Flame (Fireborn) (42 page)

His laughter is louder
than my howl of pain, and all I hear is the echo of his cackle as a
throbbing pain centers itself on my whole right side. Looking down,
my ankle is turned at a frightening angle. Unable to bear the intense
throbbing, I clutch it, feeling bones that shouldn't be there
protruding against my skin.

Hearing him behind me,
I look back. Another blue flash of lightening fills the sky, creating
a halo of light around the beautiful creature. He's dressed like a
medieval prince. A fitted metal chest piece is wrapped around him
like a cloth. He has on dark pants protected by metal plates.

He's covered in blood.

He's dragging something
behind him. At first I think it's a bag, but when I stare harder I
realize it's too large. He's hauling it effortlessly, wrapping
gleaming chains around his fingers. Almost instantly, wisps of dark
hair come into sight, and I gasp.

She's a prisoner. The
one I'd released earlier. Mia.

My stomach drops.

There are metal chains
around her neck, and he's using it as a leash, dragging her weak body
through the mud. Her hands claw at the restraint, trying to breathe,
but he only pulls her harder, wrapping the chains tighter.

"I hear there are
prisoners
are trying to escape. That's never happened before.
No one's ever been that stupid." He grins, showing white teeth.
"It's my duty to rid this world of stupid people. It looks like
we'll start with you two."

Suddenly, I recognize
his face. "You're Damien, the ambassador," I say, almost
accusingly. The merciless countenance looking at me now bears almost
no resemblance to the angelic face flashed on television for weeks.
After everything I know about the Saguinox I'm not surprised, but for
some reason I still feel betrayed.

"Yes," he
confirms.

"Why are you doing
this?" I ask, my voice more feeble than I want it to be.

"There's a war
brewing, and I'm afraid you're on the wrong side of it. Earth will be
our home now."

I shake my head. "You
can't have our planet."

His smile doesn't reach
his eyes. "I'm afraid it's already too late. Now," he says
with deadly calm. "Where are the rest of them?"

Has everyone
escaped?
A flutter of hope spreads through my chest.

"I don't know what
you're talking about."

"No?" He
looks impatient. "Fine. Maybe you need a little incentive."
He points to Mia, who looks terrified. "Her life will depend on
you." Fear grips my heart. Without taking his eyes off me, he
lifts a hand. Mia jerks upward, held up by an invisible rope. Seeing
him do magic momentarily shocks me.

"I can make this
hurt. A lot. And I can make it last a very long time. For both of
you." He pauses. "Where are the others?" His voice is
deadly soft, and instinctively I flinch. He waits patiently, pointing
to Mia, ready to show more magic. Breathing hard, I try to come up
with a plan, but all I can think about is pain and what will happen
if I can't figure this out.

"Nothing?"

I'm frantic. "Wait!
Please! I- I really don't know--"

His growl of impatience
drowns out my words. With a flick of his wrist Mia glides to him, a
foot off the ground. Her body is moving at an odd angle, and as she
comes closer I see something is pulling her skin forward. It's like
Damien has hooks on every inch of her body. She's jerking, making
terrifying sounds of pain. Every move she attempts to make only
brings her more torture. As she nears, her skin is stretched further
from her body until I can see blood. At first it's just a trickle,
but as she makes her way to his side, scarlet liquid cascade down
like a waterfall. Damien snaps his fingers, disturbingly excited.
Skin from the left front of her face rip off, crumbling like
eggshells.

I hear two voices
screaming. When one abruptly stops, I realize the other abnormal
shrieking sounds are coming from me. I tell myself to stop, but I
can't. I see bones, and muscle, and mutilated flesh. I smell her pain
and it's filled with the scent of metal and blood. Damien's other
hand rises, slowly curling into a fist. As his hands coil inward, I
feel an invisible hand squeezing my throat. It silences me, and all
sounds stop.

"That's better,"
he says, turning toward me. " Now that you understand, every
minute that you waste more skin will come off."

He's continuing to talk
but the only thing I hear is the pounding of my own heart. I want to
tell him that he's suffocating me, but his invisible grip on my
throat is tight and unyielding. Deprived of air, my body panics.
Damien's face starts to blur. Slowly, I see his glowing eyes slowly
merge into one. I try to take another breath, but I can't.

