Elemental Dawn (Paranormal Public) Page 12

  My ring helped me. He was several stories below me, and I used my sense of him to choose which turns to take. It wasn’t a perfect method, and it would only work if I was already physically close and emotionally connected with the paranormal I was trying to find. Even then, that paranormal had to know enough to be open to my searching.

  I took heart that Keller was open to my coming.

  I turned left and then left again. Confronted with a steep staircase that I knew we hadn’t climbed earlier, I hurried down it anyway. The walls on either side almost brushed my shoulders, and I could barely see the steps in front of me.

  The stairs continued and continued, and I felt cold air hitting my face the further I went into the earth. My breakfast felt heavy in my belly and I realized that wandering off by myself in a vampire den might have not been the best idea. I blinked several times, trying to adjust to the light.

  The only sound around me was the fall of my footsteps on the stone steps.

  I glanced behind me, my unease growing with each step. All I saw was blackness.

  Maybe wandering alone through Vampire Locke was not the best idea.

  Sighing, I kept going. After a few more turns I came to another corridor. My sense of Keller was stronger now, but the passage was also narrower.

  What was he doing down here, so far off the main paths I had been on since I arrived?

  Somewhere to my left I heard the scrape of stone against stone and up ahead I thought I saw a door opening.

  It was the only warning I had before something hard and cold slammed into the back of my head.

  The last thing I remembered was the world turning sideways as I stumbled and fell. Then everything faded to black.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I came awake slowly. My first awareness was that my head hurt with a dull rhythmic throbbing, like the tapping of a branch against a windowpane in the wind.. My second was that my left cheek was cushioned on something much softer than anything I had seen so far at Vampire Locke. I faintly smelled vanilla. I missed Keller. Something, someone, was stroking my hair and talking softly to me in a voice I knew.

  “Keller!” I exclaimed, and tried to lift my head from his lap. He rested his hand on my shoulder to still me. It was the gentlest of touches, and despite my throbbing head I found myself smiling. It helped that the pain in my head was quickly lessening.

  Moving only my eyes, I looked up at my boyfriend. From this angle his strong nose was softened and the laugh crinkles around his eyes were more visible as he looked down on me. His wide mouth was open in a smile, and a strand of black hair flopped over his forehead. My fingers itched to push it back out of the way, but I stayed still, enjoying the view.

  “Hi,” he murmured, his eyes soft and warm. “Are you okay?” The throbbing in my head was nearly gone, and I realized that Keller had waited until I was awake to heal me. If a patient wasn’t at death’s door it was the polite thing to ask before you healed someone. Not because they might not want it (although that was always a possibility), but because it was an invasion into someone else’s body, their most treasured possession.

  “Hello in there? Are you okay? I didn’t think you had a concussion, but I can check again.” Keller peered worriedly at me, his blue eyes filled with concern. I coughed a little and rolled my eyes.

  “Yeah, sorry, I’m fine.” My face flushed. And apparently I was also too busy staring at how gorgeous my boyfriend was to actually bother to talk to him. And just think, girls are usually the ones who complain that guys only care about looks. Lisabelle would surely snort if she knew I had such thoughts, and truly, the idea that I was with Keller because he was incredibly good-looking was just silly. Then again, his good looks surely didn’t hurt.

  “What happened?” I asked. It was hard to care when I was in Keller’s arms. Everything felt right. Even the worry line that had formed over Keller’s brow had disappeared.

  “I have no idea,” he said. “I’m pretty sure someone kidnapped me and threw me down here, but I can’t be sure. I was walking back to my room alone, then I woke up here. There’s a nasty bump on the back of my head, or at least there was before I healed it, so someone must have attacked me. But I never had a warning and I have no idea who it was. When I woke up you were here, unconscious.”

  He trailed off, his lips tightening into a thin white line. “I thought you were . . . I” He stopped and I patted his hand, not wanting him to worry.

  “I’m fine,” I murmured, stroking his arm. “Lisabelle has knocked me harder on the head than this.”

  “Yeah, but she didn’t do it intentionally,” he muttered. “Just the force of her personality.”

  I laughed and shrugged, which I was now able to do without pain.

  “So, someone kidnapped us both and stuck us down here. Why?” I asked, getting down to business. “Thinking like a kidnapper is not exactly my forte.”

  “I have no idea,” said Keller. “Here I was thinking everyone wanted to keep us separate, but someone has stuck us together. Locked us in together, in fact.”

  “We’re locked in?” I asked, twisting and trying to see. I should have felt afraid, but so much had happened to me recently that it was hard for me to worry when a demon wasn’t staring me in the face.

  “I don’t know,” he said, his arm tightening protectively around me. “I think so, but I didn’t check. I was too worried about you.”

  “Well, let’s look then,” I said, starting to rise. Keller placed both of his warm hands on my shoulders, stilling me for the second time. I stopped all movement, acutely aware of everywhere we touched. My head now rested on his crossed ankles as his stomach pressed against me. His fingers put the barest pressure on my shoulder bones and I didn’t want to move for fear I would disturb him. I was also very aware of the view he had of my body as I was sprawled out in front of him.

  I remembered to breathe just in time.

