by L. A. Banks
The walls had come down. Alejandro was at their table sitting beside Tami, while Val’s backpack was reserving the chair next to him. Donnie was seated across from Allie, scarfing down French toast, with Miguel next to her. Wil was next, sitting with Jess and a tall quiet guy from the track team, Randall Chapman, one of Wil’s buddies and an Upper Sphere Tactical. Sarah remembered him from that morning—he was a good runner with a nice stride, and kind, intense dark eyes—and released her breath. Why couldn’t Ayana have given a guy like that a chance? she wondered, becoming sad all over again.
Famished, Sarah piled her plate with tofu scramble and French toast, then hurried to claim the open seat by Val.
“Hey, everybody,” she said quietly, feeling oddly exhilarated physically, even though the prevailing mood was clearly somber. It was a difficult balance to manage. Part of her wanted to gush about the fantastic experience of riding Peggi and the awesome surprise stable duty had been, as well as shout to the rafters that she’d bested Amazon Akoben’s track team and some of her special powers were starting to come in. But she glanced at Wil and thought about how Hyacinth and Ayana should have been sitting with them, then sat down and kept her head low. It didn’t feel right that she was lucky enough to have so many things to celebrate when so many others were missing or fighting for their lives.
Quiet greetings met Sarah in return as everyone mumbled some form of hello. She picked up the strand of the morbid conversation and just pushed food around her plate, suddenly losing her appetite.
“I just wish we could go visit them, you know,” Allie said in a quiet rush. “Like, couldn’t we send them some love and light?”
“Take it to the chapel, kiddo,” Jessica said in a sad voice. “They won’t let any of us in there, and definitely don’t want any telepathy going on. That could get a healthy student sick—that’s why the quarantine. Dark consciousness energy spreads like wildfire.”
“But I feel so helpless,” Tami said, blowing out a breath and holding her head in her hands. “So utterly…freakin’…helpless. I hate feeling like there’s nothing we can do but wait.”
“Yeah, I know,” Donnie muttered. “‘Cinth is one of the sweetest kids—a real innocent.”
Miguel nodded. “My pop used to talk about growing up in East LA before the war. He said street gangs would be going at it, somebody would pull out a piece or do a drive-by, and a bullet didn’t have no name on it. Kids, old people…hell, your damned dog in the yard, could get mowed down as easy as breathing. This ain’t no diff, the way I see it.”
“It’s fucked up is what it is,” Alejandro said, brooding over his plate. “‘Cinth, of all people.”
“I feel you, bro, but whatcha gonna do?” Val said, digging into his pancakes. He was sitting in his chair the way he always did, wide-legged, with it turned around backward. He glanced at Sarah. “Hey.”
“Hey,” she said quietly.
“How was detention?” He gave her a half-smile.
She returned it, deeply appreciating that he’d even asked, given everything that was going on. “It was all right,” she said, stuffing the butterflies down with a bite of tofu scramble. Now came the real balancing act, being sure to give equal attention to both guys who liked her. Damn, this was crazy. There were so many bigger issues at stake. “Tell you ‘bout it later.”
Val nodded and shoved a big bite of his pancakes into his mouth. “Cool.”
“Yeah, we can talk about everything that ain’t this problem later,” Al said, clearly annoyed. “We’ve gotta address this, gotta stay focused.”
“Thing is, though,” Wil said in a solemn tone, “Patty Gray got sick this morning, too. She’s in the infirmary. Far as I know, Patty didn’t do drugs or go off on the Shady Path, and I feel like I’m to blame. I was trying to get her to help us, for old time’s sake, and maybe she went in alone after everyone left.” Wil let his head drop into his hands. “I found out about her sit after I got out of track. Melissa sent me a text from the infirmary.”
“And what about Stefan?” Al said. “That dude is dangerous, and who knows who he’s working with on the outside? All these people getting sick and going down because of that mofo contagion? He could be the one who booby trapped the Shady Path, or maybe he’s been abducting students—maybe taking them to the Morrigan. I say if the Neteru Guardian squad doesn’t come back with a pelt in the next twenty-four hours, we take matters into our own hands.”
