Elemental Shining (Paranormal Public Series) (4 page)

The small Vampire Princess was no match for the President of Darkness. There had been talk over the last year of what would happen if Lanca and Lisabelle ever got into a fight, and opinion had been split. But Dirr was not Lanca, and Lisabelle was not Lisabelle. This was going to be quick and painful.

“Get away from my sister,” Lanca screeched. Like a bird diving at prey she appeared in front of Lisabelle, even though only seconds before she’d been standing several feet away. But it was too late. Lisabelle’s hand closed around Dirr’s neck. The other girl struggled uselessly for the fraction of a second that passed before Lisabelle snapped her neck.

Wailing, Lanca sank down and cradled her lifeless sister in her arms.

I jumped to my feet. I couldn’t let Lisabelle do any more damage. I grabbed the wrist that had held the knife, which was still dripping with Cale’s blood where Lisabelle had stuck it in the belt of her dress in order to attack Dirr. There was now a red streak down her front, the blood giving the black of the dress a deeper texture. I would have given anything to cry.

While we struggled, I heard someone yell my name. I looked around frantically, but there was no one still alive to yell. I tried to move my neck from side to side, but I felt something soft and thick keeping it immobile.

My mind didn’t have time to identify the speaker, but my body gave an instant response and my heart leapt in joy.

I started to breathe again.

Keller came crashing through the woods. I hadn’t been expecting him for another few days, and it shocked me how glad I was to see him in the flesh. Note to self, Skype just wasn’t a substitute for making out. Besides, computer screens sometimes did not do hot guys justice, and Keller was definitely a hot guy.

His black hair was shorter; he had explained that he always cut it in the summer. His face was tanned, and at the moment it was also covered by a very grim expression.

“Charlotte,” he yelled. “Call for help!”

Now I was supposed to call professors on my best friend and have her arrested. Cale’s blood was soaking into the ground.

“Lisabelle,” Lough said, his voice and eyes filled with pain. “Stop.” Lisabelle turned towards our friend. Lough, who had saved our lives last semester and had stood by us through thick, thin, and Lisabelle’s snide comments, was standing in front of her asking her not to commit murder again—or fight Keller. I blanched. She couldn’t possibly think she was going to fight Keller and win. He was too good. Like, that was his reputation on campus, good at everything, and as someone who was in love with him I had no problem admitting that it was true.

But he might not be able to kill Lisabelle. There was a cold spark missing inside him, and I honestly wasn’t sure he could follow through with killing someone he considered a good friend. I took one look at Lisabelle, her burning eyes and grim mouth, and I knew that she would have no problem killing Keller. None whatsoever.

I had to act.

I raced forward, ignoring both Keller approach and Lough’s yelling at me.

“Charlotte, stop!” Lough shouted. “Who do you think she’s really after?”

Anger boiled through my veins. This was the same tired fight I had had throughout my entire freshman year of college, and I was sick of it. College is hard enough even for people who aren’t the only living elemental, with murderous demons and hellhounds in pursuit. That complicates midterms more than a bit.

“She’s possessed!” I cried. “That’s the only explanation.”

“What, you don’t think I could just have come to my senses?” Lisabelle taunted.

I stared at her in shock, knowing she didn’t mean it and hurting that she had said it anyway. That’s when I looked into her eyes again and decided that possessed might not be a strong enough term for whatever was churning inside her. Her eyes were on fire, literally blazing red. In her pale face, framed by her black hair and clothes, it was almost too much to take. She might not have been a demon when she left at the beginning of the summer, but she surely was one now.

“I dream of the day you listen,” said Keller, taking a flying leap and landing next to me.

“So much for shining dawn,” I muttered, looking out at the now dark sky.

Keller’s face fell further. “Aurum House had nothing to do with this,” he said, his eyes locked on Lisabelle. “We would protect you if we knew what we were protecting you from.”

“The fallen angels have stuck their head in the sand and not helped at all,” I said. “Lisabelle is like this because she was left to transport herself, without help from the only group of paranormals who can fly.”

I gestured at Keller’s thick dark wings, spanned from his back in all their glory. I loved seeing him like that, because it reminded me what hard work could achieve, and there was no one more deserving than Keller. At the moment, though, I had a bigger problem. I was about to try and kill my best friend.

“Let’s argue about that later,” said Keller.

Knowing he was right, I asked, breathing hard, “Is she possessed?”

He shook his head. “This isn’t classic demon possession, and to be honest, Charlotte, I’m not sure a demon could possess Lisabelle. There’s so much darkness in her the demon wouldn’t have much that was good to take over—maybe just her devotion to you and Sip, which has surprised literally everyone, even her—and otherwise the demon would simply bind to her darkness. I do think that if a demon did try to take her over she would tell it to shove it where the sun don’t shine.”

Keller chuckled at his own description of Lisabelle’s less than graceful manners.

“If she isn’t possessed by a demon, then what
is
wrong with her?” I was screaming and shaking as I formed the question. I couldn’t help it; there was no comfort to be found here.

