Hungry Earth (Elemental Book 2) (21 page)

“Oh, good,” the mountain of a man grinned cruelly as
he lowered his gun. “Gale wants another wizard.”

“Where is my daughter?”

“The little trollop who came in here thinking she was
being clever? We were onto her hours ago. We’ve been waiting for you to find
Felicity ever since that familiar took her earring.”

Hunt made an odd sound a split second before I felt
weird. It was similar to the sensation of being underwater in a dream; the mind
believes it, sees it, and feels it, but it’s not quite real. I tried to unleash
my power again and find out what was going on from the man’s mind… but nothing
happened.

I couldn’t connect to my power, as if a bridge had
been broken.

The red-headed woman came through the door, grinning
brightly. “Well, now that you have both been de-fanged, come on in. Gale
thought you should all be together when you die. Too bad we couldn’t get that
vampire.”

I felt relief, which was probably an entirely
inappropriate thing to feel at that moment. The woman stepped forward and
gestured to the room. Hunt, anxious to be with his daughter, didn’t hesitate.
When I started to pass her, she stopped me with a gentle hand on my arm. “How
did you know it was me?” she asked. She meant how I knew she was disguised as
the manager.

“Your aura.”

She smirked. “You must know one of us. It won’t be so
easy next time.”

“Next time?” It struck me as an odd thing to say when
she expected me to die in the next few minutes.

Her smirk widened. “No, you’re not going to be that
easy for Gale to kill.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Tell that to
Professor Langril.” I didn’t know why I said it and I hadn’t even meant to say
it in the first place, but when her face drained of color and her mouth dropped
open, I knew it was the right thing to do.

My instincts were still working.

Using the distraction to my advantage, I raised the
gun still in my hand and shot her. She grunted and looked down at her abdomen
as blood gushed through her peach-colored sweater. “You ruined my shirt!” She
lifted the shirt to display the hole in her stomach, which was sealing itself
and healing over in seconds.

“Shit.” She let her sweater fall and took my gun. I
went into the joined restaurant, which was hollowed out for construction. Remy
was tied to a chair in the middle of the room with a gag in her mouth. “This is
becoming a habit,” I told her. She narrowed her eyes at me.

Behind her was the “boss” of the operation, who I
assumed was Gale. Of course, this was the kind of scene that came straight from
a mobster movie, only I was a P.I. instead of a cop.

Gale laughed. “Which is good in your case, because
the cop always gets shot,” he said. I froze. “Oh, yes, I can read your mind.”

I tried again to use my magic and got nothing. “So
the amulet lets you neutralize the magic of those around you, but not your
own.” That actually made perfect sense. “Are you a wizard or fae?”

He laughed again. “I am neither wizard nor fae, and
the amulet does much more than neutralize your power. Now, let’s begin the
killing.” The woman went to his side and looked way too excited about killing.

“Wait, wait! We haven’t made introductions, you
haven’t vented your evil plan, and Hunt hasn’t done something stupid and risky
to save his daughter! You can’t just jump straight to the killing!”

“Devon, what are you doing?” Hunt asked.

“Annoying him to buy us time. Isn’t that obvious?”

“And what would you need time for?” Gale asked.

“You’ve never read the villain’s handbook? You reveal
your plan, continue talking so I have time to come up with a way to stop you,
and then you attack one at a time. I guess you haven’t watched that many P.I.
movies.”

“No, actually, I prefer to watch cop movies. Private
investigators are failed cops.”

“Oh, ouch,” I patted the pocket on my chest.
No
damn lighter
.
Where the hell did my lighter go?
“Your opinion has
stabbed me in the heart. I will now slay myself, if only I had a knife.” I
patted my jeans pocket and felt nothing that could help. “Can I borrow yours?”
The mountain man pressed his gun against my back. “Never mind then.”

Gale pulled a dagger from a harness on his belt and
held it across Remy’s neck. Only then did I see the cloud of darkness forming
behind Gale and the woman. The mountain behind me opened his mouth to warn
them, so I slammed my elbow up into his nose. Before he could recover, I
grabbed the gun, aimed it at Gale’s head, and pulled the trigger.

The bullet glanced off an invisible shield in front
of him, just like it had on Hunt’s shield. To my surprise, it was Flagstone who
appeared in the dark. Like a dog, he jumped on Gale and bit the man as they
went down, but he couldn’t shift without magic. Gale managed to roll onto his
back, shift his hands into wolf paws, and slice his claws through Flagstone’s
chest.

Hunt was expecting this; he rushed forth and tore the
gag out of Remy’s mouth. With one hand on her shoulder, he grabbed Flagstone’s
arm with his free hand. A dark mist surrounded the three of them and cleared in
a few seconds, taking them with it. I was alone with Gale and his two
assistants.