“You cannot be serious,” Sarah said quietly, but her voice was gentle, lacking the sarcastic tone she normally used when speaking to her brother. She stared at him, and everyone at the table looked from her to Al. “Didn’t we learn anything from what happened to ‘Cinth and the others? They could be dying because we tried to handle things ourselves, force-to-force.” She looked at Tami, then back to her brother when Tami looked away. “I know you heard about the plan we had and how it backfired, and now a bunch of kids—our friends—are on freakin’ respirators, Al.”
Fury kindled in her brother’s eyes, but she could tell it wasn’t directed at her; it was pure frustration.
“Yeah, I heard about it. But I don’t blame you—the plan was sweet. You all went about it the only way you could. But that’s the problem with all that devious female planning—it’s just too complicated. Sometimes brute force is required, and I’m ready to throw down right now, especially if it’ll help find Yaya.”
She just stared at her brother and Val when they bumped fists, then got Miguel, Wil and Donnie in on the action.
“Okay,” Sarah said, pushing back from her plate and folding her arms. “Just a question, so don’t shoot the messenger.” The last thing she wanted to do was go back to fighting with Alejandro, and she knew her twin well enough to know that if she stepped on his ego in public, she’d never rein him in from doing something stupid.
Sarah waited until Al lifted his hands in front of his chest. “Peace. Speak.”
“Okay,” she said after a moment. “I just want to know what on earth can we do, brute-forcewise against a dark forces virus? I’m not being critical, not trying to be a know-it-all. I just don’t get it. Call me slow.”
Alejandro let out a hard breath of impatience. “Sis…be real. What’s probably letting in the virus is that sick bastard, Stefan. You know the buzz is that those two fliers who got eaten in the dead zone lost their PIUs, which are probably still broadcasting as we speak. Find the PIUs and we should have a recording of what went down, and maybe a solid way to track that loser. Even if we don’t find him, getting those open channels shut down that are broadcasting from the dead zone is a key to all this, if you ask me.”
“Yeah, and I can work with some of the other Blends to triangulate on the signal,” Donnie said. “All we need is to get someone inside to be able to—”
“You all are not going into the dead zone. Tell me you aren’t even remotely thinking about it!” Sarah glanced around frantically.
“Okay, okay,” Donnie said in a defensive tone. “I can try to lock in from up on Mojo’s platform, if the other guys mind stun him long enough.”
Sarah leaned forward and looked at all the boys at the table, and then sat back horrified. “No! And by the way, if you were listening to anything Mr. Everett said in class, you cannot broadcast in or out of the dead zone. It’s on demon vibration—totally different frequency from a white light channel. If it were that simple, don’t you think they would already have done it?”
“Gotta do something,” Al said, silver beginning to overtake his irises. “Plus, if it’s werewolf virus that’s booby trapped the Shady Path, there’s only one cure if people are turning.” He looked around the table and nodded. “You’ve gotta take the wolf’s head off before the victims turn. I’m not just sitting here—”
“Wait! You aren’t making any kind of sense. This isn’t a werewolf virus, it’s a dark energy virus—two completely separate things, even if Stefan is a—”
“All right, all right,” Alejandro said, talking quickly
and gesturing with his hands. “Maybe he’s not turning people into werewolves, but his ass is contagious and is dark as hell. That’s your source right there. If not, why is he missing? We find him or the PIUs, and we’ve got our problem solved.” To end the subject, her brother folded his arms over his chest and lifted his chin, looking very much like their father in that moment.
“But don’t you think the doctors and staff have already tried everything you’re talking about?” Sarah looked around the table, incredulous. “I’m dead serious. Don’t you think that trying to find those PIUs in order to stop a contagion leak into the school would have been the first thing they did? And are you actually going to hunt down a fellow student and behead him—just in case? Al, listen to yourself. I know we’re all upset about Yaya, ‘Cinth and the other girls, but come on. Be serious. You don’t even know what’s going on, what they’ve got.”
Silence was her vindication.
“Aw’right,” Al finally conceded, rubbing his jaw. “You’ve always been the best with the books, so maybe you’ve got a point about the science.”
