Dangerous (Element Preservers Series, Book 1)

by Alycia Linwood

  “Actually, I got you out of the class because it’s the only time when I’m not busy.” He flashed me a smile as we entered his office. It looked just the same as it had when I’d been here months ago. Still horribly claustrophobic.

  I settled myself in one of the red chairs and waited. Maybe he could get anyone in a chatty mood in a second, but not me.

  “Does name Oliver Milanez mean something to you?” he said, the look on his face kind but also inquiring. I actually cringed when he said it.

  “Yeah, Oliver is…,” I said hesitantly, “my brother.”

  “Oh really?” he said, but didn’t seem surprised, which meant he had known it all along. “You never mentioned you had a brother.”

  “Why should I? I don’t need to explain my family tree to anyone,” I said.

  “True,” he said. “It’s just that you left the brothers and sisters field empty in your admission papers.”

  “I forgot to write it,” I said. Actually, I hadn’t written it on purpose.

  “Alright, then I’ll just add it,” he said. “So, how close exactly are you to your brother?”

  “I’m sorry, but that’s none of your business,” I said, giving him a polite smile even though I didn’t feel like being polite with him at all. Was he this nosy with other people too? I’d have to ask Paula.

  “You’re not very talkative, are you?” His smile was a bit bitter now. “Fine. But when was the last time you heard from him?”

  “I don’t remember,” I said, and that was the truth. As far as I was concerned, I didn’t have a brother.

  “Do you know that your parents are planning to report him missing?” he suddenly said, and I stared at him with wide eyes.

  “What?”

  “Your parents haven’t heard from your brother for two weeks now,” he said, his face serious.

  “They didn’t tell me anything.”

  “They asked me to do it,” he said. Now I was frowning. Why the fuck would my parents tell this guy something so personal instead of contacting me directly?

  “Oliver can take care of himself,” I said. “Maybe he simply got stuck somewhere without a mobile phone signal during his trips. He’ll be back. But what I don’t understand is what do you have with all of this?”

  “I told you,” he said. “Your parents asked me to tell you this.”

  “Why? This is personal stuff,” I said. “They could have told me themselves.”

  “Your father and I have been good friends for years,” he said, and my eyebrows shot up in surprise. My father knew a lot of people, even called some of them friends, but that didn’t mean he confided in them.

  “Oh, great,” I said, unsure what else to say to that.

  “We met at one of the EP meetings,” he said.

  “E.. what?” I’d never heard that acronym before.

  “Element Preservation,” he said. “Your father is a part of the Council.”

  I knew that, just I had no idea what being in the Council meant, except making some decisions or whatever about our elements. I'd never really been interested in finding out.

  “Are you a part of the Council too?” I asked.

  “I was,” he said. “Not anymore.”

  “Why not?” I said. “Isn’t that a better job than being a counselor here?”

  “It is.” He laughed, then his face became expressionless. “I had to give up on that job when I became Adrian’s guardian.”

  “Oh,” I said, “and why did you become his guardian?”

  “I was chosen,” he said.

  “Chosen?” I didn’t know much about how someone became a guardian. Well, it wasn't like anyone ever talked about it. Anything that had to do with the magic disease was usually kept secret.

  “Yeah, most of the Council members voted for me. I had to decide whether I would accept or not,” he said. “And I accepted.”

  “So you could have refused?” I said.

  “Yes,” he said. “You can always refuse. But if I had done it, they would have killed Adrian right there with his parents.”

  I was shocked. Dang, why hadn’t he refused? I’d have been so much happier if Adrian had died that night. I almost asked him why, but I guessed that would have been rude. At that moment the door swung open, and Alan’s face darkened. I glanced behind me to see Adrian, looking annoyed.

  “How many times have I told you to knock before entering?” Alan rose from his chair, frowning.

  “Oh, don’t bother,” Adrian said. “Why is she here?”

  And by she, he meant me. Of course, he could sense I was here, but why was that a problem? Ah, right, he probably thought I’d tell Alan something against him. Funny. I wasn’t even planning to tell anything because of what use it would be? I was sure Alan would cover it all up.

  “What is your problem?” I rose up from my chair and hurried over to Adrian, pushing him against the wall farthest from Alan. Adrian was so surprised that he actually let me do it.

  “This is not about you,” I whispered.

  “It’s not about you either.” He smirked, and started to yell. “You’re not going to get between me and Paula!”

  I was completely aghast. What the hell was he talking about? As he continued to rant about me trying to break him apart from Paula, I realized something. He’d just used me to make sure Alan knew about him and Paula. But why?

  “I’m out of here,” I said, getting out of Alan’s office before I got blamed for something I hadn't done. Ok, maybe for something I wanted to do, but what did it matter when I hadn’t really done it. I sighed. Sometimes I was confusing myself… and sometimes Adrian confused me even more. What did the big bad wolf plan to do now?

  At this point, I didn’t really care. But I promised to myself that if it was something against me, I’d just tell everything I knew about him or do something else to make him pay. I was getting sick of him. And maybe, just maybe, he was getting sick of Paula. Suddenly his outburst in the office made much more sense. He was going to break up with her and was probably trying to make it look like someone else forced him to. It would certainly hurt Paula less, but he didn't care about her feelings.

