by H G Lynch
When she woke up, Ember was chained securely to the wall outside her cage, but the cuffs and collar were different. They didn’t burn, they didn’t stunt her magic. Instantly, she sat up and sent out her mind-limb to gather heat. The guards had all vanished, leaving her and her friends alone with the crazy professor.
The professor looked down at her and frowned. “Now, Ember, I suggest you think very carefully before you start setting people on fire. Take a look around the room. This lab set-up isn’t just for show, you know. And I doubt you’d want to kill me and my guards at the expense of your friends as well,” he said calmly.
Ember glared at him, ignoring what he was saying, and drawing in more heat. She felt her palms begin to tingle.
“Think about it, Ember. Just look at the chemicals. You do chemistry, don’t you? Surely, you can figure out the problem your flames may cause in here,” the professor persisted.
Ember couldn’t help it; she looked around at the beakers and test tubes of chemicals, spotted three large cloth sacks of something, each marked with a clear, black X. Several beakers and bowls were full of tiny pink grains or pellets that somehow looked oddly familiar. But where the hell would she have seen pink pellets before? Snail toxin like the kind her mother used in the garden? No, that was usually blue. She couldn’t work it out, but she got that awful, sick feeling in her gut that meant her instincts were buzzing.
Ricky and Sherry were looking around too, as clueless to what the professor meant as she was. The chemistry lab set-up in relation to what the professor was saying now really, really worried Ember. But it wasn’t until she glimpsed the labels on the jars of chemicals that she understood what kind of danger they were all in.
“Ah, I think our little fire-starter finally gets the picture,” Professor Oliver said gleefully.
Her friends both turned their wide, surprised eyes on Ember. She narrowed hers at the lunatic in front of her. He was watching her carefully with bright, feverish eyes.
“ANFO,” she hissed, and the professor chuckled unsteadily.
“I knew you could work it out, Ember.” He grinned, unsettling her yet more.
“An-what?” Ricky looked between her and the professor, confused and just slightly panic-stricken.
Sherry appeared to have suddenly and completely zoned out, her face slack, blank green eyes staring past the madman holding them captive. It was like the fear had stricken her mindless. That worried Ember, but on a shallower, less bone-deep level than what she’d just figured out.
“ANFO. Ammonium nitrate fuel oil. It’s an explosive,” she explained, glaring at the professor, who was nodding so vehemently that his spectacles were slipping down his nose.
“So, you see, if you spark a flame in here, Ember, you risk blowing us all up.” The professor laughed like it was an amusing concept. Clearly, he was more insane than she’d given him credit for.
“Is the explosive just your safety net to keep me from killing you all, or do you have something in mind for it?” Ember felt her plans to incinerate him crumble, rattled her chains in frustration.
The professor waggled a finger at her. “You are dangerously curious, little Firefly.”
The sound of Reid’s nickname for her coming from this evil bastard’s mouth made bilious fury rise in Ember’s throat.
“Don’t you dare call me that! Don’t you dare, you sssick son of a bitch!” Her voice came out a hiss, her chains clanked noisily as she fought them thoughtlessly, her fangs slicing grooves in her lower lip. Heat welled up under her skin, making a pressure behind her ribs and inside her skull. Red mist blanketed her vision, even as her eyes flickered helplessly to Reid where he lay bloody and ragged in his cage. Tears turned her vision into a blurry, pink mess.
“Nuh-uh-uh, be careful, Ember. Remember the ANFO, dearest.” The psycho bastard laughed, a sound as unhinged as a door blown off its, well, hinges.
“I swear to God, if you’ve killed him, if you’ve done any permanent damage, if he has so much as a scar after this…I. Will. Kill. You. Ssslowly.” The threat felt like poison on her tongue and she savoured the taste, letting it feed her darker side. The vile words continued to pour out of her.
“I will eat you alive, you sick bastard! I’ll rip open every vein I can and then feed you my blood before you bleed out so that you heal and I can start all over again. Or, maybe I’ll just strap bags of ANFO to you and watch you explode into a million slimy little pieces!”
