Shadow Hills (33 page)

“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” Corinne was charging down the hallway toward me, a manila folder in hand.

“I’m here to see Zach.” I jutted my chin forward defiantly.

“Oh, so you’re not here for this?” Corinne shook the folder in my face, and instinctively I grabbed for it, ripping it out of her hand.

“The only reason I’m here is to see Zach.”

“That’s funny, because I think the only reason Zach is
here
is because of you.” Corinne’s eyes flashed. “He never would’ve stolen files before you came along.”

I looked down at my hand.
Had this been what Zach had called me about?
I flipped the folder open as Corinne tried to grab it. I jumped back and began to read, but a small picture stapled in the left-hand corner caught my eye. It was a photo of a copper bangle bracelet, but it bore an infinity symbol just like my ID bracelet. Seeing the stunned look on my face, Corinne leaped forward, wrenching the papers from my hands. But not before I read the caption under the photo.
The bracelets were ionized and used by Gates and his followers to help facilitate the transfer of energy, as well as identify their victims of energy consumption
.

My hands were shaking, and I felt cold as ice. It was clear now why Mr. Carr had thought the Banished might have an interest in me. He must have found my bracelet and recognized the symbol.

What Mr. Carr hadn’t known, of course, was that it wasn’t my bracelet originally. Was there any way Athena could have been involved with the Banished?

“What do you know about this? The ionization, the energy consumption?” I demanded.

“I don’t know.” Corinne shoved the folder into her bag. “And if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

Maybe she wouldn’t normally, but Corinne always had to be the smartest, and I knew it.

“You don’t understand ionization? I thought physics and chemistry were your thing.”

“Fine.” Her eyes narrowed. “Ionization is the means of converting an atom or molecule into an ion by adding or subtracting charged particles. Not that someone like you would get it,”
Corinne said. “So just stay the hell out of our business. This has nothing to do with you.”

“Oh, yeah?” I dug the bracelet out of the pocket of my purse. “Then why does my bracelet have a symbol just like the one in the file?”

Corinne glanced at it, then rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t prove anything. It’s a totally different style, a different metal. Do you know how common jewelry with an infinity symbol is? And I seriously doubt the Banished moved to the Hollywood Hills.” She took a step closer. To intimidate. “Listen, I don’t know what you think you’re doing. And I really don’t care. But poking around where you don’t belong is what got my brother hurt. And I won’t allow you to put him in danger. If you care about him at all, you will leave him out of it.”

“I care about Zach just as much as you do.” My face was on fire. I blamed myself for Zach’s state, but it was completely different to hear it come out of someone else’s mouth.

“Then prove it.” Corinne turned on her heel and headed down the hallway.

I stood there for a few moments, trying to decide what to do, before following Corinne. The hallway curved sharply to the right, and as I rounded the corner I heard the sound of someone crying. It was coming from an open doorway a few feet in front of me. The women’s restroom. I stepped inside, the sound of wrenching sobs echoed in one of the metal stalls. All I could see was a pair of shoes, patent leather Mary Janes in a deep purple that was dark enough to pass for black. They were Corinne’s school shoes.

Apparently, even Corinne couldn’t be detached and
indifferent all the time. My anger drained away. Slowly, I backed out of the bathroom and made my way back to the ICU.

“I’m here to see Zach Redford,” I told the nurse behind the front desk.

“Good timing.” She stood up. “You caught him right before his next dose of meds. He’s still awake.” She smiled and led me over to the same room I’d been in last night.

He’s awake
. My lungs and heart and everything else in my chest loosened. Zach was awake. Corinne hadn’t been crying because she’d been given horrible news. She was just stretched to the breaking point. Which I certainly understood.

“Phe.” Zach smiled foggily at me as the nurse left.

“Hey, you.” I bent down to kiss his forehead. “I was so worried. What happened?”

“I don’t know.” Zach’s thinking frown was adorable. I scooted a chair closer to the bed so I could sit down. “I couldn’t find anything in my mother’s office at home. Then Corinne said she had to come to school for … something.” Zach seemed confused. “I caught a ride with her. I figured I might find a file here.”

“Didn’t Corinne wonder why you wanted to come to the hospital?”

