Elemental Omen (Paranormal Public Book 10) (8 page)

“Going somewhere?” Raspy Voice asked as he came out of the kitchen into the night.

“You were going to let him get away,” said one of the bounty hunters penning me in. “How pathetic is that?”

“He’s the second-to-last elemental,” said Raspy voice. “None of this has been easy. It took us weeks just to find out where he was.”

“And now that you’ve found him, good job,” said the bounty hunter who had challenged Raspy. He wore a white bandana around his arm and I wondered if it signified that he was in charge.

“He’s here, isn’t he? Just like the boss said he would be. Can you imagine how much money an elemental will make us?” Taller asked wistfully.

“I don’t have to imagine, I know,” said Raspy.

“I’m a living breathing paranormal, you realize that right?” I said, glaring at them. They really thought they could sell me.

“Hey, we all have to eat,” said Taller.

“And you don’t have any other skill set besides chasing after children?” I challenged. Taller started after me, but White Bandana ordered him to stand-down.

“Let’s get him away from Lisabelle Verlans, then we can start acting smug,” he said.

“Is that who you have to get me away from?” I asked carefully. The movement in the bushes had caught my eye a while ago. It could only be one paranormal.

“The Premier of All Darkness who just happens to adore you? Yeah, I’d say that’s a good start,” said White Bandana.

“I doubt Lisabelle is capable of adoration,” I said. “Bitter hatred is really the only strong emotion she has down.”

“Right, well, then we’ll hang out here and have tea,” said White Bandana with sarcastic exasperation. All the while I’d been trying to keep the bounty hunters talking they had been closing in on me, cutting off any avenues of escape. I couldn’t see much beyond their black uniforms now.

Even without a ring, I still had a bit of power. It would be screwy, but I needed a few seconds. I knelt down quickly, ignoring White Bandana’s yelled command for me to stop. Placing both hands on the earth, I closed my eyes, but I had time for just the beginnings of a stirring of magic before rough hands grabbed my shoulders and pulled me backwards. My eyes flew open just as I saw something dark come from the shelter of the trees, racing at breakneck speed.

“What the . . .” cried one bounty hunter as his legs were cut from under him by a furry body. He went flying through the air, his feet kicking up and his head rolling backwards. Sip took out four more bounty hunters on her way to me. I found myself grinning as Raspy Voice was forced to let me go and try to defend his friends.

Taller was looking around like an idiot, while White Bandana was trying to issue orders to his very confused followers. It wasn’t until Sip had gotten close to me that I saw that she was carrying something in her jaws.

“Ah, Sip, is that a bomb?” I asked. Charlotte’s friends were fearless, but even I was surprised that Sip was running around with an explosive in her mouth. The werewolf nodded once. The bounty hunters standing closer to us scrambled to get away, while those in the back got in their way in confusion.

Sip motioned with her head for me to move it. White Bandana thought about standing in my way, then thought better of it after taking one look at the way Sip was threatening him with a bomb. Raspy Voice too held up his hands and shook his head. Sip didn’t need to be able to use words for me to know that I had to run. I darted through the bounty hunters and raced around the house. I would have been worried about Sip, but I could hear her paws behind me.

When I glanced back I saw bounty hunters scattering. The bomb was no longer in her jaws.

I had just rounded the corner when I slammed into the broad chest of a paranormal and felt muscular hands reaching out to steady me. The paranormal was old, with white hair and a white beard. His robes were silver and gold. He was clearly a fallen angel, but not one I’d ever seen before. He looked past me to Sip, who had come up behind me.

“Are you alright?” he asked. The werewolf nodded once. I wasn’t sure how I could tell, but I knew Sip was happy to see this man.

“I thought I’d come check on everything,” he said, looking around. “I guess I picked an excellent time.” He winked at me as if I needed that gesture to know he was being sarcastic.

