Dangerous (Element Preservers Series, Book 1) Read online

  Dangerous

  Element Preservers Series, Book 1

  By Alycia Linwood

  Copyright © 2011 Alycia Linwood

  Smashwords Edition

  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  alycialinwood.weebly.com

  2nd edition

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to my dear friend, Gray, who has been my greatest support.

  Chapter 01

  Magic has always existed in every part of our planet. It is not known when and how people came into possession of it. There are many legends and stories about it, but it's hard to tell which of them could possibly contain the truth.

  The best-known is the story of the God of Magic, who came to our planet many years ago and gave every human being control over one of the four main elements: fire, water, air or earth. The magic ability was supposed to help people and make their lives easier, or at least the God of Magic wanted it to be so.

  People were very grateful for the God’s generous gift and agreed to follow the only rule he had given them. And that was the rule that the elements shouldn’t mix. Ever.

  Ah, how I wish it had stayed like that, but no. People had to be people and ignore the rule.

  A few hundred years ago, people were still worshipping the God of Magic and they were carefully choosing the person to make a family with. But the world started to change; people discovered science and some stopped believing in the God of Magic, claiming that all the stories they were told had been invented. According to them, magic is just in our nature, part of our genetic code.

  But science wasn’t the only reason why people stopped following the rule. The difference between the rich and poor was growing, and people had trouble finding the right partner, because the social status became as important as the element when it came to choosing a person to spend the rest of your life with. The result of it was that only a few people could have gotten married, and that made the rest of the population really unhappy.

  No matter what their reasons were, people started having families with those who had different elements. But they didn’t expect there would be horrible consequences. The children whose parents had a different element inherited only one of the elements, but much weaker than the original one.

  By further mixing of already mixed elements, children who didn’t have any kind of element were born. That wasn’t exactly the worst thing in the world; the disease that was created in the process was. Apparently, some kind of genetic mistake occurred in a few cases, which made people who didn’t have any element want to have one really badly, and turned them into cold-blooded murderers.

  Those people, today known as the magic disease carriers, had the urge to kill someone with an element to come into possession of it. Of course, once they started killing and felt the joy of the element in them, they couldn’t stop. And because the element simply couldn’t stay in their system for long, they had to kill again.

  When the first cases of magic disease appeared, they caused panic all over the world. But it was nothing compared with what happened when it was discovered that the magic disease was contagious. People were so afraid of getting the disease that they decided that anyone who showed the symptoms should be killed.

  At that time, many people were killed simply because someone had accused them of having the disease. There almost wasn’t any way to prove you didn’t have the disease, except showing your magic ability, which was a problem to those with a weak or nonexistent element. Luckily, those days are behind us, and there are special laws and police today to take care of the ‘magic disease carriers’ problem.

  But 13 years ago even special police couldn’t do much to avoid a big incident when it was discovered that one of the richest and most influential families actually had the disease. Mr. Liandre, like every great businessman, managed to hide all the killings he and his wife had done during years. Maybe it would have never been discovered if he hadn’t made a mistake and killed a member of another famous family.

  Even though the special police was sent to take care of that matter, people were too outraged to let it go, and went to burn down Mr. Liandre’s house. I don’t remember much of it though, but it must have been horrible. Today no one really wants to remember or mention it, and it’s better like that.

  There are still many questions left about magic disease and scientists are trying to find the cure or simply find out more about the disease. Just a few years ago, it has been discovered that the disease could actually be transmitted only by sexual contact. It couldn’t even be transmitted by blood, which puzzled the scientists a lot. Well, I guess the magic disease simply doesn’t have any logic.

  However, my best friend Paula is determined to change things. She has always wanted to become a scientist and discover the cure for the magic disease. For that reason she decided to take Biology and Genetics at the University of Magic. Yeah, it is the same university I’m going to, just I didn’t take anything as complicated as that, so with obligatory Magic Studies, I decided to choose History and Geography.

  I’ve always loved history and tradition. Actually, my family is in 1/3 of the population that still has a pure element. I wouldn’t have gotten into the University of Magic if it wasn’t so. The university only accepts the best, and I’m proud that Paula and I are among them.

  I developed my family’s element, fire, when I was sixteen. Yeah, it was a bit later than usual, but I had never been really afraid I wouldn’t develop it. Paula got her element, air, like three years before me even though she is six months younger, but she was being nice about it and didn’t show off with it in front of me.

  Of course, we don’t really know much about using our element because that is what the university is for. I really hope to learn more than just setting something on fire. Like I have said before, I strongly believe in keeping elements pure and enjoying in them...

  “Miss Milanez?” I heard my professor’s voice and realized he must have been asking me something and I hadn’t responded. Great, always so lost in my thoughts.

