Elemental (5 page)

Nicolas
just waved that away. “That was the
Fey
girl, Anna. It
had to be,” a niggling suspicion began to worm its way into his mind when he
replayed the scene in his mind. “Have you ever seen her do something like that
before?”

“Well…no,
but she could have hidden it, just like we do,” he pointed out.

Nicolas
wasn’t sure what to think. If she had some sort of ability then she should
accept his, right? “What do you think she is?”

Jonathan
looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“Do
you think she’s Fey? A witch, maybe?”

“Good
grief, Nicolas! She’s human, trust me.
Supernaturals
are immune to human illnesses, but she ends up with the flu every year
according to her,” Jonathan explained. “And trust me, there’s no way someone
would be able to fake that. Her fevers nearly scared me to death.”

“Fevers?”
Throughout history, fevers had been a dangerous thing for humans. They had made
wondrous medical advances over the centuries, but Nicolas had lived through the
times when a fever was often a prelude to death, so the thought of Mandy having
high fevers was something which greatly troubled him.

A
moment later the door to her room opened and two maids stepped into the hall.
“She is dressed and resting, though not soundly,” the portly older woman informed
them.

“Explain,”
Nicolas demanded.

“She
thrashes a bit and looks like she is fighting off some specter in her dreams.
It is not wise to wake someone from night terrors, so we just stepped back
until she settled and then finished dressing her. I suspect that she’ll wake
soon.”

Nicolas
hated that Mandy was plagued by nightmares, but the maid was right, waking her
would be a mistake, especially if she was the one who had repelled the wolf. He
had no great urge to take up flying.

“Thank
you both for your help,” Jonathan replied prompting Nicolas with a nudge of his
elbow.

“Yes,
thank you,” Nicolas added, still distracted by his churning thoughts.

He
was just about to enter the room when Jonathan stopped him with a hand on his
shoulder. “I’ll join you in a moment, brother. I just want to check on Anna.”

Nicolas
regarded his brother for a long moment before he felt his eyes widen with
realization. “Is she…”

“Yes,
I believe she may be, but I need to spend some time near her without all of the
excitement and commotion to be sure.”

“Well,
that’s a hell of a turn of events, isn’t it? You left here to search for your
other half, and find mine, while yours has been here all along,” Nicolas could
only chuckle at the way things had worked out.

Jonathan
joined his laughter. “Yeah, who would have thought that we would meet our

soul
mates at the same time?”

“Does
it bother you that she’s Fey?” Nicolas asked cautiously. “You do realize it was
her brother that nearly destroyed all of us. It was her brother we killed.”

Jonathan
cringed at the mention of that day. “I know this has the potential to be a
disaster, but I’ve still got to try. Besides, she saved Mandy at her own
expense, so that has to count for something, right?”

“Let’s
hope so.” Nicolas was still leery of the Fey, so his trust would have to be
earned. “I’m going to stay with Mandy, but come let me know what you discover.”

“I
will. I’d like to check on Mandy as well.”

Nicolas
watched as his brother entered the room opposite of Mandy’s and softly closed
the door. He was still thinking about how the Fates had a strange way of seeing
that things worked out when he opened the door, and froze.

Mandy
was huddled on the couch, wearing one of his large flannel shirts and a pair of
boxer shorts. Garrett had brought them for her to wear, since her things were
still outside and the wolf could still be a threat. Her knees were drawn to her
chest, her head down. She looked like a child, her build was so slight.

“Mandy?
Are you all right?”

Her
head came up, green eyes shining with tears while her fiery curls fell about
her face. Nicolas didn’t think he’d ever seen anything so beautiful in the
entirety of his existence.

When
her only reply was to sob and put her head down again, Nicolas quickly crossed
to her side and pulled her into his arms. At first she fought to pull away, but
he merely held on and shushed her. A moment later she turned in his arms and
clung to him as she wept.

“I’m
so sorry, Jonathan,” she cried. “I didn’t want you to find out like this. I
wanted to be able to tell you myself, but that wolf…”

Nicolas
was not surprised to find that she had mistaken him for his brother; after all,
they were identical in everything except eye color. “Don’t worry about it,
Mandy,” he soothed, rubbing her back. He wanted to make her feel better, would
do anything to put an end to her tears. “I’ve got a secret of my own that
should make you feel better.”

She
sniffed, and then asked, “You have telekinesis too?”

“Not
quite, but fairly close.” Steeling himself against her possible scorn or
rejection, he went on. “I can control the elements,” he confessed. Nicolas sat
there holding her as he awaited her reaction. He was so ready for her to bolt
from his lap that her laughter startled him.

“You
don’t have to make something up just to make me feel better,” she chided. “I
just don’t want to lose our friendship.”

“I
don’t think that you have anything to worry about. Jonathan would never hold
anything like that against you.” Nicolas felt Mandy stiffen before she finally
raised her brilliant emerald eyes to his.

“Oh,
God,” she wailed, “you must think I’m crazy.”

“I
think you’re beautiful,” at his softly spoken words, she stilled. “I think that
you have a gift that you are very responsible with if my brother hasn’t even
witnessed it before.”

“So
you don’t think that I’m a freak? You’re not scared of me?” she asked
cautiously.

Her
insecurity showed and Nicolas made a quick decision, hoping that it was the
right one, but prepared for the worst. “Watch my hand,” he ordered, “Don’t
touch it, but just watch.”

Nicolas
raised one hand, palm up, and called to the fire element within him. First his
palm began to glow a bright orange before a small flame sparked to life in its
center. Mandy gasped and sat up in his lap, trying to get a better look. He
gave his power a little push and the flame leapt,
then
began to roll in on itself until a glowing ball of flames rotated above his
palm.

