Paranormal Public (Paranormal Public Series) (25 page)

“Well,” said Sip, “stop wasting my time and spit it out. What happened?”

“They kept me in lockdown in the President’s office,” Lisabelle explained. Her hands were clenched into fists. “They thought I was the one helping the demons get onto campus.”

“Why did they think it was you?” Sip asked.

“Because apparently there’s no way demons can get onto campus unless a powerful darkness mage helps them. I’m the only darkness mage, and the only other ones with darkness magic are the vampires.”

“Oh,” said Sip.

Lisabelle nodded soberly.

“Wait,” said Sip, “that means a paranormal
is
helping the demons?”

“Yeah,” said Lisabelle. “A paranormal at Public. I heard the President talking. The demons are after something, but no one is sure what. Ever since school started, they’ve been a lot worse. Apparently there have been constant attacks on paranormals.”

“Why weren’t we told?” asked Sip. She folded her arms over her chest and glared.

“They thought we were safe here,” said Lisabelle quietly. “They wanted to figure it out on their own before they created a total panic.”

Sip couldn’t argue with that. If the Paranormal Council of Power (which most of the professors at Public were on) made an announcement that the demons were getting stronger and going after paranormals more frequently, it would wreak havoc.

“But Lisabelle, are you alright?”

“Yeah,” said Lisabelle, smiling. “They have to be a lot scarier than a bunch of yelling professors to scare me.”

Sip shook her head. “That attitude is going to get you into trouble one of these days.”

Lisabelle glared. “I already get in trouble and I don’t even do anything.”

Sip reached toward her friend. “Lisabelle, I’m sorry….”

“Yeah, you’re sorry,” said Lisabelle. “I got locked up for doing what my professor ordered and what did he get? A week’s paid vacation. The President said he was being overzealous and sent him away.” For the first time since I’d met Lisabelle she looked scared. She was hiding hid it well, but tears were forming in the corners of her dark eyes.

I slung my arm around her shoulders. She took a deep, steadying breath. “I’m fine,” she said. “They really weren’t that bad. It’s just not fair.”

“If they’re going to have you here, they should treat you equally,” said Sip.

“They should, but they don’t have to. They can do whatever they want,” said Lisabelle. “There aren’t enough darkness mages to protect me from being mistreated.”

“Well,” I said, “then we have to do something.”

Sip rolled her eyes. “You’ve been saying that, but what can we do?” she asked. “We’re just Starters.”

“We have to figure out how the demons are getting in. We have to know who’s behind it and why,” I said. “And we have to protect ourselves.”

“You want to protect the vampires?” Lisabelle asked. “I didn’t know you cared.”

I grinned. “Okay, well maybe the vampires can fend for themselves.”

Sip started to laugh, but just then there was another soft knock on the door. “Who is that?” asked Sip, staring at the door. We weren’t friends with any of the other Airlee girls, and technically no one else was allowed on the floor.

“I’ll get it,” I said, and opened the door to find Lough standing outside it.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“We have to talk,” he said, and pushed his way into the room.

He didn’t seem at all surprised to see Lisabelle. “Are you alright?” he asked. She nodded and repeated for him what she had already told us. Lough sat quietly and listened, but when she finished he said, “We have to do something. We can’t just let the demons run around campus killing us off until they find what they’re looking for.”

“We agree,” I said.

“So, what are we going to do about it?” he asked, settling in for a long night.

We didn’t get to bed until almost dawn. We all agreed that we had to protect Lisabelle, and that the only way to do that was to find out who was letting the demons in. If we didn’t, Lisabelle would be expelled, or worse, and the demons would still be attacking. The safety of the school and maybe the whole paranormal world was at stake.

“We can’t tell anyone what we’re doing,” Sip pointed out once we had made our plans, “because we don’t know who the culprit is.”

“Oh no,” moaned Sip after Lough left. The three of us looked at her. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Our outfits for the dance,” she said. “We didn’t get them ready.”

Lisabelle stared at her. “It’s just a stupid dance. I’m not even going.”

“Lisabelle Verlans, darkness mage, we are all going,” said Sip, putting her hands on her hips. “Now everyone go to bed.”

Lisabelle and I exchanged grins. “She’s bossy when she’s tired,” I said.

Lisabelle rolled her eyes. “She’s bossy all the time.”

I curled up in bed, glad we finally had a plan. We had to protect Lisabelle, and we had to protect Public. I might not be able to do magic yet, but there were other things I could do to help. And I hoped the magic was only a matter of time. Of all people, Keller seemed to think so as well. He always had confidence in me. His actions said so as much as his words. Besides, there was no way I was going to go crawling back to my stepdad. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. I fell asleep with those comforting thoughts running through my mind.

I was beginning to think that Public did everything well. The next day had flown by. Sip insisted we all get ready together, and given everything that had happened, it was a nice distraction to spend time picking out clothes and making sure I looked alright. I ended up slipping on a black miniskirt and a sequined top I borrowed from Sip. Checking myself out in the mirror, I saw that I didn’t look anything like my normal self. This was the first time all semester that I was stepping out in something other than jeans.

