Shielded
Chapter 5 - Gifts

Fuck, that look on my brother’s face after that hug was -- everything. All the hope that we had taught ourselves to push away. The compassion and forgiveness that only a woman could bring to the table. The fire that only another of our kind could ever ignite. And now I was the sorry excuse of a Val that had to cut things off before they ever really have a chance to get started. Because Blake was a dreamer and I was the realist.

“Dude, what do you think you are doing?” I asked the second that Ray walked out of the classroom. “We aren’t the kind of Val that get to hold on to a person like Ray. The moment she figures out who she is and what kind of life is available to her, she is going to disappear on us. Stop thinking with your dick and see this situation for what it really is. Start protecting yourself.”

“But she is different. I can tell,” Blake pleads with me. Like if I agree that Ray is different it will make it true.

“Being different doesn’t change who she is or who we are. You need to tuck all romantic notions away and start treating her like a sister.”

“Really Con? Are you going to tell me that you have sisterly feelings toward Ray?”

“Okay, then friend zone her and move on,” I said and I could see my words sink in through his thick skull. Blake knew I was right, he just didn’t want to admit it. “Come on bro. I will call Maddison and we will have our very own party.”

Now I just had to convince myself that this was the right move too.

--Connor

Last night was rough. We stopped by Polly’s on the way home and I talked Camila into letting me take home a catering order that the new line cook screwed up. Then all three of us piled into my bus and we spent the night stuffing our faces and telling stupid stories to try to distract Amy from what happened. But the night was long and we ran out of stories before she was able to fall asleep and Jack ended up holding his sobbing sister while I watched feeling completely helpless. Amy finally cried herself to sleep but Jack and I never managed it.

In the morning Jack decided to stay home with Amy to give the rumor mill some time to move onto the next hot topic, but I had already missed two afternoons of classes in a row. I needed to get my ass in gear if I didn’t want to fall too far behind. So I dragged my exhausted butt to the bus stop and cloaked myself when people started asking questions about what had happened yesterday.

When I got off the bus I started walking towards the cafeteria on autopilot, but then I saw the three musketeers waiting off to the side of the bus loading zone. I knew that they were looking for Jack and waiting for me. I wasn’t enough of an asshole to blow them off after everything that went down yesterday. I pulled free of the void and walked towards them. The moment Max caught sight of me he looked relieved and I wondered what had him so worried.

“Hey, how are you doing? How are Amy and Jack? Where are they?” Max asked and I smiled up at him. It was sweet that he was so worried about us.

“Amy and Jack are playing hooky. And I am fine. A little tired but otherwise all is good in my neck of the woods.”

“None of us have your number, so we couldn’t check on you last night,” Blake said.

“I don’t have a cell phone,” I told them and all three of them looked like I just told them that I ate little kids for breakfast. I could see the questions starting to form so I headed them off. “I never could justify the cost. And there really isn’t anyone that I would call if I had one other than Jack. He doesn’t have one either so there isn’t any reason for me to buy one.”

“That’s just not okay for a dozen different reasons,” Blake said as Connor pulled something out of his back pocket and held it out for me. I took it and looked it over. It was a brand new top-of-the-line sleek iPhone. I ran my fingers over the smooth surface and guessed that I could buy three months' worth of food for the price of this one gadget. I shook my head and then tried to hand it back to Connor. I didn’t really appreciate that he was rubbing his wealth in my face.

“Keep it,” Connor growled and I almost dropped said phone in surprise. “You need to have a phone. I will pick up another one this weekend.” When I saw how serious he was about this I gave an exasperated sigh, grabbed Connor’s hand, and slapped the phone into his palm.

“I am not a charity case. I have survived just fine without a phone until now. I am not taking yours.”

“You need to be able to call someone if you need something and we need a way to get in contact with you. What if we need your help?” Max said in a reasonable voice cutting off whatever unreasonable retort Connor was going to throw in my face. Max knew how to play dirty. Valkyrie had an incredibly active protective instinct. If one of them needed my help and couldn’t reach me, I would never forgive myself.

I turned to face Max and gave him a forced smile before saying, “okay. I will stop and get one this weekend.” Then I turned and started walking towards the cafeteria. I never turned down state-provided food. Of course, the three of them trailed after me.

“How did you find Amy yesterday?” Max asked and I turned to see if he was serious. Being able to feel when one of our chosen protected was in trouble was something that all Valkyries could do. At least that is what my father had told me. But I was starting to question the truth about what he taught me as a kid.

“She is one of my protected, I could feel her fear and dread,” I replied and watched his response. This didn’t seem to surprise him, so guess we were on the same page about this Valkyrie ability.

