Sunburst (Starbright Series) (5 page)

             
Seth moved so fast, obviously more than humanly possible, but I couldn’t care about that now. I needed him to save me. I needed him to pry my hand open.

             
His hands were covering mine in an instant and his inner Light was suffusing my skin like balm on an open wound. I lay there, saturated in his warmth and heat and finally pried open my hand. The Shadow escaped into the ceiling somewhere and disappeared out of this realm of existence.

             
A tear snuck out the corner of my eye and slid down my cheek, pooling in my ear. I was too traumatized to do anything about it. Mostly, I was thankful there was just one tear and I hadn’t broken down into a puddle of weepiness.

             
What just happened?

             
“Stella, are you alright?” Mrs. Merritt stood over Seth, staring down at me with true concern on her face.

             
I didn’t know how to respond. I was fine, at least now. But I had just freaked out in front of my entire class. I didn’t want to lie, but then again, I didn’t want to tell the truth. And any half-truth I could come up with would either make me sound certifiable or get me a trip to the doctor’s office, where they would find all kinds of abnormalities in my blood work.

             
“She electrocuted herself,” Seth covered for me. “I think.”

             
“You electrocuted yourself?” Mrs. Merritt asked skeptically. I didn’t exactly blame her for that….

             
I nodded weakly.

             
“How?” Mrs. Merritt demanded.

             
Seth bent over and picked up an oddly-shaped paper clip and held it up for Mrs. Merritt. “With this,” he answered confidently.

             
Our desks were next to the wall- that was the only way this was remotely believable. There was an outlet within arm’s reach. But still, a paper clip and an outlet was hardly electrocution worthy. Plus, wasn’t my hair supposed to be standing up or something?

             
Cartoons always showed the frizzed-out hair if someone got electrocuted.

             
“This would barely shock you,” Mrs. Merritt argued. Her hazel eyes narrowed on me and I could tell she was having a really hard time believing this, but she wanted to.

             
“It really hurt,” I said, my back still glued to the industrial strength carpet.

             
“This hurt you so badly you fell out of your desk?” she pressed.

             
I nodded, letting my chin tremble with the emotion I was desperate to hold back. “It did.”

             
“I thought you were tougher than this, Stella,” she shook her head at me with obvious disappointment. I didn’t expect anything less from the lady that made us do wall-sits for seven minutes straight while singing Christmas songs in pre-season.

             
“I am,” I argued, not willing to give up my tough-girl image. “It just surprised me.”

             
“You mean, you didn’t know what would happen if you stuck a metal object in an electrical outlet?”

             
“Not from firsthand experience,” I gave over fully to the excuse.

             
She just continued to shake her head at me, but then the bell rang and class was finally dismissed. Everyone rushed for the exit, conversation resuming again now that the drama I’d created was finally coming to a forced close.

             
“Try to hold onto some of that curiosity for when you’re at home, alright?” Mrs. Merritt asked somewhat sarcastically.

             
“I’ll try,” I sighed.

             
And then she walked away, leaving me on the ground. My gaze flickered to Seth who was still looming over me. His amber gaze was concerned and…. something else, but I couldn’t define it. I felt Piper and Tristan hanging around too, but my eyes were intently focused on explaining to Seth that I was not crazy.

             
“I’ll help her, guys,” Seth dismissed my friends with a tired breath, like I was somehow an inconvenience. They started to protest, but he waved them on.

             
“I’ll wait,” Tristan argued stubbornly.

             
“No you won’t,” Set growled.

             
“I’m not-“ Tristan started but I cut him off.

             
“It’s alright, Tristan,” I promised, feeling foolish. “Please. I’ll be right behind you guys.”

             
He didn’t argue anymore, although I could feel that he wanted to. Or at least that he didn’t want to leave me alone with Seth. But I needed to talk to my Counterpart and figure out what in the world was going on!

             
Seth helped me up, his strong hands taking mine and swallowing them almost completely. He pulled me to my feet effortlessly and then looked down at me, waiting for an explanation.

             
“Let’s walk,” I suggested. “It will be easier to talk.”

             
He moved to the side so I could lead the way and once we were past the classroom door we walked side-by-side down the wide hallways, letting people get out of our way, instead of the other way around. Our shoulders leaned into each other and our hands kept brushing, but I couldn’t pay attention to that stuff right now. I needed to focus.

             
“There was a Shadow on you during class,” I whispered just loud enough for him to hear through the clatter and chaos of everyone changing classes. “It kept floating over you and touching you. It
would not
stop. And it was driving me crazy! I thought it was hurting you but you didn’t want to acknowledge it during class or something.”

