Shadow Walker (Neteru Academy Books) (54 page)

Allie looked down sheepishly, and Sarah hugged her again.

“I can’t say certain things to Tam,” Sarah admitted. “She always makes me feel stupid for caring about the people I care about or the things I believe in. And ‘Cinth, God bless her, she’s the voice of fairness and reason when I forget about being rational.”

“It’s kinda crazy, isn’t it?” Allie said with a sniff. “It’s like Tami is your adrenaline partner, I’m your confessional, and ‘Cinth is your inner voice of reason. But Yaya was all of our big sister seer.”

“Yeah,” Sara said, slinging her arm over Allie’s shoulder and heading farther away from the cafeteria, the mention of Ayana making silence settle between them for a little while.

Then Allie stopped walking as they neared the lounge. “So confess me this,” she said. “You like Val—a lot—don’t you?”

Sarah looked down at her sneakers. “Yeah. A lot.”

“I knew it,” Allie softly squealed. “I think he likes you a lot, too.”

Sarah nodded. “But then there’s Wil….”

Allie’s eyes got big. “What are you going to do? Do they know about each other? And how you feel about each of them?”

Sarah hugged herself. “I don’t know—and I don’t know what I’m going to do. They’re both…”

“Spill!”

Sarah closed her eyes for a moment. “It was so… magical.”

“You did it?” Allie squeaked. “Ohmigod! With which one?”

“No!”

Allie clutched her chest, feigning a heart attack, and making them both laugh.

“Val went with me to the stables and I got to show him the horses.”

“You two got to go out unescorted?”

“No such luck,” Sarah said, waving her hand as they walked along arm and arm. “Titan Troy took us.”

“Oh, then I know nothing happened. Tami is tripping.”

“Right. And wrong,” Sarah said, finding a couple of free computers in the sparsely occupied lounge. She sat down and waited for Allie to settle herself beside her, bursting to share the wonderful experience that had been bottled up inside her.

“Soooo?” Allie asked, her eyes alight with excitement.

“Mr. Milton is the nicest man. He let us take Peggi—she’s half Pegasus, half unicorn—out for a flight…and Val…you should have seen him. He took off his shirt and went running in a circle with his arms stretched out like we’d do when we were kids, and the most magnificent wings came out of his shoulders. I’ve seen them before, but today, seeing him like that…it was different. Do you know what I mean?”

Sarah smiled, knowing Allie didn’t fully understand, even when she said that she did, but that was okay. She also decided not to discuss her first real kiss with Wil, or the way the ones she’d shared with Val took her breath away, and she was glad that Allie didn’t pry. Good sister-confessors were like that—they let you tell as much as you wanted and no more, and never leaked a thing about anything you’d said. There was something so personal and private about everything she and Val had shared that morning that Sarah only shared a little off the top and tucked the rest of the deliciously wonderful feeling way down deep in her soul for safe keeping.

She felt differently about the stables now, too. They were her oasis and Val’s now. She didn’t even want to share the place with her friends just yet. It was a place of light…and where she’d been in the alcove wasn’t, and yet that was equally special. The best thing about it was Beep and Bop hadn’t come out and scared her either time. It seemed they were willing to grant her some privacy, thank heavens.

Sarah fired up the computer and waited for it to boot up. She stared at the screen, unable to read a word without concentration, and then Allie interrupted her.

“I’m sooo excited about you two,” Allie said, squeezing Sarah’s arm. “And don’t worry about the classes you missed. I’ve got all the notes, and you can just download them from my PIU—not that much happened this morning anyway. The teachers are all pretty freaked.”

“I figured as much. That’s why I didn’t rush back. But now I want me and you to go on an adventure. This is something that’s definitely not Tami’s style.”

“Really? You wanna go on an adventure with me? So, like, what can I do?”

Sarah looked hard at her friend. “Research.”

“I
think it’s real cool that your powers are coming in, Sarah,” Allie said, scanning the PirateNet site.

“Yeah, I thought so, too, until I couldn’t read without a headache and started seeing blue light lines that nauseated me to death.” Sarah sighed. “I just know there’s something there. Some kind of pattern we’re missing.” She squinted at the screen as Allie scrolled the online Class Book pages. “I want to know everything I can about Stefan—things he liked, people he hated, people who wrote on his Class Book page alley, because if we know that, maybe we can get a clue to where he’s hiding out or who might be helping him. That way we can at least let Nana get to him before Al and his crazy posse do.”

