Soul Guard (Elemental Book 5) (34 page)

“Trust me; you’ll learn more working at the
children’s school. It’s not going to be an easy job. Most of your fifth
semester is building magical tools and using the four elements together. You
are definitely qualified to help me run the school. I’ll give you books you can
use, teach you anything you’re missing, and you can pick up the rest while
overseeing classes. In fact, I can probably talk my father into giving you a
summer crash course. The thing is, Quintessence has semester-based courses,
whereas the children’s school has yearly courses. I need someone as my second
right away and I don’t trust any of the professors there as much as I trust
you. I’m going to have to kill a couple of professors before they take me
seriously.”

I groaned, because I expected her to do just that if
they challenged her. That was another reason why she and Flagstone were so
perfect together; he wasn’t stupid enough to pull rank on her. “You know I
can’t condone that.”

“I guess you’d better be there to stop them from
pissing me off, then.”

“I already have a job, though.” Actually, I had two,
because I had agreed to work for Drake four days a week in June and July.

“There are always weird things going down at the
children’s school. They had an entire class full of students vanish for a week
and none of them even realized anything had happened. A month ago, giant
bat-like creatures attacked. You will get plenty of investigative work there.
Plus, you can still leave the school if there’s another case you need to take.
The pay isn’t as good, but the stakes are much higher.”

 “Only you would think that’s a good thing. When does
the children’s school start back up?”

“August fifteenth, so two weeks before Quintessence.
You’ll get your own room and we’re in a completely different building than the
students.”

“Does it have a full infirmary and dungeon?”

“It’s got a bigger infirmary, but no dungeon. They
also don’t allow fighting at the orphanage or children’s school. My father
believes that once they’re eighteen, the students know the risks of fighting.
About ten percent of the kids at the younger schools are throwbacks, and there
are all levels of skill. Dr. Martin is relocating to the children’s school.”

“Are Jameson and Jason attending?” I did need to keep
an eye on them.

“They were signed up yesterday. Henry is supposed to
sign Scott up by the end of the week.”

“I don’t know.” I actually would have preferred to be
on the staff of the university. I liked Quintessence. Of course, I could still
solve cases in the paranormal community.
How much does a school really need
a vice principal anyway
? “I’ll think about it.”

“Great. I’ll tell them to get your room ready.”

We both stood. “That wasn’t an agreement,” I argued.

She just smirked. “Yes it was. I had you when I said
I trusted you.”

I rolled my eyes. “I think every woman I ever met is
fucking nuts.”

She then stepped closer, leaned up, and kissed me. It
was the first time, considering all the other times, it either wasn’t her or
she was under John’s control. She was soft and warm, slow and gentle, and just
about perfect. If she hadn’t just broken up with Flagstone, I might have
encouraged more, but I wasn’t sure how over they really were and Remington was
a woman I could grow to love. That didn’t mean I was going to turn her away,
merely that I wouldn’t instigate anything.

When she stepped back, there was no regret in her
eyes. “Believe it or not, I’ve wanted to do that for two years. Please tell me
you were hesitant because of Rosin.”

“You loved him for as long as you can remember.”

“I couldn’t see anything past him until you got into
my head. I’m not going to back off unless you tell me you don’t want me.”

I didn’t say anything.

“I’ll see you in August,” she said before leaving my
apartment.

I watched the door close behind her and turned back
to see Astrid standing in the hallway. “So, I guess I missed something. I
haven’t seen that expression on your face since we were little.”

“I think you’re the only one who can read my face.”

“I think she could. She’s a good person from what
I’ve seen. Are you going to take her offer?”

“I don’t know. I’m going to go work on some cases and
I’ll figure it out along the way.”

*          *          *

When Elena didn’t answer her phone, I went down to
Mr. Emerson’s office. As soon as I stepped into the building, I heard yelling.
The secretary stood. “That was quick,” she said. “I called the cops less than a
minute ago. How did you get here so fast?”

“I was in the area,” I answered instead of arguing.
“I would take the afternoon off if I were you.”

She didn’t need to be told twice. Either because she
thought I was an officer or because she was afraid for her safety, she barely
grabbed her purse before running for the door. I pulled my phone out of its
harness, set it to record, and put it back. That was usually the first thing I
did when I found out the cops were called.

I went through to the office, where Mr. Emerson was
arguing with a middle-aged woman. She was about the opposite of Julia; she had
tangled brown hair and a dark complexion that suggested she was South American.

“Elena Dosil?” I asked.

She sneered. “What’s it to you?”

