FIRE: The Elementals Book One

Chapter 3

3

Boston was hot and sticky.

Too sticky, Diana thought. She loved hot weather but hated the humidity. It felt as if she was swimming through the crowded Boston Gardens.

Am I near that Cheers bar? A drink would have been welcome.

Well, maybe next time. On impulse, she stopped for a piece of fried dough. She gobbled it down and ordered a second without a shred of remorse. Maintaining her firepower at optimum levels required consuming high quantities of calories. And she was going to need it tonight. In fact, she was going to have to add a few bread bowls of clam chowder at Faneuil Hall in the name of preparedness.

A couple of hours later, Diana was loitering in Louisburg Square’s fenced-in park. She had spent the afternoon trying to track down Brenda, Katie’s mom. But there had been no trace of her, and Diana wasn’t willing to drop her current lead to hunt her down. Especially if Katie wasn’t with her.

From her vantage point in the park, Diana could see the coven’s townhouse. Most of the family homes in this area had been converted to apartments and condos, but the huge house was inhabited solely by the coven. Members often chose to take lodgings outside of the coven house, but many still chose to live inside with their brothers and sisters.

She would never understand why vampires and Weres chose to live piled on top of each other like that. Didn’t they find themselves as insufferable as she did?

Apparently not, since they all vied to stay close to one another.

Even young vampires were irritating as s**t. They made the mistake of believing their own hype, always dressing lavishly, throwing endless parties and employing humans to serve them in daylight. And the human servants delighted in their domestic drudgery! Though most of them did it for the status, a few really believed they would be made vampires if they succeeded in pleasing their masters.

On rare occasions, a human with some sensitivity to magic was turned, but it didn’t happen often enough to justify the years of servitude.

It was enough of a challenge to turn a human from one of the vampire lineages. It took an amazingly skilled practitioner to wrap magic around a normal person and mold them into their own image. Of course, vampires didn’t see it that way. To them, turning a human was a mystical act of creation unique to their kind. They couldn’t see the parallels to the other groups of Supernaturals because it contradicted their mythos. And to vamps that was all that really mattered.

Vampires could breed a potential vampire the normal way, but only in the days before they turned. While still mostly human, a member of a vampiric line could mate to produce children. But they didn’t do so as frequently as Weres and humans. And not all of their children were capable of being turned, a detail she was grateful for. More vampires meant more headaches for her.

Diana sighed and headed out of the square. Later that night would be a more appropriate time to visit the coven house. She needed to question its members about Katie’s disappearance, and it would be better to do it before they dispersed to the city’s Underlife, the network of shops and nightclubs that passed for civilization to Supernaturals.

She was almost out of the square when a prickling awareness at the back of her neck made her pause. Diana was being watched, and not by some stray human.

Despite the fact vampires didn’t come out in daylight, she pulled her hood up and moved back to casually walk around the square. There was no one in sight that could have gotten her spidey senses tingling like that. And given the bright sunlight, it couldn’t be a vampire.

Unless…

Most vampires conveniently burst into flames when they stepped into sunlight. To avoid smoldering, they kept to the night hours. Staying in the shadows wasn’t enough since they were blinded by natural light, even reflected sunlight. It took a rare and unusually confident vampire to see past their kind’s myths and long history to manipulate the magic around them enough to allow exposure to the sun. That didn’t stop the vast majority of them from seeking out meaningless ritual after ritual that promised to turn them into Daywalkers.

Daywalkers were scarcer than Elementals, with a total of six confirmed in all of history. The last had been beheaded by an Elemental five centuries ago. So it wasn’t likely there was one in this coven.

She was probably just too keyed up over Katie’s disappearance and had imagined the sensation of being watched. Turning around, Diana shrugged off her suspicions and headed back to the waterfront.

Across the square, Alec released a shaky breath. He’d flattened himself against a far side of a brown truck. It was big and square, but still he felt exposed.

