Shadow Walker (Neteru Academy Books) (32 page)

“Seriously?” Tami said, eyebrows raised. “You guys scored that up here?”

“You’re joking, right?” Sarah said. “I can’t imagine Nana stocking the school with birth control.”

“She doesn’t,” Bebe said calmly. “This is why the Clavs might dislike us, but they don’t mess with us. Not even Melissa and Patty—and Melissa and her crew just got cut off for messing with you guys. Trust me. We heard all about it.”

Andrea nodded and leaned in with conspiratorial glee. “I can’t wait till one of them has to come to us for a favor—boy, will they be surprised!”

“We hold more weight around here, literally and figuratively,” Jessica said with a hearty chuckle, “than they do and they can’t stand it. The T-Rex’s worship us, Specs revere us, Ollies genuflect as we pass in the halls, and my dear Audios are at our beck and call for spy service night and day. They hate that we outrank them by creating strategic collaborations. We run the student government and most clubs, except athletics. We get everyone’s vote. No matter what you may have heard, being a Blend means you have stepped into a sorority of entrepreneurs of the highest order. We’ve got a sure-fire barrier mix that’s soaked into a little sea sponge plug that goes up you know where when you need it, and, voila! You’re safe.” Jessica met Andrea and Bebe’s fists with her own.

“But, but…” Sarah stuttered. “What if it didn’t work one time?”

The older girls laughed at her good naturedly, and slung an arm over her shoulders.

“You don’t have to do it or use it, personal choice—abstinence is the only hundred-percent method… but you need to know options exist, kiddo. I know your parents told you the basic biology, but it wasn’t like they were giving you access to a pharmacy, am I right?” Jessica said, and then gave Sarah a hug.

Bebe looked around the group with a wide grin. “You can come to us, or you could try to wait till one of the Uppers comes back from town with some condoms, which they always steal from the drug store, but that’s a long shot.”

Tami gave Jessica a sidelong glance, while Bebe added sooty smudges and fake bloodstains to her newly-ripped jeans. “So, uh… if I needed something, I could, like—”

“Come to Mama,” Jessica said laughing. She raised an eyebrow. “Stefan’s got you wide open, huh?”

“Well—”

“She’s not sleeping with him!” Sarah said, cutting Tami off.

“Gee, thanks, Mom,” Tami muttered, and shook her head.

“Okay, my bad,” Sarah replied in a sullen tone, trying to quickly pull herself together. But the very thought had sent a bolt of dread through her.

A look of pure satisfaction lit Jessica’s eyes as she finished Allie’s face and began working on Sarah’s. “But keep in mind that we’re the secret society of school pharmacists, you got that?”

“What Jessica is trying to say,” Andrea added with a dramatic sigh, “is that we’ll get in
big
trouble if Headmistress Stone finds out we’re making more than cosmetics.”

“Yep… just like Ernie and his best Blends buds make the best jewelry from hacked auto parts that get brought back from the outside. The guy is talented. Don’t let those beady little eyes and the weak chin fool you,” Bebe said with a wide smile.

“You guys don’t make. . .stronger stuff. . .do you?” Sarah asked cautiously.

“We don’t do black market drugs, if that’s what you’re asking,” Jessica said, cutting her off and looking at each new girl hard. “No mind-altering anything. Somebody else has that angle covered, and it’s a foul business. Stay away from that mess. Now be still.”

Jessica began to work on her make-up again.

Relief swept through Sarah. At least Jessica and her crew weren’t hanging out with Stefan and Brent, or doing and selling anything really crazy.

“Ok, you’re done,” Jessica said, and then spun Sarah around with triumphant flair. “Looking undead on arrival. You like?”

“Wow…” It was all Sarah could say as she stared at her sooty eyes and wild hair.

Bebe laughed. “Now toss me your jeans and your shirt. We’ll have you tricked out in a minute.”

This time ,when they entered the caf, they had a different walk. Confidence was their new outfit, and attitude came with it. They passed Miss Tittle fussing at Headmistress Stone about the lyrics of some song or other, but Sarah worked hard not to catch her grandmother’s eyes. The music thrummed through her body as a new wave of swagger thrummed through her spirit.

“These lyrics!” Miss Tittle argued in the shrill voice. “I know the outlawed bands supposedly have message music, but, Headmistress, really!”

