Shadow Hills (24 page)

“Do you want me to get it for you?” Zach pulled the ringing phone out of his pocket and checked the caller ID.

“It’s Corinne.” He sighed in annoyance. “I better answer, or she’ll keep calling.”

“Why don’t you talk to her, and I’ll get my stuff?” I said. “Be back in a second.”

“Okay.” Zach flipped open the phone as I stepped back into the building.

I hadn’t noticed how dim the lighting in the corridor was earlier, but now that I was alone it was eerie. I hurried to the
darkroom and pulled open the door. My purse was on the far counter. I took two steps toward it when the red safelight blinked, then went out.

I froze. It was utterly dark—no windows, no light seeping in around the door. My heart thudded against my ribs. I felt my way toward the door, bumping my hip bone on the corner of the metal worktable. I was going to have a bruise tomorrow, but at least now I had an idea of where I was. Sweeping my hand back and forth in front of me, I crept slowly forward. In the total blackness, the tiny room suddenly seemed enormous.

Finally, my hand hit the edge of another counter. Gratefully, I gripped it and moved up close, sliding down the counter until it ended. I reached out, groping for the light switch. I turned on the ceiling light, and it flickered and sputtered in crazy bursts of brightness. The loud humming and popping sounds it was making were not helping my nerves, but at least I was able to see the door. I reached for the doorknob.

Something crashed at the far end of the hall, and I jumped, all my nerves sizzling. It was the heavy outside door, I realized. Just Zach coming back to see what was taking me so long. But that didn’t make sense. I had left Zach standing outside the front door. This sound had come from someone slamming through the back exit.

I went still. A door opened at the end of the hall, then closed. Another door opened. Someone was walking down the hallway, looking into every room.

Stop the paranoia
. So someone else had come into the building. It was a public place.

I forced myself to reach for the doorknob again. Cracking open the door, I peered out. The lights in the hall were flickering wildly, too, creating a strobelike effect. I eased open the door and, taking a deep breath, stepped out into the hall. I turned my head toward the far end of the corridor, and at that moment, a dark figure emerged from one of the rooms.

“Zach?” My voice was small and strangled. I could barely get the words past my closed-up throat. It felt like I was choking.

The shadowy form took a step toward me, and every light in the building went out.

I was plunged into complete darkness.

As my eyes adjusted to the blackness I realized there was dim light coming in the windows on the entrance doors. The dark figure stalked toward me.
This definitely isn’t Zach
. Terror bubbled up inside my chest as the slow, deliberate footsteps echoed in the empty corridor. My body flooded with adrenaline, the liquid fear pumping through my veins. I whirled and ran toward the entrance.

Zach was right outside the front doors. I could see his silhouette through the small windows. As I got closer I could tell he had his back to the entrance.
I have to get his attention
. But I had a feeling the heavy metal double doors hindered sound. Then again, Zach did have the extraordinary BV hearing.

That’s when I saw them, bright white against the charcoal gray of his jacket. Two ear buds lying on either side of his neck.
Great
. Zach’s love of music was less than endearing right now.

“Zach!” I had to try, just in case, but as I suspected, he remained motionless. He couldn’t hear me.
If only I could get closer …

I was less than six feet away from the door when the dark
figure tore past me. He whirled to face me, blocking the entrance. Instinctively, I took a step back. Suddenly, I was aware of a sickly sweet vanilla aroma. It was emanating from the menacing figure. I was already nauseous with fright, and the odor made me want to gag. The man tilted his head to the side, inspecting me, like I had seen Ariel’s dog do once when it encountered a frog—right before it squished it. The shadowy silhouette was waiting, calculating, before making the next move.
I can run around him. Even if I can’t reach the door, I might be able to make enough noise to alert Zach
. Just as I thought this, the figure put his shoulder to the side of the soda machine that stood next to the entrance. With one swift push, he tipped it over, and it came crashing down in front of the doors, blocking my escape.

I spun around to run to the back exit, but again the shadow was already in my path. His eyes glittered in the darkness. I darted across the hall to the classroom opposite me. Any of the darkrooms would be a trap; none of them had windows. But the classrooms did, and I could lock the door and crawl out a window to get away.

