“What’s happening?” Eighellie cried, while Keegan examined his singed hands. Dobrov was on his feet, staring at the condensing smoke. Whatever was happening, I was sure it was not his doing.
In bloated gray air floating above us, the smoke was shaping itself into a picture.
Emerging from the swirl was the new Power of Five logo. It was burning.
Chapter Ten
Opposition Strikes Back! High Level Hunter thought to be imprisoned and questioned. Artifact Count: One hundred nine.
“Dobrov Valedication does NOT belong in the role of president of Public!” the woman’s voice had yelled.
It had been an early morning during the summer, earlier than I was usually out of bed. Even though the summer sun had long since sailed up into the sky for the day, that didn’t mean I should be upright. Except that I was now responsible for taking care of Crumple, and he had run away the night before. I’d found him, but I wanted to check on him before I rolled over for my last couple hours of sleep.
It’s a strange sort of shock when you realize that just because you do something, not everyone does. True, I wasn’t usually awake so early, but Dacer and Zellie were. Once the sleep had worn out of my foggy brain, I recognized Dacer’s cousin as the source of the anger I was hearing.
She didn’t want Dobrov to be president of Public? I hurried to listen in outside the living room door.
“He’s the best option,” insisted Dacer. “He isn’t one paranormal type, so no one can accuse Sip of favoritism. He knows exactly what happened during the Nocturn war and is okay with it. He’s been through a lot and he’s seen the other side. There’s no one better.”
“THERE ARE LOTS OF BETTER OPTIONS! YOU’D BE A BETTER OPTION AND YOU DON’T EVEN LIKE STUDENTS! If not you, then what about Risper?” Zellie continued to yell.
Dacer’s voice was a low hum that I couldn’t quite make out, except that he was saying something to the effect that Risper wasn’t suitable, and Zellie knew quite well why not.
“You know what Dobrov did! You know what his family is capable of,” Zellie spat out. I could hear her clearly, her anger carrying through walls.
“The sins of one family member are not the sins of all!” Dacer was clearly losing patience. “Dobrov is capable! I want to hear nothing more about it.”
In my haste to deal with Crumple and get back to bed I had put the exchange out of my mind so thoroughly that I hadn’t even told Keegan about it. But after what happened in the dining hall that first morning, I resolved to tell him as soon as I got a chance.
One other such event stuck out in my mind, one that didn’t involve listening in on conversations that clearly weren’t meant for my ears. It was something I had read in the Tabble, and in the paper that brought the news to Dacer’s castle. The vampire Duke got a mass of newspapers, papers, and correspondence every day, so much stuff that the mailman used to grumble, until – as Dacer explained to me with a sly smile – the Duke just happened to have a spare little cottage on his grounds that he couldn’t dream of charging rent for. Now the mailman made a special trip to Dacer’s when he had deliveries, and he made the Duke his first stop each day.
Sometimes Dacer would rush out to meet whatever letter he was waiting for, other times he was far too busy to bother with such trivialities as vampire dental coverage. Then the mail would pile up until Zellie would stand for it no more, at which point the cousins would have a fight.
The Tabble was different; it was always anticipated eagerly. I scanned it most days, looking for any sign of the pixie who had killed my friend. Usually I found nothing. In fact, what it was most concerned about that summer was a certain hybrid’s appointment to Public. Unbeknownst to me, opinion had become very much split on whether “President Valedication” should ever be etched onto the plaque outside the top administrator’s office at Public.
Every day brought a new opinion piece. Some praised Dobrov as effusively as they could. Maybe they had met him and he had been kind, or they believed that he’d single-handedly won the Nocturn war, or they thought that young blood was needed to run the office. Dobrov could be praised, in other words, from a variety of viewpoints.
His detractors took no prisoners. They were unforgiving in their hatred of him, and most of that bad feeling stemmed from what his sister had done.
