by Oxford, Rain
“It is in… Germany.”
I turned and left the room. I was seriously beginning to think Darwin was the only one in the entire school who told the truth… and he was a hacker/spy.
I knocked on the closest door. “The creature is gone and everyone needs to move out.”
The door burst open before I could knock again and a teenaged girl lunged at me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist. “It got Jena!” she cried, shaking. She said something else, but she was stuttering and her mouth was pressed against my shoulder.
“Okay, okay, I need you to let go. Calm down and we can find her.” I was able to pry her off me, but her legs wouldn’t hold her up, so I ended up crouched beside her as she wrapped her arms around her knees and tried to stop wailing. I stroked her hair. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“The ground… it opened up… like it fucking ate her or something!” As clear tears streamed from her huge, celadon eyes down her face, she looked so much like any human girl who saw something horrific. Her fluffy white-blond hair was streaked with what appeared to be ash and blood. I realized why when she ran her hands through her hair; her hands were badly scraped.
“Where did this happen?”
She sniffled and her hand shook as she pointed down the hallway. “Outside the morgue. We heard someone had died and we were trying to see who.”
“There’s a lower level. She could be alive,” Dr. Martin said, taking off down the hallway before I could ask anything else about what happened.
I ran after him and was followed closely by the vampire. The system of tunnels was a maze, but Dr. Martin apparently knew it well, because he led us straight to a set of stone steps down to an identical floor. “Are there vampires here, too?”
“No. The upper level was cleared of traps. This level hasn’t been.” He froze and held out his broken arm to stop us from going further. I raised the torch and didn’t see anything. A roar shook dust from the rock slab that made up the ceiling.
“What the hell is down here?” I asked. The vampire grabbed my free arm. “What’s your name?” I whispered.
“Roselyn. Call me Rosie.”
“I’m Devon.”
“Watch your step,” the doctor said, creeping along the wall. Rosie and I stayed close to the wall until we saw a pile of rocks and dirt. Rosie shrieked and ran for the debris. I followed with the torch as Dr. Martin glanced around nervously. “Hurry, hurry.”
In the center of the pile was a small crater where a woman was unconscious. Rosie started shaking her. “Careful,” I warned. “You could hurt her worse if she has broken bones.” That was assuming she was still alive.
“We once explored the dragon’s lair,” Dr. Martin muttered in a poetic tune. “… to find all the treasure that was buried there…”
I knew it was a nervous reaction, but it was ominous enough down here without senseless rambling. “Dr. Martin, I don’t think this is the time.”
“… but out we came, lickety-split, ‘cause all we found was dragon–”
“Help us move her,” I demanded. That got his attention and he rushed forth to help. The woman moaned and Rosie began crying again, but it was with relief.
Then a gust of wind blew through the tunnel from deeper in the complex. Danger. My instincts suddenly demanded that I get out. The torch died, bathing us in utter darkness. Rosie screamed. I dropped the torch, reached out, pulled her into my arms, and put my hand over her mouth.
I sensed its movement because it was huge, but I couldn’t see anything at all. It was oddly silent; I only heard something when Dr. Martin grunted. It sounded like he hit the wall and then there was a loud scraping sound of rock against rock.
When I felt movement behind me, I reached out with my magic to grasp control of whatever mind I could.
I encountered a strong mental wall around his mind, but it was enough that I recognized who he was. Professor Langril was fast and ran for the threat as if he could see perfectly. The darkness was finally broken by none other than a sword. Only this sword wasn’t like anything I had ever seen. It was metal— sort of— but as he swung it, the blade emitted a cool blue light. What it struck left me speechless.
The creature we faced, obscured in darkness, was as black as space and had a slick hide, which sounded like stone when the blade struck it. Sparks flew and the creature roared. To my shock, Langril roared right back at it; an unearthly roar no human could make. His blade darkened as he lowered it and instead raised his hand, from which the same red lightning he had used on me burst. It was immensely brighter, blindingly bright even, so I had to blink the spots out of my eyes when it was pitch-black again.
Fire erupted from the torch, which Langril was holding. I saw that the creature was gone as the room filled with light. Dr. Martin was calmer than I had expected. “Did you get it?” he asked Langril.
The professor sighed. “I almost had it, but Vincent got in my way. Those damn familiars are getting to be a problem.”
“You two can be cryptic later. Help me get everyone onto the ground floor,” I said. Dr. Martin immediately walked over and picked up the half-conscious woman as if she was a sack of feathers.
When we got back upstairs, we found Henry, Hunt, and Remy clearing out the vampires, who had all apparently seen one form of destruction or another. Hunt glared at Langril as he passed the professor and helped an injured man to his feet. It looked like several walls had collapsed, injuring ten vampires, while a dozen more had been chased out of their rooms by the creature that crashed through their wall.
It took two hours to evacuate thirty-five vampires. Once they were safe in the library, Henry and I decided to go back to our room since we had a little time to relax before Kale’s class began.
We were passing Hunt’s office, probably because I was wondering where he had been when his vampire students were in trouble. We would have walked right on by, except his door was open and we heard a grunt. I looked just in time to see Hunt shove Langril against the wall.
