Elemental Series Omnibus Edition Books 1-4

by Shauna Granger

  “Hello?” I heard her say from the living room. Jodi and Steven walked in to stand near me as we waited. “Yes, this is she.” A pause. “Yes,” another pause. “Yes, we can come down right now.” I knew they had found Jeremy. “Okay, we’ll be there as quickly as we can,” my mother said just before I heard her hang up the phone.

  “They found him already?” my dad asked my mom, standing in the perfect spot to see both the kitchen and the living room.

  “Yes, they want Shayna and Jodi to come down to fill out some paperwork,” my mother said, coming around so that we could see her. She already had her purse in her hand. “Let’s go,” she said, waving at us to come with her.

  “Okay,” I said, reaching for my purse and keys that we’d set on the kitchen table when I came in.

  “You’re riding with us, Shayna,” my mom said, her voice more than a little irritated.

  “Mom, we’re not all going to fit in the backseat and Jodi and Steven don’t have a car here,” I said slowly, trying to will her to see the logic in my voice. I tried very hard not to influence my parents with my empathetic abilities; my mom always seemed to know when I was doing it and my dad never reacted well when he thought he was being manipulated.

  “Honey, it’s fine,” my dad said, reaching out and touching my mom’s arm to get her to follow him out the door. She seemed to be battling her own internal fight to let me out of her sight. Finally, she exhaled loudly and turned to follow my dad out the door without arguing the point further. As we turned away from the door, I stopped suddenly, seeing an approaching officer, his cruiser parked behind my Camaro.

  “Shayna?” the officer asked, stopping a few feet away from us, standing in that easy way all cops adapt with his feet hip-width apart and his hands hovering near his utility belt.

  “Yes?” I answered.

  “We have apprehended a man that matches your description of the suspect that attacked you in the bookstore. We need you and Jodi,” he glanced at Jodi then and I realized he knew exactly who she was without asking, “to come with me and we’ll do a quick drive by where he’s being held and you can confirm if it is, in fact, him.”

  “A drive by?” My dad asked as he stepped forward.

  “Yes. We don’t really do ‘line ups’ anymore and, since we believe we’ve caught the man very close to the scene of the crime, we’ve detained him there and would like to have your daughter and Jodi identify him there before we bring him in on full charges.” Jodi let me take the front seat in the cruiser because of the pain of my bruises. The backseat was molded plastic shaped in a way that, if you were handcuffed behind your back, your arms would fit into the form the seat was in. I appreciated the offer and, for once, took it rather than argued.

  In another ten minutes, we were cruising by a neighborhood only a few blocks away from the bookstore and I saw two police cruisers parked against a curb with their caution lights flashing. The officers were standing on the sidewalk, looming over the crouched form of a third man. We slowed almost to a stop as we got close to the three men and there I saw very clearly Jeremy’s crouched form, twisted uncomfortably with his hands cuffed behind his back. His face was pink with exertion or rage. I couldn’t tell which.

  “Yeah, that’s Jeremy,” I said with a nod, noting how sad my voice sounded.

  “Jodi?” The officer asked, glancing into the rearview mirror.

  “Yeah, Jeremy McCormack, that’s the guy that attacked her,” Jodi answered in much more detail than I had given. The officer nodded and sped up to the normal speed limit and continued on to the jail we were going to in order to fill out paperwork for the charges.

  I had thought we would be going down to County where the courthouses were, thinking that was where our city precinct was, but the officer turned back towards the direction that the bookstore was in. We turned down Victoria Ave and then down Ralston St until we came to Dowell Ave and I suddenly realized how many times I had driven by the police station and never really paid attention to it. I almost laughed at myself, realizing for the first time that there were three police cruisers to every one civilian car in the parking lot. It’s amazing how many things in your own town that will escape your attention if you’re not specifically looking for it. If we had continued just a little farther down Ralston St and came around the bend in the road, we would have come up to the side parking lot entrance to the strip mall the bookstore was in. I had a moment while we were parking to wonder if Jeremy had been stupid enough to try to run right by the police station when he fled the scene, especially considering how quickly they found him.

