Elemental Shining (Paranormal Public Series) (21 page)

“I’m good,” I said. “How are you?”

He smiled. “Good. You still coming over later?”

“Yes,” I said.

“We have to find out who attacked Sip,” I said. “There’s a crazy person running around campus.”

“There are a lot of things going on,” said Keller quietly. “I get that. But you have to have a little bit of fun. I wouldn’t want you to forget what you’re fighting for,” he said, winking and tucking his hands into his pockets with infuriating smugness.

“And what exactly is that?” I snapped back. My face was so red it was probably about to burst.

“Good kissing,” said Lisabelle. “Obviously.”

“I was going to say love and friendship,” said Sip. “Whatever.”

“Did someone say they’re looking for a good kisser?” Trafton asked, sauntering up to us.

“Yeah,” said Lough. “Go find one for us. Don’t come back until April.”

“And leave you all alone in the dream giver classes?” Trafton asked, pretending to be appalled. “No way.”

Ignoring the arguing dream givers, I turned back to Keller. “Does your aunt know we’re dating?” I asked. I had been meaning to ask him, but if it was going to make her even more evil toward me I wanted some warning.

Keller frowned. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to her, but maybe I should. On second thought—”

Without warning, he seized my hand in his. We were standing at the front of the large circle, with the bonfire that had marked the start of last semester’s Tactical roaring again, casting light into the night sky—and onto us.

His hand was warm, but firm. He spun me around toward him, and dazedly, I saw that he was grinning. I had no idea what he was doing until it was too late to stop it. With aching care he stepped forward, still holding my hand. He placed his other hand on the small of my back, gently pressing me forward.

Other students knew we were together—or something, however undefined it had been. He had told Vanni that we were dating, but public displays of affection were a big no no, especially from elementals in different dorms. It wasn’t so much that it was forbidden outright, but unless you ended up like the Valedication children, it was just something that you kept private.

But as it turned out, I was dating someone who didn’t really care for the rules. Most of the time that was a good thing, but when I found his mouth on mine, softly, so softly, in front of the entire student body of Public and all the professors, I was initially shocked and worried, until his lips chased every other thought from my head.

I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him back as he let go of my hand to wrap both arms around my waist. He lifted me off of the ground and spun me around, safe within the protective circle of my friends.

All around us I started to hear muffled noises of surprise. My friends, Sip first, started to clap and laugh. Then the clapping increased, until it was almost a roar in my ears.

Keller finally let me down again. We broke apart, but he was still grinning and he still kept a firm grip around my waist.

I felt lightheaded and was grateful that he was holding onto me. The shock of kissing in front of everyone was wearing off and worry was taking its place. I never would have been brave enough to do it if Keller hadn’t kissed me first. Cale was standing next to Camilla, with a mixture of amusement and some other emotion—irritation?—on his face that I couldn’t read. Camilla herself was glaring daggers at me. No doubt she thought that I was deliberately courting everyone’s attention, and in her world all that attention should rightfully be directed at her. Vanni was standing with other fallen angels, trying to look pleased.

I looked at Zervos, whose black eyes were hard and unreadable. I looked for Professor Erikson, but she was nowhere to be seen. I guess if she didn’t know that Keller and I were together before she certainly did now.

“Are you okay?” Keller whispered in my ear. “You look dazed.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” I told him, making a show of flipping my brown hair over my shoulder. “Just surprised, that’s all.”

“I want you to know I’m not ashamed of you,” he said. “Or this. I’m here. We will deal with it together.”

I nodded. If Keller’s and my make-out session had taught me anything, it was that. Whatever came, we would deal with it together.

“If you two are done with your
shameless
attention grabbing for no reason,” Zervos hissed, “it is time for Tactical to commence.”

“Now, the teams for this semester,” said Zervos, rubbing his hands together with glee. I had a hard time not staring at him in disgust. We had been excited not to have a class with Zervos this semester, but now that Risper was gone we were stuck with him again. The other professors—Lambros, Korba, Jenkins, Dacer—were lined up behind him.

The deans were also there, and when my eyes landed on Oliva he gave me a nod of encouragement. I nodded back, wondering who my team would be.

“As was announced,” said Zervos, his voice crackling as much as the fire, “you will be spending a night with your Tactical team outside the protections of Public. This is a trial. We can no longer bury our heads in the sand and pretend that the demons aren’t coming after us. They are. Maybe if we got rid of the elemental it would be different, but unfortunately that is not yet an option. You must and will face what is coming to you. Or you will die.”

Keller’s hand tightened around mine and I saw Sip and Lisabelle both start forward. Zervos turned his malicious eyes on them, gleeful. Lough grabbed their elbows and held them back.

“Don’t make me get mean,” said Lough, seriously. Lisabelle was so taken aback her eyes widened in surprise.

“He’s right,” said Lisabelle to Sip. “Not the time or the place.”

Sip continued to fix her steely purple gaze on Zervos.