  Then he leaned down.

  I knew he was about to kiss me. We had been together long enough that I recognized the slight part of his lips, his eyes fluttering closed, and the slight flush of his cheeks just before our lips touched, which I was sure was mirrored on my own.

  Then I couldn’t see anything, because I closed my eyes and watched stars burst behind my eyelids. It was like this every time he kissed me. I was sure it would never change.

  I forgot everything else, the knocked head, the attack, the locked door, and Lanca. His hands gently touched my cheeks, the softest caress. I smiled while I kissed him, deepening our contact. I moved both my hands to run my fingers through his soft, full hair, luxuriating in touching him.

  Finally he pulled away, and I made a noise in protest that sounded like a plane propeller breaking. Not very attractive. My face flamed scarlet again.

  He chuckled. “I missed you too, but let’s get out of here before whoever attacked but didn’t kill us comes back to finish the job.”

  Grumbling, I let him carefully disentangle us and help me to my feet.

  Once we were both standing, Keller placed one hand protectively on my hip.

  “You okay? No dizziness?”

  “I’m fine,” I said. “Sheesh. You’re worse than Sip.”

  “If I’m Sip that would make you Lisabelle,” he teased. “Think about that for a few minutes.”

  I playfully shoved his shoulder. I didn’t know how I could be so silly at a time like this, or, now that I saw where we were, how we could have taken the time out to kiss instead of getting out of there. It was like a black underground jungle. We were in a tiny open space, but all around us were grasping black tendrils, like the slimy legs of an octopus or the roots of an ancient tree. The vines were so thick I couldn’t even see a wall or a door. It was like we were outside, except that the ground under us was old concrete. We were still in the mountain somewhere, held prisoner by an implacable foe: nature.

  All too late I remembered feeling like I was being watched back at Sip’s, and wondered if there was a connection. I couldn’t
be sure.

  “Wow,” I breathed. “No wonder you didn’t look for a door.”

  Above us somewhere there was a faint light. I couldn’t see where it was coming from and it kept flickering, like a wall sconce blown around in wind.

  Keller nodded, squinting. “We still have our rings, which is something. I think whoever did this tried to take mine off, because my finger was red and welted after I woke up. But luckily they failed.”

  My brow puckered. That must tell us something about our attacker, but at that moment I wasn’t sure what.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I said. “There’s a ceremony tonight, and I don’t want everyone to worry. Can you sense any of them?”

  He nodded curtly. “Whatever these plants are, they dampen magic of all kinds. I can’t feel anything, which doesn’t make any sense, because we’re still definitely at Locke.”

  I nodded and started toward the nearest vine. It was as wide as an old tree trunk. “How did we get in here?”

  “I think our kidnapper brought us through some vines and then put the vines back,” said Keller, following me. “That way the exit is hidden and the vines are too big for us to try and guess which direction we came from.”

  “It was definitely a he,” I said, thinking of the scrape and the heavy step I had heard before I was knocked out. “Unless it was a very strong woman.”

  “She might have used magic,” said Keller thoughtfully.

  We tried everything. We each used what magic we still could, which was very basic spells.

  “What is this stuff?” I asked, doubling over and coughing. I had tried to set the plants, or tendrils, or whatever, on fire, and instead a massive smoke bomb had gone off right in front of me.

  Keller came over and put his hand on my back until my coughing subsided.

  “I don’t know,” he said, wiping his brow. “There are all kinds of plants with magical properties that I know nothing about. I wanted to take a class on it, but my family keeps insisting I take classes on paranormal foreign policy.”

  “What do they think you’ll do with classes in paranormal foreign policy?” I asked, wiping my eyes. The smoke had made tears drip down my cheeks and my face flush.

  “They think I’m going to do great things,” he said, in a tone more bitter than I had ever heard him use before.

  “You will,” I said, smiling. “Just maybe not the things they expect.”

  “Hum,” he said. “Right.”

  We kept trying. I felt time passing, but I couldn’t tell how much. I was starting to get hungry, which meant that we were well past lunch.

  “We have to get out of here for the opening ceremonies,” I said. “Whyever someone wanted us to miss the ceremonies is a mystery to me, but we can’t oblige them.”

  “They didn’t want us to miss the ceremonies,” said Keller, tugging on one of the vines. “They wanted you to miss them.”

  He hadn’t sat down since we started searching for a way out. He used his magic, poked, and prodded. He didn’t even look tired, while all I wanted to do was lie down and take a nap. I could feel the sweat under my arms and dripping down my neck. There was a slight sheen on his forehead, but that was all.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, confused.

  Keller frowned but didn’t look at me. Instead, he continued his search.

  “They kidnapped me to draw you in,” he explained finally. “I wasn’t the target. You were. Someone knew you would come looking for me. They knew you were my weakness. Everyone does.”

  Fear trickled down my spine. What Keller said was true. We had talked about being each other’s weakness, and we had even once proposed not being together, since it put us each in danger because of the other. But there was just no choice. As Keller had said, even if it doesn’t make sense on paper, in love you had to feel it, and boy did we.