             
“Stella, I didn’t feel anything.” His voice was louder than mine but deep with meaning.

             
There was only one kind of Angel that wasn’t affected by the Shadows- the Fallen.

             
I laid my hand on Seth’s bicep and gave him a reassuring squeeze, “But I felt it too much. It wasn’t normal. That one Shadow hurt me more than the hundreds of them in the locker room. It’s not you. Something is going on.”

             
He stopped, right there in the middle of the hallway, and turned to look at me. Students veered out of the way like we were a boulder in the middle of a rushing river. And that was exactly how Seth felt to me- like he was my rock, like he was the only solid thing when the rest of my life was floating away. And maybe he felt the same way about me.

             
“We’re going to be alright,” he promised, leaning his face down so that we were only a breath apart. “Whatever they are doing, it’s meant to make us feel isolated….. inadequate. But we’re not either, Stella. We’re going to be alright.”

             
I dropped my head to his chest and let out a sigh. My chin trembled again, so I pressed my lips together to keep from exposing my emotion. I didn’t feel alright- I felt the opposite of alright.

             
“If they would just fight us…..”

             
“It’s the mind games. They want us crazy and lost first.”

             
“Well, they’re doing a really good job of it,” I grumbled.

             
“Hey,” he tilted my chin up and stared into my eyes- all the way in, all the way into my soul. “You’re not crazy and you’re not lost. Don’t let them win.”

             
I nodded, the press of his fingers firm under my chin.

             
“Are you Ok to go to class?” he asked.

             
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I tried to smile, but it was forced and unauthentic.

             
“I’ll see you after school.”

             
“I have practice tonight,” I reminded him. “Oh, and there’s this party tonight. Well, not really a party, but like a small get together at Lincoln’s tonight if you want to go. I know we have training but maybe we could get out of it? I could use a break.”

             
“Who’s going?”

             
“Piper, obviously. Rigley and Tristan…. you and me.” Finally I smiled when I explained, “Piper says it’s couples only.”

             
“And I’m your couple?” His voice was so full of hope my heart cracked a little.

An aching pain bloomed across my chest and my hands immediately reached for his, just barely entwining the tips of our fingers. It would be so much easier to be stubborn if he wasn’t so sweet.

“According to Piper,” I whispered.

“Then we’ll go,” Seth decided.

“Jupiter won’t care?”

“It won’t matter. If you’re acknowledging us as a couple, I’ll go anywhere.”

I looked up at him, unable to help myself and lost my breath. His golden eyes were glowing- right in the middle of the hallway, right in the middle of school. His skin was hot to my touch and I felt his emotions swirl around me as they warred against each other- hope, reservation, adoration, skepticism….. longing, disbelief.

“Ok, we’ll go.”

He smiled at me, warm and affectionate, and then disappeared down the hallway.

I turned around to head to my class and caught Tristan’s eye while he stood at his locker. He had just watche
d the entire exchange. My heart, that had been mending and piecing back together, dropped to my toes and splintered. His face was a mask of bitterness, but his eyes held depths of anguish that punched holes in my soul.

I lifted my hand to wave at him, but he slammed his locker and stalked off down the hall before I could explain or apologize or anything. But what would I have explained? And I truly didn’t have anything to apologize for.

This was so stupidly complicated and I had done it to myself. I needed to sort this out immediately.

But first I needed to get to class.

Chapter Five

“Stella,” Coach Farrow called from across the field. We were running our warm up around the grass next to the one-mile track. I looked up but kept running, knowing she probably wouldn’t like it if I stopped just to talk to her. She was pretty intense, but I loved it. “Go grab the practice jerseys from the equipment shed for me.”

“Alright,” I called back and set off to the other side of the field.

Mead High School had a decent field and football stadium for a small farm town. Our jumbotron was only two years old, and our stadium bleachers were new this year. The field, also new, was laid just a few months before- shortly after Seth and I destroyed it in our last battle with Aliah. The school, news and town all blamed the destruction on a freak February tornado. We were lucky freak tornadoes were an actual thing in Nebraska.

The locker room damage was blamed on that same natural disaster in combination with an exploding boiler. Or that’s how the human authorities explained all the melting metal. They were still renovating the locker room.
But the fields had to be ready for soccer and track season.

Sports was practically all we had for entertainment around here and everyone took them seriously. Football was the obvious favorite, followed by girls’ volleyba
ll and basketball for both girls and boys. The spring sports were the most neglected, but track and field won over soccer easily.

Soccer
was, however, my favorite sport and Coach Farrow was a really good coach. When I first started they had assigned the librarian to coach us and she didn’t know the first thing about it. She wanted the extra cash and the school just wanted to fill the space. Farrow had stepped in the very next year; she was a substitute teacher and got her coaching certificate, so we wouldn’t have to suffer through practices consisting of reading the rule books three times in a row.

