The Horde Wars II: Wanton Fire

by Sherri L. King

  Some say the world will end in fire,

  Some say in ice.

  From what I’ve tasted of desire

  I hold with those who favor fire.

  But if it had to perish twice,

  I think I know enough of hate

  To say that for destruction ice

  Is also great

  And would suffice.

  — Robert Frost

  Prologue

  They were surrounded by the Daemons; their entire group penned in by the monsters that were supposed to be too dull-witted to accomplish such a feat. But these Daemons…they were different from their predecessors. So very terrifyingly different. They seemed coordinated—a working unit with powers of strategic reasoning and logic—which was surely impossible. The beasts were mindless. They were vicious, evil and cruel to be sure, but mindless all the same, with no powers of higher reasoning. But this group, these seven creatures, had worked together against the three Shikar warriors, hemming them in back-to-back, facing outward against their foes.

  The Shikars were tired, beyond exhaustion. For them it had already been a long night of hunting and killing these beasts among the jeopardized Territories of Earth. They’d saved the lives of countless humans this night, but they would not be able to save themselves. Not against these formidable foes. The warriors were breathless, gritting their teeth against the biting pain of their battle-worn muscles and bones, preparing themselves for a last stand against evil. It was all they could do. Their pride as warriors demanded that they stand their ground and face their deaths with courage and valor. They would not go down without putting up one hell of a fight.

  The monsters stalked around them, as if judging the Shikars’ strengths and how best to attack against them. Their burning yellow eyes were windows into hell’s fire, gateways to the fiery pit itself, seeking—ever seeking—an opening to attack. An unspoken command seemed to pass between the vicious predators. In the next breath, as one, they rushed the Shikars, attacking en masse.

  Shrieks of battle and death rang out into the night…then all fell silent.

  Chapter One

  Hamburg, Germany

  “Would you quit that? You’re embarrassing me! Just be cool, be real, and you’ll blend right in.”

  “Cady, we’ve been blending in with humans since long before you were born,” Obsidian growled. “We know what we’re doing.”

  “Yeah. Right. Then if you’re so damn comfortable out here why are you darting in between cars, ducking into corners, looking over your shoulder every few minutes, and basically appearing like you’re a bunch of lunatic criminals? You’re drawing far too much attention to us with your antics. I’ve noticed that you’re not so great at subterfuge…and so has half of the city!”

  “How would you have us act, Cady? Would you have us stand in the middle of the road and wait for an attack from any quarter? Is that what you would prefer?”

  “You are such a jerk, Sid. Just be cool, as I said, and follow my lead.” Cady sniffed the night air. “Ah ha. Hang on. I’ll be right back.” She darted across the dirty wet street and ducked into a garishly lit shop on the other side, leaving her group to stand behind and wait for her.

  “I don’t feel comfortable being out here like this, Obsidian.” Edge’s smooth voice betrayed none of his nervousness, despite his words to the contrary.

  “Neither do I. But Cady thinks we’ll find something here. We’ll just have to bear with her until she knows more.”

  “I hate the stink of this place.” Cinder scowled. “I much prefer the farmlands we’ve been frequenting of late. The smell of animals and crops is not so unnatural as…this.” He gestured to the passing cars, wandering people, fast food restaurants and nightclubs that lined the dingy city street.

  “Do you think I enjoy this any better than either of you? I would much rather be at home playing with my son or loving my woman until she bears me another. But we have a duty here and I’ll be damned if we’ll go back home before we kill a few Daemons this night.” Obsidian looked around with no small amount of discomfort at their surroundings. Cady may be used to frequenting the world of humans—she was a former human after all—but he definitely was not. Where Edge and Cinder often frequented the surface world to find willing female companionship, he himself had not often found the time to so indulge himself before meeting Cady, his wife. He was ill at ease here, on the surface world.