  I unfastened my seatbelt before the officer turned off the engine. The irresistible urge to turn around pulled at me so hard I nearly gave myself a crick in the neck when I whirled to the right to look out the rear window and saw Jensen’s car parked on the other side of the aisle. He was standing there, waiting for me.

  “Tell my parents I’ll be right in,” I said to Jodi and the officer as I forced my door open and got out to walk across the aisle to meet Jensen. I hesitated for a moment, and then closed the distance between us, wrapping him into a hug. His chest was firm and his arms circled around my shoulders, pressing me into the warmth of his body. He rested his cheek on top of my head, breathing in the perfume of my shampoo. I felt a momentary tension in his body when I first wrapped myself around it, but as his arms nearly crushed me, the tension fled his body with an exhaled breath. I knew it was unfair of me to take the comfort he offered and not be able to be his girlfriend, always keeping him at arm’s length when it came to our emotions, but I really needed that hug.

  “How’d you find out?” I asked, my voice muffled against him.

  “I saw it,” he said simply.

  “I didn’t see you there?” I said, pulling away from him just enough to turn my face up to look at his. He looked down at me. His eyes had grown dark, like the ocean in a violent storm. Promises of angry, foam-capped waves were held in those eyes and I felt the chill of the ocean spray on my face. “You weren’t there, were you?” My voice dropped to a whisper as I spoke. He shook his head, his lips pressing together in a tight line. “But you saw it?” He nodded in answer.

  “Shayna, if you keep trying to get yourself killed, you’re going to give me a heart attack.” He tried to make his voice light, but the look in his eyes said enough.

  “I wasn’t trying to get myself killed. I was afraid he was going to do something violent to that clerk. I couldn’t just stand by and let him do that,” I said, taking care not to sound defensive.

  “I know,” he stopped, taking a breath and pulling me closer into his chest again. I didn’t fight him to look at his face. “What you do terrifies me, you know?”

  “I know,” I said softly. “But at least we’ve gained something from this.”

  “What? That they’ve arrested the bastard?” he asked.

  “No, I think we’ve proven one of your abilities is prophesy.” I pulled away again to look at him.

  “Yes, I think you’re right. I saw the whole thing happen, from when you were standing behind him before you got his attention, to when he rushed you, the man catching you just before you went over, and then you rushing out to see where he’d gone. But then you became hard to see; your whole body became blurry like a T.V. screen covered in snow and it hurt to hold on to the vision.” He looked at me, a line of worry creasing between his eyes.

  “Was it hard to look at anyone else when it happened?” I asked.

  “No, I could see Jodi and Steven reaching out to you, clear as a bell. Why is that?”

  “Somehow Jeremy or those things with him stripped my shields and there were too many raw emotions around me. I felt like I was being pulled apart by my very nerve endings.” I realized I was digging my fingernails into my palms. I eased my grip just as something occurred to me. “Hey, could you see the things with Jeremy?”

  “No, but when they were around you, it was a little blurry, like you were caught in a tornado or something.” I nod
ded, knowing exactly what he meant and couldn’t help but be disappointed. Maybe if he had seen them and could tell me what they looked like, I could have figured out what they were. “So, you pressed charges? I didn’t expect you to do that.”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t want to. Jodi and Steven convinced me. Jodi pressed charges, too, since he knocked her over,” I said.

  “Still though, you don’t let yourself get convinced if it’s not something you want to do.” He looked at me then, his head tilted to the side, curiosity sifting through his eyes. “What are you up to?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Don’t be coy. What are you planning?”

  “I’m not being coy,” I said, stepping back, but he stepped with me. That only worked to put me on edge, wanting to widen the space between us all the more.

  “This isn’t like you. Why did you want him arrested?” he pressed, his voice holding no room for argument.

