Water Shaper (World Aflame) (17 page)

The trio slowly stood and looked around the empty store.

Wilkes slammed into the department store’s rear emergency exit, snapping the thin, plastic wiring that held the door closed from the outside. Without the electricity, no alarm sounded.

The dim sunlight struck him as he emerged onto the
narrow, one-way street that ran behind the department store. Despite the gloom over London, the light was a stark contrast to the darkness of the building’s interior. He paused and raised a hand to his eyes as he looked left and right, scanning for more Fire Warriors.

A ball of flame struck the wall behind him, splashing fire across the metal emergency exit door. Wilkes jumped and looked over his shoulder, noticing the two Fire Warriors emerging from the gloom of
the store. Flames reemerged around their hands as they prepared another fireball.

The officer started to raise his rifle but thought better
of it. He tucked the weapon against his body so it wouldn’t rattle as he ran, and he sprinted down the street.

Though he’d been stationed in Kent for the past few years, he knew London and knew the streets that ran parallel to Selfridges. He was confident he’d be able to lose the leather-clad warriors on some of the side streets.

His lungs burned as he ran between the ruined cars. He was in good shape but wasn’t used to breathing pure ash. He coughed painfully as he felt a stitch starting in his side.

By the time he reached the next cross street, his side was burning from exertion.

“Bloody smoke,” he muttered. He leaned over, resting his hands on his knees as his lungs screamed for more oxygen.

“There he is,” a Fire Warrior yelled.

The car beside him burst into flames, and its side windows exploded outward. Wilkes threw up his hands defensively, protecting his face from the flying glass.

The Brit started running again, taking a sharp right. He frowned because Selfridges still sat on his right. He wanted to put as much distance as possible between himself and the store. Otherwise, his entire plan of leading the Fire Warriors away from Xander and his friends would fall apart.

Another street opened on his left and he turned, hoping he had put enough distance between himself and the warriors that they’d have trouble following him. He wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to run at this pace before he’d have to stop.

Another burst of flames painted the wall beside him as he turned, telling him that he wasn’t lucky enough to have outrun them already.

“Why can’t these blokes be fat like the Yank?” he muttered to himself.

The run down the narrow side road was
exhausting, and he could feel his blood pounding in his temple. His lungs ached, and he could feel pain spreading through his muscles as they burned through their oxygen.

He fought the yearning to turn and shoot the warriors. He knew a couple
of well-placed shots would end this chase and probably catch the Fire Warriors by surprise. He also knew, however, that any gunshots this close to the department store would bring every other Fire Warrior to his position and jeopardize the Americans. Instead, he pushed himself through the pain and reached another cross street.

He turned right onto James Street. His feet caught on the
sidewalk, and he stumbled forward. His arms felt heavy from the exertion, and he barely got his hands up before he staggered into the wall. He coughed again and looked down the road to where it reconnected with Oxford Street. It seemed a far run, and he wasn’t sure he felt up to it.

Instead of running, he slipped into a recessed entryway on the nearest building and sank into its deep shadows. He gripped his rifle in both hands, knowing it was time to use it, regardless of whether or not he’d put enough distance between himself and the others.

The Fire Warriors rushed around the corner and barely had time to acknowledge that Wilkes wasn’t on the street in front of them before the Brit stepped out of the alcove. He drove the butt of the rifle into the face of the first warrior, shattering the man’s nose. The warrior dropped to the ground like a rock, his head clattering on the concrete. The second raised his hand, but Wilkes quickly spun his rifle around and squeezed the trigger. The Fire Warrior lurched as the Brit fired three rounds into him at close range. The man gurgled before slumping to the ground beside his friend.

Wilkes didn’t wait to see if any others were coming. He turned and stumbled down James Street.

“Did you hear that?” Xander asked. He stopped his incessant pacing around the men’s wear of the department store. Canting his head to the side, he strained to hear the noise again.

“It sounded like gunshots,” Jessica said. She pulled her new jacket tighter around her body and absently pulled off the price tag that hung from the sleeve.

“Wilkes is in trouble,” Xander said. “We need to go after him.”

“Or he’s managing just fine,” Sean said, “seeing as how he has a gun and is clearly using it.”

Xander slammed his hand onto a clothes rack and scowled. “I don’t like just sitting around. He could need my help.”

Sean stood up from the seat he had dragged over from the changing rooms. “And what would you do if he needed help? Use your powers again? He’s in trouble because you used them in the first place.”

Xander frowned but couldn’t find the words to reply.

“That’s a little harsh, Sean,” Jessica said. “Aren’t you supposed to use humor as a defense mechanism?”

