Different (Tainted Elements Book 1)

by Alycia Linwood

  “Lily told me. One of her spies who keeps an eye on Marlau overheard him. The spy says Marlau bought a yacht.”

  Ria rolled her eyes. “Oliver! Are you out of your mind? Just because Marlau bought a yacht doesn’t mean he’s coming here!”

  “And what do you think he’s going to do? Go fishing?” Oliver snorted. “The man can’t even swim!”

  “That still doesn’t prove anything.” Ria shook her head. “He has to be careful because of his probation. I still can’t believe they let the psycho out.”

  “He bought the yacht two days ago.” Oliver glanced from Adrian to Ria. “You are free to ignore my warning, but don’t be surprised when his men come barging through your door.”

  “Thanks for telling us.” Ria leaned back and banged her head against the doorframe. “We’ll double the security. This place is still the safest. If Marlau is after what we think he is, then there’s nowhere to run. We have to be ready.”

  “Can’t we just frame him for something?” Adrian said. “Find some old skeletons in his closet and send him back to where he belongs?”

  “Lily would’ve done it already if she could.” Oliver glared at Adrian. “I should go before anyone notices I came to your house. I’m supposed to be in the city this week. They’d know something was off.”

  Oliver’s dark eyes lifted toward me and I hid behind the wall. It was time for me to go back, so I found my way to the kitchen. My mom gaped at me when she saw me in the doorway.

  “Moira! What are you...?” she said.

  “Relax. It was just Ria’s brother.” I dropped into the chair. My pancakes were still on the plate, but they had gone cold. That didn’t stop me from taking another bite.

  “Do you know what he wanted?” my mom asked casually and took a sip of her coffee.

  “No idea. Something about some guy named Marlau.” I studied her face, wondering if she knew the guy. The mug clattered from my mom’s hand and broke into pieces, coffee spilling everywhere.

  “Paula...” My dad was at her side in a second.

  She gave him a weak smile. “Sorry. I’m so clumsy. Should have wiped off my hands.”

  “Let me clean it up.” My dad bent down to scoop the pieces while my mom grabbed the napkin and dabbed at the stain on her red shirt.

  “So, do you know the guy?” I arched an eyebrow at her.

  “No, I don’t,” she said. “I heard of him. He’s a disease carrier and he’s done some pretty bad things.”

  “Like what?” I persisted. Why was everyone so worried about this guy and why would he want to come after Ria or someone else?

  Ria appeared in the doorway and looked at my mom. “I need to talk to you.”

  “Sure.” Relief flashed across my mom’s face as she strode toward Ria. “Moira, we’ll talk about this later, okay?”

  “Yeah.” I cut another piece of my pancakes. This had to be another one of those things my mom wanted to protect me from for no good reason. Maybe I should find out who this Marlau was on my own. It couldn’t hurt to try.

  Chapter 7

  The Internet had a lot of interesting things to say about Marlau, but nothing that could connect him to Ria or anyone I knew. Marlau had spent years in prison and his crimes included illegal research, torture, and kidnapping of magic disease carriers. No wonder no one seemed to like the guy.

  A knock sounded on the door, startling me from my thoughts. I closed my laptop and was halfway to the door when the knock sounded again. Except it wasn’t coming from the door in front of me. I stopped dead in my tracks, listening. Was this another one of the tricks my mind liked to play on me lately? The knock sounded again and I realized it was coming from the terrace. Where was a gun when a girl needed one? I should have taken one from the kitchen or somewhere. I was sure Adrian and Ria had weapons everywhere in the house for emergencies.

  If there was a gun in my room, I didn’t know where it was hidden and I didn’t have time to go look for it. Someone kept knocking on the glass, which didn’t make any sense. The terrace was too high for someone to climb on it and it could be reached only through my door. The light blue curtains were too thick for me to see whether someone really was outside or something else was knocking on the glass. Maybe it was only a psychotic bird. Not that I wanted to have psychotic birds anywhere near me.

