Elemental Havoc (Paranormal Public Book 11) (7 page)

We just so happened to walk out of the dining hall behind Eighellie, the girl who had spoken up and acted like her back didn’t bend.

Much to my amazement, we weren’t the only ones following her progress, however accidental our presence might be. A group of vampires was also tagging along behind her.

Once we were all outside the circle of light from the building, the vampires moved in closer. Eighellie, who I would have thought didn’t know anyone else was there, skidded to a halt and raised her hand.

“Don’t come any closer,” she cautioned. “I’m well trained in my darkness power!”

Keegan hadn’t noticed what was about to happen, and he looked surprised. We were far enough back that we probably weren’t in danger, but there were four black-haired vampires, three male and one female, about to attack one Airlee student. I was pretty sure I had heard those four vampires described as the Burble siblings, but I didn’t know their first names. I had a feeling that state of affairs wouldn’t last very long.

“You meddled in something that didn’t concern you. That is our business,” said the large male, gliding in front of Eighellie. “You need an education in how things work around here.”

“How do you figure you’re in charge of that, given that we’re all just now returning to Public?” Eighellie demanded. “They work however the collective agrees they work.”

“It’s funny you think you have a say,” said another of the male vampires. He wasn’t laughing.

The female vampire hung back a little, but she looked just as nasty as the others.

“Should we help?” Keegan asked.

“Yeah, probably,” I said. “So much for avoiding fights at Public.”

Dacer had called us into his office for a talk not long before we left the castle. He told me that since I was an orphan and Keegan just had his mother, he, Dacer, was taking it upon himself to say to us what needed to be said. Neither Keegan nor I had known what he was rambling on about at first, but the gist of it was that while we were students at Public we weren’t to start fights under any circumstances.

“With your sister it wasn’t really a worry, because let’s face it, she wasn’t the type to fight,” Dacer said, fuddling and muddling his way through his explanation.

Out of the corner of his mouth Keegan had said, “What does that mean?”

“It means she didn’t fight because she’s a girl,” I translated.

“You two, I have a feeling, will be more of a target,” said Dacer.

“Don’t you think that my sister didn’t fight – an assertion that I take issue with, by the way, because I always hear her and Sip and Lisabelle talking about fights they had – but anyhow, don’t you think the reason she didn’t get into as many fights was because she was friends with Lisabelle?”

“I’d say that was part of it, yes,” said Dacer carefully. “There is only one Lisabelle, though, so all the more reason for you to avoid battles at school.”

“When you say don’t start fights, what if someone starts them with us?” Keegan asked.

Dacer braced his elbows on the desk. Never breaking eye contact with the tree sprite, he leaned forward a little and brought his hands up to his head. Carefully, he started massaging his temples. “You must defend yourself, of course,” he said through gritted teeth. “I would hate for something bad to happen to you.”

“Well, yeah,” said Keegan, involuntarily shrinking. “Me too.”

“We’ll try to stay out of trouble, Dacer,” I said. “I certainly don’t want any.”

Dacer sighed, giving me a tired smile. “I know, Ricky. I also know that there’s a lot of uncertainty. Everything is new, from the president to the town around Public. There will be a lot of adjustments and a growing period. In all honesty, I’m glad you’ll be there. You have just as much experience as any of the other paranormals you’re likely to run into. I’m proud of you for going back. Charlotte is too.”

“Thanks,” I said, embarrassed by the praise.

Now, having barely arrived at Public, we were unfortunately about to have to go against Dacer’s request. We hadn’t even made it to the first day of classes.

“You think that just because your parents were murdered you have some sort of pass to snivel around here like you’re better than the rest of us,” said one of the vampires to Eighellie.

Keegan and I exchanged glances. This was new information, but we had no time to process it; there were vampires to be dealt with. Keegan started forward before Eighellie could reply, but just as he did, another figure came shooting past us. This was a fifth vampire, but one I recognized. Her name was Averett and I had seen her at Vampire Locke. She was related to Vital, the consort of Queen Lanca, ruler of the Rapiers and Blood Throne Queen. Because Averett had never so much as looked in my direction or my sister’s, I had the idea that she had something against elementals.

“Stop it now!” she cried. Everyone looked at her, stunned. Eighellie, who was raising her hand again, didn’t look like she was even sure who Averett was speaking to.

