Shadow Walker (Neteru Academy Books) (33 page)

Sarah took a deep breath and squeezed his hand. This was the wildest thing she’d ever done in her life. The rational side of her brain told her there were at least a hundred reasons why this made no sense. Then there was the other side of her mind, which was completely occupied by Wil.

He took a few slow steps forward, all the while keeping his intense sea-green gaze on her. Then suddenly he gave her a little tug, she squealed, and his arms enfolded her. The next thing she knew they were speed-spiraling down a long energy tube so quickly that she couldn’t catch her breath.

They came out with a soft thud, hitting a pile of hay in a barn. Wil threw his head back and laughed, hugging her. Sarah looked down, and then pried herself up and off his body.

“What a rush!” he said with a loud whoop, gazing up at her.

Truly, being pressed against him did feel divine, but embarrassment took over and made her get up and begin brushing dried hay off her jeans.

“Well?” he said, laughing.

Sarah had to smile and then all of a sudden laughter overtook her. “That was awesome! Crazy, but awesome.”

“C’mon,” Wil said, jumping up. “Let’s get some wheels and go find your girl.”

“Wheels?”

“Yeah. These border towns all have late model cars and trucks made just before the government started requiring GPS tracking chips, so the drivers can stay off the One World grid. We’ve gotta be a little careful when I zap it, though, because all the residents are armed to the teeth… but it should be cool if we borrow it and bring it right back.”

Wil didn’t even wait for her to answer or protest. He just jogged across the darkened barn, opened the door and peered out. Not wanting to be left in a dark, unfamiliar place, Sarah quickly caught up to him.

“Do you think that’s such a good idea? Borrowing somebody’s—”

“Sure, unless you wanna go the whole way through a dark town on foot?”

Since he’d put it that way…

Besides, Sarah said to herself, his tone was non-judgmental and calm. He didn’t make her feel dumb or like a baby. Wil just gave her the facts and let her decide if what he’d said made sense or not. She liked that about him, and it was so different than the way she was treated at home by every guy in the compound. Well, every guy except Val.

Sudden conflict tore at Sarah as she watched Wil scan the streets for a vehicle they could use. Val had always occupied a special place as best-friend-and-slight-crush rolled into one. It was so odd—she and Val had started off as tight friends when they were little, and had almost a brother-sister relationship… but as they got older, the feelings started getting confusing, like on the dance floor tonight. Yet now Wil was quickly gaining ground in the best-male-friend-ever department, even though there was no doubt that he’d begun as a chemical-reaction crush. He was such a hunk—and nice. Whew.

Catching Sarah off guard, Wil turned back toward her quickly and gave her another dashing smile. “See that late model Ford pick-up over there? That’s perfect.”

Sarah strained to follow where he’d gestured. “You mean that rusted out tin can?”

“That’s the one,” he said, smiling broadly. “Those are the easiest to hot wire. C’mon. Follow me, but stay in the shadows.”

If she’d been with anybody else, she would have told him that he’d lost his mind. Her? Sarah Rivera, staying in the shadows? But ducking down and running behind Wil seemed like the easiest thing to do.

He motioned for her to stay low as he pressed his palm against the door and a blue-white static charge crawled over the side of the rusted red metal door, making the locks pop up. He quietly opened the driver’s side door a crack, and then helped her up and in. Staying down, she slid across the wide, worn leather seat and waited as Wil popped in next to her, shut the door and wrapped both palms around the steering column.

“I love these old vehicles,” he said, staring at the blue static covering his hands. “No alarms, real basic wiring.”

Then all of a sudden the engine turned over. Wil popped up, threw the vehicle into gear and slowly rolled it away from the curb.

“Oh, my God… when did you learn how to drive?” Sarah whispered as they went around the corner.

Wil laughed. “You can stop whispering now. Nobody but me can hear you. And I learned in the country with my Dad. Had to.”

“Oh.”

Sarah sat up and looked out the window. Then she watched Wil hand crank his window down, and she followed suit, enjoying the balmy September night breeze as it buffeted her face and lifted her hair.

People were out in groups dressed in fatigues, thick wool wraps, and thermal underwear and army boots, and everyone openly carried a weapon. She was actually among regular humans!

