Elemental Series Omnibus Edition Books 1-4

by Shauna Granger

  I heard Steven saying a little prayer in the backseat as I took another corner at breakneck speed, but not once did I slow down. Jensen’s driveway was wide enough for two cars and luckily he was parked on the street, leaving his mother’s car standing alone in the driveway. I tore into the vacant spot, coming within a hairsbreadth of the garage door and slammed the emergency brake as I threw open my door and nearly fell face forward onto the cement in my rush to get to the front door. Jensen wasn’t here yet. I ran up the front walk, Jodi and Steven so close behind we nearly stepped on each other. I had a second to debate whether or not to knock on the door or just bust in. I didn’t hear anything inside to indicate anything was wrong, so, with more control than should have been necessary, I balled up my fist and rapped hard and fast on the door, bouncing on the balls of my feet as we waited.

  Just as I was reaching for the doorknob, my patience nearing the end of its tether, I heard the footsteps on the other side of the door.

  “Shayna, sweetie,” Jensen’s mom said with a quick smile, showing her surprise. “What are you doing here so late? I thought you and Jensen were out…”

  “Hi, Mrs. Cavanaugh,” I said, plastering on the smile all boy’s mothers love. “Yeah, we were, but I had to go pick up Jodi and Steven, their ride abandoned them,” I gestured over my shoulder to them behind me, “so Jensen and I said we’d just meet back here. He’s not here yet, is he?” As I said the lie, I remembered Jensen’s car sitting right out front against the curb and mentally kicked myself, but I felt more than saw both Steven and Jodi moving behind me to block her view of the street. Luckily she wasn’t a tall woman by anyone’s standards, being even shorter than my five foot four.

  “No, no, he’s not, but you’re welcome to come inside,” she said with a smile as she stepped back, holding the door open for us.

  “Thanks,” I smiled at her again and led Jodi inside.

  “Oh, please, let me,” Steven said, putting on his most charming attitude as he took the door from her, still blocking her view of the street and closing the door behind him before she could see Jensen’s car. I mouthed “Thank you” to Steven and he gave me a wink in return.

  “Um, Mrs. Cavanaugh,” Jodi said, turning before she walked too far into the house. “We heard sirens just a little bit ago, is everything okay? I mean, did you hear or see anything around here?” I mentally thanked Jodi, laying a hand on her arm to convey the message. I needed to get control of my nerves and stop trying to zone in on Jeremy so I could assess the entire situation.

  “No, I don’t think so,” Mrs. Cavanaugh said, her brow knitting together as she cocked her head to the side, trying to remember something that didn’t happen. “You heard sirens in this neighborhood?”

  “Well, we had to pull over for some cop cars and an ambulance and they looked like they were coming this way,” I said with a shrug, taking up the story.

  “Hmm, well, I was in the shower, maybe I missed something. Let’s go turn on the news,” she said, walking forward towards the living room. We followed, but I stopped hearing footsteps running up the walk outside the front door and turned to see Jensen’s red face as he nearly burst through the door.

  “Hey,” I said brightly and quickly, rushing over to him and grabbing him by the shoulders and spinning him around so his back was to the rest of the house. I gave him a kiss, willing him to catch his breath and let the blood drain from his face. “It’s okay,” I whispered as I rose up on my toes to wrap my arms around his neck in a hug. “Nothing’s happened yet.”

  I felt Jensen relax beneath my embrace and slide his arms around my waist, almost crushing me in a hug. “Thank you for getting here so fast,” he whispered into my neck, hiding his face in my hair.

  “Honey, were you running just now?” his mom asked, walking back a few steps towards us. I let go of Jensen and took a quick look at his face, satisfied he was close to his normal color before I nodded and stepped back.

  “Oh, I uh…” he struggled for a moment.

  “Did you hear the sirens too?” Steven asked quickly, nodding his head vigorously over Mrs. Cavanaugh’s head.

  “Sirens? Yeah, you heard them too?” Jensen asked, taking up on the excuse.

