I gulped, looking down at our entwined fingers. I could tell them apart - he was paler than I was and his hands were larger - but somehow they fit perfectly.
Too perfectly.
I pulled away.
His aunt would be angry.
A little bit of the light in his eyes dimmed.
"How was it?" he asked. His voice was hoa.r.s.e. He was trying to ignore what I had just done and hide the worry that was plain on his face.
"Good," I said, taking the mask off. My face felt stiff and tight, as if it hadn"t moved in a long time. "I moved tides."
Keller grinned. "Of course you did. You"re incredible."
I blushed and looked down. Keller, still with his legs crossed under him, scooted closer, so that he was right in front of me. He used one hand, the hand that had just held my own, to tilt my chin up.
"Are you okay?" he whispered. His eyes reminded me of the ocean I"d just been standing in front of, only they were calm pools of protectiveness instead of a storm ready to rage to my will.
"Never better," I croaked. I couldn"t look away. My chin was tingling where his fingers rested against my skin.
"Charlotte," he started, "if something happened to you. . . ."
"No need to get dramatic," I said quickly. "Nothing"s going to happen to me."
"But if it did, the paranormal race would be all but extinct," said Dacer"s voice from the doorway.
To my surprise, Keller waited a few seconds to release my chin. I guess he didn"t care who saw us together. At least that was one of us. When he did, it was with a sigh. "Mr. Erikson, how did she do?" Dacer asked.
"Splendidly," said Keller, nodding. "She took to the mask like she was born to it."
"Oh, delightfully splendid," said Dacer. "Let me see." He held out his hand for the mask, which I was still holding. I handed it to him.
When I saw the front surface, I gasped. It no longer was a dull blue but a blazing brightness. The seash.e.l.ls were white, as if they had been scrubbed clean.
"That"s amazing," I breathed.
"No," said Keller, "you"re amazing."
I believed what he said. At least I believed he believed it, which sent a nice, warm sensation singing through me.
I didn"t even have to try.
As I was leaving the Museum I pa.s.sed Lealand, who gave me a big smile as he headed back inside.
Chapter Eighteen.
I hurried to the library after I left the Museum. It was only the third day of cla.s.ses and I already had a ton of homework. Keller wasn"t far behind me, but we didn"t walk together because he had stayed to talk to Dacer after I left. Apparently they knew each other from a long time ago. Did Keller know everyone? And did every single person have to like him? I always felt awkward when I was at public gatherings, as if I had size twelve shoes, but not Keller.
"Hey," I said, dropping into a seat next to Lisabelle.
"Hey," she said, stuffing books into her bag. "We"re actually heading out," said Lough as I watched them.
"Together?" I asked, unable to entirely hide my shock.
Sip gave me a sidelong grin, but Lisabelle didn"t notice.
"Yeah, Lisabelle needs help moving the last of her stuff into her room," said Lough. He was vibrating, like, literally vibrating with excitement.
"Do you want us to go, too?" Lanca asked. She was sitting across from Sip, dressed in her customary black and flanked by two other vampires.
"No, no," Lough said quickly. "I"ll manage."
"There"d be no point in having a guy to move stuff if girls came and moved it anyway," said Lisabelle shrugging. "I"ll buy you a book or something as a thank you," she said to Lough.
Lisabelle was nothing if not fair.
"She should just kiss him, " Sip whispered to me. "It would be cheaper and make him happier."
My grin widened.
"Is Trafton actually going to try and have a party?" Lough asked.
Lisabelle rolled her eyes. "Risper would have his head and he knows it."
Sitting in the library, Lanca watched Lough trail out the door after Lisabelle. "What do you think is going to end up happening between those two?"
Sip glanced up from her book, her purple eyes sparkling. "If she doesn"t kill him? They"ll end up married. Don"t tell her I said that," she added quickly.
Lanca and I both looked at her like she was crazy. Then Lanca started to laugh, her whole body shaking in amus.e.m.e.nt. "I can totally see that happening."
It was the first time I had seen the vampire princess laugh since Tale had died in the battle last semester, and it was over the prospect of Lough and Lisabelle, not just together, but married. Sip actually seemed to believe it was possible.
As usual, my eyes flicked to Keller, who had come in and was leaning against a bookcase with his arms crossed over his chest. His pale skin stood out against the dark fabric of his shirt, and the weight of his arms dragging on his shirt made his chest more visible and defined. I remembered his arm sliding past me in my room before Christmas break, muscles taut as he moved. Suddenly conscious of being caught staring, I shifted my gaze back to my desk. I missed his eyes turning towards me.
"Don"t laugh so hard," said Sip, pointing her pencil at Lanca. One of the vampires sitting next to her growled, and Sip dropped the pencil. The vampires didn"t care who it was, no one was allowed to threaten Lanca after what had happened at the Dash finals.
Sip continued unfazed, "If Lisabelle gets married, her misery will want company."
"What do you mean by that?" I asked suspiciously.
Sip picked up the pencil again and calmly started to write. "She will make us all be bridesmaids."
I flinched. Lanca nodded knowingly. "She"s just that kind of mean. Demons would be nothing compared to trying to deal with Lisabelle on her wedding day. I"d take fighting the President over that any day. Can you imagine what she"ll make us wear?"
I had a vision of black dresses with long sleeves, more fitting for a funeral procession for most people. From the looks on Lanca and Sip"s faces, their thoughts were along similar lines.
Just then Keller shifted into my line of vision and I felt myself sighing. When he was studying, his face was clear and concentrated and there was no frown. His smooth forehead was only covered by a single curl of dark hair. I wished he was still my tutor. I wished he would kiss me again. Except that I didn"t. Bad Charlotte. Professor Erikson would not approve.