The town was built from logs and rocks and mud. It reminded her of old prairie shows and Westerns from bootleg DVDs her dad would bring back to the compound. The roads were dirt, muddy in some low-lying places. She couldn’t stop gawking. This was the first time she’d been out in the world, and Wil had brought her. It was beyond mind-blowing.

“They probably only have a few stores. People don’t risk stockpiling inventory anywhere anymore,” Wil announced like a tour guide as they continued down the main strip. “If people have stuff to sell, they bring it out during the day and hawk it, and then they’re gone by night. Same with people selling food and water. It’s not like in the military-patrolled cities, where they have ridiculously high security. Things are on the honor system out here. Everybody knows pretty much everyone else, so if you steal something, they deal with you—frontier justice style.”

Sarah glanced over at Wil, hanging on his every word. She hoped that borrowing a truck wouldn’t be considered stealing it, if they got caught. The locals’ idea of justice didn’t sound good at all.

But the sights and sounds all around them stole her focus away from her fears. The adults in the compound had told her how there used to be clubs and movies and bowling alleys back in their day. These days, places like that were pretty-much gone, except in the government-run cities.

“Then what’s the big deal about coming here?” Sarah said after a moment, growing concerned again because she still hadn’t seen Tami.

“The bar,” Wil said with a wide grin, and then nodded toward a long log cabin at the end of a row of one-story buildings and ramshackle homes. “At night, this place is pretty desolate, I’ll grant you that. During the day you can buy stuff, eat, whatever. But at night, people are still scared of walkers, demons, vamps and werewolves… and with good cause. Not to mention any pirate drifters who might come through to raid for supplies. But the one thing that remains is the old watering hole. Guardians hang out there, because they aren’t scared of jack. Usually the local town security hangs out in there… and so do the volunteer firefighters. It’s sort of the local meeting place. People play pool, cards, gamble, watch illegal broadcasts… whatever. There’s music. Probably the only place in town that serves food all night. Wanna go in?”

“Seriously?” Sarah looked from Wil to the building as he stepped on the gas and brought them closer to it. She’d never been around Regulars before, much less in a bar.

“Seriously,” he said, and pulled the truck to a stop, then leaned over her in a dangerously sexy way, pressing his body against hers, popped the lock on her door, then scooted over to his side again and jumped out.

Flustered, she was still fidgeting with her door handle when he opened her door and gave her a hand down.

“C’mon. I doubt they’ll serve us, ‘cause we don’t look old enough, even on a good night… but at least we can take a peek.”

She just smiled at him, hurrying along, filled with excitement. She knew he’d said that for her benefit, and it was one of the nicest, most diplomatic comments he could have made.
He
could pass for old enough. She was the one who couldn’t have passed on a good night. But he was taking her on a wild adventure, nonetheless, and wasn’t even ashamed to hold her hand.

Two weary looking, gray-bearded, hooded men entered the bar ahead of them, and gave them a disapproving glare as they passed. They were carrying rifles and had on gray wool gloves with cut-off fingers.

“Watchmen,” Wil murmured next to her ear. “Like town sheriffs… so we’ll just stand in the doorway and make like we’re looking for our parents or something, okay?”

Too nervous to do more than nod, Sarah could feel the heavy music thrumming through the planks of wood that led to the bar. The moment the door swung open, cigarette and cigar smoke, and the scent of roasting meats and alcohol, stung her nose. The thick fumes made her eyes water, but she stepped in behind Wil, clasping his hand, taking it all in, exhilarated.

Men and women sat on bar stools, and laughed and talked. The heavy clack of billiard balls echoed off a homemade pool table. Men playing cards joked and talked trash, which made her smile. That part of being there so reminded her of home. It was like the big rec room where her uncles and aunts got together, but with louder, unfamiliar music, smoke and a half dozen TVs blaring contraband channels all at the same time.

Several women draped themselves over men, and Sarah stared, wondering why such very public displays of affection were necessary. One glance at Wil and it was as though he’d read her mind. With a sly smile he whispered the answer in her ear.

“They’re working.”

