Shielded

I couldn’t stop thinking about what Ray told me her father forced her to do. My nightmares were filled with a beautiful green-eyed little girl drenched in blood within a makeshift ring. And the way that she reacted when Con had called her Killer just about ripped my heart out. Ray actually held herself responsible for what her father had compelled her to do. Not even The Law did that. It was the Valkyrie that did the compelling that was solely responsible for whatever actions they forced on another person.

I wasn’t used to dealing with this kind of secret, and keeping something from my telepathic brother was messing with my head. I needed a distraction. I needed to focus on something other than Ray. My sanity depended on it.

--Max

I had thought that after everything I had on my mind that I would have trouble sleeping, but exhaustion both mentally and physically took over and I got a full seven hours of sleep. I woke up with my alarm and headed to the truck stop for my normal morning routine. I had to carefully unwrap my perfectly healed hand and save the gauze to rewrap it after my shower because I didn’t have any spare gauze. I would have to stop by the store later and get some badges because these were inevitably going to get dirty.

I picked up coffee and juice at the truck stop and walked over to Jack’s trailer. Amy gave me a big hug making me feel bad for causing her any worry at a time like this. I didn’t have another shift at Polly’s until tomorrow, but I would bring her a cinnamon roll for Friday morning as an apology. I could tell that Jack was on high alert for any gossip involving Amy and when we disembarked from the bus, he told me that he was going to eat breakfast with Amy and her friends this morning. I was just about to join them when I saw Blake standing a few dozen feet away scanning the sea of students getting off the busses.

I waved to Jack and headed over to say good morning to the more easy-going Berg twin. Blake gave me a heart-stopping smile as soon as he spotted me and he held out his arms in invitation. I decided to take him up on it and walked straight into his embrace and wrapped my arms around his waist as he engulfed me in a hug. He was so tall and wide that it felt like I was completely surrounded by him and the clan bond surged through me. God this felt good. It felt right.

“Good morning, Baby Girl,” Blake murdered into my hair and I smiled into his chest. He was the first person to ever give me a nickname. I kinda liked it.

“Morning, Big Guy,” I replied and when I pulled away Blake presented me with a brown paper bag.

“Compliments of Elijah. Max trusted me to make sure you got it.” I took the bag and looked inside to find a foil-wrapped sandwich and a bottle of cranberry juice. Just like yesterday, the sandwich was warm to the touch. It would appear that Elijah has decided it is his responsibility to make sure I didn’t go hungry. Not that I was complaining. I unwrapped the foil to find an egg, sausage, and cheese sandwich on an everything bagel. Ten times more appealing than whatever the cafeteria was offering this morning.

I started to eat my breakfast sandwich and asked, “where is Max?” Blake was just opening his mouth to tell me when an idea struck me. This was a perfect time to test if I really did have the Tracking Gift. “Wait! Don’t tell me,” I practically shouted before bringing up a picture of Max’s face in my mind and asking my body to find him. I felt ridiculous while doing it, but as soon as the thought of finding Max entered my mind, I felt certain that I could find him if I just started walking into the school. I followed my instinct through the front doors, passed the north cafeteria and hallway of senior lockers, left down the math hallway, and into the library.

I glanced back to see that Blake was following me with a concerned look on his face so I gave him a reassuring smile before heading to the second to last row of bookshelves in the non-fiction section. There I found Max bending over Annabell as he fused their mouths together. One of his hands was braced on the bookshelf while his other was fisted in Annabell’s long red hair. Both of Annabell’s hands were exploring Max’s muscular back under his shirt. I was so excited that my experiment worked that I didn’t even care that I was interrupting Max’s private time with his girlfriend.

I spun around with a huge smile on my face and jumped into Blake’s arms, surprising the hell out of him, while exclaiming, “It worked!”

Blake’s easy laughter filled the quiet library atmosphere and he pulled me closer. “What worked?” he asked and Max jumped away from Annabell like he was fourteen and just got caught with the neighbor girl. I was at a loss at what to say in front of Annabell, so I was relieved when she was the first to talk.

“Oh my God Ray, I heard about what you did. Saving that girl from getting shot. You’re like a real-life hero. What was it like? Getting shot at? Can I interview you for the school paper?” Annabell said in a rush like if she didn’t say every single question that she had in under ten seconds it wouldn’t count. I turned in Blake’s arms so that I was facing her and she actually grabbed my hands as she waited for me to answer. She noticed that my left hand was wrapped in gauze and brought it up to her face to examine.

I was in too good of a mood to let her weirdness get to me so I answered honestly, “It all happened really fast. I didn’t really have time to process what was happening until all of the shooting was over with.”

