The Elementals Collection

by L. B. Gilbert

  Before she was able to leave for the day, Diana had an unpleasant visit from Matt Archer, a lecherous junior vice president who’d been overly friendly to her the one other day she had worked here.

  “Hi, gorgeous,” Matt said, sauntering up to her desk and sitting on the corner.

  “Do you do that when Miss Ellison is here?” Diana asked caustically.

  Matt gave her his most charming smile. “The dragon would staple my ass to her desk if I tried.”

  “If you don’t have any business for Mister Price, I need to get back to work,” Diana said in her most business-like voice.

  Hurt flashed across his face. “I just wanted to invite you to drinks. A bunch of us are going after work.”

  She wanted to snort, but she bit her tongue instead. He was lying. The slight flush and increased heart rate was enough to convince her of that.

  Now I remember why I hate these corporate jobs. This sort of thing happened every time she went undercover.

  “No, thanks, I’m having dinner with my husband tonight. It’s date night,” Diana lied smoothly.

  More smoothly than him.

  His face fell. “Oh, I didn’t know you were married. You don’t wear a ring.”

  “I can’t wear jewelry. Sensitive skin goes with the red hair,” she lied again. She actually had a few piercings, just not visible ones.

  “Well, you should call him and invite him,” he said. “It’ll be fun.”

  Liar, liar pants on fire. Literally, if you don’t go away.

  “Sorry, we have plans,” Diana finished with a polite and distant smile. A deflated Matt slunk back to his desk.

  “You were right to reject him, but if you come back to temp here, it won’t matter that you’re married,” a voice off to her left said. “He’ll definitely try again.”

  Diana turned to find Erika, another secretary on the floor, waiting with an interested expression on her face. She was a friendly and overly gossipy young woman, not quite attractive enough to have to worry about the Matts of the world. But she was nice and genuine. Diana liked her.

  “That would be unwise,” she said, completely honest for once.

  “You just defined Matt. He pushed and pushed until he got a junior exec’s secretary to see him. She was married, too. Ruined her marriage, and then he dumped her and got her fired. He’s a jerk,” Erika said, sitting on the same spot Matt had been occupying.

  “Yeah, that was clear, but thanks for the info,” Diana said. He wasn’t bad enough for her to deal with officially, but maybe there was something she could do about Mr. Archer. She gestured to the packet of papers Erika was holding. “Are those for Mister Price?”

  “Yes, he needs to sign these today.” Erika handed over some of the papers and headed back to her desk.

  Diana did not escape the rest of working day entirely unscathed. A few minutes before quitting time, Mr. Price came over to suggest he could get her a permanent position with the company if she played her cards right. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

  I should cut my hair or something. Maybe die it brown or shave it off. Her built-in jerk magnet was clearly working too well. Maybe if she got a little uglier, she’d have less asshole face time.

  “I prefer the flexibility of temping,” Diana replied with a stiff, plastic smile.

  When the governing board goes down, I will make sure you go down with them.

  “You should think about the advantages of a permanent position. More job security and better pay. And a lot of new friends.”

  His emphasis made it clear what kind of friend he wanted to be with her. Apparently, he preferred the image of her at the desk outside his office than the uber-efficient Ms. Ellison.

  Ugh. Two in a row. “I don’t think it’s for me,” she said politely.

  Mr. Price’s smile turned a touch more brittle. “Well, if you ever change your mind, you know where to reach me.”

  “Of course I do,” she said with another one of those distant and polite smiles.

  She was getting too good at those. The demise of the Denon corporation couldn’t come soon enough.

  21

  Diana was counting the minutes till she could leave Denon headquarters. The minute the clock hit five PM, she was half-way to the elevator, but that still wasn’t fast enough.

  Both Archer and Price were following close at her heels, and despite the fact they entered the elevator after her, they moved behind her so they could check out her ass the whole way down. They weren’t even subtle about it. Teeth gritted, she kept her hands clenched at her sides so she wouldn’t give in to temptation.

  Mysterious elevator fires were a thing, weren’t they?

  This time Diana wasn’t the least bit surprised to find Alec waiting outside the main entrance. What was surprising was that she was actually glad to see him. He was lounging against a shiny black town car, some sort of Bentley this time. Her relief at seeing him must have been clear on her face because he sprang up and was at her side in seconds.

  Side benefit—his imposing presence, including the proprietary arm he put around her, stopped Archer and Price dead in their tracks.

  Noting their interest, Alec gave her a warm hug and whispered in her ear, “I hope you mentioned a boyfriend to those two. They seem overly interested in you.”

  “You mean in you and your shiny car,” Diana replied quietly. “And I didn’t mention a boyfriend. I mentioned a husband.” Alec froze when she stood on her tip-toes to kiss him on the cheek. “So, hi honey, how was your day?” she asked in a louder voice.

  Alec’s eyes flared, going from dark chocolate brown to a shade of light honey as they heated, along with the rest of his body. He blew right past the two men trying to casually catch their attention, handing her into the car with a flourish before he followed her into the backseat.

