by L. A. Banks
Nothing got her blood boiling like bullying. She might not fight for herself all the time, but seeing some weaker kid being picked on made her snap and go ballistic.
The sight of brother walking toward her, the other guys trailing behind, put Sarah on guard. Al had a smirk on his face that told her he’d come over to pick on her, now that he knew she was in the clear when it came to demon contagion.
“I see Mom must have cleared up that zit on your face—guess that’s what took you so long to get down here.” Al shook his head. “Next time ask her to work on your morning attitude while she’s at it.”
Sarah felt her fangs extend. Why couldn’t he just let the breakfast incident go?
She saw Miguel laugh, while Valencio looked down and Donnie looked away.
“Yeah, your mom went to help Sarah right after she mowed your back hair,” Tami said with a sneer and flipped him the bird.
But to Sarah’s horror, rather than a quick comeback, her brother turned on the oozing charm.
“Any time, Tamara,” he said with a wicked half-smile, allowing his fangs to crest as he glanced at her middle finger. His smile widened as Tami yanked back her hand and folded her arms over her chest.
“In your dreams,” Tami said with a glare, sudden fury making her cheeks rosy.
“No, in yours, baby—I’ve been there every night, remember?”
Tami lunged, but Sarah caught her around the waist, knowing that her brother wasn’t above retaliating—and then Tamara might drop fang and try to rip out Alejandro’s throat, and that would be disaster any day, much less today.
“Save it for the bored Upper Sphere chicks,” Sarah grumbled toward her brother.
“C’mon, man,” Val said, getting between Al and Tami. “Chill.”
“Okay, guys, break it up.”
The group went still as Carlos Rivera’s voice rolled across them. Her father’s voice was definitely like thunder this morning. It had been the same last night, an actual vibration that she could feel in her chest. Sarah let out an exasperated breath as her father strode over to their group.
“Gather ‘round, everybody. One last squad meeting before we move out.”
Sarah lifted her chin as her father slung his strong arm over her shoulder, and her brother backed off. Her father didn’t yell, just spoke in a low, almost warning growl—all vamp. Yeah, her brother would never be him. Standing next to the reassuring solidity of her father gave her confidence. She met Alejandro’s eyes. The sibling animosity was mutual. Good.
“Listen up, all of you,” her dad said, making the full compound team, warriors and students, draw closer to hear what he had to say. “This is a big day,” he said, his steely silver gaze roving over the group, then singling out each of the kids. “We won’t be there in school with you to break up any squabbles. You’re on your own till you come back here on break. But while you’re there, you’ve gotta stick together as a team and watch one another’s backs. I’m expecting that from each and every one of you.”
Sarah suddenly felt so small, so silly—and wished so badly that she had the vamp ability to disappear in a fold of mist. But she was stuck there with her dad’s iron arm over her shoulder while he warned the group against infighting.
“You represent the best of the best warriors in the world, The Neteru Guardians—we are the Warriors of Light. We kill demons, and the rest of the world’s Guardians look up to us as an example. Our battles are legendary, but there is still a lot of history left to go, and you will be the ones who will make that history. So while you’re at school, your job is to learn, to come into your own powers and to put away childish behavior so that when you graduate, you’ll be ready to die for one another, if you have to. You have to be ready to walk straight into hellfire for your teammates, which means all the bull’s gotta cease and desist once I energy whirl you into the Great Hall of the Academy. You will not embarrass your parents with undisciplined bickering and arguing. And, my two,” he said with added emphasis in his voice, “you know I don’t go for that. We clear?”
Yes, she would die of embarrassment before she even got to school. She was sure of it. But perhaps not before her twin did. And had she noticed a slight tremor of worry in her father’s voice?
As she glanced around at her fellow compound-mates, the thought of dying for them really hit home. What would she have done if Tami had been snatched into that demon hole last night? For all her sassy bravado, Tami’s scream in the dark had hit a note that could have shattered glass. Or what if it was Hyacinth or Allie? If it was poor Donnie…or even irritating Miguel…or, God forbid, Val? Damn…what if it was her brother? The thought was as sobering as her father’s gaze roving the group in silence. It was effective, the combination of silence and his silver stare.
