When I pulled the curtains aside, though, all I saw was spotty clumps and waves of old snow. Where the snow had blown away or melted, pale dirt or withered grass showed through.
There wasn’t a single hellhound in view.
Frowning, I hurried out of my room and down the stairs. Keegan was standing at one of the windows in the entryway, peering to one side. He knew exactly what I was so anxious about.
“There’s just one left,” he said. “It’s standing in front of the door, and it looks pretty threatening. Big.”
I came to stand next to him and peered in the same direction. True enough, a hellhound still lounged in front of Astra. If it hadn’t been so huge or its fur so dirty, I would have thought it was a large dog. There were no students in sight. I had a feeling that every single paranormal on campus was avoiding Astra Dorm at this point.
“Think word has spread?” I said.
Keegan shrugged. “Probably, but I don’t know what they told anyone. Like, yeah, sure, there are hellhounds. Ricky’s gone over to darkness and now commands the red-eyed dogs.”
“Umm, thanks for that. If rumors get started, remind me to check with you first,” I said.
As for the solitary hellhound, Lisabelle might still think I was in danger, or she might just be trying to make a point. Either way I realized that I didn’t mind that it was there.
“Breakfast?” I said to Keegan.
“Hey, the world is falling apart, but we should still eat,” he said, following me into the Astra kitchen.
When Keller came back later in the day to fix the door, he explained that Charlotte had gone to Dacer’s. By that time I had figured as much, so I wasn’t surprised by the news. She would stay there, administering her students’ final exam remotely, until the wedding celebration.
I hadn’t seen much of Keller all semester, and I wondered why he was now at Astra playing carpenter. When I asked him just that question, he laughed.
“It’s Astra. I don’t want anyone else in here. I’m sure the majority of the carpenters we could find are trustworthy, but in the event that there are any who aren’t, I’m not going to take the risk of letting them anywhere near you. After finals you leave Public for Duckleworth, and it can’t come soon enough.”
“Did Bertrum tell the police anything useful?” I said.
Keller shook his head. “Cale told me they released him this morning. Bertrum lives with his mother, and she came to collect him. He’s still in pretty bad shape, so he couldn’t really tell them anything useful. He said that Sip was like that when he got there, then you came, then Lisabelle came. Cale really wants to talk to Lisabelle, but he must have forgotten what she’s like. In any case, I doubt it’s going to happen.”
After that we weren’t at Public much longer. I did take my finals like everyone else. If I thought the students had treated me like a pariah before, now it was almost comical. In every classroom I entered, one chair sat alone, away from the other students, that they wanted me to sit in. Just as often, Keegan and Eighellie pulled up chairs to keep me company, which I appreciated more than I could put into words. The finals were just as boring as the classes had been, with Professor Penny administering such a mind-numbing test that when I walked out I couldn’t remember my response to a single question.
“Let’s get out of here,” said Keegan after the last exam. “I’ll see you at Duckleworth for the Christmas party.”
“Is your mom coming?” I said.
Keegan shook his head. "I don't think so. Safety and all that.”
“I’m going,” said Eighellie, beaming. “I can’t wait to go to a party!”
“Of course you are,” said Keegan. “Of course you can’t.”
Chapter Five
A brutal attack . . . culminating in a shocking murder in the town of Surround. Unlike the pranks of last semester, this is no laughing matter.
The town of Surround is built up around the struggling Paranormal Public University. The school was supposed to have closed at the end of last semester for failing to do most everything right or even decently, but instead the president and the board decided to keep Paranormal Public open.
Had the school closed, the comprehensive revamping that Public is going through would have stopped or been scaled down. It’s likely that Public would be used for government administrative offices were the University to cease to exist.
Last semester the students, fun creatures that they are, liked to play pranks on each other. These pranks were all in good fun.
BUT NO MORE!
There has been a murder in Surround, and the sad state of affairs that Paranormal Public finds itself in only makes it all the more pressing that the killer be caught. Paranormal Public couldn’t afford any bad publicity to begin with, but what with the semester going so poorly last time around, a murder might just be a nail in the proverbial vampire coffin.
A young woman has been murdered in the town of Surround. Her name was Ms. Cernal, and she worked in the TP office. The office was closed at the time of the killing, and it is suspected that she had gone there only to gather some of her personal belongings when the crime took place. It is further believed that when she entered, she stumbled upon an intruder (someone who wasn’t supposed to be there) and was unable to defend herself!
Brutal killings have become commonplace in the paranormal world since Lisabelle Verlans became the darkness premier, with all due respect to Lisabelle Verlans (which isn’t much due respect). This publication truly does wonder when the killings will stop.
The killing of Ms. Cernal is thought to be related to the TP office’s function and is believed to be a singular incident. Nevertheless, residents are advised to be cautious.
Ms. Cernal’s family asks for privacy during this very difficult time. They will have a private service. The investigation is ongoing.