“I don’t listen to the lyrics, I just listen to the beat,” Headmistress Stone said in a weary voice as Sarah and her crew passed by. “That’s what keeps me from getting a migraine. We had our day, Miss Tittle, so let them have theirs.”

Sarah and the others hurried to the beverage bar and grabbed cups of cold punch—it was a way of making a new entrance pass all the cute guys, a move that Bebe had highly recommended—and then they slowly promenaded to an open table that Jessica had scoped out. Melissa and her friends looked like they were about to die. Life was good.

Laughing to herself at their coup when male heads turned, Sarah took a sip from her cup and smiled. Val gave her a surprised look from across the room, and her brother, squinted, leaned forward and seemed torn, as though he was about to get up and come over, when Miguel put a hand on his shoulder.

“We look hot to death,” Tami whispered to Sarah, and then squeezed her elbow.

“Yeah…” Sarah said, glancing around. She felt her heart sink when she didn’t see Wil anywhere. Had he gotten angry and left?

The girls continued their conversation without missing a beat, giving each other the low-down on the newest music, who was dating who, but a male presence changed everything, so heads lifted and the girls parted as Stefan came up to their table.

Tami turned slowly with a big smile, but Sarah reached out in reflex to block the shadow that hung off him. It reached out as if it had claws, continuing to swath his entire body even as inky tendrils headed right for Tami’s throat. Sarah frantically swiped at them, trying to arrest the progress of the darkness.

Stefan looked down and scowled. “What’s your problem, newbie?”

“I—I thought I saw something,” Sarah stammered, glancing up at him and then around the table.

“Like what?” he said in a low rumble. “Me coming over here to break your girl out of this hen fest?”

Sarah looked around for support, but apparently no one else saw anything. Stefan turned his attention to Tami. “You wanna get out of here?”

“Uhmmm…. Well, like, sure,” she said, and then stood. “Where do you wanna go?”

“Around,” Stefan said coolly. “Maybe some places they didn’t show you on the school tour.”

“Cool… I’m game.” Tami moved away from the table. “I’ll be back later, guys.”

“Tami, wait—” Sarah broke off, then watched, mute, as her girlfriend left.

Tami threw Melissa a triumphant look before she disappeared through the door with Stefan. Melissa and Al were matching storm clouds on the horizon.

The Upper Spheres at the table said nothing, just grinned.

“Tell me she’ll be all right,” Sarah said, mostly talking to herself.

“He won’t make her do anything she doesn’t wanna do, if that’s what you’re asking,” Jessica said, laughing.

“No, I’m serious,” Sarah said. “That guy has darkness around him…. What if he. . .I don’t know… forces her to do something with him?”

“If you haven’t noticed, the last thing Stefan has to do is force anyone into doing anything,” Andrea said with a patronizing smile. “Three quarters of the women in this caf would pay to be in Tami’s shoes.”

“Yeah,” Jess said with a smirk. “The darkness you saw was probably horniness.”

The older girls at the table laughed, but Allie and Hyacinth were silent, their eyes holding enough worry to make Sarah stand.

“Screw it, I don’t trust him,” she said as she got up from the table. She knew everyone was looking at her. She didn’t care if she made a scene or did something stupid. Tami was in trouble; she could feel it in her bones.

Even if she just said what was on her mind in front of Stefan to let him know that, if her girlfriend came back with one hair out of place, one scratch on her that she didn’t want, she’d be sure to make his life a living hell… that was her mission. To let that arrogant Upper Spheresman know that somebody was watching, somebody cared.

Sarah hurried out after Tami and then paused in the hallway, trying to gauge which direction Tami and Stefan had gone in.

“Finished dancing?” a voice said.

She whirled around to see Wil leaning against the wall, legs crossed at the ankles. He pushed off the wall and walked over to her.

Sarah put a hand over her heart. “I didn’t see you there. You scared me.”

“Yeah… it was obvious that I was invisible to you while you were dancing with your homeboy.”

She so did not have time for this right now. “Val is like my brother. Gimme a break,” she said, waving Wil off.

He caught her by her arm to keep her from leaving.

Still upset, she spun on him and yanked her arm away. “I have to find Tami. She went off with Stefan and—”

“Okay, okay, calm down.” Wil put a hand on her face, and his expression changed from one of challenge to concern. “We’ll find her together. Nobody is supposed to be wandering off alone anymore,” he said, gazing into her eyes. “What do you think he’s going to do to her?”

