Hungry Earth (Elemental Book 2) (27 page)

A few minutes later, we came upon a circular, natural
chamber. There were three torches forming the points of a triangle in the
center, but the flame was deep purple instead of yellow. Standing around it
were Gale and the big man. Gale spotted us immediately and smiled brightly at
Felicity, making the big man turn. “Look, Bob, gifts!” Gale said excitedly.

Bob? Really?
The mountain named Bob moved to
restrain us. When he tried to grab Darwin, my roommate dived behind me. “Don’t
touch his skin!” I yelled.

Gale smirked. “I have no time for your silly–”

“He’s fae,” I interrupted. “If you touch his skin,
he’ll see you die and in seven days, you’ll be dead.” Bob recoiled as if I just
told him Darwin had smallpox.

Felicity also took several steps back. “That’s not a
power you want to absorb, Gale,” she warned.

“Better it is mine than his.” He pulled the amulet
from the inside of his shirt and I suddenly felt the weird, not-quite-submerged
sensation.

“That feels weird,” Darwin said.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “Don’t you have
enough power?”

He laughed. “It’s not about having enough power; it’s
about taking it from you paranormals.”

“You’re all sick,” Bob said. “You’re abominations and
you don’t belong on this world!”

Darwin scoffed. “Have you seen the company you keep?”

Gale smirked as if Darwin didn’t have a point. “My
wife and I don’t count. I am human and she’s not from here. I have been given
this power to save other humans from your disgusting ways. We will wipe out all
vampires, fairies, weres, and wizards!”

“Actually, fairies are just one kind of fae, and
shifters don’t go by–” Darwin was cut off as Felicity grabbed him by the back
of the neck and held her blade to his throat. “Use Devon’s powers and find out
where that damn tower is!” she demanded.

I felt his invasion as I imagined others felt mine.
Unlike when I was doing it, I couldn’t stop the connection. I couldn’t even
stop the thoughts that came to my mind. Every conversation I overheard, every
argument about it, every mention of a key, came to mind. From my perspective,
it took hours to relive every instance, but I knew it was just a second as he
scanned through my mind.

“He doesn’t know anything; he tricked you to get to
me.”

“Then this one can die,” she said.

Before she could move another inch, Henry pounced and
took her down. She rolled away from Darwin and onto her back. Henry tried to
sink his teeth into her throat, but was thrown off of her by the red lightning
she struck him with. Just like Langril’s lightning. 

“Stop him!” Gale yelled.

I thought Gale was talking to Bill, so I was startled
when I my feet were kicked out from under me. I rolled onto my back to see
Darwin standing over me with Felicity’s sword pointed at my throat. The blank
look in his eyes told me he was under Gale’s control.

Only it wasn’t entirely blank. He raised the sword,
and swung. “There’s a virus in your system!” I yelled at him as I blocked my
face and neck with my arms, as if that would do any good.

After a moment, when my flesh and blood didn’t meet
agony at the hands of black steel, I moved my arms out of the way to see. The
blade had stopped an inch from my chest and his eyes were clinched closed in
pain.

“Darwin?”

“Backup recovery.” He shook his head slightly before
opening his eyes, displaying blood-red irises. When he looked up at Gale and
sneered. “Mind control on me? You must be joking.”

I felt the link between Darwin and me open. With his
impeccable understanding of magic, he had used my magic— through Gale— to open
a triangular connection. It was Darwin who invaded my mind this time.

The scene from Amelia’s mind was forced up and into
Gale. Meanwhile, I could sense the flow of foreign words from Darwin into Gale.
When Bob tried to grab Darwin, Henry took him down and started tearing into the
big man’s flesh.

The face from Hunt’s office, from that damn bowl,
flooded my mind. He was looking at me, just like he had in the office. This was
the part I didn’t remember. Using my own magic and the strange, powerful
language of that letter, Darwin released the mind of the shadow man to see
through my eyes.

