Elemental Darkness (Paranormal Public Series) (21 page)

“Sorry,” Sip muttered. She hopped onto one of the other couches. “Lough got held up. He and Trafton had something Professor Erikson wanted them to do.”

I shook my head. “What will they do next year when all the dream givers graduate?”

“Well, Trafton is threatening to travel the world and find more, which doesn’t even count the fact that he has several siblings. I think Lough would make a good professor, but he’d never do it without Lisabelle.”

Lough came in just then, muttering something about being in need of a muffin, and at the same moment the Astra doorbell rang.

We all exchanged looks.

No one ever rang our doorbell. The professors summoned us to them, and friends just walked in, because they knew I didn’t have a dorm mother anymore.

I scrambled off the couch as Sip went to start a new pot of tea. Whoever it was, the visitor deserved tea.

Lough stretched out on the couch and closed his eyes.

I flung the door open, and there stood Darrow. He held his hat in his hand, turning it over and over in his fingertips. His eyes, already wide
set, looked even larger in the moonlight. He was also staring at me.

“Hi,” I said, not quite hiding my surprise.

“Hi,” he said. We stood there awkwardly for a few breaths, until I heard the door to the kitchen open and Sip appeared at my elbow, peering at Darrow.

“Oh, hey,” she said. I could tell she was just as surprised as I was to see him.

“Hey,” he said, smiling in relief. Somehow he was more comfortable with Sip than with me.

“Come in,” said Sip. “Are you here to commiserate about Professor Erikson?”

Darrow looked confused. “No,” he said. “I mean, I don’t think so. I like Professor Erikson.”

Sip looked slightly disappointed, but she recovered quickly. “Don’t worry,” she said. “You can come in anyway.”

“Um, thanks,” said Darrow. We let him in and he whistled in wonder.

“This is amazing,” he said, looking around. “You have this whole place to yourself?”

“Sip stays with me now,” I said. “I don’t have a dorm mother.”

“I’m sorry,” said Darrow. He followed us into the living room, and Sip disappeared to get the tea.

Lough cracked one eye open and stared at Darrow.

“Hi,” said our visitor, looking uncertain again. He glanced at me, then continued talking about how cool Astra was.

Lough’s eyebrows rose higher and higher as Darrow continued to talk. Sip returned with the tea and offered Darrow some.

He shook his head. “I don’t drink tea.”

Sip stared at him. “Who doesn’t drink tea?”

“I just find the taste odd,” he said. Sip looked deeply concerned.

“I have just the thing. I’ll be right back,” she disappeared.

“So, Darrow,” said Lough, sitting up straight. “How’s it going?”

“Good,” said Darrow.

“You’re very into paranormal architecture, aren’t you?”

Darrow nodded. “I’m hoping to get more schooling and then make a living from it.”

“That sounds fun,” said Lough. “Are you concerned that the demons might make it so that there aren’t enough paranormals left to employ you?”

Sip returned, carrying a fancier teabag than I had ever seen before. She plunked it in one of the teacups and waited, staring intently at it. Darrow gave her a questioning look and then returned his focus to Lough.

I was glad my friend was trying to discover what Darrow was doing here, because I had no idea.

“So, anyway, Charlotte,” said Darrow, clearly summoning his courage, “could I talk to you alone for a minute?”

“Um, sure,” I said. Sip handed Darrow a cup of whatever tea she had specially brewed for him, and he followed me back into the hallway, carrying the cup carefully. I didn’t turn around, because I knew Sip and Lough were staring after us in shocked silence.

I scrubbed my hands on my jeans, suddenly nervous.

Darrow was shaking so badly he couldn’t keep his teacup still.

“So, homecoming is soon,” he said, not looking at me. He scuffed his foot on the ground.

“I hadn’t even thought about it,” I said, a bit heedlessly. From the time I was a Starter, homecoming had never gone well for me. This year, without Keller, I had been actively avoiding any mention of it.

Darrow smiled shyly at me again, but he looked a little disappointed. To hide it, he took a great gulp of tea.

“I have to go,” he said, quickly handing me the tea. “Tell Sip that was good,” he said as he hurried out.

I stared after him, holding the cup. Sip peered around the door from the living room.

“Charlotte,” Sip asked, her voice filled with amusement, “did he like my tea?”

“Yeah,” I said, frowning at her, “but he left in a hurry.”

“Did you reject him?” she asked, grinning at me.

“Why would I reject him?” I asked. “He didn’t ask me a question.”

Sip frowned at me. “None at all?”

I followed her back into the living room.

“He likes you,” said Lough, taking a sip of his own tea. He had gotten into tea drinking, much to Sip’s delight.

“No he doesn’t,” I said. “He just asked about homecoming, and I told him I wasn’t thinking about. . . .”

“Oh, light
bulb,” Lough teased. “He totally likes you.”

I stared at them in shock. “Sit,” Sip advised, pointing to the couch I had claimed as my own.

I sat heavily and stared at them. “Likes me likes me?”

“Um, yeah,” said Sip. “It happens.”

“I guess,” I said. “I’m just not ready. I miss Keller too much.”

“I don’t know,” said Lough. “I like Keller, but you haven’t heard from him in months. Maybe it’s time to move on.”

I curled up in a ball on the couch. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

The next day we got our Tactical teams. I hadn’t thought I cared whose team I was on until Zervos placed me on a team with Daisy and Camilla.

“He definitely wants me dead,” I said to my friends.

“You think you have it bad?” Lough asked. “I’m with Faci.”

No one had said what this Tactical would be, or if it would be similar to the Ultimate Tactical we’d had previously. Once our teams were formed Zervos disbanded us, saying that Oliva would tell us more the next day. I was fine with that, because I had a meeting with Dacer at the coffee shop, and Sip was coming with me.

