The Elementals Collection

by L. B. Gilbert

  “I don’t think you can make it ring that way,” Logan piped in from somewhere behind her.

  Diana turned in surprise. “You’re back already. How’d it go? Did you give one of the others the blade?”

  “Gia is taking a look at it. She was closer than Serin. She’s not sure of its origin yet, but she’s working on it. And she attributes the annoying buzz to its material. From a rare asteroid.”

  Diana lifted her brows. “I was afraid of that.”

  Logan flopped on the couch next to her. “Do you think it’s like our kryptonite?” she said with a wrinkled nose.

  “In case you missed it, I’m still alive,” Diana said, hitting her with a green throw pillow.

  It looked like something Serin picked out. Lots of beads.

  “Well, it’s definitely not something we’ve seen before. And the fact the circle had it when most of their other things were new and cheap is. . .disturbing. Gia suggests we send a little message to the old man at the Burgess estate. She supports your idea of making an example of them. Serin and I agree.”

  “Yeah, I thought it would come to that,” Diana said. “I’ve been looking into the current generation. I have an idea of who might have helped the circle in the first place, but I’m not sure.”

  “Who do you think it is?”

  “Hillard’s wife. Maybe. She’s been clean all her life, but you know what they say about the woman scorned. I’m gonna go shake the tree and see what falls out.”

  “About that. . .I figured you might want to head over there, but I think you should let me handle that for you. I need to go back to Europe anyway. And there is something you need to do here first. Something more important,” Logan said, rising from the couch to stand in front of her.

  “What?” she asked cautiously.

  “You need to rescue your boyfriend.”

  “What? Why?” Diana burst out, incinerating the pillow inadvertently.

  She threw it in the fireplace and turned back to her sister questioningly.

  Logan glanced at the impromptu bonfire before grimacing. “I heard whispers on the wind about the vampire Ruling Council. They know about the two of you. How he helped you. And they figured out he’s a Daywalker. They are going to censure him.”

  40

  This place needs a makeover.

  The East coast headquarters of the vampire Council were not what one would expect if they’d ever been a guest of any of the coven houses in U.S. or Europe. Instead of a mansion, the headquarters was a plain stone building hidden in the woods of upstate New York.

  There were no sumptuous furnishings or delicate antiques here. Instead, the furniture was massive and heavy, imported from the old country and their earliest days as an organization. The entire place was a throwback. The only concession to comfort was the richness of the rugs on the floor.

  Alec studied the imposing and impossibly large dark wood table in the central meeting hall. Even though it was rare for all the members to attend a meeting at the same time, tradition dictated that there be a space for every member of the council.

  Meetings were held once every ten years, and many members still didn’t bother to show up. Only the weakest and most powerful members attended regularly. It was a pattern that fueled itself. If they were savvy enough, the weak might grow strong based on what happened in that chamber. And the powerful maintained their control by feeding on those that weren’t. The only impromptu meetings happened after cataclysmic events in the human world so they could assess how it would impact them.

  For the moment, the meeting hall was empty except for Alec and the ten sentries stationed behind him. He recognized all of them. They were the most senior members of the Council guard, the strongest vampire warriors chosen to serve from the lower classes.

  As if he needed their presence to convey the seriousness of the situation he now found himself in.

  Just what exactly did they find out?

  He could only think about Diana. Her strength, her deep green eyes, and the smell of her skin. God, he wanted her. And he should have known his kind wouldn’t let him have her.

  Maybe he could overwhelm the guards and fight his way out.

  He glanced in their direction. Now there were thirteen. All old and strong.

  With an inaudible sigh, he sat at his normal position at the council table and waited.

  It took over an hour for the Council members to drift inside. And there were a lot of them. He locked eyes with Daviel Saturne, a junior member of the council, and, though Alec normally had many allies here, the only one he considered a true friend.

  One look at Daviel’s face was enough for him to be sure that his friend didn’t know why they had been summoned in such an unprecedented manner. And in such unprecedented numbers.

  Good god, even Edenny Stanishlough is here.

  The pompous ass had an air of gloating triumph as he walked by to sit opposite of where he normally did at Alec’s left. None of the council members took their normal seats, save one.

  Socar Diespiter was the oldest vampire in the room. Whether or not he was the strongest was debatable. As a diplomat, he had no equal, though it was the kind of ruthless diplomacy that made as many enemies as it did allies. He was still considered their de facto leader because those enemies never had enough impetus to join forces against him. Socar made sure they had more reason to distrust each other too much to consider allying against him. He’d been the council head for the last two centuries, since before Alec had joined.

  In all, there were almost two dozen Council members, more than was typical for a council meeting. And they had all seated themselves opposite him, instead of around him as they normally did.

  Alec showed no reaction when he saw his father Alden. His father was not a member, but he occasionally attended during those big disastrous events when the Council weighed the concerns of the coven heads as well as their own.

  Okay, this is bad.

  “Well, I take it there is a problem,” Alec said suavely, sitting back in his chair and crossing his legs.