Gale was overwhelmed by what he was seeing, just like
John had been from the outpour of Darwin’s mind. Then there was nothing but the
sole image of that note from Heather’s pocket. The words themselves were power
that people died for.

“A es niiso bolape odo.”

At the same time I saw the note in my head, I also
saw Gale say the words out loud; the words the shadow man was waiting for. The
images, the links, even the power of the amulet fell away as everyone’s mind
broke free. Shadows formed like they had in Amelia’s vision and surrounded
Gale.

“No! He’s mine!” Felicity screeched, suddenly beside
him. She shoved Gale away from the converging darkness. Like angry bees, it
swarmed her instead. Although she was clearly screaming, there was no sound, as
if it was a movie in which the volume cut out.

“Felicity!” Gale yelled. He pulled a gun from inside
his jacket and aimed it at Darwin, but before he could pull the trigger, Henry
was on him, tearing at his chest. Blood practically sprayed the already
drenched jaguar.

Felicity hit the ground, dead, and the shadows
dispersed. Just like with Cooper, there were no visible marks. Why Cooper was
later found drained of blood was still unknown.

“Stop him!” Darwin yelled.

Too late
. The shot was loud and shocking.
Henry’s pained roar was worse.

The jaguar fell off of Gale and tried to bite and
scratch at his own chest in vain. Gale rolled out of Henry’s reach and
staggered to his feet. Blood flowed and chunks of flesh hung from his chest.
The gore accented the silver elegance of the amulet hanging from a thick chain
around his neck. Lightning struck right in front of him from the ceiling with a
deafening crack of thunder. When I blinked the spots from my eyes, he was gone.

I joined Darwin in trying to help Henry. “The bullet
is silver; it isn’t poisonous, but he can’t heal or shift until it’s out,”
Darwin said. “He could lose too much blood. If it damaged the wrong organ, he
could die before we can get it out.”

“I don’t have a knife or anything to dig it out
with.” He looked at the katana. “That’s too bulky. I’d have to completely cut
him open.” Henry squirmed around in protest. To my great surprise, he didn’t
try to bite either of us.

“This hurts me more than it hurts you.” Darwin’s fingers
slowly changed as his nails formed into claws. His hair darkened from its
normal blond into blood red to match his eyes, which I hoped wasn’t permanent.
He then dug his hand into Henry’s chest, earning the most pathetic whimper I
could imagine. Darwin scowled as he removed his bloody hand with the bullet
between his fingers. “That wasn’t deep, you big kitten! Your sternum stopped
it! I thought I was going to get to play with some organs!”

“You are really damn creepy sometimes, you know
that?”

“I do. Hey, you’re not ready to move,” he told Henry
as the jaguar tried to get to his feet.

Bob was faster. The man was a bloody mess of more
wounds than not, but he still managed to make it to the exit. The exit, in this
case, was a huge opening in the cavern. Henry struggled to go after him.

“Let him go. We’ll get him next— bloody hell!” Darwin
screeched.

Bob didn’t even make out of sight. The creature that
blocked his path was probably forty feet long, snout to tail. It was…
reptilian… in the way that people stopped to stare in morbid fascination before
their inevitable demise.

The scales were reddish black with fire-yellow in its
joints. Its neck was more sturdy than long, perfect for a strong bite… and that
snout had a lot of viciously sharp teeth. It didn’t have ears so much as horns;
two large, curved ones on its head, followed by a row of smaller, sharper
spikes that ran down its neck to the tip of its tail. Its black talons were
each half a foot long.

Dejarus, the creature that had stopped the mine from
killing Henry and me, the same creature we had heard roaring, was a dragon. In
one swift move, the dragon opened its mouth wide and swallowed Bob whole.

It lifted its head up to ease the swallowing of the
huge man and then gazed right at us, as if wondering which of us to eat next.
All three of us froze. The dragon made a rumbling noise, turned, and ambled
away.

Henry shifted back into his person form and the hole
in his chest almost completely healed over in the process. “Please tell me I
was hallucinating that,” he panted.

“We were all hallucinating that,” Darwin agreed.