“We spoke on the phone. I’m Devon Sanders and it’s
about time I get a straight answer about what happened to Julia.”

“She was upset because Chester was divorcing her.”

“You said they were already divorced.”

“I wasn’t divorcing her, you crazy bitch, I loved her!
It was you I wanted to get rid of!”

“You’re a liar!” she screamed.

I closed the door, expecting one of them to make a
run for it. When she grabbed a gold letter opener off the desk, I reacted
automatically; I reached out with my power and grasped control of her mind.
Once I was sure her mind was blank, I took the letter opener.

“What did you do to her?”

“Nothing,” I lied, letting her control return to her
slowly. “Now, Mr. Emerson, you said that your wife believed someone was in the
house. Were you in the house the night of the wreck?” I asked Elena.

“Yes.”

“What were you doing?”

“She asked me to come over.”

“You’re lying!” Emerson argued. “She said that
someone was in the house and she was scared!”

“She shouldn’t have gotten between us!”

“Did you cause her accident?!”

“I had to! She was trying to break us up!”

I reached out with my magic again and took control of
both of them. I hated that I was doing this to non-paranormals, but Emerson was
about to attack and Elena was obviously not entirely sane. “
Calmly
tell
me what you did,” I said.

“Julia likes to drive to the park at night when
Chester is at work to walk off stress, so I hired my brother to wait for her
and shoot her. Everyone gets shot at the park at night all the time, you know?
Nobody would have cared. But the bitch went and got a flat tire. She wouldn’t
go to the park in Chester’s car, so I arranged for my brother to run her down
as soon as I got her out of the house. I didn’t mean for her to die, only to
hurt her. We didn’t know about her condition until afterwards, so my brother
had to get rid of the evidence.”

“And was your brother also the person who paid me a
visit in a white van?”

She sneered again. “You shouldn’t have gotten
involved. Nobody gets between me and Chester.”

At that moment, the door burst open, I let go of
their minds, and two cops entered. “She killed my wife!” Emerson screamed and
lunged at Elena. I shoved him back and he tripped over his chair.

When Elena snatched a fountain pen and tried to stab
me, one of the cops grabbed her and slammed her to the ground. The cop cuffed
her and started dragging her off to his car while she fought and screamed that
he couldn’t take her away from Chester. The second cop questioned Emerson. I
just stood in deep thought and disbelief.

Finally, the cop turned to me. “Now you’re a---”

Without a single thought, I pushed my magic into his
mind. “I wasn’t here.”

He blinked. “Right. Thank you, Mr. Emerson. We’ll be
in touch.” He turned and walked out.

Emerson gaped. “How did you do that?”

“How long was your wife in the hospital?” I asked,
ignoring his question.

“Two days. She had a clotting condition that nobody
knew about until the accident.”

“Oh, right. I forgot about that,” a voice said behind
me. I turned to see Julia. As the surprise in her eyes changed to sorrow, blood
started to spill down her face. “I woke up as the doctor explained that I was
going to die. I heard it, but I couldn’t open my eyes. Maybe I was already
dead. How can you see me?” she asked.

I thought back to Vincent asking me if I developed
any odd powers. That had to be it. It wasn’t the shadow walkers I sensed
watching me; it was the presence of death.

*          *          *

When I reached my apartment door, I took a deep
breath. The fact that I was controlling people more and more told me that my
problem could only escalate. Vincent had taught me to control my visions, but
the only one who could teach me to control my mind powers was killed by my own
hand. With the realization that I could now see dead people, I decided there
was no way I could just go back to my human cases.

I didn’t fit into the human world. I never really
did. In the paranormal world, there were people who could possibly stop me if I
got out of control. Of course, the only person who I knew could stop me was
trapped in another world for all eternity.

I opened the door, stepped inside, and froze.
“Kitten? What are you doing?”

Scott was sitting on the couch, in the dark. He
shrugged. “The people upstairs are fighting again and Daddy is talking to Ms.
Kate.”

I listened for a moment. “You can hear them?”

“The woman said the man is a blow-hole and threw
chocolate milk at him. I heard a glass hit the floor, but it didn’t break
because there was a rug. And they don’t know not to leave the microwave running
with nothing in it. You should warn them before there’s a fire.”

“I’ll do that the next time I see them. You’re pretty
observant.”

“So I can help you and Daddy solve cases?” he asked.

“I’ll discuss it with your dad.”

I saw a few papers scattered out on the table and,
thinking they were drawings, picked them up. They were actually Scott’s legal
documents. Seeing as how he was born in Jamaica and has been in and out of
foster care with a different name, I decided not to look too closely at their
authenticity. Any child who went through as much as Scott had deserved a happy
ending.

