Hungry Earth (Elemental Book 2)

by Oxford, Rain

  “What happened?”

  “One of them was moderately successful, and the other one has a scar after he had to reattach his hand.” I figured the wizard he was referring to who had been successful was John.

  We spent the rest of the class discussing this law. As usual, Alpha Flagstone was able to keep it interesting by quoting events and cultures from memory. He wasn’t a wizard, but he knew his history very well.

  At one point during class, he paused mid-sentence and looked at me. There was an acknowledgement in his eyes as if he was listening to something. After a few seconds, he turned away and continued his discussion.

  “Alpha Flagstone, can we continue this Friday?” one student asked. Everyone simultaneously checked their watches and realized it was past time to leave.

  “Yes, we’ll talk more about non-living creatures. Everyone can go. Mr. Sanders, the headmaster needs to see you when you’re done with your classes.”

  When the class cleared out, I stayed put until we were alone. “Are you able to hear Hunt in your mind?” I asked. If Hunt has the ability to communicate between people, maybe I can get some pointers. I had learned naturally and early in life to communicate with animals through emotions and images. Remy was the first person I had used my powers on, and only she and Darwin knew how to speak back. Of course, Darwin was a genius, so I wasn’t surprised. Remy had only managed to communicate a couple of words.

  “It is not something he can teach you,” Flagstone said, obviously understanding why I was asking. He flicked his hand at the door and it slammed closed.

  I gaped. “I thought you weren’t a wizard!” His expression was calm, but guarded. It didn’t escape my notice at all that I was in a room alone with the strongest wolf shifter in the school. Fortunately, my warning instinct didn’t go off.

  “I’m not. I have no magical talent of my own except for my ability to shift between my two forms. That night in the courtyard, when you tried to see what John Cross did, you saw something else in my mind. What did you see?”

  I considered telling him I didn’t see anything, but I figured he wouldn’t believe me.

  “I can smell lies,” he said.

  “I saw that you and your wolf are extremely dominant. I can’t imagine how you and Remy get along. I also saw that you hate wizards.”

  “I hate magic, not wizards.”

  “You hate wizards,” I said. He growled, not used to anyone arguing with him. “I think Hunt and Remy are the only real exceptions. Between John Cross and what I’ve seen so far of the council, I can’t really blame you. I know something happened between you and Hunt, but I’m not sure what.”

  “Good. There are many things in this world that you are better off not knowing. There are also many people who will kill to protect their secrets. Henry knows this, and you and Darwin need to learn it quickly.”

  I nodded. “I respect my friends’ privacy.” I left before he felt the need to make any more threats.

  I was a couple of minutes late for History of Asian Magic, but Tanaka-sensei was in the middle of a conversation with Zhang Wei and another student, so nobody minded. She told us about some of the differences between traditional witchcraft in Asia and in North America.

  One thing I found interesting was how a witch here was expected to have a cat, while a man would have a dog. In Japan, traditional familiars were snakes or foxes.

  In Professor Nightshade’s class, I had learned about witchcraft as a religion versus what we used in the paranormal community, but we didn’t get into familiars, because she said we would have a class on them. While there were classes here based on traditional witchcraft, much of what we focused on geared away from religion.

  In Elemental Configuration, Professor Watson went over the syllabus since it was snowing and nobody wanted to battle in the snow. After my morning classes, I tried to go to the library, but I couldn’t find it. When I ended up in a hallway with a glass floor, I gave up and headed to Kale’s class.

  Kale spoke about how humans treated witches and wizards. He shared some of the details of the Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger until every student’s expression ranged from sickened to horrified.

  Henry and Darwin were both staring at my watch for the last ten minutes of class. As soon as Kale dismissed us, Henry left to attend a night class with Flagstone and Darwin said he had to be anywhere Kale wasn’t.

