Dark Waters (Elemental Book 1) (25 page)

A thought occurred to me. A dangerous, reckless,
foolish idea…
But those are the best kinds.

Hunt took the staff from me. Nightshade had been
released when I distracted John, so she stood back as if to shield Flagstone
and Remy. I opened my mind to John; I let him in, but at the same time, I
reached my power out for another familiar consciousness. Distance didn’t
matter. I could not allow myself to doubt. Like water, my magic could be
everywhere. I
had
to succeed.

I felt John’s control start to close over me and fill
my head with darkness at the same time Darwin’s mind let me in. “
Share the
pain
,” I told my friend.

He didn’t hesitate. He knew something was going on,
even if he didn’t know what. Knowledge flooded the bridge between us with a
force beyond my expectation. Every moment of his life was a calculation, every
word he said weighed heavily with probabilities, every step he took carefully
planned and designed to meet the least resistance.

I saw him blow out his candles on his fourth
birthday, but not without intentionally analyzing the temperature of the flame,
the flammability of every object and person in the room, and the least amount
of force in which he would have to blow the flame to extinguish it.

He never ate anything that was more than two or three
ingredients per item because he couldn’t stop himself from dissecting it in his
mind and pulling up records on where that ingredient could have come from, how
it was supposed to be stored and prepared, and what the health risks were if
that ingredient were not properly stored and prepared. Holding that up against
the minimum wage in the United States, the expensive health care, and the
general lack of concern that people have shown towards the health of others in
the food industry, the odds were never very good for him.

Most of what Darwin shared was facts, formulas, and
language. It was too much, too fast, and the force of it was exhausting and
painful. “
More,
” I told him.

John caught on, realized that Darwin was no match for
him, and tried to pull away. Unfortunately for him, there was too much of a
stream from Darwin, to me, to him. He couldn’t stop it any more than I could.

John tried to pull up memories of hate, blood, and
killing, but Darwin had too much information. He had too much even for all
three of us combined, so neither John nor I were able to focus on anything
else.

I felt the burning sensation, like a tugging against
me as John was attacked. His mind was ensnared like he had trapped the minds of
so many others, and his body was unable to fight back. Unfortunately, John was
strong enough that he was trying to pull me down with him.

“Stop,”
I said, not to John but to Darwin. I
had to keep Darwin safe.

But Darwin wouldn’t stop. He knew John was dying and
wouldn’t let him go until it was over. Darwin didn’t fear death, but he could
find a little enjoyment in making John suffer for the pain he caused others. He
wanted to feel John’s life snuffed out in torment, even if it meant his own
end.

Hunt’s words came back to me; taking a life was never
worth it. Darwin knew pain, but he hadn’t really gotten to know joy. I could
heal him and he deserved that.
But only if he survives this.

Focusing on the desire to help my friend, I forced a
wall between myself and the onslaught of information. The sigils from the book
and phrases in some dead language invaded my mind, helping to form and
strengthen the wall. When Darwin was closed off to me, it still felt like my
head was going to explode.

John’s thoughts were unraveling from the combined
physical and psychic attack. His last effort to regain control was to push his
proudest moments into my head. I heard his teacher screaming, saw his father
struggling to take one last breath, and felt blood dripping down my body.

And then there was a face. A woman’s face. She had
soft, warm hazel eyes that were furrowed with hope and fear equally. I saw her
from John’s perspective, but he was only three or four. The round, smooth face
with high cheekbones, framed by light, sandy brown hair was burned into his
mind, while the rest of the scene was vaguely that of a house’s entryway. It
looked huge to John.

“We’ll go somewhere safe,” the woman whispered,
holding up a small red jacket.

I felt someone take John’s hand and he looked up at
the boy next to him, who had dark purple eyes.
Vincent
.

“No, mother,” he said. He was about seven or eight.
“Go without us. We don’t need you.” He was saving her. John knew even then that
Vincent was trying to save their mother from John. That was the chink in John’s
armor. The only thing in his entire life that he was thankful for was that he
let her go.

