Dark Waters (Elemental Book 1) (9 page)

Three shelves down, I found that I wasn’t alone.
Heather Anne was putting a book back into place on a shelf when she turned and
saw me. She wore a button-up, almost see-through, greenish paisley shirt tucked
into short jean shorts and black high-heeled sandals.

She smiled. “Hello, Devon. I’m surprised to see you
here.”

“You’re surprised to see me in a library?”

“I’m surprised to see you in
this
library.
Only certain kinds of people find this library.”

“What kinds of people?”

“I have to go now. I’ll see you around.”

A door opened downstairs and I looked over the
balcony to see Mrs. Ashcraft enter. I turned back to warn Heather to hide, but
she was gone. I ducked behind the closest shelf and listened.

“I believe Logan knows about the reports,” the deputy
principal said.

Student reports or police reports?

“Then why hasn’t he found me out yet?” a younger
woman asked.

I hadn’t heard her voice before, but my instincts
were screaming at me to look. Slowly, hesitantly, I peeked over the balcony.
She looked to be about twenty-five with long, straight black hair, a smooth
complexion, and a figure that would make any man look twice.

It was the vampire from the hallway.

“You just let me worry about that. And steer clear of
Devon Sanders. I believe Logan hired him to investigate the files. Lay low for
a few days and I will get him out of the picture.”

Nope, definitely not worth five grand a week.

On the night I met Astrid,
she didn’t talk much, so I told her all about school until the cold wind chased
me back into my room. The next night, I knocked again. When she knocked back, I
got up and ran to the clothes I had laid out earlier; my thickest jeans and a
jacket. My room was small and boring, so I hadn’t bothered to unpack any of my
boxes. Hoping to talk to Astrid again, I had made sure my clothes were set out.

After dressing, I went to the window, pulled myself
out onto the flower bed, and leaned over to knock on her window. I felt fear as
I looked down, but when Astrid opened her window and pulled herself out like I
had, the height didn’t seem like such a big deal.

She was slightly less pale and thin, but it was more
of an impression than an actual sign of improving health. She was still wearing
the same nightgown, so it occurred to me that she was forced to stay home from
school due to an illness. That also explained why the car in her yard never
moved and I never saw her outside.

I got her to talk a little. She told me that she
lived with her grandfather in Alaska until they were forced to leave. I asked
her why she was forced to leave, but she just shrugged and looked out over the
backyard.

Our brownstone was only a few streets over from a
forest, so there really wasn’t a good view from the back. The front had a nice
view of the town’s main street, but my parents got to pick the rooms. When I
sat there next to Astrid, so high above the concrete below, I was glad I got
this room.

Every night for the next few weeks, we would sit
outside our windows and talk. Every time, she wore nothing but the slimmest
nightgown, yet she never showed any sign of being cold. Then one night, she
didn’t come to her window. The next morning, her grandfather’s car was gone. I
worried at school, prayed she would be sitting outside her door when I got
home. That was when I realized that she was my best friend.

For three days, I knocked on the wall between our
rooms, but I never heard a sound, not even the slopping noise I had heard
before. When I went to bed, I would check the hallway window to see the
neighbor’s car was still missing, and it was the first thing I checked when I
woke up. Although I tried to be friends with other kids from school, most of them
thought I was weird. It wasn’t my fault weird things happened around me.

A girl who sat next to me wanted to be friends, but
she wouldn’t stop talking to me and poking me during class, so she kept getting
us in trouble. When she tried to cheat off me on a test, I got frustrated.

She got a nosebleed.

It wasn’t my fault, but other kids started getting
the idea that I could hurt people I didn’t like. While I was happy that many of
the students left me alone, I wanted
someone
to talk to during recess
and free time.

Finally, while finishing my homework late one night,
absolutely certain that I would never see Astrid again, there came a soft,
hesitant tapping at my window. I jumped up from my seat fast enough to tip my
chair and ran to the window. I pushed it open, dusted the fresh layer of snow
off the flower bed, and pulled myself out to sit. Astrid was there, waiting for
me with a warm smile I never expected to see.

She was gorgeous. Her skin was still light, but it
had a glow to it in the moonlight and a flush to her cheeks that was attractive
even in my ten-year-old opinion.

“Where have you been?” I asked.

“I had to stay away for a while. Meet me in the yard.
I want to show you something,” she said excitedly. She went back inside before
I could argue.

