Chapter 1 Center Scare
Nova Nowak was sitting at the Mall’s food court with Takeesha Franklin, finishing an Orange Julius, and talking about a boy they had seen earlier. Nova was enjoying a day off for Thanksgiving with her best friend, even though her back was a little sore from when her sister kicked her out of bed—literally. Wilha was a twitchy sleeper, especially when she stayed up reading a horror story.
You’d think that curling up on the floor wouldn’t bother her too much. After all, her father slept in a literal cave with a rock as his pillow. But then the cave was in a slightly different dimension, and he was a pure Neanderthal.
A blood-curdling scream echoed down the corridor behind them.
“Holy Chaos! What the heck was that?”
Nova jumped up from her seat at the cafeteria table. Takeesha twisted around and seemed about to say something. Before Takeesha could respond, another scream echoed around them. Two armed security guards ran toward the screaming, their shoes slapping the red tile floor. A couple of the customers chased after them.
Takeesha, eyes wide, whispered, “What do you think those screams mean?”
“Who knows. Maybe some dude got outa line with his lady?” That wasn’t really what it sounded like, but why upset her friend with possible lousy news?
Takeesha hunched down in the chair and used one long, green fingernail to scratch between her cornrows.
Around them, the holiday crowd went about their business.
Nova finished her hamburger in two large bites. She wanted to see if anyone had died. She shoved her auburn hair off her subtle brow ridge, “Okay, Seems like the scary part’s over. Let’s go check it out.” The girls tossed their trays in the “used” bin. Shakes in hand, they ran toward the source of the scream.
Crowds had gathered around an area down a little-used side corridor. Nova and Takeesha pushed through and stared open-mouthed.
Security guards huddled over a woman’s body on the floor. She was lying on her side, so it was a little hard to see. But her skin looked … bright pink. Two more security guards pushed Nova, Takeesha, and the rest of the onlookers back. “Nothing to see here,” one of them said. ”The police will be here soon. Stay back!”
“What happened?” Nova asked. A security guard ran “KEEP OUT” tape before the two girls.
“It’s a police matter now. Please stand back.”
But something about the body- maybe it was the color-told her that it isn’t just a police matter. It could be a matter for The Shade Riders, too. It just felt like something cross-dimensional was going on.
Nova looked at the crowd. A lot of people milled about. Then something caught her eye. Something moved in the window glass of the In the Box store. There was something in the reflection that wasn’t there in real life. A man in a black fedora and trench coat.
He smiled at her. Did she see fangs?
Nova’s hackles rose. The man quickly frowned, hiding his teeth. Nova grabbed Takeesha’s arm. “Did you see the vampire? Look.” She pointed at the image of the strange man in the window.
Takeesha was shaking like a leaf. “What? Where?”
Nova checked the crowd just to make sure. The vampire was nowhere to be seen. Then why was there a reflection of the vampire on the glass? Wasn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Wasn’t the vampire seen in real life but not in a reflection, like in all the stories?
A tall, athletic cop arrived on the scene. “Get these people out of here. This is now a crime scene.”
Before They were herded out, Nova pointed and whispered to Takeesha, “Look at that! There’s blood on the victim’s neck.”
Takeesha backed away. “Let’s just go. I don’t feel so good.”
Two paramedics arrived and rolled the woman onto her back. Her entire face was bright pink! This was definitely something the Shade Riders needed to look at.
As they zipped her into a black bag and lifted her body aboard the gurney, Nova asked the security guard, “What killed her?”
“I’m sure you’ll read about it all in the papers. Run along now. There’s nothing to see.” Yet the security guard looked pale and upset. Nova didn’t want to read about it in the newspapers like she was anybody. She and her friends had dealt with things like this before, and she wanted to help.
“Move along folks.” The rest of the security guards herded them out of the area.
Back at the food court, Takeesha hunched over her fresh soda, “Hey girlfriend, remember that video we watched about criminals hanging around crime scenes?”
“Yeah, like that vampire.”
“Girl, you’ve got monsters on the brain. I swear, I didn’t see anything in that window reflection. It probably wasn’t what you thought it was.”
“You want to bet on that?”
“Takeesha shivered. “Let’s go home. This scene is really freaking me out.”
Nova stood and picked up her trash. Then she froze. “There he is again.” She pointed at the reflection of the man in black in the window behind her. “I’m not letting him get away.”
Takeesha spun around. “Nova, I swear, there’s no one there.”
But Nova wasn’t surprised she couldn’t see him. Nova’s Neanderthal heritage gave her easier access to magic than her friends’, and this had to be magic at work.
She inched closer to the image. How did you attack a reflection?
