Different (Tainted Elements Book 1)

by Alycia Linwood

  “Are you alright?” My mom reached out for me, concern filling her eyes.

  “Yeah.” I rubbed my face. Were hallucinations one of the symptoms of magic disease? Because I might be losing my mind.

  “Come on. Let’s get something to drink.” Ria’s face brightened up, the tension leaving her shoulders. If she thought we were safe, then there was nothing to worry about, especially if my mind was playing tricks on me. Still, as we walked to the house, I couldn’t help but glance back. Someone was out there. I just didn’t know who.

  Chapter 5

  The room Ria chose for me was huge. In the middle of the room was a big double bed with purple satin covers. On each side of it stood an ornate nightstand with a fancy lamp. A big closet with a mirror was on the left and opposite from it was a door that led to the terrace. In front of a big plasma TV was a couch and a table.

  A knock sounded on the door and I sat up on the bed. “Come in.”

  My mom’s blonde head poked through the crack. “Do you have a moment? Ria and I would like to try something.”

  “Sure.” I had many questions. I might as well get some of them answered. Ria closed the door behind her as my mom came to sit on the bed next to me.

  “How are you feeling?” My mom placed her hand on my forehead. “Doesn’t feel like you have a fever.”

  “I’m fine.” There was no need to tell her I’d been seeing strange shimmering things and hearing voices. Well, one male voice. “I don’t feel like fire will burst out of me at any moment.”

  “Can you take off your bracelet?” Ria nodded toward the silver bracelet on my wrist.

  “What?” I gaped at her. “But that’s illegal here. Carriers would come for me.” I didn’t know how good Ria’s control was, but if my new strange ability to be undetectable to carriers stopped working, things could get problematic very quickly.

  “It’s okay. The whole house is protected.” Ria waved her hand in dismissal. “No one outside will know, even if it turns out I can feel your elements.”

  My mom nodded at me, and I slid the bracelet off my wrist. Ria’s eyes widened for a moment, her lips parting. My mom took the bracelet in her hand to make sure I wasn’t touching it.

  “And you say you can’t feel the elements of other elementals?” Ria’s curious dark eyes met mine.

  I shook my head. “Do you think I’ll start to feel them?”

  Ria licked her lips. “Maybe. I don’t know. The symptoms don’t always appear in the same order or with the same intensity. Your mom told me you have fire. Can you feel it inside of you? It should be right next to your air, only feel a bit warmer. Or maybe like a cloud of warmth.”

  “Nope. I can only feel air.” I shrugged.

  Ria held out her hand and a fireball sprouted out of her palm. She didn’t even flinch as the flames danced across her skin. “Can you do this?”

  I could feel the warmth of the flames on my face even after Ria closed her hand and the fire disappeared. “I’m not sure. I was never in control when my fire surged.”

  “Try this,” Ria said confidently. “Take a deep breath and relax. Picture a fireball in your hand. You don’t have to do anything else.”

  It sounded easy, but I had my doubts. Still, it couldn’t hurt to try, could it? “Okay.” I held out my hand in front of me and stared at my palm.

  “Picture the warmth inside of you. Imagine it running through your veins and drive it into your hand.” Ria’s voice was calm and steady.

  I could still remember the fever I’d had when the fire tried to break out of my body. What I needed was to find that incessant scorching feeling that wanted to render me breathless. Was it a good idea to trigger my fire again? I glanced at my mom and saw her relaxed demeanor. She believed I could do this.

  Something switched inside of me and a rush of energy spread through my whole body. My pulse sped up and I shivered. Clenching my fingers into a fist, I tried to force all that power into my hand. Energy poured out of my fingers, but instead of fire, my air pushed the couch all the way to the wall. I got to my feet and swore, pulling the energy back until it no longer felt as if someone had let a mini tornado in the house.

  “It’s okay. You’re doing great.” Ria didn’t seem to mind I’d just rearranged her furniture. “It’s natural that your air comes first. No reason to be upset.”

  “I know. I just...” I ran my hand through my hair.