Dobrov and his dead twin sister Daisy had been close when they arrived at Public, and many paranormals believed they had stayed that way even after Daisy went over to darkness. Dobrov’s allegiances were questioned from the start, but in the end he had turned his back on his sister and laid his life on the line for light. This was enough for my sister and her friends, but other paranormals hadn’t had such an up close view of what he had done. Because most paranormals didn’t have that close-up knowledge of Dobrov, the crushing weight of the evil and death his sister had brought about was perpetually laid at his feet. If Daisy could be so evil as to let darkness overwhelm any good in her, then the same must be true for her twin brother Dobrov. Or so went the thinking.
I wondered if Dobrov was reading any of the debate that stretched out over the summer in the Tabble. Most paranormals were vehemently opposed to his appointment, so much so that they had taken over most of the paper’s daily coverage. In the face of all that vocal opposition, I could only surmise that Sip and Lisabelle were big reasons why Dobrov had the job in the first place. Talk about favoritism. One of the headlines even stated that Sip was just giving her friends cushy jobs everywhere, even if they weren’t capable of carrying out their duties.
Keegan, who also read the articles but didn’t know Dobrov, thought it was all very strange.
“Isn’t he too young?” he asked.
“His appointment makes a lot of sense,” I said.
“You have to earn honors, Ricky, and being so young he couldn’t have earned much, could he?” Keegan demanded. We’d had that conversation in front of Dacer, who had suddenly come down with a coughing fit. Keegan had dropped the subject, and so had I.
After the smoke incident we were instantly dismissed and ordered to return to our dorms to “prepare for classes tomorrow,” which of course we all did with a fair amount of grumbling. I spent the day frantic and irritated at times, knowing that all the other paranormal types had each other to talk to and would therefore be able to discuss the threat against the president to their hearts’ content, while my best hope was that Martha would show up and want to bake something (she didn’t).
At dinner that night it was clear that I wasn’t the only one who followed the daily news on lazy summer days. Having presumably had the entire day to talk about it, they still hadn’t dropped the subject of the message in the smoke when they filed in to the dining hall. “How could Dobrov be so lax as to let darkness in?” was the most common cry. From long before we had arrived on campus it had been clear that Dobrov’s appointment was a dicey one, and now I could see that students were looking for any excuse to get up in arms about the hybrid. The message in the smoke had been the perfect opportunity.
“Lisabelle Verlans is a determined opponent,” was one asinine thing I heard.
“It wasn’t his fault,” argued another student.
“It was his piece of paper that burned!” said the first.
“It wasn’t darkness that did this,” said Keegan, frustrated. The other students looked at him with wonder, as if he was saying something truly shocking and idiotic. Keegan, who had pledged his undying love to Lisabelle Verlans, couldn’t think that she would ever do anything to go against her best friends. Although he kept it in check, I felt sure that one of the big reasons Keegan continued to be my friend was that through me he expected, sooner or later, to get to meet Lisabelle. She’d kill him, but I had a feeling he wouldn’t mind dying if it was Lisabelle who brought it about.
“What are you talking about? He’s a hybrid! He doesn’t know what he’s doing! He doesn’t have any relevant experience!” Those were all arguments I had heard before. Dobrov was still in his earl
y twenties, and many paranormals thought that the president of the most renowned paranormal university in the world should be older, read more experienced.
“Dobrov fought in the Nocturn War,” I said. “He has just as much experience in real battle as many paranormals who are a lot older than he is.”
The students, all of whom wanted Dobrov’s head except for Keegan and me, rounded on me.
“What do you know anyway, elemental? Just because your big sister has introduced you to all these weirdo paranormals, you think you know something! You don’t, though! All you do is put the rest of us in danger! We would be just fine if it weren’t for you.”
“You’re just fine anyway,” Keegan scoffed. “And Ricky saved all our lives a few years ago at the Battle of Public. None of you were there, but it happened.”
“That’s just a myth,” scoffed one pixie. “He did no such thing. He isn’t that powerful, and if he did try to use that much power, he’d be dead. What do you know anyway, tree sprite?”
