Read Hungry Earth (Elemental Book 2) Online
Authors: Rain Oxford
Hungry Earth (Elemental Book 2) (19 page)
There was also a close-up on the sentence.
A uiv
es niiso bolape odo.
“That’s like the one on Heather’s note, except it
wasn’t u-i-v, it was something else.”
“From what was written, I believe I know what it
means.”
I let out my power to connect with his mind and he
was completely welcoming.
“Tell me this way. We don’t want to be overheard,
apparently. The different word was es.”
“Gotcha. I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I
believe it means, ‘The fourth way is open,’ which doesn’t bode well if it means
a fourth doorway into the place these shadow walkers are from.”
“From your awkward silences, I feel like I am being
left out,” Henry said.
“No mind melding for you, since you’re so scared of
your bloody secret being known,” Darwin griped at him.
Henry sighed and pulled a textbook off his shelf to
study.
“Darwin, lay off him. I think he wants to protect
us from his secret.”
I reached over and patted the head of the dried mud
creature on my desk. “I still haven’t figured out why Langril wanted me to keep
this.”
“Maybe he thought you were lonely, bro. Have you
named it yet?”
“What do you name a clump of mud?”
“Have you asked it?” he asked.
I sighed and shook my head. “Let’s go looking for the
tower.”
Darwin groaned. “In the morning.”
“Keep in mind, the full moon is coming up soon,”
Henry cautioned. “I will be less helpful when that occurs.”
* * *
Saturday morning, we were sitting at breakfast when a
woman sat beside Henry. It was one of the women consistently vying for his
attention. She was pretty, in her mid-twenties, with short ginger hair, light
blue eyes, and a sweet face.
“It is not the full moon,” Henry said immediately. I
knew the jaguar well enough to see this comment as his way of being polite.
“I know; I just want a chance this time. I know you
only like Addie when your hormones go nuts. Maybe if you spend more time with
me, you’ll find you really like me, so when–”
Henry’s sigh cut her off. The look on his face was
actually pained as he stood up and walked away. The woman stared after him in
shock when he approached Addie, who was sitting a few tables away in order to
give Henry his space. Addison looked up in surprise before he grabbed her by
the arm, pulled her up, and kissed her deeply. Every woman in the room gawked.
After a few minutes, he sat her back down, returned
to our table, and addressed the stunned stranger. “Addison is now my fulltime
girlfriend; please leave me alone.” The woman got up without a word and left.
“How painful was that?” Darwin asked as Henry sat.
“Not as painful as being treated like an Olympics
metal. Addison understands I am still a person even when I cannot feel passion
or affection.”
“Any kind of affection? What do you normally feel?”
He considered it for a moment. “Mostly it’s just my
hormones that are affected. I feel almost a full range of emotions not related
to my sex drive, but many of them are dulled, such as excitement or fear.”
“So, anything that affects your judgment is dulled?”
“Yes. Under the full moon, I feel everything much
stronger, which is why I am more likely to shift and kill. I see the dulling of
my emotions as nature’s way of calming my jaguar. However, my senses are
exceptional at any time. Thus, kissing someone outside of the full moon is
rather unpleasant. I also must rely on my sense of smell to interpret the
reactions and emotions of people around me.”
Right after breakfast, we headed to the underground
level. The vampires were supposedly all asleep, so if we ran into a teacher, we
planned to tell them we were going to the infirmary. I grabbed a torch and lit
it with my lighter before we got to the staircase that led to the next level
down.
“Ready?” I asked. Henry and Darwin both nodded, so we
descended into the lower floor. “Remember to watch for traps.”
Henry push me back just before I took the last step
off the stairs. Exactly where I would have stepped, a six-inch-long metal spike
shot up from the ground.
“That wasn’t there before!” I said. “How did you
know?”
“I heard the trigger. This is what I do; follow my
lead.”
