Inferno : Elements Series Book One

Derek

It’s been six awful days since I’ve seen Gwen. We’ve been searching high and low for her. We searched every nook and cranny to see where she may have concealed herself, but with absolutely no luck. I should have known that she would show up when she felt like it. Now she’s here. She knocked on the door like it was nobody’s business and beat us all at our own game. I’m resisting the urge to say ‘I told you so!’ to Hank and Jasper. Gwen is curled up on the other side of the room, waiting quietly for our next suspect to walk through the door. I’d like to talk to her but I really don’t think she’d want to talk to me, especially not in a room with three other people to analyse her words. The silence is finally broken by a soft knock at the door. Hank answers it and ushers in a woman who looks to be in her early 30s, but I know she’s over 200 years old. She’s a healer named Elizabeth.

“So what’s this about, Hank?” she asks as she sits down. I honestly try to concentrate on her aura, trying to match it to the one from Gwen’s house, but something catches my eye. The gemstones that make up the Earth section of Gwen’s marks are softly glowing and her bright green irises are iridescent. She remains like this for about twenty seconds and then she looks at me and, almost imperceptibly, motions to Elizabeth and shakes her head. Hank sees too and cuts his conversation with Alison short, recovering quickly enough to disguise this conversation as a general check-in. Alison leaves thinking that Hank just wanted to see how she was fitting in here since her transfer from her previous refuge two months ago.

“What was that about?” asks Jasper, looking at Hank with an expression of utter confusion plastered across his face.

“It wasn’t her,” says Hank.

“And how do you know that? You barely spoke to her!”

“I didn’t know that, Gwen did. Didn’t you Gwen?” he replies, turning his attention to Gwen.

“How?” demands Jasper.

Gwen looks uncomfortable but, nonetheless, she straightens her shoulders and sounds confident in her response.

“I did exactly what Derek asked me to do. I got inside her head. She might be the most innocent person I’ve ever met,” she says.

“She was only in here for a few minutes, how can you be sure?” asks Jillian. Not unkindly, just curious and maybe a little jealous.

“She only needed about twenty seconds,” I say on Gwen’s behalf. “I watched her do it. Her eyes and arms lit up and then a few seconds later she shook her head to tell me that Alison was innocent.”

For a moment I think that Jasper is going to protest, say something cruel and inflammatory just to ruffle Gwen’s feathers, but he doesn’t. Instead he turns back to Hank.

“If we are going to be able to move this quickly then we should move up our schedule. Allow ten minutes for interviews and maybe twenty minutes between. We can nearly triple our speed.”

“Agreed,” says Hank and then he stutters a little as he remembers Gwen. “I-If that’s okay with Gwen, of course.”

“It’s fine by me but you’ll need to send out those messages today if you want tomorrow’s appointments to know about the time changes.”

Hank nods and pulls the list for tomorrow’s interviews toward him.

“Jillian, if it’s alright, would you be able to send out new notes to everyone? Make sure you fill available time slots with any of the next day’s lists,” he says, handing the lists to Jill when she gets to the table. “Oh, maybe try and send new times to the people remaining on today’s list too. Let’s try getting as many people crossed off that list as quickly as we can.”

“I’m on it,” says Jill and off she goes. She’s out the door and we only have ten minutes left before our next guest arrives. I’m in desperate need of coffee.

“I’m going to get some coffee, you guys want anything?” I ask, moving to the door. I feel like Gwen will talk to Hank if I leave the two of them alone long enough…also I really do need that coffee.

“Cappuccino for me,” says Hank.

“Long black, please,” says Jasper.

“Are you feeling a mocha frappe or a decaf caramel latte today Gwen?”

I’ve only ever known Gwen to order those two things whenever we go to get coffee and I’m rewarded with a small smile as I remember her order. She’s not really a coffee drinker. Only those two things, otherwise she just has tea or water.

“The latte, please,” she says and I smile back at her.

Phew…I thought she was going to refuse and be all suspicious. This might be the start of her trusting us again. It seems small, accepting coffee from someone, but from Gwen it’s actually pretty big.

“You got it,” I reply, trying to act casual as I head out into the corridor and make the short trip the coffee vendor in the cafeteria.

“The usual?” the woman behind the counter asks the minute she sees me. Her name is Maria and she’s been handling all of our coffee orders since we started these damned interrogations. We come here at least four times a day at the moment and Maria has been an absolute saint.

“Nope, small changes for this one. I’ll take the usual two caps and long black but I’ll also have a decaf caramel latte.”

“Are you trying to trick me?”

“Someone has to keep you on your toes,” I reply.

“They’ll be ready in a minute,” she laughs and I move off to the side to wait. I’m less than fifteen seconds into my peaceful wait time when I hear my name being called. Not by the barista who is currently holding her hand over cups of water and using magic to boil it, but by Anya and Oliver who are running up to me with plates of food. They must have been having lunch when they saw me.

“Hey guys,” I say as they finally manage to get over to me. Do I tell them about Gwen? It’ll probably piss Gwen off if people start trying to crowd her.

“How’s everything going in there?” asks Oliver. I guess there’s no harm in telling them.

“Actually, there’s been a pretty incredible improvement,” I pause for dramatic effect. I’ll admit it, I’m enjoying this a bit. “Gwen is back.”

They have the perfect reaction. Anya’s eyebrows shoot straight up, probably getting stuck in her hairline, and Oliver dribbles water down his chin and onto his shirt. Then, all at once, they start trying to talk over one another.