  As soon as the car door closed, enclosing them behind a tinted window screen of privacy, Diana relaxed her guard.

  “Ugh,” she shuddered and shook out her hands before taking a deep breath. “I was this close to torching something,” she said, holding her fingers a millimeter apart.

  Alec laughed, despite his obvious disappointment that her warm welcoming act was over. “Well, given how your admirers are practically licking the windows to get at you, I must applaud your will power. Go ahead, Daniel,” he directed his driver. “Before we need to get the car washed.”

  The two men were still standing nearby on the sidewalk. Both were frowning as they realized the occupants of the car were not going to get out to talk to them, as was their due given their position at Denon. Their displeasure at being ignored was all over their faces as the car pulled away.

  Sighing, Diana leaned back. In a perfect world, she could deep-fry the chauvinists or at least singe them, but honestly, they hadn’t done anything bad enough to deserve it. She got that sort of shit all the time. The small pleasure of snubbing them was going to have to do.

  “Who’s watching Pedro?” she asked with a nod to the track-suited Daniel behind the wheel.

  “His assistant,” Alec said.

  Diana smiled. Of course Daniel had an assistant. Being Alec’s right hand was a full-time job and then some.

  “It’s a bit early for dinner,” Alec began, “but I thought we could check out a few jewelry stores and antique shops that sell jewelry. We could show them the sketch we got from the bathroom attendant unless you have an errand. Do you want to get dropped off to change? That skirt looks itchy,” he said, handing her a printed list of stores and addresses.

  Diana frowned. “It is itchy. How did you know?”

  “I know fabrics. Kind of unavoidable in the coven. Vampires tend to be clotheshorses.”

  “I knew that already,” she said, eyeing his fine tailored suit sideways. “But this outfit works for something else I have in mind. Will you drop me off at this address?” she asked, handing over a slip of paper from her purse.

  “Of course. Would you like some company?”

  “Si
nce you insist on stalking me, do I have a choice?” she asked, unable to work up any genuine irritation this time.

  “No, not really,” he admitted comfortably. “Where are we going?”

  She pursed her lips. “That’s the address where Katie lived. I haven’t seen her mother since I brought Katie home last year, and now they’re both gone.”

  “Brought her home? You knew the little girl already?” Alec asked, his brows drawing down.

  Diana gauged Alec’s reaction. He was upset, indignant. But not with her.

  “She was taken by a child molester last year. I brought her home before he did any permanent damage. Many others weren’t so lucky…” She looked out the window, watching the streets pass as they made their way across town.

  Reluctantly, she continued. “I may have made a mistake when I brought her back,” she confessed, shoulders tight. “Her mother seemed relieved. I didn’t suspect anything might be wrong. But now Katie’s missing again, and so is her mother. So maybe there was something I should have seen back then that I missed.” She shook her head. “Brenda was just so terribly emotional. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.”

  “Wait, the mother is missing, too?” he asked, confused. “Can’t you track her like you did Fiona or Jay?”

  “It doesn’t really work that way for humans. Not unless they’ve done something bad enough to move the needle for one of us. And that takes a lot these days. It’s getting harder to track humans who do wrong. There are just so many more than there used to be. Their signal gets lost in the noise. Even if Brenda’s shady, I probably can’t find her as easily as I could find the circle. Which isn’t turning out to be easy at all. They’re masking themselves somehow, or we would have been aware when they started creating those black spells.”

  “And now you suspect this Brenda woman is involved with the circle? You said she’s only a human. It could be a coincidence.”

  Diana stared at him. “Maybe. . .but her sister, Katie’s aunt, was there, and she was uncomfortable. Really uncomfortable. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. Lots of people clam up when you flash a badge. But there could have been something there. Her name was Catherine.” Diana rubbed her temple.

  “Brenda and Catherine. I can get my men on looking for traces of them if you think they’re involved,” he said. “People are easier to find these days. Just takes some old fashioned police work.”

  “I tried that already. We have access to the human databases. Nothing’s turned up.”

  “Well, a little more legwork couldn’t hurt,” he said. “I could put some private detectives on it. There are a few I use regularly that have done good work for me in the past.”

  Something in Diana balked at the thought. She wasn’t used to getting outside help. There had never been a need. But she had to think about what was best for the children.

  “Okay. Why not,” she said, exhaling deeply.

  She almost changed her mind, but stifled the urge to take it back.

  “Look, I need to talk to you about something.” She hesitated before pushing her shoulders back and continuing. “When I catch up with the circle, it won’t be pretty. When I find them, they will be punished. Harshly. I’m going to do things to them you may not be able to live with. You may not want to stick around for that part.”

  Alec frowned. “I know it will be harsh. And if they’ve harmed the children, they deserve it. If they have broken the covenant, then their lives are forfeit. I may be a boring academic, but I’m still a vampire of house Broussard.”

  “I wish everyone felt the same way about the covenant. Even humans no longer follow her ways—and most of the rules of the covenant were put in place to protect them. There’s too many of them, and they have no respect for the Mother, for the earth, or for themselves. They take each other’s lives and the lives of their children. Even the witches are not so callous and bloodthirsty. We’re losing them.” She sighed, covering her eyes briefly.