It was not an easy trek out
of the tunnels. Henry’s back-to-back bouts of attack coupled with getting shot
with a silver bullet had left him exhausted. Darwin’s claws, eyes, and hair
were slowly changing back, taking his energy with it as well. As the adrenaline
faded, all I wanted to do was lie down and sleep for a week.

When we finally did make it to the castle door, I had
to sit down and rest on the steps. Darwin sprawled out on the dirt floor and
laid his head on his arms.

“Don’t sleep now, we are almost there,” Henry said,
scowling as he sat on the steps next to me.

I scoffed. “One of us has to get up the energy to
open the door.”

“I got shot,” Henry said, letting his head fall back.

“I saved the day,” Darwin mumbled, already half
asleep.

“With my power,” I retorted. Neither of them
responded, so I grabbed the rail and forced myself back onto my feet. I opened
the door and came face to face with Hunt. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a
fucking dragon under the school?” Only then did I turn to see who was standing
right beside the door.

Kale’s eyes narrowed. “What dragon are you hiding,
Logan?”

*          *          *

I woke on Hunt’s couch. April Nightshade was once
again rubbing oil that was on fire into my skin. Henry was asleep in the chair
and Darwin was sitting on the rug in front of the crackling fireplace.

“Why the hell do you keep rubbing flaming oil on me?”
I asked Nightshade.

She scowled back. “It’s to heal you, idiot. Why the
hell do you have the same exact burn I healed before, only worse?”

I looked down to see she was right. The burn I
received from looking into the bowl on Hunt’s desk was only a foreshadowing of
what was to come. The shadow man had apparently burned me badly in his attack
on Gale, but since it was connected to the vision of me looking into the bowl…
it burned me through my vision. I had been burned from the future.

“Well, you were there, you must have seen something,”
I said. Darwin turned to watch us.

Nightshade grinned. “You figured it out then.”

“That you’re a dragon? Yeah.”

“What gave me away?”

“That conversation between you and Mrs. Ashcraft last
semester that I overheard. She asked if I knew what you were and then you
referred to ‘Deja’ sleeping most of the day. It wasn’t hard to connect the
names, especially after the time when I asked Hunt where you were and he said
you were sleeping.”

“That’s quite a leap.”

“Hunt was also very adamant about keeping the council
out of the underground. When Kale was trying to investigate Cooper’s murder,
Hunt couldn’t get him out fast enough. Sure that could have been to keep Kale
away from the tower, but Kale doesn’t strike me as someone smart enough to find
it. More likely, Kale knows you are a dragon and, going back to your
conversation with Ashcraft, the council believes you are dead. The only way to
think you’re dead is to know about you in the first place. Being a dragon
sounds like a good enough excuse for them.”

“You can’t tell them.”

“I could.” Her face paled. “But I wouldn’t. I would
never do that to you.”

She handed me a hand towel from the back of the
couch. “Good. Then I will never have to eat you.”

“I thought they were gone, anyway. Why was Kale out
in the hall?”

“They did leave, but Logan told me to stay in hiding
until everything blew over. Kale heard about the golem attack and came back.
Now, I would really appreciate it if you stop getting burned. Andrew can help
you next time, but Logan knows I am the best at healing burns.”

“Isn’t that a bit contrary?”

She smirked and left.

“I would be careful not to piss her off if I were
you, bro,” Darwin said. Henry nodded. Apparently, Henry hadn’t really been
asleep.

“How can we just be resting? Gale got away!”

“We killed Felicity and the others. That’s enough for
today.”

“He got the amulet!”

“I would not worry so much about that,” Henry said.

“How can I not worry when he got the amulet?!”

Henry held up a metal talisman on a chain. “Did you
know Darwin’s club committee came up with an arts club? They do metalwork. What
do you think of this fancy necklace I made? Gale’s was more valuable, of
course. Too bad I’m not a thief; I could have switched them when I was on top
of him.”

I gaped. “You were in jaguar form.”

