Shielded: A Valkyrie Saga Book 1

Found - Chapter 1

I was missing something. Something big. And I was pretty sure it had something to do with the girl that I could never manage to fully concentrate on. Since the beginning of the school year my gut was telling me that someone powerful was walking these crowded halls, but my senses kept telling me that I was crazy. It was like I had a song stuck in my head, but I couldn't remember the words and it was driving me crazy. Then I started to notice her out of the corner of my eye, but if I looked directly at her she would disappear. God, she was beautiful. A part of my brain was screaming at me to take her away from this place and protect her from all harm. However, the other, more logical part told me that safe and honest people didn't hide from their appointed Valkyrie. My mystery woman could be dangerous. I had to protect my family and my territory. I was going to have to tell the twins about her.

--Max

The awful screech of the bus doors opening tore through my dream and my muscle memory took over as I rolled from my lofted bed and landed softly on the balls of my feet. I easily called a dagger to each hand and prepared to defend my home. This bus might not seem like much to a normal person, but to me it was my safe place. And no one was going to mess with it or me.

"Jesus Ray, how is it you can sleep through your alarm but the moment I step foot in your beloved sanctuary and you look ready to single handedly win in a zombie apocalypse?" 

The moment I hear Jack's smooth voice, I straighten and pretend to place my knives into the sheaths I always wear via a shoulder holster. However, they are already occupied with my prop knives and I just release whatever magic it is that keeps my weapons in the physical realm. It may be tedious to always have to hide who I am and what I can do, but that was the one rule in the supernatural world - never let the humans find out we exist.

"What have I told you about knocking, Jack Percival Huntsville?" I grumble at him as I stretch and try to get my bearings. The sun was up and the air was only slightly chilly. Probably about fifty degrees, which was about as cold as it got here in the Bay Area. I looked at my watch and the time did wonders to push the sleep out of my system. I had slept too long.

"Yeah well, I remembered that you have a calc test today, even if you didn't. And if you don't move your sweet ass, we are going to miss the bus," Jack told me as he slid into a chair at my kitchen table. I was about to curse when the bundle of energy that was Jack's little sister came barreling through the bus door. Amy was going through a growth spurt and Jack was having trouble finding clothes that would fit her for more than a couple of weeks at a time. She was fourteen years old, rail thin, with wispy blonde hair and the cutest spread of freckles across her cheeks. If she kept growing she was going to be taller than me by the end of the month.

"Hey Ray, do you have it?" Amy asked me in an excited voice that reminded me of innocence and laughter. Amy and Jack had it rough, but this girl never let life get her down. Not when a cinnamon roll was on the menu.

"That's all you see me as, isn't it. Your sugar dealer!" I teased her and ducked behind the old sheet I had draped across the back corner of the bus to give me some semblance of privacy. I changed out of my sleep pants and pulled on a pair of jeans that would need to be washed sooner rather than later. Then I rifled through my drawers looking for a clean shirt. Yup, I am definitely moving laundry to the top of the to-do list for this weekend. I finally found a grey v-neck that was more slim fitting then my normal wardrobe, but it was going to have to work for today. I grabbed some socks and walked over to sit by Jack because I had left my boots under the table last night.

I glanced up after wrestling my left foot into my boot and saw Amy's puppy dog face. God this girl was going to be a heart breaker. I shook my head at her antics and reached behind Jack to get my book bag. Jack was going through his own kind of growth spurt. He had been slowly transforming his body from gangly street kid, to badass punk that people would think twice before messing with him. He worked part time in the old scrap yard doing hard labor and I knew that if he were able to afford more protein in his diet, he would have a whole lot more muscle to show for it. But even though he was still on the lean side, I knew that Jack was the kind of strong that would find a way to the top of any situation. He was a survivor, just like me.