Paranormal Public (Paranormal Public Series) (21 page)

“You guys have to get in trouble for something else so you can come back and help,” he said, smiling.

“Charlotte, can you help me next Saturday anyway? There’s a lot more to be done in the attic,” he said. “We can practice while we’re there.”

I blushed. I hated it when he mentioned that he was tutoring me in front of people. Maybe he just liked to point out that he was doing a good deed helping the Probationer. Even worse, I wasn’t even learning anything, because the magic still wasn’t coming. “I guess,” I said.

“What else do you have to do on a Saturday morning?” asked Lisabelle. I tried to kick her under the table but she avoided me deftly.

Once Keller was gone Sip said, “He’s so nice. For a fallen angel.” That started an argument about the benefits of being a werewolf versus a fallen angel. I half listened to my friends, but I didn’t join in. Seeing Keller had reminded me of all the elemental papers he had found, and I sat there wondering why he had been so secretive about them and why he wanted to look at them so badly.

Since my friends were deep in conversation, I left the dining hall alone. It was still early and I thought I’d have plenty of time to get some studying done.

“You heading out?” asked Keller, appearing at my elbow.

“Yeah,” I said, already turning red.

“Mind if I walk you?” he asked, although he already was.

“Don’t you have a lot of girls to escort home?” I muttered as we headed out into the cold air. “I’m fine by myself.”

Keller shrugged. “I know you are.”

I had nothing to say to that.

“Have you been looking at those papers?” I asked while he zipped up his jacket.

“Yeah,” he said. “They’re really interesting.”

“What do they say?” I asked. I wondered if they said anything about the artifacts in the Astra ballroom.

“Do the elementals interest you?” he asked.

I glared at the ground. “No. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not an elemental. I’m not even a mage at this point. I guess I just like history.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“You’re a fallen angel,” I pointed out. “What do you care about the elementals?”

He shrugged. “I guess I just like history too.”

Snap. One second the two of us were standing on the stone sidewalk surrounded by nothing but the cold October air, and the next second a red blaze appeared in front of us. I gasped and staggered backward. Somehow the red blaze seemed to have eyes, and it most definitely spit fire. The air around us now shimmered with an unbearable heat as the sparks coming off the demon scorched my skin.

A Demon of Burning had just materialized on campus.

I gave a cry of pain. My whole body felt like it was being engulfed in flames. Somewhere in the distance I heard a low, dark laugh, but there was nothing I could do. I wanted to fight back. I wanted to try to use magic, but my arms were pinned against my sides, immobile in the face of the fire. If I stood there much longer I would disintegrate. In some vague part of my brain I wondered what a demon was doing here on campus, since demons weren’t even supposed to be able to enter the grounds, let alone wander around terrorizing students.

But I wasn’t alone. Next to me, Keller had transformed. His quick thinking, honed on the fields of Dash, probably saved both our lives. I had only seen a couple of Starter fallen angels when their wings were spread. They were delicate, like thin pieces of see-through fabric, with a glitter dusting over them. When I asked Sip why they didn’t look like real wings she said that it was because the fallen angels here weren’t trained yet.

Keller’s wings were nothing like that. I’d seen him use them on the Dash field a couple of times, but that had been at a distance. Up close they were dark, almost black. They looked strong, powerful, and deadly. There was no glitter anywhere.

In response to Keller’s transformation the demon let out a scream. I fell to my knees, my hands over my ears. My eyes locked on the red ball of fire in front of me.

Keller didn’t look bothered in the least by the demon’s noise. Instead he charged. The demon, taken by surprise, swerved out of the way, then came back at me. Keller leapt in front of it, barely blocking its path. Uncovering one of my ears, I reached down and grabbed a fistful of dirt. Without thinking I flung it at the demon.

My dirt distracted the demon long enough for Keller to be able to raise his hand, silver power gathering in his palm. He was going to challenge the demon.

The next moment, furry bodies surrounded me. My shock was so great that at first I didn’t even register that a group of werewolves had heard the fight and leapt to our defense. They came running across the dark lawn, tumbling out of dorm rooms and scattering from the dining hall. Now they stood, an animal mass between the demon and me. I wondered at the camaraderie of my classmates.

Coming close behind them was the scariest sight I ever hoped to see: A mass of vampires floating over the dewy grass, gathering black power around them.

Before I could get to my feet we were surrounded by professors, led by Professor Zervos. I found it odd that he was there so quickly, but I guess I shouldn’t have. As it was explained to me later, all the professors on campus instantly sensed a demon presence and immediately reacted to it. They were embarrassed that mere students had gotten there first and were also angry that now the entire campus would know that Public’s defenses were pathetic against the only threat that could hurt paranormals.

I heard one professor murmur, “On the grounds! Actually on the grounds! This is a disaster.” But I was whisked away before I could hear anything else.

What happened after that was a blur. I was taken to the Infirmary, which was made difficult because the werewolves, vampires, and Keller refused to leave my side.

