Elemental Air (Paranormal Public Series) (11 page)

“That has to be a Demon of
Knight,” Sip whispered. “Uh oh.”

President Caid was still standing
behind his guards, his hands hanging loosely at his sides. Dacer had started to
rise, as had Queen Lanca. I saw Vital make a disgusted face and try to persuade
her to sit back down. Lanca waved him off.

All the demons now ringed the
water, with the hellhounds at their sides. From my vantage point it looked like
the trees were on fire from underneath.

“He’s heading straight for Caid,”
Lisabelle muttered. “What show is this guy putting on?”

The Demon of Knight was now about
the size of a train car, with all his power and fire directed at the president.
Without warning he shot forward, then came to a halt in front of Caid. I sucked
in my breath as a fresh round of screams went up. Dimly, I saw other
paranormals running past me, most heading in the direction of the president. At
least when they saw he was still in danger they wanted to fight.

“Get him out of here,” yelled one
guard.

“Why is he still standing there?”
a woman screamed. “He’s our president! He must be kept safe from the monsters!”

Dacer had tried to jump in front
of Caid, but the president had pushed him away. At the sight of my mentor in
danger I shook Lisabelle off and started forward. Keller had also moved to the
dais to be near his aunt, but when he saw me coming he came to meet me.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” he
cautioned, his blue eyes worried.

“I wouldn’t think of it,” I said
quickly, even as I secretly debated whether or not I should save Caid or see if
he’d actually let the demon hit him when it attacked.

It was a brilliant strategy,
after all. Pretend to be attacked by a Demon of Knight only to be saved at the
last minute. Such a close call would give the president irrefutable
credibility.

“Why are you glaring at Caid as
if he called the demons here himself?” Keller asked. I knew he was kidding, but
when I didn’t respond he whistled. “Obviously we have a lot to catch up on.”

“You have no idea,” said
Lisabelle, striding forward.

She waggled a finger at me.
“Today is your day for stupid behavior. I’m relieved it’s almost over.”

“Why is it that whenever anything
goes wrong, you children appear like a bad rash?” Dove boomed. He had come to
flank Caid, offering extra protection from the demon, who was still hovering in
front of the president. “Zervos, why didn’t you deal with these miscreants?”
Dove cried, waving furiously at Zervos.

Professor Zervos was striding
behind Sip and Lough, who had also come to stand on the edge of the dais.

“He’s not the boss of us here,”
Lisabelle pointed out, subtly rolling her sleeve down as she spoke. Apparently
she didn’t think the demon was going to attack, and indeed she was right.

“Stand down,” Caid yelled. I saw
Caid’s back ripple. His wings wanted to unfurl. “You are no match for the
paranormals here.”

From this close, I could see the
Demon of Knight clearly. He had black eyes in a fire-covered face, which
appeared to burn over a black, ghost-like body.

“Is that a sword?” Lough asked,
pointing at the slender black object hanging from the demon’s hip. “Cool.”

“Yes, so much easier to chop
paranormals’ heads off that way,” said Lisabelle. “Goody.”

The demon stared hard at Caid for
another second. The president might sound confident, but I could see the sweat
on his brow. I had never met a better actor. From this distance, when the
president held up his hands I could see them tremble.

The demon appeared to hesitate.

Sip prodded me in the arm and
pointed. The paranormals who had run for the house when the demons first
appeared had returned. Now they too were all standing behind the dais.

“Be gone, Demon,” Mound yelled,
finally daring to stride forward with all the other paranormals at his back.
His cheeks were bright purple and his eyes bulged.

“I can’t tell if he’s scared or
furious,” Sip murmured.

“Just that he’s an idiot,” said
Lisabelle.

In a hissing shower of sparks and
bits of fire and burnt fuel, the Demon of Knight sped away. As he turned to
leave, the hellhounds let out a chorus of earsplitting howls.

It was a long night. Many of the
visiting paranormals had planned to stay at Caid’s after the party, but after
the demon . . . threat? . . . most couldn’t leave fast enough. Cars, brooms,
and even bikes were used to get away. Within the hour the summer house was like
a ghost town.

I was dead tired. It was now the
wee hours of the morning, but I didn’t want to go to sleep, and I was glad that
none of my friends did either. Keller, Lough, Sip, Lisabelle, and I went to our
summer cabin. Queen Lanca had been called into talks with the senior
paranormals, including the committee members Saferous and Dove. She tried to
send Vital with us to the cabin, but he flat out refused.

“Vital reminds me of Lisabelle,”
said Sip.

“Smart, strong, and capable?”
Lisabelle asked.

“Stubborn beyond all reason,”
said Sip. “Where’s Trafton?”

“His mother got word that there
was a demon attack and he got sent home to Mommy,” said Lough smugly.

“You’re so mean to Trafton,” Sip
chided, as Lisabelle walked ahead with Keller.

“He deserves it,” said the dream
giver testily.

Once we were safely in the cabin,
Lisabelle again performed the ritual of the listening spell. We were now
comfortable enough to do it without all three of us having to hold hands, which
was good, because the Nocturns had just sent demons to threaten the president,
and with the enemy so close we had to be able to take care of ourselves
individually as well as when we were together.

“What were they doing here
tonight?” Lough asked. We were sitting in the living room while Sip made tea.
For once Bartholem was nowhere to be seen.

“They were warning Caid that
they’re as strong as ever and they’re not going to back down,” said Sip.

Keller was sitting next to me on
the couch. He took my hand in one of his warm ones and asked, “What happened
with Caid that you didn’t tell me?”

I shook my head. “It just
happened this morning. I haven’t had the chance.”

We all took turns filling Keller
in on what had been happening. He needed to know.

