Shadow Walker (Neteru Academy Books) (21 page)

Sarah giggled. “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Anansi. Forgive my friend Allie. Are you the librarian?”

Several unintelligible squeaks preceded Miss Tillie’s protest.

“Oh, heavens no, child. Mr. Anansi is much too busy spinning new stories to actually maintain interaction with students, just as I am too busy keeping the shelves ship-shape. Mrs. Hogan is responsible for you students, her being a faery godmother, and all…. That reminds me. If you’d like a job to earn some class extra credits, this is one of the most fascinating places in the entire academy.”

“Thanks, but I’ll pass,” Tami said, rolling her eyes.

“Ummmm…we really should see what our workload is going to be like before committing,” Allie said in a small voice, staying as far away from Mr. Anansi as possible. “But thanks for the offer.”

“Dear child, no insult intended,” Miss Tillie said, “but I think our library residents would protest unless you were able to control your tactical proclivities. However, if your friend is interested…” Miss Tillie trained her independently moving eyes on Sarah and waited.

Sarah glanced around her. It was indeed the most incredible library she’d ever seen. If she could master this place, maybe she could even get an early pass into the Tehuti Library. Being able to get up into The Dollar Bill would be awesome.

“I’m in…I mean, yes, I’d like to work here, if they have an opening,” Sarah said. She paid no mind to Tami’s incredulous look.

Allie’s eyes were wide, but she nodded, her expression saying good thinking without words.

“Wonderful, excellent,” Miss Tillie crooned, slowly moving along the edge of the shelf. “I shall inform Mrs. Hogan the moment she returns.” She stopped and frowned at the shelf. “Never enough time to fight this on-going battle with the motes… Just write your name and room number in the dust in front of me and I shall relay the message. See, Mr. Anansi, not all of these children are, ahem, daft.”

Sarah remembered the other reason why she’d wanted to visit the library. “Ah, ma’am,” she said, walking closer to the retreating snail. “I need to look up a word I heard.
Nexse.
Can you tell me where there’s an ancient or mystic language translator?”

Miss Tillie stopped and gazed at Sarah with both bulbous eyes. Sarah ignored her friends’ quizzical looks and focused on the snail, her heart beginning to beat more quickly.

“Nexse… nexse,”
Miss Tillie said. “Child, wherever did you hear that?”

“Ummmm…in a dream,” Sarah said evasively.

“Oh, then that makes complete sense,” Miss Tillie said in a cheerful voice. “It means awaken, wake up, arise and open your eyes in Coptic.”

Sarah blinked. “Really? Wow…Okay…thanks.”

Awaken? The being of Light had told her to awaken…but awaken to what?

“Come, I’ll show you to our translation section,” Miss Tillie said.

But before Sarah could accept her offer, Hyacinth’s voice rang out.

“Hey, I think I found something,” she called out. “This should be the right place, but it’s all gray down this aisle, no books and it’s getting foggier as I walk. Maybe the books are in a separate room—can one of you guys see if you can hit the lights back here?”

Sarah, Allie and Tami just looked at one another. They’d momentarily forgotten that Hyacinth was off exploring. But before they could call back to her, Mr. Anansi had scurried up a shelf and Miss Tillie released the most alarming squeak.

“No, no, no, child!” Miss Tillie cautioned as loud as one could expect a snail to manage. Her eye stalks flailed in every direction as she tried to propel herself forward more quickly, to no avail. “Call her back!” she said breathlessly. “That poor child is headed down The Shady Path—the astral projection realms for the Upper Spheres! It is the advanced classes section and forbidden to students who haven’t taken Mr. Everett’s white light barrier course! At her grade level, she must have an instructor or an Upper Sphere student with her, someone who is versed in the way of the path! She could get lost in there—or worse!”

Sarah took off down the aisle, calling Hyacinth’s name. Her heart was racing as each of her friends took a different aisle, shouting for Hyacinth at the tops of their lungs. Tiny shadows slipped from the bookshelves and combined to create two yawning stretching shadows that made Sarah gasp and skid to a stop. But the way they were bouncing up and down wasn’t wholly threatening.

Something in their urgent motion seemed almost like an appeal for her to follow them. Taking the risk, she followed their lead, even though they were urging her in a different direction, noting how this time she actually heard them squeak and squeal as though in delight.