Keegan got to his feet, looking ready to fight. I grabbed his shoulder and held him in place.
“It’s not worth it,” I said. “They aren’t worth it.”
“Dobrov will be a fine president. If old people can say age is just a number, so can the young,” was all Keegan managed to say. The pixie just rolled her eyes and smirked.
As we walked away I heard someone yell, “Yeah, you run away elemental. Doesn’t surprise me at all.” Several voices rose in agreement with the first one. I turned my head away from Keegan, and suddenly it was Keegan pulling me away.
“If I don’t get to fight ‘em, neither do you,” said Keegan. “Fair’s fair.”
Chapter Eleven
We just so happened to walk out of the dining hall behind Eighellie, the girl who had spoken up and acted like her back didn’t bend.
Much to my amazement, we weren’t the only ones following her progress, however accidental our presence might be. A group of vampires was also tagging along behind her.
Once we were all outside the circle of light from the building, the vampires moved in closer. Eighellie, who I would have thought didn’t know anyone else was there, skidded to a halt and raised her hand.
“Don’t come any closer,” she cautioned. “I’m well trained in my darkness power!”
Keegan hadn’t noticed what was about to happen, and he looked surprised. We were far enough back that we probably weren’t in danger, but there were four black-haired vampires, three male and one female, about to attack one Airlee student. I was pretty sure I had heard those four vampires described as the Burble siblings, but I didn’t know their first names. I had a feeling that state of affairs wouldn’t last very long.
“You meddled in something that didn’t concern you. That is our business,” said the large male, gliding in front of Eighellie. “You need an education in how things work around here.”
“How do you figure you’re in charge of that, given that we’re all just now returning to Public?” Eighellie demanded. “They work however the collective agrees they work.”
“It’s funny you think you have a say,” said another of the male vampires. He wasn’t laughing.
The female vampire hung back a little, but she looked just as nasty as the others.
“Should we help?” Keegan asked.
“Yeah, probably,” I said. “So much for avoiding fights at Public.”
Dacer had called us into his office for a talk not long before we left the castle. He told me that since I was an orphan and Keegan just had his mother, he, Dacer, was taking it upon himself to say to us what needed to be said. Neither Keegan nor I had known what he was rambling on about at first, but the gist of it was that while we were students at Public we weren’t to start fights under any circumstances.
“With your sister it wasn’t really a worry, because let’s face it, she wasn’t the type to fight,” Dacer said, fuddling and muddling his way through his explanation.
Out of the corner of his mouth Keegan had said, “What does that mean?”
“It means she didn’t fight because she’s a girl,” I translated.
“You two, I have a feeling, will be more of a target,” said Dacer.
“Don’t you think that my sister didn’t fight – an assertion that I take issue with, by the way, because I always hear her and Sip and Lisabelle talking about fights they had – but anyhow, don’t you think the reason she didn’t get into as many fights was because she was friends with Lisabelle?”
“I’d say that was part of it, yes,” said Dacer carefully. “There is only one Lisabelle, though, so all the more reason for you to avoid battles at school.”
“When you say don’t start fights, what if someone starts them with us?” Keegan asked.
Dacer braced his elbows on the desk. Never breaking eye contact with the tree sprite, he leaned forward a little and brought his hands up to his head. Carefully, he started massaging his temples. “You must defend yourself, of course,” he said through gritted teeth. “I would hate for something bad to happen to you.”
“Well, yeah,” said Keegan, involuntarily shrinking. “Me too.”
“We’ll try to stay out of trouble, Dacer,” I said. “I certainly don’t want any.”
Dacer sighed, giving me a tired smile. “I know, Ricky. I also know that there’s a lot of uncertainty. Everything is new, from the president to the town around Public. There will be a lot of adjustments and a growing period. In all honesty, I’m glad you’ll be there. You have just as much experience as any of the other paranormals you’re likely to run into. I’m proud of you for going back. Charlotte is too.”
