Soul Guard (Elemental Book 5) (30 page)

“Well, we’ve had a lot of private conversations.”

“How did we meet?”

“You sat beside me in Mr. Mali’s class and I knew you
had to be in the wrong class, because there was no way you had been in the same
school as me for four semesters. I thought you were a cop because of the way
you glanced at every face as they entered. You also looked like you were
mapping out the room and exits as soon as you walked in. Plus, you walk like
you’ve got a firearm. I was going to ask you if you needed help about a second
before you asked me if we were in potions. Now it’s your turn to prove that you
are you.”

“When students died at Quintessence, I thought that
it was just part of being in the paranormal world. I thought that dying by
vampire attacks or shifter mauling was something you had to expect. I thought
since those students made the choice to be a part of the paranormal world, it
wasn’t as big a deal as when it happened to humans.”

“You thought I deserved it?” she asked, appalled.

“Not so much that you deserved it, just that humans
deserved it less, like paranormals were endangering themselves by associating
with vampires. A lot of it had to do with the fact that I invited Astrid into
my life and my parents paid for it. When
you
died, I saw it differently.
I knew you— not well, but enough that I didn’t think you instigated anything.
You just wanted to live your life and spend way too many nights in the library.
I got to know the students at the university and realized that they are all
people, as much as humans are. In a way, you were the one who made the case
personal, instead of just a dangerous job. And since then, every paranormal who
was murdered was personal and just as important as a human murder, because they
were part of my community. That includes vampires.”

“I guess something good came of my death. That, and
at least I’m only dead from a human standpoint. I’m sorry you lost some friends
during your first three semesters here.”

“The fourth was better and the fifth will be
casualty-free as well. Can you tell me what is most precious to you?”

She didn’t even hesitate. “The memories of my
mother.”

I sighed and sat next to her on the bed. “Crap. That
wasn’t what I was expecting. I was thinking you could take the key from me, but
I can’t ask you to give up something so important. Do you at least have
pictures of her?”

She sat up and wrapped her arms around my neck. “You
misunderstand. I loved my mother and my memories of her are what’s most
precious to me, but I would give anything to lose them.”

When I tried to pull away, she held on tighter, so I stopped.
“How could you want to lose your memories?”

“Because I’m not that person. I never was. And you
know the worst part about the Dothra blood in me?” She held out her hands in
front of my face, palms up. “We heal too damn fast.”

I smacked her hands away and stood up. All paranormal
people are fucked up. You once offered to make me immortal like Astrid. Can you
still do that?”

She smirked. “That would require a deal. I can do it,
but---”

“Then here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll make a deal
with you. You’re going to make me immortal like Astrid, but with an out. I want
to be able to die if one very special, silver dagger is stabbed into my heart
by myself or someone I purposefully appoint.”

“Why would you want that?” she asked, horrified.

“I don’t want to live forever. Then, you will take
the key from me. That will conclude our deal and you will be free. Clear?”

“Yes.”

“And I would still be alive.”

“Of course. Why not save Astrid while you’re at it?”

“I’m trying to restore balance, not offset it even more.
I have another plan to save Astrid and defeat the shadow man, and I’m going to
do it with as little dark magic as possible.”

“You’ll lose the ability to use the shadow pass.”

“Then I’ll rely on my familiar when necessary. I was
fine before I could use it and I’ll do fine without it. Do we have a deal?”

“Yes.” She held out her hands in a gesture of
offering and a goblet identical to the one Astrid had drunk from appeared.

“This won’t affect Astrid’s immortality, will it?”

“No. This will have the same exact effect on you. You
can be shot in the head and survive with no injury.” When I reached for it, she
pulled it back a few inches. “Just to clarify… you can get injured. It’s only
mortality it protects you against. You can get sick, cut, burned, whatever, but
you can’t die from it. If you get shot or stabbed in a vital organ, it will
heal the damage instantly and completely like it never happened, but if you get
shot in the shoulder, you’re going to be in pain until you take something for
it.”

