Elemental Shining (Paranormal Public Series) Read online

  “What do you think of all the vampires being here?” I asked my friends.

  Lisabelle glanced at the long line of vampires. “The more here the better. We need more darkness power here.”

  “More?” Lough asked in surprise. “You’re advocating more magic that’s the same as the demons’ magic?” His surprise was plain as we sat down on our cold metal seats.

  “Of course,” said Lisabelle, her eyes hard. “Fight fire with fire.”

  “Just don’t go taking on the demons without me,” Sip cautioned. “I’d be angry.”

  “Oh, the horror,” Lisabelle muttered.

  “Doesn’t that guy have his own friends?” Lough growled as he watched Trafton approach. Watching Trafton was like watching a celebrity move through a crowd. Girls reached out to talk to him, touch his arm, shoulder, and chest, and giggle. He smiled and grinned, clearly reveling in the attention. He moved with an ease that even Keller didn’t match. But I still liked Keller better. He was just unassuming and kind. Trafton clearly assumed that he was good looking and sought after.

  “Is he seriously coming up here?” Lough muttered.

  “Yes,” said Sip, her voice amused. “Be nice. He’s a decent guy. He was very nice to Lealand and kept his secret.”

  “You mean he lied just like Lealand?” Lough asked. He had taken Lealand/Oliva’s betrayal well until he realized just how much Trafton had been involved. Since he was glad of any excuse to hold a grudge against Trafton, he was now angry about the whole thing.

  Once we settled in our seats we were joined by Trafton, who had finally made his way through the crowd.

  “Trafton, over here,” Sip waved, while Lough and Lisabelle sat stony-faced. Trafton took a seat next to me, greeting each of us with a cheery smile.

  “This is great, isn’t it? Can’t wait to see what the deans have in store,” he said, breathing on his hands to warm them.

  “What are you talking about?” Sip demanded. “This is for the Demonstration.”

  “That isn’t all it’s for,” said Trafton. “There has to be something else going on. They wouldn’t call us out here just for that.”

  “How do you know this?” Sip asked, leaning over me and staring intensely at Trafton.

  “Oliva told me,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if I say it now. They’re about to make the announcement.”

  “It’s really cold for this time of year,” said Lough, ignoring Trafton. He shivered as a cold wind blew into our faces and pulled his jacket more closely around himself.

  “You want a warmer jacket?” Trafton teased. Lough gave him an icy glare.

  “Attention,” Risper called. There was instant quiet around the stands. The chatter that had filled the air stopped, and the only sounds that dared to continue were the chirping of birds and the rattle of the wind. No other paranormal at Public had that sort of command, only Risper.

  “The Demonstration will now begin,” continued Lisabelle’s uncle. “I expect a show of respect from all students. After the Demonstration is finished there will be announcements. If any of you don’t stay while the deans speak, I will hunt you down and string you up from a tree.”

  There was a bit of nervous laughter, but most of the students didn’t think he was kidding. Lisabelle certainly looked serious.

  “Your uncle sure is something,” said Trafton. “Impressive.”

  “Are you still here?” Lisabelle asked.

  Trafton just grinned. “You’ll come around,” he said. “They always do.”

  The two Starters I was most interested in seeing were Daisy and Vanni. While looking at Daisy, who was dressed in a floral printed robe, I noticed a guy standing next to her who had the same boiled-looking skin.

  “She has a twin?” I asked, shocked.

  “Oh, yes,” said Lisabelle. “The dynamic duo.”

  When it was Daisy and her brother’s turn to demonstrate, they walked up together, not touching, but close. Daisy had a more maniacal look to her, while her brother shuffled forward and seemed more contained and thoughtful. His hard eyes were turned down, letting his hair flop over his forehead and hide his expression, whatever it was. Daisy walked with her chin held high and her hair flowing out behind her in stringy lines. Watching them I had the overwhelming feeling that I wanted to vomit. It wasn’t that their skin was pussing and oozing, but it looked uncomfortable. Whatever their father had done to them it had been bad, and permanent.

