Shadow Walker (Neteru Academy Books)

by L. A. Banks

  “Enough talking. Do it,” Sarah said firmly.

  Wil seemed a little hurt, but apparently he was okay with her choice to hunt for family with family for now, because he didn’t object. Good thing, Sarah thought, because she just didn’t have time to worry about him at the moment. Ayana was missing, and now her brother and Tami were gone, too. This was a search-and-rescue mission for her and Val. Their two best friends—one of them her twin—were in serious jeopardy.

  The first place she took Val to was Mr. Everett’s classroom, explaining as much as she knew as they went. She told him about the shadowy scratches she’d seen on the floor and filled in the blanks, really valuing the connection that only years of friendship and knowing someone could create. Val walked, listened, just took it in quietly, his senses keen as she jogged beside him, murmuring critical information and telling him everything she’d learned from overhearing Brent and Ayana, as well as Melissa and Stefan.

  But when they got to the classroom, nothing was swirling. No portal was opening, and there was no sign of any kind of disturbance tonight. They searched high and low, through dim classroom corridors, through the auditorium, labs, broadcast studios and restrooms, and still no sign. Mental beacons came back with dead air, zero vibrations. Just like Jessica had told them, that portal had definitely been shut down, and they couldn’t find a sign of anything else—including their friends. And they were running out of time—dorm lockdown had been moved up by two hours due to the missing students and faculty, which had the administration spooked.

  “Maybe they’ve left the building?” Sarah said, growing genuinely frightened.

  “I don’t think Al would risk going up against Mojo alone at night or put Tami in harm’s way like that…not even to be by himself with her. To mind-stun that old dragon you’d need two or three Specs or Upper Sphere Clavs with laser focus to keep him dazed while the others escape. That’s how those other fliers did it.” Val leaned against the wall with a thud, frustrated. “Damn!”

  “Wait. You mean my brother isn’t just trying to talk her out of hooking up with Stefan or filling her in about all the stuff going on? He’s…” Sarah stopped walking for a second.

  “Yeah, girl, where’ve you been?” Val shook his head and kept walking. “He’s liked Tami ever since we were little.”

  “But they always fought and…”

  “And what?” Val stopped walking to look at her. “She’s the only one that ever gave him as good as she got and wasn’t impressed with him. That’s probably what blew his mind.”

  Sarah jogged to catch up with Val. “But…but…what about Melissa?”

  “You know Al…his ego got crushed when Tami kept blowing him off. Hey, what’s a brother to do? At home, there weren’t many options, here it’s like—dayum. So when this tall, pretty girl got in his face, he was on it, especially since Tami was acting funny. But he never liked Melissa the way he likes Tam.” Val shook his head and stopped briefly to stare into Sarah’s eyes. “You have no idea how deep somebody can feel about a person they’ve grown up with. All the other options around here are just a distraction.”

  Val turned and began walking quickly. “That’s why I’ve gotta find our boy. If Stefan finds him first and Tami is between them, there’s gonna be blood.”

  “So if they’re not outside, and if they wanted to be alone to talk, where would Al take her?” Sarah pulled off her scrunchie, ruffled her hair up off her neck and then redid her ponytail as she kept pace with his long strides.

  Val looked at her. “The gym.”

  Sarah looked at him for a second, and then they both started running.

  There would be private blue corridors, romantic aquatic alcoves—like the locker rooms—full of darkly shaded marine life, bleachers to sit on, a place to talk and kiss in the dark. The pool was down one level and enclosed by tempered glass, but the serene water was beautifully lit at night. Poolside benches and lounge chairs offered a quiet sanctuary for lovers. By now Mrs. Gillison, keeper of the pool, was back in her deep sea mural, at home with her merman. In other words, there were plenty of places and a lot of time for things between two guys with a beef over a girl to go very, very wrong.

  Val had outstripped Sarah, his long strides driven as he raced down the stairs toward the pool. She skidded into the blue corridor at the bottom behind him, and they both began yelling for Al and Tami in a sudden panic.

  “Tami! It’s me, Sarah. Look, I’m not trying to be in your business, but we’re worried!”

