Shielded
Chapter 3 - Formal Introductions

She was absolutely beautiful. Thick hair of a dozen different shades of brown framed a narrow face with high cheekbones and full lips. A glint of silver decorated the right side of her nose and I saw that she also had several piercings lining her ears. A scar ran the left side of her forehead from her hairline to the edge of her dramatic eyebrow, and instinctively I wanted to hurt the person who dared mark her. Her long neck was displayed as she rested her head back on the tree trunk and her collar bones were clearly visible. This girl didn’t eat enough. However, the curves of her body told a different story and I felt a flash of heat travel through my body as I admired how perfect she looked sleeping under my favorite tree. This rugged angel was not what I was expecting when the boys told me they had found a female Val. She didn’t resemble any of the Queens that I knew of, so maybe she was from somewhere abroad. Letting this girl go was going to rip me and the boys to shreds.

--Elijah

I sensed someone coming closer and snapped to attention. I awoke like I always did, in a defensive crouch with knives in my hands. I didn’t know the man that was standing about six feet away from me, but he was looking at me like I held all the answers to the universe. I took stock of my surroundings and noticed that I wasn’t cloaked. Shit, I must have fallen asleep. Unless I was sealed off in the void, I was unable to maintain my cloak when I slept. I scanned the area but it seemed that the man was alone. I could retreat to the void or I could stay and get some answers. Jack’s words rang in my head and I decided it was time to take some risks.

“Judging by your lack of surprise that I was able to call blades from thin air, I am guessing you are also a Valkyrie,” I said in a dry tone. The man had raised his open palms in the universal sign of I am unarmed and mean you no harm, but I wasn’t fooled. I knew that he could call any number of weapons in a blink of an eye.

“Yes, my name is Elijah and I am the head of the Oakland clan. Are you here for assistance?” Well, that threw me for a loop. This guy was offering to help me? I just spent the better part of the day planning my escape because I figured that the Valkyrie wanted to capture me.

“No,” I hedged. “I was told that I had to check in with you because this is your territory.” Elijah looked at me in clear disbelief and I once again had the distinct feeling that I was missing an important piece of information.

“You are here to register?” he asked, sounding unsure. That sounded ominous. The Jews had to register before they were hauled off to the concentration camps. My instincts were telling me to run, but this might be the only opportunity I have to get some information. I could always retreat to the void if things went sideways.

“Can you please explain what that means?” I responded while straightening from my defensive crouch. I didn’t release my blades though. That was more trust than I was capable of right now.

Elijah cocked his head at me like I was a puzzle that he was trying to figure out before replying, “The Valkyrie act as a sort of supernatural police, ensuring that things remain relatively peaceful and our secrets are not exposed to the humans. Each clan monitors a certain territory and they require any supernaturals within their territory to register their identity, place of resistance, affiliations, and intentions with said clan. If you stay in Oakland then I will need to get some information from you.” When I remained silent he continued.

“We can also offer assistance if you are in need of it.” I used my truth-seeking ability and knew that he was telling the truth. If I wanted to stay here and finish out the school year I was going to need to play ball with this man. But I was still going to need more information before I gave anything up.

“How large is your territory?” I asked and I thought about the possibility of fucking things up with my foster mom so that CPS would move me to another town. Or I could flat out run away. I only had four months left until I aged out of the system anyway and I doubted anyone would look too hard to replace one missing seventeen-year-old foster kid.

“We only have dominion over the city of Oakland, but California is the Americas West Capital for Valkyrie. Most of the state is divided up into different territories.” He paused for a second before asking a question of his own. “Why are you here in Oakland?”

It sounded like I was going to run into the same problem no matter where I went. And now that he knew about me, it was going to be harder to stay under the radar. Maybe I could hitchhike my way out east. “Oakland is where my current foster family lives. I didn’t choose it. Skyline High is my designated district school,” I explained and hoped that he would see that I wasn’t trying to cause any trouble and didn’t come here to oppose him. Maybe if he knew I wasn’t going to be trouble he would let me finish out the school year. A whole lot of doors opened to you if you had a high school diploma.

