Awaken the Elements (Elemental Trilogy) (43 page)

             
She sat down on the chair beside her, watching the curious guy do the same. “Who are you?”

             
He titled his head. “It’s not important. I’ve wanted to talk to you for so long.”

             
“Why isn’t your name important?”

             
He shrugged. “It’s just a name.”

             
He had a point
, she told herself. “But who are you? You look a lot like…” She stopped.

             
“Like you,” he finished. She nodded. “You know, you’re older by only thirty seconds.”

             
“Older, so that makes us related?”

             
He nodded. “I can’t say much, because grandmother will get mad.”

             
“My grandmother is dead.”

             
“You will see,” he said before he stood up and approached her. He put out his hand, and she reached for it. “We will meet soon.” But before she could touch his hand, he disappeared. She woke up slightly dazed.

****

             
“It was so real,” Autumn told Anatha later that day. They walked down to the second floor where everyone waited for them.

             
“That must have been horrible,” Anatha said. “Mine was weird. I mean who was that guy?”

             
“It was, but your dream reminds me of one of mine.”

             
The two walked over to the huge group waiting in front of the security gates. “What could it be?” Anatha said.

             
Autumn looked at her cousin. “I don’t know.” Anatha nodded.

             
“So here we go,” Hazel said.

             
“Just open the gates already, Autumn,” Moss said.

             
Autumn removed the key from around her neck. She fingered it while staring through the bars. The cars that had been sitting for about five years were now faded and rusty. Even the newest cars looked old and weather worn. The sunshine bounced off the black parking lot. It frightened them all just a little.

             
“Go on,” Jaime whispered.

             
Autumn shoved the key into the slot, turning it. The gates hummed, and the alarm came on as they opened. Everyone took a step back, watching. There imprisonment was over. They were free now.

             
Autumn was the first to walk out of the mall. She stepped over the body parts. They had all decayed and fallen to pieces. There was an arm here and a leg there. Autumn walked out into the sun and stepped over the arm she had kicked in the dream as she looked over to the trees across from the parking lot.

             
Anatha came over to her. “So what now?” she asked.

             
“Can you say deja-vu?” Autumn looked around.

             
“Is it like your dream?” Anatha asked.

             
Autumn nodded. “I said something to you along the lines of ‘race me to the trees’.”

             
“So, you gonna race me to the trees?” Anatha asked.

             
Autumn stared at her cousin. “Are you crazy?”

             
“Could be,” she joked.

             
River sneezed beside them, Rowan sneezed beside him, and one of the other guys launched into a coughing fit. The guys looked miserable as their colds fought them.

             
“This was fun, but now I am going back to bed,” Stefan told everyone, coughing onto the back of his hand.

             
“Hey, Stefan, can we talk?” Adair asked, following behind him, his tail whipping back and forth.

             
“All of you go on to bed. You all need to get better.” Autumn watched them shuffle into the mall. She turned and watched Jaime and Moss for a while as they torched the body parts. Someone grabbed her from behind, and she let out a small scream of surprise.

             
“Calm down, hon.” It was Rowan.

             
“You scared me, punk.” She gave him a slight push.

             
He laughed, and it turned into coughing. As soon as he was done, he kissed her cheek. “We couldn’t leave you out here alone to enjoy the sun by yourself.” She looked at River who gave her a small smile.

             
“Thanks.” She blew them kisses. “I’m not getting sick.”

             
“Wanna walk with us?” Rowan asked.

             
She took their hands. “Okay.”

             
“No zombies will eat you with us around,” River said.

“Sure. They’re dead, but if they come into contact with you
, they can be sick too.” That got Rowan laughing again, which turned into another coughing fit. She wasn’t sure what would happen tomorrow or next week, but at this moment, she felt content. She would deal with what came next when it came.

Snippet From
Blood Witch
by Ellie Potts

Chapter One

Something bad had to have happened in the house to have provoked her. Blood witches didn’t just let their magic go. This was exactly what Leslie seemed to have done in the small three bedroom house. One thing you try not to do is anger a witch, and that’s exactly what the trolls did. And said witch didn’t yet have control of all her powers.

              The house stank of old blood, a stench which any Opposite could smell just passing by. They were handed the anonymous call at the station. They got all the nut jobs being rookies, they took them, and they fixed the problem and went on to the next case.

Collin and Patrick leaned against the black SUV as the sun started to set. The tan prefab house in front of them shook and shivered with enough magic to make even the normal humans look around uneasily. The early spring weather seemed cold, yet not as bad as the cold winter they had just had. They both remarked on how the rain from the previous night had made everything look a little greener and healthier, avoiding mentioning what could be happening in the house. The house groaned with the pressure of the built-up magic, ready to pop like a balloon.

Collin, his unruly, dyed black hair falling in his eyes, looked over at Patrick. "Should we help her?" He took a step toward the house.