  Knowing whatever word Hunt wanted to have with me couldn’t be good, I took my dear sweet time packing my stuff, then meandered slowly down the halls and stopped at every painting to ponder for as long as I could manage.

  A vampire stopped beside me in the nearly empty hallway and followed my eyes to the painting. As it was a painting of a window, I understood his confusion. “Do you think it is sunset or sunrise?” I asked when the silence grew awkward.

  “I like to think it’s subjective. A sun sprite would hope it is sunrise, whereas a vampire would hope it is sunset. I think the painting is ambiguous to please as many people as possible.”

  I nodded thoughtfully and we both continued in opposite directions. It wasn’t every day I had a random conversation with a vampire stranger who apparently appreciated the weird art of Quintessence.

  I was heading to Hunt’s office when I passed Alpha Flagstone’s class. Since the door was wide open, I easily heard the commotion and I peered in. There were no desks; a dozen students formed a circle around a wolf and a hyena. The two carnivores weren’t attacking so much as having a staring contest. I recognized the black wolf as the alpha. He gave the slightest hint of a nod an instant before the hyena shifted to a small man with hair that matched his hyena fur. Flagstone also shifted back.

  “Very good,” he told the hyena shifter, who sat on the floor and panted. “You have improved tremendously since last semester. You still felt trapped, though.”

  “The open door helped, but I felt like I was being herded with everyone around me.”

  “Many hyenas are pack hunters. You need to see friends instead of enemies. Devon, if you have a question, come in.”

  Everyone turned to look at me, including Henry, who I hadn’t noticed until then. “No, I was just being nosy. Sorry.”

  “Join us,” he insisted. “We can use you to extend on the lesson.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that, but I entered the room anyway. He gestured to the center of the circle. I trusted my instincts to warn me of any impending trouble, so I did as he asked. Flagstone made a hand signal and six of the students stripped and shifted into wolves. Henry and the remaining four students collectively stepped back.

  “You, too, Brian,” Flagstone said. The hyena hesitated before reluctantly shifting into his hyena form. “Okay, Devon. Say you were randomly wandering the woods at night and you ran into a wolf pack… who had also adopted a hyena. What would you do?”

  “Well, first off, I would gawk, because I never imagined a hyena and wolf would get along. Then I would be more worried about facing the hyena.”

  “You should be most worried about the fact that you are outnumbered.” He made another gesture and the shifters started closing in.

  As their advance became serious, my sense of danger fired up. Oddly enough, my first instinct wasn’t to calm them with my mind, as it had always been when I faced a feral creature. Of course, these were fellow students. One of the wolves growled at me and it took a second to remember her name. “Kaila, back off.” I didn’t yell, but I refused to feel any fear.

  If they were actual wild animals, I would have just used my magic. Instead, these were wolves with human subconscious minds, which could be reasoned with. The female shifter, surprised at hearing me address her so easily, hesitated. I have to respect that they are people, even if they attack as animals, or I would be no better than John.

  The hyena made the chilling laugh that they were known for. I knew without reaching into his mind or even having much prior knowledge of hyenas that this was not a friendly gesture. “Brian,” I said in
a warning tone.

  He froze, his tail flicked, and he stopped making his sound.

  “Yes, I’m talking to you.” Another wolf prepared to attack, but I didn’t know his name. I reached out for his mind. Even though he was directly in front of me, I couldn’t differentiate his mind from the others around me without having encountered them before. I recognized Henry’s and Flagstone’s minds, so I left those alone. For the rest of my opponents, I sent a minuscule amount of fear; just enough to make them hesitate in attacking me. As quickly as I took control of their minds, I let it go.

  I knew some would react badly to fear, so I wasn’t surprised when one of the larger wolves rushed forward to attack me. I was startled when Henry got in front of me and growled at the wolf. The hyena was just as fast, but instead of attacking me, he attacked the wolf that lunged at me.

  “Stop!” Alpha Flagstone demanded.

