Windburn (The Elemental Series Book 4) Read online

  Brittany Ann, beloved daughter taken too soon. 1912

  I looked around. Night darkened the sky here. A slow circle showed me we were in a human graveyard. In the distance was a church with a high steeple. Where were Cactus and Peta? “Peta?”

  “Dirt Girl, that was not a ride I want to repeat,” she said as she stumbled out from behind another tombstone. I crouched and picked her up, burying my face against her neck.

  “I killed him.” My words were a bare whisper. “I didn’t want to hurt him, Peta.”

  “I know.” She licked my cheek, and it was only then I realized I was crying. Coal was not the man I’d thought him to be, but he had been the one I’d thought I’d marry for a long time. For me to be the one to end him . . . my heart lurched and with it my stomach. Biting down on the roll of nausea, I took a step. “Cactus?”

  A groan led me around to the back of a stone winged angel. Cactus lay face down with his hand over the back of his head. “Lark. Remind me not to Travel with you anymore. I have a headache that could split stones.”

  Anger snapped through me at his callousness. How could he think only of himself when we were lucky to be alive? When we were lucky it was only Coal who’d had to give up his life? “May I remind you I could have left you there, which would mean Vetch would have killed you? I killed Coal to save us, and you’re lying there complaining you have a headache? Grow up, Cactus.”

  I spun on my heel and strode away. My emotions ran with me, and at the forefront of them, grief.

  No, I would not cry any longer for Coal. A strange twist began in my gut, like an uncoiling serpent.

  Coal didn’t deserve my tears. Not only had he tried to manipulate me during our relationship, he’d been a bastard afterward and tried to make me think I was weak. I strode through the cemetery. Peta kept up easily. “You can’t blame Cactus. He didn’t know what you had to do.”

  “Doesn’t matter. I have to find the Tracker. We need to look for something chaotic near the Tower of London.”

  Peta bobbed her head. “That would be the easiest thing to do. Though you might want to calm yourself.”

  I swallowed hard, struggling to do what she suggested.

  We’d been walking for ten minutes before Cactus caught up. “Want to tell me what the hell that was all about? I thought we couldn’t Travel with more than one person?”

  I opened my mouth but Peta spoke for me, bless her. “Coal grabbed Lark as we started to make the jump. She was forced to use Spirit on him to make him let her go and it killed him. She felt him die.”

  Cactus grabbed me and spun me around so fast I didn’t even try to stop him. He wrapped me up in his arms and held me tightly. “Mother goddess, Lark. I didn’t know. I wasn’t trying to be flip back there.”

  His apology was all I needed to let the anger go. I hung onto him. “I know. I . . . we have to go, Cactus. We are running out of time. I feel it.”

  Though I said the words to hurry him, the moment they slipped from my mouth I knew they were true. We only had so much time, a countdown of minutes and hours we couldn’t see before something terrible would happen. What and where, I had no idea, which only made the sensation of impeding doom that much worse.

  I pulled back from him and started down the street once more.

  Across from us, a building seemed to beckon and I followed my instincts. The word “Police” was etched into a plaque over the door. “Like guards, if I remember right.” I knew enough about humans and their world to get by, enough to be dangerous.

  I crossed the street and ran up the steps of the police building. As I lifted my hand to knock on the door, it was jerked open and a redheaded man stepped out. He looked to be about my age though he was a few inches shorter than me.

  “Get the fuck out of my way, woman,” he snapped as he pushed past me.

  “He’s a Tracker, grab him!” Peta yelled.

  I didn’t hesitate. I grabbed his arm and spun him to face me. His fist came up and caught me under the jaw, dropping me to my knees. I didn’t let go. “Stop, I need your help.”

  “I don’t fucking well help anyone. Piece of shit police are dumb fuckers who should just—”

  “Stop!” I held up my free hand. “Please, I’m not police.”

  “Of course you’re not, blondie.” His voice softened. “Damn, sorry about the shot to the jaw. That’s going to bruise.” He put his hands on my arms and helped me to stand, then grinned at me. “You are a tall drink of beautiful. Fuck me.”