“I told her …” He frowned. “I’m not sure … My brain’s not working very well. Oh, yeah. I told her I couldn’t find my advanced calculus homework, and I thought I must have left it in Mom’s office when I was with her this afternoon—I mean, yesterday afternoon. And then …” Zach was obviously having trouble remembering things. “Corinne let me off in front of the
hospital and … it all sort of goes black.” His frown deepened. “I can’t remember what happened after that.”

“You called me and said you’d found something,” I prompted. “You were going to come over to tell me what. I was so worried when you didn’t show up.”

“I’m sorry.”

I squeezed his hand. “Being hit on the head is an adequate excuse, I think.”

“I wasn’t hit on the head,” he said. “The doctors say there’s no sign of trauma, no lump or bruise.”

Icy prickles of dread crept into my chest even though I had already half expected this to be the case. “So you were knocked out with what? Some kind of Vulcan mind meld?”

“I don’t know. Corinne said she came down to the office when she got through and found me lying on the floor on top of a folder.”

I couldn’t suppress an even stronger shudder of fear. Had Zach’s assailant knocked him out? Had he intended to do worse but been frightened off by the sound of Corinne’s arrival?
If Corinne had been later in coming to check on Zach
… The images flashing through my mind made my breath feel like a knife in my lungs.

But Zach was going on, “Do you know about the folder?”

“Yeah, Corinne showed it to me,” I fibbed. I wasn’t about to embroil him in the ongoing emotional battle between his sister and me. He was obviously too tired to be discussing anything, much less such upsetting topics. “Let’s talk about it later, okay?”

But Zach was not so easily diverted. “I’m really weirded out by all this. I think you should lie low for a while.” He looked up into my eyes. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Same here.” I pushed a stray lock of hair back from his forehead. “You just need to concentrate on getting better, okay?”

“Only if you promise to wait this out. Not to go off and do something rash.”

I figured middle-of-the-night graveyard rituals might be misconstrued as rash, so I decided to keep last night’s excursion to myself for the time being.

“I’ll be careful if you are.”
I can be careful while figuring out what’s going on
.

“Deal.” Zach stuck out his hand, and I shook it, feeling only a little guilty.

I had to figure this out—for Zach, for Brody, for Mr. Carr. I couldn’t stand by and let someone else get hurt.

“Sorry, sweetie, but I’m going to have to kick you out now.” The nurse was back, holding a small clear cup with several pills in it.

“I’ll come by after school today.” I bent down to kiss Zach on the forehead again, but he pulled me toward him, to meet his lips. I sank into his soft kiss until the throat clearing of the nurse behind me broke through my Zach-induced haze.

“Sorry.” I couldn’t keep from smiling as the nurse slid the door closed behind me. Zach was going to be fine. I would make sure of it.

Breakfast was less quiet than it had been the last few days, but Brody still didn’t say much. And I couldn’t think about anything but Zach being in the hospital. I wondered if Brody had heard about Zach already, if that was part of the reason he looked so tired and drawn.

Before the first bell, a woman’s voice came over the cafeteria’s loudspeaker to announce that there would be an assembly in the chapel when the day students arrived. Several people cheered when she added that our first-period classes would be canceled again today. Brody and I were the only ones who seemed unexcited by the news.

“I wanted to talk to you, if that’s cool,” Brody told me as everyone dispersed.

“Sure.” This came as a surprise, being that he was especially reticent today.

“Mr. Redford called me super early this morning to tell me about Zach. And when I went to visit, Zach said that you didn’t believe Mr. Carr had an aneurysm either.”

“Did he tell you about the handprints?” I had a million questions, but first I needed to find out what all Brody knew.

“Zach told me about that the day we went skating.” Brody scraped his fork along his plate like a rake, eliciting a low metallic screech. “He also gave me his song and dance about it being self-inflicted.” Brody dropped the fork, and it clattered loudly against the ceramic dish. “Mr. Carr had been acting strange ever since this school year started.”

“What was he doing?” I leaned in closer.

“He was acting paranoid and suspicious all the time.” Brody lowered his voice. “He even claimed that someone broke into the house.”