“Yeah but, apparently, I have a saturation point for stress and once I cross it, I become the mature adult in our group.”

Xander shoved his hands in his pockets and walked toward the open maw of the display window. Keeping to the shadows, he peered down the street, hoping to catch sight of the Leftenant. The street beyond was sadly empty, though the smoke limited his visibility anyway. He wasn’t sure he’d see Wilkes even if the man were running down the street a block away.

The city seemed abnormally quiet again following the gunshots. He didn’t like the idea of hearing the gunshots and thinking Wilkes was in trouble, but the silence was almost more frightening. Gunshots meant the British officer was still alive. Silence could mean he was hurt or worse. Xander swallowed hard at the thought that Wilkes could be dead. No matter how much Sean might be tactless and sometimes be a jerk, he couldn’t deny that he was right. The Fire Warriors had found them because Xander had lost his temper and foolishly used his power.

With a sigh, Xander turned back and rejoined his other two friends. Sean glanced over as he approached. Jessica was barely visible as she sat on the changing room bench, trying on a new pair of boots.

“I think we should go after him,” Xander said matter-of-factly.

Sean smiled. “I had a sinking suspicion you’d say something like that.”

“So?”

Sean jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “If we’re going after him, I need to hit up the sporting goods section. I’m getting a little tired of matching off with guys with fireballs in their hands with nothing other than my fisticuffs. There’s no way I’m going after a bunch of Fire Warriors without a weapon this time around.”

The heavyset man turned away from the other two. “Do they have sporting goods sections in England?”

Xander laughed. “Why wouldn’t they have a sporting goods section?”

Sean shrugged. “You never know. They call soccer football. They still play polo on horseback, play cricket, and say silly things like ‘sticky wicket’. Isn’t England also the one where the toilets flush the opposite direction?”

“I’m pretty sure that last one is Australia.”

“Whatever. I’ll be back with a baseball bat. Unless they only have cricket bats. Then… whatever.”

Sean faded into the gloom of the store as he searched for the sporting goods section.

Abraxas sat on the rooftop, staring over the burning city with great satisfaction. He still felt the lingering feeling in his gut from when Xander used his wind powers. Though he couldn’t pinpoint his location anymore, the General knew he was close to finding the final Wind Warrior.

He ran a sweaty hand over his bald head, feeling the slightly raised tattoos on his scalp. The flaming wings on his back tucked in close to his body as he perched on the edge of the rooftop, scanning the street below. His eyesight, bolstered with the strength of the Fire Elemental, was unfazed by the smoke that blotted the cityscape. The heat from his wings rolled over him, causing his treated leather armor to smolder and threaten to catch fire.

Lord Cambion stood patiently behind him, his arms crossed in front of
him, awaiting the General’s commands. The flaming wings on his back radiated heat that even Cambion’s desensitized skin could feel from ten feet away.

“What are your orders, my lord?” Lord Cambion asked.

Abraxas turned on the man, glaring at the warrior’s invasion of the silence that had existed on the roof. The Fire Lord bowed low and cleared his throat nervously. For a brief moment, Abraxas considered burning the man to ash as he’d done his predecessor, for no other reason than the affront of interrupting him while he searched the city for something to kill.

Before Abraxas could decide on his wanton destruction, three gunshots echoed through the streets nearby. The General spun quickly toward the streets below and scanned them impatiently.

In the distance, he could see the heat signature of a man emerging from a cross street. The man’s silhouette wasn’t masked by the thick leather of the Fire Warriors.

General Abraxas smiled wickedly and turned back to Lord Cambion. After spending so much time supervising the decimation of the human race by the different Fire Caste clans around the world, it would be good to feel someone die by his hands again.

“There’s something still alive in London that needs killing,” the General said.

The Fire Lord stared at him confusedly, as he offered no directions or guidance.

Abraxas stepped off the rooftop, stretching his wings as he did. Thermal currents washed over Cambion as the General raced toward the stranger on the street.

Leftenant Wilkes paused when he reached Oxford Street. The main street, like James Street behind him, was creepily devoid of the Fire Warriors that he knew had to be around the area.

He reached up and wiped away a sheen of sweat from his dark skin. His lungs still burned from the exertion, and he looked forward for a chance to get back to the department store and rest for a while with the others. Though he had just met the odd trio of college students, they were the only friends he had on his mission to find his family.

A light breeze blew, carrying the smoke further down the street. For a moment, the
tall, red brick buildings across from him were visible through the haze. Wilkes glanced up and down the street, hoping the flowing wind wouldn’t reveal an army of Fire Warrior laying in ambush.

