Shielded

I did not see this coming. On one side it would be great for Oakland. We would get resources, attention, and political standing. On the other side, this was the beginning of the end of our time with Ray.

--Elijah

The next morning I presented Amy with the white paper pastry bag containing the cinnamon roll I had made sure to grab before we left Polly’s last night. She jumped up and down and let out her signature squeal and Jack looked me over with a worried look. “You just disappeared yesterday. I couldn’t find you at lunch or after school,” Jack accused and I felt like shit for not remembering to at least text him. I was still not used to having a phone and it had completely slipped my mind.

“Shit, Jack. I am so sorry. Something came up in the middle of the day that I had to deal with and then I got a ride from Max over to Polly’s after school,” I told him.

“What came up?” Jack asked with a hard edge to his voice and I hesitated. I couldn’t tell him that I stepped between two partially shifted wolves and stopped a major fight that ended up in a tribunal. But I didn’t want to lie to him either. I always knew when people lied to me. Because of that, I felt like I had a responsibility to always tell people the truth. Especially people that mattered and Jack mattered.

“I can’t tell you,” I finally said in a small voice. Jack clenched his jaw and looked over my head for a moment before responding.

“Max and the Berg Twins disappeared too. Were you with them?”

“Yes,” I told him truthfully.

“But you can’t tell me what you were doing or what was so important that you ditched half of your classes?” Jack said and I could hear the hurt in his voice. I couldn’t find it in me to deny him out loud again, so I just shook my head. “Fuck, Ray. I know I told you to make new friends, but I am worried about you. Is it drugs?”

I frowned and reached out to touch his arm so that he would look at me. “Do you really think that I would get involved with something like that?” I asked because I was kinda hurt that he would even consider such a thing. I had slept out on the streets. I knew what drugs could do to a person.

“The Ray I know wouldn’t. But the Ray I know doesn’t ditch classes or keep secrets from me either,” Jack said and then pulled away from my touch. He stood stiffly waiting for the bus and I had no idea how to fix this. My life was spinning out of control and I didn’t know how to make it stop. How to get back to the simple days where the only person I talked to was Jack. I couldn’t just walk away from the Three Musketeers, because no matter how much I wanted to be normal I was a Valkyrie. I couldn’t change that fact and I was done trying to ignore it. But I didn’t think I could give up Jack and Amy either.

Jack continued to ignore me on the bus and I cloaked myself so that no one tried to talk to me. If my best friend wouldn’t talk to me then I didn’t want to talk to anyone else. When we arrived at the school Jack jumped up and hurried off the bus, obviously implying that he didn’t want to eat breakfast with me this morning. I let everyone else get off the bus before I walked down the aisle and into the bustling crowd of students lingering outside. I spotted both twins waiting for me and even though I was in a rotten mood, I couldn’t just blow them off too.

I kept myself cloaked as I walked through the throngs of people and was surprised to see one of the most beautiful men I have ever laid eyes on, walk up behind the twins and sling an arm over each of their shoulders. He was tall with flawless golden tan skin and hair the color of yellow straw. He was toned but not overly bulky and was wearing some very expensive brand-name clothes. The guy practically glowed with heath and I felt inclined to get closer to him. In fact, I think he smelled of all my favorite things, fresh laundry, chamomile tea, and lilac. How was that even possible? I pondered as I stepped closer to him. Maybe I could just reach out and see what it would feel like to run my fingers through his hair.

“What are you two freaks of nature doing over here? Waiting on your next piece of human street trash to get off the bus? I hear that you two aren’t good enough to even get the humans to date you individually and you have to share some worthless piece of ass,” the handsome guy said, completely ruining the whole effect. Suddenly the urge to know this man dropped away and was replaced by anger.

“Prince Kaiden, I would stop talking if I were you,” Connor growled but did nothing to get out from this guy’s hold on his shoulders. Prince. So this must be Kaiden Collins. The middle child of the King and Queen. The one who also had Truth. Well, he certainly looked the part but I hated the way that he was talking to the twins. I must have been feeling his allure a second ago because he was a royal and stronger than the guys. So that’s what it felt like.

“Now, why would I do that?” Kaiden asked in a playful tone.

I decided to step in and try to save Connor from this asshole. I uncloaked myself enough so that he could see me, but not enough that he would be able to feel my allure. “Because he is trying to stop you from insulting me,” I told him in a flat voice.