I drew on that feeling, that one unselfish thought he
had ever experienced, and opened my eyes. The expression on his face was of
shock. He hadn’t expected to lose. He had never planned to lose. To John Cross,
being the most powerful, the most resilient, the most feared, was everything.

I looked away because I didn’t want to see the life
in his eyes fade. He had to be alone in his death, like his father was. The
handle of Remy’s dagger was in my hand, the blade buried deep in his heart.

John Cross was my father. The same all-consuming
power, the same drive to be successful, the same blood was in me. In order to
stop him from hurting anyone else, I killed.

I was startled out of my horror as the dagger became
unbearably hot. Naturally, I let go, but the heat still spread until it
consumed my entire body. It was John’s power. My mind was forcefully
disconnected with my body and all I could see was spiders. I saw them swarming
every inch of surface in my apartment, not from my own eyes but from hundreds
of others.

Then the pain in my body overcame my vision and
everything grew black.

The best way to be woken, in
my personal opinion, is with a kiss from a beautiful woman. In the movies, when
a man nearly dies saving the day, he usually ends up with the girl. But that
wasn’t how I was woken.

“I will break your fingers if you poke him one more
time,” Remy growled.

“He’ll wake up if I poke him enough,” Darwin
responded.

I heard metal scraping across concrete and curiosity
drove me to open my eyes. I was in a room, about twelve by twelve, that was
well lit even though I couldn’t see a source of light. The walls were cinder
blocks that were painted a mellow blue. The room had no windows. I was lying on
a narrow bed, which resembled a hospital bed. There were two more beds spaced
evenly across the room.

Remy and Darwin were pushing a large metal and glass
cabinet against the wall to the right of me. Darwin turned and smiled.

“You’re awake!”

“I think so.”

Remy turned and gave me a tight smile. “I’ll get my
father.” She left the room without another word. It was awkward between us, and
I expected it would be for a while.

“What happened?” I asked Darwin.

“You were in a coma.”

“For how long?” I felt like I slept for a long time,
but it was a restful sleep without any dreams.

“Eight days. Henry hardly ever leaves your side,
since he still feels responsible for what happened in the courtyard, but he’s
getting boxes right now. This was an old storage room, but we’re converting it
into an infirmary. And here’s an interesting fact; we’re right across from the
morgue.”

“Great. I suspect that saves time if a student dies
in the infirmary. How did I end up in a coma?”

“You absorbed John’s power when you killed him,” Hunt
said from the doorway. He, Vincent, Remy, and Flagstone entered the room.

I noticed Remy and Flagstone were holding hands.

Flagstone noticed me noticing. His eyes narrowed in
warning. It was a very primal warning to stay away from his woman. I looked at
Hunt instead, letting the shifter know I wouldn’t challenge him. “What does
that entail? Is the wizard council gunning for me again?”

“They are suspicious of you and angry with me for not
killing you as a child. However, they are willing to overlook this entire event
on account of the evidence Vincent found proving that John killed James
Chambers. The next stage in your life is yet to be decided. You were already
very powerful, and now you have John’s power as well. Whether you become like
him, use your powers to save lives, or sew kittens on pillowcases, that is up
to you.”

“We would suggest against becoming like him, though,”
Vincent advised.

“What if I already am like him?”

“You’re nothing like him,” Remy said.

“What is it that you want to do now?” Hunt asked. I
glanced at Remy. “They have already figured out why you came to the school.”

“Then I guess I’ll go back to being an investigator…
but I think I’m going to be less biased. And I’m hoping to be back here next
semester. After all, I’m a wizard now.”

“Of course,” Hunt said. “I have no objections to your
return. I would love to teach you to use your magic in a safe and responsible
way. However, you might have a moral dilemma in choosing to return. Immediately
after John’s death, the council signed a new law on discrimination against
vampires in the paranormal community. Thus, I must abide by the law.”

“You’re opening the school to vampires?”

“Yes. In order to accommodate their needs, there are
going to be night classes as well as day classes. Furthermore, I will be hiring
extra staff to cover the night classes.”

“What about blood for the vampires?”

“Andrew was able to recreate his blood substitute.
The new head of the department is a vampire I believe you are familiar with.”