  Brian ignored his alpha and dug his fangs in the wolf’s shoulder. The wolf cried out in pain and turned his attack on the smaller hyena. “Stop,” I said, not as loud as Flagstone. Brian instantly relented and backed away. The wolf dived behind his alpha.

  “That is interesting,” Flagstone said as Brian paced between me and the wolves.

  “I’m not really sure what happened,” I said. Henry was my roommate and I knew he had a fiercely protective instinct deep inside him, but Brian was a stranger.

  “Brian sees you as more of an alpha than me.”

  “But I’m not any kind of shifter. Why would he see me as an alpha at all?”

  “He may see you as more hyena-like. It’ll be difficult making any more progress with him now.”

  I wouldn’t apologize; Flagstone did ask me to participate and he did pit the shifter against me. “Brian, shift,” I said. He obeyed instantly and grabbed his clothes out of the piles strewn around the room. When he returned to my side immediately after dressing, I was a little frustrated. I didn’t want a hyena following me around. “What is Alpha Flagstone working on you with?” I asked him.

  He opened his mouth to speak, then blushed, closed his mouth, and looked at the floor. “Females are dominant to males in spotted hyena clans,” Flagstone explained. “Brian is the only male of six girls. He is also one of triplets. Unfortunately, all six of his sisters tried to kill him until his mother finally kicked him out. He is extremely shy and afraid of other shifters, especially of females.”

  “But he just attacked a bigger wolf.”

  “He did, which means you got further with him in five minutes than I have in the six years I’ve known him. I worked with him at the children’s school. In fact, I was introduced to him after he locked himself in his room and refused to let anyone in even to bring him food for days.”

  Henry shifted his weight just an inch to the right, subtly placing himself between the closest wolf and Brian. “I’m happy to help if you want target practice for your pack,” I lied, “but I really can’t have a pack of my own.”

  Henry made a subtle sound in the back of his throat. Whether it was a disagreement or a warning, I stopped myself from saying anything else.

  “Devon is acting as a liaison for the vampires at the request of Vincent Knight of the wizard council and therefore will be around vampires. A protective pack member might see an innocent gesture made by a vampire as a challenge to his alpha and cause irreconcilable damage.”

  Several of the wolves backed away and Flagstone nodded. “That’s a good point. In any case, Devon, I believe you have a meeting to get to.”

  Grateful to finally get out of the room, I nodded, left quickly, and didn’t linger at any classrooms. I was focusing on the headmaster, which had always resulted in me finding him easily, so how I came to stand in front of a staircase, I didn’t know. Every other step was missing.

  Recognizing the stairway, I went up it and found myself in the library where Heather and I had been in my dream. The spot I found her at in the library was on the second level, so that was where I started. Unfortunately, after half an hour, I still hadn’t found anything. Half of the books were in foreign languages.

  When I tried to put one of the books back, my instincts fired up. Instead of putting it back, I pulled out three more books and reached into the space. I felt a thin, flexible object and drew it out. It was a black leather-bound journal about four inches wide, six inches tall, and half an inch thick. On the very first page was a circle with symbols and designs. It wasn’t the symbol that was on Heather’s note, but similar. The rest of the pages consisted of designs and symbols similar to those in Vincent’s book as well as what I recognized to be German.

  A loud hiss made me jump and look up, where Ghost was perched on the top of the shelf, glaring at the book. I closed it and put it in my jacket pocket. “Not this time, cat. Nobody is getting this until I know what it is.” The cat adjusted himself to pounce and wrestle the book from me when the door to the library opened. We both froze.

  “Why are we meeting in the library?” Kale asked. I crouched down and peeked over the balcony to see Kale and Grayson.

  “I wasn’t looking for the library. I was trying to find my office. This school is ridiculous. I thought Logan was insane when he said he wanted to buy it from us. I was right.”

  “Do we have any suspects?”

  “Yes. I think Logan took the amulet.”

  “Why?”

