Shielded: A Valkyrie Saga Book 1

Gifts - Chapter 5

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 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 auto pilot, 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.