Dark Waters (Elemental Book 1) (8 page)

“That sounds suspicious.”

“It gets worse,” he said, sitting on the floor while
still reading. “He moved to the United States and married again. She became
pregnant almost immediately, but within two months, she committed suicide by
jumping off a building. Heinrich said it was the baby that made her do it; that
the dead were trying to get out by possessing her unborn baby, and the other
babies before that.”

“So he marries a woman, she gets pregnant, and then
she dies? Was he a wizard?”

“No, but if he was correct, he had to has some sort
of connection with the dead to know what he did. He wrote a book after this
about summoning and exorcising demonic spirits. His twelfth wife was apparently
the keeper. She gave birth to a boy and then a little girl a year later. By
then, Heinrich was obsessed with keeping them all safe and ‘clean’ from evil
forces.

“He designed the house and oversaw its construction
in 1870. Many of the builders were killed during the construction due to the
unorthodox designs. One room was built with no doors or windows, but one of the
construction workers fell from the rooftop, was rendered unconscious, and was
mistakenly sealed inside. His body was found many years later when a door was
put in.”

“And nobody thought his disappearance was odd?”

“Apparently, there were as many strange
disappearances as deaths. There are rooms with traps in order to kill
intruders. In fact, as the years passed, the construction workers worried that
they were never getting any closer to being finished because Heinrich continued
adding things to the plan.”

“What about that book on demonic spirits?”

He read on for a few minutes. “He continued writing
books, which became more sinister until his last one, which was all about
commanding demons and using their power. His kids, though…” he turned the book
so I could see the black and white pictures of the creepiest boy and girl I had
ever seen in my life.

Both of them were pasty white in complexion and
emaciated with oily black hair, deep set, black eyes, and scowls. “Yeah, I see
your point.”

“It sounds like Heinrich was afraid of them. In 1876,
the entire family was found dead with the house unfinished.”

“And who got the bright idea to turn it into a
school?”

“Well, it was supposedly cleansed of evil and a man
from England took it over in 1894. He supposedly was a powerful member of a famous
occult society founded in England in 1888. He… died, too, in 1897, but he was
stabbed by an exotic dancer thousands of miles away from the house. The wizard
council actually attained it then and finished the designs. Hunt bought it off
of them and opened it as a school…”

“What’s wrong?” I asked as he trailed off.

He ran his fingers down the inside margin and I saw
what stopped him. “After the Englishman got it, but before he died…” The uneven
edges in the margin were obvious. “The pages are torn out.”

“The only reason for pages in a history book to be
torn out is if someone didn’t want that information known. What was the
Englishman’s name?”

“The name is scratched out with a pen. It jumps from
him buying the place to him dying.”

“Maybe there is another copy of the book somewhere,”
I suggested.

“Do we really want to know? I’m already going to have
trouble sleeping tonight when the exotic dancers in my dreams try to stab me.”

“There’s another library upstairs. Let’s try that.”

“Dude, there’s like, twenty libraries in this school.
Let’s do that tomorrow when it’s daylight.”

“Okay.” We returned to our room after that. Darwin
immediately shared every detail about the conversation we overheard with Henry.
I didn’t know whether he was very trusting of the shifter, or very bad at
keeping secrets.

“You should take it to the wizard council,” Henry
said.

“No, we should tell Hunt,” Darwin argued. “Hunt’s
going to be better equipped to handle his own school. I know enough about the
wizard council to know we don’t want them involved. They’ll probably nuke the
school and everyone in it.”

“We’re not going to anyone,” I said. They both stared
at me. “You don’t kill a monster by cutting off its toe.”

“I didn’t know we’re trying to kill a monster,” Henry
said, fishing.

I sighed. “We’re not. I am. I’m a private
investigator.”

Darwin’s face lit up. “Shut the front door! That’s so
cool! Do you have a badge? Oh, do you have a gun?”

