Awakened Page 5

  She smiled when I gave her the slip introducing me as a new student. Instead of parading me in front of the class, she told me her name, gave me a list of reading material for the class and told me to take a seat.

  I loved English literature, read everything from the classics to memoirs. Even the books Mrs. Deveraux chose for us I’d already read. But for the first time, I had zero interest in plots and concept development. I was still wary, expecting something weird to happen. Every sudden sound in class made me jump. When class finished without an incident, I exhaled with relief.

  McKenzie materialized beside me. “Want to eat lunch together?” she asked.

  “I, uh, I’m supposed to meet a girl I know outside then go to lunch together.” The light in her eyes dimmed. “You can join us if you like?”

  She beamed. “Sure. I’ll meet you there. I need to ask Mrs. D. something about our assignment.”

  I returned my books to my locker and headed toward the cafeteria. Kylie and two other girls—one with light brown shoulder-length hair and glasses, the other one Chinese—were waiting for me by the entrance. After the introductions, I learned that Nikki Cho was Korean-American and the girl with glasses was Amelia, Kylie’s cousin.

  The four of us entered the cafeteria, got trays and bought our lunches. I listened with envy as the three girls discussed what they did over the summer with friends, each other or family. I never did anything with a schoolmate and didn’t have other relatives except Grampa.

  Two boys joined us. Zack with his wavy brown hair and goofy smile looked like the skateboarder type, and from the way Nikki’s hand slipped into his, he was her type. Cade, the brooding would-be Goth rocker in ultra-skinny black jeans, black T-shirt with skeleton logo seemed perfect for Kylie. Soon, they were discussing an upcoming school dance.

  “You should come with us, Lil,” Kylie said.

  I’d never attended a dance before and wouldn’t know what to wear. “When is it?”

  “Next week on Friday. Cade and I are going,” Kylie said and flashed him a smile.

  I warmed up to the idea. A school dance was a normal high school activity, which meant no Guardian mess. “Is it casual or formal?”

  “Casual. You can be my date.” Nikki lifted her pixie face to stare into Zack’s eyes.

  He hugged her close. “Anything for you, babe.”

  I looked across the table at Amelia. “Are you going?”

  “Maybe.” She pushed her glasses up her nose and blinked. “I don’t like to dance.”

  “What dance?” McKenzie asked, joining us. The three girls gave her an odd look. I introduced her and conversation continued as though she hadn’t interrupted.

  “You should go, Lil,” McKenzie urged. “I’m going. I love to dance.”

  I nodded, though I wondered if Grampa would allow it. With all the stuff going on in my life, I had enough to deal with. On the other hand, this was what I always wanted, to hang out with friends and do normal teen stuff. Was it fair to close that chapter of my life before it even begun because I was different? I half listened to the conversation at our table, my thoughts drifting to Bran. Why was his family in trouble?

  “Wow, looks like Ms. Congeniality has made another conquest,” McKenzie whispered a few minutes later.

  Everyone at our table turned to stare. I followed the direction of their gazes to five striking girls. They stood in the doorway as if demanding the entire room to watch them enter. They all carried expensive-looking bags and wore trendy clothes and shoes that probably cost more than my entire wardrobe. Behind them, several jocks followed like puppy dogs.

  “Who are they?” I asked, though I knew all too well. There was a group at every school I’d attended.

  “The most popular girls in school,” McKenzie added, voice dripping with sarcasm. Or was it envy? “Kim, the golden blonde with her arm around our new quarterback, is the student president. The rest run everything else from the student newspaper to the Hi-Los, our school drill team. They even have a table reserved just for them.”

  Kim’s eyes searched the room until they zeroed on our table. I frowned when her heated gaze connected with mine. She whispered something to her friends, her gaze unwavering, and left them. The rest of her entourage moved as a group to their table, but Kim crossed the cafeteria and appeared headed toward us. People got out of her way. Dressed in a bold striped blue and purple top, white skirt, tights and ankle-length boots, she was striking. And from the smile on her face, she knew it.

