Elemental Air (Paranormal Public Series) (9 page)

Everyone wore his or her finest.

The paths, normally just well
trodden forest floor, had been sprinkled with white stones and pebbles.

“This is pretty,” said Sip
happily. “I wonder if Lough laid the stones.”

“I sure did,” said Lough, coming
up to us and grinning broadly. He was in gray dress pants and a light blue
button down shirt. He also wore a silver flower in the top buttonhole of a long
blue jacket.

“You clean up nice,” said Sip
approvingly. “I had no idea.”

Lough grinned. “It’s dream giver
garb.”

“So, Trafton will wear something
like that too?” Lisabelle asked, eyeing Lough.

Lough growled. “Uh huh. He is,”
he said reluctantly.

“He’s here already?” I asked. “I
had no idea.”

“Yeah,” said Lough. “He’s talking
to Rake.”

“Rake’s here?” Sip chirped.

“Why are you happy to see that
vampire lug?” Lisabelle asked.

“That vampire lug has saved your
life numerous time,” said Rake, walking along the path. Trafton was behind him.

“Ladies,” Rake greeted us. “You
all look wonderful.”

“Hey, thanks,” said Sip, blushing
a rosy shade of red.

“Flattery will get you nowhere,”
said Lisabelle, waving dismissively at both young men as she brushed past them.

“Yeah, we noticed,” said Trafton
dryly.

“I have a couple of paranormals
to find,” said Lisabelle, ignoring him.

Trafton stepped up to me,
smiling. He was dressed similarly to Lough, only his pants and jacket were
silver and he wore sandals instead of dress shoes. As usual, he looked
beautiful. His curly blond hair, worn a little longer than most of the other
guys at Public kept theirs, was perfectly messy.

He watched Lisabelle walk away.
“I just wanted to say hi,” he said plaintively.

“I’m sure she’ll let you talk to
her later,” said Sip comfortingly. “In five or six years, maybe.”

Trafton shrugged. “I can’t
believe there are faeries here,” he said, changing the subject. It was a good
thing, since Lough looked like he was about to explode.

Be careful of the darkness. The
darkness is careful of you.

Darkness calls to darkness. I
remembered the dream I had, all the way back during my Starter year, in which
Lisabelle had killed our friends, and I flinched. It was just a dream. Just
because I had lived some of dreams after I had them did not mean I would live
that one. I already hadn’t.

“Are the faeries here?” Sip asked
excitedly, scanning the spacious grounds.

“Yes,” said Trafton with
amusement.

“Wow,” said Sip reverently. “Any
paranormal who isn’t a fan of the pixies is a friend of mine. Did you know
they’re on good terms with dragons?”

By this time we had arrived in
Caid’s large back yard. There were now white chairs and tables everywhere, with
a space cleared right next to the water for dancing. Immediately in front of
that space was one long table, where I assumed Caid would preside over the
dinner that Dacer had spent all day helping to prepare.

“Charlotte Rollins?”

An important-looking man wearing
a large gray hat and topcoat and holding a black cane bustled over to me. He
was as round as he was tall and had a jovial air about him.

“Yes?” I said, unsure of how to
respond to this stranger. My friends were busy greeting other paranormals;
Caid’s party was packed. It seemed that all the students of Public, plus their
families, plus any other paranormals within reach, were already there.

“I’m Michael Mound,” said the
stranger, stretching out a hand. My first thought, which was horrible, was that
I’d never seen such a fat pixie.

I felt like a ton of bricks had
fallen on my head. This was the man who had spent semesters terrorizing me in
the paranormal daily news, the Tabble, and here he was, stretching out his hand
and smiling at me for all the world as if we were friends, while all I could do
was stare stupidly at him.

He raised his eyebrows
questioningly at me. This was one of those times when I wished I could be
Lisabelle. Her perfect timing for biting remarks would have come in handy with
this guy.