Both Connor and Blake stiffened when they saw me and they looked pissed off. Kaiden slowly and very obviously gave me a once over, making me feel like I needed another shower. Was this guy for real?

“And why would I care if I insulted you?” Kaiden asked in the same teasing tone.

Based on the reactions that most Valkyrie had given me when we first met I surmised that two things were possible right now. Either Kaiden didn’t care that I was a female Valkyrie because he was a prince and saw himself as better than me or he didn’t know who I was. I was kinda hoping for the first but had a suspicion the second was actually true.

“No reason at all,” I practically purred and turned to leave. Not having to deal with the Royal Prince Asshole seemed like a good plan to me.

However, a click sounded in my head and Kaiden pushed past the twins before harshly saying, “You just lied to me. Explain yourself.”

That must be what it feels like to be truth-checked.

I scanned the twins’ faces to see that they were still majorly pissed off but neither had made a single move to intervene. The prince significantly outranked them. It would be up to me to set this guy in his place.

“I’m sorry. What I should have said was that I had been led to believe that because female Valkyrie, such as myself, are only allowed to marry members of a royal clan, that a prince, like yourself, would not want to start off an association with such offensive names.” I said all of this in a breathy voice as I stepped into his personal space and gently ran my fingertips across his cheeks.

Just as his eyes dilated with the feeling of the clan bond, I abruptly stepped back and said in an angry tone, “But honestly, it doesn’t really matter if you care that you insulted me or not. All that matters is that you did and first impressions are a bitch to overcome.”

Then I really did turn and start walking away only to catch movement from the corner of my eye. The asshole actually tried to grab me even after the whole interaction. I quickly threw up a Shield and Kaiden jerked his hand away after it made contact with my Shield and zapped him. “I don’t care who you are. Don’t ever grab me,” I said in a clear slow voice. Then I looked over and made eye contact with the twins, “After everything you told me about your mighty royals, I had assumed they would act with a little more decorum.”

Before Kadien could tell me any excuses I pushed back fully into the void and watched to see how he would handle the situation. He turned on the twins and said with incredulity, “How is it even possible that girl is a Valkyrie? She was dressed in rags and was riding a public school bus.” If he thought that riding on a bus was bad, I wonder what Kaiden would say if he ever saw where I lived.

“Your highness,” Blade whispered, “just because you can’t see her, doesn’t mean she isn’t still standing right there.”

“Shit,” Kaiden hissed and scanned the area where I was standing. He then raised his voice to say, “Delia, I’m sorry. Please come back and we can start over.”

All these new Valkyrie kept calling me Delia, but I didn’t remember even giving them that name. I was done dealing with his royal highness right now, so I remained cloaked and reminded myself not to truth check Kaiden because that would give away that I had the Truth Gift. Kaiden didn’t even wait a full minute before running a hand through his beautifully thick hair and storming off.

The moment he turned his back I uncloaked and gave the twins an exasperated look. “So royals are now showing up at Skyline High?”

Both of them still looked really ticked off and I reminded myself that I wasn’t mad at them. “We came over here to try to warn you,” Connor told me. “This is Queen Collins’ solution to you being so standoffish with the more elite Valkyrie. Regina and Kaiden are going to start attending Skyline so that you can get to know them. They, and a contingent of other high-powered Valkyrie around our age, are all here registering for classes as we speak.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” I replied but neither of them did anything to recant their statements. “So what, a bunch of royals and royal wannabes are going to start following me around until I agree to go live with them?”

“It won’t be that bad Ray-Ray. Regina has the attention span of a goldfish and will get tired of playing high school human before too long. Not all of them are as bad as Kaiden, and it might be nice for you to get to talk to Regina about girl stuff that we know nothing about. Give them a chance like you did us. We didn’t turn out too bad, did we?” Blake said and I let out a deep breath. Today was turning out to be a really bad day.

“How many?” I asked knowing that a wave of drama was coming my way and there was nothing I could do to stop it. This must be what people felt like as they stood on the shores and watched a tsunami come in.

“Six our age including the prince and princess and two Royal Guards. We are going to get called into the office during homeroom and asked to be student ambassadors or something along those lines,” Connor replied.

I rubbed my hand that was free of gauze across my forehead and wished that I had another cup of coffee. “Okay, give me the crash course of what I need to know when dealing with royals cause you two still look like you have a stick up your ass. Do I need to be all yes sir, right away sir, do you want me to lick your shoes too sir?” That finally got Blake to loosen up and give me a small chuckle.

