Come! Mistress of Flame. Heart of the Fire. I call upon our pact. Give me your devouring flames.
I pulled on the flaming cord connecting me to Lacey. It spun in all directions. Toward the sky above where sunrise peeked over the edge. Toward the raging fire that devoured half an island’s forest. Toward the ocean floor, and on beyond the depth into what would probably be lava.
NO. FLAME BE QUENCHED.
The beast twisted and pushed itself up with an attempt at straightening out. I swear, if the creature had arms it would have been flailing wildly for the invisible cord. I watched as its body thrashed, disturbing the ocean and rippling through the intangible fire which connected my senses to Lacey.
It was aware of my cords. Somehow the enemy could see them. It was in my head, like the background voice I had but radically different. The Leviathan’s eyes traced the red path to the coastline. Giant water laden facial features narrowed. It slapped its absurdly large tail at the cord.
The creature reeled back and opened its maw. Water gushed and its top half bulged. It felt almost exactly the same as me pouring out flame.
Air splits. Waves curl. Sand sifts. Everything stirs. Danger comes.
I winged away as the creature built up to blast water. The jet of ocean shot through the air. I turned and let out a wave of flame. Steam formed almost instantly as water and fire met. Drops pierced through in my direction, like a gentle rain compared to what had been a focused torrent.
There were only so many blasts like that I could fire before being gifted more of Wylde’s powers. Strange, there in the back of my brain was a sort of fuel tank that had always existed. Only now I could feel the damn thing. I’d already used almost a third of my energy reserves.
Our fight had taken a turn for the worse. What would Brand do now? She should be able to rekindle herself from the flames. Would she shift and fight? I couldn’t imagine her fire doing much more than my own. Not without being buffed up by Wylde, assuming it could happen.
The Leviathan puffed again. More bolts of water were incoming. I veered away as soon as the sensations hit me. His breath weapon had an easy tell. The swelling of its large body and the ocean’s local level dropping.
It seemed unfair. My weapon of fire died off as soon as it left my body. Spreading like a fan but not staying in concentrated form. It shot lasers. Or water beams, or who the hell knew. One tore through the air. I dodged to the side and felt razor-like droplets pelt against my wings.
Somehow the creature acted like a fire hose, flinging water high into the air. Two more beams came in rapid succession. With each one the water level around it dropped. More liquid spilled into the ocean’s gap.
Below me, the enemy bobbed unevenly. Its tail reached down to the seabed to stabilize the blasts a little. I wove through the air, evading more bolts of water powerful enough to make my wings collapse.
Did it have a limit? I closed my eyes briefly and let my senses absorb everything. The ocean below it sank and swayed. Sand shifted. Fish and other animals fled. The fire behind me sputtered as waves crashed into the short line.
Brand’s remains still smoldered. Lacey hadn’t answered. The fire on shore showed no signs of coming to me like the small bonfire did last night. It flickered, devoured nature greedily, and acted indifferent. I knew she was out there.
Unless—had the Leviathan had somehow disrupted my summons? Could it do such a thing?
I might not be able to win. The ashes where Brand had fallen flared even hotter. The trees near the brushed altar shone blue with a stronger heat than before. I heard her cry pierce the air.
The leviathan beast swam quicker than before. It wiggled through boiling ocean and fought for stability. I’d irritated the daylights out of it.
A low hum of watery thoughts that couldn’t be deciphered crept into my skull. I fought the desire to shoot back my snide responses and conserved what fuel for the fire remained. Our path ventured out over deeper waters, letting it slip beneath the waves where I’d do no damage.
I tilted my head and couldn’t bring myself to wing lower. Even with three hundred feet between me and the ocean’s surface, I still felt unsafe.
The creature surged and tried to snatch me out of the air. I briefly imagined myself, a stupid pelican fighting against an orca, and swerved to one side. I counted myself lucky that tactile sensation fed me a nearly constant awareness of everything nearby.
