Hyder walked to the car and finished loading his and his wife’s suitcases into the back. Lisabelle stepped aside to let him work, seeming to realize that he needed activity, something to do, to steady his nerves.
“It’s my choice,” I said. “You should not feel responsible.”
Helen held me back and said, with a sad smile, “You are everyone’s responsibility. I would have thought you understood that by now.” She walked away before I could say anything, letting me chew on that on my own.
The first couple hours of the car ride were silent, but as the afternoon went on and the light started to fade, the chatter got louder. Sip and Lisabelle didn’t even trade any barbs. The severity of the situation we were heading for weighed on us.
It was strange to be riding in the back seat of a car, not really paying attention to what was happening around me, just watching the world fly by, and suddenly come to a screeching halt. Truth to tell, my thoughts had been lost in Keller at the time.
I couldn’t help it. When my mind had a quiet moment it always wandered to his blue eyes and dark hair. He had messaged me to say that he would be at the coronation with his family, which had almost made me refuse to go. I had yet to meet his parents, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for that yet. But I didn’t have a choice. In just a few hours we’d be together again, and I tried to focus on that.
My first warning that something was wrong was when my head almost slammed into the seat in front of me, which was no warning at all.
Sip’s cry and Lisabelle’s colorful swearing followed, prompting a glare from Mrs. Quest.
Dust had settled over the world, tinting my vision with gray. The man standing in the middle of the road wore a flowing white robe, reminding me of Professor Erikson and the white robes she always wore.
“Stay in the car,” said Hyder, his voice harsh.
“Hyder . . .” Helen started to say, her eyes filled with fear.
“No,” he barked. “We have no choice. He’s a fallen angel. He won’t hurt us.”
“I think the lines of who will and will not hurt us are blurring,” Helen said.
“Who is that?” Sip asked, staring at the man in front of us. His face was thin and gaunt, as if he hadn’t slept in weeks, and his silver eyes burned out from his skull as if they were lit with fire.
“It’s Mark Doblan,” said Helen, “of the Doblan House of Angels. They are the second most powerful family of fallen angels, behind the Eriksons, whom I believe you’re familiar with?” She glanced in the side mirror at me. From the pamphlet about the paranormal government that Lisabelle had given me I knew that the Doblan house was represented in various agencies. There was even a Doblan on the High Council.
“But who is he?”
“He’s on the High Council. I imagine he’s here to warn us off.”
“Maybe he’s here to offer to help us,” said Lisabelle skeptically.
“Please,” said Helen. “Paranormals do not trust each other enough anymore to help.”
“That’s funny,” said Sip. “Because I’ve been under the impression that the only way we can survive the demons is if we work together.”
“Then I’m screwed,” said Lisabelle, her grin not the least bit repentant.
“I always knew that,” said Sip primly.
Hyder was out of the car now. Doblan bent his head low and appeared to be speaking in quiet tones. Hyder’s face was clearing and calming as they talked.
“Whatever he’s saying, my dad likes it,” said Sip, watching closely. She was sitting forward in the middle seat, straining against the seatbelt.
“Your dad is too nice,” Lisabelle observed from the back seat. “No wonder his daughter suffers from the same complaint.”
“My husband is no fool,” Helen snapped, finally taking offense at Lisabelle’s comments.
Lisabelle never took her eyes away from Doblan. I watched, fascinated, as her face clouded.
“No, he’s worse. He believes there is good in everyone,” she murmured. “It’s not a problem I will ever have.”
I kept quiet. I wanted to know what Doblan was saying, especially since it seemed like his eyes periodically snapped to me.
“Who is that with him?” I asked. Standing a few feet away was a figure shrouded in dark clothing.
Helen squinted. “I can’t see his face.”
“Something’s wrong here,” muttered Lisabelle. “If the government wanted to send us a message about dear old Charlotte, this is not how they’d do it.”
“Did you just call me dear?” I asked, teasing despite the darkness around us.
Lisabelle didn’t respond. She didn’t like it when we teased her about her loyalty to us, and to be fair, I knew she would be loyal until the end.
“What did he say?” Sip asked eagerly as Hyder came back to the car. I watched Doblan walk toward us.
“He said that the main roads aren’t safe,” said Hyder grimly, putting the car into reverse. “He suggested we take some of the back roads to steer clear of the demon patrols.”
“We should have run and let them fly,” said Helen worriedly as the car got moving again. “They said not to take a car.”
“We just didn’t have time,” said Hyder defensively. “And since when is car travel not safe for paranormals?”
“Since the demons started patrolling,” said Sip, but she wasn’t looking at her dad, she was looking at Lisabelle. Our darkness friend was sitting ramrod straight in her seat, staring around.
“This is bad,” she said, her voice low. “I am not sure we should listen to Doblan.”
“Just because you don’t trust anyone doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t,” said Helen. “Doblan is an old friend and a member of the council. He can be trusted.”
“Maybe before he could be,” Lisabelle cautioned. “But nothing is as it was.”
“We don’t really have a choice,” said Hyder, his voice tight. “He warned us off the main road and there is just this one back road. The three of us could run and Lisabelle could probably manage, but that still leaves Charlotte.”