“That is correct. On an unrelated note, have you seen
the size of my mouth in my beast form? Unfortunately, I’m not sure how to make
it work.”

“It’s not working now; that much I can tell,” Darwin
said. “What are you going to do with it?”

“I haven’t decided yet. I suppose I should bury it.
Most importantly, my parents must never know the amulet is still around. It
would also be very bad for me if the council heard that I had something that
belonged to them.”

“Good thing that’s not the real one, then, since
you’re not a thief,” I said. If someone had bugged Hunt’s office again, we were
in trouble. However, if someone like Ghost was listening in, they had no
evidence whatsoever.

He nodded. “A very good thing. And for the record,
the next time my jaguar tries to attack someone other than you or Darwin, trust
him. Felicity was using magic to smell like Clara. The second I shifted, I
could tell exactly what she was.”

“Well, we may not have defeated Gale, but he
shouldn’t be that big a problem without Felicity,” Darwin said.

“Not necessarily,” Henry argued. “Gale still has the
power he gained from his kills and he now has a grudge.”

“What about my dream? I dreamt of Gale using the
amulet and shooting Astrid. That didn’t happen, and if we have the amulet, how
can he kill her with it?”

“Maybe you stopped it from happening,” Darwin
suggested.

Henry was less optimistic. “Or Gale will get the
amulet again and go after her in vengeance for us killing Felicity.”

Hunt entered at that point. I sat up and Darwin sat
next to me. “You should not have gone down there.”

“Gee, you don’t have to thank us for saving everyone
from the psychopath galore.”

Darwin stared at me wide-eyed and I knew I said
exactly what he had been about to. “Especially not after abandoning us on the
field. Hell, you abandoned Devon twice if you count the pawnshop, which I do.”

“I cannot apologize for the incident at the pawnshop,
for I had to get Remy out of there and I could not reach Devon at the same
time. I would have gone right back for him if Langril had not gotten him first.
During the golem attack, it was merely unfortunate timing. I had to get the
key.”

“Let’s see this key that’s worth the lives of your
students,” Darwin said.

Hunt sighed, suddenly looking several years older
from the frustration and exhaustion in his eyes. “I was unable to get it.
Fortunately, neither was anyone else.”

“Was it worth all of your students’ lives? If we had
died, would you regret it or be glad no one else got the key either?”

“I knew you could handle the golems. I really did. If
I do not get that key, many more will die, just like Cooper.” With that, he
walked out.

“Henry,” I said.

“I’m on it.”

*          *          *

I discovered that evening that Maseré had heard me
tell him that Clara was found, but I was unable to hear his response, probably
because of Felicity’s magic. Maseré tried to warn me repeatedly, since Stephen
found his daughter about ten minutes before I found Felicity.

Clara had been dragged into the rubble of the dorms
and trapped there, wounded. From the synthetic blood that the vampires had been
drinking, she didn’t have enough strength to heal or free herself. She was
given blood and they both returned to their coven.

Maseré only stayed for a few days to help with the
reconstruction of the dorms. Each day, more and more of his pack showed up to
help. Henry, Darwin, and I were eating lunch in the makeshift dining room,
which was the lecture hall, when Maseré came up to us. He put his hand on
Darwin’s shoulder, careful not to touch Darwin’s skin.

“Are you coming home with me, monkey, or staying with
your friends?”

I didn’t even snicker. I bit the inside to my cheek
until my eyes watered, but my lips didn’t even slightly twitch. Henry made a
slight choking sound that he covered with a respectful cough.

Darwin blushed. “Dad, I told you not to call me that
in public. I want to stay here.”

Maseré’s eyes widened dramatically. “Really? My son
would rather play outside with his friends than sit in front of the computer
all day? Wait until I tell your mother! I never thought I’d see the day.”

Darwin walked away, grumbling about his mother being
the reason he was always hiding in his room in the first place.

Maseré patted my back firmly. Henry stood right
behind the wolf, ready for any problems. “My friend has discovered his
situation is worse than he thought. You would be doing a lot of people a great
deal of good if you would help protect his daughter.”