I sighed.
"You"re drooling," Sip cautioned.
I glared at my werewolf friend. "Am not."
"Yeah," said Lanca, "you are." She started to grin but was forced to stop when she started to cough.
Quickly the two vampires flanking her came forward, but she waved them away. "I"m fine," she snapped to them. "Spare me the nonsense."
Turning back to me she asked, "Why don"t you just kiss him?"
"Because his aunt hates me," I muttered in response. "And Keller deserves a girl that his family supports."
"Keller deserves to have the girl he wants," said Sip. "And it"s clear who that is."
Both vampires had halted, while Sip and I sat there dumbfounded. In warning them off, Lanca had sounded harsh and angry in a way that I hadn"t heard from her before. She had set the tone aside again to speak to me, but the echo of it still filled the air.
"Come on," said Sip. "Let"s get to lunch. We"re going to need all of our strength for Tactical tonight."
I gulped. We definitely were.
Chapter Nineteen.
The time until Tactical dragged. I was so bored that I headed down to the field early with half a mind to go back to the pond, albeit the frozen version, and search around for clues that would tell me more about my mother. There didn"t seem to be any reason why I shouldn"t, so off I went.
It looked remarkably peaceful as I approached. I wished I had an elemental mask with me, because surely the masks could help me find out more about elementals. It was gradually dawning on me that a whole universe of information had been lost with the dying of all the senior elementals. Even though I was elemental, I felt like I knew nothing about them and had no way to learn. Maybe the masks would provide me with a way to explore my heritage.
The other half of my mind wanted to search the President"s office, although I was sure they had cleared it out by now. I still wanted answers to question like the obvious "WHAT HAPPENED TO MY FAMILY?" and the less obvious "If you thought I might be elemental, why did you give me an Airlee ring? To keep up appearances? Because you"re evil to the core? Because you"re a dummy?"
Then I chastised myself for using the word dummy, even in my head. Eighteen-year-olds didn"t talk like that. My grandmother probably didn"t even talk like that, and she was dead.
I rubbed my ring absently, staring at the brown house that had been the President"s. She was with the demons now and out of my reach, but someone had to know something. For some reason the people in charge thought I would behave myself according to their expectations, even in the middle of an epic paranormal war and when no one seemed willing to tell me anything useful. And I was friends with Lisabelle, no less. You"d think they"d have had more sense.
I started towards the house. When I was almost to the steps, I heard a deep voice behind me saying, "Ms. Rollins, I thought I might find you here."
I spun around so fast my brown ponytail whipped into my face. Standing before me was Lisabelle"s uncle Risper. He was very good looking, I realized, in a rugged sort of way. Then again, Lisabelle was beautiful in a "Yes, I"m as scary as I seem" sort of way.
"Lovely evening for a stroll," I said, watching the air of my lies float before my face. I tucked my gloved hands into my pockets to hide their shaking. I trusted Risper; Lisabelle would have known if he wasn"t trustworthy. But with the demons so close it was hard to truly trust anyone.
Involuntarily I glanced towards the campus wall, beyond which I knew was the force field that was keeping out any waiting demons.
"Why did you think you"d find me here?" I asked Risper. His dark face was in shadow. The light was almost entirely gone and it was hard to see his features clearly.
He gave a thin smile. "Because you and Lisabelle are not so different as you might appear, and she would want answers."
"Yeah," I drawled. "It"s a real stretch to think that if your family was murdered you would want to know exactly why and how."
Risper"s dark eyebrows shot upwards. "Your whole family was not murdered. Your brother is just fine."
I started at the mention of Ricky. He and I had e-mailed a couple of times in the past week, and he had reported that he was earning pocket money shoveling, and that our stepdad had started drinking again, but other than that he hadn"t said much. These days, every time I got an e-mail from him I held my breath as I read it, worried that he would say something like, "I was attacked by a dark shape the other night. What"s going on?" But he never did.
"Your brother is at risk of being used against you, against us. You are aware of that?" Risper asked quietly.
Yes, I was aware, I wanted to scream. "He can"t come here," I said. "He"s too young."
Risper nodded. "He can"t come. For now. And he is also fine. For now. I don"t think the demons have much interest in going after a ten-year-old kid, especially not one with the best protections around him that paranormals can muster." Suddenly there was a flash of white teeth. "And we can muster pretty good protections."
"Is there something you wanted?" I asked him. I was starting not to care that this man was Lisabelle"s uncle. He was making me nervous. He seemed to know what I was thinking, even if I didn"t say it out loud. When the Committee had first arrived I had been more afraid of Dove, vampire that he was, but Risper was quickly becoming my chief worry.
"Yes," he said, "I wanted to tell you to stay out of that house and away from the demons."
"EVERYone is telling me to stay away from the demons," I retorted angrily. "I"m not stupid."
Risper"s eyebrows shot into the air again. "I distinctly remember reading something in your file about your being caught out after hours. Is that not true?"
"Oh, I have a file?" I said casually.
To my surprise, Risper threw back his head and laughed. "Yes, you do and no, you can"t read it."
"But apparently you have," I muttered.
"I"m a Committee member tasked with your safety," he argued.
"If I can"t go into that house, how am I supposed to find out more about the President?" I asked.
"You aren"t," said Risper, shrugging as if it didn"t matter at all.
"Excuse me?"
"It"s being dealt with."
"How can it possibly be dealt with if I"m not part of it?" I asked.