Suddenly, a light bulb went off
in my head. “I wish I could say it was nice to meet you,” I told him honestly.

To my great surprise, for I
thought I’d achieved a pretty good zinger, at least for me, Mound threw back
his head and laughed.

“I heard you ran with a smart
crowd,” he said, shaking his head.

“You spy on me?” I asked
suspiciously, giving him a hard look. I wouldn’t put it past him. Some of the
stuff he had printed in the past year he could only have known if he talked to
other students on campus.

“My dear, that’s such a vulgar
term,” he said, waving me off.

“Not if it’s true,” I said.

“As the only elemental, you should
expect a certain amount of press,” he chided me.

“Besides,” he said, “I keep the
paranormal public interested, if you’ll excuse the pun.” Again he threw back
his head and laughed at his own joke. Amazingly, he managed to accomplish this
without spilling the large glass of red wine he was clutching.

“How was your summer?” he asked.
“See any demons?”

I instantly bristled. Until this
morning I hadn’t, but he couldn’t possibly know that. Trying for lightness I
said, “It was great. Warm weather all along, and now I’m back with my friends.”

“Hum, yes,” said Mound. “You
didn’t see them over the summer?”

“I’m sorry, but why are you
asking?” I didn’t like this man, and from his articles he didn’t like me. He
was fishing for something, and I was determined not to help him find it.

But before he could say anything
else, the most wonderful thing in the world happened.

I saw Keller walking toward me.

My eyes went to him by instinct,
even though he was dressed casually in a button down, with an open black jacket
and nice looking slacks. Our eyes locked and his face lit up. I was sure that
mine was doing the same.

Mound followed my eyes to Keller.

“Ah, still with the fallen angel,
are you?” Mound muttered. “I wonder why the young always wish pain on
themselves.” He shook his head and raised his glass to my boyfriend, whose
smile slipped a little when he caught sight of who I was talking to.

“You should be more careful of
the darkness,” Mound muttered in my ear as wine from his breath wafted into my
nostrils. “The darkness is careful of you.”

I gave him a sharp look, but he
seemed serious. “And you’d do well to be nice to me. The more friends you have
in powerful places, the better off you will be.” I thought about taking issue
with his assertion that he was in a position of extreme power, but after a
moment of reflection I thought better of it and said nothing.

I didn’t want to let on that I
didn’t know what he was talking about, so I just turned away and walked, well,
basically ran, into Keller’s outstretched arms.

I had no idea what anyone else
was thinking or doing at the party as Keller enfolded me into his arms. I
nearly tipped him backward as my nose slammed into his shoulder in my effort to
snuggle as close as possible.

He chuckled. “You’re going to
force me to use my wings for balance,” he murmured warmly in my ear. “How are
you, heart-sweet?” It was his special nickname for me. He didn’t use it often,
which I liked. If he had used it all the time it wouldn’t have felt so special.

“I’m good,” I said, my voice muffled
by his shirt. “Better now.”

“Um,” said Keller, resting his
chin on the top of my head as he lightly laced his fingers around my waist. “My
heart-sweet.”

I rubbed my nose against the base
of his throat. I knew there was a huge grin on my face.

“Now now, you two, stop it with
the public displays of affection,” Lisabelle drawled from nearby. Keller lifted
his chin from my head but I didn’t budge.

“What’s the matter, Lisabelle?
Don’t want to hang out with people who like each other?” he teased.

“Exactly,” said Lisabelle,
nodding her head in confirmation. “It’s just embarrassing.”

“You could always get a
boyfriend,” Keller suggested. “You might like it.”

Lisabelle paused for a breath. I
couldn’t see her, but I braced myself for whatever she was about to say. “I
would like having someone to order around,” she said thoughtfully.

“Is that the relationship you
think Charlotte and I have?” Keller asked, nearly choking on his amusement.

“No,” said Lisabelle, “but the
kind of relationship you and Charlotte have is filled with love and affection.
As I said, embarrassing.” I could feel Keller’s stomach shake with laughter.

