Elemental Air (Paranormal Public Series) (12 page)

Lanca snorted, looking amused.
“That’s what I asked him.”

Lanca’s personal bodyguard
smiled. “I spent years in the field,” he explained. “I spent years tracking
criminals. You don’t have the luxury of choosing when you sleep. You just stock
up and make do.”

“I wish I could do that,” sighed
Lanca, covering another yawn. “Where’s Sip? I want some of her fabulous tea.”

“Next time, say that when
Lisabelle can hear you,” Sip suggested, coming downstairs. “She just doesn’t
understand.”

“What happened at the meeting
last night?” I burst out, unable to contain my curiosity any longer.

Lanca gave me a long look and
sighed. “I’ll tell you when Lough and Lisabelle get here. I want everyone to
hear.”

Sip handed Lanca her tea and sped
back upstairs. Lanca laughed when she figured out where she was going.

“Of course she did,” Lanca
murmured, taking a sip.

Lisabelle came down looking like
Vital, completely rested and ready to go. Lough was yawning and still in his
pajamas, Sip’s hand firmly around his arm. He went straight to the couch and
curled up on one end, resting his head on his arm.

“Don’t worry,” he said with his
eyes closed. “I’m listening. I have every confidence that that wretched cat
will make sure I stay awake.”

Bartholem had trailed Lisabelle
down the stairs and was now sitting by the empty fire pit. He blinked his
purple eyes but didn’t acknowledge Lough in any way.

“So, what happened?” Lisabelle
asked, folding her arms over her chest.

“Caid’s advisors want him to
declare war on the Nocturns. That would allow him to have exceptional powers as
president and to make decisions unilaterally that usually require a vote.”

My breath caught. Maybe that was
why Caid had wanted the Nocturns to pretend to attack him, so that he could
seize power.

“But?” Lisabelle asked.

Lanca shook her head. “He
deferred the decision. He said he didn’t want to declare war just yet; he
thinks negotiation is still possible.”

Lisabelle snorted. “Yeah, right.
You can’t negotiate with demons.”

“Or darkness mages. I mean,
Nocturns,” Sip said with a smile.

“Lisabelle’s right,” said Vital.
In public he was Lanca’s silent guardian, but in private he spoke as an equal.
I thought it was a good decision on Lanca’s part to allow him to do so. If she
trusted him with her life, she might as well trust his words as well.

I frowned. “So, we still aren’t at
war against the Nocturns and Caid still can’t help us? Won’t he be seen as
weak?”

“He says he was voted in with
confidence and his judgment should be trusted,” said Lanca, taking another long
sip of tea.

“Trusted,” said Lisabelle. “Sure
thing.”

We hadn’t told Lanca what we had
seen the day before. I wasn’t sure what her obligations were to report to her
advisors, and although I knew she was willing to go her own way on many
matters, it just seemed like we should avoid burdening her unnecessarily. Everyone
else must have agreed with me, because no one spoke up to tell her about what
we had seen the day before.

Soon, Lanca and Vital had to
return to Vampire Locke. Vital explained that although no attempts had yet been
made to take the Blood Throne from Lanca, he was worried that it was only a
matter of time. With that in mind, they had to get back.

“I’ll see you again soon,” she
murmured. “You have no idea how nice it is to be among friends again. I always
valued loyalty, but now I think it might be the most important thing in the
world.”

Once we said our goodbyes, we
ourselves had to pack. There wasn’t much time before the caravan traveling back
to Public was set to depart.

“I wish Lanca was still at
Public,” said Keller. “She always sees difficulties so clearly.”

“She has enough going on at
Locke,” said Lisabelle. “We probably won’t be seeing her again for a while.”

Soon we all set out to walk
together from our cabin to the president’s main house. The place was deserted,
but I was impressed with how clean it was. Caid’s employees must have spent all
night clearing away the mess. I didn’t envy them. After the demon display, I
had desperately wanted to just get inside and stay there.