The other vampires glared at her. “How dare you tell us what to do! You think that because your cousin drugged the queen to get her to marry . . .” The voice was cut off with a whimper as Averett shot forward so fast that the biggest of the three male vampires didn’t have a chance to start running. Even from where I was standing I could see that once Averett got to him, the vampire couldn’t breathe. She spoke to him so quietly that I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but the other vampires flinched away. I saw the vampire who was about to die try to nod. Vital’s cousin appeared satisfied and released him.

“Now get out of here,” she ordered them. The four vampires hurried away, and without so much as a glance at Eighellie, Averett left as well.

The darkness mage looked at a loss until her eyes landed on us, then she brightened.

“Hello again,” she said. Neither Keegan nor I answered, so she went on as if her life hadn’t just been threatened and then saved by various vampires in the last five minutes. “It’s been a crazy evening.”

“Yeah,” said Keegan.

“Elemental GO HOME,” I heard a paranormal yell from somewhere behind me. I had forgotten how close we still were to the dining hall. I spun around, then felt a hand on my arm.

“They aren’t worth it,” said Eighellie.

Somehow she had decided she was our friend. A good kick does that, apparently, and both Keegan and I were so taken off guard that we had let it happen.

“I have an idea,” Eighellie said. As if the incident with the vampires had never happened, and appearing to be oblivious to the churning turmoil of anger still filtering out from the dining room, she was clutching a book excitedly and looking at us with slightly wide eyes, as if she wondered why we too weren’t jumping for joy.

“Did that come from your backpack too?” Keegan asked. “You know there’s no such thing as the paranormal god’s gift to education, right?”

“I don’t understand,” she said.

“Yeah,” said Keegan. “I know.”

“Tell me, would you be cold without one of those things or something?” Keegan pointed to the book. “Is it like the new jewelry?”

“I don’t wear jewelry,” she said.

“Obviously not, since you have a book,” he said.

The girl gave Keegan a look that was fast becoming familiar between the two. It was a cross between “You’re an idiot” and “I don’t understand you.”

“Who would want to see Paranormal Public fall?” I demanded, pacing around Astra with Keegan and Eighellie watching. My two newish friends were looking around Astra in awe. The dorm was old and impressive and contained a lot of history, none of which would matter if Paranormal Public was forced to close!

I liked Dobrov. He was a friend of my sister’s, sort of, and I had a pretty good idea of what he had been through. Now, just as he was trying to start the semester off right, someone wasn’t going to allow that.

Keegan and Eighellie had followed me back from the dining hall, but I was the only who had left the chaos angry. Some students were confused, others were merely shaken up, but I was furious, and I was determined to do something about it. On the walk back to Astra I had ranted most of the way, to the point where Keegan and Eighellie couldn’t get a word in edgewise. I was so preoccupied that when I saw them sitting in one of the elemental sitting rooms I was almost surprised.

But Eighellie, at least, was just as preoccupied as I was, only not with the same things. “I’ve literally never felt so scattered in my life,” she said, shaking her head and looking forlorn.

Keegan reached over her shoulder to examine the notes she was taking. “These are dated, color-coded, and alphabetized. My doctor probably doesn’t have records this thorough,” he said, sounding impressed for once.

“Well, of course not. Your doctor wasn’t in college, now, was he,” Eighellie huffed.

“No, but he had to get through medical . . .” Keegan paused, his eyes lighting up like he had just realized something wonderful.

“What?” Eighellie asked.

“I just realized there’s no point in explaining anything to you,” said Keegan. “Your first language is nerd. I don’t speak nerd. Therefore, why should I bother trying to tell you anything?” He obviously thought his new frame of mind was a more enlightened one, and most people would have been offended by the way he was speaking now. But not Eighellie. She merely gazed at him blankly for a moment, then continued shuffling through her papers.

“Here are the notes on the philosophies of the traveling vampires,” she said with glee, seizing on a red folder and holding it up triumphantly. It was so well tended, it practically shone.

Keegan threw up his hands. “Does no one listen to me?” he cried.

“I listen,” said Eighellie, pushing her chair back and giving him a winning smile, “but I don’t speak goof.” With that she got up and walked meditatively over to a window, leaving Keegan with his mouth hanging open.

“We have to talk strategy,” I said, hoping to short-circuit the banter and get serious.