  “No, I think not.” I brushed his hands off. “I need you to Track someone for me.”

  He grunted. “You got a picture?”

  It took me a moment to remember what a picture was. I shook my head. “No, a name.”

  His tri-colored blue eyes swirled as he grimaced. “You need Elle. She’s the only one who can Track without a picture. Me and Brin are useless as tits on a bull when it comes to that.”

  My shoulders sagged and he swatted me on the ass. “When you see her, tell her Jack says hi. And she owes me a batch of cookies.”

  With nothing more, he walked down the street.

  A thought slammed into me. “Wait, do you know where she is? Can you Track her? Please.”

  He paused and turned his head back. “What you going to give me for it?” His eyes roved my body. Cactus stepped between us.

  “She already can’t handle one redhead.”

  Jack’s lips curled up. “She was here in London, but she’s on the move. She’s headed south. That help?”

  I nodded. “I’ll take it. Thank you.”

  “Don’t fucking thank me. Getting tangled with us assholes has killed more than one dumb fuck.”

  He tugged his collar, ducked his head and strode away from us.

  Peta laughed softly. “Trackers, foul-mouthed bunch to the last drop. Come on, we need to keep looking. Even though she may be gone, we have to see if we can get a solid hit.”

  I agreed. We turned away from the direction Jack went.

  “Here, what about these?” Cactus asked. He pointed at a wall along the edge of the sidewalk plastered with signs and maps. I ran a hand over them, stopping when I saw one that spoke of the Tower of London. Yanking it off the wall, I opened it to a folding map. Cactus peered over my shoulder.

  “We aren’t far. A few streets up and then four to the west and we’ll be there.”

  I tucked the map into the back of my belt and broke into a jog. We were close enough I didn’t want to hold back. I reached for the power of the earth to propel me forward and got a distant buzz that brought me to a standstill.

  Cactus stopped beside me. “What?”

  “Try to reach the earth,” I said as I took a slow circle. Lines of power flickered up his arms, but he was no more successful than me if the widening of his eyes was any indication.

  The ground was buried under a thick coating of cement. Lips tight, I held my hand out, palm down, and called the earth upward. Such a strange thing; it was akin to calling on the bottom of the ocean from the surface of the water. I could feel the earth, but it was far away from me.

  “I can’t reach it.” Cactus shook his head and there was no small amount of fear in his eyes.

  Beside us, a car roared by, its lights blinding me before throwing me into night blindness. I covered my face with one hand. “I can, but it’s a strain. How do they live like this?”

  “They don’t know anything else, Lark. You probably thought the same thing when you were in the Pit.” Cactus took my hand and we started toward the Tower again.

  “Maybe, but the Pit at least was natural. This is anything but.”

  Peta was between us, keeping up easily. “Not true. The cement is made up of tiny particles that are of the earth, as are the buildings and even the car that went by. Humans have gotten good at manipulating the elements around them and bending them to their will.”

  We took our corner and kept moving as cars zipped past us and the fumes choked my lungs. Cactus seemed less bothered by wha
t was going on than I was. He grabbed my arm as he pointed to the skyline above the buildings that crowded around us.

  A plume of smoke swirled up, a hint of orange glow coming from underneath it. Damn, that was in the direction of the tower.

  “Move, she won’t stick around with that going on.” I was running before the words were out of my mouth. We burst around a final building and skidded to a stop.

  The tower was actually a large square with four main towers. The front two were on fire and humans poured out of the buildings. Cactus grabbed me. “This is our chance to get in and out without being noticed.”

  “Are you crazy?” I made a face at him as he tugged me along.

  “Only for you, Lark.” He smiled at me and my heart gave a traitorous thump. “Come on, I can protect you from the fire. We can grab your Tracker and be done with this.”

  I glanced at Peta. She gave me a subtle nod, which was all I needed. I raced after Cactus. We pushed our way through the growing crowd. There were men holding a long snake-like thing that shot water out of the end of it.