  “Dobrov hates this sort of stuff,” Lisabelle commented. “If it was up to him he never would have left his room. Daisy is his lifeline. Without her he would be totally lost. And way more dangerous.”

  “Are you saying that Daisy is the sane one of those two?” Sip asked, horrified.

  Lisabelle snorted. “Not even close. She is just capable of functioning as a paranormal. Her brother shows no signs that he is capable of functioning, period.”

  Daisy was at that very moment pointing imperiously for her brother to stand about five feet from her. She had moved into the middle of the field, where no one could miss a thing she did.

  “Why does her skin look like that?” I whispered to Lisabelle.

  “Being half vampire and half darkness mage is very bad for the vampire side of her. The circulation throughout her body is faulty, and that’s creating a buildup of fluid, causing the boiled skin look. On top of that, vampires can’t be in the sun because their skin can’t take it. Since Daisy is only half vampire, her skin was probably very confused.”

  “So her dad, what does he do?” I whispered back.

  “Oh, um, nothing much,” said Lisabelle. “He basically just spouts off about how the demons are trying to make the paranormal world better and that we’re better off without the elementals. There are a lot of texts and theories that he quotes from the original paranormal founders, who wrote long documents about the best way to live as paranormals. Many of them thought that paranormal men should just run everything and forget the women.”

  “That’s crazy,” said Trafton. “I don’t want to run stuff. I just want to work and have dinner waiting for me on the table when I get home.”

  Even though we knew he was kidding, Lisabelle took exception to what he had said and punched him in the arm.

  We weren’t the only ones watching the siblings with a mixture of shock, awe, and concern. Everyone else in the stands was doing the same thing. All chatter and talk had ceased, but unlike Risper, for whom the students had gone quiet out of respect, now the silence was thick with fear. The gray sky, which was one thick blanket of the thunder to come, hung threateningly overhead.

  My eyes flicked to Keller’s and I saw that he was watching me. When he saw me looking his way he gave me a small smile and an encouraging nod. I smiled back. Vanni still had to take her turn, but at that moment he was looking at me.

  The rest of the crowd was restless and worried. Even paranormals could be surprised, and Daisy and Dobrov’s presence had surprised everyone here. Even looking at them was making people uncomfortable.

  Daisy had to motion Dobrov forward. He glared at his sister, only lifting his eyes enough to meet her face. The skies overhead were darkening with each passing second, causing black shadows to stretch across the green grass. I pulled the collar of my jacket more closely around my neck, feeling like the skies were opening up and cold was pouring down on my head.

  A few students were looking at the deans, pleading with their eyes to for the deans to intervene in whatever was happening. But the deans continued to sit together, watching Daisy, motionless. They had no intention of stopping her Demonstration.

  Daisy looked up, a smirk plastered across the painful-looking skin of her face. I could have sworn that she was smirking directly at Lisabelle, her eyes alight with black fire and malice.

  “Uh oh,” said Sip. “Shouldn’t they stop this?”

  “They can’t,” Lisabelle muttered. “She hasn’t done anything wrong.”

  “Yet,” said Lough.

  “Here today I want
to give a demonstration,” she called. “As a half-vampire I am in a unique position.”

  Her voice rang out, carrying clearly through the entire stadium. Her brother dropped his head again, not even looking at his sister.

  Daisy lifted her right hand until it was balled into a fist in front of her face. Her eyes focused on nothing else as I saw black and red power gather around her body, with her hand as a focus. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized she didn’t have a ring. I told myself that without a ring she shouldn’t be able to do anything too drastic. Should she?

  “Wow, her trick is that she’s going to eat her own hand, nifty,” Lough said. If the air around me hadn’t been humming I would have thought it was funny.

  With her next breath Daisy raised herself up till she was on tippy toes like an avenging ballerina. Like a flash of lightening she spiked her arm toward the ground, slamming her fist into the earth. The affect was instantaneous, and shattering.

