I saw several paranormals whom I knew to be upper class students exchange worried looks. Many of them, I was sure, were attending Public only at the demand of their parents, and they weren’t looking forward to working especially hard.
“These are exciting times,” Dobrov continued. “I know it may not seem like it, but the fact of the matter is, born out of the destruction and hardship you all have experienced, there is opportunity. There is the chance to create the world however you want it to be. The old establishments were burned to the ground. In their place the opportunities are endless.
“I realize that returning to a school with barebones resources and unknown threats – yes, there are threats – might not feel like an opportunity, especially considering what some of you have gone through. But I hope that in time you can come to see it as such. I hope that in time we can all work together to see it as such.”
He cleared his throat and looked around the room. “One last thing. There are fewer of you here tonight than there should be, by a wide number. It is more important than ever that we respect one another, that we respect where we each have come from, that we work together for something better. Enjoy your first semester here at Paranormal Public and congratulations again on being members of the inaugural class.” With a tight smile and a small nod, he turned around and sat down. Scattered applause filled the hall.
I saw Fallgrabber twitch and wondered if it was because Dobrov hadn’t said anything about behaving. I smiled a little at the thought.
Looking around at the other tables, I noticed that most of the students in the hall were eyeing their tablemates with more attention than before. Since Dobrov had said we’d be stuck with each other, I decided I’d better do the same.
Our table was wide and square, seating pretty much an even number of guys and girls, though overall Public seemed to have a few more guys than girls.
“I feel outnumbered,” Keegan muttered.
“Why?” I asked.
“You didn’t notice?”
“Notice what?”
“There’s a pretty high concentration of vampires in our group,” he said. I looked around and saw that he was right. One whole side of the table was vampires.
“Think they’re Rapiers? Did they let other sects in?” Keegan asked.
“Truth be told, I’m not sure,” I said.
At that point there was a long pause while we all got up from our tables and went to the food stations to fill our plates. The food was plentiful and varied, and since I had been starving for hours, I was more than ready to devour the meal.
Only after we sat down again did I realize how many questions there were that I should have asked Charlotte. A sort of depression hit me at all the unknowns, but I reminded myself that I’d surely feel better if I got some dinner into my stomach. With a sigh I picked up my fork, stabbed a piece of broccoli, raised it to my lips, then put it back down again. Despite how I’d been feeling just a few minutes ago, all of a sudden I wasn’t hungry, at least not for anything healthy. So I went back to the dinner bar and got a serving of macaroni and cheese: much easier to eat when worried.
I was halfway through my meal when an earsplitting noise and a crash put a sudden stop to the low hum of conversation in the hall. Keegan and I looked around in alarm and saw that one of the tables had been overturned and everyone sitting at it had scattered.
Well, not everyone. Two small groups were facing off in the debris of dinner.
“Looks like the pixies and the vampires aren’t getting along already, surprise, surprise,” said Keegan grimly.
Everyone in the hall was looking at the groups around the overturned table. I glanced at President Valedication, but he was just sitting quietly. Other professors were clearly looking to him to intervene, but he was just as clearly going to let this play out, no matter the consequences.
Three big vampires had faced off against the Volans. Six pixies, not one of whom was taller than the smallest vampire’s elbow, stared them down. The fact that pixies were small didn’t mean they weren’t deadly; everyone knew that. They used pixie dust and cunning to their advantage, and they were famous, or infamous, for being ruthless and mean.
Historically, the resident vampire prince or princess or a fallen angel might have intervened in a fight, as Keller surely would have if he had still been a student. But there were only a few fallen angels at Public at the moment, because an entire group was holding out due to negotiations with Sip about something or other. Keller had been called away to deal with the emergency, and Charlotte had said that she hoped the angels would arrive tomorrow. There were several empty seats at my table, and I could only assume that was why.
Finally, just when it seemed like the tension was ready to explode into a violent fight, a girl from our table with lots of hair, dark blue eyes, and a determined expression stood up. She didn’t move very fast; it was as if she was studying the situation as she went toward it – alone.
“Is she crazy?” Keegan asked. “She shouldn’t step in the middle of that mess!”
I nodded, but my eyes stayed on the girl as she pushed and shoved her way through the crowd of students who had gotten up from their seats, seemingly caught between the desire to get out of harm’s way and the desire to see what would happen next.
A big vampire with an over-sized ring in one nostril saw the girl and started making his way toward her. She didn’t seem to see the danger; she kept right on shoving her way toward the snarling vampires and the cold-eyed pixies.
“He’s going to kill her,” I muttered, and without thinking I started moving toward the brewing battle. I was so intent on the girl and the vampire that I didn’t notice how much easier a time I had getting to the front of the room than the girl had, or how a few of the vampires and pixies watching the battle turned to look at me but made no move to stop me.