What would Leandra, her mentor, do? Too bad the communication watch that Leandra gave her was destroyed a couple of weeks ago when the werewolves came to Bardsville. Takeesha grabbed her shirt, “I see him now, too. Holy chaos.”
“Takeesha, I’m sure that’s the guy.”
“The guy who already killed someone you mean?” Takeesha whispered. “Are you trying to get killed? Leave him alone.”
“Are you kidding? I want to kick his butt.”
“Well, what are you going to do? Whip a table through the window? Shoot it with your laser eyes? Nova, just do as I say. Please?”
Nova glared at the man. He was looking at her, and she would swear he was smirking. “No way!”
Takeesha rocked from heel to toe.
Nova turned toward her. “We can’t let him kill again.” Nova turned back. He had vanished again. “Where’d he go?”
“He disappeared,” Takeesha said. “And that’s fine. Come on, Let’s go.”
“You have to tell me which way he went.” Nova bounced on her toes, ready to fly off in pursuit.
“How should I know? He just…one second he was there and the next he wasn’t. Can’t we call Leandra?”
“No, I lost my communication watch remember? This is so messed up,” Nova scowled. “Okay let’s go to Benny’s house. Hopefully Max Kim will be there.”
“Fine,” Takeesha said. But I have to call my Ma first. She likes to know where I’m going, you know?”
Outside, a chill wind buffeted their blue jeans and hoodies. Fall leaves—orange, red, and yellow—swirled around them. Nova scanned the skies for a rainbow portal—a nine-color entrance into the Ordin world where monsters and Neanderthals live. Nope, there wasn’t one. So where did the vampire disappear, then?”
They hopped on their bikes and started pedaling. The pay phone they needed was near the post office.
“I wish we still had cell phones,” Nova had heard her mother’s stories of the twenties, almost a decade before she was born when anyone could call anyone from anywhere. Before the portals from Ordin began to open up.
“They just angered the monsters,” Takeesha said. “Something about the microwaves, Benny said. I just think the monsters hate any science. They’ll probably catch up to Benny’s inventions soon.”
“Yeah, you might be right.”
“Besides the watch idea is better. We can hide it under a sleeve. Ask Leandra if she knows where we can all get phone watches.”
“Well, you can hide a cell phone in your pocket. Too bad the market collapsed when the monsters started to attack cell towers. Then individual satellite phones. And sorry, Takeesha, you won’t be safe with a watch phone either. At least I can kick the monster’s butt.” And speaking of monsters, what do you think about the vampire teeth marks on the dead lady’s neck?”
“Nova, you have monsters on the brain. Couldn’t it just be a stab wound? Or just a normal bite?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Nova slumped against her bike. Still, did you see the cupping and acupuncture clinic over there?”
“Oh yeah,” Takeesha nodded.“The guy’s name is Bruce Poke, right?” They both giggled.
Takeesha entered the booth, grabbed the phone, put in a fifty-cent piece, and dialed. Nova parked her blue bike against the phone booth next to Takeesha’s green one.
“Hello Ma? We want to go to Benny’s house. Is that okay?”
Yelling from Takesha’s mother could be heard. Takeesha held the phone away from her ear for a second.
“Yeah, okay, but Ma—.”
More yelling.
“Okay, bye.”
Nova smiled. “So, she’s good with it?”
Takeesha laughed. “I need to come home, now!”
“Why? There isn’t something wrong, is there?”
“I don’t think so, but I don’t know,” Takeesha said. “She didn’t say.”
Nova called her Mom and received the same response. She hung up and turned to Takeesha.
“Let’s just go to Benny’s real quick, okay?”
“Okay.”
Chapter 2 Benny and Max Kim
When Nova and Takeesha arrived, Benny and Max Kim raced two bike-sized hovercrafts around Benny’s yard. Benny was in his usual gray sweats, but Max Kim was in all black—befitting someone who wanted to be a great magician someday. The hovercraft, apparently something Max Kim had been working on, had wide, billowing skirts underneath that looked like they were made out of old blue tarps. They were leaf blower-loud, but they looked like a lot of fun.
“Wow,” Takeesha said, “I hope Benny doesn’t get harassed.” She paused as the hovercraft buzzed past them, wobbling on another lap. “—by the Neanderthal’s monsters.”
“I don’t think he worries. We’ve tackled these guys before.”
Benny and Max Kim buzzed over and stopped the craft floating noisily above the ground.
. “Hey, guys,” Nova yelled. She couldn’t wait to tell them. “Some woman had her throat bit at the mall. We saw the vampire who did it.”
Takeesha rolled her eyes. “We didn’t see him do it. You know Nova always exaggerates.”
“Not!”
“So, what happened?” Max Kim rubbed his hands together.
Benny shut his hovercraft off, let it settle to the ground next to his wheelchair, then levered himself into the chair and spun to face them. “Yeah, don’t spare the gory details.”