  “Is she coming here?” Amelia whispered. Her eyes were owlish behind her glasses.

  “Oh, please. We’re so beneath her radar,” McKenzie said with a twisted smile.

  “Thank goodness,” Kylie added. “Fawning and ass-kissing is for losers.”

  I couldn’t agree more. Shock slammed through me when Kim stopped at our table, ignored my new friends and fixed me with an unsmiling gaze. “We need to talk.”

  I glanced behind me, then back at her. “Excuse me?”

  She scowled and pointed a manicured nail at me. “Come with me. Now.”

  I looked around the cafeteria, flushing at the attention we were receiving. As for the people at my table, they seemed captivated by the developing drama. McKenzie’s jaw had dropped. Amelia’s deer-caught-in-the-headlight expression was comical.

  I turned my attention to Kim. “Why?”

  Stop wasting my time, Lil. You sit with us, not these…. She looked at the faces around my table and dismissed them with a toss of her glorious hair.

  I groaned. Why did the most popular girl in school have to be a Guardian? And McKenzie’s sarcasm made sense. This girl was no Ms. Congeniality. Which one was she? Pilar or Isadora? Not that it mattered. From the determined look on her face, she wasn’t leaving without me. And I just hated obeying her.

  I looked at her table and sighed. The new quarterback, the jocks, and most of her friends were gone. Remy and Sykes sat beside the walnut-brown girl with long hair held up at the crown of her head so it cascaded down to her shoulders. The four trainees. My destiny wasn’t so easy to escape.

  4. THE TRAINEES

  “Fine.” I glanced at my new friends and grimaced. They stared at me with amazement, like I’d betrayed them. They just didn’t understand, and I couldn’t explain. “See you guys later.”

  I picked up my tray, went to dump leftovers and the utensils in the garbage. Kim was back at her table, so I walked toward them, each step slower than the last.

  Sykes winked and patted the chair next to him. “Sit by me, Red.”

  I gritted my teeth at his use of the name “Red” and took the seat across from him. My gaze swung between Kim and her friend. “So, which one of you is Isadora?”

  Kim’s friend twisted her mouth in disgust, her brown eyes flashing. “I’m Izzy. Call me Isadora and I’ll send you back to the dark ages when red-heads were tried as witches. Nice to meet you, though.” She wiggled her fingers in greeting, her white-tipped nails contrasting with her brown skin. Like Kim, she dressed in trendy clothes, hers more preppy—lime shorts and top, black sweater and a tie.

  “That’s her subtle way of saying she’s the Time Guardian,” Remy explained in his deep voice. He still wore workout gloves though he’d changed into blue jeans and green polo shirt. “I’m Earth.”

  “Be more creative, dude.” Sykes threw a plastic fork at him.

  Remy snatched it in the air and closed his gloved palm around it. The visible prongs of the fork shimmered and rippled as though liquefying, then the white color acquired a silver-grey tint. When he opened his hand, I watched with fascination as the shiny sheen of metal flowed along the fork and replaced the white plastic. “I manipulate solids,” he explained.

  “Which you’re not supposed to do in front of them,” Izzy murmured and waved a hand to indicate the students in the cafeteria.

  “Just because your powers are…ouch!” Remy rubbed his forehead.

  Izzy grinned, the metal fork daggling between her fingers. When did s
he snatch it? Probably seconds before he responded to her reprimand. As a Time Guardian, she could move back and forth as she pleased. I turned to Sykes.

  He cupped his gloved hands and brought them closer to my face. “Check this out,” he said.

  I peeked inside. A blinding light sparked into existence. It grew bigger and became a crackling energy ball the size of a golf ball. Rays of light escaped between Sykes’ fingers and touched my face. They were hot. I leaned back and cupped my cheek. The buzz of voices around the cafeteria penetrated my psyche and I looked around, expecting to find students gawking at us. But the scene inside the cafeteria was normal, students eating and yapping, walking in and out. No one seemed to pay us any attention. As for Kylie and my new friends, they were long gone. Explaining what I was doing at Kim’s table would be a daunting task. Sykes spoke and drew my attention.

