Elemental Air (Paranormal Public Series) (22 page)

“What does ‘apologize’ mean?”
Lisabelle asked. “Oh, wait, I think I looked it up once. It’s one of those
things that shows weakness. No thank you. I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Lough shrugged. “A certain
someone appears to think you have,” he said, pointing in the direction where
Sip had disappeared.

“She’ll get over it,” said
Lisabelle, but she didn’t look as confident as she sounded. “Whatever ‘it’ is.”

I had started to avoid Astra like
it was my job. I spent a couple of nights a week there, just to keep Martha
happy, but otherwise I stayed with Keller. I was pretty sure she knew I was
sneaking out, but somehow she had become preoccupied. Luckily, Martha was
different from most of the other paranormals who worked at Public in that I
never saw her around campus.

“Maybe she’s the one with the
demons and she’s keeping them in Astra’s basement?” Lough suggested. “She’s
crazy enough.”

“She likes to bake,” I said. “And
all she seems to care about is the good of Public. I don’t think she’s
demon-oriented.”

“Did you hear that certain
Nocturns can pass for paranormals?” said Lough.

“Nocturns
are
paranormals,” Lisabelle said.
“They’re just darkness mages who have given in to their darkness and let it
overwhelm their light.”

“Yeah, but, like, passing for
nice paranormals,” Lough pushed. “Maybe Martha is a Nocturn.”

“I don’t think so,” I said.
“There’s literally as little darkness in her as I’ve ever seen in a paranormal.
She bakes too much, and I’ve never seen any dark power. It always feels soft,
not truly threatening.”

Lisabelle put her hand up. “Do
you hear that?” she asked, frowning into the sky.

It was a cool day, but not truly
cold. I wore long sleeves and jeans, and winter was fast approaching, but it
hadn’t arrived yet. The sky was clear and gorgeous, one of those perfect fall
days. Lisabelle stared hard at the sky.

“I thought I heard flapping,” she
said, shaking her head.

I frowned upward. “Birds?”

“No birds can fly over Public
without permission,” said Lisabelle. “Only small ones get permission. We
shouldn’t be able to hear them. Bats aren’t out during the day, and fallen
angels we’d recognize.” We walked the rest of the way silently. At Airlee,
Bartholem was waiting outside. He sat with his tail curled around him, his
large purple eyes staring at us as we walked up to the entrance. When Lisabelle
bent down to pick him up he let her, purring loudly.

“How’s that working out?” I
asked, pointing at the cat. About a month ago Lough had totally given up
visiting Sip and Lisabelle’s room, even though Bartholem was gone a lot. He
hunted at night, according to Lisabelle, and he disappeared for long stretches
during the day, but even so, said Lough, whenever he wanted to see us Bartholem
just so happened to show up.

“How do we feel about dragons?”
Sip asked later that evening, coming into her and Lisabelle’s room in Airlee,
where I was studying at her desk with Bartholem curled up on my lap.

“We’ve invited dragons to perform
at the gala,” she explained at my questioning look. “The faeries suggested it.
Apparently the faeries and the dragons have an agreement and are on good terms
as fringe paranormals, or something like that. Caid is eager to keep the
faeries happy, so if that’s what he wants, that’s what he gets.”

“Near as I can see, Caid should
be less eager to keep certain paranormals happy,” Lisabelle commented. Sip
tossed her head, ignoring our friend, and Lisabelle rolled her eyes and made an
exasperated noise.

“Well,” I said, “I think I’ll go
find Keller.” And I left my two friends to their icebox. I knew what Sip was
upset about, but Lisabelle would have to figure it out - and care - on her own.

Keller wasn’t in Aurum. He also
wasn’t anywhere near the library, which was still not open. I decided to check
the Long Building, thinking that maybe he had finished the paint job on his
own. I had started down the path in that direction when I heard an unfamiliar
male voice call my name and turned around to see the New York City werewolf. I
knew he had a name, but NYC werewolf sounded so cool that I thought of him that
way instead and could never remember his actual name. He had heeded orders and
gotten jeans that weren’t ripped, but his tattoos were still clearly visible.
He also had a lip ring, a nose ring, and so many piercings in his ears I could
barely see flesh.

“Charlotte, right?” he asked,
shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun.

“Yes, um. . . .”

“Nolan,” he said, sticking his
hand out. His skin felt leathery and worn, as if he spent a lot of time working
with his hands. I was sure Sip would tell me that those hands meant he spent
countless hours in werewolf form.

“Where are you headed?” he asked.

“The Long Building,” I answered.
I wasn’t sure why I was telling him, except that I found him fascinating.

“Do you mind if I walk with you?
I’ve been wanting to talk to you,” he said.

When he saw me nod he fell into
step next to me, his braids swinging gently down to his shoulders as he walked.
During his Demonstration his hair had been pulled back and out of his face, but
I hadn’t seen him tie it back since that night.

When the silence stretched on
longer than I was comfortable with, I asked, “Have you been to the Long
Building?”

“Yes,” he said. “I’ve been to the
Museum. We don’t have anything like it in New York. Your Dacer has done an
admirable job. It was the one thing my professors insisted I visit while I was
here.”

“Is that why you came?” I asked.
I certainly agreed with him about Dacer’s work. My mentor had assembled the
best collection of masks in the paranormal world, having worked hard to expand
Paranormal Public’s already-fantastic collection after he had become Director
of the Museum.

“No,” said Nolan, pushing his
hair out of his eyes. “I came to meet you.”

I came to a dead halt. Carefully,
I took one step away from him, then another. I didn’t trust any paranormal who
had an interest in me.

