Elemental Earth (Paranormal Public) (2 page)

My stepdad’s jaw clenched and he
looked away as he said, “Do you know who?”

I shook my head.

“Are they still alive?”

“I don’t think so,” I told him
honestly. If I was the only living elemental, then the elementals who killed
Mom must have died since then. I hoped they had died, because if they hadn’t it
would be the first time I really wanted another paranormal dead.

“I’ll tell Ricky when I know what
to say,” I said. “Until then I’m afraid that it will just be words.”

“Words have power,” my stepdad
said. “The day your mom agreed to marry me, it was with words. She sealed our
fates together and made me the happiest I’ve ever been.”

That’s my stepdad for you, never
grand, never over the top, just “the happiest I’ve ever been.”

“I promise I’ll tell him this
summer,” I said, “when I finish this junior year.”

“Fine,” said my stepdad.

I turned to walk away, back to
read my book in the living room until Ricky came home.

“Charlotte?” my stepdad called
after me.

I turned around to face him
again, my feelings a jumbled mess. I noticed that the wood floor had the same
throw rug on it that had been there when my mom was alive, but now it was worn
and frayed at the edges. The floorboards were starting to separate in places
and the wallpaper Mom had been so excited to hang when we moved in was peeling
a bit. He hadn’t changed a thing.

“Yeah?” I asked, unsure how to
interact with this man who knew my secret and who had decided to keep it, not
for me but for the woman he had loved and lost. What a life.

“Be careful,” he said.

Coming from him it was like he
was telling me he loved me too. I gave one nod and rushed into the living room,
afraid tears would stream from my face if I didn’t.

Ricky wanted to know how I was
leaving. He wanted to know why I didn’t need a ride to the airport or the train
station or the bus station. He informed me that if I was hiding a car somewhere
and not giving him rides I was a horrible sister.

“Ricky,” I said, exasperated,
“for the millionth time, I don’t have a car.”

“Or a boyfriend?” he asked,
crossing his arms over his chest.

“No, I still have a boyfriend,” I
said. “You’d like him.”

“I’m sure I would,” said Ricky
dryly. “Feel free to introduce us any old time.”

I threw up my hands. We were sitting
out back on a makeshift rope swing my dad had put up years ago. It was old and
covered in dark spots from water and wind, but it was still sturdy. Ricky’s
small hands were wrapped around the rope as I pushed him from behind.

“When’s Lisabelle coming again?”
he asked. “Spring break?”

“Maybe,” I said, trying to be
noncommittal. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be visiting here for spring break,
and neither would Lisabelle.

“Charlotte?” he asked, after I
had pushed him in silence for several minutes.

“Yeah?” I said. I put both my
hands on his back and gave him another shove, feeling the softness of his
fleece jacket. He was growing up, but he still wasn’t very big.

“Tell me about Mom,” he said
quietly. For a moment I thought I hadn’t heard him right, that his words had
caught the wind. But after a pause I knew I had.

I bit my lip. We barely talked
about Mom and I wasn’t sure why. I think it was just because it hurt too much.

“She was so happy about you,” I
said. “I don’t remember much about it, but I remember her jumping up and down
with glee.”

“Who told her to stop that?” he
asked gruffly. “She might have hurt me.”

I was about to say no one when
the memory of a man flashed before my eyes. He was tall and impossibly
handsome, with pale skin and dark blond hair. His green eyes sparkled as he
looked at my mother. My mom had been beautiful when she was young.

Who was that man? Was he a
figment of my wishful imagination? Maybe he was a friend of hers, or maybe he
was one of the ones who had banded together and killed her.

“I don’t know,” I said slowly.
“I’m sure someone did.”

“Hey, Charlotte,” Ricky said. He
was looking over his shoulder at me as he continued to swing.

“Umm?”

“Pay attention to me, not to your
imagination, please,” he said, glaring.

I grinned. “Sorry.”

“Mom loved to cook and she loved
to sew, but for some reason she was a great cook and a horrible seamstress. She
always claimed that she didn’t have the patience for it, but I know that wasn’t
it. Cooking required patience too, and everything she made was glorious. She
also loved to decorate. She wouldn’t even set foot in this house until they’d
redone the downstairs, and it was a big deal, because your dad didn’t make a
lot of money, so she was very careful about cost. I remember one summer when we
were pregnant with you we went around and found stuff on the side of the road.
All of it was either really cheap or free.”

“Did she seem happy?” Ricky
asked.

I paused. I had told Ricky that
Mom was happy about him and it was the truth, but that summer, I remember very
clearly, she seemed sad about something. Whenever I asked her about it, though,
she told me she didn’t want to talk about it.

“Do you think Carl is really my
dad?” Ricky asked. I nearly slid on the cold ground as I was about to push him
again, and I had to stop to keep from falling.

He turned to look at me as he
swung away, and suddenly he looked older, not so much a boy as a boy trying to
find out what it meant to be a man.

“Uhh,” I started to say.

He looked away. “It’s okay,” he
said, so softly I could barely hear him, “you don’t have to answer.”

It was good he said that, because
I couldn’t. I just looked at him sadly and for the first time, acknowledged
that he really might be another elemental.

But I honestly hoped he wasn’t.
If I had to decide between my brother being safe and the fate of the
paranormals, there was a very good chance I would choose my brother. No matter
what the consequences were.

We stayed out in the cold for a
long time. The tenuous balance of secrecy and childhood was fading. Ricky had
questions that deserved answers, and it bothered me that I couldn’t tell him everything
he wanted to know. Chief on my mind was the green-eyed man. A very small part
of me wondered, just a little bit, if his real name to Ricky and me was Dad.