“About what?” Keegan said. “There’s nothing to do. The semester hasn’t even really started yet and we don’t even know that one.”

He pointed at Eighellie, who sniffed, “I’m more helpful than you are.”

“Yeah, probably because you’re some spy trying to get us in trouble.”

“With whom?” she asked.

“Do I know?” Keegan demanded. The two glared at each other until I decided to try again.

“We have to find out who did that to the symbol and to Dobrov,” I said. “You wanted to come here and really do something. This is our chance. Already.”

“It’s our chance to get in trouble,” said Eighellie. “Nothing more. I hate getting in trouble. Besides, there’s no proof that anything is going to happen to him. My bet is he’s going to be fine. It was probably some harmless prank.”

I lapsed into silence. Both of the paranormals standing in front of me were telling me I was being ridiculous and a drama queen. I didn’t like it, but they might be right. Nothing much had really happened, after all, and Dobrov himself hadn’t seemed all that upset.

“Maybe you’re just jumpy after the war,” Keegan said gently. “All that stuff you went through couldn’t have been easy. Maybe now relaxing isn’t easy either.” I didn’t like what he was saying, but maybe he was right. Maybe there really was nothing wrong and I was being dramatic, and for the rest of the semester nothing else unexpected was going to happen.

Two more towns attacked using a power described as gold-colored. Fallen angels appeared to be targeted. Given that the former Darkness Premier came from their ilk, who can blame us for being alarmed . . .

At breakfast one day soon after the smoke incident we were all invited to introduce ourselves to our tablemates. Eighellie Woodard introduced herself like a whirlwind and had not stopped moving since. She had said that her friends called her Eet or Lia, but neither Keegan nor I could bring ourselves to really believe that she had any close friends. She stood razor straight at all times, with her hands clasped in front of her, her eyes unblinking like an owl’s, and her head occasionally twitching slightly. After I watched her for a few minutes I decided the twitch was always to the left. She took everything in and gave none of it back. Blink, blink, blink blink.

Soon enough, it was clear to our entire table that Eighellie Woodard was just as crazy as her name. She had blond hair, straight and practical. Her eyes were a dark blue, the color of the sky over the ocean during a storm. She had the lightest dusting of freckles on her pale skin.

“My mother said there’s no point to sunscreen, I’m too pale, I might as well read inside. It’s safer, no sun,” said Eighellie. “That’s what she told me when I was little and I’ve seen it to be true. I’ve devoted my life to research and learning. Indoors. There is nothing more important or satisfying.” Her eyes tipped slightly upward as my head threatened to shake from side to side. Next to me, Keegan was trying not to snicker.

“And I thought I had a weird childhood,” he whispered to me. “Who is she making a speech to?”

“Her adoring fans,” I muttered.

Eighellie looked like she was going to put everyone else to shame when it came to learning. She knew a lot more than the rest of us about history and research. She knew all about the application of darkness magic. She knew everything that could be read in an advanced textbook. She probably knew more about the complexity of power-mixing than some of the professors.

“Someone should tell her that there’s no point in coming to college if you already know everything. It’s not worth the money.”

“You need to show your brilliance,” I said. “Otherwise, who would know?”

“Why does anyone need to know?”

“Validation,” I said knowingly. “It’s very important.”

Eighellie’s dark blue eyes continued to bore into us. We were whispering, but I imagined her ears as antennas, and that made me gulp. It also made me want to be more careful.

“Can she read lips?” I asked Keegan.

“No, no way, that’s crazy,” said Keegan, but he cringed. “Why’s she taking an interest in us, anyway? We’re like the founding members of the not-that-interesting club.”

“Speak for yourself,” I said. “I like to think I’m fascinating.”

“I’ve come here because it’s the best in the world,” she said, looking around, and just a tiny fraction of uncertainty appeared on her face. “Okay, maybe not right at this moment, since we have some work to do to rebuild and such, but it will be the best again. It’s been my dream.” Her lower lip trembled ever so slightly. “It’s what my mom always wanted.”

Ah, so there it was. Her eyes filled with tears but didn’t spill over. Her fists clenched, and I realized that she must be even more determined than I had suspected. Had her mother died as part of the Nocturn War, or something else entirely? Then again, why did I care?

“And she recovers quickly,” said Keegan. “Shocking.”