The door opened and Henry entered. “Oh, you’re back,”
he said before kissing his son’s forehead. “Do you have a preference for
dinner?”

“No. Did you get everything squared away with Kate?”

“Actually, I did, but not the way we planned.
Remington called me and offered me a teaching job at the children’s school. She
said that I would be teaching control of our beasts, but I would also oversee
the care of all cat shifters in the school. After everything Kitten has been
through, I think staying close would be best for everyone.”

“Did she tell you that she also talked to me?”

“No.”

“She offered me a job as well and I decided to take
it. So I guess I need to give up both the apartment and the office. Maybe
Darwin will want them.”

Henry laughed. “Yes, I can see Darwin living here for
about two days before we wouldn’t be able to get the door open around the
rubbish.” When we first started Quintessence, Henry’s emotions were very
repressed, except during the three days of the full moon, when he had enough
hormones to last someone a month. He had come a long way from that, and most of
it was thanks to Scott.

“I can’t believe we have just gone through so much
and the semester hasn’t even started yet. It feels a little like quitting to
skip out on our fifth semester.”

“I thought so as well, but Remington explained that
we are not the only ones she wants to hire before graduation. Apparently, Hunt
wants to recruit some graduates to the council and Remington wants to beat him
to it. She has a list of us she thinks are good enough that we don’t need to
take the last semester.”

“So… Darwin?”

“He’s going to be a math teacher, I think. Hunt wants
him to teach at the university, but Remington is going to fight for him. Are
you giving up the investigating altogether?”

“No; I’m going to investigate paranormal stuff
throughout the year, especially during the summer break. Since you and Darwin
are going to be there, maybe you two can get in on the action. That is, if
you’re not too busy grading papers.”

“So, it’ll be like nothing has changed.”

I laughed. “I think everything is going to change.
It’s going to be dangerous, exhausting, weird, and probably a lot of fun.”

1985,
Dothra

In a crumbling house, in the middle of an abandoned
neighborhood that was overrun by vermin, the cries of a baby broke the silence.
The baby was alone in a dark bedroom. It was a dingy-looking place with holes
in the walls and a dirt floor. The only furniture was a broken crib. It was
broken for the same reason everything else was broken; time had decayed the
entire world. A miniscule amount of light spilled in through the only window,
which was tiny and very high in the north wall.

An alarm rang in the distance, though it was barely
heard over the baby. After a minute or so, a woman with long black hair and
dark red eyes burst through the door and tried to comfort her baby. The little
girl was barely old enough to sit up on her own. She reached for her mother,
who picked her up and tried to quiet her.

The baby wouldn’t be quieted.

The door opened again and Keigan Langril swaggered
into the house with all the confidence of a lion who just vanquished his rival.
Only, he hadn’t just killed his rival, not yet. He was drawn to the cries of
the infant girl.

“Don’t you know what the alarm means, Tes?”

“It means you’re culling the weak.”

“Precisely. Only, I have something a little different
in mind today. I’m here for the little girl. That means, if you hand her over,
you get to live.”

She set the girl down in the crib. “I’m not giving
her up. I took her from her father because he tried to kill her. I’m not
letting you have her.”

He smirked. “What’s her name?”

“Astrid.”

“Her
real
name. You owe me, Tes.”

She hesitated. “Austoria. Our deal was for me, not
her.”

“You belong to me, Tes, and that means your children
belong to me. That was the circumstance of your deal with Lystan. You don’t
have a choice. Besides, I’m giving her a better life. I don’t want her father to
kill her, either. I am going to take her to another world, where she will live
a long and happy life, where her father can’t get to her.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t care what you believe.” He flicked his wrist
and the woman froze. Langril walked right up to the crib and picked up the
baby, unconcerned with the hate in the woman’s eyes. She couldn’t even scream
at him. Instead, she could only cry as he took the baby. “I need to get you a
blanket before our trip,” he said softly.

The little girl stopped crying and gazed up at him
with curiosity. When she opened her mouth, there were two tiny vampire fangs.

“Are you hungry?” he asked as if she was precious. He
pressed his wrist to her mouth and she bit him. “Good girl. You’ll be very
useful to me some day. I don’t know how yet, but you will definitely be
useful.”

Shadows swarmed him and the baby in his arms. The
instant they were gone, the woman unfroze. She collapsed to her knees and
cried. Krechea appeared as suddenly as Langril had disappeared. “Where is my
daughter?” he growled, glaring at the empty crib.

“The shadow master took her.”