I nodded and took it. The chalice was heavy, yet
there was only about half a cup of water inside it. “What about the knife?”

She held out her hands again and a dagger appeared.
It was obviously ceremonial. It had a little sheath and both the handle and
sheath were black with silver art all over it. The care and attention to detail
that went into it was extreme. I pulled the cover off to examine the straight,
double-sided blade.

“Where did you get it?”

“My father made it. He showed it to me my first
semester here and wanted to give it to me when I graduated. I found it in his
office. It really sucked to go through everything and end up dying by bad
luck.”

“You’re not dead. You can still have the life you
wanted.”

“It’s not what I want anymore. Dip the blade into the
water and put it back in the cover.”

I took it from her and submerged the blade in the
water for a few seconds before slipping it back into its sheath. I drank the
water, expecting it to taste weird or at least feel something different.
Instead, it just tasted like water. “Did it work?”

I sensed her presence and turned around just as Rocky
appeared. “
Yes, it worked
,” she said in my mind.

I held out the dagger and she took it in her claws.
“Are you angry?”

“
This has been the most sensible thing you have
done since you called me. You are no longer a burden on me
.” With those
parting words, she vanished.

“Well, that’s a start. Onto part two.”

“Already? You have me for as long as you want, until
I take the key.”

I did have twenty-three and a half hours left. “No. I
don’t want something to go wrong. Are you sure you’re okay with losing your
memories of your mother? Are you sure they’re what is most precious to you?”

“I am sure on both. I can’t move on until she’s
really gone. I can’t forgive myself when I still hear her voice begging my
father to save me and leave her.” She pulled another dagger out of the
nightstand and aimed it at my heart. “This is going to hurt, but it won’t even
scar.”

“Why does it always have to be the heart?”

When she stabbed me, I felt white-hot pain that made
lights flash behind my eyes. It was worse than getting shot by far, but that
probably had more to do with the location than the object that was used. Part
of me worried that I would die despite drinking from the special chalice. It
was probably natural to have doubts, though, when getting stabbed in the heart
with a dagger.

Then Heather pulled the dagger out and as quickly as
the pain began, it stopped. I realized as it faded that my hand had also been
stinging. I studied my palm to find that the symbol in my skin was gone.
“That’s it? No goat sacrificing or making catcalls at virgins?”

She frowned. “No. I guess we could do that if you want,
but I don’t know where to find a virgin and I don’t think April is going to be
happy about us taking one of her goats. When do I ‘sacrifice’ the memories?”

“It wasn’t immediate for me, Vincent, or Hunt. I
can’t say I have a clue when it’ll happen.”

“Is my father back yet? I want him to be the one to
show me how to use the shadow pass.”

I had been worried she was going to hate him for not
being there when she grew up. She had seemed pretty upset when I left for
Henry, but a lot could happen in two weeks. Then a thought occurred to me. “Did
you ever see your mother in Dothra?” I asked.

She looked at me and hesitated. “I… have no clue. I
don’t remember her face. I don’t remember seeing her when I was a child. I
don’t even remember if she was a good mother.”

“I guess your sacrifice was your memories after all.
Do you regret it?”

“I can’t regret losing someone I don’t remember.”

“Then we should probably go find out if your father
is back.”

*          *          *

He was. I opened my door at the exact moment that
Langril and Vincent appeared, soaked, panting, and bleeding. “What happened?”

“There was… trouble,” Vincent panted.

“Fortunately, I was there to handle it,” Langril
said. There was a chunk of flesh missing from his arm. “First, the vampires who
ran the prison attacked the instant you two disappeared. Then the blood in the
water attracted what appeared to be a mosasaurus. And, by the way, that
mosasaurus was in the caves underneath the university, so we had to get all the
water and monsters back through the door in order to close it.”

“Was the door big enough?”

