Read Hungry Earth (Elemental Book 2) Online
Authors: Rain Oxford
Vincent winced. “Devon, you inherited your psychic
powers from John, and they were so obvious. Thus, we assumed you only had that
power. Unfortunately, my father had two incredibly powerful psychic abilities.
One of which, the mind control, John got. The other is what I got, which is the
ability to have visions. I can see things through another’s eyes or even see
the future.”
“So I got both?”
“I’m afraid so. Fortunately, I can help you learn to
control it through exercises of concentration.”
It was sunset on the day after the golem battle and
we were sitting in the same classroom where Tanaka-sensei had our focusing
training. The rest of the students had already started on rebuilding the dorms.
“Say, for example, that you had a plastic apple
sitting on your desk. Every time you picked up this apple, you thought of a
purple monkey. You focus on this monkey every single time. Eventually, you will
get to the point that if you pick up the apple, you cannot
not
think of
the purple monkey.”
“Why would you use an apple in your example when
monkeys like bananas?” I asked.
“Because they’re purple monkeys, and everyone knows
purple monkeys only eat plastic apples.”
Okay, so my uncle has a sense of humor. Good to
know.
“Then what eats plastic bananas?”
“Blue baboons.”
Or he’s entirely insane.
“The purpose of this training is to create an on/off
switch for your power. Without it, the power can suck the life out of you.
First, you must be able to induce a vision. It doesn’t have to be anything
serious. I’m going to give you a playing card, which belongs to one of your
classmates. By the end of this exercise, you will be able to tell me who it
belonged to and how they got it.”
He gave me the playing card and told me to start
daydreaming. I was instructed to daydream about someone walking into a store
and buying a card. He told me not to imagine any specific kind of store, any
names, or any faces. I didn’t even imagine a specific card. While I daydreamed,
however, I held it in my hand. For the purpose of not influencing the vision, I
didn’t look at it.
At first, it was really boring because I had to keep
replaying the daydream over and over. Then, after the twentieth or so time, I
realized the scene was getting clearer. Things appeared on the shelves that I
hadn’t pictured before. A few scenes later, I saw the name of the pawnshop.
Everything came together quickly after that. It was a woman named Amanda; a fox
shifter who was looking for a birthday present for her brother.
Too late, I realized my two powers had crossed paths;
I was reading her mind. I found out that she was just about to start the
semester at Quintessence and she wanted to get the present before she left. She
had to take it with her to school so he wouldn’t find it while she was gone.
My vision changed to the earthquake. Amanda knew she
had to get out of the dorms, but she didn’t want to leave her brother’s gift
behind. She dug around in her dresser until she found the box of cards, then
started towards the door with them clutched tightly in her hand. She tripped
when the floor caved in and opened to the room beneath her. The cards flew out
of her hands into the hole.
I sensed a terribly powerful urgency swarm her mind,
demanding she got out right that second. It was me. I was the reason she had to
abandon the cards. But she was alive, at least.
I opened my eyes and immediately looked down at my
hand as Vincent pulled a ring off my left index finger. It was an odd ring; the
finger part was normal, but the silver metal curved outward in a strange
entanglement of emeralds and silver. It didn’t actually resemble anything. The
twisted confusion of it made it seem a little… menacing.
“What is that?”
“This was my father’s vision ring. I use one that my
first wife made for me,” he said, pushing his pentagram aside and pulling
another object out from under the collar of his black shirt. It was a small,
black satin sack he wore on a silver chain. “When you induce a vision, you need
to put this ring on, and then take it off when your vision is over. By doing
this, you will build links in your magic. Eventually, every time you put the
ring on, you will have visions.”
“And I can stop them by taking it off?” I asked. That
was the first really good news I had ever gotten from my uncle.
“Yes. You can also do it with your mind control,
although a ring would not work well. That is something I cannot help you much
with, other than to give you the book. You must not let anyone else get their
hands on that book.”
“It keeps disappearing when I leave it alone. In the
vision I just had, Amanda lost the cards in the dorms.”
