Wind Warrior (21 page)

Sammy huffed. “You’re just spouting the same
rhetoric I’ve heard from my father since I was born. I’ve seen the
surface world. It’s not nearly as bad as you seem to believe.”

“
It doesn’t matter what you
believe,” he said, smiling wickedly. “The Wind Caste will fall and
we will ravage the world of man. Burn it back to the Earth. Nothing
will stop us.”

“
He’ll try,” the words
slipped out before she could stop them. Sammy immediately flushed
with embarrassment.

Rather than seeming upset, General Abraxas’
smile widened. “You mean the Wind Warrior. He’ll try. And he’ll
die, just like all the rest of their kind. And when the last of
them die by my hand, then the rest of the world will share their
fate.”

Angrily, Sammy opened her door and climbed
out of the car. She slammed it behind her and stormed across the
street. As she walked, she heard the soft click of his door being
opened as well.

She didn’t know what to do. Abraxas was
right—the Wind Caste didn’t stand a chance against the Fire
Warriors. Their power was created to feed the flames, meaning that
it would take an exceptional amount of power to defeat a trained
group of warriors. The fact that they defeated her warriors
previously only proved that her warriors were inexperienced and
overly confident—it hardly proved that the Wind Warriors were truly
that powerful.

The General crossed the road and walked up
behind her. “You can’t stop the inevitable.”

She kept her back to him, choosing instead
to watch him through the reflection in the glass storefront. She
watched him turn away from her and sniff the air once again. He
smiled as he caught the scent of what he was looking for. Suddenly,
she felt it as well. She felt the small twinge in her stomach, like
something crawling across her skin. She had felt that sensation
once before, when Xander first used his powers. Someone was using
elemental powers nearby.

“
There’s a Wind Warrior in
town,” he whispered.

Sammy paled. She couldn’t imagine Xander
would be foolish enough to come back home so soon after she tried
to kill him but the General wasn’t wrong. Someone in the town had
used elemental powers. It wasn’t one of the Fire Warriors; the
power used had a different sensation, one to which she wasn’t
accustomed. It had to be a Wind Warrior.

“
Tell me, Lady Balor,” the
General said as he smiled and showed his rows of sharpened teeth.
“Where did your young Wind Warrior live?”

Sammy shook her head as beads of sweat broke
out across her forehead. She suddenly knew what the General had in
mind.

“
I don’t know,” she lied.
Though she had never been to his house, she had seen his house
after following him home after school.

General Abraxas’ smile disappeared and he
glowered at Sammy. “Don’t lie to me, girl!”

He reached out and clenched her arm, his
fingers searing against her skin. She screamed out in pain and her
knees buckled as his grip tightened.

“
Hey,” a voice called from
behind the General. “Leave her alone!”

She looked over the General’s shoulder and
saw a man standing on the curb behind Abraxas. He wore a White
Halls College football jacket, which he filled out with his large
physique. Under normal circumstances, he would have been a great
champion to come to her aid. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a normal
situation. He was in grave danger from the General and didn’t even
know it. His attempt to be a knight in shining armor could easily
cost him his life.

General Abraxas released her arm and turned
toward the stranger. As he smiled, the football player backed away
from his pointed teeth.

“
Say it again,” the General
hissed through his clenched teeth. Behind his back, a ball of flame
began to form in his hand.

“
Leave her alone,” the man
repeated with significantly less bravado.

“
Oh, I will. I’ve found a
much better plaything now.”

The General whipped his hand around from his
back. The ball of flame gripped in his palm burned a blindingly
vibrant yellow. He reared back to throw the fireball at the young
footballer.

Sammy lunged forward and struck the
General’s wrist as the older Fire Warrior was preparing to release.
The flying ball went askew as it flew, narrowly avoiding the brave
stranger. Instead of burning the young man where he stood, the ball
of flame crashed through the pane of glass beside him before
exploding against the interior display wall. The windows all along
the storefront exploded outward in a shower of broken glass and
roaring flames.

The football player threw up his hands
defensively as the glass poured over him. As quickly as it had
begun, the sudden burst of flames died away and the glass fell to
the ground in a glistening rain.

The young man looked up with bewilderment.
His feet seemed affixed to the ground as he stared at the homicidal
Fire Warrior.

“
Run!” Sammy
yelled.

Her words cut through his stupor and he
turned and ran. His sneakered feet crunched the glass underneath as
he quickly disappeared around a corner.

Sammy stared toward the man as he retreated
but her mind was swirling with confusion. She didn’t know why she
just saved that man’s life. She didn’t know him; hadn’t seen him
before just now. Instinctually, she knew that the Fire Warriors
were going to burn away humanity so that the Earth could begin
anew. Yet when faced with taking the life of a single human
stranger, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. It was a mirror to
her experience with Xander when they were alone in the abandoned
house. Something within her overrode her common sense and
upbringing.

The General spun on Sammy angrily. Reaching
out, he grabbed her wrists painfully, squeezing until she swore the
bones underneath her skin would break. She whimpered in pain but
refrained from crying out again.

“
No more games, you stupid
girl! Tell me where he lived!”

Sammy shook her head softly. Despite knowing
he wouldn’t think twice before killing her, she was beginning to
accept that she couldn’t betray the Wind Warriors to such a
megalomaniac.

The heat on her wrists increased until she
could hear the sizzling of her flesh underneath. She groaned loudly
and her knees grew weak. The General leaned forward, his eyes
smoldering with hatred.

