Dark Waters (Elemental Book 1)

by Rain Oxford

  “You should take it to the wizard council,” Henry said.

  “No, we should tell Hunt,” Darwin argued. “Hunt’s going to be better equipped to handle his own school. I know enough about the wizard council to know we don’t want them involved. They’ll probably nuke the school and everyone in it.”

  “We’re not going to anyone,” I said. They both stared at me. “You don’t kill a monster by cutting off its toe.”

  “I didn’t know we’re trying to kill a monster,” Henry said, fishing.

  I sighed. “We’re not. I am. I’m a private investigator.”

  Darwin’s face lit up. “Shut the front door! That’s so cool! Do you have a badge? Oh, do you have a gun?”

  “Yes, on both accounts; I have a license and a gun, but not with me. I figured a gun would do me little good against a paranormal opponent and if someone found my paperwork, I would just have questions to answer that are better left unasked.”

  “Wow… You’re like a wizard cop.”

  “I’m not a cop.” Or a wizard.

  “Well, this is great! Now we can be your sidekicks!”

  I looked at the book on my desk, knowing the check was nestled safely between the pages. Nope, still not worth it.

  * * *

  Metals were boring to me, so a class that discussed the atomic structure and magical uses for seven of them was a disaster. I figured that if I were ever going to skip a class in order to investigate, it would be that one.

  In potions, there was a heavy, hardback book for each of us that was basically a guidebook to plants and herbs. Then Professor Langril took us to the edge of the forest, with our books, and gave us each a brown leather sack and a list of plants to bring back to him.

  Mack, the skinny guy who didn’t wear gloves on the first day, also forgot to bring the book the professor provided. He tried to pair up with another member of the class, but nobody was having it.

  When everyone raced into the forest to find the plants, I hung back. Professor Langril smirked at me. “When you have what you need, we’ll have tea while we wait for the others to catch up,” he said before he walked off.

  Instead of entering the forest, I went to the greenhouse stationed to the north of the castle. It was just like every other greenhouse I had ever seen, albeit with some weird plants, so it was organized well and I found everything I needed easily. Within half an hour, I walked back into the classroom and set the bag down on the front desk.

  The professor grinned, reclining in a black leather office chair. “How old are you, Devon?” he asked.

  “Thirty. And you?”

  “Oh, ancient compared to you. My point is, most of the C-One students are self-absorbed and not very intuitive. However, eventually, someone is going to notice that you use a lighter to fire a cauldron.”

  I sighed and he put his hands behind his head casually.

  “Whatever reason you don’t use magic in a school of magic, is your business. I’m just saying if you want it to remain a secret, you need to try harder. Then again, if you are clever enough, people will assume everything you do is powerful magic. Hell, that’s how us old wizards get by. You’ll find that most of our brilliant displays are just showy shortcuts to feed our laziness.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “You do that, but also keep in mind that even though most of us are lazy, some of us are showy just to hide our real power. Smokescreens come in all shapes and sizes. Never underestimate a harmless-looking wizard.”

  * * *

  History of North American Magic was subdued compared to Fundamentals of Potions, but quite lively compared to Metals. Professor Nightshade talked about Native American magical culture while we took notes. She didn’t act like she was afraid of vampires in the school.

  After our classes, Darwin and I found four other libraries and searched them from top to bottom, but we never found another copy of that book. In fact, we didn’t even find the original again. One library we searched was for C-Five students only, but we were able to talk our way out of trouble when a professor got onto us.

  For the rest of the week, I tried to keep an eye on Mrs. Ashcraft and Professor Nightshade. Neither of them did anything even remotely eventful or suspicious. Fortunately, or possibly miraculously, Henry and Darwin both kept their mouths zipped in public about my job. They didn’t ask me a single question unless we were in our room with the door locked and they took it upon themselves to keep other students from asking me questions.

  When students tried to ask me about the vampire I confronted in the hallway, Darwin cut them off and claimed himself to be the official “celebrity’s” secretary. I thought this was annoying until the first time he brought me coffee, saying that a few young women had swarmed the coffee pot to wait for me. In the privacy of our room, he said that I must have had the “officer in charge” allure that women went for. I refused to tell either of them what I was investigating and they never asked about my powers, so I was fortunate there.

  On Tuesday, a week from overhearing the deputy principal and history professor arguing, I was tired of getting nowhere. I was also a little shocked at Henry. Since the weekend, he had been less and less composed every time I saw him. Accustomed to his normally elegant personality, I could only stare at him in martial arts when he yowled at a student who failed to keep up with him.

  He yowled.

  Like a jaguar.

  Then he spun on his heels and left in the middle of class. Everyone was confused by his behavior, so I just figured he had something going on at home.

  * * *

  When I tried to return to my room an hour later, I found Darwin sitting out in the hallway. “Did you finally manage to piss Henry off?” I asked.

  “No, but I wouldn’t go in there if I were you. He’s… busy.”

  At that moment, I heard a woman’s very distinctive moan. I sighed and sat beside him. “Have you been listening in the whole time?” I asked.

  He blushed. “It’s the closest I’ll ever get to the real thing.”

