Elemental Dawn (Paranormal Public) (11 page)

I put my mouth right next to
Lanca’s ear. “Can you sense anything?” I asked, thinking that Lanca knew her
father’s hiding place so well that if there were demons around she must be able
to feel it.

“No,” said Lanca. I felt her
breath on my cheek. “It’s nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Aren’t there vampires trying to
kill you too, though?” Lisabelle whispered. “It must be a Rapier.”

“How did you know about that?”
Lanca asked hoarsely.

“Vampires are trying to kill
you?” Sip demanded, her voice rising. “I thought they were trying to control
you! Why can’t I associate with normal paranormals?”

“Shh!” Lough ordered.

“Just a few,” said Lanca, as if
it didn’t matter at all. I could almost see her shrug. “It happens. They think
the Rapiers will be weakened after my father’s death. They don’t think I can
lead senior male vampires.”

“Can we talk about this later?” I
asked. “Pretty sure we should deal with whatever is coming for you now.”

Silence fell among us. Usually
when I spent enough time in darkness my eyes adjusted and little shapes became
clearer as tiny flecks of filtering light hit my eyes. Not here. In King
Daemon’s den the blackness was impenetrable and suffocating. I could see no
break in it no matter how hard I stared.

I didn’t like that I couldn’t see
an enemy coming. Next to me, Lough must have felt the same way. A thick, clammy
hand touched my arm and held. I reached over and put my hand on his.

“How is it we can face demons no
problem, and then this is scary?” he whispered in my ear.

“Pretty sure we had problems when
we faced demons,” said Lanca dryly.

“Now is not a good time to retain
your sense of humor,” said Lough darkly.

I heard a muffled noise, like
something being choked, and realized Lanca was stifling a laugh.

A creak above our heads made us
all silent again.

“Don’t suppose this mountain has
rats?” Lisabelle murmured. “Really large rats.”

“Rats left this place long ago,”
said Lanca. “When the Rapiers came. It is not rats.”

“So, that was a paranormal above
us?”

A crash like that of a great battering
ram beating against the door answered that question for us. I felt my whole
body shake and vibrate in reaction. I was just getting my breath back when the
battering ram slammed again.

This time I was forced to grab
onto something for balance. Trouble was, I couldn’t see anything to grab onto.

“This is wrong,” Sip muttered.
“We can feel the crashes, but we aren’t hearing anything.”

“That’s right,” Lanca murmured.
“A silent attack is the mark of. . . .” The fear was gone from her voice.

“VITAL!” She yelled. Her voice
was filled with fury and something that was remarkably like familiarity. “HOW
DARE YOU? TURN ON MY LIGHTS. NOW.”

There was a brief silence, and
then the lights came back on.

I blinked several times, trying
to get the spots out of my eyes. The room was in disarray. If King Daemon’s
papers had looked scattered before, now they blanketed the room like dirty snow
that had blown everywhere. One of the chairs was overturned and many of the
books had fallen off the shelves to lie splayed on the floor.

Lough was also on the floor, his
hand having slipped from my arm during the second mini-quake.

Lisabelle and Sip were both
holding onto the desk, while Lanca was standing, every line of her body showing
rage.

“Is Vital one of the vampires who
have tried to kill you?” I asked, unable to think of any other explanation,
although Lanca now looked remarkably calm.

“No,” she gritted out. “Vital is
my personal bodyguard. He is supposed to keep me from being killed, not give me
a heart attack.”

“Oh,” was all I could say. “He’s
doing an excellent job.”

“He would be doing a better job
if his princess didn’t sneak away when she was supposed to be in bed,” came a
gruff voice from the other side of the wall.

“He sounds almost as angry as
you,” said Lisabelle, her eyes shining. “I like him already.”

“I have heard of you, Ms.
Verlans,” came the gruff voice again. “I’m not happy about it.”

“Excellent,” Lisabelle muttered.
“It only took me until sophomore year in college for my reputation to start
preceding me.”