  “I didn’t want him arrested, but…” I sighed, knowing if I wanted Jensen to trust me enough to help him with his abilities I couldn’t keep secrets from him. “I want to talk to him and he’s obviously not going to let me do that on his own, so…” I let the sentence hang there.

  “Shayna, you can’t be serious!” Jensen said. “He tried to kill you and you want to have a chat with him?”

  “Look, I think whatever he’s gotten into is affecting him and making him act in a way that he never would. You’re still new, you don’t know what Jeremy used to be like. This isn’t him,” I said, shaking my head, remembering the quiet, almost beaten down boy we’d grown up with.

  “So what, you expect them to let you talk to him here?” Jensen asked skeptically.

  “Why not?” I asked. “It’s secure. I mean, cops are everywhere.”

  “Because you’re his victim. He’s the accused. They’re not going to let you talk in private,” he said.

  “It’s worth a shot,” I said, shrugging my shoulders, knowing he was probably right, now that I stopped to think about it.

  “Just don’t get your hopes up?” he said. I stepped away to start towards the front doors. I felt Jensen’s hand slide down my back to rest on the small of my back, but as his arm grazed my size, I flinched with pain. I stepped out of his reach. “Something wrong?” he asked, looking at me from the side.

  “I’ll show you later. Not now, okay?” I looked up at him and saw the hesitation in his eyes. I kept walking, forcing him to follow or be left behind.

  We pushed open the plate glass doors that looked so much like the doors to the grocery store or a department store in the mall. It was a completely surreal moment when I walked into the midst of so many police officers. My parents were standing in front of a counter talking with Jodi’s father, who I wasn’t at all surprised to see. Jodi’s father was a County Sheriff and therefore did not work at this station, but rather out in the middle of town at our County Courthouse. But he was well-known and liked amongst most of the departments, so I imagine they didn’t feel intimidated to see him show up once they knew his daughter had been involved. I looked around and saw that Steven and Jodi were sitting in some hard plastic chairs against the wall, just to the side of the front doors. Jodi waved me over and patted the seat next to her, but before I could even take a step in her direction, my mom caught my eye and motioned me over to them.

  “You doin’ alright, kiddo?” Jodi’s father asked. We were all “kiddo” to him. He made no excuses for never remembering any of our names.

  “Yeah, thanks, just want to get out of here,” I said.

  “We’ll try to make this quick,” he said as if he was in charge around here, which we both knew he wasn’t. “Jodi?” he called, turning to the side just enough to see where his daughter was. Jodi stood and walked over to us at his call. “Okay, you’re both going to go into the room and you’ll each have to try to identify him, but you’ll be going in separately, do you understand?”

  “Sure,” I said as Jodi said, “Yes, dad.”

  “Your friends will have to stay out here,” he said, motioning to both Jensen and Steven with his chin.

  “No problem, sir,” Jensen said. He was the first teenage boy I had ever met that managed to call anyone’s father ‘sir’ and not have it sound sarcastic. Jensen walked over to take Jodi’s now vacant seat.

  “Okay, Jodi, you and I will be going in together and then you and your parents will be going in after,” Jodi’s father explained, looking at me

  “Dad, why are you guys acting like we’re kids? We don’t need to have our hands held while we do this,” Jodi said, careful to keep her voice even so she didn’t ruin the speech by sounding insolent.

  “You’re seventeen,” he said, as if that explained everything.

  “I’ll be eighteen in just a couple of months and Shay will be eighteen in another month after that. If we were here as the accused, you’d be treating us like adults, so why does that change just because we’re the victims?” I watched Jodi’s whole body language change as she made the very credible argument, but I could tell nothing fazed her old man.

  “Because it’s the law. Now, that’s enough,” and he said it like Jodi had said all of that during the midst of a temper tantrum.

