Elemental Air (Paranormal Public Series) (30 page)

“There are many ways to show
love,” said Dacer. “There are many ways to show that you care for another.
Giving flowers is common, of course, but there is no more clear, more vital way
for love to come forth than when one friend steps in front of another and says:
you are not going to hurt her, not today, not on my watch. I think you have all
shown your love to Public, and to the cause of keeping paranormals safe, by
working so hard and showing up here tonight.”

“We’re loyal,” said Lisabelle,
shrugging. Dacer nodded approvingly.

“Loyalty,” I said. “It always
comes back to that.”

“It always will,” he said. “More
important than love and stronger than hate. Just remember that the next time
you have to choose where to stand, and when you look to see who is standing in
front of you.”

Here we were at a party, and all
of a sudden we were discussing the differences between good and evil. With that
encouragement, I finally couldn’t help myself. I had kept my peace about Martha
all semester, knowing that with the demon attacks coming every other day we had
bigger and more immediate problems to worry about, but I couldn’t keep silent
any longer. It was just too unfair.

“You know,” I said. “Not all of
this applies. I mean, supposedly Martha is good, but she just acts so evil.”

Dacer raised his blue-painted
eyebrows. He had said it was a new fashion thing he was trying. Lisabelle
thought he looked eternally bug-eyed, but I kind of liked the flash of color.
“Is she a character in one of the books you’re reading for class?”

My irritation increased. He could
at least bother to remember her name.

“Seriously?” I said. “I would
have thought you’d have had some hand in choosing her.” I couldn’t keep the
bitterness out of my voice. With all of her talk of protecting Public, she had
made my semester significantly harder.

“Charlotte, my dear, whatever are
you talking about?” said Dacer, gently placing his plate and fork down on the
table.

“Martha,” I repeated, as if he
was slow. “My dorm mother. The woman who has been living with me in Astra all
semester. Let me tell you, Dacer, I don’t think it’s fair. She’s awful. Like, I
know she sits there and says that giving me a curfew and making me sleep in a
different room and being mean to Sigil are all for the good of Astra, but I
think it’s seriously out of whack. I got along perfectly with Mrs. Swan, but
the fact that she’s gone doesn’t mean I should have to get a new dorm mother
like the one I was landed with.”

I took a deep breath, surprised
by the depth of my own anger. I had barely looked at Dacer while I ranted, but
now I glanced at him from beneath my eyelashes.

Dacer stared at me, his face
ashen under his makeup. Finally he managed to say, “Charlotte, you don’t have a
dorm mother.”

“That’s silly,” I said nervously.
“Martha’s been there all semester.”

“Martha?” Dacer asked, his voice
quiet and filled with menace. He braced his hands on my shoulders and met my
eyes. “Has she hurt you? Did she ask you to wear any jewelry. What has she DONE
to you? Tell me everything.”

I was starting to panic. “Dacer,
I don’t know,” I nearly wailed. “She’s just my dorm mother. She was there when
I got home from summer break. She was baking. She told Sigil and me we had to
follow lots of rules and that if we didn’t there would be consequences. She
looks like an nice, old granny.”

Dacer frowned. What I was saying
had clearly come as a complete surprise as far as he was concerned.

“Are you sure she isn’t a ghost
or a water sprite?” he demanded. “What about a Conjurer?”

“I don’t know if she’s a
Conjurer,” I said angrily. “I don’t even know what that is.”

“Dacer,” said Sip nervously.
“Lisabelle and I met her too. Don’t you think we would have felt something if
she was darkness?”

Dacer sat back from me and
straightened up, pursing his lips.

“I would have thought so,” he
said. “The problem is that there are all kinds of hostile paranormals who don’t
have darkness in them. Look at the pixies. Even if Oliva and Korba and your
Cale” - he pointed to me - “are on our side, those like Ms. Van Rothson and her
little friend are surely not.”

“Caid has been working hard all
year trying to get as many of the other paranormal types on our side as
possible,” Lisabelle said. “He’s just been doing it under the radar.”