  He thought back to the meeting between himself and his love…if so tame a word as ‘meeting’ could be used to describe the cataclysmic effect they’d had upon each other that first night. They’d fought like wildcats, each sustaining injuries from the other, battling for supremacy in those first few moments of confrontation with a tireless fervor. They still warred for supremacy of each other, fighting for the upper hand in almost every situation, no matter how insignificant. Though now instead of ending their skirmishes with bloodshed and bruises they usually ended up settling things in bed.

  Obsidian smiled dangerously. He often enjoyed pricking his mate’s temper if only to spice up the play in their bed. She was a fiery lover. More than a match for his voracious Shikar appetites. Sex with her was explosive and truly amazing…when it wasn’t mind-blowing, tender, full of gentle kisses and soft-spoken vows of love. He would never tire of her. And he would see to it that she never tired of him.

  He loved her more than life itself.

  And now he had a son, Armand—named after Cady’s lost baby brother, the tragic victim of a Daemon attack—thus his heart was full of tender emotions. His son was the image of himself, with his mother’s impish smile and mischievous ways. He was perfect. Never in his life had Obsidian expected to be so blessed in so short a time. But now he was a husband and a father…and more than ever he vowed to defeat the threat that could one day snatch those precious things away from him. Cady and Armand were his life. He would protect them with all of his being and more.

  Cady emerged from the shop with a sack in her hand. She came to their sides with a slightly smug, yet gamin grin on her face, drawing Obsidian from his inner musings.

  “Ta da! Now these will help us appear more like tourists instead of no-good thugs. Ever had a foot-long with the works?”

  Cinder laughed. “I always have a foot-long that works.”

  “Ha, ha. You are such a geek, Cin. I mean a foot-long hot dog—bratwurst actually, I think.” She pulled out a cylindrical package of foil and handed it to him. “Try it, you’ll like it. It’s loads better than your usual Shikar-grown mutton or grain, if you ask me. Ugh. I am getting so tired of eating the same old stuff day in and day out. Maybe Tryton will be willing to import some fast food now and then if I ask.” She distributed her treasures to Edge and Obsidian, keeping one for herself, then showed them how best to open and eat the confections without getting the messy toppings all over themselves.

  Hot dogs? Cinder looked at Edge and sent him a worried, questioning look. Were they really expected to eat dog? Edge shrugged, looking as confused as he felt. Cinder sniffed the food and winced. It smelled tangy and rancid and he was certain that the clear, white topping upon it was inedible. “What is this?” he asked, picking up a piece of the warm, squishy stuff.

  “Sauerkraut. It’s fermented cabbage. Try it,” she said firmly, “you’ll like it.” Cady took a healthy bite of hers and Cinder struggled not to turn green.

  Fermented cabbage? In other words, it was rotten. He’d be damned before he ate anything rotten. Cinder smiled and, to please Cady, he took a tiny bite out of the end of his poor, cooked dog. The dog tasted far worse than it smelled! He quickly turned his head away from the others and spat the offensive refuse out onto the street. He held the hot dog behind his b
ack, focused his energy, and burned it to a crisp in his hand. He crumpled the ashes and let them scatter harmlessly on the wind behind him.

  Edge sent him an angry look. He would not get off the hook so easily as Cinder had. He had not the skill of an Incinerator. Edge was on his own. Cinder sent him a smug grin and dusted his hands clean of the offensive food.

  “You’re already finished, Cin? Good grief, you must have been hungry—why didn’t you say something earlier? Here, have another.” Cady reached into the paper sack and retrieved another of the awful dogs. Cinder tried not to cringe. “See? I told you they were good.” She smiled, but Cinder could have sworn that she knew—somehow actually knew—what he had done with the first dog.

  Cinder bit back a groan and accepted another foot-long from Cady’s hand. Edge chuckled and took a daring bite out of his own…Cinder was surprised when he took yet another, larger bite, after that. Edge was obviously possessed of a much higher tolerance than he for the horrible human food.

  “What exactly are we looking for here, Cady?”

  “What are we always looking for, Cin? Daemons.”

  “But here, in the middle of a city? Of all the places they’ve frequented of late, I haven’t heard a tale involving such a populated place.”