“I’d be fine,” I said, trying to sound confident. “There are some serious protections on me when I leave Public.”
“But you are our responsibility,” said Mrs. Quest. “We can’t just leave you and there’s no point in changing form if we can’t run.”
“Maybe I should take the car alone, or Lisabelle, can you conjure a broom?”
Lisabelle shrugged. “I could try, but I’ve never done it before. It might not work very well. Have you ever flown?”
“No,” I said, sighing. “And using magic might not be the best idea right now. All it would do is draw attention to us.”
“Attention from the demons who are supposedly crawling everywhere that we’ve seen no sign of?” Lisabelle asked, her voice biting.
“Lisabelle,” said Sip. “Do you really not trust Doblan?”
Up front, Mrs. Quest made a disappointed noise in the back of her throat. Her daughter was betraying her.
“I think we should be ready for anything,” said Lisabelle. “And no, I don’t.” She continued to stare out the window; her eyes never stopped moving.
“That’s unfortunate,” said Hyder, “because he’s riding the rest of the way with us.” Lisabelle didn’t have time to protest, because after one nod from Hyder, Doblan climbed into the front seat as Helen scooted into the middle next to her husband. After brief introductions, which were awkward because Lisabelle refused to speak, Doblan bundled up his coat and appeared to go to sleep. We drove on in silence.
“Charlotte, what did Dacer say when you called him?” Sip whispered to me.
“He told me to be careful and that we might enact The Power of Five at the coronation,” I whispered back.
Lisabelle nodded absently. “So, he’s expecting trouble?”
“I think it’s safe to say we and trouble go hand in hand,” said Sip. “I mean, what would a semester be without trouble?” She sighed thoughtfully. “I m
ight learn to knit or something.”
“Like I’m going to hang out with you when you’re holding sharp objects,” said Lisabelle.
“I hang out with you and you still have your tongue,” said Sip.
Lisabelle took her eyes off the road long enough to stick her tongue out at her roommate.
“Clever.”
“Thanks.”
It was now fully dark.
The road in front of us was still pavement, but it was bumpy and cracked in places. Trees created a canopy on either side of the road that took away the view of the hills in front of us and the night sky above.
Every so often a star winked through, but mostly the world around us was black shadow. It reminded me of last semester when we went out into the woods to fight demons.
This was just like that.
We were in the demons’ favorite environment. Suddenly what Doblan had said didn’t look so convincing.
As I watched the road, our two pinpricks of light from the car's headlights reaching only a little bit ahead, I started to get nervous. I could see that Sip’s parents were on edge as well. Hyder might have tried to sound relaxed about our change of course, but beads of sweat were dripping down the sides of his neck and the knuckles that gripped the steering wheel were turning blue from the tension of holding on so hard.
Next to him Helen was silent, but her eyes held fear. Doblan was snoring quietly. For the first council member I had met he was pretty unimpressive.
“Doblan wouldn’t lie to us, would he?” she whispered to her husband.
“I don't know anymore,” Hyder murmured back, eyeing the sleeping fallen angel. “But we didn't have a choice.”
He said it as if he was trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince us. Doblan was a powerful fallen angel, and if he told Hyder to take a different route, particularly if he put the weight of the council behind it, there was not much Mr. Quest could do about it.
I now felt in danger and exposed, whereas before I had simply been looking forward to getting to Vampire Locke, as much as anyone can look forward to traveling to console a dear friend on the death of a loved one. And for Lanca, it was also the death of the life she had expected to have. There had never been any denying that Lanca would one day rule, but everyone had thought that day was far off.
Now - it was not.
Next to me, Sip and Lisabelle were silent. At some point Sip’s ring had started to glow, which meant that she was getting ready to call on it if necessary.
“Now, kids,” said Helen, half turning so that she could look directly at us, “in the event that there is something wrong I don’t want you fighting. Let Hyder and me take care of it.”
“But Mom,” Sip started to protest.
“No,” said Helen firmly. “I would never forgive myself if something happened to you or your friends. For once in your life, please do not argue.”
“That’s asking a lot,” said Lisabelle with amusement. “Let me know how that goes for you. I tried to argue with her about our neon room decorations . . . and she shut me right down!”
“Lisabelle,” said Helen, “for once it would be nice not to have the sarcasm.”
“Mom,” said Sip hotly. “It’s how she communicates. Leave her alone.”
“The road is turning to dirt up ahead,” Lisabelle murmured.
“How did you know that?” Helen asked.
But she was not destined to get an answer.
I had never been in a car accident before, so when something slammed into the front of our car I felt at first as if I was flying forward in slow motion. I didn’t see it coming, and it was not like we hit it. It hit us. I felt Sip’s hand close around my wrist, the only solid anchor in a world suddenly shattering.
The next thing I knew I was flying from the car.
Lying on cold grass.
Screaming.
Chapter Eight
A burst of light and fire.
Crackling.
The smell of smoke.
Silence.
Growling.
An explosion. Definitely the car. Or what used to be the car.