  The air screamed and blew apart, flashes the color of blood sparked around her, and the earth under her feet rolled.

  I had forgotten about Dobrov.

  So had everyone else.

  Now he stepped forward, his eyes intent on his sister like an abused puppy following the girl who kicks him.

  Power gathered around him, only there were no tints of red in his, just a thick blackness that looked like the color of melting tar.

  Suddenly I wasn’t sure which of the two was more frightening. In a matter of seconds Dobrov had transformed. He was no longer the huddling, scared, scrawny little brother with the drooping shoulders and the baggy eyes. Now he stood tall, his shoulders shoved back and his chest pushed out. His steps were confident and his head was held high. The wind blew his hair from his face and if I hadn’t seen it happen I would never have believed that the same boy stood before me.

  He moved around until he was facing his sister, who I could barely see anymore because the cloud of power had grown so big. He made the same motion with his arm that she had done already, raising his hand, curling it into a fist, and shooting it upwards, only he shot higher than she had. It might have been my imagination, but I could have sworn that he left the ground. Then like an arrow from a bow he lanced downwards, his fist slamming into the ground right in front of Daisy’s.

  “Hold on,” Lisabelle breathed. I clutched the bleachers, my pinky finger touching Sip’s, and looked down at the deans. Dove sat in the middle, his eyes fixed on the Starters, and I realized in that moment that Dove was the most cold-blooded vampire I had ever met, not excluding Zervos. Thinking back to all the times Zervos had tried to fail me and get me in trouble, it was still terrifying to see an even worse paranormal, one with no moral compass at all.

  Cold, icy wind bit through our clothing and there was a stabbing pain in my fingers.

  The professors were lined up in front of us, ready to block an attack from the half-vampires, and the students were there to back them.

  “What part of nice-relaxing-semester is just too much for you?” Lisabelle rounded on me.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, did we miss the memo that said that Lisabelle should get everything that her little heart desires?” Sip asked.

  “No,” said Lisabelle. “I’m drawing one up now.”

  “Someday you’re going to meet someone scarier than you are, Lisabelle, and then what will you do?” Sip said.

  Lisabelle jumped to her feet. She was the first to address the danger, ignoring surprised gasps from students around her as she knocked drinks over and pushed her way down the steps. She wasn’t about to let something silly like decorum interfere with getting where she needed to go.

  Risking your own life is terrible, but it’s your choice. It really is. You can weigh the pros and cons all you want. You can gather advice, but at the end of the day it’s all on you. Watching one of my dear ones risk her life for me was worse. At least when I put my own life in danger I knew I was making the choice. Watching her do it was gut-wrenching.

  I had no idea what was she going to do, but I felt sure that she was going to try and stop whatever the siblings were attempting to do. I just wasn’t sure that she could.

  High overhead the clouds had turned black. I could no longer see anything but the swirling magic that Daisy and Dobrov were calling toward them. Any second I expected it to stop, because surely they would eventually run out of power or the deans would put a stop to it.

  Neither happened.

  My teeth chattered. Next to me, Sip was so taut with emotion that she looked like she was about to break. Her hands clutched at the seat so hard her knuckles shook. I wanted to move my hand over to comfort her, but I didn’t dare loosen my own hold on the bleachers.

  I watched Lisabelle make her way toward the pitch and held my breath.

  “What is she going to do?” Trafton asked. He had to yell it into my ear; the air was whipping around us so loudly that I wouldn’t have heard him otherwise.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Something dangerous. Hopefully Risper won’t let her get hurt.”

  “I’m not sure he cares,” Trafton yelled back. “He probably thinks it builds character.”

  “I think she has plenty of character,” I yelled back.

  But in the end, right when Lisabelle hit the end of the bleachers, the siblings pulled their hands out of the ground. Instantly, the air calmed itself. The wind stopped, debris that had been pulled into the air fell to the ground and I watched Daisy stumble and fall. Her brother didn’t even move to catch her, he just stood there looking lost in thought. His face was pale, and even from far above I could see the sheen of sweat dripping down his face. The second he had joined his sister, the power they were exerting had amplified ten times. But now he looked spent.