They led her to a misty aisle, and when she hesitated, she felt something shove her forward and almost screamed. Then one of the shadows seemed to inhale, and instantly the mist began to clear away.

The moment it was gone, Sarah saw the open doorway that said Senior Reference and knew that was where Hyacinth had gone. “‘Cinth, you’ve gotta get out of there!” she called out. “
Now
! It’s dangerous!”

One of the long, stretchy shadows rushed to the door, as though urging her to go through it.

“I can’t see!” Hyacinth said in a far-away-echo voice.

“Okay,” Sarah said, trying not to hyperventilate. “Just stop walking. Tell me when you’ve stopped walking.”

“Okay, but I’m scared, Sarah!” Hyacinth yelled back.

“Think of me. Close your eyes and picture me in your mind. Use your Clav skills. I’m closing my eyes, too, so I can picture you.”

One of the shadows tugged on Sarah’s, and she moved gingerly through the door, gaining confidence with each step. The shadows were helping her find her friend. In a place where her ability to see in the dark was severely limited, the shadows were helping her to safely make her way forward like supernatural guide dogs.

“Okay, Sarah,” Hyacinth said in a shaky voice, “but it feels like there are other presences in here with me, and I really don’t want to close my eyes.”

“Bring the white light down around you—remember how Nana Marlene taught us at home? I’m going to think of a golden light around your white light. Then I’m thinking of the sealer we always do…c’mon, say it with me, just like Nana taught us. ‘In the name of the Most High of the Light, I am safe in all dimensions of time and space in which I exist on all planes and subplanes, and consciousness time zones.’”

Sarah waited until her friend repeated the words along with her, her voice sounding stronger as she spoke.

“All right. Now, nothing can hurt you, so you can close your eyes.”

“Okay, Sarah…I can see you standing by the door. But there’s a big spider beside you.”

“He’s cool—that’s Mr. Anansi. It’s not a dark side illusion.”

“I can see Tami running down the aisle, and Allie is behind her. There’s a snail back where you guys were before, and—”

Sarah caught a brief glimpse of a shadow in the shape of a girl, reached out into the mist and pulled hard the minute she connected with something solid. Then Hyacinth was in her arms. She wrapped her own arms tightly around her friend and dragged her away from the open doorway.

When they were far enough away that she felt safe, Sarah allowed them to collapse to the floor, their backs against a bookcase. As soon as they caught their breath, she blurted out, “Ohmigod, ‘Cinth—no matter what, don’t go through unknown doorways around here by yourself. Are you crazy?”

The shadows that had been in the aisle with her jumped up and down as though they were also fussing, but Sarah couldn’t spare any attention for them now.

“I didn’t think there could be any danger in a freakin’ library, Sarah! I thought I was going to find something that could help us,” Hyacinth said, burying her face against Sarah’s shoulder. “It was so dark and scary in there.”

Tami and Allie bumped into them as the large spider scampered away.

“There’s so much we don’t know about this place. If anything seems questionable, wait for backup, okay?” Sarah pushed Hyacinth away so she could look her in the eyes. “Safety first. Always.”

“We left Miss Tillie screaming on the shelf. We’d better go tell her you’re all right before she has a heart attack or pops out of her shell,” Tami said, then glanced at Allie, Sarah and Hyacinth, who all just stared at her. “What? I’m just saying.”

Suddenly two large figures loomed in the doorway, then moved forward with such velocity that there wasn’t even time to scream. In seconds, Tami’s mystery man somersaulted to a stop beside them as his blond buddy came sliding out on his backside, laughing. Sarah stared at them both hard, remembering that the blond kid had been sitting close to Ayana during opening ceremonies.

The shadows made scary faces, but then squealed and jumped back into the bookshelves, intermittently peeking out. Sarah glanced up at them once, but she didn’t want to draw attention to her connection with them, so she turned away from them quickly. One of her tag-along shadows had actually stuck out its tongue at the two boys.

“Whew, what a rush!” the athletic blond guy said, rolling over and doing a hard pushup off the floor.

“Sweet,” Tami’s mystery man added, back-flipping up to his feet. He smiled at her. “Long time no see, newbie.”

Tami smiled and looked down. He moved toward her, and Sarah’s focus was split between the threatening presence she sensed behind the door, Tami and the guy slowly stalking her. Allie and Hyacinth were no help—they were huddled against a bookcase holding each other and looking confused.

