Elemental Shining (Paranormal Public Series) (16 page)

When I got to Aurum, Keller’s tall and wiry friend Nate let me in.

“Hey, Charlotte,” he said with a big smile. Nate was nice. So nice it was hard to be around him sometimes. Going from him to Lisabelle was like going between an ice bath and a gate of fire.

“Hey,” I said. “How are you?”

Nate shrugged. “Good, professors working us too hard. They’re desperately trying to get us all to learn how to heal. I think they’re worried about the demons, but there just isn’t anyone left on campus with any injuries.”

I laughed. “I guess we can’t wish pain and suffering on anyone.”

“No,” said Nate, seriously, “but we might get what we wished for come the time for Tactical trials. I can’t believe they’re sending us outside the walls. Especially you.”

I nodded. I had noticed that too and I didn’t like it.

“I’m sure it will be fine,” I said, even though I didn’t believe it.

“Keller’s in his room,” said Nate, pointing at the stairs.

I headed up, my feet landing softly on the white carpet. As I reached the top of the third flight of stairs, I saw Keller’s door open and a blond head slip out.

“Hi, Charlotte,” Vanni bubbled while the door was still open. Her eyes were large and her face was pale, but she gave me a big smile.

“Hi,” I said, staring at her. I knew that she and Keller lived in the same place, but . . . I hadn’t really thought about her hanging out in his room.

“Hey,” said Keller, appearing at the door. He wore jeans and a blue t-shirt, which brought out his blue eyes. Even dressed casually he was the best-looking guy I had ever seen.

“Hi,” I said. “I just came by—”

I couldn’t finish. I had come by because tonight was the night I was going to sneak out to the Long Building and practice stuff that the deans had told me I wasn’t allowed to practice.

“Yeah, come in,” he said, opening the door wider.

“I was just leaving,” said Vanni, and she darted off down the hall, giving one last look at Keller over her pretty shoulder.

“Was she crying?” I asked Keller, following him into his room. He had a single, which was a big deal on campus.

Keller rubbed the back of his neck. “Charlotte,” he began—then stopped.

My stomach dropped. He was done with me. We had never even decided we were in a relationship and now he was done with me. My heart was going to stop right then and there.

“Wow,” I said. “What? Are you ending it? We never even started. I know stuff has been crazy, like, really crazy, and as an elemental I can’t exactly, I mean, it’s hard, but you can’t, just because some cute blond girl simpers at you?” I was frantic now. Keller and Vanni? No way. Come on.

Keller put his arms on my shoulders. Just the nearness of him made it hard for me to think.

“Hey,” he said softly. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“Having cute single Starters who give you googly eyes hang out in your room isn’t exactly comforting,” I muttered bitterly.

Keller laughed. “You think she’s cute? Nice of you.”

I shoved his shoulder. “Shut up, Keller.”

He laughed and wrapped his arms around me.

“She wanted to know if you and I were dating,” he said into my ear.

I stiffened. It wasn’t that I wanted to be official with Keller so that girls like Vanni would leave him alone, because I knew all too well that a lot of girls liked going after guys who already had someone.

“She’s not that cute,” I muttered.

Keller just laughed quietly.

“What did you tell her?” I asked. My heart had basically stopped beating and I fought the urge to grab his shirt and hold on for dear life.

Keller paused. “I told her I had to talk to you, but it was whatever you wanted as long as you wanted it.”

“So, you’d be fine just hooking up?” I asked incredulously.

Keller pulled back enough to see my face. “It’s not what I want. I know my aunt is being . . . unpleasant, but I’ve made it clear to her, and to my parents too, that I’m on your side. The idea that I have to marry a fallen angel is antiquated.”

“Marry?” I squeaked.

He grinned. “Not that we should get ahead of ourselves. And Charlotte,” he said seriously, “I’m not with you just as some sort of rebellion from my family. I had no idea they would react this way to you. I think part of is it that they don’t want me to get hurt. As an elemental you have a destiny that will be hard, but. . . .”

“I know,” I said. “I never doubted that.”

His aunt had been nasty to me last semester and he had stood up for me. I knew it must have cost him. He hadn’t said anything about his parents’ reaction, but I was sure they weren’t happy either. Now he was proposing that we date, officially. Maybe other students knew we were together in some fashion already, but this was different.

“Are you sure you want to bring that down on yourself?” I asked quietly. “I don’t have family to approve or disapprove of what I do. I wish I did. Just Ricky, but he doesn’t really count for this. My little brother is NOT deciding who I date. You do, and you’re going to defy them?”

“Do you want me not to?” Keller asked. “This time, they’re wrong.”

I thought about that. Of course I wanted him to.

“So, we’re dating?” I asked, and was relieved to see a smile light his face.

“So, we are.”

