Free Elemental Earth (Paranormal Public) by Maddy Edwards

of
Zervos, at least until we reached the safety of Golden Falls. Could there be
anything worse?
    As if to mirror my thoughts Lough
said, “Could this get any worse?”
    “Students,” came a voice out of
nowhere, “please lower the shield. As the representative for the president of
Golden Falls I can assure you that you are in the best hands.”
    I turned to look and found that I
could now see more clearly what was outside our shield. A very tall man stood
there. He had dark skin and black eyes that I couldn’t read. Sip sucked in her
breath. “He’s a werewolf,” she murmured.
    “Well that’s not surprising,”
said another voice, which I recognized as Faci’s. “At Golden Falls they think
they’re too good for vampires. There is no darkness there at all.”
    “There will be this semester,”
said Lisabelle, cracking her knuckles.
    Sip scowled. “I wish you wouldn’t
do that,” she muttered. Lisabelle shrugged.
    “What’s that guy’s name?” I
whispered, looking at the first Golden Falls paranormal I had seen.
    “Sectar,” said Sip. “He does
everything for the Golden Falls president, whom no one has seen in years. He
just hides away and sends directions down through Sectar.”
    “Why don’t they replace the
president if he’s too old to do his job?” I asked quietly.
    “It’s an honorary thing,” said
Sip. “He’ll be replaced once he’s dead.”
    Somehow, that didn’t make me feel
good about Golden Falls. I glanced back at Sectar, whose eyes were on me. I
felt like I was looking at a lion who had just seen his dinner. I gulped.
     
     

Chapter Ten
     
    “Lower the shield,” said Zervos
tiredly. As he looked at us and waited, I could see how his shoulders drooped
and the corners of his mouth hung slack. I had never seen him look so sad
before.
    “They’ve been arguing for at
least an hour,” said Lisabelle. “Learned some new swears.”
    “Zervos looks upset,” I said.
“Does he not like Sectar?”
    “Everyone likes Sectar,” said
Sip, staring reverently at the tall man. “He’s done so much for the
werewolves.”
    Faci was standing nearby, but
with a lot of distance between himself and the Golden Falls representative.
Faci looked miserable and his eyes were more sunken than usual, but he was
outside the barrier, on the same side as Sectar, which meant that he had also
come back and found our campsite after running from the battle.
    “What’s the matter, Faci? Your
plan for getting us killed backfire?” Lisabelle asked coldly.
    Faci glared at her. “They were
not my demons,” he said.
    “Oh, really?” said Sip, stepping
forward.
    Zervos and Sectar were watching
us with interest. The problem was, Faci didn’t look disheveled in the
slightest, while I felt like I had been run over by a truck, and my friends
looked about the same.
    “You didn’t fight with us,” Sip
accused, her lower lip trembling.
    “Where’s the demon that brought
him? I believe Faci went on ahead and left us here to die, and now we’re
supposed to just lower our shields to him? Look at Evan’s arm.” I pointed at
Evan, who was standing next to Keller with his arm in a makeshift sling.
    “Yes,” Faci glared, stepping
forward and ignoring me and addressing Sip. “You think you can make demands of
me? You ridiculous little werewolf. What are you to darkness?”
    Without warning he lunged
forward, his hand outstretched. When it made contact with the barrier he
screamed.
    As his arm came through the
barrier, our protections stripped away his jacket and shirt. All his outer
layers turned to dust, and then our shield started in on his skin.
    But he kept pushing, and before
he stepped away he had grabbed Evan. The vampire was still out of it from the
pain he was in, and he didn’t have the strength to resist as Faci yanked him
back through the barrier.
    Faci’s arm was a boiling mass of
wounds, and even from a few feet away I could smell burning flesh. He didn’t
seem to care.
    Evan, on the other