I nodded and held the torch out for him to take. We
were careful to step where Henry did and stop when he indicated to. This was a
maze of tunnels even worse than the vampire floor. We came to a tunnel split
with a perpendicular, chasm in the floor.
Henry handed me the torch and jumped the gap. It was
about five-foot wide, but Henry took it like it was nothing. I tossed the torch
to Henry and he caught it. Darwin stood against the wall as I backed up to get
a running start. “This is stupid,” he advised.
I couldn’t get far enough back to build up a good
run, only a fair one. I ran, jumped, and hit the ground on the balls of my
feet, immediately rolling so that I didn’t lose my balance.
“Umm… I’m just gonna wait here if it’s all the same
to you,” Darwin said.
“Really?” I asked, back on my feet. “You know there
are traps, so you really want to be
alone
here? You want to be alone in
the dark with a monster on the loose that can come out of the ground? Have you
seen
Tremors
?”
He squeaked. “Okay, okay. God, Dad’ll kill me for
this. For the record, I hate you both.” He backed away to get a running start.
“No! Stop!” Henry shouted. Darwin, already running,
hit the ground and slid to a stop just an instant before a stone column slammed
down from the ceiling to block the gap.
“Darwin!” I yelled.
“I’m okay!” I heard his muffled yell back. “It’s just
really dark!”
I cussed with relief. “Stay there and we’ll find
you!”
“I’m not moving a muscle with a graboid-rex on the
loose!”
“With a what?” Henry asked.
I shook my head. “Don’t ask. He called the cook an
inglorious mop-dip the other day. The guy is brilliant, but I don’t think he
realizes what he’s saying sometimes. How do we get back?”
“It might be wiser to continue without him and come
back for him when we’ve found the tower.”
“What if he gets attacked?”
“That is more likely if he goes with us. I believe he
has more to fear from traps since Hunt had this place searched. Now let’s
hurry.” He turned and walked away.
“I hope we’re not just wandering around,” I said,
following him.
“I am following something. I’m not sure what, but my
cat senses something. I feel like I am hunting a predator. I can sense its
power.” We walked for another half an hour before Henry froze. “Shit.”
“What?” I asked. He held out his hand to stop me when
I tried to step in front of him.
“I’m stepping on a trigger.”
“Like a mine trigger?”
“Exactly like a mine trigger. Here, take the torch
and go get Hunt. If he can walk through the shadows, he might be able to get me
and get out before it goes off.”
My senses instantly warned of danger when he said it.
“No. This feels like a trap to get us all separated.” I started to reach for
the torch when a strangely cool gust of wind blew through the tunnel. “Not
again.” The torch flame died. As the last glowing embers of the torch faded and
left us in utter darkness, I felt like we were surrounded.
The ground shook, a roar echoed, and the temperature
rose ten degrees in a matter of seconds.
I had no warning before something enormous crashed
into me, tossing me to the ground. It was on top of me and heavy, but not
crushing me. Although I heard the explosion and the rumbling of the cave around
me collapsing, I was uninjured. The ensuing roar right above me left a ringing
in my ears.
The creature’s skin was hot, dry, and rough, not
slick and cold like it looked when Langril fought it. When it lifted off me,
the air was nearly too hot to breathe. “Henry, are you okay?” I asked.
No response.
“Henry!”
He coughed. “I’m okay. Get down!”
I dropped and covered my head as fire flooded the
tunnel. When I moved my arm, the only thing on fire was the torch and we were
alone. Henry, who was on the ground beside me, quickly grabbed the torch.
“We need to get out of here before we suffocate.” He
seemed to instinctively know the way to get out. When we reached the tunnel
where we left Darwin, the partition was up. He was sitting against the wall
with his knees to his chest.
“Oh, thank god,” he said, standing when he saw the
torchlight. “Get yur arses over here before it closes again.”
