Air: The Elementals Book Two

Chapter 1

1

The heavy bass of the music vibrated through Connell’s body as he made his way through the shifting crowd. Instinct told him his prey was here, though he hadn’t laid eyes on her yet.

He’d wasted the better part of a month hunting her in the expected places—the Underlife clubs of the U.S. and Europe. But there had been no sign there. He would have known if she’d been in disguise, something she was fond of doing when she moved among the Supernaturals.

He’d done his homework when it came to the Air Elemental. Know thy enemy had been an internal mantra since this whole mess had started.

The crowd shifted and swayed in time to the music in the dark club. He was pretty surprised that she chose to spend time in places like this, among so many humans. The rich and spoiled elite of the human world were here to drink, dance, and do drugs before indulging in whatever s****l thrills their kind could afford. In his experience, those weren’t much.

He dismissed a beautiful girl who sidled up to him invitingly with a dark glance. She took one look at his forbidding features, the cold set of his lips and eyes, and wisely retreated.

His enhanced hearing and sense of smell, still blessedly intact, were threatening to shut down against the onslaught of music combined with the scent of so many sweaty people. Under normal circumstances, he would have avoided this place like the plague, but where his quarry went, he followed.

He threaded through the dancers on instinct, letting his senses guide him to the girl who had almost destroyed him.

A tingling at the base of his spine guided him to the left of the bar. From there, he could get a clear view of the balcony that ran along three sides of the room. His skittering senses told him she was there. He didn’t know what she looked like, only that she appeared quite young. But that was the case for all of her kind. They took up the Mother’s mantle while in their teens or twenties, and then they stopped aging.

He dismissed one woman after another until his eyes locked onto a figure moving high above. A thrill of recognition coursed through him, as well as surprise.

She’s tiny, he thought, taken aback.

He’d been expecting someone more physically imposing. But the Asian girl dancing in the corner of the catwalk was petite, barely five feet tall. And she was completely unaware of his intense scrutiny.

Grateful she couldn’t sense the danger she was in, he leaned against the wall, intent on his prey. The Elemental was wearing dark pants and a red corset tank with a black design on it.

He watched her, transfixed, aware with some disgust that he was getting hard. His hatred was still a fire in his blood, but some of that warmth was swiftly being channeled in another direction. It made him angry, mostly with himself, but his enemy wasn’t what he’d expected.

Shifting uncomfortably, he continued to stare, hyperaware there was something wrong with him.

The problem was the way she moved. He’d never seen anything quite like it. She’d completely given herself over to the music, her fluid, rhythmic movements abandoned and free. She moved like the element she was supposed to embody—like wind whipping over a field of wheat.

He hadn’t realized she would be so…sensual. She was keeping perfect time with the primal beat of the music. For a second, he forgot himself and pictured taking a fistful of her sleek, black hair, using it to force her mouth toward him.

For f**k’s sake. He couldn’t even see her features clearly, and he was struggling for control.

He recovered more slowly than he liked, but he was able to push the erotic image away. He had a plan and couldn’t afford to be distracted by inconvenient l**t. The creature might be graceful, but she was also dangerous and possibly corrupt.

The music changed, pausing between tracks. The momentary reprieve made him aware of how long he’d been staring at the sprite. By rights, he should be trying to rip out her throat. Reminding himself of his mission, he started up the stairs to the balcony with large, purposeful strides, his tunnel vision trained on his target. He skirted the shifting dancers, pushing them carefully out of his way as he went.

His control was straining, the instincts of the wolf still alive inside him, but he didn’t want to alert his prey to the danger. Not until it was too late for her to escape. And now that he’d finally found her, there was no way she could get away from him. Not again.

The crowd was thinner on the balcony, but there were still enough people to block his view of the Elemental as he prowled closer. He wanted to push them away and leap on the girl. Tamping down his impatience, he forced himself to move with normal human speed. In a few moments, he would have her.

He spared a second’s thought for how he would get her out of there, but he dismissed it just as quickly. His black-ops training had already helped him spot three viable exits where he could carry an unconscious woman out without too many prying eyes. It would be a simple matter to convince anyone who tried to stop him that his woman had simply had too much to drink. The fact that he was six-foot-five and built like a brick wall would be enough to discourage anyone who thought to argue with him.

With another step, he reached the darkened corner where the sprite was dancing. A light breeze ruffled his hair. The platform was empty. He swore viciously, spinning around. He couldn’t see her anymore. With a growl of frustration, he looked up and realized there were skylights on the distant ceiling. And one was open.

Logan let the weird sense of being watched fade away as she took to the air. Of course someone had been watching her. The club had been full, and people were always checking each other out.

It had felt a little different tonight, though. For a split second, she felt hunted, which was ridiculous. No one hunted an Elemental unless they had a death wish. She’d scanned for threats but found none. Shaking off her uncertainty, Logan paused to savor the night air.

She was high above the ground, her physical form gone. Logan enjoyed the sense of weightlessness that came with drifting high above the earth. Not all her predecessors had enjoyed this the way she did. A few had disliked the sensation of being formless so much that they chose not to travel in the winds unless they had to. But she had loved it from day one. It was one of the reasons she’d been able to take to the air almost as soon as she’d inherited her power.

Unlike Diana and Gia, Logan hadn’t had Elemental abilities from birth. Her gifts had been run of the mill…for her family. Then she had been given dominion over Air at seventeen—old enough to have accepted the fact she was not going to be an Elemental like her great-grandmother and other distant ancestors.

The Mother had turned to her after all, and everything had changed.

Her life had altered dramatically over the past few years. Logan no longer sat and read about the great deeds of Elementals. Now she was living the life she had always dreamed of. She worked and played hard, trying to make the most of each new experience. She had to. At any moment, the Mother might change Her mind and choose someone else.

Gia assured her it wasn’t likely, but Logan still felt like she was on probation. After all, it had only been a little over a year since she was allowed to work solo. She was devoted to her job. She’d taken a break for a few hours to decompress, and she was good now.

It was time to get back to work.