Elemental Dawn (Paranormal Public) (23 page)

I rocketed backward. Time slowed
as I flew through the air. My ears were ringing and my eyes stung, and I was
instantly covered in smoke from the force of the blast. I wondered how my
shoulders and neck would feel impacting the bleachers.

The light that had so recently
returned was extinguished in the massive explosion, and we were again plunged
into darkness. All around me I heard panicked screaming and felt the heat of
fire.

My magic flowed out of me,
bursting backwards to cushion the impact of my fall. Without the cushion I
would have died, but even with that force protecting me, I slammed into the
seats several rows behind me and felt my shoulders crush into metal. An elbow
slammed into my side, and I could only hope it was Sip or Lisabelle and not
someone unfriendly.

I didn’t so much fall to the
ground as crumple into a ball where I had hit and stay there, immobile. My eyes
watered when I tried to open them so I kept them tightly shut. My body refused
to work properly, so I didn’t move.

At least I worked up the courage
to reach out.

There was a body next to me, the
skin hot and grimy from the blast.

Though it was agony to move, I
made myself roll to the side and reach out with both hands. Every bone in my
body throbbed and protested.

I ran my hands along a collar and
up. I reached short, spiky hair and almost smiled.

Faintly, I heard a noise.

“What was that?” I rasped,
coughing.

“Stop petting me,” came Sip’s
voice from directly below me. “I’m a werewolf, not a dog.”

“At long last you realize,”
drawled my other third’s voice from somewhere in front of us.

“Lisabelle?” Sip called
hopefully. “That you?”

“Who else would have such a
biting retort after she was almost murdered?” Lisabelle asked. I felt movement
along my right arm and squinted the barest amount. Lisabelle knelt next to our
friend.

“Why is it you who always gets
hurt?” Lisabelle muttered, glaring down at Sip as if it was somehow the werewolf’s
fault.

Sip stared down at her arms,
which were becoming a mottled purple, as if someone had spilled a bottle of
paint over her body. It made me wince just to look at her.

“Ouch,” I said. Sip looked up at
me and shrugged. Her eyes were watering and red, but she wasn’t crying. “I’ll
be fine,” she murmured.

I looked around and tried to get
my bearings. All around me I could hear cries and muffled sobs, but I couldn’t
see
any other paranormals.

“Of course you will,” said
Lisabelle, eyeing Sip as our werewolf friend continued to examine her arms.
“Are you going to study those bruises or get some ice and deal with them? We
have stuff to do.”

“I was just thinking that mottled
blue SO isn’t my color,” Sip moaned.

“If only bruises came in neon,”
Lisabelle said. “Let’s go, on your feet.”

Lisabelle and I got on either
side of Sip and hauled her up. “You look terrible,” said Lisabelle, eyeing our
friend.

“Right back atcha,” said Sip,
nodding her head at Lisabelle’s tattered dress and messy hair.

“Lisabelle?” Lough yelled, racing
over. “Are you okay?” He looked terrible. There was a nasty gash starting
halfway up his cheek and disappearing into his hairline, his nose was bleeding,
and his shirt was ripped to the waist.

“I’m fine,” said Lisabelle,
looking at him in wonder. “Your family?”

“Fine,” he muttered. “I mean, I
think they’re fine.” He wiped awkwardly at his nose. “What now?”

“Not everyone is fine, though,” I
said, looking around. Right next to us was the body of Poss, the blond vampire
Dirr had fought just a few hours earlier. Blood dripped from a corner of his
mouth and his eyes were wide and unseeing. I quickly looked away.

“Where did the explosion come
from?” I asked. My voice was shaking as I tried to force myself to concentrate.

Lough had come from toward the
center of the hall, where the throne had stood just a few minutes before. Now I
saw nothing but a massive black and charred hole.

“No,” I cried, darting forward.
“It can’t be!”