Patrick let the sun bathe him as he shook his head. "She'll probably flay us alive or something."

Collin leaned against the SUV once more, eyes watching the house. “I don’t want to be flayed alive.”

Patrick shooed a bee away as the door to the house swung open with a loud bang, and two short and very scared men came running out. They fell to the ground before the SUV, pleading in their own language and slobbering on the ground.

Patrick watched as some of the troll dribble fell on his black steel-toed boots. It made a small hissing sound. "Calm it down, boys," he said. He heaved himself away from the SUV and pulled warded handcuffs from his pocket. They were normal, except for the runes marked in the stainless steel to keep monsters trapped. The steel rendered most of the fairy folk almost powerless.

Before he and Collin could handcuff the two crying trolls, Leslie came out of the house. Her essence rode the air, magic, both dark and light, that tasted of blood. Anger did not go well with a blood witch; the darkness radiated from her. The unseen magic made her brown hair seem alive, as it moved in an independent wind. Her eyes were nothing but thundercloud gray, no white could be seen. Her jeans and hoodie were coated in blood, the black fabric darkened and dripping. It wasn't human.

"I need a shower," she said as she glared down at the small trolls.

To her, they were just trolls. They had odd shaped heads with a few strands of coarse, dirt brown hair. Two small, beady, brown eyes sat on top of a long twisted nose. They had no lips, so their mouths looked like slits just drawn on at the last minute. However, to humans and Opposites, they looked like midgets depending on their own glamour.

"I bet that shit is burning," Collin said.

She nodded. "I've had some troll blood on me, but not drenched like this." She looked down at herself. "Can you two slap the handcuffs on them so we can get a move on? I really need a shower."

              They did as she said and shoved them in the back. "You gonna ride in the back with them?" Collin asked her.

             
The trolls started hissing and making a fuss. She glared at them again, and her magic started to peek once more.

"Not wise," Patrick said. "Get in the back, Collin."

As he drove them to the station, he sniffed and made a face. "So where did all the troll blood come from?"

             
"Booby trap," she said. "They either killed some of the others or they've been saving up. By how fresh the blood is I'm thinking they killed some of the others."

             
"Taboo," Collin said. "You two are going to get eaten alive."

             
"Literally," Patrick muttered. Leslie rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest. Steam rose from her as the acidic blue blood started to dry.

             
They pulled into the station after a ten minute drive and used a side door to drag the trolls inside. All the other Supervisors stared at Leslie as she made her way to her office, steam rising from her hair and clothes. She could feel the welts the blood had caused raising on her sensitive skin. Troll blood stunk worse as it dried, and it made her nauseous since she had a sense of smell better than any blood witch recorded. She slammed the door shut and went into the bathroom. The men could share showers, but since she was the only woman Supervisor working in the Merced County area, she was privileged with her own shower attached to her office. She peeled her sticky cloths off as she started the water. Naked, she stepped in the steaming hot spray. It burned her skin where the blood had been, but the pain went away, and the heat felt good as she scrubbed the gunk from her hair and body.

             
When she was sure she had gotten all the blood off, she stepped out of the shower, drying off with a towel. She dressed in her usual jeans and black t-shirt—either a band t-shirt or one with a goofy saying, this one's was about sanity. She didn’t think of herself as ugly or hot. She had all the curves where it counted; she was neither prude nor slut. She wore clothes that were both comfortable and easy to work in that made her blend in. She brushed out her brown hair and added some conditioner, which would have to work for now. She looked down at her shoes. Ruined.

             
Making a face, she pushed the bathroom door open and nearly jumped back inside, seeing Fred sitting at her desk. "Don't do that!" she shouted, calming her racing heart. "Damn it."

             
He looked to be a normal middle aged man with a balding head. He held out some salve. She had yet to master the herbalism some blood witches innately knew. She had been a late bloomer, and her specialties were more with knowing myth and folklore other than herbalism. Although she came into power late, Fred thought her the most powerful of the three other blood witches in California including himself.

             
There were only four blood witches in the state as far as the Supervisors knew, and the Supervisors knew everything. She and Fred worked as Supervisors. Richard, Leslie’s evil bastard ex boyfriend, worked for the King Wolf in the county. The fourth blood witch, Carlotta, had accepted the darkness a long time ago. She had to have been pushing ninety years, and even though she looked it, she didn’t act old. She acted as if she was still in her thirties, especially by the horror stories her lovers had released before they died in some mysterious, horrible way over the years. The Supervisors were always monitoring the other two, but so far, they did all their badness hidden from view.

             
The Supervisors themselves are police who keep an eye on the Opposites. There is the normal human world, and then there is the Opposite Side, the creatures of myth and legend that live amongst the humans.