It sprang past me and I beat backward with my wings. Its popup snake like movements were nothing new, but the speed kept catching me off guard. I burned my reserves and raked claws along its thrashing back. Fire buffeted out, cooking the few spots my long transformed fingers had torn earlier. The leviathan yelled as it flopped back into the ocean.
Waves sprang up. I felt the droplets and it was as though my thoughts became quicker and clearer. If Lacey wouldn’t answer, and Brand’s plan had failed, withdrawing might be the only way to salvage this. We could fight another day, once Lacey and I had hashed put events.
The waves were wild but wouldn’t swamp the mainland. Western Sector agents could probably cover up the events up on this island. Muni would clean it up, if she still worked with them.
We’d be safe to continue life as we had. In hiding, fearful of the day we were made public. We’d wounded the beast a little. It wouldn’t be too late to flee and transform in some mainland forest. Even if they took pictures, only a few could equate Jay the fire breathing lizard to Jay the drunk bouncer.
Weakness. Once again weakness.
The ocean beneath me rolled. Clots of dirt came out, flung by the creature’s large tail. Mixed in with the ocean flooring was coral, fish, and even a small whale. Even if I thought about fleeing, it did not.
I chided myself. There was no time to pull out of the fight.
Wings beat as air bunched. The gift of elements which fueled my powers made sudden shifts easier, but not quick enough. There were too many objects to dodge.
A second loop of the leviathan’s coils sprung out of the ocean, straight for me. I blasted fire to clear a path. Barbequed seafood fell and the sea monster’s coils continued to swing in my direction.
I tucked my wings in and twisted for the gap. The monster’s face met me on the other side and it closed jaws around my wing. It jerked and attempted to get better purchase. I curled my claws into its mouth.
It spun backward with a powerful twist of massive muscles. I spread my good wing and attempted to call pockets of air into being, to fight against the inevitable.
But I lost. It yanked me under. Cold ocean water piled in above my head. The creature carried me rapidly for miles. I struggled to get free. My body threatened to lose what little air remained. The fire of my breath couldn’t oppose this.
More. Need more flame. More embers. Enough to set an ocean ablaze. Mistress of Flame! COME!
Lacey chose not to listen to my pleas. Water clogged my ears, and I swear I could hear Boss Wylde laughing at me. The idea made me mad.
22
Kin-Slayer
Lacey gasped as she rode hard, atop my very naked and utterly human body. Her mouth hung open as her body sought the peaks of pleasure that even elementals could reach. Of course monsters appreciated procreation.
“We can’t fight our nature, Jay,” she said with half breaths.
My mind was filled with fog and singular purpose. Still, I tried to play along by asking, “What?”
The moment shattered. My body had been encased by something huge and far more unpleasant. Water pressed against my ears and wormed its way into canals. Scratches on my scales cried as they were forced backward and felt as though they might peel off.
Then Lacey and a moment from the past recaptured my senses. I fought for air in both memories. My body moved in a rhythm as old as mankind against Lacey. Her warmth burned my skin. I buried my face between pushed up breasts and fought the better fight.
“That’s how you do it. Be a real man, Jay. None of this ‘please’ shit. Take it. Take it,�
�� she demanded.
The Leviathan swung me around, sending my serpentine form flying into a reef. I reached out, striving for the much more pleasant, if oddly timed vision of Wylde’s naked body. All that resulted were chunks of sea life grasping into me with their own form of desperation.
I struggled for air but found none. The ocean’s surface was above me somewhere. Not miles, but too far for wings not designed to cut through this much liquid. There were no good ways to survive.
Up, the next step had to be getting airborne along with fresh oxygen. I shrugged to pull in pockets of air under my wings. Something responded, the water spiraled. Small whirlpools formed hundreds of feet above us. I gained purchase—on what—I didn’t know.
The leviathan chased after me, crashing into my side and driving me into the ground. My body flopped and air bubbles escaped. I gulped and struggled to regain the air. Why couldn’t my gifts include the ability to live without breathing?