As he glanced down Oxford Street, his eyes fell on a smoldering ruin of a double
-decker bus, fallen on its side and blocking the road. The red paint was bubbled and blackened from flames. Just beyond the bus, however, Wilkes noticed something significantly more promising. A white, metal cage jutted from the building, framing a hollow entrance. Beside the entry tunnel, a telltale sign hung over the street. Its red circle with blue bar running horizontally through its center was exactly what Wilkes needed to find. The entrance to the Bond Street Underground station gave the Leftenant hope and a plan.

With a smile on his face, Wilkes turned back toward Selfridges.

A whoosh of air alerted him to danger moments before a brilliant figure flew overhead. The glowing form illuminated the smoke in the air as it passed over Wilkes. The Leftenant dropped to a knee and raised his rifle to his shoulder.

General Abraxas emerged from the smoke and slammed down onto the roof of a ruined car. The force of his impact buckled the metal frame and shattered outward what little glass remained in the car’s broken windows. He dropped down into a crouch on his landing, slamming his fist onto the car with a ringing that reverberated across the street.

Wilkes could see the dark tattoos tracing the strange man’s head, illuminated as they were by the enormous, burning wings. As Abraxas stood, he stretched the wings and let them brush the brick building behind him. The red brick blackened under the heat, and the tough mortar between the stones bubbled from the intensity.

The Leftenant felt his stomach lurch at the sight of the clearly deadly figure towering over him. The Fire Warriors he had encountered before seemed tame and manageable compared to the monster that stood before him.

“So what the bloody mess are you?” Wilkes said softly, though he doubted General Abraxas either heard him or cared.

Abraxas dropped his gaze to the Brit just as the wind
died, and the smoke began to drift back across the road, separating the two men.

“It’s been far too long since I’ve killed someone,” Abraxas said. His eyes flared with internal fire. He smiled, revealing a row of sharpened teeth. “Run, if it makes you feel better. I enjoy a good hunt.”

Wilkes swallowed hard but, he felt a surreal calm settle over him. He clutched his rifle a little tighter and smiled at the Fire Warrior.

“All right, mate. Let’s dance.”

As Wilkes raised his rifle, Abraxas threw a fireball. The roaring flame struck a car beside the officer and exploded in a shower of sparks. It erupted in flames and was tossed into the air. The concussive blast from the explosion knocked Wilkes from his feet before he could pull the trigger on his rifle.

Wilkes skidded across the sidewalk from the force of the blast. The smell of sulfur seemed to settle over him like a blanket, choking his lungs and stinging his eyes.

The car crashed back to the asphalt and thick, black smoke billowed from its ruin. Wilkes quickly scrambled to his feet and raised his rifle again. The General was concealed behind the black smoke, but the Brit doubted the man had moved from his precarious perch. He raised his rifle, switching the rate of fire from single round to full automatic. As he squeezed and held the trigger, flames leapt from the end of his rifle.

He felt the kick of the rifle against his shoulder as he emptied the rest of his magazine. The rounds flashed across the street, disappearing into the thickening smoke.

The pull of the fully automatic burst pulled the weapon to the left and his bullets missed their target, spraying instead the wall beside the Fire Warrior. The rounds splintered the brick, sending slivers of the brickwork flying into the surrounding area. Its stone sliced into Abraxas’ back. The General howled in rage, surprised by the brashness of the British officer.

With the burning car between the two, Abraxas’ heat vision was blurred, concealing Wilkes’ exact location. Enraged by the man’s attack, he summoned an orbiting series of fireballs that hovered around him.

Wilkes’ rifle clicked empty as the last of the bullets left the chamber. The bolt locked to the rear and smoke faintly rolled from the barrel of the weapon. Despite the spray of gunfire, he wasn’t foolish enough to believe the howl was one of pain. It was anger, and Wilkes knew he was soon going to be in trouble.

From the thick smoke, a white-hot glowing ball of flame emerged, sailing toward him. Wilkes dropped to the sidewalk as the fireball sailed inches over his head. The flames exploded against the
storefronts behind Wilkes. The Brit sucked in a breath of air and brought his legs underneath him as he prepared to run. He knew he should reload but wasn’t sure he had the time.

Two more fireballs flew out of the smoke, striking the walls haphazardly. Wilkes smiled, knowing his enemy wasn’t aiming anymore. The flames flew again and again, striking the walls, storefronts, and nearby automobiles. Each blast filled the area with more and more dark smoke.

Despite it burning his eyes and lungs and leaving his mouth with a taste of ash, Wilkes saw an important opportunity to escape. He wasn’t foolish enough to think he was a match for the psychotic winged warrior across the street, but the Fire Warrior’s aimless destruction of the area granted the Brit more than enough opportunity to escape without being seen.

