“That’s amazing,” I breathed.
“No,” said Keller, “you’re amazing.”
I believed what he said. At least I believed he believed it, which sent a nice, warm sensation singing through me.
I didn’t even have to try.
As I was leaving the Museum I passed Lealand, who gave me a big smile as he headed back inside.
Chapter Eighteen
I hurried to the library after I left the Museum. It was only the third day of classes and I already had a ton of homework. Keller wasn’t far behind me, but we didn’t walk together because he had stayed to talk to Dacer after I left. Apparently they knew each other from a long time ago. Did Keller know everyone? And did every single person have to like him? I always felt awkward when I was at public gatherings, as if I had size twelve shoes, but not Keller.
“Hey,” I said, dropping into a seat next to Lisabelle.
“Hey,” she said, stuffing books into her bag. “We’re actually heading out,” said Lough as I watched them.
“Together?” I asked, unable to entirely hide my shock.
Sip gave me a sidelong grin, but Lisabelle didn’t notice.
“Yeah, Lisabelle needs help moving the last of her stuff into her room,” said Lough. He was vibrating, like, literally vibrating with excitement.
“Do you want us to go, too?” Lanca asked. She was sitting across from Sip, dressed in her customary black and flanked by two other vampires.
“No, no,” Lough said quickly. “I’ll manage.”
“There’d be no point in having a guy to move stuff if girls came and moved it anyway,” said Lisabelle shrugging. “I’ll buy you a book or something as a thank you,” she said to Lough.
Lisabelle was nothing if not fair.
“She should just kiss him, “ Sip whispered to me. “It would be cheaper and make him happier.”
My grin widened.
“Is Trafton actually going to try and have a party?” Lough asked.
Lisabelle rolled her eyes. “Risper would have his head and he knows it.”
Sitting in the library, Lanca watched Lough trail out the door after Lisabelle. “What do you think is going to end up happening between those two?”
Sip glanced up from her book, her purple eyes sparkling. “If she doesn’t kill him? They’ll end up married. Don’t tell her I said that,” she added quickly.
Lanca and I both looked at her like she was crazy. Then Lanca started to laugh, her whole body shaking in amusement. “I can totally see that happening.”
It was the first time I had seen the vampire princess laugh since Tale had died in the battle last semester, and it was over the prospect of Lough and Lisabelle, not just together, but married. Sip actually seemed to believe it was possible.
As usual, my eyes flicked to Keller, who had come in and was leaning against a bookcase with his arms crossed over his chest. His pale skin stood out against the dark fabric of his shirt, and the weight of his arms dragging on his shirt made his chest more visible and defined. I remembered his arm sliding past me in my room before Christmas break, muscles taut as he moved. Suddenly conscious of being caught staring, I shifted my gaze back to my desk. I missed his eyes turning towards me.
“Don’t laugh so hard,” said Sip, pointing her pencil at Lanca. One of the vampires sitting next to her growled, and Sip dropped the pencil. The vampires didn’t care who it was, no one was allowed to threaten Lanca after what had happened at the Dash finals.
Sip continued unfazed, “If Lisabelle gets married, her misery will want company.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked suspiciously.
Sip picked up the pencil again and calmly started to write. “She will make us all be bridesmaids.”
I flinched. Lanca nodded knowingly. “She’s just that kind of mean. Demons would be nothing compared to trying to deal with Lisabelle on her wedding day. I’d take fighting the President over that any day. Can you imagine what she’ll make us wear?”
I had a vision of black dresses with long sleeves, more fitting for a funeral procession for most people. From the looks on Lanca and Sip’s faces, their thoughts were along similar lines.
Just then Keller shifted into my line of vision and I felt myself sighing. When he was studying, his face was clear and concentrated and there was no frown. His smooth forehead was only covered by a single curl of dark hair. I wished he was still my tutor. I wished he would kiss me again. Except that I didn’t. Bad Charlotte. Professor Erikson would not approve.
