I called the wind. It was becoming a very useful trick. At the same moment, Lisabelle went for the fire. The swirling wind came easily to me; I barely had to think to call it with my ring at this point. Lisabelle had more of a time of it, because she was directly fighting Faci’s magic. The vampire saw what Lisabelle was trying to do right away, and it just made him redouble his efforts. But even if Lisabelle couldn’t overpower Faci, I could still use the wind to redirect the stones. At least I hoped I could.
As it happened, though, Lisabelle was stronger. She started extinguishing the fires earlier and earlier, and Faci got more and more frustrated.
“Stop it,” the vampire hissed. “How dare you get in my way? You don’t even have a wand.”
“Oh, believe me, she dares,” said Sip, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring.
Just then Zervos came up to us like a clap of thunder, his fury clear in every line of his pinched face. He was so enraged he could barely speak.
“Oliva,” he managed to spit out. “Where is Oliva?” His eyes looked around frantically, as if he expected to see the president of Public just casually hanging out in the grass watching Faci try to kill innocent animals.
“I didn’t DO anything,” Lisabelle said furiously, as Faci melted back into the pack of students. “I was just standing here.”
“Ms. Verlans, your just standing there is the equivalent to a normal paranormal setting off a bomb,” said Zervos, his eyes bulging. “No one go ANYWHERE. If you so much as move I will see you punished.”
Zervos stormed off as Faci snickered. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what the noise meant. It was hard to tell.
“Faci,” Lisabelle said, her eyes burning, “you sound like a bleating sheep being strangled.”
“You strangle poor little animals?” Faci asked. “That’s so mean.”
Remembering the dog Faci had tortured at Vampire Locke, I flinched. In many ways I dated that as my first direct experience with evil. When Faci had then killed Lanca’s sister Dirr, I realized that he was far worse than Camilla or Daisy, because with Faci the hate wasn’t just words. He enjoyed killing, and killing little animals was clearly only practice for bigger things.
“Lisabelle, don’t you have a cat now?” Faci asked, sounding bored as he examined imaginary dirt under his fingernails.
I was amazed that Faci knew exactly what button to push. Lisabelle came forward with such fury I felt the earth underneath me shift. Daisy, who had been standing quietly, quickly stepped in front of Faci, and my friend skidded to a halt, unsure even in her rage of what to do next. Daisy was the only student I had ever seen who gave Lisabelle pause, but I didn’t think it was because Daisy was especially powerful. I thought it was because Daisy was especially crazy.
“What are you going to do?” Faci asked, still in that casual drawl. “Hurt me? I do believe Zervos told you not to move.”
“If you go near that cat I’ll see you skinned,” Lisabelle breathed, her eyes looking like black pools of anger. All the other watching students held their breath. I had never seen anyone bait Lisabelle before, but Faci was enjoying it.
“I’m sure I won’t,” said Faci, finally looking up. “I was just thinking it was such a waste of space, that cat. I’m sorry you had to wind up with it. If you ever want me to take it off your hands, just ask.”
Lisabelle took a deep breath and started to turn around, giving Sip a casual shrug. The werewolf relaxed next to me, the tenseness that enveloped her whenever Lisabelle was fighting seeping away. Daisy moved back to her place among the students, and Faci returned to gazing at birds.
Without warning Lisabelle spun back around. Daisy had moved and Lisabelle now had a clear path to Faci.
I didn’t have time to stop her, and neither did Sip. Lisabelle brought her arm up so quickly, and the burst of black flame shot out so fast, that all we could do was stand and watch in horror as Faci sustained a direct hit. Lucky for Faci, his ring called up a shield, but the vampire still went flying backward and slammed into the ground in a curl of gray smoke.
Lisabelle kept going forward.
Daisy stood there, dumbfounded for just a moment. Then she started to move. Sip transformed and raced to block the hybrid; for some reason, Sip wasn’t afraid of Daisy the way Lisabelle was. The werewolf released a low growl, and then the visiting New York City werewolf crossed his arms over his chest and smiled. If I hadn’t known better I would have said that he was impressed.