I grabbed the doorknob and twisted. It was locked.
Shit!
I wasted precious seconds rattling the knob, then turned and ran back to the front entrance.

“Zach!” My heartbeat pounded in my ears.

The figure behind me stopped, and I seized the chance to scramble up onto the overturned soda machine. I pushed as hard as I could on the doors but it did no good. They opened the other way. I beat on the doors, yelling Zach’s name.

Zach whipped around, startled. He immediately recognized the terror in my eyes.

“Phe! What’s going on?” The doors rattled as he pushed futilely. I looked behind me. The shadow was still standing in the middle of the hallway, poised and unmoving.
Waiting to see if Zach can manage to get the door open
. If Zach couldn’t, he would know that he had me trapped.

Zach pushed against the blocked doors, straining with the effort. They didn’t budge.

“Phe, stand back!” he yelled, his eyes fierce.

I hopped off the soda machine, moving as far to the side as I could, and pressed my back against the wall, wishing I could shrink into it.

Zach shoved with all his strength. The door didn’t move an inch. He pulled back, then ran at it like somebody in a movie, slamming into it with his full weight. The sound reverberated through the building, like a crack of thunder, but still the doors didn’t move. The soda machine was too heavy.

“Shit!” Zach slammed his palms against the doors.

The figure started toward me again, slow and deliberate.

“Zach?!” My voice rose.

“Phe, get back!” Zach’s voice was sharp. “You need to be farther away from the door!”

I forced myself to edge down the hall toward the intruder. I wished I’d grabbed my purse earlier so that I’d at least have my pepper spray.

I waited, expecting Zach to batter in the doors with something, or maybe break one of the windows. But Zach stood
completely still. Even from this distance, I could see the intense concentration in his eyes. He held up his hand, palm pointed at the doors. I stared. Down the hallway, the sound of the intruder’s footsteps halted, and I suspected that he was watching Zach, too.

The air around me felt strange, the hairs on my arms rising, like I was standing too close to a TV set. My skin prickled with goose bumps.

The soda machine flew away from the entrance and righted itself all in one swift movement—landing back in its original spot on the wall with a loud clatter. I jumped at the sound.
What the hell …?

The guy in the hallway turned and ran as Zach finally burst through the front doors. The intruder slammed out the back, and the lights flickered, then came on.

Zach pulled me close, wrapping one arm around my torso, the other arm enfolding me, protecting my neck and face. I nuzzled against his warm chest, the feel of his hand on my head calming me. I could hear his pulse hammering faster and harder than anyone’s heart should beat. He pulled away, holding my shoulders, inspecting me.

“Are you all right? Did he do anything to you?”

“No. I think he was afraid of you. As soon as you did …” Suddenly, I was shaking all over. “What did you do?”

“Are you sure you’re not hurt?” Zach ignored my question, brushing my hair away from my face, searching for bruises or bumps.

“I’m fine, I promise. Just freaked out.” I looked up into his worried face. “What the hell is going on?”

“I don’t know.” Zach glared down the corridor at the back door.

I knew he was thinking about going after the guy, and I grabbed his arm. “Please don’t. I don’t want to be by myself.”

Zach enveloped me in his arms again. “I won’t leave you.” He held me, his pulse gradually slowing. I relaxed, letting him support my weight as I tried to pull my scattered thoughts together. “What happened?” Zach asked after a moment.

I described it with as much detail as I could recall through my fear-addled memory. “He was so fast and strong. He was behind me, and then all of a sudden, he was at the front door, and he turned over the vending machine!” My voice was rising, and I forced myself to take a slow breath.

I leaned my head against Zach’s chest, and his steady heartbeat soothed me. We walked back to the darkroom, and I sat down on one of the stools with Zach across from me, still holding my hand.

“Who could that have been?”

Zach shook his head. “I have no idea.”

“How could anyone move that fast? Or turn over a soda machine?”

“I’ve heard of people tipping over soda machines. They may weigh a ton, but they’re top heavy.”