Apparently Alejandro hadn’t answered the great Carlos Rivera fast enough. Her father’s arm slowly shifted from her shoulders the same way a huge, muscular anaconda might unfurl itself from a tree limb. She could feel a vamp-snatch in the offing. It would be lightning quick, like a cobra’s strike, lifting Al off his feet by the front of his shirt before he could even draw a breath.
Oh, yeah, her dad was seconds from going there. She saw it in the way her mother’s eyes telegraphed a flicker of horror that said, Please, honey, don’t embarrass your son. It was also in the static electricity that crackled in the air as her dad tilted his head like a hunting dog listening to a distant sound. The feeling of imminent doom was magnified when Al stepped back in anticipation, but he was wise enough to cough out the right answer in time to salvage his dignity.
“Yes, sir—one team.”
Her father relaxed and nodded, and then looked at her, that signature silver stare now somewhat gentler but no less authoritative.
“One team, Papi,” she said in her sweetest voice, and then watched her father’s eyes go from a metallic blaze to a warm, normal brown.
Whew…
“That’s my girl,” he finally said, giving her a slow half-smile. “You knock ‘em dead in school—and you let ‘em know who your father is, if anybody gives you a hard time. But behave yourself. Don’t make me have to come up there and hurt one of those boys, either.”
“Oh…my…God, Dad.”
“I mean it.”
Before she could find words of protest, her father had turned to her brother.
“That’s your job while I’m not there—all of you gentlemen. Got it? You make sure that your compound sisters are all right, hear?”
Too bad they won’t let ‘em have firearms up there,” Uncle Jack said. “Could solve a lot of problems.”
“Gentlemen,” Sarah’s mother said, stepping forward, “can we just whirl these kids to school without the drama?”
Chapter 5
Until this moment, Sarah hadn’t realized the similarity between the sensation of falling into the demon hole the night before and stepping into her father’s energy whirl. The difference was, his was filled with blinding white light and didn’t inspire instant terror. Instead she felt a comforting weightlessness after the initial high velocity that sucked her in, and then she was out. But as she and the others were emerging, something shadowy flashed past her peripheral vision. Had to be vertigo…or maybe eye floaters caused by the speed.
A massive Mayanlike stepped pyramid loomed before them, its capstone—taken from the Great Pyramid at Giza—almost blotting on the sun. It was everything Ayana had described to them on her trips home for the holidays. But the capstone wasn’t attached to the building. Instead it floated eerily above the platform on what appeared to be a thick plume of mist, almost as though a huge cumulus cloud separated the pyramid’s platform from the actual capstone. When the giant eye carved into the capstone slowly blinked, Sarah almost screamed!
Sarah’s heart pounded. Everything was so new and surreal. Still somewhat disoriented from the trip, it took her a few seconds to get her legs to stop wobbling. Then she looked around, saw all the wide-eyed stares, and froze. A loud gong was sounding, an
d for a second she couldn’t tell if it was coming from the pyramid or if it was inside her head. Then a huge being stepped out onto the edge of the pyramid’s platform and announced, “The arrival of the Neterus has commenced!”
For several seconds Sarah gawked at the being’s sheer size. He was amber hued and wearing what looked like a leather and brass skirt with sandals laced up to his knees. His chiseled chest was bare, but he held a large bronze shield and wore a helmet that made it impossible to see his face. Then the sun glinted off his armor and he was gone.
The entire school—everyone who had already arrived, anyway—was apparently gathered in the courtyard, she realized. They had all come to witness the arrival of the Neteru Guardian kids.
To make matters worse, her uncles were strapped and looked like they were ready to rumble. They had enough weapons on them to march off to war. She knew they always traveled through the energy whirls like that, but still, it now made her uneasy with everyone staring at them. It also made her even more aware of just how dangerous the world beyond the compound truly was. Ever since they’d been old enough to remember, all the kids in her compound were told how they had to be vigilant because of all the kids on the planet, evil wanted the ones who came from the Neteru compound the most. Sarah closed her eyes. Just great.