  “Yo, Al, man, this ain’t a good time to be caught out on a limb. I got your back. Just holla and lemme know you’re okay!” Val shouted.

  “Everything’s cool,” Al yelled from the opposite end of the hall. He stepped out of the shadows, and Tami giggled.

  “We were just talking, catching up on all this craziness that’s been going down,” Tami said, but she still didn’t show herself.

  “Okay, man,” Val said and slumped against the wall. “My bad, carry on, I see no evil, hear no evil.”

  “I feel so stupid,” Sarah whispered, shocked but relieved that Stefan was nowhere in sight. “We should probably go.”

  “Yeah, we should, but the hair is standing up on my neck.”

  She looked up into Val’s serious eyes. “I know.” Glancing back toward Alejandro, Sarah walked forward. “Al…Tam…listen, I know this is probably the last thing you wanna hear right now, but we’ve got a really, really bad feeling. Nobody can find Stefan, and if you guys are making out, you won’t—”

  The scream left Sarah’s throat before anything intelligible could enter her brain. A blurred figure had body-slammed into her brother. His head had hit the cement pool deck hard—too hard. He was on his back, and the figure crouched above him released a horrible roar. Tami had tackled it, landing on its back, but it flung her off like she was a rag doll, and she hit her head on the wall and went down hard. Val was like a breeze, long strides pumping, carrying him forward. Her shadows rushed from beneath the pipes, scampering toward her brother and Tami.

  All Sarah could make out was the glint of fangs in the emergency lights—massive upper and lower canines in an elongated snout headed toward her brother’s exposed throat while that blood-curdling, moon-wailing howl still echoed.

  Her twin was going to die. Her shadows leaped forward, making the beast hesitate for a second. She saw death in that murderous pair of crystal gray eyes, and her hand hit the wall, adrenaline spiking in her system as her scream hit a glass-shattering pitch. Shadows—hers and a dozen more like them—leaped from behind the pipes, out of the murals and from somewhere behind her, and then there was nothing but water.

  Everyone and everything in the hall was swept away by the displacement current as the murals literally surged and water filled the hallway. Dolphins leapt from the murals, searching for survivors; schools of fish bumped her and sent her careening into the walls as the hallway filled. Dark shadows swam and swirled, clawing the water. Seaweed stuck to her hair, and she found herself unable to hold onto anything as the water carried her, as if she were riding white water rapids.

  A hand yanked her up until she could grab the ceiling pipes. Sputtering and coughing, she clung to them, dangling there with Val, who was shimmying in the opposite direction, trying to get to Al, who was bobbing up and down in the maelstrom. Suddenly Al came up coughing. The werewolf was farther away and had hoisted himself up. He took one look back, snarled at Al, then scrambled away using the ceiling duct work for purchase.

  “I can’t find Tam!” Al shouted over the din of the rushing water. “Stay with my sister, man! Don’t you dare leave Sarah!” And then he dove back down.

  Fins—dangerous, ominous fins—sliced through the water as the mural continued to empty itself out.

  Sarah’s voice became a hysterical refrain. “Sharks! Mrs. Gillison, help! Sharks!”

  A swift-moving fin headed right toward Val as he hung from the pipes, and he swung himself as far up as he could, squeezing his eyes tight. The wa
ter was so high now that his sweater was skimming the surface. Then suddenly a huge pink and green tail flipped up, a golden Trident slammed against the wall, and all the water was gone, leaving only a few flapping fish that hadn’t made it back—along with Mrs. Gillison, the mermaid who’d driven back the flood.

  Val dropped down to the floor and stood under Sarah. “Just let go, I’ve got you,” he called up to her.

  She did as he instructed, too freaked out not to trust him. He caught her easily, didn’t even let her feet hit the wet, slippery floor. At one end of the hall was a sputtering mermaid, her green hair covering her face as she tried to right herself. But Val and Sarah dashed into the gym, where they’d seen Al and Tami carried by the flood.

  Al was hunched over Tami’s body, his magnificent white wings spread, working feverishly at administering CPR. “C’mon, baby, breathe,” he said, sounding like he was about to cry.

