Elemental Dawn (Paranormal Public) (22 page)

I looked at her and grinned.
“Nerves,” I said. She nodded sympathetically.

“Malle should not be here,” Sip
said hotly as she finished buttoning her brown jacket. We were just about ready
to go, and I had to take a deep, steadying breath.

“No, she shouldn’t,” said
Lisabelle. “But Lanca needs to keep all the paranormals happy, so her options
were limited.”

“Malle is not really a paranormal
anymore,” said Sip, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “She’s trying to kill us.”

“No, but the darkness mages who
support her are a powerful faction,” said Lisabelle. She was munching on a
chocolate chip muffin, none of us having had time to eat a real dinner. “This
ceremony better have food. I need sustenance.”

“Need fuel to be nasty?” Sip
asked as she fixed one of her coat buttons.

“No, that just comes naturally,”
said Lisabelle. There was a tap on my door and for a second I hoped it was
Keller, but before I could reach it I heard Lough’s voice.

“You ladies decent?” he yelled.

“We’re better than decent,”
Lisabelle called back. “We’re downright impressive.”

The four of us walked to the
opening ceremonies in peace and alone. My friends’ parents had already gone
ahead, and for once Dobrov was not with Lough.

“What did Dacer say about the
kidnapping yesterday, anyway?” Lisabelle asked. “Who does he think did it?”

“He thinks it was a prank,” I
said, shaking my head. “Dacer is always on my side, but he said there’s so much
tension between the paranormal types, especially with Malle and the darkness
mages here, that everyone is on edge. He told me to just be careful and not to
go anywhere alone.”

“Yeah, good thing he told you
that. Otherwise you might have gotten into a fight with some vampires and put
yourself at risk,” said Lisabelle.

“I don’t like it,” said Sip.
“Someone should do more. Find out who it was. If it was a prank, and yeah, I
could see Camilla doing something like that, they should be held responsible.
You haven’t seen Keller since.”

“I know,” I murmured. “I know.”

We walked along in silence for a
while, then Lough’s face brightened. “Oh, I have news! I think I know who my
sister is dating. She kept sneaking away, but I knew she wasn’t going far
because she’d come back fairly quickly, so I assumed it was another Airlee.”

“Oh, really?” Sip asked, skipping
to keep up with the rest of us, because of her short legs.

“Yeah,” said Lough. “She’s dating
one of your brothers. There are so many I can’t keep track, but I would
recognize that hair and those eyes anywhere.”

Sip skidded to a halt. “Wait, you
followed her?”

“Of course,” said Lough. “I’m her
brother. It’s my duty to snoop. Besides, who knows what she was up to. Now I
know she’s dating someone I’ll probably like.”

“Maybe you two will end up
related,” said Lisabelle. Then she cackled, clapping her hands together. “Oh,
that would be perfect.”

“I need to meet your sister,” Sip
mused. “None of my brothers is married yet. They’ve barely had serious
relationships, at least any that they’ve shared with me. This is exciting!”

“But werewolves and dream givers
don’t usually date,” said Lough. “My sister is kind of worrying about it. Like,
what your parents will think.”

“My parents are pretty cool,”
said Sip. “They just want us to be happy. They don’t follow all that stuff.
Besides, a werewolf with dream giver powers would be awesome.”

“Is that how it would work?” I
asked. This wasn’t a topic that was ever discussed. I had once asked Lisabelle
about it, because Lisabelle really has no problem offending the world, and even
she had said that it was taboo.

“We should probably talk about it
later,” said Lough.

“Yeah,” said Sip. “Here we go,
but it must be Sulver. He’s in grad school near where the paranormal council
operates. This is awesome.”

“So is this,” Lisabelle observed.

We had entered the hall. The
decorations for the coronation looked nothing like the decorations from the
night before. This time the hall was entirely covered in black velvet, the
floor with a rich black carpet that had a massive red rapier, the symbol of
Lanca’s sect, worked into the center. Even the chairs were covered in black
velvet. It did not look like the same space.

