Elemental Earth (Paranormal Public) (30 page)

Zervos didn’t say anything. He
had never asked us where we’d been that morning. We never told him that the
Medical Wing was horrifying and that black ghosts were there to guard the
doors. Keller might have told him if he were still there, but Malle had gotten
him. I couldn’t even think about it without wanting to cry.

“Ohhh, man,” Lough muttered. “We
couldn’t just leave this place behind without having another big problem.”

“Not with our friends dead,” I
said.

Lough shrugged. “Faci and Daisy
did it. I don’t know why. Kia probably borrowed Camilla’s hairbrush without
asking, so Camilla had her killed.”

I looked around for any of the
names Lough had just mentioned, but none were present. Neither, as I thought
about it, was Ferwick. I didn’t have time to worry about where they had gotten
to.

“Enough of this,” I muttered,
looking around. “Sectar or one of the Golden Falls students killed our friends.
They have to answer for it.”

I stepped forward, but just as I
was about to speak, another man, looking a little the worse for wear, but
easily recognizable, stepped forward.

Mark Doblan. He was the fallen angel
member of the Council that we’d picked up on our way to Vampire Locke, who had
then tried to kill us and subsequently disappeared. He had failed at the first
part but accomplished the second very handily. It probably hadn’t hurt that
President Caid did not seem that interested in looking for him.

“What’s he doing here?” I
demanded. Sectar glanced at him.

“You’ve been allowed to speak too
freely,” he said. “You have no right to demand answers from me, but since I
feel like telling you, I will. Council Member Doblan is here to do some work.
He was in the Medical Wing and discovered your presence.”

The breath caught in my throat.
So, that was the fallen angel presence Keller had sensed that wasn’t his own.
But how?

I didn’t want to think about it
anymore.

“Did you kill Marcus?” I asked
him. “He found you out somehow and you had him killed?”

“Something like that,” said
Sectar, “except that, as usual, your concept is too simple.”

“So, who killed our friends?” I
demanded frantically.

Zervos was tugging at my sleeve
and Duchess Leonie was trying to get me to stop, but I couldn’t. It was only
when Lough stepped forward and pointed that I did. Everything felt closer, and
something had changed about the Golden Falls students. Those black rings had
ignited in a dark fire, and the students’ faces were cast in shadows. Pearl,
Jewel, Devlin, and the rest didn’t look like themselves anymore.

“We’ve been doing experiments,
because we have contracts with darkness,” Sectar explained, his tone more that
of a teacher giving a class lecture than anything else. “Our way of life is
expensive, you see, and we would have been overrun had we not made some sort of
deal with the demons. Mr. Doblan needed space to create hybrids for the war
with the paranormals. We gave him that space and chances to experiment, for
which the Darkness Premier was very grateful.”

“I don’t suppose you could dream
us out of here,” Duchess Leonie asked Lough. Her eyes were darting in every
direction.

Lough shook his head. “They
aren’t going to kill us in front of all the Golden Falls students, are they?”
he whispered. Obviously he hadn’t noticed the looks on the faces of the
students.

I spoke again, because, you know,
why not?

“Who killed Kia and Marcus?” My
voice trembled, and Lisabelle gave me a sharp look. I wondered if she suspected
what I had just realized.

“We all did,” said Pearl, coming
forward, her eyes shining. “We did it to make you see how damaging darkness is.
There had to be casualties, but you didn’t understand, so we made a deal with
the Nocturns to weaken you, which will make it easier for them to take you
filthy Public students off our hands.” She stepped back, glancing at Sectar,
who nodded approvingly.

“Is there a President of Golden
Falls?” Zervos asked quietly.

“He died several years ago,” said
Sectar. “I would have announced it, but I realized it better served my purposes
to keep that little fact quiet. He was the last of his family. I never thought
my little charade would last so long.”

“Pearl,” Lough sputtered, “How
could you!”

