“Relax,” said another voice. Male. I wasn’t sure, but I thought it was Lealand. He was just cropping up everywhere.
“Trafton,” Lisabelle ordered. “Take Charlotte from that pixie.”
“Hey,” said Cale indignantly, “I have a name and I’ve known her longer than any of you and I’ve never done anything wrong by her.”
“Even though you should have,” Camilla muttered.
“Despite how much I enjoy listening to everyone argue,” said Trafton, gently easing me out of Cale’s grip, “I think this is one girl who needs to see Jacob in the infirmary ASAP.”
“I can’t see,” I muttered. My eyes were still squeezed tightly shut and I was sure that if I tried to open them waves of nausea would overtake me.
“Let’s go,” said Trafton gently. “I’ll give you wonderful dreams, filled with Keller and chocolate. Would you like that?”
“Don’t tease her,” came Lealand’s voice. “She’s too shy for that.”
If I had to describe Trafton I would have to call him a Greek god of a young man, and his carrying me bore out that assumption. His arms felt solid and strong, like I was no burden at all. He was also surprisingly gentle.
As our entire group set off, Lough said, “Why didn’t you ask me to carry her?” He muttered to Lisabelle.
“Because yours is a gentle nature,” she retorted.
“I thought she’d be mean,” Sip whispered to me. I felt a light touch on my arm and forced myself not to flinch. She was walking next to Trafton and I couldn’t be happier that she was there.
“Maybe she’s coming around,” I murmured to my friend as she walked next to Trafton and me. “Maybe she secretly likes Lough.”
“I hope not,” said Trafton with a sigh, who could hardly help but hear our conversation. I wasn’t sure if Trafton really liked Lisabelle or just liked a conquest, but I decided to ignore him.
“What are you all doing out here at this time of night anyway?” I murmured sleepily. My body had gone from a throbbing pain to a dull ache and I was losing feeling in my limbs. All I wanted was to sleep.
“Charlotte,” came Lealand’s voice from Trafton’s other side, “you need to try and stay awake. I don’t know what will happen if you fall asleep again.”
“I don’t think she was really asleep before,” said Cale. “I’m pretty sure it was more like passed out.”
“So, tell me what happened,” I murmured, trying again to open my eyes. This time I managed it, but only barely. There were bright lights everywhere above me, as if someone had strung hundreds of strings of Christmas lights over my head.
We were just reaching the main part of campus, and somewhere I thought I heard clapping. Since I was still being carried by Trafton and I couldn’t see properly, I had to ask what was happening. “Is there a concert going on?” I murmured to Sip. It was becoming harder and harder to speak.
“No,” she said, but I could tell she was smiling.
I forced my eyes open again, determined to take in the scene. It almost made me gasp. Before me, stretched all around, were the students of Public. They lined the walkway we were following, with here and there a professor standing amongst them. I stared at them. “What are they doing here?” I asked hoarsely.
“They’re just happy,” Lealand murmured. “Everyone’s happy an elemental is back.”
I glanced up at the night sky again. It was ablaze with color: white, blue, green, red, black, brown, silver. The force field was shining and there wasn’t a demon anywhere to be seen.
“Oh,” I murmured. “Me. That’s nice.”
Chapter Thirty
I never really enjoyed being in the infirmary. Who did? But after what I had just done I was more than happy to lie in the nice, clean room, not moving a muscle. Hopefully forever.
“When is she going to wake up?” Lough’s voice drifted towards me as if he was at the other end of a tunnel.
“When she’s good and ready to,” Lisabelle answered.
“Should we tell her what we found?” he asked, the worry clear in his voice.
“Yes,” said Sip, “and Keller too. He should be here any minute. I told him to come.”
“Why aren’t those two dating?” Lough asked. “I don’t understand women.”
“It’s not Charlotte who’s dragging her feet,” Sip answered. “Keller’s aunt forbade it. Apparently there isn’t as much inter-paranormal cooperation as we thought.”