All I can think is that
this is the end.

Remember.

I shiver.

Do you remember the
stars, Kenna?
the voice whispers. It sounds like Rhys, and
Kaiden, and Nymphora and even Chloris. It sounds like every voice
I've ever heard.
Do you remember how you burned brighter than
every single sun?

In my mind I can see
it: an inferno. Giant waves of fire are building. Abruptly, I'm hot,
so very hot. In my head the blaze is growing, becoming combustion of
reds and blues that devour every shadow attempting to escape. I feel
dizzy, and everything hurts. I want to lie down forever.

Listen, Kenna.
A
new voice is speaking. It's soft and comforting. The sounds of the
fire abruptly dim in my mind, and the images I see move in slow
motion. She continues to speak over them, like a distant echo.

Or a far more distant
memory.

I love you, Kenna,
but I will never be there for you. I know you can hear me. I know
you're listening. I've done something very bad. It's the only way to
protect you. I've made you weak. I hope you are weak forever, my
love.

I can hear her
heartbeat like I'm inside her body. Her voice becomes muffled because
I can hear her other organs, too.

If there is ever a
time when you need to be strong, I want you to rise, and I want you
to fight. I want you to become everything we hoped you wouldn't be.
And when you are at your last breath, promise me you'll burn…
you'll burn until every part of you is on fire.

Quietly her voice
fades, calling for a blaze. It stays in my head, and echoes in my
body. In my mind I can see a fireball forming. It's gathering flames,
encircling the colors into an inferno. I can feel it in my soul,
rushing and pulsing trying to reach an outlet.

When I can breathe no
more, I burst into flames.

The voice is close, and
I freeze, motionless. It's a voice I've never heard before. It's
breathy and low, filled with a Saguinox accent that makes me fear the
unknown.

"We have a friend
of yours."

For an endless moment,
I feel completely trapped. What does he mean? Nymphora and Kaiden's
faces flash in my mind in snippets. Suddenly I'm picturing them hurt,
and in pain, at the mercy of a Saguinox guard. Clutching Chloris's
arm tightly, I attempt to maneuver us further back. I try to be
silent, but her dead weight is impossible to conceal, and the leaves
hiding us rustle like bells.

Laughter rings out, and
his voice is amused. "Do you really think you can hide?"
His accent punctures each word, emphasizing it like a stabbing
dagger. "I smell you. Do you know that? I hear your beating
heart. I can taste your perfect fear." He makes a satisfied
sound, as if he's sampled something delicious. "Death's
waiting." He speaks those words in whisper, a sick awe lacing
his smooth tone.

A psycho alien!
Somehow I know we're in for it now.

"Do you know what
I do to little humans like you?" he asks, the low rumble of his
voice sending chills through my already frozen skin. I push Chloris
further back. A light rain is beginning to fall, and every drop
sticks to her like syrup. Trying to ignore it, I frantically place
leaves and other plant parts over her body. Her swollen red lips are
the last part of her I can see, and I place a large leaf over it
until she's completely disappeared.

I hear a loud shrieking
and the wind picks up. Before I can blink, everything around us
begins to crumble. Leaves, shrubs and trees are literally breaking
before my very eyes. The trunk of a tree next to me falls, and I move
back to avoid it, but before I do that it shatters into dust. A
thousand leaves collapsing and disintegrating into brown powder drown
my scream out.

Something hits me, and
I'm flying. It feels like an invisible hand is pulling me, and
shooting my body across the sky. All I see is smoke, and blackened
earth before I'm stopped, suspended in mid air. My legs are flailing
helplessly for an unbearable amount of time, then my body violently
turns, viciously jerked back toward the ground. Plummeting down
faster than a fireball, I choke on my own vomit as the force of
whatever he's doing pushes the contents of my stomach up into my
throat. The ground is hard when I finally fall, and something inside
my leg snaps, breaking into a dozen parts.