“If he gets the key now, it is your fault! We will all be dead! Does that matter at all to you?!”
It was the second time I had seen the headmaster angry, but this wasn’t just anger; the headmaster hated Langril. I thought he had been angry when John turned Flagstone against him and controlled Remy, but there was something much deeper about this.
Langril straightened the collar of his suit. “It matters, but if you and Vincent would just stay out of the way, I can get the key and–”
“And you will screw up again.”
“If you get the key, I’ll never see Heather again.”
“Eavesdropping again?”
Startled, I turned to see Alpha Flagstone right behind us. Henry had sensed his approach but apparently thought I didn’t need to know. I looked back to see both Hunt and Langril watching me with identical irritated expressions. “If you don’t want people to watch, don’t air out your dirty laundry with your door open,” I advised.
“Duly noted,” Hunt said, flicking his hand outward. The door slammed closed in my face.
I sighed and turned back to Alpha Flagstone. “Apparently, I’m going to have to get Darwin to do all the digging.”
The shifter actually looked sad. “Devon, you are not ready to deal with this. You may have more than enough power, but you haven’t learned to control it. Logan and your uncle are just trying to protect you by keeping this from you.” Flagstone sounded very sincere. Henry was silent, as if waiting for my reaction.
“I knew I was going to be an investigator since I was a kid. It’s what I am and it’s what I do. I’m not on Hunt’s side, the council’s side, or Langril’s side. I will find out what’s going on and then I will decide what to do about it, if anything. I know I have a lot to learn, and if it seems out of my league, I can handle that… but only after I know what it is.”
It wasn’t like I never referred clients to specialists before. Hell, all of Marcus’s clients were referred to him by me. I just never stuck
my hand into a case, passed it on, or refused it until I had at least an idea of what I was dealing with.
Chapter 5
The next day, Professor Langril was back to teaching as if nothing happened. Actually, a lot had happened overnight. The vampires were bunking with other students while the underground level was searched by Alpha Flagstone. After seeing the vampires go through a traumatic attack, all but Jackson and his gang decided that vampires weren’t actually that bad.
Darwin was working with Clara to organize the vampires and with Amelia to organize an activities committee. Henry wanted to search the underground level himself, but Hunt wouldn’t let him in. I knew that Hunt didn’t want our help, which just made me want to find out what he was hiding. There was also the matter of the council’s amulet. Unfortunately, dealing with the vampires had taken almost all my time.
At midnight on Thursday, I was waiting in front of the forest for Professor Langril. For some reason I expected him to be late, so I was surprised when he appeared from the dark depths of the forest at the stroke of midnight, at least according to my spotty watch.
“Have you figured out what earth magic is yet?” he asked.
“In Elemental Configuration, Professor Watson said that earth takes on qualities of the other elements. We fired clay to make ceramics on Monday. I don’t really see what that has to do with magic, though.”
“Watson is extremely figurative in his teaching. He will never tell you something outright, so everything he has you do is a puzzle. What do you think it meant?”
I thought about it. “Well, we shaped the clay cups with water, and then glazed it and fired it in a kiln. I guess the lesson could have been that when you mix elements to create something, you can’t always undo it or separate them.”
“That is a good lesson to learn.”
“So you’re not going to shoot lightning at me again?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“How do you walk into and out of the dark?”
“Read the answer from my mind.”
“Your mind is blocked.”
He smirked. “Because you are not ready. Controlling your power and fighting it are not the same things.”
“I’m not fighting my magic. I just don’t want to control someone’s mind accidentally. Since killing John, I seem to react more and more with magic— particularly my mind controlling magic.”
“It is a power you were born with and was made stronger by John’s death. Come with me.” He turned and disappeared into the forest. He led me to the same clearing as before and my suspicion grew, but my instincts didn’t warn me of danger. “Have you ever had an imaginary friend?” he asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“Heather had an imaginary friend, but she didn’t know his name.”
“That’s odd.”
“It is. Do you know why?” he asked. I shook my head. “Because in magic, you can control a being if you know its name, and this particular being didn’t want my daughter having control over him.”
“It wasn’t imaginary?”
“No. Unfortunately, Heather’s mother thought he was. I found Heather in time, but Miranda was killed.”
“Did you get his name?”
“I did. However, by then, he was already too powerful to control. How Heather survived as long as she had was because of her innate grasp of earth magic. If she were still alive, she would be your elemental mentor.”
“So she was more powerful than you?”
“Like I said; I was a wizard there, not here. I am probably the most powerful man you have ever met, yet my power doesn’t work as well here, when it works at all. Anyway, Heather’s strength was earth magic at its strongest. Whereas water is the element of healing and love, earth is the element of grounding, nurturing, and strength. The earthen elementals themselves protected and guided her.”
“What does this have to do with me?”
“I know the water elementals came to you and helped you last semester. I believe that if you can ally yourself with each element, you can help us.”
“What is it you need?”
