Hungry Earth (Elemental Book 2) (4 page)

“You realize that your cat is a thief, right?”

“He’s Vincent’s cat, not mine. What did he take?”

“An earring.” He pointed to a small piece of gold
jewelry on my desk.

I sighed. The cat was an idiot, but he did save my
life with chalk. I removed a small box from my desk drawer, slipped the earring
inside, and returned the box. Ghost purred.

“I’m a little surprised to see you back, you know,” Darwin
said. “I thought you would be driven away by the vampires.”

“I need to learn to control my abilities, and I need
to be here to do that.”

“Dad said the council asked you to keep the peace
between the vampires and the other students.”

“Actually, it was Vincent, which was the only reason
I agreed to help.”

 “Really? That’s… not cool. Either your uncle is an
idiot, or you are.”

“How do you figure?”

“First of all, no halfway intelligent vampire is
going to trust you after your history with Astrid, which means your uncle is
going to get you killed. Vampires don’t have a pack structure like most
shifters do, so you will have to kill anyone who threatens you. That will only
make you their enemy.”

“But Clara is in charge of them.”

“She’s in charge of their rules and reporting their
behavior to Stephen, but they don’t obey her or Stephen out of a bond or desire
to please their alpha. If a shifter views you as their alpha, they may act out,
but they’ll ultimately want you to be happy with them. There is a big
difference between a pack shifter and a solitary one, yet they all have a human
side that wants to please their alpha. Vampires only obey if there is a
constant threat of death hanging over their heads. They’re not mindless beasts,
but they’re not pack-minded.”

“I don’t think I should be the peace-keeper, because
I don’t actually agree with the peace treaty that the wizards set up with them.
It’s not even the fact that vampires are designed to drink blood.”

“It’s because you trusted Astrid more than anyone and
she broke your trust in the worst way,” Darwin said. “I get it. The council is
trying to force us to trust vampires. They’re demanding that you trust
strangers, when you were wronged by a friend. My dad would say ya got to
forgive da lasses for their savage ways.”

I laughed. “I don’t think that applies here.”

“I’m sure there are many good vampires out there.
Now, that brings me to my second point. Supposing Vincent trusts you to
survive, you’ll be spending every minute after dark trying to stop fights and
settle disputes. The council will constantly be looking over your shoulder and
the entire student body will be expecting you to protect them. It sounds to me
that Vincent came up with the perfect way to keep you from sniffing around
something else. Where is your uncle, anyway?”

“He said he was unavailable.”

“Do you trust him?”

“More than I trust the vampires. He’s John’s brother,
though.” I stood. “I’m going to get some cucumbers and feed the kappa.”

“I’ll go, too.”

Most of the students were still in class, so the
dining room was empty. I went around the buffet to where the cooks were washing
dishes. Justice, an older lady, glared at everyone and scared the other cooks.
Her long white hair was tied up and netted, while her white apron was about as
dingy as it could get.

She took one look at me and walked away, only to
return a moment later from the walk-in with a handful of cucumbers.

*          *          *

When the sun went down, Darwin and I were still at
the lake. It was ominous, as if we could sense the vampires waking up. The
windows in the castle lit up, one by one, like glowing eyes.

“Do you think this is going to work with them?”

“I have seen a cougar befriend a deer in captivity.
Actually, I saw it on a documentary.”

“Vampires aren’t animals.”

“No. They’re worse. My parents weren’t attacked by a
cougar.”

“Well, we need to get to class. The damn school is
being overrun by monsters. Soon, there won’t be anyone but wizards and
vampires.”

“I thought you were more or less okay with them.”

“Not the vampires I got a problem with, bro. It’s the
wizard council that’s the monsters. If my dad knew Kale Lucos was teaching our
class, every shifter in the school would be pulled by the end of the day.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t know they were coming,” I
said.

He rolled his eyes. “I knew they were coming, I just
didn’t know they were going to try to teach anything. We should probably be
glad it’s just Kale Lucos and Grayson Adams. The more of them you get together,
the more stubborn and arrogant they become. Besides, those two aren’t the worst
guys on the council.”

