Xander smiled at the Italian’s obvious discomfort. Giovanni spoke brashly about his knowledge of women but blushed like a candle when faced to confront an actual lady.
“Thanks for all you’ve done so far,” Xander offered. “Did she happen to say what happened? How her room came to be on fire?”
“I asked. She wouldn’t say. Maybe she’ll tell you instead.”
Xander nodded. “I’ll talk to her. Thanks again.”
Giovanni slipped past in the hallway and walked toward the front of the hospital. Xander turned toward the closed door that marked the back of the house. He reached for the door handle but his hands stung as they closed over the cool metal. He gritted his teeth, wrapped his hand around the rounded handle, and turned as gently as possible.
A lantern dimly lit the room beyond. There was a window but the shutters were closed and a sheet was draped over the opening. Sammy lay on the bed in the room. She was on her side, with her back toward the door. A sheet was pulled up to her shoulder, but she had long ago kicked off the blanket that had been draped over her.
“Sammy?” he said from the doorway.
She didn’t move or even seem to acknowledge he was there. He stepped inside and closed the door quietly behind him.
“How are you feeling?”
“Better,” she said, though he could barely hear her low tone.
Xander walked over to the side of the bed and placed his hand on top of her exposed shoulder. She withdrew slightly as the smooth gauze rubbed against her skin. He could feel the heat from her skin but it was bearable; nothing like the heat she had been radiating when he rescued her. Still, his hands were abnormally sensitive to heat and he had to withdraw his hand sooner than he would have liked.
Sammy rolled toward him. Her eyes were puffy from both crying and lack of sleep. She looked drawn and exhausted. His heart ached for her.
She looked at his bandaged hands and bit her bottom lip.
“Oh God, Xander,” she moaned. “Look at your hands.”
Xander shook his head. “Don’t worry about me. I’m way more worried about you right now. How are you feeling? I mean, really?”
Sammy looked away. “I’m frightened and a bit embarrassed. How are the others taking what happened?”
“I’m not really sure,” Xander shrugged. “I don’t really care, though, as long as you’re okay.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said as tears spilled from her eyes. “I screwed up pretty bad, didn’t I?”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Xander said. He reached up and wiped away a trail of tears from her cheek.
“Of course it was my fault,” she retorted sharply. Brushing aside his hand, she rolled away from him, offering her back to him once again. “I screwed up and it nearly killed you.”
Xander felt frustrated. Every time he felt like he was getting somewhere in the conversation, Sammy shut down emotionally. Even though she only rolled away from him, she might as well have thrown up a wall between them.
Xander took a deep breath. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”
“I had a bad dream,” she replied softly, the acidity drained from her voice. “Can we please just leave it at that?”
“You know I can’t, Sammy. Your bad dream burned an entire house to the ground. It could have been much worse, if the others hadn’t managed to get the fire under control. Please,” he begged. “Please tell me what happened.”
Sammy threw her legs over the far side of the bed and sat up. She was naked aside from the underwear she wore. Xander’s eyes traced the soft ridge of her spine down her creamy-skinned back. His admiration was short-lived as Sammy threw a shirt over her head.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
Sammy shook her head as she retrieved her pants and thin-soled shoes. “I need to go.”
“Tell me why?” Xander pleaded. “What’s happened?”
Sammy reached up and wiped her eyes. She stood on the far side of the bed, her smooth legs sticking out from underneath the long shirt. Despite his concern for her well-being, his heart still raced in his chest.
“You’re all in danger and I think it’s my fault.”
Xander stepped around the bed and put his hands lovingly on her shoulders. “Take a deep breath and tell me what happened.”
“Something happened when we were apart, after… after…”
“After you tried to kill me,” he finished. He gestured for her to continue.
“When I went back to the Fire Warriors, I saw something… something I wasn’t supposed to,” she started, her words tumbling over one another as though her secret begged to be told. “I followed a hidden tunnel, one I’d never seen before. It led deeper underground, deeper than I’d ever been. The tunnel ended in a huge room and when I went in…”
She swallowed hard before laughing softly to herself. “This is going to sound insane. There was a monster trapped inside that room. Its eye was bigger than me and it breathed fire. I never even got to see what it was. I was so scared. All I could think to do was run. But when I went in the room, I think I woke it up. I didn’t mean to, but now it’s going to come for all of you.”
Xander paused as he tried to digest everything she had told him. He hadn’t had a lot of time to fully appreciate his new powers and the responsibilities that came with them, but he had adapted as quickly as he could. It was easy since he had grown up reading so many comic books. It wasn’t a far stretch to believe that normal people like him could have strange super powers. As far as he had seen, however, there weren’t any monsters hidden among the Wind Warriors.
He shook his head. “But you said it was trapped in that room, right? As long as it’s trapped, then we have nothing to worry about.”
“I don’t know if it is trapped,” she corrected. “For the past couple days, I’ve been seeing it around the island.”
“What? You’ve been seeing it here?”
He turned sharply, half expecting to see a monster pushing its way through the narrow doorway.