“It’s Charlotte who’s dragging her feet, actually,” Lisabelle corrected. “Keller would flout his aunt if Charlotte was willing to, but I love how you always blame the women, Lough.”
“That’s ridiculous,” said Lough indignantly. “What she just did was pretty cool though, huh? Pretty brave?”
“Brave and stupid,” said Lisabelle, even as the pride was clear in her voice. “She could have died stepping into that force field. Jacob said it took almost all her strength. Mrs. Swan is in hysterics. If I were more capable of feeling emotions I’d be in hysterics too.”
I flinched. I hadn’t wanted to worry anyone. I had just wanted to destroy some demons.
“Did I get them?” I asked. My voice sounded like the mating call of a drunk frog, if there was such a thing, all garbled and croaking. Even short words were hard to get out.
“Yes,” said Sip, bouncing up to me, her face split in a massive smile. “You are amazing. Just amazing. Happy wake up time!”
I gave her a weak smile. “Thanks. No one was hurt?”
“How could anyone get hurt when you DON’T take anyone with you?” Lisabelle asked. She was back in her corner with a book propped open on her lap. Her eyes glittered at me dangerously.
“Aw, Lisabelle,” I teased her. “You were worried about me. That’s cute.”
Lisabelle snorted.
“What were you thinking?” she demanded. She wasn’t going to let me off lightly.
“I was sick and tired of all of us living in fear of the demons,” I retorted. “We’re here to enjoy college. Mostly, even with Camilla around. And the demons banging at our doors all the time were ruining it. Someone should have told me they needed new elemental power. We have enough problems finding out how to help the vampires without having to worry about demons waiting to come in and get us. The force field was weaker, that’s why the demons made it into Astra. How long before that happened again? Something should have been done a long time ago.”
“They were trying to protect you,” Sip said. “Dove wanted you safe.”
“I can’t live in a glass case,” I said. “Either I’m the only elemental or I’m not. Other people can’t protect me from everything. Sometimes I have to be able to make the choice to protect myself.”
Just then Keller burst through the door. “Are you insane?” he nearly yelled at me. I had known Keller for a few months, but never once had I seen him lose his cool. Now his crystal blue eyes were glaring at me, much like Lisabelle’s black ones had done seconds earlier.
“I’m fine,” I muttered. “Thanks for asking.”
Ignoring our audience, Keller took two long strides to my bedside, where he proceeded to sit next to me and wrap his strong arms around me. I was too tired to fight it, even if his aunt would have a fit if she found out. Instead, I relaxed into his chest.
“How dare you?” he breathed into my ear, so that only I could hear. “Don’t you know I would be lost if something happened to you?”
I didn’t bother to answer that, I just drank him in. And to think I had been starting to wonder if he cared. . . .
Muffled against his shoulder I said, “What were you going to tell me?” to my friends.
“Rats,” scoffed Lisabelle. “I was hoping you didn’t hear Lough say that.”
“What we were going to tell you is that we’ve done some digging in the library,” said Sip.
“How did Lisabelle handle the library?” I asked, meeting my friend’s purple eyes. It was a running joke in our group of friends that Lisabelle wasn’t a fan of s
tudying.
“I like libraries,” said Lisabelle. “All those books. Easy to start a fire if necessary.”
“Yeah, okay, Pyro,” said Keller, grinning. Lisabelle grinned back.
“The history of the Museum is fascinating,” said Sip, ignoring the jokes. “One of the things it says is that there’s a collection of vampire masks dating back to the late 1890s. The collection is unusual in its blatant violence. Basically, all the masks were designed to do harm, or are supposedly capable of it. Many of them were put into the Museum before they were ever actually used on people.”
“So, who made them?” I asked.
“Vampires did,” she responded. “The thing is, although at different times throughout history not all vampires have gotten along, and they made masks to use against one another, for the most part the masks are used for things like conquering a moose to drain it of blood, or something like that.”