  Gathering all of my courage, I inched closer to the glass door. My every instinct was telling me to go get my mom or dad, or maybe both, but I didn’t want to upset them for nothing. Everyone was jumpy around here anyway. They didn’t need any more stress.

  My heart threatened to jump out of my chest as my fingers curled around the curtain and pulled it aside. A pair of blue eyes stared at me, startling me so much that I dropped the curtain. What the hell was some tall guy doing on my terrace? Having decided that I was more afraid of invisible entities and psychotic birds than guys, I stepped forward and opened the door.

  “Who are you and what are you doing here?” I didn’t dare to get out, so I leaned on the door, ready to close it in the guy’s face if he proved to be a threat.

  “I’m sorry. Did I scare you?” The guy ran a hand through his messy short black hair. “Believe me, that wasn’t my intention.”

  “You didn’t answer any of my questions.” I couldn’t see any weapons hiding in his black coat, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have them. “How did you get here?”

  “My name is Noah,” he said as if that answered everything. My eyebrows shot upward and I waited for him to continue.

  “You have exactly five seconds to explain what you’re doing here or I’m going to scream, got it?” I said when he remained silent. Those blue eyes bored into mine, reminding me of the endless depths of the ocean, but I wasn’t about to trust him just because he had pretty eyes.

  He raised his hands up. “I’m not trying to hurt you. I swear. I only want to talk to you. If you want to know how I got here, I can show you, but it will take more than five seconds.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Okay. Fine. Show me.”

  He turned his palms toward me and I considered closing the door, but instead, I slid the element-blocking bracelet off my wrist. If he was about to attack me, I’d be ready. His hands shimmered as they were surrounded by swirling air. Only a second later, his hands were gone. I could only see the slight movement of the air in front of me. I’d seen that shimmering before... I’d seen those blue eyes too. “You are the one who was hiding behind the tree.”

  He nodded. “Well, I wouldn’t say hiding, more like observing.”

  “Observing what?” I watched his hands as they became visible and solid again. How was he doing that?

  “You.” The word rolled off his tongue like a caress.

  “Why? You don’t even know me.” I had no idea what a guy with the ability like his would want with me. “How are you doing that anyway? What are you? A carrier?”

  “Whoa.” He dropped his hands to his sides. “Why don’t you compile a list and hand it to me when you’re done because I don’t think I can follow you.” The corners of his lips quirked up.

  “Not funny.” I glared at him. “Just start somewhere or the list is going to become enormous.”

  “I’m not a carrier.” He raised his finger to shush me as soon as I opened my mouth. “I’m an elemental. Just like you.”

  I scoffed. “I’m not the one turning invisible.”

  “But you’re turning into fire, aren’t you?” He gave me a knowing look.

  “How did you...?” No one knew about it except for the people in this house. I didn’t show my ability outside and I was sure Ria and Adrian hadn’t told anyone.

  “I told you I was observing you. The curtains on your windows are not that thick and the air around here carries the sound pretty well.” A cocky smile spread his lips. “Of course, you need the ability to turn into air to do that and not everyone can...”

  “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t call my parents or the cops.” I had no intention of doing the latter,
but I wasn’t about to trust this stalker for even a second.

  “Do you want to find out more about your abilities or not?” He tilted his head. “Besides, I could have sneaked into your house and into your room, and you wouldn’t even notice. But hey, I didn’t want to invade your privacy... that much.”

  My fingers twitched and I had a strange urge to punch him in that arrogant face. “I do want to find out more about my abilities, but not from you.”

  He gasped, placing his hand over his heart. I tried to calculate how much luck Adrian and Ria would have in tracking this guy down if I just smashed the door in his face and called for help. But how do you stop someone who can become invisible and turn into air? If I sent him away, he could tell someone about me. Damn it.

  “I see you’re having internal struggles,” he said. “Let me help you.”

