Shielded

Holy Shit. Every time I saw this damn girl she managed to impress me. I knew she was powerful, but damn she could fight. Connor was really improving on integrating his Strength into his hand-to-hand combat and even I struggled to keep up with him these days. Yet, this seventeen-year-old girl who couldn’t weigh more than a buck fifty soaking wet was totally kicking his ass. Somehow she was deflecting most of Connor’s hits. I suspected she was using her Shield to do it, but I couldn’t figure out how. A shield was completely impenetrable, so you couldn’t fight with one up. None of your hits would make it through the shield.

Then two Hunters from the Blade Clan showed up and Connor’s dad jumped into the fight before any of us could stop him. Jesus, Ray went after the guy like he was personally threatening one of her protected. But Valkyrie didn’t claim other Valkyrie. So it must be linked to her history of Valkyrie with Compulsion. Either way, we were now so far up shit creek that I didn’t know how we were ever going to get back onto the Collins’ good side. We never reported finding a female Valkyrie in our territory. I had convinced Elijah that if we pushed too hard too fast that Ray would disappear on us. It had been my idea to bring her into our society slowly. Gain her trust and educate her a little before surrendering her to the royal wolves. There weren’t exactly laws against keeping her existence a secret, but that was just because it never happened. Our clan was about to be decimated and the Queen was going to use her Blade Clan to deliver the punishment.

--Derik

“Where is the princess?” demanded the twins’ father and Blake walked directly in front of him and started waving his hand.

“Hello? Dad, it’s okay. We’re just invisible,” Blake said but Mr. Berg didn’t acknowledge him because he couldn’t hear him.

“She is around here somewhere. She will show herself when she is ready,” Derik drawled from the porch. He was still leaning against the support beam and drinking his coffee like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“What the hell does that mean? Where did she go?” Mr. Berg yelled and started to search the area for me. It was interesting that he was concerned with finding me but hadn’t said a word about his sons. Connor reached out to stop his father when he walked by, but his hand went right through because we couldn’t interact with the physical world while in the void.

“What the fuck?” Connor exclaimed at the same time that the other man who arrived with Mr. Berg asked Elijah why he wasn’t informed that a royal was visiting the area. I never brought people into the void with me. This whole having two different conversations going on at the same time was going to get confusing fast.

“They can’t see or hear you, and we can’t interact with anything on the physical plane right now,” I explained and tried to catch what Elijah was saying to the mystery guy. Something about how it was a delicate situation.

“So this is what happens when you turn yourself invisible?” Blake asked. He walked over to a nearby tree and waved his hand through the trunk several times.

“Well, that depends. It’s like there are two planes of existence that I can travel between. I call this plane the void. I can control how far I push into the void kinda like having a dimmer switch on a light bulb. I can cloak myself so that I am just not as memorable to the people around me, make myself completely invisible, or leave the physical plane entirely. Right now we are sealed in the void, so nothing we do or say can be noticed in the physical plane. Conversely, the only power I know that works into the void from the physical plane is a shield. So your father can’t compel us here. It’s why I brought Connor here in the first place.”

Both twins were looking at me with identical looks of shock on their faces. “Fucking shit, that’s cool,” Blake breathed and I gave him a tentative smile. “So you are like a super spy.”

Considering he said it at the same time that the mystery man started talking I couldn’t exactly refute the claim. “Elijah Nilsen, if you don’t start explaining this situation right now I am going to call in my entire clan. All hope of you keeping this sad excuse of a territory will go down the drain. This is your last chance. What the fuck is going on here and where is the female?”

“What is going on?” I asked and started to worry I was really messing things up for their entire clan.

“Dad and Peterson are a part of an elite hunter clan. They report directly to Queen Florence and we really don’t want to piss them off. Maybe we should go back,” Blake said and I saw that he was worried by what this Peterson guy had said. Okay, time for damage control. I nodded my head, walked so that I was standing between Elijah and Peterson, and brought all three of us back from the void. Peterson startled and called his shield before regaining his cool.