“How appetizing,” said Lough. “Glad we didn’t have this conversation over dinner.”
“Yes, the infirmary is so much better,” Lisabelle drawled.
“Anyway,” Sip continued, “we discovered that this particular group of masks was processed in 1892 and is the only group of violent Cruor masks in the collection.”
“So, that’s probably where the oval masks came from?” I said thoughtfully. “Why hasn’t Risper looked into this?”
Sip shrugged. “They don’t think what’s going on with the vampires related to the masks. Only Dacer does and no one’s been listening to him. Besides, I’m not sure how it helps us determine who the Mask Thief is and where the oval mask is now.”
“If it’s anywhere,” said Lough.
“Well,” I said. “We have to get to the Museum to see if the masks have been tampered with. I can still get in. I think.”
Lough frowned. “Aren’t you tired? Isn’t that dangerous?”
“Yes and yes,” I said. “But this is more important.”
Lough looked incredulous. “Nothing is more important than your health. You’re irreplaceable.”
I glared at my friend. “The whole vampire population of Public is more important and they can’t possibly have much time left.”
“Can’t I just conjure a dream and see what information I can get about the masks? Then you don’t have to go anywhere,” Lough offered. “That would be much safer.”
“Dreams are probably useless when real lives are at stake,” said Lisabelle without thinking. Before she could take back what she had just said, a stunned silence fell. Lough’s mouth was hanging open, a stricken look on his face.
“Lough. . . .”
Even Lisabelle knew when she had crossed a line, but by Lough’s devastated face there was no going back. “I didn’t mean it the way it sounded,” she said, but her backtrack was hopelessly inadequate.
“It’s okay,” he said, although it obviously wasn’t. “I’ve always known I’m just a dumb dream giver. For the record, Trafton’s a dumb dream giver too.”
Without another word he got up and walked out. Sip started to go after him, but Keller stopped her. “Let me,” he said. “I’ll talk to him.”
He gave me one last look, patting me awkwardly on my knee - apparently we weren’t going to kiss in front of my friends - before he followed Lough out the door. My body felt a little heavier once he left. When the door closed on the fallen angel’s retreating back Sip rounded on Lisabelle.
“How could you?” she demanded. “That was so cruel!”
Lisabelle chewed her lower lip. She almost looked like she felt bad. “I didn’t mean it.”
“Obviously he thinks you did,” Sip shot back.
“He’ll be fine,” said Lisabelle. “Just let him cool off.”
“Yeah, sure,” said Sip, still visibly angry but forcing herself to return her attention to the crisis we were facing. “Anyway, we still have to deal with the question of who’s using the mask against the vampires.”
“We aren’t any closer to figuring that out than we were when this whole thing started,” I said with frustration, yet again flipping the infirmary covers off my legs and getting out of bed. “They should keep a room here just for me,” I muttered.
“I have no idea,” said Sip, her perfectly pale forehead crinkled in thought. “I guess we can’t blame Zervos.”
Lisabelle laughed. “If only, but no, you’re right. It’s not him. Maybe it’s a Committee member.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively. “Since it was the President last semester. Seriously, Professor Erikson is not nice.”
“I think it’s Lealand,” I said suddenly, surprising both of my friends.
“You what?” Sip demanded, shocked. “How could it possibly be Lealand?”
“Think about it,” I said, starting to pace. “He shows up and chaos starts. This wasn’t happening last semester. What triggered it? It must be someone new to campus. Besides, Lealand acts odd. He doesn’t hang around with the other pixies. He hangs out with us. I swear there’s a secret he’s keeping.”
“Maybe,” said Sip, “and I know Lealand is acting weird, but if everyone acting weird was trying to become a mass murderer the population would be a lot smaller.”
Lisabelle and I were both quiet.
“You have a point,” I said, “but I would still like to know what he’s up to.”