“He’s got one of the keys!” the woman screamed.

“What keys?” Gale asked. “How did he use magic?!”

At least I wasn’t the only one completely confused.
The woman ignored him and turned to me. “Tell me where the fourth key is!”

“Lady, I have no clue what the keys even look like,
what they open, or who the hell has them.”

Her eyes narrowed and her grin was predatory. “Then
maybe you can help me find it.” As fast as her grin had appeared, it vanished
into utter shock and horror. I felt the darkness form around me before I saw
it. She dived forward, only to be stopped by familiar red lighting that shot
out of the black wind tunnel closing in on me.

Professor Langril gripped my shoulder too hard. “Next
time, Felicity. Next time, you’re dead.” The darkness closed off all light then
and I felt Langril’s hand pushing me to walk. “You’re okay,” he whispered.
“Just don’t speak. You don’t want anyone to know you’re here.”

I felt like I was trying to walk with too much
gravity. The ground was soft and uneven, the air was frigid and stale, and
there was no sound. Before I could ask where we were, I felt a hand grab my
calf. Professor Langril’s hand closed over my mouth.

“They’re just testing. They can find you in the
shadow pass, but they can’t see you.”

More hands gripped my arms and legs, but their holds
weren’t strong enough to restrain me. Time was impossible to determine; we
could have walked for a minute or an hour before I felt that we were alone
again. The darkness cleared in a swirling mess just like it had come on,
leaving me alone in Hunt’s library.

The bowl of silvery liquid was on the desk, a
temptation too great for my curiosity. Normally, my job required a balance of
caution and inquisitiveness, but it seemed life at Quintessence was a different
matter. I already knew my nosiness was going to be the death of me.

I approached the table hesitantly and peered into the
bowl. The swirling liquid slowed and stilled to become as smooth and reflective
as a mirror. The light from the gas lamps glittered off of it easily until it
fogged over, just like the gallium did in the tracking spell. Only this time I
saw a face take form.

It was the face that Amelia saw in the shadows.

The face grinned, lips parting over sharp teeth. It
saw me.

It was pitch black and I
could sense a malevolent presence all around me. This wasn’t a living enemy
that could be killed. I felt the firm handle of a torch in my grasp, so I drew
on the power inside me, focused on the heat of a flame, and directed it into
the tip of the torch. As fire engulfed the top of the torch, shadows were
chased back. There was something unnatural about it, like the shadows were
moving away instead of being penetrated by light.

My instincts were never wrong. I was being watched—
hunted even.

I was in a dry cave and the floor sloped upward
pretty steeply. Behind me was a wall, so there was only one way to go. I
carefully trekked through passageways that were wide as trains and gaps that I
could barely squeeze through. The further I traveled, the colder and dryer the
air became.

Finally, after what felt like hours, I came upon an
enormous cavern with a stone tower in the center. The tower was about fifteen
feet in diameter and forty feet in height. Spaced evenly around it were massive
wooden doors, each carved with peculiar symbols and designs. While none of the
doors had any obvious locking mechanisms, they also had no doorknobs. I pushed
against one, but it wouldn’t budge even a hair’s breadth to my best attempts.

I studied the symbols on the doors more carefully.
When I approached the last door, my palm started to sting, so I held my hand
out a little towards the light to see it. There was nothing on my skin, but I
felt like something was burned into it. It only took me a moment to realize
that the lines I could feel burning in my hand were the same as on the fourth
door.

I was a cautious man by nature, so it was a surprise
to myself that I turned my palm out to face the door.

A hand pulled my arm down and another closed over my
mouth to stop my startled shout. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. The second
you give them what they want, they will no longer need you.”

Although the voice was familiar, the English accent
wasn’t and prevented me from identifying the man. As if it were overcome by
darkness, the flame of my torch died with a sudden, violent flicker.

*          *          *

I woke feeling smothered, so I struck outward and
connected with someone’s nose.

“Devon! Cut that out!”

I recognized April Nightshade’s voice and sat up,
blinking clarity into my eyes. The professor was dressed in an emerald green
corset, black pleated skirt, and spike-heeled boots. She took a towel and
started wiping the oil off my chest. The woman apparently had a fetish for
rubbing burning oil on people. Since she still looked sixteen, it was more
disturbing than kinky.

However, this time, she was a little rough around the
edges. Aside from the exhaustion in her ice-blue eyes and the fact that her red
and orange hair had obviously not been brushed, there were several cuts and
scrapes on her face and arms. “Are you okay?”

I realized then that we were in Hunt’s office and I
was on his couch. We were alone, which just made the oil more awkward.

“I’m fine. It’s just been a rough few weeks. I’m
risking a lot by helping you.”