             
The first Supervisors stated that the Opposites had to keep the two worlds separate, because humans scared easy, and so they formed a treaty, years ago. It was true: when Leslie discovered what she was after staking a rogue vampire on the day she came into power, she had been pretty freaked out. Who wouldn’t freak, to suddenly know that the things they had read about and watched in movies were real? There were creatures that really did go bump in the night, creatures who had a hunger for blood.

             
That had been three years ago. Now she helped supervise the world she had once known from the creatures. Protect the innocent: that was their job. Secretly, Leslie wished that the burden had not been shoved upon her, but then again, she had always known she was different. She had power that clung to her, that made others uneasy when they looked into her gray eyes. Human, yet not so. She sat down as Fred started to rub some of the salve, which had a pungent smell of rosemary, on her face.

             
"I don't know what the three of you are going to do when I leave on vacation," he said, finishing up. The salve was only to stop the itching. Her skin, as sensitive as it was, healed quicker than most humans, and faster than a blood witch's should as well. Fred always seemed a bit jealous about it, but to her it just seemed normal. As a child she had healed unnaturally, spooking even her mom.

             
"We’ll be fine," she said, wincing.

             
He looked at her with his own gray eyes. All blood witches had gray eyes that changed with their mood, so most of the other Supervisors didn't want Fred or Leslie to wear sunglasses. Just in case.

             
"I don't believe you."

             
"So I went a little wild today," she said looking at the salve on her hands. "But they drenched me in blood, troll blood. You would have gone a little bit wild today too."

             
He shook his head, trying not to smile. "You three are the youngest Supervisors, and to leave you guys unsupervised is not a good idea. You guys get the job done, but you push it. Even you, Leslie. I thought you would be the head of the group, but you use your magic a little too much. It makes the others uneasy. None of the veteran officers want the responsibility of watching over you guys when I leave."

             
"And why shouldn’t I use my power? I was born with it, so I might as well use it to help others, right?"

             
“Like I said, you are making some of the other Supervisors uneasy. You know there’s a line, and once you cross it there is no coming back, Leslie. I don’t want to see you lose yourself to that darkness. And I certainly don’t want to be the man who has to get the death order.” Fred was a nice guy, one of the nicest in the squad, but he would follow the rules if he had too. “Just be careful.”

             
His eyes went to the door, as Collin and Patrick came into view. “He is lecturing you again, I take it?” Collin said, arms crossed over his chest. He looked behind him, but Patrick stood quietly. Werebears were cool like that. Actually, he just didn't like Fred, so he tried to stay out of the old man’s way as much as possible.

             
"What do you two eavesdroppers want?" Fred asked.

             
"We bring in the bad people, and keep people safe. Our cases get closed faster than most of the veterans. We’ll be safe, and try not to step on toes. Is that all you wanted to hear us say?"

             
Patrick spoke up. "We have business"

             
Fred scratched his balding gray beard. "What are you three getting yourselves into now?"

             
He stood up. Fred, like the other three blood witches were short. They stood five foot to five-five. Leslie, a model five-ten, again different then the others. She was sure there was something in her blood that might have been more than blood witch, something which would account for some of the differences.

Leslie looked at the time. "Damn, nothing. It's the bear council tonight. Remember? The tensions between them and the wolves are getting crazy and Nathan called a meeting. He asked for us personally."

Fred shook his head. "Will you three promise me that when I'm gone you'll try not to get yourselves killed?"

"Sure," Leslie replied grabbing a clean black hoodie from the chair she was sitting on. "We promise."

As they left the building, Patrick looked down at Leslie's socked feet. "Where are your shoes?"

"Ruined. I need a new pair."

"I have a pair in the back," Collin pointed out.

"Gross. Have you not seen your feet lately?" she asked.

"We have enough time to stop by the house," Patrick said as he beeped another black SUV open. The one they would have used needed to be cleaned and possibly given a whole new interior.

After stopping by the house to get shoes, they drove over to the meeting hall. It was your typical meeting hall for weddings, birthdays and other such big events. Leslie mused over the thought that the owners had no clue that tonight they were housing a bunch of werebears. The three got out of the black SUV and just stood there, she felt the energy riding the air. Leslie could feel the nervousness and anger that spewed from the plain brownish building.

The bears usually held their meetings at Scout Island out at the lake, but lately there had been some problems with keeping certain meetings a secret. The sneaky wolves were always nosing around where they weren’t welcome. She thought Jonathan had actually planned that one out pretty well; sending a lesser wolf that wouldn’t be noticed.

The sun had finally sunk, leaving a slight fire in the western sky. They were a week away from the full moon, so tonight would be a dark night, and most creepy Opposites would be out stalking in it. Leslie shivered, rubbing her arms and the goose bumps. She looked at her two close friends. They were coworkers and roommates, they shared everything. At first she wasn’t sure she could live with two men, one being a werebear, the other a half-breed, half werewolf half vampire, but they worked out fine, each being easy to live with. She wouldn’t trade them for anything, she thought as she looked over them, feeling protective like a big sister.