Given that I had barely seen the
other paranormals, I half-expected the hall to be empty, but it was entirely
full - and silent.

Fear was heavy in the room. The
fallen angels sat on one set of bleachers, entirely in white, an almost
blinding effect compared to the black of the darkness mages to their left and
the deep greens of the pixies to their right. As the backdrop to the throne
that Lanca would sit on for the ceremony the vampires sat in their customary
black. That left only the Airlees, who were, as usual, a varied mix of colors.
The darkness mages, of course, wore black. Among the latter I looked for the
gnarled figure of Malle, but I did not see her.

“Impressive,” Sip breathed.

She was right. The room was
incredible. The lighting was red, burning from a chandelier in the middle of
the open ceiling.

The red light centered on the
Blood Throne, which was placed at the center of the Rapier carpet. The Throne
was like an ornately carved chair, all dark wood and cushions. Behind the
vampires who framed the throne was a black curtain, where I assumed Lanca, and
hopefully Vital, were waiting for the ceremony to start.

“Let’s find our families and sit
down,” said Lough, heading for the Airlee section. We were careful not to look
to either side, but not looking at the fallen angels to see where Keller was
might have been the hardest thing I had ever done. I managed it, because now
was not the time, but I missed him with a dull ache that thudded in my ears and
refused to go away. If we had been at Public, I would have found him and told
him that earlier that day I had learned how to kick a guy where it would really
hurt, and that despite the fact that I didn’t think of myself as a fighter, I
kind of liked it.

“Hi,” said Lough’s mother. I
hadn’t met her before, mostly because she worked all the time, but Lough looked
a lot like her. I could see where he got his flaming red cheeks. She was also
short and a little soft looking. His dad, on the other hand, was tall and thin,
his red hair balding and his spectacles halfway down his nose.

I knew his mom did research of
some sort into paranormals, but I couldn’t remember what his dad did.

Between the two of them was
Lough’s sister. She had straw blond hair, big brown eyes, and a tiny nose, and
she was way taller than Lough. She was dressed in the fine grays, light blues,
and silvers that dream givers wear for special occasions. She was pretty in a
quiet sort of way. I could see how one of Sip’s brothers, growing up in the
craziness that was her household, would be drawn to someone with such quiet
confidence. She didn’t appear to have any of her brother’s nervous energy.
Instead, she just smiled.

“Finally, I get to meet Lough’s
friends,” she said, sticking her hand out as she was introduced.

“Yeah,” said Lough, beaming.
“This is my sister, Kair.”

Sip’s parents were sitting behind
the Loughphtons. Her brothers, all five of them, were sitting another row
behind them. I had only met two of them, including Sulver, since the others
traveled and worked far away. I waved anyway, and they smiled back at me. We
positioned ourselves in front of Mr. and Mrs. Loughphton for the night’s
festivities. Across the way I saw Dobrov, waving in our direction. He was
sitting next to Daisy, who gave him a ferocious glare and ripped his hand out
of the air.

“I guess she still holds a
grudge,” Lisabelle commented as she arranged her sleeves. She had been very
careful since we arrived at Locke to keep her tattoo hidden. She had already
made it clear that she didn’t want to give other darkness mages the idea, but
Sip and I agreed that we weren’t sure other darkness mages could pull it off
anyhow.

“I don’t think that will change,”
said Sip. “Maybe if you were nicer to her.”

My eyes searched for Keller, but
in the sea of white fallen angels I didn’t have time to spot him or his family
before the lights dimmed. I did see Professor Dacer, mostly because unlike
every other vampire there he was not wearing black. Of course not.

“Dacer is in fine form tonight,”
Lough commented, following my eyes. I could hear the laughter in his voice, and
I had to agree that Dacer certainly had a sense of humor. He wore an
eye-smarting suit of yellow and pink, probably in part because those colors
were not the usual ones of any paranormal group.