“So, you think he’s with the
demons?” asked Keller in a tight voice, his eyes filled with concern.

I threw up my one free hand in
frustration. “I don’t know what else to think. I saw him talking to Malle. She
was here, wanting him to do something that he said would take time. And then
there’s a demon attack?”

“At least we’re going to Public
tomorrow,” said Lough. “We need to get out of here, pronto.”

“Don’t you think we could learn
more if we were here longer?” said Lisabelle. “We could practice our spying.”

“Like you need any practice,”
said Sip, bringing in the tea.

“Sip,” Lisabelle complained, “if
you keep making me drink this much tea, pretty soon I’ll be nothing but
flavored water.”

“Lemon?” Sip asked, handing out
teacups.

Once we all had tea, even
Lisabelle, Keller said, “If Caid is with the Nocturns, there’s no one we can
trust. He’s the
president
. He’s in charge, and if he’s
lying about our defenses it’s only a matter of time before we’re overrun.”

“What do you mean ‘lying about
the defenses’?” I asked. “Do you mean he’s saying we’re protected when we’re
not?”

“Maybe,” said Lisabelle,
shrugging. “Who knows.”

“But I’m fine,” I murmured
thoughtfully, trying to understand.

“What?” Keller asked. I felt him
tense next to me. “Of course you are.”

I smiled a little. “No, I just
mean that the protections in place that allow me to travel haven’t failed. You
can tell, because I haven’t been attacked by demons.”

“Yeah,” said Lough, “but that’s
Public. Risper would never let anything happen to you, even from far away.”

“Neither would my aunt,” said
Keller. He knew his aunt and I didn’t get along, but he loved her and defended
her at every turn. What he meant was that the fact that we weren’t the best of
friends didn’t mean she would sell me to the Nocturns.

“I know,” I murmured.

He was right. His aunt would
never sell me to the Nocturns, at least not at any time when she might get
caught (I wasn’t as sanguine about it as Keller, but I wasn’t going to argue
with him about it), but she wanted me out of her nephew’s life. Even as the
only elemental I was not a suitable match for her nephew. As an elemental in
general I was not a suitable match, and my uniqueness didn’t change that in the
slightest. But Keller and I had not talked much about our future anyhow; the
present took up too much energy for me to have time to think about what might
happen after college.

“Let’s just go to sleep,” said
Lisabelle. “I’m beat, and in the morning we have to get ourselves back to
Public.”

“That’s a good thing,” Sip
argued. “I can’t wait to get back to our room. I have some color swatches. . .
.”

“Of course you do, dear,” said
Lisabelle, picking up Bartholem and walking quickly toward the stairs.

“I have yellow, and orange and
green. . . .”

Sip, still talking, followed her
roommate, and the rest of us said our goodnights.

Lanca still hadn’t come back from
the meeting, and although I desperately wanted to know what the powers that be
were saying, my eyes had started to close on their own. Keller had also been
given a room in our cabin, a small one in the back part of the first floor,
right off the kitchen. It didn’t have room for much more than a bed, but that
was about all we needed anyhow. The bed had a light gray coverlet with lots of
swirls of every color embroidered into it. It was comforting, and I was glad to
get under it.

Even after all the excitement I
fell asleep immediately, and in my favorite way: with Keller’s arms wrapped
comfortingly around me as I dreamed of solving all our problems.

As I fell asleep I wondered if,
now that the Nocturns had warned President Caid, maybe there would be less
pressure on Public and its students to fight them alone. The demons had
challenged Caid in front of all of his supporters, so he couldn’t very well
slink around and do nothing, at least he couldn’t appear to. He was a fool if
he was a Nocturn and had told the demons to attack, only to sit back and relax
once they did. It was confusing, but that’s what adults were for. Sometimes I
forgot that I was still just a student, and I kept telling myself I shouldn’t
do that. I had a lot to learn, and I was returning to Public for junior year to
learn it.

Sighing into my pillow, I slept.

We woke up the next morning to a
ghost town. Keller and I got up and made oatmeal for everyone in our cabin. I
sprinkled honey into the bowls and added a little blueberry jelly that Caid
claimed he had made himself. I put hot water on in case Sip felt like forcing
tea on us, then curled up in the living room with a book and waited for
everyone else to wake up.

All summer, during our futile
research into the Globe White, which had basically come to nothing, I hadn’t
had a chance to read any more about Astra and Queen Ashray. She had been the
founding elemental member of Public, and from what I knew so far she sounded
simply wonderful. At first the elementals had been skeptical of a female queen
who could rule, but over time she had proved her mettle time and again. She had
even paved the way for queens of other paranormal types, like Lanca, because
she was so respected. And she had married for love, which was simply unheard of
for a girl, let alone a female ruler in those days.

“Ashray again?” Keller asked,
grinning at me. He knew about my obsession. I felt heat rise in my cheeks as he
walked over to me, put his hands gently on either side of my head, and kissed
me.

When he pulled away I closed the
book, because I could hear steps upstairs, and it wouldn’t be long before my
friends came down for breakfast.

“She’s just so wonderful,” I
sighed. “Did you know she protected the court once when demons attacked it? It
was right when the demons were starting to come out of the darkness more often,
and no one was prepared. She stood between the rest of the court and sure
death. She fought! Girls never did that.”

To my curiosity’s delight, Lanca
was the first one down the stairs, followed closely by Vital. Lanca looked
tired and she yawned as she appeared, covering her blood red mouth with one
delicate hand. There were dark circles under her eyes and she just looked worn.
Vital, on the other hand, looked completely rested.

I frowned. “Vital, why don’t you
ever look tired?”