With a sigh she opened her eyes, then jumped when she saw something scamper into the shadows. The little thing had skittered around the far edge of the pyramid’s base before disappearing. Sarah scanned the courtyard quickly. It was at least two or three times the size of the football field their dad had created in what used to be the parking lot behind the old hotel they lived in.
Suddenly that eerie feeling of being watched from the shadows swamped her again. She no longer begrudged Uncle Mike his shoulder cannon and Uncle Jack his crossbow and sawed-off shotgun. Still, the last thing she planned to do was worry her parents by telling them about the little shadowy things she had been seeing all her life and that now seemed to have followed her here. Especially not when her parents were already tense enough about whatever was going on at the Academy. Besides, she didn’t want to look like a lunatic in front of the entire school.
“Hey, did you see anything strange while we were in the whirl?” she whispered to Tami.
“You kidding?” Tami scoffed. “I blinked and we were here. By the way, your dad sure knows how to make an entrance.”
“I know,” Sarah mumbled, aware that every eye was on them. “I feel like a bug under a microscope.”
“Yeah, well, your dad definitely doesn’t do low key,” Tami muttered under her breath. Then she looked at her own father. “On second thought, wanna trade?”
Sarah glanced at Uncle Jack and sighed.
“Didn’t think so,” Tami said. “Coin toss for whose dad is the absolute most embarrassing.”
“At least none of them wore SWAT gear this time, like they did when they took Ayana to school,” Allie whispered.
“Shhhh,” Hyacinth said in an urgent whisper. “You know Uncle Mike can hear everything. You’ll hurt his feelings.”
Val just smiled like he was amused at everything, and Miguel seemed like he was having the time of his life. Donnie looked positively nauseous. And of course Al looked like he loved it all. Fawning females were already giving him the look.
Just then Ayana came bounding forward from the group of students gathered in the courtyard and ran toward Big Mike with a laugh. Excitement thrummed through Sarah. Her older cousin was everything she wanted to be. Ayana was the highest caliber seer there was. Yaya was destined to one day lead a Guardian team as their mother-seer the way Nana Mar had led their compound. Plus, her cousin was tall, had a great figure, beautiful brown skin and always wore the latest hairstyles. Today she had on an Upper Sphere indigo sweater with her khaki skirt, and she somehow managed to make even a uniform look cool. Her long micro-braids were swept up in a swinging ponytail, and all eyes were on her as her stepdad beamed, tossed his shoulder cannon to Uncle Jose and then opened his arms for her.
Big Mike swept her up in one huge arm, bicep bulging. “Hey, baby, gimme some sugah,” he said, laughing, too.
Ayana kissed his cheek, then smiled up at him. When he didn’t set her back down immediately, she laughed harder. “Uh, Dad, can you put me down so I can hug Mom, too?” She waved at her mother, and then turned to look at Sarah and the others from the compound. “Hey, guys!”
“Hey, Yaya!” Sarah called out in harmony with the others, so excited she could burst. There was a friendly face here; maybe day one wasn’t going to be so bad after all.
“Mike, put my child down, please. You’re embarrassing her in front of her friends,” Aunt Inez fussed, laughing herself.
Her aunt looked like a shorter, plumper version of Ayana; her braids were twisted into a dignified bun, but the warm smile was the same.
“Aw, ‘Nez… she’s my baby, too, you know.”
But her uncle grudgingly complied, and as soon as Ayana was on her feet, her mother squeezed her in a breathless hug.
“Hush,” Aunt Inez said when Ayana protested. “I can embarrass you. I’m your momma.”
“I need to bring in the rest of the students,” Carlos said to Yonnie, his top lieutenant. “Since the Academy isn’t accessible by normal roads, I’m energy-dragging them from pre-designated meet points along the way, so they’ll be white light whirling in fully loaded—that way when I send the parents back, their vehicles will be clear of any demon booby traps and they’ll have safe transport back to their compounds.”
