Dark Waters (Elemental Book 1)

by Rain Oxford

  “They are suspicious of you and angry with me for not killing you as a child. However, they are willing to overlook this entire event on account of the evidence Vincent found proving that John killed James Chambers. The next stage in your life is yet to be decided. You were already very powerful, and now you have John’s power as well. Whether you become like him, use your powers to save lives, or sew kittens on pillowcases, that is up to you.”

  “We would suggest against becoming like him, though,” Vincent advised.

  “What if I already am like him?”

  “You’re nothing like him,” Remy said.

  “What is it that you want to do now?” Hunt asked. I glanced at Remy. “They have already figured out why you came to the school.”

  “Then I guess I’ll go back to being an investigator… but I think I’m going to be less biased. And I’m hoping to be back here next semester. After all, I’m a wizard now.”

  “Of course,” Hunt said. “I have no objections to your return. I would love to teach you to use your magic in a safe and responsible way. However, you might have a moral dilemma in choosing to return. Immediately after John’s death, the council signed a new law on discrimination against vampires in the paranormal community. Thus, I must abide by the law.”

  “You’re opening the school to vampires?”

  “Yes. In order to accommodate their needs, there are going to be night classes as well as day classes. Furthermore, I will be hiring extra staff to cover the night classes.”

  “What about blood for the vampires?”

  “Andrew was able to recreate his blood substitute. The new head of the department is a vampire I believe you are familiar with.”

  It took a moment to recognize the woman who entered the room just then. I knew she looked eerily familiar, and my instincts immediately warned me she was a vampire. What threw me off was that her hair was deep, dark purple, while her eyes were burgundy on the side of red. Her complexion had the flawless porcelain quality that women killed themselves trying to achieve. The vampire had high cheekbones with proportional, symmetrical features. She wore a black leather jacket over a fitted, emerald green dress and high-heeled leather boots that went up slightly passed her knees.

  The last time I had seen her, she had black hair and dull eyes.

  “Meet Clara Yocum,” Vincent said. “Stephen Yocum’s daughter.”

  She was the vampire I confronted in the hall, who had worked with Mrs. Ashcraft.

  * * *

  It took a few days before I felt normal again. I tried to attend classes, but I would go from wired one minute to lethargic the next. Hunt said it was my body trying to adapt to my new magic. It didn’t help that things would randomly explode around me or that I kept accidentally reading people’s minds. Hunt said this, too, would stop when I adapted.

  The rumors ranged from me helping Hunt form an alliance with the vampires to stop the killing, to me single-handedly taking out the vampire who had killed two members of the wizard council. Seriously, people were starting to call me a vampire hunter. Of course, when word got around that vampires were allowed in the school, it was all anyone talked about. Even the teachers were unsure about it.

  Some of the students were happy about it, because they wanted equality, while quite a few more said they weren’t coming back. Several women tried to cuddle up to me, but I told them I wasn’t looking for a relationship. Darwin, being the brat he was, started telling all the women that I was looking for a long-lost love who I had promised myself to and because of that, I would never settle for anyone else.

  Vincent wanted to get started on training me personally right away, but Hunt suggested he wait until my second circle. I told my uncle I could read the book and by the time the semester was over, I would have finished it. He just gave me an odd look and walked away.

  * * *

  I was sitting on the rock by the lake, throwing cucumbers into the newly-filtered water, when Henry sat beside me. “I thought they removed the kappa,” he said. A webbed hand reached out of the water and pulled the cucumber down. “Never mind.”

  “How did you get out of the cell?” I asked after a few minutes.

  He turned a little green. “John must have made me shift when I was still in the cell. No cage on Earth can contain me in my shifted form.”

  I considered what John said about my roommate. I wanted to believe the wizard had lied, but Henry obviously had a secret he didn’t want me to know. “Was that the first time you’ve been in a cell?”

  He nodded. “I have never been caught before. I came out here to ask that you never try to read my mind. I like having you as a friend and I want to keep it that way. If you see into my mind, it would ruin our friendship. Also, my parents would kill you.” He stood and walked away.

  I sighed.

  An image came to mind of two little webbed hands pulling Henry into the water.

  I smirked. “No, not just yet. Let’s see if he tries to kill me again,” I told the kappa.

  * * *

  “I heard you are getting better in your classes,” Hunt said. It was two weeks after I killed John and we were in Hunt’s office. I was on the couch and he was in one of the high-back chairs.

  “I’m not making things explode anymore. I keep having dreams of spiders, but they’re not exactly nightmares, because I don’t fear them. They’re just there. No one else is seeing spiders anymore, which I know is because John is gone… so why do I see them in my sleep?”

  “You may have to deal with the spiders again.”

  “Why?” I asked. Ghost purred, suddenly on the desk beside Hunt. “Why is Vincent’s cat always here?”

  “This is not a cat,” Hunt said.

  “What the hell is it then?”

  “This is Vincent’s familiar. Vincent could see everything Ghost saw, which is how he was able to watch over you. Similarly, the spider was John’s familiar. I suspect that was how John knew what was going on around here before we did. The spiders in your dream are very likely studying you, seeing if you would be an appropriate master.”