  “You can’t go in there!” one of the humans shouted. We ran harder, dodging their efforts at stopping us. Cactus let out a laugh, and I had to admit, his recklessness made me giddy. Like we were kids again sneaking tarts from the kitchen and running from the cook. We were through the main gates and into the courtyard before we had to stop.

  “Where now?” Cactus asked.

  Behind us, the men ran toward us. Worm shit and green sticks. “Can you slow them down, please? I need to figure this out!”

  He flicked a hand, red lines lit up his arms, and flames raced out along the ground bringing the humans to a screaming halt. They shouted at us, but we ignored them.

  Peta shifted into her snow leopard form. Her green eyes narrowed as she stared around us. “I can protect you from the heat better this way.”

  “Shouldn’t need protecting, Peta. We’re here to talk to the Tracker, not fight her.”

  She snorted. “Did you not get a fist slammed into your jaw only a few minutes ago? And that was by a mildly irritated Tracker.”

  My lips twitched. It couldn’t be all that bad. Trackers might be a bit rough around the edges, but I doubted they were going to go out of their way to cause trouble. My jaw might disagree with me on that, though.

  We wove our way through the buildings, and it didn’t take long to realize all the doors were locked. Except one.

  At the top of the northwest tower, which was only beginning to burn, a single door was open as if in invitation. No, that was being too kind; what we saw was no invitation, but an invasion.

  I ran a hand over the jagged edges of the door frame where they’d been ripped off. The metal hinges were sheared in half and the door was nowhere to be seen. Unless the tiny splinters littering the floor were what was left of it.

  I stepped inside as Peta let out a low snarl.

  “What?”

  “I smell something rather alarming. Troll shit.”

  The fetid stench curled up my nose as she spoke. As if the human sewers had spewed up after festering in heat for a year. “Mother goddess, that is horrid.” I put a hand to my nose as my eyes watered. Forcing myself to step further into the room, I dropped my hand and looked around. The room was laid out simply, a table with a few books on it, two chairs, and a window on the far side. Glass covered the window frame as if blown inward. Two strides and I stood at the window. Blood splatter covered the frame and a fingerprint on a piece of glass still left in the window drew my eye. I put my own hand up to mimic it. Several strands of long dark hair caught on the top of the window frame. “She jumped out.”

  “She would have died,” Cactus said.

  I peered out of the window to the cobblestone below. “No body.”

  “Doesn’t mean she didn’t die. Maybe the trolls got her.”

  Somehow I doubted she would be that easy to take out. Call it a hunch. “No, she made it out. Now we have to track the Tracker. Cactus, check the books for something. A clue, anything that will give us an idea of where we’re going.”

  I turned as he picked up a book by the edge, something dark brown dripping off it. His nose wrinkled up. “I found the troll shit.”

  “Disgusting creatures,” Peta said as she crept around the edge of the room, her nose twitching. “Their scent makes it hard to pick up hers, but I think I have it.”

  “So you can smell her if we get close enough?”

  “Yes.”

  A low, deep laugh turned me around, my hand instinctively going for my spear. In the doorway stood a large, orange-skinned troll. He filled the door frame, his head pushing against the top as his six-fingered hands gripped the edges. At least I knew how the door had been ripped off now. His fingers clutched what was left of the frame, making the wood creak.

  Three eyes peered at us, one from each cheek and one in the center of his head. His mouth had wide, flat teeth for crushing and his jaw looked as though it had been modeled after a boxer dog, the way the lower section shot forward. “You looking for the Tracker? Me too. Maybe we can team up.”

  He thrust his hips my way as he ran a hand over himself as if that would somehow endear him to me.

  “Yeah, I think not.” I took my spear from my side and twisted the two halves together. From Peta rolled a flash of excitement. She wanted to fight with the Troll.

  I raised an eyebrow at her and she shrugged.

  “Not my first time dealing with them. Watch him, he’s a Firestarter.”

  The Troll looked from me to Peta and back again. Of course, he couldn’t hear her.

