Elemental Light (Paranormal Public Book 9) Read online

  Elemental Light

  (Paranormal Public, Book IX)

  by

  Maddy Edwards

  Copyright © 2014 by Maddy Edwards

  Cover Design © K.C. Designs

  This novel is a work of fiction in which names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is completely coincidental.

  License Notes

  Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of

  the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial

  purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own

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  My blog: http://maddyedwards.blogspot.com/

  My goodreads page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5288585.Maddy_Edwards

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Books by Maddy Edwards

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  Prologue

  I shot awake. The sound of screaming engulfed me as I tumbled out of my own bed and dashed over to Sip’s. There was no light in our shared room, and I stubbed my toe on the corner of my bed’s frame and limped the rest of the way to where I could grope around through the piles of covers and try to awaken my friend.

  “Sip,” I gasped. “What’s wrong?”

  The werewolf sat up, her big purple eyes huge as she stared straight ahead, unseeing.

  “She’s dying,” she whispered. “I just know she is. I keep having the same dream, over and over. It won’t stop.” She buried her head in her hands.

  I wrapped what I hoped was a comforting arm around her shoulder, but which of us needed the contact more I wasn’t sure.

  “It’s just a dream,” I said. I leaned over and lit a candle, hoping light would chase away some of the physical shadows. The other shadows would be harder to get rid of.

  Sip’s shoulders shook. “It’s real,” she said through her hands. Her voice came out muffled and small. “I saw her. So did you. Whatever black power is coursing through her now, she can’t survive it.”

  We sat in silence for several minutes while Sip tried to suppress her sobs. Queen Lanca of the Rapier vampires had bemusedly offered us separate rooms, but neither Sip nor I wanted to be alone, especially when night closed in. Neither of us would admit it, but fear had wrapped itself around us like a cloak, and the cloak was tightening daily. I was afraid that what came next was despair.

  Sip’s nightmares kept her awake, and I felt better knowing I could be there to comfort her if she needed it, as she had tonight.

  Our room was small, but that meant fewer places where shadows could hide. Our single beds were on opposite walls, with a window between us. We each had a dresser and a small desk. We had chosen the simplest room we could find, and Sip couldn’t help talking about how much happier Lisabelle would have been in that little room than in their room at Paranormal Public University, decorated in neon (Sip’s side) and black (Lisabelle’s). Lough had a room across the hall that he shared with Rake and Ricky. I was glad my brother had company, and I hoped he couldn’t hear Sip screaming. With the recent death of the man he had always thought was his father, he had reasons enough for his own nightmares.

  “I have to help her,” said Sip, lifting her chin.

  This was not a new conversation between us.

  I shook my head. “We are trying to help her,” I argued. “We’re trying to help all the paranormals. You’re the president of the Sign of Six, for crying out loud.”

  Sip sighed and glared at me. There were two spots of red on her cheeks and she was breathing hard. I could tell she was looking for a fight.

  “Research is my thing,” she said. “I need to find a library and start figuring out what’s wrong with her. She needs help. She’s wearing the Black Ring and she has that stupid wand tattoo that she thinks is cool. It can’t be good for her.”

  “She’s in a dangerous situation,” I said, “and I’m sure she needs all the help she can get. But how are you going to know if it’s helping?”

  “It’s a problem,” Sip agreed. “I just need to find a way to meet with her. I’m not sure she even realizes what’s happening to her. It’d be just like her not to.”

  “She knows she’s tired,” I said.

  “But does she know she’s dying?” Sip asked, her voice small. “Does anyone know that but me?”

  “What do you need?” I asked, trying to keep her mind on the practical.

  “Books,” said Sip. “It’s not like this is something I can Google, after all. I need real books!”

  “Okay,” I said. “But the best research facilities are surely at Public.”

  “I’m afraid that’s true,” said Sip.

  “We’ll get back there,” I assured her. “We will. I promise.”

  “Of course,” said Sip, as if it wasn’t even a question. “But will it be in time?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I hope so.”

  “The bottom line is, I’m not going to let her die. All of this is for nothing if she dies in the end. If it has to be one of us, it’s going to be me. If I don’t make it to the end of this, at least I’ll know I was the best friend she could ask for,” said Sip stubbornly. “At least I’ll know.”

  I sat motionless. “Lisabelle would never forgive me if I let you die,” I said finally. My throat felt tight.

  Sip snorted. “Lisabelle’s under the mistaken impression that she always gets what she wants . . . then she goes and gets a wand tattoo. I don’t want to die, but I’ll do what I have to.”

  Wouldn’t we all.