I read this article while sitting in a coach on my way back to Duckleworth, wondering what Keegan thought about it. He had had a crush on Ms. Cernal, even though he had only seen her the one time. He would be devastated.
The statement was contradictory. Did the police believed Ms. Cernal’s murder to be an isolated incident, or did they think the citizens of surround were still in danger? The article left the question unanswered.
Either way, it didn’t sound like the killing had anything to do with the attack on Sip.
Dacer had been so manic getting Duckleworth ready for the party that when the day of the extravaganza came, he didn’t have anything for me to do.
Oh, he was plenty busy. He had to tell all his minions the proper way to set the table, and when he finished he had to check every setting meticulously.
“The amount of detail that vampire can keep in his head at once would make a library jealous,” said Zellie when she found me outside throwing a stick for Crumple.
I was about to ask her who she was talking about when she said, “Your friend is here.”
“Which one?” I asked.
“Did you have two?” With that parting shot Zellie walked away.
I threw Crumple’s stick as hard as I could one last time. Then, instead of watching where it landed, I turned around and headed for the castle. I hadn’t gotten very far before Keegan materialized from around a corner of the building, his thick shoulders, green hands, and dark hair clear against the gray day.
I waved and he waved back. By the time we reached each other, Crumple had returned and was hopping around like a pogo stick, desperately trying to get me to throw the ball again. I obliged as Keegan said, “This place is crazy getting ready for the party.”
He was right. Out front was an endless stream of vehicles that looked like moving coaches, plus countless brooms and a never-ending supply of packages. Some were wrapped in shiny black paper and had titles written on them in gold that said stuff like, “Party Favors for the Vampire Who Has Everything.”
I nodded glumly. “I can’t wait until it’s all over. Dacer’s especially nervous, because every fallen angel he invited
RSVP’d that they were coming, so it’s a lot of food to put together, and a lot of pressure.”
Keegan nodded. “How are they going to keep the peace? With paranormal relations as poor as they are, does Dacer really expect that there won’t be some kind of fight breaking out during the festivities?”
I shrugged. I had long since stopped trying to figure out what Dacer did and did not expect.
“Maybe he thinks they’ll all be on their best behavior because of Charlotte and Keller.”
“Ha. At a wedding? No way,” said Keegan. He lapsed into silence, and I knew what was coming next. “Sad about Ms. Cernal. Who would do that to such a nice lady?”
Crumple came back at that point, and I threw the ball again as Keegan went on, “She’d never hurt anyone, and now there are police tramping all over the TP office. What’s the point of the Surround militia if they can’t prevent a murder?”
He had a point, but I didn’t think the Surround militia could have kept a loaf of bread from being stolen, let alone stop a determined criminal from committing a murder.
“Have you heard anything about it since you’ve been here?” Keegan asked.
I shook my head. “Not a word. Bertrum’s probably devastated too.”
“Is he coming tonight?”
“Dacer doesn’t know,” I said. “He and his mother were both coming, but that was before what happened with Sip. Now I guess it will depend on whether he’s up for it. I haven’t heard anything further.”
“That’s a common theme,” said Keegan dryly. “All those adults doing important things, don’t they know you could help?”
I said I didn’t think they had any idea.
“There’s a new article about the murder in the Tabble,” he said. “Have you seen it?”
I hadn’t. I had been so pre-occupied with the fact that it was party day that I had forgotten to check the Tabble.
“No. What does it say?” I asked.
Keegan handed it over to me and went to throw the ball for Crumple while I read it. What it said gave me chills:
Ms. Cernal was the only full-time employee left at the TP office, and she was in charge of shutting down operations. She had finished most of the work, locked the office for the day, and left. She had forgotten a couple of personal items, the police are not saying what, that forced her to return to the office on the night in question. She told a friend whom she was meeting for dinner that she was running a few minutes late because she had to stop by the office to grab something, then would come on to dinner. It isn’t clear if the police know what she was returning for or if they do not. It does seem to be clear that Ms. Cernal believed she had something at the office she needed to retrieve, that she did not have plans to meet anyone there, and that she did not expect to encounter an intruder.
When Ms. Cernal failed to materialize for dinner half an hour after the expected arrival time, her friend, who also isn’t being named, grew worried and Contacted the police. The result was that the police went searching for Ms. Cernal. It did not take them long to find her at the TP office.
Up until this point, the killing could simply be viewed as a normal, run-of-the-mill murder. However, the strangest thing about the scene police encountered when they arrived was that Ms. Cernal was dead, but there was no sign of how she had died. Her body was not visibly injured in any way. It is thought that some sort of an electrical current could have killed her, but more tests are needed. What the police are sure about is that there was no pixie dust at the scene of the crime, and no sign of vampire bites.
Now, to the interesting part! The TP office was locked, but a townsperson from Surround said they thought they had seen someone entering the building who was not Ms. Cernal. They couldn’t be totally sure, because at the time they hadn’t thought it was important. Sources here say that liquid blindness might have been involved. The TP office itself was in perfect condition. If a paranormal had broken in they did not need to turn the place upside down to find what they were looking for. Unfortunately, the only cost was to Ms. Cernal’s life.