  “I don’t want spiders as my familiars. Do I have to have a familiar?”

  “You will have one.”

  “You don’t.”

  “I do. I am sorry it did not work out between you and my daughter.”

  “She’s happy, so I’m happy, I guess. I’m not ready to jump into another relationship so soon after Regina anyway.”

  “Do you know why I assigned Remy as your elemental master?”

  “I figured it was because she is a master of the water element.”

  “Actually, water was the element she struggled the most with. No, it was because I hoped you could help her. As much as I believed she could teach you to understand the element, I believed you could teach her to control her anger.”

  “Knowing John was my father, how could you know I wouldn’t make it worse for her?”

  “Because you are not just the product of your parents. Yes, you have character traits from both of your parents, but John was always different. John used the power of his mind instead of the elemental forces of nature. He could never feel that bond with the elements that you can.”

  “Were you surprised that I didn’t know I was a wizard?”

  “I was a little disappointed when you showed up here because I thought you were squandering the potential you had. In the few minutes I saw you as a child, there was so much future ahead of you. Now, I realize you can still be anything you want to be. I just hope you don’t follow in John’s footsteps.”

  “I don’t plan on it. How did Vincent stay good? Or did he not have as much power?”

  “Your power is unique to you and John. Vincent is just as powerful, but in a different way. He cannot control minds or see into them as you can.”

  “Then what is his power?”

  “That is something you should discuss with him.”

  I considered it and decided he was right, but I didn’t completely trust my uncle.
Oddly enough, I did trust Hunt. “Heather had a note in her pocket when she died. It had a phrase in some language that not even Darwin could read, and a symbol. I saw it later in a book, but the second word was different. On the paper, it said---”

  “No!” Hunt said quickly. “Never speak Enochian aloud. If you found a letter, it was because you were meant to read it and not hear it. You must always speak and act as if you are being overheard by your enemy. Where is this letter?”

  “Ghost took it. He read it on my desk, took it, and vanished.”

  “He must have taken it to Vincent. Unfortunately, if Heather had it, we may already be too late.”

  “Too late for what? What did the note say?”

  “You will know soon enough. What is written cannot be unwritten, and what is said cannot be unsaid. When you are ready to understand, you will find your answer. I cannot tell you what you already know and I cannot show you what you cannot see. Continue with your studies and you will eventually have a decision to make. I hope you choose the path of light.”

  “I killed my father.”

  “You killed a monster with no soul. Think of all the people you saved, who he would have killed. How can you use what you learned here? Where do you want to go from here?”

  “I still want to be a private investigator, but I think I can use my magic to actually help people now. There’s just one thing I never figured out. Mrs. Ashcraft couldn’t use electronics, right?”

  “Correct.”

  “And John could see everything through his spiders.”

  “Also true.”

  “Then who bugged your office? Wizards couldn’t have done that.”

  “That, I’m afraid, we are going to find out very soon. The paranormal community makes for a dangerous life, Devon, and there will be people who want your power. You have more enemies to come.”

  * * *

  I saw her running, heard her panting breaths, smelled the blood seeping from the wound across her waist, and felt her heart hammering in her chest. I wasn’t seeing through her eyes or mine. I sensed the location of the dark street because she knew where she was. It was dark and raining. The streets had bad drainage systems, so water pooled at her ankles. It was just a few degrees away from snowing. Her wound hurt. Exhaustion and blood loss made her legs weak, but she had to keep running. It was all she could do.

  She was prey. Someone was after her; someone who knew her strengths and weaknesses. He was a killer by nature and by profession. Her wound was slowing her down because she was losing blood too fast.

  She tripped over a pipe sticking out of the road and fell heavily into the water. Without enough energy to even stand back up, she propped herself against the brick wall of the building. An abandoned grocery store. Ironic, she thought, because she was starving.

  The street light about ten feet away, which was the only light remaining in the city, flickered out. Shadows prowled easily now, invisible to all but my eyes. As the light faded for the human eye, my vision accommodated. I could see perfectly in the dark and the rain, as light seemed to reflect from surfaces.

  Nothing was in color, but I could see what was warm, what was cold, what was alive, and what shouldn’t have existed at all. Shadows moved; dark shapes which absorbed the light that only my eyes could detect. I could identify them easily against the inanimate, physical reality that the living saw. What preyed in the dark was not a living being.

  He had found her. The shadows waited, eagerly watching the hunt draw to its close. They were ready to take every drop of blood left in her. He closed in on her, wary of witnesses, even though he truly believed what he was doing was right.

  Her eyes closed and she slumped against the brick wall, unable to hold on any longer. Her hand dropped from her abdomen and blood spilled into the dirty water faster. He moved in with practiced ease. This was what he did, and he was the best of his kind.

  The shadows shuddered and danced with anticipation.

  He knelt in front of her, not minding the frigid water soaking his jeans. It was another sensation to recall later, when he thought back on this kill.