“Thanks,” I said, embarrassed by the praise.
Now, having barely arrived at Public, we were unfortunately about to have to go against Dacer’s request. We hadn’t even made it to the first day of classes.
“You think that just because your parents were murdered you have some sort of pass to snivel around here like you’re better than the rest of us,” said one of the vampires to Eighellie.
Keegan and I exchanged glances. This was new information, but we had no time to process it; there were vampires to be dealt with. Keegan started forward before Eighellie could reply, but just as he did, another figure came shooting past us. This was a fifth vampire, but one I recognized. Her name was Averett and I had seen her at Vampire Locke. She was related to Vital, the consort of Queen Lanca, ruler of the Rapiers and Blood Throne Queen. Because Averett had never so much as looked in my direction or my sister’s, I had the idea that she had something against elementals.
“Stop it now!” she cried. Everyone looked at her, stunned. Eighellie, who was raising her hand again, didn’t look like she was even sure who Averett was speaking to.
The other vampires glared at her. “How dare you tell us what to do! You think that because your cousin drugged the queen to get her to marry . . .” The voice was cut off with a whimper as Averett shot forward so fast that the biggest of the three male vampires didn’t have a chance to start running. Even from where I was standing I could see that once Averett got to him, the vampire couldn’t breathe. She spoke to him so quietly that I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but the other vampires flinched away. I saw the vampire who was about to die try to nod. Vital’s cousin appeared satisfied and released him.
“Now get out of here,” she ordered them. The four vampires hurried away, and without so much as a glance at Eighellie, Averett left as well.
The darkness mage looked at a loss until her eyes landed on us, then she brightened.
“Hello again,” she said. Neither Keegan nor I answered, so she went on as if her life hadn’t just been threatened and then saved by various vampires in the last five minutes. “It’s been a crazy evening.”
“Yeah,” said Keegan.
“Elemental GO HOME,” I heard a paranormal yell from somewhere behind me. I had forgotten how close we still were to the dining hall. I spun around, then felt a hand on my arm.
&nbs
p; “They aren’t worth it,” said Eighellie.
Somehow she had decided she was our friend. A good kick does that, apparently, and both Keegan and I were so taken off guard that we had let it happen.
“I have an idea,” Eighellie said. As if the incident with the vampires had never happened, and appearing to be oblivious to the churning turmoil of anger still filtering out from the dining room, she was clutching a book excitedly and looking at us with slightly wide eyes, as if she wondered why we too weren’t jumping for joy.
“Did that come from your backpack too?” Keegan asked. “You know there’s no such thing as the paranormal god’s gift to education, right?”
“I don’t understand,” she said.
“Yeah,” said Keegan. “I know.”
“Tell me, would you be cold without one of those things or something?” Keegan pointed to the book. “Is it like the new jewelry?”
“I don’t wear jewelry,” she said.
“Obviously not, since you have a book,” he said.
The girl gave Keegan a look that was fast becoming familiar between the two. It was a cross between “You’re an idiot” and “I don’t understand you.”
“Who would want to see Paranormal Public fall?” I demanded, pacing around Astra with Keegan and Eighellie watching. My two newish friends were looking around Astra in awe. The dorm was old and impressive and contained a lot of history, none of which would matter if Paranormal Public was forced to close!
I liked Dobrov. He was a friend of my sister’s, sort of, and I had a pretty good idea of what he had been through. Now, just as he was trying to start the semester off right, someone wasn’t going to allow that.
Keegan and Eighellie had followed me back from the dining hall, but I was the only who had left the chaos angry. Some students were confused, others were merely shaken up, but I was furious, and I was determined to do something about it. On the walk back to Astra I had ranted most of the way, to the point where Keegan and Eighellie couldn’t get a word in edgewise. I was so preoccupied that when I saw them sitting in one of the elemental sitting rooms I was almost surprised.
Elemental Havoc (Paranormal Public Book 11) Page 7
