Elemental Havoc (Paranormal Public Book 11) by Maddy Edwards Read Free Book Online Page B

crowd to part just so we could walk down the street.
    “If you want to be brutish about it,” sniffed Bertrum, “I can’t stop you. You could have drawn more attention to us, but you would have needed fireworks.”
    “I suppose you’d want to draw up a contract and have a meeting to get them to move,” said Rake. “The meeting on the matter will be at ten thirty, please bring your own pencil.”
    Bertrum rolled his eyes as if he was hoping something would magically appear to save him from the likes of Rake. “I don’t need meetings to get my point across,” he said.
    “No, you just need me,” Rake said, a grin slashing his face.
    Bertrum didn’t appear to appreciate the point, but Rake wasn’t wrong. We would have stood there until lunch if we’d left the task in Bertrum’s hands, and what was really getting his goat was that he knew it.
    Rake kept moving. Bertrum knew where we were headed, but Keegan and I had no idea. I kept looking for a view of Paranormal Public, but I couldn’t see it through the buildings and the trees, not to mention the fence. I was surprised that the town felt so removed from the school. I had imagined them right in the middle of each other, but that didn’t turn out to be the case.
    “Just wait until this is a college town like all the other college towns, and the eighteen-year-olds will be getting stopped by real police for different reasons than we were today,” said Rake, chuckling to himself as he said it.
    “I’m seventeen,” I said.
    “I didn’t mean you. Obviously you’re never going to get into trouble for anything,” said Rake, his amused grin returning.
    Bertrum snorted. “There,” he said, pointing to an unassuming building that stood alone, apart from its nearest neighbors. It looked brand new, as if it had been freshly set in place that very morning. Footsteps made patterns in the dirt; apparently no one had had time to plant grass or lay sod since the building had opened.
    “Awfully depressing-looking,” said Keegan.
    “Well, it doesn’t have to be pretty to function and produce Through Ports, now does it?” said Bertrum. He pulled his suit jacket together and straightened his shoulders. Rake again suppressed the urge to laugh.
    “Just wait,” said Bertrum. “You won’t be laughing once we’re inside.”
    Rake rolled his eyes as Keegan and I followed Bertrum, while Bertrum bowed his head, his chin coming into close contact with his shoulder. “Sip told me that it is not always advisable to throw my weight around. Even if I believe that I am in the right, sometimes it is best to sit quietly.”
    “That must really kill you, right?” Rake smirked. But the exchange was interrupted by the fact that we were now inside the building.
    The offices didn’t fit at all with the paranormal world I had come to know; they were strange and sterile and they reminded me of robots. I glanced at Rake and Bertrum, but they didn’t seem to think there was anything odd or out of place. Clearly they had both been here before, or at least Bertrum had. This project was his baby, and he was immensely proud of both the idea and the execution.
    “The new Power of Five logo is looking good,” said Rake with approval. I had the impression he was trying to pay Bertrum a compliment, but Sip’s assistant was too lost in his own personal cloud of grumpiness to notice or care.
    “Why did they redesign it?” Keegan asked. He had been turning his head back and froth, trying to take everything in. He had spent even less time in the paranormal world than I had, and he seemed to be finding everything about Surround fascinating. He didn’t want to miss anything, even the unaccountable emptiness of the TP office.
    “A fresh paranormal world required an updating of the logo?” Rake mused, clearly trying to get Bertrum’s goat. “A rebranding, if you will?”
    “Marketing the world, one new logo at a time,” said Keegan, shaking his head.
    Bertrum was quiet for so long that