  Or did he want her to be his secret girlfriend so she’d quit being around him in public? Oh, crap. What if he didn’t want to break up with her? What if he wanted more girlfriends? Surely it hadn’t been easy for him to stay just with her all these months… if he had stayed only with her. I wasn’t sure.

  Even though I was going to my room, I changed my plans and went to Paula’s. At least Adrian wouldn’t be around. I knocked on the door, hoping that she was there and not in the library. The door opened, and she appeared in front of me, looking pretty as usual.

  “Ria!” she said, a bit disappointed. “I wasn’t expecting you!”

  “Hi!” I said. “Can I come in?”

  “Sure,” she said and let me in. I was almost sure she’d been waiting for Adrian to show up. Her room was a chaos; papers on the floor, tons of books lying around, some weird graphs I didn’t even understand,… I’d been in her room like a week ago and nothing of it had been there then.

  “I didn’t know there was a tornado here,” I said, moving some old yellow-paged book from the bed so I could sit down.

  “Sorry, I was just investigating something… and had a big fight with Adrian,” she said, cradling another book like it was a baby.

  “You had a fight with Adrian? Why didn’t you call me?” I said, since we usually talked to each other about boyfriend troubles lately. I hadn’t told her anything about that night with Michael though. Some secrets you just couldn’t share with anyone, no matter how close that person was to you.

  “I didn’t have time,” she said, looking sincere. “I believe I’m close to discovering something. Well, I’d have more chance if I could actually get Adrian to cooperate with me. But he’s just being a jerk.”

  Wow, Paula actually admitting Adrian was being a jerk was a big thing. Maybe Adrian was tired of her using him for her resea
rch, but he had never truly helped her anyway. I had no idea why he didn’t want to participate in something that could save his life later. I guessed he just didn’t believe in her.

  But now I was a little bit more certain he wanted to make her his secret girlfriend. If he wanted to simply break up with her, he’d accuse her of using him for the research or something. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, the bastard wasn’t stupid. Only I couldn’t figure it out why he would want to keep her. Paula herself had told me they hadn’t had sex for a long time. Apparently he had told her he was afraid he’d lose control and hurt her. Yeah, right.

  “Did you rob the library?” I said. “Or a museum?”

  Some of the books really looked like the ones I used to see in museums; ones that looked like their pages were going to turn into dust if you touched them.

  “No.” She laughed. “I borrowed most of them. And I bought some on the Internet. I can’t believe some people are willing to sell such valuable books.”

  “Umm, not everyone finds those books valuable,” I said. “Well, better for you in any case.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “Did you know that there is a place near here where they keep all the documents related to the magic disease ever found in any part of the world?”

  “No, I didn’t,” I said, frowning. “Why don’t you go there then?”

  “It’s not a public place,” she said. “Nowhere says exactly where it is. Besides, it’s under the government’s protection. No one can get into that kind of a place anyway.”

  “Oh please,” I said. “There are always ways to break in or bribe someone to let you in.”

  “Not in this case.” She sighed. “The government keeps something really important there, and I don’t think they’d let someone in… not even for a price. And the security must be heavy.”

  “How did you find out all that stuff?” I looked at her, and she grinned.

  “I read between the lines. No one mentions it directly, but I believe that’s the only reason why this book didn’t end up locked up in that place.”

  “Why would they want to hide things about the magic disease from us? It can’t be that bad, can it?” I said. “Or maybe there are more influential families who do the same as Adrian’s parents did.”

  “Maybe.” She shrugged. “But why don’t they allow more research to find the cure?”

  “Umm, because people from the government are stupid and rather take the money for themselves than try to find a cure for some disease? I bet none of them has a magic disease carrier in their family, or it would be another story. I'm sure they allowed Adrian to be here just like that only because none of their children go to our university.” I chuckled.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “It’s just that with all the school work, limited resources and secrets I’m not getting anywhere!”

  “I told you it wouldn’t be easy,” I said. “You have plenty of time to figure something out. Get the degree first, build your own laboratory… whatever you want.”

  “Perhaps, but I’m not sure about the time,” she said, her face grim.

  “Why?”

  “Adrian might not…” she choked on her words, tears starting to pool in her eyes.

  “Paula,” I got up, walking over to her and pulling her into a tight hug. “It’s ok. Don’t worry about it. Everything will be fine.”

  “How can I not worry?” She hiccuped. “What if…?”

  “No, stop it,” I said. “He’s fine. You’ll figure it out. Don’t waste time on worrying.”

  “Right,” she said, wiping off the tears. “I can do this.”

  I could feel the wind crashing against me, whispering my name… I jumped away from Paula like she had burned me.

  “Ria! What’s wrong?” Paula stared at me in surprise. I looked at her, gasping for breath.

  “I don’t know…I just…,” I said. “I need some air.”

  I gave Paula a reassuring smile and ran out of the room before I choked or fainted. What was happening to me? It almost seemed like Paula being upset had made me upset too, but upset to the point of pain. Nah, she'd probably gotten too upset and lashed out with her element, and I'd been too close to her. It was much easier to breathe in the hall, so I just decided to go find Michael.