I dressed as quickly as I could, afraid she would
disappear again. The back yard was shared between my house and the neighbors on
either side of me. Because there was nothing to do and my parents were too busy
to play ball or anything with me, I didn’t normally go out there. Snow covered
everything, so I was shocked to find Astrid waiting barefoot with only her
nightgown on.

“Where are your shoes? Where is your jacket? You’re
going to get sick!”

She smiled. “The cold doesn’t bother me.” She held
out her hand and I took it, suspecting nothing. The sensation of danger stopped
me from taking another step. This was the real reason why people thought I was
weird; I knew things I shouldn’t. I knew there was something very wrong about
to happen.

“Wait. Come back to my house.” The house was safe.
Nothing bad ever happened when my parents were close. “We can have hot
chocolate.”

“Later. I want you to see something.”

I let her pull me by the hand into the alley behind
the yard. She took me through the deserted streets, between buildings, and out
into the forest that surrounded the city. My mother told me never to go
anywhere near the forest with a stranger and my father had warned me never to
go into the forest without him. It was dark here, with barely enough moonlight
to avoid running into things, but Astrid wouldn’t let me go.

Finally, she knelt at the mouth of a hollowed log,
let my hand go, and whistled. A tiny black wolf cub emerged and ran into
Astrid’s arms. She smiled up at me. “Her mother was dead, so I’m going to take
care of her. My grandfather would make me get rid of her, so I’m not going to
tell him. Her name is Seda. You’ll keep my secret, right?” she asked.

I knelt beside her with a wince, for the snow
instantly soaked through my jeans. “Yeah, I won’t tell anyone. You can trust
me.” She could trust me because I trusted her explicitly.

*          *          *

I felt eyes on me again. Normally, the sound of a
storm helped me sleep, but the thunder must have been too loud. I opened my
eyes to find another set of eyes only a few inches from mine. So I did what any
practical man would do in an unpractical situation; I cursed and fell out of
bed with a crash.

“I didn’t know she was your wife!” Henry yelled as he
was jerked out of sleep. Even as reality set in, he tried to cover his nudity…
probably from vengeful ninja husbands hiding in the dark shadows of our room.

“What happened?” Darwin asked. His hair was sticking
up at the weirdest angles and the strawberries on his white pajamas didn’t help
his image.

I stood and pointed at my bed which, even in the
dark, I could see was empty.

Darwin frowned at it. “Is there a pea under your
mattress, princess?”

“Who peed the mattress?” Henry asked, still mostly
asleep.

“Baka. Go back to bed,” Darwin told him. “What
happened, Devon?”

“There was something in my bed. I mean, I thought
there was. Now there isn’t.” Like magic.

*          *          *

We had a quiz in
Metals
, which I passed
easily, surprisingly. Of course, I was expecting Mrs. Ashcraft to call me to
her office at any time. She didn’t, so I headed to my next class. I felt
someone watching me and the sensation of danger an instant before I was shoved
against the wall by an unseen force. Remington, who had been somewhere behind
me, marched up to me, anger radiating from her.

But she was sexy when she was angry. Or maybe that
had to do with her long legs on display by her pleated black skirt. Her shirt
was bright green satin, fitted, with a low neckline. She also wore a thin black
choker necklace with studded red jewels. I didn’t like it because it made me
think of blood. Oddly, it looked like her ire was cooling as she approached.

“You missed your appointment,” she said. Her eyes
were still seething, but her voice was matter-of-fact and her teeth weren’t
clinched.

“I was---”

“No excuses. If you’re not at the lake tonight,
you’ll be out of here before tomorrow.” With that, she walked away.

In Potions, Professor Langril wanted us to learn how
to prep ingredients for use. Unfortunately, I was distracted and feeling quite
dejected. It sucked being the only human in a class full of wizards.

When the professor asked us to cut the sandalwood,
smash the coriander, put the scream-worm in water, and burn the frog’s tongue,
I really thought I got it. I was normally very good at instructions. Instead, I
smashed the frog’s tongue, put the sandalwood in water, fed the coriander to
the scream-worm, lost the scream-worm in Mack’s backpack, and accidentally set
Becky’s hair on fire.

Professor Langril didn’t ask me to do anything else,
as if he knew I had other things on my mind. There were times when I refused a
case based on a moral dilemma, but I never dropped one after I began. I never
failed.

I went back to my room about an hour before dusk and
began packing my bags.
Let the wizards go to war with the vampires. Damn
wizards with their damn backstabbing each other. They’re just as bad as
vampires.
At least, that was my excuse.

The door opened and Darwin rushed in before slamming
it shut behind him.

“Who did you piss off now?” I asked.