“Darwin found them and felt like they were important
to someone. Having overheard him bring it up to his father, I thought it would
make a good practice session for you to find out who they belong to. You should
be able to return them now that you know.”
I studied the ace of hearts for a moment, unable to
figure out why it was so important. That was something I hadn’t seen in my
vision. As I was about to hand it to Vincent, I turned it over. Instead of a
typically patterned back, it was a picture of a Japanese castle. At the bottom
of the card was a gold inscription stating that it was taken in Kyoto.
* * *
Our training sessions over the next three days were
more of the same. It started to feel like I was the lost-and-found service.
Vincent made me practice almost every minute of the day. While I was happy to
learn to control my power, it was extremely exhausting.
Darwin brought food and water in every few hours.
Henry had tried to at first, but Vincent said the shifter was setting me back
too much every time we were interrupted. Henry was apparently stuck in a
protective mood, because he kept growling at Vincent.
Darwin was great at making plans for the new dorms,
yet he insisted on my input. When I asked why, he said it was because people
did what he said when the orders were approved by me. This was especially true
for the shifters, which I didn’t get at all.
“Flagstone and Maseré are their alphas. Why do they
want to listen to me?”
“Even humans have a concept of alphas, although it is
sometimes very subconscious or subtle. With you, it’s very
not
subtle.
Every time you face trouble, you become stronger and more of a leader. People
notice, and paranormals will pick that up even faster.”
“It is why I wanted you to be the liaison for the
vampires,” Vincent agreed. “Most people know a natural born leader when they
see one, but you take it a step further. Because Henry has never had a proper
authority figure, his jaguar will undoubtedly fight you until he learns that
you are not an authoritarian.”
“You know about his parents?”
“I know nothing about who they are, but I can see it
in his eyes that he’s been mistreated. The way he over-organizes everything,
how he over-emphasizes his actions when Darwin is watching, how–”
“What do you mean? Darwin is as non-alpha as a wolf
can get. No offense.”
Darwin shrugged. “I’m happy not being an alpha. If I
were like my dad, I would have to take a wife.”
“Darwin has somehow become a younger brother in the
jaguar’s mind,” Vincent said.
“Henry is constantly trying to set an example for
me,” Darwin explained. “That’s why he started going to Addie’s room instead of
ours under the full moon in the first place.”
I had no idea. “I guess I still have a lot to learn
about the cultures of shifters.”
And fae
. I kept forgetting that Darwin
was as much a fae as he was a wolf. “Why isn’t Henry an alpha? I mean, he’s
pretty damn stubborn.”
“Henry is what my father would have as a beta, or
even an enforcer. If he were a pack shifter, he would have found the top alpha
around and fought his way right to the alpha’s side. Betas can take over for
alphas, but it’s rare that they fit in on the top. Since jaguars are solitary
creatures, alphas are just leaders to Henry. His jaguar acted the way he did in
the field because he was testing your leadership.”
* * *
On the fifth day, I skipped out on my training with
Vincent to feed cucumbers to the kappa. Aside from the sound of hammers,
drills, and saws, it was very peaceful. Almost absentmindedly, I pulled
Professor Langril’s red foam ball out of my pocket and rolled it between my
hands like I had seen Langril do. I reached into my other pocket and pulled out
my vision ring.
The hair stood on the back of my neck; this was a bad
idea. I slipped the ring on, not really believing it would do anything. I was
instantly in a living nightmare.
It was a place without sunlight, where shadows were
life and death. Everyone was predator or prey. Langril was standing in an
alley, holding a tiny baby girl in his arms. It wasn’t Heather and he couldn’t
keep her. He was one of the most powerful beings even in this place, but he
couldn’t protect this baby.
Although his mind wasn’t open to me like in my normal
visions, as this took place many years in the past, I saw general impressions
of his thoughts. The atmosphere, on the other hand, was very much like walking
through a disaster site; the people were accustomed to the morbid lives they
lived.
