Wind Warrior (20 page)

For a long moment, they stood straddling the
unconscious blonde man, embraced in each other’s arms. Suddenly, as
though remembering her surroundings, Jessica stiffened.

“
You know that we’re only
hugging because I’m so relieved to still be alive, right? Nothing
more?”

Sean nodded quickly. “Of course. Sure.”

“
I mean,” she continued,
“if it weren’t for the fact that someone just tried to kill us, we
wouldn’t even be caught dead in the same room, right?”

“
Sure,” he said softly as
he took in the smell of her hair cascading past his
face.

She paused and turned her face toward him.
“Did you just smell my hair?”

Sean arched an eyebrow as his face flushed
in embarrassment. “No, no, of course not,” he laughed nervously.
“That would have been weird!”

“
This moment’s over,” she
said sternly, pushing him back.

As they separated, Sean inadvertently kicked
the unconscious Fire Warrior. The man groaned softly. The pair
looked at each other again, suddenly remembering what brought them
together in the first place.

“
What are we going to do
about him?” she asked.

Sean shrugged. “I guess we tie him up?”

“
He makes fire out of the
air, Sean. What’s to stop him from just burning through his
ropes?”

“
Then we put him in the
shower?” he offered. Her withering stare ended that train of
thought. “No, you’re right. That was a stupid idea.”

Jessica shrugged. “Yeah, but I don’t really
have a better one.”

They returned to the living room, both
exhausted from the exertion of moving the large Fire Warrior. In
the background, they could both hear the faint sound of running
water.

They both collapsed on the couch. Sean
leaned his head back and closed his eyes, wishing he could just go
to sleep. There was always the chance that when he woke up, this
would have all just been a miserable nightmare.

Sean rubbed his eyes before stealing a
glance at Jessica. Despite her wrinkled clothing and the layer of
extinguisher foam that clung infuriatingly to her body, she still
looked amazing. She was every bit the sorority girl he had found so
attractive and equally despised.

“
So what do we do now?” he
asked.

“
You could start by telling
me what this is all about.”

Sean sat upright. “What makes you think I
have any idea what’s going on here?”

Jessica narrowed her eyes. “Because they
were chasing you when they set fire to my car. This is all your
fault.”

“
Time out!” he replied
angrily. “The only reason they were after me was because I went to
talk to Xander’s parents. This all started because he discovered
he…”

Sean quickly shut his mouth after realizing
he was sharing far more than he should.

“
He discovered what?” she
said threateningly.

“
Oh, nothing.”

“
Oh no, you don’t.
Spill.”

Sean glanced over his shoulder, almost
hoping the Fire Warrior would emerge from the bathroom. When the
blonde man didn’t appear, Sean scowled in his direction.

“
Let’s hear it, Sean,” she
said.

Sean sighed and turned back to her. “All
right, but you can’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you.”

“
Sure,
whatever.”

He took a deep breath. “You may want to sit
down for this.”

She looked around at the
couch on which she was currently sitting on. “I
am
sitting down.”

“
No, I mean like
sit down
sit
down.”

“
You’re an idiot. And
you’re stalling.”

“
Fine,” Sean replied.
“These guys are after Xander because… because he’s a superhero.
There, I said it.”

Jessica stared at him unblinking. The pencil
thin line of her lips didn’t turn up or down but remained
emotionlessly bloodless as she pressed them together.

“
I’m sticking to my
previous statement. You’re an idiot.”

She started to stand but Sean was quicker.
He jumped to his feet and moved in front of her.

“
Oh, sure. You have no
trouble believing that a bunch of psychotic pyromaniacs are trying
to kill us but the fact that your ex-boyfriend is a superhero is
just much too far-fetched.”

“
I know Xander. He’s no
superhero.”

“
He was also completely
devoted to you up until some new blonde wandered by. Did you know
him well enough to know that was going to happen?”

Jessica frowned but her eyes quickly
watered. She angrily reached up and wiped them away rather than let
him see her cry.

“
Listen, Jessica,” he said,
suddenly feeling guilty. He extended his hand. “That was cheap of
me. Can we call a truce for a little while, at least until we
figure out what’s going on?”

She glanced at the hand before reaching up
and shaking. “We still need to figure out what we’re going to do
next. We can’t really leave a guy in the shower forever.”

Sean turned and walked over to the desk on
the other side of the living room. His laptop was sitting closed on
the desktop and he flipped it open. The soft white glow of the
screen washed over him as he took a seat. Jessica stood from the
couch and walked over.

“
What are you
doing?”