“Yes, on both accounts; I have a license and a gun,
but not with me. I figured a gun would do me little good against a paranormal
opponent and if someone found my paperwork, I would just have questions to
answer that are better left unasked.”

“Wow… You’re like a wizard cop.”

“I’m not a cop.”
Or a wizard.

“Well, this is great! Now we can be your sidekicks!”

I looked at the book on my desk, knowing the check
was nestled safely between the pages.
Nope, still not worth it.

*          *          *

Metals were boring to me, so a class that discussed
the atomic structure and magical uses for seven of them was a disaster. I figured
that if I were ever going to skip a class in order to investigate, it would be
that one.

In potions, there was a heavy, hardback book for each
of us that was basically a guidebook to plants and herbs. Then Professor
Langril took us to the edge of the forest, with our books, and gave us each a
brown leather sack and a list of plants to bring back to him.

Mack, the skinny guy who didn’t wear gloves on the
first day, also forgot to bring the book the professor provided. He tried to
pair up with another member of the class, but nobody was having it.

When everyone raced into the forest to find the
plants, I hung back. Professor Langril smirked at me. “When you have what you
need, we’ll have tea while we wait for the others to catch up,” he said before
he walked off.

Instead of entering the forest, I went to the
greenhouse stationed to the north of the castle. It was just like every other
greenhouse I had ever seen, albeit with some weird plants, so it was organized
well and I found everything I needed easily. Within half an hour, I walked back
into the classroom and set the bag down on the front desk.

The professor grinned, reclining in a black leather
office chair. “How old are you, Devon?” he asked.

“Thirty. And you?”

“Oh, ancient compared to you. My point is, most of
the C-One students are self-absorbed and not very intuitive. However,
eventually, someone is going to notice that you use a lighter to fire a
cauldron.”

I sighed and he put his hands behind his head
casually.

“Whatever reason you don’t use magic in a school of
magic, is your business. I’m just saying if you want it to remain a secret, you
need to try harder. Then again, if you are clever enough, people will assume
everything you do is powerful magic. Hell, that’s how us
old
wizards get
by. You’ll find that most of our brilliant displays are just showy shortcuts to
feed our laziness.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You do that, but also keep in mind that even though
most of us are lazy, some of us are showy just to hide our real power. Smokescreens
come in all shapes and sizes. Never underestimate a harmless-looking wizard.”

*          *          *

History of
North American Magic
was
subdued compared to
Fundamentals of Potions
, but quite lively compared
to
Metals
. Professor Nightshade talked about Native American magical
culture while we took notes. She didn’t act like she was afraid of vampires in
the school.

After our classes, Darwin and I found four other
libraries and searched them from top to bottom, but we never found another copy
of that book. In fact, we didn’t even find the original again. One library we
searched was for C-Five students only, but we were able to talk our way out of
trouble when a professor got onto us.

For the rest of the week, I tried to keep an eye on
Mrs. Ashcraft and Professor Nightshade. Neither of them did anything even
remotely eventful or suspicious. Fortunately, or possibly miraculously, Henry
and Darwin both kept their mouths zipped in public about my job. They didn’t
ask me a single question unless we were in our room with the door locked and
they took it upon themselves to keep other students from asking me questions.

When students tried to ask me about the vampire I
confronted in the hallway, Darwin cut them off and claimed himself to be the
official “celebrity’s” secretary. I thought this was annoying until the first
time he brought me coffee, saying that a few young women had swarmed the coffee
pot to wait for me. In the privacy of our room, he said that I must have had the
“officer in charge” allure that women went for. I refused to tell either of
them what I was investigating and they never asked about my powers, so I was
fortunate there.

On Tuesday, a week from overhearing the deputy
principal and history professor arguing, I was tired of getting nowhere. I was
also a little shocked at Henry. Since the weekend, he had been less and less
composed every time I saw him. Accustomed to his normally elegant personality,
I could only stare at him in martial arts when he yowled at a student who
failed to keep up with him.

He yowled.

Like a jaguar.

