Hungry Earth (Elemental Book 2) (14 page)

“You said there were murders,” Hunt said.

Not again.

“There have been attacks on my coven for the past two
months and several of my vampires have gone missing. Last night, we found a
scent and tracked it to a warehouse, where five of my men were strung up by
their feet with their throats slit.”

I knew vampires were too fast and strong for a human
to do that. “Were they drugged?” I asked.

“There are very few drugs that vampires are
susceptible to, and Maseré couldn’t find any of them.”

“Why does that name sound familiar?”

“Maseré Mason,” Hunt said. “Stephen is the highest
ranking coven master in the U.S., while Maseré is the highest ranking wolf
alpha. He also has treaties with almost every tribe of fae in North America. He
is a billionaire who funds dozens of scientific research and environmental
movements.”

“Darwin’s father,” I guessed.

“Yes.”

“Maseré sent some wolves to track down the rest of my
missing coven members,” Stephen continued. “Whoever strung them up in the
warehouse did so to three others the next day. The killer is not a vampire.
Maseré didn’t smell a shifter, though, so we’re thinking it was a wizard.”

“Or multiple wizards,” Hunt said.

“Devon, I want to hire you to find the person or
persons responsible for this.”

“Why not use the wizard council?”

“I have agreed that I wouldn’t kill them as long as
they didn’t kill my men, but that doesn’t mean I trust them at all. Most
wizards, from what I have seen, are in it for themselves. Logan and Vincent are
two better examples of your kind. Of course, the council members are very
suspicious of Logan because he isn’t greedy.”

“Yeah, well, the council isn’t exactly fond of me,
either, since they knew who my father was.”

“No vampire would judge you on who your father was.
We also consider the people who raised you to be your parents, not the people
you were born to. However, vampires are private beings and most of us have dark
pasts, so many will fear you for your power. The fact that you got your power
from John Cross will not be well received.”

Stephen and Clara both watched me, waiting for a
commitment or rejection. I was sure Stephen was used to getting his way and it
couldn’t have been easy for him to ask for assistance. He had probably been the
master of his coven for longer than I had been alive.

“I’ll help find the killer.”

“Thank you. Logan?”

“I have to run the school. Rosin has been cursing me
so much in the last two hours for leaving him in charge that I am fortunate he
is not a wizard.”

How does Hunt know what Alpha Flagstone is doing
at the school?

“If he was a wizard, he couldn’t be your–”

“Stephen, this is not the time,” Hunt interrupted.

“Just find who killed my people. And Clara, you go
with him.”

“No,” Clara and I said simultaneously.

Stephen shot a glare at his daughter, but she glared
back at him. “How do you think it would look if I hire a wizard to do this
alone when my coven is under attack?”

“That you made a peace treaty with the wizards.”

“It would look like I don’t trust my coven. You are
going with him.” She didn’t argue again.

I wanted to argue myself, but I saw his point. “Do
you have any information? Last known whereabouts, hangout spots, suspicious
interactions?”

“I manage hundreds of people.”

“There is a club that a lot of us go to,” Clara said.
“I can show you.”

“Then I will head back to the school,” Hunt said.

“I’ll have someone drive you back,” Stephen told him.
I remembered when Hunt used magic on the front gate the last time we were at
the coven and made the car die.

“No need. I will leave my car so Devon and Clara can
drive themselves.”

Ten minutes later, Clara and I were back in the SUV.
Clara told me the way to the club, which was only about fifteen miles from the
coven. Except for talking about the directions, neither of us spoke. I knew we
should have been discussing our game plan, but the silence was more
comfortable. My instincts didn’t warn me of danger.

The club looked pretty vague from the outside; there
was no sign, the windows were blackened, and the parking lot was set back
across the street. I parked and we sat in silence for a few minutes. “How many
vampires are in there?”

“Normally, at least a dozen. There are also shifters,
fae, and humans. Wizards typically stay away because their power messes with
the electronics. I’m friends with the guy who owns this place. If anything weird
has happened here lately, he’ll know. You can wait out here if you want.”

“No.” Even if she was faster and stronger than
humans, I was not useless in this. I got out of the SUV, locked it, and started
across the street. The door was new, which seemed odd when the building looked
so rundown. The bouncer was huge, as they generally were, but he smiled kindly
at Clara as we approached.

“Haven’t seen you here in a while,” he said.

“Yeah, I know. I’ve been busy. Is Drake in?”