Someone sucked a breath sharply through their teeth and Ember blinked, the red haze clearing. Ricky was staring at her in unconcealed horror. “Ember, don’t. Don’t let him get to you like this. Don’t give him a reason to hurt you.” He sounded reasonably calm, considering the way his hands were shaking. His turquoise eyes were steady, locked pleadingly on hers, but she saw flickers of bloodlust shine through.
As far as Ember could tell, Sherry had passed out. The spark of fear she felt for her friend was drowned out by a larger, more immediate fear. The professor was coming toward her with a knife in one hand, an empty glass bottle in the other.
“Now then, let’s get started. And remember, Ember, your friends’ lives depend on your cooperation.”
At that, Ricky found his fight and started prying at the metal bars of his cage, yelling for the professor not to do this, even as his hands burned on the cursed metal bars. It didn’t make an ounce of difference, but she admired him for trying. She steeled herself upright, holding her head high. She refused to show this monster she was scared, thought only of protecting her friends from further harm. She knew the professor may well kill her to get all of her blood, but as long as her friends were safe, it didn’t matter…Well, that’s what she was trying to tell herself anyway.
The professor gave her an oddly kind smile laced with an edge of insanity, as he pressed the blade against her forearm, gripping her wrist. “Thank you, Ember. Both for your cooperation, and your blood. I’m going to be a very powerful man thanks to you.”
She bared her fangs at him and hissed. “Don’t thank me just yet. I’m going to kill you the instant I’m free of these chains.”
The professor frowned slightly, a psychotic glint coming to his sharp grey eyes, and Ember cried out as he gouged a deep gash in her arm with the cruel knife. The edges of the wound sizzled as bright blood welled up and poured down her arm in a crimson gush. “I had this blade made especially to slow Elemental healing, so you’ll bleed very freely, my dear,” the professor said conversationally, as if he weren’t collecting her blood in a glass milk bottle.
Ricky was silent, gaping in horror, his eyes swirling with emotions Ember didn’t want to identify —but there was also the bloodlust. Her blood must’ve smelled irresistible to him just now.
“You know, you can still join me, Ember. We can rule this new breed together, share in the— Aaaggh!” the professor screamed, jerking away from her, almost dropping the half-filled bottle of her precious blood.
“Ember! Ember, remember the explosives! You can’t—” Ricky was yelling frantically.
“I didn’t! I’m not! It isn’t me!” she shrieked back, as confused and startled as Ricky. Her eyes darted around for the source of the professor’s pain as he clutched the back of his neck.
Finally, her eyes fell on Sherry’s cage, only to find it was empty. Sherry was gone. Or…not gone, but out. Sherry was fluttering in tiny faery form, high above the professor’s head, a bright light glowing between her little palms. Ember gaped as she watched Sherry throw the orb of ice down, where it collided with the top of the professor’s head and hissed like ice-cubes dropped into hot water. The professor yelled in pain and spun around, looking for his attacker. Ember glanced at Ricky and saw his wild gaze riveted on Sherry.
Then her vision started blurring, becoming hazy and shimmering. She looked down at her arm; it was still bleeding profusely. She was losing a lot of blood. Her legs felt like jelly, her knees gave out and she fell to the floor, putting down her hands to keep from face-planting into the co
ld stone.
“Ember!” the shout came from both of her friends, and Ember saw the professor look up, toward Sherry, who was staring at her with fearful concern.
She tried to shout a warning to Sherry but her voice was hardly a whisper. Shadows crawled into her vision like black beetles swarming over her eyes, and then everything went dark.
***
Sherry barely had time to fly up out of the professor’s reach as he made a lunge for her.
“Sherry! Sherry, get the keys!” Ricky shouted, pointing toward the set of shiny bronze keys the professor had lain carelessly on the big metal table after extracting Ember from her cage.
Unfortunately, the professor had predicted she’d go for the keys, and had the keys in hand before Sherry could even think of moving to get them.
“Don’t even think about it. Either of you. Or I’ll kill her.” Professor Oliver jerked his chin toward where Ember was lying, unconscious and still chained.