Then he spun on his heels and left in the middle of
class. Everyone was confused by his behavior, so I just figured he had
something going on at home.

*          *          *

When I tried to return to my room an hour later, I
found Darwin sitting out in the hallway. “Did you finally manage to piss Henry
off?” I asked.

“No, but I wouldn’t go in there if I were you. He’s…
busy.”

At that moment, I heard a woman’s very distinctive
moan. I sighed and sat beside him. “Have you been listening in the whole time?”
I asked.

He blushed. “It’s the closest I’ll ever get to the
real thing.”

“You’ve never been with a woman? How old are you?”

“I’m twenty-one. And no, I’ll never be with a woman.
I can’t… I’m a throwback. I can’t touch people. It hurts when someone touches
me.” When I said nothing, he turned away subtly. “My parents were married for
the good of his pack and her tribe. They hated each other, but they had to have
a child. It was the law, because they were going to kill her otherwise so they
could marry Dad to another tribe woman. The entire time…”

“You don’t have to tell me,” I said.

“I know. The entire night, she just kept thinking,
‘Please don’t touch me’ over and over. Something in her magic took control and
after that, every touch caused her agony. Dad didn’t touch her for seven
months, which was the duration of her pregnancy. In that time, they fell in
love. When I was born, the magic was transferred to me. My aunt told me that I
used to scream constantly because my parents couldn’t hold me or soothe me when
I was afraid. By the time I was old enough to remember anything, my parents
refused to ever touch me.”

“So how do you know it’s painful?” I noted privately
that his accent was fading and his grammar was improving.

“I tried it as a kid a few times. I had a girlfriend
once when I moved to a high school in the states. I told her I had a skin
condition and she showed up the next day at school with a box of gloves.” He
smiled slightly. “We were both ridiculed, but we didn’t care. It was the best
thing I had ever experienced when we would walk gloved hand in gloved hand down
the hallway.”

His smile faded and he wiped his eyes with the inside
of his hoodie.

“We were together for a month. It was just… like a centimeter.
My sleeve was pulled up just a tiny bit. Our arms brushed close enough I could
barely feel her body heat. I could deal with the pain… I wanted too… but it
wasn’t one-sided. It was never about the pain. When someone touches me…I see
visions of what will happen to the other person. I saw her…” He stopped for a
minute to try to compose himself.

“You saw her death?”

“I saw her suicide.” He stood. “I’m going to go get
some coffee.” He ran off before I could ask him if he wanted company.

I figured that, by the sounds coming from inside the
room, it would be a while before I could go in, so I wandered the hallways of
the school. I tried not to think of Darwin. Hell, I hated Regina, but I
wouldn’t want to spend my life unable to touch anyone. Marrying the hell-bitch
didn’t put me off women altogether, as much as she tried to.

I came upon a familiar staircase that was missing
every other step. Remembering that it led to another library, I decided to
check it out. I was still curious about the missing pages, mostly because
someone specifically tore them out. I wanted to know what people didn’t want me
to know.

I made it up the stairs and opened the door, almost
surprised to find it was well-lit. What it was lit with, I didn’t know, because
I couldn’t see any actual source of light. The library was huge compared to
others, so I knew it would take a long time to search. I started at the nearest
shelf and scanned every title. Nothing on the history of the school. Nothing on
vampires.

I did run across a book on the water element, though
I didn’t pull it down. I knew Remington was going to have a fit, but solving a
mystery was more important than learning about magic I couldn’t do.

A book hit me in the head, startling me from my
thoughts. I looked up and saw nothing odd, so I picked up the book.
Get
Familiar with Your Familiar
, the title read.
No, thanks
. I slid the
book into the shelf and backed up to try to see over the top. Since the
bookcase was about ten feet tall I wasn’t seeing much.

I went around to the other side, saw nothing
suspicious, and moved to the next shelf. Curious if there was a “darker”
section, possibly a private section, I headed up the circular staircase. The
second level seemed to have thicker, older books of more dubious natures, so I
resumed my search.