“Nobody! Just decided this was the safest room and it
was a good time of day to hide.” He looked at my bag and froze. “Are we going
on a trip?”

“No. I’m leaving.”

“You solved the case?”

“No, and I don’t care.”

“But… man, the vampires must really bother you,” he
said. Right then, Henry opened the door and gave me his most serious look.

“There has been a murder.” He looked at my bag
deliberately. “Are you going somewhere?”

I sighed.
I should tell Hunt about the vampire and
let him shut down the school.
“No. I’m just reorganizing my stuff.”

“Good,” he said, nearly back to his prim and proper
self. The effect would have worked better had there not been a hickey under his
right ear. He walked out and we followed.

The dining hall was swarming with students trying to
get a peek of the body while professors rushed to hide it. I managed to catch a
glimpse before a sheet was placed over her.
White-blond hair, small facial
features, young…
I couldn’t image anyone who looked that innocent did
anything to warrant being murdered.

I found in every case I had ever taken, there was a
motive. There wasn’t always a bad guy, but there was always a motive, whether
it was reasonable or not. Someone had a motive for stealing, lying, or
cheating. Even the person who hired me had a motive; whether it was paranoia,
justice, revenge, or whatnot, someone always had a reason.

But I had seen the two punctures in her neck. Her
yellow sundress was sopping with blood.

Vampires didn’t need motives to kill.

Teachers demanded that the students return to their
rooms or face harsh punishments. I took Darwin’s arm by the elbow, careful not
to touch his skin, and nudged him towards the stairs.

“Don’t you have to investigate?” he whispered.

“I have seen what I needed to.” The three of us
headed back to the room and I pulled out my notebook. “Do either of you know
who she was?”

“That was Susan Walker,” Darwin said. “She is…
was
fae. I talked to her less than an hour ago.”

“Who was she with? Where was she going?”

“Um… Well, I asked her if she would go to the library
with me because I didn’t want to go alone, but she said she had a date. She
seemed shy about it and wouldn’t tell me with who, so I think it might have
been with a teacher. I can ask around and see if anyone saw her staying after
class to talk with someone.”

“Good. Just be subtle about it.”

“Why do you use paper? Shouldn’t you have an iPad or
something?” Darwin asked.

“You can’t hack a notebook and I can burn it if I
need to.” I wrote down what I knew and afterwards sat back to see them both
watching me impatiently. I sighed. “The killer wanted the body to be found. Her
throat was bloodied and her dress was soaked, but there wasn’t a drop of blood
pooling on the floor. Whoever killed her moved her into the dining room where
they knew she would be found quickly and by many.”

“So… her throat was ripped out? This was a vampire
attack?” Darwin asked.

“It wasn’t ripped out,” Henry corrected.

“And vampires only tear into their victims if they’re
angry,” I told him. “This was two small punctures, which is indicative of a
vampire attack… However, there was a lot of blood, which means this wasn’t
about feeding.”

Henry stood and went to the door. “Where are you
going?” Darwin asked.

Henry ignored him and left. “Is he mad?” I asked.

Darwin turned back to me. “I told him it was rude to
have his girlfriend in our room, so I think he’s been to her room like five
times today. He’s been really distracted the last few days. More than you have
even.”

I glanced at my watch and cursed. “If I don’t get to
the lake right now, I’m not going to live long enough to solve my case.”

I did in fact make it to the lake before Remington’s
scowl reached the volcanic eruption level. She waited impatiently until I made
it to the water’s edge. Once I stood in front of her, I realized that there was
a boat. It was one of those small, wooden row boats that mutant, freshwater
mega-sharks always attacked in B movies.

“Did you study the correspondences of water?”

It was pointless to lie. “No.”

“Why are you here? Why did you come to this school?”
I had no answer for her and, after a few minutes, she pointed to the boat. “Get
in.”

I hesitated, but since whimpering and begging was
against my nature, I sucked it up and got in the boat. She stepped in behind me
and the boat started moving on its own… or at least, by her magic.

“The mood would be a lot better if there was a candle
or something,” I said to break the awkward silence.

She smirked.

Sort of.

And then it was gone. “What does water mean to you?”

I thought about it. I couldn’t give her some textbook
wizard answer. “It stops thirst. I get leg cramps when I’m dehydrated, so it
stops that. Every living thing on Earth needs water, I think. I read that in
adult men, about sixty percent of our bodies are water. But it can also be
really destructive. Flash floods can destroy roads and houses. And although
people say to fight fire with fire, firemen normally use water.”