Henry tossed the torch and Darwin caught it. Once
again, Henry jumped and made the gap easily, but I wasn’t going to risk it. He
was technically as much a cat as a person and they were known for their jumping
skills. I took a running start again and was in the air when I heard the rock
wall come down behind me. When I hit the ground, I rolled. Instead of landing
on my feet, I was flat on my back, panting.
“I’m too old for this shit.” I climbed to my feet and
Henry led us back to the vampire level. “Why the hell did we go down there in
the first place?”
“We were trying to find the tower,” Henry said.
“Screw the tower,” Darwin said.
“We almost died and the only thing we discovered is
that Hunt did not take care of whatever is down there. More people are going to
die if we don’t do something.”
“What about the amulet?” Henry asked.
“It’s most definitely an unrelated case. We need to
work on both. First, we need to tell Hunt.”
“You think he doesn’t already know?” Darwin asked as
we made our way through the vampire level.
“I hope not.”
Darwin was in front and opened the door. When he
screamed, I grabbed him by the back of the hoodie and pushed him behind me.
Alpha Flagstone stood right in front of the door. “Sorry, man, you scared me,”
Darwin said to him.
“We need to see the headmaster.”
Flagstone nodded, turned, and walked away. We
followed him to Hunt’s office, where Flagstone entered without knocking. “He
will be here in a moment,” the shifter said, motioning to the black leather
couch. Henry and I sat on the couch while Darwin sat on the chair.
“I tried to warn you to stay out of this. We all
did,” the wolf said.
“And we acknowledged your warning. We’re going to
investigate anyway.”
“We will assist you as much as we can,” Hunt said,
appearing from his private library. “Believe us or not, we are on your side.”
“Then tell us about the key you and Langril are
after. Tell us about the tower.”
“If I told you about the key and why Vincent and I
must attain it before Langril, you would go after it yourself. Four of us are
risking our lives to get this key and you are no match for any of us.”
Sure, let’s play the pronoun game
. “Four of
you? I count you, Vincent, and Langril. If Alpha Flagstone is manning the
school, who’s the fourth?”
“Please trust me. Vincent and I will win and
everything will be fine.”
“Are you going to kill Langril?”
“Only if I have to. Leave it alone, Devon. Whatever
you do, you must not help him.”
“Then why did you make him my elemental mentor?”
“Because he is the best professor I have in earth
magic and you need the best right now. I had hoped you would not blindly trust
him.”
“I don’t blindly trust anyone, but he lies to me less
than you.” Oddly enough, I trusted Henry a lot even knowing that he had a big
secret.
“Has he offered you a contract?”
“No,” I said. He sighed with relief. “I believe
Heather has, though.” I didn’t like the sound of a contract. From a private
investigator standpoint, it didn’t sound legitimate, and I hadn’t even heard
the terms.
His eyes narrowed slightly. “Then she is trying to
come back. Please tell me you refused her. Nothing they could offer you is
worth a contract with them.”
“I haven’t agreed to anything.”
“Quit while you are ahead. Drop the case. Help
Stephen with the amulet case.”
“I will work on the amulet case, but I’m not dropping
this. There is something underground, and it will kill again.”
“You think the two cases are connected?”
“We went down there to find the tower, but that doesn’t
necessarily have anything to do with creature that attacked the vampires.”
“What are your instincts telling you?”
My instincts were telling me that the creature was
targeting Dr. Martin in the tunnels. They were also telling me I could trust
Hunt. “I will focus on the amulet case for a few days, as long as you deal with
this. If another person dies from whatever the hell is underground, I will
blame you.”
“Normally, I get to it before it is moved. Sometimes,
the target is routinely moved, in which case it is usually best to attain it
during transport, when the guards can be more easily distracted.”
“Okay, hold up,” Darwin said. “You need to explain
that because my brain is jumping to conclusions.”
Henry gave a pained sigh. “I am a thief, Darwin,” he
said.
Darwin blinked, obviously not expecting that. Henry
was about to explain when Darwin shrugged. “Okay, that makes sense. What’s the
plan then?”
