Elemental Shining (Paranormal Public Series) Read Free Page B

sandpaper on fire.
    Now Lisabelle/The President drew a knife out of her belt and spun it idly in her hands as she talked. It was a beautiful knife, all engraved silver and heated metal. Fear gripped me more tightly. Lisabelle was armed.
    “And yet it was so easy to get her out here, away from any help.” Her voice was smooth, almost melodic.
    “She has help,” said Cale defiantly. “She came with us.”
    “Oh, shut up,” said Lisabelle, and in one swift motion she stepped forward, pulled her fist back, and launched it into Cale’s face.
    Cale didn’t move. He probably didn’t believe Lisabelle would really hit him. But Lisabelle’s balled hand impacted with a sickening crunch, and Cale staggered, crying out in pain as his nose spewed blood everywhere, like the liquid in a soda bottle that had been shaken and then released.
    “Are you insane?” I yelled, darting forward. I was forced to stop when my neck came skin-to-metal in contact with the knife Lisabelle was holding. I halted, motionless. If I so much as swallowed, she could easily cut my throat. I hadn’t even seen her move. She was faster as a demon.
    I stared up into her eyes, trying to buy time to gather my wits. What to do? The cold feeling that I had tried to ignore earlier had started to spread over me as I stared at my former friend’s eyes, an unspeakable sadness overtaking my heart.
    All the good times we had had, the times in Airlee, the times in the dining hall, flashed in my mind’s eye. Lisabelle had been there through thick and especially through thin. She had put herself, her body, between me and harm countless times in just a year. She had done it for someone she didn’t know well in the beginning. Despite having her own problems, she had stood by me. But now, in a matter of seconds, our relationship and our world had come crashing down around us. For all I knew she was dead inside. Physically she was there, but her mind—her heart—were not. Unable to accept defeat, I pleaded.
    “Lisabelle, can you hear me? If you can hear me please stop this. The President has taken control of you, but you’re still in there somewhere. I know you are.” Feeling desperation claw at my chest I went on. “It’s me, Charlotte. I just want you back. You have to fight. Please fight,” I begged.
    I couldn’t remember just then what my professors had taught us about demon possession. I hadn’t thought it was possible, but obviously it was, either that or the worst had happened and Lisabelle was dead. But I refused to believe that, I just couldn’t. No, no, no. Lisabelle would never have let the President take her like that: the darkness mage would never go quietly. She would hate being used as a pawn in the President’s game to eliminate the elementals, and she would fight like mad to prevent it.
    Lisabelle’s mouth curled up in a sneer, her pale skin stretching over her bones. “Well, isn’t that funny? Here you are, almost cheating on your boyfriend with that pixie scum and begging me for another chance. Have you gone mad?”
    I glared up at Lisabelle. It wasn’t as hard as I would have expected it to be be. I wasn’t glaring at my best friend, I was glaring at an enemy.
    “You think you’re so clever, but you’ve accomplished nothing,” I told her. “You can’t win here. We are too well protected.”
    “I have a knife to your throat,” said Lisabelle dryly. “And it wasn’t hard. I win some, you lose some.”
    Before I could do anything else, like stop him, Cale lunged and my whole world came to a standstill. In slow motion I watched his body move forward as he crashed into Lisabelle, knocking her arm, the one holding the blade, away from my body. I saw Lough start forward, intent on stopping the attack, but Dirr was too quick for him. Before he could perform whatever dream he was preparing, Dirr had thrown herself between him and me, and his spell hit her instead. With a desperate wail she sank to the ground, her whole body a study