“He is, but he’s in a meeting.” He opened the door
for us and noise spilled out. Purple and white lights flashed and rock music
vibrated through the psychedelic-designed carpeted floor. People crowded every
inch of space, either dancing or sitting in the booths that lined the walls. There
was a stage, but it was empty. Clara led me to the back wall where there was a
staircase leading over the stage and to a loft. It was quieter and darker, the
booths were high-backed and private, and there was a guard.

Instantly, I knew the guard was a shifter. As he
crowded in front of us, I sensed something completely unfamiliar. He was a
massive man at about six-foot-eight and around two hundred seventy pounds
without an ounce of fat. His black hair was on the long side of average and his
irises were black. The only thing I knew for sure is that I hadn’t encountered
a shifter like him before.

“He’s in a meeting, Clara.”

“I have to talk to him about something more
important.”

“He’s in a meeting,” the guard repeated. His voice
was deep, but not loud, as he was confident that he had the final say.

Clara hesitated. “Come get me when he’s done.” She
turned and I followed her back down the stairs.

“Why didn’t you use your thrall? Or kiss him?” I
asked.

She scoffed. “First, I don’t kiss everyone. Second,
Kevin is the last person on Earth I would kiss.”

“That’s a little harsh. You don’t like shifters?” We
stopped by the stage, which was the least crowded spot.

“You couldn’t tell what kind of shifter he is?” she
asked. I shook my head. “He’s a komodo dragon. They have over fifty strains of
bacteria in their saliva. I don’t know how much of that is true for his human
form, but that isn’t something I’m going to risk.”

“How does that work? How does a warm-blooded person
shift into a cold-blooded animal?”

She shrugged. “You’ll have to ask a shifter that. The
guy we’re here to see is human, but he is allied with many of the stronger
paranormals. He’s a bit slimy to deal with. However, if anyone, paranormal or
human, needs to relocate in a hurry, he’s the guy to go to.”

“There are a lot of alliances around here, and even
more secrets.”

“It’s how we keep a select few from gaining all the
power. Believe me; this is our system of balance. Nobody should know
everything. Right now, everyone is afraid of the council taking over. Most
people don’t actually know who your father was. Hey!” she yelled when she saw
the man coming down the stairs. He spotted us immediately, smiled, and
approached us.

He was my height, a little heavier built than me, and
dressed in a black business suit with a deep blue tie. My senses recognized the
invisible beast inside him before he was close; wolf shifter. His hair was
styled, short, and dark brown, but his deep blue eyes were very familiar. I let
my power out, searching across many miles for Darwin’s mind.

“Do you know what time it is?”
Even his
thoughts sounded tired.

“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. What does your father
look like?”
A mental image came to my mind of this man, but his hair was a
little longer, he wore a white business shirt, and he was smiling. This was
definitely Darwin’s father.

“Hello, Clara,” he said. “I thought you were
attending Quintessence this year.”

“I am, but we’re taking a few days off to solve our
current problem. This is Devon Sanders.”

He smiled kindly at me and held out his hand to shake
mine. “Nice to finally meet you, Devon. I’m Maseré Mason.” Whereas Alpha
Flagstone could be called growly and sullen on his best days, this man was
friendly. Since my instincts didn’t warn me of danger, I shook his hand.

My power instantly reacted without my control. It was
similar to when I was trying to connect to someone’s mind, but it was more like
my magic was trying to see his wolf. Unfortunately, just as fast as my magic
reacted, his wolf did. I could see the wolf in my mind; black as night with
deep gold eyes. He snarled a warning. As friendly as the man was, his wolf was
as much an alpha as Flagstone. While they were both black, he was bigger than
Flagstone and his eyes were lighter. What I found odd was that his wolf was the
largest I had seen, while his person form was not.

I retracted my hand, receiving three long scratches
down my palm for my efforts. When his wolf had come to the surface, it made his
fingertips shift into claws. “Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

He patted my shoulder as his hands returned to
normal. “Don’t worry about it; I know it wasn’t an attack. Darwin talks about
you a lot. You should have brought him with you.”

“Well, he has class.”

Maseré laughed. “I’m sure the boy skips more than he
attends. Like his mother, you can’t keep him in his seat. Besides, there is
nothing that school can teach him. We only insisted he go because it would keep
him from hacking.” His smile couldn’t have been prouder as he said it. “So,
Stephen said you were a private investigator and Vincent said you were very
discreet.”

