Dangerous (Element Preservers Series, Book 1)

by Alycia Linwood

  “Ok,” I finally said. If she wanted it so much, then I could do it. And yeah, the evil part of me hoped my mother had already contacted hers and told her about Adrian.

  “Great!” Paula squealed in delight, hugging me. “Now we have to go. I’m looking forward to our shopping spree!”

  “Me too,” I said. “Just don’t bring your boyfriend with you. It’s a 'girls only' thing.”

  “You won’t mind, will you?” She looked up at him. Did she really need his permission for everything?

  “Of course not,” he said, and then they walked out of the room, acting like they were on a honeymoon. I closed the door and suddenly the world went black.

  Chapter 07

  Water. I could feel water all over me, but I wasn’t drowning. I wanted to touch it, to wrap myself in it, to drink it all up…

  “Ria! Come on!” I heard someone’s voice, but it seemed so distant, and I wanted to stay in the water. A few moments later, the image in front of my eyes began to dissolve, and I saw a shadow leaning over me.

  “Ria, please, wake up.”

  I blinked and saw relief pass over Michael’s face. He was holding a glass of water, trying to make me drink. I managed to take one gulp, but this water wasn’t as amazing as I had imagined it, so I ended up coughing.

  “What… what is going on?” I asked, looking around. I was lying on the floor in my room and Michael was the only one here.

  “I think you fainted,” he said, helping me to get up and reach the bed. “I was worried when you didn’t answer my calls, so I came here and found you lying on the floor.”

  He looked truly worried, and I tried my best to smile.

  “I’m fine, Michael. Really,” I said.

  “I’ll go get a doctor,” he said, and I grabbed his arm before he could get away from the bed.

  “No, don’t,” I said. “I just fainted. I guess I drank too much beer.”

  “Are you sure?” He gently placed his hand on my face.

  “Yeah.”

  “Alright,” he said, but didn’t seem happy about it. Well, I wasn’t happy that I had fainted either, but I didn’t want to see a doctor. There was no reason to make a fuss about something as trivial as this.

  “Will you stay with me?” I said, taking his hand. His green eyes met mine, and I saw the reluctance in them. Why didn’t he want to stay with me? I almost asked him, but I guess he could read it on my face because he answered my unasked question.

  “You know that we’re not permitted to spend the night in another student’s room,” he said. I frowned.

  “Oh, please. Like someone is going to check! We’re not kids anymore!”

  “True. But I would like to be in my room if Alan comes to look for me in the morning,” he said.

  “Alan?” I looked at him suspiciously. I didn’t really like Alan because he seemed to be too involved in everything.

  “Yeah, he’s trying to convince me to take part in some additional classes. He says this is too easy for me.” He smiled. Damn, I had a smart boyfriend.

  “Will you take them?” I said. “I’m pretty sure you could do it. And I bet it would look good in your diploma one day.”

  “I don’t know,” he said, caressing my hair. “I haven’t decided yet. But that would mean I’d have less time to spend with you.”

  His lips met mine in the sweetest kiss ever. I smiled.

  “Aww, that’s so nice of you,” I said. “And as much as I would like to spend all of my free time with you, I suggest you try. You can always quit later.”

  “I’m not a quitter like you,” he teased.

  “Hey!” I gave him a light punch in the shoulder. “I just quit ballet when I was little and, trust me, that wasn’t my thing at all. Oh, and I quit cheerleaders because I thought it was stupid and I…Ok, never mind.”

  “So how did the girls’ night go?” he asked, and I told him a few things that I’d discussed with Paula. He promised he’d stay with me until I fell asleep. I think he kept his promise because when I woke up the next morning he wasn’t there.

  The rest of the week passed in a flash. I was glad that Paula and I had agreed to go shopping before my parents came to ruin my life. Yeah, I started to believe they would ruin everything because they had avoided any conversation about my relationship with Michael when they had contacted me. I had kind of hoped they would call me the other day and tell me they understood and that we didn’t need to have special talks in person about it.

