The Element of Death (The Final Formula Series, Book 1.5) Read online

“Okay.” She did as he asked.

  James jumped out after her, landing on four paws.

  “And now you’re the dog.” She smiled and reached out to rub his head.

  James wagged his tail to reassure her, pleased that she was taking everything so well. Her blood scented the air, but it was minor. If she healed as quickly as the other Elements, the injury would be gone soon.

  A low groan rumbled through what was left of the building. Stone ground against stone, and dirt trickled down the walls of their small space. James tensed, ready to pull open the portal. Even if he had to risk taking her through, it was better than being buried alive. Moonlight suddenly broke through from above. A thump, and something big landed in the soft earth beside them. Donovan.

  “Era!” he cried and pulled her into an embrace.

  “Hey, Don. The coolest thing just happened. Did you know James can become a werewolf?”

  Donovan gave James a searching look, and he wagged his tail in response. He didn’t want to flash Era by shifting human in front of her; he’d explain to Donovan later.

  Donovan seemed to get the hint. “Come on, honey, we need to go. Rowan isn’t feeling well.” Slipping an arm around her shoulders, he guided her back the way he’d come.

  James didn’t follow. He made his own way back through the rubble and returned to Rowan’s side.

  “James!” Rowan lifted his head. “Era, Donovan—”

  “They’re coming. Winters and his girlfriend had a safe trip to hell.”

  Rowan bowed his head, and a fresh trickle of blood ran from one nostril. “I knew you could do it.”

  James sighed. “We need to get you home.”

  “Home?” Rowan looked up.

  “Back to the manor.” James glanced toward the ruins of the crematorium, wishing Donovan would hurry.

  “You referred to the manor as home.”

  “For you.” James found Rowan watching him. “What is it?”

  “Come work for me.”

  “What?”

  “I’d like to offer you a job.”

  “Doing what?”

  “What you do best: scaring the hell out of people.”

  James lifted a brow. Had Rowan just admitted that he’d scared him? A rattle of stone, and Donovan and Era emerged from the ruins. James quickly shifted back to the hound.

  “Rowan!” Era ran over and dropped to her knees beside him. “You’re bleeding.” She touched his upper lip.

  “I’m okay.”

  “Here, honey.” Donovan held out a set of keys. “Why don’t you run back to the truck and bring me my backpack. I’ve got a set of clothes James can use.”

  “Sure.” She cheerfully took the keys and hurried toward the far end of what remained of the building. James shifted human as soon as she was gone.

  “The truck’s around the corner,” Donovan said, kneeling beside Rowan. “How bad are you?”

  “Going down fast. I hired us a new bodyguard.” Rowan waved a hand at James—or attempted to. The hand barely left his lap.

  “Excellent.” Donovan smiled, though it didn’t reach his eyes. He wiped the blood from Rowan’s upper lip before his worried eyes rose to James’s. “What kind of salary did you hold out for?”

  “I’m not sure.” James frowned. Should they be discussing this right now? He wanted to get Rowan out of here.

  “Son, you need to get those things in writing before you agree.” Donovan gripped Rowan’s shoulder. “You did at least give him a car.”

  “We have a limo,” Rowan whispered.

  “He’s an eighteen-year-old boy. He needs a sweet ride.”

  “Fine.” Rowan slumped over, but Donovan caught him.

  James was already watching with his other sight. “His soul is still firmly attached.”

  “It’ll take more than a trip to hell to knock Rowan down for the count.”

  “How about a grim with anger management issues?”

  Donovan looked up, meeting his eyes. “We all make mistakes. Some you can never atone for.” A sadness entered his voice.

  “I nearly killed him.”

  “Since you didn’t, it’s clear that you have more control than you give yourself credit for. And knowing Rowan, I suspect you’re not entirely to blame.”

  James looked up, surprised that Donovan saw so much. “He said he picked the fight with me.”

  Donovan kept his attention on Rowan, but his mouth curled into a sad smile. “That’s a bit more restraint than I’d expect from him at that moment.”

  James frowned, remembering how hard Addie’s betrayal had hit him. He hadn’t looked beyond his own feelings. He’d been so hurt that it never occurred to him that he wasn’t the only one. He remembered the way Rowan had fought when Gertrude delved into his memories and got too close to Addie.

  “He loved her,” James whispered. “Addie, I mean.”

  “Yes. I’ve never seen him fall that hard.”

  James released a breath, aware of how it shook. “I loved her, too.”

  Donovan laid a hand on his shoulder. “I know.”

  “I never…knew love, before. I—” God, he sounded pathetic. But he wanted to confess, to let it all out. “She didn’t care that I was dead. She, she…”

  “Loved you, too.”

  “Like a brother.”

  “Exactly.”

  James bowed his head. Donovan had seen it, why hadn’t he? He felt he should say something. Instead, he just sat there, naked and pathetic, kneeling beside the man he’d nearly killed.

  Donovan looped a thick arm around his shoulders. “Come on, let’s go home.”

  “Home?”