  “You’ve never been with a woman? How old are you?”

  “I’m twenty-one. And no, I’ll never be with a woman. I can’t… I’m a throwback. I can’t touch people. It hurts when someone touches me.” When I said nothing, he turned away subtly. “My parents were married for the good of his pack and her tribe. They hated each other, but they had to have a child. It was the law, because they were going to kill her otherwise so they could marry Dad to another tribe woman. The entire time…”

  “You don’t have to tell me,” I said.

  “I know. The entire night, she just kept thinking, ‘Please don’t touch me’ over and over. Something in her magic took control and after that, every touch caused her agony. Dad didn’t touch her for seven months, which was the duration of her pregnancy. In that time, they fell in love. When I was born, the magic was transferred to me. My aunt told me that I used to scream constantly because my parents couldn’t hold me or soothe me when I was afraid. By the time I was old enough to remember anything, my parents refused to ever touch me.”

  “So how do you know it’s painful?” I noted privately that his accent was fading and his grammar was improving.

  “I tried it as a kid a few times. I had a girlfriend once when I moved to a high school in the states. I told her I had a skin condition and she showed up the next day at school with a box of gloves.” He smiled slightly. “We were both ridiculed, but we didn’t care. It was the best thing I had ever experienced when we would walk gloved hand in gloved hand down the hallway.”

  His smile faded and he wiped his eyes with the inside of his hoodie.

  “We were together for a month. It was just… like a centimeter. My sleeve was pulled up just a tiny bit. Our arms brushed close enough I could barely feel her body heat. I could deal with the pain… I wanted too… but it wasn’t one-sided. It was never about the pain. When someone touches me…I see visions of what will happen to the other person. I saw her…” He sto
pped for a minute to try to compose himself.

  “You saw her death?”

  “I saw her suicide.” He stood. “I’m going to go get some coffee.” He ran off before I could ask him if he wanted company.

  I figured that, by the sounds coming from inside the room, it would be a while before I could go in, so I wandered the hallways of the school. I tried not to think of Darwin. Hell, I hated Regina, but I wouldn’t want to spend my life unable to touch anyone. Marrying the hell-bitch didn’t put me off women altogether, as much as she tried to.

  I came upon a familiar staircase that was missing every other step. Remembering that it led to another library, I decided to check it out. I was still curious about the missing pages, mostly because someone specifically tore them out. I wanted to know what people didn’t want me to know.

  I made it up the stairs and opened the door, almost surprised to find it was well-lit. What it was lit with, I didn’t know, because I couldn’t see any actual source of light. The library was huge compared to others, so I knew it would take a long time to search. I started at the nearest shelf and scanned every title. Nothing on the history of the school. Nothing on vampires.

  I did run across a book on the water element, though I didn’t pull it down. I knew Remington was going to have a fit, but solving a mystery was more important than learning about magic I couldn’t do.

  A book hit me in the head, startling me from my thoughts. I looked up and saw nothing odd, so I picked up the book. Get Familiar with Your Familiar, the title read. No, thanks. I slid the book into the shelf and backed up to try to see over the top. Since the bookcase was about ten feet tall I wasn’t seeing much.

  I went around to the other side, saw nothing suspicious, and moved to the next shelf. Curious if there was a “darker” section, possibly a private section, I headed up the circular staircase. The second level seemed to have thicker, older books of more dubious natures, so I resumed my search.

  Three shelves down, I found that I wasn’t alone. Heather Anne was putting a book back into place on a shelf when she turned and saw me. She wore a button-up, almost see-through, greenish paisley shirt tucked into short jean shorts and black high-heeled sandals.

  She smiled. “Hello, Devon. I’m surprised to see you here.”

  “You’re surprised to see me in a library?”

  “I’m surprised to see you in this library. Only certain kinds of people find this library.”

  “What kinds of people?”

  “I have to go now. I’ll see you around.”

  A door opened downstairs and I looked over the balcony to see Mrs. Ashcraft enter. I turned back to warn Heather to hide, but she was gone. I ducked behind the closest shelf and listened.

  “I believe Logan knows about the reports,” the deputy principal said.

  Student reports or police reports?

  “Then why hasn’t he found me out yet?” a younger woman asked.

  I hadn’t heard her voice before, but my instincts were screaming at me to look. Slowly, hesitantly, I peeked over the balcony. She looked to be about twenty-five with long, straight black hair, a smooth complexion, and a figure that would make any man look twice.

  It was the vampire from the hallway.

  “You just let me worry about that. And steer clear of Devon Sanders. I believe Logan hired him to investigate the files. Lay low for a few days and I will get him out of the picture.”

  Nope, definitely not worth five grand a week.

  Chapter 4

  On the night I met Astrid, she didn’t talk much, so I told her all about school until the cold wind chased me back into my room. The next night, I knocked again. When she knocked back, I got up and ran to the clothes I had laid out earlier; my thickest jeans and a jacket. My room was small and boring, so I hadn’t bothered to unpack any of my boxes. Hoping to talk to Astrid again, I had made sure my clothes were set out.

