“We aren’t doing anything. I am almost out of groceries, so I’m going to the store.” He stopped and held up his hand to stop her retort. “And don’t you dare make another fat joke.”
Jessica looked over her shoulder and down the hall. She shivered at the thought of the unconscious man.
“So what am I supposed to do?”
Sean shrugged as he pulled on the other shoe. “I didn’t ask you to bring him here. You brought him on your own, so you can deal with him on your own.”
He stood but Jessica stepped between him and the door. “And what do I do if he wakes up?”
Sean put his hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her aside. “I would recommend running. I don’t think he’s going to wake up in a good mood.”
“No way. How about you stay here and I go to the store?”
Sean laughed derisively. “I’m glad to know you’ve kept your sense of humor through all of this,” he said sarcastically.
Jessica frowned, unhappy at being on the receiving end of his jokes. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Then I’m going with you.”
“Not if your life depended on it, which it very possibly might.”
He walked toward the door but paused when he heard her soft footsteps on the carpet behind him. When he stopped, she ran into his back gracelessly. Sighing, he turned toward the sorority girl.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked flatly.
“I told you,” she huffed. “I’m going with you.”
“And I told you that wasn’t going to happen.”
“And you can’t exactly stop me,” she replied. The confident sorority president reasserted itself, drowning the scared girl who had been there seconds before.
Sean frowned but could recognize a losing battle when he saw one. He threw up his hands exasperatedly and groaned.
“Fine. You can come.” He pointed his finger dangerously at her. “But if we find another one of those fire users, don’t think for a second I won’t trip you to get away.”
They saw another Fire Warrior before they reached the end of his street. The blonde woman leaned against a building across the street, casually perusing the few pedestrians that walked past her. Most people gave her a wide berth, switching to the other side of the street to keep as far away from the strange woman as possible.
She wore the telltale black leather outfit. Her stiff collar rose to just below her ears, framing the sides of her face. Sean wasn’t entirely sure that she could have turned her head from side to side if she wanted to. Still, the look did what it was intended—it was incredibly intimidating.
As they watched, the Fire Warrior looked over at the unusual pair. With a flick of her wrist, a dancing flame burst to life in the palm of her hand.
Jessica gasped softly and leaned into Sean. He could feel her racing heartbeat as she pressed against him. Her hands were sweaty as she dug her nails into his arm.
Sean pulled his arm free gently and placed his hand on the small of her back. With soft pressure, he turned her away from the Fire Warrior and led her down the street.
When they were far enough away, he looked into her startled eyes. Her pupils were dilated and he wasn’t entirely sure if she was seeing the road in front of her or if she was trapped in a general daze while lost in her own head. He had seen a similar look after his freshman year of college when he hit a deer while driving home from school. The deer had the same look moments before it was run over.
He flashed a broad grin to an elderly lady that passed the pair on the sidewalk. As soon as they were past, his grin was replaced by a look of genuine concern for Jessica’s wellbeing.
“Jessica?” he asked.
She shook her head slowly and turned toward him as though surprised to find Sean walking beside her.
“I can’t do this,” she said. “I need to go back.”
She spun on her heel and started walking back toward the apartment. Sean had to hurry to catch up to her. When he did, he placed his hands on her shoulder and turned her toward him.
“What’s gotten into you?”
She wrung her hands together. “They’re going to know, Sean. They’re going to take one look at us and they’re going to know that we attacked one of their kind.”
Sean laughed softly. “They’re not bloodhounds. They’re not going to somehow smell the scent on our skin.”
“This isn’t funny,” she cried. “They won’t have to smell it. I’ll give it away. I always give it away. They’ll take one look at me and they’ll just know.”
Her pitch grew steadily higher and her words came quicker the more she spoke. “I can’t do this. They’re going to be able to tell something’s wrong and they’re going to ask me questions and I’m going to have to lie and I’m a terrible liar. This is senior skip day all over again. When I was in high school, we took off for senior skip day and when I got home, my parents asked me how school was, like they already knew. And I was going to lie but as soon as I opened my mouth, I completely froze. I couldn’t think of anything and I got so nervous that my stomach cramped up and next thing I knew I threw up. And while my mother was holding my hair back, I told her everything. I told her we skipped class. I told her who went with us. I told her everything we did… oh, God, I told her everything we did.”
She put her hand to her mouth and her eyes glistened with a combination of panic, guilt, and sadness. “Everyone hated me after that. They even stole all my clothes while I was in the shower after cheerleading practice and made me come outside in nothing but a towel. And that’s what’s going to happen if you make me lie.”
“Holy crap,” Sean blurted. “Are you seriously having a panic attack right now?”
“Shut up, Sean.”
“Take a breath between sentences before you pass out there, Princess.”
“I’m not kidding, Sean. It’s going to happen all over again.”
“What’ll happen again? You’ll walk around outside in a towel?” he teased.
