Elemental Darkness (Paranormal Public Series) (5 page)

Sip looked around and sighed. “It’s nice to be home,” she said. “My mom and dad will be happy.”

Hyder and Helen Quest had just one daughter, and Sip was their pride and joy.

Slowly, a frown replaced Sip’s smile. “Where’s Lisabelle?” she asked.

Lough’s mouth dropped open, but nothing came out.

“She didn’t get hurt, did she?”

Dawn was rising behind Sip, but the pale sky offered no relief to the darkness that now covered Public. As the wind returned to normal and the ground gave its last heave, I looked at my friend.

She raised her eyebrows as she continued to look around.

“She’d better not be in our room ‘decorating,’” said Sip, showing her first signs of life. “I wasn’t gone for that long, and I don’t approve.”

Lough’s lip started to tremble. I didn’t have the words to tell her.

I was too slow. I should have been the one, but Dobrov beat me to it. He strode up the hill, his legs longer than I remembered.

“Sip,” he said, without warmth. “Glad you’re back.”

Sip just looked at him, her eyebrows raised.

“Why are we wasting time?” she asked me. “Let’s get to Airlee, before she screws everything up.”

“We aren’t going to Airlee,” Lough said quietly.

Sip’s face fell a little. Now, suddenly, in the warm morning, a morning that should have been more beautiful than heart-wrenching, Sip started to realize that something was truly wrong.

“What happened?” she asked softly. “Please, what happened? Tell me she’s okay!” Sip started to look around frantically. “Where is she? What happened?” she cried. “She didn’t die fighting the Golden Falls Happiness Officers, did she? There’s no way they’d take her down,” she breathed. “No way.”

“She didn’t die fighting them,” I croaked. I couldn’t stand watching my friend in pain.

“You just have to tell me,” said Sip, meeting my eyes. “Just tell me.”

“She traded herself for you,” said Dobrov. “That’s why you’re free and she isn’t here.”

He didn’t stop there.

“They took you, but she fought her way out. By the time she was in the clear, you were gone. I know that after they all fought their way out of Golden Falls, with a little help from a few dragons and faeries - obviously - she brought Charlotte back to Public. After that, Charlotte couldn’t stop her. You shouldn’t blame Charlotte, and Lisabelle had no choice. They’ve always wanted the power Lisabelle has within her. What she’s doing is very brave.”

Sip changed into a werewolf before I could blink. She let out a single howl before tearing off into the night.

“SIP!” I cried, racing after her, but it was useless. I had expected some kind of response like that, but I was still powerless to stop it. None of us could keep up with a werewolf unless we used magic, and there was no way I was going to use magic on my best friend.

I vaguely heard Dobrov yell that he was sorry, but I ignored him.

I chased her for as long as I could, but I was forced to give up when I saw the small dot I knew was my friend crash into the trees. Lough wasn’t far behind me. When he caught up he bent over, bracing his hands on his knees. In the early morning light I could see the sweat that streaked the back of his neck. His whole body heaved with his deep breaths.

“You okay?” he asked me.

I didn’t take my eyes from the last place I had seen Sip. Since it was spring, the leaves were green and vibrant - deep shades of life. It was impossible to see anything beyond them, especially a small werewolf streaking away.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m pretty sure we need more werewolf friends.”

“Well, we have Nolan, the paradigm of bravery,” said Lough.

“He did his best,” I said, defending Sip’s co-founder of the Sign of Six.

“He could have told us he didn’t trust them,” said Lough. “We had nothing to go on.”

“Sometimes how we respond in times of stress is not how we’d like ourselves to respond,” I said, letting out a deep sigh. “Come on, we should be getting back.”

“Where do you think she went?” Lough asked worriedly. “There are so many demons. . .”

“I think she went for a run,” I said, finally turning away. “And I think she’d love to run into a few of those demons at the moment.”

I didn’t want to admit it, but my mind kept returning to the dream I’d had, all those semesters ago. I was with Cale, and Lisabelle had turned crazy and started killing. I could almost smell the blood and see the darkness in her eyes.

I shivered and tried to force my mind toward something else, but there was nothing. I didn’t even have thoughts of Keller to comfort me.

“I want to wait for her in Airlee,” said Lough.

We headed in that direction, and I didn’t see another paranormal the whole way there. I wondered if they were all hiding, angry, sleeping, or something else. I knew I’d be getting a call from Professor Dacer at some point, and probably President Oliva as well, but I wanted Sip to come back first. I just wanted to give my friend a long overdue hug. But when we were in the middle of battling the Nocturns, even that was too much to ask.

We waited in the living room of Airlee. It was strange to be back there after so much time had passed and so many changes had happened. Lough and I were both silent. I tried to think of something to say, but everything was mundane or depressing by turns.

We weren’t in Airlee long before the front door slammed open. Neither of us were out of our chairs before Sip came stomping around the corner, her purple eyes shooting off fiery sparks.

“Sorry,” she said, “I know you just went through a lot to make sure the demons bringing me back didn’t get me killed. I do appreciate it.” Her lower lip trembled a little, but she kept going. “Come up to Lisabelle’s and my room.” She said it almost defiantly, driving home the point that Lisabelle would be right back.

Lough and I got off the couch and followed her. My body was still tired, and it protested when I placed my hands on either side and pushed myself out of the comfortable cushion. But we needed to talk, and I didn’t trust the common room. Even if there weren’t listening spells, I didn’t look at my fellow students in the same way anymore. Golden Falls had changed that. It had changed a lot of things.

“Come on,” Sip cried as she bounded up the stairs. “I’m the one who was a prisoner. You all were just in a war. Hop to it.”

“I knew we were going to get here,” Lough grumbled. “I just didn’t know it was going to happen so quickly.”