I sighed.
“You’re drooling,” Sip cautioned.
I glared at my werewolf friend. “Am not.”
“Yeah,” said Lanca, “you are.” She started to grin but was forced to stop when she started to cough.
Quickly the two vampires flanking her came forward, but she waved them away. “I’m fine,” she snapped to them. “Spare me the nonsense.”
Turning back to me she asked, “Why don’t you just kiss him?”
“Because his aunt hates me,” I muttered in response. “And Keller deserves a girl that his family supports.”
“Keller deserves to have the girl he wants,” said Sip. “And it’s clear who that is.”
Both vampires had halted, while Sip and I sat there dumbfounded. In warning them off, Lanca had sounded harsh and angry in a way that I hadn’t heard from her before. She had set the tone aside again to speak to me, but the echo of it still filled the air.
“Come on,” said Sip. “Let’s get to lunch. We’re going to need all of our strength for Tactical tonight.”
I gulped. We definitely were.
Chapter Nineteen
The time until Tactical dragged. I was so bored that I headed down to the field early with half a mind to go back to the pond, albeit the frozen version, and search around for clues that would tell me more about my mother. There didn’t seem to be any reason why I shouldn’t, so off I went.
It looked remarkably peaceful as I approached. I wished I had an elemental mask with me, because surely the masks could help me find out more about elementals. It was gradually dawning on me that a whole universe of information had been lost with the dying of all the senior elementals. Even though I was elemental, I felt like I knew nothing about them and had no way to learn. Maybe the masks would provide me with a way to explore my heritage.
The other half of my mind wanted to search the President’s office, although I was sure they had cleared it out by now. I still wanted answers to question like the obvious “WHAT HAPPENED TO MY FAMILY?” and the less obvious “If you thought I might be elemental, why did you give me an Airlee ring? To keep up appearances? Because you’re evil to the core? Because you’re a dummy?”
Then I chastised myself for using the word dummy, even in my head. Eighteen-year-olds didn’t talk like that. My grandmother probably didn’t even talk like that, and she was dead.
I rubbed my ring absently, staring at the brown house that had been the President’s. She was with the demons now and out of my reach, but someone had to know something. For some reason the people in charge thought I would behave myself according to their expectations, even in the middle of an epic paranormal war and when no one seemed willing to tell me anything useful. And I was friends with Lisabelle, no less. You’d think they’d have had more sense.
I started towards the house. When I was almost to the steps, I heard a deep voice behind me saying, “Ms. Rollins, I thought I might find you here.”
I spun around so fast my brown ponytail whipped into my face. Standing before me was Lisabelle’s uncle Risper. He was very good looking, I realized, in a rugged sort of way. Then again, Lisabelle was beautiful in a “Yes, I’m as scary as I seem” sort of way.
“Lovely evening for a stroll,” I said, watching the air of my lies float before my face. I tucked my gloved hands into my pockets to hide their shaking. I trusted Risper; Lisabelle would have known if he wasn’t trustworthy. But with the demons so close it was hard to truly trust an
yone.
Involuntarily I glanced towards the campus wall, beyond which I knew was the force field that was keeping out any waiting demons.
“Why did you think you’d find me here?” I asked Risper. His dark face was in shadow. The light was almost entirely gone and it was hard to see his features clearly.
He gave a thin smile. “Because you and Lisabelle are not so different as you might appear, and she would want answers.”
“Yeah,” I drawled. “It’s a real stretch to think that if your family was murdered you would want to know exactly why and how.”
Risper’s dark eyebrows shot upwards. “Your whole family was not murdered. Your brother is just fine.”
I started at the mention of Ricky. He and I had e-mailed a couple of times in the past week, and he had reported that he was earning pocket money shoveling, and that our stepdad had started drinking again, but other than that he hadn’t said much. These days, every time I got an e-mail from him I held my breath as I read it, worried that he would say something like, “I was attacked by a dark shape the other night. What’s going on?” But he never did.