  But no, that hadn’t happened. Did they believe the problem would go away if they didn’t talk about it? Did they expect me to tell them it had all been a joke when they got here? I had no idea and it drove me crazy, but I didn’t want to ask anything because I was afraid I would make everything worse.

  Paula came out of the changing room in a long white gown that looked almost like a wedding dress. I frowned.

  “You’re not going anywhere in that,” I said. “I don’t want Adrian to get ideas.”

  She smiled, twirling in front of the mirror, but then she went back inside to try another one. I went through four fashion magazines and didn't see anything I liked. Damn, why was finding the perfect dress so difficult?

  Paula was out in a gorgeous red gown, and the sight of her in it made me gasp. I really liked the way ruffles alternated with organza. And the whole skirt was made even prettier by silver embroidery and scattered sequins. The upper part of the dress was also embroidered and beaded to fit the rest, and its draped sweetheart neckline fitted Paula perfectly. The dress seemed to be made for her.

  “Wow,” I said.

  “Should I ask them to attach the straps to it?” she asked, inspecting the dress carefully.

  “No,” I said, “it’s perfect like this.”

  “Are you sure it won’t slide down? I mean, I don’t want to be pulling my dress up the whole night,” she said. I got up from the white couch I’d been sitting on and walked over to her to get a closer look.

  “It won’t slide down,” I said. “It fits you perfectly.”

  “Yeah, but what if…”

  “No ifs,” I said. “You found your dress.”

  “You think I should take it?” She finally smiled.

  “Yup,” I said. “Actually, if you don’t take it, I’m going to force you.”

  “Alright,” she said. “What about your dress? Anything good in that catalogue?”

  “Nope.” I sighed. “Nothing looks good enough.”

  “How about that green one over there?” She pointed in the direction of one dress. “It would fit with Michael’s eyes.”

  “Yeah, it would. But I don’t like it,” I said.

  “Let me guess, you want something specific,” she said. I smiled.

  “You know me so well.”

  “Of course I do, I’m your best friend.” She laughed. “Tell me.”

  “Water,” I said. “I want something simple but beautiful… something blue… something like water.”

  “Blue, huh? Okay, we’ll look for it,” she said. “You’re really trying to impress Michael, aren’t you?”

  “Impress? No, I want to leave him breathless.” I laughed. Paula shook her head at me and went to change back to her clothes. After she had bought the dress, we visited maybe six or seven different shops, but I didn’t find what I wanted. Just as I was about to give up on everything, I saw the dress I wanted.

  It was a pale blue V-neck dress, which had a low back satin bodice and full organza skirt. The skirt looked simple, but there were tiny ruffles on it, which fitted perfectly in my picture of a watery effect. The bodice was covered with hundreds of small shining crystals, which reminded me of drops of water.

  “I want this one,” I said. Paula raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised. I guess she had expected me to never find the right dress.

  “It’s pretty! Try it on.” She took the dress from the hanger and pushed me towards the changing room. I needed some help to get into the dress because I was afraid I’d ruin something.
I didn’t want a single crystal to fall off, and the saleswoman assured me that wouldn’t happen, but I was still afraid.

  I couldn’t help but smile when I saw myself in the mirror. It looked just like I wanted it to look.

  “You look great,” Paula said. “Michael will approve.”

  “Thanks,” I said. Oh yeah, I was more than ready to rock Michael’s world.

  Chapter 08

  Paula and I were just about to enter the university building when my mobile phone rang. I saw Michael’s number and answered it.

  “Hey, honey,” I said cheerfully.

  “Ria, you have to get here immediately,” he said, his voice strained.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Your parents are here,” he said.

  “Oh shit,” I said. “I just got here. Where are they?”

  “Umm, we’re all in your room,” he said.

