Hungry Earth (Elemental Book 2) (16 page)

I was also breaking and entering.

Heat built in my chest and I guided it outward. This
was magic; a sort of energy I built up to influence the world around me. Like
in the warehouse, I didn’t just will it, I demanded it. I focused harder,
poured my willpower into it, and pushed the heat building in my chest out
through my hands. I felt the latches turn so vividly that I heard it. I reached
down and pushed the pane up.

Cautiously, I entered the house. This room wasn’t
significant, so I opened the door and peeked out.
Clear
. I let my
instincts guide me through the old hallway with creaky hardwood floors.
In
here
, I thought as I stopped at a door. I pressed my hands flat on the
light blue wood and let my magic out.

Fear clouded everything else. I opened the door,
mindful of traps. It would have been identical to the guest room if it weren’t
for the blood pooling on the floor. Jackson was strung up by his feet,
unconscious, but it wasn’t his blood on the floor. I let my magic spread
further in the house and discovered six more areas like this. Whether there was
someone alive in those rooms or not, at least six other people had suffered
horribly.

I examined the scene for a moment and found a
blood-covered dagger sitting on the nightstand. I took it and grabbed the front
of Jackson’s sweater, carefully stepping around the three-foot wide puddle of
drying blood. I had to lean up to reach the rope in order to cut it, and as I
sawed at the thick rope, Jackson woke and started thrashing.

“Settle down,” I said, too late. The rope snapped and
he landed in the blood with a grunt. When he started yelling, I put my hand
over his mouth. Probably because I still had the dagger in my other hand, he
yelled louder. “Shut the hell up before whoever did this comes back,” I said,
tossing the dagger aside.

He slowly quieted down and struggled to his feet,
slipping a little on the blood. His back and legs were soaked. “He took my
power!” he said, shaking, when I took my hand away.

“Who did?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t want to leave the school, I
just thought Hunt would kick the vampires out if enough wizards quit. I was
pacing on the road and trying to figure out how to call my girlfriend to pick
me up when a car pulled up. This big dude was driving. There was a man in the
back with two red-headed women. They were sisters, maybe even twins— it was too
dark to tell.”

“Tell me what you were sure about.” Details from a witness
could be easily fabricated from other memories. Even more so, they could be
influenced by suggestion.

A witness could be absolutely certain they remembered
the perpetrator with complete accuracy, yet if someone asked what color jacket
the perpetrator wore, the witness’s mind could fabricate a jacket that the
perpetrator never wore in the first place. Once the image was in their mind,
the witness was certain of it. In fact, they usually became more certain each
time they recalled the event.

“They told me to get in and I told ‘em they were
crazy ‘cause I wasn’t getting in that damn car with strangers. The big guy got
out and came at me, but when I tried to burn him, my magic wouldn’t work.” He
ran his hand through his hair, smearing blood in his dark strands, but he
didn’t seem to notice. “He hit me and I woke up here with someone screaming in
the other room. I don’t know how long I’ve been here.”

“We need to find anyone else who might be alive.” He
opened his mouth to argue. “Do you want to try to make it back to the school
alone?” His mouth snapped shut and he shook his head. “Then shut up and help me
get everyone else in here out.”

“I… I heard someone upstairs, like right above this
room.”

We checked into every room we passed on the way up
the stairs. In the first room on the left from the staircase was a woman strung
up like Jackson had been, only she was half-shifted into a gray wolf.
Unfortunately, there was blood all over the floor and her throat was slit. This
killer wasn’t just after vampires.

I sent my power out to find the mind I was most
familiar with. He was the one person I could find instantly, who I knew could
answer me back.
“Darwin, can you hear me?”

“Loud and clear, bro.”

“Tell Hunt he needs to get here now. Wherever we
are, I’m sure he can find us.”

“Us?”

“I’m with Jackson. Tell him to bring Henry, too. I
need him to find the amulet.”

“Rush level?”

“Five minutes might be too late.”

“Gotcha. Over and out.”

