Elemental Air (Paranormal Public Series) (20 page)

Martha had locked the door,
imprisoning me. I was now a captive in my own home. Never in my life had I been
so angry, not even when my stepfather had done something horrible, which had
been a pretty regular occurrence when I lived at home.

“Your room is now off the kitchen,”
said Martha, her voice soft and infinitely reasonable. “There are no windows.”

“For my own protection?” I
seethed, not looking at her. I continued to stare at the door.

“You may leave for class, but
nothing else,” she explained. “There is no Tactical this semester, and you are
not a member of any clubs. If your friend Ms. Quest should require help with
gala preparations and you run it by me first, you may be able to assist her in
that endeavor. I’ve also been informed that you have painting duty this Saturday
with the fallen angel Mr. Erikson due to an infraction you engaged in before
you arrived on campus. Since you have already received a punishment for that
poor choice, I do not feel the need to express to you how disappointed I am in
you for that behavior.”

I just walked away. I didn’t
argue. There was no point. I found my room off the kitchen, which, although I
would never have admitted it, was fantastically cool and dark, but also a lot
smaller than my old room. There was space for my bed, a dresser, a small desk,
and little else. I could barely turn around. It was very different from the
nicest room in the entire dorm.

I flopped on my bed and fell
instantly asleep.

Saturday couldn’t come fast
enough. Martha was a terror. We didn’t speak. She didn’t even try. She didn’t
appear to care if I was happy or sad or indifferent. All she cared about was
control. My friends told me I should just move out, but I couldn’t leave Astra
or the Mirror Arcane.

Their next suggestion was to talk
to Oliva, but he still wasn’t very happy with me after the bus incident. Dacer
was out. I didn’t want to bother him either, and I didn’t know any of the other
professors well enough. Everyone was busy getting ready for the gala, and I
couldn’t think of anyone who would really care if one student wasn’t a fan of
her dorm mother.

At least sometimes I still snuck
out at night. I would go up to the library, where Sigil was still ensconced,
and leave out a window he left open for me. Keller would be waiting there for
me, ready to fly me wherever we wanted to go.

Often, all I wanted to do was go
to sleep in Aurum, but sometimes we would float over Public, watching the night
sky or the quietness down below. There were no vampires out anymore; Oliva had
banned that. He was trying hard to keep control of the campus, and during our
first week back I could see that he had succeeded.

Keller and I walked hand in hand
to paint the Long Building early Saturday morning. I had spent the night at
Aurum, because I could barely stand to be in the same place as Martha. Keller
would sneak me back to Astra in the morning whenever I thought Martha needed to
see me before I left for the day. I figured there was no sense getting Sigil in
trouble too. This morning we just didn’t bother going back. Martha knew I had
to paint early. Hopefully she would just assume I had left without running into
her.

Keller had heard from his mother
the night before, and she had told him that she and his father were going to
Europe until Christmas. Keller was angry. I still hadn’t met his parents, and
she had promised that this fall would be the time, but now they were leaving
the continent. When I asked him why it was so important to him that we meet, he
gave me an incredulous look.

“Because the world is made up of
moments. Until now I’ve just lived in the present moment. There’s been no point
in worrying about the future. People get sick, injured, you don’t always get
what you want. That was what I thought until I met you. I had no idea you were
what I wanted until I laid eyes on you, and since then I haven’t wanted
anything else. Even ice cream pales in comparison.”

“Even chocolate ice cream?” I
said.

“Especially chocolate ice cream,”
he said warmly. “You are the first person, the first thing in my life, that has
made me think I want to plan for those future moments. I
need
to plan for them, because
thinking about that and about you makes everything brighter. No moment will
mean anything unless I have you to share it with.” His eyes were so serious, my
heart nearly broke.

In the emotion of the moment, I
almost forgot where we were going, but then I caught sight of Sip, Lisabelle,
and Camilla waiting for us in front of the Long Building. Camilla was as far
away from my friends as it was possible to be while still remaining within
earshot. Keller had already set up all the paint and the brushes. We just had
to start.

“This is going to be fun,” said
Lisabelle, eyeing the white paint and her black clothing. “At least the weather
isn’t too hot.”

“I told you to dress appropriately,”
Sip chided.

“If I’m wearing it, then it’s
appropriate,” said Lisabelle.

“Alright,” said Keller. “Let’s
get to work.”

The four of us spent the morning
painting in near silence, with Keller supervising and even taking a brush in
hand at times. If Camilla hadn’t been there, the rest of us would have been
chatting away, but none of us wanted to speak in front of her. Since she was so
outnumbered, she wasn’t even that mean.

“She’s the worst painter in the
world,” Sip muttered to me. “We’ll be lucky if she’s finished a four foot area
by dinner-time.”

“She’s doing it on purpose,” said
Lisabelle, “just to try and get a reaction from Keller.”

But the fallen angel appeared not
to notice Camilla.

As we painted, I kept hearing
something behind us.

I glanced back a couple of times,
but I didn’t see anything except the trees swaying gently in the breeze.

Periodically one of us would say
something, but when it was quiet I still heard that strange noise.

Finally, sick of whoever was
playing tricks in the woods, I spun around, still crouched low to the ground,
and there, right behind us, I saw a black tide heading straight for us. With
horror I realized that it wasn’t smoke or dust or Lisabelle playing a joke. No,
what was racing toward us at breakneck speed was a pack of demons.

Those things seriously were not
supposed to be on campus.

“RUN!” I yelled.