His laughter is louder
than my howl of pain, and all I hear is the echo of his cackle as a
throbbing pain centers itself on my whole right side. Looking down,
my ankle is turned at a frightening angle. Unable to bear the intense
throbbing, I clutch it, feeling bones that shouldn't be there
protruding against my skin.

Hearing him behind me,
I look back. Another blue flash of lightening fills the sky, creating
a halo of light around the beautiful creature. He's dressed like a
medieval prince. A fitted metal chest piece is wrapped around him
like a cloth. He has on dark pants protected by metal plates.

He's covered in blood.

He's dragging something
behind him. At first I think it's a bag, but when I stare harder I
realize it's too large. He's hauling it effortlessly, wrapping
gleaming chains around his fingers. Almost instantly, wisps of dark
hair come into sight, and I gasp.

She's a prisoner. The
one I'd released earlier. Mia.

My stomach drops.

There are metal chains
around her neck, and he's using it as a leash, dragging her weak body
through the mud. Her hands claw at the restraint, trying to breathe,
but he only pulls her harder, wrapping the chains tighter.

"I hear there are
prisoners
are trying to escape. That's never happened before.
No one's ever been that stupid." He grins, showing white teeth.
"It's my duty to rid this world of stupid people. It looks like
we'll start with you two."

Suddenly, I recognize
his face. "You're Damien, the ambassador," I say, almost
accusingly. The merciless countenance looking at me now bears almost
no resemblance to the angelic face flashed on television for weeks.
After everything I know about the Saguinox I'm not surprised, but for
some reason I still feel betrayed.

"Yes," he
confirms.

"Why are you doing
this?" I ask, my voice more feeble than I want it to be.

"There's a war
brewing, and I'm afraid you're on the wrong side of it. Earth will be
our home now."

I shake my head. "You
can't have our planet."

His smile doesn't reach
his eyes. "I'm afraid it's already too late. Now," he says
with deadly calm. "Where are the rest of them?"

Has everyone
escaped?
A flutter of hope spreads through my chest.

"I don't know what
you're talking about."

"No?" He
looks impatient. "Fine. Maybe you need a little incentive."
He points to Mia, who looks terrified. "Her life will depend on
you." Fear grips my heart. Without taking his eyes off me, he
lifts a hand. Mia jerks upward, held up by an invisible rope. Seeing
him do magic momentarily shocks me.

"I can make this
hurt. A lot. And I can make it last a very long time. For both of
you." He pauses. "Where are the others?" His voice is
deadly soft, and instinctively I flinch. He waits patiently, pointing
to Mia, ready to show more magic. Breathing hard, I try to come up
with a plan, but all I can think about is pain and what will happen
if I can't figure this out.

"Nothing?"

I'm frantic. "Wait!
Please! I- I really don't know--"

His growl of impatience
drowns out my words. With a flick of his wrist Mia glides to him, a
foot off the ground. Her body is moving at an odd angle, and as she
comes closer I see something is pulling her skin forward. It's like
Damien has hooks on every inch of her body. She's jerking, making
terrifying sounds of pain. Every move she attempts to make only
brings her more torture. As she nears, her skin is stretched further
from her body until I can see blood. At first it's just a trickle,
but as she makes her way to his side, scarlet liquid cascade down
like a waterfall. Damien snaps his fingers, disturbingly excited.
Skin from the left front of her face rip off, crumbling like
eggshells.

I hear two voices
screaming. When one abruptly stops, I realize the other abnormal
shrieking sounds are coming from me. I tell myself to stop, but I
can't. I see bones, and muscle, and mutilated flesh. I smell her pain
and it's filled with the scent of metal and blood. Damien's other
hand rises, slowly curling into a fist. As his hands coil inward, I
feel an invisible hand squeezing my throat. It silences me, and all
sounds stop.

"That's better,"
he says, turning toward me. " Now that you understand, every
minute that you waste more skin will come off."

He's continuing to talk
but the only thing I hear is the pounding of my own heart. I want to
tell him that he's suffocating me, but his invisible grip on my
throat is tight and unyielding. Deprived of air, my body panics.
Damien's face starts to blur. Slowly, I see his glowing eyes slowly
merge into one. I try to take another breath, but I can't.