I rushed forward and grabbed Lisabelle’s arm. I had forgotten about the wand, and I let go with a cry as soon as I touched it. Lisabelle was so consumed with fury she barely noticed, but at least she had stopped blasting Faci.
The vampire struggled into a sitting position. He looked a little shocked, but he was otherwise unharmed.
My eyes were watering, my hands burned, and I stumbled away from my friend. Sip, who had sufficiently cowed Daisy, returned to her human form.
“Are you alright?” Sip asked me, rushing forward and turning over my hands. They were unmarked. I had a feeling that Lisabelle’s magic had recognized me as a friend and protected me from any serious harm.
“Yes,” I said. “I think so.” Then I looked at Lisabelle.
The darkness mage stood with fists clenched at her sides, breathing hard. I had a feeling she was trying to control a great rage as she watched Faci struggle to his feet. His eyes, so far back in his head I had trouble seeing them, were watering, and he was coughing from all the smoke. There was a hole in the layers of clothing that covered his chest, where Lisabelle had scored a direct hit.
Faci pushed himself to a standing position and glared at the darkness mage. “I’ve spent years hearing of the fearsome Lisabelle Verlans,” he spat. “Is that really the best you can do? I would have thought you’d kill me, but you didn’t even break the skin.” Then he cackled and stepped toward her.
“Let’s go, Lisabelle,” said Sip, but she didn’t touch our friend. Lisabelle turned to us, barely glancing at all the students who were still watching wordlessly.
“Maybe I’ll go after that cat after all,” Faci said.
I flinched and made another grab for my friend, knowing she was faster than I was and that my attempt was probably futile. To my initial great relief, the blasting power that shot out of her arm wasn’t directed at Faci but at the ground right in front of him, creating a massive black hole. But just at that moment Faci stepped forward. With his face registering shock as his eyes met those of a smiling Lisabelle, he dropped entirely from view.
Lisabelle gave a tiny, smug smile. The rest of us stood there with open mouths. Sip in particular looked horrified.
“Go visit Satan,” said Lisabelle casually. “He likes visitors.” Then she turned to face Zervos and Oliva, both of whom had arrived and were looking stunned themselves.
I raced forward, but I already knew what I would see. There was most definitely a hole in the ground, and I couldn’t see the end of it. Deep down, getting quieter and quieter, I thought I heard a voice yelling.
Lisabelle had blasted a hole in the Earth all the way to hell, and Faci was on his way there. Of course, he would probably be returned to Public by morning, and there was a good chance Lisabelle would be expelled, but at that particular moment I smiled.
All around us, other students stared at the darkness mage. “Lisabelle,” said the New York City werewolf, Nolan, “you’re just full of surprises.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
After the incident in Zervos’s class, the problems at Public went from bad to worse. One strange event after another kept us on edge and on our toes. Buildings would close even though students were still supposed to have class later that day. Oliva led a group of professors that included Dacer and Zervos into the catacombs in an effort to figure out where the demons were breaching the campus defenses, but there was no sign of a break-in. Dacer told me privately that all the professors feared we were having a repeat of the Malle semester, when Public’s president had a hellhound
hidden in her office. It wasn’t that they suspected Oliva, just that they thought someone on campus must be complicit in the attacks. Dacer said that Oliva too thought that someone on campus, probably a senior paranormal but maybe even one of the students, was letting demons in to create havoc.
Dacer acted like he didn’t know he was a suspect. It tore at my heart, because I knew that he loved Public more than anything.
As Lough had said when I was talking to my friends about it, Dacer loved Public more than he loved his favorite designer, Lain Macantire, which was saying something.
My other worry was Caid. He had talked to Malle about doing something for her, but despite all the chaos, I still had no idea what that something had been. I wondered when it would, and I wondered who Malle had been talking about. Sip and Lisabelle thought it was me, but I wasn’t so sure.