  “And why do you think that is? Any clues? I’ve often wondered myself why these creatures don’t just swarm into a city and take their pick of the humans that wander about here,” Cady pressed.

  “Maybe psychics only frequent unpopulated areas,” supplied Edge, who still munched contentedly on his hot dog.

  “Again—why? Don’t you ever wonder about these things?”

  “No doubt, even as dull-witted as Daemons are, they know better than to tempt fate and discovery by entering large cities.” Obsidian sighed, clearly impatient. “But we are not here to question their ways, and to do so will only waste precious time. We are here to protect…and I don’t see anyone who needs protecting right this moment.”

  “Trust me, Sid. I have a feeling. We need to be here tonight. I can just feel it, okay?”

  Obisdian sighed and pulled her tight against his side. “We’ll stay close to one another and stay aware. You’ll let us know when you sense any changes around us, if I don’t sense them first.” He winked at his wife. They were always in competition with each other now to see who had the strongest Hunter skills. “But I don’t like being in so crowded a place. I don’t like thinking that a Daemon would dare come here and wreak havoc. I don’t like it at all.”

  “Neither do I,” Cady agreed.

  The group was silent for several long moments as the human world moved on in ignorance around them. Cinder quickly burned his second bratwurst and scanned the people that littered the streets. Such an odd group, humans. He had little use for them, really. Neither did any of the other Shikars to his knowledge. He only really interacted with them when he needed a woman…or two. He did so love human women. Their soft arms, plump thighs, tender hearts and welcoming bodies were the stuff of decadent dreams. He would have preferred that the human race run itself into extinction as it seemed so wont to do but for the loss of the women.

  Cinder was drawn out of his thoughts as Cady went still. Something was amiss.

  Cady’s breath misted into the air as she exhaled a long, pent up breath. She leaned into the night, swaying out of Obsidian’s arms, eyes going heavy and distant. Cinder watched the process with a growing alarm. Cady’s strength as a Shikar Warrior of the Hunter and Incinerator Castes grew by leaps and bounds every day. It never ceased to amaze him how powerful she had become…was becoming. He tried to remember what life had been like before she had joined their ranks. She had been a human woman then. She had been an amazing warrior even then. But now…she was the stuff of legends.

  “Holy Horde, they’re close.” Her voice was hoarse, strained.

  “How close? How many?” Obsidian demanded.

  “I don’t know.” Her voice broke. “They feel so different. Their presence seems so strong one moment and then just…it just kind of fades away.

  “How can that be?” Edge asked.

  Cady ignored him. “C’mon. There’s something this way.”

  “How many are there, damn it?”

  “I don’t know, Sid!” Cady’s arms flailed in frustration and her long braid whipped about her shoulders and back. “I’m not even certain what I’m feeling is the presence of a Daemon or something else. But whatever it is, it’s strong, and it’s this way. So just follow me, all right?”

  “On your guard everyone,” Obsidian cautioned.

  He didn’t have to warn them twice. Cinder felt the fire that was always burning just beneath his flesh, begin to kindle and spark. He didn’t like this situation. None of them did. But he would see that these humans were kept safe from whatever threat was posed to them, if that was the will of The Elder, Tryton—and it was.

  Lately Tryton seemed quite obsessed with humans.

  The four of them moved efficiently through the crowded sidewalks until they came upon a thundering nightclub.

  “The Desolate?” Edge said, easily translating the German sign that hung above the establishment, the words blinking in bright neon colors that belied the darkness of the name. “Sounds quaint.”

  “It’s an industrial or techno club, I think.” Cady looked the place over with a thorough attention to detail.

  “What the hell does that mean?” Obsidian asked.

  “Industrial and techno are types of music. Very loud, very heavy music with complex beats and such. That’s all I know. I was a fan of very few bands in my youth—I didn’t really have much time for music.”

  “Would you look at these humans?” Edge muttered in their Shikar tongue so as not to offend the natives. “They look so somber with their white faces and funeral garb.”

