Restless (Element Preservers, #4) (2 page)

Adrian pulled his phone out of the pocket of his dark blue jeans and glanced at it. "You're going to be late for work."

"No, it's... " I grabbed my phone and checked the time. "Three already. Fuck!" I kicked off my shoes and ran for the closet. While I could wear whatever the hell I wanted at the university, I needed a special attire for my job. I wasn't particularly happy with the plain black skirt and the black suit jacket, but I did wear a red pin in the shape of a rose to kill all that blackness.

"See you later." Adrian headed for the door, the corners of his lips quirking up.

"Where are you going?" I knew he didn't have any more classes, so I was curious what he was going to do. It was a shame he couldn't come with me.

"Out."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, but where? I'm not entirely sure the government didn't send an assassin after you."

Adrian closed the door behind him before I could hear his reply. Oh great. I stuffed the things I needed into my black leather bag and went to change.

Chapter 02

"Great! You're here." My secretary, Katherine, ran toward me as soon as she saw me enter the building, a big notepad in her hand. "Paula arrived a couple of minutes ago. She is waiting for you in the office."

"Ok, thanks." It had taken me days to convince Katherine to call everyone by their first name, but I was glad she no longer spoke to me like I was older than her. "Anything else?"

"Yes, the president of the Elemental International wants to speak with you. He's coming from London next week and he'd like to meet with you." Katherine tucked a strand of her dark red hair behind her ear.

"Ok, fit him in the schedule." I had no clue who the president of the Elemental International was, but I could at least talk to him and see what he wanted.

"I'll do that and let him know." She grinned.

"Thanks." With a smile, I went down the hall to my office. Paula was seated in one of the leather chairs, her curly blond hair cascading around her shoulders. She lifted her blue-green eyes toward me and her lips spread into a smile.

"You're late," she said, barely containing herself from laughing out loud. "Miss Milanez, that is not acceptable."

"The president can do whatever she wants, even be late." I took a seat in my chair and dropped my heavy bag to the ground. "Since you're here and not in the lab I assume you came to tell me something important." Even though Paula and I could talk at the university, we couldn't talk about the disease or anything like that because the walls had way too many ears there.

"Yeah. Do you remember when I came up with the idea of element donors?" She leaned forward.

"Of course I do. Did someone actually sign up?" I still received threatening letters from various religious groups who strongly opposed the idea of giving away an element just before death, but not everyone believed in God of Magic or that we became part of the planet according to our element after we died.

"Yeah. More than we thought, actually." She looked pleased. "But that's not what I came to tell you. I came to tell you that we might have an element for you."

"What?" My jaw must have dropped all the way to the floor.

"There's a man who has only two or so months to live and his element is earth. You need that element to complete all four elements." The smile faded from her face and she swallowed, no doubt bothered by the fact that a man was dying and there was nothing anyone could do for him.

"Is that a good idea? For me to take his element?" The whole concept scared me a little. Maybe four elements were enough for my brother, but what if they wouldn't be enough for me? I wasn't unstable only because I had three elements, but also because Adrian had helped me too many times to get back in control, which had weakened me.

"Ria, another element could end all of your problems, especially if you take earth. I'm not even sure you can take any other element. But if everything happens according to our plans, you could control yourself and you could touch Adrian. No one would ever find out you have the disease." She toyed with the silver ring on her right hand, which made me frown.

"I sense there's a catch." Being in perfect control sounded like a dream come true, but I didn't believe it was that simple to achieve it.

"Yes, there is." She sighed, lowering her eyes. "You're not the only one who needs this particular element."

"So there's another carrier who needs the element." I should have known there would be more carriers who weren't in perfect control of themselves and who already had other elements.

"Yeah, her name is April." Paula met my eyes, pressing her lips together. "But you are the priority because you're the president. We need to do something before you're exposed. If you are in control, there's no way for someone to prove you have the disease."

"What about the others? Did someone already get someone's element?"

"Yeah, one guy got a water element. Everything worked out perfectly." Paula scratched her chin. "We had security, but he didn't try to attack the donor. He simply held his hand until it was over."

I'd had enough experience with taking elements from someone else, but it had always been accidental. "How do you make sure you aren't helping murderers? I mean, I know carriers can't be blamed for not being able to control themselves, but what about those who consciously decided to kill people to calm their hunger for an element?"

"We try to check everyone's background and we observe their psychological state. Most of the carriers we approved for receiving the donation are those who were forced to take elements in the labs. Before the scientists figured out they could keep elements, the carriers escaped. Of course, the carriers themselves believed they would lose the elements after some time, so they planned their escape as soon as possible. Some carriers got their elements by pure accident."

"Like I did." I still wasn't entirely sure I hadn't ended someone's life, but I preferred to believe those people had died from their wounds. "So how did April get her two elements?"

"April was born with a water element. She got fire and air when a serial killer started randomly shooting people. She managed to survive because she hid under the bodies, but the elements of the people seeped into her."

"So how is she?" I couldn't imagine how difficult it had to be to get adjusted not to one new element, but two at the same time.

"We keep her isolated from people with elements."

"She can't control herself at all and I'm the one who's the priority for the element?" My control may not be the best and Lily suspected it would only get worse, but I could still be around people with elements for a long time.

"As I said, you're the president. If we lose you, our whole plan will crumble."