“He needed time,” said Dacer
softly, supporting his old friend. “He needed to prove that the demons were, in
fact, a threat.”

“Like we needed proof of that,” I
muttered.

“Some needed more proof than
others,” said Dacer. “But back to this Martha. Charlotte, the committee
determined that you didn’t need a chaperone this year. You handled yourself
just fine last semester without any help, and they had planned to leave you to
your own devices. Whoever this Martha is, she does not belong in Astra with
you. I’m afraid you’re in danger.”

“I’m pretty sure she thinks she
belongs,” said Lisabelle. “In fact, I’m pretty sure she thinks she owns the
place.”

“She’s had plenty of
opportunities to kill me and she hasn’t,” I said thoughtfully. “Maybe she’s not
bad?”

“Who do you think she is, then?”
Lisabelle mused. The look on my friend’s face was making me nervous; it was
like she was thinking of a particularly delicious meal. I had noticed her eyes
light up like that before, always when she was about to get in a fight. So, you
know, often.

“Martha must be a member of the
Sign of Six,” I breathed. “It seems unlikely that she creeps around campus late
at night, but who knows. She might be more agile than she looks.”

“If I tell you one thing I will
tell you this. Martha is most definitely not a member of the Sign of Six,” said
Sip, her eyes hard.

Before I had a chance to ask her
how she could be so sure, we were interrupted by Lough and Keller returning to
the table.

“Hi,” said Lough, grinning
happily. “This food looks delicious.”

“Hungry much?” I teased Lough as
I watched him tackle yet more food.

“We’re guys,” said Lough, popping
something that looked like chocolate into his mouth. “We’re always hungry. This
is my third plate. I still haven’t gotten to that whole wall, either,” he said,
pointing to the food tables off to our right.

I was about to ask Sip about
Martha when I noticed that Lough suddenly looked upset.

He pointed to one of the long
tables, then gasped as his finger started to shake.

We all looked, just as the gala
erupted in screams.

“Oh, look,” said Lisabelle,
“demons.”

Sip jumped up so fast that her
chair went flying backwards. “How dare you ruin my party?” she yelled, shoving
her hands onto her hips.

“Sip, I hate to break it to you,
but these aren’t some students you can intimidate with your short stature,
sweet personality, and solid sense of humor,” said Lisabelle.

“None of those things sound
intimidating,” said Trafton.

“You don’t say so?” Lisabelle
muttered. “On the bright side, we don’t have to listen to Caid’s speech.”

“It always amazes me how you can
have these casual conversations right in the middle of an attack,” said Trafton.

He had a point.

The gala was in chaos. Demons
weren’t pouring in through the front of the tent, they were burning through it
from all sides.

Smoke was making it hard to see
as professors and a few of the older students started to fight back.

The demons just kept coming.

“There are hundreds,” I cried.

“Damn the Sign of Six!” I heard
Caid yell as his bodyguards hustled him out.

I looked for Dacer, but he had
disappeared from sight. They must be taking Caid to Oliva’s house and garden, I
thought, which was away from the center of campus, and at this point as safe as
anywhere. Oliva’s pixie powers would be strong there. Caid would want to stay
and fight, but he was too important. A skeleton crew of senior paranormals
would probably go with him for protection, but many were needed here. I felt
horrible when I realized that I hoped Dacer would go with Caid.

“This also means we’re missing
the dragon show,” Lisabelle mused sadly.

“Lisabelle,” Lough said sharply.
It was a tone I rarely heard him use, and never with the darkness mage. “This
is serious. Can’t you be serious for once? Lives over entertainment!”

Lisabelle drew herself up,
becoming darker and more shadowy. Through her clothes, her arm started to
shimmer. Power radiated off of her.

“Yeah,” she said, “I can take it
seriously. Keller? What do you think?”

“We should scatter,” he said.
“Each get back to our dorms. It must be Oliva and Caid they want, and, well,
Charlotte.”