The equipment shed was around the building on the grassy side of the school. I kept up my pace as I made my way over there. I passed the boys warming up and shook my head at Rigley and Tristan who were whistling and makin
g odd animal noises at me. Their teammates caught on then, and soon I had the entire boys’ soccer team hollering at me. I laughed, thankful Tristan seemed to be back to normal.

My cleats clicked across the red running track befo
re I hit grass again. I slowed down once I turned the corner, out of sight from the field and the various teams practicing. Spring was by far the busiest sports season. The boys and girls soccer teams and track all shared the space after school. It seemed to work though, since the track team had been to state every single year since the founding of the school and the boys’ soccer team qualified for state last year. We were also state qualifiers but lost in the first round.

That was changing this year.

I yanked on the door to the shed. It was just a metal building that housed all the outdoor sports and PE equipment. It smelled like rotten feet and moldy jock straps, but it served a purpose…. I supposed.

It was never locked during school hours because people were always in and out of it, but the door was a pain to get open. Good thing nobody could see me back here.

I released some of my Light and used my natural strength to yank it. It flew open immediately and out with it came a surge of Shadows.

I dropped to my stomach on reflex and covered my head with my arms. They swirled around me, looking like macabre bats that wanted to eat my face.

They swooped down, low and menacing, but never touched me. I felt their momentum and the rustling of wind over my back as they flew back up in one, unified movement.

Without thinking I roll
ed over to my back and kicked my feet out so I jumped into standing. I let my hands light up until I looked like I was holding two balls of fire, and then waited for the Shadows to return. I wouldn’t go on the offensive in the middle of the day, just around the corner from fifty students and coaching staff, but I would protect myself.

Jupiter had been pushing me hard during training and it was starting to pay off. I co
uld control my Light in segments and I could use the intensity of my Light more effectively. I was so going to kick ass this afternoon.

The Shadows settled on top of the equipment shed
. They took the shape of blackbirds, perched precariously on every edge. They looked down at me, waiting for something…. a command maybe? The smell of sulfur, like rotting eggs drifted around me; I was surprised that I hadn’t smelled it before.

I waited
, too. An instinct, deep and intuitive within me, warned that this was just the precursor to whatever was going to happen.

And then the temperature dropped- drastically. A thin sheet of ice spread out across the metal of the equipment shed like layers of lace. The wind picked up, clouds covered the once bright sun and then the most ominous, light-hearted laughter drifted through the air.

Seven.

And Seth was at home by now.

Suddenly she was in front of me, flesh and blood. Her long, wild, golden brown hair whipped around her face and back in the wind. Her golden brown eyes held no light or warmth, they were just…. dead. She was so beautiful, but at the same time not. She was like a rabid animal, there was beauty there, but there was also danger, impulsiveness…. There was no way to predict how she would behave or what she would do.

Except, I d
id know what she wanted to do- she wanted to kill me.

And she
would do whatever she could to accomplish that.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. It wasn’t my most inspired question, but there w
as this soul-deep fear robbed me of my smarter instincts. For some reason she terrified more than anything else- more than Aliah, or my future, or
anything
.

“Just stopped by to chat,” she grinned. My back was pressed up against the brick of the school building and she was standing next to the shed. Her hands were clasped in front of her demurely but her black and white striped maxi dress flowed out around her
legs in a wild dance with her hair.

“How sweet,” I intoned dryly.

Two Fallen thugs stepped around the shed to join her. I recognized them from Aliah’s gang. One’s name was Saul, but I didn’t know what the other’s one’s name. They were big, muscular and completely dark- as if they sucked all the light around them into their black hole of evil.

“Did we catch you alone?” S
even asked mocking innocence so well that I wanted to give her an Oscar. “Where’s my adorable, little brother?”

“Where you can’t touch him,” I bit out. I was terrified to be alone here, with the pure, raw evil that was Seven and her henchmen. I didn’t even have a weapon on me, not even a dagger or any kind of sharp object. I was completely vulnerable with only shin guards and cleats to protect myself. But I was happy Seth wasn’t here. I would gladly save him this trauma.

Seven’s eyes narrowed and a flicker of impatience flashed across her face. “Tell me, Stella, is Seth still having his bad dreams?” I pressed my lips together and narrowed my eyes at her, wondering if she had anything to do with dreams. “He used to have them when we were children too. Only then, I was the one to comfort him, hold him while he slept, kiss the boo boos better.
I
was the one that he counted on.”

I just stared at her, knowing she wanted a reaction from me, knowing I could not give her one.