Sarah sat back and rubbed her palms down her face. They’d been at it for a couple of hours, trying to see who in school was linked up with whom. She sat forward suddenly. “I wonder if the two Upper Sphere students who died had pages and if they’re still up. Maybe there’d be something there.”

“Sure thing, Sarah,” Allie said, clicking over. “But those kids, well, I don’t know how much good their pages will be ‘cuz, you know they’re dead and can’t friend us, so there’s only so much we can see.”

“Yeah, I know. But I also wanna look at the kids who’ve gone missing.” Sarah stared at the screen, feeling the chill of Allie’s words. Gregory Duncan and Peter Matthews had had everything to live for—everything. After seeing Valencio fly majestic and free, she could only imagine what the two Upper Sphere Valkyries must have looked like taking off from the main hall platform at dusk, gleaming white wings spread… soaring, laughing, doing air wheelies and spiraling nose dives for their clapping girlfriends. Then to see it all go so horribly wrong, right before your very eyes.

Sarah closed her own eyes for a moment, not wanting to picture the tragedy but unable to escape the images forming in her head. No wonder seers sometimes went blind. She wondered if that would ever happen to her.

“Man,” Allie said quietly, stopping at one of the many tribute pages to the dead fliers. “Both those guys were so hot. Such a waste. Like at this guy. He has—had—green eyes and perfect blond hair, and look at this pic of him with his wings out—that’s gotta be a five- or six-foot span on each side.”

Sarah couldn’t look as Allie prattled on with her nose practically touching the screen. All she could think about was what if something terrible like that happened to Val…or Wil…or her brother.

“And look at the other guy,” Allie said with a soft sigh.

Sarah cringed and rubbed her arms, tightly shutting her eyes. “Those guys are dead, Allie. Don’t talk about them like you’re going to run into them walking around the school.”

“Sorry,” Allie said, sounding defensive. “But can I help it if I’m drawn to this guy’s strong jaw and gray eyes and—”

“What color did you just say his eyes were?” Sarah leaned forward and squinted at the picture on the screen.

“Gray. But an unusual blue-gray… almost like a husky’s eyes.”

Sarah stood. “Can you come walk with me, Allie? Like…wherever I go, write it down?”

“Okaaay,” Allie said, indulging her. “Why? And where to?”

Ignoring the first question, Sarah said, “To follow some shadow echoes and maybe a coupla shadows.”

“I know I said I’m ready for any adventure,” Allie wheezed, trying to keep up with Sarah. “But what are we doing?”

“I’ve been following Stefan’s life force, his shadow echo—or as much of it as I can pick up. It’s very faint, and sometimes my concentration gets messed up, but as far as I can tell, he never came back as far as the gym.”

The girls rounded a corner and entered the room in question just in time to see Val, wings extended, leap and soar and dunk the ball into the basket at the far end of the court.

“Wow,” Allie whispered. “I see what you mean. I never really looked at Val like that before.”

Sarah’s reply caught in her throat as Val swooped to retrieve the ball and stood, wiping sweat from his face.

“Hey,” he said in a surly tone.

“Hey,” Sarah said, and then realized that his jaw was slightly swollen, with a long blue bruise on it. “What happened to you?”

“Nothing. It’s cool.”

“You oughta put some ice on that,” Allie said, frowning.

“I said it’s cool!” Val shouted, stalking away toward the bleachers where his shirt and sweater were piled.

“Who did this to you, Val?” Sarah said quietly, going to him. “What happened?”

“Al happened, aw’right.”

“My brother did this to you?” Incredulous, she reached out to touch Val’s jaw, but he stepped away from her, although not soon enough.

The moment her fingers graced his swollen jaw, intense images stabbed into her mind like a hard, fast movie.

The boys from their compound had all been together. Val had been trying to get her brother to slow down. For a moment, she wasn’t standing in the gym; she was in the hall, reliving snatches of conversation and distorted bits of time inside her head.

“Yo, hold up, man,” Val had said, jogging behind Al, with Miguel and Donnie on his flank. “I told you, I’m not down with burnin’ no dude without knowing for a fact that he’s a killer.”