  I could see into his mind as easily as I could see into hers. He put the muzzle of the gun to her head slowly, savoring the moment. But she wasn’t dead. I felt the shot as the bullet exploded from the gun.

  The last thing that came to my mind was a circle with intricate designs and symbols in it.

  * * *

  “Astrid!” My own scream startled me. I reached up to feel that there was no gaping hole in my forehead, but I had never felt a migraine so bad. Something dripped on my bare chest. Blood. I pinched my nose to try to stop my nosebleed.

  My palm burned like I had been branded. I studied my hand, from the wrist to my fingers. No raised skin, no redness, no mark, but it felt singed.

  I was in my room, still at the school, alive and unhurt. Henry and Darwin were both woken from my scream as well. As they asked me what was wrong, I wanted to be relieved to see it was just a dream. I wanted to believe it wasn’t real.

  Except it wasn’t just a dream, and it wasn’t my roommates or me who was hunted down and shot in an alley. But most importantly, I knew it hadn’t happened yet. No, it wasn’t a dream. This was more vivid than anything I had seen in anyone’s minds.

  Astrid was in trouble.

  Epilogue

  “We have a problem, Mr. Sanders,” Hunt said gravely. He folded his hands over the blue folder. Remy was just as somber on his left. Alpha Flagstone, who had taken the seat on Hunt’s right, seemed more frustrated than upset.

  We were in the same room where all of this had started, except there wasn’t a table in front of me. Over the course of the semester, I worked hard to learn what I could. The more I read of Vincent’s book, the more there seemed to be to read. I spent more time in the libraries over the sixteen weeks of the semester than I had in my entire life collectively.

  I stopped trying to figure out the mystery of Heather’s note or find the lost pages about Heinrich Baldauf and the Englishman. Instead, I worked my way through the semester without raising any suspicions. I was ready to start my second semester, where I could learn magic and use the distraction of the vampires to uncover some of the darker secrets of the school.

  Of course, with the case closed, I refused any more money from Vincent. He said he wanted to at least help pay for my education, but I told him I had all the money I needed. It seemed to me like he was trying to be the uncle I never knew I had, but I was hesitant. Over the months that followed John’s death, I started to trust the wizard a little more, but knowing he was my uncle made me keep him at more of a distance. A part of me was afraid that if I cared about him at all, he would become another murder victim.

  “You have not passed all of your classes,” Remy said, taking the folder from under her father’s hands and opening it. Professors Roswell and Langril were on her left while Professor Nightshade and Tanaka-sensei sat to the right of Alpha Flagstone. “As your schedule stated, not all of your classes are weighted equally,” she said.

  “Metals and Magic in Everyday Life were each worth three points,” Hunt explained. “Fundamentals of Potions, History of North American Magic, and Laws of Magic were each worth four. Martial Arts was only worth two.”

  Remy took it from there. “Obviously, the loss of credits due to Professor Hans’s murder was nobody’s fault, but had you passed your other classes, you would have had plenty of points to graduate. Unfortunately, you did not pass Metals. Thus, you only have fourteen points. You must have fifteen to graduate, and we cannot allow you to repeat.”

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Sanders,” Professor Roswell said. “You were a good student and did well on your assessments, but you missed more classes than I could forgive.”

  I did well despite missing class, but I wasn’t good enough? I was even able to keep up with all the notes. “I understand, Professor,” I lied.

  I felt like I had drunk ten cups of coffee; jittery and a bit sick. Just when I found somethin
g to try for, something to make my life better, I was getting kicked out. I couldn’t fail at something I was good at! But I would suck it up and smile and pretend I wasn’t going to puke as soon as I was alone.

  “Only fourteen, Ms. Hunt? I think that’s a mistake,” Professor Langril stated. Everyone looked at him.

  I was only paying half attention at that point. Part of me— a large part of me— wanted to reach into Professor Roswell’s mind and change his verdict. I could do it. I had that much power and I knew the professor would never suspect me, because he didn’t know what I could do. Hunt and Remy would know.

  But where would it end?

  I didn’t think Professor Roswell’s grading system was fair, but he wasn’t a villain. He had not physical hurt anyone or killed. If I could use my power to control him, what would stop me from using it to get my way in everything?

  There had to be another way.

  Professor Langril pulled his red foam ball out of his pocket and started rolling it between his palms. “Mr. Sanders has graduated my class with honors, which I believe, if you check the handbook, means that he receives an extra credit point for my class.”

  Professor Roswell looked at him like he was nuts. “You can only pass one student a year with honors, and you have to be able to support the decision.”

  “Unlike you, Professor Roswell, I am not trying for a record on how many students I can fail. Mr. Sanders, what color does a sleeping draft turn when a tester solution is added?”

  “Dark purple.”

  “What is the melting point of mercury?”

  “Negative thirty-seven point something Fahrenheit.”

  “Why is a scream-worm named that?”

  “It puts out an echo-location call that is too high for us to hear. It drives shifters nuts, though.”

  Alpha Flagstone narrowed his eyes in agreement.

  “What are the symptoms of aconite poisoning?”

  “Other than death? Try extreme nausea, stomach cramps, foaming at the mouth---”