Water Shaper (World Aflame) (24 page)

Xander leaned forward until he knew Sean and Wilkes could hear him. “You know this isn’t going to last long, right? They’re going to tear us apart once they figure out what we’re up to.”

“Probably,” Sean said, “but we’ll make a little headway before they do. Every block we can drive is one block we won’t have to walk.”

“Here they come,” Jessica yelled through the back window.

The Fire Warriors emerged from the street ahead, scowling at the charging fire truck. Flames appeared in their hands as they formed a line along the street.

“Let them have it,” Wilkes said, patting Sean on the back.

Sean cranked the handle back and the hose sprayed the line of Fire Warriors. Like dominos, they fell one after another as he shifted the cannon. The Fire Warriors ran for cover after they overcame their surprise and, while the fire truck continued charging ahead down the road, flames started striking the road around them.

“Watch left,” Xander warned as they passed a Fire Warrior.

The warrior threw a fireball into the side of the truck, and the metal smoldered from the blast. A stream of flames struck the front windshield and rolled up and over the top of the cab. When the flames met the pressurized jet of water, the air was filled with a hiss of steam.

“Are you okay in there, Jessie?” Sean asked as he saw where the flames had blackened the front of the cab.

“I’m okay, but I can’t see very well anymore. Most of the windshield is covered with soot.”

The element of surprise quickly disappeared. As they drove past the initial line of Fire Warriors, they reemerged behind the truck and more and more balls of flame struck the speeding vehicle.

A loud pop warned the group as a flame ruined one of the back tires. The fire truck jerked sharply to the left as Jessica lost control of one of the rear tires. The truck slammed into the row of ruined parked cars. The sound of metal scraping together was ear piercing, and sparks flew over the concrete sidewalk.

“There’s our turn,” Wilkes said excitedly, pointing to a road that angled off from Tooley Street.

The truck didn’t begin angling toward the side road, though they were speeding closer to their turn by the second.

“Jessica,” Xander said. “We need to turn.”

“I’m trying,” she retorted. “The truck’s not exactly cooperating anymore. I can’t get it to turn right with the ruined back tire.”

Xander looked over his shoulder and saw a large gouge torn out of the asphalt from where they were driving on the rim of the blown tire.

“I got more bad news,” Sean said. He pulled back and forth on the nozzle, and the stream of water struggled to spray past the front of the cab. “We didn’t think this thing had a lot of water left if they were using it to fight fires, but we kind of hoped it would last more than a couple of city blocks.”

The truck struck another parked car and rolled slowly past their turn. Xander slapped his hand on top of the cab to get Jessica’s attention.

“Just stop,” he said. “We’ll have to run from here.”

The fire truck pulled to the left again as Jessica applied the
brake, and the vehicle came to rest against the burnt husk of a car. They jumped out quickly, landing in the inch of water that pooled on either edge of the road from both the rain and fire hose. It splashed as they landed and kicked up behind them as they ran away from the truck.

Whether the Fire Warriors knew the truck was abandoned or not was unclear, but they peppered the vehicle with bursts of fire until the entire red engine was consumed with flames.

Xander looked to the Brit for guidance as they looked for somewhere to run. He pointed inquisitively toward the side road, which was just past where they came to a stop.

Wilkes shook his head. “We’d never make it back past the Fire Warriors
and, even if we did, without the truck we’d never shake them before we got to the flat. We need to lose them first.”

Wilkes looked at the oddly structured building beside them. The dark glass
, triangular building was framed in an odd, metal cage. Though some of the windows had been smashed, the cage had done a good job of protecting the building from the gratuitous destruction many of the other buildings had suffered.

“We can go this way and sweep back around,” the officer said, pointing to the sidewalk that ran along the triangular building. “We’ll just have to put some distance between us and them.”

“Then let’s stop standing around talking about it,” Sean said.

They hurried onto the sidewalk and into the shadow of the building. Xander took a step forward but his knees buckled as an incredibly sharp pain stabbed through his gut. He dropped to his knees in the frigid water and groaned.

“Stop,” Jessica told the others, and she rushed back to his side. “What’s wrong?”

“Pain,” Xander said. “Like before. When we were at the store.”

Wilkes turned and looked upward in a panic, knowing what he faced when Xander had felt that pain before. The burning wings appeared as General Abraxas swooped down, landing heavily in front of the group. His burning wings illuminated the shaven head and dark tattoos. His eyes smoldered with sadistic glee as he looked upon Xander.

Xander looked up and stared in disbelief at the demented Fire Warrior. His face was one that was burned forever into his memory; the man had slaughtered his entire family.

“That’s impossible,” Xander said, forcing his legs underneath him so he could stand again. “You’re dead. We killed you.”

“You did nothing other than anger me,” Abraxas snarled through his pointed teeth. “You tried to kill me once before. I’ve been waiting so long to return the favor.”