“Not… it’s hard to explain. When I was face to face with the monster, all I saw was its eye. It was taller than I am. I feel like I’m losing my mind but it’s the eye I’ve been seeing. Always floating overhead, watching me everywhere I went.”
“Was this what happened last night?”
Sammy blushed. “I dreamt about it and it made me lose control of my power.” She turned and paced the square room. “I haven’t lost control of my powers since they first manifested. We’re trained day in and day out until we can control them perfectly. But last night, I actually lost control. That and…” she began, before quickly closing her mouth and shaking her head. After a deep breath, she continued. “It’s yet another reason that I should leave.”
Xander could tell how painful the conversation was for Sammy but he couldn’t shake the feeling that she was holding something back. She still seemed far too stiff, despite sharing what he considered a dark secret.
“Sammy,” he said, stepping into her path. She turned on her heel and walked around him. Smiling, he raced around the bed until he could block her path again. “Sammy, stop walking, please. Listen to me. You’re not going to leave.”
She sighed as she stopped in front of him. “But what if I lose control again? You burned your hands last time. Who knows what’ll happen next time.”
“Let me put it this way—if you leave, I’m leaving too.”
Sammy smiled despite her exasperation. “Why are you so eager to put yourself in harm’s way? You have a death wish?”
“Apparently I do,” he replied. “Otherwise, I never would have become a Wind Warrior in the first place.”
“I don’t think you actually had an option on that.”
“Semantics,” he laughed.
“So you want me to stay?”
Xander reached up and wiped away the drying streaks of tears on her cheeks.
“You’re stuck with me, for good or bad. We’re in this for the long haul.”
Sammy chuckled to herself. Standing on her tiptoes, she leaned in and placed a kiss on his lips.
“I don’t understand the connection between us,” she said, “but I’m really glad it’s there. I’m glad you’re here.”
“Until death do us part, right? We’re not married, but somehow I feel like it’s a lot more fitting for us.”
She laid her head against his chest and listened to his heartbeat. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“You want to get a bite to eat?” he asked suddenly. “I think we both could use a break and we both need to get out of this room.”
“I’d like that.”
She stepped away and led the way out of the room. Xander watched her for a second before following. No matter what she told him, he still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something she wasn’t telling him.
They walked hand in hand to the cafeteria. The island was empty, with only the gentle breeze that poured between the walls of the waterspout keeping them company. Xander assumed his aunts and uncles were eating lunch already since it was already past noon.
The cafeteria had a door on the front of the building, unlike many of the other buildings that dotted the island. Most just had curtains or tarps drawn across their openings, offering privacy without a real concern for safety or theft. Only the Wind Warriors lived on the island, so they had little reason to fear for their safety.
The door was a two-way bump through door without a lock or handle. Xander stepped to the side and pushed it inward, allowing Sammy to enter before him.
Despite thinking that he was being chivalrous, Sammy seemed hesitant as she stepped to the doorway. She looked nervously at Xander before stepping into the cool interior.
Xander followed into the well-lit room. The cafeteria was circular, following the gentle curve of the building’s architecture. A single wall bisected the far end of the room, granting a bit of privacy for the kitchen area beyond. Open windows allowed bright sunlight to fill the room. The light reflected off the sparsely decorated, white marble walls, giving the entire room a soft, warm glow.
There were still nearly a dozen round tables spread throughout the main room in the cafeteria, despite there being so few Wind Warriors remaining. It seemed like an unnecessary effort to remove the tables and store them elsewhere, so most just remained unused.
The four uninjured and ambulatory Wind Warriors—Giovanni, Alicia, Thea, and Patrick—sat in the room, enjoying their lunch. They could have all easily fit around a single round table but they were separated over two. Giovanni and Alicia talked in loud tones, laughing at one another’s jokes. In contrast, Thea and Patrick sat beside one another at a second table, their heads close and talking in low tones. Their conversation died away as they looked up and noticed Xander and Sammy entering the cafeteria.
Xander saw Patrick’s withering glare but chose to ignore him. He slipped an arm around Sammy’s waist and led her toward the silver containers spread across a long table against the bisecting far wall. Most of their meals were a buffet style, with the cooked food being kept in heated, steel containers.
He handed a plate to Sammy before retrieving one for himself. They walked down the line in silence, picking through the different containers as they filled their plates.
Xander winced as his plate got fuller. It seemed hard to hold his heavy plate on his injured hands. The heat from the food seemed to seep through the ceramic plate, only adding further discomfort to his burned hands. Sammy glanced over and noticed his grimace.
“Want me to carry that for you?”
Xander frowned. “No. Thanks, though. If I can’t even carry my own lunch, I’m in for a world of hurt next time I have to face off against a Fire Warrior.”
With their plates full, Xander led them to a table adjacent to Giovanni and Alicia. He didn’t have to ask Sammy to know she was nervous about interacting with the aunts and uncles. She hadn’t really spoken to any of them since her house caught fire, aside from the perfunctory and curt conversation she had with Giovanni after he examined her in the hospital. She didn’t seem eager to talk to them any further, at least not yet.
