Elemental Dawn (Paranormal Public) (17 page)

“Hum,” he said. “Right.”

We kept trying. I felt time
passing, but I couldn’t tell how much. I was starting to get hungry, which
meant that we were well past lunch.

“We have to get out of here for
the opening ceremonies,” I said. “Whyever someone wanted us to miss the
ceremonies is a mystery to me, but we can’t oblige them.”

“They didn’t want us to miss the
ceremonies,” said Keller, tugging on one of the vines. “They wanted you to miss
them.”

He hadn’t sat down since we
started searching for a way out. He used his magic, poked, and prodded. He
didn’t even look tired, while all I wanted to do was lie down and take a nap. I
could feel the sweat under my arms and dripping down my neck. There was a
slight sheen on his forehead, but that was all.

“What do you mean?” I asked,
confused.

Keller frowned but didn’t look at
me. Instead, he continued his search.

“They kidnapped me to draw you
in,” he explained finally. “I wasn’t the target. You were. Someone knew you
would come looking for me. They knew you were my weakness. Everyone does.”

Fear trickled down my spine. What
Keller said was true. We had talked about being each other’s weakness, and we
had even once proposed not being together, since it put us each in danger
because of the other. But there was just no choice. As Keller had said, even if
it doesn’t make sense on paper, in love you had to feel it, and boy did we.

“They’re going to attack Lanca at
the opening ceremonies and they don’t want the Power of Five to be an option to
protect her,” I breathed, feeling ill.

“Most likely,” said Keller.

“We have to get out of here,” I
said, redoubling my efforts.

The thought of my friend in
danger gave me new energy. Darkness mages were everywhere, demons were probably
waiting around Locke. Not to mention that Lanca’s own vampires didn’t trust
her.

“This is pointless,” I said,
after what felt like another hour had passed. The light around us hadn’t
changed, but I was getting colder. I was sure that night had come, and if we
didn’t get out of here soon we would miss the ceremonies.

I looked up and saw nothing but a
canopy of vines.

“Wait, Keller, do you hear that?”
I asked, stilling. Next to me, Keller stopped moving. It was something I liked
about him, that once he trusted you he trusted you completely. It didn’t matter
that he was trying his own things to get out of our trap. He trusted me, so he
stopped.

Over to my right there was the
faint drip of water.

“If there’s water there must be
an opening!” I exclaimed. “We just have to get there.”

“We can’t get through these
vines,” said Keller. “They seem to be totally resistant to magic.”

“That’s okay,” I said. “We’re
going to go under them.” I got down on my hands and knees while Keller watched,
his eyebrows raised. “The tips of the vines aren’t as thick or strong.” I
muttered, more to myself than to him. “I must be able to do something with
that.” Carefully, I rolled over onto my back and started to slide myself along
the floor. The vines pushed against my shoulders, but I was able to keep
moving. I pushed upward with the simplest of wind spells. Let’s face it, I
could only perform the simplest of wind spells anyway.

“Come on,” I called to Keller.
“At least we’re moving.”

Behind me, I heard Keller start
to crawl. He had to stay close to me, because I wasn’t able to move the vines
for long. As I headed for the sound of water my back and thighs started to hurt
from scarping along the ground. But I kept going.

I tried not to look up. Every time
I did and saw nothing but magical plants surrounding me, I felt sick. I didn’t
like dampening spells interfering with my magic, and I liked it even less that
someone had put me and my boyfriend in this trap.

“Are you okay?” Keller called. He
was right behind me now. As an athletic fallen angel he moved faster than I
did, and he had caught up quickly.

“Yeah,” I said, although I had
started to breath hard. The only light I saw now was from my ring and the
constant use of my magic.

When I felt a bump against my
head I rolled over to stare at the wall I had hit. I didn’t even have a chance
to look at it before water started to drip into my eyes.

“I think I found it,” I muttered.
“Great.” As I wiped my eyes I felt a wash of relief at finding the running water.

“Can we just blast through the
wall?” Keller asked, sliding in next to me so that we were shoulder to
shoulder.

“Will the magic work?” I asked.

“Maybe it will if you blow the
plants away while I attack a weakened part of the wall,” said Keller. “It’s worth
a shot. We’re out of options.”

“Try it,” I said.

I watched Keller put his hands
against the wall. There was more water than I had realized at first. The back
of my head was soaked already, and the wall glistened.

“Are you ready?” I asked,
watching Keller feel his way along the wet wall.

“I think so,” he muttered. “The
water is coming from above, but there’s a crack all along here.”

With one strong push I shoved at
the vines with the wind. From what I could tell, wind worked because there was
wind there anyway, and all I had to do was re-direct it to hit the vines. Since
the process was mostly natural and didn’t actually require much magic, the
vines were forced to move, whereas if I had tried to create a fire out of
nothing the vines would have resisted the magic.

Keller’s arms flexed as he pushed
at the wall from an awkward position on his back, shoving his magic into his
hands to make them stronger.

At first, nothing happened.

I kept calling the winds and he
kept pushing, but still nothing happened, and I felt my heart sink.

Come on, I thought. For Lanca. We
have to get to her.

And then, just when I was running
out of strength, I heard a crack.

When Keller broke through the
wall, not only did it crumble, but he shot through it like a cannon, the force
of his magic carrying him away from me. I felt his shoulder and then his hip
scrape against mine before he disappeared in a shower of dirt and yelling.

I tried to grab him, but the
instant I let go of the vines I felt my magic choked. As I started to cough I
felt fingers digging into my shoulders. The next thing I knew I was being
scraped along the floor and pulled through the craggy hole in the wall.