A memory flashed through my mind as I pushed my way toward the fight, a vision of a girl’s dead eyes. Not all that long ago, when I was on the run from my life, I’d had a friend named Gretchen, and now she was dead. In that instantaneous flash, I remembered her smile and her mischief and how much she cared about her family. A pixie had killed her. It wasn’t that I hated all pixies, but I wouldn’t have minded watching a group of badass vampires beat some up. Still, a big brawl on the first night wouldn’t do anything for Dobrov’s popularity as president, so I also wasn’t going to mind seeing the fight defused. Somehow.
The girl reached the edge of the ring. She still hadn’t seen the strapping vampire with the nose ring, but just as she moved to take one more step, he reached out a large hand, moving faster than I could follow with my eyes, and grabbed her by the back of the neck. With a cry, he sent her flying backward in one fluid motion. A scream ripped from her throat and she soared like a doll as everyone else in the room watched, helpless.
Well, almost everyone.
In the last second before she crashed into the far wall, a current of air shot out, scooped her up in a cradling motion, and gently deposited her on a window seat just below the wide bank of windows that let a view of the sky into the dining room.
The vampire who had thrown her gaped, his mouth falling open like a trap and staying that way. For one brief moment, bewilderment swept his features. Then, slowly, his expression turned to anger as his eyes found mine. My ring hummed. I didn’t watch the girl soar or land; I didn’t need to anymore, not after what had happened at Camilla’s trial. I simply made sure I didn’t hear the crash of a hard landing. The vampire’s eyes fired and a couple of other vampires turned to look where Nose Ring was looking.
By then I had nearly reached them. Most of the students had turned their attention away from the girl and toward me and the vampire group I had just angered. I stopped and stood my ground, my hands still in my pockets.
“Are you really going to fight, too, tree sprite?” spit out one of the nasty-looking vampires.
I turned my head far enough to see that Keegan was standing to my right and slightly
behind me, his hands comfortably in his pockets. He was staring at the vampires, his face alert but otherwise expressionless. I hadn’t heard him follow me, but I smiled a little when I saw him.
“I’m not afraid of you,” Keegan said. “You’re just a vampire.”
Nose Ring smirked. “That’s just because you haven’t fought me yet.” His smile grew wider, and I started to wonder if Keegan and I really shouldn’t be doing this. But the vision of the girl flying through the air gave me my answer.
Sure, Charlotte had begged me to stay under the radar, but she had also acknowledged that as the second elemental I was going to find anonymity nearly impossible, no matter what she or I really wanted. I sighed. I had the best intentions of doing what she asked, but I hadn’t gotten through the first night without an opportunity for trouble.
Then Dobrov rescued all of us. “Alright, enough,” he called, his voice cutting effortlessly through the crowd. I had nearly forgotten he was there, and at least one of the pixies who’d been preparing to fight apparently didn’t care. He lazily threw a handful of dust at the feet of one of the vampires, who sprang forward. It looked like there was going to be a fight after all.
One second Dobrov was standing on the podium. The next he was slamming the young pixie backward. The other Volans students looked shocked, but they made no move to help their friend. I wouldn’t have either. Hybrids like Dobrov were a particular kind of scary.
“I said, that’s enough.” Though Dobrov didn’t speak loudly, I was sure he could be heard in every part of the hall. I thought particularly of the blue-eyed girl, and when I looked in her direction I saw that she was making her way back toward the front of the room. Her eyes were on me, and I waited for them to shift to our president and the action, but they didn’t. They stayed on me.
Meanwhile, the vampires and the other pixies were dispersing, a smart move. Dobrov did not look like he was going to tolerate another second of insubordination. The pixie who had thrown the dust looked pale and had already sat down. The girl reached me and smiled.
“Hi,” she said brightly.
“Hi,” I said, unsure of what she expected to happen next. Keegan turned around to stare at her, his eyes going wide. I saw him swallow hard.
Before I could say anything else to the girl, her right foot swung backward so that she was balancing on her left. Still not understanding what was happening, I was wholly taken by surprise by the sharp kick she aimed at my shin.
Without a word, the blond girl flipped her hair and walked away. Keegan raced up to me and said, “Wow, I didn’t know girls were like that.”
I rubbed my shin. I didn’t either.
Chapter Nine
President Quest Makes Concessions . . . Fallen Angels to Arrive at Public.
The next morning at breakfast, President Valedication presented the student body with more information about the semester by releasing an official letter.
All the students bent over their letters with excitement. There had been a lot of tension over the question of what it meant to attend Paranormal Public in this era, and this was going to be another big clue. The arrival of a group of smug-looking fallen angels hadn’t helped.
Another bit of excitement for me personally was that the blond girl was in my group. This morning she was, in fact, sitting next to Keegan. He appeared terrified when she first sat down, but when she pretended not to recognize him he calmed down slightly.
“Can I have the salt?” asked the girl after we had been eating for a few minutes.
The salt was right next to Keegan’s place, but the request for some reason made his shoulders shoot up to his ears. He looked petrified. When he made no move to hand it to her she asked, “Well?”