  “In case you didn’t notice, I don’t want your help.”

  “But you need it.” The smile disappeared from his face. “I came to warn you. There are people who will be interested in your abilities. Dangerous people.”

  “And you aren’t one of them?” Did he seriously think I would believe everything he told me?

  “I give you my word...”

  “Your word means nothing to me.” I gave him an incredulous look.

  He licked his lips, glancing behind him. “I know, but you have to trust me. There are people who know how to track elementals like us. You can’t turn yourself into air and fly away, can you? What are you going to do when they come for you? Scream at them to leave?”

  “What makes you think I’m like you?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “I could be having magic disease. My fire is out of control, so it looked like I turned my arm into fire.”

  He shook his head. “No. I’ve seen this before. You don’t have the disease. Let me introduce you to people who can do the same as you. We can teach you how to control both of your elements.”

  “We?” I raised my voice. The prospect of meeting more people like me was thrilling, but what if Noah was lying to me? What if it was all some kind of a trick?

  “There’s a small group of us. We help each other and try to figure out more about our elements.” He held my gaze, unflinching. I couldn’t find any signs that he was lying, but I still didn’t trust him.

  “Great,” I said. “Then we can all help each other. Why don’t you guys come here? My mom is a scientist and knows some important stuff. She’d be happy to...”

  Noah’s blue eyes went wide, his face going pale. “No! You can’t tell your mother. We’re keeping a low profile. Not many people know about us and if the word got out that there are elementals who can do what we can... Many people would want us hunted down and killed.”

  “Why?” That had to be the stupidest thing I’d ever heard. “Why would anyone kill the elementals who can have more than one element? Element preservers have more elements and no one bothers them. Sure, there would be some jealous people, but there are always jealous people and no one has to die because of it.”

  “It’s not that simple. You don’t even know the extent of our abilities. Hell, even we don’t know, but we don’t want to be anyone’s lab rats.” He scratched his chin. “Didn’t you have a couple of history classes at school? You know how people react to something that is different and poses a threat to them. Magic disease carriers and element preservers were hiding for decades! Just look how freaked out you are that I could see you and listen to you when you didn’t even know. I could have gone into your home and taken with me whatever I wanted. Isn’t that scary enough? You’d never catch me or find me. The cameras and alarms wouldn’t stop me. Nothing would.”

  I pressed my lips together. In a way, he was right. It was creepy that he could do all that. Turning into a human torch maybe wasn’t as impressive or scary since it wasn’t any more dangerous than a regular elemental using a lot of their element, but turning invisible was a whole new level. “So you can also take things with you and turn them invisible?”

  “Yeah. Otherwise, I would have to go around naked.” He reached for something in his pocket and a gust of air flew out of my hand, pushing him a couple of feet backward. Annoyance crossed his handsome features. “God, I was just going for my phone.”

  “You could have warned me.” I flashed him a fake smile.

  “I was only trying to show you I can carry things with me.” He shrugged. “But it looks like you don’t want to see.”

  “Did you steal the phone?” If he could take anything he wanted, then he could be the master thief. I made a mental note to check my room for missing things just in case he was lying about not being inside.

  “Of course not.” He clenched his jaw. I had managed to piss him off. Great. “I’m only trying to help you. You should come with me.”

  I gaped him. “Come where?”

  “To our hideout.” He relaxed, the smile returning to his face. “We could train you and make sure you’re safe. You could be one of us.”

  “I’m not joining your secret club!” My tone was sharper than I wanted it to be. “I don’t trust you and I don’t want to have anything with you, okay? So go back to where you came from and don’t bother me again. My mom knows what to do. She’ll help me. I don’t need anyone else. If you’re worried I’m going to tell someone about you, don’t. My lips are sealed since we both have a secret to keep, but don’t ever come near me again.” I wasn’t about to follow a possibly dangerous stranger anywhere. If he didn’t want me to tell anyone about him and his group, then he’d have to keep quiet about my fire too. It was a perfect deal. He only had to take it.