“What did they steal?” I thought about the file back in my room. Maybe I wasn’t the only person who wanted it.

“That was what was so weird: he said they’d left something in the house. Nothing was missing at all. No locks or windows were broken.”

“So what did they leave?” I was pretty sure Mrs. Carr had bitched about Mystery Man dropping something upstairs.

“I think it was a necklace or a bracelet. I don’t know; he found some woman’s jewelry, and Mrs. Carr claimed it wasn’t hers.” Brody sounded like he trusted Mrs. Carr about as much as I did.

“But you don’t believe that?” I supplied.

“Truth?”

I nodded yes.

“I think Mrs. Carr is having an affair,” Brody clarified. “I think it was a present from some other guy.”

I had to spill about my spying. I tried to think of an easy way to tell him, but there was no good lead-in for this. “I sort of broke into your house when you were at the skate park with Zach.”

“Are you trying to say it was your jewelry? ’Cause that was a while ago.” Brody was oddly unperturbed by my confession.

“No.” I shook my head. Though I did wonder if it was somehow my bracelet. I couldn’t imagine why Mystery Man would have had it, but Mr. Carr must have found it somewhere.

“Actually, Mr. Carr called my cell phone the night of the dance. He asked me to meet him outside—that’s when I found him.” The look on Brody’s face made my chest hurt.

“Don’t worry about me,” he said, seeing my hesitation. “I have Zach for that.”

“Okay.” I agreed. “Anyway, I needed to figure out why he called me, and since I knew everyone was going to be out of the house that day, I went to see what I could find.”

“I can’t say I’ve never done any breaking and entering.” Brody shrugged.

I would have to remember to ask about this some other time
. “So I ended up in Mr. Carr’s study, and there was a file in his desk about the Banished. And on one of the pages, Mr. Carr had scribbled my name down. Then yesterday when I showed Zach the file, it spooked him, and he volunteered to search his mom’s office for more information about the Banished and Damon Gates.”

“Good old Damon Gates.” Brody smirked. “The BVs’ version of Satan. He’ll make your brain drip out of your ears if you’re not careful. The Council’s big on scare tactics.”

“Since we’re on the subject—” Maybe Brody could help me get this Council stuff straight. “Obviously the Council enforces the Code of Ethics and keeps an eye on the BVs.” I thought of the
spy-type pictures they’d had of the Banished. “But what happens if someone breaks a rule?”

“Let me give you a little background,” Brody said. “The Council is a group of twelve BVs who run for election every ten years. They’re judge and executioner. But in addition to them, the Council selects a board—which Mr. Carr was on—that takes care of misdemeanor charges and keeps track of BVs who are on probation. The Board also acts as a jury for people being brought up on grievous offenses. They hear the facts and can give input, but the Council is the final word.”

It didn’t sound totally fair, but keeping a secret governing body a secret was probably hard enough without attempting to have full-scale trials.

“So what kind of punishments do they give?” I pressed.

“Like I said, most of the stuff is misdemeanors, and you’re put on probation for a while.”

I didn’t find it too surprising that he knew about the court system.

“Supposedly, if you do something really awful, they operate on your brain.” Brody went on, “Like a lobotomy for our powers. But I doubt it’s true. Just another horror story to keep the BVs in line.”

“I saw something in the Council’s files today that certainly scared me.” I pulled the ID bracelet out of my purse for the second time this morning. “There was a picture of a bracelet in the folder, and even though it was a different style it had this same infinity symbol on it. The file said the bracelets were ionized and
then the Banished used them on”—I thought back to exactly how it had been worded—“victims of energy consumption.”

“Exclusive Donors.” Brody frowned. “That’s a major Damon Gates rumor. Back in the 1700s, it was accepted, like indentured servitude, but by the time the Council wrote the Canon of Ethics, it had been outlawed.”

Now, that’s something I wouldn’t have expected Brody to know
. “Anyway, these BVs in the sixties took it up again. They’d latch onto people and use them over and over, and they called them Exclusive Donors. I think the bracelets helped to keep them from poaching on one another’s EDs. But ionized metal also makes it easier to transfer our energy to stuff, and I guess it probably works the other way, too, if you’re trying to absorb energy.”