I left a long time later. Keller wasn’t happy about my going to the Long Building, but he knew he couldn’t talk me out of it. We had spent a long time talking about what his family’s—his aunt’s—reaction to our dating was likely to be. She wasn’t going to be pleased, to say the least. I was worried that she would insist on the deans doing something else horrible to me, but there was no sense in worrying about that yet. I’d just add it to my list of problems and try to forget about it until it mattered.

“Lisabelle and Sip are going to think this is hilarious,” I said. “They’ve thought we’ve been dating for a year.”

“In my mind we have,” Keller had told me quietly, filling me with warmth. “Now be careful.”

I had promised to go back to Aurum when I was finished at the Long Building, and Keller would take me back to Astra. We had a better chance of not getting caught if he was there, even with the vampires roaming campus.

I felt the cool air on my hot skin as I headed out into the night. I had a boyfriend, and it was Keller Erikson. This semester was not all bad after all.

I made it to the Long Building without any trouble. I didn’t see any professors or vampires. It was still early for them to be out. Periodically, as I walked, I would glance up at the sky to examine our protections. Bursts of color flashed as I watched, and I was glad to see the night sky instead of countless bodies of demons, but I was sure they were still around somewhere, lurking, biding their time until they could attack.

The Long Building was dark. Sip and Lisabelle had offered to go with me, but I had refused. The more of us out when we weren’t supposed to be, the more likely it was we would get caught. Besides, there was nothing they could do anyway. I had left them in Airlee to bicker about what movie they were going to watch. It had become a nightly ritual between the two of them.

Around the Long Building it was totally dark. The inky shadows stretched to cover the sides and roof, like a great black blanket. The grass, which despite the fact that the Building was almost entirely ignored by Public staff was perfectly cut, looked longer and more grasping in the night, like rows and rows of black spikes sticking up out of the ground. A shiver went down my spine. This might not have been the best idea after all.

“Just keep going,” I muttered to myself. “You have to practice.”

The reports of demons were getting more frequent, and I had to be ready. I still didn’t know much about my powers, and if they were going to send me outside the protections of Public for a night I would need all my abilities. We still didn’t know who we were teamed with this semester for Tactical; I just had to hope that I was with Keller again, and maybe Dirr, even though she
was
a Starter. Oliva was out of the question, because he was a dean, but there were a lot of other capable pixies that didn’t go by the name Camilla that I could be teamed with.

I pushed the door of the Building open. The creak sounded loud, contrasting with the quiet outdoor night that I was leaving behind. I just had to hope it was equally quiet when I went back to Keller’s, then home to Astra. There was nothing scarier than running into a pack of vampires outside at night.

I didn’t dare turn on any lights when I walked in, so I had to creep along the hall, and even the creaks under my feet made me jump. The halls that I had walked down so many times since the Museum had moved to the Long Building looked smaller, the dark corners growing larger as I moved.

I didn’t even know how to get down to the catacombs under the Building, but just knowing that they were there added to my unease. Anything could be lurking down there and I would have no idea.

Suddenly I heard a creak. It seemed to be behind me, but I wasn’t sure. Pausing, I glanced into the darkness in all direction, but I saw nothing but shadows.

Get it together, I thought fiercely. How could I be the only elemental if I was afraid of being in a dark building?

I had already decided which room I was going to work in. It was near the Museum, and it just so happened to be the workroom that Artle had used when he did his experiments.

Shaking off my nerves, I headed for Artle’s workshop.

The door wasn’t locked, because no one thought anything in there was worth stealing. The handle was old brass and cold to the touch. It felt loose and jiggled under my hand as I opened the door.

Artle’s workshop, according to Dacer, hadn’t been used since the blast, and it was basically just a charred out hull of a room. There was a massive hole in the floor where it was assumed that Artle had been standing when the explosion consumed him. The walls at one point might have been painted green, but under the grime and blast residue there was no telling.

The farthest side of the room had somehow been spared. This was something of a mystery, since the blast had not only blown Artle to smithereens that couldn’t even be scraped off the floor with a spoon (Lisabelle’s charming phrasing), but also destroyed the floor so completely that there was nothing left but a gaping brown hole. All this destructive power had somehow managed to spare the far wall.

Against that wall, probably untouched since Artle’s day, was a long work table, pushed up against the one window. Empty open cubby holes covered the rest of the wall space. The long work table was blanketed in dust and instruments that looked as if no one had touched them since Artle’s death.

I took a deep breath and went over to the work table. The stools Artle had sat on were still there, pushed out as if someone had just gotten up a few minutes ago, looking not at all as though they had been empty for decades.

I dusted one off. It was so unsteady that it rocked back and forth gently at my touch, but when I sat on it the legs held.

Collecting myself with a deep breath, I pulled out the list of elemental spells I wanted to practice. I had been keeping a list ever since I had learned I was an elemental, and although Dacer might think I possessed powers in all four disciplines, I wasn’t sure myself.

Yet.

Another creak behind me made me spin around in fright.

There was still nothing there. I stared into the darkness, looking for movement. The hair on my arms stood on end and I felt hot and cold at the same time.