It did not comfort me that as we walked away, Faci, Daisy, and Camilla came together and started to whisper, their eyes never leaving me and my friends.

“I have your first assignment,” said Dacer pleasantly.

I was relieved; I was so frustrated at Public I was ready to scream. All summer I’d been desperate to return to campus, because nothing was happening in Maine except that I felt closer to Ricky, but now all I wanted to do was leave again.

“Adventure,” Sip cried gleefully.

Dacer gave her a stern look. “This is important, and serious,” he said. “There’s a camp of paranormals about an hour’s run from here” - he was giving time in terms of werewolf speed - “and Charlotte, you can fly. They have a Tempest, which is very rare. The demons are trying to kill her, and she’s just a little girl. I want you to go there this weekend and help strengthen the Power of Five.”

“Will the other paranormal types be there to help?” Sip asked.

Dacer shook his head. “They have found the other types to do it separately, since it is infinitely more dangerous for you to be traveling if several other paranormals have to know about it. This way, no one knows but me.”

“So, we aren’t even going to see this Tempest?” I asked.

“Not if everything goes according to plan,” he said. “Of course, since nothing goes according to plan, I did tell her mother that you were coming. She is planning to leave the door unlocked.”

“Alright,” I said nervously.

“Good,” said Sip, “finally we’re going to be doing something useful.”

“By the way,” I said, trying to sound as casual as possible, “have you heard from Risper?”

Dacer pursed his lips. I could tell he didn’t like that I was asking the question.

“I haven’t,” he said, carefully. “Why?”

“Just wondering,” Sip and I chorused at the same time.

As we left Sip whispered, “We have to get back to that archive before we go.”

I nodded. “I want to see those rings again.”

“Definitely,” Sip agreed.

We decided to try again the next night, but first we had to attend Olive’s introduction to this year’s Tactical.

Oliva was waiting for us at the field when we arrived. We broke up into our teams, which was hard for me because I didn’t want to be anywhere near Daisy or Camilla.

“Students,” said Oliva, “I realize that it is difficult to concentrate on school while we’re at war, but I want you to understand that we’re fighting a good fight, and the best thing you can do for the paranormals is to keep up with your schoolwork, and that includes Tactical.”

The sky was cloudy and threatening rain. I wore a light jacket zipped up to my neck. Fall was coming.

“This semester, we want the Tactical to be as progressive as possible, that is, we want it to be a little different from past years. Yes, there are still high value targets, and as in real life we expect you to protect the elemental.”

I heard muffled laughter around the field and wondered if Oliva was being ironic, since Caid had advocated handing me over to the demons to end the war.

“Therefore, we want you to find an object that is hidden somewhere on campus. It is a Key of Light, and we want the Tactical teams to find it. Of course, you can attack each other while you do. We encourage all students to look, but only with your teams. To that end, if any student finds the object while alone, it will not count. We also encourage you to continue to make your fellow students targets.”

“I love this part,” Lough muttered to me. “Like fish in a barrel.”

“Do you think our teams will protect us?” I whispered back.

Lough glanced at Daisy and Camilla, who were standing next to each other and glaring at us. Then he shook his head. “What else is new?”

Tactical had become d
angerous. Or maybe I should say
more
dangerous. Stuck with Daisy and Camilla, I was probably in more danger than anyone else. Sip was with Dobrov, who still mostly hung around the Nocturns. Ordinarily he never went near Sip or tried to speak to her, which was probably for the best, because Sip was in no mood to tolerate people who talked to Nocturns.

I continued to sleep poorly, which only served to make the days harder and longer. We were all buried under our coursework. It was like the professors had decided that the only way we would be saved from darkness was to study as much as possible.

“I don’t see why this matters,” Lough muttered. “I’m a dream giver. There are only a handful of us in the world. My destiny is to become sought after and rich.”

“You don’t want to work in government like Kair?” Sip asked. Kair was Lough’s older sister, who was dating one of Sip’s brothers.

“Absolutely not,” said Lough, shaking his head emphatically. “Too much work.”

Sip snorted.

“What do you want to do?” they both asked me. I shrugged. As the only elemental I’d been given countless lectures about how vital my role in paranormal society had become, but to be honest, I hadn’t really thought much about my future. I didn’t think of myself as a diplomat, and although I loved the idea of traveling around the world and using my powers for the protection of paranormals, I wanted to make sure I saw Ricky through college, paranormal or otherwise, first.

“I think you’d make an awesome professor,” said Lough, beaming. “You might not be as nerdy as Sip” - he ignored her cry of indignation - “but you’re excellent at explaining things and wonderful in a fight.”

“What does being wonderful in a fight have to do with being a professor?” Sip demanded, bracing her fists on her hips.

“Charlotte’s just going to have a time of it,” said Lough. “It proves she’s brave enough to cope with what’s coming.”

I smiled at my friend. At least he was on my side.

“Thanks,” I said. “We’ll see.”

I couldn’t bring myself to tell them that I had secretly cherished the idea of becoming a professor. I saw how much Dacer enjoyed Public, how it gave him grounding for boundless opportunities, and I wanted that. I had also secretly wanted a future with Keller. Not that I wouldn’t work, of course I would, but with Keller’s life mapped out I had always thought of myself in relation to that. Without him by my side I felt lost and adrift. I didn’t really want to commit to anything at all.

The archives were as dark and musty as ever when Sip and I reached the top floor. She hadn’t wanted to bring me through the same window twice, so I had flown in through a window on the floor below. Alixar was as incredible as ever. I wondered why Queen Ashray hadn’t made more masks.