  It was over, but a cold lingered in the air.

  Chapter Eleven

  The deans let the other Demonstrations go forward, but the air had changed. Everyone watched as if in a trance, and no one spoke. I felt like an explosion had taken place and we were still sitting on the blast site. Daisy looked ridiculously smug and her eyes kept darting up toward the bleachers where Lisabelle sat, white-faced and tight-lipped. Sip’s purple eyes shone with concern every time she looked at her roommate.

  After that, Vanni’s Demonstration was the only other one I even tried to concentrate on. She did something fairly routine for a fallen angel: she healed. It was something I had seen before, but of course Vanni did it more flawlessly than anyone else. She searched the other Starters until she found a pixie with a bandaged wrist. After a brief explanation of how the pixie, named Ulrik, had fallen from a tree and fractured his wrist—surprisingly clumsy for a pixie—Vanni proceeded to heal the injury without so much as batting an eyelash. I couldn’t help but notice that once she had completed her Demonstration she smiled prettily at Keller, who nodded in encouragement.

  “Down, girl,” said Trafton, who I had forgotten was still sitting next to me. His eyes, as blue as the ocean that he liked to surf, were fixed on my face, while his blond hair swept charmingly into his eyes.

  “I just don’t think she should be simpering over someone else’s. . . .” What? Keller and I had never really made it official. I thought of him as my boyfriend, but it wasn’t something we had talked about. What did he think? I knew college was the time to do all kinds of things with people that weren’t your boyfriend, but that wasn’t what I wanted. My mom said that my dad, my real dad, was her first, and if he hadn’t—what?—he would have been her only. I wanted that. I just wanted one. Definitely not college style at all.

  “Keller is the second best catch on this campus,” said Trafton. “Girls have been making eyes at him since he got here. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

  “I’m fine,” I said.

  “Sure you are,” said Trafton, standing up. He stretched his arms over his head, ignoring the row of students behind us who were still trying to see. “Take comfort in the fact that he only looks at you.” Trafton made his way down the stairs, le
aving me with a lot to think about.

  “We all have our job studies now, right?” said Sip, returning to the businesslike girl I knew instead of the scared out of her mind girl who had watched the twins’ Demonstration.

  “I have tutoring,” said Lisabelle. “I’ll see you guys at our second meal.” That’s what we had taken to calling it, because it was technically too late to be lunch, but we still had another meal later.

  “I’ll walk you,” said Lough, rising as well. His red cheeks were redder than usual and his hands trembled slightly. He was nervous at the prospect of being alone with Lisabelle.

  “No, that’s fine,” said Lisabelle. “I know how to get there. I’ll see you all later.”

  “I hope you’re a good tutor,” Sip called after her, as Lough looked crestfallen. “Someday I’m going to come watch you ‘work.’”

  “Attention, students,” Risper’s voice rang out. Any students who had been moving to leave took their seats once more. “As you all know, the demon presence is growing stronger. They now have a name: the Knights of Darkness, the first sign in their history that they are forming a cohesive unit that they will use to attack. In response, we paranormals must become more vigilant and capable. On top of that, the Map Silver has been discovered, as you will have seen in the news. That provides yet another artifact in the possession of the paranormals that the demons would kill to get. To that end, we, as deans, have decided that all the paranormals on this campus must take a turn spending a night outside the protections of Public, and be ready fight off whatever comes their way.”

  An uproar like a swarm of angry wasps went around the bleachers. Daisy and her brother’s performance was forgotten in the spark of anger that Risper’s words brought.

  “What is the point of that?” demanded Nate, a fallen angel and a friend of Keller’s. He stood up and asked, “Are we to be alone?”

  Risper turned cold eyes on the speaker, who instantly quieted but ignored his friends’ efforts to pull him back into his seat.