“I think the discreet part has fallen flat on its
ass.”

“Quite possibly. Do you do bodyguard work? I know
someone who is looking for a bodyguard for his daughter, but she can’t handle a
constant presence of shifters and the vampires can’t go out in sunlight.”

“I have a few cases I’m working on now, but get back
to me later. If I can’t help her, I know someone who specializes in it.”

“Good deal. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Do you know anything that can help us in our current
situation?” Clara asked. Apparently, she didn’t want the vampires to hear that
we were looking for a killer.

“I’m afraid your father knows everything I do. I
tracked some vampires to the warehouse and couldn’t find anything of value.
Whoever it is, it wasn’t a shifter.”

“Do shifters have that distinct of a scent?” I asked.

He nodded. “It’s a territory and prey thing. Drake
might know something, but I doubt it. I have to get home. It was nice meeting
you, and I’m sure we will meet again,” he said, patting my shoulder again. When
he walked away, my instincts fired up.

Get out. Move.
“We need to leave.” I grabbed
Clara’s hand and started to pull her towards the door before she could argue.
Unfortunately, I sensed the familiar presence only a second before Astrid
blocked my path, forcing me to stop. She was ten feet away, which was a hundred
thousand miles too close.

I was chasing after Astrid,
who was chasing after Seda. The damn wolf had taken my shoe. Although she was
just trying to play, I had to run on sticks and rocks. Because it had been
raining constantly for three days, the ground was as muddy as it could get, so
it was no wonder that I slipped. My hands scraped on the bark of a fallen log
and a rock. I wanted to cry, but I was eleven and determined not to cry in
front of anyone, let alone the girl who was my best friend.

I sat on the log, hoping that Astrid had gone on
ahead and not seen what happened. Of course, wiping my muddy hands on my muddy
jeans wasn’t all that smart.

My eyes watered at the sting of my hands and
embarrassment as Astrid sat next to me. “Take off your shirt,” she said.

It was cold and my shirt was soaked, but I was
self-conscious. “No.”

“You’re going to get sick.”

“You’re one to talk. You never wear anything but that
stupid nightgown.” Her dark brown hair spilled over her thin, white-clad
shoulders in loose curls. I figured that Astrid was recovering from whatever
illness she suffered from that kept her from going to school, because she
looked a little healthier almost every time I saw her.

She frowned and glanced down at her nightgown, then
focused on my hand. “I’m not cold. You need to wash your hands off.”

I sensed something wrong, like something really bad
was about to happen. Seda howled from wherever she was in the woods. “What’s
wrong with her?” I asked.

“It’s a forest fire. We need to go back.”

She was really afraid, which was something I hadn’t
seen before; Astrid was never afraid of anything. “It’s just a fire,” I said.
“It’s been raining, so the fire can’t go far.”

“It isn’t far from us to begin with, and the smoke
can be deadly, too. Trust me; fire is more dangerous than anything else in this
forest, including me.” Seda returned with my shoe and held still long enough
for Astrid to take it before she ran off away from the fire. I put my shoe on
and followed Astrid home.

I wanted her to come with me to my room, but she said
it was best that we called it a night. When I pushed, she told me that her
grandfather was going to be looking for her and that she needed to eat.

*          *          *

Clara sighed and pushed my hand away. “I don’t care
what your problem with Astrid is. I’m going to get information.” She walked off
back to the stairs.

Astrid was the kind of girl who became prettier with
age. Her skin, once sickly pale, was now the flawlessly porcelain quality that
supermodels worked so hard for. Her hair was thick, wavy, and compiled of
numerous shades of brown that seemed to give her dark eyes great depths. I knew
the vivid blue of her satin shirt would contrast beautifully if she blushed.
Her black leather jacket and matching pants were sexier than I cared to admit.

She was no longer ten feet away; she had closed half
that distance without me realizing it. I didn’t want to see Astrid as
attractive. I also didn’t like the way she was waiting patiently for me to go
to her, as if she knew I would.

I wanted to go to her, just like I had when we were
kids.

“You stay away!” I demanded, then turned and followed
Clara. My instincts kept pushing me urgently to leave. Astrid followed at a
distance and by the time I was up the steps, she was at the bottom. I wished I
had my gun.

Clara sat down on a black leather couch across from a
man sitting on an identical couch. Drake was the picture-perfect mobster; a
little heavy set, not too tall, slick black hair, over-priced black suit, and a
cigarette hanging from his mouth.

