Starbright (The Starbright Series) (46 page)

Chapter
Nine
teen

             
Today was officially Valentine’s Day. It felt weird falling on a Thursday, especially when the dance wasn’t until tomorrow night. I had so far avoided Tristan and Seth today
, save for the carpool to school this morning, but that was
always
awkward and silent
. Not that I was expecting
a gift
from either of them and I actually said a million prayers over the last week that neither one would attempt some kind of holiday-induced declaration of love or anything like that.

             
Not that either one were in love with me.

             
But things had gotten so awkward and tense between our group with both of them constantly facing off in their battle of testosterone fueled male dominance that I was terrified an explosion was just around the corner. And I prayed it wouldn’t happen on or near this weekend while everyone else celebrated love.

             
I took a big breath an
d sat down at the lunch table. I
tried to shake off the knowledge that there were three very brave and careless Shadows lurking in the corners of the cafeteria
. I ignored completely the fact
that a greater evil presence existed close by
, or at least I had the feeling that one was close by
. Seth seemed unphased
though
and I was convinced this was just a residual effect from the more obvious evil presence in the lunch room.

             
Or I was trying to convince myself that.

             
Seth sat next to me like usual and when I set my tray down on the table, his arm went immediately to my lower back in a gesture I was completely comfortable with. Tristan stiffened across the table and gave Seth
a deathly
stare down.

             
Here we go.

             
“Oh you guys are so cute!” Piper
gushed, giving Tristan a
pointed
look of her own before turning to us with a sweet smile.

             
I shrugged out of Seth’s arm casually feeling uncomfortable that Piper was referring to us like we were a couple. We weren’t.

             
Not yet anyway.

             
“Thanks Piper,” Seth replied
sweetly
. At least he enjoyed her excitement. “I think we’re pretty cute too.” He smiled down at me, his grin stretching across his face and revealing his perfectly white, perfectly straight teeth.

             
I smiled back, but shifted uncomfortably with his eyes so intensely on mine. Things had been fine after our one disagreement and relatively back to normal. But Seth had been right, we had taken a step forward the night he kissed me and then after Tristan had spent the night it felt like we took five giant steps back.

             
I knew it wasn’t because of anything Seth had done, or for lack of effort on his part. It was me. It was
all
me. But I wasn’t ready for Seth ye
t; a
nd so we kept our relationship in the strange limbo that was somewhere between friendship, partnership and a future marriage together.

             
Yikes.

             
“Big plans for tonight Lincoln?” Seth engaged, giving him a
n encouraging grin, his eyes dancing with mischief
.

             
Lincoln cleared his throat from across the table before answering, “Uh, yeah, I have some things in the works….” he gave Piper a quick glance from under his lashes and his perfect complexion heated. He really did have perfect skin.
It didn’t seem fair.

             
“Oh really, like what?” Piper challenged. She brushed her too long, severely stra
ight bangs out of her eyes,
and gave him what could only be described as “bedroom eyes.”

             
“You’ll see,” Lincoln smiled and then looked down at his lunch bashfully.

             
“I can’t watch this,” Rigley muttered, slapping Lincoln in the back roughly.

             
“Watch what?” Piper demanded, her loving gaze turning to steely daggers, daring Rigley to keep talking.
             

             
“Watch my man become a whipped little puppy,” Rigley argued exasperatedly as if the answer was obvious.

             
“Rigley, don’t even start-“ Piper screeched until Lincoln reached across the table and put his hand on hers. He shook his head once, his blonde surfer hair flopping into his eyes.

             
“He’s not worth it, Pi,” he said sweetly. “Besides Rigs is jealous. The only woman that’s ever
been able to tolerate
him is his mom and even she’s not completely convinced yet.”

             
“So true,” Rigley laughed, pushing Lincoln’s head away from him.

             
“Do you have plans for tonight, Stel?” Tristan suddenly broke his lunchtime vow of silence
. He stared across the table at me, his expression so hopeful it took me a moment to remember how to swallow
.

             
“Uh, why?” I asked, ignoring the way Seth’s body tensed next to mine.

             
“I thought you could come over tonight. Trader and Trenton are coming home for the weekend and mom is making a big
meal tonight. Thought you might want to see them. Plus Truman’s been asking about you lately.”

             
Geez Tristan, way to lay on the guilt…. I shifted uncomfortably on the bench. 

             
“Who’s Truman?” Seth asked, giving me time to think things through before I answered Tristan.

             
“Um, Truman is Tristan’s little sister. We usually spend more time together but I’
ve been so busy lately that I haven’t seen her since Christmas break,
” I explained, feeling a stab of guilt in my gut.

             
“Stella’s pretty much her favorite person, they’re like sisters,” Tristan cut in only his explanation sounded more like a threat.

             
“Since she doesn’t have any,” I went on. “Uh, sisters that is.
  And neither do I.
”

             
“So the other guys?” Seth asked, his eyes cutting across the table to Tristan.