“We should all stay with
Charlotte,” said Lough quickly. “We can’t leave her.”

“You’re safer without me,” I
said. “Anyone who comes near me is in danger.”

At that moment, one demon broke
off from the swirl of burning, black power that was surging around the tent and
darted straight for us. I felt Keller start to move to protect me, but
Lisabelle was faster. In an instant she went from bored partygoer to powerful
darkness mage. She stood up, her back razor straight and her eyes blazing. Her
arm shot out and I saw a pulse of power that burned away the sleeve of her
pretty new dress. She didn’t care. The demon turned to ice and dropped to the
floor, shattering into a million pieces. All around us the paranormals stared
at Lisabelle with a newfound respect.

“You’d think they’d never seen a
demon destroyed before,” said Lisabelle, shaking her head. “I think Keller’s
right. The demons won’t know where Charlotte has gone, whereas if we all stay
with her they’ll be able to track us. We can lead them away from her and
confuse them.”

“You think they’ll come after all
of us?” Trafton asked.

Lisabelle shrugged. “I think Rake
goes to Cruor, we go to Airlee, Keller goes to Aurum, and Charlotte goes to
Astra. The professors and Caid are going to hole up at Oliva’s. Charlotte,
Sigil is at Astra, if you need help get him. He’s not nearly as fragile as he acts.”

“He’s a ghost,” said Lough,
kicking away a piece of demon ice. “He isn’t fragile at all.”

“I don’t like leaving Charlotte
alone,” said Keller.

“He’s right,” said Rake,
stumbling up. “What if the Sign of Six go after her?”

“Or, you know, the demons,” said
Lisabelle, taking in the scene with a wave of her hand. When power started to
shimmer up her arm Sip grabbed her. “Please don’t do that casually.”

“The Sign of Six is a myth,”
Lough argued. “What would they want with Charlotte?”

“Unlimited power in the
paranormal world, just like every other paranormal group. Other than that I
can’t think of much,” said Lisabelle.

“I’ll take Charlotte to Astra,”
said Lough. “They won’t be expecting her to be alone with me. The rest of you
go to your dorms.”

“Think the demons will
accidentally trample Faci and Daisy? Maybe Camilla too,” said Lisabelle
dreamily. “I mean, I’d like my shot at them, but I’m not opposed to others
doing the heavy lifting.”

“You already got your way in that
Caid isn’t giving a speech,” said Sip coldly. “I don’t think you’ll be that
lucky twice.”

Lisabelle shrugged. “A girl can
dream.”

“Most girls dream of diamonds,”
said Keller. “Let’s go.”

The gala was already clearing.
Professors, including Professor Erikson, were trying desperately to get students
to safety while fighting off the demons at the same time. Keller spared one
look at his aunt, but she waved him on ahead. I had to give it to Professor
Erikson, she loved her nephew more than anything. Besides, she was a very
powerful fallen angel. She would have no trouble keeping herself safe on
Public’s own grounds.

“Let’s go,” said Lough, beckoning
me to follow him.

I nodded, but grabbed Keller’s
hand before I went. I pulled the surprised fallen angel to me and kissed him
fiercely. It wasn’t a long kiss, but I got my point across.

“Take care of yourself,” I
whispered.

He nodded and rubbed his thumb
across my cheek. “You too,” he said, his eyes bright.

“I’ll take care of myself, too,”
Lisabelle chimed in. “In case anyone was wondering.”

“We all know that, Belle,” said
Sip dryly. She grabbed one of the beautiful silver plates on the table and
threw it, disc like, at an oncoming demon. It just sailed through it, but it
did force the monster to change course and smash into a wall.

“My turn,” said Lisabelle,
stepping into the middle of our group and taking a deep breath. “Look, we all
have to stay safe. It’s not about any mushy emotions or because we care about
each other. We’re all important to the cause of resisting the darkness. Love
makes you weak, but loyalty is the glue that holds us together.”