Dangerous (Element Preservers Series, Book 1)

by Alycia Linwood

  “Adrian,” I started to say, walking over to him. He put his hand in the air to silence me.

  “Don’t. Like I said, I want you to have it.”

  “But I can’t accept it,” I said. “You give these things to people you care about. And damn, I’m not even sure we’re friends.”

  I couldn’t even say the word love in this. Was he feeling something for me? But that was impossible! He cared about no one except himself. As for what I was feeling… I didn’t even want to go there. He wanted to tear me apart from Michael for who knows what reason, but I couldn’t let him do that.

  “Well, I don’t care about anyone,” he said, not looking at me. “And I never will. So I may as well give it to the girl who was the best in bed.”

  I glared at him. Of course, it had to be sex. Why had I thought for even a second he could care?

  “Gee, I feel flattered.” I laughed sarcastically. “But didn’t a certain disease cloud your judgment?”

  “Maybe,” he said, still avoiding looking at me. I clutched the crystals painfully in my hand and realized they seemed like ice somehow… Adrian’s icy heart, that is. I’d keep them as a reminder of that fact, which I often tended to forget for some reason.

  “Fine, I’ll take it,” I said. “But when you do find a new girl, please tell me so I can give it to her.”

  I left the room because I was sure he didn’t have anything else to say to me. As far as I knew, he could be giving these things to every girl. But then he was a bit late since we’d already slept together. As I walked down the hall, I realized I hadn’t spent enough time touching him, because people’s elements were dancing in front of my eyes. Great. I stored the necklace safely in my room and then ran outside as far as I could from the building and everything.

  Chapter 26

  Michael and Paula were intent on researching the Council's building, and I could do nothing else but kiss them goodbye and wish them luck. If only they knew what Adrian and I were about to do. Michael would probably freak out. And not just because I was going with Adrian, but because we were going mostly unprepared into what could turn out to be a seriously dangerous situation.

  Adrian and I were already dressed and ready to go. We looked quite good in our outfits, and I couldn’t help but smile that I’d managed to pick out the right thing for him. I’d bought Michael a sweater once and he’d absolutely hated it, but he still wore it sometimes and refused to admit he didn’t like it. Adrian would have simply told me if he hated it. Not that I cared, but still.

  We didn’t do much for the disguise, except Adrian now had dark brown eyes and I had hazel. I put my hair up into a tight bun and figured I didn’t look like myself at all, but that wasn’t hard since for those who didn’t know me I probably looked like hundreds of other women. Adrian looked completely different without those breathtaking gray-blue eyes, and I was sure people wouldn’t recognize him even if they’d seen his picture in the news.

  There were tons of cars in front of the hotel, and Adrian’s Lamborghini was just one of five or six I managed to see. People were walking around in expensive suits, formal dresses similar to mine, but not really, and some were wearing more casual combinations like white shirts with jeans. Adrian and I were strangely fitting in. I had used make-up to make myself appear older than I was, but there were quite a few young girls there and they didn’t look out of place at all. Honestly, I had no idea why I was thinking you had to be at least thirty to be interested in some kind of business. Maybe it was just that little girl in me who didn’t want to grow up and deal with something serious.

  When I came back from my thoughts, Adrian was already out of the car and he opened the door for me. He gave me his hand and I took it, but just because it was a bit complicated to get out of this car in a dress and high heels. We walked inside as Adrian showed the guy at the door our fake invitations. Apparently it wasn’t hard at all for Adrian to find those.

  We made a circle around the huge room where people were mostly talking or drinking champagne and wine. There were lots of projects spread out around and people were explaining things about it. Adrian approached one girl and asked something that actually made sense to her because she went on explaining. He asked just because she was pretty. I sighed and walked away, not wanting to see him flirting with her.

  “Hello there.” I heard a voice behind my back and spun around. There was a tall guy in a black suit standing in front of me. He had green eyes, black hair and he looked around fifty years old. His element was earth and the glint in his eyes told me he was interested in me, or at least he liked what he saw. Eww! That was disgusting on too many levels that I just mumbled a greeting to him and disappeared in the crowd. Why did old rich freaks usually think they could get hot young girls? Ugh.

  Since I wasn’t interested in any of the projects and I couldn’t keep up a conversation about anything smart, the party was becoming boring and annoying. I ended up near one of the tables, chewing on cookies and drinking champagne. I couldn’t see Adrian, but he was the one who was supposed to sneak out and go find something, then notify me about it. If he didn’t find anything, then it would be my turn to go. I really hoped he’d find something.

  Just as I thought of it, the mobile phone in my small purse vibrated. I got it out and saw Adrian’s message. He wanted me to go to the elevator and press -3. Huh, three floors underground. Couldn’t be good. I started for the elevator and realized my hands were shaking. Maybe I wanted Adrian to find what we were looking for, but now I was scared. Scared of being caught or something. I didn’t know why I had such a bad feeling about this, but I couldn’t seem to shake it off.