  “Your mom can’t help you. She doesn’t even...” He stopped mid-sentence as if he caught himself at the last moment before he said something he’d regret. “She doesn’t even know that there’s nothing wrong with you.”

  I had a feeling the last sentence wasn’t what he wanted to say, but I was sure he’d deny it if I called him out. “Doesn’t matter. If I’m just an elemental with two elements, then there’s nothing to worry about. I’ll learn how to control fire from another fire elemental and that’s that. No one has to know.”

  “Think about my offer,” he said, his eyes pleading. “Meet me in the woods at dawn in two days if you change your mind or have questions. I’ll be waiting.” His whole body was surrounded by a shimmering cloud.

  “Just go and don’t you dare stalk me or observe me. I can see your stupid shimmering or whatever it is!”

  “See? I told you, you were one of us. Only we can see the difference in the air,” he grinned, then disappeared. Well, not really disappeared because I could see the mismatch in the air. I looked at the shimmering cloud as it rose into the air and flew away.

  Fighting the urge to smile, I closed the door and drew the curtains. If this whole conversation hadn’t been a dream or a hallucination, there was a fair chance nothing was wrong with me. I could simply be an elemental with two elements and there could be others like me. The only questions was whether I should keep Noah’s secret or tell my parents everything.

  Chapter 8

  “I can’t do this,” I muttered to myself right at the moment my mom came into the room.

  “Are you okay, honey?” My mom sat next to me, taking my hands into hers.

  “Yeah, totally.” I gave her a wide smile. I’d been trying to turn my hand invisible or get it to shimmer, but all I had done was blowing away the things in my proximity with my air. Maybe my attempts were doomed from the start. I couldn’t know if Noah’s ability was typical for all air elementals like us or it depended on how pure and strong the element was.

  “You’ve been awfully quiet the whole day.” My mom tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. “I think I know when something’s up, so why don’t you tell me?”

  “I miss my friends,” I said. “That’s all.” I wasn’t lying about that because I did miss them, even Cassandra’s constant talks about studying and Isabel’s endless rants about her boyfriend.

  “Oh, swee
tie.” She pulled me into a hug. “Why don’t you call them? Or set up one of those video chats?”

  “I don’t really want to explain what I’m doing on Roivenna.” I could always lie that I was visiting some of my father’s relatives, but then I’d have to come up with all sorts of stuff about what I did and who I met.

  Tears pooled in my mom’s eyes, but she blinked them away. “You don’t have to. You can say we went somewhere else, like on a regular vacation.”

  “I wanted to talk to you about something.” I was desperate for a change of subject because my throat was constricting. I didn’t want to get all emotional. “What if there are more people like me? I mean, I can’t be the only one who appears to have two elements.”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “But yeah, there’s probably a case similar to yours somewhere.”

  “What if they come for me?” I bit down on my lip. “To help me, not to hurt me.”

  “I don’t think there are that many people, and especially not nearby. How would they even know that you’re like them unless they saw you use your elements in a different way?” She tossed her curls over her shoulder. “If the world was swarming with a special kind of elementals, we’d know it already.”

  “Are you sure?” I gave her a quizzical look. “For how long did people hide element preservers and even sub-elements?”

  “We live in different times...” She grimaced. “You’re right. We probably wouldn’t know, but a select few would.”

  “So if someone tells me they know more about my elements and are like me, do I trust them or not?” I was still unsure whether to betray Noah’s secret. Would he find out if I told my mom and what would he do about it?

  My mom blinked, her smile wavering. “I don’t know.” Her voice was strained. She really didn’t like it when she didn’t have all the answers. “I guess it depends on whether the person is trustworthy or not.”

  “But what if I don’t know them or if I’m a terrible judge of character?” I tried to make it sound like a joke, but my mom frowned.

  “Then trust no one.”