Elemental Shining (Paranormal Public Series) (31 page)

“This is PATHETIC,” Zervos cried, running over, waving his arms wildly. “How could you LET yourself be captured so easily? You didn’t even put up a FIGHT!” He skidded to a stop about two feet in front of Ulla, who still had a firm grip on my arm.

“We are skilled trackers,” said Ulla proudly, puffing out his chest. “We used skill and cunning.”

“Hogwash,” Lough muttered.

“And I’m a blond-haired ghost named Katie,” said Zervos. He rounded on me so fast I took a step back, but there was nowhere to go. Camilla was standing right behind me, salivating at the idea of my getting yelled at and her getting to watch.

“We did our best,” I said quietly.

“Your best is pathetic,” Zervos hissed. He was shaking with anger, as if we had personally insulted his mother. “No, it’s WORSE than pathetic. We have demons waiting at the gates. We have a missing Map that not even our very best hunter can find, and HERE you are, gallivanting with your FAT friend.”

Next to me, Lough coughed and looked away.

“That’s it,” I said, stepping forward and shaking out of Ulla’s hold. “You have no right to talk to me like that, let alone him.”

“I will talk to you how I please,” said Zervos nastily. “I do believe I have a mandate.”

“He is in charge,” said Dean Erikson, coming over to stand next to Ulla. The small woman was dwarfed by the vampires, but she was just as intimidating. I looked at Keller’s aunt. Behind me, Camilla hissed gleefully.

“Come with me,” she said, using one long finger to command me. I wanted to argue, but I didn’t dare. “You are wet and cold.”

She had a point.

“We shall talk where it is warm,” she continued.

I followed Dean Erikson off of the Tactical field, but not before Zervos called after me, “Next Tactical, if you’re the first one caught, AGAIN, you will not like the consequences.”

“I don’t already,” I muttered, as I followed the professor.

“What was that?” she asked me over her shoulder.

“Nothing,” I said.

I shrugged to Sip and Lisabelle, who were standing at the top of the hill watching us. They would be worried, but they still had a Tactical to finish. Keller was nowhere to be seen. A meeting with Professor Erikson couldn’t be so bad, could it?

It turned out that Professor Erikson was taking me to Aurum. The fallen angel dorm was easily the most beautiful on campus, all white and silver and shining light. Keller had mentioned that his aunt had a study in the dorm, but I had never been there. In general I avoided Dean Erikson at all costs, remembering her disapproval of my dating her nephew, but now she was taking me there and I didn’t have any choice but to go with her.

After the bitter cold, the darkness, and the wet weather, Aurum was a welcome change. The front hall was cozy and filled with light, almost burning away the memories of the catacombs. It was hard to be worried once I was surrounded by such beauty.

“This way,” the Dean said, leading me to the left. Her office was on the first floor, with a white door sporting a gold name tag that read,
Dean Erikson
. She opened the door with a touch of her hand; it was clearly spelled so that only she could open it.

The office was large, with bay windows that were currently covered by silver curtains, each with a delicate design of silver wings etched into the cloth. The furniture was all dark wood, with a plush carpet in front of a roaring fire. Her desk was massive, with a red-backed chair so high that when she sat in it her head only came up about halfway. The walls were lined with leatherbound books, many of the spines worn thin. It was something I always looked at, because sometimes in a professor’s office the books didn’t look like they were ever opened. But Dean Erikson valued knowledge, and lineage, above all else. I knew that already, and the books only confirmed it.

“Please sit,” she said, graciously indicating the chair opposite her own. Carefully I took off my wet things and set them on a hook, trying to ignore the puddle of water that was dripping onto the perfectly polished floor. Drip, drip, drip, crackle, crackle, crackle, and nothing else but silence, so that even my swallow sounded loud.

Suddenly I realized how alone we were. Everyone else on campus was at Tactical. It was just Professor Erikson and me alone in Aurum.

I sat down. Keller’s aunt had avoided me since my public kiss with her nephew, being by turns dismissive and nasty when she did see me. Now I was alone with her and she was smiling at me like I was the errand child of one of her oldest and dearest friends.

“Tea?” she asked, smiling.

I smiled, excited to hold something hot in my numb hands. “Yes, please.”

Carefully, she picked up a silver china tea pot and poured the brown liquid into beautiful silver teacups.

“Sugar?”

I nodded.

“Milk or lemon?”

“No, thank you,” I said.

When Dean Erikson had fixed her own tea she sat back in her chair, cradling the cup.

“Now,” she said, leaning forward. “Let’s discuss your future at Public.”

“I’m concerned that we got off on the wrong foot,” she said, looking at me almost kindly over the rim of her teacup. The fireplace continued to crackle merrily behind her.

I shrugged. We got off on the wrong planet, but I wasn’t about to argue with a dean, especially not my boyfriend’s aunt.

“I wanted you to see this,” she said, handing me a Tabble. I sighed inwardly. I already knew what it was going to say—something vicious about me.