Sip, Lisabelle, Camilla, Keller,
and I threw down our brushes and raced for the nearest entrance to the Long
Building. Lisabelle reached the doors first. Skidding to a halt, she seized the
massive handle and tugged.

Nothing happened.

“OPEN THE DOOR,” Camilla
screamed.

“What’sa matter, Camilla? The
demons aren’t going to let you live if they catch you?” Sip asked icily.

Lisabelle tried the doors again.
Then Keller did. They wouldn’t budge.

“Shouldn’t these doors be open?”
Lisabelle grunted.

“I’ve never tried,” I said. “I
always go in the doors near the Museum.”

“Now you tell me,” Lisabelle
muttered.

“Let’s run!” Sip cried.

We had to get to the doors at the
other end, the ones we knew were open. Otherwise, we had no protection and from
the attack.

We ran for the unlocked doors,
the demons on our heels.

“FASTER!” Keller yelled, forcing
everyone ahead of him. As he ran, he kept turning around to stare at the
demons, his eyes two hard blue crystals.

I didn’t argue. Sip, Lisabelle,
and even Camilla tumbled along the length of the Long Building. Camilla
tripped, but she quickly caught herself by reaching for the building’s side.
Then she screamed. The demons had blasted fire along the building’s length,
heating the walls. Camilla’s hand was a bubbling burned mess.

Keller grabbed Camilla’s arm, and
she instantly stopped screaming as his healing power flowed into her. She
stared at him in wonder.

Of course he’d heal you, I wanted
to scream at her. He’s a decent paranormal, unlike the pixies.

When we reached the doors,
Lisabelle didn’t bother trying to open them, she just blasted through.

I turned to watch Keller walk
through the doors behind us.

He wasn’t there.

He had let go of Camilla and was
now running toward the oncoming monsters.

“Keller!” I yelled.

But he ignored me.

“There are so many,” Camilla
breathed. To my fury she didn’t sound scared, but kind of impressed.

“Shut up,” Sip told the pixie.

“Get inside,” I ordered, grabbing
her arm and shoving her through the door despite her protests. She stumbled
after Sip and Lisabelle while I stood just outside, watching the fallen angel
who had put his life between ours and the darkness.

The demons were a pile of smoking
black rage. Several of them were on fire, and others there were some Demons of
Knight mixed in with the others. I knew that the woods would be teeming with
demons by this time, and if Keller didn’t fly they would overtake him.

Just as I thought it, I saw his
wings spread, shining and powerful and totally blocking out the inky blackness
of the demons.

The lead demon threw a ball of
fire that got bigger the closer it got, eating the very air. Keller stumbled to
avoid it.

“Keller!” I cried again. “RUN.”

He started to push off again, but
more fireballs rained down on him, barely missing his unfurled wings.

I was sick with fear.

He needed help, so I did the only
thing I could think of at that point: I called to my ring.

The wonderful thing about magic
is that it doesn’t entirely do what it’s told. My ring, old and powerful, was
ready. It was begging to fight.

My eyes never left Keller. Blue
power, cool and calming like the lakes around my home, flowed through me.
Clouds gathered overhead, filled with warm rain. They sped into place just
above Keller as he rolled and dodged to avoid the rain of fireballs.

“Release,” I whispered, feeling
my ring pulse as it did my bidding.

Dacer had recently lectured us
about the ancient protections of Public. He had said that once a thing holds
magic for a long enough time, be it my ring or the walls of Public, that magic
takes on a life of its own, especially if protection is required. My ring was
always ready to defend us.

As Keller tried again to rise
into the air and fly to me, I turned my face up to the rain, letting it wash
over me and drinking in the power.

The water sizzled as it hit the
mass of demons.

Keller’s wings snapped back out
and he rose into the air, shooting toward me. I dashed inside the safety of the
Long Building. The rain was now beating down hard, like angry slaps on my bare
skin. By the time Keller touched down, furled his wings, and stepped through
the doors in one fluid motion, he was drenched. I knew I would never be that
graceful myself, but he was a joy to watch.

Without even thinking, we wrapped
our arms around each other.

“And now it gets gag-worthy,”
Lisabelle said from behind us. I had nearly forgotten they were there, but now
I buried my face in Keller’s shoulder and smiled.

“We have a demon problem,” Sip
commented.

“You make it sound like they’re
rats and we need traps,” said Keller over the crown of my head.

“Maybe that’s exactly what we
need,” said Sip thoughtfully. “We’re having a gala at the end of the semester.
We can’t have demons ruining my gala.”

“I thought it was Oliva’s gala,”
said Lisabelle.

“Yeah,” said Sip casually,
“that’s what he thinks too. Silly pixie.” She grinned. I could hear the grin in
my friend’s voice, and I felt the vibrations of Keller’s chest as he chuckled.

“Silly someone,” Lisabelle
muttered.

After that the demon attacks
became more frequent. At first, Dacer was the only one who believed we had been
assailed by demons while we were painting the Long Building, and he was furious
when Oliva made us go out on Sunday and finish the job. He did stay with us,
but of course no demons came to try and kill us after the debacle of the day
before, and in the face of Dacer’s strong presence.

But Oliva finally started to
believe after other students were attacked besides us.

“Maybe all pixies are bad,” Sip muttered
when we finished. “I used to like Oliva.”

“He’s just trying to do his job,”
said Lisabelle, shrugging. “He has a lot to manage, and he’s young.”

“I can’t believe you’re defending
him,” said Sip indignantly.

“You should be the one defending
him,” Lisabelle countered. “You’re the one throwing him a party.”