“Your brother is at risk of being used against you, against us. You are aware of that?” Risper asked quietly.
Yes, I was aware, I wanted to scream. “He can’t come here,” I said. “He’s too young.”
Risper nodded. “He can’t come. For now. And he is also fine. For now. I don’t think the demons have much interest in going after a ten-year-old kid, especially not one with the best protections around him that paranormals can muster.” Suddenly there was a flash of white teeth. “And we can muster pretty good protections.”
“Is there something you wanted?” I asked him. I was starting not to care that this man was Lisabelle’s uncle. He was making me nervous. He seemed to know what I was thinking, even if I didn’t say it out loud. When the Committee had first arrived I had been more afraid of Dove, vampire that he was, but Risper was quickly becoming my chief worry.
“Yes,” he said, “I wanted to tell you to stay out of that house and away from the demons.”
“EVERYone is telling me to stay away from the demons,” I retorted angrily. “I’m not stupid.”
Risper’s eyebrows shot into the air again. “I distinctly remember reading something in your file about your being caught out after hours. Is that not true?”
“Oh, I have a file?” I said casually.
To my surprise, Risper threw back his head and laughed. “Yes, you do and no, you can’t read it.”
“But apparently you have,” I muttered.
“I’m a Committee member tasked with your safety,” he argued.
“If I can’t go into that house, how am I supposed to find out more about the President?” I asked.
“You aren’t,” said Risper, shrugging as if it didn’t matter at all.
“Excuse me?”
“It’s being dealt with.”
“How can it possibly be dealt with if I’m not part of it?” I asked.
“You should come,” said Risper. “Zervos is wondering where you are.”
I started to swear, but then caught Risper’s eyes. Apparently the fact that he was all badass did not give me license to swear in his presence.
Instead, I raced away. I knew Zervos was meeting with some of the other students in his class by the gathering place for Tactical and I was supposed to be there. Zervos was going to be angry with me and the semester hadn’t even started yet.
I tried to ignore the threatening presence of the demons, but out in the night air, closer to the barrier that kept them at bay, I could feel them all around us. They wanted me. It was only a matter of time.
Chapter Twenty
“Ms. Rollins,” said Zervos when I hurried towards their group, “I know you’re young and have been attacked and therefore your senses have probably been addled, but is it really too difficult for you to show up at the gathering with the rest of the students?”
“Apparently,” I muttered, moving to pass him without another word.
He reached out one hand, taking my upper arm in a viselike grip.
“Don’t talk to me like that, girl,” he hissed, his black vampire eyes blazing. There was something crazy in the look he gave me, something dangerous. I flinched. Zervos didn’t like me, well, he didn’t like any student, but this was the first time I’d been afraid of him.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. Behind me I heard a couple of giggles. Sure that I knew who it was, I twisted around. Kia and Camilla were standing nearby.
I tried to glare at them, but Zervos shook my arm violently and I cried out.
“Leave her alone,” said a hard voice. Keller appeared at my elbow and covered Zervos’s wrist with his hand. I was pretty sure that, unlike earlier in the day at the Museum, when Keller’s touch had brought me comfort, comfort was not what he was offering Zervos.
Zervos stared at him, the crazy look in his eyes becoming manic. “Unhand me, you fool. You dare touch a teacher?”
“Professor Zervos!” The voice was familiar, and stern. Keller’s aunt was suddenly on the scene. I closed my eyes in mortification. She had made her feelings about Keller and me clear.
“Professor Erikson,” said Professor Zervos, looking slightly bewildered.
“You are over the line,” she said. “Unhand the girl.”
Professor Zervos scoffed. “Everyone dances around her because she’s elemental, when in reality she’s just as tough as her friend Lisabelle Verlans.”
I stared at Zervos. If I didn’t hadn’t known better I would have thought he had just complimented me.
“Unhand her,” Professor Erikson said again. “Keller, let him go,” she ordered, as Zervos opened his mouth to argue.
