Dark Waters (Elemental Book 1) (24 page)

Kate was the nicest manager that ever existed as long
as her tenants paid the rent on time and didn’t break anything. One day late on
our rent, unless we were in the hospital, and we were out on the street. I had
paid her six months ahead of time and told her I was leaving to take care of my
mother for a while after I got Vincent’s letter.

“She’s good,” I said. Of course, I didn’t know if she
was really doing well or not. The problem I had tried to avoid with Kate was
that she liked to visit for hours. “I’ll tell you all about her in a few weeks,
but I really only came back to get some stuff. It looks like I’m going to be
gone longer than I had figured. Is there a basement here?”

“No.”

“Has there been any electrical problems?”

She frowned. “No. Not that anyone has complained. The
light in front of your door keeps flashing, but I haven’t gotten around to
changing the bulb because I thought you were going to be gone longer.”

“That’s no problem. Don’t worry about it.”

“Okay. Well, let me know how it goes.” She eyed Hunt
and Nightshade as she passed them. She paused at the top step. “Oh, and Regina
came by. She wants money.”

“She always wants money. Did you tell her I hope she
gets the plague?”

“I told her I would key her car the next time she
came by,” she said before she was out of range.

My room was at the end of the hall on the right. As
she had said, the light was flickering above the door. “Shouldn’t we have some
sort of plan?” I asked.

“We could plan on not dying,” Nightshade suggested.

“Yes, that is a good plan.” I unlocked my door and
pushed it open. There were no fires, evil fog, or spiders. Instead, John was
sitting calmly on my couch, watching TV.

I had an open floor plan between the kitchen and
living room. The living room had gray carpet, white walls, a decent, black
leather couch with a coffee table, and a television set into a bookshelf. It
was a furnished rental, so I wouldn’t complain. A breakfast bar divided the
kitchen and living room. The floor was tile, the cabinets were brown…

It was a boring place compared to the university. A
hall to the left led to two bedrooms and a small bathroom.

I flipped on the switch by the door and my overhead
light came on. “I thought electricity didn’t work for wizards,” I said.

John smiled at me. “You’ll find that the strongest
wizards can shield their power. I can show you how if you would like.”

“Where is my daughter?” Hunt growled.

“She’s in the back, but I wouldn’t go back there if I
were you. I could call her if you’d like.” He leaned over the side of the couch
to yell down the hall. “Oh, Remy! Come on out, darling.”

Hunt moved before Nightshade could stop him and was
just about to disappear down the hall when Flagstone attacked in his wolf form.
He went down on top of Hunt and the wizard’s cane rolled away. Hunt was
apparently strong enough to keep the wolf away from his throat, but just
barely.

“Well, don’t just stand there,” John told Nightshade
brightly.

The woman’s face fell blank and she went to Hunt. Instead
of helping him, she picked up his cane and stabbed Hunt in the stomach. The
wizard grunted and the wolf gained a few inches.

“Stop!” I yelled.

John gave me a serious expression and flicked his
wrist in a dismissive gesture. Flagstone backed off Hunt, still growling, and
Nightshade stepped back as well. Remy emerged slowly from the hallway. She had
the same vacant look as Nightshade, as if she couldn’t focus on anything. She
wore a white, old-fashioned nightgown, which seemed really weird on her.

“Don’t like it? I thought you went for girls in white
nightgowns.”

“What are you doing? What game are you playing at?”

Hunt was basically pinned between his two friends and
the only way to attack John was to go through them.

“What, this?” he indicated Remy. “This is a peace
offering. You have proved yourself powerful and I saw what you did to Astrid in
Stephen’s coven. You could be so much more than you are. Or you could be dead.
Either way works for me. I am offering you a happy ending. Join me and I will teach
you to be a more powerful wizard than Logan or Vincent could ever hope to
become. I’ll even throw in Remy to use however you see fit.” He ran his index
finger down her side.

“You don’t really think I would join you after what I
saw in your head, do you?”