Either way, the gala was fast approaching, and in between all the worries about Public’s safety and the Nocturns, we still had to study. Zervos was piling on so much homework I was pretty sure I was going to drown in it. Korba mostly just had us reading and discussing defenses. He was very careful about the issue of having us actually practice, meaning he wasn’t letting us do it.
“What’s the use of knowing about all this stuff if we never put it into action?” Sip complained after a particularly boring class.
“What do you care?” Lough said. “You’ll just transform into a werewolf and chomp on demons no matter what else is going on.”
“Werewolves don’t chomp,” Sip corrected. “We bite.” Lisabelle was about to say something, but before she could get a word out of her mouth, Sip said, “I must be off to a meeting.”
And with that she was gone.
“Are they meeting every day now?” Lisabelle asked.
“Are you two still not speaking?” Lough asked, watching Sip hurry off. This meeting was in the new dining hall, between meals.
“She isn’t speaking to me,” Lisabelle corrected. “I have no idea why.”
“Couldn’t possibly be something you said,” Lough murmured. I grinned.
“Maybe you should apologize,” I suggested. “Even if you don’t know what exactly you did. I’m sure Sip would appreciate the gesture.”
“What does ‘apologize’ mean?” Lisabelle asked. “Oh, wait, I think I looked it up once. It’s one of those things that shows weakness. No thank you. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
Lough shrugged. “A certain someone appears to think you have,” he said, pointing in the direction where Sip had disappeared.
“She’ll get over it,” said Lisabelle, but she didn’t look as confident as she sounded. “Whatever ‘it’ is.”
I had started to avoid Astra like it was my job. I spent a couple of nights a week there, just to keep Martha happy, but otherwise I stayed with Keller. I was pretty sure she knew I was sneaking out, but somehow she had become preoccupied. Luckily, Martha was different from most of the other paranormals who worked at Public in that I never saw her around campus.
“Maybe she’s the one with the demons and she’s keeping them in Astra’s basement?” Lough suggested. “She’s crazy enough.”
“She likes to bake,” I said. “And all she seems to care about is the good of Public. I don’t think she’s demon-oriented.”
“Did you hear that certain Nocturns can pass for paranormals?” said Lough.
“Nocturns are paranormals,” Lisabelle said. “They’re just darkness mages who have given in to their darkness and let it overwhelm their light.”
“Yeah, but, like, passing for nice paranormals,” Lough pushed. “Maybe Martha is a Nocturn.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “There’s literally as little darkness in her as I’ve ever seen in a paranormal. She bakes too much, and I’ve never seen any dark power. It always feels soft, not truly threatening.”
Lisabelle put her hand up. “Do you hear that?” she asked, frowning into the sky.
It was a cool day, but not truly cold. I wore long sleeves and jeans, and winter was fast approaching, but it hadn’t arrived yet. The sky was clear and gorgeous, one of those perfect fall days. Lisabelle stared hard at the sky.
“I thought I heard flapping,” she said, shaking her head.
I frowned upward. “Birds?”
“No birds can fly over Public without permission,” said Lisabelle. “Only small ones get permission. We shouldn’t be able to hear them. Bats aren’t out during the day, and fallen angels we’d recognize.” We walked the rest of the way silently. At Airlee, Bartholem was waiting outside. He sat with his tail curled around him, his large purple eyes staring at us as we walked up to the entrance. When Lisabelle bent down to pick him up he let her, purring loudly.
“How’s that working out?” I asked, pointing at the cat. About a month ago Lough had totally given up visiting Sip and Lisabelle’s room, even though Bartholem was gone a lot. He hunted at night, according to Lisabelle, and he disappeared for long stretches during the day, but even so, said Lough, whenever he wanted to see us Bartholem just so happened to show up.
“How do we feel about dragons?” Sip asked later that evening, coming into her and Lisabelle’s room in Airlee, where I was studying at her desk with Bartholem curled up on my lap.
“We’ve invited dragons to perform at the gala,” she explained at my questioning look. “The faeries suggested it. Apparently the faeries and the dragons have an agreement and are on good terms as fringe paranormals, or something like that. Caid is eager to keep the faeries happy, so if that’s what he wants, that’s what he gets.”