To Sean’s surprise, Jessica sat down on the curb and dropped her head to her knees. For a moment, he stood over her haughtily until he saw her shoulders shaking with sobs. It was a side of Jessica he wasn’t used to seeing. She was always so proud and arrogant; he had trouble imagining her being a sensitive woman.
He reached out but his hand froze just above her shoulder. He had never been very good with crying women, especially one that he normally disliked. It seemed somehow disingenuous to comfort her now, after making so much fun of her in the past.
He didn’t know what to do as she continued crying. Sean had never been the sensitive type. His only experience consoling a sad creature was with his dog. Shrugging, he reached out and patted her on top of her head.
“There, there.”
His awkward attempt at consoling her did nothing. She continued to sob into her arms.
After a brief internal conflict, Sean sat down beside her and put his arm around her shoulder.
“Come on. It’s not that bad. Listen, I’m sorry for teasing you earlier.”
“Just leave me alone,” she replied between hitched breaths.
“You can’t just sit here, Jessica.”
“Yes I can,” she said irrationally. She tried to shake his arm free of her shoulder but he nimbly slipped it around her waist.
“Come on. Let’s just go to the store and then we’ll go hide back in the apartment until this all blows over.”
She lifted her head and looked at him. Her crystal blue eyes sparkled in the sea of tears. Reaching up, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
“That’s a terrible plan,” she muttered. “There’s already one of them in your apartment.”
Sean shrugged. “You got me there. Fine, let’s just stick with the first part of the plan and go get groceries.” He shook his ample belly. “Fat kids gotta eat.”
She nodded with a sigh and let him lift her to her feet. She stood but kept looking
down as she tried to compose herself. She didn’t even realize that she was staring at Sean’s waist until he waved his hand in front of her vision.
“Hey, my eyes are up here. I’m not just a piece of meat for you to ogle.”
Despite her self-depreciation, Jessica laughed at his joke.
They walked the rest of the way to the store with Jessica staring down at her feet. Her normally well-kept blonde hair hung over her face, blocking her view of the street. Her limited vision was fine as far as Sean was concerned. With her looking at her feet, she couldn’t see the other Fire Warriors they passed on the way.
They walked back toward the apartment in relative silence, their arms laden with grocery bags. They hadn’t talked much in the grocery store; Jessica chose to keep mostly to herself despite Sean’s best attempts at humor.
He tried to ignore the stern and scared looks the man at the checkout register gave him as he paid for the food. He wasn’t sure how much of it was because of the Fire Warriors in town—which everyone seemed to had noticed by now—or how much of it was because Sean looked rather slovenly. He hadn’t been able to shower before they left the apartment because there was a dangerous killer taking up his bathtub. At least Jessica had the advantage. Women often skipped washing their hair to give it a more lustrous sheen. Sean’s hair just looked greasy and unkempt.
“Thanks for helping me back there,” Jessica blurted out, catching Sean by surprise. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he replied. “You would have done the same for me.”
Jessica shook her head. “No, I wouldn’t have and you know it.”
Sean shrugged but wasn’t entirely sure she was wrong. “I guess I’m just a better person than you, then.”
He had hoped for a smile but got nothing.
“You know, this trip to the store has been the most human you’ve ever sounded when talking to me.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she snapped.
Sean frowned. “And just like that it’s gone.”
She seemed ready to say something in return but she stopped with her mouth agape as they turned the last corner toward his apartment building.
Sean turned and followed her gaze. The air was thick with the dark black smoke that billowed from the second floor of his building. Flames rolled from the partially collapsed roof and licked high into the air. He could hear the distant wail of fire trucks, responding to what he was sure was one of dozen mysterious fires around White Halls. He knew they’d never make it in time to save anything worthwhile in the apartment.
“Is that…” Jessica asked, letting the question hang in the air.
“Yup,” Sean replied flatly. “Well, I can’t say I didn’t see this one coming.”
“Are you okay?”
Sean sighed. “My favorite waffle iron was in there.”
Jessica didn’t quite know what to say. They stood in awkward silence as they watched the fire consume the upper floor of the apartment building.
“What are we going to do?” she asked finally. “Everything you had was in that apartment.”
“Everything I had was in there,” Sean agreed, grinning suddenly, “but not everything you have.”
Jessica turned sharply on the heavyset man. “You can’t mean… no, Sean. Absolutely not.”
“I mean,” Sean continued as though she hadn’t spoken, “you do live in a sorority house, right? And you did kind of directly lead to my apartment burning down. You kind of owe me.”
Jessica groaned. “Fine. Let’s go.”
Sean raised his fist in the air. “To the sorority house!”
The sun had already set when Sammy approached Xander’s two-story house. She held a tray in her arms, laden with a sandwich and a bunch of grapes. It wasn’t much but she knew he wouldn’t eat much more than that.
The closer she got to the house, the more the wind tugged at her now-braided hair. Her loose-fitting shirt billowed in the gusting breeze and she was forced to cover the tray with a free hand for fear of the food being blown away.