  “Energy is my specialty.” The orb disappeared, but when he took my hand in his, his gloves were still hot. “But I can be anything you want.”

  Kim and Izzy rolled their eyes.

  What a character. From his scruffy jeans and threadbare t-shirt, he obviously liked to dress down. Was it to draw attention to his looks or deflect them? I tugged hard and forced him to release my hand. Ignoring him, I gave my attention to Kim.

  Her silky golden hair tumbled down her shoulder in gentle waves. Beside her and Izzy, I felt more conscious of my colorful gypsy skirt and my hair in a single braid. I put my hands on my lap to hide their uneven chewed tips and raised a questioning brow at Kim.

  “I’m Air, like my Uncle Seth, the Cardinal Air Guardian.” A cynical smile curled her lips. “So? What are you?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. Psi like Grampa, I suppose.”

  She lifted one shaped eyebrow, the gesture so much like Bran’s it bugged me. “A psi that causes thunderstorms?”

  “Kim,” Izzy whispered and shook her head.

  Kim rolled her baby blues. “Okay, whatever. Welcome to the valley. The Council forgot to inform us you were in town until last night; otherwise, we would have rolled out the red carpet.”

  “Sheath your claws, Lawson,” Remy warned.

  Kim ignored him. “And now that we’ve done with the introductions, do you mind telling us what’s gotten you so riled up?”

  Her tone puzzled me. Did she have an attitude problem, or was something about me bothering her?

  Izzy scowled at her. “We’re supposed to ask her when she’ll start training with us, not scare her off.”

  Kim made a face. “Training with us is a given and can wait. My head can’t.” She locked her gaze on me. “You’ve been emitting pulses of psi energy the whole morning, Lil. And we all have headaches from taking one too many hits.”

  I looked at the others. They all nodded and wore expectant expressions as though I was supposed to understand what Kim had just said. “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re a powerful psi,” Remy explained. “Today, you’re stressing over something and shooting off energy pulses. These pulses hit our psi energies, stressing our system, hence the headaches. And before you ask, we know it’s you because we recognize your energy pattern from last night.”

  My cheek grew hot. “I just got my powers yesterday, so I, uh, am not good at controlling them yet.”

  There was silence, and for the first time since I joined their table, they all wore the same expression—amazement.

  “You just turned sixteen?” Izzy asked.

  “Two weeks ago.”

  Sykes whistled under his breath. “Imagine what she’ll be able to do in a few years.” Sykes bumped fists with Remy, both guys grinning.

  “What?” I asked, my gaze bouncing between the two guys and the girls. Izzy stared at me with something close to awe while Kim scowled.

  “You got your powers with a bang and that means you’ll be a very powerful Guardian,” Izzy explained.

  I didn’t like the sound of that. “Didn’t you guys?”

  “No. We all got ours gradually over a six month period, which is typical,” Izzy added.

  “But they wasted a few more freaking out. Can you believe they didn’t want to join the Cardinal Guardianship program? As if there are so many of us to choose from,” Sykes added with a smirk.

  Kim narrowed her eyes at him. “We didn’t know what was at stake, okay?”

  Sykes smirked. “So? Do you think it is right to be given such a gift and never want to use it, Lil?”

  “Leave me out of this.”

  Sykes threw the silent Remy a disgusted look. “She’s siding with them already.”

  Kim and Izzy grinned. Remy just shrugged then asked, “So you want to tell us what’s bothering you?”

  Should I tell them about the fear I had that I might start a storm at school and hurt someone? That my carefree life was over or people could see I was a freak? Then there was Bran. I let out a shaky breath. “I’m just trying to get used to things. You know, who we are, what I can do.” Or I didn’t want to do. I glanced at the girls. “What made you guys change your minds about joining the Guardianship?”

  Izzy shrugged. “Training. It was pretty scary at first, but once I accepted my powers and realized what a difference I could make in people’s lives, I was in.”