Sarah slumped back in her chair, relieved, but it was a short-lived victory as Al let out another hard breath and sat forward again.
“But we still need to go after wolf boy, even if it’s just to drag him back to school so those in the know can deal with him.” Al looked around the table as though counting Senate votes.
Sarah shot her brother a glare. “But then here comes my next stupid question.” She returned her gaze to Al. “Are you ready to actually launch a wolf hunt against a fellow student and possibly actually kill him if he fights back—and you know he will?”
Alejandro rolled his shoulders. “Him or me. I ain’t trying to go for the kill, and the plan as it stands is to only drag his mangy ass back here, but in the end, I gotta do what I gotta do.”
“Oh, for crying out loud!” Sarah slapped her hand on the table, temporarily drawing looks from other tables. “First of all, until there’s clear evidence that it was him—”
“I looked the SOB right in his eye,” Al said, leaning forward. “I’ve got night vision, Val’s got it, Tami’s got it and—”
“Yeah, well, I’ve got it, too,” Sarah said, hysteria escalating her voice. “And even though I think it was him, the fact is, I can’t say for a hundred percent sure!”
“Well I’m sure,” Al said through clenched teeth. “What I saw up close and personal was somebody who didn’t have a problem with taking my life, so why should I have a problem taking his, if it comes to mortal combat?”
Sarah dug her fingers into her hair and pulled, exasperated. “Do you hear yourself, Al? Do you really want blood on your hands?”
“I know it’s a hard concept,” Val said calmly, then took a sip of his orange juice like he was talking about the weather. “But I, for one, am standing with Al on this. We can’t let that predator hurt anybody else. I know Nana Marlene’s got a problem with that, philosophically, but Pop ‘Bazz don’t. Why?” Val set down his juice glass. “Because he understands the law of the jungle—kill or be killed. Pop ‘Bazz understands the mind of a predator. He’s been one—kinda still is—been in lockup, seen things. Do you feel me?”
Sarah slowly lowered her hands and sat back. She’d never been so thoroughly disappointed in her life. Hurt constricted her throat. Val was siding with her brother on something so wrong that she was finding it hard to breathe.
“What’s your father say, Tam?” Al said, pointing to Tami, not missing a beat.
“Don’t blink or stutter when it’s time to pull the trigger.” She bobbed her head in an exaggerated nod. “Famous motto of Neteru Guardian Jack Rider.”
“Handling your bizness with authority is a Rivera tradition,” Al said with confidence. “You know our father doesn’t have a problem with protecting the fam, and that was the one thing he told me to do—and if you ask me, his word overrides Headmistress Stone’s any day, any time. And like Val says, I know Headmaster Shabazz ain’t gonna have a problem if I bring in a werewolf pelt. And another thing, I’m the only one that can get up close to him, hand-to-hand, and not come away with any bug he’s carrying, it’s that Neteru blood.”
“But how will you feel if you find out you were wrong?’ Sarah searched the group frantically for someone to stand with her.
“You know, Sarah does have a point,” Wil hedged. “Like, what if by some chance it wasn’t Stefan who went after you guys? Or what if he didn’t have squat to do with whatever came through the portal? There’s a lot we still don’t know, guys.”
“It’s true,” Allie finally said. “Like, Jess, you said you were there when it all went down after they lost those two fliers, right? So you can tell us what it was like.”
“It’s true,” Jessica said quickly, leaning in and keeping her head and voice low. “Headmistress Stone scanned every student, looking for who was making and selling.” She looked around the table conspiratorially. “Students worked together to block her mental access. Like everybody in here has secrets, so everybody made a pact not to let her or any administration seer break us down, so all she got was the fact that there were drugs involved. People didn’t want her to know about who’d been in the Shady Path, about any contraband operations, you know? Then her concern about drugs got sidelined as more people turned up missing. She has to be frantic at this point.”
“Yeah, but what about Stefan? Didn’t she scan him? Wasn’t he questioned?” Sarah leaned forward so far that she almost got cold tofu scramble on her sweater.
“Yeah, and he had an alibi, just like everybody else. They couldn’t pin the sell on him or pick up that he’d had anything to do with those fliers getting high,” Wil said, dragging his fingers through his silky black curls. “Patty told me about it.”