  Chapter One

  The hall at Dunne ai Dorn was filled with silence and the gusts of wind. I brushed some long brown strands of hair out of my face and continued to gaze out the large, gilt-edged black window. My reflection told me I needed a haircut. Before Mrs. Swan disappeared she had trimmed my hair periodically, and after she was gone I asked Sip to try her hand at it. But by the time Sip had finished one attempt at crazy shearing, I gave up. Now my hair grew long, flowing most of the way down my back.

  One of the books Sigil had given me months ago said th
at Queen Ashray wore her hair long, and I thought about that now, smiling a little at the thought of my friend, the ghost who lived in the Astra library. My smile disappeared when I remembered that I had no idea whether Sigil was okay.

  Coming back to the present, I took a deep breath and glanced around. The early morning light filtered through the windows, turning gray and dull as it burst onto the plain marble floor. Spring had come, but with it had come no life or warmth. I wrapped my black jacket closer around me and felt my ring rub against the fabric. The apex of my magic hadn’t burned with power in days, and it felt dull from disuse. Or maybe from sadness.

  “How does it look?” Sip asked, appearing at my elbow and looking out the window for herself.

  Sip often, as now, moved around so quietly that I didn’t know she was there until she announced herself. She looked exhausted. There were dark circles under her eyes and her skin was sallow and wet. She had decided that sleep was an unnecessary evil and given it up, or at least that was her explanation when Lough and I tried an intervention. We were shut down as if the store was closing on time, and that was that.

  She shrugged off my look of concern.

  “Lanca wanted to speak with us,” said Sip.

  I sighed and turned away from the view. Now that we’d had a chance to rest, there was a lot to discuss.

  Dunne ai Dorn was a small castle (apparently there are such things, at least in Cruor land) on the edge of Rapier territory. From its windows we could see, in the distance, the black points of Vampire Locke, stabbing upward into the cloud-filled sky. Sometimes the top of the mountain looked like it was burning as the sun heated the rocks.

  Queen Lanca and Vital had set up a command post at the castle when they left Public, and they had been there ever since, looking for any opening that would let them get a foothold back at Locke. Lanca refused to be far away from her people or her home. Now my friends, my brother, and I had arrived needing refuge, and she had provided it.

  Paranormal Public was still under the weighted hand of darkness, but there was at least some good news amidst all the gloom. It turned out that many students had already left Public for the Christmas break before the takeover, and they were fine. But President Caid was refusing to come to Dunne ai Dorn. He had been at the Paranormal Police Academy, and according to Lanca he was staying there. He wanted to speak with the most powerful vampire queen, although Lanca thought it was merely to order her around, but he wanted her to go to him. Clearly he didn’t know Lanca, or vampires, very well.

  Lanca wasn’t impressed. Nor did she trust Caid’s cousin General Goffer, who ran the Police Academy, and in any case she wasn’t about to let anyone tell her what to do.

  “This is my home, and no one is going to lure me away from it,” she said, slamming her hand into her fist.

  Sip and I had joined her in her sitting room at the top of the castle. One of the features I loved about Dunne ai Dorn was that every room had large windows, and this one was no exception. The windows had been installed in the castle generations ago, before darkness had overtaken the Rapiers. It was a sign of respect for Vampire Locke that Dunne ai Dorn was open to a view of the majesty of the Blood Throne.

  Now the spectacular view was of a land turned barren. Shrubs were shriveled and the ground was dried and cracked. Clumps of brown grass dotted the dead fields.

  Lanca clearly felt at home here, but it wasn’t a side of herself that she had often shown at Paranormal Public. The family that had lived here were all long dead except for a bratty little boy who had been the first vampire killed when the demons headed for Vampire Locke. Lanca planned to use the place as her “summer retreat” when she tired of the Blood Throne - once she got the Blood Throne back. In the meantime, it was her headquarters in that effort.

  As for the room where we were about to meet Lanca, the decorations couldn’t have said “vampire” more emphatically. There were plush red sofas and chairs set in groupings atop plush black carpets. On the walls hung a variety of vampire “art,” many of the images depicting blood and death.

  Other than that it was cozy, and most importantly, it was private.

  We had come to Dunne ai Dorn only the night before, and there was a lot to catch up on. Sip had disappeared the moment we had arrived and headed straight for, in her words, “what these vampires think passes for a library.” I knew exactly when she left the library and came to the room we shared, mostly because she started slamming and banging things as soon as she got there. When I asked her about it she muttered something dark and angry about needing more information.

  “Where’s Lisabelle now, anyway?” Lanca asked, once we were settled and comfortable.

  This was the first time we had had a chance to talk to her in private, and of course she’d want to know about our powerful best friend who had sworn her loyalty to darkness.