Fear and panic surged in Sherry, seeing the puddle of blood that had bled out around her wounded friend, soaking into the blonde hair. That was an awful lot of blood. Ricky made a choked noise and Sherry spun in the air, wings fluttering, to see him clawing at the bars of his cage, his hands coming away bloody and charred. Her gentle, compassionate Ricky looked savage, a scary light in his sweet eyes that she’d never seen before.
Then she understood, when she saw his fangs flash, the way his eyes locked on Ember. Not Ember really, but her blood. Ricky was injured and starving and…what was it Reid had once said about Ember’s blood? That it was like steak, caffeine and cocaine rolled into one? Something like that. And with that much of Ember’s blood spilled out, Sherry could only guess how tempting it was to Ricky at this point. But she could also see that Ricky was fighting the bloodlust, see the guilt it gave him to want Ember’s blood at all.
Reid was still out cold —she hadn’t seen what had happened to him, but she refused to think he was dead. Reid was as close to indestructible as anything she’d ever seen — Ember was helpless, even if she were awake; she was chained, and the ANFO ensured she couldn’t risk using her fire.
Sherry was the only one still awake and sane. She had to get them out of this. Now. She swallowed, her mind whirring, and lowered herself close to the floor. “Okay. Okay, we won’t do anything.” She held out her palms to show she wasn’t a threat, and felt her muscles and bones tingle as they stretched and grew. Her spine ached as her wings folded themselves up and sunk back under her skin.
Once she was full-sized again, the professor came toward her, cautiously at first, and then, when he was sure she wouldn’t move, grabbed her arm. But she had already moved. She grabbed one of the knives lying on the metal desk behind her, and without hesitating, sunk it into the professor’s back. He froze for a moment, raising stunned grey eyes to hers, then made a choked, gurgling noise like water chugging down a drain. His eyes rolled up in his head and he collapsed, his cold hand slipped from her arm. The keys clattered as he hit the stone floor, the bottle of blood…wasn’t in his hand. He’d put it down to deal with her; It sat just on the other side of the metal desk, gleaming a macabre red that made her feel faintly sick.
She didn’t look at the body of the crazy old man as she bent to retrieve the keys. She moved to Ricky’s cage, and then paused. He still had that inhuman glint to his eyes.
“Sherry. Sherry, let me out,” Ricky pleaded, his voice half-hiss. But he was looking past her to Ember’s limp form, surrounded by blood. It made her chest ache, but Sherry shook her head.
“No. Not yet,” she said quietly.
Ricky blinked, frowned at her for a second as if he didn’t recognise her, then lunged for her like a crazed animal, snarling.
Sherry yelped and jumped back, tears burning in her eyes .It’s not his fault, she told herself, He isn’t himself. He wouldn’t hurt you, you know that. Still, this Ricky scared her, and she wasn’t letting him out until she was sure he wouldn’t try to eat Ember. That thought chilled her and she shuddered.
“I’m sorry. Just give me a second,” she begged in a whimper. Turning, she spotted the knife the professor had used to cut Ember, bloody and lying by Ember’s body.
She snatched it up and hesitated, sucked in a breath. Bending, she pressed two fingers to the inside of Ember’s wrist. Relief swept through her as she felt a pulse, weak, but steady and definitely there.
Returning to Ricky’s cage, knife in hand, Sherry wondered distractedly if mixing Ember’s blood and her own in a cut would come with any ill effects. She dismissed the idea as unlikely —she already had Ember’s blood in her veins, after all — and also irrelevant. She didn’t have a lot of options here, so she’d do what she had to. So, steeling herself, she put the blade of the bloody knife to her forearm and dragged it across her skin, leaving a thin red line. Then blood welled up and trickled out, the cut stinging.
“Here.” She held out the arm to Ricky, putting it through the bars of his cage and hoping he was still sane enough not to rip her arm off. Ricky’s eyes fixed on hers for a second and she saw a flash of regret, pain and gratitude all at once. Then he wrapped his strong fingers around her arm and sunk his fangs into her flesh. There was a brief sting, then a rush of endorphins that, under normal circumstances, would’ve floored her, but not now. Now, she was still too worried about Reid and Ember.
Eventually, Ricky let her go, blood trickled down his chin and he wiped it away hastily. He wouldn’t meet her eyes but he muttered, “Thank you.”