“Wow, that must have been so scary for you. You’re so brave for already coming back to school. If I got shot at I would demand that my parents let me stay home for at least a week,” Annabell said while squeezing my hands. Her intensity was kinda creepy and starting to affect my good mood. Luckily Max came to my rescue. He lightly grasped Annabell’s shoulders and pulled her away from me and down the library aisle. He must have told her some sort of excuse because a moment later he returned without Annabell.

“Were you looking for me? Need something?” Max asked and I started to feel a little guilty for interrupting him. I would need to be more circumspect in the future.

“You were right,” I told him excitedly. “About me having another Gift. I finally got around to reading more of the book you gave me last night and the things described in the Tracking chapter really resonated with me. I just tested it and had no trouble finding you. I think I have Tracking!” It might be a mistake to tell them about having a fifth Gift, but I was happy and didn’t want to hold those feelings in. I wanted to share them.

Max gave me a genuine smile and Blake let out a whoop of excitement. My face hurt, I was smiling so hard. “Wow, Tracking! That is a seriously useful Gift. You are so badass,” Blake called out and once again pulled me into his arms. I rested my head on his chest and soaked up this moment of happiness and companionship.

“That is amazing news, Ray. Congratulations,” Max said but I could tell that his heart wasn’t fully in it. I looked him over more carefully and saw that he had dark bags under his eyes and he looked exhausted.

I pulled away from Blake and ran the back of my fingers down Max’s cheek as I asked, “Are you okay? You look tired.” Max leaned into my touch and I ended up turning my hand around so that I was cupping the side of his face. I remembered how much their touch helped me when I was feeling down and pressed my palm more securely against his cheek.

“Yeah, just haven’t been sleeping well the last couple of nights. Thanks for asking,” Max replied and I understood that it was my fault that he was so tired. First with having to heal me in the middle of the night and then having to deal with all of my drama. The last thing I wanted was to have a negative effect on these guys. Just as I was about to say something the warning bell rang and Blake said some very interesting curse words before taking off. Apparently, he had something he had to do before school started.

“It’s because of what I told you the other night, isn’t it,” I asked in a small voice and dropped my hand. I was a killer. I shouldn’t be trying to offer comfort to anyone. “Listen, I understand if you don’t want me hanging around anymore.”

Max reached out and rested his hands on my shoulders before replying, “Ray, try looking at the situation from my point of view. What would you think if I told you that one of us was compelled by our father to fight to the death in an underground fighting ring as a child? Would you blame us?”

“Of course not,” I said without hesitation.

Max squeezed my shoulders and gave me a sad smile. “The same is true for me. I in no way blame you for what happened or think less of you because of it. But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad that you had to live through something like that.”

I took a moment to really hear what he was saying. If I ever heard that one of the guys had been compelled to do something against their will I would never hold them responsible for it. I knew that it wouldn’t have really been them doing those things. Just like it hadn’t really been me doing the things I did as a child. So why had I always blamed myself for the things that my father had forced me to do?

“I know that you don’t want the others to know yet, and it is your choice when or if you ever share that with them, but I do have to admit that I don’t know if I can keep it from my brother much longer. I have been trying to think about other things when he is around, but that just causes me to focus even more on what I am trying to hide from him. I’m sorry Ray, but I think he is going to figure it out soon.”

“Oh, Max you don’t need to do that. Thank you for trying, but Elijah should know. He is your clan leader and he should understand who he is inviting into his home for dinner. I don’t want any of my shit to come between you and your brother,” I told him and then started walking to homeroom.

“Are you sure?” Max asked as he caught up to me. I nodded my head and then broached the next difficult subject that I needed to get off my chest.

“Maybe tonight we could sit down and talk. I am starting to piece together some things about my abilities and I could use some help figuring it all out.”

“I would be honored,” Max said in a low voice just as Chad jumped in front of us in the hallway. He sidestepped and turned so that he was standing to my left and then slug his arm over my shoulders. What was up with everybody deciding to touch me today?

“Ray, you have had a busy week. Between rescuing freshmen from pervy teachers and dodging bullets to save little girls, it’s no wonder you have been too busy for that date. But what do you say to giving the heroics a rest for a night and coming out with me? Friday night?” Seriously, not this again. Last week Chad didn’t even know I existed. Why was he so committed to taking me out?

“She already turned you down, Chad. Move aside and give the rest of us a chance,” James called from about four feet down the hall. He said it loud enough that every person in the vicinity turned to watch the drama unfold, which seemed to be what James had wanted. He walked towards us and didn’t stop until he was uncomfortably close. James was also on the football team, but he was leaner. Maybe a running back or quarterback. He was your classic California boy with blue eyes, a strong jaw, and sandy blonde hair that was long enough to sweep across his forehead.

“Let me take you out on Friday,” James said in a confident voice. “I promise to show you a better time than this kid ever could.”