  “Umm, yes?” I said. It was my first week at the university and the professor already knew my name. But that wasn’t strange since he probably knew my father or had heard of my family. My father was more than generous when it came to giving donations to the university.

  “Answer the question, Miss,” he said. Yeah, I would totally answer it if I knew what it was about. Too bad that Magic Studies consisted of the theory and practical part, and we were stuck with the theory. Would they ever let us do something with that damn magic?

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  “The question or the answer?” The professor raised his eyebrows at me expectantly and the whole class was watching me in silence. Oh, just perfect.

  “The answer,” I said. I thought it was better to say I didn’t know the answer than admit I hadn't been paying attention.

  “You don’t know what happens to a person with the magic ability when one gets the magic disease?” He glared at me
incredulously. Oh, crap. Of course I knew. Everyone knew that one.

  “Sorry, I forgot,” I lied and flashed him a smile, hoping he’d let it go.

  “Well, Miss Milanez, that can be a serious problem if you truly don’t know,” he said. Some students started giggling, and I frowned. What the hell? Why was he making such a big deal out of it? But I still couldn’t just let it go.

  “Are you implying that I’m lying?” I said.

  “Of course not,” he smiled and looked around the class for the next victim. I so hated that guy.

  “Miss Arnolds? Perhaps you could enlighten your friend?” he said, looking at Paula. I had to count to ten not to get up and walk out of the class…or set him on fire. He could have said anything else he wanted, and it wouldn’t have bothered me, but asking my best friend…no, this guy totally had something against me.

  “Someone who gets the magic disease loses the element,” Paula said. “The disease destroys it completely.”

  “Correct!” he said, giving me a meaningful look. Seriously, he was driving me crazy, and I didn’t understand what the hell the magic disease had with this class. He finally let it go, and I went back to my thoughts, even though I knew I shouldn’t.

  I wanted to think happy thoughts, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the stupid magic disease question. Well, I was glad that at least Paula had ended up looking like the smart one, because she really was a genius. I was almost sure that she would discover something important connected with the magic disease someday.

  I didn’t know was it worth researching the magic disease. Many people didn’t have an element already, but some were so scared of the disease that they decided to abandon their element. Yeah, giving up of your element was actually possible. So everyone who wanted to do it could simply avoid using the element when it first appeared and let a year pass. And just like that, the element was gone. I had no idea how people managed to do it, because the desire to use the element for the first time was really strong.

  Of course, thinking that soon there wouldn’t be anyone with the magic ability was crazy, but it still worried me sometimes.

  “Ria! Come on!” Paula’s voice brought me back to present. I realized the class was over. Wow, that was truly a relief. I was on my feet in an instant.

  “Let’s go!” I smiled at Paula, who was watching me carefully with her blue-green eyes.

  “What were you thinking about?” Paula asked as we were walking down the hall.

  “What?”

  “In the class… you seemed to be in a completely another place,” she said.

  “Oh, that,” I said. “The class was too boring, that’s all.”

  “I know! I can’t wait until we get to the practical part.” She smiled.

  “Yeah… wish we could just skip this,” I said, yawning. I could have lived without that class, really.

  We were just about to enter the lunchroom, when I saw a guy. Ok, not just a guy; a super extra hot and cute guy. He had such a gorgeous wavy brown hair, which was cut short, and I wanted really badly to run my fingers through it. His eyes seemed to be the warmest green I’d ever seen, and the green sweater he was wearing went almost perfectly with them.

  He wasn’t much taller than me, and his skin was a bit paler than mine. Oh, he was just perfect. I really wished I could just go up to him and say something, but I knew I’d be too nervous.

  Suddenly Paula caught my arm to stop me and turned in the hot guy’s direction. My heart nearly stopped.

  “Hey!” Paula smiled at the guy and I froze. No way. There was no way she could know him. But that was Paula; always charming and friendly.

  “Hey, Paula!” He smiled, showing his perfectly white teeth. I couldn’t believe it! He knew her! And he seemed genuinely happy to see her. Of course, which guy wouldn’t be? She was tall, slim, had a long curly blond hair and her eyes were a beautiful mix of blue and green. I was just an average-looking girl with my long straight dark brown hair and dark brown eyes.

  “This is my best friend, Ria,” Paula said, and the guy’s eyes turned to me. He smiled, and I felt warmth coming into my cheeks.

  “Ria, this is Michael,” she said. Michael offered me his hand and I took it, hoping that I could at least shake hands with him without fainting or doing something equally embarrassing. I had no idea why I was feeling like that.

  “Nice to meet you, Ria,” he said.