  After dressing, I went to the window, pulled myself out onto the flower bed, and leaned over to knock on her window. I felt fear as I looked down, but when Astrid opened her window and pulled herself out like I had, the height didn’t seem like such a big deal.

  She was slightly less pale and thin, but it was more of an impression than an actual sign of improving health. She was still wearing the same nightgown, so it occurred to me that she was forced to stay home from school due to an illness. That also explained why the car in her yard never moved and I never saw her outside.

  I got her to talk a little. She told me that she lived with her grandfather in Alaska until they were forced to leave. I asked her why she was forced to leave, but she just shrugged and looked out over the backyard.

  Our brownstone was only a few streets over from a forest, so there really wasn’t a good view from the back. The front had a nice view of the town’s main street, but my parents got to pick the rooms. When I sat there next to Astrid, so high above the concrete below, I was glad I got this room.

  Every night for the next few weeks, we would sit outside our windows and talk. Every time, she wore nothing but the slimmest nightgown, yet she never showed any sign of being cold. Then one night, she didn’t come to her window. The next morning, her grandfather’s car was gone. I worried at school, prayed she would be sitting outside her door when I got home. That was when I realized that she was my best friend.

  For three days, I knocked on the wall between our rooms, but I never heard a sound, not even the slopping noise I had heard before. When I went to bed, I would check the hallway window to see the neighbor’s car was still missing, and it was the first thing I checked when I woke up. Although I tried to be friends with other kids from school, most of them thought I was weird. It wasn’t my fault weird things happened around me.

  A girl who sat next to me wanted to be friends, but she wouldn’t stop talking to me and poking me during class, so she kept getting us in trouble. When she tried to cheat off me on a test, I got frustrated.

  She got a nosebleed.

  It wasn’t my fault, but other kids started getting the idea that I could hurt people I didn’t like. While I was happy that many of the students left me alone, I wanted someone to talk to during recess and free time.

  Finally, while finishing my homework late one night, absolutely certain that I would never see Astrid again, there came a soft, hesitant tapping at my window. I jumped up from my seat fast enough to tip my chair and ran to the window. I pushed it open, dusted the fresh layer of snow off the flower bed, and pulled myself out to sit. Astrid was there, waiting for me with a warm smile I never expected to see.

  She was gorgeous. Her skin was still light, but it had a glow to it in the moonlight and a flush to her cheeks that was attractive even in my ten-year-old opinion.

  “Where have you been?” I asked.

  “I had to stay away for a while. Meet me in the yard. I want to show you something,” she said excitedly. She went back inside before I could argue.

  I dressed as quickly as I could, afraid she would disappear again. The back yard was shared between my house and the neighbors on either side of me. Because there was nothing to do and my parents were too busy to play ball or anything with me, I didn’t normally go out there. Snow covered everything, so I was shocked to find Astrid waiting barefoot with only her nightgown on.

  “Where are your shoes? Where is your jacket? You’re going to get sick!”

  She smiled. “The cold doesn’t bother me.” She held out her hand and I took it, suspecting nothing. The sensation of danger stopped me from taking another step. This was the real reason why people thought I was weird; I knew things I shouldn’t. I knew there was something very wrong about to happen.

  “Wait. Come back to my house.” The house was safe. Nothing bad ever happened when my parents were close. “We can have hot chocolate.”

  “Later. I want you to see something.”

  I let her pull me by the hand into the alley behind the yard. She took me through the deserted streets, between buildings, and out into the
forest that surrounded the city. My mother told me never to go anywhere near the forest with a stranger and my father had warned me never to go into the forest without him. It was dark here, with barely enough moonlight to avoid running into things, but Astrid wouldn’t let me go.

  Finally, she knelt at the mouth of a hollowed log, let my hand go, and whistled. A tiny black wolf cub emerged and ran into Astrid’s arms. She smiled up at me. “Her mother was dead, so I’m going to take care of her. My grandfather would make me get rid of her, so I’m not going to tell him. Her name is Seda. You’ll keep my secret, right?” she asked.

  I knelt beside her with a wince, for the snow instantly soaked through my jeans. “Yeah, I won’t tell anyone. You can trust me.” She could trust me because I trusted her explicitly.

  * * *

  I felt eyes on me again. Normally, the sound of a storm helped me sleep, but the thunder must have been too loud. I opened my eyes to find another set of eyes only a few inches from mine. So I did what any practical man would do in an unpractical situation; I cursed and fell out of bed with a crash.

  “I didn’t know she was your wife!” Henry yelled as he was jerked out of sleep. Even as reality set in, he tried to cover his nudity… probably from vengeful ninja husbands hiding in the dark shadows of our room.

  “What happened?” Darwin asked. His hair was sticking up at the weirdest angles and the strawberries on his white pajamas didn’t help his image.

  I stood and pointed at my bed which, even in the dark, I could see was empty.

  Darwin frowned at it. “Is there a pea under your mattress, princess?”

  “Who peed the mattress?” Henry asked, still mostly asleep.

  “Baka. Go back to bed,” Darwin told him. “What happened, Devon?”

  “There was something in my bed. I mean, I thought there was. Now there isn’t.” Like magic.