, but the quick rate at which the meanings went by made her temples throb.