  “You too,” I managed to smile and look more or less normal, even though my heart was doing a happy dance in my chest.

  “Oh, Ria, I forgot my book! I’ll be right back,” Paula said with a smile and went down the hall. I stared after her, wondering if she had really left the book, or was it so obvious that I liked Michael. But even if it was so obvious, she still shouldn't have made such a silly excuse.

  “So, how do you like it here?” he said.

  “It’s fine, I guess,” I said. “Hard to tell after a few days. You’re not the first year, are you?”

  I was totally guessing that since I figured I would have seen him before if he was.

  “Nope, second actually.” He smiled. Now I was wondering how the hell had Paula met this guy and, more important, where had I been then?

  “Oh, good,” I said. “Did you pass all the exams for the first year? I really hope it isn’t anything hard.”

  “Yes, I did,” he said. “Passing Literature and History was easy since it was very interesting… and Magic Studies are definitely the hardest thing to pass, even though it doesn’t seem so at first.”

  Yay, History!! We had something in common. But hey, passing all the exams and studying Literature and History proved that he wasn’t just hot; he was smart too.

  “It’s the professor, isn’t it?” I said. “I bet he doesn’t let anyone pass because he’s a frustrated, old freak.”

  “The Magic Studies professor? Actually, he’s one of the best professors ever,” he said, his face serious. Oops, I'd totally screwed this up, hadn’t I?

  “Really?” I said, a little bit ashamed. “Maybe I just got a wrong first impression.”

  He laughed then, and I didn’t understand why.

  “Don’t worry, many students hate him, but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy,” he said.

  “Yeah, right,” I said. How can someone who had embarrassed me in front of everyone be a good guy? Ah, whatever, it didn’t really matter.

  “What’s your element?” he asked curiously.

  “Fire,” I said. Something changed in his eyes, but his face still stayed smiling and happy.

  “Oh, nice,” he said.

  “And yours?”

  “Water,” he said. I froze. No, it couldn’t be. I had thought he was perfect… that we could have something… but no, we weren’t meant to be… at all.

  “Oh,” I said. I couldn’t say 'nice' like he had. I just couldn’t. Paula came back right at that moment, and I was grateful.

  “What happened?” Paula eyed us carefully, all her cheerfulness gone. I looked at Michael and realized that he wasn’t smiling anymore either.

  “Nothing,” Michael and I said at the same time. I even managed a small smile.

  “Ooook.” Paula smiled again. “Let’s go to lunch!”

  The three of us were sitting at the table, eating something that I wasn't really sure was food. My pizza had some strange taste to it, but I was hungry.

  Paula was talking most of the time and Michael sometimes nodded or smiled, just like me. I'd had no idea that the revelation that Michael and I had different elements would hurt me so much, but it did. It was weird to feel like that about a total stranger.

  “…and then he asked me the same question,” Paula said, and Michael laughed. It took me a moment to realize she was talking about what had happened today in class. I couldn’t believe her!

  “Ah, so that’s why you hate him!” Michael said. “I completely understand you now.”

  “Really?” I rolled my eyes, but he looked serious. Paula just winked at me when Mic
hael wasn’t looking. She totally had some weird plan going on in her head, but I didn’t understand what it was.

  “Do you know Michael’s element is water?” I said to Paula, expecting some kind of a reaction from her, but nothing happened.

  “Yup, I do. It’s awesome, right?” she said. I was really surprised by her answer and even more curious about her plan.

  “When did you guys meet?” I said.

  “A year ago,” she said and I stared at her in surprise.

  “How?”

  “On the Internet.” She smiled. “Well, we hadn’t realized at first that I was going to go to this university too, but we figured it out like two weeks ago.”

  “Wait, you met him on the Internet?” I raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that like… dangerous?”

  “Yes, it is.” Michael laughed. “I’m a complete maniac who wants to kill you and your friend. Be afraid!”

  We all laughed. It was really hard to think of him as a maniac, especially when he was being so sweet and funny.

  Suddenly I felt like someone was watching me and I looked around. I saw some guy looking straight at me, and I shivered involuntarily. There seemed to be something so cold about him… and I realized what it was. His eyes. I had a feeling like a wolf was watching me, because his eyes were a pale blue or gray color – it was hard to tell from the distance.

  He was actually sitting on the table, dressed in dark blue jeans and a black shirt. His short messy hair was almost blacker than the shirt, and I was suddenly glad I hadn’t run into him in the dark. There were three guys around him, talking about something, but he didn’t pay any attention to them. He was staring right at me, and then he smiled.

  I gasped and looked away. Paula and Michael both looked in the direction of the guy, and Michael frowned.

  “Who is that?” I whispered to him because he obviously knew the guy.