  Sarah went to Tami’s side and put her hand on her brother’s arm. “Clear!” she said, helping Al to send a white-light jolt into their friend.

  Tami rolled over onto her side with a groan and coughed up water. Sarah and Al fell back on the floor, breathing hard, saying nothing as they released a simultaneous sigh of relief.

  Star fish, sea anemones, broken bits of coral, tiny clown fish and huge blow fish, along with a few scattered angel fish, littered the floor.

  “We are so in trouble,” Sarah said, closing her eyes.

  “If we don’t get kicked out,” Al said quietly. “This looks like a month of gym cleanup.” Then he looked at Tami. “But, shit, who cares…none of that matters if she can breathe, right?”

  “Listen, we found out Stefan goes wolf when the moon is full. I think somebody oughta know about that,” Val spoke up.

  Tami started to push herself up into a sitting position, and Al helped her. “But we need to find Ayana,” she said, coughing. “I’m so sorry, Sarah. I don’t want us to be mad at each other anymore.”

  “Me neither. But I think we need to scratch whatever plans we had and just tell Nana about everything we’ve learned,” Sarah said, quickly glancing around.

  “That’s assuming we don’t all get kicked out tomorrow,” Val said, slowly standing and helping Sarah up. “And I agree with Sarah. It’s getting too dangerous around here, man.”

  “Big assumption about us not getting sent home,” Sarah muttered. “But what if I take the weight on this one, since I’m already in trouble for what happened with Melissa? No need in all of us going down.”

  “No way,” Al and Valencio said in unison.

  “Hear me out,” Sarah said quickly, as the mermaid’s fussing in the hallway intensified. “It was my energy signature that called the mural down, not yours. I can say I was trying to find my way to the gym in the dark, since I have a six a.m. detention right after my four a.m. detention…the first one for pissing off Ms. Tittle, the second one for what happened with Melissa, remember? And they know my powers are wonking in and out. Nobody else needs to get in trouble, and I can let Nana know what’s up alone.”

  “But what if they kick you out, Sarah?” Tami whispered hoarsely.

  “Just get out of here, you guys, and pray for me.”

  “I demand that somebody come right this instance and put me back in the pool so I can go home! Look at this mess!” Mrs. Gillison shrieked.

  “You guys go hide in the locker room until I can drag her back to the pool. Run—before she sees you.”

  Sarah waited as the others finally gave in and quickly escaped to the locker room.

  “Do you hear me, young lady? Look at this mess!” Mrs. Gillison complained as Sarah approached.

  “Sorry, Mrs. Gillison,” Sarah said with a fake cough. “I almost drowned.”

  “Drowning should be the least of your worries! That I can correct, albeit you’d have to live in the sea for the rest of your life—but the sharks, the orcas!”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Sarah said, stooping to lift the thick-bodied mermaid.

  Mrs. Gillison’s green eyes flashed with rage as her equally green hair practically stood straight out from her head. She slapped her broad tail on the wet floor for emphasis, the same way a person would stomp a foot when furious.

  “Do you know how delicate a balanced sea life is? How damaged the environment already is after so many wars, not to mention pollution and acid rain? For you students to hit the alarm out of pure folly is simply unforgivable!” She swept her trident around, intermittently zapping expiring fish and sea vegetation back into the mural. “Look at my anemone beds! And my coral reefs! Oh, my poor sea horses and star fish have been traumatized!”

  “I didn’t do it on purpose,” Sarah said in her most sincere tone. “I’ll help clean this all up.”

  “There were more of you,” Mrs. Gillison shrieked. “Where are the others?”

  “They didn’t do it, I did.” Sarah let out a long, dramatic breath, sat down hard on the floor and stared at the mermaid. “We had all gone to the library, and we were walking back to our rooms, but then we decided it was still early…and since this is the most beautiful section of the school, we wanted to walk through to appreciate it at night.”

  “At least you remembered the buddy system.” Mrs. Gillison flapped her tail, but clearly the compliments had helped considerably. “But do go on,” she said, folding her arms over her askew seashell bra.