“Where’s Dr. Martin?”

“He’s… a little bit missing.”

“How can someone be a little bit missing?”

“Well, we can’t find him, but we’re sure he’s not
hurt and that he’ll turn up eventually. Andrew tends to go missing every once
in a while. That’s why we didn’t think anything of it when he disappeared for
thirty years.”

“Wait,
we
? You knew him before he disappeared?
How old are you?”

“I am far older than you. It will probably take
another hundred years or so before I look legal.”

“What are you?”

“It is good to see you made it alright,” Hunt said,
entering the office. Flagstone and Remy were right behind him.

“How did I get on the couch?”

“Remy found you on the floor in my library and we
moved you in here. We thought Gale had killed you at first; your entire upper
body was burned.”

I looked down at myself and saw not a single mark.
Understanding my confusion, Remy picked up a blackened cloth off of Hunt’s desk
and held it up for me to see. It was the charred remains of my once-blue
button-up shirt. “Oh.”

“So now what?” Remy asked. “Our powers are back, but
we went through all that work for nothing.”

“No, we learned three things. First, we learned
exactly who we’re up against. Second, we learned that the amulet gives Gale our
powers, not just suppresses them. Third, you cannot go near him again,” I said
to Hunt. “We don’t want him getting your power.”

“But we got our magic back,” Remy argued.

“I believe we were very fortunate to,” Hunt said.
“The gunman had said that Gale wanted another wizard.”

“Obviously, he doesn’t have an entourage of captured
paranormals,” I said. “That must be why he’s killing people; the amulet gives
him our powers when we’re near, but he can’t keep them unless he kills us.”

Hunt nodded thoughtfully. “I never learned much about
the amulet because the council kept it so secret.”

I wondered if Henry knew.
No
, I decided.
He
would have told me
. Henry, I trusted.

“How did you get out of the pawnshop?” Remy asked.
Embarrassment colored her cheeks. “I wanted to go back for you.”

“Professor Langril got me.” I knew a good father
would always save his child first and I couldn’t possibly blame the headmaster
for doing so. I stood up. “I’m heading to my room for a nap. We can try again
tomorrow, but we’re going to follow my instincts this time.”

Ten minutes later, I opened the door to my room and
froze in shock. If it weren’t for Darwin sprawled out on the floor with his
manga, I would have jumped to conclusions and walked right back out. Henry and
Addison were in bed together. Fortunately, Addison was asleep with her head on
Henry’s chest and his arm was around her while he read a book. He gave me a
look that warned me not to wake her.

I shut the door quietly, got in my own bed, and fell
asleep.

*          *          *

I smelled the smoke before I saw the fire. I was in
one of the underground tunnels beneath the castle. Fire spread from room to
room and illuminated the halls as vampires ran around helplessly, trapped by
the sunlight.

Part of me was aware that I wasn’t actually there;
the same part of me that knew this was real. I could see into the minds of
vampires who passed me. Whereas they were looking for an exit, I was looking
for an answer. I didn’t try to decipher their thoughts; I just wanted an image.
Someone started this, and someone saw them.

I shuffled through the minds of every vampire within
in my mental reach… which was all of them. There was a man that nobody looked
twice at. Although they all thought he looked very creepy, nobody understood
the danger he presented as he strolled calmly among the flames and terrified
vampires. 

It was the man Amelia had seen in the shadows.

*          *          *

“Matar esse gato!”

I was out of bed before I realized I was awake. A
furious hiss met a violent roar. Henry and Ghost were facing off in the middle
of the room as the relentless cat tried to get to Darwin. Or more specifically,
the pillowcase full of books in Darwin’s arms. The cat was still trying to get
Baldauf’s journal.

There was suddenly a familiar sense of suppression
and dread in the air. Ghost’s fury kicked up a notch and his back arched, his
hair standing on end, but he was no longer focusing on my roommates. The flame
in the gas lamps died and Henry quickly moved to turn the gas off. Fortunately,
the moon was full enough to shine some light into the room… at least enough to
see the impenetrable shadows spill across the north wall.

They were going after Darwin.

Darwin jumped off the bed and dived behind Henry.
Ghost took his chance, snatched the pillowcase out of Darwin’s hands, and
vanished. The shadows retreated as soon as the cat was gone.

“The shadows are after Ghost?” Henry asked
doubtfully.

“The shadows are after the books,” Darwin answered.

“Then I’m glad Vincent got them and not the shadows,”
I said. “Where’s Addie?”

“She went back to her room.” Henry took a light stick
from the match box on his desk and lit the gas lamps. “We must do something
about these people we are supposed to blindly trust who refuse to tell us the
truth.”

Darwin and Henry both sat at their desks, so I sat
down and told them what happened since I left.

