Shadow Walker (Neteru Academy Books)

by L. A. Banks

  Shadow Walker

  LA Banks

  2010

  Contents

  DEDICATION

  SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  PART ONE – BOOK I

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  PART TWO

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  PART THREE

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Neteru Compound Glossary of Terms

  Neteru Compound Family Tree

  TEEN READER’S GUIDE

  About the Author

  Coming in 2011

  DEDICATION

  As always, my greatest thanks goes to the Creator and all the angels who shepherd my steps through this journey called life, as well as to the ancestors who whisper in my ear about the people and things they think I should write about (and they keep me busy!).

  But there are also certain people—earth angels as I like to call them—who make the process of being on this journey, which feels like a mission or quest sometimes, not just bearable but fun, funny, crazy and absolutely a joy. So I have to thank Lissa, Gretta and Sesvalah who held me up in prayer through the arduous process of getting this particular baby born. They were the true earthly midwives of this process to make Shadow Walker manifest. Then of course there are always the eager readers and the staunch street team (who forever has my back). I so deeply appreciate your enthusiasm and positive encouragement—you all bring the Light! At points you cheered me on and made me push, and gave me that extra coaching needed to muscle through the labor pains—even when it seemed like it might be a breeched birth. But no matter what, the book made it to come wailing into the world. Ha! We did it as a team. For that, I THANK YOU and LOVE YOU right on back!

  SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  No dedication is right without acknowledging the folks who lent their special talent, skill and sheer force of nature to make this happen, therefore special thanks goes to Lissa Woodson, who hung through the darkest times; to JL Woodson and Barron Steward, who made the website pop; to Leslie Wainger who edited this book back to life after it had suffered so many abuses; to Sara Crowe, who believed it back to life when all seemed lost; to Joe Konrath, the mad scientist who had alternative treatments for the patient that worked miracles (I love you, Joe—you are my hero!); to “52 novels” Rob Siders, Carl Graves and Cheryl Perez who made it do what it do, helped it get up and walk; and to my long-time editor and friend Chandra Sparks Taylor who put the finishing polish on this project—bless you all!

  Look for book 2, Shadow Seekers, sometime in 2011…

  www.NeteruAcademy.com

  PART ONE

  Awakening

  “May I look upon my soul and my shadow.”

  —The Egyptian Book of the Dead

  Chapter 1

  The Compound

  Sixteen years after the Armageddon

  The demon was so close now that she could feel its icy breath on her neck. Sarah Rivera swung her bedroom lamp at it as she lurched toward the door, yanked it open and dashed into the dark hallway. The corridor was longer than it had ever been, as though something unnatural had drawn it out before her so that she could never reach the end of it to get to safety.

  Running hard, she focused with all her might on the tiny emergency exit light that now seemed miles away. That beacon was the only source of illumination in what had otherwise become pitch blackness. Shadows loomed and stretched around the faraway light as though mocking it, mocking her, dimming its effectiveness as she reached out toward it.

  Then, as if the air around her had become molasses, her legs suddenly felt heavy and mired in a sticky goo of atmosphere, making her struggle just to put one foot before the other. She tried to scream, even to call for her mother or father, but no sound came out.

  Pure panic gripped her as she saw her best friend’s bedroom door ajar. Tami would help her. They could fight this beast together.

  Sarah slogged through the density that clung to her legs and thrust her way through Tami’s open door. Tami was standing in the darkened room, hands on hips, face wearing her usual smart-ass smile. But her friend’s eyes weren’t right. They weren’t Tami’s eyes. They were the eyes of the demon!

  The bedroom door slammed behind Sarah with a loud bang. Instantly the entire room went pitch black. Not even moonlight shone through the window. Sarah’s scream began in the pit of her stomach but never reached her throat. Her heart slammed against her breastbone. She could hear things moving in the dark, circling her, stirring the air.

  In the next second, she was awake.

  Sarah sat up quickly in the dark, panting. She immediately reached for her nightstand lamp and clicked it on, covering her heart with a hand. A slight sheen of perspiration made her tank top and panties cling to her body. The sheets around her were in a tangle about her legs, and she flung them off her. The pillows were gone from the bed, cast to the floor during the nightmare.

  Almost in tears, she leaned forward and rubbed her temples, feeling like her bedroom was closing in on her. Her head ached in a strumming throb. This was the third nightmare in a week. She was tired of trying to convince her mom and dad that the dreams had nothing to do with the stress of taking placement tests for school. Each time the demon in her dreams got closer. Tonight it had gotten too damned close. That had to mean something. It all felt too real.

  But it annoyed her to no end that her parents were always so preoccupied with their own lives and problems that they could never seem to make time to really listen to her or to take her seriously. Other people had problems, too. They weren’t the only ones in the world going through hell.