“Nice to see you, Clara,” he said. He turned his cold
brown eyes on me, obviously waiting for my introduction.

Damn. No Italian accent.
“I’m Devon.”

“I have nothing to say to a cop, Devon.”

“I’m not a cop.”

“Bullshit. I know a cop when I see one. Get him out
of here, Kevin,” he said.

The shifter moved to grab me, but I was already
strung tight, as my adrenaline was pumping with the urgent need to do
something. I reached out my power impatiently and wrapped around the shifter’s
mind, both his human and reptilian one. “Sit down,” I told him.

Unfortunately, there was nothing to sit on behind
him, so he flopped down on the floor. The shock and fear on his face as I
retracted my power made me a little ashamed. Drake’s mouth was open.

“What do you know about the vampires who were
killed?”

“Nothing,” he said too quickly.

“Don’t make me make you.” The lamp on the shelf
beside us flickered and there was a small spark in it from the irritation of my
magic.

Clara sighed. “Devon, you are way too new to the
paranormal world to be making enemies.”

Although I knew she was right and not all of my
contacts were legit, Drake wasn’t someone I wanted to deal with. I reached up
into the lamp as if to turn it off and felt the small abnormality next to the
bulb. Knowing instantly what I found, I removed the button-sized recording
device.

“What is that?” Clara asked when I held it up in my
palm.

“Any idea who bugged your office?” I asked Drake.

“Nobody has been in here… I went to a supplier
meeting three nights ago, so it must have been then.”

Whoever bugged Drake’s office is likely the same
person who bugged Hunt’s office, but is it the same person who killed the
vampires?
I didn’t like coincidences. “What do you know about the vampires
that were killed?”

He glared at me. “Two of them went off with a couple
of twin human women to feed from. The humans were back the next day with no
memories and the vampires didn’t return. Two more vampires went with them the
second night and none of them were seen again.”

“I need to see these humans.”

“I don’t have any surveillance cameras because of the
human authorities.”

“That’s okay.” Without giving him a warning, I let my
power flood his mind and thought of vampires leaving the club with humans. His
mind relented instantly and filled in the blanks.

I saw two shapely, gorgeous, red-headed, identical
women and a couple of vampires. I didn’t see the vampires clearly because Drake
was focusing on the women from his balcony and not the vampires they left with.
He enjoyed his job because many women offered themselves to him. He was
constantly surrounded by powerful shifters, vampires, fae, and wizards, so this
club was the only place where he was in power.

He wasn’t a good man, but he wouldn’t let drugs in
his club and he kept his girls from being hurt. I tried to focus on his illegal
activity, but instead my power spread out into the minds of the dancers in his
memory. Although most of these people were not currently in the club, I felt
their minds anyway. They were spread all over the state and ranged from weird,
cloudy dreams to their normal late night routines. When I encountered rows
between couples, partiers dancing to the music, and sex, I tried to draw my
mind back.

It was easier to leave the minds of those who were
further away. I was almost done when chilling words made me pause.
“They’re
all going burn. Fucking scum. Burn in Hell, where you belong.”
Hate ran
strong in this person’s mind; stronger than I had seen in John’s mind.

I pulled back easily this time and my eyes snapped
open. “Get out.” I stood, grabbed Clara’s wrist, and hauled her up. “Get out!”
I pushed until she gave up arguing and headed for the steps. We reached the
bottom of the stairs at the same time and she got through because she was
faster, but I was blocked by the sea of people. Astrid was suddenly beside me.
The look on her face was so reserved and my instincts were pushing me so hard,
that I grabbed her hand and hauled her with me through the crowd. Something red
caught my eye and I pulled it before I realized what it was.

The fire alarm blared and water spewed from the
ceiling. Several screams joined the siren and the music, but at least the crowd
started moving to the door.

Faster!
I didn’t have enough room to get to
the door without shoving people out of the way.

“What’s wrong?” Astrid asked. Water ran down her face
and she had to wipe her hair out of her eyes several times.

Get out now!

I gave myself up to my instincts, my power. My magic
lashed out to every mind in the vicinity;
“Run,”
I told them, knowing
they would obey, and also that they wouldn’t make it in time. I saw a bench seat
with a sturdy wooden table not far and pushed Astrid under it. I felt the
explosion before it happened.