  “I’m coming,” I said. Fuck! My parents were waiting for me in my room with Michael! So they had met Michael before I could come up with a nice introduction. And besides that, now they knew Michael had a key to my room. Great. Just great.

  “What’s going on?” Paula asked.

  “My parents are here,” I said, hurrying down the hall.

  “Oh, do you want me to come with you?” Paula yelled after me, worried.

  “No,” I said. “I’ll call you later, ok?”

  “Ok!” I heard her yell a moment before I went around the corner. My hands were shaking and I could hear my heartbeat ringing in my head when I finally reached my room. I waited for a moment and then turned the knob.

  “Honey!” my dad said, obviously trying to make this situation less tense, but my mother just stood up, glaring at me, her lips pressed together tightly in a straight line.

  “Hey,” I said. I stopped in the middle of the room, not knowing what to do. I just smiled at Michael, not daring to go over to him and kiss him.

  “Where have you been?” my mother asked.

  “Shopping,” I said.

  “Shopping, huh?” she said, tossing her shoulder-length dark brown hair out of her face. “Well, I’m glad you finally appeared. I thought you’d leave your boyfriend alone.”

  The way she said the word boyfriend made me cringe, but it also made me brave enough to go sit next to Michael on the bed.

  “I would never leave him alone,” I said determinedly.

  “What do you want, Ria?” she suddenly said. “You have our attention now. So what is it that you want? More money? A new car?”

  I stared at her in shock. I couldn’t believe she thought I dated Michael to get something! Surely enough, I had done some things they didn’t approve of to get what I wanted when I was younger, but this wasn’t something I’d play with.

  “Dad, do you believe this too?” I looked at him, but he just shrugged.

  “I don’t know, honey. Why don’t you tell us?”

  “All I want is that you accept Michael as my boyfriend.”

  “No! You are not going to ruin this family!” My mother’s face was red from anger.

  “Ruin the family? What the hell are you talking about?” I was getting angry too. Michael touched my hand, and I looked at him in desperation. Then he interlaced his fingers with mine and just held on tightly. We could do this together. I knew we could.

  “You are going against the tradition. Our family’s reputation will be ruined!” she said. “As soon as the press finds out, it will turn into a scandal! You can’t do this to us. We’ve given you all you ever wanted. Please, think about it.”

  My mother’s face turned from cold and angry to disappointed and sad. Even her eyes started to get teary. What the hell? I'd had no idea my mom could be such a great actress.

  “Mom, you told me you didn’t care about this whole reputation thing,” I said, frustrated. But then I realized something; there had to be a reason why my mother suddenly turned into an unknown person.

  “What are you hiding from me?” I looked at both of my parents, who seemed to be startled for a second. I frowned. There was something horribly wrong here.

  “Mom? Dad?!” I said when I didn’t get an answer.

  “We need to talk in private,” my mom said. I was completely puzzled, but Michael and my father were already going for the door. My mother came to sit next to me and it seemed she was back to her normal self.

  “Honey, you mustn’t marry Michael,” she said. I looked up at her dark eyes.

  “I didn’t say I was going to marry him.”

  “But you might,” she said. “And that can’t happen.”

  “Why?”

  “Do you remember your great-grandpa?” she said, straightening her long dark brown skirt. My great-grandpa had died when I was five, so I couldn’t really tell I remembered him much. He was more like a blurry image in my mind.

  “Umm, not so well,” I admitted.

  “Well, he was determined to keep the family element pure, so he forbade his children to marry people who had other elements. Of course, he was afraid that his children wouldn’t do the same with their children.” Her voice was gentle now. “So he decided to do something about it.”

  “What does that have anything to do with me and Michael?” I said. “No one can forbid us to marry if we want to. Not even you.”

  “I know,” she said. “I wouldn’t even try.”

  “Then what the hell was all this drama?” I was completely perplexed.