“You’re so full of shit, Brooks. Stop trying to ruin my game,” Chad said in a playful tone, but the grip he had on my shoulders tightened almost painfully. I looked around and saw that every single person in the hallway had stopped walking and was watching this ridiculous situation unfold. Most people looked way too interested, considering that I didn’t know any of these people personally. Max just looked pissed off.

When Max saw me looking his way he murmured, “It’s your allure,” under his breath at the same time that James said something I didn’t catch but it caused Chad to let go of me and step into James. Oh my God, these stupid teenage boys were about to start a fight in the middle of a crowded hallway and I hadn’t even said anything. I quickly pulled the fabric of reality around me and disappeared enough that everyone in the hallway moved their gaze from me to the impending fight. Then I grabbed a hold of Max’s hand and pulled him through the mass of people so that we weren’t late to homeroom.

This was starting to get out of control and I didn’t fully understand it. I had walked around without being fully cloaked before and never was mobbed by people trying to touch or date me. Something else was going on here. We made it to homeroom only moments before the bell rang, but it looked like at least five other people were missing. I wonder if Chad and James really did start fighting after we had left. I dropped Max’s hand and walked back to my normal seat. Chasity was sitting in her new favorite seat, the one right in front of mine.

I had gone years with practically no one caring about me. Now all of a sudden I had too many people on my hands. The question was, who was really trying to be my friend and who was just attracted to me because of the allure.

“How the hell do you deal with that all of the time?” I demanded of Max when he sat down next to me.

“Deal with what?” Chasity asked and turned around in her chair. God, I missed being the invisible girl right now.

“The allure. Chad and James just got into a fight over who could take me out on Friday. I haven’t even ever met James in person before,” I explained in a frustrated huff.

“Oh, honey. These boys LOVE their allure. Haven’t you seen how they soak up all the female attention that is thrown their way and lord their power of the rest of the puny humans to rule this school? How else do you think they would get away with treating the girls of this school so badly?” Chastity said with a touch of snark. I looked over to see Max looking down and his neck turning red. Oh my God, she was right. All three of them embraced their allure and basked in the attention that followed them around. I had thought it was just because they were attractive, smart, talented, and rich. But the way the students of this school flocked to them was supernatural.

“Okay, but this is new for me,” I said in a quiet voice. “Why am I all of a sudden attracting so much attention. It’s like someone supercharged my allure and it’s only getting worse.”

“Actually, that might not be a bad analogy,” Max said. “Valkyrie are stronger and healthier if they live within a clan. Maybe we are boosting your allure by just being around you.”

“So you’re saying that I have to stop hanging out with you guys or people will continue to mob me?” I asked, completely exacerbated by the whole situation. Something always seemed to pop up just when I was starting to accept things.

“No!” Max shouted and the entire class turned in their seats to stare at us. I cloaked myself more heavily until I was practically invisible. Max must have figured I was still in the same place because he leaned in so that he could continue talking in a lower voice. Chastity was understandably confused by the situation and reached her hand out until it made contact with my arm.

“Holy shit! You can turn yourself invisible. How completely badass,” Chastity exclaimed but Max just ignored her.

“Listen, we will figure out a way to handle your allure but isolating yourself from other Valkyries again is not the answer. It’s not healthy. Allure is directly related to power. Females are notorious for being more powerful than male Valkyrie and thus have a more potent allure. We will talk about it tonight and come up with a game plan with the others. But for now, just keep cloaked like you used to. That should keep the sharks at bay.” I was happy with that response. I was just starting to become friends with these guys, I wasn’t ready for it to end.

“Okay, now that you two have that issue settled, can we talk about this whole invisible thing,” Chastity said as she looked at a spot that was a good eight inches from where my eyes actually were. “Oh, and I have those protection charms that I promised you. I was planning on giving them to you on Monday, but I couldn’t find you. Guess I know how you pulled that off now.” She reached into her bag and rifled around for a moment before pulling out two necklaces with cheap silver ball chains. Each necklace had a ruby red crystal hanging from a silver hoop. They were actually pretty beautiful.

“Wow, thanks,” I said and uncloaked myself enough so that she could see my hand to drop the necklaces into.

“Seriously cool. I have never heard about Valkyrie having the power to be invisible. Witches can do it with the right spell, but it is a time-based thing. Cast the spell and be invisible for twenty-four hours. But you just keep fading in and out of view like it's second nature for you,” Chasity said in a conversational tone. I had to admit it was a novel experience to be talking about my Cloaking Gift so openly.

“It’s just something I have been able to do since I was a kid,” I told her and asked her how the protection charms worked.

“Oh right. Well if you are feeling threatened by someone you want to disable long enough to get away, just press the crystal into the skin of your attacker and say the word tutum. It will release a pulse of energy that will knock the guy out, so make sure you really want to disable him before using it. I always wear one around my neck because that way I know where it is at all times and if someone is pressed up to my front it is already in contact with them.”