Jackson and I continued the search as I focused on
Astrid’s mind.
“Astrid, can you come help me with this?”

“Five minutes.”

“Oh, god,” Jackson said, slamming the door across
from me shut.

I left the empty room I was checking, pushed him
aside, and opened the door. There was a boy who couldn’t have been more than
ten fastened upside down to the ceiling. His clothes were shredded and barely
hanging from him. Although the rope had strands loose from being scratched at,
it held.

He was unconscious and covered in blood, but still
alive.

“Go get the knife so we can cut him down,” I said. I
didn’t bother to avoid the blood this time as I tried to untie the ropes on his
wrists. My magic reacted instantly when I touched his skin and my vision
changed.

*          *          *

From his perspective, I saw the boy in the living
room of this house. There was a hard knock on the door and a man got up from
the couch. He was an average sized man with a light sweater and dark pants.
Through the child’s mind, I could feel that the man was the boy’s father.

He only took two steps towards the door before
freezing. “Go to the safe room,” he whispered.

The boy had barely gotten to his feet when the door
burst open to a huge man. The intruder came in slowly, scanning the room like a
thug. He was a good six-foot seven with an overabundance of muscle, but he
didn’t strike me as a paranormal.

Of course, I was seeing him through the eyes of a
child.

The father’s hands shifted into claws and his gray
sweater tore as huge wings grew out of his back. These weren’t pretty or dainty
wings, but black leathery ones ending in sharp spikes. He struck the larger man
and retreated several steps before the thug even knew he was hurt. Blood gushed
out of his chest, but he just laughed. The father was about to strike again
when he gasped. As his wings and claws slowly retracted, he backed away further
to block his son.

“What the hell are you?” he asked, trying to disguise
his fear with anger.

Another man came through the doorway. After the
mountain that entered the room first, this man was almost harmless in
appearance. He wasn’t particularly tall, thin, or otherwise ominous. His fitted
black t-shirt tucked into his black jeans didn’t indicate what kind of
paranormal he was. He was in his mid-forties with medium blue eyes and clean,
dark brown hair that was just starting to turn gray.

“We’re human, Mr. Thankachen, which is more than I
can say about you,” the man said.

“You don’t know what I am.”

“Oh, but I do. I know you are an abomination.
Fortunately, I have the power rid the world of all abominations.” The twins
entered behind him at that point.

“Close your eyes, Jake,” the father whispered,
reaching behind him for his son’s hand. Jake did, and wondered why the humans
were attacking. His father never did anything to hurt anyone. He heard horrible
noises and felt his father’s hand slip away.

*          *          *

Jake fell, snapping me out of the vision, and I was
barely able to catch him before he hit the floor.

“Pay attention!” Jackson barked. He had burned the
rope with a fireball. Hunt entered the room right behind him, causing the young
wizard to scream from the unexpected movement. Henry, who followed the
headmaster in, looked a little shell-shocked.

“How did you get here so fast?” I asked.

“Darwin said you needed us immediately.” He took Jake
from me and laid him out on the bed.

“Jackson and Henry, find anyone else who might be
alive,” I said. They both nodded and left, so I turned to the headmaster. “What
do you need?” I asked, forcing my voice to be steady. Experiencing Jake lose
his father was too much like what I went through myself.

“Water for him to drink when he wakes,” he answered.

Glad to have an excuse to get some air, I went back
downstairs and found the kitchen easily. I felt her presence as I searched the
cabinets for glasses, so I didn’t spook when I grabbed one and turned to see
Astrid only a foot away from me.

“Sorry, I’m late,” she said.

Oddly, I wanted to hug her before saying anything. Instead,
I took a step back. “Help Henry and Jackson. They’re upstairs looking for
survivors. See if you can find someone they can’t, but pay attention to
scents.”

She nodded and left. After filling the glass with the
water in the fridge dispenser, I returned to the room where Hunt was healing
Jake, having already freed the boy’s hands from the rope. He sat on the bed
when I entered. “He isn’t badly hurt. The shock of this must be the problem.
Can you communicate with him?” He took the glass from my hand and set it on the
nightstand.