Elijah frowned at my response and took a step towards me. I raised my chin and tightened my grip on my blades. He realized his mistake and once again raised his hands like if I was a spooked animal he was trying to help. It kind of pissed me off. I was not some wounded animal. I could take care of myself.

“You are staying with humans?” he asked with disbelief and I knew I had to tread lightly here. The last thing I wanted was for this man to think that he could force me to stay with him because he was a Valkyrie. Humans could be selfish and cruel but Valkyrie were downright vicious. I would seal myself off and live in the void before I ever allowed myself to be controlled by a Valkyrie again.

Thoughts raced through my head of what I should do and for some reason, Elijah stepped away from me. The extra space actually helped and I was able to get a grip on my emotions and calm down enough to think clearly. After a few moments, I asked, “If I register, what do you want from me?”

“The only thing I want is to make sure you are safe,” Elijah said and my internal lie detector buzzed in my head. I knew this whole thing was too good to be true.

“You should know better than to lie to a Valkyrie,” I said with a sharp edge to my voice, and Elijah’s eyes widened in surprise. My father had said that Truth was a rare Gift and it might have been stupid for me to show my cards, but this guy needed to know that if he was going to lie to my face, I was going to call him on it. I was suddenly over this whole charade. It was time to make a decision. My instincts were telling me to run. To seal myself off in the void and take off somewhere far away from whatever this Americas West Kingdom was. I had survived on the streets before, I could do it again. But deep down I hated that option. I was sick of hiding. I was sick of only surviving. I didn’t want to let this chance meeting with some unknown Valkyrie destroy everything I had worked so hard for here. I had a home and a job here. I had a best friend and I liked taking care of Jack and Amy.

I wasn’t going to leave here without putting up some kind of fight. If push came to shove I could always leave if things went south. It was time I started really living my life.

“My name is Delia Olsen and I am a Valkyrie. I live at 303 Lincoln Street in Eastmont. I have no affiliations with the supernatural community and I am here to finish high school,” I said in a flat voice as I pulled the fabric of reality around my shoulders and slowly disappeared from Elijah’s sight.

“Delia wait,” Elijah called out as his eyes darted around the area trying to replace me. “Please come inside. I will explain,” he pleaded in a slightly frantic voice but I was done. I was bone tired and still had to walk across town. I sealed myself in the void and allowed my thoughts to comb through everything that had happened today as I made my way to Jack’s trailer park where I had found an abandoned bus to convert into my own sanctuary.

It took over two hours to walk home, but I needed every moment to fully process everything. I decided to go to school tomorrow and see what happened. I would stay cloaked like I normally did and I would show the Valkyrie that I wasn’t here to start any trouble. If everything went to plan, by the end of the week Max, Connor, and Blake would forget about me and we all could finish out the rest of the year like today never even happened.

When I was safely within my bus I finally stepped out of the void and raided my small food stock. I hadn’t eaten anything since those awful waffle sticks and I was starving. I ate two granola bars, a fruit roll-up, and a bag of chips before grabbing my shower catty and some clothes and heading over to the truck stop a couple of blocks down. I paid for a thirty-minute time slot and took a blissfully hot shower within my Shield. I had learned not to take my clothes off in a place like this without shielding the hard way.

On the way back I stopped back in the convenience store and bought three apples for breakfast tomorrow. We never did get that salad and if I wasn’t careful I knew Jack and Amy would eat nothing but junk food. I locked up the bus and climbed up into my lofted bed. As I drifted to sleep I promised myself I would make up any work that I missed while spying on the three musketeers. I wasn’t going to let this derail my plans to graduate at the top of the class and hopefully get my hands on some sort of scholarship for college. I loved my bus, but I really didn’t want to live here forever.