She walked closer to me like a tigress stalking her prey. Stopping just inches in front of me, I realized we were the same height. At different times I’d imagined her a tiny, petite little girl, weeping for help and then I pictured her towering over me, alive with all her dark power. She was neither- she was my size and destructible just like me.

Up close I could see black veins spread out from under her eyes and down her cheeks like the thinnest kind of tree roots. Her
chapped lips displayed a cut in the center of her fuller bottom one. And there was a prominent bruise on the underside of her jaw. What was happening to this girl?

We didn’t exactly bruise easily.
             

The closer she stood to me, t
he temperature continued to drop, and I felt her malevolent evil all the way to my spine. But at the same time she still radiated this healthy glow of Light. She did not make sense and it only made my head swim, trying to understand her.

“You look tired,” I commented. “Do you also have bad dreams?”

Before I could protect myself, her hand had lifted and slapped me soundly across the face. Her sharp fingernails caught my skin as they dragged down in painful slices. I gasped at the sudden sting and felt the trickle of blood as it dripped down my chin and onto my t-shirt.

She lifted her hand but only to catch my pony tail. Her hand grabbed fistfuls of my hair and
yanked it hard so I was forced to look up at her, “What do you think, little Star?” Her voice rasped aggression. I was tougher than a hair pull, but her grip was so firm that I couldn’t extricate my head from her hands without losing handfuls of hair in the process. “Of course, I have bad dreams. Not quite evil… not quite good…. Seth and I have that in common, you know? There’s no coming back from either though. It’s only a matter of time before Seth sees the…. light.” She laughed at her own joke- an airy, tinkling sound, that under any other circumstances would have sounded pleasant. Then she trailed a long, bloodied fingernail over my exposed throat.

             
“Seth is not like you,” I croaked out. “He will n
ever
be like you!”

             
Her expression immediately softened- the exact opposite reaction I expected. Her scraping touch became light and gentle; she lowered her face even closer to mine. It was this side of her that terrified me more than anything else.

             
“I just love that you care so much about my brother,” she cooed in my face. I could feel her hot breath wash over me; I could smell the mint of her toothpaste. “He needs people in his life to take care of him, to scare all the bad monsters away.” Her voice was a singsong of sweetness. I shuddered as I felt the bile rise in my throat. “It’s so sad that you don’t get to stay around. You’re probably the only person that could save him.”

             
“Save him from what?” I gasped as her grip became tighter and her fingernail started to dig my jugular. My arms fell limp at my side. I could fight back- I
would
fight back. But first, I wanted her to talk as much as possible.

             
“From himself,” she growled, her voice dropping low and somehow shrieking at the same time.

             
“There you are, my pet,” Aliah’s deep voice called from nearby. “I’d started to worry about you.”

             
Seven’s expression immediately softened but not before her nail cut the skin at my throat; I felt more blood as it dropped down to the collar of my shirt.

             
“Hello, Aliah,” she called in a perfectly normal sounding voice.

“Hello,
Darling,” His voice was lightly accented and as I looked past Seven I could see he looked perfectly normal too. In a sharp navy-blue suit with crisp white oxford underneath and yellow tie, he actually looked more than normal- he looked amazing. Bastard. “Having some fun?” he asked, clearly sounding amused.

             
“So much,” she grinned without taking her eyes off me.

             
“Well, I hate to interrupt you, but why don’t you let the boys do the dirty work. We don’t want you losing that luminescent Light of yours, now do we?”

             
As if in a trance, Seven’s eyes went vacant again; she shook her head carefully. My stomach churned with a violent nausea, and tears pricked at my eyes for her. I felt sorry for Seven! How messed up was that?

             
She dropped me immediately and skipped to Aliah’s side- with a childlike quality returning at his presence. She latched onto one of his arms and laid her head against his shoulder, while I stood up and ran my hand against my throat, wiping the blood away. It smeared across my palm, and I had to assume, the skin on my neck too. My face still trickled blood from her scratches as well, and dripped into the corner of my mouth, coating my tongue with metal and salt.

             
“Stella,” Aliah greeted me casually. “How lovely to see you again.”

             
I didn’t say anything. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

Seven rocked back and forth next to him, clinging to his arm,
but her eyes still remained trained on me. She looked so much like Seth, but so different at the same time. And there was something more to her than even her bipolar personalities let on. She was childlike and out of her mind crazy, but she was also evil and twisted. Still, there was something beyond even that.

I just didn’t know what.

Aliah picked up on my interest in her. “She’s special, Stella. Surely you’ve noticed that already.”

             
“She’s a little bit bat shit too,” I mumbled before I could stop myself.