The name almost didn’t fit him. His skin and hair were sun-kissed, as if he spent an insane amount of time outside. He’d be right at home on a beach, with a surfboard staked in the sand beside him. His hair was short, but just this side of too long to be called military style. She’d been tempted to call him Iceman, after the bad-boy hottie in Top Gun—eighties’ movies were kind of her thing. But then she’d gotten a good look in his eyes, which were a cold blue that made her shiver.
She glanced through the opposite doorway, which led to the bedroom he’d claimed—though claimed might have been an overstatement. They’d walked into the furnished apartment yesterday, and he’d said, “Sleep wherever.” Just now, his blankets were flat and perfect, almost military style. Either he hadn’t slept or he’d made the bed like he was in boot camp.
“You should be sleeping,” she said.
He clicked the magazine into a semi-automatic handgun and slid it into a holster. “But we must play the proverbial early bird today.”
She leaned her forehead against the doorjamb. “I don’t want to go to high school.”
“You are, in fact, a teenager. Isn’t this some kind of rite of passage? Couldn’t you find some time to rah with the cheer girls while killing rogue Elementals?”
“I think you’ve been watching too many shows on the CW.”
He didn’t answer, and she peeked through the spill of blond hair that fell across her cheek. He’d moved on to other weapons, knives this time. He slid each out of its sheath and checked the edge of the blade.
Kate sighed. He practically had an arsenal in the truck, more deadly toys than she would know what to do with. More guns, of course. Knives of varying length. An honest-to-god bow with a quiver of arrows.
She’d mocked him about those. “Oh, good! Are those for when we fight the elves?”
An arrow had just appeared in his hand, the point pressed into her throat hard enough to draw blood. “No, they’re for when my trainee gets mouthy.”
The accent, the danger, the weapon in his hand—it all combined to make him immeasurably sexy and terrifying at the same time. Kate had no idea how old he was, but he couldn’t be much older. His features were smooth and unlined, his body lithe and muscled. She wouldn’t put him past the age of an average college student, but he probably couldn’t pass for high school.
That’s why she was here. To infiltrate the local high school, to determine who the true Elementals were, and whether they were as powerful as rumor said.
Silver was here to kill them.
Kate hadn’t expected an assignment at her age—she’d only been in training to be a Guide for about six months before the call came.
It was an honor to be picked, even if her ancillary role had been emphasized to the point of irritation. Silver was in charge of this mission. She was the apprentice. The student.
Her mother would be so proud.
Kate dropped into a chair at the table with him. A gun sat there, a Glock 9mm, and she ran a finger across the barrel.
He watched her but didn’t say anything.
“Have you ever killed any of them?” she asked.
Silver nodded. “Of course.” He didn’t have to ask whom she meant. There was only one them. The pure Elementals. The ones with enough power to level cities.
Everyone on earth had some connection to an element—but only a select few were pure Elementals. Kate imagined it like a circle with a five-pointed star inside. Four points of the star represented each of the classical elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. If everyone alive was put inside the circle, some would fall between branches and some would fall on a point.
The closer you fell to a point, the greater your affinity to that element.
If you fell directly on a point, you could harness that element’s power and bend it to your will.
Kate was a pure Elemental, too, but she fell on the fifth point, which represented the Spirit. Once she fully grew into her abilities as a Fifth, she’d be able to control all four elements. Beyond that, her connection to the human spirit meant she had a greater connection to the people around her.
Years ago, the pure Elementals used to wreak havoc: mass destruction spanning centuries. The great Chicago fire. Earthquakes. Tsunamis. The Fifths, connected to human suffering by their very abilities, banded together to destroy pure Elementals and stop the destruction.
Now Fifths were selected to become Guides, and trained to kill pure Elementals before they could come into their full power.
Kate’s connection to her element should have made it hard for her to kill anyone.
But when it came right down to pulling a trigger, it wasn’t hard at all.
Her mother always used to say it was for the greater good. Kate wondered what she’d say about that now, after everything that had happened.
She watched Silver’s fidgeting for another moment. “Do you expect them to be hard to kill?”
His eyes left the gun to flick up and meet hers. “Nervous?” She matched his tone. “Of course not.”
He smiled, but there wasn’t anything amiable about it. “You have some familiarity with weapons, yes?”
Kate picked up the Glock and took it apart in four seconds. The bullets plinked out of the magazine onto the table. “A little.”
“A bullet to the head is one of the few sure ways to kill them.”
“I have some familiarity with killing, too.”
“So I’ve heard.” He ignored her attitude and started putting the stripped gun back together. “I’ve seen an Air Elemental take four shots to the chest and still come up fighting.”
“An adult, right? I thought we were killing teenagers.”
“We are.” He paused. “And how does that make you feel, Kathryn?”
She looked up in surprise. “Fine. Why?”
“Honestly, when they told me you were my ‘trainee,’ I was surprised.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because I don’t know what you’re doing here.”
It shouldn’t have hurt—but it did, like getting a pinch in the arm from a vicious child. She’d earned her spot here. “I was assigned to help you.”
“You seem eager.”
“I’ve proven myself. I’m ready to do something.” She needed to succeed here. If she couldn’t, it meant her mother’s death was for nothing.
His hands stilled on the firearm, and he looked over. “You must have done something already, to be assigned with me.”
“Why, you think you’re such a badass?”
“I don’t need to think that, Kathryn.”
“Stop calling me that. Only my mother called me Kathryn.”
He looked back at the gun, checking the sight this time. “I heard a rumor about your mother.”
“She was very good at what she did.” Kate kept any thread of emotion out of her voice. “I’m better.”
“I should hope so. Obviously your mother wasn’t good enough.”
Kate wanted to punch him, but it probably wouldn’t end well. “I took care of it.”
“I heard a rumor about that, too.”
“What did you hear?”