  I couldn’t find Michael. He wasn’t in his room and he wasn’t in the library. I was clueless. After trying to call his mobile phone and getting voicemail, I decided to return to my room. I figured he’d call me eventually.

  I opened the door and immediately smelled roses. Roses? I looked around the room, confused, and, surely enough, there they were, right on my desk. A beautiful bouquet of red roses. I reached out to touch one of the soft petals and saw a note lying under the crystal vase. I picked it up, a smile creeping up my face.

  “I didn’t believe in soulmates until you appeared. You are everything I have ever wanted. Meet me in the park at 7 p.m. and I’ll show you how much I love you. Michael.” I read it out loud, my heart thudding like crazy in my chest. Michael really knew how to make me melt from sweetness.

  “I love you, Michael,” I said, hugging the note to myself.

  Chapter 12

  I was waving a Magic Studies book in front of my face to get cooler. So the book actually had some use. Oh, well. I was sweating way too much in my strapless silk green dress, which I'd chosen because the color reminded me of Michael’s eyes. Why couldn’t I be less nervous? It wasn’t like I was going out with him for the first time.

  After making sure that everything was in its place, I sneaked out of the room. I didn’t want anyone to see me and ask questions. The park was just behind the university building and it was full of trees and flowers, almost like a labyrinth. It was also a very romantic place, and many people went there to relax, read a book or propose marriage… Oh.

  I hoped that wasn’t what Michael had in mind. We were too young for something as complicated as marriage, especially after what my mother had told me. I still wasn’t sure I believed her. The sky was getting darker, twilight bathing the whole park in a beautiful reddish glow. I took a deep breath, enjoying the breeze that was caressing my face for a moment, and then went to search for Michael.

  I found him standing under an oak tree, looking devastating in his black suit. He held out a red rose to me, and I took it, smiling.

  “So, how exactly are you planning to show me your love?” I teased.

  “Come.” He offered me his hand and led me deeper into the park. I heard a noise coming from behind a large tree that sounded almost like… a horse. I frowned. What the hell would a horse be doing in the park? Michael led me around the tree and, surely, right in front of my eyes, there was a white horse. I must have looked completely stunned because Michael squeezed my hand gently.

  “Do you like him?” he asked. I blinked.

  “Honey, I’m not sure. I think I’m having visions because I’m actually looking at a white horse,” I said.

  “It’s real.” He chuckled. “I brought him for you. I want to be your prince and make you my princess.”

  “Oh, Michael.” I gasped as the full realization of what was happening hit me. That was so… so… I didn’t have words to express how I felt. That was the most beautiful thing anyone had ever done for me.

  “Come,” he said, taking me closer to the horse. I was still slightly shocked, and a part of me wondered if it was all just a dream. But that was only Michael making dreams come true. I patted the horse’s white mane and smiled.

  “How did you… get him here?” I said, looking into Michael’s deep green eyes.

  “I’d do anything for you,” he said. “I thought you’d like this.”

  “Oh, I do,” I said, my eyes teary. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” He smiled and made a move to get onto the horse’s back. I frowned. I couldn’t ride a horse in a dress. He looked down at me and extended his hand.

  “Come on, don’t be afraid,” he said. “Let me pull you up.”

 
“I’m wearing a dress,” I said like it wasn’t obvious.

  “So? You’ll just have to sit in front of me and hold on to me really tightly,” he said. I wasn’t sure I could do it. I was too afraid of sliding down and getting hurt. But the idea of holding Michael close to me was very tempting. Would I let him carry me on the horse like some princess he had saved from an enchanted castle? I decided I would.

  I nearly fell off a few times and needed to tighten my grip on Michael. Stupid silk dress! I was almost sure Michael’s suit would be full of wrinkles when we got to our destination. The good part of all of it was that I could enjoy in the warmth of Michael’s body, his scent, his love for me…

  There was a guy waiting for us in front of the restaurant who helped me get down. It was good to be on the ground again. But damn, this had to be the most exciting and the most romantic thing I’d ever done. Michael really knew how to make a woman happy.

  After spending a few hours in an exclusive restaurant and enjoying in delicious food and good wine, we were returning to the university building. This time with a taxi. Riding back surely wouldn’t be comfortable because of the dark and us being slightly drunk, so Michael had had the horse returned right after we had arrived.

  As we were getting closer to our rooms, I was wondering where we would go. Surely this night couldn’t end just with a goodbye kiss in front of the door. I wanted more. I wanted to experience everything I couldn’t remember from the night that Michael and I had spent together.

  “My room or yours?” I asked as we entered the hall. Our rooms were on the opposite part of the building, and I really hated that sometimes.

  “Yours,” he said.

  “Aren’t you afraid of getting caught in a girl’s room in the morning, Mister Teregov? I teased.

  “No, not at all.” He laughed, running his fingers down my back. Desire spread over me like fire, burning away any other thought that didn’t include him. I don’t remember at what point we had started kissing, but we were all over each other when we reached my room. I nearly dropped the key while trying to unlock the door.