“I never left, Hunter Peterson,” I said, repeating the formal address that Elijah had used earlier. “Please tell me why you think you have the right to demand any information regarding me or the protection that Clan Leader Nilsen has offered me,” I said the entire thing with my chin raised and my best grade A elitist bitch impersonation.

“How did you - “ Peterson started to question but I cut him off.

“I am under no obligation to discuss how I am able to do anything with you. You came here uninvited and interrupted a sparring session that could have cost a fellow Valkyrie his life. Then you have the gall to threaten Clan Leader Nilsen while in his territory. It should be me demanding answers. Not the other way around. Why are you here Hunter Peterson?”

That got his attention and he straightened his spine before answering, “We came to investigate incidents relating to the new drug called moondust. Queen Collins’ wants reassurances that it isn’t being produced by a supernatural.” Well shit. My trumped-up attitude wasn’t going to hold up against a formal investigation. The only reason it was even working in the first place is that they all seemed to believe this is how all female Valkyries normally acted.

The twins’ dad walked over so that he was standing next to Peterson and I tried to figure out what to do next. I couldn’t look to Elijah for direction, because that would ruin the whole sham that he was working under my orders. “My name is Hunter Ransom Berg. I offer my formal apologies, your highness. I never intended any harm to come to you,” the twins’ dad said while bowing his head. Stuck up, idiot. He didn’t bring any harm to me, but he almost made me seriously hurt one of his sons. However, one caught more flies with sugar than vinegar.

“My invisibility Gift is rare and I understand that you couldn’t have known that I was, in fact, armed. I accept your apology, Hunter Berg.” Ransom looked a little taken aback by my response and I wondered if it was my ability to disappear or my acceptance of his apology. I just didn’t know enough about Valkyrie culture to navigate this correctly. And it would do me any good to pretend to be something I am not. My back story wouldn’t be hard to look up. “Additionally, I am not a royal or affiliated with any royal line. Please do not address me with such a title.”

“That’s not possible,” Peterson said with confidence. He really thought I was lying to him about not being a royal. Ransom elbowed Peterson in the ribs and took a small step forward, drawing the focus to him over his clan member.

“What Hunter Peterson meant to say is that it is very unusual to find a female that is not under the protection of a royal line. Would you please describe the situation that led to this outcome?” Well, Ransom must be the political one. Alright, this was it. I needed to come up with a story that wouldn’t crumble and get us in even more trouble and that made Elijah’s clan look good.

“I understand that it is unusual,” I said in a condescending tone to hopefully push Ransom back off balance. “That is why I sought out assistance and protection. Clan Leader Nilsen was generous enough to grant both. I trust him and his clan members to help me through this difficult time.” There. That was vague but technically the truth.

“Now that this issue is settled, I will leave you to discuss your investigation with Clan Leader Nilsen,” I said hoping that by walking away I was closing the door to any more questions about me and my situation. I turned while holding my head high and strode into the house. When I passed Derik he gave me the slightest head nod and I breathed out a sigh of relief. I knew that I had just been outed to the Valkyrie community, but hopefully now it wouldn’t have too much blowback on the guys.

I walked straight into the guest room I had slept in with Maria and sank down on the bed. All of that excess energy I was feeling was gone now and I felt drained. Only a couple of minutes later there was a knock at the door and Connor, Blake, and Max walked in. The twins sat down on each side of me while Max knelt in front of me so that he could look into my face.

“You okay, Ray?” Max asked in a gentle voice and I nodded my head. God, I had really gone kinda crazy on them.

“Want to go spy on them?” I asked. If it was just me I would have already been in the void and listening to everything they said. But this was their house and their clan. It should be their choice.