“A key,” he said. Instead of explaining, he sighed. “Now, back to work.” He held his hands out in front of him and the ground before his feet started to move. Although the disturbance was only about a foot wide, I took several steps back. Clumps of frozen dirt rose from the ground and formed an ice-mud snowman in midair. The professor grasped the object and started pinching the bottom of it to form fat, stubby legs, and then did the same with the middle section to create arms. As he molded the figure, he spoke in a foreign language.
“What is that?” I asked, unable to identify what it was supposed to be.
“I don’t know, but it’s yours. Your lesson this week is to take this home and treat it like your pet. Talk to it, rant about your stresses, dress it, whatever. Most importantly, you need to name it.”
“You want me to name a hunk of mud?”
“You need to nurture it and give it power, but you also need to name it so it is yours.”
“I’m not a nurturing guy, and taking care of a clump of mud is a little outside my job description.”
“It is, however, your assignment. You cannot pass your circle without passing your element training.”
“All you wizards with your secrets and threats…” I carefully sidestepped the torn patch in the ground and took the muddy object. It was wet and frigid. “So, I can get a babysitter for it, right? Or a full time nanny?”
“I guess that depends on if it is a vindictive creature or not.”
It really didn’t resemble any creature I knew. “It doesn’t have a face.”
“Does it need one?”
“Yes. It’s creepy without a face.”
“Interesting.” He turned and disappeared into the shadows.
I took the muddy statue back to the dorms, hoping to get a little bit of normalcy before bed… except this was a university of wizards, shifters, fae, and vampires. I was lucky if I didn’t wake up with my uncle’s cat biting me or an undine sitting on me. Fortunately, the fact that Regina couldn’t find me here made even the bad days worth it.
Darwin met me at the entrance of the dorms. Unlike Henry, Darwin was an extremely expressive person. His hands clinched inside the cuffs of his hoodie the way they did when he was expecting someone to try to touch him and his eyes were their lightest shade of blue, which happened when he was using math in his head to predict outcomes.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Word has gotten out about the vampire murder and the other students are blaming Jackson. They’re also blaming him for the attack the other night.”
“Jackson isn’t smart enough to pull something like that off and not leave a scent.”
“I agree, but the vampires don’t know him like we do. What the hell is that?” he asked when he noticed the mud doll in my hands.
“My assignment from Langril.”
“It doesn’t have a face. I hope he told you to drown it.”
“Now, that’s not nice.” He gave me a peculiar frown and I sighed, not sure why I just defended a hunk of mud. “Langril’s a weird guy, but he did save me from flunking out. Where is Jackson?”
“He’s hiding in his room with his gang. He was in the cafeteria when Landon overheard two teachers talking about the death. Landon came running in screaming that Cooper was murdered. They all thought he had been called back to the coven.” He yawned.
“If Jackson’s door will hold, we can deal with it in the morning. Who did Landon overhear?” I asked as we headed for our room.
“Professor Anderson and Professor Hendricks. Hendricks is standing guard outside of Jackson’s door in case the vampires try to attack him again.”
“I think Anderson and Hendricks might be as bad as Jackson.”
“They were both hired on here this year to take care of the vampires.” We arrived at the room to find Henry at his desk, scribbling in his notebook again. When I sh
ut the door, he didn’t look up or react at all. He was a shifter and therefore had heightened senses, so the lack of acknowledgement told me he was putting all his focus into his notebook.
Darwin crept up behind him to try to peek at the notebook. I saw the moment Henry realized he wasn’t alone; his shoulders rose, his hand froze, and a low growl started in his chest. Darwin immediately backed off and climbed the ladder to his bed. As nosy as he was and as badly as the curiosity must have bothered him, Darwin couldn’t afford to fight with anyone physically.
I knew if I set my mud doll on my desk, the water would ruin the wood, so I dug around through my bookshelf, pulled out the old school handbook, and set the mud doll on it.
“What is that?” Henry asked, frowning at the mud artifact.
“I don’t know what it’s supposed to be, but Langril gave it to me to take care of. He said I needed to name it.”
“What do you name something like that?”
I shrugged and climbed the ladder. “I’ll think of something later.”
* * *
Friday morning was quiet. It wasn’t until the vampires woke and demanded Jackson’s blood that the trouble started.
Only three of the seven vampires in Kale’s class showed up. Darwin discreetly asked one of the female vampires at the table next to us what was going on and I was able to hear the woman’s response.
“That pansy-ass jester didn’t kill Cooper,” she said irritably. “Anyone with a brain knows he never stood a chance against Cooper. Whoever killed my friend is about to get away with it because everyone is hung up on a third-rate racist prick.”
The minute the sun went down on Saturday night, a group of vampires decided to hound Jackson’s door until Professor Hendrick gave up and left. Clara had to break up the group, but by then, Jackson had had enough. Everyone was drawn to the commotion as Jackson left the school, saying that he was too good for a school that allowed vampires.
It was quiet for the rest of the weekend.
* * *
On Tuesday, Remy proudly stated that we were going to have a treasure hunt. The losers all had to clean the libraries, whereas the winners didn’t. We got in pairs and Remy said she was going to show us the spell only once, after which we were left on our own.