“Right, but how did you find her? You took off like you knew exactly where she was and we just established that you don’t have a phone so she couldn’t have told you where she was.” I stopped and thought back to yesterday. I remember feeling awful, finally figuring out that it was Amy who was in trouble and then my body just knew where to find her. I hadn’t questioned it at the time.

When I didn’t answer Blake asked, “What are your Gifts?”

I smirked at him and replied, “I show you mine if you show me yours.” This caused Blake to miss a step and he almost fell on his face before Connor reached out to steady his twin.

“Umm, I have Weapons and Shield. Nothing exciting about me,” Blake said and I could tell that it bothered him that he only had the two most common Gifts.

I got in line for food and looked over at Max. “Shield and Healing,” Max said while a blush started to creep up his neck. Hmm, from what I was told it was very unusual for a Valkyrie not to have the ability to call weapons. Some were able to call a wider range of weapons, but almost all of us could at least call a knife or short sword.

“Oh wow. I heard that healing was a Gift but I have never seen it. That must be amazing to be able to help people so directly like that,” I gushed and Max’s blush bloomed up to his cheeks.

We paused our conversation as I picked up a tray with a bowl filled with lumpy oatmeal and a package of nuts. On the plus side, it was Friday so I also got a large square tater tot like the ones that they serve at McDonald's. I led them over to the broken table and waited for Connor to answer the question. When I looked at him, he looked distinctly uncomfortable. Well if I had Compulsion I would feel just as insecure. He was admitting to the ability to be able to control other people. It was not an innocent Gift to have.

“Weapons, Strength, and Compulsion,” Connor finally said. I pointedly didn’t say anything about the Compulsion. I wasn’t really okay with the fact that he had it. My father had it and didn’t have any qualms about using it to control his daughter. But the Strength was interesting. I vaguely remember my father saying something about it and I was pretty sure performed as advertised. Connor could have heightened strength when he activated that Gift. It was a useful ability to have.

“Weapons, Shield, Truth, and Cloaking,” I told them as I forced myself to eat the tasteless oatmeal. The twins looked shocked, Max looked interested.

“Cloaking. Is that what you call your ability to disappear?” Max asked excitedly and I could tell that he couldn’t wait to get more information on my unknown ability. However, I wasn’t ready to fully explain the void to them yet. What if they found a way to enter it. Then I would lose my only sure-fire way of escape.

“Yup,” I said and then redirected the conversation. “So does someone want to explain to me why you keep obsessing over the fact that I am a girl?” They all traded meaningful looks and I finished off the oatmeal before starting on the tater tot. At least it was still hot.

“Ray, it would help us figure out how much to explain if we knew how much you already know. Can you tell us how you ended up in the foster system? What happened to your parents and what you know about our society.” I checked my watch and saw that we had five minutes before the warning bell. Five minutes to tell my life story and learn some life-changing information. Why not?

“I don’t know anything about my Mom. My father never talked about her and he would get angry when I asked him questions about her. My father was a Valkyrie that moved around a lot. We never had a clan like you do. He was the only other Valkyrie I had ever met before this week. He was -- not a nice person. That was why I freaked out and hid from you the other day. I have been terrified that another Valkyrie like my father would find me and force me back to that kind of life. When I was fourteen my father got involved with the wrong type of people and ended up dead. I was placed in the system and have been bouncing around from foster home to foster home since then.”

I cleared my throat and looked away as I tried to push the memories away. So much pain and heartache was packed into those few sentences about my past. Seventeen years of memories and feelings reduced to a reader’s digest version. This wasn’t the right way to do this.

“My father introduced me to the supernatural world and I have had interactions with Vampires, Shifters, and a couple of different types of Fae. I knew that most Valkyries work to keep the peace, but I never knew they were so organized or great in number. I always figured we were kinda rare because I had never ran across another before you guys. But then again I don’t go around looking for Valkyries.”

After that, I remained silent and looked over the guys to see different degrees of the same expressions. Disbelief, pity, and anger. God, I hated pity. My past was what it was and there was nothing I could do to change it. Pity just made me feel weak. And one thing I was not was weak.

“Shit Ray, that was a lot,” Connor said as he rubbed the back of his neck. He and Blake both seemed to do that when they felt uncomfortable. “We can explain more later, but the bottom line is that Valkyrie are not all that rare, but female Valkyrie are. Men outnumber females about two hundred to one. As far as we know the only way to have a baby girl is for both parents to be Val and the only female Valkyrie are part of the Royal families. We keep obsessing over the fact that you are a girl because we have only interacted with two other female Valkyrie before and we are pretty sure you are one of the Royals.”

I took a moment to digest what Connor had said and then I started laughing. These boys, the cream of the crop, the most popular and talented students in all of Skyline High, the princes of Oakland were telling me that I was royalty. The very notion was so ridiculous that the only logical response was hysterical laughter.