“Hell yeah,” Blake said and jumped to his feet. “Max wait till you see this shit. It will blow your mind. Take us to your void Ray-Ray!” I gave a low chuckle at his antics and pushed us back into the void. I knew what to expect so I had stood at the last moment, but Connor was still sitting on the bed when we crossed. The bed no longer existed in the void and he fell to his ass in the middle of where we could see the bed was in the physical plane. He cursed and jumped to his feet while wincing. Shit, I had forgotten about the sparring match.

I walked over to Connor and pulled up his shirt to reveal several red spots that were darkening into bruises. “Max,” I called as Connor pulled away from me saying that he was fine. I looked back at Max and saw that he was still staring at the spot where Connor had fallen through the bed. I grabbed his hand and pulled him over to Connor so that he could heal the bruises while I explained where we were and how my cloaking Gift worked.

After he was fully healed, Connor insisted Max also look at the spot on my hip that he had hit and I pulled my jeans down over my hip to find my own darkening bruise. Max’s neck turned bright red as he brushed his fingers across the abused skin. I instantly felt the uncomfortable burn of his healing Gift but it wasn’t nearly as bad as when he healed my slice wounds. By the time we finished Blake had already disappeared from the guest room.

We all walked out into the main part of the house to find Blake captivity watching the scene before him unfold. Ransom and Peterson were sitting at the breakfast bar with mugs of coffee or tea in front of them. Derik was once again leaning against something in the background and Elijah was standing before the hunters on the other side of the counter. They were in the middle of a conversation so it took me a minute to catch on, but eventually, I understood that they were talking about the moondust investigation.

Cases had been popping up everywhere from Richmond to Palo Alto with the highest concentration of reports being in San Francisco proper. Ransom and Peterson were just one pair of Hunters from the Blade Clan that were contacting local clan leaders to gather intel. From what they could tell so far, the drug users would build up more strength and endurance the longer that they continued to use moondust until the users moved like a supernatural. They were focusing their investigation on the shifter communities because of the moon and wolf stamp found on the drugs.

However, so far they hadn’t found anything connecting the shifters to moondust. More troubling was that four wolf shifters had been reported missing over the last eight months. The pack alphas are demanding that the hunters focus on finding what is happening to their wolves instead of investigating some human drug.

The Three Musketeers barely moved and didn’t utter a word while we listened. They clearly didn’t trust that we weren’t going to be caught eavesdropping. I knew better. I went to stand by Derik because he had a clear view of both hunters. After Elijah finished describing the bouts of violence occurring around Oakland and how they had linked them to moondust the kitchen fell into a tense silence. I got the distinct impression that the hunters had significantly more power and political sway than Elijah’s Oakland clan.

After a full minute of tension, Peterson finally broke the silence. “Are you seriously not going to explain how a powerful female Valkyrie who is claiming she is not a royal ended up in your clan house? Not to mention that she has clearly been injured. If I find out that one of you sorry excuses for a Val put that mark on her face, I will tie you up and make sure you are covered with bruises just as bad.”

“It went down exactly like she said,” Elijah answered patiently. “The boys found her at school and when they approached her she appealed for protection. There are circumstances from her past that resulted in her distrust of male Valkyrie. We have been cultivating trust and carefully bringing her into the fold. It was never our intention to keep her existence secret. We were just waiting for the right time to bring this to Queen Florence’s attention.” He wasn’t lying. Elijah really was just biding his time until he outed me to their queen.

“Well, this clan is wholly inadequate to provide protection for a female. Tell us everything you know about her and the Blade clan will take over as her caregivers until we sort out what royal line she belongs to,” Ransom said and I glared at him. His two sons were in this clan. Why did he have such a low opinion of it?

“I am not sure that is the right move here,” Elijah tried to explain but Ransom wasn’t even willing to listen to him.

“Stop. The only reason we are not bringing you up on charges is that the female is backing your story. But you are unworthy of having a female Valkyrie on these premises and she will be coming with us.”

