Water Shaper (World Aflame) (11 page)

Satisfied with the destruction it had caused entering the city, it twisted its reptilian neck upward again and looked toward its real prize—the tall skyline rising from the center of the city.

Los Angeles had a surprisingly narrow skyline, with all of its skyscrapers closely consolidated. Only a few of the tall buildings remained intact. Most were merely steel girders and shattered metal that stretched toward the sky.

The Fire Elemental tilted its wings and gained elevation as it raced toward the city’s center. As it reached the skyscrapers, it arched its back and swept up the broken face of the nearest building. As it reached the lattice of pylons and girders, it reached out its massive, clawed feet and grabbed the metal cage. The power of its claws bent the metal between its fingers, and the top of the building groaned under the dragon’s weight.

It turned its long neck as it scanned the cityscape. Saliva dripped from its maw. Where it struck the concrete and steel of the building, the spittle sizzled like acid. Looking down, it saw people fleeing through the streets, climbing amongst the rubble and ruined cars that lined the road. It yearned to sweep down and crush them beneath its claws, to scoop the humans up in its maw and feel their bones crunch beneath its powerful jaws. Instead, it looked over to a rounded tower that wasn’t ruined. From within its depths, it could see heat signatures of people cowering in the offices. A wicked smile stretched across its scaled face, and it launched from its precipice. Leather wings spread wide as it soared toward the whitewashed building.

Tucking in its wings, the Fire Elemental picked up speed. It didn’t so much land on the building as crashed into it. There weren’t ledges for the Elemental to hold on to. Instead, it dug all four claws into the face of the building. Glass shattered as its claws pierced long bay windows. The clawed fingers gouged long lines in the concrete between each floor as it sought purchase.

The Elemental clamped its fingers down onto a ledge and balanced itself precariously. It swished its scaled, barbed tail, which slammed into the ground beneath it. Cars scattered from the impact, rolling end over end into the street before crashing into the buildings nearby.

Within the building, people ducked behind upturned tables and behind walls at the sight of the monster. Its red scales glistened in the sun, and the heat it generated turned the carpet near its body black. Smoke rose from the furniture near the window as it threatened to burst into flames.

The Elemental lowered its head until it could look through a shattered window. Despite their cowering, he could see the shapes of their bodies by the heat they radiated. It flicked out its tongue once more. The air was filled with the taste of sweat and panic. The scent was like seasoning for the meat, whetting the Elemental’s appetite.

One of the women in the room ran toward the door, but the dragon snorted and a jet of flame struck the wall in front of her. She screamed and ran back to the rest of the group behind the heavy furniture.

The Elemental smiled to itself as it inhaled sharply. The furnace within it boiled as chemicals mixed in its gullet. The furniture would be no obstacle once it exhaled. The flames were like fluid and would pour through every nook, burning the humans to death. It savored the scent of the humans’ fear once more, as it prepared to exhale its hellfire.

It began to exhale, but it felt like there was a bubble lodged in its throat. The boiling inferno in its gut was frozen in place, unable to burst forward. It strained against the pressure, but the flames refused to pour from its maw. Rearing back, the dragon withdrew its head from the floor and tilted its head skyward. It tried to exhale again and the flames willingly poured forth, spewing into the sky and scorching the exterior of the building. It looked back toward the open floor confusedly and inhaled once more. As it tried to exhale, it found itself faced with the same inexplicable block.

Furious, it slammed its claws into the wall, shredding large chunks of concrete free from the building. The debris fell to the street below, crashing into the sidewalk. It stared at the heat signatures of the people within the building, paralyzed as they were behind the furniture, and yearned to burn them to death. Instead, it turned so that its face was pointed downward and scaled down the front of the building. As its clawed fingers encountered the street, the red scales shimmered. The claws withdrew, forming white-tipped fingernails. The scales became smooth, alabaster skin. Its mane of barbs turned into flowing blond hair. The wings slid into the porcelain skin of its back.

Looking once again like Sammy, the Fire Elemental stood up from the crouched position. A cool breeze washed over its naked form, though it was oblivious to its nudity and hardly cared about modesty. It looked around the street, noticing people staring dumbfounded at the host body.

Though it noticed a human in a blue uniform rushing toward it, the Elemental casually turned away from the street and caught its reflection in the cracked glass window of the tall, rounded building.

The Elemental’s jaw slackened as it stared at its reflection. It reached up and ran its hand across its eyes. It leaned forward, staring in wonder at the crystal blue eyes that stared back at it.

The city stretched below the trio like a black smudge. Sooty black smoke billowed from over half the buildings in the city. The air was choked with ash and, even from their height, they could feel it burning in their lungs.

The mixture of black smoke and white ash blanketed the city in a false winter. Ashes fell like snowflakes and collected along the edges of the streets like snowdrifts.

Xander
flew them far above London, high enough that the Fire Warriors below couldn’t sense his powers.  The smoke was thick enough in areas that the city was lost below them. Xander turned sharply to avoid a dark pillar billowing from a row of townhouses that burned as one.