  “Well, I didn’t, but your friends say they did,” Mrs. Cavanaugh said, gesturing to us with her hand. “We were just going to the living room to check the news.”

  We each took a spot on the large, overstuffed L-shaped couch in the sunken living room. Jensen strategically placing himself next to me, but still close enough to his mother, should he need to throw his own body over hers to protect her. We flipped on the television and Jensen surfed through the local cable channels looking for news reports.

  There was in fact some sad accident on one of the channels, with police cruisers and ambulances on scene, but it was in L.A. unsurprisingly. It took a lot for any story out of our small county to make it on television. We knew there’d be no story, since there were no emergency vehicles in the neighborhood, but it gave us all time to think. Jeremy was here somewhere or at least had been in the last hour, but something inside me told me he was still here.

  “Oh well, guess it wasn’t anything too terrible,” Jensen’s mom said, startling me from my thoughts. “So, you kids planning on staying here tonight?”

  “If that’s okay with you, mom,” Jensen said, keeping his voice impressively calm and even.

  “Oh, that’s fine, honey. Why don’t I fix you guys some snacks then?” She said with a smile and stood up, starting to walk from the room. Jensen’s mom always struck me as a strange combination of modern woman and 1950’s housewife. She was going to fix us snacks and drinks no doubt, whereas the rest of our mothers would have just told us to help ourselves to the fridge, reminding us we all had two legs that worked just fine.

  “I’ll help you, mom,” Jensen said quickly, nearly jumping up from the couch in his rush to get to her.

  “That’s okay, sweetie,” she said, putting up a hand to stop him. “I can manage by myself. Don’t be rude and leave your friends alone.”

  “No, mom, really, I want to help,” Jensen said, pressing forward against her hand, trying to usher her forward. I knew there was no way he was going to let his mom out of his sight tonight until we caught Jeremy.

  “We’ll be fine, Mrs. Cavanaugh,” I said, standing up so I could face her since Jensen had managed to get her around the couch and almost out of the room.

  “I don’t know what’s gotten into you tonight, Jensen,” she said with a shake of her head, but she gave up and walked out of the room. Jensen threw me a look that said he was grateful for my help. I waited until they were down the hall into the kitchen before I turned around to assess the room.

  “First things first,” I said, stepping around the coffee table and walking over to the large sliding glass doors that took up most of the back wall that lead to the backyard and began quickly pulling the curtains closed against the black night. The lights in the house would keep us from seeing out but we’d be completely laminated to anyone outside.

  “Now what?” Steven asked, looking around to make sure there wasn’t another way for Jeremy to get the jump on us.

  “We need to find him,” I said matter-of-factly.

  “Great, how?” Steven asked.

  “Um, Steven, come here,” I said, reaching towards him and waving my hands at him urgently. He hurried over to me and we clasped hands. I closed my eyes and centered myself, opening a channel inside of me and pushing it down past the floorboards, the foundation, and into the earth below. I drew up the energy and power into me and began to feed it into Steven. He caught on quickly and drank in the power I offered him. I felt him directing the power just as we had practiced so often. Knowing his best offensive abilities lay in his hands, he let the power build up in his palms and fingers until it spilled into his arms and overflowed into the rest of him so he could draw on that reserve when his hands ran out.

  When I sealed the channel between us, there were a flush to
Steven’s cheeks and a light sheen of sweat on his forehead. His hands felt like they had been thrust into a fire and were nearly unbearable to hold. When I let got of his hands, I saw that my own usually pale hands were red with his heat.

  “Now go into the kitchen and don’t let Jensen’s mom out of your sight,” I said.

  “What about you two?”

  “Don’t worry about us. If Jeremy shows up, I trust you to know what to do. Now go,” I said as I spun him by the shoulders and gave him a push towards the hall.

  “Now what?” Jodi asked, drawing my attention back to her.

  “How do your hands feel?”

  “Still tingly from earlier.”