The title made me flinch. “Running Loose on Campus. Finally Mad Man Steps Up: A Story of Public’s Gracious Warrior of Shining Light, the Shadow.” The article, written as usual by Mound, went on to detail how there was a marauder on campus and how that “mad man” was trying to kill me—for the good of all paranormals. The article stated that if this Mad Man got away with it, other paranormals should be ashamed for letting someone without a face carry out what should be an honor. Mound was encouraging more paranormals to come and kill me.

“He’s been doing this for a while,” I sighed.

Professor Erikson blinked several times. “It does not bother you?”

“Of course it bothers me,” I said, setting the Tabble down and picking up my teacup. “I just can’t do anything about it.”

“Ah, I see,” she said serenely. “Well, I wanted to see how you were faring. If Risper were here I do believe that task would have fallen to him, but unfortunately he is still tracking Elam. As you are my nephew’s girlfriend I thought it best if the task now fell to me.”

“I appreciate your concern,” I said, taking a sip of tea.

Professor Erikson smiled at me. Sitting forward, she said, “If there’s anything you need, anything at all, please just let me know. I mean it. We are here to be a resource to our students, especially the . . . unusual ones.”

“Thanks,” I said. When Professor Erikson continued to stare at me I shifted uncomfortably.

“I want you to be comfortable here at Public,” she continued. “Happy. It will be easier on all of us if you are able to focus on your studies and not . . . distractions.”

“You mean Keller?”

“My dear, any distraction is difficult, and you have more than most to confront.”

I folded my arms over my chest. I had to be careful. Professor Erikson was a dean. I already knew I didn’t want to be on her bad side, but what if she only had bad sides?

Before she could continue trying to convince me to dump my boyfriend, though, there was a knock at the door and Jenkins stuck his head in. The young, sandy-haired visiting professor smiled. “Sorry for interrupting,” he said, giving me a wink. “There’s news.”

Professor Erikson pushed herself out of her chair. “Charlotte, you may go,” she said. “Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.”

“Oh, definitely,” I said, wincing at how sarcastic I sounded. Before I could get myself in any more trouble I darted toward the door.

“Is there news of the Shadow?” I asked eagerly.

“Have a good night, Charlotte,” said Jenkins, ignoring my question. “Be sure to do the reading for Monday.”

I always did the reading for A History of Death, so telling him I would wasn’t hard. But once I was safely away from Dean Erikson’s office I sagged against the wall. As often happened, I wasn’t sure what she was playing at, because sometimes she was kind to me and sometimes she seemed to hate my guts. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, trying to gather my thoughts. I shouldn’t have let my guard down.

“Well, look who’s graced Aurum’s halls with her lofty presence,” a sneering voice said right in front of me. Even though I tried not to jump, I did, just a little. I knew Camilla’s voice without having to open my eyes. She had been leading Mound’s charge against me, basically trying to get me killed for weeks now. I had managed not to be alone with her, but here in Aurum I was trapped.

“Camilla,” I said, rubbing my temples. “What are you doing here?”

Her smile brightened. “I was called here to have a meeting with Dean Erikson. Seems she’s doing a lot of that tonight. She will be relieved to go from meeting the runt of campus to someone like me.”

“She’s busy,” I said. “Our meeting was interrupted.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Camilla spat. Her brown eyes burned into me.

“Yeah, whatever,” I said. “I’m leaving.” I shouldered past her as she stood there and sputtered. I knew she’d have liked to hit me, or worse, but she couldn’t, not with a dean and a professor so close.

“I hope the Shadow is after you,” Camilla called out as I walked away. “He’s here doing Mound’s business, something the rest of us
should
be doing. Taking. You. Down.”

I ignored her, since there was no way to respond to someone so insane. What was worse was that I knew she was wrong. The Shadow didn’t care about me. The Shadow was looking for something else, not for me. I just had to find it before he did.

I didn’t know what Jenkins had wanted to talk to Professor Erikson about, but I was a little glad that whatever it was had gotten in the way of Camilla seeing her, so that my pixie nemesis had had to traipse all the way over from Volans for nothing. Even a little inconvenience to Camilla made me happy. Oh, life’s little pleasures.

What I
was
sure about was that I needed to talk to my friends, and I needed sleep. Wearily, I headed home.

The rest of the weekend went by quietly. I wanted to go back to the Long Building to search for Public’s Shadow, but my friends wouldn’t let me.

“What would be the point?” Sip demanded.

We were sitting in her and Lisabelle’s dorm, poring over old editions of the Tabble, searching for any clue to when Mound had started writing and what would have set him off.

“Maybe the Shadow is Elam,” I offered. “And that’s where he’s hiding with the Map. I want the Map back more than anything. It puts me in the most danger. If I have it than I’m the only one that can find the Mirror Arcane . . . or myself if I ever need to go into hiding.”

“You aren’t in danger,” said Lisabelle firmly, as she worked to conjure some tea for Sip. “We will protect you.”

“Someday you two might not be enough,” I said quietly.

“It’s not just those two,” said Keller, standing in the doorway. My heart did a little happy dance as he said, “Lough let me in. He’s getting his laundry, then he’ll be here.”