  “Don’t be afraid of your fire.”

  I chewed on my lip. Of course Ria wasn’t afraid of fire when it was her element, but if I inherited fire from my father’s side of the family, then fire was my element too. For someone who often toyed with the idea of having more than one element, I was hesitant to accept my new element. Then again, the books I’d read about people with more elements didn’t include the possibility of losing the elements. I didn’t like to read books that didn’t have a happy ending.

  “What if I hurt someone or burn something?” I crossed my arms. “I know a thing or two about controlling air and look what happened. With fire...” I lifted my eyes to Ria’s. “Can you catch my fire? I know you’re a carrier, so your element isn’t pure, but obviously mine isn’t either.” If two elements clashed, the stronger one would always win and could swallow the weaker one into itself.

  My mom’s eyes flickered to Ria’s, and the two of them stared at each other for a moment. Then my mom tilted her head slightly as if to say something. I had no idea what was going on, but I had a feeling they both knew something and weren’t telling me, or maybe my mom was worried Ria couldn’t do what I asked her to.

  “I can try, but my element isn’t only impure but also weakened because I drained it years ago. It never fully came back.” She blinked, pressing her lips into a tight line.

  “Okay. Let’s do this one more time.” I clasped my hands in front of me and closed my eyes. If forcing my fire out didn’t work, then I had to try something else. I remembered how the blue fire had enveloped my whole arm, but its source hadn’t been in only one point. Maybe I was doing the whole thing wrong. Instead of focusing on my fingers or on my palm, I pictured fire spilling out through my skin.

  I didn’t feel any warmer, but my arm was tingling with the familiar sensation of magic. A quick intake of breath broke the silence and something hit the floor with a loud thud. I opened my eyes.

  “Oh my God,” my mom whispered, standing only a few feet away from me. She must have knocked something down when she got up. I followed her anxious look and saw my arm completely consumed by fire. My heart skipped a beat.

  “Moira? Can you feel the fire?” Ria came closer too, her eyebrows drawn together.

  “No, I...” I stared at my arm, open-mouthed. The fire wasn’t blue. It was just a regular fire, but there was one problem with it; I couldn’t see my arm under it at all. “What’s happening to me? Why isn’t the fire burning my clothes?” Once an element touched clothes, it usually lost the contact with an elemental’s body, so it started to burn whatever else it connected with. Fire elementals had to be very careful with their element. Last time I had fire on my arm, I’d been wearing a T-shirt and my fire got only to my elbow, not all the way to my shoulder.

  “Wow. This has to be the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.” Ria let out a nervous chuckle. “You have a strong element.”

  My mom’s brow furrowed as she leaned forward to take a better look. “It looks like your arm has turned into fire, but that can’t be...”

  “What? No.” Just because I couldn’t see my arm from all the fire didn’t mean I’d turned my limb into it, right? But the closer I looked, the more it seemed that was indeed what I’d done. Uh oh.

  “Just breathe, okay?” Ria said.

  I inhaled slowly, willing the fire to go away. The flames started to pull back and I could see my arm again, but it was still enveloped in fire.

  “You’re almost there. Pull it back as if you’d do with your air.” Ria’s confident voice helped me focus once again on the fire. I let out a s
igh of relief as the flames went away completely.

  “You know, I’m starting to think you don’t have magic disease.” Ria winked at me, then elbowed my mom. “What do you say, Expert?”

  My mom tucked a stray strand of her curly hair behind her ear and turned to Ria. “Do you think it’s possible? A healthy elemental with two elements? If the experiments on her father’s element...” She pressed her lips together into a tight line.

  “What experiments?” I knew my father had spent some time in a lab to learn how to control himself, but that was back at the time when everyone was afraid of magic disease carriers. He hated to talk about that period of his life and my mom refused to reveal anything, so I was eager to find out more. “Wait, but my dad never had an element. I mean, wasn’t it always too weak to show?”

  “Yeah, I think it’s possible,” Ria said, ignoring my questions.