  “Good, me too,” I said with a nod and reached a hand towards her. Jodi came to me quickly, taking my left hand in hers. I was still drawing up power and energy from the ground below and began feeding it to Jodi just as I had done with Steven. After a few moments I felt the power begin to rebound back on me, as if she had taken all of the power her body could hold. I broke the channel carefully, but motioned her to remain next to me while I separated myself from the channel I had opened below me. When I was free, I felt a burning sensation in my right hand and looked down to see the metallic liquid pushing against the skin of my fingers and palms, coloring the skin in an odd, almost reptilian way.

  “Does it burn you too?” Jodi asked and I saw that she was examining her right hand as well.

  “A bit, but not enough to hurt.”

  “Yeah, yeah, me too,” she nodded, taking a moment to break her gaze away from her hand and look back up at me. “What now?”

  “We find the son of a bitch.”

  ***

  I debated searching for Jeremy outside, but decided the risk of being outside, away from help and in the dark, just wasn’t wise now that I knew we were dealing with Air Elementals. Jodi had tried locating them with her inner abilities, but either their signature was still too foreign to her to recognize or they had learned to block against her. We decided it was safer to stick together so we headed up the stairs together, fighting the urge to hold hands like two children braving the long dark hallway.

  I kept my back against the wall as we walked up and Jodi walked backwards, watching for an ambush and trusting me not to let her walk into anything behind her. When we reached the top of the stairs, I put my hand out, waiting for Jodi to walk into it. Okay, wait, we’re at the top, I thought at her, grateful we could communicate like this. To my left was a guest bathroom and all the other rooms were along a walkway to the right. I’m going to check this bathroom. You watch the hall and the stairs and then we’ll work our way down, room by room.

  Okay, Jodi thought at me with a nod. Her yellow thoughts were so bright I instinctively squinted my eyes against them. Her anxiety was running as high as mine. As I took a step towards the bathroom door, Jodi took the final step up onto the hallway floor and off of the stairs, keeping her back to the bathroom in order to watch both ways. I started to reach for the doorknob and had a flash of every horror movie I’d ever seen where someone stands in front of a closed door and makes a perfect target of themselves. I reached back and pushed Jodi gently to the side. What? she asked.

  Don’t stand right in front of the door, I answered and she nodded, understanding, and took a step back towards the stairs, putting the corner of the wall in her back. I turned and pressed my body against the wall and reached to turn the doorknob. I heard it click and let go to nudge the door open with my foot. I pushed hard enough so the door would open all the way until it made contact with the wall, ensuring Jeremy wasn’t hiding behind it. I slid down the wall silently until I was on my knees so that I wouldn’t be in Jeremy’s line of sight before I leaned forward to look inside. It was empty. I took a deep breath and blew it out quietly. I double checked the tub and even the cabinet under the sink, just to be sure, before turning back to the door and nodding Jodi forward.

  We checked every room, Jensen’s, Ian’s, and their parents, not finding Jeremy in any. That only left the master bathroom. Jodi reached out and touched my arm. Do you think he’s in there? She said she was in the shower, she would’ve seen him, she thought at me.

  Not if he waited outside the window or something until she was done, I answered.

  But he didn’t. I mean, she was fine when we got here, Jodi furrowed her brow at me.

  Better safe than sorry, I urged and Jodi agreed and we checked the bathroom, Jodi staying in the doorway to make sure we weren’t taken by surprise. But like all the other rooms, this one was empty as well. Damnit! I thought angrily, nudging Jodi forward by the shoulder.

  Is there a basement or something? Jodi asked as we walked through the hall and back to the stairs.

  No, just the guest bath downstairs and the kitchen and garage. I guess he could be in the garage. If he’d been in the kitchen, we’d know by now. Jodi nodded her agreement and we trudged down the stairs.

  “He must still be outside or in the garage then,” Jodi said over her shoulder as we walked back into the living room. “What now?” That was a question I was seriously getting tired of hearing, but I took a deep breath and blew it out audibly, keeping my frustration under control.

  “We wait, I guess,” I said, starting to pace the living room as Jodi took a seat on the couch.

  “Here we are,” Jensen’s mom said brightly, carrying a tray of quartered sandwiches with a bowl of chips. Jensen and Steven followed her with drinks, setting everything on the coffee table.