She’d deal with him later.
For a moment, she thought idly that this must be how Ember always felt, how she dealt with everything. It was like she could only half-feel things, threats and problems prioritised themselves in her head and she handled them accordingly. Of course, Ember had been born to deal with crap. Recent events had only strengthened her. Sherry, though, had never really had to deal. She’d never really been bullied as a kid, never had trouble with her parents or siblings, never been pushed around because of how she looked. Before moving to Acorn Hills, she’d never had to deal. This was new to her.
She knelt by Ember and touched the smaller girl’s shoulder gently. “Ember? Ember, wake up,” she murmured, shook Ember a little. The gash on Ember’s arm, Sherry was glad to note, had finally healed. Ember stirred, groaned, and tried to sit up. Sherry helped her, realised she was still holding the knife, and threw it aside. It slid across the stone floor and clattered into the wall across the room.
“Sherry? What-where’s-I—” Ember stuttered, clutched her head in her hands, groaned again, then sighed and lifted her head. “Fuck! What happened?” When Ember looked up at her, Sherry saw her blue eyes were icy and metallic, her fangs were denting her lower lip. Ember looked past her, around the room, and her eyes widened. “Holy ssshit, Sherz! Did you…?” There was a hiss in her voice, but Ember didn’t seem to notice it herself.
Sherry nodded. “I had to kill him. I’m okay, though,” she added quickly, seeing the look dawning on Ember’s face. “Actually, I’m probably the best off here right now.” Sherry felt a frown crease her forehead. Ember caught her up in an unexpected hug, squeezing her, and Sherry thought for a moment she might bite her. But, of course, she didn’t. Ember wouldn’t. Ever.
“I’m so sorry for all this, Sherz. I’m glad you’re okay,” Ember whispered, then pulled back to look at her with tear-filled eyes that still shone inhumanly. Sherry was about to ask why she was apologising, but Ember was already on her feet.
“Um, can I get out now?” Ricky asked meekly.
Oh, she’d forgotten to unlock Ricky’s cage. She looked down to see where she’d dropped the keys, heard metal clink and looked up to see Ember, a little unsteady on her feet, already unlocking Ricky’s cage. Sherry smiled slightly, wondering what it would take to keep Ember down. Then she shook away the thought. Whatever the answer, she never wanted to find out.
“Okay. What now?” she asked, climbing painfully to her feet. The bottle of blood on the metal tab
le seemed to shine, mocking her, and she snatched it up. “Now we smash this awful thing,” she answered her own question. As she lifted the bottle, ready to throw it down and watch it explode into a million pieces for the trouble it had caused them all, Ember’s hand caught her wrist, her blue eyes wild.
“No, wait! We’ll need it.” As she spoke, Ember’s gaze slid past her to the corner of the room. Sherry had almost forgotten about Reid.
Ember took the bottle and went to unlock Reid’s cage. The metal door creaked as she opened it and threw down the keys. Inside the cage, she kneeled by Reid’s body, shifted him into her lap, stroking his bloody hair. Sherry saw silver drops fall onto Reid’s ravaged face and felt her chest seize in sympathy for her friends. Tenderly, Ember tipped Reid’s face up and put the bottle of blood to his parted lips, tilting it so the blood ran into his mouth.
For a long moment, nothing happened; Everyone waited with baited breath. Then Reid’s expression shifted, his body spasmed. Ember made a sound that was half-gasp and half-sob, and Sherry let out the anxious breath she’d been holding. Her muscles relaxed and she only now realised how painfully taut they’d been in her apprehension. Ember spilled more blood into Reid’s mouth, and he swallowed it. He groaned, swallowed some more, and tried to sit up, his blue eyes fluttering open. Just for an instant, he looked utterly lost. He took the bottle from Ember and drained it. Sherry saw the cuts and burns on his face and body begin to heal.
When he was done, Reid eyed the empty bottle with amused confusion, and threw it carelessly across the room where it smashed against a wall, shattering into thousands of tiny, blood-stained little gems. He regarded the room with an almost bored expression, his eyes skimming the professor’s dead body, then Sherry and Ricky, and finally, Ember.