The sound came first, followed instantly by the
vibrations. I visualized a barrier over the people swarming the door, willed
it, and… demanded it. Heat didn’t have time to build inside me. I thought of
strength. I
visualized
the strength of my willpower shielding them. It
felt like adrenaline pumping through me. When the ceiling collapsed, I felt
pain, like it was falling on me, but it was bearable. Allocating part of my
mind on protecting them, I also reached out for the heat that was cropping up
around me. Fires.

Stop.
Fire couldn’t be controlled by my
psychic powers like people, but it could be controlled with elemental magic. The
water sprayers and alarm were both damaged by the explosion and ineffective. There
were pipes in the bathrooms; I could feel it. I visualized water bursting from
its pipes and flooding out the fires, while thinking of what water was. Water
was healing. I could heal people and put out the fire with it.

Another explosion blew out the far wall. The loft
collapsed, trapping whoever was in the rooms under it and propelling debris
over the remaining room. More concrete and plaster hit my barrier, causing my
head to throb with a migraine. Almost the entire ceiling had collapsed.

Water flooded the floor and put out fires. When
another explosion caused two more walls to cave, a man broke away from those
huddled by the exit, which was blocked by rubble. The man raised his hands at
debris that was blocking the doors to the back rooms and it moved. Two shifters
and a vampire joined in and started clearing the doors so people in the back
rooms could escape, while three more people started using magic to clear away
the front doors.

Drake emerged from the wreckage unscathed thanks to
Kevin. Instead of acknowledging his bodyguard for protecting him, he approached
me. “The humans cannot leave knowing there are paranormals here.”

I started to head for Astrid, but she was already
climbing out from under the table. I wanted to hate her, to be mad at her for
being a vampire, to yell at her about something… but she was shaking. She was a
vampire; an invincible, emotionless, killer. Yet the fear and shock in her eyes
was real. Her warmth was real, too, as I pulled her into my arms and hugged
her.

She was a little taller than me when we were kids,
but she now fit so well in my arms, like I could protect her. “He killed them,”
she whispered.

“Who?”

“My parents.”

“Who killed your parents?”

“Stop the humans!” Drake yelled at Kevin.

“Astrid, tell all the vampires to thrall the humans
into forgetting what they saw,” I said, trying to pull away. She clung to my
shirt and shook her head. I pushed her away and opened my mind to allow the
connection between us to reform. After nearly twenty years, it like I was seeing
my best friend again.

Astrid was just what she had always been; very
clever, a little bit deranged, and absolutely dangerous. She was about as
nurturing as I imagined a vampire could be. Her life was a struggle against her
own nature and the people around her. Everyone she knew wanted to use her or
kill her, except for me. Despite that, or maybe because of it, she was
extremely resilient.

She was the one who attacked my parents, yet she was
ready and willing to protect me from everything she had lived through. “We’re
fine. Go,” I said. She did.

A huge wolf shifter patted my back hard enough to
knock me forward several steps. “Good job, wizard,” he said as he walked away.
The next hour flew by as all of the paranormals worked together to rescue
survivors. There were many victims, most of which were humans.

“Why did you help me?” Astrid asked when I sat down
for the first time since the explosions.

There was dust from the plaster on her face, stuck by
sweat and the water I used to put out the fires. I grabbed her wrist, pulled
her onto the bench seat beside me, and tried to wipe off as much of the gunk as
I could. Her leather jacket and pants were relatively undamaged, unlike her
satin shirt.

“I don’t know. Why were you in my room?”

“I missed you. I didn’t want you to shoot me again,
so I went to see you when you didn’t have your gun. I would have gone to your
apartment, but that damn cat was always there.”

“You killed my father.”

“He wasn’t your father. You must not remember how
badly he treated you. Besides, I didn’t kill your mother.”

“Why not? Why did you spare her?”

“I didn’t have time.”

“I should never have spoken to you. I should never
have let you in my home.” My mother was alive, but not mentally stable. Hell,
she couldn’t even function on her own.

“No, you shouldn’t have. But I saved Cody for you.”

“That doesn’t change what you did. Are you even
sorry?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know why I did it. I don’t
even remember doing it. I remember going to bed with you and then…” She
shrugged, staring off into space. “I guess I was just hungry. But I will try
not to do it again. Stephen helped me a lot.”

“What do you mean you don’t remember?” She shrugged
again. “Who killed your parents?”

“I don’t remember that either. I remember I was too
small. I saw him kill my mother and I remember her crashing into the crib.”