It took a moment to recognize the woman who entered
the room just then. I knew she looked eerily familiar, and my instincts
immediately warned me she was a vampire. What threw me off was that her hair
was deep, dark purple, while her eyes were burgundy on the side of red. Her
complexion had the flawless porcelain quality that women killed themselves
trying to achieve. The vampire had high cheekbones with proportional,
symmetrical features. She wore a black leather jacket over a fitted, emerald
green dress and high-heeled leather boots that went up slightly passed her
knees.

The last time I had seen her, she had black hair and
dull eyes.

“Meet Clara Yocum,” Vincent said. “Stephen Yocum’s
daughter.”

She was the vampire I confronted in the hall, who had
worked with Mrs. Ashcraft.

*          *          *

It took a few days before I felt normal again. I
tried to attend classes, but I would go from wired one minute to lethargic the
next. Hunt said it was my body trying to adapt to my new magic. It didn’t help
that things would randomly explode around me or that I kept accidentally
reading people’s minds. Hunt said this, too, would stop when I adapted.

The rumors ranged from me helping Hunt form an
alliance with the vampires to stop the killing, to me single-handedly taking
out the vampire who had killed two members of the wizard council. Seriously,
people were starting to call me a vampire hunter. Of course, when word got
around that vampires were allowed in the school, it was all anyone talked
about. Even the teachers were unsure about it.

Some of the students were happy about it, because
they wanted equality, while quite a few more said they weren’t coming back.
Several women tried to cuddle up to me, but I told them I wasn’t looking for a
relationship. Darwin, being the brat he was, started telling all the women that
I was looking for a long-lost love who I had promised myself to and because of
that, I would never settle for anyone else.

Vincent wanted to get started on training me personally
right away, but Hunt suggested he wait until my second circle. I told my uncle
I could read the book and by the time the semester was over, I would have
finished it. He just gave me an odd look and walked away.

*          *          *

I was sitting on the rock by the lake, throwing
cucumbers into the newly-filtered water, when Henry sat beside me. “I thought
they removed the kappa,” he said. A webbed hand reached out of the water and
pulled the cucumber down. “Never mind.”

“How did you get out of the cell?” I asked after a
few minutes.

He turned a little green. “John must have made me
shift when I was still in the cell. No cage on Earth can contain me in my
shifted form.”

I considered what John said about my roommate. I
wanted to believe the wizard had lied, but Henry obviously had a secret he
didn’t want me to know. “Was that the first time you’ve been in a cell?”

He nodded. “I have never been caught before. I came
out here to ask that you never try to read my mind. I like having you as a
friend and I want to keep it that way. If you see into my mind, it would ruin
our friendship. Also, my parents would kill you.” He stood and walked away.

I sighed.

An image came to mind of two little webbed hands
pulling Henry into the water.

I smirked.
“No, not just yet. Let’s see if he
tries to kill me again,”
I told the kappa.

*          *          *

“I heard you are getting better in your classes,”
Hunt said. It was two weeks after I killed John and we were in Hunt’s office. I
was on the couch and he was in one of the high-back chairs.

“I’m not making things explode anymore. I keep having
dreams of spiders, but they’re not exactly nightmares, because I don’t fear
them. They’re just there. No one else is seeing spiders anymore, which I know
is because John is gone… so why do I see them in my sleep?”

“You may have to deal with the spiders again.”

“Why?” I asked. Ghost purred, suddenly on the desk
beside Hunt. “Why is Vincent’s cat always here?”

“This is not a cat,” Hunt said.

“What the hell is it then?”

“This is Vincent’s familiar. Vincent could see
everything Ghost saw, which is how he was able to watch over you. Similarly,
the spider was John’s familiar. I suspect that was how John knew what was going
on around here before we did. The spiders in your dream are very likely
studying you, seeing if you would be an appropriate master.”

“I don’t want spiders as my familiars. Do I have to
have a familiar?”

“You will have one.”

“You don’t.”

“I do. I am sorry it did not work out between you and
my daughter.”

“She’s happy, so I’m happy, I guess. I’m not ready to
jump into another relationship so soon after Regina anyway.”