“Let us first review the rules of Tactical,” continued Zervos, unperturbed, “for those Starters who are unfamiliar with Tactical, for those of you who just couldn’t be bothered to pay attention the last time around, and for the many more of you with crappy short term memories. We split students into teams. Ideally, we have one student from each dorm on each team. This allows for students to work together and learn from each other. Of course, that can’t always be accomplished perfectly because of the different numbers of students in each dorm. It is my great disappointment to say that it’s an unfortunate truth that one team will get stuck with an uneven five instead of the usual four.”

Zervos took that opportunity to glare at me again, then he continued. “The point of Tactical is to improve your fighting ability while working together, and working against a competent and unpredictable opponent. You win by capturing your opponents. Points are awarded based on how important your opponent is. When that fails, seniority counts. Starters are the most expendable, with some weight being given to special status, such as a princess or the child of a diplomat, or if a Starter has shown exceptional skill in a certain area.”

The vampire professor didn’t mention Lough or me, but I knew that we, along with Trafton, were worth the most points. There was only one of me and only two of them. Princess Dirr was also considered a prize, as was Lisabelle, because although she was a member of Airlee, she was the only darkness mage. The Valedication children were half darkness, but they had opted to join Cruor instead of Airlee. Given that they looked like glorified boiled cabbages (Lisabelle’s description), that didn’t surprise me.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” I whispered to Keller.

His face was unreadable as he said, “I wish I didn’t, but so do I.”

“Now, for the teams,” said Zervos, rubbing his hands together.

“He’s not even trying to hide his glee,” said Trafton with disgust.

“Well, well, well, look who found his conscience,” said Lisabelle.

“I never lost it,” said Trafton. “I just usually keep it under my pink bedspread. Between the girly magazines and the bottles of glitter.”

“I had no idea you’d get along so well with Dacer,” Lough muttered.

“The teams are as follows,” said Zervos. “Lisabelle Verlans is with Keller Erikson, Cale Humphry, and Rake Perphara.”

Murmurs went up all around.

“That team is unreal,” Trafton said. “Who could beat them?”

My friends looked at me anxiously. Last semester I had been with a team that good—at least most of us thought it was—because as the only elemental I needed to be protected. I guess that wasn’t how this semester’s Tactical was going to go. And with our overnight beyond the wall looming, that couldn’t be good.

I felt a pair of eyes on me and looked up. Dobrov, who normally walked around with his eyes glued to the ground, was staring at me. I stared back.

“I refuse to be put with the elemental,” a familiar female voice rang out before Zervos could continue. Camilla stepped into the middle of the circle, away from Cale and the other pixies, who were staring at her in shock.

Zervos glared at her.

“You will not makes demands,” Zervos snapped. His eyes, lit from the fire, flashed.

Camilla crossed her arms over her chest, her chin jutting out. Cale, standing behind her, looked mortified and upset.

“She is causing pixies to die. The longer she stays here, the more pixies die, the more danger we are in and the more likely Public is to be overrun. If you put me on her team I will leave her outside the protections to die.” Camilla’s voice was high and shrill, her eyes snapping.

“Please,” said Cale, stepping forward. “She’s really upset. She doesn’t know what she’s saying.”

I looked between them. Camilla was greener than usual and sweating. She was breathing so hard, as if she’d been running, that I could see the rise and fall of her chest from where I was standing.

“If I am it’s for GOOD REASON,” Camilla screeched, ringing her hands. “She’s getting my family killed. How could she just stand there like nothing is happening? It’s disgusting. She calls herself a paranormal. But she isn’t. She’s NOTHING but a foul murderer.”

Cale came up behind his girlfriend and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She was staring wildly at me. She probably didn’t even know that tears were streaming down her face.

“Enough,” Dove’s voice rang out across the fields, echoing over the gentle hills and through the buildings of Public. Silence followed that one ringing word.

Even Zervos looked to the vampire dean, who was suddenly taller and more menacing. A part of me had wondered how Dove had become the chosen one to represent the vampires as a dean of Public. I just hadn’t been able to see it. Until now.

Except that it wasn’t respect that all the paranormals around us were directing toward him. It was fear.

He strode into the center of the circle. With one pointing finger, he made Camilla retreat back to the pixies. Darkness gathered around him like black mist. I had known that Lisabelle was a darkness mage, that she had the same power that the demons and hellhounds possessed. But not until this moment, when I saw Dove striding toward the fire like a black avenger, did I understand the magnitude of that power. Darkness will always call to darkness.

Zervos stepped aside so fast he almost stumbled to avoid Dove’s wrath.

“You are out of line,” Dove continued, his voice booming. He looked at each of us in turn, agonizingly slowly. His eyes moved from Camilla and Cale, onward to other pixies like Kia, who had started to cower. On to the fallen angels, where Vanni stood next to Keller’s friend Nate Marcus. Dove’s eyes softened not an iota when they rested on the dorm that represented the shining light of the paranormals.

“I am sick and tired of students stepping out of line and above their place,” he said. And now his eyes found the vampires, including Rake, Dirr, and the Valedications, along with Evan, who was back to guarding his Princess. Dove wasn’t angry with them, though; his eyes just kept moving. When they landed on Airlee, on me and my friends and Keller, they burst forth with brightly lit hatred.