Glancing upward, she could barely make out Xander’s feet dangling over the edge of the red clay roof. Lowering her head against the wind, she walked through the front door without knocking. Immediately after entering the house, the wind died away and she was left in the still dark air.
The first floor was a single large, open room. A wood stove was pressed against the back wall and a narrow staircase led up from the opposite corner from where she entered. The middle of the room had a square dining room table with four chairs pushed in around its edge.
Sammy leaned across the table and picked up an unlit candle, setting it on the tray beside the night’s dinner. She reached her hand out above the candle’s wick and snapped her fingers. A flame leapt to life above her thumb and she used it to ignite the wick. With a quick wave of her hand, she extinguished the flame on her finger before picking up the tray and walking toward the back staircase. Using the gentle glow as her light source in the dark, marble home, she climbed the narrow stairs.
Pushing her way through the partially closed door at the top, Sammy felt the cool night’s breeze blowing in from the open window. The flame danced angrily, protesting against the wind. She balanced the tray precariously with one hand while protecting the fire with her other.
Beyond the open window, she could see Xander sitting on the edge of the red clay roof, hugging his knees with his chin resting on his crossed arms.
She stepped through the window and onto the roof. The tiles beneath her feet were slick from sea spray and the gentle mist of salt water fell over her. The wind kicked up at her presence, whipping her long blonde ponytail over her shoulder. Despite her best efforts, the candle’s flame extinguished with a sigh, leaving only a thin wisp of smoke in its passing.
Sammy mirrored its sigh as she walked over to Xander.
“Can you stop the wind?” she asked softly. “It’s hard to balance with it blowing.”
Xander looked up as though surprised by her presence. His eyes were completely consumed by a glowing white light and she wasn’t even sure he was seeing her when he looked. He blinked hard and his normal dark pupils replaced the white glow.
The wind faded until it was just a playful breeze dancing around her bare feet.
“I brought you some dinner,” she said, offering him the tray.
Xander shook his head sadly. “I’m not really all that hungry.”
“You’ve been saying that for the past four meals,” Sammy replied as she took a seat beside him. She threw her arm around him and laid her head on his shoulder. “You need to eat sometime. I’m worried about you.”
“I know you are. I’ve just got a lot to work through right now.”
Sammy lifted her head and stared into his eyes. “You can’t keep beating yourself up about your parents.”
Xander fell silent and turned his gaze back to the wall of water surrounding the island. Sadness crept into his eyes and he angrily wiped away the threatening tears.
“It’s my fault they’re dead,” he muttered.
“No, it’s not,” she replied sternly. “It’s General Abraxas’ fault. He was the one who set your house on fire, not you.”
“But I should have been able to save them. I should have known they’d be in trouble.”
He held out his hand and a miniaturized tornado appeared in his palm. “What good does it do to have these powers if you can’t protect the ones you love?”
A tear rolled down his cheek. Sammy reached out and pulled him to her. He laid his head on her shoulder and felt the heat radiating off her skin.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered as she kissed his head.
“I just miss them,” he muttered.
She reached over and picked up the sandwich she had made him for dinner. Soft red and orange flames rolled over her hand, illuminating the rooftop as she reheated the now cold dinner. The smell of toasted bread and melted cheese made Xander’s stomach rumbl
e. He couldn’t deny the urge to eat despite the knots twisted in his stomach.
He took a bite from the sandwich with a weak but appreciative smile.
“Thank you,” he said between mouthfuls of food.
“How is your training going?” Sammy asked, eager to steer the conversation away from the morose subject.
Xander swallowed his most recent bite and picked up a stalk of grapes. “Frustrating. I just don’t understand the other Wind Warriors. No one wants to stand up to the Fire Caste. They’re so ready to just give up and die. It’s like they don’t even care what’s going to happen to the world once we’re gone. I can’t be the only one that wants to stop the Fire Warriors.”
“You’re not,” she replied.
“I just want to find Lord Balor and stop this entire war, once and for all. You know what I mean?”
Sammy flushed and looked away. The truth ate at her as she watched how impassioned Xander grew when he talked about revenge against her father. She knew she should tell him the truth—about her father and about the frightening monster in the cavern behind her father’s throne room—but she knew now wasn’t the right time to broach the subject.
Xander continued talking, oblivious to her discomfort. “And everyone else just treats me like I’m a child. Granted, I know they were all in their twenties and thirties when I was born but it really drives me crazy, you know?”
Sammy turned her face back toward him and shrugged. “I think they’re intimidated by you.”
A sarcastic laugh rumbled in his chest before he could stop it. “Intimidated by me? Are you kidding? Have you seen these people in action?”
Sammy laid her hand on his. “You don’t give yourself enough credit. You’re stronger than you think. You’re the only one willing to stand up to the Fire Caste.”
It was Xander’s turn to shrug. “Maybe I am. It doesn’t mean that I want it. God, Sammy. I’m not the responsibility type. I’m the guy that was sitting in the back of the classroom doodling in his notebooks instead of paying attention in class. I was the twenty-year-old who still lived with his…”
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