“That female’s name is Ray,” I said right after I pushed myself out from the void with my arms crossed over my chest a foot to the left of where Derik stood. To his credit, Derik didn’t even blink when I appeared out of thin air. “And I am not going anywhere with you.”

Both hunters startled and I could see Ransom trying to think of a way to back peddle. “My apologies Ray,” Ransom said in a polite tone. “I was unaware that this conversation was being monitored. But there are things at play here that you may not fully understand. The Oakland Clan is a small, relatively untrained, and low-ranking group of Valkyrie. If you are looking for protection and assistance, you would be better suited with a larger, more experienced, and respected clan. You don’t have to come with us, but we do need to find you better accommodations.”

I was so over all of this political bullshit. “No. I will be staying with the Oakland Clan,” I said stubbornly.

The kitchen was quiet for a moment before Peterson suddenly gasped and murmured under his breath, “Oh my God. What if they bonded with her?” However, he didn’t say it quietly enough because both Elijah and Derik looked completely affronted by the idea. I had no clue what they were talking about.

“That is just insulting,” Derik hissed. “We would never do that. And Ray has only been hanging around for the last week. You can’t seriously believe we would do such a thing to a seventeen-year-old girl in a fucking week.”

“Hunter Peterson does have a point,” Ransom said in his overly politic voice. “This entire situation is unprecedented, and Ray’s obstinance in wanting to remain here is not logical. She should be residing in the palace with the queen, learning about how to rule our society, not hanging out with lower-tier Valkyrie. We will need to check that no such bonding has occurred.” After Ransom’s neat little speech, Peterson walked towards me and reached out his hand. It was obvious that he wanted me to allow him to hold my hand, but I had no clue what was going on. What was this bond they were talking about and what would touching my hand do to disprove such a thing?

I didn’t see a way out of this without revealing how clueless I was about the entire situation, so I uncloaked my mind and sent a thought to Elijah. Elijah, I have no idea what is going on right now. If I am about to do something I am going to regret later, please stop me. I was concentrating on Elijah’s response from my peripheral vision so hard that I almost missed when Peterson grunted and swayed to the side. He used his outstretched hand to steady himself on the kitchen counter and bowed his head in concentration. What is going on right now?

“Hunter Peterson is an Empath,” Elijah explained to answer my unspoken question. “I suspect that he is reacting to your strong emotions.” Huh, that didn’t make much sense. I was feeling way more emotional earlier and the guy didn’t so much as blink. Why was I having this effect on him now? Oh - I had just uncloaked my mind to communicate with Elijah. Guess that protected me from empaths as well as telepaths.

I used the distraction to meet Elijah’s eyes but he just gave me a nod of approval. He was completely fine with me touching Peterson to disprove this whole clan bond thing. So when Peterson recovered from getting an onslaught of my emotions and held out his hand to me again, I took it. The same warm tingly feeling that I felt when I touched one of the guys exploded in my palm and worked its way up my arm. Peterson let out a little moan of pleasure and grabbed the back of my neck to pull me into his chest. The feelings that accompanied touching another Valkyrie engulfed my entire body as Peterson wrapped his arms around me. But being trapped in a strange man’s embrace was not something I was okay with.

I reversed my grip on the hand that was still holding Peterson’s and bent it to the side. He flinched and I spun away from his hold bringing his arm painfully behind his back. I maintained pressure so that if he tried to move it would add leverage to the hold and dislocate his shoulder. “What the fuck? You think it is okay to just grab me like that?” I demanded while scanning the other Valkyrie in the kitchen. Before I could say anything else Derik cold-clocked Peterson and he slumped in my grip. I let go and he slid to the ground.

“Jesus Crist Berg. You accuse us of something unthinkable and then your clan lieutenant gets all handsy the moment he touches her? And you call us unworthy?” Derik yelled. I was getting really tired of not knowing what the hell was going on around me. I actually wished I had Telepathy right now so that I could find out why all this was happening.