“Is everyone else alright?” I asked breathlessly. My heart was hammering in my chest and I knew it wouldn’t stop until I laid eyes on my sister. The paranormal’s eyes crinkled with mirth. He wasn’t the least bit scared, despite the fact that a group of desperate bounty hunters had come onto Rapier Vampire lands (a demonstration of just how crazy they were) and tried to kill us.

“The queen, the other queen, and the premier are all well,” he said. “The bombs would have to be aimed more accurately than those were for any of them to be at risk of limb or life.”

“They’re bombs,” I said. “How accurate do they need to be?”

The fallen angel shrugged. “Let’s go see.”

Still unsure who this fallen angel was, but taking comfort in the fact that Sip was also there, I followed him around the house. The sight that soon met my eyes took my breath away. There, standing in front of the house, was Queen Lanca, flanked by Charlotte and Lisabelle. Power flowed from them like a river in flood, the magic a thick stream of sparkling color. Lanca’s was red, my sister’s blue and silver, and Lisabelle’s a shining black. All I could do was pause in wonder.

In front of them was a wall of fire. Beyond that was a wall of three cannons, each manned by individuals I could only see dimly since they were all dressed in dark clothing and it was, after all, nighttime. I glanced behind me for Sip, but she wasn’t there any more, she was racing to help her friends. The fallen angel came and stood next to me, and now I noticed that he carried a staff that looked blue in the darkness.

“They’re quite the sight, aren’t they?” he said.

“Yes,” I whispered. To think that seeing this was almost normal to me was both amazing and terrifying.

“You could be one of them,” he commented gently. I glanced sideways at him. Up close I could see the wrinkles around his eyes, the silver hair flecked with gray. He had seen many years, this old fallen angel.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Does it matter?” he said, leaning on his staff as he watched my friends battle the bombs.

“How could it not?” I countered.

He chuckled. “I will tell you who I am, but know this, not for a long time do I expect you to understand.

I threw up my hands to take in our surroundings. “I’m understanding less and less by the minute, believe me.”

He smiled a little at that. “Very well, I am Hershfield. You think I’m a fallen angel, but I’m not.”

I frowned. He sure looked like a fallen angel. “If you aren’t a fallen angel, what are you?”

“What do you think?” he asked, his eyes twinkling. I took him in. I had been around a lot of fallen angels in the past year because of Keller, and now that he said he wasn’t one I could see it. The fallen angels had an untouchable quality. They never had any marks on them, since they were able to heal themselves of wounds, but this man’s hands were wizened, with old scars prominent where his fingers lay atop each other. Still, there was something ethereal about him; if he wasn’t a fallen angel, what was he? I frowned, trying to think. When he noted the confusion showing clearly on my face he started to chuckle. “Goodbye for now,” he said. I shook my head, frustrated that I was missing something so obvious.

“And what are you doing here?” I said, hoping that would give me a clue to who he was.

“Like I said, I needed to see how you and your sister were getting along.”

“And?” I would say it was pretty obvious we weren’t in the best place at the moment.

“Better than expected,” he said.

“How’s that?”

“Well, you aren’t dead, which is always a good sign when the most powerful paranormals in the world on the side of light, and Lisabelle Verlans, are trying to keep you alive.”

“Lisabelle hasn’t failed yet,” I said. “Not once she’s put her mind to something.”

“It is only a matter of time before we all fail,” he said. “In one way or another we will all eventually make mistakes.”

“Not Lisabelle,” I said, pushing back the sting of his words.

“Failure is not a bad thing,” he said gently. “Sometimes it’s what you need to push yourself to new heights. You will try harder, train for longer, and be better than you could ever have imagined.”

“Lisabelle’s job is life or death,” I said. “If she fails, it’s very likely someone will die.”

Hershfield was silent for a long time. He knew I was right, and I wanted him to admit it. If the darkness premier failed, it wasn’t going to be at something small, like cooking eggs or boiling water. It would be something momentous. Quite likely it would be something that affected the entire paranormal world.