Keller stared at Zervos, waiting for him to let me go first. I fought back a smile as Zervos let go. He staggered away and Professor Erikson moved in, coming between me and my professor.
“How long has this been going on?” I heard her murmur, but I didn’t catch Zervos’s reply, because Keller touched my arm.
“Are you alright?” His eyes blazed at me even in the darkness.
“Fit as a fiddle,” I muttered. Zervos was nasty, but he wasn’t usually that nasty. I wondered if something was wrong.
“Nice one, Erikson,” said Lanca, gliding up towards us. “Well handled.” Her eyes looked troubled as she watched Zervos walk away with Keller’s aunt. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who thought Zervos’ behavior a bit beyond the usual treachery.
“Thanks,” said Keller, still watching me like a nervous cat. He looked ready to run at the least hint that I was going to snap at him.
But far from wanting to snap at him, I had come to realize something interesting about Keller. He worried about me and tried to protect me, but I almost had the idea that it was more for his own sake than for mine. He respected me as a mage and had faith that I could take care of myself. He just didn’t want anything bad to happen to me.
It was a good realization.
“Come on,” Lanca said. “I left Lealand and we have some Tactical kicking to do.” As she grinned and glided away Evan was forced to leave her side for this part of the evening, and he didn’t look at all happy about it.
Keller and I followed Lanca, but before we found Lealand, Sip and Lisabelle stepped in front of us.
“Keller, how’s it possible that I like you more every semester?” Lisabelle asked, grinning.
Keller beamed at her. “Must be my wit and charm.”
Lisabelle pretended to think. “No, I don’t think that’s it. I would have noticed.”
Sip elbowed her as Keller laughed, and we all hurried toward the field together.
“How’s it going?” Lealand asked as we walked up. “Keller, I’m glad you’re on my team,” he continued, grinning at me.
Keller grinned back. “Did everyone have a chance to study the plan?” he asked.
Lealand smiled. “I have to say, I normally like plans. I find them necessary to have a hig
h functioning day. But I love this one.”
Lanca nodded. “It’s pretty good. I think everyone will go for it. Charlotte just has to sell it.”
“She can sell it,” said Keller, nodding towards me. His confidence gave me confidence, but I still wasn’t sure. I knew I would have to put on a pretty big show, and even then there was no guarantee it would work.
There was tension in the air as the teams gathered for our first real Tactical. I wasn’t sure what to expect, other than to assume that it wasn’t going to go as planned.
Risper strode into the middle of the waiting students, confident and menacing in the darkness.
“Listen up,” he said. “There are at least fifty demons swarming the force field. “I want you all to proceed with caution. In other words, stay away from it.”
He didn’t mention, although he must have known, that I was the only one who could touch it.
Murmurs went up around the circle of listening students as anxious looks were exchanged.
“Everything’s going to be fine,” Lanca said to me comfortingly.
I glanced at her sidelong. Was she saying that for my benefit or her own? I wasn’t sure, but I was sure that vampires were not normally comforting paranormals. Something was definitely wrong.
“Now,” said Risper, “the rules. First, you are not to hurt a fellow student or a professor. This is a game of tactics, not violence, and there is and will be a difference as long as I am in charge.”
“Was there a difference when you found that zombie cave in Africa and commenced decimation?” someone called from the crowd.
Risper paused. I had heard all kinds of stories about Risper in the past couple of days. Apparently even the worst were true.
Risper continued. “Anyone who attacks anyone else has to deal with me. Clear?” He glared around at the crowd of students, daring anyone to argue.
No one did.
“Now, if I may continue?” He didn’t wait for anyone’s permission, he just said, “You will be expected to stay with at least one of your team members. If either group of two is caught, the whole team is out. The boundaries of this game are the tree line, or the force field, and the main buildings. Everything inside those lines is fair game. You are not allowed to go inside any of the small houses; you must remain outside.”
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