Sip and Lisabelle were close
behind. Lough yelled something, but I didn’t want to listen. I was too worried
about Lanca, because I could see Vital and a few other vampires huddled around
something on the floor. More vampires ringed them, but all the other
paranormals in the hall stayed a respectful distance away.

We had a long way to go. There
were paranormals everywhere, many knocked out and injured, others trying to
help, everyone still caught in the chaos and confusion.

“What happened?” Lisabelle
coughed and covered her face with her sleeve to block out the smoke that was curling
up from the floor. We moved to stand with Kair and the rest of Lough’s and
Sip’s families. Sip’s brother had his arm around Kair, a sweet gesture as she
cried into his dirty jacket. I didn’t stop with them, though. Instead I strode
forward, ignoring the dirty looks from vampires telling me to back off.

My eyes were fixed on the small
group of vampires in the center and Vital’s curved back. My stomach turned. I
couldn’t see what he was leaning over, but my heart knew.

“No,” I whispered, forcing my feet
forward as my soul wept. “No.”

“If you say it a few more times,
that will surely make it true,” came a hoarse voice from overhead. My veins
turned to ice. Not now, I thought desperately. Of all the times, not now. I
forced myself to look away from the dead body in front of Vital, since there
was no point in looking at it anyway. It was so charred that all I could see
was the black flowing hair that had ringed a perfect and pale face, a face that
until a few seconds ago had been alive with the light of anticipation at
becoming a queen to her people, before being unceremoniously extinguished by
the Queen of Nocturn.

I looked up into the dead eyes of
Malle and saw hatred replace the ice. It was a welcome darkness from the
penetrating cold. Hate I could use.

She glided down, pillowed on a
black cloud. The hall had gone silent. Even the weeping had stopped. Her eyes
were not on me, but on the dead vampire.

“Initially, pain makes you scream
and weep and cry. Your bones vibrate with your screams. That’s all well and
good.” Her voice was soft, like lace and silk. She was like the professor at
the head of a class. She held her hands linked lightly at her back as she paced
back and forth. Her face was thoughtful, pensive, as if she contemplated the
best growing season for tomatoes and not the lives of millions.

“This means your feelings and
emotions are intact. But I want you past that point. I want to push you so hard
that you lose all feeling and go numb, so that you can’t think or see or
breathe, so that your insides are burning alive and the only thing you can do
is fall down immobile, in a stunned pain.” Now her eyes were on me.

“I do not consider myself a great
architect of pain, that is the great thing about pain. I just want it to
happen. I do not need it to be fancy or inventive. I just want you to suffer
and die. Don’t get me wrong, the longer it lasts the better, but my standards
are not high.”

She was wandering around the
circle now; all eyes, except for Vital’s, were fixed on her. Lanca’s protector
was still working feverishly on her charred corpse, but I had a feeling that at
the moment when he finally accepted that she was dead, all hell would break
lose.

I stared at Malle.

“All I want today is Charlotte
dead,” said President Malle. “You have seen what we can do to you, the havoc we
can wreak.” At this point she swept one ugly hand toward the vampires, where
their newly crowned Rapier queen lay dead, her ruined body clutched in the
hands of her faithful bodyguard, who had not been able to protect her. Taking
the time to sweep her baleful eyes around the vast hall, she finally continued:
“If Charlotte Rollins is not dead by the end of the day, this is what will
happen to the rest of you.”

The only movement in the hall was
the beat of the pixies’ wings. Many of them had taken flight already, whether
for their own safety or to be ready to attack I was no longer sure.

“Who gives you the right?” a
voice boomed. I looked to see who it was, and so did everyone else. To my
surprise, it was one of the senior fallen angels I had seen talking to Keller.
Saferous was a white haired man, tall, thin and regal, his eyes so bright they
were almost gold.

“I do not need the right,
Saferous,” Malle shot back. “I have the demons’ permission. We are united as
Nocturns. You made the mistake of letting us in here, now you will suffer the
consequences.”

