Dark Waters (Elemental Book 1) (12 page)

“Good. Get in the boat.”

“There isn’t a---” I cut myself off when I turned and
saw the boat from before… which had not been there until she mentioned it. “Um…
I think I would rather stay here.”

“I’m sure you would. Get in the boat.”

Unable to argue with her sound logic, I obeyed. Once
again, we headed for the middle of the lake. I felt the presence of the
familiar kappa’s mind and welcomed it. The image of him pushing the boat back
to shore came to me.

“No, not yet,”
I responded, not out loud but
in his mind. Whether he knew English or not, he would understand me. Then the
image of his webbed hands reaching into the boat and pulling Remington into the
dark depths appeared and I nearly shuddered.
“Friend.”
Sort of. I would
reserve judgment unless she tried to leave me stranded again.

“What does water mean to you?” she asked when we
stopped in the center of the lake.

“You already asked that.”

“And I will keep asking it until I feel you have
learned what I can teach you. How you regard water will change from the human
concept, to the developing wizard concept, and then finally to the mastering
wizard concept. A wizard is a wise man by nature; a learner until his last
breath. Water is a characteristic of man, as are the other elements. A wizard
is a man who has learned what the elements mean and how to use the very nature
of the universe to change his reality. To understand water, you have to look
inside.”

“But water is a female element,” I said. The undine
had said I needed love instead of hate. Unfortunately, after considering
Alpha’s Flagstone’s law of self-knowledge, I realized love and trust were my
weak points. Which meant water was my weak point.

“Did you know that when they are first developing,
every person is female? Can you be man enough to accept your emotions as a
characteristic of you?”

I didn’t want to be characterized as a hateful
person. Did it count if I just hated vampires? Did it really blemish my soul
that I didn’t trust anyone? “I have loved before.” I loved my parents. I loved
Regina a little bit, or at least the person I thought she was at first.

I loved Astrid.

“Find that love. Maybe it isn’t love for a person in
your past, but love is love. When you can forgive your enemies and trust
people, you will understand what water is.”

“So all I have to do is forgive my enemy and I will
be a master of water?”

“No. To master it, you must understand it, but
understanding it doesn’t make you a master of water. Being a master of an
element is much more than being able to control the element; it’s being able to
control that part of yourself and your reality. Things like walking on water
and what you did in that bathroom are just playing with it. When you fought
Jackson Michaels, what were you thinking and what were you feeling?”

I thought about it for a minute. “I was thinking
about kappa and undine, but I was angry that Jackson and his friends were
trying to gang up on me. It seemed like a stupid, childish thing for them to
do. This is a university, not a playground, and the students should mind their
own business.”

“There is a lot of fire in you, which isn’t really a
bad thing. By focusing on the water element and
feeling
the fire
element, you were making water active and fire passive. That’s why the pipes
burst instead of the gas lights. Water can steady your emotions and heal, as
long as it’s balanced.”

“What do you mean?”

She held up her palm and a small stream of water flew
out of the lake to form a sphere that hovered a few inches above her skin. The
water then broke its formation to make a butterfly, which then flew away on
fluttering water wings.

 “Doing something like this is nothing. Rituals are a
much more powerful form of magic, but if you don’t balance it right, it can end
in disaster. If you were going to heal someone with a powerful ritual, you
would use the water element. You would also gather items that represent
healing; colors, smells, textures… anything that means healing.”

“So, disinfectant because it smells like a hospital,
white because it’s clean, and maybe bandages?”

“Everyone will be different. I know someone who would
use a chicken. However, whatever element you are using, you have to balance it
with its contrary element. Fire is contrary to water. So, if you’re trying to
heal someone, you would have all the items you thought represented water and
healing, but you would also have to have something to represent fire.”

“Like a candle?”

“Exactly. But, you have to keep it passive and the
water active. So if you used a candle, you wouldn’t light it. It just needs to
be there.” The boat started moving slowly towards the shore. “Same time next
week. Try to see signs of love, trust, and hate in the people around you, and
tell me who looks happier.”

I knew without seeing it that loving people were
happier than hateful people.

When we reached the shore, she stood up, but
hesitated and sat back down. “Tell me what happened to Professor Hans. Tell me
honestly and I will trust you.”

Her voice was warmer and her expression was patient.
Obviously, there was a lot more to Remington than her anger. “I was a few
minutes late because I was talking to Dr. Martin and he actually reminded me
that I had---”

“Dr. Martin?” she interrupted. “We don’t have a Dr.
Martin.”

“Dr. Andrew Martin. He’s a weird guy. He was---”

“Andrew Martin died over thirty years ago. I wasn’t
even born yet to meet him.”

*          *          *

The next day, in
Laws of Magic
, we discussed
the Law of Contagion. “This is a law of association, which states that things
which have once been in contact with each other continue to interact after
separation. This is what enables you to enchant a person with their hair,
blood, nails, etcetera. You can do a locating spell with such objects as well.”

That was something I could see being very helpful as
a private investigator.

The door burst open. “Alpha, Van just ambushed a fox
shifter in the dining room,” a man said from the door, not entering the room.

Alpha Flagstone sighed. “Not again. Class is
dismissed.”

Magic in Everyday Life
had been cancelled
until further notice on account of Professor Hans’s murder, so Darwin and I
returned to our room. Darwin opened the door and froze. “Did Henry’s girlfriend
track him down?” he asked as he finally stepped out of the doorway.

Dr. Martin’s ugly cat was sitting on my desk with a
pair of black chopsticks. “No, that’s Dr. Martin’s girlfriend.”

The cat glared at me.

The cat did not approve.

“Well, who let her in?”

The cat hissed at Darwin. “I think maybe it’s a boy
cat.” The cat stopped glaring so hard. “As for who let him in… the same one who
let him out last night, I suspect; himself. The damn cat can disappear and
reappear.”