Damn, he thought, looking up to see the surprised and confused expression on the UPS driver’s face. He slowly raised his head over the hood of the truck, but she was gone. Whoever she was. Whatever she was.

Smiling to the driver as if nothing strange had happened, Alec took out his phone for the special map application he’d had made to track the coven’s servants. Noting a clear path through the front door, he slipped inside undetected.

Knowing where the servants were at all times helped. With vampiric speed, he moved upstairs and into his old room. He hadn’t been back to Boston in years, but this room looked the same. Despite the fact he kept separate quarters near the waterfront, his mother insisted on keeping it exactly as it was. Except for the embroidered pillows he knocked off the bed when he sat down. Those seemed to have multiplied in his absence.

He’d never liked this room, with its blood red walls and black velvet accents. It looked like a damn bordello. But that didn’t matter. He wouldn’t be here much longer—not unless he found a lead in the disappearance of Pedro’s son. He’d hit a dead end in his investigation, and he would have to move on soon, despite his concern for the boy.

Alec had been buried knee-deep in dusty books in a back room of an Oxford library when his informant in Boston had gotten in touch. The son of a long time retainer had disappeared under suspicious circumstances a little over a week ago.

Pedro had served the family faithfully for many years, but the coven heads, his parents Alden and Elva, had done nothing to find out what happened. He’d come home to investigate as soon as he could. But he hadn’t found out anything—no trace of the boy or the people who had taken him. It didn’t look like an inside job.

Small blessings. If he had found evidence that someone in his house was involved, it would have been a huge mess. But finding nothing also meant that he’d been unable to help. And now it looked as if there was nothing more he could do, not personally at least. If one of the other Supernatural groups were responsible, it would be up to them to investigate and met out punishment. The covenants were very clear when it came to dealing with the Otherkind—Supernaturals not of your own race. And it was always possible that the taking of Pedro’s son, Elias, was the act of a human predator.

If he didn’t find anything in another few days, he would have his investigators keep looking after he left, for Pedro’s sake.

Alden and Elva wouldn’t be pleased if he left so soon, but Alec didn’t like staying in one place too long. He chose to keep moving every few years, circumnavigating the globe on his various academic quests.

My long vaunted search for answers. The meaning of life, he mocked himself.

Of course, he hadn’t called it that in the beginning. One search into the ancient world had led to another and so on. His plan had been to unlock the secrets of the ancients. The irony was that he’d been wildly successful..

If the secret of his discovery ever got out, it could shake the foundations of their society. The ability to walk in daylight was the vampire’s holy grail. But his only major discovery hadn’t given him the answers he’d sought.

Why did vampires exist? Had God the Father really turned their back on them? Or was it the Mother? Had they angered her? Was that why they were condemned to live in the dark? And why couldn’t they convert any human they chose? That and other questions had plagued him for as long as he could remember.

All he’d found was more of the circuitous and empty gibberish that was ancient vampire lore.

Well, maybe his life was not supposed to have a deeper meaning. His studies kept him busy. He also had his duty, even if his own parents shirked theirs.

And with that thought, the near constant weight in his chest settled more firmly. He had visited Pedro earlier that day. The little Hispanic man was in terrible shape.

Alec had to look into the local Otherkind before he left. He usually got on well with members of the other Supernatural races, but in this case he didn’t see an easy path ahead. His mind circled back to the girl in the square. He hadn’t seen much, only a flash of white skin and dark red hair.

She’s not a shifter and definitely not a Daywalker.

Once he’d finally been able to walk in daylight, he had wondered if another Daywalker might come out of the woodwork to approach him. But that hadn’t happened.

Maybe the girl was a witch or a shamaness. His kind paid a lot of money to those tricky beings when they needed spells worked. But there hadn’t been that specific vibration he always felt in the presence of one of their kind. All he had felt was a split second impression of immense power, and then a void as it was quickly masked. He debated telling Alden and Elva about it.

I was probably imagining the whole thing. Or it could have been a practitioner on vacation. A tourist even.

