Elemental Earth (Paranormal Public) (18 page)

“You didn’t just have to leave us
out here to die,” said Lisabelle, stepping forward.

Sectar’s eyes stabbed into us. He
hadn’t budged from the entrance to Golden Falls. He was physically standing
between us and safety.

“You think we came out here by
choice?” Rake moved forward as the rest of us parted to make way for him and
the body of Marcus. He held the dead fallen angel aloft, much like you’d hold a
toy. Sectar’s facial expression didn’t change, but his mouth twitched. With
what? Satisfaction? Contempt? I look away so that I wouldn’t be tempted to
strike him.

“I think you disobeyed a direct
order,” Sectar hissed, “and I’m sick and tired of Public students flouting the
conventions of safety.”

“Well, we’re sick and tired of
dying, so we can all be sick and tired together,” said Rake angrily.

“That’s enough,” Zervos barked.
He was swaying from side to side as he spoke. “We’re going to come in now,” he
said to Sectar. “Or are you going to bar our entrance?”

Sectar hesitated for a split
second, seemingly contemplating what refusal would mean.

When he stepped aside we poured
in. I didn’t even think about the danger we had probably just walked into. I no
longer wanted the sky hanging over me, threatening to pour more demons down on
us. Lots of Golden Falls students crowded around the hall, all watching us.

Pearl rushed over to Lough and
started to whisper to him. I saw the dream giver blush.

“Let’s go to the suite,” said
Lisabelle out of the side of her mouth. Her eyes were darting in every
direction and I could see that she was ready to push up her sleeve and use her
wand.

Fear gripped my heart as I
agreed. Keller was going to take Zervos to be properly healed, while Sectar
offered to show Rake where to take Marcus.

The Golden Falls representative
had calmed considerably since we had filed into the castle and closed the
doors. He was now breathing normally, instead of furiously sucking in air
through his nostrils.

“He’s coming back to our
dormitory with us,” said the burly vampire, not releasing his hold on the dead
body.

Sectar paused, his calm
threatened. “Oh?”

“Yes,” said Rake stoutly, “we
don’t leave our dead alone.”

“He wouldn’t be alone,” said
Sectar, “he would be in our medical wing.”

We hadn’t yet had the chance to
tell Rake about what we’d seen in the so-called medical wing, but we didn’t
need to. Rake was having none of what Sectar was saying.

For a second the two paranormals
faced each other, and as I watched, my heart leapt into my throat. Rake would
be no match for a senior paranormal in a fight.

The waiting Golden Falls students
looked on silently, their eyes trained on their master.

Sectar sighed. “The fruits of
progress do not lie in battle.”

Rake said, “We honor our
friends.”

“Do Golden Falls students even
care about that?” Sip muttered.

“We care about darkness,” said one
Golden Falls students, a young man with chestnut-colored hair whom I sometimes
saw with Jewel. “We care to minimize it.”

Lisabelle smiled coldly. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright,” said the guy,
“you don’t really know what you’re talking about anyway.”

“One other thing,” said Sectar,
his eyes cold as he raised his hand. “We will not tolerate a slip in coursework
over this event. You will not use your friend’s mistake and the consequence of
that mistake as a reason to slack off.”

I was almost blind with rage. He
was saying this was Marcus’s own fault? At least I wasn’t alone in my fury.

I watched Lisabelle carefully.
She looked angry. The onslaught of hellhounds so soon after Kia’s murder was
too much for her. Eyes blazing, she turned and called me over. Unsure what she
wanted, I did as she ordered.

“Take my hand,” she said,
extending her pale one. It was not the hand that bore her tattoo and thus her
wand.

I took it and felt her clasp my
fingertips tightly.

“Move,” she muttered. She drew me
over to the window, where in the distance we could still see hellhounds
waiting. Everyone fell silent.

“Huh?” I had no idea what she was
doing until I felt the blaze of my ring and the pull of my powers. I gasped as
my powers rolled and shifted through me in a way I had never felt before. It
was almost like falling rock, a collapsing cliff, the rush of waves. The earth
was moving within me.

I felt power blossom through me,
a million times stronger than I ever had before. I felt heat pulse out of my
body that I was sure would melt the skin from my bones and leave it in a
dripping heap on the ground. It was too much. I couldn’t take it anymore.

Just when I thought our combined
powers would split me apart, there was a gentling. Hands touched my hips
lightly, so lightly I barely felt them through my clothing. I wasn’t being
healed, because I had yet to be injured, but Keller’s power kept me as one
instead of letting me be ripped into tiny shards and blasted around the
hallway.

At least we wouldn’t have to
worry about hellhounds anymore.

“They’re retreating,” Sip cried.
“Victory!”

My eyes, which I’d been squeezing
so tightly shut that they’d started to hurt, flew open. In the sea of confusion
in front of me I saw running hellhounds, who were somehow a magical brown, and
who moved as if they were unsteady on their feet. The air seemed smoky,
probably from Lisabelle and because of my own blurry vision.

Lisabelle turned to the
chestnut-haired guy. “Think I’m capable now?”

I saw Sectar’s eyes as he stared
at Lisabelle.

He hated her. He really hated
her.

Surprisingly, Sectar suggested
that the Public students should take that day off. Golden Falls students would
also rest and review what they had just seen. Many had only ever read about
demons before and some were in shock.

We headed back to our suite to
shower and rest, but I felt jittery all day. Problems were coming to a head at
Golden Falls. Sectar clearly didn’t know what to do with us, and maybe he had
started out with the best of intentions, but the medical wing raised questions
I couldn’t answer.

It was clear that we needed help,
which meant that it was time I got in touch with Dacer. Little did I know, Sip
already had it in hand.

“I sent a message to Public,”
said Sip. “Help should arrive tonight.”