Pearl glanced at Lough. “I wanted
you to understand,” she said. “We hoped we could help you see that darkness is
wrong, but you hopelessly cavort with that thing.” She glanced disparagingly at
Lisabelle.

“Get over yourself,” said
Lisabelle, eyes still blazing. “You made deals with the Nocturns.”

Pearl shrugged. “We all did. We
did it collectively. I’m sorry to say that Kia never stood a chance.”

“We have to get out of here,”
said Lisabelle. “We’re totally outnumbered.”

“How do you propose we do that?”
Zervos demanded. “They have Officers at all the doors and the students are
looking at us like we’re a meal.”

“Why should we take you with us?”
I demanded. “You got us into this mess in the first place.”

“How did I do that?” Zervos
demanded coldly. His back was razor straight and he had edged closer to us.

“Well,” said Lisabelle, “you
didn’t let us leave all semester.”

Zervos shook his head. “I had no
idea Sectar had lost his mind. Oliva also thought he was still of sound mind.
We were both wrong and now they have Ms. Quest. None of us could have foreseen
such a consequence.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed
this,” said Lisabelle, “but we have to get out of here.”

“Because Sectar killed our
friends?” I asked. I felt like I’d jumped into a lake in the middle of winter.
My body felt numb and my mind slow. I was trying to understand, but nothing
made sense.

“Because all of us at Golden
Falls killed them,” Pearl corrected me, as she still watched Lough intently.

Shocked, the dream giver backed
away until he bumped into a table. Turning slightly toward me he said, “See
this? Girls are crazy. It’s better to have an unrequited love, because then I’m
not in danger of ending up with any of them.”

“If Lisabelle. . . .” I cut
myself off. Now was not the time to point out to Lough that if Lisabelle
wanted, Lough would be there before she finished the sentence.

Sectar took another step forward.
Zervos sprang in front of the Public students, spreading his arms wide. “You’ve
done enough damage, Sectar,” said the vampire. “We are going to leave now.”

Sectar paused, but the smile on
his face did not convince me that he agreed with my professor. “No,” he said,
“they must be turned over to the demons now. All of you, although Zervos, we
have always been friends and I would grant you leave to escape should you wish
it.”

“How very generous of you,” said
Duchess Leonie dryly. The small woman sounded like Lisabelle, only Lisabelle
was past the point of sarcasm now and had gone deeply into unquenchable rage.

A wave of gasps went up through the
Golden Falls students, who were all facing us. I didn’t want to risk turning
around, though. The gusts of wind were getting stronger, blowing my hair into
my eyes and the leaves around us. I couldn’t lose my focus.

“They’re just pretending,” said
Lough. “They don’t really see anything.”

Lisabelle glanced over her
shoulder. She had calmed down a little, but she still looked like she wanted to
rip something, preferably a Golden Falls representative, apart.

“Fires,” she murmured. “The sky’s
on fire.”

“Demons,” said Lough. “He just
said that demons were coming to take us away.”

“They will take you to Malle,”
said Sectar, raising his hand like he was making a point of order. “She wishes
to speak with you.”

My heart lifted for a fraction of
a second. Keller was with her. Maybe. . . . I slammed the idea away. Malle
wanted me dead. She had put a bounty on my head. Now, here were the Golden
Falls representatives proving that it had never been removed.

“Malle wants Charlotte dead, and
you just want to hand her over, giving the demons the biggest advantage they’ve
ever had over the paranormals,” said Duchess Leonie. “How stupid are you? Don’t
you realize that if Charlotte dies all paranormals are in danger?”

Sectar glared at the older woman.
“They are already in danger, or didn’t you notice? No place is safe so long as
the demons are in power and work for the Nocturns! It’s ridiculous to think
otherwise. Public has been attacked every semester since Charlotte arrived, and
now they’ve moved on to Vampire Locke.”

My heart clenched. Lanca.

“Enough of this,” said Lisabelle.
“It’s not Charlotte’s fault. We’d all be dead if not for her. You really are an
idiot masquerading as a paranormal who deserves to be in charge.”