  His urbane attitude and tone were flawless. He had done nothing wrong and wanted them to know it.

  Socar inclined his head slightly but was obviously annoyed that Alec didn’t seem concerned. Though they had butted heads with him before, their interactions had been cordial. Mostly. There was no sign of cordiality now.

  “It seems you’ve been keeping some very unusual company lately,” Socar said.

  Alec considered his answer carefully. He smiled. “I made a new friend recently. We had a matter of mutual interest to attend to. A matter of honor to my house,” he said with a pointed look at his father.

  Stanishlough leaned in and sneered. “You don’t make friends with an Elemental. They are our mortal enemies.”

  Socar gave Stanishlough an annoyed glance but didn’t contradict him.

  “Is that what you believe?” Alec asked with a note of disdain.

  There was a general rustle of discontentment among the others. Most did see the Elementals as the enemy, but more of a symbolic one. If vampires had bogeymen. . .But no one in that room would ever admit they feared anyone or anything.

  “So this is about my relationship with Diana?”

  “She gave you her name?” Socar asked with a lift of his thin grey eyebrow.

  “Why wouldn’t she?” Alec asked.

  He knew some in the room believed Elementals were simply witches with singular gifts. To witches, names had power. Most did not share theirs readily. But Diana was beyond the type of magic Socar was alluding to.

  Socar dismissed the issue with a slight movement of his hand. “The witch doesn’t matter. What matters is you and the secrets you’ve been keeping.”

  Crap.

  “And what would those be?”

  The Council leader’s expression hardened. “Do you dare deny that you found the secret of the Daywalker ritual?”

  There was a buzz of astonishment among the rest of the Council, save a f
ew. Only a handful knew why they were here. . .Stanishlough among them.

  “Why would I deny it? Most everyone here knew I was searching for the ritual. I actually found many of them scattered among different cultures. Some of those rituals are known to others here. Searching for the true Daywalker ritual is a favorite pastime of our kind. Just because I found something doesn’t mean it worked. What makes you think I succeeded where so many others failed?”

  “Don’t think to make fools of us. You were seen walking in the daylight.”

  Shit.

  He should have been more careful, but he’d been too wrapped up in Diana and the investigation. And now the Council knew, and he only had himself to blame.

  “Has the council taken to spying on its own?” he asked evenly.

  An outright denial would have been unwise.

  Another ripple passed among the council until the rumble of whispers became a roar. Some clearly did not believe what Alec was being accused of. Other members were hissing their disbelief to one another. A few took exception to the implication of spying.

  Alec was a respected and powerful member of the council. If he had been spied on, then it was likely they were all subject to the same kind of treatment. And that violated their unspoken code of honor when it came to dealing with their own kind. It was one very few of them adhered to, but all of them pretended. At least openly. An admission of spying in open Council was unprecedented.

  “You were seen in New Orleans and again in Toulouse, France. Your association with the Elemental was being closely monitored. It was foolish to think otherwise. When one of their kind shows up, it is always trouble.” Socar drummed his fingers on the table in a slow and deliberate movement.

  Alec conceded that with a shrug and a hint of a smile despite himself. Diana was trouble. Just not the kind they thought.

  “Well, now what?” He sighed, affecting boredom.

  Socar bristled with anger. “Now you hand over the details of the Daywalker ritual or you face censure.”

  Censure.

  Alec stifled a shudder. His gut twisted. It was the worst punishment the vampire Council had to offer.

  That particular penalty had been carried out only a handful of times in their long history, and all of those times had occurred in distant dark periods no one spoke of.

  Censure had destroyed some very powerful members of their kind who’d found themselves at odds with the ruling faction of the council. They had been buried deep underground only to be periodically dug up for systematic torture. Then they were reburied again. The cycle repeated every few years.

  The few vampires who had been interred deep under the ground of the vampire council’s seat in Europe had long since been dug up. They were put out of their misery sometime during the Enlightenment.

  Usually they went mad within the first decade, although one had supposedly kept his mind mostly intact twice that. Maybe he would get lucky and last as long.

  “Where the hell do you get off threatening me with censure? There is nothing in our laws that says I have to hand over something as sensitive as the Daywalker ritual to you lot. In fact, it’s the last thing I would do.”

  Stanishlough leaned forward. “How dare you keep something like that to yourself, you selfish bastard! We have been searching for a way to walk under the sun again for as long as we have existed. You have no right to keep the secret to yourself!”

  His outburst had an electrifying effect on their audience. The reality that there was a Daywalker in their midst was slowly sinking in. So was the idea that maybe they too could walk in sunlight someday. The rest of their audience looked confused or apprehensive. Even Daviel was glaring at Alec.

  Socar’s attitude was calmer however. After Stanishlough’s flare-up, he tightened his control.

  “Of course, I knew you would not hand over that kind of advantage to your house without some persuasion. Censure was probably inevitable in this case. You will be buried under this Council house and exhumed once a year until you hand over the secret.”

  How many years before he went insane? Alec shot a glance at Daviel, who now looked troubled as more security guards filed into the room.