“Let me in,” came Vital’s voice
again. He didn’t sound like the sort of man you argued with.

“He’s a great fighter,” said Sip
with wonder. “The best. Known around the world as the vampire who has never
lost. You are lucky to have him as a bodyguard.”

“If only the princess would
realize that,” Vital yelled again.

“Must take a lot of experience to
get that good,” said Lough, trying to straighten out his clothes. “Years of
practice. I couldn’t do it.”

“You’re a lover, not a fighter,”
said Sip, as if she was defending him against critics. Behind them I saw
Lisabelle roll her eyes.

Lanca put her delicate hands on
the chair arms of her chair and rose, her eyes locked on the wall at the spot
where we had come in. She took her time getting there, but Vital didn’t say anything
more as she made her slow way over. Lough, now standing upright, collapsed into
one of the couch seats.

“You could take longer,” said
Lisabelle dryly, “but it would be hard.”

“Maybe I won’t hate you as much
as I thought after all,” came Vital’s voice.

Lisabelle smirked. “Oh, I’m sure
you will.”

“She’ll make sure of it,” said
Sip, joining the conversation.

“That must be Ms. Quest,” said
Vital. “I was hoping the voice of reason would be present at this little
gathering of insanity.”

The rock door, which had slid out
of our way just moments before, was now slammed back.

The spots had just cleared from
my eyes, but I had to do a double-take when I saw the vampire standing in the
doorway. The first thing I noticed was that he was not that old, maybe mid-twenties,
but definitely not what Lough would call “seasoned.” I had expected to see a
vampire of middle age, a little older than Dacer, perhaps, but younger than
Zervos. Instead I saw a vampire who had probably just finished college when I
was still in high school.

The next surprising thing about
him was that he was not very big. I had expected a fearsome vampire fighter to
be large and intimidating, but instead of size, Vital had a sort of quiet
presence.

He had clear eyes that alternated
between looking white and looking silver. His hair was a rich black that shone
in the newly turned on light, and his skin was darker than that of the average
vampire, who gave snow a run for its money.

I would realize later that
Vital’s silence and stillness were more intimidating than any large, lumbering
vampire could ever have been. He was deadly, and everyone knew it.

Lanca was lucky to have him.

Which is why she blasted him with
so much power he went flying backward and disappeared into the tunnel we had
just been led through.

“He let her do that,” said
Lisabelle, as if she was narrating a fight between two equal parties.

Lanca didn’t follow him. Instead,
she stood there and waited for him to come back.

He did. This time, when she
raised her hand to strike again he grabbed It. There was not so much as a hair
on his head out of place.

Lanca growled and tried to rip
her arm away, but he was stronger.

“You dare touch me?” she hissed.
“You DARE follow me?”

“It is my job to follow you,” he
said, his clear eyes meeting her blazing ones. “No one has ever called me
lucky, but I can, if I want, follow you, especially when you sneak away from
where you’re supposed to be.” In a much softer tone he said, “Why didn’t you
tell me?”

Lanca’s shoulders slumped. Her
arms went limp and her head fell. In a fraction of a second she looked again
like a tired young woman with the weight of the paranormal world on her
shoulders.

“I didn’t tell anyone,” she said.
Vital reluctantly released her arm and she moved back to sit in her father’s
chair again, as if she was too tired to stand.

Vital quirked an eyebrow at all
of us.

“I’m Sip,” said my werewolf
friend, darting forward and extending her hand. Vital smiled at her and shook
it.

“Delighted.”

“I’m Lough, but I’ve had a fright
and I’m not getting up,” said the dream giver, appearing to try and sink lower.

Vital nearly bounded over to him
and shook his hand. The speed and grace with which he moved explained a lot
about his status as an unbeaten fighter.

