Shadow Walker (Neteru Academy Books) Read Free

standing there, his face getting a little red, eyes slowly turning silver, and fangs lowering, which happened whenever he got annoyed—tonight he sounded way more than annoyed.
    “And what?” her father finally said. “I’m not ready to have my only baby girl and my only son snatched down a damned demon hole!” His voice was rising again. “Is that wrong? Am I out of line for feeling parental concern?”
    Sarah nearly gasped aloud when the strong surge of her father’s anger, frustration and, to a lesser degree, his fear pulsed through her. All of a sudden her mind’s eye snapped completely open in a way it never had before. Suddenly she could see the inside of the war room. She and Al must have gotten in sync and now were concentrating together so hard that their powers had combined to show them what was going on beyond the wall. Never in her life had a vision exploded inside her head like this one did.
    Her father was walking in a tight circle, gathering ammunition, picking up shells and a shotgun, as well as stuffing his vest with grenades. Her mother was at the door, arms folded, blocking his exit. They weren’t breaking up. They were having a standoff. But it was clear that he was going demon hunting tonight no matter what her mother said to him.
    Her father was in rare form. Tall, muscular, caramel colored, with short dark hair and dark eyes that were flashing fire. Although they were arguing, she could see the look of appreciation in her mother’s expression as she watched him pace angrily around the room. But her dad was no pretty boy, handsome as he was. Beneath his normal city street charm as her uncles called it, there was no mistaking that demon-killer instinct lurking just beneath his surface. Something had detonated that in him tonight. She just wished she knew what it was. Bodies were missing? Whose? What had grabbed them? No wonder he was flipping out. Plus, the reminder about her own and her brother’s destiny to fight evil made her weak in the knees. She didn’t want to be a demon hunter! Not now, not ever.
    Her dad was a warrior, merciless when protecting his own. Vampires were, by nature and reputation, ruthless—and her dad used to be a vamp before he went into the Light. That was no secret. Everybody in the family knew it, all the other Guardians knew it, and it was the thing that gave him a little extra street cred when he told people he had a bad feeling about something. She just wondered why her mom wasn’t listening to him about something as important as this.
    Puzzled, her palms moist against the wall, Sarah strained harder to hear. It just didn’t make sense. If her dad wanted to defend them all against something terrible, then what was her mom’s problem? Legend had it that her dad had taken the word
ruthless
to a whole new level while in the Dark Realms. She’d seen the vamp trait of being ice cold when it came to revenge in both Al and Tami, but the ruthless gene seemed to have skipped her entirely. Sarah let out a soft sigh. She definitely took after her mother and was more prone to diplomacy rather than brute force.
    Well, at least Dad hadn’t totally dropped fangs yet, she thought. Even though her Mom had told her long ago that, technically he wasn’t a Vampire any longer, at least not since he’d been pardoned by the Light, some things were still fused in his DNA. His fangs were one of those leftover things from his past, like his temper. When her father’s fangs started showing at full length, it was a sure sign he was about to blow.
    “Then let’s do a sweep, me and you—as Neterus,” her mother finally said, tucking a Glock nine-millimeter in the waistband of her fatigues. “If we can shut down any demon portals that have opened up near the school, then they go. But we cannot home-school these kids forever until all evil in the world is vanquished. That just isn’t a part of their destiny.”
    Sarah and Al glanced at each other once again. They had long gotten