Xander let the white overcome his eyes as he summoned the power of the Wind Elemental. He could feel his anger and disgust feeding his power until he was no longer in control; he was little more than a conduit for the full wrath of the elemental might.

Abraxas turned casually to the side and let loose a stream of blindingly bright white flames. Xander’s skin smoldered and smoked from the heat, despite the fact that the flames weren’t directed at the four friends. Instead, the fire struck the triangular building beside them. It melted through the
white, metal cage without any resistance. As the fire struck the building itself, the structure exploded from the heat and pressure. Metal, glass, and concrete flew into the air. Without its corner support, a crack split through the center of the building. The top shifted under its own weight and slid forward, spilling toward Xander and the group.

Xander looked up in time to see concrete and glass spilling toward them, led by jagged and shattered
white, metal poles. He immediately forgot his thoughts of revenge as he realized they were about to be crushed by the collapsing building. He threw up his arms defensively in his panic, and the wind power fled from him.

The Fire Elemental swooped low, blasting the street below in a swath of flames. Sammy could see the people below scattering in the dragon’s wake but too few of them escaped its destruction. She sobbed internally, knowing she had no control over the actual creature. The tears she shed were hers alone; she doubted the Elemental even recognized her pain. She could feel its overwhelming sense of morbid glee as it breathed fire again and again, wiping out the human defenses within the city.

As it turned for another pass, Sammy tried futilely once again to stop its attack. She struggled against its intake of breath, hoping to seize its throat closed. When that failed, she tried to stop the brewing of flames within its gullet. The pain lanced through her head as she tried to keep it from breathing its fire.

As the flames struck the side of the wide home below them, the house erupted in fire. The roof melted and fell inward, trapping those inside.

Sammy tried to retreat into herself. When she realized she was still alive and hadn’t been destroyed by being taken as a host, she had such high hopes. She assumed she’d be able to control her body, taking it back from the Elemental. Even if it meant purging the Elemental only to have it turn and kill her body in retribution, she was willing to accept that fate. She just wanted it gone and to limit its ability to move freely among the humans.

Nothing was working out how she had hoped. While she was technically still alive, she was watching the world unfold through her own eyes with no hope of control. The few brief moments where she was able to exert herself were so taxing that she had been forced to watch impotently as the dragon continued its destruction of Los Angeles.

She was quickly learning that her times to control the Fire Elemental were going to be few and far between. If nothing else, she was going to have to choose her battles more wisely. With only a few seconds at a time—and far too long of a recovery time before she’d be able to control the body again—she couldn’t fight every battle. She’d find a way to win the war between her and the Fire Elemental but to do it, she’d have to be a lot smarter.

As the Elemental turned upward, climbing toward the sky, Sammy was pulled back to the present. The dragon
tilted its wings and arced back toward the taller buildings in the center of the city. Sammy watched through the creature’s peripheral vision and saw similar flares of heat surrounding them. The resistance wasn’t gone, not yet at least, though Sammy doubted it would survive much longer. Something else had drawn the Elemental’s attention away from its business.

They swooped low once
again, and Sammy feared they were going to attack another human stronghold. Instead, the dragon used the dive to pick up speed before arching upward. It climbed higher until it was able to alight on the protruding rooftop balcony of a taller apartment building in the area. The roof groaned under the Elemental’s weight, and its rear claws dug into the rooftop.

Sammy searched the dragon’s mind, trying to figure out why they had stopped. She could sense the Elemental’s urge to return to the fight—the urge to get back to killing the last vestiges of humanity within the city. Something had drawn it
away, and it seemed ready to sit here and wait for whatever it was.

Then Sammy sensed it as well. It was faint, a tickling in the back of their respective minds. It was little more than a whisper that slowly grew in intensity until it was practically a scream echoing in their head. Sammy’s stomach fell as she recognized the voice demanding an audience. General Abraxas’ requested the Elemental’s attention, as though he had something important to report.

She wanted to stop the Fire Elemental from responding to his call. She knew that if Abraxas was excited, it couldn’t possibly be good news for either her or Xander. She didn’t have the energy or even the ability to stop the Elemental’s projection to its strongest minion, but neither would she be left alone in the draconic body. If Abraxas had something to report on his mission to kill Xander, Sammy would be right there beside the Elemental, receiving the news.

Slowly, the world around them hazed and
blurred, and she felt a tug in her gut as their consciousness sped across the planet.

It was inky blackness underneath the tons of debris from the collapsed building. Xander coughed into the dust-filled air. He held his hands up but couldn’t see his
them directly in front of his face. It was completely black.

“Is everyone okay?” he asked.

“Good,” Wilkes said, though his voice sounded rough.

“I’m here,” Sean said.

“Living the dream,” Jessica said.