“Okay, you guys fall back. Convoys in heavy vehicles—gotta make room,” Uncle Yonnie called out. “Incoming!”
Slowly a dense, horizontal funnel cloud formed as Sarah’s father stretched out his arms and opened his hands. Muscles in his forearms and biceps strained, and a deep V of sweat formed on the back of his fatigue shirt. Students huddled close to the base of the pyramid as dust and small stones and tiny twigs swirled around.
Her aunt Valkyrie went airborne, causing students to murmur in awe as she spread her beautiful amber wings and took a position above the mouth of the energy funnel with silver arrows drawn. Other Neteru compound warriors aimed their weapons at the mouth of the whirl, and that was when Sarah became truly aware of just how dangerous a transport could be.
Or maybe it was just this time, because of what they’d found out last night.
New fear gripped Sarah as it became obvious that the Guardians were prepared to blast anything unusual that came through the vortex with the teams that her dad was bringing through the dimensions. Maybe she should have mentioned that she might have seen something scamper into the shelter of the pyramid out of the corner of her eye, but she told herself what she had seen was probably the same as the little shadows that danced around the compound, eerie but not actively dangerous. And anyway, her parents had enough on their minds. Maybe Tami was right, and she just needed to relax and go with the flow.
“There are no roads in and out of here—your dad put the school on a mountaintop with only this cliff landing area for maximum security,” Ayana said, indicating the courtyard rimmed by marble balustrades.
Ayana’s voice startled her. She’d been so consumed by her own thoughts that she’d almost forgotten her cousin was beside her.
“This place is awesome,” Ayana said with pride. “You’ll get a tour later.” Then she leaned in toward Sarah and whispered in her ear, “We need to talk. They’ve never been armed like this for a transport before. Understand?”
Sarah nodded and hugged herself, glad Ayana was there. The other students seemed to know what to do, as though they’d already been told to stand clear of the energy whirl. Sarah and her crew numbly grabbed their bags and followed the crowd, not sure what to expect.
Tami, Allie and Hyacinth gathered closer to Sarah and Ayana, while the boys stood in their own huddle. The rest of the students fanned out close to the massive building, while the administrators and compound warriors fanned out near the marble gua
rd railing. The small, horizontal funnel cloud kept kicking up more dust and high winds that made everyone squint. The first thing that came through the whirling dust was a fully loaded military Humvee, complete with ultraviolet rack lights, bladed rims and a silver-stake-spiked grill.
“Awesome,” a girl behind them cooed.
Sarah turned at the sound of the voice, and her gaze locked on a pair of hard but gorgeous hazel-green eyes. The other girl had the kind of beauty that made one stare for a moment, as well as being tall, with supermodel build. She caught Sarah looking at her and raised one perfect eyebrow, looking her up and down with disdain before flinging her long, perfectly glossy black hair over her shoulder and linking arms with two other equally striking girls.
“Watch out for that crew,” Ayana muttered, indicating the threesome. “Frickin’ witches right out of Macbeth.”
Sarah and Tami shared a look with Hyacinth and Allie. Pure venom had been in the mystery girl’s eyes when she’d looked at Sarah, but the girl’s attitude didn’t make sense. The way Sarah saw it, the green-eyed girl had it all over her—height, beauty, curves and, apparently, social standing, because as she passed through the crowd, the guys around her stepped aside with wide smiles and enthusiastic greetings.
Which was how Sarah learned her name. After five, “Hey, Melissa,” callouts, how could she not? She learned the other girls’ names the same way. The petite blonde with the mean crystal-blue eyes was apparently Angelica, and the curly haired brunette with the body that could stop traffic was Amy. And if her brother and her compound brothers didn’t stop drooling over those hateful females, she was going to lose her mind. Why were guys so blind? she wondered.
She was about to nudge Tami and make a comment when she suddenly realized that, just that fast, Tami had strayed from their group and was fully engaged in watching the vehicles come in. “Tam …” Sarah called, trying to get her friend’s attention.
