Furious Flames (Elemental Book 3) (28 page)

“A friend in college had one I held at one point, but
it wasn’t a real one. It had a cobra handle. I suppose it can’t be too
difficult to use. They’re not too different from guns; you point and poke
instead of aim and shoot.”

His expression suggested I was out of my mind. “Maybe
you should ask someone to teach you.”

“Like who?”

“Anyone. Watson seems like someone who would know.”

I sighed and went back to the infirmary. Jackson was
helping Dr. Martin prepare synthetic blood with an IV in his arm. He pulled the
pole with him as he moved between two work benches. It occurred to me that,
despite being extremely temperamental, Jackson seemed to like working with the
doctor.

“Where is Professor Watson?” I asked.

“He died again,” Dr. Martin said, unconcerned. He
rifled through a drawer as two test tubes poured into a beaker in front of him,
presumably by magic since no one was holding them.

“Okay. Let me know when he’s back.”

Darwin and I returned to
Henry’s town in better spirits than we were in the first time we visited. We
arrived about noon, so the streets were bustling with shoppers and marketers.
We had a more difficult time finding the address Hunt gave us to Henry’s
parents’ house, despite knowing that he lived on opposite end of town from them.
When we pulled up to the three story white house with pretentious pillars, we
gawked for a moment. We couldn’t believe that two people would need such a
large and showy house.

We got out of the SUV and paused. “Do we sneak in?”
Darwin asked. “I bet they have full-time servants.”

“Full-time, yes, but not voluntary. They would have
left as soon as their paychecks ran off. We’ll walk right in and if anyone
stops, I’ll–”

“Oh my god, you have to make a Star Wars reference.”

“Maybe.” We walked up the long driveway to the front
door, which was unlocked. The inside was cleaner than a museum, and just about
as impersonal. Everything was lavish, but there were no pictures, personal
items, or signs of use. It looked like a model house.

“Why do I get the feeling Henry’s parents are drug
dealers?” Darwin asked.

“I wouldn’t put it past them, but let’s not go there
now.”

We searched every room on the first and second floors
without finding anyone. On the third floor, we found Henry in one of the rooms,
chained to a bed and in bad shape. His face looked like he had been punched
multiple times and then given a week or so to heal. His arms were a different
story.

Although silver wasn’t as dangerous to shifters as it
was to vampires, the prolonged exposure caused the metal to burn into his
flesh, so his wrists had deep welts and I had to peel it out of the wounds. He
opened his eyes as we unchained him without a word.

“We should have come for you sooner,” I said. He
shook his head, still without speaking. “Is Gale still here?” Again, he shook
his head. “What’s wrong? Open your mouth.” He started to move away as if to
argue, but then stopped and opened his mouth. Two of his top teeth, which would
be his fangs in his shifted form, were torn out. “Shit! We should have come for
you sooner!”

“They will grow back in a week or two. This is not
even the first time they were ripped out.”

“Don’t talk if it hurts too much.”

“Gale got a visit from Astrid about an hour ago. I
didn’t hear what she said, but he was very happy about something. Then he took
off without saying anything to me.”

“So either he’s at the house waiting for us to bring
him the amulet, or he found out we have a weapon,” Darwin said.

“Vampires are fast. Since he’s controlling Astrid,
she probably told him about the sword. Let’s go back to the castle and get you
some ice.” We got in the SUV and drove back to the castle in silence.

*          *          *

When we pulled into the driveway three hours later,
Henry didn’t head to the infirmary. Instead, he went to our room, where he
pulled… nothing… off his shelf.

“You okay, bro?” Darwin asked him.

Henry ignored our young roommate and continued
messing with what appeared to be empty space. He shifted his fingers of his
right hand just enough to have claws, which he used to slice his left palm
before shifting his hand back to normal. He moved his hand horizontally in
front of him as if wiping it… and the blood smeared across an invisible object.

At that point, he unlatched it and opened the object.
A small treasure chest, only about six inches in length and a few inches deep,
appeared in his hand.

“Okay, Henry the wizard. Any chance you’re gonna clue
us in here?” Darwin asked.

Henry sighed and tilted it so we could see that it
was empty. “Astrid is more clever than I thought. Right after we defeated Gale
the first time and I got the amulet, Hunt gave me this box and told me not to
say a word about it. He did something to it so that only my blood unlocks it.
Astrid took my blood a few days ago to get into this.”

“She stole the amulet?” I asked. He nodded. “How did
she know it was there?”