  My mom turned to me. “Yes, your father’s element was always too weak to show. But since we still can’t tell if carriers have some very weak element inside of them even when they can’t feel it, it’s possible that your father has a very weak element. Some of the experiments he went through...” She cast her eyes down for a moment. “...could have altered the genetic code of his element, but those changes didn’t show up until you inherited them.”

  I gave her a blank stare. “Mm-hmm.” I was so not going to follow in my mom’s footsteps and become a scientist. All the genetic code talk was too confusing for me.

  “What your mom is trying to say is that you might be a very rare elemental with two elements.” Ria grinned at me.

  The corners of my lips went up. It would be awesome if Ria’s words were true.

  “Doesn’t mean you didn’t inherit the gene for the disease along with the element.” My mom’s face was serious, the lines on her forehead more prominent. Of course she wasn’t going to get excited until she could scientifically prove that nothing was wrong with me. “We still didn’t find out anything new.”

  “Except for your daughter’s ability to turn herself into fire,” Ria said.

  “We should test that theory. Maybe try to touch her arm next time to see if it’s pure fire.”

  “Okay, but first, let’s talk about this whole thing.” Ria took my mom by the shoulders and steered her toward the door. “Moira needs to get some rest. That was a lot of energy she used.”

  “Right.” My mom let Ria drag her through the door. Strangely enough, I didn’t feel tired or drained at all.

  Chapter 6

  When I woke up the next morning, I found no trace of any kind of fire on me. Everything in the room looked exactly like I’d left it, and I was glad my elements hadn’t misbehaved while I’d been asleep. I’d kept my element-blocking bracelet on the whole time, just in case.

  Getting to my feet, I put on a blue sweater. Apparently, my fire wasn’t enough to keep my body warm. After I finished dressing, I brushed out the knots from my long brown hair. I was on my way to the bathroom when I heard voices coming from the downstairs. My mom and Ria were in the middle of a discussion. Tiptoeing closer, I strained my ears to hear better.

  “I really think you should tell her,” Ria said. “I know you want to protect her, but she’d be safer if she knew the truth.”

  “I can’t,” my mom said. “I don’t want to.”

  “Fine. It’s your choice,” Ria sighed.

  “Well, hello there,” a voice said behind my back, making me jump. I turned around with a gasp and met Adrian’s light blue eyes.

  “Hi.” I gave him a shy smile, hoping he hadn’t noticed what I’d been doing but the smirk on his face was enough to confirm that he had a pretty good idea.

  “Do you want some breakfast?” He cocked his head.

  “Sure,” I nodded, and followed him to the kitchen.

  “Good morning, honey,” my mom said, her eyes brightening at the sight of me. “Did you sleep well?”

  “Yeah. I didn’t turn my room into ashes.” I plopped into a chair next to Ria, who had eyes only for Adrian as he busied himself with something on the stove.

  “That’s good to hear.” My mom took one of the empty glasses from the table and poured some orange juice. “Here.”

  “Thanks.” I took a sip. “Mom, I heard something...”

  The smile fled my mom’s face, her eyes darting between Ria and me. “What?” She tried to keep her voice even.

  “That you’re not telling me something.” I reached for her hand, giving her a little squeeze. “You can trust me, Mom. Whatever it is that you’re trying to protect me from, I’m sure you’re just worrying too much.”

  My mom pulled her hand back, fidgeting in her chair. “Honey, I...”

  “Do I smell pancakes?” My dad strolled into the kitchen, yawning. He stopped when he saw the looks on our faces. “Oh, hey everyone. I thought Moira was still asleep. What’s going on?”

  “Nothing.” My mom got to her feet and plastered a quick kiss on my dad’s lips.

  “Well, I wouldn’t agree with that.” I crossed my arms. “What were you about to tell me?”

  I could swear my mom pouted because her plan to distract me didn’t work. “Do you want to know the real reason why I brought you here instead to a lab?”

  I nodded.

  “It wasn’t because I thought the scientists themselves would do something to you but because they could tell someone. If the story about you got into the wrong hands...” She leaned on the counter. “I’m just saying that there are people who wouldn’t hesitate to take you away from your family and experiment on you.”