“Ray-Ray, you are a powerful female Valkyrie and that means you are on the top of the food chain. I wouldn’t go around punching any of them, but I don’t think you need to lick anyone’s shoes,” Blake said and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. Together with Connor, we started walking into the school.

“Just try not to do anything too drastic around them,” Connor advised and I rolled my eyes. I didn’t exactly know what they considered drastic. Yesterday I made myself look like an idiot because I didn’t demand an unborn child as payment. However, he did hand me a very familiar brown paper bag containing a breakfast wrap that made me feel a little better about the day ahead of me.

Just like the twins had told me, the moment I walked into the homeroom the teacher told me to go down to the office. I hadn’t seen Max all morning and when I asked the twins about it, they said that he was already with the group of royals. When we walked into the office one of the ladies behind the desk directed us to the large conference room to the left. Through the door we found a room that was packed with impossibly perfect people. I mean I thought that the guys were attractive, but the men in this room could possibly put them to shame.

All eyes turned to me, and once again I found myself at the center of attention. How in the world had my life changed this much in a little over a week? I scanned the room and picked out five faces that I was familiar with. Elijah, Derik, and Max were here along with Clan Leader Edison. Then there was the principal, Mr. Harris, looking significantly out of sorts at the head of the table, however, I knew that this was really Edison’s show.

With a second look, I found Kaiden with a perfect-looking tall bosomy blonde who was dressed just as high class as he was. That must be Princess Regina Collins. Four other people looked to be the right age for high school while the two who were standing behind everyone one else were clearly the Royal Guards. Wow, for a girl who used to only have one friend and spent my day being invisible, this was a lot of people to get to know.

As predicted Edison took over the show right away detailing how Skyline High was picked to receive a small contingent of students who had up until this point been homeschooled in an effort to support their social-emotional growth. To ensure the safety and wellbeing of these students, the philanthropic organization supposedly behind this exchange had provided two security experts that would remain on campus. The guys and I had been chosen because of our outstanding academic and athletic records to act as ambassadors and show the new students around.

The whole thing was an impressive crock of horse shit that I was surprised the school board agreed to. However, Derik had mentioned that powerful Valkyrie clans not only ruled the supernatural world but were also very influential in the human world. Edison or the Collins Royal Line probably just threw money at Skyline who desperately needed the aid. Or someone with Compulsion had forced the issue.

Edison then went around the room and made introductions. Ken and Barbie were Kaiden and Regina Collins. Austin Silva was a shorter but heavily muscled attractive Hispanic boy of about sixteen. Jonas Pope was about as tall as Max but with broader shoulders and a tapered waist. He kept his hair in a clean buzz cut, had blue color contacts instead of brown, and the edges of a black tattoo peeked out from his shirt sleeve. Niu Zhou was a little older than the rest, maybe nineteen but I had always had trouble identifying the ages of people of Asian descent. He was tall and lean with cold hard eyes. The last to be introduced was the shortest of the bunch. He had pale skin that was dotted with freckles and floppy dark hair. His name was Felix Walsh and Edison quickly moved on after saying his name.

Next Edison introduced the Three Musketeers and me, but I was fairly certain that the only one these people didn’t already know was me. He also introduced me as Delia Olsen and I had to bite my tongue so that I didn’t blurt out that I would rather be called Ray. We were then put into groups and directed to show the new students around the school. Blake was paired with Felix and Niu, Max with Jonas, and Connor with Austin. Leaving the prince and princess with me. Huge surprise there.

After Edison finished doling out instructions, us students were dismissed to start out tours. Once back out in the hallway, I was taken by surprise when Regina bounced across the space between us and threw her arms around me. I had no choice but to catch the thinner girl or risk us both toppling backward. “Oh, Delia it is soooo good to meet you. It is so amazing to have another girl my age to hang with. We are going to be the best of friends,” Regina practically squealed in an over-the-top kind of way and not a single word was true.

“Alright Gina, let the poor girl breath,” Kaiden said in a charming voice that was in stark contrast to how he sounded earlier by the buses.

“Forgive me, I am just so excited. We have been instructed by private tutors our entire life. Getting to go to a real human high school is such a cool adventure.” Now that one was true. If going to classes at Skyline High was an adventure, then Regina and I were even more different than I originally thought. Regina grabbed my hand and started pulling me down the hall and away from the rest of the group. Her brother followed right behind us while the Asian royal guard shadowed us from a farther distance.