  “She said she was returning to her master, and we thought that meant someone at Public,” Sip explained, sipping her beloved tea. “But then Public was overrun by demons, and Lisabelle wasn’t in any of the reports. Personally, I’ve no idea where she is.”

  Lanca cradled a black mug in her hands. The liquid was the same color as the mug and I didn’t even want to know what it was. She still looked tired, but less so than she had the last time I had seen her. Anger was a wonderful motivator.

  So was fear. Loyalty was important, too, but love always won in the end. Or so I still believed.

  “What if the demons attack?” Sip asked, worry clear in every line of her face.

  “I would relish it,” Lanca said, inhaling as if she smelled something wonderful.

  Queen Lanca of the Rapier vampires was still angry. She was also only a couple of years older than my friends and I, secretly dating her world-class fighter personal bodyguard, stunningly beautiful, and did I mention angry? After her father’s murder she had been crowned queen of the most powerful vampire sect in the paranormal world. There were two other vampire sects in America, the Raor and the Radvarious, but neither was as strong as the royalty that ruled the Blood Throne.

  Lanca’s father had been murdered in part because our enemies thought that Lanca would be a weak ruler. In that they were wrong, but he had also been killed because he possessed one of the Objects on the Wheel, the Fang First. A group of his own vampires had betrayed him and risen to power on their own, and included in their number was a classmate of ours named Faci Decimatar. Now, because of that betrayal, the Fang First was in the hands of the Nocturns.

  Lanca and her personal bodyguard, Vital, had gathered all the remaining Rapiers - all those who hadn’t been at Vampire Locke when it fell – here at Dunne ai Dorn.

  Sip, Ricky, Lough, and I had arrived in the middle of the night, nearly terrifying everyone. We had tried to Contact Lanca on our way, but the communications lines were all blocked. We still hadn’t had a chance to ask her why.

  “I’m afraid we don’t have a lot of food you’ll find pleasant,” she had said, motioning for one of her aides to find sustenance for us, and tea for Sip.

  Lanca had stared hard at Ricky, then smiled.

  “I’m Lanca,” she said, extending her hand.

  I heard a groan from a thin vampire who for some reason reminded me of Sigil.

  “Your majesty, you cannot go around introducing yourself to peons in that casual manner,” said the disgruntled courtier. He wore glasses and had very little hair left. His rapid blinking made me a bit dizzy.

  Lanca rolled her eyes.

  “I also cannot let courtiers tell me how to conduct my court,” she said quietly. The man shut up, but I felt sure it wouldn’t be for long.

  “Ricky,” said my brother, taking Lanca’s hand tentatively. I felt sure he wasn’t shy, just trying to reconcile this frail-looking woman with the reality that she was a powerful vampire, and a queen.

  “You have your sister’s eyes,” said Lanca. “My sister had my eyes as well.”

  “Is she here?” Ricky asked. “I don’t see anyone my age.”
br />   “There are a few vampires your age around,” said Lanca. “We can introduce you to them, provided they have some supervision. Young vampires, before they learn to control their urges can be . . . unpleasant.”

  Ricky raised his eyebrows, but nodded. Vampires, like most other paranormals, always knew what they were. Their characteristics were obvious, and they spent their younger years training to control them. I was unusual in the paranormal world in not having known who I was until I was practically grown up. Having had no idea that what I thought were my mother’s jokes were not actually funny, I had had a very different childhood from most paranormals. But then I didn’t present with blood-sucking tendencies or green skin, so it had been easier to keep the secret.

  Ricky pointed to the ring I wore and looked at me.

  “Do I get a ring?”

  “They’re at Public,” I said sadly. “Otherwise yes, you’d get a ring. I guess.”

  “Has he shown powers?” Vital asked, smiling at Ricky as he came into the room. Vital didn’t look like the undefeated fighter that he was. He wasn’t big, massively muscled, or intimidating, but I had learned something of his secret by simply watching him move. He was always aware of where he was and what was around him. He moved like a cat, and I couldn’t imagine him ever tripping.

  When we had visited Vampire Locke for Lanca’s coronation, I’d had the chance to see Vital fight. He was a whirl of motion, and I had felt better knowing that he was on our side. Well, at least Lanca’s. The way he looked at his queen made me sigh longingly.

  Ricky looked up at me and I shook my head. “I don’t think so, but I haven’t been home to watch him.”

  “Carl was always really worried about upsetting me,” Ricky commented. “Like, he never wanted to make me angry. I always thought it was funny, since he’s the adult and all.” My little brother looked so sad at the mention of his stepfather that I went and hugged his shoulders.