The warning bell rang during my laughing fit and I could tell that none of the guys knew how to handle me right now. That was okay because I didn’t know how to handle me right now either. I was operating on zero sleep and was being told that I was some long-lost princess or something. It was just too much. I got up and started walking towards my homeroom. I didn’t even clear my dirty dishes. Hell, I was a princess now, dishes were so below my notice. Ha!

“Ray, wait up, I’ll walk with you,” Max called and I slowed my steps. Maybe he was going to tell me that Connor was joking and the whole thing was made up. But when he caught up he just gave me an understanding smile and walked by my side through the crowded hallways. Just like yesterday, the crush of people moved out of our way and no one even bumped into us.

“What is that?” I asked because if I was going down this rabbit hole I mine as well know everything. “Why are people clearing a path for us? And why are people being so nice to me?”

This caused Max to do a little laughing of his own. “How are you just noticing that?”

“I spend a disproportionate amount of time being invisible,” I deadpanned and Max sobered up.

“Humans feel this urge to be close to us, nice to us, and go out of their way to get our approval. It isn’t so bad as kids, but right around the time that puberty hits, all of a sudden we become the most popular boys in the school. We can’t control it and can’t turn it off.”

“Maybe you can’t,” I volleyed and then started cloaking myself. I stopped before I became completely invisible so that I could still talk to Max, but almost immediately people stopped dodging out of my way and Max had to grab my hand so that he didn’t leave me behind. His hand was dry and warm and a hint of that feeling of belonging tingled in my fingers. I wonder what that was about, but I needed a break from learning life-changing stuff.

We made it to the classroom and Max told me, “okay you made your point. Please don’t leave me to the vipers alone.” I could just cloak him too, but I wasn’t ready to show that particular card yet. I had spilled enough of my secrets this morning. I pushed completely free of the void and took my seat in the back of the room. Max followed me and took the seat to my left. Within seconds each of the seats around us were filled and I started to feel overwhelmed. What if this urge to like Valkyrie morphed and all of sudden I had a silence of the lamb's situation where some weirdo wanted to wear my skin.

Lucky Chastity had snagged the seat in front of mine and she turned to talk to me. “Oh my God Ray, are you okay? I heard about what happened yesterday. That poor girl. Is she doing okay?” I heard the genuine concern in her voice and spent the next couple of minutes reassuring her that both me and Amy were okay.

“You know I could make up some protection charms for you and Amy. Something that packs a punch to use in an emergency like yesterday,” Chastity said while fingering a red crystal on one of her many necklaces. I had gone with my father to see a witch on a couple of occasions. Mostly we bought healing potions from them, but they worked every time. If Chastity said that her charm would be able to disable an attacker long enough for someone like Amy to make a getaway, I believed her.

“That would be amazing. How much would something like that run me?” I was already going to have to dip into my savings to buy the cell phone, but this sounded like a good investment.

“Oh, nothing much. Just a couple of hairs will do,” she said while reaching up to tuck a stray lock of hair behind my ear. Max reached out and lightly grabbed her wrist before she had the chance to touch me or my hair. Well, it didn’t seem like my silence of the lamb's theory was that far off.

“Chastity, please don’t cross any lines that I will have to punish you for,” Max said in a stern voice that surprised me. Max was the nerdy fun one. But right now he sounded more like Connor.

“Oh, Maxy you are no fun. I wasn’t going to do anything against the Laws. But you never know when a female Valkyrie hair will come in handy. They are almost impossible to get your hands on these days.”

“Umm, why do you want my hair,” I asked and was embarrassed to say that my voice was an octave higher than normal.

“Female Valkyrie are usually more powerful than their male counterparts. And some spells need more of a punch than little old Max here can give. But don’t worry honey. Consider the protection charms as a little welcome gift. I’ll have them ready for you by Monday.”

“Thanks, that’s - very generous of you,” I said, still extremely uncomfortable with this whole situation.

“No problem, us supes have to stick together,” Chastity said distractedly and started digging through her massive purse. However, her off-handed comment caught my attention. I always got the feeling that different supernatural groups stayed pretty much separate. Yes, we all went to the witches when we needed something magical brewed up but generally, it was an ‘us’ against ‘them’ mentality. That was why our society needed Valkyrie to step in and stop the fighting. The Laws were written to keep inter-species wars at a minimum to avoid exposing the supernatural world to the humans.

“So you offered the shifters the same gift?” I asked and watched for a reaction. It was subtle but it was there. Chastity’s shoulders became stiff and she wasn’t as focused on digging through her bag as she considered how to answer me.