“What?!” says Oliver.

“When?!” says Anya.

“Why didn’t you come get us?” Oliver continues.

“Where has she been?” asks Anya.

I want to laugh at them but people are starting to stare so I shush them instead.

“Shush, will you? I’ll tell you in a second but this is not the place.”

They quiet immediately and, in a moment of absolutely perfect timing, I hear Maria call me over to pick up my order. I can tell that they’re nearly bursting by the time I turn into an empty room a few turns away from Hank’s office. Anya nearly shouts her first questions at me the second the door clicks shut.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” she sounds a little bit hurt.

“She came to us only an hour or so ago,” I try to explain, I don’t want her to feel like I deliberately kept her away. “There wasn’t any time to come and find you, she only just came back.”

“Well, where has she been? She’s been gone for ages. We thought she’d left the refuge all together! An and I have been searching all over the place for her.” Oliver sounds annoyed and I can’t really blame him, he’s been teleporting all over the place, trying to figure out where Gwen might have gone.

“I haven’t asked yet and I really doubt she tell me anyway,” I reply, surprising myself a little bit with the disappointment in my tone.

“Why wouldn’t she tell you? Would she tell us? We should go and see her,” says Anya, moving toward the door.

“No, An, wait,” she pauses, her hand on the doorknob and I continue. “She only just got back, if we crowd her…”

I trail off, not really wanting to say that I was in a near constant state of panic wondering where the hell Gwen was and that the thought of her disappearing again instantly gives me a migraine. A quick look at the expressions on Anya and Oliver’s faces tells me that I don’t have to explain at all, which is…uncomfortable. I haven’t analysed my feelings for Gwen too deeply, I’m still not sure exactly where this is coming from or if I should pursue it. I haven’t really wanted to look too deeply into it, I don’t want to risk getting inside my own head and ruining the fun…and that’s what makes this so uncomfortable. I haven’t thought too much about it, but these two apparently have.

“I get it,” says Anya, thankfully not making me finish my sentence. “You don’t want to suffocate her and make her run off again, but she isn’t that fragile and if we all team up then we can sort this out a lot faster.”

“Plus, we miss her,” says Oliver and I realise that they’re right.

Gwen isn’t going to run off again, she wouldn’t have come back just to turn around and leave. She came back for a reason and I really doubt she’d take off before she got what she came for…no matter how much she distrusts us right now. Or does that make her sound bad, too cold and calculating. That’s not right. Maybe she just missed us. It’s much more likely that she just missed us and felt alone. She is being hunted after all…maybe I’m just looking for anything to figure her out. I’ve known her for just over two months now and I still can’t figure her out.

“Derek?”

“Hmm?” apparently I zoned out. I tune back in to Oliver trying to get my attention. “You guys are right. Let’s go before the coffee gets cold.”

“Probably don’t tackle her and wrap her in a bear hug, An. It doesn’t really sound like she’s warm and fuzzy at the moment,” laughs Oliver as we get to the door. I laugh, I can’t help myself. I hear Anya giggle but it sounds more like a nervous giggle and a quick check of her thoughts tells me that she has absolutely no idea how to act around Gwen. None of us do and, as happens from time to time, a lightbulb goes off in my head.

“Don’t act any differently around her,” I say, mostly to myself.

“Huh?”

“We’re idiots. We’ve all been walking on egg shells around her, treating her like she’s a scared little puppy that’s going to run off if we make any sudden movements,” they look rather confused. “It’s Gwen. You know, sarcastic, doesn’t take shit from anybody, Gwen. We just need to act like we usually would. If I remember correctly, we’re her friends first and suspected traitors second.”

It’s probably best not to let them think too hard about that so I turn and open the door, walking straight in.

“You took your time,” jokes Jasper, getting up and swiping his coffee from the tray.

“Found some strays, thought I should bring them in out of the cold,” I shoot back and it feels good to make a joke. It feels even better when I hear the distinctive sound of Gwen stifling her chuckle. I can’t let that go now, can I?

“Your terribly hidden amusement reminds me,” I take her coffee from the tray and walk over to her. She’s still curled up in the armchair in the corner and as I hand her coffee I exaggerate a gallant bow. “Your decaf caramel latte, my Lady.”

I’m rewarded with outright laughter, from everyone, as she stands and takes her coffee with a curtsey. Almost immediately I watch as she realises that she opened up and the walls slam straight back into position. Stiffly, she thanks me for the coffee, waves her greeting to Anya and Oliver and curls back up in the armchair.

“Well, that was something at least.” I hear Anya’s voice echo in my head.

“At least she didn’t throw us out…” Adds Oliver.

There’s a loud knock on the door, signalling the arrival of our next interview and cutting off my response. Hank opens the door and a young man named Darius walks confidently into the room. He looks pretty intimidating but he’s actually a really nice guy. He’s like the male version of Anya: completely and unwaveringly kind but fiercely protective and lethal in battle. I’ve trained with him plenty of times.

“Darius, thanks for coming,” says Jasper, motioning for him to sit at the table. It’s like an unspoken agreement that Jasper questions any Warriors who come in and Hank handles everyone else.

“Keep your eyes on Gwen.”

Anya and Oliver, very obviously, direct their attention to Gwen but it looks like there’s no point. She just shakes her head at me. So, it’s not Darius either. At least her timing is consistent.