  If she were psychic, like they were, and had a daughter who was slowly coming into her extrasensory powers, like they did, she would make the time to listen. She was sure of that. But they didn’t. Sarah frowned. They claimed she had performance anxiety and then blew her off. Maybe it was easier for them that way. Who wanted to deal with a kid who had issues when you had more important stuff to address?

  Sarah let out a forlorn sigh. She could hear her father’s voice booming inside her brain like low, rolling thunder. She leaned forward and clasped her hands on either side of her head. Yes, she could hear them. They were somewhere in the compound…. Were her parents fighting?

  She threw back the covers to completely untangle herself and easily navigated her way through her semi-darkened bedroom to yank on some sweatpants and her sneakers.

  Their words were hard to make out, but the urgency in her father’s tone was unmistakable. Never in her life had she heard her dad sound like that; never had she experienced hearing someone so clearly inside her head. She needed to get closer.

  She slipped out of her bedroom and quietly made her way down the hall, still jittery from the all-too-recent nightmare, barely noticing the blood-red moon outside her window.

  She had only gone twenty-five feet when she saw her brother, Alejandro, sneaking out of his own bedroom.

&
nbsp; “Pssst,” Sarah said.

  Al gave a quick start and whirled around to face her. His surprised expression turned into his normal glower once he saw it was her.

  “Don’t do that,” he whispered furiously. “What’s your problem?”

  “Did you hear it?” Normally she only had biting comments for her irritating twin brother, but not tonight. She was glad he was there with her.

  “You heard Mom’s voice inside your head, too?” he asked, still frowning.

  Sarah shook her head. “Just Dad…what’s up?”

  “They’re fighting,” Al said, stating the obvious. “Never heard ‘em go at it like that before, though. This isn’t one of their normal arguments.” He glanced down the hall. “I’ll let you know if I find out anything.”

  They stared at each other for a moment. For once she wished her brother would just drop his defenses and be on her side. He was a telepath just like her. If they teamed up, they could find out what was wrong faster. Most times Al didn’t seem to be able to do that. But this was so much bigger than who was supposedly their parents’ favorite or who was demonstrating special abilities first, or any of that other craziness. Sarah briefly closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip, trying to find a way to reach her twin. When she finally looked at him, she could feel the wall Al always kept between them beginning to crumble.

  “Please, Al…can’t we do this together? I’m really worried.” She held her brother’s gaze until he looked away. “What if they’re breaking up or something?” she finally whispered, hugging herself. “I didn’t hear what Dad was saying…I felt it.”

  Al ran a hand through his hair. “When I heard Mom’s voice, it was like glass shattering inside my chest. I need to get closer so I can hear what’s going on.”

  “You mean so you can eavesdrop,” Sarah said dryly, and as soon as she said it, she wished she hadn’t.

  “Yeah, well, then why are you out here?”

  “I know. You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m just used to sparring with you, but tonight…”

  “Exactly. And that’s why I don’t wanna be around you,” he said, folding his arms over his chest. “You judge people, Sarah. But whatever is going on with Mom and Dad is more important than whatever you think.”

  Al smirked when she had nothing to say in response. Sarah scowled as he turned and began creeping down the hall again, then sighed and followed. It was better than nothing.

  She and Al had long since learned all the back service corridors and stairwells of the old hotel that their parents had converted into a mountain safe house for their family sixteen years ago. In fact, all the Neteru Guardian team members lived there as one big crazy combination of blood relatives mixed in with warrior friends for life that shared no actual blood ties—uncles and aunts were more titles than real biological links. But it didn’t matter. They were still considered family. All the kids grew up like brothers and sisters or functioned like cousins under the same roof. All of them had long since learned their way around the property, unbeknownst to the often battle-distracted adults, and had spent hours of play going through the secret passageways of the old hotel.

  So, getting to the war room unnoticed—where they suspected their parents were—would be a piece of cake. Or would have been—until Tami opened her bedroom door and joined them in the hallway.

  “What’s up?” Tami said after a brief yawn, looking at them with a curious smile.

  It always amazed Sarah how Tami’s great figure could make even a pair of cut-off sweats, a rumpled tank and a bed-head ponytail look good. Her best friend stretched, yanked the scrunchie off her long, dark-brown hair and tugged it into a tighter updo, and then put her hand on her hip. Her curious hazel eyes were lit with mischief, and that, combined with the hypnotic stare that she’d inherited from her once-vampire mom, always made resisting her questions a hard thing to do. “C’mon, guys, spill.”

  “This is family business,” Al muttered. “You should go back to bed.”

  Sarah glanced at her brother. It was odd how even when he was being snarky toward Tami, his tone softened.

  Oblivious, Tami just looked at him for a moment as if he had lost his mind. “My BFF here mentally called me, so don’t you tell me to—”

  “I didn’t call you,” Sarah said quickly.

  “Sure you did,” Tami replied. “Here.” She tapped her temple with a finger and gave Sarah a wink.