  “Thanks, Mrs. Cavanaugh,” Jodi and I said together, but only Jodi reached for a sandwich and I continued to pace.

  “Everything okay, dear?” Mrs. Cavanaugh asked me.

  “Oh, yeah, fine,” I said with a forced smile and made myself stop pacing, taking a seat on the arm of the couch, knowing I couldn’t take a seat on the overstuffed couch and be comfortable.

  “If you’re sure,” she said, watching me with concern plain on her face. “Well, I think I’ll head upstairs, leave you kids alone.”

  “No!” we all four yelled so suddenly she jumped back a step, her hand flying to her chest as if to keep her heart from bursting out.

  “Well!” she said, her voice breathy as she looked around at the four of us.

  “Sorry, mom. We just meant there’s no reason to leave just because we’re here,” Jensen said, reaching out to touch her arm.

  “Now since when have four teenagers ever wanted to hang out with someone’s mom?” she furrowed her brow at her son, but didn’t pause to let him answer. “Something’s wrong and I want to know what, right now, Jensen Michael Cavanaugh.” We were caught. Whenever a parent middle names you, you know you’ve pushed your luck.

  “Sorry, Mrs. Cavanaugh,” I said, taking a step towards her to draw her attention away from Jensen. “It’s my fault, this whole thing with Jeremy, we’re all pretty spooked.”

  “Oh, of course,” she said, tilting her head to the side and fixing me with a concerned mother’s stare. “They haven’t found him yet, have they?”

  “No, he’s still out there and we think he’s trying to hurt people that are important to me, so we got worried about you because we realized you were home alone.” Sometimes the truth is the best way to lie.

  “Well, isn’t that sweet,” she said with a smile, walking over to me and taking me into a hug. “But as you can see, I’m fine now and, with you four here, I can’t imagine him being able to do anything.” She patted my shoulder and turned towards Jensen. “I’m going to go ahead and go upstairs, but” she raised her hand to forestall our arguments, “I’ll keep my door open so if anything happens I can call for help, alright?”

  “Mom,” Jensen said. “I just don’t feel like that’s gonna be enough.”

  “Don’t be silly,” she said with a shake of her head and started walking towards the stairs. “There are locks on all of the windows and the only doors in and out are right here and with two strapping young men here, what could happen?”

  “Famous last words
,” Steven mumbled as Jensen’s mom started up the stairs. We waited to do anything until we heard her walking above us, in her room and not calling out for help.

  “Now what?” Jensen turned to ask.

  “I am really getting tired of hearing that question,” I said, rubbing my temples with my fingertips. “Jensen, go up real quick and make sure she left her door open and double check all her windows. We already cleared the upstairs, but who’s to say he didn’t come in after we left.” Without a word, he turned and hurried up to do as I said.

  “And we need to check the garage,” I said to the other two, who nodded in agreement. We walked into the kitchen as quietly as possible, checking the downstairs bath on our way. I motioned for Jodi to stand to one side of the door and me to the other with Steven standing back and off to the side, out of the line of fire, before I opened the door in the same way I had all the other doors upstairs. When nothing leapt out at us, we inched through the door, keeping our backs against the walls as best we could.

  Jensen’s father had turned the garage into a work room much like my dad had done to ours. There was one wall covered in a wide work bench with all kinds of hand tools on it. Another wall was cabinets and the third wall was lined with a table saw, a wood lathe, and a couple of other cumbersome tools I couldn’t make out in the dark. Luckily the center was bare, where he usually had a collapsible table, but it was broken down and hanging on one of the walls. Not many places to hide. I reached over my shoulder awkwardly and flipped on the light switch, never turning my attention away from the room.

  When the garage flooded with light, I held my breath. I was sure both Jodi and Steven were doing the same, but nothing happened. My sense of Jeremy hadn’t grown or weakened at all, which meant he probably wasn’t there, but I made sure we checked everywhere before we called it safe. We checked all of the cupboards, even the ones too small for him to hide in and behind and around all of the large tools and under the work bench before we walked back out, locking the door from the inside just in case.