“Well, that might be difficult while I’m at the
university, but I have a friend in–”

“Oh, she won’t be a bother at all. She’s already a
student here. In fact, she had to return home for a few weeks for her own
safety, on Logan’s orders. I know this girl; she’s sweet as a button and cute
as a peach.”

Henry’s left eye twitched. “I can see a resemblance
between you and your son,” he said.

“You’re not talking about Amelia Bell by any chance,
are you?” I asked.

“As a matter of fact, I am. Will you do it?”

“I’ll need to talk to her and her father to see what
exactly is going on, but–”

“Great!” He patted my back harder. “I will let them
know you agreed to do it, then. Good day to you!” He walked off.

“What did I just agree to?” I asked Henry. I didn’t
actually remember agreeing to anything.

“I don’t know, but I would start running if I were
you.”

*          *          *

At midnight on the next Thursday, I went to the
clearing in the forest where Langril and I met for our training sessions. It
was mid-March and there was an end in sight for the winter weather. Actually,
the weather at Quintessence seemed to be quite a bit more stable than right
outside the grounds.

Either way, the dirt was still frigid when I sat
cross-legged in it. I pulled the red ball out of my pocket and rolled it
between my hands. As I did, I focused on the mind of the professor. I had seen
glimpses of it, but never more strongly than in the vision where he was in that
alley.

A human might consider him extremely immoral. Of
course, every villain believed they were the good guy. Langril was not a good
person or bad one. He was far older than anyone I had ever encountered, and
possibly much more powerful. Morals and ethics meant little to him. He cared
next to nothing about anyone who was not directly useful to him. At the same
time, he found friends and allies useful.

The only one who he really cared about other than
himself was his daughter. I knew I was useful to him or he wouldn’t have saved
me in the pawnshop. From my brief glimpse into his mind, I found his intuition
to be nearly as strong as mine. However, instead of centering on
self-preservation, overhearing vital information, and solving crimes like mine
did, his intuition showed him how useful people were in his plans.

He had some very powerful enemies. If one of his
enemies was the shadow man, as it appeared to be, then I could trust Langril.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and the shadow man was sure as hell my
enemy.

While concentrating on the professor’s mind, I
allowed the earth magic to give my power strength and stability. I was not
going to become like John. John had power, but he was never balanced and he
never accepted the elementals as part of what made us wizards.
I will not
become like John because I am a wizard.
A wizard was a part of nature and
thus was balanced. As long as I accepted that
I
was part of nature, my
power would work for me instead of against me.

That’s why Langril said he wasn’t a wizard here;
Langril’s powers did not belong here. Langril didn’t belong here. As silent as
the shadows he appeared from, the professor stood before me.

“Congratulations, you have passed your earth
element.”

*          *          *

Even after Maseré’s shifters headed out, the
construction went smoothly. When the professors returned, they dived right in
as well. The students were excited by then, certain they could build it better
than before.

The new building was going to be wider and not so
many floors high as the original. We were also getting an indoor pool, a den,
group study rooms, and club rooms. I had to wonder if anyone was going to get
any work done.

There were four towers on the original building; one
on each corner. Two of them were water towers and two were observation posts.
Fortunately, the water towers had held, or there would have been a lot more
injuries. We rebuilt the towers, but we use wind turbines to pump the water
from the well, as opposed to the electrical pumps that were used before. We had
enough problems without worrying about losing water.

The biggest change was the implementation of
four-layer glass we received from Stephen’s suppliers that protected against
ultraviolet radiation. Using the special glass for every single window, along
with an additional protective film, vampires would be able to live in the dorms
and move around inside freely during the day.

After lunch, I got the odd urge to update Hunt on our
progress. Knowing this was my instincts trying to get me moving, I acted on it.
Darwin and Henry followed me and we stopped in front of Hunt’s office a few
minutes later. The door was open just a crack, as if someone had meant to close
it but hadn’t been paying attention.