We arrived at our classroom to see Jackson and his
group of friends holding up the entrance. They stood aside for Becky and Mack
to go in, but then blocked the path of three others. My instincts pushed
against my nerves; these three were vampires.

“Let us through. This is ridiculous,” one of them
said. She was small, only about five-two, and South American. The other two
vampires with her were male and tall.

Jackson sneered at them. “Your kind is not wanted
here. Go back to your coffins, bloodsuckers.” The female vampire bared her
fangs in anger and Jackson created a fireball.

“Hey! You’re going to hurt someone if you fight
here!” Darwin yelled. I grabbed him by his hoodie and pulled him away in time
to avoid the fireball, which didn’t even come close to hitting the vampires.
Jackson’s face flamed with embarrassment and anger; he obviously blamed his
opponents for his poor aim.

“What is going on here?” the professor asked, drawn
by the commotion. It was Kale, who I met at the council. He was middle-aged,
tall and thin, with black hair, dark brown eyes, and frown lines around his
mouth. When he spotted the vampires, his scowl deepened.

I could see the wheels turning in his head; he
couldn’t get onto the vampires without disgracing his peace treaty. Then he saw
me.

“Mr. Sanders, I’m sure you are responsible for this.”

The council wasn’t too happy when they discovered
that John Cross’s son was not only alive, but practicing magic as well. Even
though I hadn’t seen any members except for the one time I was at the council,
Vincent told me that they knew all about my job, my reasons for attending
Quintessence, and my aversion to vampires.

“Devon didn’t do anything, stupid,” Darwin barked.

Kale turned his glare on Darwin. “Mr. Mason. I see you
are going to be as much of a problem as your father. You and Mr. Sanders have
detention, as well as Mr. Michaels,” he said, turning to Jackson. Jackson
blanched. “Now, everyone get to class or I will start flunking people.”

The dark classroom had a hardwood floor, stone walls,
and no windows. The only light came from a chandelier with candles instead of
bulbs. There were six square tables, each about three feet wide, with four
chairs at each one. Darwin and I sat at one table and we were joined a few minutes
later by Henry.

There was nothing in the front of the room as far as
a desk or podium. Kale faced the class with an unusually rigid posture and gave
each and every student a glare. “I am not a teacher,” he began. “For those of
you, uneducated students, who do not know my work, I am Kale Lucos, master of
magic and head of the wizard council.”

Darwin rolled his eyes. Even I knew there was no head
of the wizard council.

“You will refer to me as ‘Master Lucos.’ Anything
else will be cause for detention. If you haven’t figured it out yet,
‘Development of the Paranormal Community’ and ‘Paranormal Relations’ are two
parts of the same class. Over this semester, you will learn how the four
factions of the paranormal community came together, how we work together, and
how we stay a secret from the humans.”

“Why do we have to hide from the humans?” one girl
asked. “My father is human and he loves my fae mother. Fae and wizards are
really just humans with powers. Shifters are humans that can shift into
animals.”

“And vampires?” another student argued. “How do
vampires fit into the human world?”

“That’s not what this class is for,” Kale
interrupted. “Everyone get in groups of four; one wizard, one vampire, one
shifter, and one fae. You are going to tell each other where you came from and
what your life was like.”

With a lot of grumbling, students got up and
rearranged themselves. Darwin, Henry, and I stayed put. A moment later, a
vampire sat down in the seat across from me and completed our group. He was
right at six-three, had black hair with the same burgundy eyes as Clara, and
looked like he didn’t want to be here any more than we wanted him here.

There was nothing sinister about him. Even though
most of the vampires I had seen had normal eyes, his were not menacing. It was
probably because his expression was reserved and without suspicion or
arrogance.

Henry, in the seat to the right of me, reached out
his hand to shake the vampire’s. “I’m Henry.”

The vampire looked a little surprised and shook his
hand. “Erik.”

I forced myself not to cringe as I reached my hand
out next. “I’m–”

“You’re Devon Sanders. I know.” He shook my hand.
“I’m friends with Cody. I was there at Stephen’s coven when you went off on
Astrid.”