A noise ripping through the air drew my attention back to my friends. All their focus was visibly moving upward as a particularly large bomb hurtled through the air. At one moment the bomb was about to strike, then, a second later, a mound of earth came flying upward to swallow it, burying it in one great pile below ground level. I heard Lisabelle yell, “Send it to the darkness realms!” I wondered if Charlotte would do that, and I waited, staring at the spot where the bomb had disappeared and the earth was now torn and displaced. When no explosion came I let a little bit of the air I was holding in escape my lungs.

“They work well together, don’t they?” I said, and glanced at Hershfield.

There was no one there.

“Ricky!” Charlotte was yelling. The fireballs that had been flying through the air stopped as Lanca marched forward. Whoever was attacking us had run away when their last ditch effort had failed.

For one more night at least, we were safe. As Hershfield had pointed out, all good things come to an end. Just not tonight.

I went running to my sister and threw my arms around her, and she returned my hug. We stood like that for a while, not saying anything.

Sip waited patiently until we separated. When I finally broke away from Charlotte I said, “Are you okay?”

Charlotte nodded and laughed a little. “We’ve seen worse.”

“That’s not the point,” I said angrily. “That’s not the point at all!”

Charlotte’s face fell a little. I knew it disappointed her when I wouldn’t let her put up a good front for me, but sometimes I just couldn’t stomach it.

Sip came forward and said, “It’s over now. Let’s not argue about it.”

I waited for my heart rate to slow, then I sighed and gave Charlotte a sheepish look.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

My sister gave me a weak smile. “There’s nothing to be sorry for.”

I nodded in thanks and turned to Sip. “Who was that guy standing with me, and where did he go?”

Sip frowned.

“Wasn’t someone standing with you?” I repeated.

The werewolf and my sister exchanged confused looks. “When?” asked Sip.

I stared at her. She had come around the house with us, and I pointed that out and emphasized, “Just now . . . ?”

Sip slowly shook her head, her big purple eyes concerned. “You were standing there alone, Ricky.”

“No, no I wasn’t,” I said. “There was an old man.” I turned and pointed to the corner of the cottage as if that would jog her memory. “Who would it be? He looked like a fallen angel, but said he wasn’t one,” I explained, panic starting to rise in my chest. Was I crazy? Had a bomb explosion or fear of the bounty hunters gotten to me? Did I need my ring to see clearly? I still wasn’t wearing it, and suddenly my finger started to feel painfully bare.

Sip shrugged. “I believe you. I think? Maybe, I don’t know. The only paranormals who usually get mistaken for fallen angels are dream givers.”

~~~

I was awake to watch the sun rise, a pale, yellow orb inching slowly above the horizon. I could barely make it out through the haze, and it wasn’t all that early, since we were down in the river valley and the sun had a climb just to get above the surrounding hills and ridges. The steam rising off the river obscured my view, but I could at least watch the boats that were starting to arrive at the black dock.

Soon I saw a pattern. All the boats were the same size, and each carried half a dozen clan members. My clan was the only one that had brought a prisoner, so I rather thought that until now the cage had been wishful thinking on the part of the Bounty Hunters. The clan members I had come with were nowhere to be seen, but I didn’t think they could already have been killed, not with me sitting there, obviously having been taken prisoner by someone. The disappearance of one clan would not inspire cooperation in the others.

Many of the newly arrived clan members gave me curious looks as they trailed past the cage. I was careful not to meet their eyes, but I felt their gazes and I felt their wonder. This was going to be a special Black Market, thanks to me.

“Get up,” said a voice, and Spark appeared through the haze, walking toward me and looking exactly the same as he had yesterday. He obviously owned only one pair of clothes, and his hair was tousled from sleep, but otherwise he looked wired, as if he could jump into the sky and fly away. When he reached the cage he glanced at the massive Bounty Hunter who had stood guard all night.