The next morning I didn’t sleep through my alarm and was up and working on homework before Jack and Amy came to get me for the ride to school. Amy was disappointed with the apple, but Jack just gave me a wink before taking a huge bite out of his. Jack pointedly didn’t ask me about what had happened after school last night and I was grateful. I hated lying to my best friend. But he was human and telling him would risk his life. I would never do that to him just so that I could feel a little less alone in this world.

The bus ride was uneventful and I made sure that I was cloaked before heading to the south cafeteria to get our free breakfast. Today we were offered small prepackaged boxes of cereal with a carton of milk. I picked cheerios, Jack got cocoa puffs and Amy chose lucky charms. I glared at their selection and we bickered over breakfast about the need for sugar in our daily lives. It was familiar and easy with Jack and Amy. They were my family and I would do a lot to be able to stay with them as long as possible.

When the warning bell rang I headed to homeroom and was not so surprised to replace Max sitting next to my normal desk. He was clearly not looking directly at the chair but squinting his eyes and I knew he was still trying to see through my cloak using his peripheral vision theory. I straddled the seat directly in front of him and made a face that hopefully mirrored his before dropping my cloak. Max snapped his head back so hard he almost tipped over in his chair and I couldn’t help but give him a small smile.

“It doesn’t work like that,” I decided to tell him. God forbid he hurt his eyesight trying to see into the void. “The only reason you were able to see me out of the corner of your eye was because I wasn’t fully cloaked. Invisible girls get marked absent. But if I don’t want to be seen, no amount of squinting is going to make me visible.” Max gave a nervous chuckle and his neck started to turn pink. Oh my god. I think that he was actually blushing.

“Why have you been hiding this whole time?” Max asked in a small voice while looking everywhere but into my eyes. It was like I was making him nervous. When did the world stop making sense?

“To protect myself from people that would try to hurt me,” I answered him honestly and he stopped fidgeting and finally looked at me.

“I would never hurt you,” Max said and nothing in my head buzzed. He was telling the truth. Wow, this could change everything. Could it be possible that I had been hiding all of these years for nothing? What if Valkyries in general weren’t evil, just specifically my father had been evil. There were good and bad humans. Maybe there were also good and bad Valkyries.

“Well then, it is nice to meet you, Max Nilsen,” I said while holding out my hand. Max treated me to a breathtaking smile and he tentatively reached out and shook my hand.

“The pleasure is all mine, Delia Olsen” he responded and something within my soul warmed at the contact. More than my soul, my hand actually started to tingle where he touched me. What in the world is that? We were startled out of our moment when Max’s pose of people came into the room and jumped into our conversation. Damn, I really needed to tell him not to call me Delia. I hated that name.

One of the teen heartthrob football players sat down in my usual chair and looked me over before commenting, “Now, why does Max always get the pleasure of greeting the new girls. Once in my life, I want to get picked over this science nerd.” He said this while giving me a toothy grin and pointing playfully at Max. His name was Chad, and he was almost as much of a player as Blake. I knew better than to fall for his flirtatious nature.

“I am not actually new,” I corrected Chad while giving him an obvious one over with my eyes. “I have been here every day since September. It isn’t my fault you failed to notice my awesomeness until now.”

Chad started to splutter as he tried to figure out what to say and a female voice from behind me said, “I like her. Let’s keep her.” I turned and sat normally in my chair to replace Chastity Norris sitting at the desk in front of mine. Chastity had out-of-control curly red hair and tended to wear long flowy skirts and crop top shirts that showcased her flat and toned abdomen along with half a dozen necklaces each holding a crystal of some kind. Chastity was one of the nicest people at Skyline High. She was also a witch, not that I was going to hold that against her.

“I think I have seen you hanging with Jack Huntsville out on the pier,” Chastity said as she looked over me with shrewd eyes. If I am remembering correctly, she spent a lot of time with Max so it is entirely possible that Chastity knows about Valkyrie. “But I don’t remember you in this class.”