Val then landed a firm hand on Alejandro’s shoulder to stop him from walking away, and Alejandro swung and caught Val square in the jaw. Blood and spit flew as Val went down hard.

Miguel bent and grabbed Val’s arm to help him up.

Donnie wheeled on Alejandro and pointed at him in a rare display of courage, yelling, “What the hell is wrong with you, man?” He moved to grab Val’s other arm, but Val was already up and circling Al, furious.

“What is your problem?” Val shouted, drawing onlookers into the hall.

“You kissed my sister!” Al flung his backpack down and squared off, slapping the center of his chest. “I thought we supposed to be boyz?”

Sarah’s mouth flew open, but the images careened inside her head as Val looked away from her.

Stunned, the image of Val gaped at her brother. “How the hell did you—”

“I felt it on contact!” Al yelled, dropping fang. “The bullshit came right through my shoulder, it was so recent, and you think we’d still be friends after that? Sarah’s not like that, man. All these chicas up in this school but you—my hombre, you go after my sister. Break her heart, motherfucker, and it’s on!”

Al was about to fight Val for her? Nooo way!

Sarah closed her eyes tightly and began to walk in a tight circle, trying to get the images to stop. Val began walking away, clearly too humiliated for words.

“Would somebody tell me what the heck is going on?” Allie shouted, trying to get Sarah to stop walking in a dizzying circle.

But it was no use, once Sarah had touched Val, whatever the emotional sequence was that she’d tapped was destined to run its course. Bewildered, Allie ran over to Val, blocking his exit from the gym.

What’s happening to her? You can’t just leave her like this!” Allie shrieked, grabbing his arm.

“She’ll be okay,” Val muttered. “Just mind your business for once, aw’ight!”

“No.” Allie, said, jumping in front of him and pointing toward Sarah. “With all this freaky stuff going on around the school, we’re not leaving her in here alone.”

“It’s okay, Allie,” Sarah wheezed, blinking hard to try to get the images in her head to disconnect. But it was like she was plugged into Val at a psychic level now, and as she stopped and stared at him and he stared back at her, she could tell he could feel it, too.

“First of all,” Val’s image said inside Sarah’s head, and then she watched him step up and get in Al’s face, his fangs lowering to match Al’s, “I don’t think about her like that. I don’t treat girls the way you do!” He stared at Al then spat blood. “I’ve got too much respect for her to do her like that, but the next time you take a swing at your best amigo, I’ma show you what your ex-sergeant-at-arms can do.”

Donnie and Miguel jumped between Alejandro and Val as Val advanced on Al with a level of fury that had spiked way beyond Al’s.

“Yeah, whatever, man,” Al muttered and turned away.

“And for the record,” Val shouted toward Al’s back, pushing Miguel and Donnie off him, “if you treat Tami like shit, I’m coming for you! I promise I’ll wax your ass up and down this hallway until they throw us both out!”

“Walk it off, man,” Miguel said in the vision. “Walk it off. You know how Al is.”

“I’m tired of understanding how Al is—Al needs to grow the hell up.” Val spat out more blood and started walking toward the gym.

“You gonna be cool, dude?” Donnie asked, catching up to him.

Val kept his head high, his gaze forward, his chest heaving and his nostrils flaring. He couldn’t answer Donnie; rage had a stranglehold on him.

“Can I ask just one question?” Donnie asked as Miguel joined them. “Did you really kiss Sarah?”

Miguel yanked Donnie out of the way of a hard elbow jab from Val that would have caught Donnie in the throat, then spun him around and began walking in the opposite direction. “Man, you are one stupid SOB.”

Moments later, Sarah saw a furious Val enter the gym inside her mind. Sweat rolled down his temples, his chest and back as he ran the court bare-chested, shooting hoops alone. His backpack sat on the bleachers with his sweater and Oxford shirt flung over them. It was clear that he needed to move, had to move, and needed a distraction. Anger and hurt echoed through her soul. His boy had sucker-punched him, taking offense when none was warranted. There was no way to explain, nor should he have had to that she was someone he thought about in an entirely different way. The awareness kept the eyes on each other as the telepathic link ran its course. Val offered her a slight nod. She swallowed hard. Her mouth had gone dry from the intensity of his emotions.

Then within the vision, Val ran down the court, spread his wings and hovered over the basket with the ball and then slam dunked it, only to grab it and dribble in down the court at a six-foot altitude.