Keegan reached over and pushed the salt toward her without looking at her.
“I’m Eighellie,” she said, seemingly to the table at large.
“Ricky,” I told her. She sniffed at me.
“I’m Keegan,” said the tree sprite, still not looking at her. A couple of the other members of our group, who had ignored us so far, gave us curious looks but didn’t say anything. It was as if they thought that the idea of introducing yourself to someone you were going to spend a lot of time with was insane. The girl who had just introduced herself didn’t seem to have anything further to say either. I waited for some follow-up to the introduction, which she had instigated, after all, but all she did was bend her head down to read President Valedication’s letter.
Printed on Dobrov’s official stationery, the letter started, “Each group is to devise its own year-end test, a sort of capstone project, if you will. This project is intended to foster fundamental skills such as team building and working together to achieve goals and overcome obstacles. It will force teams to think critically about what they really want.”
“Imagine any of us actually knowing what we really want,” said Keegan, shaking his head.
“Don’t you?” Eighellie sounded amazed. “I have a list.”
Keegan twitched.
The notice continued, “Once that’s taken care of, your next step will be to submit the plan to the president for approval.
“That’s just crazy,” Keegan said, looking horrified. “It’s the worst idea in the world.”
“To get President Valedication’s approval?” Eighellie asked.
Ignoring her, Keegan looked at me with shock and wonder and said, “To work together!”
“Tree sprites are famously difficult to get along with,” Eighellie observed.
“No we aren’t!” Keegan shot back. “And anyhow, who says?”
“‘The History of Tree Sprites’ is who says,” said Eighellie, rolling her eyes.
The letter seemed like no big deal to me, but other students were also sputtering and complaining as they absorbed its contents. Most of the anger was directed at the requirement for working closely with other paranormal types. It had been clear from the first night’s dinner that none of the vampires, pixies, fallen angels, or the like intended to cooperate with one another.
Keegan put the feeling into words. “This is dumb, and awful,” he said. “Awful, and also dumb.”
“Hey, what do you think of this idea?” I said.
“Why do you think this is such an awful idea?” Eighellie asked, gazing at Keegan and ignoring my sarcasm. “Just because you don’t work well with others?”
“I work fine with others,” said Keegan. “Just because Ricky hasn’t had a good idea since we met doesn’t mean that he won’t.”
“I’m sure his time will come,” said Eighellie, blinking at Keegan. She was still waiting for an actual response to her question.
Keegan gave a gusty sigh. “The biggest problem I see,” he said, “is that teammates can use the assignment against each other. Instead of working together, they can just as easily work to tear each other down. We don’t get along. There’s no cooperation. It’s us against them and that’s not going to change anytime soon. It doesn’t matter that Rake is nice to us or that Sip comes to visit. Cooperation among paranormal types is dead.”
“That was a big paragraph for you to say all at once,” said Eighellie, “but President Valedication is never going to let that happen. The letter says he has to approve the plans, so I’m sure it will all be fine.”
Keegan leaned forward so that his weight was braced on his elbows. He had clearly forgotten that he didn’t want to talk to this girl. “I highly doubt it,” he said flatly.
“To be fair,” I said, “paranormals are already designing tests to get rid of each other. It’s not like that’s news or that Dobrov doesn’t know. He made a conscious choice to do this, so I’m sure he has a way to protect the paranormals that other students want to get rid of.”
I swallowed hard. My words were brave and optimistic, but if Keegan was right – and now that he had said it, I had to admit I wouldn’t be surprised – I was in big trouble. Vampires might squabble amongst themselves, but they would always unite against a common enemy – or a
n elemental.
My pessimistic reverie was interrupted by the sight of Eighellie frantically searching through the papers in her backpack. “What are you doing?” I asked, mystified. How could she have accumulated so many papers already, when the semester hadn’t even started yet?
“I’m researching,” she said, looking up. “The best thing to do when you don’t know something is research.”
“I bet that’s your answer for everything,” said Keegan. “You’ve made your own little notebook and a key that points to all kinds of cool facts, so you’ll have the answer to absolutely everything whenever you want it, even non-academic slash life-threatening kinds of questions. Like, your mind probably goes something like this: Want an apple? Research! Think a table is pretty? Research!”
“But the semester hasn’t started . . .” I muttered.
Eighellie shook her head, her hands still stuffed full of papers. “That doesn’t even make sense,” she said, rolling her eyes again.
Instead of taking his turn to retort, Keegan suddenly gave a cry. The paper in his hands had burst into flames, and he was forced to drop it to avoid being badly burned. All around the dining hall, other students were having the same experience. The papers they’d been reading so avidly were now burning to nothing, leaving an acrid smoke in the air. Then the smoke was itself was swirled by a wind that seemed to be carrying it away. I would have thought it was an elemental wind, except that I wasn’t the one generating it.
Cries and confusion filled the room.
Elemental Havoc (Paranormal Public Book 11) Page 6