“That’s
amazing,” she whispered.

Nicolas
tossed the little fireball into the fireplace and regarded Mandy’s profile as
she stared after it. “You’re not afraid?”

“No,”
she replied, “I think I’m jealous.”

Her
honest response had him barking out a laugh. “Jealous? Then I had better not
show you the rest.”

“You
can do more?” Was that excitement in her eyes?

“Like
I said before, I can control the elements. I can move the rocks, dirt, trees,
water, winds…pretty much anything. If you want a white Christmas, then I’ll
have fresh snow that morning.”

“Really?
That’s amazing!”

“Jonathan
has the same abilities. Throughout history we’ve been referred to by the
Supernaturals
as Elementals,” he explained, absently
running his fingers in small circles over her back. It felt good to touch her.

“There
are more like the two of you?”

“No,”
Nicolas sighed, “We are the last of our kind.”

“But
what about children?
Would your kids carry the same
gifts?”

Mandy
seemed genuinely interested and didn’t appear to be scared at all, which begged
the question, “Why aren’t you frightened by all of this?” When she merely
frowned at him, he elaborated. “You’ve only been here a handful of hours and
already you’ve been attacked by a werewolf, saved a
Fey
princess, been clawed open, then healed, and now you know about mine and
Jonathan’s abilities, yet you seem to be completely fine with it.”

Nicolas
watched as she took in all he’d said, her eyes widening a bit more with every
word until they seemed too big for her small face. “Oh, damn,” he muttered,
noting her current pallor. “Don’t pass out on me again, I was just kidding.”

“No,
you weren’t,” she breathed. “So, they’re real?”

Jonathan,
bless him, picked the perfect time to walk in. “So, how are you feeling?” he
asked, oblivious to the conversation.

“Like
I’ve stepped into one of my folklore books.”

Nicolas
noted the puzzled look his brother wore, but remained silent. He’d already put
enough of his foot in his mouth, so he wasn’t willing to embellish on anything
until he got a better feel for how she would react.

Chapter Four

Jonathan gazed down at her with concern in his
obsidian eyes, and asked, “Do you remember what happened?”

She thought for a minute,
then
replied. “I remember seeing a woman running out of the trees shouting for me to
run, and then he came out, and I recall thinking that I’d never seen such a big
wolf, but I never thought about it being a werewolf. I mean, before now, I
thought they were just a myth.” Mandy shook her head and watched as Jonathan
glared at his brother.

What was he mad at Nicolas about?
 
He’d been nothing but sweet to her.

Suddenly recalling that she was still perched on his
lap, Mandy made to move, only to have Nicolas’ hold tighten about her waist.
When she looked back at him, he smiled.
 
It would seem he liked having her right where she was.
 
Well, that was just fine, because she was
pretty comfortable herself, which was a bit of a surprise since she’d never
really indulged in physical contact with the opposite sex.

“I kind of like having you here,” he admitted, a
crooked grin gracing his full lips.

Not really sure of how to reply to that, Mandy
looked at Jonathan, but he only shrugged. Yeah, that was helpful. “I told you
you guys would get along.”

Braggart.

Mandy frowned up at him from her perch. “Actually, I
practically threw myself at him because I thought he was you. I didn’t realize
that I was blubbering all over the infamous Nicolas Mondragon.”

“Infamous?” Nicolas asked, arching his dark brows.

“Oh, yeah.
All I’ve heard was ‘You’ll love my brother’, or ‘I think the two of you would
get along great’, or even ‘Everything will be perfect once you meet Nicolas’.”
Mandy knew her imitation of Jonathan’s voice was awful, but she still laughed
when he scowled.

“You have a really nice laugh, Mandy. It’s very open
and free. I like that.” Nicolas was flirting with her and Mandy could hardly
believe it.
 
He was just so gorgeous—just
like Jonathan—and she was so…not.

Luckily, Jonathan intervened.
“Enough,
Nicolas.
How are you feeling, Mandy?
Any pain?”

Suddenly remembering her injury, Mandy looked down
and felt her side, only to find smooth skin. “I don’t understand.” She felt a
little disoriented, but then something Nicolas had said popped into her head.
“You said I was healed.
How?”

“Not how. Who,” Nicolas replied. “Anna, the girl
from outside is Fey. Their
kind have
many talents, and
she obviously has a very strong skill at healing. She healed you in return for
saving her life.”

Mandy felt like her entire world had just been
knocked off its axis, her head swimming. “But, all I did was
push
him back, and not far enough if I recall correctly, because he managed to claw
me pretty good.”

“Pretty good?
Mandy you were nearly killed!” Jonathan barked. “I told you to stay inside. I
even warned you about going out after dark, but you still went out anyway. And
at sunset!
 
What were you thinking?”

“I just wanted to get my make-up bag and my purse,”
she replied, before ducking her head. “I wanted to look my best when I met your
brother, but I guess that ended up being a wasted effort because you ended up
seeing me at my worst apparently.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Nicolas said softly. “I think
you look very nice in my clothes.”

Good grief, Mandy didn’t think she could possibly
blush any more than she was. The man was just too much! Too handsome, too
charming, too sweet, too understanding…just too much. “So, back to what we were
talking about,” she desperately needed to steer this conversation away from her
attire, or lack thereof. “In the village, when you gave me the warning about
being out after dark and I was teasing you about monsters being in the
mountains, you were trying to warn me about werewolves?”