  “To control us, of course. And I think he hired John’s son to spy on us.”

  “Then why did we hire him to find the witness?”

  “He has John’s power; he will eventually find all the answers. I want him to trust us when he does. Now, that roommate he has, Henry Lycosa, keep an eye on him. If we can catch him doing something suspicious, we can get his parents. I don’t even care about catching Henry; he’s just working for them.”

  “He would make a good weapon. Maybe we could use his parents to–”

  “No. Eliminating his parents is more important than using his abilities. If we can lock them up for even a minute, they must be dealt with immediately. Now, help me find my damn office.”

  They left. I looked up to see that Ghost had disappeared and figured he was probably telling Vincent what he heard. Of course, Vincent could see through the eyes of the cat. I patted my pocket, reassured that I still had the book, and left the library.

  I had just made it down the steps when I nearly collided with Erik. “Hey, Devon,” he said. He was out of breath. “I’m looking for Headmaster Hunt or Clara. Have you seen either of them?”

  “I haven’t, but I’m heading to Hunt’s office now. What’s wrong?” He looked back as if afraid that someone had followed him, then took the film canister out of his pocket and pulled out the gray stuff. It seemed like any time he wasn’t using his hands, he was fiddling with the play-dough-like substance.

  “There was something in the tunnels.”

  “Like what?” I asked, wondering if he had seen what killed the vampire. If he was the witness, at least I believed he would tell me what he saw.

  “Something big. It knocked down the wall between my room and the morgue. It was either a creature or one of the students is trying to attack us. Either way, I need to talk to Hunt. I heard something roar this morning.”

  “I think I might know what you’re talking about. Darwin and I were chased by something when we were down there in the morgue last semester.”

  “What were you doing in the morgue?”

  I still wasn’t forthcoming about my job with other people, and only a few people knew I came to the school as an investigator. “Normal stuff people do in the morgue,” I said with a shrug. “I’ll help you find Hunt’s office.”

  I focused on finding the headmaster and came upon his office quickly. He was in the chair behind his desk, writing a letter. Ghost was sitting on the desk beside the letter, flicking his tail rhythmically like the ticking of a clock.

  “Good evening, Devon, Erik.” He put his fountain pen down and sat back.

  “Good evening, Mr. Hunt,”
Erik said, obviously uncomfortable. “There is something on the underground level. It knocked down the wall between my room and the morgue.”

  Hunt nodded. “I will send Alpha Flagstone down there to take care of it immediately.”

  Erik hesitated. “Just like that?”

  “Of course. I cannot let any harm come to my students.”

  “Thank you. I’ll head to class then.” He tried to act composed as he walked quickly to the door and shut it behind him.

  “The vampires are a jumpy lot.”

  “You would be also if you were as ostracized as them. Most people treat plague victims with more kindness than wizards do with vampires. I have worked very hard to get equal rights for them in our community.”

  “But you didn’t let them in the school before.”

  “Before, the wizard council deemed it legal for the wizards to openly hunt vampires. I could not let them in because it was not safe for them. Have you had to stop many fights?”

  “In the first three days? Not really. I think they’re still trying to get used to their classes. I expect the pecking order will come into question this weekend, and I bet it’ll be a bloodbath. Considering the leeches, that–”

  “Devon,” he interrupted. “You are frustrating sometimes.”

  “Actually, I meant that Tali and Jessica from my potions class are planning to set leeches loose in Professor Barton’s potions class.”

  “Then that could be a problem. What did you find out about the council?”

  I decided not to tell him about the book, since Ghost obviously wanted to take it. “How does Vincent not know? I thought he was a respected member of the council.”

  “He is John’s brother; the council is beginning to hide things from him.”

  “I believe the council is here because something was taken from them and they think you have it. They didn’t say exactly what it was, but they referred to an amulet.”

  He groaned. “I can think of only one amulet they had that would cause this much trouble and have them racing to retrieve it.”