It was Henry’s turn to look startled. “You don’t want
to know why or yell at me about how wrong stealing is?”
“I trust you, bro. I know you wouldn’t steal for fun
because I would have caught onto that a long time ago. I’m sure you have good
reasons and will tell me when you feel like it. ‘sides, I stole a bar of soap
from my aunt’s house because I liked the smell, so I’m a bit of the wild card
myself.”
“You stole soap? Maseré is a billionaire, why
couldn’t you have just asked him to get you the same soap?”
“Well… at dinner that night, my aunt asked if anyone
had seen the soap and I broke down crying. I was only eight and I didn’t want a
record. I gave it back and then my dad laughed and bought me the same soap.”
I laughed, but Henry looked green. “Your father is
Maseré Mason? You may want to invest in better security. You are all over my
parents’ hit list and a four-year-old can hack your server.”
Darwin smirked evilly. “That’s the decoy system,
mate. I designed it with more traps than the castle and I dare anyone to so much
as try. By all means, invite your parents to find my address. I’ll have their
birth records, social security, bank accounts, personal diaries, and Facebook
accounts before they could log into their own wifi.
“One billionaire had been giving my dad shit for
supporting an abuse relief organization and the man made the mistake of trying
to hack my system. I was waiting for him, of course, and within fifteen
seconds, every penny of every account the man had was pouring into the relief
organization.”
“Unfortunately, the wizards don’t have computers to
hack,” I said. “I’ve seen the man who has the amulet, but I don’t know his
name.”
“Can you describe him?” Henry asked, reaching for the
notebook on his desk. I figured he was writing down the description as I recalled
the man in the vision, but when he turned the notebook around so I could see, I
was shocked. “Is this accurate?” he asked.
I had seen professionals who worked with the police
draw less perfect depictions of the suspect than Henry’s drawing. “This is your
‘useless hobby’? That’s brilliant.”
He started to turn away when Darwin snatched it out
of his hand and started flipping through pages. “These are amazing! Why don’t
you do this professionally?”
“My parents have burned every drawing and painting of
mine they found since I could remember and reminded me over and over that I was
horrible at it.”
“Devon, where is your gun? We’re gonna hunt us a
couple o’ panthers.”
“Jaguars, not panthers.” He took his notebook back.
“And it hardly matters. If I want to stay out of prison, I have to steal for
them.”
“Okay, jaguar hunting is first on the list of things
we’re doing this summer,” I said. Darwin nodded firmly. “What’s the difference
between a jaguar and a panther, anyway?”
“A panther is not actually a type of cat. It can
refer to leopards or jaguars. I despise being confused with a leopard. They are
smaller and slimmer. Also, jaguars live in America, whereas leopards live in
Asia and Africa.”
“I’ll be sure not to confuse the two then,” I said.
Darwin turned the notebook so I could see a perfectly drawn talisman, front and
back. “Is that what we’re after?” I couldn’t tell its size from the drawing,
but it was circular. On one side, it had a pentagram enclosed in a circle. The
outside ring was full of esoteric letters. On the other side was an even more
intricate design of a triangle inside a square with the same letters all over
it.
“That is the amulet, yes,” Henry said. “It’s the size
of a standard pocket watch and about the same weight.”
“How do we go about finding this bad guy? Last time I
tried to get into the big guy’s head, I ended up finding the house instead.
Also, I can’t read the ringleader’s mind.”
“What about the red-headed woman that Astrid killed?
How did you find her?”
“Instinct. And I’m surprised her twin isn’t hunting
us down to try to kill us.”
“Twins?” Henry asked.
“You said the bouncer saw one of them get her earring
bit off by Ghost. Was that the one Astrid killed or not?” Darwin asked.
I thought back to the woman on the ground. “No, I
think her ears were fine. Hang on, Ghost gave us an earring more than a month
ago. Assuming it was hers, we can do a tracking spell to find her. Surely she
can’t be too far away from the amulet.” I pulled the small box out of my drawer
and emptied it onto the desk. Between my spare change, an extra lighter, and a
couple sticks of chalk was the metal earring.