“I’m Charlotte,” I said, reaching
out to him. When his eyes met mine I saw a calculating assessment. I don’t know
what he saw, but he must have liked it, because he smiled warmly at me and
said, “The Last Elemental. It’s wonderful to have you here. Lanca needs all the
protection she can get and it’s a dream that she’s friends with the one
paranormal who can complete the Power of Five.”

“Humph,” said Lanca from the
chair. She had started to gather her father’s papers, ignoring the rest of us.

Lisabelle stood next to her, not
moving. When it came time for her to introduce herself she waved. “Lisabelle
Verlans. Hi.”

Vital nodded. “I wish I could say
I was delighted.”

“Oh, you’ll get there,” said
Lisabelle. “Everyone does.”

“I’m still waiting,” said Sip,
rolling up onto the balls of her feet and grinning. Vital grinned back at her,
then his eyes returned to his princess.

“You told all these people and
not me?” he repeated. Lanca sighed, obviously having hoped to avoid this
conversation.

“Do I have to spell it out for
you?” she asked tiredly.

“Apparently,” said Vital. “I
don’t understand. Do you know how I felt when I saw that your bed was empty?
Luckily, I had a suspicion you had a place to sneak off to, because make no
mistake, Princess, I will tear this place to shreds to find you. Try me.”

Lanca met his steely eyes, but I
couldn’t read her expression. It was a mixture of gratitude and sadness.

“I told them because they’re my
friends. I needed a place to talk to them where I wasn’t being spied on.” She
gave him a particularly pointed glare. Apparently she counted his watching as
spying, right along with the real kind.

“That’s not all of it, though,”
said Vital, starting to pace. Even in his pacing he moved with a grace and
awareness I had never seen before. I found myself fascinated as he worried the
floor. Lough looked just as interested, keeping his eyes on the vampire.
Lisabelle scratched her nose and looked bored.

“I can talk to my friends if I
want,” said Lanca, jutting her chin out.

“But,” Vital started to argue.

Tired of the conversation,
Lisabelle interrupted, “Wow, for a brilliant fighter you’re dense,” she said to
Vital, not even unpleasantly. “She didn’t tell you, because you’re a Rapier.
It’s as simple as that.”

Vital stopped mid-pace. He didn’t
topple over, because he was too controlled for that, but his face registered
surprise.

“Lanca . . .” he breathed. “You
cannot possibly think . . . ?” He trailed off, watching her, his face devoid of
emotion. Lanca met his eyes, hers filled with sadness.

“No,” she said, “But my father
told me not to reveal this place to anyone. There are things here I have to
protect. I had to disobey that instruction to be with my friends” - she smiled
around the room at us - “but I have to stop taking risks.”

Vital didn’t say anything. He
just gave her a hard look.

Lanca fidgeted uncomfortably. He
was silent for so long that she finally gave up even the fidgeting and just
stared back at him. None of us moved. I had no idea how air was getting in and
out of the room, but though I didn’t feel stifled, I still held my breath.

“I can’t protect you if you don’t
trust me,” he said quietly.

Lanca blinked once. Again. Then
shook her head silently.

“It’s not about you,” she
murmured. “I have to take care of myself.”

Vital threw up his hands and
paced toward the desk, stopping a few feet away. “It’s never about me. That’s
the point. I don’t have feelings and I cannot die! That’s how you must think of
me. I am here as a weapon, nothing more.”

“Ah, so you ask that I forget you
are vampire? That you are my subject? You ask that I think of your life as
useless? How can you imagine me so cold?” Lanca’s voice cracked at the end, her
eyes burning with sadness.

Vital shook his head. “I am here
to serve you. That is why I exist, from now until the day I die.”

“But what if I die first? Then
you will have served for nothing.”

Vital stopped in his pacing
again, careful to hold her eye contact.

“You will not die. I will not
allow it. Neither will these friends with yours. I must say, befriending a
darkness mage at a time like this is not the wisest of decisions, but if you
had to befriend one” - he cut off Lisabelle’s protest - “I would hope it was
this one.” He didn’t look at my friend, but Lisabelle quieted.