“The goriest?” Nova said. “The woman had a pink face after she died.”
“Okay, she had a pink face and blood on her neck and was dead.” Benny nodded. “Takeesha has a point. That doesn’t add up to vampires. And it may not mean anything substantial unless we see the same thing in others that have been stabbed. Bit. Whatever. It might be a clue, or it might not.”
“Fine.” If they didn’t want to believe her about the vampire, she couldn’t make them. She climbed onto Benny’s hovercraft. The controls looked like the ATV she sometimes used on the farm. She kicked the motor to life and took hold of the handlebars. The hovercraft began to spin around and around. “How do you stop it? Whoa!”
“What were the clutch and brake levers are the steering,” Benny yelled. “Squeeze the left-“
Nova squeezed the lever on the left-hand grip. The craft straightened out and roared across the backyard, laying the grass flat. She let go of the leer and squeezed the other one. She spun around and headed for the house.
Holy chaos, she was going to die on this thing.
She squeezed both levers, but that did nothing. She dove off seconds before the hovercraft rammed into the house.
Nova bounced to her feet and brushed herself off. One advantage of having a Neanderthal dad was that her bones were heavier than usual and hard to break. She got back on the craft, started up, found the throttle, turned it down, and drove slowly back over to the guys.
Max Kim said, “What did the guy look like? Sharp teeth? Nova nodded. “Definitely sharp teeth. He wore a black trench coat and fedora hat and kept smiling at people’s shocked reactions,” She landed the craft and jumped off. “I saw fangs in one of those smiles, for sure.”
“But we only saw him in the cafeteria reflected in glass,” Takeesha said. “not attacking the woman.”
Benny was looking over the craft, checking for damage. He straightened up. “Are these monsters ever going to stop coming to our dimension?”
Finally, someone believed it was a monster. Good.
“Not as long as there are evil Neanderthals and stubborn people like us using science,” Nova grabbed Max Kim’s hovercraft seat–she wasn’t sure Benny would trust her with his. “Let me have it. Pleeeeasse. Max Kim. I know where the throttle is now. Besides I’ve got to go home soon. Then you can have it back.”
Max Kim let go. “Fine.”
Nova blew him a kiss. “Muah.”
Max Kim actually blushed.
“Even if we all stopped using science, the Neanderthals would still find something to complain about, Nova,” Benny said. “So, we just use machines as little as possible and hope we don’t get harassed or attacked.”
Max Kim sat at the picnic table and practiced with a deck of cards. He called Takeesha over and said something to her. Nova watched, the hover-craft forgotten. She wished she could hear him over the hovercraft.
Takeesha came over and sat on the bench.
Max Kim spread the cards on the table. Then he told Takeesha something. Max Kim shuffled the cards and then fanned them back across the table.
The card Takeesha put into the deck was facing up.
Max Kim said something else, and Takeesha looked surprised. Max Kim had a canary-eating grin, and he shrugged.
Benny shut off his craft and told Nova to do the same.
“Well, Shade Riders,” Benny said. “ Before you go, I’ve got some news. I’m gonna learn to walk soon.”
“What? Really,” Nova said. “How?”
“It’s called the Parastep device. I’ll be wearing an EKG cap and motorized braces on my legs.”
“ EKG? What’s that?” Takeesha asked.
“It’s a thing that reads your brain waves. The idea is to train another part of my brain to tell my legs to move. When the braces are finally removed, I will remember how to walk again.”
“Wow,” Nova said. “That’s amazing.”
“Yeah.” Benny glanced at Nova and blushed.
Nova also turned red. She kicked a stone.
“Want to watch a movie?” Benny asked.
“Sure,” Nova said.
Suddenly, Benny’s Mom yelled out the door. “You girls need to go home. Like now. Your Mom’s called.”
“Uh oh, sounds like something’s up,” Benny said.
“Yeah,” Nova had forgotten entirely she would only stay here a minute.
“Bye, guys,” Takeesha said.
Both girls returned on their bikes and took off heading home.
“How did our moms know we were at Benny’s house?” Takeesha said as they pedaled.
“We must be predictable.”
“We’re also in trouble. I hope I’m not grounded.”
“Me too.”
Takeesha’s house was the first one they came to. She went down the driveway and waved.
Nova finally reached her house and coasted down the driveway. She found her Mom in the milk house/ puppy nursery. The puppies were in an exercise pen in the front, catching the sun’s rays. If they wanted, they could go under a shelter for shade.
“Mom, I’m sorry I’m late. What did you want?”
“Oh nothing important, I just wanted you home to do your chores.”
But Nova remembered her Mom yelling at her on the phone. There was something more going on here.
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