  “The manor. Rowan said he gave you a job.”

  “I didn’t realize that included room and board.”

  “Of course it does. Besides, Era has a closet full of clothing waiting for you. Good thing, since you’re so hard on them.” Donovan patted his shoulder and released him.

  Movement out of the corner of his eye, and James turned to find the burned man watching him. “Winters is gone. You don’t need to threaten me.”

  “What?” Donovan asked.

  James held up a finger, asking him to wait.

  I wished to thank you…and apologize. The burned man’s voice rasped in his mind.

  “I accept. Do you want me to take you across?”

  I know the way.

  “You chose to remain,” James concluded. “To keep him contained.”

  I did not wish to see him rise and use my magic for ill once more.

  “Your magic? You were a medium? Then what was Winters?”

  An alchemist. A pause, and the burned man faded away.

  “James?” Donovan asked, a note of concern in his voice. “Who are you talking to?”

  James met Donovan’s worried frown. “I see souls, the living and the dead.”

  “That’s….”

  “Disturbing, I know.” The truck door slammed and James knew Era was returning. “Still want me as a guard dog?”

  The corner of Donovan’s mouth kicked up, and a flash of teeth showed through his beard. “Hell, yes.”

  James smiled as well, then became the dog.

  Epilogue

  James leaned his shoulder against the tall gray obelisk and crossed his arms. “Like this?”

  “Perfect!” Era adjusted the lens of her camera and snapped another picture. “Just a few more.”

  James obliged her, wondering what the couple walking along the headstones a short distance away must think of them. Maybe they’d think Era was shooting a few shots of some ancestor’s grave. Good thing they didn’t know she had close to a hundred similar photos taken throughout the cemetery on her camera.


  “Got it!” Era pulled the camera away from her face and started toward him, scrolling through the photos she’d taken.

  James straightened. “Get anything?”

  She stopped before him, clicking through a few more pictures. “No.” She gave the monument a frown. “It was supposed to be haunted. They say the eyes are real and they follow you.”

  James studied the bronze bust of a man mounted halfway up the side of the obelisk. The eyes were glass, and he had to admit the effect was unsettling, but the hound saw no spirits.

  “Creepy,” he said. “Do you think we’d have better luck at dusk?”

  Era’s eyes widened in barely held excitement. “Yes, but three a.m. would be best. That’s the witching hour.” Her voice dropped to a whisper on the last part.

  James smiled, amusement and sadness warring to be the dominant emotion. “Rowan wouldn’t want you out so late.”

  “We could ask him to come,” she said, latching onto the idea. “He likes spooky things, too.”

  James stepped away from the monument, leading her toward the path as the couple approached. If this headstone had such a reputation, they probably didn’t wonder why Era had been taking pictures. The man had a cell phone in hand, and James suspected he was about to snap a few pictures himself.

  “Anything else you want to do?” James asked as they walked toward the parking lot.

  “Not here, but there’s another cemetery I’m dying to see.”

  He bit his lip at the pun she didn’t get and agreed to take her. They still had several hours before the other Elements finished at the Offices. Besides, James had promised to take her ghost hunting.

  The phone in James’s back pocket buzzed. He pulled it out and saw that it was a text from Donovan.

  “It’s not time to go home, is it?” Era asked.

  “Shouldn’t be.” James tapped the screen on his phone.

  Addie is bringing the antidote to the Offices in an hour. Drive Era over.

  “James?” Era’s voice pulled him back. “What’s wrong?”

  “We need to swing by the Offices.” He tucked the phone in his back pocket, trying to sound indifferent. “Addie’s coming over.”

  “Really?” Era clapped her hands, bouncing in place.

  “Yes.” James leaned down to unlock the passenger door on the sleek black Charger.

  “We haven’t seen her in forever.” Era jumped in the moment he got the door open.

  James closed it behind her. “Over two weeks,” he whispered. He took a deep breath and circled the back of the car to the driver’s side. Addie had found the antidote. Could she make everything right?

  James stepped back, content to watch as the Elements collapsed into a group hug. The day had grown overcast, but every lamp had been turned on here in the library at the Elemental Offices, giving the room a warm glow. The light glinted off Era’s golden hair as she pressed her cheek to Rowan’s chest. James didn’t know what stunned him more: that Addie had cured Era or that she’d used the Final Formula to do it.

  He turned to see how Addie was taking it, but she was no longer there. The door latch snicked and he realized she’d left the room. Leaving the others to their reunion, he went after her.

  He caught up to her in the foyer. “Addie?”

  Her hand settled on the door and stopped. A moment’s hesitation and she turned to face him. It struck him again how much she’d changed in just a few weeks. She looked like someone recovering from an illness, her complexion pale and her clothes hanging off her too thin frame.

  He froze, the words refusing to leave his throat.

  “I need to go.” She broke the silence. “I have a cab waiting.” She hooked a thumb toward the front door.

  He struggled with what he wanted to say and settled on his secondary concern. “You said the Final Formula regenerates the body. Resets it.”