“It would be better if we find his father alive, but
I’m afraid we’re too late.” I sat beside the boy, took his hand, and closed my
eyes.

This time, when I felt the boy’s mind, I pictured the
scene. I felt his father’s hand and spread my power through the boy. My vision
changed to the father’s perspective. His power was dark, and dangerous, like
that of a vampire’s, but it didn’t make him a bad person. He was a peaceful
person. He also wasn’t the one I needed to see.

I pushed my magic out further and felt the mind of
the thug. Instantly, I recognized the hate; he was the man who blew up the
club. I sensed the minds of the twins, who were as alike in mind as they were
in body. They were vindictive little bitches. Both of them were spoiled and in
it howerower. They wanted to kill people who had more than them.

I focused on the remaining mind and instantly hit a
wall. When I tried to push, I felt my power stumble and falter. I wasn’t an
idiot; I pulled back until I was only in the mind of the boy.
“Can you hear
me?”
I asked gently.

“Why did they do this?”
he asked.

“I don’t know, but I will find out. Can you open
your eyes?”
I mentally felt him shake his head.
“Okay. You don’t have to
open your eyes. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to right now.
Remember something happy. Think of the last time you spent the afternoon with
him.”

The image of Jake and his father fishing at a lake
came to mind. The sun was shining and his father was smiling.
“Dad said we
had to live as much like humans as possible. I thought humans were good,”
he said.

“Most of them are, just like most shifters, most
fae, most wizards, and… and most vampires are. Everyone has bad apples. Keep
remembering this. I have to go check on the others, but I’ll be back in a
minute.”

I opened my eyes and broke the connection, but when I
tried to get up, his eyes snapped open and he screamed, then squeezed my hand
like his life depended on it.

“Okay, okay. Hush, I’m not going anywhere. A little
help?” I asked Hunt.

Henry returned then. “We found three more alive and
two more dead. There is a woman dying from blood loss. She will not survive
another five minutes.”

“Can Astrid turn her?” I asked.

“She is fae, and they can’t be turned.”

Hunt stood and followed Henry out. I picked up Jake
and found my way to the room two doors down, where Hunt was already working on
her. She was flat on the ground, he had one hand on her forehead and one on her
stomach, and there was a white glow emanating from his hands.

It took him about ten minutes before the woman
gasped, started coughing, and reached for her throat in a panic.

“I will have Stephen send for a car to take the
survivors somewhere safe,” Hunt said, standing.

“Why can’t you take them back like you brought Henry
here?” I asked.

My roommate shook his head discreetly and looked
directly at Jackson.

Hunt left the room, only to return a minute later.
“Stephen is on his way. Mr. Michaels, you are aware the rules state that you
cannot leave the school during the semester without permission. The punishment
for breaking that rule is permanent expulsion.”

Jackson’s face turned ashen.

The image of the motel door invaded my mind again.
I’m
on my way
,” I told Clara. “I think Clara found something. Henry, Astrid,
and I will go back to the motel and see what’s going on there.”

Hunt nodded and tried to take Jake from me, but the
child wrapped his arms around my neck in a death grip. I reached back into the
child’s mind and pulled up memories I had seen in Remy’s thoughts. Hunt was
overprotective, but he was extremely patient, kind, and loving to his daughter.
To everyone who opposed her, he was a nightmare.

He stopped struggling when we saw Hunt taking Remy to
the state fair from her eyes when she was no older than Jake. After a few
minutes, he let me pass him to Hunt and I let his mind go.

Astrid, Henry, and I left and returned to the motel.
Unfortunately, I could sense something was wrong before it was in view. Astrid
stopped and grabbed my arm. Henry growled at her quietly, but didn’t say
anything.

“By the way, Henry, I’m sure you have figured out,
but this is Astrid, the vampire who nearly killed my mother, made me jaded my
entire life, and has lately been sneaking into my bed at night.”

“Devon, I thought we were okay,” Astrid said.