“I guess we don’t have to worry about being tops in class rank,” I said. “That’s already out of our reach.”

“Were we going to worry about it?” Keegan asked. “I have a limited quota in terms of things to worry about. Like, my list has to be short and food’s already on it.”

I chuckled.

“Besides, I’m pretty sure you’re also golden if you’re an elemental and the president of Public is friends with the only other elemental in the world, who just happens to be your sister.”

“You’re a tree sprite,” I said. “All they wanted in the world was to get you here.”

“It’s all Rake wanted,” said Keegan. “It turns out that President Val is not as thrilled, so I’m on thin ice.” Keegan pinched his fingers together. “Like this thin.”

“I’m sorry, it’s hard for me to concentrate on my introduction while others are speaking,” said Eighellie menacingly. Her eyes glinted at us. The other students at the breakfast table had fallen into a sort of stupor, because she had already talked far longer than anyone else and most of them couldn’t have cared less.

After the excitement of the first couple of days, with two fights threatened, then defused, plus the threat to Public, I was looking forward to a quiet start to my first college semester. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but it was not to be. Our class schedules appeared in front of us as we sat at breakfast on the third day, and Keegan and I both leaned over and peered forward at the same time. Lots of students groaned, while some cheered. The entire room was buzzing with quiet conversation.

“Get this, our four classes are titled: “Theory of Power Properties, Theories of Power Cooperation, Theory of Organic Problem Solving, and Theory of Magical Bowl-Making. That last one sounds like a real snooze-fest. Is it just me or is that an awful lot of theory?” Keegan asked, looking at me sidelong.

I bit my lower lip. Those classes sounded like they would bore me to tears, but I wanted to be optimistic, so I said, “Maybe they won’t be as bad as all that. Maybe the professors will be good?”

“Sorry, my friend, but no professor could make the theory behind magical cooperation sound interesting. I’m serious. It’s not possible. And what about bowl-making; is that an elective?” Keegan asked.

“If it was an elective would they have enough students to run it?” I said.

“Good point,” said the tree sprite.

After breakfast, the entire dining hall stood up almost in unison and streamed out of the dining hall. Students were not happy to be returning to the land of homework, but no one wanted to be late on our first day.

The weather was warm, still more like the heat of summer than the cool briskness of fall. The sky was a brilliant blue, and I couldn’t see a cloud in any direction. The sight of my fellow students was what made reality kick in. The vampires, pixies, and fallen angels I walked alongside kept their distance from each other and from me; as soon as the dining hall groups had dissolved after the meal, there had been a great separating. None of the types were mixing, and everyone was walking briskly because we all wanted to get to class first and have our pick of seats.

Power Properties, or as I had taken to calling it, Theories 1, as opposed to my next classes, which were Theories 2, 3, and 4, was taught by a professor who turned out to be more mind-numbingly boring than I could ever have imagined if I hadn’t met him. He wore a tweed coat of deep dark blue that was at least fifty years old, and judging by the layer of dust on his shoulders I wasn’t sure he had taken it off in the last ten.

The class was in the oldest building on campus, a sort of crumbling down castle that had survived the war. The Nocturns probably hadn’t bothered smashing it because it looked like it was about to fall down anyhow. A late summer breeze kept the stone-walled rooms cool but not downright cold. Properties class was on the top floor, so we had to climb and climb some more to get there. There were so many steps that some of our enthusiasm for beating each other to the classroom had worn off by the time we reached the top.

Keegan was climbing slowly, his hands on his knees at the end. He took a deep breath and muttered, “That was rough.”

The stone chamber that served as our classroom was spacious, with a big desk set up facing banks of medieval-looking chairs. “Sweet,” said Keegan as various other paranormals brushed past us.

Luckily, none of the paranormals who had started the fight were there, but Eighellie was, as was Hannah, a pixie cousin of Camilla. She looked like her relative, except that her face was more pinched. Of course, I hadn’t seen Camilla at her best. Camilla, who had once been the girlfriend of Charlotte’s friend Cale, a pixie from our own hometown in Maine, was still a most-wanted fugitive. Whenever I saw Sip I wanted to ask how the hunt was going, but I didn’t dare. The paranormal president had enough on her plate without dealing with my idle curiosity.