  “It was… your father’s idea… obviously a bad one. We were afraid you’d secretly marry or do something crazy as that. And we didn’t want to tell you the truth about… your great-grandfather.” She sighed. I gaped at her. This was weird on so many levels that I didn’t know what to say. So my parents weren’t against my relationship? Huh? What had I missed?

  “Mom, I’m not following you,” I said. “Are you telling me that you and dad are okay with me being with Michael, but that my dead great-grandfather isn’t?”

  “We’re okay with it if you truly love him. Of course, it’s early to say at the moment, and we would prefer that you choose someone of your own element… especially because you can’t officially marry Michael, but you can live with him,” she said.

  “I don’t understand.” And I really didn’t. I considered pinching myself just to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

  “Your great-grandfather made a deal with someone,” she said. “We’ve been trying to find out who it was, but to no avail.”

  “What kind of a deal?” I said, my voice barely audible.

  “Anyone who marries someone whose element is air, water or earth will be killed,” she said, and I nearly laughed.

  “It’s not funny, Ria!” My mother was upset. “Do you remember your aunt Olivia?”

  “Sure,” I said. “She died in a car crash.”

  “No, her car was pushed off the road a day after she had secretly married Bruno, a guy whose element was air. We found out about it after a lot of investigating, but it seems that the deal is still on,” she said.

  “Wait, someone killed Olivia because she married that guy?” I said. “I just… I can’t believe that. Who would have done it and why? Maybe it was just a coincidence. Maybe someone got confused and went after her car believing she was somebody else.”

  “I know, I thought that at first, but we found the mark,” she said. “The same symbol that was on the document your great-grandfather had signed. Then we realized that something we thought was over was still there.”

  “Ok, mom, if you don’t want me with Michael, just tell me. This whole thing you’re saying belongs to a movie or a book,” I said. Really, if someone told you your great-grandfather made a deal so that someone kills off your family members who marry the wrong person, would you believe it? I don’t think so. If you would, then you had a hell of a strange family.

  “See, that’s exactly why we tried the other way first,” she said, taking my hand. “I knew you wouldn’t believe it, but it’s true. Your great-grandfather gave a lot of
money to that person and maybe did some other kind of a favor because it was obviously enough that this continues even after his death and probably the death of that person too.”

  I didn’t know what to think. This did sound quite insane, but my great-grandfather hadn't been the nicest of people either. He’d certainly had enough money and power to do it, but who was crazy enough to keep to the deal after he had died? I wished my mother had never told me this. I was almost sure I would have nightmares because of it.

  “How many people died?” I asked. My mother seemed to be thinking about it.

  “Four,” she said. “It could be five actually, but that happened a long time ago and we can’t prove it.”

  “And there are absolutely no clues about who it could be?”

  “No. But we believe it is someone influential or there would be no way to cover it all up.”

  “Ok, I’m not marrying Michael,” I said. “Actually I’m not marrying anyone for some years.”

  “Well, like I said, we were afraid you’d get a crazy idea to run away and marry in Vegas,” she said, “so we preferred to prevent it. We don’t want to lose you, honey. Especially not because of some narrow-minded bastard.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. My mom reached out to hug me.

  “I’m glad we sorted this out. I really didn’t want to start hating you.” I smiled and then panicked as another thought came to me. “Did you tell Paula’s mom about her daughter's boyfriend?”

  “No,” she said. “Is she really dating Adrian Liandre?”

  “Yeah, but don’t tell anyone,” I said, relieved. “She will tell her parents when she is ready.”

  “Well, I’m not surprised. He’s a handsome boy,” she said, and I raised an eyebrow at her.

  “Handsome? Maybe. But he’s dangerous.”

  “Don’t worry about her,” my mother said. “She is a smart girl. She knows what she is doing.”

  “Yeah, that’s what everyone says.” I rolled my eyes. “Can I tell Michael about this whole thing?”

  “No, don’t tell him,” she said. “The less people know, the better. We don’t want it to get to the press or end up in the wrong hands.”