She rolled up her sleeve. I
hadn’t seen her tattoo in a long time, but now that I did I gasped. It had
spread over all of her arm that I could see. From all the way to her wrist and
past her elbow, her skin was covered in ornate black markings.

The Golden Falls students gasped
and stepped away. The burning fires in the sky behind us were forgotten as
Lisabelle advanced, a whirl of black power surging around her.

“Get her!” Annabelle and
Marybelle yelled in unison. Both women advanced. I couldn’t help but think they
were far less beautiful now, their faces locked in ugly dark shadows as their
hair flew around them. Marybelle was the quieter of the two, and I had disliked
her on principle since she had threatened to fail me in “Presenting.” But now
they were both equally abhorrent.

One of the statues, was of a
large man in armor, suddenly came free of its mooring. With a groan and grating
noise, billowing black smoke, it slammed at Marybelle. At the very last second
the paranormal saw it coming, but it was too late.

The statue hit the woman hard on
her side. She crumbled instantly in a pile of gold silk.

Annabelle screamed and lunged.

“Lisabelle,” I screamed. She
didn’t appear to realize that Annabelle was running right at her. A long, metal
weapon that looked like a spear appeared in her hand. I wondered if she had
always had it, but had kept it hidden behind a Veneer over it.

Annabelle was five feet away,
then two. Lisabelle suddenly pivoted to face the Golden Falls professor and
raised her wand arm. A wall of sheer black power appeared right in front of the
darkness mage. Annabelle didn’t have time to stop. Instead, she ran right into
it and fell backward, stunned.

Chaos erupted all around us.
Golden Falls students were attacking Public students. Rake, who was nearly as
angry as Lisabelle about Sip, had simply started throwing students out of his
way if they came too close. Most had stopped even trying. Trafton and Lough had
started dreaming white demons and sending them, like ghosts, to attack Jewel,
Pearl, and Devlin. I had lost track of Professor Zervos and Sectar, but Duchess
Leonie was still nearby. She was shooting red sparks out of her “cane” and
cackling about not underestimating your elders. I really should have expected
nothing less from Dacer’s mother.

“Paranormal women aren’t dainty,”
said Lough, panting as he continued to weave dreams. “I like that about them.”

“Good,” I said, “because I think
you’re stuck with us.”

He gave me a tired grin and
stared at the battle going on around us. The Golden Falls students just kept
coming in waves.

“There are too many of them,” he
said. “Pretty soon the rest of the Nonsense Enforcement Officers are going to
figure out we’re fighting, and then we’ll really be in trouble.”

“I have a feeling Lisabelle took
care of them in order to get to us,” I said quietly, watching the darkness
mage. She was unstoppable. Power swirled around her as she beat back ten Golden
Falls students at a time.

“I’m just glad she’s on our
side,” said Lough reverently. His cheeks were red and there was sweat dripping
from his brow, but he showed no sign of slowing down. “Public better feel
really bad about sending us here,” he continued. “This is just not okay.”

“Retreat,” Leonie yelled.
Happiness Enforcement Officer reinforcements had appeared and were rushing into
the courtyard. Now we were in real trouble. The Public students, with the
exception of Lisabelle, who held her ground, came together in a tight ball.
Duchess Leonie was on the outside. Mark Doblan came forward to confront her and
he held a white powder that looked like a swirling mass of tiny demons. He ket
throwing it at Duchess Leonie and it kept exploding. She kept twirling her cane
in front of herself, creating a red wheel that ate away at Doblan’s attack. No
matter how he came at her she was ready.

The Enforcement officers attacked
viciously. I heard cries from Evan as he was hit with something that looked
like melted gold that burned his skin.

“What do we do?” Lough demanded.
“We can’t wait around until those demons get us.” He turned around, and out of
the corner of my eye I saw his jaw go slack and a look of shock take over from
the exhaustion and the fear.