“That was a complete violation of not only Ray’s personal space but also her trust,” Elijah said in an equally angry voice. “If your lieutenant can’t control himself after a simple handshake, then Ray is clearly not safe in the care of the Blade Clan. As she said before, Ray is not going anywhere with you. If you push the issue I will bring Hunter Peterson up on charges of assaulting a female Valkyrie.” That got Random’s attention and he frowned down at his unconscious clan member.

“Clearly I misunderstood the situation. Once again, I offer my sincere apologies Valkyrie Ray. The only explanation I can offer is that Hunter Person is not used to feeling a clan bond from a female and allowed the sensation to overcome his common sense. I beg that this will not hinder you from coming to the Blade Clan for any assistance you may need in the future. We will make a full report to the Collins’ royal line and I am sure they will figure out the best solution for all parties involved. We have taken up enough of your time,” Ransom said and then picked Peterson up from the floor and carried him out of the house like a sack of flour.

I was staring after them when Derik walked up to me and asked in a soft voice, “are you okay?”

“Umm, yeah. I’m fine, just confused. What just happened?” I replied and pulled the Three Musketeers from the void. Max and Connor were standing shoulder to shoulder with Derik, crowding into my space. Blake was over by the window watching as his father left.

“That’s going to take some time to get used to,” Elijah said and the three guys in my face backed up so that I could see the clan leader.

When no one opened their mouth to offer an explanation I tried again. “What did they mean by bonding with me? Why did Peterson grab me?”

“Jesus, how can you fight like you do but not know about clan bonds? Your knowledge base about Valkyrie is seriously fucked up,” Derik said and I gave him a dry look.

“Thank you, Captain Obvious. Now, are you going to explain it to me, or just make fun of my ignorance?”

“Remember when I told you how clans are basically families that we choose?” Connor asked and I nodded my head. “Well when enough time has passed and enough trust is established between the members of a clan, a bond is formed. This is a permanent bond that links the members of the clan together and is similar to the bond you share with your claimed protected, but it is stronger. The bonded clan members can feel when the others are in trouble and need to be around each other to stay fully healthy. When you are bonded to a clan, you no longer feel a connection through physical touch to other Valkyries. If you had been bonded to us, as Peterson accused, then neither of you would have felt anything when he held your hand because he is bonded to the Blade Clan.”

I took a moment to think over what Connor had said before asking, “okay so what would be so bad about me bonding to your clan?” I felt a little hurt that everyone had been so discussed by that idea. Was it really so horrible to believe I could be a part of this family?

The guys all traded some heavy looks before Derik said, “first, bonding usually takes years. The twins and Max aren’t even bonded to me and Elijah yet. For them to say that it happened over only a week meant they were implying that we did something supernatural to force the bond. The clan bond is sacred in our culture, and forcing someone into it is one of the worst things one Valkyrie can do to another. Second, they weren’t lying when they said that we are a lower-tier clan. We are just starting out and instead of joining an established clan, Elijah and I decided to start our own. Like we have told you before. Only the royals clans have female Valkyrie. It’s not that we wouldn’t want you to be a part of our clan, it’s that you are destined to eventually bond to one that is much higher up in the social and political standing.”

Okay, that was too much for me to think about right now. Considering linking myself permanently to a bunch of other Valkyrie was going to have to wait until another day. “Okay, I understand. But why did Peterson freak out and grab me?”

“Umm, cause touching an unbonded Valkyrie feels good,” Derik responded like I was the slow kid in class.

“But I have touched all of you. None of you tried to crush me to your chest like Peterson did.”

“We would never,” Elijah said with feeling and I let out a frustrated breath. We were talking ourselves in circles.

“Let’s move on,” I declared. “What does all of this mean for me? The twins’ dad said that he was going to file a full report.”

“It means you’re about to get a lot of attention,” Connor said and my stomach dropped. I hated attention.