“But on the other hand,” Donnie said quietly, making everyone listen harder to hear him, “based on stuff from Mr. Everett’s class and stuff I’ve read, a demon doesn’t have a consciousness to scan. It’s just black, void.”
Everyone there leaned farther forward, hanging on Donnie’s every word. Sarah herself was stunned, listening to Donnie’s rare display of leadership. The only problem was, he could be leading the group in the wrong direction—right into danger.
“Here’s the thing,” Donnie said, sending his gaze around the group. “If this kid is part werewolf, then he might be like those kids who are born without a conscience because their moms took drugs or drank too much while carrying them. You know, a part of their brain isn’t like a normal person’s brain. Right versus wrong doesn’t mean anything to them. They function on sheer impulse. There’ve been a lot of studies on that. They look normal, but there’s a part of them that’s…off. In Stefan’s case, when he goes rogue at the full moon, maybe a part of his psyche just shuts down. There could be no way to glean evidence from it, even if there wasn’t a single kid in here willing to block for him to get him past Nana Mar.”
“And that’s my point,” Al said, nodding firmly toward his sister and then sitting back with his arms folded, vindicated. “You know taking in strays is Nana’s blind spot. She did that for our mother, and she turned out to be Neteru. She did that for our father and didn’t off him while he was a mad-crazy vamp, and look who he turned out to be. So Nana can’t bring herself to blow away some kid, even if he’s too far gone. She just can’t see it. So, come sundown, on this last night of the full moon, it’s on. We’ll give the Neteru squad an assist, but then, if they don’t find him, we get more boots on the ground and try to find the guy. Okay, okay, Sarah, with the intention of bringing him in. Then dad can have at him for all I care. That’s the for-real point is all I’m saying.”
“And that is my point, Alejandro,” Sarah said, gesturing wildly, she was so upset. “Nana didn’t blow our dad away or back him in a corner where he felt so threatened he attacked her ‘cuz he was running on survival instinct. What you’re proposing is dangerous for both of you! She saw something in Dad, even before he could see it in himself.” S
he looked at Val, unshed tears of frustration beginning to well in her eyes and make her voice tight. “Your father is a two-hundred-and-something-year-old vampire who hung with my father, his best hombre from their old days. Still my dad’s right hand lieutenant, his best friend. Both of them had something redeeming inside. Both of them made it into the Light. Both of them ran Hell together for a while—the damned Vampire Council! But they changed. That’s what Nana saw, what she sees in every student who comes here, good or so-called bad. That’s why she can’t just eliminate Stefan like he’s nothing.”
Sarah looked back to her brother, her impassioned plea fracturing her voice. “Our grandmother is not blind to human potential. She sees more than you think she can see and knows more than you think she knows, Al, but I guarantee you, you will break her if you kill a kid in this school over a personal vendetta. And I will not be a part of it.”
Pushing away from the table as two big tears rolled down the bridge of her nose, Sarah stood and angrily wiped them away. “I’m so disappointed in you, Al, and you, too, Val…in all of you guys, and especially you, Tami, and I don’t care what you think. All I know is, our nana didn’t raise us like this. She never cared where a kid came from or blamed him for the circumstances of his birth. Every soul matters to her, so don’t you do this Al. Don’t any of you. It’s not right!”
Breathing hard, she hoisted her backpack over one shoulder and rushed away from the table. She could hear Allie on her heels, but she just wanted to find a private place to let it all out. Her brother and his friends— Val, of all people—were plotting the unthinkable, a potentially deadly attack on a fellow student—something so wrong that she didn’t know where to begin to stop it. Sure, Wil was hedging, but only because of her, not because of his own personal convictions.
Sarah ran down the corridor, feeling the need to escape, rounded the corner and pushed her way into a girl’s room stall. She covered her eyes with her forearm, willing herself not to sob. They were forcing her hand, boxing her into a corner. If she couldn’t get them to call off this wolf hunt by sundown, she was gonna have to out their dumb asses to the administration—and that was the last thing she wanted to do. Val would never speak to her again. Her brother would never speak to her again. None of her friends would, but right was right.