A vampire would have survived. Dozens of them were back on that island, dying in droves from flame. I felt their muffled cries as the fire ended their lives. They might not have been able to handle the giant serpent but they could breathe under this forsaken ocean.
I, however, couldn’t see. My attempts to roar in defiance resulted in me swallowing additional salty water. It burned and sizzled then oozed between lips that couldn’t form a perfect seal. I coughed up dirt and felt bones of charred fish stick in my craw.
Lacey’s laughter pulled away my senses. Then anger, a scream of outrage and glass cracking.
“I’ve told you, time, and time again, Jay. I don’t give permission. You take it,” she said. Her hand bled and the floor sizzled where droplets touched.
“If you want to sleep with other girls, I appreciate that. It’s you taking what you want. If you want to leave me altogether, then do it. That’s our arrangement. We take.” The broken glass was placed on my table. She walked across the room to a cabinet and pulled out another glass.
I stilled and paid attention to every movement. A dozen sensations of people below. Roy’s tribe, they sparred, they moved in waves. Others danced along with them, stretching muscles. Part army, part relaxation and bonding.
“That’s how the flame works,” Wylde said. “It doesn’t ask permission. It doesn’t beg for more fuel. It simply takes, Jay. It takes, and takes, and takes. Then one day, it dies.”
She drained the glass and poured herself another.
“You’re okay with that?” I asked.
Wylde rolled her eyes and shook head while staring at the ceiling. “It doesn’t matter. I am what I am. You are what you are. But we’ll never be more than this. Not until you learn the lesson.”
“Take what I want?”
“And there you are. Asking again. Like a puppy needing its master’s approval.”
I shook my head. She told me to take what I wanted, and I had, multiple times over the years. She said to walk away, if that’s what I wanted, and for Kahina I planned to. What was the use if Wylde didn’t mean what she said?
My past vanished again as the large creature swam at me with jaws open. I balked and pulled away, trying to weave in the water as my foe. The leviathan slammed into me again. This time it sent me upward. I clawed my way to the surface and gasped for air.
A fresh dose of air didn’t clear the spots in my eyes. One wing hung limply from where it’d broken. Blood in the water mixed with mud to obscure our battlefield. I struggled to reach the surface. My body got pulled under as the huge creature swam by.
Water filled in over my head leaving me spinning in a circle and bumping off its scales. I lashed out and tore, uselessly, at the swift creature. It spun in a U-turn, moving much how I had in the air. Our roles were utterly reversed.
Coward.
I thought loudly, knowing full well the creature could be listening.
WEAKLING
It responded. I couldn’t figure out ways to project my thoughts in a ruse or misdirection. The water boiled with our conflict. I pulled at anything and everything existing, screaming inside my mind. Nothing came.
“TAKE IT!” Lacey shouted.
That had to be the problem. I was asking, I was calling, but none of that meant grabbing hold of the power. Daniel told me my abilities could be activated without ownership, and that’d been true. But some skills did not come from simple kindness.
Monsters did not ask for permission. What other name could belong to a creature such as me? Civilized? Polite? Heroic? None of those fit me in the slightest. I found new purpose.
I’d take the power. That had been her point. Maybe the years had made me a bit wiser. It only took a muddled mind, a dozen flashbacks, and a bigger monster beating the unholy hell out of me.
Fire would still be needed. Getting to shore seemed impossible. The sun would be too far away. I hastily swam and let currents push me around as the leviathan sought to get a firm chunk of my flesh.
Our dance in the water continued as I struggled to spin in search of a power source.
There were places where fire sat closer to the surface. Volcanos were the best location. If pulling fire off the red feathered Agent Brand could give me energy, calling up lava should fill me to overflowing.
The very notion of pulling fire from the earth for more strength made me giddy. It might have been the lack of air or the pounding of my ears. Maybe being knocked around turned me delirious. I started to see Wylde’s face, laughing at me under the seabed.