“Near as I can see, Caid should be less eager to keep certain paranormals happy,” Lisabelle commented. Sip tossed her head, ignoring our friend, and Lisabelle rolled her eyes and made an exasperated noise.
“Well,” I said, “I think I’ll go find Keller.” And I left my two friends to their icebox. I knew what Sip was upset about, but Lisabelle would have to figure it out - and care - on her own.
Keller wasn’t in Aurum. He also wasn’t anywhere near the library, which was still not open. I decided to check the Long Building, thinking that maybe he had finished the paint job on his own. I had started down the path in that direction when I heard an unfamiliar male voice call my name and turned around to see the New York City werewolf. I knew he had a name, but NYC werewolf sounded so cool that I thought of him that way instead and could never remember his actual name. He had heeded orders and gotten jeans that weren’t ripped, but his tattoos were still clearly visible. He also had a lip ring, a nose ring, and so many piercings in his ears I could barely see flesh.
“Charlotte, right?” he asked, shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun.
“Yes, um. . . .”
“Nolan,” he said, sticking his hand out. His skin felt leathery and worn, as if he spent a lot of time working with his hands. I was sure Sip would tell me that those hands meant he spent countless hours in werewolf form.
“Where are you headed?” he asked.
“The Long Building,” I answered. I wasn’t sure why I was telling him, except that I found him fascinating.
“Do you mind if I walk with you? I’ve been wanting to talk to you,” he said.
When he saw me nod he fell into step next to me, his braids swinging gently down to his shoulders as he walked. During his Demonstration his hair had been pulled back and out of his face, but I hadn’t seen him tie it back since that night.
When the silence stretched on longer than I was comfortable with, I asked, “Have you been to the Long Building?”
“Yes,” he said. “I’ve been to the Museum. We don’t have anything like it in New York. Your Dacer has done an admirable job. It was the one thing my professors insisted I visit while I was here.”
“Is that why you came?” I asked. I certainly agreed with him about Dacer’s work. My mentor had assembled the best collection of masks in the paranormal world, having worked hard to expand Paranormal Public’s already-fantastic collection after he had become Di
rector of the Museum.
“No,” said Nolan, pushing his hair out of his eyes. “I came to meet you.”
I came to a dead halt. Carefully, I took one step away from him, then another. I didn’t trust any paranormal who had an interest in me.
Nolan just looked at me. “You find that so hard to believe? You are held up as the great hope for the Paranormals and the Power of Five, yet you find it hard to believe that paranormals who don’t attend Public would take an interest in you? My Dean of Students was at Caid’s party. He said he thought you were brave. I had already planned to come here at that point, but I wanted to see you for myself, up close, while I was here. So here I am.”
I started walking again. Slowly.
No matter how hard I wracked my brain, I couldn’t remember a werewolf who looked anything like Nolan. I knew that was a stereotype, and there had been so many paranormals at Caid’s party I couldn’t possibly have met them all. Unfortunately, the only one I remembered at all well was Mound.
“I’m not that interesting,” I said. “Public isn’t that interesting either.”
“On the contrary, you’re the most interesting paranormal I’ve met in a long time,” said Nolan, tucking his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “You have all this power and you use literally none of it. You are strong, both for a paranormal and for an elemental, and yet you hide behind the darkness mage, because the darkness mage is so clearly more powerful than anyone else here, except maybe Dacer. But you didn’t know that either, did you? Dacer could do anything he wanted, and yet he runs the dusty Museum of Masks, and you’ve never thought to wonder why.”
I came to a dead halt again, but Nolan kept talking.
“Then there’s Public. Something very strange is going on here, and it has nothing to do with demon attacks, yet you don’t notice. You’re so busy being wrapped up in your mother’s murder, which I’ll wager you’ll never solve, that you don’t even bother to worry much about Malle still wanting you dead, which of course she does, because she’s power-hungry, not crazy.”
Elemental Air (Paranormal Public Series) Page 16