At first I felt relief. Fresh air
hit my face and light filled my eyes.

But my relief quickly turned to
dismay when I realized where we were, or at least when I saw who was in the
room with me.

We were in a massive sitting room
filled with light, comfortable chairs and lovely furniture. It didn’t look
anything like the other rooms I had seen at Locke, which had clearly been
decorated by vampires for vampires, in their black and red tones. This room was
filled with warm colors.

It was decorated for guests.

Not just any guests, but
important guests.

And at the moment it happened to
be filled. I blinked several times, mostly because it was difficult for me to
see through the grime that now covered my face from Keller pulling me through
the wall.

Quickly stopping and righting
himself, he had turned around to get me out of there, and our motion had blown
us through one corner of the sitting room. There were now about twenty
paranormals standing and staring at us.

I was pretty sure a couple of
them had been ready to blast Keller and me to smithereens, but luckily they had
realized right away that we were not a threat.

“What is the meaning of this?” an
icy and familiar voice asked.

Professor Zervos.

Oh good.

 Zervos hated everyone, but
especially me. He thought I got special treatment as the last elemental, and he
was determined to counteract that by making my life miserable whenever he
could.

I tried to speak, but just ended
up coughing. Instead, someone spoke up for me.

“It looks like Mr. Erikson and
Ms. Rollins have decided to drop by before the opening ceremonies. Obviously
they were looking for the showers, but it’s delightful that they ended up
here,” came Professor Dacer’s lilting voice. I nearly cried in relief when I
saw him. He was decked out all in red, a nice subtle outfit for the ceremonies.
He had on a massive hat that was tipped jauntily to the side, and red lips to
match. He also had a large white flower stuck in his lapel.

“Dacer,” I greeted him, nodding.
I would have said more, but my throat was filled with dust.

“Ms. Rollins,” he said, his lips
twitching.

All the senior paranormals in the
room were decked out in their best finery. Some of the women wore silver or
gold; I assumed they must be members of Airlee, because there were definitely
pixie women in flowing green dresses and elaborate headpieces. Most of the men
were in suits except for the vampires, who wore long, flowing black robes. The
fallen angels wore all white.

“They blasted through a wall,”
said a woman with gray streaks in her hair. She was standing next to Committee
Member Dove, who wonderfully enough was also there, as were the other committee
members, Oliva and Professor Erikson. Next to the woman who had spoken was the
fallen angel Saferous, who I had seen talking to Keller earlier. Dove, Oliva,
and Erikson ran Public along with Lisabelle’s Uncle Risper. This was the first
time I had seen any of them at Locke, but it made sense that they were there.
Running Public was an important position, and an honor. They were important
people.

“Come now,” said another man, one
who had to be a vampire, but who had a sallow complexion that made me wonder if
he was part of one of the other sects and not Lanca’s. “They were prepared to
attack us.”

“Yes, how silly of them to make
an elaborate plan of attack and let the dust foil them,” said Dacer. “Ah, to be
young again.”

“Thanks, Dacer,” I said. “I
think.”

Zervos had no intention of
letting us off so easily. His eyes were bulging and he gripped the glass in his
hand so tightly it looked like it was about to shatter.

“You troublesome useless little
gutter snipe. Not even here, in the privacy of the senior paranormals’ sitting
room, can you keep your vile behavior to yourself. Why, if you were in a dorm
that actually had adults to control it I would insist that you be reprimanded.
As it is, Dacer, do something about your student!” Zervos was yelling, and he
had started to wave his arms. In my tired state all I could think was that it
was a good thing his glass was empty.

“I mostly certainly will not,”
said Dacer. “Clearly she has been through an ordeal and needs rest.”

“Then someone reprimand Mr.
Erikson,” Zervos spat. “He looks just as guilty as that minx he’s dating.”

Zervos should have known that
golden boy Keller wouldn’t get in trouble. Keller, for his part, refused to
look ashamed, despite the look of disappointment every fallen angel in the room
was giving him. Every fallen angel, that is, except his aunt, who was not
looking at him at all.

“Fine,” Zervos snarled. “Let
these children throw us to the hellhounds. Obviously none of you care!” And
with that he stormed out of the room.

Dacer watched Zervos leave, then
turned back to me.

“Come now. It’s less than an hour
before the ceremony and these fine people now have a wall to repair. I truly
think the story of how you came out of there will be fascinating. You can
explain while you walk with me.”

Dacer moved so fast that the only
paranormal who realized he was hurdling us out the door was Oliva, who followed
quickly behind the three of us.

Dressed all in green for the
occasion, Oliva was a pixie, one of the Committee members who had been placed
in charge of Public after President Malle’s evil had been revealed. He was the
youngest member and had passed, during my second semester at Public, for a
student, in which guise he had befriended me and my other friends. When we
found out who he really was, none of us had entirely forgiven him for the
deception.

Once we were safely away from all
the senior paranormals who wanted an explanation for why we were blasting
through walls - even I could understand that - Dacer’s walk slowed.

“You should explain,” he said
quietly. “Because that was problematic, to say the least.”

Under the dirt Keller looked
white next to me, probably because his aunt had been in the room and refused to
look at him while I talked to Dacer and Zervos.

“Explain,” Dacer repeated.

I told him everything as we
walked. I didn’t particularly like that Oliva was there listening, but I didn’t
have a choice in the matter. Keller never said a word.

“You think Lanca will be attacked
at the opening ceremony?” Oliva repeated. “That can’t be. There’s just too much
security, too many paranormals. There has to be another explanation.”