“They want us to find our
tables,” she said, tapping me on the shoulder. I groaned. Keller’s family
wasn’t there. I STILL hadn’t met them, but that just meant he’d be seated with
his aunt. Professor Erikson was there, along with the other committee members
who had run Public for a year, except for Risper, Lisabelle’s uncle, who was
still MIA. He had gone off to find the artifacts on the Wheel, and no one had
heard from him since. Lisabelle had tried to get in touch, but she hadn’t had
any luck.

“I’ve heard they have several
announcements for Public when we get back,” Keller commented. “I wonder what
they have up their sleeve.”

I shrugged. “It can’t be as bad
as last semester.”

Reluctantly I pulled back from
him, knowing that if we didn’t do it ourselves Lisabelle would pull us apart
anyway. She hated it when we were “mushy.”

“We need a new president,” said
Lisabelle thoughtfully. “They can’t possibly want to go back to having the
committee members run the show. At least not without Uncle.”

“Have you heard anything?” Keller
asked, scanning the dais. Besides the main table, there was a smaller table in
front. Keller pointed and said, “I’m sitting there, by the way, in case you
need me.” I nodded and linked hands with him, wanting the contact until he
left.

“I haven’t heard anything,” said
Lisabelle. “I expect I won’t until he finds something he wants to share.”

“We could use him back at
Public,” I said. “Especially if the committee is in charge again.”

Among the committee members,
Oliva was decent enough. He was young and probably the nicest pixie I had come
across, besides my old crush Cale.. Of course, Cale wasn’t there. He wasn’t
from an important family, and he and his girlfriend, Camilla Van Rothson, had
broken up last semester, something about him realizing that she was a terrible
paranormal. Ever since then he’d had a lot more time and been a lot more
friendly. I was glad, even if there were really no traces of my crush left. Now
that he was entering the Police Academy, it didn’t matter any more anyhow.

Keller gave me a warm kiss and
told me he’d see me later. I watched him walk away until Lisabelle made a
disgusted noise and grabbed my arm to drag me away. I grinned and let her,
enjoying the tingling sensation I felt all the way down to my toes.

It wasn’t hard to find our table,
since Sip, Lough, Trafton, and Rake were already there. As Lisabelle and I took
our places, I looked to the high table. From Caid to Saferous to the faeries to
Dacer, I had never seen so much paranormal power in one place, even at Queen
Lanca’s coronation.

Our tables had small decorations
of white flowers, and the shining silverware gleamed in the light of the
candles that sat at the center of each table.

Caid was standing near the main
table talking to a paranormal I didn’t recognize, a man who was dressed all in
black with a shaved head and a beakish nose, presumably a vampire. From the
insignia on his clothing, he was a Rapier vampire, and if the Rapiers were
here, that could mean only one thing. . . .

“Hi all,” came Lanca’s soft voice
from behind me. Sip gave a cry of joy and jumped to her feet. Lough smiled and
waved, as did Trafton, who didn’t know Lanca as well as the rest of us did but
who seemed happy to see her anyhow. Rake, who as a vampire owed Lanca a deep
show of respect, got up from his seat so that he could kneel to her.

She looked gorgeous. Her long
black hair was in a million braids and plaits that were wound around her head,
almost like a crown, except that I could see that the hair was perfectly placed
so as to hold the actual crown she was wearing. It was black, with tiny black
jewels, delicate and beautiful just like its wearer, with her pale skin, small nose,
black eyes, and red lips. She was just about the most gorgeous paranormal I had
ever seen.

The vampire queen had admonished
all of us in a letter to treat her as a friend and not as a queen, so I felt
perfectly comfortable standing up and giving her a warm hug. “If you bow, I
will sic Vital on you,” her threat had been. I had a feeling he didn’t know she
had said that, but he would probably do it. He would do anything for his queen