  “They’re going to attack Lanca at the opening ceremonies and they don’t want the Power of Five to be an option to protect her,” I breathed, feeling ill.

  “Most likely,” said Keller.

  “We have to get out of here,” I said, redoubling my efforts.

  The thought of my friend in danger gave me new energy. Darkness mages were everywhere, demons were probably waiting around Locke. Not to mention that Lanca’s own vampires didn’t trust her.

  “This is pointless,” I said, after what felt like another hour had passed. The light around us hadn’t changed, but I was getting colder. I was sure that night had come, and if we didn’t get out of here soon we would miss the ceremonies.

  I looked up and saw nothing but a canopy of vines.

  “Wait, Keller, do you hear that?” I asked, stilling. Next to me, Keller stopped moving. It was something I liked about him, that once he trusted you he trusted you completely. It didn’t matter that he was trying his own things to get out of our trap. He trusted me, so he stopped.

  Over to my right there was the faint drip of water.

  “If there’s water there must be an opening!” I exclaimed. “We just have to get there.”

  “We can’t get through these vines,” said Keller. “They seem to be totally resistant to magic.”

  “That’s okay,” I said. “We’re going to go under them.” I got down on my hands and knees while Keller watched, his eyebrows raised. “The tips of the vines aren’t as thick or strong.” I muttered, more to myself than to him. “I must be able to do something with that.” Carefully, I rolled over onto my back and started to slide myself along the floor. The vines pushed against my shoulders, but I was able to keep moving. I pushed upward with the simplest of wind spells. Let’s face it, I could only perform the simplest of wind spells anyway.

  “Come on,” I called to Keller. “At least we’re moving.”

  Behind me, I heard Keller start to crawl. He had to stay close to me, because I wasn’t able to move the vines for long. As I headed for the sound of water my back and thighs started to hurt from scarping along the ground. But I kept going.

  I tried not to look up. Every time I did and saw nothing but magical plants surrounding me, I felt sick. I didn’t like dampening spells interfering with my magic, and I liked it even less that someone had put me and my boyfriend in this trap.

  “Are you okay?” Keller called. He was right behind me now. As an athletic fallen angel he moved faster than I did, and he had caught up quickly.

  “Yeah,” I said, although I had started to breath hard. The only light I saw now was from my ring and the constant use of my magic.

  When I felt a bump against my head I rolled over to stare at the wall I had hit. I didn’t even have a chance to look at it before water started to drip into my eyes.

  “I think I found it,” I muttered. “Great.” As I wiped my eyes I felt a wash of relief at finding the running water.

  “Can we just blast through the wall?” Keller asked, sliding in next to me so that we were shoulder to shoulder.

  “Will the magic work?” I asked.

  “Maybe it will if you blow the plants away while I attack a weakened part of the wall,” said Keller. “It’s worth a shot. We’re out of options.”

  “Try it,” I said.

  I watched Keller put his hands against the wall. There was more water than I had realized at first. The back of my head was soaked already, and the wall glistened.

  “Are you ready?” I asked, watching Keller feel his way along the wet wall.

  “I think so,” he muttered. “The water is coming from above, but there’s a crack all along here.”

  With one strong push I shoved at the vines with the wind. From what I could tell, wind worked because there was wind there anyway, and all I had to do was re-direct it to hit the vines. Since the process was mostly natural and didn’t actually require much magic, the vines were forced to move, whereas if I had tried to create a fire out of nothing the vines would have resisted the magic.

  Keller’s arms flexed as he pushed at the wall from an awkward position on his back, shoving his magic into
his hands to make them stronger.

  At first, nothing happened.

  I kept calling the winds and he kept pushing, but still nothing happened, and I felt my heart sink.

  Come on, I thought. For Lanca. We have to get to her.

  And then, just when I was running out of strength, I heard a crack.

  Chapter Seventeen

  When Keller broke through the wall, not only did it crumble, but he shot through it like a cannon, the force of his magic carrying him away from me. I felt his shoulder and then his hip scrape against mine before he disappeared in a shower of dirt and yelling.

  I tried to grab him, but the instant I let go of the vines I felt my magic choked. As I started to cough I felt fingers digging into my shoulders. The next thing I knew I was being scraped along the floor and pulled through the craggy hole in the wall.

  At first I felt relief. Fresh air hit my face and light filled my eyes.

  But my relief quickly turned to dismay when I realized where we were, or at least when I saw who was in the room with me.

  We were in a massive sitting room filled with light, comfortable chairs and lovely furniture. It didn’t look anything like the other rooms I had seen at Locke, which had clearly been decorated by vampires for vampires, in their black and red tones. This room was filled with warm colors.

  It was decorated for guests.

  Not just any guests, but important guests.

  And at the moment it happened to be filled. I blinked several times, mostly because it was difficult for me to see through the grime that now covered my face from Keller pulling me through the wall.

  Quickly stopping and righting himself, he had turned around to get me out of there, and our motion had blown us through one corner of the sitting room. There were now about twenty paranormals standing and staring at us.

  I was pretty sure a couple of them had been ready to blast Keller and me to smithereens, but luckily they had realized right away that we were not a threat.

  “What is the meaning of this?” an icy and familiar voice asked.