Nolan just looked at me. “You
find that so hard to believe? You are held up as the great hope for the
Paranormals and the Power of Five, yet you find it hard to believe that
paranormals who don’t attend Public would take an interest in you? My Dean of
Students was at Caid’s party. He said he thought you were brave. I had already
planned to come here at that point, but I wanted to see you for myself, up
close, while I was here. So here I am.”

I started walking again. Slowly.

No matter how hard I wracked my
brain, I couldn’t remember a werewolf who looked anything like Nolan. I knew
that was a stereotype, and there had been so many paranormals at Caid’s party I
couldn’t possibly have met them all. Unfortunately, the only one I remembered
at all well was Mound.

“I’m not that interesting,” I
said. “Public isn’t that interesting either.”

“On the contrary, you’re the most
interesting paranormal I’ve met in a long time,” said Nolan, tucking his hands
into the pockets of his jeans. “You have all this power and you use literally
none of it. You are strong, both for a paranormal and for an elemental, and yet
you hide behind the darkness mage, because the darkness mage is so clearly more
powerful than anyone else here, except maybe Dacer. But you didn’t know that
either, did you? Dacer could do anything he wanted, and yet he runs the dusty
Museum of Masks, and you’ve never thought to wonder why.”

I came to a dead halt again, but
Nolan kept talking.

“Then there’s Public. Something
very strange is going on here, and it has nothing to do with demon attacks, yet
you don’t notice. You’re so busy being wrapped up in your mother’s murder,
which I’ll wager you’ll never solve, that you don’t even bother to worry much
about Malle still wanting you dead, which of course she does, because she’s
power-hungry, not crazy.”

“Alright,” I said, holding up my
hand. “That’s enough. How dare you? You don’t even know me!” To tell the truth,
he wasn’t even right. I had no time to think about my mother’s murder and no
leads to follow even if I did. His words were just cruel.

Nolan turned to face me. “What
have I said that isn’t true?” he said. “I don’t know where your head’s at, but
it needs to be right here, right now.” He tapped his temple for emphasis.

My jaw worked, but no sound came
out.

“Think about what I said. And if
you ever need anything,” he murmured, stepping toward me to whisper in my ear,
“come to New York. We like everyone there.” He paused and glanced away from me,
then said quietly, “Ah, here’s another one of your protectors coming. How silly
of me to think I could ever catch you alone.”

Expecting Keller, I turned around
with a smile. But instead of my boyfriend I saw Dobrov loping down the path.

It was probably the first time
all semester I had seen the hybrid without his sister. They were inseparable
these days.

“Hi, Charlotte,” he said, raising
his hand in greeting. This was the first time Dobrov had sought me out all
semester.

“Hi,” I said, glancing at Nolan,
who stood there with a slightly smug smile.

“How’s it going?” Dobrov asked.
“I hear Sip is working hard on the gala preparations.”

“Yeah, she is,” I said. “She’s
really excited. She got a preview at Caid’s summer party and now she’s all
about it.”

“I heard about that party,” said
Dobrov. “Demons had their way.”

I nodded. Nolan didn’t look
surprised by this revelation either. I’m sure Caid would have liked to keep
that little fact private, but it just wasn’t possible given that so many
paranormals had been there.

“Caid handled himself well,” I
said. In public I always defended him. Besides, there was no way I was going to
tell Nolan about the little meeting I had seen between the president of the
Paranormals and Malle. “None of us felt like we were in danger.”

Nolan chuckled. “But was that
because of Caid or because you knew many of the strongest paranormals now
living were there?”

“Caid cares about us,” I argued.

“Caid cares about himself and
votes. The senior paranormals aren’t anywhere near as worried about the demons
as the students are, or as worried as they should be,” Nolan countered. “They
always think they know best, and they aren’t listening to us at all.”

“What us?” I said. “Who’s
talking, other than Lisabelle and I?” We had tried to convince Caid that we had
to do something about the demons, but he thought the Police Academy was
sufficient, more than sufficient, and hadn’t listened to us. Even after the
demon attack on his party he had done nothing. In light of the conversation I
had overheard him having with Malle, that wasn’t really surprising, but Nolan
didn’t know about that.

“I heard you accidentally got
locked in the freezer,” Dobrov said, his dark eyes filled with concern. I
glared at the hybrid; I didn’t like to be reminded of that little interlude,
which had made me feel weak in a way that nothing else had since I found out
who and what I was. Locked in that freezer and having to be rescued, I had felt
like I couldn’t take care of myself. And I hated that. Lisabelle and Sip were
great, but I didn’t want them to feel like they had to rescue me all the time.

“I’m fine,” I gritted out. “It
was an accident. Anyway, I need to find Keller.”

With that, I turned on my heel
and stalked away from my classmates, glancing back only once. Dobrov and Nolan
were talking quietly, comfortably, as if they had done it before, and not
paying the least bit of attention to me. Frowning, I kept walking.

We were all in the new dining
hall the next morning in a sober mood. The sun was shining through the glass
ceiling, but all around campus everyone was talking about yet another demon
attack. The incursions were now coming almost daily. This time it was someone I
knew, Vanni. She had been walking back to Aurum by herself when three demons
had appeared and attacked her. They would probably have killed her if she
hadn’t been able to heal herself. She was knocked unconscious, but when she
came around she managed to crawl away with a blast of light and collapse inside
the fallen angel dorm.

What was worse was that when she
woke up there was a strange black mark, under the which was written ‘The Sign
of Six.” She had no idea what it meant, and neither did anyone else.

Now we all expected Oliva to make
an announcement that the school was on lockdown until further notice.

I was sitting with Lisabelle,
Keller, Trafton, and Lough when Sip came rushing in. Her hair was a mess and
her shirt was one button off.

“Morning,” she said, as a pile of
books tumbled out of her arms onto what was left of the free space on the
breakfast table.

“Where have you been?” Lisabelle
asked. “If I didn’t know better, I would think you spent last night with a
guy.”