  “Not all of them.” Cinder tried not to gawk when he saw a woman sporting a two-foot high Mohawk in various colors and shades of the rainbow. Her piercing struck Cinder as particularly interesting. She had rings and bars in her ears, eyebrows, nose, lips…she even sported silver studs lined in a row up each alabaster forearm. He’d never seen their like before. She wore a clear plastic top with red dots positioned just over her nipples, and a long red velvet skirt. “Wow,” Cinder breathed, unable to tear his eyes off of the spectacle.

  “Well. Let’s go in.”

  “Wait. You can’t be serious, baby, surely.”

  “I don’t want to go in there any more than you do, Sid. But we have to…that’s all there is to it.”

  Cady produced a thick wad of human currency—Tryton kept them well supplied for their ventures above the surface, though how he obtained the funds was a mystery and probably better left as such—and paid their entrance fees. Cinder walked in ahead of the group, curious about what lay in wait for them in this strange place. They passed through a door into a dimly lit foyer. There, a shirtless man in black latex pants asked them for proof of ID. Cady produced their documents—high quality forgeries procured through Tryton—for the man to view, and they were admitted through yet another door.

  Here was a place of thundering, shadowy chaos. Blinding white strobe lights pulsed about them in the dark, revealing in flashes a huge group of undulating human bodies. The Shikars were on the outskirts of a dance floor, swallowed by the throng of people that pumped and swayed to the heady music. Cinder winced. The air was thick as syrup with the noise. It pulled at him like a weight, and every bass-ridden beat of the music thudded in his chest with the force of a physical blow.

  “This isn’t so bad.” Cady yelled to be heard over the din.

  “Are you mad? This is horrendous. It reminds me of the Gates…except the air is easier to breathe,” Edge yelled back.

  “I expected much worse. The DJ is pretty good.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Edge was growing more and more agitated as the music swarmed around them like the thunder of the Horde’s giant heartbeats.

  “DJ—disc jock
ey. I wonder who it is?”

  “I give up. You’ve lost me entirely—but I don’t care. I can’t stay here. The noise, the crowd, the lights…it’s all too much. What, by Grimm, are we supposed to find here?”

  “I don’t know.” Cady had the gall to laugh when Edge glowered at her. Cady never lacked for gall.

  Cinder looked around them. The place was swarming with humans. It was such a wild and busy place, this nightclub. He’d never witnessed its equal in chaos and celebration…for that seemed what the humans were intent on doing. Celebrating. They drank heavy spirits, kissed and fondled in a sea of damp, tender limbs, and danced in rhythm with the music. He saw them all as they probably would have least liked to appear. Fragile, vulnerable creatures who were not long for the world they so took for granted. A small woman bumped into him, then turned and rubbed her soft, plump body against his. He took her in his arms and undulated back against her, marveling that so small and luscious a creature could approach one as dangerous as he without a care for her own safety.

  “Don’t stray too far, Cinder.” He heard Obsidian call out behind him but was more riveted by the sea of bodies that moved to swallow him up. His partner rose up, pressing her scantily clad body even more firmly against him, and kissed him full on the lips.

  Cinder tasted alcohol and amphetamines on her breath, but he kissed her anyway. Her lush, precious mortality clouded over him like a thick perfume. Their kiss ended and Cinder clearly saw in her eyes the invitation for more serious play. But he set her back with a gentle smile and used his preternatural speed to escape without her notice. He was sure she was too inebriated to notice his seeming disappearance. He let the crowd take him deep.

  The music had changed tempo but he couldn’t remember when. Now it was not so fast as it was thick and plaintive a tune. The lights flashed so that he could find no peace from their invasion, even when he closed his eyes. Men and women alike rubbed against him in a brutal, sexual dance that had his senses reeling. He’d never felt so out of control, so in tune with a chaos that beckoned with the promise of fleshly love and lust even as it bludgeoned him into madness and confusion. Time lost all meaning. The music played on and he was forced to worship it, along with everyone else.