In front of the house, where
Dacer and I had driven up not so very long ago, there was a skeleton group of
paranormals ready to depart. Dacer’s black car was still there, and I wondered
if he was going back with us or staying for a while longer with Caid.

Lough was the first to spot the
trouble and let out a groan. “Oh no,” he said.

Standing there waiting for us was
Camilla Van Rothson. She was a pixie who was a year ahead of us at Public, but
there were whispers that she was about to have her progress toward graduation
slowed down because of her persistent bad behavior. I hadn’t seen her at the
party the night before, and I had been glad of it. But now, there she stood,
waiting next to the black bus parked in front of the house, looking for all the
world as though she was going to travel with us. Trafton was standing nearby,
but they weren’t speaking. He and Rake were talking quietly to each other, and
Camilla was talking, softly and fast, to her best friend and fellow pixie, Kia.

Camilla was gorgeous, I would
give her that. She had long blond hair, large brown eyes, and only a slight
tint of green skin. If she had been a decent paranormal it wouldn’t have
surprised me at all that Cale had dated her for so long.

When Camilla spotted us she
looked furious. Her hands gripped her bag for dear life and her eyes grew huge,
but she didn’t say a word.

Also waiting for us were Dove,
Oliva, and to my great horror Zervos, who was standing there talking to the
other professors.

“Maybe he isn’t going,” said
Lough hopefully. “Maybe he’s just giving them directions.”

“Maybe the demons came by last
night to wish Caid a happy birthday,” said Lisabelle. “Sure.”

“We ready to go?” Oliva asked
jovially, striding over to us. “We’re driving. It shouldn’t take very long,
maybe three hours by bus. We don’t want to attract suspicion by traveling in
too large a group anyhow. We were going to take cars, but now I think just one
bus would be best. Then we can all be together.”

Oliva had been on the committee
that had run Public for a while after President Malle had been revealed as a
leader of darkness. He was much younger than the rest of the committee, and he
had spent a semester pretending to be a student. At that time, when he called
himself Lealand, he had befriended me and my group. Although we were still on
friendly terms, none of us had ever entirely forgiven him for the deception.

“Can I say something sarcastic
about togetherness?” Lisabelle asked Sip.

“I thought you didn’t like things
to be too easy,” Sip said. “What’s the fun if it’s not a challenge?”

Lisabelle sighed. “Good point. It
would have been funny, though.”

Sip patted her friend’s arm
comfortingly. “Of course it would.”

Just as we were ready to get on
the bus, the door to President Caid’s house swung open. Dacer came out first,
followed by Saferous and Caid himself. All three men looked tired, but Dacer
was still his usual self. There was a spring in his step and he gave us a
smile, clasping his hands together.

“I must say,” he said, coming up
to us, “there was a blip last night, but all in all a lovely visit. I got a lot
of ideas for how to finish designing the new Museum.”

Dacer had flat out refused to let
the Museum stay in the Long Building, “Where it was unused and unloved,” he had
insisted. A structure to replace the ruined Tower was being built in the center
of campus, and if the schedule was followed, the building would be completed by
the end of my junior year.

I had hoped that Dacer would be
going back with us, but he obviously wasn’t. He wore only three colors and
minimal make-up; clearly he wasn’t in a traveling outfit yet.

Keller slid his hand through mine
and squeezed, and I smiled at him. He always could tell when I was feeling a
little down, and he always knew how to cheer me up.

“Thank you for visiting,” said
President Caid, beaming at us. “I’m sorry last evening was interrupted in that
way.”

“Thank you for having us,” I said
quickly. “The food was amazing and this place is beautiful.”

Caid’s smile grew. “You will have
to come again soon.”

Dacer fidgeted a little but said
nothing.

Saferous stood there, tall and
statuesque, then looked at Keller and said, “Mr. Erikson, I expect great things
in your coming senior year.” He reached out to touch his hand to Keller. As
with vampires kneeling to their royalty, it was a sign of respect, and Keller
returned the gesture.

