Shadow Walker (Neteru Academy Books) (46 page)

“Right. That’s when it got crazy,” Allie said, sounding out of breath. “Hyacinth wanted to help. She could feel something just behind the locked door. I begged her to stay with me and Jess, but she wanted to be a part of the mission.”

Sarah held her head and groaned.

“Now they’re all sick,” Allie said thickly, then swallowed hard, as if holding back a sob.

Jessica cast her gaze around the group. “Who knew everybody would get sick?” she asked in a tense whisper.

“The vortex is booby trapped,” Sarah said, looking up at her friends. “Whoever took Ayana wanted to make sure no one could come through the portal after them. It’s unsafe to go through them unless you’ve got DNA like Razor or my parents.”

“Shit!” Jessica exclaimed, then covered her mouth.

The room fell silent for a moment, everyone wide-eyed, looking at Sarah.

“We know all about Stefan’s attack and the pool murals,” Allie finally said, glancing around. “Tam filled us in. Uncle Richard is at the ER. Pop Shabazz is patrolling the halls in a full shape-freakin’-shift! Teachers are running everywhere.”

Jessica thrust out her PIU. “Look at the broadcast. Stefan Oahspe is AWOL and presumed dangerous due to a viral infection—nice code for werewolf transformation. If any student sees him or knows of his whereabouts, they’re to stay away and call the school authorities. Dude went around the bend is what they should have said. All students are to be behind locked doors until sunrise—nobody can go to pre-sunrise or post-sunset detentions without an escort. The library—the frickin’ library—is closed until further notice.”

“Outdoor excursions are cancelled,” Tami said. “This place is on total lockdown.”

Sarah frantically waved her hands in front of her as though the other girls were a swarm of bees. “Forget all o’ that—how are ‘Cinth and the others? I just wanna hear about that!”

“Keep your voice down,” Jessica warned as a teary-eyed Allie dashed forward and hugged Sarah.

“Ohmigod, Sarah. ‘Cinth almost stopped breathing. She just fell on the floor and started turning gray. All the girls did. Uncle Richard and Aunt Marj—they’re in ICU with ‘Cinth now. Nana Marlene hit the school lockdown alarms, charging all the walls. We thought you might know if she’s all right.”

“What happened when you met with Nana?” Tami asked, talking with her hands.

In fits and starts between short bursts of sobs, Sarah relayed what had happened, what she’d told and what she hadn’t. She didn’t care if her friends were relieved that although the drug operation was common knowledge, their contraband services weren’t. Nothing could stop the heartache of knowing Ayana was missing and Hyacinth was losing life force by the hour, and that Bebe, Darlene, Tina and Andrea were also at death’s door.

None of the petty differences between her crew and Melissa’s mattered anymore, only restoring everyone to full health, and finding Yaya and the others who were still missing.

As the group slowly dispersed and promptly got in trouble with Titan Troy for being out of their rooms without an escort, all Sarah could think about was how she would ever be able to live with herself if even one student died because they were trying to be junior detectives and get even with whatever evil had breached the school.

Life and death put things into context. Tami was lucky to still be her impulsive self. The girl had almost died, and there was something different in her eyes now, even though she’d talked tough in the group. Sarah could see beyond that, though—Tami was rattled to the bone. Just as she and her brother and Val had been. She’d never seen Alejandro so close to tears or heard such raw panic in his voice as when he’d thought Tami had drowned or seen Val step forward as when he’d captured her hand to pull her to safety.

Now the fear in people’s voices, the fear in their eyes, the way they went to bed and then curled up in fetal position was what her dad had spoken of on the stage, the thing they hadn’t really comprehended—how fragile life was, how insignificant most struggles between people were, but how deadly things could be if they went too far. And the aftermath, for the survivors, was a level of guilt so profound that there was no way to ever describe it to another human being.

She drifted in fitful sleep, those thoughts filling her brain as she wished she could find the PIUs, could help find Stefan so he could be purged and saved and helped… wishing that God wouldn’t make this lesson about vengeance so hard and would heal her classmates—all of them—and just let bygones be bygones, chalking this up as a serious wake-up call.