  Yeah, Sarah thought. Ever since her cool older cousin Ayana—or Yaya, as she was always called—who was nineteen years old to her fifteen, had gone off to school, she and Tami had been soul-linked like that. If she was ever in trouble, Tami would know it and vice versa. That was how it had been with her and Yaya. If ever she felt bad, down or blue, Yaya just knew it and came to her with all the right words and a well-timed hug. Sarah swallowed hard, trying to hold back the emotions that might make her voice quaver.

  Now she and Tami were connected just like she and Yaya had once been, which was more like twins than she and Al. They’d said one day Yaya would be her mother-seer in a battle compound. But Tami was so different from Yaya. And Tami was also different from Sarah herself, even though in all truth, Sarah had to admit that Tami was her best friend. Still…Tami had an attitude with an edge; Yaya had a soothing gentleness that wrapped around any wound you brought her to inspect.

  Her parents fighting downstairs made the ache for Yaya blossom within Sarah’s chest. She missed Yaya so much. She wished things between her and Al were different, too. But it was what it was. Sarah looked at Tami, silently begging her to just leave things alone.

  “T,” Sarah said, exhaling heavily, “our parents are fighting…and it sounds bad. We’re going to find out what’s going on.” She glanced at her brother, who’d already started down the hall. “I’ll be back.”

  Tami looked concerned but just gave her a quick hug and then made the call me sign. She slipped back into her room while Sarah hurried after Al.

  They took the back way, which ran behind what was now the war room before heading down two flights of stairs. Sarah tried her best to ignore the forms cavorting in the dark corners. The shadows seemed especially playful tonight. Actually, she called them playful, but she had never bothered to find out what they wanted. Her mom and grandma said they were harmless and that being able to see what was really in the shadows was all a part of her second sight. Some gift. But since no one else in the house could see them, she didn’t really want to know what these eerily stretching shapes meant. Right now, she stayed close to Al as she hurried past them and ignored the fact that they seemed to be laughing at her.

  She and Al stopped outside the war room and splayed their hands against the wall for better reception.

  “They didn’t even seal the room,” Sarah said in awe. She turned and looked at her brother. “It’s wide open to a telepathic siphon.”

  “More than that, I bet if we try hard enough we can get an image to come into our minds,” he said, closing his eyes. “They must be really pissed to leave themselves vulnerable like that.”

  Her brother’s comment chilled her. Sarah closed her eyes, straining to hear.

  The twins fell silent once more, losing themselves as they tuned in to the voices just beyond their reach. Sarah felt her hands almost become one with the paint on the service corridor exit walls, her awareness drowning out the sound of her heartbeat and that of her brother’s. Muddied voices soon gave way to clarity. She could feel the impact of the emotions like a gut punch first, and then the sound came after it, like a Doppler effect.

  “I don’t give a rat’s ass, Damali!” her father shouted. “I don’t want those kids going to the Academy until we find out who or what is snatching bodies! Some agent of evil is kidnapping students, snatching these kids out of thin freakin’ air! We forced the Armageddon, Damali, and made it come early. So now who knows what the real timeline is for the return of the ultimate evil? What about that ain’t clear?”

  Sarah’s and Al’s heads snapped around, and
they stared at each other, eyes wide in shock. Their father was no longer speaking to their mother in his normal controlled diction. He’d lapsed into hard slang and his Spanish accent was now getting thicker by the second the more upset he became. That always happened when her dad went ballistic.

  “Bodies?” Al mouthed. “Kidnapping students!”

  Sarah shook her head frantically. She didn’t want to know what they were talking about. Her father had said someone—or maybe it was actually something—was out there kidnapping people from school. Snatching bodies? Where, how, how many kids were missing? It was so horrible she wanted to just turn away from the telepathic eavesdropping. This had been a bad idea. But curiosity won out as Al pointed to the wall and they both went back to listening.

  “You have to have faith…and they aren’t babies any more, Carlos,” her mother was saying, her tone firm but calm. “Sooner or later the kids have to learn to battle the same things, if not worse, than we fought.”

  “What? They’re only fifteen years old. All of ‘em—every kid in this compound! That thing we chased back to Hell during the Armageddon was not supposed to surface for twenty-one years! Every telepath we know said so. And now—”

  “We don’t know that’s what it is, Carlos. It doesn’t have to be the ultimate evil, it could be—”

  “They aren’t ready, D!”

  “You mean you aren’t ready, Carlos. And that’s why they have to go to the Academy—to learn how to fight what will be coming for them a few short years from now.”

  “They don’t have to go while the school is in crisis, Damali. That’s all I’m saying.”

  “That’s all you’ve been saying since they hit puberty and started presenting their talents. I told you then it was time for them to go into intensive training with the others, but you wouldn’t listen to me. Now they’re—”

  “You and I both know these kids are special, D. They aren’t like the kids from other Guardian compounds—they’re from the Neteru squad and need a few more years of individualized attention.”