The suit itself was yellow, but
it was outlined in neon pink. As I looked at Dacer more carefully, I realized
that it was really more like pants and a knee-length tunic than his usual suit.
He hadn’t worn a hat of any kind, probably out of respect for those who had to
sit behind him. Instead, he had tied several flowers into his hair behind his
right ear. Dacer treated his wardrobe as a blank canvas that was to be painted
anew each day and used as a means of self-expression. As a result, the other
vampires around him sat at a little distance as usual, but he never seemed to
mind.

“That’s hilarious,” said
Lisabelle, her eyes bright. “Remind me to introduce him to my mom.”

“He probably already knows her,”
I said. “They’re about the same age.”

Lisabelle nodded thoughtfully.
Lisabelle’s mother was an interior designer, but Lisabelle didn’t take after
her at all, a fact that Lisabelle said really upset her mother.

“Are all the paranormals here?” I
asked, looking around. The hall was massive.

“Most of the ones in the U.S.,”
Sip explained, taking off her brown jacket and laying it carefully over her
knees; she was fastidious about not letting her clothes get wrinkled.
Underneath her jacket she wore a brown button down shirt with a high collar. It
wasn’t the most flattering color on the very pale werewolf, but it was what she
liked, so she had stuck to it.

“There are exceptions, of
course,” said Kair from behind us. “The very young and the very old, for
example, and paranormals working emergency services, and some who still had
work to do. Lisabelle’s uncle Risper, as a Committee member in charge of
Public, is a notable absence, for example. Lisabelle’s parents, too.”

“Uncle Risper’s busy,” Lisabelle
said. She ignored the comment about her parents, but her face flushed and she
carefully avoided eye contact with Kair. Risper hadn’t been seen since we
discovered that he was the famed thief Elam and was searching for the artifacts
on the wheel of power.

I did my best to avoid the gazes
of other paranormals, but I could feel their eyes on me. Very few of them felt
friendly. I wondered what my fellow students had told their parents and friends
about me, and I wondered how badly one of the darkness mages wanted to put an
arrow through my heart right now.

The red lights dimmed further and
the throne was thrown into darkness. Complete silence fell and the air felt
close and tight. After a pause, murmurs went up through the crowd, with
everyone waiting to see what Lanca and the Rapiers had planned. I hoped for any
sign of movement, eager to see Lanca glide up to take her rightful place at the
center of the vampire world.

My eyes were locked on the Blood
Throne. When the lights came back, much stronger than before, Lanca sat on the
throne. Behind her stood several vampires I didn’t recognize, most of them
older and hard-faced. But with them stood Dirr and Vital, and I felt better
knowing that Lanca’s guard was there protecting her. He surely wouldn’t let
anything happen to my friend.

“Dirr looks proud,” Sip murmured.
Lanca’s sister was dressed in white, apparently having taken this rare
opportunity to wear something other than the vampires’ customary black. Her
hair flowed over her shoulders and down to her hips in perfect waves, framing
her tiny body. She was a smaller version of Lanca, but I knew she was just as
tough.

I gazed at Lanca’s young sister.
Sip was right. She was beaming.

“She’s proud of her sister,”
Lisabelle said in my ear, “for doing what she has to even after what happened
to their father.”

Lanca sat razor straight on the
gilded throne, her face unreadable, her eyes hard. Her hair was shaped into a
massive cloud of black ringlets and her white gown showed off her ivory skin.
There was intricate beading woven into the fabric, probably vampire runes I
would never be able to read, but in any case I was too far away to see them
clearly. Her lips were ruby red, as if she had just drunk blood and her eyes
burned with heat. She was a queen.

I smiled, taking it all in. If
felt like an immense weight was lifted from my shoulders with Lanca safely
installed as the queen of the Blood Throne. I knew she would be a powerful ally
to the paranormals who fought against darkness.

The explosion at the center of
the room, exactly where Lanca sat, seemed to come out of nowhere. My world spun
out of control and my ears started to ring. I was surrounded by screams, and
the Blood Throne shattered into a thousand pieces.