  I stopped myself from rolling my eyes. Help people…make a difference in people’s lives. Were they brain-washed or punch drunk from drinking too much Guardian Kool-Aid?

  “And the fact that there’s a lot more at stake,” Kim said in ominous voice.

  The other trainees turned to glare at her, disbelief on their faces. Izzy even shook her head. But I was already intrigued. “Like what?”

  Kim’s glanced at the others, a mocking smile on her lips. “At ease, Gs. It’s not my place to tell her the details, but she’ll know soon enough.”

  Know what? I wanted to ask. Before I could speak, Izzy added, “Anyway, the longer we trained, the stronger and better we became at controlling our powers and the better we felt.”

  Sykes and Remy were still scowling at Kim. Whatever she had hinted at must be some top secret among Cardinal Guardians or something. “And you guys?” I asked them.

  Sykes looked at me and shook his head. “Never had a doubt. We were born to do this.” He and Remy knocked fists, again.

  “Have you guys ever met a demon?”

  The four of them nodded.

  “Mainly werenephil,” Remy added.

  “Were-what?” I asked.

  Remy leaned forward to explain. “Werenephils are the shape-shifters of our race. Many of the nasty demons in human theology books are werenephils, so are scout demons who search for vulnerable souls.”

  Sykes smirked. “Others are collectors, trading souls like common goods to other demons. Can you imagine a demon auction? Serial killer going once…twice…sold to the drama queen at the corner.” He pointed at Kim with his sucker.

  Izzy kicked him hard under the table. “Will you be serious?”

  “Moron,” Kim added, throwing Sykes a killer glance.

  “Hey, I tell it as it is.” Then Sykes grinned at me. “And just so you know, they outnumber us, which means we have to be stronger and faster than them.”

  Now that wasn’t something I needed to hear. “I guess fighting them is an endless battle.”

  “Not really. We drive them underground until they regroup and come back swinging. What works to our advantage is they’re not methodical or well-organized,” Remy explained. “There’re many dark lords with minions competing with each other. Some are perfectly happy accumulating wealth and becoming powerful.”

  “But others, like demoness Coronis, devour Guardians for fun,” added Sykes.

  “Sykes,” Izzy snapped.

  “Seriously, Lil, Coronis is as bad as they come and has the largest following,” Sykes continued, his tone becoming more serious. “She was also one of the original members of the Circle of Twelve.”

  I looked around the table to see if anyone would indicate he was joking. They
all nodded.

  “It’s true,” Remy stated. “She left because she didn’t like the CT’s agenda. While other demons cause mischief for fun, you know, play with the psyche of sane people and turn them into sociopaths…serial killers and whatnots...Coronis’ elite demons are the nature-benders. They are our worst nightmare.”

  I watched him with wide eyes, caught between fascination and revulsion. “Nature benders?”

  “They mess with nature. Water demons whip up hurricanes and cyclones.”

  “Land demons create tsunamis and earthquakes,” Sykes added.

  “Energy demons cause wildfires and thunderstorms,” Izzy piped in.

  I gulped, remembering last night. Did that make me a nature bender?

  “And air demons behind twisters and blizzards,” Kim finished. “Or the ones who do it all like…Valafar.” She said it in three syllables. The others gave her pointed looks I didn’t understand. She ignored them, just leaned forward and watched me with narrowed eyes as though waiting for my reaction.

  I didn’t know what her problem was, but fear coiled inside of me, as though I stood at the edge of a precipice while dark waters churned below, waiting to suck me under. “Are you saying natural disasters…?”

  “Are not natural,” she whispered.

  “Most of the time,” Remy corrected.

  Grampa was right. Now that I knew what I was, there was no running from it. I had to learn to control my powers, know my enemies, or I’d forever be looking over my shoulder, terrified of the unknown. The fighting demons part was what I didn’t want to deal with.

  “So when will you start training with us?” Sykes asked.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. Where do you train?”

  “Downtown at the C12 dojo, between four and six in the evenings, and mornings sometimes,” he said.

  “We have group practice and individualized training,” Remy added.