Sean opened a new browser window and began
typing. “There’s got to be something on these fire guys somewhere
on the internet. People with super powers don’t just suddenly
appear without someone noticing.”

She leaned over his shoulder, genuinely
impressed. “You really think ‘guys who can use fire’ is really
going to turn up a decent search?”

“
Well, what would you
recommend?”

Jessica shrugged before gently pushing his
hands off the keyboard. She typed “strange fire phenomenon” into
the search window and hit enter. The browser filled with results on
spontaneous human combustion and fire rainbows. Jessica pointed to
the bottom of the search window where there was an article about
unexplained fires erupting throughout an Italian town.

“
That one,” she
said.

Sean clicked on it. As the window loaded,
Jessica began reading intently. Sean stole a glance at her out of
the corner of his eye. He hated himself for thinking it, but even
without makeup Jessica was still incredibly attractive. He couldn’t
believe she was actually in his apartment.

“
If you keep looking at me
like that, I’m going to poke you in the eyes.”

Sean flushed. “Look at you like what?” he
replied indignantly.

Jessica looked away from the screen and
flashed a condescending smile. “Like I’m a hamburger.”

“
Really? A fat joke? Real
mature, Jessica.”

Jessica’s gaze turned back to the computer
screen. “I call them like I see them.”

Just like that, his attraction to her faded
and he was reminded why he disliked her so much.

Before he could reply again, she reached
past him and started typing. “Check this out.”

The screen became a map of the Earth with
large sections marked with a series of overlapping red dots.

“
I just did a search for
strange fire-related natural events and this is what I got. These
are tons of forest fires in California. There are the fires in
Naples, Italy. There are currently three volcanoes erupting around
the world.”

“
Isn’t that what volcanoes
do?”

Jessica shot him a warning glare. “Yes, but
these have been dormant for a long time and are suddenly waking up
at the same time.”

“
So what? We can’t stop a
volcano. We were lucky to beat up a single one of those fire guys.
We don’t exactly have a big enough shower to hang over a
volcano.”

“
We really only have one
choice,” Jessica replied, pushing away from the computer. “We need
to find Xander.”

The Buick rumbled down the narrow street. It
pulled dangerously to the right and the wheels connected with the
rumble strip. A loud buzz sounded for a second before Sammy pulled
the car back into her lane.

“
Are you okay?” Abraxas
asked, though she doubted he asked for anything more than concern
for his own well-being.

“
I’m fine,” she said. Her
words were choked with emotion as she drove down the familiar
streets.

“
Good.”

She swallowed hard, trying to force down the
ball of fear that was lodged firmly in her throat. “Why are we
here?”

Abraxas grinned wickedly. “We’re hunting a
rodent. It’s not always possible to chase a rodent, especially when
they decide to hide from you. Therefore, if they won’t come to you,
you bait them. Give them something worth chasing and then crush
them when they’re in the open.”

Sammy looked up as they
drove past the city limits sign. She saw the large painted sun and
the broad white letters that read,
Welcome
to White Halls
.

“
If you’re out there,
Xander,” she whispered quietly enough not to be overheard, “please
come home. I can’t do this alone.”

She pulled the Buick over and parked against
the curb. A few other cars passed the Fire Warriors as they sat in
the car in silence.

A group of college students walked past on
the sidewalk, laughing and teasing one another as they strolled
toward the restaurant a few blocks away. In the front of the group,
a guy and girl walked with their arms linked and broad smiles
plastered across their faces. The sight caused a pang in Sammy’s
chest. It hadn’t been that long ago in this town that she and
Xander had walked into the spring formal, linked arm in arm like
the college kids she now watched.

From the corner of her eye, she stole a
glance to General Abraxas. The remorseful longing that she felt was
nowhere to be seen on his face. He instead scowled at the kids, as
though their happiness was a personal affront.

“
What are we doing here?”
she asked again.

He ignored her question and continued
staring out the window. Reaching over, he rolled down his window
and let the cool breeze wash over him. His nostrils flared as he
took in the odor of the small town. After a brief smell, his brow
furrowed in disgust and he spat out the window.

“
This place stinks,” he
said.

“
It’s called fresh
air.”

The General shook his head. “It’s not fresh.
I can smell it, haunting just below the surface. It’s there,
hanging like a poison cloud just below the breeze. It’s the toxin
of humanity. It’s the smell of strip-mined mountains. It’s the
smell of polluted rivers. It’s the smell of noxious clouds of smoke
billowing out of their factories. It’s permeated everything they
touch.”