Sarah’s eyes got big, but she said nothing. Just standing in the doorway was a true education. But the best part of the place was the dance floor. People were out there having a good time, and seemed not to care if they were drunk, sober, had a partner or not. They were just out there moving and clearly having a blast.

The next thing she knew, Wil was pulling her by the hand until he had her out there on the floor dancing to a song she didn’t even know. He spun her around, laughing.

“You owed me a dance,” he said, then glanced over his shoulder at one of the watchmen, who’d gotten up and was headed their way. “But, it’s time to go,” Wil added, pulling her quickly to the door.

“You kids go home! You don’t belong in here if you ain’t looking for nobody!” the man yelled.

Sarah ran out the door with Wil, laughing, and then quickly jumped back into the truck. Wil turned it on with ease, backed up and then made a careening U-turn to head down the road the way they’d come. They laughed the entire way back, and kept getting a case of the giggles as he put his finger to his lips and quietly parked the borrowed vehicle back where it had been.

Very slowly and being quiet as mice, they rolled up the squeaking windows, softly pressed the doors closed, and then tip-toed away from the truck, finally making a flat-out dash back to the barn. They entered the dark space, shut the door behind them and gave in to the laughter.

“OMG,” Sarah said, out of breath. “That was sooo crazy, but so much fun!”

“Yeah, it was, wasn’t it?” Wil tugged her into an embrace for a second and then looked at the open end of the energy swirl over by the hay pallet. “C’mon… I’d better get you back. We didn’t find Tami and Stefan, but I’m sure they’re joy-riding somewhere around town like we just did.”

Sarah nodded. “Okay,” she murmured with a wide grin. He felt so warm and safe and good against her that her entire body ached when he let her go.

Wil jumped up on the hay and held out a hand. She eagerly accepted it with no fear this time, and then squealed as the vortex sucked them back up to land sprawled on the floor back in the classroom.

“Now do you see why a lot of kids do it?” Wil asked, helping her up.

Sarah nodded, laughing. “Yeah… I just wish Tami had gone with someone as nice as you.”

Wil gave her a bashful smile and led her by the hand into an alcove. “We can wait for them here, if it’ll make you feel better.”

“Thanks,” Sarah said quietly, sitting down beside him on a wide ventilation casing. “I really appreciate it.”

“I’m not saying that Stefan is a knight in shining armor—far from it—but I don’t think he’ll force her or do something really stupid.”

Sarah’s eyes searched Wil’s in the faux moonlight being cast from the murals all around them, worried. “I hope you’re right…. It’s just that I saw something around him that scared me. Something stupid left over from old childhood fears, I guess.”

“Like what?” Wil’s expression was completely open, his eyes beckoning her to trust him… and she did.

“You’re going to think I’m really crazy,” she said, prefacing her revelation with a request. “So you can’t tell anybody about this. They already wanna test me a gazillion more times, and I just want to fit in and be like everybody else.”

He took both her hands, keeping them between his fabulously warm palms. “Sarah, you can trust me…. I won’t tell anybody anything you say.”

“When I was like eleven or twelve… something happened to me,” she said quietly, looking away.

Wil dropped one of her hands and put a finger beneath her chin, bringing her eyes back to his. “Show me,” he murmured, coming closer, so close that she could see his pupils dilate.

She couldn’t look away, couldn’t move; her body felt like it was melting. She was sure that she was about to become a puddle right there in front of him as his hands slid up to gently cradle her face. Her palms slid over the backs of his to cover them.

“I’ve never shared a vision before,” she whispered.

“It’s okay,” he said in a low murmur. “I’ll go in with you, but we’ll go easy.”

“But if I say we have to get out…”

“We’ll get out. You show me how far you want to go.”

Her voice betrayed her; it wouldn’t work at all. Her response was a slow nod as her lips parted and she sipped a shallow breath of air. Gentle pressure and heat filled her mind, and suddenly the terrifying childhood memory was back, but this time she felt safe, as though she were a dispassionate observer.

Al was chasing her, teasing her, and then he dodged outside the light barriers. She had her fist balled up, ready to slug him, when he sidestepped and she fell, her momentum carrying her forward until she was falling down the steep incline. The hillside was pitch-black at night, and terror almost broke through the memory, but Wil’s soft voice prodded her on.