As another fireball struck the car in front of him, Wilkes leapt to his feet and sprinted down Oxford Street, using the smoke as cover. He turned and quietly slipped down Duke Street, running along the side of Selfridges.

He hoped that General Abraxas hadn’t seen him escape or figured out where he went. If he did, all the hard work Wilkes did trying to keep the college students safe would be for nothing.

Abraxas crouched back atop his building perch and scanned the city below. He knew that irritating human he had encountered on the street was still alive and, more importantly, the Wind Warrior was nearby. It seemed too coincidental that he would be hunting Xander when he encountered the black soldier. Find one, he was sure, and he would find the other.

He looked over his shoulder and saw the seeping wound on his back from where the shrapnel had cut him. General Abraxas scowled. The Wind Warrior still retained the spot on the top of his list of people to kill, but the soldier had quickly moved up to the second spot. He hoped he’d find them together. It would be such a wonderful reward to kill them both at the same time.

His frown deepened as he looked back toward the city. The Wind Warrior hadn’t
reappeared, and he was due to report to the Fire Elemental. He knew reporting that Xander had eluded him would have unfortunate repercussions. However, it wouldn’t be long until he found the boy. It wasn’t technically a lie if he said he had found Xander. The warrior was trapped somewhere below and it was only a matter of time before he revealed himself.

General Abraxas closed his eyes and concentrated on the Fire Elemental. Slowly, the air in front of him shimmered.

“
General Abraxas,
” the Elemental said. The voice seemed to echo all around him.

He opened his eyes and stared at the
giant, draconic orb hovering in the air before him. He bowed deeply before returning his gaze to the representation of his Master.

“My Master,” he said.

“
Why have you bothered me, Abraxas?
” it asked.

Abraxas stared at the eye and furrowed his brow. The Elemental’s voice seemed oddly strained. The Elemental was being curt, at least more so than normal. Perhaps its conquest of Los Angeles was not going as well as the destruction of London and Tokyo.

“I have located Xander Sirocco,” General Abraxas said. “I have him trapped and eagerly await your orders.”

The eye hovered in the
air, and Abraxas sensed a wave of displeasure. He looked down toward the ground in confusion, not eager to make eye contact with the Elemental if it truly was displeased.

“
Let him go
,” the Elemental said.

Abraxas paused and his breath caught in his throat. His hand slowly clenched to a
fist, and he defiantly raised his head toward the visage of the Fire Elemental.

“Master, you must be mistaken. We’ve been searching for—“

Abraxas paused in midsentence. The edges of the dragon’s vertical iris were framed in a brilliant blue. As quickly as he noticed the blue discoloration, the red and yellow of the pupil reasserted itself.

“
Kill him,
” the Fire Elemental said. “
Kill the Wind Warrior and bring me his head as a trophy.
”

General Abraxas forced a smile toward the reptilian orb. “As you wish, my Master.”

The eye disappeared from the air over London, leaving Abraxas alone once more with his thoughts and his confusion over the Elemental’s odd and contradictory behavior.

The Elemental slumped into its recliner and scowled angrily. It looked beside it and saw the human cowering at its obvious irritation. The Fire Elemental swept its hand aside, striking the man across the face, sending him sprawling across the floor. With him lying prone, the Elemental could see the series of crossing burn marks across his back.

The human had been the sole inhabitant of the luxurious penthouse at the top of the building. He had tried to defend himself against the Fire Elemental’s intrusion and now he suffered for his insolence.

With the man knocked aside, the Fire Elemental returned to its consuming anger. The anger was the only thing that overwhelmed the disappointment it felt at ordering Xander’s death. It knew it wasn’t its own emotional response. It stole a glance across the room and saw its reflection standing arrogantly with her arms crossed over her chest.

“
Stop doing that,
” the Elemental ordered.

“I’m never going to stop,” Sammy said. “Not until I get my body back.”

“
You’ll never get it back. If I can’t evict you from my mind, then I’ll see how you feel after I kill the man you love and post his head on a stick above my city. It’ll dangle like a banner from the roof of this very building, as a constant reminder that no one—not even you—can stop me.
”

Sammy chewed on her lip and stared across the spacious room. “I hope he kills you.”

The Elemental laughed, frightening the man on the floor. “
If he kills me, then he kills you.
”

“I’d rather die than have you using my body.” Sammy glanced at the naked woman sitting on the recliner. “And put on some clothes. Have some decency with my body.”

The Elemental looked down as though just recognizing the fact that it was truly naked. “
It’s not your body anymore. If you want me to dress, force me.
”