“Have you had to use one before?” I asked and carefully fingered the red crystals. What stopped it from going off when Chastity said the activation word? Was it safe to walk around with this thing around my neck? What if it zapped me?

“Once,” Chastity said and looked away from my eyes. “This guy I was dating wanted to take things to the next level, but I wasn’t ready yet. He didn’t like my answer and held me down while he struggled with my clothes. His chest was pressed up against mine and after a few moments, I remembered about the charm that my older sister had made me. I activated it and he went out like a light. It took me a moment to get out from underneath him, but I eventually got away relatively unharmed.”

“Holy shit,” I breathed and reached out to grab her hand in a show of support. “I am so sorry that happened to you.”

“Yeah, well the joke was on him. I went home and cooked up a curse so that he couldn’t get it up for an entire year. That will teach him the meaning of the word no,” Chastity said with a menacing gleam in her eye. This was not a chick that I wanted to mess with.

“Holy shit,” I repeated.

“Witches may not be as badass as you Valkyrie, but we sure do love our revenge.”

“I will remember that,” I promised as the bell rang. I slipped the necklaces over my head and said the activation word a couple of times in my head to make sure I didn’t forget it. I was headed for the door with Max when Chastity reached out and grabbed my arm and tilted her head to the side. She wanted to say something to me without Max there. I waved Max on and told him that I would see him at lunch and waited as the rest of the class filed out of the room.

“If it were me,” Chasity said in a whisper, “I would take a page out of the boy’s book and embrace your allure.”

“What do you mean?” I whispered back, even though we were completely alone in the classroom. Even the teacher had walked out into the hallway to monitor the students.

“You have what every teenage girl has always dreamed of. Popularity and the attention of every red-blooded man in our school. Live a little. Go on some dates. Let people fawn all over you. Feel special and loved. It’s what the other Valkyrie do, so it’s practically your birthright.” She gave me a cheeky smile and then walked out of the room leaving me standing there with my mouth hanging open like some kind of moron. Could I really abuse my power in that way? I mean all of the attention would be fake. It wouldn’t feel right. But then I remembered Blake telling me that my allure was just as much a part of me as my height or hair color. And Chastity was right, the guys all seemed to embrace it. Maybe I could too.

The moment I stepped into the hallway and three different people I had never met tried to talk to me, I decided that if I was going to embrace my birthright I wasn’t going to do it today. I cloaked myself and did my best to go about my day like I had since the start of the year. I turned in my paper on Hamlet and thanked God that we were done with Shakspeare for the year. The teacher handed out worn-out copies of The Great Gatsby and I read the back cover to see that it was a cautionary tale of following the American dream. Well, it sounded a lot more interesting than Hamlet.

I remained cloaked through math and allowed the logic and routine of solving calculus problems to soothe my frayed nerves. Connor beat me to our history class and I uncloaked myself enough so that we could talk a little before class started. However, Maddison was sitting next to him and the second I became visible, she started telling me all about what had happened at Polly’s the night of the shooting. It was amazing how detailed and exaggerated her account was, especially because I was pretty sure Maddison had never stepped foot in Polly’s before. I wanted to snap at her that she had no idea what she was talking about, but she was dating both Connor and Blake. I needed to at least try to get along with her.

My attempt to move the topic of conversation away from me by asking Maddison what she had done that weekend worked a little too well. Even after the teacher came in and told us to read our textbook independently, Maddison refused to stop talking about her spa day with the girls. She kept saying things like “you know when they wrap your face in hot towels,” or “you know that feeling when your masseuse presses too hard and your whole body twitches,” like she really expected me to relate to these experiences. But to me spending a day in the spa was as foreign as taking a day trip to the moon.

I glanced over at Conner, hoping that he would save me from the constant stream of babble that was coming out of his girlfriend's mouth, but he had his head down actually doing the assignment. The worst part was the ghost of a smile on his face. The asshole was enjoying my discomfort. When Maddison ran out of details to share with me about her weekend, she launched directly into plans that the student council had for the spring fling. Apparently, she was on the dance committee and the theme for the dance was Summer Lovin from the movie Grease. I wanted to tune her out and just do my work, but I had never really had a girlfriend before. I didn’t know if eventually, she was going to try to include me in her conversation. I had to follow along just in case that happened.

The hour finally passed and after the bell rang the three of us headed to the south cafeteria. When Maddison complained about eating in the looser zone, Connor just shrugged his shoulders and explained that was where I ate lunch. When we reached where I usually sat, I saw that there was a brand new table and it was filled with people. My God, popularity was exhausting. I would take a nice quiet lunch with Jack at our broken table right now over this nonsense in a heartbeat.