But the Divine must have really been pissed, because when she looked over to Hyacinth’s empty bed she knew the only thing that would wake her up this morning wouldn’t be a miracle, just her three a.m. PIU alarm.

T
here was no use lying in bed a moment longer. Her problems weren’t just going to disappear on their own, anyway. Besides, sleep was impossible—all she’d been doing the whole night was tossing and turning, tears dampening her pillow.

Detention also wasn’t going anywhere, and after what she’d been party to, she felt guilty enough to sign up for it all year long…if only that would guarantee a cure for her friends.

Moving as quietly as possible, Sarah pulled on her underwear and a pair of gray sweats and the hoodie that she’d left out on her desk chair to reduce any bumping around in the dark, then she stopped for a moment.

She could see in the dark—not just gray tones like she could before, but with total clarity and even a little color. … Freaky.

It took her a moment to absorb that new reality. She closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again. It was like she was seeing the room through a gray filter that stole most of the color from everything, but she could definitely see. Then, slowly but surely, full color crept into things.

And then the room became a jumble of white streaks, and she had to hold onto the back of her chair and do what Nana Marlene had told her: Concentrate on just one person at a time to see their shadow echo signature without being bombarded by too many at once.

She picked Allie’s signature as a test and watched the white lines buzz around the room from the door to the bed and back to the door, then to the bed, the chair, the desk, the door and finally to the bed again. Sarah closed her eyes. She looked at that energy signature and understood exactly how upset Allie had been. Now all she had to do was breathe quietly for a moment and hopefully the signatures would recede until she called them forward.

Gift though it was, all of this was going to take some getting used to, and she didn’t have time for it this morning.

Her PIU blinked from its spot on her desk. Quickly snatching it up, she saw Wil’s sig and let out a sigh. It took her a moment to try reading the words backward, and then she just held her unit up to the mirror.

Gld UR ok. Hrd whts up.

She texted him back quickly.

Gld UR ok 2—GTG, CU at brkfst

She could only imagine the powwows that must have happened in the boys’ dorm last night; no wonder she hadn’t gotten a call from Wil then…or Val.

Sarah reached for her hiking boots—her sneakers were still damp—and quickly put them on over a pair of thick white tube socks. Remembering the apples in her backpack, which would probably be her breakfast, she shoved them into the hoodie’s front pocket, found her toothbrush, toothpaste and a face towel, and grabbed her PIU. Allie and Tami were still asleep, fitfully twisting in their covers, just like she’d been doing all night.

Quietly opening the dorm room door, she slipped out and gave Titan Troy a little wave. He simply nodded, his expression unreadable. Sarah held up her toothbrush. He nodded again and followed her to the girls’ bathroom, held up his hand for her to stop, entered and checked around, and then faced the wall, just as he’d done last night when she took a much-needed shower to get the sea water out of her hair.

Sarah let out a sigh. This was so icky—she had to pee. But no way could she do that when he’d hear her. She decided not to think of that while squeezing a glob of toothpaste onto her brush, but when she turned on the water, she had to wiggle and hum a little tune to distract herself.

She brushed more quickly than she’d ever done, followed by a cold splash of water on her face. Finally nature would not be put off for any man or woman, and she had to embarrass herself by leaving the faucet on, dashing into a stall and just doing what came naturally.

Too humiliated, she didn’t say a word or look at Titan Troy as she exited the facilities and walked quickly down the hall to deposit her toiletries back in her dorm room. How could guys be so casual about such deeply personal things? But the giant’s expression hadn’t changed one bit when she glimpsed him from the corner of her eye.

Her PIU sounded, and he swung around so fast that she ducked, fearing decapitation.

“My apologies, Miss Rivera,” he said in an expressionless voice. “My senses are tuned for battle.”

“It was my PIU.”

He nodded. “True, but we must be vigilant.”

She didn’t respond, just fell in double-step with his brisk pace while trying to read a backward text message from Val. The only way she knew it was him was that his PirateNet homepage pic came up. Concentrating hard, she could get the words to slowly reverse themselves. It was a sweet note, really thoughtful. It was the first thing that made her smile in what felt like forever.