“I’m Darwin,” Darwin supplied enthusiastically. “Don’t
touch anyone, sorry.” He pulled his arms away when Erik offered his hand.

“Okay… So, I guess I should go first, since two of
you look like you would rather shoot me than tell me your blood types.” He
stuck his left hand into his pocket, pulled out a plastic film canister, and
opened it. A small ball of what looked like dark gray play-dough fell out.
After putting the canister away, he rolled the ball in his hands, flattened it,
and rolled it again.

“I’m type A,” I said.

He smirked. “You’re lying.”

“You can smell my blood?”

“From further away than you could see me, and I can
hear your heartbeat, too. But, I don’t have to smell it to know you’re lying.
You don’t trust me, so you wanted to see how much of a predator I am. You
wanted to see if I could differentiate your AB blood type. Don’t be mistaken;
vampires make perfect killers; we’re fast, we can thrall our victims, and we
have fantastic senses. That being said, we also have weaknesses, we can’t do
magic like wizards or fae, and we can’t shift.

“All of us were designed to work together. We would
be feared and hunted by most humans if they knew about the paranormal beings
among them. One on one, a paranormal of any kind could best a human, but they
outnumber us ten-to-one. That’s why we have to all work together, not only to
keep ourselves secret, but also to protect each other if humans do figure it
out.”

“Excuse me,” a gentle voice interrupted. A woman in
her early twenties stepped in between Darwin and me. “All the other tables
already have a fae… is there any chance…” She had a slight Scottish accent.

Demure to a fault
. She was five-five, slim
without being too thin, shapely even. Her curly hair was mostly ginger with
strands that ranged from the brightest orange to the deepest gold, and her eyes
were the exact color of clovers.

Darwin smiled brightly and jumped out of his chair,
kicking the table. “No problem! I’m a throwback, so I don’t count.” She
blushed, sat, and let him tuck her chair in. He then found another chair and
squeezed it in between the woman and Erik. “Welcome to our pack. We’ve got the
super-wizard, Devon, the prim-and-proper shifter, Henry, our new bloodsucker,
Erik, and me, Darwin, the goof.”

“I’m not sure I should be a part of this,” Erik said.

“You can have my spot in the pack,” Henry told the
vampire.

The woman laughed. “I’m Amelia Bell.”

“Are you Scottish?” Darwin asked. “I’ve been to
Scotland. It’s beautiful.”

“My father is from Belfast and my mother was from
Glasgow, so I’m Irish and Scottish.”

“What kind of fae are you?”

“Vouxeng. I can affect the moods of people around me.
I can take their energy, too, if I have to defend myself.”

“We’re supposed to be telling each other about
ourselves, so you start,” Darwin told her.

“Well, my mother is human, my father is fae. We’re a
rare type of fae, because our power is psychic-based instead of
elemental-based.”

“What is the difference between fae and fairy?” Erik
asked.

“Fairies are a specific type of fae,” Darwin
answered. “They are the most powerful because they can do anything than a
wizard can do without trying…” He trailed off and both he and Henry looked at
me expectantly.

“Don’t do that,” I said. “I’m just getting used to
being a wizard. Please continue, Amelia.”

“Well, our tribe is strictly forbidden from dealing
with humans, so when they found out my father had a child with a human, they
exiled him and killed my mother. My father was able to save me in time and we
moved to the United States to be safe from their law. Your turn, Devon.”

“I grew up thinking I was human and that my best
friend ate my parents. Your turn, Erik.”

Erik and Amelia both gaped at me.

I sighed. “Okay. My best friend was a vampire who
tore the man I thought was my father into pieces and nearly killed my mother. I
came here and found out that my real father was a member of the wizard council,
and that he was killing people and blaming the vampires.”

“You’re John Cross’s son?” Erik asked.

“Unfortunately. Now it’s your turn.”

He shrugged. “I lived a perfectly normal human life
until about ten years ago. I was twenty-two. Actually, it was my birthday. My
fiancé and I were heading home from my sister’s party when we were attacked by
a vampire. Cindy was killed and I was left for dead. It wasn’t difficult to
figure out what I was. I had a hard time thinking straight, though.”