“Your legs look hot,” said Sip, who was wearing a green dress that highlighted her purple eyes.

“You look good yourself,” I said, and gave her a smile.

When Lisabelle, Sip, and I walked into the dining hall to get some dinner before the dance, Lough said, grinning, “Lisabelle you’re wearing black. Nice to see you in something new and different.”

Lisabelle’s glare would have frozen fire.

Sip tugged at her dress. “This is so uncomfortable,” she said. “Where’s Mike?”

Mike was Sip’s date. He was a junior Airlee and a werewolf, and their families had known each other forever. He was the one who had gotten into a fight with the vampires my first night at Public. Sip was the only one of us that had a date, although I’m sure Lough would have gone with Lisabelle if he had thought she would agree. Unfortunately for Lough, it had taken everything we had to get her to go at all. There was no way she would have gone with a date.

When Mike came in, he walked right over to Sip and extended his arm. “Want to join me tonight, or shall I join you?” he asked. He sat with a group of his friends further away from the professors. “Do you guys mind?” she asked, absently smoothing her hand over her dress.

“No, not at all,” I said. Lisabelle just glared until I elbowed her.

“No, that’s fine,” said Lisabelle. Once Sip was gone we got our food and sat down with Lough.

“So, Cale doesn’t have a date,” said Lough, looking pointedly toward the table where Cale was sitting with some other pixie guys. I could see Camilla a couple of tables away. Her lips were puckered like she was sucking on a lemon.

The food was extra delicious that night. There was pasta and pies, cakes and cookies, cheeses and casseroles; everything you could want was laid out on the long serving table. While we ate, Lough and I did everything we could to distract Lisabelle from the ordeal she had gone through over the past few days. She even laughed once. Granted, it was when Lough accidentally spilled apple pie on his lap, but he might have done it on purpose just to see her smile, because he looked ridiculously happy for an hour after that.

“So, are you going to save a dance for me tonight, Lisabelle?” Lough asked. He tried to act nonchalant about it, but I could tell that just asking the question made him nervous. Lisabelle raised her eyebrows at him over the rim of her glass.

“Sure, we can dance the day my hair becomes orange,” she said. I glared at her.

“You have to dance with someone,” I pointed out. It wasn’t much of an argument, but it was all I could think of.

“Do I?” she asked. “No one wants to dance with the darkness mage. I’m going to look after you and Sip, because you can’t even DO magic and Sip’s too damn nice, and then I’m going home.”

“Oh, poor you,” I said. I was sick of her pity party, and I was tired of being reminded that I was attending a school for mages and I couldn’t do actual magic. I leaned in until I was glaring right into her eyes. The girl needed a reality check.

“You will dance with Lough tonight. Or else.” It sounded a lot scarier in my head, but it was worth it to see the look of surprise on Lisabelle’s face.

She grinned. “Sure thing, boss.” She gave a salute and then got up and walked away.

I sat back in my chair. Lough was pushing his food around his plate.

“It’s not hockey,” I said. “You’re supposed to eat that.”

Lough looked up and gave a half-hearted smile. “She doesn’t even know I’m alive, does she?” he asked.

“Sure she does,” I said. “She knows you’re alive, because she just turned you down flat.”

The dance was held in a massive tent set up on the Dash field. It was made of some kind of see-through fabric, giving students a perfect view of the night sky, without the cold air. Floods of students were streaming toward it along a path illuminated by massive lights erected just for this occasion.

No one had really bothered to dress up, except, of course, for the pixies. The vampires stood off to one side. The vampire princess, Lanca, who I’d almost gotten into a fight with at Dash, was surrounded by admirers. Tale was on her right arm, fitting as the hero of Dash. Her eyes briefly flicked to me, then returned to the throng around her.

“Keller’s over there,” said Lough, pointing across the room. He was dancing with some fallen angel girl I’d seen him with a few times, a junior and one of the best Dashers at school. I hated the way her blond hair swung around her shoulders, and how she giggled whenever Keller said anything. I wanted to go up and tell her that we both knew Keller wasn’t that funny and to stop trying so hard, but something held me back.

Sip was already there, dancing with Mike. Her eyes were bright and she was laughing.

“Where’d Lisabelle get to?” I asked. She was nowhere to be seen. Looking around for her, I realized something else: she wasn’t the only one missing. I didn’t see any professors.

Surely, I thought, they must be somewhere; there’s no way they’d leave the entire school outside at night unsupervised. Just as I was thinking that something must be wrong, Professor Korba arrived. “Good evening, Airlee Starters,” he said.

“Hey, Professor Korba,” said Lough waving. “How’s it going?”

“Oh, fine,” said the Professor, smiling his watery smile. “None of the other professors are here yet, I see. Ah, well, some of us do enjoy giving all you young ones just enough rope to hang yourselves with.” He smiled at his own joke, then continued, “Don’t get too crazy, though,” he advised. “Tomorrow we have another dorm visit. Cruor, the vampires.” With that he wandered off.