“Barely. We had to squeeze it through,” Vincent
said. 

Langril hugged his daughter, and although she hugged
him back, she grimaced at the state of his clothes. “What did you do? You seem
different,” he said. She held up her hand to show him the mark on her palm and
his eyes widened. He glanced at me, as if he wasn’t sure I was still there.

“I made a deal with Heather to make me---”

“What?!” Vincent asked, horrified.

“It was that or get trapped in Hell for the rest of
my life.”

“What?” Scott asked, confused.

“Kitten, why don’t you go play with Jason and Jamie?”
Henry said.

“But I want to hear what happened.”

“I will tell you when you’re older.”

So Scott left and since Henry had caught Darwin up on
what he knew while I was making my deal with Heather, I filled in the rest of
it. “It was a very long day,” I finally said. Everyone nodded and there was a
heavy silence. “Who’s up for going to bed and dealing with the shadow walkers
in the morning?”

“It’s three in the afternoon,” Darwin interjected.

“Right. Who’s up for going to bed and dealing with
the shadow walkers sometime next month?”

Langril, Vincent, and Henry agreed with me completely
and after the longest, hottest shower of my life, I went to bed. My mattress
felt like warm clouds.

*          *          *

The next morning, I was eating breakfast in my usual
seat in the dining room. There were about forty people in the room, thirty of
which were wizards, a dozen animal familiars, five kids, and a griffin.
Although Darwin was supposed to be watching the kids, Jason, Jameson, and Scott
were goofing off by the buffet and Darwin was nowhere to be seen.

As I ate, I observed the wizards and other
paranormals around me. Many of them were older than the university, but I
overheard a few reminiscing about their time as students here. I wondered
whether or not I was going to stick around in the paranormal world after I
finished my last semester. If I didn’t, there really wasn’t much point in
returning. I could return to my normal, mundane life where I only got shot at
by humans and people didn’t disguise themselves as other people in order to
take over the world.

A small explosion flooded the room with cherry-red
light and I looked up in time to see catnip shower the dining room and Jason,
Jameson, and Scott running from the scene. The only two cat shifters in the
room shifted, and four wizards had feline familiars that got in on the action.

I smirked and sipped my coffee. No way was I leaving
the paranormal community.
This is home
.

*          *          *

After breakfast, I went to Hunt’s office. When Hunt
told me to come in, I saw him and Vincent sitting in the chairs by the
fireplace, alone. “Sorry for interrupting. I can come back later.”

“No, we just finished with the personal talk and were
about to begin the awkward silence part,” Vincent said.

“Okay. I think we need to all be on the same page
about our move against the shadow man and his followers. Our biggest advantage
is going to be that a large percentage of the shadow walkers will return to Langril’s
side and help destroy the others.”

“And you’re sure we can trust him?” Vincent asked.

“Vincent and I have known him a lot longer than you
and we know he does not have a loyal or honest bone in his body,” Hunt warned.

“He does now, and that bone’s name is Henry. Henry is
his familiar.” They glanced at each other worriedly. “Don’t worry; Henry is
loyal and honest enough for the both of them and he’ll set Langril right when
it comes to that. I have a long and complicated plan that relies on a lot of different
factors aligning perfectly.”

“Sounds about normal,” Vincent said.

The first part of my plan was to summon Felicity and
have her announce to the other shadow walkers and soul guards that their true
master had returned. However, when Langril joined us in Hunt’s office, he
explained that it wouldn’t be necessary; there was already a gathering of them
around the school grounds.

After Hunt found out that Krechea had gotten into his
school disguised as his friend and that two more shadow walkers had made it
inside, he redoubled the wards until they were so powerful that nobody could
even cross the barrier. The exception was using the shadow pass, since only the
four of us and whoever we chose could use it.

Hunt was a bit perturbed that Heather was now part of
the exclusive four instead of me, for the simple fact that it was now Langril
and Heather against him and Vincent. I found it amusing.