It was the closest I had come to cracking a smile in a while.

Sip and Lisabelle’s room was in the middle of the hallway, so I had a few steps to brace myself. Sip flattened her hand against the door for a moment. I saw it tremble a little as she took a deep breath.

“This will be the first time I’ve gone in and she’s not here,” she said with her back still turned, speaking so softly we could barely hear her. “But she’s not coming back anytime soon and we’re all going to leave. I don’t want it to become normal that she’s not here.”

Lough and I didn’t know what to say, but luckily Sip didn’t seem to expect an answer. She pushed the door open and went in without any further hesitation, then spent her first five minutes back in the room on irrelevant organizing. It was the first time we’d all been back to our rooms since Golden Falls, after all. We’d had to leave a lot of stuff there, and now I was doubly glad I’d had Keller get my mother’s box out of the place before we were attacked.

Neither Lough nor I really wanted to come into the room. It was singularly decorated, making clear the distinct personalities of my two friends. Sip loved neon, green, orange, and yellow. Her side of the room was covered in bright colors, from bedspread to window curtains, even the wall decorations. She also loved tea and had set up a small tea-making station next to her desk.

Lisabelle’s side was unadorned and all black. Her mother, an interior decorator, had never seen it, but Lisabelle claimed she’d have a heart attack if she ever did. I wondered how she’d feel about her only child going over to darkness. All the other darkness mages had, long ago; they made up the group of powerful evil forces we called the Nocturns. Lisabelle’s parents and her Uncle Risper were the last holdouts, and of all of them, Lisabelle should’ve been the last to go over.

The only two things my friends had in common was that they were both very neat. Lisabelle was just the most unsentimental paranormal I’d ever met, so she didn’t keep objects or papers around. Sip kept everything, but was ruthlessly organized about it.

I c
ouldn’t help but think that Lisabelle would be there now if it hadn’t been for me. It nearly choked me to think so, but her insistence on protecting the last elemental, along with Sip’s and Lough’s, had now destroyed us.

“Bravery is a stupid concept,” Sip announced suddenly, her hands on her hips. “Whoever thought being brave was cool was seriously mistaken. How dare he or she.” She paused. “It was probably a he. Women are never so foolish.”

“Hey!” Lough cried. “I’m not foolish.”

“You’ve been in love with our best friend for going on three years and not uttered so much as a peep about it to her,” said Sip, rolling her eyes. “You’re definitely foolish.”

The werewolf looked around the room and took a shaky breath as her purple eyes filled with tears. Lisabelle’s side felt empty, as if something was missing.

Something was.

After she stopped talking, Sip started frantically throwing papers around Lisabelle’s side of the room. For a moment her entire small body was obscured in white parchment.

“What are you doing?” Lough asked, so surprised he was no longer upset.

“I’m saving everything she ever wrote,” said Sip frantically.

“She’s not dead,” said Lough. “And her handwriting was terrible.”

Sip paused momentarily to glare at the dream giver, then continued her frantic organizing.

“Maybe we’re different,” I said tiredly. I’d been thinking more and more that I might never graduate from Public. Last semester had been devastating; instead of improving the fight against darkness it had only served to bring us closer to the brink of destruction.

I pushed myself off of Sip’s desk and went to my friend. She kept throwing papers and crying until I wrapped my arms firmly around her, pinning her own thin arms to her sides. We stood like that for a long time, until Lough came and wrapped his arms around both of us. The three of us stood silent, locked in a sad embrace.

Finally Lough murmured into Sip’s hair as the werewolf continued to shake. “It’ll be okay,” he said.

“She did it for me,” Sip cried. The tears had long ago spilled down her cheeks. “Lisabelle did it for me.”

“She did it for all of us,” I said. “She knew this was the best way.”

“How is giving over the most powerful darkness mage of the generation TO darkness a good idea?” Lough demanded softly.

“She just knew she had to,” I said stubbornly. “There was nothing else she could do.”

“Do you think she’s thinking about us?” Sip asked. “Do you think she wishes she were here now?”

I gave Sip another hug. “More than anything. But really, she just wanted you safe.”

Sip nodded and snuffled.

Lough gently took one of the pieces of paper from Sip’s hands.

“Listen, Sip,” he said, looking determined. “I know that if you lose someone you love, you want to hang on to them in every way you possibly can. It’s totally natural, and there’s nothing wrong with it. I understand. I had an older brother who died when I was young. . . .” He took a shaky breath and didn’t continue right away; this was the first time I had heard anything of a brother. Judging by Sip’s expression he had never mentioned him to her before, either. When Lough finally collected himself enough to go on he said, “But love isn’t about pieces of paper with silly notes scribbled on them.” He glanced at the paper in his hand: Ten Different Ways to Kill a Demon with a Spoon and Chocolate.

Under that, in a little scribble was written, “Dark chocolate.”

Sip sniffed again. “But, see, that’s so Lisabelle.”

“I know,” said Lough, “and we love Lisabelle because of who she is, but all these papers aren’t going to keep her alive. Your heart, your thoughts, and your loyalty do all of that just fine. These are just a reminder that we should keep dark chocolate around. She sacrificed for you, sure. She was doing what she had to, but she was also doing what she could.”

“Everyone should keep dark chocolate around,” I said. Sip and Lough nodded in agreement.

Suddenly we were startled by a knock on the door; we certainly weren’t expecting visitors.

“Probably a paranormal professor come to take me away,” I said, only half kidding. Sighing, I opened the door.

But it wasn’t. It was Trafton who stood there when I opened the door. He looked at me quizzically and said, “I saw the light on. For a second I thought everything was fine, then I remembered. . . .”

I nodded. “That’s been happening to me all day.”

Sip looked around me. “Come on in,” she said softly. “Join the party.”