Sammy pulled out a chair and sat down, spreading a napkin across her lap. As Xander set his plate on the table, he heard the scraping of a chair being pushed hastily back and the rattle of a plate and silverware being tossed together. He looked up to see Patrick standing from his table. His plate was still half-full but his expression said that he had no interest in remaining in the cafeteria.
“I think I’m done here,” he said loudly to Thea as he picked up his plate. “Somehow, I seem to have suddenly lost my appetite.”
He stepped to the edge of the long table and dropped his plate unceremoniously into a plastic bin. As he turned toward the front door, Patrick paused beside Thea.
“Maybe we can continue this conversation elsewhere.”
Part of Xander wanted to let the Irishman walk away, to let him just disappear so he and his girlfriend could eat their lunch in peace and quiet. The smug look on Patrick’s face, however, set Xander’s blood boiling.
Xander slammed his hand down on the table, startling the other aunts and uncles.
“If you have something to say, why don’t you just go ahead and say it to my face?”
Patrick paused and arched an eyebrow. “I already did, lad. I told you everything I needed to say at the funeral.” He pointed angrily at Sammy, who merely lowered her head to avoid eye contact. “She’s a menace to everyone here and she doesn’t belong.”
“And I told you then that she wasn’t going anywhere,” Xander retorted. He was practically shaking with anger. “She’s staying for as long as I say she is.”
“Aye, because you love her,” Patrick smirked. “You have some deep connection that simple-minded folk like myself just couldn’t possibly understand. Aye, I got that. It’s touching… and absolute crap.”
“Both of you just need to settle down,” Giovanni said from his seat in between them. “We’ve all had a rough time over the past few days. It’s set everyone on edge. Let’s just take a deep breath and—”
“And nothing,” Patrick said. “If none of you will be man enough to say it, I will. You little bird set fire to her room. Burned the whole thing down.”
“It was an accident,” Xander snarled.
“Was it? Was it now? And you know this how? Because she told you it was an accident? Well, I’m prone to believe her, since she’s been nothing but trustworthy so far.” He turned toward the other aunts and uncles. “Everyone else feeling very reassured because the Fire Warrior promised that her setting fire to the island was just an accident?”
“Shut your mouth, Patrick,” Xander threatened.
He clenched his hands into tight fists. He could feel his nails digging into the palms of his hands. Deep within his gut, he felt a stirring as some primal power yearned to be released.
“And what happens when she accidentally burns us all to death in our sleep?” He turned his attention directly to Sammy, who still refused to look at him. “Will you feel really bad about that accident too? Will you cry yourself to sleep before or after you slaughter the last of us?”
Patrick slammed his hand down on the table in front of him, startling Sammy. “Look at me,” he yelled at the Fire Warrior. “Tell me all about how sad you’re going to feel when you finally finish what you started at the dance.”
“Enough,” Xander yelled.
The power inside him broke free of its own volition. The wind tore through the open windows, pulling the shutters free from their moorings. It scooped up a chair from the far side of the room and flipped it into the air. The chair crashed onto the table in front of Patrick, who stumbled backward in surprise.
Patrick sneered and stepped forward dangerously but Alicia leapt to her feet before the incident could escalate any more.
“Stop it, both of you,” she yelled. Her stern tone, so different from her normal matronly demeanor, startled both Xander and Patric
k.
Almost immediately, the wind faded and the room settled into its previously quiet disposition.
“If you two want to act like children, you can do it outside,” she continued once she had everyone’s attention. “It’s Patrick’s day to train you anyway, Xander, so go train.”
Xander shook his head. “I think I’ll pass.”
Patrick snorted derisively. “Of course you will. You’re about as committed to our cause as your little Fire Warrior. You’re perfect for one another.”
“You want to train?” Xander asked. “Fine, let’s train.”
“I look forward to it, lad.”
Patrick turned away and walked out the door. The door swung closed behind him as he walked into the warm sunlight.
Xander seethed at the Irishman. His hands dug into the table as he glowered at the man’s departure. Within him, the power boiled and churned, yearning for a release.
He felt a sudden tug at his sleeve and he looked down to see a very concerned expression on Sammy’s face.
“Xander,” she said breathlessly, “your eyes.”
Xander blinking heavily and the power within him seemed to subside as the anger left him temporarily.
“What’s wrong?”
Sammy furrowed her brow as she watched him. “Your eyes were glowing bright white a second ago, like you didn’t even have a pupil. I saw your eyes do something similar when you were fighting General Abraxas.”
Xander frowned and he felt the anger rolling back to the surface. “That’s because I haven’t been this pissed off since Abraxas. Man, that guy really gets under my skin.”
Sammy pushed back her chair and stood. “Just let it go,” she begged. “It’s not worth all this heartache.”
“Yes, it is,” he replied. “He’s not going to let up until someone puts him in his place. He’s just going to keep making both of us miserable.”
He lowered his tone until he was sure he couldn’t be overheard by the other aunts and uncles in the cafeteria. “He’s already got me so angry that I’m not even sure I want to stay here anymore. Part of me just wants to get out of here and go back to White Halls. Check on Sean and the rest of the town and make sure everyone’s okay. You know what I mean?”
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