Elemental Darkness (Paranormal Public Series) (7 page)

The mornings were still a little chilly, so I pulled on jeans and a blue hoodie, which on top of fleeces was what my wardrobe mostly consisted of.

I was hurrying out of Astra, intent on reaching Dacer’s before breakfast, when I saw the vampire walking toward me. Once again he was dressed more casually than he had once been. An elaborate scarf was wrapped around his neck several times, a sort of pea green that stood out against the forest green of his shirt. His pants were white. When I got closer to him I saw that his nails were painted pink, to match his pink eye shadow.

“Hello, Professor,” I said, coming to a stop on the path.

“Charlotte,” he said. Dacer’s eyes were shadowed, and my insides instantly started to churn.

“What is it?” I asked. “Is your mother alright?”

Dacer smiled a little. “Yes, she’s in fine fighting form. Said you were wonderful. It’s not that.” He sighed. “I told Oliva I wanted to speak with you first. . . .”

I cocked my head. “You’re scaring me,” I said, frowning.

Dacer shook his head. “Charlotte, what you did last night. . . .” He trailed off again, as if he couldn’t find the right words.

“What I did last night was for Sip,” I said hastily.

Dacer nodded slowly. “I do believe that you thought you were doing the right thing.”

“I was doing the right thing,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Let’s walk,” he said, motioning for me to follow him. “Maybe have some coffee.”

“I don’t like the dining room coffee,” I said.

Dacer smiled. “No, it isn’t ideal. However, the professors have access to a coffee cart that is rather delicious.

“Sip’s a big tea fan,” I said thoughtfully.

Dacer nodded. “Yes, she does tea as well.”

“Who is it?” I asked.

“Oh, a little werewolf,” said Dacer with a toss of his shoulder. “Sip probably knows her. She was very offended when she heard that Martha was coming to Astra and baking. She thought you should eat
her
baked goods.”

Dacer led me toward the Long Building.

“She insisted on having her own cafe after she heard that Martha had her own kitchen,” said Dacer with a little chuckle. “So much of the Long Building was unused that she was given space there, though she was advocating for space in the library. At least she was given that part of the building that’s closer to campus, so the professors can have easy access.”

“No students allowed?” I asked suspiciously.

Dacer smiled. “Well, seniors are allowed, of which you are one now.”

I looked at Dacer with surprise. I’d barely thought about that, but he was right. My junior year was over. It was summer, and I was now, as far as Paranormal Public was concerned, a senior.

“We aren’t going home, though, are we?” I said, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice. “There’s no way we can all just leave for the summer. Vampire Locke fell. It’s not safe anywhere else.”

Dacer shrugged. “The demons are congregating at Locke. Since it fell there have been only a few attacks across the country. Besides, the Paranormal Police Academy is about to turn out its first class of fighting-ready recruits.

I mulled that over, then changed the subject. “What is it you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Let’s get our coffee first,” he said, “then we can discuss it.”

“Am I also going to see President Oliva?”

“Yes,” he said, “I do believe you and Ms. Quest would profit from a discussion with him.”

I didn’t know what that meant either, so I didn’t ask.

“Is Caid here?” I tried to keep my tone neutral.

Dacer grinned at me. “Always so curious. That’s what makes you a joy as a student.”

I hadn’t been over to the Long Building in a long time, and seeing it made me realize how much I had missed it, at least the part of it that housed the Museum of Masks.

“We haven’t had time to move,” said Dacer, “or to finish construction on the new building, or really, to do much of anything that doesn’t involve fighting Nocturns.”

“I know what you mean,” I sighed. I sniffed the morning air. Mixed in with the bursts of new life that come with summer was the smell of fresh coffee.

“The werewolf that runs this place is named Sabel,” said Dacer. He grabbed one of the doors for me and held it open, and as soon as he did I smelled the delicious aroma of baking. It reminded me of the baking Martha did in the Astra kitchen, but this was more intense.

“Delicious,” I said reverently as I moved past Dacer into the coffee shop.

Sabel had obviously put a lot of work into making the place light, airy, and comfortable. The walls were a creamy color and the floor tiles were light blue and pink. All the tables and chairs were white, while armchairs of a navy blue were placed here and there in pairs.

Directly in front of us was a long white counter and bakery case, and on one end of the counter were more coffee pots than I could count. They were all different colors, from gray to intense yellow and everything in between. There were pots the exact same color as the blue floor tiles, and others that matched Dacer’s pink eye
shadow.

“I can see why only seniors are allowed in here,” I said. “It’s nice.”

“She wanted to create a place where professors and students could interact in a less formal setting,” Dacer explained. “She believes strongly in communication.”

“Dacer,” said a delighted voice. A werewolf came around the corner from the back room. She was plump, with rosy cheeks that reminded me of Lough. She was also familiar.

“Oh,” I said, “I didn’t realize I had gone to school with you.”

Sabel had been a senior when I was a freshman. She hadn’t done Dash, but I had heard that she was nice, and a good student. I had been so wrapped up in being a Starter, though, and in not being able to do magic, that I hadn’t really thought about much else.
             

She grinned at Dacer as she settled herself behind the counter. “Would you like the usual, Professor?”

Dacer grinned back. I could see he liked Sabel. Watching my mentor, I realized something about him that I hadn’t seen clearly before. He was solid. The paranormal world might be collapsing around us, my world might have just turned upside down, but Dacer still found joy in the little things, like pink eye shadow. “I’ve told you plenty of times not to call me that.”

Sabel tossed her head. “Old habits, sir.”

“Don’t call me that, either. It’s like I’m old. Forty, even.”

