Read Elemental Havoc (Paranormal Public Book 11) Online

Authors: Maddy Edwards

Elemental Havoc (Paranormal Public Book 11) (22 page)

BOOK: Elemental Havoc (Paranormal Public Book 11)

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“I was just talking to my friend here. Shockingly enough, it doesn’t concern you,” she said.

“Oh, no?” Eighellie demanded. Then she glanced at me and her protectiveness evaporated. Maybe it didn’t, in fact, concern her.

“What did you overhear?” I asked. “Eighellie can stay.”

My friend gave me a grateful look. Actually, Averett had said we were friends. That was kind of shocking.

“Something about something wonky, like elementals, and someone was working for someone else, but they weren’t who they said they were,” said Averett. “It was all very strange.”

I frowned, my mind suddenly racing again.

“That doesn’t make sense,” said Eighellie, breaking my concentration. “Ricky doesn’t have anyone working for him. He’s a student. Although I guess Astra gets cleaned somehow . . .” She bit her lip. Public had employees you rarely saw, and it was clear from Eighellie’s shock that as far as she was concerned, until that moment they had been very much out of sight, out of mind.

“That’s probably what the stolen TPs were for,” I mused. “It explains a lot. Like why there was no one in Cruor.”

“What are you talking about?” Averett demanded, suddenly bristling.

“He’s talking about the fact that we didn’t run into any Hunters, duh,” said Eighellie. “We thought we were going to. We thought they were about to break into Cruor, but then they weren’t there. Obviously. We only found you. Are YOU a Hunter?”

Somehow, Keegan knew what was about to happen, so when Averett launched herself forward with super fast speed, the tree sprite was able to step in front of her and grab her arm before she hit Eighellie.

“I know she might deserve it, but violence isn’t worth it,” he said. Turning to me he asked, “What do you want to do? It sounds like a lot of nonsense, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, probably,” I said. “Maybe just go back to Astra. I have to see Charlotte . . .”

My heart sank at the reminder.

Charlotte. An employee . . . could the Burble siblings have been talking about Charlotte and her secretary? Luther?

“My sister!” I yelled and was suddenly a ball of motion.

The small cottage Charlotte shared with Keller was white, framed by the dark green trees that ranged behind it and made a perfect backdrop to the rustic inside. The scene was beautiful, and usually it just made me smile.

Not this time.

A lump formed in my throat when I came around the side of Astra and saw the little home that Charlotte had named Dream’s Wing, in homage to her and Keller’s roots. The door was open, but no one was standing inside it. Ordinarily, the only time I saw the door open was when Charlotte or Keller was going through it, and this time neither of them was there.

I ran faster.

“Damnit Averett!” I yelled. The vampire could float faster than I could run. She was in front of me, her face worried. I could hear the pounding of feet behind and I knew that my friends were following as fast as they could.

The vampire paused about ten feet away and waited for me, but I could already see what she saw.

One body lying just inside the door, and another kneeling beside it.

Chapter Thirty-Three

I’d like to say I was relieved when I saw that neither the body on the floor nor the one kneeling was Charlotte, but I wasn’t.

My sister was nowhere to be seen, but what I did see stopped my heart.

Sip lay on the floor in a pool of blood. Kneeling next to her was Bertrum, his face a mask of pain.

I stared for a minute, unable to absorb what exactly was taking place before my eyes. Finally, never taking my eyes from the werewolf, I skidded to a halt.

I was afraid to move or to say anything. My friends stood quietly behind me, but after what seemed like an age had passed, but was probably only a few moments, I felt a movement. Maybe Averett had gone to get help, I thought, but I didn’t look around to see.

It was a lot of blood.

At last I made myself move forward carefully and place my hand on Bertrum. He jerked wildly and then stilled. Then he jerked again and cried out, staring around at me with bleary eyes.

“I-I-I,” he stuttered, but he couldn’t seem to get any other words out.

I knelt down beside Sip. My ears were throbbing, all external sounds drowned out by a wailing deep down in my chest.

Then, suddenly, I felt a rumbling, as if the ground was coming apart.

“We’re in trouble,” Keegan said from somewhere close by. He looked down, then peered out the window at the trees. They appeared to be cowering, bracing for attack.

Clouds swept over the sky as if they’d been hurled there and were rushing to blot out even the dimming sun. In the next instant I knew what – or who – was coming.

My eyes went back to Sip. She looked peaceful, but paler than usual. Her hair fell backward as if it had been shoved by a hairband. She looked young and silly, basically, not like she had just been attacked and was dying.

“Wow,” said Eighellie. I glanced up, the wonder in my friend’s voice compelling me to lift my head.

Wow was right. Behind Astra, the field that stood between my dorm and my sister’s cottage was covered in writhing black masses. My stomach lurched. It had been a while since I had seen those black masses, but I knew what they were.

There were probably more hellhounds on the lawn now than there were blades of grass.

Thunder cracked overhead and the skies opened. The rain looked black. Maybe it was.

Lisabelle was going to see Sip like this. Lisabelle couldn’t see Sip like this. I scrambled to my feet, but suddenly she was there. She came from around the side of the cottage and stepped through the doorway. Rain beaded down her cheeks and I realized that I wouldn’t be able to tell if she cried.

Lisabelle looked up.

“The wolves are coming,” she murmured. “They were prepared for something like this.”

“Something like what?” I asked desperately.

“That they might be the only thing that stood between the paranormal president and sudden death,” she said. She lifted Sip in her arms. I had never seen her so gentle. “Charlotte?” she wasn’t speaking to me, but to Bertrum.

“She wasn’t here,” said Bertrum. “We knew she was in danger and Sip came to warn her, without her guard. I told her it was foolish. I told her. There were tears in the assistant’s eyes.

“Why couldn’t it have been you!” he yelled. “You didn’t need protection! You could have come without risk of dying!”

Lisabelle didn’t respond. She just walked past the frantic little man, carrying her dear and inseparable friend. I knew who I felt worse for, but Bertrum looked broken.

I raced after Lisabelle, who was walking away from me, her black dress, black cape, and black hair flapping in the cold wind. Her feet made a gentle crunching sound on the snow.

“Lisabelle!” I cried, and as I did so I thought of my essence. I don’t know why I did it, but instantly there was an uncurling of power and the air changed. Lisabelle paused for the briefest of moments to look back at me, her eyes questioning.

“Charlotte?” I asked breathlessly.

“Safe,” was all Lisabelle said.

“I need to help,” I panted, meeting her eyes. Then I swallowed hard and tried not to look at the body dangling in her arms.

She nodded once. “Consider yourself helping.” She turned away.

At first I didn’t think she had done anything, but then I felt my hand twitch, and I looked down at my fingers as warmth enveloped me. The molten rose gold that had been there since my essence shattered the ring Charlotte had given me was gone, replaced by a single band. There was no gem, just black metal.

I had a new ring.

When my eyes searched for Lisabelle again she was gone.

I looked around Charlotte’s cottage. It was true what Bertrum had said; she wasn’t there. I turned my head and looked back through the demon throng – which was now dispersing, because Lisabelle was leaving – to the walls of Astra.

My home, too was cloaked in a black essence. My ring burned.

The End

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