“Oliva, thank you for visiting,”
Caid said. Stretching out his hand to the young pixie, he shook it warmly.

“Thank you, sir,” Olive said,
nodding. “I hope to do everyone proud. I am honored for the opportunity.”

Dove and Zervos both exchanged
angry glances. I raised my eyebrows at Lisabelle, but she just shrugged.
Apparently she didn’t know what was going on either.

It didn’t take long to finish the
goodbyes and get on the bus. Camilla and Kia sat up front, as far away as
possible from my little group of friends, who gathered in the back. Sip
instantly opened a book and Keller did the same, while Lisabelle started doing
little black magic tricks with her hands, which were behind the seats where the
senior paranormals up front couldn’t see them.

With Dove driving, the bus slowly
made its way out of the woods. It was a rainy day and I was glad to be under
cover, especially since the forecasts were for worse and worse weather as the
day wore on. Hopefully we would be at Public and not still driving when
thunderstorms started.

The quiet rocking of the bus and
the rain pattering on the windows were oddly comforting as I pulled out my own
book, the one about Queen Ashray, and started to read. Junior year at Public
was famously difficult, and after today I probably wouldn’t have a chance to
read about Queen Ashray for a long time, so I had to take advantage of the
chance while I could. I was in the middle of a chapter about how she had helped
reform the marriage laws so that different types of paranormals were allowed to
wed each other when Camilla’s voice interrupted the quiet ride.

“Darkness calls to darkness,
doesn’t it?” Camilla asked nastily. She was standing in the aisle, having just
made her way back from the bathroom. Kia had come to join her. “Maybe Lisabelle
summoned them,” she finished, with a hateful twist of satisfaction.

The pixie was obviously looking
for a fight. Her hands were clenched at her sides and she was glaring at us
malevolently.

Lisabelle lunged so fast that
there was no way I could stop her. But Sip seemed to be expecting something
dramatic and managed to grab Lisabelle’s arm - her wand arm - to slow her down.
I knew as well as Sip that a fight would do no one any good, so I nearly
tumbled out of my seat to get between Camilla and Lisabelle.

“You brought those demons there
last night, didn’t you?” she rasped. “You put all our lives at risk.”

“I seem to remember you having no
problem with Malle challenging the paranormals,” Lisabelle spat. “You brought
them there more surely than I did.”

“Malle is a visionary,” said
Camilla, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “Uncontrolled demons are
different. They are dangerous to the point of killing us.”

“You want her dead,” said
Lisabelle, pointing her chin at me.

“Doesn’t everyone?” Camilla
asked.

“Not your boyfriend,” said
Lisabelle smugly. She covered her mouth in mock surprise. “Oh wait, didn’t he
dump you? Make that ex-boyfriend, then.”

It was too much for Camilla. With
a high-pitched screech and hands outstretched, she lunged for Lisabelle. Kia
tried desperately to stop her, but the little pixie was no match for her
friend’s frenzy.

I hunched my shoulder just as
Camilla was about to slam into me. Instead of attacking me, she froze. A
sprinkling of dust floated around her and made her stand rigid. Her eyes glazed
over and she looked straight ahead, as if she was under a spell. Kia gave a
huge sigh of relief and we all looked toward the front of the bus.

“Geez,” said Lisabelle. “I really
wanted to get in the one about Cale hanging out with Charlotte, too.”

Oliva was coming down the isle,
looking more furious than I had ever seen him.

“What is this?” he demanded.
“Fighting on the bus to Public? Are you all children? Can’t you even get
through a three-hour bus ride without a battle? No one here is the enemy.”

Lough looked like he was about to
say something, but Oliva held up his hand. “There’s going to be a new president
of Public,” he said, his eyes sparking. “I’ll let him deal with this. If anyone
else so much as whispers an insult before we get to campus, I’ll see you
expelled.” With that he turned on his heel and walked away.