In the areas that were devoid of the obscuring smoke, Xander could see small orbs of flames dancing as Fire Warriors ignited another building. Though he couldn’t hear the explosion, he could see the flames belch from the front of the shattered storefront window as the building ignited.

Flying over the city left Xander fatigued. He wasn’t sure how much of it was mental exhaustion after seeing the wanton destruction of London and how much of it was being deprived of the rejuvenating clean air he’d come to love while flying, but his eyes watered and his muscles ached.

The air above the Thames was cleaner than that of the rest of the city. With nothing left to burn across that wide stretch of water, it offered Xander a brief refuge.

“Look at that,” Jessica said breathlessly.

Xander stopped the trio in midflight as they gawked at the scene below. The Eye of London—an enormous Ferris wheel that had once illuminated the night sky from its perch beside the river—lay shattered and partially submerged within the Thames. The metal of its base still glowed cherry red from the flames that melted its support beams. The force of its fall shattered most of the cars that had once clung around the circumference of the wheel.

Xander heard a faint sob beside him and turned toward Jessica. He was surprised to see her wiping away tears from her eyes.

“Jessica?” he asked.

She waved her hand at him, annoyed at his attention. “I’m fine. I just… I actually had it on my list to visit London some time. I wanted to ride the Eye and now it’s gone.”

She fanned her face with her hand to try to dry away the tears. “I know it’s stupid, with everything else going on. It’s just… seeing the Eye like that reminds me of all the things that are ruined now. This is just one city. There’s no telling what else I had on my bucket list that I’ll never get to do now.”

Sean slid beside her as best he could while being held aloft. He slipped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in close. Jessica buried her head in his shoulder and leaned into him.

Though he knew they had so much more to do, and that they were exposed hovering above the Thames, Xander let her cry for a few minutes until she regained her composure. He glanced past the ruined Eye and shook his head at the rest of the burning city. Westminster Abbey and Big Ben both burned freely and brightly. With so little else around them, they were beacons of red and yellow flames, dancing over their ruined and gutted corpses.

He hated that Jessica was right, that there was so much in the world he’d never enjoy because the Fire Caste had taken it away. He felt a much brighter hatred burning for the Fire Warriors below; the callous men and women who ran through the streets, indiscriminately setting fire to anything they could find. Sammy had once tried to convince him that the Fire Warriors weren’t evil. She explained that they were just fulfilling their imperative—the same imperative that was decided between the four Elementals.

The Flame burns the world of man down to the Earth.

He knew the line so well and hated it even more. Watching the city beneath him burn, he believed Sammy less and less. The people who killed his fellow Wind Warriors were the same ones burning the cities around the world. They weren’t misguided souls. They were evil and, no matter what it took, he would find a way to stop them.

Jessica rubbed her eyes one last time, but refused to look down at the ruined Ferris wheel again. She gestured for Xander to go. “Let’s just get to the far side of the city and figure out what we’re going to do next.”

They flew on in silence. Xander continued to glance down at the passing streets, trying to imagine what London looked like before all the chaos he was witnessing. He had seen London in pictures before, and in movies, but it looked nothing like its cinematic portrayal anymore. The power was out throughout the city, leaving it blanketed even further in darkness. With the smoke blotting out the sun above, he was sure it was like living through a nightmare for anyone still there.

The city seemed to spread forever toward the horizon, but Xander could see a distinct shifting from industrialized inner city to a more residential part of the city.

Smoke still concealed most of their view of the streets below. Xander could feel an itch under his skin, like a calling to land and fight. He had never really been much of a fighter and, even after the extensive training from his aunts and uncles, he still felt uncomfortable starting fights with the Fire Warriors. Still, something was burning within him. He didn’t know if it was the sight of London in ruins, Jessica’s sadness at having part of her future taken away, or a residual effect of being the newest—and only—Water Warrior. It wouldn’t have surprised him if his new hatred and eagerness for combat stemmed from the Water Elemental. Even thousands of miles away, he was still intimidated by the aquatic woman.

A loud crack split the still air.

Xander paused, his heart racing in his chest. Though he had only heard the sound before in the movies, it was unmistakable.

A second and third rapport sounded.

“Those are gunshots,” Sean said. “Someone’s alive down there.”

“We have to help them,” Jessica said.

Xander shook his head. “What happened to us having a plan? What happened to us not being spontaneous anymore?”

“Screw that,” she said. “Someone needs our help, and there’s no way we’re leaving them to die. Now, take us down.”

Xander nodded and smiled faintly to himself. No matter how much he agreed with Jessica and Sean that it was time to plan ahead instead of running into trouble half-cocked, he already felt relieved to finally be able to do some good. Flying over the city had started to make him feel helpless and useless.

The trio hovered above the smoky cloud until they heard a fourth gunshot. Quickly, they descended until the inky soot swallowed them.