He snapped the box closed and it vanished again, but
he had to wipe the blood off with his shirtsleeve. When he set it down, I
realized how Astrid found it; the invisible box had a shadow. “I want to know
how she knew to use my blood,” Henry said.

“I’ve read about boxes like this, so she probably had
also,” Darwin said. “Once she figured out where it was and what it was, blood
is kind of a given. Gale must already have amulet. He’ll either come to us or
tell us where he is. He wants your power.”

“Either way, we need to get as far away from the
school as we can. We also need a defense.”

*          *          *

Fifteen minutes later, we reached the burn field. I
handed a box of chalk to Henry and emptied the backpack we brought of supplies
while Darwin picked out a magic circle of protection from one of his books.
Although Vincent’s book probably had the best defensive spells, it was missing.
Henry started drawing the symbols as I lit the candles, but then Darwin scolded
me and put out particular candles, all the while complaining that I didn’t pay
attention in class.

The nine-foot wide circle had to be started in a
certain direction and all the symbols inside had to be perfect, which was why
Henry did it. In addition to that, he had to draw an outer circle around it, creating
a six-inch space between the inner and outer circle, which he drew more symbols
in. This spell also required five candles, each representing one of the
elements and meeting the points of a pentagram, which Henry also drew inside
the inner circle.

“This is specifically designed to be held by three
people, so we have to stay inside. Even one toe outside by any of us can break
the circle,” Darwin said.

“How are we supposed to kill Gale if we have to stay
in the circle?” Henry asked.

Darwin glared at him. “You asked me for a defense,
not an offense.”

“Don’t fight. We need an opening, and we need to be
protected while we look for one. If Gale is smart, he’s going to bring Len,
Kristen, and Conner to fight us. Once he has our power, he’ll try to kill us
quickly.”

“So the circle will protect our magic?” Henry asked.

“If Devon is powerful enough,” Darwin answered.

“Thanks.”
I really need all the pressure on me.
“We need to set a trap. With the sword against Gale, we had a chance. I don’t
know what we can do against the amulet.”

“Maybe we should get Hunt,” Darwin suggested.

“He’s trying to keep Krechea from getting the key.
Besides, Gale has the amulet now. If he gets Hunt’s or Vincent’s power, we’re
screwed. Not to mention he can get their keys if he kills them, and the last
thing we need is for Gale to have access to other worlds.”

“Other worlds?” Henry asked.

“I’ll explain later.” Henry finished drawing. “Now
what?” I asked. Darwin handed me the book to read the ritual myself. I rolled
my eyes because none of it was in English.

“I’m going to say the words. You visualize being in a
bubble that nothing can penetrate.” He took the book back and started on the
incantation, which was not in English. I did as he asked and imagined a bubble
like a force field around the circle. “You can stop now,” he said a few minutes
later.

“That’s it? It’s protecting us?”

“Until one of us crosses that line. How do we know
Gale’s not going after Hunt, Vincent, and Langril?” Darwin asked.

“He’s going after us,” Henry said.

My instincts fired up too late. Darwin’s sharp gasp
and Henry’s low growl made me turn. Gale was there with his hand around
Amelia’s arm. She was crying, obviously terrified.

“Well, don’t I feel welcome. Come out of the circle,
Devon, and I’ll let her go.”

“You wouldn’t let her go.” Amelia was powerful, no
matter how sweet-natured she was, and he wouldn’t waste the opportunity to take
her ability.

“Fine. Come out of the circle, or I’ll slit her
throat.” He yanked on her arm until she fell at his feet. Before she could try
to get out of the way, he grabbed her by the hair, pulled out a knife, and
pressed it to her throat. Tears streamed down her cheeks, but she didn’t make a
sound.

“No!” Darwin screamed. I grabbed him by his left arm
and Henry grabbed him by his right barely in time to stop him from crossing the
chalk line of the circle. He struggled.

“Stop! It’s a trap!” I said, knowing full well that
wouldn’t matter to him. The blue in his irises bled out, leaving them the
actual color of blood. The more he struggled to break free, the darker his hair
became until it was as dark red.

“It isn’t real! It’s an illusion!” Henry said.

That got through to him and he finally stopped fighting
us. “Really?”

Gale laughed and Amelia vanished. “It’s true. I
already killed the little fae. So,
he
was right; you can see through
illusions. In that case, you know this is real.”