“I don’t know! Maybe nothing, but I have to find her.” Sarah could feel herself getting worked up again. They were wasting precious time.

“All right,” Wil said, taking Sarah’s hand. “Come on. I’ll help you look.”

W
il took her through back hallways, hidden corridors and stairwells she’d never explored before. Beyond lost, all she could do was stay on his heels. But then she recognized the classroom level of the school and her pulse began to normalize. Okay, familiar ground, and nowhere too scary.

“Listen,” Wil said to her in a quiet tone, stopping for a moment to catch his breath while holding her arm.

Sarah strained to hear, and after a few seconds she heard Tami’s voice, heard her girlfriend giggling. Relief swept though Sarah and made her slump against the wall next to Wil.

“Thanks,” she said in a near whisper, now feeling completely foolish for her panic. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back, wishing she could just slide into the mural on the wall and disappear.

“It’s cool…. I know she’s your friend, and it’s okay to be worried about a friend.”

Sarah looked up at Wil, keeping her voice low like his. “I know it was stupid, but I just don’t trust him.”

Wil nodded and didn’t tease her. “You’re right to trust your instincts… something’s not right with him, that’s for sure.”

“Glad it isn’t just me,” Sarah said, straightening. She looked up and down the corridor. “But how’d you know he’d come here and not the library… or the Great Hall, or somewhere else?”

Wil offered her a sheepish grin. “If I tell you, I swear, Sarah, you cannot tell anybody, especially none of the school officials.”

She stepped closer to Wil and glanced around the vacant hallway, and then looked up into his honest eyes. “I promise,” she murmured, but it was more than words, it was a sacred oath.

He clasped her hand in one of his broad palms and then put a finger to his lips, leading her to a classroom door. Sarah peered in through the window at the top of the door but saw nothing except a large, dark swirling gray mass in the back of the room that obscured the second blackboard, chairs and part of the wall.

“Whoa…”

“Yeah,” Wil whispered. “They went in there.”

Sarah turned to him quickly, seeking answers in his expression, and then looked back through the closed classroom door.

“It’s a portal to town,” Wil said in a conspiratorial tone. “Right now, faculty is keeping a sharp eye on the Shady Path in the library, the Great Hall… most of the places everybody goes to so they can… you know—do whatever. So those are hot zones. But last month a couple of Uppers figured out how to pull the portal they found in town into Mr. Everett’s Inter-dimensional Shift classroom. Nobody monitors the classroom halls at night, especially tonight, during the luau.”

“Are you serious?” Sarah’s gaze went from the swirling mass to stare directly at Wil.

He looked at her and smiled, seeming pleased that he was able to offer her new information. “Yeah, pure truth,” he said stepping closer. “But it’s dangerous to go through unless you know how to fend off anything that could have been swept up in there.”

New worry creased Sarah’s brow, but Wil quickly allayed her fears.

“Word in the dorm is, Stefan practically grew up here—that’s why he’s more advanced than a lot of us. He’s not going to let your friend get hurt.”

“Yeah… but I wasn’t so much worried about the dark side, I was worried about
him
.”

Wil chuckled. “It’s like an echo chamber—if she were in trouble or screaming, you’d hear it on this end… and last we heard, your friend was laughing.”

“Yeah, she was.”

“I’m in Shadows,” Wil said in a casual tone. “And… I grew up in a pretty tough compound. If you really wanna see that she’s okay, we could take a quick whirl and come back.”

“Uhmmm… I don’t know. We haven’t even been in school a full week, and we’d be breaking a major rule.”

Wil shrugged. “We’d only stay for, like, ten minutes, just to be sure your friend was all right. They’d never miss us. And if you’re worried about an attack or anything, you’ll have a Shadow with you.”

The way he said it so calmly, without boasting, yet with no pressure for her to go along if she didn’t want to, would have made going to the moon with him seem all right.

“Ten minutes? You promise?”

Wil beamed. “You have my word. Ten minutes.”

“Okay…” Sarah said, nervously peering at the gray vortex. “What do we have to do?”

Wil clasped her hand. Again, there was that warm, firm, wonderful touch that was so awesome she felt lightheaded.

“Just walk forward with me and then hold on.”