  “Jodi,” I said softly, leaning towards her and placing my hand on her wrist. “It’s not that big of a deal, let it go.” I felt Jodi tense under my touch and I knew she expected me to ease her feelings of anger and resentment, but I didn’t take that liberty this time and, because of that, she relaxed under my touch and nodded slightly.

  “Yeah, fine, let’s go, dad.” Jodi turned and waited for her father to lead the way. Another cop behind the counter led all five of us through a hallway lined with doors, stopping in front of one that didn’t look any different to me than all the others. He reached and unlocked the door and held it open for Jodi and her father, stopping my mother from trying to follow.

  “Once they’re done, we’ll let you all in,” the officer explained. We waited for almost five minutes before another officer inside the room opened the door and waved us in. The room was small and gray with a rectangular table in the middle with four chairs around it.

  “Okay,” an officer said from farther inside our room. “Shayna, is it?” he asked, looking up from a paper folder, although I had a feeling he knew my name perfectly well.

  “Yeah,” I said. I walked over to him.

  “Now, we have some pictures here; one of them may or may not be the suspect. If you think you see someone familiar, you just point them out to me, okay?”

  “Can I ask a question?” I asked, looking up at the officer who nodded. “I just identified Jeremy in person outside. Why do I have to do this again?”

  “It’s procedure,” the officer said with no facial expression whatsoever. I thought about pressing the redundant issue, but my desire to get out of there was greater than my desire to argue. I remembered having to give my statement so many times at the bookstore, so why would this be any different?

  I nodded and waited as they laid out five headshots of men, all of whom had that criminal look to them. If you saw them walking down the street you’d cross to the other side just to keep your distance. But even if they had found five guys that could have passed for Jeremy’s twin, there was no mistaking the wild look in his eye that I had finally seen inside the bookstore. “Shayna, do you see anyone who you think is Jeremy?” the officer asked me, keeping his voice low and steady, as if speaking to someone in a hospital bed.

  “Yeah,” I said after licking my suddenly dry lips. “Yeah, he’s number two.” I wrapped my arms around myself for comfort before I remembered the angry bruises on my side, causing me wince and hiss in pain.

  “What’s the matter?” the officer asked, taking half a step towards me.

  “Nothing,” I said, shaking my head.

  “It is not nothing, Shayna Bridget. You show the officer what’s wrong,” my mother’s angry voice came at me from the darkness of the room.

  “Damn
it, mom, stop middle naming me!” I said, having to control the sudden urge to stamp my foot.

  “Shayna, do you have injuries from today’s altercation?” Officer Adams asked. I had caught his name badge in the light from the window when he stepped closer to me.

  “It’s just a little bruising,” I said easily.

  “It’s not little,” my mom said, coming closer to us.

  “Okay,” Officer Adams said, putting his hand up towards my mom to stop the pending argument. “Shayna, big or little, we’ll need to see it and take pictures.” He walked back over to the wall and pressed a button for an intercom that I hadn’t noticed before and spoke into it.

  “Honey, you okay?” my mother asked, touching my shoulder, her voice having changed from angry mama-bear to concerned in a heartbeat.

  “Yeah, I just want to get this over with.” I looked at Officer Adams. “I was wondering if I could talk to Jeremy?”

  “I’m sorry?” Officer Adams looked at me, completely confused.

  “I just wanted to talk to him, find out what’s wrong. I think he’s really disturbed about something.”

  “Oh no, I’m afraid that’s impossible. We do not allow victims to speak to the accused unless we trying to get an admittance of guilt out of them. And with over twenty witnesses in the bookstore, we don’t need that this time.” Officer Adams said with no room for argument.

  When I didn’t argue, Officer Adams walked to the door on the opposite side of the room as the one we came in through and spoke to someone standing outside of it. A female officer came in. She was petite for a cop, about my height and had yellow blond hair like Jodi’s, bound up and away from her face in a French braid. She looked around the room with a sweep of hard cop eyes before she found me. Once her gaze settled on my face she gave me a warm, easy smile. I realized how pretty she must be when out of uniform.