Finally, the professors just gave up and let some of them come. I spent the whole way there trying to convince them that I was fine. A little shaken up, more frustrated than ever that I had no powers, but still fine. I definitely didn’t need to be carried. No one listened.

Once we were in the Infirmary, Keller left with a couple of professors. Since no one was injured I assumed they wanted a recounting of what had happened, and of course they would get it from the star of Dash and not the degenerate defect Probationer, me.

Soon, one of the nurses came to tell me I was fine. I asked if anyone wanted to talk to me and she gave me a stern look and said no. She added that I was spending too much time in the Infirmary and that she didn’t want to see me back there for at least a week. I agreed with her.

But before I could get out of there and finally go back to my dorm room, Keller appeared. He had returned to being human, and his wings were nowhere in sight. He smiled at me, but his face was white.

“How are you doing?” he asked as we left the Infirmary together. I didn’t even protest the escort. I was relieved that he was okay.

“Fine,” I answered. My legs still felt a little wobbly, but I was angrier at my reaction to the demon than I was afraid. “How are you?”

“Good,” he said.

“Right,” I said. I chewed my lower lip. “Thanks.”

“For what?” he asked.

“For saving my life,” I said. I could see Airlee in the distance. Keller must have special permission to be out after hours, because he shouldn’t have been walking me that far.

“You could have handled yourself,” he said.

“How?” I demanded. I was at the point where I didn’t feel like I could do anything right. And my legs still felt like rubber.

He came to a dead stop and looked me in the eye. I forced myself to keep eye contact with him. It was dark and our faces were very close together. My body had started to tingle with the nearness.

“What did the professors say?” I asked, hoping to distract him.

He reached out, as if he was going to brush a strand of hair off my cheek, but stopped midway. He slid his hand over the back of his neck like that’s what he had meant to do all along.

“We need to spend more time together,” he said. I felt my heart lift. “The President wants you to be better trained.” My heart plummeted.

“Alright, fine,” I said.

“The professors didn’t like that you were defenseless tonight. That’s what they thought, anyway.”

A cold fear tingled through me. If the professors thought that I couldn’t handle myself, the President might get rid of me even before the end of the semester.

“What was that demon doing on campus?” I asked.

Keller shook his head. He didn’t know, but I could see from the hard set of his jaw and his pursed lips that he didn’t like it.

“Get some rest,” he said. “You don’t want to be tired for the October formal this weekend.”

And with that he left me. I stood there for a long time staring after him. It was such a complete turn in topics. Public’s October formal was that weekend and I had totally forgotten. As if I didn’t have enough problems. Now I had to find an outfit and not get killed by demons. College was definitely not what I had expected.

Sip was asleep when I got to my room. I was relieved because I had a lot to think about, and I knew that if Sip were awake, she would want an explanation of where I’d been all night. I couldn’t ignore that demons had appeared inside Public grounds. None of the professors had said anything to me about it, but I knew it was bad. In one of Professor Zervos’s lectures, he had explained how Public had strong protective spells around it, put there by the combined five powers. If the demons were breaking through those, we were all in trouble. The question was, how were they doing it? And why had the demon gone after two students? I wanted answers. I just wasn’t sure how to get them.

The next morning I woke up to Sip shaking my shoulder. “Where were you last night?” she asked, sitting on the edge of my bed, just like she had in the Infirmary on my first day at Public. Her hair was tousled from sleep, and she still wore her nightgown.

I pushed myself into a sitting position and told her everything that had happened the night before. She gasped and covered her mouth, but she let me finish without interrupting. When I got to the part about Keller teasing me because of the October formal, she slapped her hand to her forehead. “I totally forgot to remind you,” she said.

“People have been mentioning it for weeks,” I said. “I’d just forgotten about it with everything else that’s been going on.”

To my dismay Sip loved the idea of my spending even more time studying with Keller. “He’s the best,” she said. “You really couldn’t ask for someone better.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s at the top of his class,” said Sip, as if it was obvious. I hadn’t known that, but since he was so good at Dash it didn’t surprise me.

“I wish you could be my tutor,” I told her.

Sip laughed. “Yeah, but I don’t know enough. Keller’s a sophomore. I know he’ll help.”

Now that I had seen a demon on campus, it felt as if everything had changed. But it hadn’t. My morning classes went by as usual. None of my professors had been among the ones who had found me the night before, and no one gave any sign that they knew that anything out of the ordinary had happened.

There was one class, though, that wasn’t anything like the way it had been. Once I got there I kicked myself for not anticipating the changes. A History of Hellhounds and Demons was completely transformed.

Many of the other students in the class were eyeing Professor Zervos with a mixture of wariness and worry. Usually when I came into class he was behind his desk, reading a paper or book, but not today. Instead, he was pacing around the room, moving furniture out of the way and barking orders at a couple of students who had had the misfortune of being asked to help him.