  She swallowed. It was clear she didn’t want to answer the question. “You’re already in your prime and immortal.” Her voice dropped to a whisper as she continued. “It doesn’t restore life.”

  “James?” Rowan stood in the doorway behind him. Was he annoyed that James had followed her?

  “I’m sorry,” Addie whispered, her voice just loud enough for James to hear. “About everything.” She turned and hurried toward the door.

  “Wait.” Rowan surprised him by stopping her. He carried a manila folder to the receptionist’s desk. “I need your signature.”

  Addie moved closer, her expression curious, yet cautious. “What do you need me to sign?”

  “Your PIA registration forms.”

  James blinked. Rowan was trying to register her?

  “What?” She raised her dark brows in surprise. “I’m not magical.”

  Rowan looked up. “You wield magic better than the majority of those registered.”

  Uncertainty crinkled her features. “And the PIA bought that?”

  “They agreed that it’s best to keep tabs on you.”

  “Agreed? As in agreed with you?”

  Rowan found a pen and laid it beside the papers. “Yes.” He held her gaze.

  James tensed for an argument. No way Addie would take that. She didn’t disappoint him.

  “Look, I’m not making excuses. Between the journal and Neil, I remember enough to know that he spoke the truth, mostly, but I am not that person.” She pointed at the pages lying on the desk. “My name is Addie, not Amelia. And I right my wrongs.”

  “Your wrongs? You didn’t run a stop sign; you brain-damaged my little sister.” Fire glowed in Rowan’s eyes.

  “I fixed that,” she whispered.

  Rowan clenched his jaw. “Do you expect me to thank you?”

  Concerned, James moved closer. “Rowan.”

  “No, I don’t expect gratitude,” Addie continued. “But I do expect…” She seemed to consider her words. “The opportunity to redeem myself without you and your PIA cronies standing over me.”

  Rowan frowned, then turned back to the desk. He picked up the pen and scratched a few lines on a Post-It pad before offering it to her. “If redemption is what you seek, here.”

  “Dr. Albright?” she asked after reading the paper.

  “He works in the Burn Center. I’ll see that he’s expecting your call.”

  “My salve,” she whispered.

  “He’s not magical, but he’ll listen to me. You’ll have one shot at this.”

  “My formulas don’t fail.”

  “Is that a yes?”

  “That’s a yes.”

  “Good, but I still need you to sign.”

  James watched them argue. It was so surreal. Suddenly, it was weeks ago and he was chewing his lip, trying not to laugh as Addie went toe-to-toe with the Lord of Flames. He’d never met anyone so confident, so driven, so…fearless. But this wasn’t then.

  Rowan put an end to the argument when he picked up the folder and headed for the hall. “James, the car is here.”

  James didn’t follow. He still had a question to ask and this was the moment. When Addie finally looked up, he forced himself to speak. “The flier that came to the shop. Did you send it?”

  “I remember researching your family, learning where you lived, but beyond that…” She spread her hands then let them fall. “I don’t know.”

  “So, you did intend to give me to Neil.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Then why don’t you take the Final Formula and find out?” He struggled to rein in the anger, the pain. “Recovering your memory is what you wanted. All you wanted for the past three months.”

  “That’s not what I want anymore. I don’t want to know what I was.”

  “You think if you don’t know, it never happened?”

&nbs
p; “No.”

  “Then what?” His voice broke on the last syllable, and he swallowed, trying to hide the hurt. But she knew. She knew him better than anyone.

  “I…I want to try again. Alchemy can be so much more. It shouldn’t be hoarded and hidden.”

  He folded his arms and stared across the room, unable to look at her. She reached out and grabbed his wrist, and he just managed not to jump.

  “Rowan’s giving me another chance. Won’t you?”

  He didn’t dare look at her. He had to be strong. “You worked with necromancers.”

  “Just one, and apparently, he’s stunted.”

  He frowned, meeting her eyes at last. Was she joking with him? Now?

  She pulled her hand from his wrist. “How do I make it right?”

  “I don’t know.” He looked toward the hall, knowing that Rowan waited for him. “I need to go.”

  “Here.” She reached in her pocket and pulled out a pair of vials.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s the last of Rowan’s antidote. I can make more, but….”

  “You’ll need his blood.”

  “Yes.”

  He took the vials. “I’ll give him these.”

  “Thanks.”

  Silence stretched and he couldn’t think of anything to say. He should leave.

  “James?” she whispered.

  “I need to go.”

  She met his eyes, then nodded.

  A dozen different responses ran through his mind, but he didn’t voice any of them. Instead, he settled for a nod and walked away. He’d reached the hall when he heard the front door open and close.

  Rowan leaned against the wall a few yards away. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.” James closed the distance between them. “You?”

  “She fixed Era.” Rowan dodged the question.

  “Yes, she did.” James offered him the vials. “The last of your remedy. She can make more, but she’ll need your blood.”

  Rowan hesitated a moment, then took the vials. “Guess I better lay off the fire.”