  I slowly went through the crowd, making stops here and there to prevent any freaks from following me. A shiver ran through me as I stared at the group of four people talking. I could clearly see the faces of two women, the profile of a guy and I could feel their elements. But from the guy who had his back to me I could feel absolutely nothing. A magic disease carrier… who could see me any moment. I hurried to the elevator, not daring to look back.

  I was flushed when I reached the elevator and finally pressed the right button. There was a sign next to the number which indicated that it was a ‘staff only’ floor. I just hoped no one was there to see me, or I’d have to pretend I'd pressed the wrong button, which would make me look stupid. I don’t know why I cared about it, I just did.

  It was dark and quiet as I walked down the hall. There were many doors, but it all had an abandoned look to it. I seriously doubted that the thing we were looking for was here. It seemed like the protection was nonexistent, and why in hell would they allow everyone to get to this floor if it was so important?

  I found Adrian standing in the hall on my left.

  “Is it here?” I whispered.

  “I think it is,” he said. “But I can’t feel anyone in here, and if there are cameras, I can’t see them.”

  I squinted and tried to find a camera in one of the corners, but I saw nothing. Maybe they were looking at us just as we stood here. But no one seemed to be coming our way and definitely no one had come while Adrian had been waiting for me. Maybe they wanted to see what we were going to do.

  “I don’t see anything either,” I said. “Maybe it’s not here.”

  “It has to be,” he said. I grabbed his arm and pulled him close so I could whisper into his ear.

  “There’s a guy with the magic disease at the party,” I said, and his eyes widened in surprise.

  “Are you sure?” he asked, and I nodded. “Ok, forget that. He won’t come here. Let’s check out this place.”

  I followed him down the hall, and we carefully inspected a few rooms, but they were either empty offices or storage rooms. It was all mostly covered with dust and cobwebs. But as we went through one door, we found ourselves in another hall, but much smaller than the one we had come from.

  There were sealed metal doors at the end of the hall. We looked for cameras or any devices that could trigger an alarm or so
mething, but we didn’t see anything. Adrian walked to the door while I waited on the other side.

  “There doesn’t seem to be anything here except some kind of a device to open the door,” Adrian said, and I knew he was as surprised as I was. I walked over to him, carefully looking around just in case I spotted something.

  “So how does it open?” I looked at the weird device that just had a screen with red, blue and green colors flashing behind in some kind of a haze. There were no buttons to press, no keyboard or anything. I touched the screen with my finger, but nothing happened.

  “Maybe we should have gauged someone’s eye out,” I said as Adrian tried to break in with force, but he didn’t even manage to make a dent in it.

  “Fuck,” said Adrian, rubbing his shoulder. “And there isn’t even a lock to pick.”

  “Maybe we should break the screen,” I said.

  “I don’t see how that would help, except destroy our only chance of getting in.”

  “There just has to be a way to open the damn door,” I said, observing it carefully, but nothing came to my mind. We tried to touch different parts of it, press, push, pull, but nothing worked.

  “How do you open a door that doesn’t seem to have a lock of any kind?” I said.

  “You don’t,” a voice behind our back said. I froze, and Adrian turned around, surprise written all over his face. He was shocked because we couldn’t feel the element of the man who was standing just at the end of the hall. I, on the other hand, was shocked because I recognized the voice.

  “Oliver,” I said, turning around. And surely enough, there he was. He was wearing dark jeans and a black shirt, and his short, dark brown hair was messy like he’d just gotten up from the bed. His brown eyes bore into mine, and then a smile appeared on his lips.

  “Hello, sister,” he said. Adrian gave me a questioning look, and I just bit my lip.

  “What are you doing here?” I said.

  “Funny, I wanted to ask you the same question,” he said, taking a step forward. I backed away because, he might be my brother, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t do something against me.

  “I asked first.” I swallowed. Even if he’d suspected it earlier, seeing me now confirmed that I had the magic disease. But what I hadn't expected was that he would have it too. I should have assumed that when he’d told me not to tell our parents, but I’d thought I was somehow cursed or that it would pass.

  “I saw you at the party and followed you here,” he said, stopping a few inches from us. “I didn’t know you’d get involved with the most famous of our kind.”

  He gave a meaningful look to Adrian, who just glared at him, his body tense and ready for an attack or whatever needed. Obviously he didn’t trust my brother, and I couldn’t blame him, because I didn’t trust Oliver either.

  “Our kind?” I scoffed. “And what would that be?”

  “Oh, please,” he said. “It’s not time for games, Ria. You’re as aware what I am as I’m aware what you are.”

  “Great,” I said. “Now that we solved that, we can get out of here.”

  “Without what you came for?” Oliver raised an eyebrow at me. I didn’t want him to know what we were doing. But I had a bad feeling he already knew.

  “That’s none of your business,” Adrian said.

  “Oh, stop the pretense.” Oliver rolled his eyes. “I know you didn’t come all the way here just to make out.”

  “And how do you know that?” I looked at him.

  “Because I know what’s behind these doors,” he said, and I frowned.

  “How?”

  “I have my sources.” He chuckled. “Now, do you want to go inside or not?”

  Adrian gave me another look, obviously letting me decide whether we should trust Oliver or not. I considered our situation for a moment and figured we had nothing to lose.