“And if you’re right,” said Lisabelle slowly, “what are we going to do about it? Everyone likes him. How can we catch him in the act?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea. Let’s take it one thing at a time. Let’s find that mask. If it went missing at the Museum, maybe there’s a clue there that will help us.”
“What about the Committee?” Sip asked, worry in her voice. “You already didn’t trust them to deal with the demons, and now we aren’t trusting them to find the mask. They’re going to be angry.”
“I’m not trusting them,” I pointed out, “because they haven’t done anything. We need results, even if we have to get them ourselves.”
“We should wait until Risper gets here,” said Sip worriedly. “I think he wants a word.”
“Of course he does,” I sputtered. “I just broke every school rule there was tonight. He probably wants to lock me away for the rest of my natural born life.”
“Then let’s get out of here before he gets here,” said Lisabelle, moving towards the door.
My two friends followed me out into the hall. We were headed to the Tower. And the masks.
Chapter Thirty-One
As usual, I had slept the day away in the infirmary, with Jacob insisting that I not be disturbed, even to be yelled at by Committee members. The night was surprisingly warm for late February, and I looked up at the force field with a smile on my face. It still shone brightly. And there were still no demons. It was like our heads were wrapped in rainbows.
“Wow,” I breathed, smiling. I had done that.
“You’re pretty impressive,” said Lisabelle, slinging an arm over my shoulders. I grinned at my friend.
“Aw, thanks,” I said, laughing.
“Sooo,” said Lisabelle conspiratorially, “you and Keller are . . . ?”
I glared at my friend. “We are nothing. He hasn’t kissed me again since Christmas,” I said.
“Because you won’t let him,” said Sip. “Don’t act like it’s his fault. Did you see his face when he came in? You were like sunshine to him.”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
The Tower looked dark and imposing at night. There were no classes; so much had been happening that the students had been given the week off, and without the vampires floating around campus it felt like a ghost campus that had only a fleeting relationship with the tangible world.
“Everyone is pretty much staying indoors,” Sip commented, looking around. “I don’t like this. I want to have a normal college experience, not this nonsense.”
I screwed up my face. What Sip obviously didn’t realize is that we attended a place called Paranormal Public. The word normal could not be
applied.
Luckily, the Tower was always open. A long time ago it had become clear that college students like to eat late at night, so the dining hall was always open. During the nighttime hours there was a buffet-style table stacked with food for hungry students. Only the upper floors, like the ones that housed the Museum, were guarded. The Museum door was locked, but Dacer had given me a key. I should have no problem getting in.
“I never thought I’d say this,” said Lisabelle as we climbed one flight of stairs after another, “but this school creeps me out.”
I grinned at my friend. “Yeah, I know. Right?”
When we reached the last door I pushed it open, prepared to greet whichever security guard was on duty.
But there wasn’t one. Frowning, I stared at the empty chair. “That’s weird,” I said. “Maybe they aren’t here late at night, but that doesn’t really make sense.”
“Guards are lazy,” Lisabelle said nonchalantly. “Always going to get coffee, or donuts. Or coffee and donuts.”
Sip rolled her eyes. “Like you know anything about what guards do.”
“I know lots of things,” said Lisabelle primly, before collapsing in a fit of laughter. “Don’t think I don’t.”
I grinned as I pulled out my set of keys to the Museum. Unless Dacer was there, the door was always to stay locked. He was the only one who could open it up to guests, but I decided that Sip and Lisabelle were going to be an exception. He must have known I would take them with me if I ever had to go in and search for something.
I led my two friends into the Museum. It was eerie in darkness, but even more so now that the night sky was alight with magical fire. Flashes of light came arcing in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting strange shadows over the masks that hung on the walls.
“Wow,” said Lisabelle. “I’m impressed. Dacer did really well with this place.”
I grinned. “I cannot tell you how much I want you to meet him.”
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