All of the attention was starting to make me nervous. I wasn’t used to having so many eyes on me at once. “I don’t like to call attention to myself,” I murmured and pulled reality around me like a safety blanket. I didn’t sink deep enough to completely disappear, but enough that most people would forget that I had been holding their focus. Chad and the other couple of people that had followed him over here were quick to forget about me and started a conversation about some upcoming game.

Chastity didn’t fall for it though and she leaned over into my space before whispering, “nice trick.” I was worried that she was going to push and start asking questions that I didn’t want to answer but instead, she just turned and started talking to her friend.

“Chastity is good people,” Max said from behind me. “She won’t hurt you either, and she is really good at being a friend.” The lack of a buzz in my head told me that he was, once again, telling me the truth. I nodded my head to acknowledge that I had heard him and then pulled out the chemistry homework that I needed to finish before last period.

Max must have seen what I was working on because he asked, “Were you in class yesterday?” I frowned down at my work and decided that after everything I had overheard yesterday, that he at least deserved to know that I had been spying on them. I kinda felt bad about it now.

“Yes. You were right. I followed you around and learned what I could after you three confronted me in the cafeteria.” I glanced behind me and saw that Max looked pale. I was about to ask him what was wrong when Chad interrupted us again. Max talking to me must have reminded him that I was still sitting here.

“So, I think it is my responsibility to correct the grave error I made in overlooking you all year,” Chad said in a voice that I am sure hooked dozens of girls before me. “Let me take you out on Friday. We can grab dinner and you tell me all about the awesomeness that I have been missing.” My gaze flicked between Max and Chad and their faces couldn’t have been more different. Chad looked confident and happy while Max looked angry and regretful.

The bell rang and I gathered by chem book before looking up to Chad and saying, “You do realize that Friday is Valentine’s day.” That wiped the cocky look off his face for a moment before he regrouped and doubled down.

“Even better. It will be a cute story we can tell our kids someday. Having our first date on Valentine's day.” The moment Chad said the word kids, his friend spit the coffee he was drinking all over his girlfriend. Today was making even less sense than yesterday. Chad was a hit it and leave it kind of guy. Why in the world would he bring up kids as he asked me out on a first date?

When I didn’t say anything and just stood there staring at Chad like he was a crazy person, Max stepped in between us and gave his friend a hard look. “Don’t tease Delia with shit like that,” he growled out and Chad’s brows furrowed like if he was trying to calculate the square root of 7,542.

“I’m not teasing. I actually want to date her and see where things go,” Chad said slowly and I knew that he was telling the truth. This was just too much. The first time I get asked out on a date and it is from a guy I am completely not interested in and I have an audience. Being invisible was so much easier.

“Thanks for the offer Chad, but I have other plans on Friday,” I said before facing Max. “And please call me Ray. Only people that I don’t like call me Delia.” Then I turned and walked off to my English class. I would even take reading Hamlet over whatever was going on right now.

I barely caught three words that my teacher said during English because my head was buzzing with all sorts of different thoughts and feelings. Math went a little better as I had always liked the logic and simplistic nature of numbers. But instead of sitting and quietly doing my work in the back like I always did. Two different guys and a girl tried to get my attention to start a conversation with me. Mr. Beach actually had to reprimand me to be quiet. I had never been reprimanded by a teacher before and it left a bad after-taste in my mouth.

What was up with all of the attention I was getting? I know that I wasn’t cloaking myself, but I was still a poorly dressed street kid. I have witnessed time and time again that this school is not a pleasant place to be for kids like me. It was one reason why I was so diligent with my cloaking. I didn’t want to have to deal with the teasing and hurtful words day in and day out. But all of the people that talked to me today, took an instant liking to me. It wasn’t natural.

I was preoccupied with the observation that people actually moved out of my way in the hallway instead of bumping into me, like they did to every other student, and didn’t notice that Connor was standing right in front of me. I looked up and saw that we were standing right outside our history classroom.