“Okay, so you have to tell me absolutely everything about you,” Regina said in a way that reminded me of the actors on after-school specials that weren’t quite convincing in their part as the concerned best friend. “You just popping up out of nowhere is the most interesting thing to happen in America West for years. Where have you been this entire time?”

I fully understood that this was a ploy to gain information, but Kaiden had the Truth Gift. If I didn’t tell them the truth they would know and assume I was hiding something. In a perfect world, the royals would quickly figure out that I was nothing special and leave me alone. “I have been here in Oakland for the last four years and here at Skyline since the beginning of the school year.”

“Wow. My mom mentioned that you are living with humans. Why didn’t you approach one of the clans before now? We could have been besties forever ago,” Regina purred in her sickly sweet voice.

Hmm, how to word this without revealing things I wasn’t comfortable with them knowing. “Well, before I met the guys the only other Valkyrie I had ever even seen was my father. He moved us around a lot when I was a kid and took great precautions to avoid other Valkyries. After I was placed in the foster system, I kept hidden like he had taught me to.”

“Probably because he knew that the royals would have stepped in and taken you away to a better life. I have this theory that Samuel Olsen isn’t your real dad, but just a Valkyrie that kidnapped you as a child from a royal,” Kaiden said and I stopped walking to stare at him. He was blunt and had zero tact, but Kaiden might be onto something. What if I wasn’t actually related to the monster that raised me. That might explain why he never loved me.

“Were any royal babies kidnapped seventeen almost eighteen years ago?” I asked with hope clear in my voice. What if I had a real family out there? It was every orphan’s secret and most desperate dream.

“No, and royal pregnancies are something that a lot of people keep track of. We would know if there was a missing royal,” Regina sneered. She didn’t like the idea of me being designated a royal, like her. No, she liked me being the lost little Valkryie that was forced to live with humans.

Well now that I was completely off balance, I didn’t know what to say next so I asked them what classes they had registered for and showed them where their classes were located. Both Regina and Kaiden tried to start several more conversations, but my mind was too lost in the possibility that Samuel wasn’t my real father to notice. They came to the same conclusion and when the bell rang they decided to go to their next class.

I walked to English in a daze and it wasn’t until someone tapped me on the shoulder that I realized one of the new Valkyries was in my class. It was the short dark-haired one with freckles. Felix. I gave him an apologetic smile and explained that I was lost in thought.

“No problem. If I understand right this was all kinda thrown at you. Hell, it was a surprise for us too. They just called last night and said we were going to public school. Not that I mind, but this whole situation is kinda crazy,” Felix said with a distinct Boston accent.

“You from Boston?” I asked before I could stop myself.

“Originally, yes. But I have lived in San Francisco with the Collins’ Royal Clan for the last five years. Can’t seem to kick the accent though.”

“My father was from Boston,” I said without thinking, remembering what Derik had pulled up on my father on the Valkyrie database.

“I was going to ask if you are related to the Boston Olsen Clan. My father knows several of their members. They have a good reputation and decent numbers.” He must be talking of the Clan Derik said was led by my grandfather, Mathis. Maybe I could talk to Derik and Elijah to see if we could arrange some kind of DNA test. That would tell me if Samuel was really my biological father.

“I don’t know them. I think my father was a part of the Rabec Clan,” I said on autopilot as my mind turned around the idea of contacting my supposed grandfather. However, the comment that was meaningless to me definitely meant something to Felix.

“No shit, really?” Felix exclaimed, bringing my full attention back to him. “That’s like, not possible. You’re not old enough for that to be true.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked as the bell rang to signal the start of class.

“The entire Rabec Clan up and disappeared twenty years ago and no one ever saw or heard from any of them ever again. It’s a straight-up urban legend from where I come from and there are about a dozen different ridiculous stories about what happened to them. But the one thing they all have in common is that all nine members of the clan are dead and have been for twenty years.”

I had no idea what to say to that. It was possible that either Derik had given me the wrong information or I had heard wrong when he had said it. It wasn’t like I grew up listening to stories about my father in the Rabec Clan or knew anything about it. Before ten seconds ago it was just some random clan name. Luckily I was saved from saying anything when the teacher brought the class to order and we started reading the next chapter in The Great Gatsby.