The blond Adonis chuckled under his breath as gray eyes lifted Tami’s chin with one finger. “You ever take a walk on the dark side, babe?”

“No,” Tami said, trying to sound tough.

“If you’ve got the right tour guide, it can be a lotta fun. I heard you have a little vamp in you.” He smiled and then ran his finger down the side of her neck.

Tami gave him a sexy smile and lowered her voice to a husky murmur. “A little bit… on my mother’s side.”

“A little bit is all I need.”

“Hey, you’re Ayana’s little cousin, aren’t you?” the blond guy said, looking at Sarah.

“Yeah,” Sarah said uncomfortably.

“Impressive performance earlier—a Neteru kid making it all the way into Blends division, go figure,” he said with a smirk, clearly letting her know that he didn’t think she’d been impressive at all.

The dislike between them was instant and palpable.

“Hey, Tam, we’ve gotta get back to our room and, uh…finish doing stuff,” Allie said, sounding lame as she tried her best to get them away from obvious trouble.

“In a minute,” Tami said, clearly enjoying flirting.

Sarah’s stare bored into the guy with the gray eyes, and flashes of Melissa stabbed into her mind. There was a connection there; she just didn’t know what it was. She slowly dragged her focus to the door. Behind that door were secrets. But she wasn’t strong enough to get more than fragments. It wasn’t like when she was at home on familiar ground, listening to unblocked conversations with her brother helping.

That was when it hit her. The Upper Spheres had blocked all eavesdropping and scrying…not just one-on-one, it was such a blackout of information that it had to have been done as a group. So, that was how it was done around here, huh. Groups. And it made sense, if students were sneaking doing stuff they weren’t supposed to right under the noses of some of the strongest telepathic teachers on the planet. Okaaay. She’d just learned something valuable, and she would ask Ayana for more details later. Sarah returned her focus to the boys and frowned.

“Why don’t you tell your girls you’ll catch ‘em later?” Gray Eyes murmured in Tami’s ear, his body pressed tightly against hers as he gently pressed her against the stacks.

Was this guy seriously going to make out with Tami right in front of them? And was Tami seriously going to let him? What the hell was wrong with Tami when it came to this guy? It was like she fell under some kind of spell that left her stuck on stupid.

“Because we roll as one squad,” Sarah said calmly, getting to her feet. She grabbed Tami’s arm and looked the guy square in the face. “And we don’t know you.”

“The name’s Stefan, and I’m trying to get to know her better,” he said with a chuckle, holding his hands up in front of his chest.

Alarm bells went off in Sarah’s head. That was the name she’d picked up from Melissa’s mind when they first clashed. “How about you do that another time?” she said, giving him a hard look.

“Sarah…” Tami said in a whiny tone she’d never heard her friend use in her life.

Taken aback, Sarah let go of Tami and stubbornly folded her arms. She was so not leaving her best friend here with only a big spider and a snail to keep her safe.

“I don’t want to get into a beef with you, fang girl,” Stefan said to Sarah. “I might accidentally have to show you mine.” He gave her a slow smile. “And trust me, babe, mine are bigger.”

“You sure about that?” Sarah said, lifting her eyebrow.

“Aw, man, leave the newbies alone. You wouldn’t want the Neteru twins to call Mommy or Daddy, would you?” the blond guy said, laughing.

“I’m so glad you crack yourself up,” Sarah snapped, trying to hide her embarrassment. So that was what everyone thought—the moment any of the kids from the Net-pound had a problem, they’d snitch to their parents?

“Be cool,” Tami said, frowning at Sarah. “Forgive my roommate,” she said to the boys. “She’s just a little overprotective.”

Sarah looked at Tami in disbelief. Her best friend had just thrown her under the bus for this slimy Casanova?

Stefan stared at Sarah for a moment with a triumphant smirk. “You and I are cool… I just like your girl,” he added, slowly allowing his upper and lower canines to crest.

Sarah just stared back at him for a moment, vaguely aware that Allie and Hyacinth were as dumbstruck as she was. His
were
bigger, and he had a double set, too—like Headmaster Shabazz. Shit…

He gave her a wolfish grin, allowed his canines to go back to normal, then leaned in and kissed the side of Tami’s neck. It was a slow, sensuous caress that made her blush and giggle.

“Later,” he murmured. “We’ll get to know each other when you don’t have a bodyguard.” He backed off and gave his friend a swift nod.