I slept on the couch, because at
this point I felt trapped in a bed, or almost anywhere else. After Carl went to
bed I pretended to sleep so Ricky would go up to his room. I was leaving at
first light, but before I went there was something I had to do.

Mom was buried nearby. Carl had
been absolutely vehement about this. Since she didn’t have any family to come
claim her, he was determined that she be buried in a plot in the woods. It was
small, but it was on the top of a hill called Mountain (no, the irony is lost
on no one) and in the summer it had overflowed with flowers and the fragrance of
the living. The small plot was almost overrun, and Mom loved it. We would pick
blueberries up there and have walks and picnics. I hadn’t been up there since
she died. I just couldn’t stand it.

After talking with Carl and then
Ricky, though, I now couldn’t stop thinking about her. I had spent most of the
last two years trying to block any memories that came up, because whenever I
thought about her I couldn’t also help thinking about the bitterness. Why
hadn’t she told me more? If I was so important to the paranormal order, and my
life was in danger, why hadn’t she told me? Why hadn’t she told me who my dad
was? Why did I have to grow up without a mother? Why couldn’t she have been
there on my wedding day? That last bit I had snorted at, but secretly I dreamed
about marrying Keller. I dreamed about that whenever I was sad or feeling low,
and I pictured how happy we would be. Happy and free of Nocturns. Just happy.

Now I wanted to see Mom’s grave.
Now that the memories were returning I thought about how we would always go up
there in the summer, and the truth was that we wouldn’t pick blueberries, I
would. She would disappear for a long time. Usually when she came back she
looked like she’d been crying.

I rolled off the couch and moved
as quietly as I could. When I was home I didn’t wear my ring, because Ricky
would have asked too many questions. But I kept it on a chain around my neck,
because I didn’t want it to be out of reach if Ricky or I was attacked.

I slipped my coat on and stuffed
my feet into boots.

My hand was on the doorknob when
a voice behind me startled me enough so that I let out a little scream.

“Going somewhere?” Ricky was
lounging on the stairs, glaring at me.

I stared at him. He had a
flashlight that he was now shining into my eyes.

“Ricky,” I said, “will you point
that somewhere else? I’m not a criminal, I’m your sister.”

“Why should the two be mutually
exclusive?” he asked.

“Ricky,” I said tiredly, “I was
just going for a walk.”

“In the middle of the night?” he
asked.

“Yes,” I said, sighing. “College
students do weird thing sometimes.”

“Are you really in college?” he
asked.

I raised my eyebrows at him. I
could barely make out his features in the cool blackness.

“What kind of a question is that?
Of course I am.”

“Because you’re pretty weird. My girlfriend
says that women are complicated, but I just think you’re nuts.”

“Ricky,” I said, getting
frustrated, “go back to bed. I’m going out for a while, and I don’t have to
justify where I’m going to you.”

He rolled his eyes.

“Are you going alone?” he asked.
“You shouldn’t go alone around here. Strange things happen. I keep seeing big
black dogs in the neighborhood.”

His words sent chills down my
spine. I knew there were hellhounds everywhere, waiting for Ricky’s protectors
to slip up, and all they would need was a second’s lapse. It terrified me that
they knew where Ricky was. I mean, they had for years now, but I could
understand why Mom had felt better hiding us away. I was panicked all the time.

“I’m not going alone,” I said.
“My boyfriend is going with me.”

“Is he coming to breakfast in the
morning?” Ricky asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I’ll ask him,” I muttered,
staring at my feet.

“Good, so it’s decided,” he said.

“I have to ask him,” I protested.

Ricky shook his head. “My
girlfriend says the boyfriend always does what he’s told. That’s how it works.”

“Your girlfriend sounds
brilliant,” I said, enjoying Ricky’s startled face. With a grin I pulled the
door open and left, leaving Ricky staring after me on the stairs. He knew this
was all strange, but I wondered if he knew a lot more.

Before dinner I had Contacted
Keller. He had planned to meet me after I left home the next morning to fly
back with me, but I wanted him to come tonight so I didn’t have to visit Mom’s
grave alone.

I hurried out of the house and
away. Now that Ricky had seen me leave the house, I didn’t want to fly until I
was far away from his observant eyes. If he saw me on a broom he’d lose it, so
I was more and more grateful to Lisabelle for teaching me how to fly.

I rushed through the woods,
slipping my necklace off as I moved. I was no longer afraid of the trees and
the wind. Having to get to Public through a demon-infested forest had cured me
of that.

I heard a rush overhead, and
before I knew it a warm and familiar voice said, “Am I late?”

I looked up just in time to see a
dark shape come gracefully down through the trees.

I shook my head, smiling. “Nope,
perfect,” I told him.

He landed in the inch or so of
snow that was left, mixed in with a few leaves and pine needles, so I heard the
crunch of his boots hitting the ground. He wore dark-colored jeans and a
hoodie, but no jacket. Guys were seriously never cold. It was ridiculous.

As he furled his wings I didn’t
wait for him to say hello. Instead, I threw myself at him. It had been almost
two weeks since I had seen him and I desperately wanted a hug. He laughed and
caught me. We’d been dating long enough now that he wasn’t surprised by such
behavior. His hands rested on my ribcage for a second, causing sparks, before
he wound his strong arms tightly around my middle.

“Hello, heart sweet,” he
murmured, his eyes soft.

My mouth found his, and then
neither of us said anything for a while.

Eventually I pulled away,
breathing hard. “If we keep this up it’s going to be dawn before we get there.”