Sabel laughed. Dacer wasn’t that old, although it was hard to tell how old he really was, since he surely dyed his hair. But no matter what, he was very young for a professor.

“And what will you. . . .” Sabel stopped when she looked at me, then smiled brightly. “It’s about time. The last elemental is a senior. Wonderful. I know exactly what to get you. Have a seat.” She motioned to a couple of the comfortable chairs in the corner and Dacer led us over.

“She’ll bring us our coffee on a tray,” he explained. “Then we can talk.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk to Dacer at this point, but I knew I didn’t have a choice.

Sabel quickly brought over an ornate tray of green and rose gold. “Here we are, then,” she said, smiling at me. I watched her pour my coffee, willing to try it if Dacer said it was delicious. She had chosen from several teacups, including a red one, a purple one, and a gray one, mixing all three dark liquids together.

Dacer thanked Sabel and reverently picked up his coffee mug. The mugs were earthy and looked handmade. Dacer’s was black with bits of white, while mine was blue and a very delicate yellow.

Dacer took a sip, and then another. He sat for a few seconds inhaling the aroma and smiling with his eyes closed. Realizing that Sabel was covertly watching me from where she had retreated behind the counter, I picked up my piping hot mug and started out by just smelling the coffee. It had slight hints of hazelnut, cinnamon, and something else I couldn’t quite identify, and it immediately set me at ease.

“This looks black to me,” I said, peering at the liquid. “She didn’t bring us any milk or sugar.”

“You don’t need it,” said Dacer. “Trust me.”

“You better be right,” I grumbled.

Dacer opened his eyes to watch me take my first sip. I put the mug to my lips and let the hot coffee trickle over my tongue and burn down my throat. I had never tasted anything so delicious in my whole life.

I took several more sips before Dacer, looking amused, starting talking. “Charlotte,” he said softly, “what you did yesterday. . . .” His face grew darker, and I knew he was angry now. “What you did yesterday was unforgivable.”

I swallowed my last mouthful of coffee carefully, my eyes never leaving my professor.

“I had to do it,” I said, just as softly, not letting myself rise to his bait. Sabel had somehow started to busy herself in the back, obviously feeling that we needed to be left alone.

Professor Dacer nodded, staring out the window as he cradled his coffee cup.

“We could have been killed,” he said, meeting my eyes. “You could have been killed. Sip could have died. You need to think before you act. If you keep running headlong into battles without explaining your tactics to your troops, to the paranormals battling alongside you, someone will die. And you’re not going to like that.”

“I didn’t have time,” I protested. I had known Oliva would be angry, but I thought that at least Professor Dacer, my mentor, would understand why I had done what I did.

“You have to stop being so careless,” Dacer told me sternly. “It’s going to get you killed.”

“I didn’t have time,” I said again, desperately.

“There never is time with you, is there?” Dacer asked. There was no tone of anger now, just a current of frustration running though his words. “You’re always going off on your own. You can’t be bothered to involve others.”

I stared at my professor, dumbfounded that he would say such things.

“All of my time is spent fighting the Nocturns, or discovering news ways to fight them, or losing my friends to them,” I said hoarsely.

Dacer shook his head and leaned forward, so that his elbows were braced on his knees.

“Oliva is sending you home to Ricky,” Dacer explained. “He thinks you’re a loose cannon, and he thinks that nothing is going to change over the summer.”

“He can’t do that!” I cried, starting to jump to my feet before I realized that I still held the mug in my hands.

Dacer sat back, his eyes unreadable. It was the first time I had ever felt like we were each on a side and it wasn’t the same one.

“He can and he is,” said Dacer. “I’m sorry, Charlotte, but you interrupted a powerful working. If we hadn’t taken a pause to see where the magic was coming from, like you should have done, you would be dead right now, and so would Ms. Quest.”

Tears filled my eyes, but I refused to blink, desperate to keep them from spilling down onto my cheeks.

“It’s not right,” I said quietly. “I can’t go home, not with Vampire Locke overtaken and Lisabelle gone. There’s too much for me to do here.”

“There is nothing much for anyone to do here in the summer,” said Dacer, as if this summer was going to be like any other. “You can’t save the paranormal world all by yourself right this second, I’m sorry to say. I asked your friends to give us a chance to have a private discussion, but they’ll be joining us shortly.”

I felt sick. Lisabelle was who knows where, and I was expected to just go home for the summer as if nothing had happened. I knew I had to see Ricky, because even though I was constantly being told that he had the best protections and was fine, I still felt best when I laid eyes on him. But I didn’t need the whole summer to do that.

“Charlotte,” said Dacer, leaning forward, “I realize that you think you have to do this all on your own. But you don’t. You’re still only a student, and given the battles you’ve fought, your education is spotty at best. As the last elemental, of course you have more responsibility than the average paranormal
college student, whose greatest worry is getting to the dining hall before breakfast closes and not completely failing out of school. But you do not need to shoulder every worry.” Dacer sat back in his chair now, allowing the words to sink in, but he wasn’t done. “Your little brother needs you right now.”

I thought of Ricky alone with Carl, and my stepfather’s promise to protect him. I wondered how much he knew. I wondered who Ricky’s real father was, and I wondered what had happened to him.

Then I thought of Queen Ashray and all the responsibilities she had taken on when she was young. The fact that she had loved and lost and loved again gave me little comfort.

“What’s going on here?” Sip’s voice asked. The door to
the cafe had silently opened to reveal Lough and the werewolf. Sip’s eyes were glowing purple as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“I can’t believe you talked without us,” said Sip. I wasn’t sure if she was speaking to Dacer or to me. Sip had apparently decided that with Lisabelle gone, she had free reign to chide whomever she wanted, whenever she wanted, in her roommate’s place.