  “You’d never let them do that,” I said as Adrian put in front of me a plate of delicious-looking pancakes doused in chocolate syrup. “Thanks.” I flashed him a smile, and he nodded.

  “Of course not, but they’re not exactly the kind of people who ask for permission,” my mom said, her eyes darker and colder than I’d ever seen them.

  “You shouldn’t concern yourself with that. Your mom and I will always keep you safe,” my dad said.

  I looked at my mom. “But if you brought me here so I could be safe, why didn’t you come to visit Ria before? We could have come here on a vacation. I mean, did you see those awesome beaches? It would have been easier for Dad to control himself.” I hoped I didn’t just put my foot in it. For all I knew, Ria and my mom hadn’t been on speaking terms for whatever reason. Maybe that was why I hadn’t hear my mom mention Ria before. Then again, my mom rarely mentioned any of her friends to me and I never asked. Still, we’d spent too many vacations worrying about Dad and sunbathing on crowded beaches. Roivenna looked like a paradise, and while it wasn’t the island for tourists, my mom could always say she was visiting Ria. It wasn’t like anyone would know if Ria confirmed it.

  “Roivenna isn’t as safe as you think. It’s not a place for a vacation. I wouldn’t risk your life by taking you to a place full of carriers. You were so young. If you happened to lose your bracelet... bad things could have happened. You don’t know how much I wanted to visit Ria, but I’d never leave you alone. Things are different now.”

  The wailing sound of an alarm pierced the air, making me want to cover my ears. Ria shared a look with Adrian right before she jumped to her feet, and he opened one of the drawers.

  “Someone’s trying to get inside the house. Stay here,” Ria said as Adrian handed her a gun. “Adrian and I will go see who it is. If you need weapons, check the drawer.”

  My mom nodded, her eyes alert.

  “Does this happen here a lot?” My eyebrows went up. I felt as if I were sitting in the middle of a movie, except I didn’t know my lines or what I was supposed to do. Kind of like a bad dream.

  “We don’t have many visitors who come unannounced,” Ria said, and she and Adrian ran out of the kitchen.

  “It’s going to be okay, honey,” my mom said, coming over to me and placing her hands on my shoulders.

  “We carriers tend to be paranoid,” my dad said, as if this were a normal reaction to an u
nannounced visitor. “If you’d spent most of your life dodging all sorts of sick bastards, you’d find this perfectly reasonable.”

  Well, when he put it like that, I couldn’t really argue. The concept of danger was unknown to me, especially in my own house. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what I would do in Ria and Adrian’s situation.

  “Go back to your room,” my mom said. “Lock the door and don’t come out no matter what. Go!”

  I jumped to my feet and ran for the door, but as I neared the end of the hall, I heard Adrian talking to some guy. It seemed like there was no imminent danger, so my curiosity prevailed and I went in the direction of the voices.

  “You think Marlau is coming here.” Adrian’s voice was low and edgy. Something slammed against the wood. “Why would he do that after all these years? If he comes for Ria, everyone will know it was him.”

  “I don’t think he’s here for Ria,” an unfamiliar male voice said. “Get your hands off me, Liandre!”

  “You could have told us you were coming,” Ria said, annoyance evident in her tone. “We could have shot you.”

  “No one can know I came here, and that’s a little bit difficult with my job, dear sister,” the man spat out. Was he really Ria’s brother? I peeked around the corner and saw a tall, dark-haired man at the door. “You don’t always have to be so trigger-happy.”

  “How do you know he’s not after us again?” Adrian said, his whole body tense, his fingers curled around the gun. I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about, but it seemed serious.

  “Marlau has spies everywhere. He left you alone because he can’t do anything without going back to prison, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t figure out your friend’s secret,” the man said.

  Ria ran a hand over her face. “This is not happening! He can’t know! I mean, no one knows except for a select few.”

  “How do you know he’s coming here in the first place?” Adrian eyed him suspiciously.