  “A witch circle took the children. Not a human,” Alec said.

  “It doesn’t matter. The witch in charge, the one with the real magic, was raised outside the magical families, among humans like I was,” she said. “Otherwise they might know better.”

  “I didn’t know that you grew up among humans,” Alec said carefully.

  Diana waited for him to start pushing for answers, but he just watched her, his big brown eyes filled with patient understanding.

  She took a deep breath. “My mother was from an Elemental line long forgotten. She was murdered when I was four by a serial killer, one fond of strangling pretty young women. Even if they have little children.”

  Alec’s mouth dropped open. “How did an Elemental get killed that way?”

  Diana met his eyes, “I didn’t say she was an Elemental. She was just a woman. The line of inheritance is not always direct.”

  “Oh, yes, of course. What about your father?” he asked a little hoarsely.

  “Never knew him. I think he was in the army.”

  “Is he still alive?”

  Diana shrugged. She didn’t know and didn’t care.

  “Did you ever try to find out more about him or your mother’s family?” he asked.

  “Her family was pretty much all gone. And no. I didn’t try to find out more about my father’s family. The inheritance is matrilineal. The Elemental scholars don’t keep track of the fathers unless the relationships are long-term. And the boys don’t inherit.”

  “You didn’t try to find out on your own?”

  His voice was soft with sympathy. It was making her skin crawl.

  “No,” she said pointedly. “There was no reason to.” She looked out the window with relief. “We’re here.”

  They were outside of a seventies industrial-looking apartment building. It was next to others of similar design in a cheerless and drab neighborhood. Diana got out of the car first, eager to escape the small enclosed space. Alec followed her out a little more slowly, probably processing everything she’d told him.

  Not waiting for him she climbed up the stairs to the apartment the little girl had shared with her mother. Assuming that there would be new tenants, she reached into her bag for her fake FBI badge, ready to flash it when the door opened, but a minute passed, and the door remained closed. After more knocking and waiting, she put her hand on the door and closed her eyes. There was no warmth in the rooms behind.

  “No one home,” she murmured to Alec.

  “You can feel heat like those infrared cameras can see through walls, can’t you?”

  The quiet reticence that had come when he learned her secret had lasted the length of time it took him to climb the stairs. Her geek was back.

  Diana didn’t bother to answer his question. Instead, she took the doorknob in hand and moved the tumblers with her heat. A chain stopped the door short, but she could see inside clearly. There was no end table in view, no furniture at all. She reached up and melted the chain with one hand, pushing the door wide with her hip.

  “That is so badass,” Alec said in an undertone.

  Diana shot him a look. “You’re a vampire. Try to at least act a little cool,” she said pushing the door wide with her hip.

  “I am cool,” he said in an injured tone. “I got voted one of the supernatural world’s most eligible bachelors for Pete’s sake. Not that I care about that,” he said as Diana started to choke back her laughter. “But they did. They make a list every twenty years or so…”

  “Well, all right then,” she said, no longer bothering to hide her laughter. “Consider me chastised. Why don’t you stay here in the doorway, ‘cause I don’t want all this eligible bachelor hotness,” she moved her hands up and down to encompass all of him, “to interfere with reading the room. That okay with you playboy?”

  Alec closed his eyes. “Carry on. If you’re done mocking me, that is.”

  Moving inside, Diana giggled. “Not even close, stud.” She circled the room, and her laughter subsided. The room was total
ly empty. There wasn’t even any trash. “If I didn’t know better, I would say Dietrich had been here.”

  She had expected new people to have taken up residence, but apparently the landlord wasn’t in a hurry. It was off-putting to see it so empty. Closing her eyes, she scanned the heat signatures but gave up quickly. She shook her head resignedly, and Alec came inside.

  “Humans. They don’t leave much behind.”

  Alec frowned. “Why would a mother move house when her child is missing?” he asked, rubbing his chin. “Shouldn’t she be waiting in the home her child knew and remembered in case she came back? Unless she thought to search on her own and couldn’t afford to keep the place while she went looking…”

  “I don’t know.” Diana fingered the layer of dust on the shelves and counter, trying to decide how long this place had been empty. “She fell apart the first time Katie went missing. Or at least it looked that way. I can’t imagine that she’d be all that capable of striking out on her own to look for her, but like I said, I think I missed something there.”

  “We should check with the super. Someone renting this place would’ve wanted their deposit back.”

  The super was no help. Brenda had a month-to-month lease and had been a good tenant. When she suddenly gave notice and moved out, the guy hadn’t begrudged her the deposit. He knew Katie had gone missing, but handing over the cash without argument had been the extent of his concern.

  From the general condition of the common spaces, and the lack of lighting and broken fixtures, the landlord didn’t use any of the rent to keep up the place.

  And in addition to being a slacker, he had no compunction about leering, despite the presence of the very large and aggressive male with her. Tired of being ogled, Diana was tempted to punch him in the face, but she restrained herself when Alec gave her a little warning shake of his head.