  “Too bad. Pretty girl like you should have a real cock in her bed, not a redheaded weakling.” He grinned at Cactus, then flicked his hand that had been wrapped around his shaft at him.

  A slimy substance I didn’t want to guess at slapped Cactus in the face.

  His green eyes flashed and he let out a breath. So much for getting in and out of the tower with ease.

  CHAPTER 9

  actus pointed a single finger at the Troll and a thin bead of fire raced from him to slam into the wrinkled orange skin. The Troll, however, didn’t seem bothered by the flames. He grinned at Cactus.

  “Witch, I’m going to enjoy eating your skinny ass.”

  I grabbed Cactus and yanked him behind me. “You can’t help with him.”

  The hurt on his face should have bothered me, but all it did was irritate me. I didn’t need anyone saving me.

  My back was to the Troll and I held still, knowing he wouldn’t be able to resist. Predators always thought they were clever bastards.

  Peta watched from under the window ledge and I kept my eyes locked on her for a sign. She blinked and I spun with my spear arced outward in a sweep. The blade buried into the Troll’s side. He let out a roar and swiped at me with his oversized mitts. “Sneaky bitch!”

  Peta shot in between us and swiped at his legs, taking him out at the knees. He dropped to the floor, clutching his side. Peta danced back from him, her tail lashing.

  I yanked my blade out of his hide and held it to his neck. “Easy or hard, Troll?”

  “What are you? Humans don’t move fast like that, and you don’t smell like anything but trees and dirt.”

  I pressed the blade harder until it cut through the first layer of flesh, peeling it as though I were fileting a fish. Fire raced up his arms and he flicked them at me. I held my ground, knowing Cactus would . . . the fire slammed into me and threw me backward, all the way to the window. The glass dug into my back and hands as I scrambled to keep from falling out.

  “Cactus!”

  He stood to the side, his arms folded. “I can’t help with him.”

  Peta grabbed the Troll as he got to his feet, jerking him back to the floor. Fury like I’d never known ripped through me. “Good way to show you’re a better man than Ash, Prick.”

  I tumbled off the ledge and into the room, grabbed the table and flipped it onto its side. Cactus let out a sigh, “I’m sorr
y, I just—”

  “Now is not the time,” Peta said. The Troll lurched to his feet, bleeding but otherwise not bothered by the injuries we’d inflicted. He backed up and I shot forward. We needed to get moving, and obviously the Troll wasn’t going to have any answers.

  I drove my spear into his neck and jerked it to the left, cutting his head most of the way off. Cactus gagged, and from Peta through our bond came a definite sense of satisfaction that lasted a split second.

  The Troll was a Firestarter, which meant his death was not going to be as easy as taking his head.

  His body combusted as it fell, bright orange flames the exact shade as his skin curling up in the doorway, completely blocking it. The flames were so hot, I had to back up as they reached for the ceiling.

  Worm shit. I refused to ask Cactus for help. Which only left the window option. Peta nosed the book on the floor that had the least amount of troll shit on it. “I think this actually might help us.”

  I scooped the book up and tucked it into the back of my pants under my belt.

  “Peta, you ready?” I tapped my shoulder. She shifted and leapt into my arms. I put her onto my shoulder and went to the window.

  “I can stop the flames, Lark,” Cactus said, his voice contrite.

  “No, please don’t bother yourself. I’d rather climb than put you out again.” I kept my voice as neutral as I could make it.

  “Don’t be like that.”

  I spun and jabbed a finger into his chest. “Be like what? Expect you to be a team player? To know your strengths and mine? To think you would be there to help me when I did need your help? Pardon me for thinking you were adult enough to actually be a help and not a hindrance.”

  I turned away from him and pulled myself into the window. Anger fueled me, which made it easy to manipulate the stone the tower was built of—at least that was what I was banking on. I knocked the last of the glass out of the window and then eased out so I hung by my hands.

  I placed one hand on the stone wall a foot down from the window ledge. The rock eased around my fingers like soft clay before firming up.