Throbbing. Somewhere close by. I looked down. Sip’s hand was still closed around mine.
I felt a slight dusting cold all over my body and looked down to see a million tiny diamonds.
Sip and I had been thrown from the wrecked car together.
Turned out the windows had shattered on top of us.
We now lay side by side at the base of the trees. As I raised my head to stare at my friend I saw that she was lying prone, right next to me, and that there was something black snaking down the side of her head.
She was unconscious and bleeding.
I looked around, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the carnage.
I wanted to get up, but I didn’t want to stop touching Sip. Somehow it felt like that connection kept us safe.
“Sip?” I asked, rolling toward her and trying to rouse her with my free hand. “Sip, please.”
My friend’s eyes fluttered. Quickly, I used my sleeve to press against her wound, while my eyes searched for other injuries. She looked otherwise unharmed. Sighing with relief, I called her name over and over. Smoke drifted over us from the car, periodically obscuring her too-pale face.
Finally her eyes opened.
“CHARLOTTE? SIP?” came Lisabelle’s frantic scream.
“Aw, roomie misses me,” Sip muttered. “Isn’t that adorable?”
“It’s something like that,” I muttered. “Can you stand?”
“Yes,” said Sip. “I think I’m fine. Lisabelle came running toward us. She looked completely unharmed. Even her hair was still perfect.
“Sometime you have to teach me that trick,” said Sip.
My darkness friend was a sight to see when she was angry, so much so that I was relieved that she wasn’t angry with me. Her eyes blazed and her shoulders were thrown back, while her mouth was pressed into a thin, red line of fury.
She knelt down next to Sip. “Nice to see you’re making it a thing to hit your head. It explains a lot.”
Sip glared at her roommate. Lisabelle was referring to the previous semester, when Sip had been attacked in the Long Building.
“Maybe if I stopped hanging out with you, I’d stop getting injured so much,” Sip growled, pushing herself into a sitting position with our help.
“Naw, you would miss me too much. Besides, it’s Charlotte’s fault,” said Lisabelle, nodding in my direction.
“Thanks,” I muttered. Lisabelle gave me an apologetic shrug. We both knew this sort of thing devastated me.
“Maybe it wasn’t Charlotte,” said Lisabelle. “Doblan is probably sending all the paranormals this way.”
“Where is Doblan?” I asked, looking at the carnage.
“And my parents,” Sip added quietly.
We all looked back at the wreckage.
“What hit us?” I asked, finally remembering that we were probably still in danger.
“I have no idea,” said Lisabelle. “But I haven’t had time to eviscerate it yet.”
“You have such a charming way with words,” said Sip.
“Can you stand?” Lisabelle asked Sip.
“Of course I can stand,” said Sip indignantly.
With Lisabelle helping her on her left side and me on her right, Sip got into a standing position - and wobbled.
“What were you saying about standing?” Lisabelle asked, her firm hands supporting Sip.
“I never said I could do it without help,” said Sip, grinning tiredly. “Parents.” She didn’t need to say more.
“Right,” said Lisabelle grimly. “Be careful.”
The fire from the car was already dying down. As we made our way toward what used to be the car, I tried to keep an eye on my surroundings. Something had slammed into our car with enough force to throw me and my friends into the woods, and whatever it had been, it was now nowhere to be seen. That just could not be good.
; “I don’t see them,” said Sip, her air of calm cracking a little. All around us was burning, charred, luggage interspersed with small pieces of the car, but I didn’t see any bodies.
“I’ll go look,” I said, releasing Sip to Lisabelle’s care. I knew neither of my friends wanted me to do that, but Sip needed Lisabelle.
I called to my ring. Power flowed through me as my vision washed in blue; it felt good after having been left dormant through all of Christmas break. I thought about putting out the fires, but decided there was no point. Whatever was out there already knew where we were, and if they wanted us they could come and get us. My power was strong from having rested for so long, and it flowed up from my core to pour easily out of my hands. I found myself smiling as I looked for any sign of Sip’s parents.
“Do you see them?” Sip called. I was nearly to the other side of the road, where I felt heat from two familiar bodies.
“Yes,” I called back, starting to run. Side by side Sip’s parents sat, looking dazed but alive. I slid to a stop next to them. Helen’s wild eyes locked onto mine and her hands, covered in mud and soot, clutched at me.
“Sip?” she asked, her voice raspy.
“Fine,” I said, nodding reassuringly. “We’re all fine.”
“Thank the wolves,” Sip’s mother breathed. She glanced at her husband, who was not in much better condition than his wife. His arms were scraped and bleeding and there was a streak of dirt running down his face.
“Doblan?” he demanded, his voice harsh.
“Can’t find him,” I said. “Doblan’s gone.”
Mr. Quest nodded. He didn’t look surprised.
“We can’t stay here,” he said tiredly. “They’ll come back.”
“You know what hit us?” Lisabelle asked, she and Sip having found their way to us. Sip collapsed into her mother’s arms as they both sobbed their relief. I watched for a second, then turned back to Hyder.
Elemental Dawn (Paranormal Public) Page 5