Hrd wht hapnd. Got prayers for ‘Cinth. Wntd u 2 C I was up. Didnt 4get2 call u, but

Titan 2 big. C U l8tr.

A soft smile began in her heart and then made its way to her face. She hit the letter K and pushed send, and then jammed her PIU into her front pocket with the apples.

She felt like she’d been walking for two miles and was surprised when she and Titan Troy passed the gym. Surely they’d gone much further than that. Frowning Fae were touching up the mural and drying the floor with mops that seemed much too big for them to wield. As she passed, they gave her the evil eye and let out small grunts of annoyance.

Well past the boiler room, Titan Troy led her to a heavy, locked steel door that had a spinner handle like the old movie images she’d seen of bank vaults and submarine hatches. After entering a code on a side panel and waiting for huge tumblers to fall into place, he set down his sword and shield on the floor, then gripped the thick spindles and turned, straining the muscles in his massive back, arms and thighs.

Spellbound, Sarah just watched in awe. The amount of strength it required to open the door, even once unlocked, was incomprehensible. Finally the spinner moved clockwise. When the door opened, six feet of steel swung away from the wall, revealing a long iron staircase that seemed to extend without end in both directions.

“Let me lead the way into the darkness,” Titan Troy said in a somber voice. “I must light a torch—as this beast we seek abhors fire, it may have taken refuge in the emergency exit tunnel.”

Sarah watched mutely as he turned over his shield and revealed a cleverly attached length of wood that had been wrapped at one end with what looked like a tar-dipped sheet. Working quickly, he extracted a long stick match that had been bundled with it and struck it against his jaw stubble.

Oh, yeah, she definitely had to catalogue this experience to tell the gang. He’d lit a match off his face? OMG!

Torch in hand, he tossed her his shield as he picked up his sword. She caught the large metal disc and fell.

“Ow!”

The thing weighed what felt like a ton. He let out a hard breath, set down his sword and then came over to hoist his shield over his shoulder and yank her up off her butt before picking up his sword again.

She silently vowed not to lag too far behind him as the door slammed shut and the spinners automatically whirred back into a locked position. If she hadn’t been able to see in the dark, she would have screamed for sure.

Five stories up at a Titan’s pace, with only a small L-turn to break the upward trajectory, her thighs were burning, her chest felt like it was about to explode, and her eyes were watering from the fiery fumes of his torch. This was crazy.

Finally they stopped and he passed her the torch.

“Stand back,” he ordered. “Entering the upworld from below is always dangerous.” He punched in another code and grunted as he unlocked a round steel hatch, waited a moment as he readied his shield and blade, and then flung open the heavy hatch. Then he was gone.

Sarah froze, holding the torch out like it was a weapon. Cold mountain air rushed in and made her shudder. She listened hard, then slumped against the railing when she saw Titan Troy’s face peering over the edge at her. He offered her a huge hand; she offered him the torch. He sighed and smiled, then simply lifted both her and the torch together with one quick pull of her forearm.

She landed on her feet, and he caught the torch before she set her hair ablaze, then locked the door.

“You will be strong one day, wee one,” he said with a smile. “You come from good stock. Just remember, there are all kinds of strength—physical is just one kind.”

He stood and looked off into the distance, and she followed his line of vision. On the other side of a football field and outdoor track, she could see what looked like a long barn surrounded by several smaller buildings, a grain silo and a large penned-in pasture area. Sarah whirled around, shivering. There was nothing else as far as her eyes could see but green grass, plowed rows and haystacks.

“We must not keep Mr. Milton waiting. I believe you have five minutes, and then you will be late for detention, earning you another.”

Titan Troy didn’t have to tell her twice. In a flat-out dash behind him, she ignored the catch in her side, ignored the breath that wouldn’t come, and just ran. The moment she passed the entrance gate, a pair of blue flannel-clad disembodied arms unfolded from the air, bringing her to a skidding, screaming halt.

“Whoa, young filly—hold your horses. You will have my stables in an uproar if you’re not careful.”

Titan Troy simply looked at the floating arms and chuckled. “This one is high-strung, Milt. I’ll wait over on the house porch…let you take it from here.”