“Lawrence and I have a complicated history. If he or his pack needed protection I wouldn’t turn them away, but we don’t go out of our way to see each other if you get my drift.” It was a political answer but it was the truth. I had no right to go demanding answers of Chastity anyway.

“You know about the shifters in the school?” Max asked and I saw that he was a little affronted that I knew about the shifters but not about him and the Berg brothers.

“Yeah, they are a little easier to spot without interacting with them. Lots of extra hair, travel in groups with one clear leader, and extremely territorial. You don’t even have green eyes like I had been led to believe all Valkyrie had.” This caused both Max and Chastity to start laughing and I had the impression it was more of a ‘we are laughing at you’ instead of ‘we are laughing with you’ kind of situation.

God, I missed being invisible.

I gave Max an exasperated look and he apologized and said, “Oh Ray, we do have green eyes. But it would start to raise flags if a bunch of unrelated guys all started showing up with vibrant green eyes. Even the humans would start to notice. We all wear color contacts.” He then leaned over towards me and used his middle finger to pull down his lower eyelid and another finger to gently move the contact lens that covered his eye. Sure enough, it was just as startling of a green as mine. Huh, I never even thought about trying to cover my eyes. Yes, they were weird but they were also mine. I hope I didn’t have to start wearing contacts. Best not to mention it again.

I looked around the class and saw that homeroom was almost over and I hadn’t even opened my textbooks. This being social was really going to put a strain on my school work. But I did have to admit that I felt a lot better today than I did at the beginning of the week. I felt less empty inside. Like if I had finally found the missing part of my soul. Question was, did I feel this way because I was finally interacting with other people or because of my close proximity to the Three Musketeers?

A touch to my elbow drew me out of my thoughts and I looked over to see that Max was holding out a book to me. I raised my eyebrows and then accepted the book from his hands. It looked old and it felt expensive. Real leather stretched over the cover that was worn but well maintained and it weighed more than I thought it would. “Listen, I have a hunch that you might have another Gift. This book describes all of the known Valkyrie Gifts, how they work, and how to control them. I thought that you could look through it and see if anything seems familiar to you.”

Holy mother. If this book was what Max said it was then it was priceless. I had spent years trying to gain control over my abilities and while my father actually tried to help me, he could only describe how to use the one Gift that we shared, Weapons. I placed the book on my desk and gently ran my fingers over the cover that was embossed with an illustration of warriors on flying horses riding into battle. I lifted the cover and scanned the table of contents. Each chapter was labeled with a different Gift. Preface, Weapons, Shield, Compulsion, Healing, Telepathy, Energy, Communication, Telekinesis, Tracking, Empathy, Strength, Silence, Truth.

Max looked over my shoulder and explained, “These are listed in order of most common to most rare. But honestly in our society Vals are considered valuable if they have any Gifts other than Weapons and Shield. Each generation less and less of us have the more rare gifts. Most Vals will have at least two Gifts and if you have three you are considered extremely powerful and can get the better positions and postings. Connor has already been approached by several different high-level Clans who would welcome him with open arms because he has three Gifts and two of them are rare. I have healing which should elevate my standing, but a Valkyrie without Weapons is considered weak because they can’t defend their territory.”

I looked over my shoulder at Max’s face but he was studying the page in front of us with a determined concentration. I knew that it had cost him to tell me that, but he did it anyway because he thought I had the right to know. No one had ever been so willing to give information to me before without expecting something in return. I didn’t know why these boys were so willing to let me in, but it made me want to try harder to meet them halfway. I tentatively reached out and rested my hand on top of Max’s and he finally turned to look at me.

“I plan on going to medical school. I may not be a great warrior, but I can protect and heal people. I will contribute.” He said the last with emotion and I knew it was a promise that he had made to himself. Just as I was about to say something the bell rang and everyone around us jumped to their feet. Max moved to pick up his bag but I wrapped my fingers around his hand and pulled it towards me to regain his attention.

“I think healing is an incredible Gift that people should be jealous of, and Shield is the best way to protect people. You are not weak Max Nilsen and I am lucky to be privileged enough to call you my friend.” Max’s lips parted in surprise and I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze before carefully putting the leather book in my bag and walking to my next class.

Once I was settled in my desk in English I cloaked myself, pulled out the book, and flipped to the first page. It was written in elegant handwriting in ink that had faded with age. This wasn’t some book that the Valkyrie printed and gave out to Clans for reference. This was a family heirloom that was passed down generation after generation and Max was trusting it with me.

Preface

To be a Valkyrie is to be a protector of the innocent. We are strong for those in dark times. We are the shield humanity uses against the darker parts of this realm. We are the sword used to slay evil. We are the healing hand that eases the pain of battle. We keep the peace and uphold the Laws. Without us, everything would fall into chaos.

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