It was one of those dangling things that were just
thin metal. I pulled out my tracking kit that I got from Remy. Darwin got one
also, but he didn’t believe he had the magic necessary to use it. I handed the
white plastic bottle of gallium to Henry.
“Warm that up.”
He frowned, but did as I asked. When the metal
started to melt in his hand, he gaped. “What is this?”
“Gallium,” Darwin explained. “It melts at just over
eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit.”
He looked at me with a darker glint in his eyes. “Do
you know what you could do with this? You can make decoy keys. You can make a
key that will unlock something important and use special gloves so that you can
use it. If the key gets stolen, it would melt in the thief’s hands because they
wouldn’t know to use the gloves.”
“Okay, give me burglary tips later. That could
definitely be helpful in my job, but we need to get this case done with first.”
I dropped the earring in the glass cup and directed
Henry to pour the liquefied metal into the cup. Using the focusing techniques I
learning in Tanaka-sensei’s class, I concentrated on the women from my vision.
Picturing their red hair, slender bodies, and the creepy auras I would liken to
a black widow about to eat her mate, I poured the gallium out onto the plate.
When it stilled and fogged up, it showed me a bedroom
with the woman sleeping under thick white blankets. “Don’t do that. I need a
location,” I told the metal.
The fog changed to show me the front of a motel room.
It was a chain motel, which would have been perfect if I had the town name. I
imagined a blank, green street sign.
“Hey,” Darwin whispered.
I looked down to see a street sign, just like I
imagined, with addresses on it. It was between Twenty-Eighth Street and
Ironwood. “How long would it take you to track that motel?”
“With the street sign, the motel name, and knowing
that it’s close to Stephen’s coven? Half a second if I had a computer,” Darwin
said.
A knock on the door broke the thoughtful silence.
Henry and Darwin began cleaning up the mess while I opened to door to find
Astrid standing there. I glanced out the window to see it was barely dusk.
“It’s only direct sunlight that hurts me,” she said.
“Can I come in?”
“I know you don’t need to be invited in. You’ve been
in here while I was sleeping.”
Her expression was sad, almost resigned. “I’m not
coming in again unless you invite me. I’m tired of trying to hold onto it when
you never give an inch.”
“Hold onto what?”
“My humanity.” She turned and started to leave.
“Wait.” Before she could take two steps away, I
grabbed her hand and pulled her into the room. “You can come in.”
“Hey, you got a computer?” Darwin asked her. She
shook her head. “A mobile?”
She pulled a flip-phone out of her jacket pocket. “It
doesn’t have internet. And you can’t tell Hunt. He told me we’re not allowed to
have electronics here.”
Darwin dialed a number and put it to his ear. “Hey, Mum!”
His voice was high with excitement, but it sounded more like he was hiding
disappointment. “Is Dad there? No, I’m not in jail. I just need to talk to Dad.
No, I haven’t found a wife. Can I talk to Dad? Mum, stop telling me about the
neighbor’s daughter… yes, I’ll see the list when I get home. Take the phone to
Dad. Mum! I need to talk to Dad! No, I really love you, but I need to… Please,
Mum. Please just take the phone to Dad. What do you mean he’s in a meeting?
Okay, bye, Mum. No, I’m hanging up. I love you, but I’m still hanging up. Bye.
No, I’m not doing drugs!” He hung up.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“My mother is a bit talkative and she has no computer
skills.”
Henry took the phone, dialed a number, and scowled as
he put it to his ear. “I need the address to a motel,” he said, growling. He gave
the general location, the motel name, and the street addresses. A few seconds
later, he snapped the phone shut without another word. “I have an address.”
“Was that your parents?” Darwin asked.
“That was my mother, and she is not talkative.”
“Is that normally how you talk to her?”