There was something about the baby, but before I
could lock onto the thought, everything was moving forward. The baby was gone
and Langril was back in the alley. There were screams from a woman in the house
in front of him. It was that house he had saved the baby from, but the woman
wasn’t worth it to him. The woman wasn’t valuable.
A sound drew his attention to a nearby bush. He
grinned kindly. “Come on out, Miranda.”
Miranda? Heather’s mother?
The little girl who
came out of her hiding place couldn’t have been more than ten. She had long,
light gold hair and light brown eyes. She looked like a much younger Heather.
“How do you know my name?” she whispered.
“Oh, you are so far from home, Miranda Anne. You must
have accidentally followed me back here. Would you like me to take you home?”
She nodded hesitantly and he reached for her hand. He
took it and noticed a bright, red, foam ball in her other hand. More
importantly, he felt her lifeline through her flesh. She was valuable… like the
baby he had just saved.
* * *
I nearly took my finger off trying to get the ring
free. The atmosphere of the place was enough to make my skin crawl.
Fortunately, the sensation faded immediately after removing the ring. Even at
thirty-one, I could still get freaked out by what was basically a dream. Only I
had learned something from it; Langril sure as hell wasn’t the good guy.
* * *
I barged into Hunt’s office ten minutes later without
knocking. Vincent and Hunt were having a conversation at the desk while Ghost
sprawled out on the couch, napping on his back with his legs spread wide. It
was a horrifying image that could scar young children for life.
“I’m ready to do this. The ring is working.”
Vincent picked up his cat by the scruff of the neck
and dropped him on the table. Ghost was as limp and unresponsive as if he was
dead, and I would have worried if I couldn’t hear his angry, raspy breath. The
damn cat was even pissed off in his sleep.
I sat on the couch and leaned back.
“We don’t have anything of Gale’s to use,
unfortunately, so you’re going to have to rely on your mind control powers to
start off. Once you feel you have a secure lock on him, slip the ring on. It
will enhance your power. You may not be able to read Gale’s mind because of the
amulet, but you can see his next move.”
I focused on the man, first from my vision and then
from the pawnshop. Next, I let myself daydream, not postulating any locations,
times, dates, or names. I just focused on his face and slipped the ring on.
The change this time was subtle. My vision grew
darker and it took me a few minutes to realize it was actually the room that
dimmed. I recognized the dirt tunnel walls as Gale held a ball of fire in his
hand for light. The burning sphere lifted into the air and floated near his
head. The mountain of a man and Felicity were with him, which was odd, because
I always saw through someone’s eyes in the visions.
There was no calendar or watch, but I somehow knew
the date and time.
I pulled the ring off and opened my eyes. “I know
where they’re going to be and when.”
“Where?”
“Here and now. They’re in the vampire tunnels. They
must have snuck in while everyone was dealing with the golems.”
“Why would they be down there? They don’t know about
the tower.”
“That woman, Felicity, she knew about the keys. I
seem to be the only damn one who doesn’t.” I knew there was a tower under the
school that was dangerous enough for Hunt to abandon his students over it. I
also knew that whether or not I could trust Hunt, I didn’t want Gale getting to
it.
“If they don’t know what is down there, they would
never make it to the tower,” Vincent said to Hunt.
The headmaster shook his head. “We cannot count on
Dejarus or the traps to stop them.”
“Who the hell is Dejarus?!”
And why does it sound
familiar?
They ignored me. “The amulet works on our powers.”
“It didn’t work when you got Remy out,” I said.
“That is a different matter entirely. We need to send
someone in who has no magic. Maseré’s pack should do it.”
“If the strongest alpha shifter in all of America
gets killed, there will be a war,” Vincent argued. At that point, they started
arguing in German.
I walked out and shut the door behind me. This time,
I was going to follow my instincts and rely on the people I knew I could trust.
“
Darwin
?” I called in his head. “
Get Henry and meet me at the door to
the underground level.
”
“I’m on it.”
Five minutes later, I found them already waiting at
the door. “Gale, Felicity, and the big guy are down there. If you want to stay
up–”