"Yeah, because I'm so damn important that without me there wouldn't be carriers to start an uprising or infiltrate the government," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

Paula shot me an annoyed glare. "Carriers could definitely start an uprising, but that could end up in a slaughter and even more intolerance. That's what your brother wants. Infiltrating the government would take months or years, and who knows what would happen if people discovered that the president of the Element Preservers is a carrier."

"Maybe someone else decides to donate their earth element too."

"I pray for it every day." A smile returned to Paula's lips, but her eyes remained wary.

"Do you have the results of the survey?" A couple of weeks ago Lily had decided to conduct a survey among young people to see what they thought about elements and the disease.

"Yeah," Paula drawled. "They're not really encouraging. More than 75 percent responded that they didn't care about their element and that there was nothing interesting to learn about it."

"Fuck." So far the only people who desperately wanted to choose their child's element were the rich who still thought having a pure element gave them prestige. And that was the problem since only pure elements could be collected and converted into energy or potable water. "We need to make elements popular again, but I'm not sure how."

"Yeah, what we study at the university is nowhere near interesting, so even if you change the education system and we start teaching kids about elements in high school, we still won't give them a reason good enough to push them to use elements." Paula's phone rang from her purse, and she quickly silenced it. "There's something I need to do."

"Alright." I got up at the same time as she did. "I'll think about something, and you do whatever you have to."

"If someone had told me we'd be so busy, I wouldn't have believed him. Even
I
almost wish I had never gone back to the university." Paula sighed, stuffing the phone into her light blue purse.

"Well, you're not bound by a set of rules to stay at the uni." I smiled. "You can always leave."

Amusement flickered in her blue-green eyes and she shook her head. "I know, but what if we find a cure for the disease and convince people to plan their kids' elements? I wouldn't have a job, I wouldn't get money from the organizations that help us and I'd have no degree. How would I ever find a job?"

"You're right." I didn't really think that far in the future. Surely finding a cure wasn't that easy. Hell, I couldn't even be sure I'd live long enough to finish university. But I could understand why Paula would want a degree.

"Ok, I have to run. See you at uni." She waved at me and hurried through the door, which slammed closed behind her. I sat back in my chair, completely at peace without any elements around. Now I only had to come up with something to convince everyone that they needed pure elements.

Chapter 03

"A competition? Really?" Paula's eyebrows shot upward when I told her my craziest idea. Maybe we couldn't talk about the secret stuff, but we could certainly discuss my plan to get young people to take an interest in elements. Even the government would approve of that.

"Yeah, we could have games in which people would use their elements. If celebrities and the media help us, we can have a popular talent show or something." Since Paula and I were sitting in the university's cafeteria, the ears of people closest to us seemed to pop up at my words. Maybe the government had sent students to spy on me. I wouldn't be surprised.

Paula choked on her soda and coughed. "A talent show?"

"Can you sound any more incredulous?" I pouted. "It took me ages to come up with the idea! At least you could appreciate that."

"Sorry, but I always thought those types of shows were pointless and stupid. Some even used and abused people for the audience's entertainment," she said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, ok, so what? The media is evil and blah, blah, but this time we could use it to our advantage." A fire element a couple of tables from us intensified, and I unintentionally looked in its direction. A dark-haired guy was weaving through the tables, his hands hidden in the pockets of his black jacket, his dark eyes meeting mine. I fought the urge to get up and run. What if he had a gun or a knife in that pocket? Surely an assassin wouldn't come to kill me in the middle of the university... Unless he was one of those brainwashed, suicidal guys.

Paula frowned at me and followed my gaze. I quickly glanced at the far corner of the room on my left and saw Adrian watching me, his shoulders tense. It was comforting to know I wasn't the only one who was being paranoid, but my fear spiked as the guy came closer and closer. What if my brother had sent him? Oliver had been unusually quiet lately. What if this was his plan?

"Hi," the guy said, stopping right in front of me. My eyes widened when he took his empty hands out of his pockets. Ok, false alarm.

"Hi." I licked my dry lips, knowing full well that my smile looked forced.

"I've seen you in class and I just had to come to meet you. My name is Ethan." He offered his hand to me, and I shook it. His grip was strong and steady, even though his element flickered with more force than usual.

"I'm Ria," I said, even though I was sure he knew exactly who I was. "This is my friend, Paula."

Ethan nodded at Paula and she gave him a wide grin.

"I was wondering if you'd like to go for a coffee sometime," he said, turning his attention back to me. I gaped at him. I'd thought he was coming to kill me, not coming to ask me on a date. Actually, I'd rather he tried to kill me.

"I..." I was speechless. Since Michael didn't want to have anything to do with me, the press had concluded I was single again. Adrian's and mine relationship had to remain a secret, so I couldn't exactly pretend I already had a boyfriend.

"I understand if you are busy. It's very admirable you can juggle both university and such an important position." Ethan leaned forward, now fully in control of his element. "I'd love to take your mind off your responsibilities for a while."

Adrian chose that very moment to walk by and bumped his shoulder into Ethan's. I hadn't even noticed Adrian had gotten up from his seat. The smile faded from Ethan's face, but he didn't react in any other way.

"She'd love to come with you," Paula chimed in. "She's just trying to find a hole in her schedule to fit you in."