  “That’s not why I’m not giving you the ritual details. I’m not doing it because I don’t want a bunch of irresponsible idiots running around on a power trip swarming the world over in daylight as well as night. That includes the members of my own house,” Alec said harshly, meeting Alden’s eyes.

  His father looked angry but didn’t say anything.

  “You self-serving sanctimonious little shit!” another member of the council yelled.

  “Bury him now!” another shouted.

  Alden walked to his side and said, “You’ve done it now. Just hand it over to them.”

  “I’m sorry,” Alec said sadly. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

  He and his father frequently didn’t see eye-to-eye, but most of the time it didn’t matter. This was different. Like the others here, his father believed they were the superior form of life on Earth. To even share the same air as one of their kind was a privilege.

  No wonder Diana hates us.

  Diana. He wished he’d had more time with her. She was starting to come around. He was close to convincing her that they belonged together. She simply needed a little more time with him and his more persuasive talents, the ones he’d been too cautious to employ yet.

  If he ever got out of this, he wouldn’t waste any more time. Whatever was keeping her from being with him was going to be dealt with, whether she liked it or not. If he ever got out of this that is. And since no vampire ever had survived censure compos mentis for long, that better be soon.

  The guards swarmed around him, waiting for Socar to give them a sign.

  “Last chance, Alec,” Socar said. “Just tell us what we want to know and you are free to go. For a time, at least.”

  “For a time?” Alec asked, deadpan.

  “We expect your assistance with the ritual should we run into any problems,” Socar said with a dismissive hand wave.

  Alec drew in a sustaining breath. “I’m not going to help you. You may as well just get on with it,” he said at length, sounding and appearing more firm and in control than he felt.

  Socar looked simultaneously disappointed and smug. He signaled his men, and two of them went to the marble mantelpiece. Working synchronously, they tugged on the widely spaced circular carvings on either side of the front panel. The small moon shapes were almost obscured by other occult symbols that had been added later.

  Before this more technological age where the lights of cities drowned out the stars, the moon was the most revered symbol for the vampires. For a long time, it had been the only light that had guided them.

  The entire mantelpiece slipped back and away, revealing a pit with a mechanical lift. Levers on the side walls had to be pulled simultaneously to lower the lift and a huge stone slab down from the ceiling. The thing had been left open since the creation of this place, back when only Native Americans and Supernaturals had walked this continent.

  The door opened, and more men wheeled in a huge stone sarcophagus. The top was carved with the symbols of Alec’s house.

  “Well, clearly you did not have any confidence in your powers of persuasion. This carving work would have taken some time,” Alec said in a flat tone.

  Socar dismissed that with a languid wave. “One has to be prepared for every eventuality. But you will tell us everything in time. We can afford to be patient,” he said, smiling at Alec.

  Asshole.

  The men who wheeled in the stone sarcophagus stopped in front of the opened pit at the far end of the room. Four more joined them, and together they lifted the lid of the sarcophagus with strained effort. It must have weighed several tons.

  Alec’s heart sank. Well, that’s inconvenient, he thought as the guards dropped the lid on its side. It landed with a resounding thud. He fought the urge to get up and run as the men moved aside to display the open
tomb and waiting sarcophagus.

  “Last chance,” Socar said.

  “You already said that. I’m not giving you the ritual details,” Alec said disgustedly as the guards moved behind him.

  “Then I have no choice. Alec Broussard, I censure you to entombment beneath this hallowed ground for the rest of your life or until you reveal the secret of the Daywalker ritual.”

  The guards behind him grabbed his arms and were starting to drag him from his seat when a melodic voice interrupted.

  “Hallowed ground? Seriously?” Diana said with a little laugh.

  The guards in front of the sarcophagus parted like the Red Sea to reveal the Fire Elemental in all her leather-clad glory.

  Several members gasped as she walked farther into the room. Except for his father, none of the vampires in this room had attended his mother’s soiree. But apparently they had all gotten the description.

  The guards backed away like there was a bomb in front of them instead of a five-foot-four-inch woman.

  “You know, for a group of decidedly flammable individuals, you lot are overly fond of fireplaces,” Diana said nonchalantly as she reached the long wooden table.

  Without missing a step, she hopped onto its surface and kept walking.

  “What the devil is this?” Socar seethed, head drawn back stiffly.

  “Your kind is not welcome here!” Stanishlough spit out, his face purple as Diana sauntered over the long table to Alec’s side.

  The guards behind him started to edge away. When she reached Alec, she smiled down at him. He looked at her in astonishment, and in one fluid movement, she dropped into his lap and sat on it.

  “Hey,” she said, twisting to look back up at him, giving him another little smile.

  He smiled back, momentarily forgetting everyone else in the room.

  “Hey, yourself.”

  They must have smiled at each other a little too long because there was a heavy rap on the table.

  “What do you want, Elemental?” Socar asked, his voice deceptively calm.

  Diana turned around to glare at him. “I want to know what the hell you think you’re doing,” she said, annoyance dripping from every syllable.