Essentially, the mystery of how Ms. Cernal died and who killed her and what they were after is only deepening.
I looked up. Keegan had just finished another throw for Crumple and turned to me with a quizzical expression.
“What do you make of it?” he asked.
“The TPs were a failure,” I said. “Once they were stolen and someone used them to get onto the Public grounds illegally, the whole system was doomed. As to the rest of it, it’s all very strange, isn’t it?”
“But there was no sign of forced entry, the place didn’t look broken into, and if the police think something was actually taken they certainly haven’t said so. So why would anyone kill such a lovely lady?” Keegan looked truly perplexed by this mystery.
“Maybe it was something personal she was mixed up in,” I said. “Maybe she just happened to be at the TP office when it happened.”
Keegan looked at the article again. “Maybe,” he mused, “but I think there’s more to it.”
“My friends always do,” I said.
“KEEGAN! RICKY! Help, if you please,” Dacer bellowed from the back terrace. He was wearing a long white lace nightgown that looked like it was made of about eight different layers. He was also waving his arms above his head.
“Is that a hair mask?” Keegan said.
“I think so,” I said.
“Just checking,” said Keegan.
We hurried to do as Dacer commanded.
Chapter Six
Ricky Rollins Revealed
That was the blaring title of the Tabble that I woke up to the next morning. I sighed and shook my head. Charlotte would be livid when she saw it, if she hadn’t already. She had tried hard, including bribes and I imagined some threats delivered by her powerful friends, to keep my name out of the news. Now I was in the thick of it.
I started to read:
Charlotte Rollins, for years known as the last elemental and celebrated far and wide as saving the time-honored Power of Five, the paranormals’ oldest and best defense, was discovered not to be the sole elemental after all. She was hiding a brother, Ricky. Several years younger than Charlotte, he has now started at the newly reopened and currently being renovated Paranormal Public University.
There have been many questions about Ricky’s ability, including was it all just smoke and mirrors. Maybe his sister was helping him. Maybe he was just pretending? These theories were thought to be confirmed when he ran away from who he was as an elemental and his responsibilities as such, only to return a few months later.
After shirking his few responsibilities, he inspired more questions than ever about his magical powers.
An elemental’s responsibility to protect other paranormal types has never been in doubt, but the Rollinses’ ability to act on such weighty responsibility has long since been called into question.
Well, I am here to say exclusively and without question that many of those rumblings can be refuted.
Several Paranormal Public students have come forward and given exclusive interviews to me personally to say that Ricky Rollins can indeed do elemental magic. His power is raw and untrained and he may be far less talented than his powerful sister (the question of how much power she truly holds can be saved for another article; don’t worry, I have a lot to say, including the question of whether the paranormal government should really consult her in times of crisis just because she’s an integral part of the solution).
Anyway, apologies for my digression.
The interviews I conducted verified each other. I appreciated very much what each and every interviewee had to say. Although some were garbled, I used my excellent skills to transform their gibberish into a meaningful tale of truth.
As I read I got more and more disbelieving and angry. Everything the article said was so perfectly absurd that I could hardly get over it or believe it. But the hyperbole was likely to go unnoticed by those reading the Tabble, because why not.
/> I read on:
Ricky Rollins used his powers sparingly, and it was soon discovered why. He didn’t know how to use them! Imagine! After some amount of damage was caused in a lovely professor’s classroom, she had had enough.
Of course, going to the president of Public did no good whatsoever, since hybrids are rarely swift or helpful, so the professor was forced to take matters into her own beautiful hands. It was she who bravely insisted that Ricky learn what was the matter with his magic, so that nothing like that should ever happen again.
Ricky, heeding the brilliant professor’s advice, did just that. In short order he discovered, while several students were visiting him at Astra Dorm one night (he has friends across all types, despite someone’s claim that the types are fighting and that there is friction). Once those students were there Ricky proceeded to demonstrate that what he in fact has is darkness magic!!
The only way to deal with darkness magic is with more darkness magic, which is why evil incarnate herself appeared, Lisabelle Verlans, to tell him to get his powers under control. Is Ricky Rollins even an elemental? Only time will tell, but this publication would like to offer the view that he very well might be an imposter.
I stared at the words, wondering if I had read them correctly. Why on earth would someone write that or play off so many lies? I had friends of other types, sure, but I’d be willing to bet Astra that none of them had given interviews to the Tabble.
“When did the Tabble become so dumb?” I asked myself. There was no answer. I didn’t even want to know.
I had now been proclaimed to all the paranormal world as not even being an elemental. Levels of ridiculousness were increasing every day, and even worse, they had dragged Lisabelle into it, which meant that they were being not only ridiculous, but dangerously stupid.
Elemental Fate (Paranormal Public Book 12) Page 4