Piles of muck formed a thick layer along the seabed. I struggled to feel the fire. The island hadn’t formed on its own. Lava plumes or something similar were within my range. I trailed toward the lava, struggling to make it to the seabed instead of up for precious air.
“Take it, if you dare.” Lacey smiled. Or had smiled. Deprivation once again weakened my mental barriers between then and now.
I called to the deepest parts of the earth, where fire still rolled under thick layers of dirt and crust. The ground shook even more than it had at any point of our fight.
Lava seeped through the cracks and boiled along the seabed. I swam to the lava and prayed it wouldn’t burn me to a crisp. Or maybe it would and that’d be okay, too.
“You only need to call my name, Jay. Take me into your heart and together we could burn the world to ash.”
The fire had always been there. I pushed down the echoing words of my father’s deep thrum before he could repeat himself. The elements were our gifts. Wylde, an elemental herself, said that they weren’t simple gifts. They were prizes to be taken.
“Am I, Jay?” she asked. I couldn’t tell if she spoke in the now, or the past. “Fire’s a capricious mistress. Prone to burn your flesh just as often as I warm your body on the cold nights. Would you really have me?”
“Don’t be a coward now,” I answered.
My eyes blinked. Around me lava boiled and bubbled to the surface. The earth deep below pushed and heaved. I felt it part as more of the earth’s boiling liquid shot to the surface. The magma crawled toward me, ignoring the ocean’s current. Too heavy to be moved by mere words, or too proud.
Perhaps it wanted to obey.
Do not ignore me, Mistress. Do not dare. The life of what is mine stands at risk.
Time spun once more. I felt the leviathan hissing and circling the outflow of lava. Large teeth snapped at me. It seemed afraid and agitated. Then those sensations were gone and I stood in front of Lacey.
“You’re threatening me?” Lacey asked. Where her voice came from, I couldn’t say. A place below the ocean, where only heat ruled. “I’ll protect this place for you, until you return home. But not because of a threat.”
“Why then?” I asked.
Lacey smiled. My vision wavered in the haze as the ground rolled. “I don’t give answers.”
“What do you give?”
Lacey opened her mouth and a word died before completion. Her eyes shifted and watered for only a moment. She glanced down and shook her head.
“It doesn’t matter. Go away. For another woman.” Lacey took a deep breath. “I promised not…” She drifted off. I felt it as her heartbeat raced, face flushed redder than the flame, and eyes closed slowly.
That was then. Before going back to only being friends with Lacey. I’d wanted to separate myself from the old life, if only a little. To find more time for Kahina and give her everything she deserved. That rift had never been repaired.
I do not ask.
I swam through water and ignored the burning sensation. My body afforded me some resistance to the elements. Even breathing seemed like a distant concern for another soul. My nose flared as the ocean swirled.
The lava bubbled. It cooled and fresh layers burst through. Those cracked and erupted then kept right on going. I placed my claws into both while using both distorted back legs to push me forward against the swirl.
Chunks of matter flew at me. They spun through the water, bouncing off each other. Ocean beds were torn up by force equaling a hurricane. I hung on and roared, getting a mouthful of water straight to the lungs.
For a moment, I thought I was back in that nothing between. Matter spun and formed. A duck died before my eyes, turned into bone, then into grass. I pushed that brief overlay of the past away and focused on screaming at Lacey, in the here and now.
My grip faltered. There were no words for taking power from someone else. It wasn’t an inborn skill or concept taught to me by a voice from the past. I’d called a fucking rabbit before me. It’d supplicated and died to fill my belly. Calling living fire could be no stranger.
Lacey could simply deny me, but I didn’t believe she wanted to.
Come Mistress of Flame. Come Heart of the Fire. You are mine.
She didn’t say anything. The words I’d heard must have been those of the past, spoken in tense moments of our final time together. Before this shitty island. Before my relationship with Kahina. Before the leaving city. The heat though, started at my fingertips and caused blackened claws to fill with red.
Prince in the Tower Page 34