“Okay, but what about the lights?” My mind was racing, full of suspicion. “Why did the lights suddenly go out when he appeared? Why did they flicker like crazy first?” I looked straight into Zach’s eyes.

His eyebrows went up as he caught my implication. “You think it was a BV?”

“Who else do you know who can manipulate electricity like that?”

“I don’t know. But it couldn’t have been one of us,” he protested. “Why would a BV want to hurt you?”

I hesitated. “Maybe they don’t want to hurt me. Maybe they’re trying to scare me off because they don’t like me.”

“No offense, but most of the BVs don’t know who you are, much less know you well enough to decide they dislike you.”

That stung a little, but I had much bigger things to worry about than being popular.

“Really, who would hate you enough to go to the trouble of setting this whole thing up?” Zach asked.

“I can think of two people right off the top of my head. And you’re related to both of them.”

Zach considered this for a moment. “Trent’s an ass, and he might do something because he resents you, but he’s not a very big guy. And his upper-body strength is pathetic. I can’t see him being able to topple a several-hundred-pound machine under any circumstances.”

I mulled this idea over for a second. I’d barely been able to see the outline of the figure, but it did seem a bit bigger than Trent. Corinne was a different story, however. She was tall—and not willowy tall, but Amazon tall. Based on her build and personality, I figured she was also fast and strong.

And that strong vanilla scent
… It seemed unlikely for
a guy to be wearing such a syrupy cologne.

“Do you think it’s possible that it was Corinne? That she was playing a prank on me?” I hastened to add. I didn’t want to piss Zach off, but she did seem to be the most likely suspect.

“Corinne was on the phone with me just minutes before I heard you yelling. Besides, she may like to intimidate people, but she would never chase someone down and corner them.” Zach’s tone was more than a little defensive. “Especially not you—she knows I … she knows that I care about you.”

I didn’t want to tell him, but that was exactly why I thought it might have been her. The fact that Corinne didn’t want me around Zach was no secret, and I wasn’t sure how far she would go to keep us apart.

“We should tell someone,” Zach said. “The police or the administration.”

“What would we tell them? I can’t describe the person; it was too dark. And he didn’t actually
do
anything.” I couldn’t imagine the police would be much help.

“I guess I’ll hold off for now.” Zach frowned.

“So I think you have some explaining to do.” I crossed my arms and put on a stern look, but my tone was teasing. I did it partly to change the subject, but also because I wanted to know how the hell Zach had moved the soda machine.

He gave me a puzzled look.

“You know,” I prodded. “The whole ‘shoving a several-hundred-pound object just by looking at it’ thing? You never told me about that particular ability.”

“Oh.” My question seemed to throw Zach off balance.
“Yeah, well, I’ve always been able to do telekinesis stuff. When I was a kid, I’d move things without consciously meaning to. As I got older and gained more control, I stopped doing it. It made me feel like a freak.” He ran his thumbnail along the metal counter.

“I wasn’t actually sure I could still do the telekinesis,” he continued. “And I definitely didn’t know if I could move something that heavy. But when I saw you trapped behind those doors”—Zach’s jaw worked under his skin—“the look of fear on your face … I’ve never felt more anger in my life. Nothing else mattered except getting you safe. I think I could move a bus if I needed to get to you.”

“Zach …” I reached out and laid my hand over his. I didn’t know what I wanted to say. Emotions were bubbling up in me in a way that I couldn’t express.

He glanced up, and the look in his eyes took my breath away. “Everything’s so different with you. I feel things … do things I’ve never done. Never thought I could do.”

“Like that dream the other night?” I wanted desperately to know if my suspicions were right.

“Then you
did
dream it, too.” He let out a sharp breath. “I thought you had, the way you wouldn’t look at me at lunch on Monday.”

“Well, you’re the first person I’ve ever had invade my dreams. I’m still trying to adjust to it.”

“I swear I’ve never done it before, not until you came here,” he assured me. “I didn’t know I could.”

“I don’t understand. How is it even possible?”

“It has to do with the Akashic field.” Zach paused. “Do you know what that is?”