Hannah was flanked by two other pixies, whose names I knew to be Fog and Frances. They were twin sisters, and I already didn’t like them. They in unison, so when – just for instance – they shoved a dream giver out of the way, they BOTH shoved a dream giver out of the way.

“Fog has to be a nickname,” said Keegan, staring at the back of her head. The pixies had taken control of the front row, I assumed so they could show how important they were. Eighellie looked so upset I thought she might cry.

“Good morning and welcome to Paranormal Public. I’m Associate Professor Penny, but you may call me Professor Penny,” the old paranormal coughed. His skin was leathery and he had a barrel chest and a pot belly; he was more square than paranormal-shaped, and he lumbered around as if his main goal was not to move fast. And he didn’t. He also didn’t talk fast. “Congratulations on passing the entrance tests and making it here. I’m very impressed and I’m sure your families are as well,” he continued.

Eighellie raised her hand.

“Yes Ms. . .?” Professor Penny said.

“Eighellie Woodward, Professor,” she said primly.

“What’s your question?”

“It’s more of a statement. We didn’t have to pass a test to attend Public,” she said. “OR did I MISS it! Am I not really supposed to be here?!”

She sounded genuinely terrified, inspiring Keegan to roll his eyes, an expression that was becoming the standard reaction of Keegan to Eighellie or vice versa. Some of the other students snickered behind their hands.

“Don’t you worry. I’ll be administering the test now,” Professor Penny said. He winked at Eighellie, then turned to riffle through stacks of papers, first on his spacious desk and then in his ancient briefcase. The latter, I felt sure, had at some point been black, though now it was an ashy white. Eighellie did not look remotely calmed. She turned to me, her mouth hanging open in an O and her eyes wide and filled with pleading.

“Better sharpen your pencil,” I mouthed to her, and then grinned. It took her several more seconds to realize I was kidding. When she did she took in a great pull of air through her nostrils and turned back toward the front of the classroom.

Frances, at least I think it was Frances, the one with the longer hair, anyhow the one who was sitting right in front of the darkness mage, shoved her chair back just enough to slam into Eighellie’s desk, which in turn sent the desk colliding with Eighellie’s ribcage.

“Oof,” said Eighellie, her eyes widening in surprise. Fog smirked while Hannah shifted in a smug sort of way. Professor Penny slowly turned around and raised his bushy eyebrows, but by the time he managed it, all movement had stopped.

“Anyway, welcome to your first college class. It’ll be a roaring good time,” he said, nodding slowly.

Keegan started to lean over to me, but I shook my head. “I know,” I said. “You doubt it.”

“But where’d they trot him out from?” Keegan demanded. “Retired-for-a-reason Paranormals ‘R Us?”

Though it was only an hour long, the class felt like it lasted half the day. Eighellie knew everything, which you could tell from her razor-sharp eyes and interested expression, but she was the only one. The other students were so bored that I thought several of them might have fallen asleep. Since Keegan and I were sitting toward the front I couldn’t be a hundred percent sure, but I thought I heard snoring. Professor Penny had started out seeming cool, or at least not evil, but he had ended by proving that watching paint dry was a comparable way to spend our time.

When the class was finally over, several students didn’t move. It was as if they couldn’t believe the dream was real. But Hannah finally glided out of her seat and was followed by her two minions, the cue for the rest of the class to move. I took a deep breath and gathered my papers.

“Power properties include blasts of color,” Keegan muttered to himself. “Of COURSE they include blasts of color! That’s obvious! I’m a tree sprite! That’s obvious too. We don’t need a class to know that!”

“We learned other stuff,” I said.

“What did you learn that you didn’t know already?” Keegan demanded. “Tell me. You of all paranormals, savior of the world. What did you learn?”

“I learned that speaking very slowly in a monotone voice for an extended period of time and not being as bored as you sound is clearly possible. I’ve never seen anyone pull it off for that length of time before, though.”

“Exactly,” said Keegan.

“So, lunch?” Eighellie materialized next to us. “We’re in the same group, and we could share our class notes.”

Without a word Keegan handed her his notebook. After a moment’s hesitation she took it.

“I don’t understand,” she muttered, leafing through the pages. “It’s blank.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Keegan, shaking his head.

The next class was Magical Bowl-Making. It met in the same old campus building, so we didn’t have to go far, and it was taught by a young paranormal woman. It took me a minute to place her, but once I did I explained it to Keegan.