No, there was no need to panic everyone needlessly. Not that they would have the good sense to be scared if he sounded the alarm. The elders were in complete self-assurance on the superiority of their kind. But Alec had seen a lot in his travels, enough to wear away the unshakable certainty in vampire infallibility.

A noise behind him alerted him to another presence.

“Hello, Vincent,” he said without turning around.

“What I wouldn’t give to know how you do that,” a droll, cultured voice returned.

Alec turned to see Vincent in the doorway. The other vampire was impeccably dressed in a black suit and a gold embroidered vest with a red silk shirt underneath. Not that Alec was a slouch in the wardrobe department. A good, if dramatic, sense of fashion was innate to most vampires he’d met.

Vincent was probably there to gloat. He had been rising earlier in the past few years, earlier than the hour Alec currently pretended to wake—a detail he was quite smug about.

“I didn’t realize I had risen so late,” he lied.

“Not so late,” Vincent said, sounding pleased with himself. “But of course you’re not used to the hours we keep here anymore.” He paused. “I thought you’d like to know some fresh O positive was just delivered, since you didn’t approve our current lineup of donors.”

Alec nodded. “Thank you.”

Blood was truly the only essential when it came to sustenance, but few of his kind admitted that they needed it sparingly, at most every few days for those but the youngest of their kind. Instead, most had blood every day, provided by their human servants or acquired by the local blood bank with a few healthy bribes. Daily intake was more for ritual and pleasure than survival. Killing the host was considered bad form, especially since almost all vampires could ‘call’ blood—control the flow of blood in themselves and their donor to ensure that they only took what was needed.

Alec made it a point to only consume what blood he truly needed, but it wasn’t a popular position among his kind.

“What are you up to tonight?” Vincent asked, eager to report the answers to the elders should they ask.

“I might check out one of the clubs. What’s hot right now?” Alec asked, deciding to take advantage of the other vampire’s presence in his room, away from the many ears of the coven.

“Hmm. Taking an interest in the Underlife?” Vincent sounded intrigued.

His interest was probably justified, Alec reflected. When he lived here last, he wouldn’t set foot in any of the supernatural nightspots for love or money.

“Why not? Things are a little dead after all that travel,” he said as he got up and pretended to rethink his choice of tie.

Taking off the blue silk neckcloth that he’d put on that morning, he set it aside in favor of wearing an open collar.

“Well, right now, w***e is the place to be seen,” Vincent said as he took a look around the room without appearing to do so.

“You’re kidding right?” Alec’s insides curdled a bit. “Did my parents have anything to do with that name?”

“No, it’s owned by some practitioners. But the coven house has its own VIP section and private room for meetings. The usual setup. Your parents aren’t into the club scene right now. More into exclusive soirées. Like tonight’s.” Vincent paused. “Your parents won’t be pleased if you skip another one.”

“I only got back last week and haven’t been in the mood. But I’ll be sure to drop by tonight before I go out,” Alec said.

He’d avoided all of the parties his parents had thrown since his return, but after seeing Pedro it might be a good idea to play nice. The locals mixed with the Otherkind far more frequently than they would have you believe, and he might learn something useful.

Which means socializing, he thought with a shudder.

“Excellent! I’ll tell your mother. She’ll be so pleased,” Vincent exclaimed with a huge smile.

He was practically out the door when Alec stopped him.

“Make sure she knows I’m only making an appearance. I don’t want her turning this into a welcome home celebration.”

He really didn’t want to be the focus tonight. Or any other night.

“I’ll be sure she knows your feelings on the subject. I should go help with the preparations. I have a few of my own invitations to extend. Ta-ta for now.” Vincent whirled away with a flourish.

It’s almost as if he’s always wearing a cape, Alec marveled as the other man left.

Alec did not flounce or whirl, nor did he sweep out of rooms like he was in a ball gown. He wouldn’t have known how even if he wanted to. But he still wondered how Vincent and all of his parent’s other favorites always managed to pull it off.