I was relieved. The timing
couldn’t be any better.

“Is it Dacer?” I asked, hoping
that the curator of the Museum of Masks would arrive and set everything right.

Sip shook her head. “No, there
was no way Dacer could get in without drawing attention to the situation and
insulting our hosts. We can’t communicate openly with him either, because it
seems pretty clear that they’re monitoring any communications we can get out,”
Sip said.

That at least, seemed obvious.
Lough had messaged his sister, Kair, to tell her about all the food, and had
received a gold-sealed letter in return asking him not to share his impressions
with “others.”

“So who’s coming, then?” I asked,

Sip beamed at us. “Bartholem!”
she squealed.

I glanced at Lisabelle, who
looked just as nonplussed as I felt.

“I love my cat,” said Lisabelle,
“but. . . .” She frowned at her roommate, like she’d never seen anything quite
like her before.

“What if he can’t get in?”
Lisabelle worried. She was sitting crossed legged on one of the couches,
examining her wand.

“I’ve never known anyone to spend
so much time studying her own accomplishments,” said Sip hotly, glaring as
Lisabelle gently traced around the intricate design that wound up her arm. The
darkness mage grinned.

“I do like to be one of a kind,”
she said.

Sip snorted and made no answer.

“I’m sure Bartholem will have no
trouble getting in,” I said. “He’ll find a way.”

“Even if he does have trouble,
he’ll still get in,” said Sip confidently.

A little later we were still
sitting quietly. I was reading, Lisabelle was doing something with her wand,
and Sip was studying ancient maps when we were interrupted.

The doors flew open and we all
jumped. Daisy stood there, her eyes gleaning in the dark.

“She might not even be paranormal
anymore,” said Sip, glaring at the other girl. “Is crazy a paranormal type?”

“I’m sure they’d change the laws
around if only you asked nicely,” said Lisabelle. Sip straightened.

“Really? Do you think so?”

“No,” said Lisabelle.

Daisy marched toward us. Her
black clothing, like Lisabelle’s, was in stark contrast to the deep splendor of
the room. I saw her white teeth flash.

“Who were you talking to?” she
demanded, stopping about ten paces away from us and crossing her thin arms.
This was the first time all semester that I had seen her without Dobrov.
Knowing Daisy, she had probably beaten him up and locked him in a trunk for the
night. Her hair hung limply around her shoulders and had the faint look of
needing a good scrubbing. Now that I thought of it, all of Daisy looked like
she could use a good scrubbing. If only personality was something you could
wash away and start fresh with.

“How goes it?” Lisabelle asked.
Never in my life had I heard the darkness mage sound so pleasant. She must be
furious.

Daisy didn’t move. Her eyes
searched each of us. She looked as though she had all the time in the world.

“I said,” she repeated, “who were
you talking to?”

“See, when I ignored you it was
my polite way of . . . ignoring you,” said Lisabelle.

Daisy’s face pinched together and
her eyes became slits. She and Lisabelle had no tolerance for each other.

“Why are you here?” I asked
Daisy, trying to take some of the pressure off my friend. I was sitting
straighter on the couch now, trying to smooth out some of the wrinkles I had
created, as though Daisy would be angry and I would care.

“Finding out who you are
communicating with through the Contact Stone and delivering a message,” she
said icily. “Now, tell me.”

“My dear girl,” said Sip,
standing up. Daisy took an involuntary step back and I saw the corner of Lisabelle’s
mouth turn up ever so slightly.

“We were communicating with each
other. It is what friends do, and we are the very best of friends. Since you do
not have friends I cannot expect you to understand. My apologies. However -”

“Enough,” Daisy hissed. “I will
not be spoken to like this. How dare you?”

“I dare rather a lot since all my
friends started dying,” said Sip coldly. “Dove, Kia, and now Marcus.”

Daisy gave a bitter laugh. “Oh,
so now the pixie is your friend? You’ve had nothing but bad words and bad blood
with the Volans from the beginning.”

“How do you know that?” Sip asked
quietly. “I do, in fact, have Volans friends.”

“Are you referring to Cale?”
Daisy’s voice had gone low and deadly. Her eyes, far from being slits, were
open wide, daring Sip to do something stupid.

When Sip didn’t say anything,
Daisy’s face broke into what I could only assume passed as a smile for her.

“Yes, you are referring to Cale.
He won’t be a problem much longer. He might even go the way of Marcus if he
doesn’t shape up and come into line.”

I jumped off the couch before
Lisabelle could stop me. My feet landing on the carpet was the only sound in
the room as I balled my hands into fists.

“If you or any Nocturn,
hellhound, or demon hurts one hair on his head. . .” I said, glaring at the
hybrid.

Daisy gave a twitter of laughter.
“Threats, is it?” she said softly. “Ah, I like threats. It means I’m getting
somewhere. Don’t worry. Cale is protected. For now. But not by you.”

She saw the confusion in my eyes
and pressed on. “Oh, you don’t get it? There are others whom we respect and
respect well. When they ask for a favor or need a wish granted, we are only too
happy to oblige. For all the world you might want to consider joining us. There
is safety and there are benefits of which you can only dream.”

“Oh, so if I joined you then you
wouldn’t kill Sip and Lisabelle?” I demanded. Sip gasped while Lisabelle said
nothing, but she had come to stand next to me.

Daisy’s smile was razor sharp.
She was fiddling with something, and I saw now that it was her ring. Black.

“No,” she said. “I’m afraid
they’re beyond saving. What the Darkness Premier wants, the Darkness Premier
gets.”

“You mean what Malle wants?” I
demanded.

Daisy’s face, which had held an
amused contempt until now, took on another look, one of supreme satisfaction,
and maybe even of victory.