Just when she didn’t think she could take
any more, she felt an invisible tugging on her gut. Like the
butterfly feeling from before, this feeling was quite a bit
stronger.

The General felt it too and quickly let her
go. Sammy fell to the ground and curled into a ball, cradling her
burned wrists against her chest. She knew the skin would heal; she
always healed quickly from burns.

“
He knows we’re here,” the
General said. “I guess I won’t need you to lead the way to them
after all.”

Reaching down, the General pulled her to her
feet and shoved her ahead of him as they marched toward Xander’s
house.

The street was quiet as the pair walked down
the sidewalk. The air was filled with the lingering smell of soot
and ash, a remnant of Xander and his grandfather’s battle against
the Fire Warriors in the nearby park.

Though the feeling in their gut was gone,
the Wind Warrior’s actions had done their damage. General Abraxas
had been able to narrow down the location of Xander’s house by
following the elemental power. Standing now on the same street as
the young Wind Warrior’s home, the sly smile returned to the
General’s face.

“
I know you’re here,”
Abraxas yelled into the cool air. “Come and face me, Wind Warrior.
Come and meet your doom.”

Sammy held her breath, hoping the unseen
Wind Warrior wouldn’t be foolish enough to show himself against
such a powerful Fire Warrior. She wanted to wave him away; to warn
him about the danger. Unfortunately, General Abraxas had seen fit
to tie her wrists with a leather cord, the other end of which was
attached to his belt. He had given her just enough length on the
leather rope to walk ahead of him but not enough to raise her hands
above her head.

“
You’re a coward, like all
the rest of your kind!” he yelled. “What is your plan? Stay out of
sight until I leave? Rush off to warn the others? Your plan won’t
work because I’m not leaving!”

General Abraxas drew back his hand and
flames enveloped his arm. The flames flickered and swirled as he
formed them into a stream. The jet of flame leapt from his hand and
struck a parked car nearby. The glass windshield shattered as the
interior of the car burst into flames. Fire rolled out the broken
side windows, spilling putrid black smoke into the air.

“
Take a good look, Wind
Warrior! I’ll burn this entire street to the ground if you don’t
come out and face me. I’ll kill every innocent person in this town
until I flush you out! I’ll…”

He stopped in mid-sentence as a biting
sensation spread in his gut. A man leapt nimbly from a tree in
front of a two-story house. The rosy-cheeked man glided fluidly
through the air before touching down lithely in front of Abraxas. A
cyclone of wind struck the General in the chest, lifting the
surprised man from his feet. The leather cord jerked on Sammy’s
hands and she found herself jerked from her feet as Abraxas flew
backward.

Before the Fire Warriors even hit the
ground, the man had launched back into the air and disappeared into
the nearby trees.

The General stood angrily and yanked Sammy
back to her feet.

“
Is this how you fight?”
the General yelled. “You’re only delaying the
inevitable!”

A rustle of leaves warned the General
seconds before a second cyclone struck him in the back, knocking
him face first into the concrete. Sammy was jerked forward but
managed to keep her feet. She dropped to a knee as the leather bit
into her wrists. Slamming his fist into the ground, Abraxas raised
his head just in time to see the Wind Warrior disappear once again
into the tree line.

“
Coward!”

General Abraxas climbed back to his feet
hastily and extended his hands toward the nearby trees. Flames
leapt from his hands, igniting the leaf-laden branches. The vibrant
green leaves curled and blackened quickly in the heat. The
still-living wood sent pillars of white smoke into the air as the
trees caught fire.

Turning, the General set tree after tree on
fire. As he reached the end of the row of trees, the Wind Warrior
emerged from the tree canopy. In his hand, the air shimmered as he
prepared another air onslaught. Having prepared for the attack this
time, the General held his ground and merely smiled at the
confident Wind Warrior.

The floating Wind Warrior coalesced another
miniature tornado in his hand and launched it at Abraxas. The
General threw his arms out wide and let the cyclone hit him full
force in the chest. Rather than staggering or falling like he had
done before, General Abraxas absorbed the swirling air into his
body.

The flames enveloping his arms burned even
brighter as they were fed by the wind.

“
Wind feeds the flame, or
have you forgotten?” Abraxas laughed.

The Wind Warrior’s eyes widened in surprise
and he turned to flee.

Abraxas summoned dozens of small flaming
orbs around his arms. He launched them in rapid succession toward
the fleeing man. The Wind Warrior danced nimbly through the air,
avoiding shot after shot. As he touched down on the ground and
prepared to launch skyward once again, his foot slid momentarily in
the muddy earth. The pause was brief but more than enough time for
General Abraxas.

A pair of flaming orbs shot out at blinding
speeds. They struck the Wind Warrior along his ribs, burning
quickly through the man’s thin shirt and scorching the skin
beneath.

Sammy could smell the burned flesh from
where she stood and her stomach soured. Despite her hands being
bound, she managed to turn away so she wouldn’t have to look.

The Wind Warrior dropped his arm to his
side, protecting his wounded and exposed skin. On unsteady legs, he
pushed off and flew straight upward.

General Abraxas followed his ascent but
dismissed the flame orbs rather than throw them at the retreating
figure.

“
That’s right,” Abraxas
muttered to himself. “Run home. Warn the others that I’m coming for
you all.”

The General’s gaze dropped from the Wind
Warrior and he scanned the houses nearby. Despite the supernatural
battle that took place on the public street, most of the homes were
dark and their curtains drawn tight. As he turned toward the
two-story house in front of which the Wind Warrior had been hiding,
he saw a pair of figures silhouetted in the window, watching the
battle transpire.