“I don’t know,” said Keller, his voice and eyes troubled. They had melted into a deeply piercing blue, made brighter by sadness. Our friend was killing our friends. “Just distract her while I think of something.”

I didn’t stop to think. Lisabelle was collecting herself for a fresh attack. I threw myself at her.

I had had lots of nightmares over the past year when I would wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. When I had lived with Sip she would tumble out of her own bed to come and comfort me, but now that I lived in a place by myself I simply lay awake, willing my breathing to calm. He didn’t know it, but I almost always thought of Keller. Nothing that interesting or exhilarating, just something mundane and simple; that’s what happiness was, anyway. If you couldn’t enjoy the simple things with someone, what did you have? I wasn’t an adrenalin junky; I hoped I wouldn’t always be chasing demons as my life went on. But the nightmares of the President were the worst. I could barely contain my fear even in my own bed at night. Now that I stood in front of Lisabelle’s body possessed by someone else, I realized that fighting her would have been one of my nightmares if I had ever thought it was possible.

Not only was she a dear friend.

She was lethal.

Lisabelle Verlans could kill me. If she wanted to, she would win. It isn’t cowardice to admit when someone is better than you are, and Lisabelle was better than I was . . . the best.

The only thing I had going for me was the act of surprise, and the fact that no students can practice fighting elementals, because I’m it for elementals. Ha.

I hit Lisabelle in the chest, but she still managed to cry out as I slammed the air out of her lungs. We fell heavily to the ground and I lost track of everything else. As if from a great distance I heard someone yelling, probably Lough, but I had no idea what he was saying or what he wanted. Lisabelle and I were both grabbling for her wand, because if I could just get my hands on that, maybe I could at least not lose.

“Get off me,” Lisabelle gritted, her face grim.

“Not a chance,” I rasped.

“You can’t win this,” she said, breathing harder, but I refused to let go.

“What are we fighting for?” I asked, unsure.

Lisabelle’s smile was feral, like the wild animal Keller had said was always inside her.

“Immortality.”

She slammed upwards with a yell. I was so surprised I couldn’t hang on and went flying backwards. I didn’t stop rushing through the air until my back slammed into the nearest tree. With a sickening thud I felt my body impact, then sag. I tried and failed to keep myself upright. Well, you wouldn’t want to stay upright either if the strongest darkness mage at Public had just attacked you.

Keller moved to help, but Lisabelle slammed him in the side of the head with her hand. He crumpled to the ground.

Lisabelle was on me before I drew a breath. She moved unbelievably fast and I felt her ironclad hands around my throat.

Okay, the time for niceness was gone. This wasn’t Lisabelle. I hadn’t hurt her yet because I didn’t want to hurt my friend, but she wasn’t my friend, she was trying to kill me. I tried to pull my arms up to get her off me, but she had pinned them with her knees. I started to choke, knowing that what came next was blacking out.

Then Lisabelle was gone. With a yell something—someone—had yanked her backwards.

I coughed and looked gratefully at Lough.

“When this is all over can we tell her that she needs to be a less good fighter?” Lough panted as he squared off in a battle to the death with the love of his life.

“Sure, Lough,” I coughed. My lungs felt like they were filled with charcoal. “You tell her whatever you want.”

“We have to get that damn wand,” he said.

“Which wand?” Lisabelle asked nastily. “This wand?” She twirled it once and then lanced it at Lough.

I had never seen my chubby friend move so fast. One instant he was standing there looking like the perfect target and the next he was ducking and rolling.

“You should forget your job as a dream giver and do spy movies,” I called out to him.

“Do you think Lisabelle would like that?” he said, grinning despite the carnage around us. Even I could tell that at this point that was a joke.

“Nice to see you haven’t lost your sense of humor,” I retorted.

“Yeah, I’m just about to lose my head.”

I had to help him. Together we might be able to beat her.

Well, no, probably not.

But maybe contain her.

Keep her alive until we could figure out what was wrong with her.

But I wasn’t fast enough.

Lisabelle still had her knife. She stepped forward, pulling her arm, elbow first, backwards, then slashing downwards. Lough couldn’t move that fast twice and she got him on the arm. He cried out and fell backwards.

“Hey Lisabelle,” I called out. “Why don’t you pick on someone else for a minute?”

When Lisabelle turned, ready to do just that, I pulled out my ring. I loved my elemental ring. It was an essential part of me, one I couldn’t imagine losing.

I drove my hands outward, staring Lisabelle down. I felt my powers flow through me and greeted them gladly. I saw the change in me mirrored in Lisabelle. She could see my power flowing and my strength growing. I tried to keep my powers hidden most of the time, my guilt at being the only elemental and that I couldn’t do more overshadowing my growing strength. When I knew my bluish magic was about to burst out of me I slammed my hands forward. The burst of power crashed into Lisabelle’s shield. Her shield held. I pulled the powers back and slammed them forward again. I could feel the fragments light on my face. A bit of wind here, a dash of water there. All encompassed in fire.

I was salt of the Earth and power of the air and some darkness mage wasn’t going to kill my friends and get away with it.