“Do you know why I assigned Remy as your elemental
master?”

“I figured it was because she is a master of the
water element.”

“Actually, water was the element she struggled the
most with. No, it was because I hoped you could help her. As much as I believed
she could teach you to understand the element, I believed you could teach her
to control her anger.”

“Knowing John was my father, how could you know I
wouldn’t make it worse for her?”

“Because you are not just the product of your
parents. Yes, you have character traits from both of your parents, but John was
always different. John used the power of his mind instead of the elemental
forces of nature. He could never feel that bond with the elements that you
can.”

“Were you surprised that I didn’t know I was a
wizard?”

“I was a little disappointed when you showed up here
because I thought you were squandering the potential you had. In the few
minutes I saw you as a child, there was so much future ahead of you. Now, I
realize you can still be anything you want to be. I just hope you don’t follow
in John’s footsteps.”

“I don’t plan on it. How did Vincent stay good? Or
did he not have as much power?”

“Your power is unique to you and John. Vincent is
just as powerful, but in a different way. He cannot control minds or see into
them as you can.”

“Then what is his power?”

“That is something you should discuss with him.”

I considered it and decided he was right, but I
didn’t completely trust my uncle. Oddly enough, I did trust Hunt. “Heather had
a note in her pocket when she died. It had a phrase in some language that not
even Darwin could read, and a symbol. I saw it later in a book, but the second
word was different. On the paper, it said---”

“No!” Hunt said quickly. “Never speak Enochian aloud.
If you found a letter, it was because you were meant to read it and not hear
it. You must always speak and act as if you are being overheard by your enemy.
Where is this letter?”

“Ghost took it. He read it on my desk, took it, and
vanished.”

“He must have taken it to Vincent. Unfortunately, if
Heather had it, we may already be too late.”

“Too late for what? What did the note say?”

“You will know soon enough. What is written cannot be
unwritten, and what is said cannot be unsaid. When you are ready to understand,
you will find your answer. I cannot tell you what you already know and I cannot
show you what you cannot see. Continue with your studies and you will
eventually have a decision to make. I hope you choose the path of light.”

“I killed my father.”

“You killed a monster with no soul. Think of all the
people you saved, who he would have killed. How can you use what you learned
here? Where do you want to go from here?”

“I still want to be a private investigator, but I
think I can use my magic to actually help people now. There’s just one thing I
never figured out. Mrs. Ashcraft couldn’t use electronics, right?”

“Correct.”

“And John could see everything through his spiders.”

“Also true.”

“Then who bugged your office? Wizards couldn’t have
done that.”

“That, I’m afraid, we are going to find out very
soon. The paranormal community makes for a dangerous life, Devon, and there
will be people who want your power. You have more enemies to come.”

*          *          *

I saw her running, heard her panting breaths, smelled
the blood seeping from the wound across her waist, and felt her heart hammering
in her chest. I wasn’t seeing through her eyes or mine. I sensed the location
of the dark street because
she
knew where she was. It was dark and
raining. The streets had bad drainage systems, so water pooled at her ankles.
It was just a few degrees away from snowing. Her wound hurt. Exhaustion and
blood loss made her legs weak, but she had to keep running. It was all she
could do.

She was prey. Someone was after her; someone who knew
her strengths and weaknesses.
He
was a killer by nature and by
profession. Her wound was slowing her down because she was losing blood too
fast.

She tripped over a pipe sticking out of the road and
fell heavily into the water. Without enough energy to even stand back up, she
propped herself against the brick wall of the building.
An abandoned grocery
store. Ironic,
she thought, because she was starving.

The street light about ten feet away, which was the
only light remaining in the city, flickered out. Shadows prowled easily now,
invisible to all but my eyes. As the light faded for the human eye, my vision
accommodated. I could see perfectly in the dark and the rain, as light seemed
to reflect from surfaces.

Nothing was in color, but I could see what was warm,
what was cold, what was alive, and what shouldn’t have existed at all. Shadows
moved; dark shapes which absorbed the light that only my eyes could detect. I
could identify them easily against the inanimate, physical reality that the
living saw. What preyed in the dark was not a living being.