  “Well, I don’t see a way to get inside,” I said.

  “That’s because you’re not looking carefully, little sister,” he said. I didn’t like him patronizing me, so I crossed my arms and glared at him.

  “If you’re so smart, why don’t you tell us how to open it?” I said.

  “Do you see that screen with lights inside?” He pointed at it like I was blind or stupid.

  “No, it’s too shiny to see it.” I rolled my eyes.

  “You don’t have to be sarcastic.” He smiled. “But that thing there can read your element. That’s why the other forms of security are not necessary. You can open Pandora’s Box only with an element.”

  Huh, that kind of made sense if you wanted to keep away the magic disease carriers… and who’d want more to get those files than them. Oh, wait, we fitted the profile. But both Adrian and I had an element. I wasn’t sure about Oliver.

  “So, anyone with an element can open it?” I said and realized that didn’t make much sense. That would be a way too lame security.

  “No,” Adrian said, frowning. “It must be some kind of a detector. It can make the difference between elements, can’t it?”

  “Bingo.” Oliver clapped his hands. “It can recognize the owner of the element like we can. At the moment it opens only for four people.”

  I still had trouble recognizing people by the feel of their element, but Adrian could do it without problem.

  “Great,” I said. “So there’s no way we can enter it!”

  “Four people?” Adrian said. “What happens if they die?”

  “Their close relatives’ elements could open it, because the genetic code is similar, but it would take a few of them,” Oliver said. “But there’s no way all four would die at the same time. They are kept apart all the time. Not even their closest friends know always where they are. A new element is introduced in the detector as soon as a new person takes over the duty after one of them dies.”

  “Like I said, no way to enter.” I sighed. “Can’t we just leave before someone comes?”

  “They won’t come so soon to change the code,” Oliver said. “They don’t know one of their guys is dead.”

  I just stood there, trying to process what he’d just said. He passed by and went for the screen. The next thing I could hear was the loud crack the door made as it parted. I started to feel dizzy. My brother had killed someone and taken his element.

  “There you go.” Oliver spread his hands like he’d just made a miracle. I thought I was going to be sick. Adrian had already used the opportunity and gone inside.

  “You killed someone,” I said, glaring at my brother.

  “So?” He smiled. “You got the door open.”

  “How did you know the guy would be here?” I said, because I knew an element couldn’t stay more than a few hours inside of someone else’s body.

  “He wasn’t here,” Oliver said. “They would never keep any of them here exactly so no one could borrow the element. But we’re not just magic disease carriers, sis. We’re better than that. We're element preservers.”

  “Better, huh?” I said, tears filling my eyes. “You’re a murderer!”

  “Are you always so judgy, sis?” He smiled.

  “You’re insane.”

  “You too if you dare to say that to an insane person,” he said.

  “So for how long can you keep someone’s element inside of you?” I asked.

  “Not sure,” he said. “None of them expired yet.”

  “How many people did you kill?” I nearly choked on the words. I didn’t care anymore why we were here or what was Adrian doing inside.

  “Only three,” he said. “It seems like we can keep only one of each kind of elements. And since I already had fire, I had to fill in other spaces. You don’t know how much more quiet it feels in my head after getting the last one.”

  The last one. So he didn’t know about ice. Oh, shit. He mustn’t find out, or he’d try to kill Adrian too. I wasn’t sure would that work since they both had the disease, but the risk was simply too big. And I didn’t even want to think how I felt about the fact that three pe
ople had died because of my brother.

  “Isn’t the police looking for you then?” I said.

  “Nah, they don’t know the guy’s dead,” he said. “Besides, even if they do, they’ll look in Italy first because the guy was there.”

  “What about the other two people?” I said, and his face darkened.

  “No one will ever investigate those two,” he said. “Actually they hope no one finds out.”

  “Ria! I need your help here!” I heard Adrian’s voice just as I was about to ask Oliver who ‘they’ were. I hesitated for a second and then went inside the room. This wasn’t the right time and place to have serious talks with Oliver anyway.

  There were just too many files to go through, and after we managed to take as many of them as we could carry, I realized Oliver was gone. It was better like that, even though I had a lot of questions for him. He’d reappear; I had no doubt about that. We sneaked out through the garage and used the stairs to reach the parking lot where Adrian’s car was. Luckily, there was no one to see us, and even if someone had seen us, he would have thought we were participating in some project.

  We didn’t speak at all until we were safely back in Adrian’s room. The papers ended up thrown on the bed because we didn’t really know where to put them. I was still shocked about what had happened. Michael and Paula still hadn’t returned, but that wasn’t unusual since they had had to travel there first and would need the same amount of time to return. That at least gave me some time to come up with a good story. I really wanted to tell them the truth, but maybe that wasn’t the best option.

  “You’re tense,” Adrian said as he came behind my back and ran his hands down my arms. I was staring through the window, motionless.

  “All of this with my brother is insane,” I said. “He is insane.”

  “So it’s true that we can keep all four elements inside of us and they wouldn’t be gone?” Adrian said.

  “According to Oliver yes,” I said. “But I don’t know is it a good or bad thing, because however you look at it someone dies.”