  “Then something snarling and fast-moving came out of nowhere.” Sarah shuddered. “We all scattered. But I was trapped at the other end of the hall, and I simply panicked. I just had a spontaneous powers explosion. I was a Blend and now I’m a Shadow, and that happens to me from time to time. I’m not sure what my true talent will be.”

  “So you’ll be studying under Zachariah Raziel?” Mrs. Gillison asked, sounding impressed, and then she leaned forward to peer at Sarah’s pin. “Well, that does make a difference, doesn’t it? If you say you saw something ominous in this corridor, given the horrible disappearances we’ve experienced at this institution, then… I suppose we should investigate, rather than seek redress.”

  “Ma’am, I swear,” Sarah said, using every negotiating skill she owned, “the water just came out of the walls and scared me to death. That’s why I screamed your name—if I was pranking, why would I call a teacher, knowing I’d get in trouble?”

  Mrs. Gillison stared at Sarah for a moment and then frowned. “You poor child. Were the others hurt?”

  “No,” Sarah said quietly. “Thank God.”

  “Yes indeed,” Mrs. Gillison said. She looked around and let out a deep sigh. “There’s a great deal that will need to be repaired, and the Fae staff and Mr. Monte will not like that one whit, but the fact that we didn’t lose a student is of far more importance.” Her troubled gaze sought Sarah’s face. “I will have to report this to Headmistress Stone and Headmaster Shabazz, of course. If there’s an entity in the building, we must all take precautions.” Then she squinted and reached out to touch Sarah’s pin. “You’re definitely a Shadow, child. Professor Raziel doesn’t give these to students unless he feels they belong in his very advanced division.” She met Sarah’s eyes, her own serious. “And we so need you in this school right now.”

  Sarah had barely turned the corner when a seven-foot-tall sentry blocked her path. Titan Troy lowered his blade and shield when he recognized her.

  “Are you well, Miss Rivera?” he boomed. “Have you sustained an injury?”

  Before she could answer, a black jaguar came slinking into the other end of the corridor, its magnificent golden eyes gleaming in the shadows.

  Paralyzed by fear, she watched the huge beast move into a pool of light, then back into the darkness. The animal stood three feet tall at the shoulder, and she couldn’t even speculate as to its length. Massive fangs filled its mouth, and its long, thick, velvety tail twitched back and forth in agitation. She couldn’t take her eyes off of it, and it seemed as though Titan Troy had been transfixed by its hypnotic eyes, because he was just standing there as i
f waiting for the creature to lunge.

  Then, barely visible in the shadows, the jaguar form morphed into a man who straightened from the beast’s crouch to stand in front of the light. She couldn’t see any detail, only his silhouette, but something familiar arrested her. Long dreadlocks swept his shoulders, and her fear became relief.

  “What are you doing out alone like this, Sarah?”

  “I—”

  “Your grandmother is worried sick. Go to her quarters—immediately. Titan Troy will escort you while I try to find the intruder of whom you spoke to Mrs. Gillison. This academy is on complete lock-down until further notice.”

  Then her grandfather was once again a hunter of the night who took two graceful bounds and was gone.

  “Stay at my flank, Miss Rivera,” Titan Troy ordered.

  She did. His massive size was a great comfort as they passed shadowy corridors and disorienting blue streaks of energy began to blur her vision. She kept up with his impossibly long strides only by taking two steps to his one, not wanting to be even a few feet away from his thickly muscled arm and gleaming blade.

  She was soon panting, and disoriented with it. Her head was spinning from the bisecting and intersecting blue lines that crisscrossed the opening of every corridor they’d passed. Occasionally she’d see the transparent image of a person at the end of a line—or maybe it was the beginning of it. She couldn’t tell. These weren’t ghosts; that much she was sure of, because the people she saw were very much alive, despite their transparency.

  It was as though she could see where everyone in the entire school had walked that day. Close to nausea she trailed her hand along the wall to ground herself, but that only seemed to annoy Titan Troy. He frowned and halted abruptly to issue her a sidelong glance of disapproval, which was enough to make her hug her sopping wet sweater and quickly start walking again.