Addison appeared. Unlike the fake Amelia, she wasn’t
crying. If anything, she looked angry. The glowing rings around her wrists,
ankles, and neck must have prevented her from running away, since she was a
good six feet away from Gale.

I glanced at Henry, whose expression was stoic, and
he nodded, telling me it wasn’t an illusion.

I needed to think. “Why did you go after Hunt,
Vincent, and Langril before you had the amulet?” I asked to buy time. I knew
then that choosing the sword had been the right choice. Even though slowing
time was exactly what I needed right then, the amulet would have stolen its
power and it would have just been a long stick. Instead, I had chosen the sword
which, sans magic, was still a sword.

Gale scoffed. “I have no interest in those wizards.”

“I thought I was slipping a few days ago, because I
couldn’t figure out what the victims all had in common. When we got a visit
telling us to bring the amulet to you, I knew there had to be someone helping
you. But no, Astrid didn’t make sense, either. Why those students? And Watson.
Watson was in the perfect position to attack Hunt if he were possessed. Then
you got Jackson and I knew for sure. It isn’t one person connecting the victims
but three. Astrid was already investigating students, so you used her to find
those who had the most contact with Hunt, Vincent, and Langril. When Len
attacked at Darwin’s test, you had
just
missed Hunt and Vincent.”
Langril tricked them into thinking he had the key in order to get them out of
there. He might have saved their lives.

Gale laughed. “What a convoluted adventure you had. I
had nothing to do with it; I just cursed those whose blood, hair, or nails
Astrid brought me. If you want to know why those three were targeted, you’ll
have to ask
him
.”

“Him who?”

“He said you would know his name, and to tell you
that he would be waiting for when your shadows cross again.”

Krechea.

“Why did the students and Watson have to burn when
you could control Astrid just fine?”

“He didn’t need to possess Astrid to control her. It
was the act of his shadow walkers trying to possess the others that killed
them. If the students were strong enough to handle the heat, they wouldn’t have
had to die.”

“But the possessed golems were cold, not hot, so why
did the students burn up?”

“I don’t know anything about the golems. Why would I
care?”

“The golems didn’t have soul,” Darwin said. “It was
probably due to that.”

“Now, enough chatting. I waited long enough to
destroy you three.”

I felt the psychic release of the circle breaking at
the same time I saw the flash of Gale’s knife in the sunlight. Instead of the
blade sinking into Addison’s neck, Henry, in his jaguar form, took it in the
chest.

I reached out with my mind, pushing pain at Gale, but
his mind was blocked. I raised the sword, intentionally letting anger fuel my
attack, and was surprised when the fire of the candles around me grew about
three feet. The blade of the sword glowed again. Maybe it was my instincts,
maybe desperation, but I thought that a flaming sword should actually be
flaming, so I ran the blade through the fire. To my shock, it caught.

Darwin rushed forward to pull the dagger out of Henry
and I used the distraction to attack Gale. I struck faster than I thought I
could, but Gale’s magic was faster; my blade reflected off an invisible force
of energy. He laughed and I felt the underwater sensation of the amulet’s
effect again.

Addie cried out, clutching the glowing band around
her throat as each of them tightened. Henry shifted into his person form so
that both he and Darwin could try to break the band that was strangling her.
Henry was bleeding profusely.

I saw Gale move from the corner of my eye and
something invisible struck me hard enough to throw me about five feet, where I
landed on my back. Fortunately, I hadn’t let go of my sword. I got to my feet
despite the nausea and attacked. When I struck at Gale again, I encountered the
same unseen force field, but the sword burned brighter.

It wasn’t affected by the amulet!

“Where is Astrid?” I asked, still hoping to buy
enough time to come up with a strong plan. I tried to reach out with my power,
but it didn’t respond.

“Oh, don’t be so cliché.”

“We defeated you last time thanks to the amulet,”
Darwin said, still struggling with the band around Addie’s throat. “You don’t
think we’ll kick your ass again?”

“I learn from my mistakes, Darwin.” He motioned at my
roommates and the air felt charged right before both Darwin and Henry shifted
uncontrollably into their beast forms. “Attack Devon,” he told Henry. The
jaguar snarled and growled at Gale as he turned invisible.

I knew Henry was strong, but he wasn’t immune to my
powers. Just like when John controlled his mind, he approached me slowly. This
wasn’t him hunting his prey or defending himself. He would kill me because he
had to, but he would take his time with it until the last instant, when his
strike would be lightning fast.