“Of course I do. Hell, I’ve seen the company you
keep. You think Vincent and Logan are innocent? Maybe you should ask Henry why
he is so afraid of you seeing what is in his mind. Your trusting little heart
would break. Besides, I know what you’re capable of. Like father, like son.”

“I’m nothing like you,” I said. His smug expression
dropped. “Yeah, I already figured out you were my father. Sorry to burst your
bubble.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, maybe because we have the same super
rare power, because Joseph Sanders and Maria Sanders both have type A blood and
I have AB, or possibly because you know that strawberry birthmark under your
ear? Yeah, I have that, too. Not an Agatha Christie mystery there.”

His eyes narrowed. “I am a patient man, Devon, but
not forgiving. I am offering you everything you could want. You hate vampires
as much as I do. Together, defeating them would be child’s play.”

“I don’t know why you hate vampires so much. Why did
you hire me to find your daughter?”

“Like I said, it was a family matter. I knew you
hated vampires, so I figured you would shoot first and ask questions later, so
to speak. I knew Vincent would recruit you to find the murderer because he
wouldn’t want to involve the council, which was why I left your phone in that
house; I knew you would see it as a threat and take the first offer for
protection that came your way.”

“Why did you want me to work with Vincent, who fights
against war with the vampires?”

“I believed you would come to the conclusion that it
was all a vampire attack and dig up some evidence that not even Hunt could
refute. Vincent was feeding you information the entire time, all the while
worrying about what evidence I was gathering, while I was relying on you to get
it for me.”

“Evidence doesn’t work that way. I am an
investigator; I change my theories to fit the facts, not facts to fit my
theories.”

“For a wizard, facts are what we make of them. Had
you done as I planned, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

“Who killed Reagan?” I asked. I already knew the answer;
I was just hoping he would lie.

“I did. She wasn’t powerful and she wasn’t like us.
She was just holding me back. When you have power, Devon, the world will change
to accommodate you. You and I have that power. People who can’t be of service
to us don’t deserve to breathe our air. Remy, show him.”

Hunt tried to get to his daughter, only to be
attacked again by Flagstone. He created a shield of energy around him that
looked like electricity flickering in double-paned glass. However, as well as
it kept the wolf from attacking him, it kept him from getting to Remy.

I let her come to me in order to buy time. Her mind
was blocked by John’s power, so I needed time to think. She stopped inches in
front of me, leaned up, and kissed me. It was like kissing someone who was
asleep; there was no spark. Yes, it was Remy, and yes, she was gorgeous, but
there was no enthusiasm or passion in her touch because she didn’t want this.

But I had to buy time. I put my left hand gently on
her neck and pulled her closer to deepen the kiss, then ran my right hand
slowly down her side. I was reaching for my pocket, for anything I might have
had on me, when I brushed something hard under her dress. She flinched. I
slowly moved my hand back, as if I were just caressing her, and felt it; the
knife.

“That isn’t very convincing, Remy,” John said.

I was still trying to connect with her mind, so I
felt the jolt of lust he pushed into her, and it was enough to affect me. My
body reacted on its own as she pressed herself flush against me. I forgot about
the knife, reached under the hem of her nightgown, and ran my fingers all the
way up her back, deliberately avoiding the part of her I wanted to touch the
most. She moaned and squirmed against me.

There it is…
that little piece of her mind that
was so unbelievably stubborn that nobody could control it— not even her. It was
a way in… if she would let me in.
“Trust me.”
I didn’t think she heard
me until she twisted in a way that pressed the butt of the knife against my
hip.

“Yes,” she moaned.

My body took that in all the wrong way, but at least
my mind was ready. I pushed past the stubbornness until I could call up the
memories that made her that way.

Hunt was right; she did get it from her mother. What
he hadn’t told me was that Emilia Hunt died in childbirth and passed her power
to her daughter. Emilia was dying and refused treatment that would hurt her
unborn daughter. She believed that giving Remy her power was Remy’s best chance
for survival. She hadn’t accounted for the extra magic putting a target on
Remy’s back.