“We made no mistake,” said
Saferous. His eyes blazed. “We tried to keep accord among the paranormals, even
including the darkness mages, whom we have always known were abominations.”

Next to me, Lisabelle stirred
slightly, but her cold eyes held.

“Is Lisabelle mad?” I whispered
to Lough, trying to gauge whether or not I was about to have to jump in.
Lisabelle would be the one to challenge the most powerful paranormals in the
world for a minor insult; that was just like her.

“Who can tell?” Lough asked,
shaking his head. “She has only one expression, and no emotions at all.”

“Of course I have emotions,”
Lisabelle said, her eyes still on Malle. I started, surprised she could hear
us. “And what you just said is bullshit . . . in any emotion . . .all four of
them.”

I grinned and shook my head.

“There are only four emotions?”
Sip whispered.

Lisabelle used her fingers to
count. One, two, three . . . “Well,” she said thoughtfully, toying with raising
a fourth finger. “Is lust an emotion?”

Sip rolled her eyes. “This is
hardly the time for that discussion.”

“We will not kill an innocent
paranormal girl, no matter how much easier our lives would be without her,”
said Saferous, holding his head high.

At first I didn’t realize what he
had said. Only Sip’s viselike grip on my arm alerted to me to pay closer
attention to his words. After a few moments, they sank in.

“I’m a problem?” I squeaked,
clearing my voice. I shook Sip off and stepped forward, into the light, into
the clearing, and into the fight. If I had ever had a chance of avoiding
becoming the apex of this storm, I had just discarded it without so much as a
thought. To honor the elementals was to stand up. To protect my friends was to
come forward. I would not let Malle kill one more of them. I could not look at
Lanca.

Saferous’ eyes widened in
surprise. “You must have known, girl, the great trouble we have gone to in
order to keep you safe?” His voice was steady, almost irritated.

Malle cackled. “She had no idea
of the defenses that were thrown up around her,” she sneered, “which she
blithely disregarded in order to do silly things like see that whelp of a
sibling of hers.”

“Don’t you talk about him like
that!” I yelled, fists clenched at my sides. Instantly I knew it had been a
mistake. Malle’s smile grew.

“I will talk about him as I wish.
In fact, I might even pay him a visit soon. He will need to be consoled after
the death of his dear, sweet sister.” The last bit came out as a hiss of pleasure
as she mentioned my death.

The pixies were overhead,
salivating. Camilla was actually smiling; finally she would have her chance.
Even if the other paranormals had not been looking at me as if I were an
already dead toy, I didn’t feel that I had a friend in the room except the ones
standing nearby.

“I am asking a simple favor. It
is something I know most of you have thought of in your own hearts and have
wanted to find the courage and the opportunity to do yourselves. I am merely
telling you that it is alright. Everything will be easier once the elemental is
dead and gone. Just remember, it is because of her that all of this is
happening in the first place. Vampires, do remember, your precious king and
after him your precious queen would still be alive if not for her. Pixies,
well, you have always mistrusted her, even the youngest of you. Fallen angels
know what she is. A minx and a manipulator. It is disgusting that she dares to
take away one of your best and brightest from his future as the head of the
angels. Of course, for Airlee there is no excuse. I have tried to get your
kinds to see reason for years and you have remained adamant in your refusal to
listen. No matter. I will not continue to waste my time. But let me just say,
if you do this for me I will be forever in your debt. I will have the utmost
respect for you, as never before. It would be an honor to call you friends.
Kill. The. Elemental.”

“Kill them all!” Faci cried,
standing up next to his father, who sat impassive with the other vampires.
“Kill Charlotte Rollins.”

I did not want to see what the
paranormals did. There was no movement in the room, even the air was afraid.

I called to my power. It came
easily, ready for the fight, flowing through my body and out of my ring. My
eyes fixed on my target. The blast came out in streams of blue and white,
flecked with red.