Darwin nodded with understanding. “He must be a
familiar then. It looks like he left you a present.”

I went to the desk and picked up the chopsticks. They
weren’t ordinary wooden chopsticks; they were pointed and had decorative beads
hanging on the top ends. Hair chopsticks. “They’re pretty, but my hair isn’t
long enough,” I told the confused cat.

He glared and then calmly stood and stepped off the
book… which he hadn’t been sitting on before. Not only did the book suddenly
appear, but it did so under the cat that can disappear.

“There’s something in the water, right?”

Before I could pick the book up, the leather cover
opened, lying itself back, and dozens of pages flipped over. There were no page
numbers, but the page it stopped at had a circular design at its top. I read
through as much of the script as I could before giving the cat my best look of
disbelief.

“You want me to do a locator spell on chopsticks?”

He purred.

“You’ve lost your---”

“Hey!” Darwin interrupted as he approached the desk.
“There’s a scent…” he took one of the chopsticks from me and sniffed it. “You
should have Henry check it. There’s been blood on this. Could be steak blood or
something, yo, but that’s definitely blood. Henry could tell you what kind.”

“I have martial arts with him soon. If it’s human
blood, maybe I can use the spell to track down whose blood it is.” When I
looked back at the desk, the cat was gone.

I read a little more into the book, and then I
returned to the locating spell. This time, it made more sense. I was startled
when Darwin tugged on my sleeve.

“You’re going to be late for your class.”

I looked at the clock and saw that he was right; I
barely had enough time to change and get there on time. Two minutes later, I
was out the door, still trying to pull my black t-shirt over my head. One thing
entered my mind just before I made it to the practice room.

That book. That damned book.

It wasn’t on the table when I had left the room.

*          *          *

Henry and Zhang Wei were chatting when I arrived. I
really wanted to ask Henry alone about the blood, so I decided to wait until
after class. I set them next to my bag and focused on doing well. It was a good
way of getting exercise.

Being a private investigator, I didn’t normally have
to dodge bullets, jump over the hoods of cars, and chase bad guys down back
alleys like cops had to. Actually, that was probably better for my health
overall. Since I didn’t have the authority to make arrests, I investigated a
situation, organization, or person for my client. Most of my work involved
spying on people, looking up contacts and records, and tracing company actions.
Thus, I normally did a light workout a few days a week to keep in shape. After
watching the shifters in martial arts, I decided I was going to have to step up
my game.

At the end of class, I gathered my things and Zhang
Wei approached me. “You should spar with me, Devon,” he said.

“I think I like my internal organs to stay internal,
thank you. Where is Li Na?”

“She has been having nightmares. It is strange; she
has never been afraid of spiders before, but now she sees them everywhere.
Headmaster Hunt let her return home to rest for a few days. Hey, those are
hers,” he said. I realized I was holding the hair sticks as we talked.

“Oh. Are you sure? My… cat found them today. I wanted
to see if Henry could find who they belonged to,” I lied, giving them up. I had
to hand over what was possibly my strongest evidence because I made a dumb
oversight, but at least I knew who they belonged to.

“They were our mother’s. Li Na lost these a week ago
and was heartbroken over it. Please thank your cat for me.”

*          *          *

When I got back to my room, I opened my notebook and
folded a sheet into three columns, which I labeled as
suspect
,
motive
,
and
evidence
. At least it was evidence for suspicion. My first suspect
was Mrs. Ashcraft. Under evidence, I noted the two conversations I overheard.
Under motive, I left it blank. Second suspect was… Li Na. It felt wrong putting
her name. I scratched it out. Bloody chopsticks that were stolen from her or
lost wasn’t enough to make the list. Instead, I wrote the incident down on the
first page. On the next page, I wrote c
ase draft
, because this far into
it, I had to have something.

August 24 – August 31: Five people (four wizards
and one fae, two women and three men) were killed in their bedrooms. All had
fang marks on their necks and were drained of blood.

Supposed cause of death: vampire attack

Connection: promising students of Quintessence

Questions: Who gave vampires the student records?

September 10: Susan Walker (fae) was killed in
private and relocated to the dining hall. There were fang marks in her neck and
she was covered in blood, but she was not drained of blood.

Supposed cause of death: vampire attack

Connection to the other murders: …

Questions: Why wasn’t she drained of blood? Why
was she left in public?

September 11: Professor Marcus Hans was killed in
his classroom. There were fang marks in his neck and he was covered in blood,
but he was not drained of blood. He was the first teacher.

Connection to the other murders: …

Questions: Why was he killed?

I turned back to the front page.
Who is Dr. Andrew
Martin?
I skipped a few lines.
Whose blood was on Li Na’s chopsticks?

*          *          *

I felt dread when a gentle knock sounded on my door.
I looked up from my
Metals
textbook, but didn’t stand. Henry was at his
desk, studying, while Darwin was sprawled over his bed reading manga. Darwin
glanced fearfully at the door, then from me to Henry. “Maybe we should pretend
we’re not home,” he whispered, nearly too quiet for me to hear.

“I heard that!” our visitor yelled through the door.

I recognized the voice, so I got up and opened the
door. Heather smiled at me. She was dressed in a dark purple plaid shirt with
short jean shorts and high-heeled silver sandals.

Darwin whistled with appreciation before I could say
anything. “Looking good, Heather!”

She just laughed and waved at him. “Devon, I’ve come
to take you away.”

“Go, bro!” Darwin encouraged. “I heard Heather’s a
yoga instructor.”

She winked at him, but it seemed to be just playful
banter. “What do you need?” I asked.

“Unfortunately, it’s not me. Mrs. Ashcraft needs to
see you in her office right away. I’ll show you the way.”