*          *          *

I realized on Sunday that I wasn’t completely healed
from whatever happened to me in the library; my chest was aching. What was really
strange was that it felt better when I patted the small earth figure that
Professor Langril gave me.

Langril was still missing. Fortunately, Dr. Martin
turned up, albeit with a new collections of scrapes and scratches. He was
acting substitute for Langril, which we all realized was a bad idea. The doctor
was undoubtedly brilliant, but “dangerous” was not a concept he grasped.
Neither was “Please stop! It burns!” as Mack begged.

On Wednesday, when Henry felt the effects of the full
moon, Addie’s roommates kicked her out in jealousy, which meant she and Henry
had to find another place to meet. That other place was our room, so Darwin and
I planned for long hours in the libraries.

On Thursday, Dr. Martin made us prepare the blood for
the vampires, which consisted of over fifty ingredients aside from blood. None
of us were surprised when Mack managed to accidentally ingest about eight
ounces of it and then passed out from the sedatives.

“Put him in the corner or something, will you?” Becky
asked as she nearly tripped. Someone put him in the closet.

I had tried over our first semester to be nice and
help Mack, but he was the kind of guy who wanted to do everything on his own
and would screech at anyone who attempted to assist him. Most of the class
couldn’t deal with it anymore.

“Do you like working down here?” I asked Dr. Martin
when the other students were busy measuring out and combining ingredients.

“Not really. I like it mostly because there aren’t
too many people to deal with. It would help if I wasn’t attacked every day.”

On Friday, about an hour from sundown, I was in my
room with Darwin, Henry, and Addison. Henry was trying so hard not to kick
Addie out, and she was trying so hard not to bug him. Her roommates let her
back in after the full moon, but she was in the process of trying to switch
rooms with another C-Four female. When Darwin suggested she switch with one of
the girls across the hall, Henry growled at him.

“I’m going to class early,” I said, grabbing a
mystery novel off my shelf. Just as I opened the door, the building shook with
an earthquake. “What now?”

“The vampires!” Darwin said.

Darwin tried to pass me, but I grabbed his arms,
careful not to touch his skin, and wouldn’t let him go. The ceiling panel in the
hallway collapsed and I heard several gas lamps explode in other rooms. Henry
pushed Addie under his desk, pulled the mattress down, and covered the opening
with it. I imagined if the ceiling tiles on the fourth floor were collapsing,
they were on other floors as well.

Several students ran out of their rooms, as if anyone
could make it down the stairs when they couldn’t even stay on their feet where
the floor was flat. Before anyone could reach the stairwell, part of the deeper
structure of the ceiling collapsed and a mixture of cinderblocks and wood
boards crashed through the floor in front of it.

“Back in your rooms!” I yelled. Most people couldn’t
hear me, but those closest instantly obeyed. I let out my power again. This
time, my ability seemed to be driven by my instinct; I saw through the minds of
dozens of other students and commanded them to get wherever it was safest,
whether it was under their desks, in their closets, or in the doorways. My
instincts were strong enough to
know
what was safe and what wasn’t,
which spots were safe to step in and which weren’t, for each student.

It felt like twenty minutes before the quaking
stopped, although I knew it couldn’t have been more than two.

“Those poor people…” Darwin moaned, referring to the
vampires.

“They’re in an older building; I’m sure it was built
better. They’re also stronger and faster than us. Henry and Addie, you two work
on getting everyone out. Get others to help you if you can. Darwin and I are
going to check on the castle.”

Henry nodded and Darwin and I left. It wasn’t easy to
make it outside when everything that wasn’t destroyed was weakened. The
destruction was horrendous, both in the shock of seeing students bleeding out
in what was left of the hallways and in fact that this was basically our home.
For C-Five students, they had lived in these dorms with all their friends,
partners, and siblings for more than four semesters. Just from sitting in the
cafeteria, I knew that many of them had no real lives at home.

The human world wasn’t always easy for paranormals.

We slowly gained a following of others who hadn’t
been able to find their way around the debris on their own. Each lower floor
was worse. Fortunately, I was able to help many of them with my instincts as
opposed to theirs. Even then, by the time we were safely outside, I knew not
everyone had survived.

Becky was soaked when she found me. “What happened to
you?” I asked.

“I was in the dining hall when the earthquake
started. Fortunately, I knew where the boiler room was, so I got the gas lines
shut off before anything ruptured. Some of the water pipes burst, though.”

As terrible as the earthquake was, it could have been
much, much worse. It was in the middle of the day, so most of the students and
teachers were in the castle, which was almost completely intact. Only the newer
structures had collapsed, such as a few of the towers. The side-door,
completely constructed of glass, was broken so we walked right through it. The
teachers and students we passed in the castle were shocked, but relatively
unharmed.