Remy grew up with adults. Since she was born, her
father was right behind her, ready to catch her if she even started to stumble.
Only certain people were allowed to even see her. She was taught by the finest
tutors, after they were investigated thoroughly, of course. When she was
finally old enough to attend the magic school for children, she had bodyguards.

Alpha Flagstone was always within reach. He knew she
didn’t like being towered over by adults, so he spent many days as a wolf until
most of the students didn’t even know he was a shifter. He was just “Remy’s
wolf,” and he seemed to be fine with it.

When she got tired of her father being
overprotective, she screamed at him about being a horrible father. She never
forgave herself for that, even though he told her he had. The look on his face
still broke her heart every time she remembered it. After that, she ran away,
but she let Flagstone go with her.

She loved him.

And that was what I needed. I pulled up every memory
I could find in her mind of the wolf, and every feeling that went with it.
Pure, agonizing, unrequited love. Her father’s best friend. Her bodyguard. He
bought her an ice cream cone every Friday after school, even though Hunt didn’t
like her having so much sugar. He mauled the bully who tried to feel her up in
class.

I could feel the blush on her cheeks when he told her
she was beautiful. It was picture day and she was self-conscious, but Flagstone
just smiled and told her she was being an idiot. He let her play hooky that day
without Hunt’s knowledge, only for her to find out she had been wrong and it
was the next day that pictures were taken.

He’ll never love me.
Over the years, it became
less of a miserable prediction and more of a fact. It colored every conversation
she had with the man and made her close herself off from others. As long as no
one knew her true feelings, at least she could be something to him.

John’s control over her snapped, which startled me
into letting her go as well. She moaned loudly as I opened my eyes and stared.
She was gorgeous, breathtaking even, with so much passion in her expression.
Unfortunately, even as she was touching me, she was thinking of him. I pulled
away. We had somehow ended up on the couch.

I stood, my pulse racing as I tried to calm myself.
She panted, probably still getting her bearings after being under John’s
control. She didn’t even acknowledge me; she turned to see the wolf attacking
her father.

“Ros!” she called breathlessly, passionately.

Apparently, that was enough to break John’s control
over the shifter, because he took one look at her and shifted back. Panting as
hard as she was, he staggered to the couch and knelt in front of her. She took
his hand and pulled him closer to hug him. When she tried to pull away, he held
the back of her neck and kissed her.

“Why did you have to ruin such a good thing?” John
asked. “I had a dog and you had a girlfriend.”

“I will kill you, John,” Hunt growled. He still
wasn’t willing to hurt Nightshade, especially since Remy and Flagstone were
free of John’s control.

I considered the staff in Nightshade’s hand. That was
the one thing that Hunt regretted most; using magic to kill. But John had to be
killed. There was no stopping someone with that much power. He could make his warden
shoot himself, or a jury find him not guilty. He ruined so many lives.

 I felt him, once again, push himself into my mind.
He was angry. He was insulted that I didn’t choose to be like him. What he
didn’t understand was that hate was a form of pain, not strength. Love could be
painful, unhealthy, and devouring, but not nearly as often as hate. And there
was someone I once trusted and loved above all others.

I replayed every memory I had of Astrid, including
the sad ones. It wasn’t an attempt to throw the wizard out of my mind, only to
distract him. I felt the wooden cane press against my palms and I was turned.
My mind was ensnared, but my body was working.

Finally, as John believed I was a little fish caught
on a hook, I changed my mind. I pushed away my thoughts of Astrid and focused
on my own disgust for John. I thought of the horrible things he did, bringing
up the events faster and faster in my mind until there was nothing but the
knowledge that John had to die.

Heat built in my chest and burst out through the
staff. What shot from the weapon was like lighting, and it struck the wizard
fully… but he didn’t go down.

He stumbled, severely weakened, but it was going to
take more than that to defeat him. John had gained power through murder and
blood sacrifice. This was a man who couldn’t be scared away with images of
blood and gore. He was too strong for me to actually take his mind over. Love
meant nothing to him, so bringing up happy moments wouldn’t work.