“So you are in this class,” he hissed out at me like he was accusing me of kicking his puppy. The mood swings of these guys were really throwing me for a loop.

“Yes,” I replied and stepped around him and sat in my seat. He followed and sat to my left. Connor clearly had something that he wanted to say and wasn’t going to leave me alone until he got it off his chest.

“So yesterday you saw me and Maddy?” Really, this is what was bothering him. Maybe he was upset about Maddison and Blake. I nodded my head and his scowl deepened. “Was that why Huntsville said you were upset yesterday at lunch?” Connor asked and I hesitated. Seeing him with Maddison had made me feel lonely, but it wasn’t because it was him. It was just because I had yet to experience something like the kiss they had shared. But how was I supposed to explain that to him without sounding like a complete loser?

“Fuck that,” Conner said with venom in his voice. “Just because you are female Val doesn’t mean that we are going to change our lifestyle to please you. I can be with anyone that I fucking want to.” His words hit me like a ton of bricks. Who the hell did this guy think he was and why was he accusing me of things that I would never dream of doing.

“Why does the fact I am a girl have to do with anything? I was perfectly happy flying under the radar. It was you that pulled me into the limelight and now strangers are talking to me and football jocks are talking about having my children. You can kiss, grope, or have any other variation of public displays of affections with whoever you want, Connor. Just leave me the hell alone,” I whisper yelled at him because even though I was angry I still didn’t want to make a scene.

“What?” Connor asked in a neutral tone that lacked all of his previous righteous anger. These boys were like freaking yo-yos.

“I just want to get through the rest of my senior year in peace. I do not care who you are with, so stop putting words in my mouth,” I retorted but he was already shaking his head.

“No not that. The thing about being a girl. Do you really not know?”

“Know what?” I asked with a sinking feeling in my stomach. This was it. This was the big piece of information that I didn’t know. And for some reason, I had the notion that once I knew it was going to change my life forever.

“The reason why you are special,” Connor replied while leaning into my space.

“I’m not special,” I said and crossed my arms over my chest. Special meant different. I was already not human and that had caused me years of pain. I didn’t want to be different according to Valkyrie standards too.

“Holy shit, how can you not know? Where is your father?” Connor demanded in his harsh voice and a spike of fear ran down my spine at the mention of my father. What did Connor know of that monster? As an instinctual response to my fear my Shield snapped into existence around me and Connor leaned back in his seat to avoid touching it. Shit. Now Connor knew that I was scared enough of my father to have my defenses pop up out of nowhere. He knew my weakness.

“What do you know of my father?” I asked in a barely-there voice that I knew resonated with power. I was in full-on Valkyrie mode right now and I was going to get some answers. Conner looked completely confused and shook his head before opening his mouth to answer.

“I don’t know --” But he was cut off when Maddison Clearly sat down in his lap and slammed her lips down on his. Nope, there was no way that I was going to sit here and watch this particular show again. Not right now with my emotions running so high. Our Gifts were linked to our emotions and if I didn’t get myself under control I was going to start materializing weapons, and they weren’t invisible to the surrounding humans. Even a place like Skyline cared if you started flashing knives during class.

I took a deep breath and pushed back into the void. It was harder to do with my Shield up, but not impossible. Then I walked out of the classroom and into the girl's room to do some breathing exercises I used when I was first learning how to control my Gifts. Once I regained my calm I let go of my Shield and called myself ten kinds of stupid of letting myself react that way. It was just that I hadn’t talked about my father in almost four years and being around other Valkyrie was bringing up some shit that I would rather not think about.

The history teacher was still out so I returned to the class and told the sub that I wasn’t feeling well and needed to go to the nurse. I could feel Connor’s gaze on me, but I refused to look at him right now. Instead of going to the nurse, I found myself walking into the shop and standing next to Jack. He gave me a questioning glance but when I didn’t explain why I was there he just shrugged his shoulder and continued to work. This was one reason why I loved Jack. He never pushed. He was just there when I needed him without ever expecting anything in return.