“Yes. Why?” He handed the phone to Astrid. “I would
destroy this phone if I were you,” he told her.
“You should have warned me before you used it,” she
said. She hadn’t forgiven him for his weird behavior when the shifter said she
was marked for death. “I’m here to tell you I’m going back to the coven.”
“Why?”
“I have a job to do.”
“Do you work at the blood bank?” Darwin asked.
She rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t believe me if I
told you.”
“Try me,” I said.
“I hunt paranormals that kill others, particularly
those that kill humans.” With those parting words, she turned and walked out.
* * *
Darwin, Henry, and I went to Hunt to ask to borrow
his SUV, since none of us had brought our own vehicles. The headmaster was in
his office, once again arguing with Remy. Instead of risking getting caught
when we already knew what the argument was about, I knocked.
“Come in,” the headmaster called. We entered. Remy
and Flagstone were sitting on the couch and the shifter’s arm was around the
young witch. Hunt stood front of them, obviously having been pacing.
“Well, I think I found where the amulet is, so is it
okay if we borrow your car?” I asked, trying to get a startled reaction out of
them.
Remy and Flagstone stood. “Rosin and I will go with
you,” Remy said.
“I will go,” Hunt said, looking at Flagstone. “You
stay here and run the school.”
The shifter’s eyes glowed slightly as he growled at
the headmaster. “I am not your child.”
“No, but she is,” Hunt said, gesturing to Remy. “And
if you ever want to see her again, you will do as you are told.” Flagstone
growled louder, his lips spreading to display his sharp wolf teeth. Hunt made a
flicking motion with his hand and the professor vanished.
Remington was pissed. “He’s going to get tired of
this shit one of these days and leave you on your own.”
“He will not. Mr. Mason, Mr. Lycosa, you two need to
head back to your room. Remy and I will help Devon.”
“Uh, no offence, Headmaster, but Henry and I should
be the ones to go with Devon,” Darwin argued.
Hunt frowned. “Why?”
“Because he trusts us and Amelia disappeared when she
went to see you.”
“Because we would choose to protect him over hunting
for a key,” Henry added.
“Nonsense. You two return to your room and leave this
to us.”
My roommates both waited for my decision. I preferred
to have Henry and Darwin back me up rather than Remy and Hunt when the two were
arguing over Flagstone. On the other hand, they were both extremely powerful in
magic and I didn’t want my roommates harmed.
“Go back and I’ll get in touch if we run into
trouble.”
They nodded and Henry gave Hunt the address. Ten
minutes later, Hunt and Remy got into the back of the SUV and I got in the
driver’s seat. I knew the way to the vampire coven by then, so I got started
without any instructions.
Soon, they started arguing in the back. After the
first half hour of this, I was looking for the next cliff to drive us off of.
An hour later, Remy fell asleep and I finally had a little peace. The rest of
the drive was quiet. I had to stop for gas at one point, so I got some beef
jerky and coffees. At the counter, I saw penlights for sale. Realizing I might
have to use one as a magic conduit again, I bought all twenty that they had.
* * *
It was nearly nine by the time Hunt started giving me
specific directions to the hotel. When I pulled into the small motel parking
lot, I parked away from the other cars. “Remy, you go distract the manager.
Hunt, keep a lookout from the car. I’m going to go scope the place out.”
“You want me to pick a fight with the manager?” Remy
asked.
“Actually, I meant for you to flirt with him.” She
made a face. “Fine, you be the lookout, Hunt can to flirt with the manager.” I got
out without waiting for their responses and started for the room closest to the
office. The bell dinged as Remy entered the office.
I didn’t feel anything odd near the first room, so I
meandered leisurely down the walkway. It wasn’t until I passed the twentieth
room that I paused. There was a dark presence in this room, similar to
Regina’s, but not as subtle. I sent out my power and let it be drawn to the
malevolent being inside. Her mind was unguarded so I sensed it for a split
second before she felt me.