             
“They’re Tristan’s older brothers. But don’t they have big dates or something for tonight?” I looked at Tristan who was purposefully keeping his eyes locked on me.

             
“That’s why they’re coming home,” Tristan laughed. “They’re trying to avoid Valentine’s drama.”

             
“Me too….” I mumbled low enough that not even Seth heard me.

             
I had been watching the three scattered Shadows out of my peripheral. Bree butted in the conversation, gushing about how hot Tristan’s brothers were and I took the opportunity to take stock of the room. The number of Shadows had grown immensely;
the high corners of every
wall seemed covered in them as they whipped their slender bodies back and forth. I sucked in a gasp, and tried not to
burst into a glow light right here. Students around the
cafeteria
started to notice them and a prickling, nervous sensation washed over my body. This was not going to end well.

             
“You’re just as close with Tristan’s brothers, I take it?” Seth asked dryly, his eyes flickering to the wall
s
of Shadows, widening in surprise and then landing back on me. He acknowledged the evil presence, but was still waiting for an answer from me.

             
“
Uh yes,” I couldn’t help but fidget nervously.

             
“She’s basically part of our family, my parents love her,” Tristan declared loudly. I shrunk down, hating that something that was true made me feel so uncomfortable. Or maybe it was just
everybody’s
eyes on me, like me being close with Tristan’s family was a betrayal to Seth, or that me being close w
ith
Seth was making me unfaithful to Tristan.

             
“So then if you guys ever dated it would be like incest, right?” Piper asked with feigned innocence. I wished I could laugh at her cleverness, even if it was the wrong thing to say, my friend Piper was funny.

             
“Cassidy, I don’t have the patience right now,” Tristan warned, using her last name like he was talking to one of his teammates when they were losing. “What do you say, Stel? Want to join me for dinner?” Tristan turned back to me, re-including me in the conversation. I swallowed around the
nervous lump in my stomach and twirled the end of my hair just to give my hands something to do. Tristan’s eyes bore in to mine, their color sparking to life as he waited for my answer. There was something intimate in his gaze, something beyond this power play game h
e
and Seth were playing. He was asking more of me than dinner, I just wasn’t sure what yet.

             
“Um, my grandpa had that thing tonight, though,” Seth reminded me softly of the training that was planned for
after dinner, just like every other night. I turned to meet his eyes
, realizing he wasn’t even being possessive, he was reminding me in the sweet Seth way that only he was capable of. He was still giving me a choice, but reminding me of my responsibilities.

             
“Uh….” I stammered, feeling like my heart was being pulled in two very different directions.
The smell of sulfur drifted through the air, distracting me for a minute and grabbing the attention of our table. Finally. Everyone started looking around, finding the Shadows that clustered together like black beehives.

             
“I say you blow both these clowns off and come out with me, Stella. I won’t even pretend like my family wants to have dinner with you
.
You and I can
actually
celebrate
Valentine’s Day,” Rigley declared, making the act of celebrating sound very, very dirty. I burst into laughter as he ran a hand
through
his
mop of hair
seductively and waggled his eyebrows at me.

             
For the first time in my life I was willing to take Rigley up on his not so serious offer. And then the spiritual world I had access to collided with the physical world I lived in as the Shadows erupted from the wall
s
they congregated on, screeching and hollering violently.
There was no more ignoring them, since they made their presence so clearly known
. They swirled around
the room
like they were trying to start a tornado, dipping in between the students who
covered their head
s
with their hands and then ran from the room
.
This wouldn’t make sense to anyone paying
close
attention, but knowing the human condition was prone to denial and the fact that Shadows could be logically, or at least reasonably explained away as a freak infestation of bats, I put my faith in that explanation
and faced my nightmare come to life
.

             
The acrid scent of rotting eggs and death wafted through the air and I felt the familiar rush of nausea from the unearthly scent that grated against my nostrils.
Students throughout the cafeteria couldn’t ignore the awful aroma anymore
and covered their faces as they fled from the cafeteria
.
I looked to Seth
whose
ferocious gaze confirmed my suspicions
that
th
is was unprecedented and dangerous. We joined the stampede of students and teachers fleeing the cafeteria and met back up with everyone outside the school. Someone had set off the fire alarms inside and the loud sirens rivaled the still shrieking shadows for which one would blow out my oversensitive ear drums.

             
Outside the dark grey sky was spitting sleet. Lightning flashed on the horizon and a chil
l
washed over my body. In the long, desolate winters of Nebraska, it wasn’t completely uncommon for there to be lightning in the middle of a snowstorm, but this was the work of a supernatural presence and had nothing to do with the extreme weather of the Midwest. The clouds grew visibly darker overhead and I felt more than anything that whatever was still inside the school was waiting for me.

             
Sirens could be heard in the distance. I didn’t have much time to draw the Shadows out of the building before humans would have to face them.