by Lish McBride
Owen was bad enough, but at least I knew what he was capable of—he was a known factor. This new person at the end of the pool was not. Venus wouldn’t have thrown the new guy in here if she didn’t have a damn good reason. But what was that reason? Was it to punish me, or him?
“Who’s with Owen?” Lock whispered.
“No clue.”
“Great.”
That was the other thing I was worried about. I’d dragged the boys into this mess. Venus would probably kill us all, but there was a small chance that she might let me live. Break every bone in my body several times, yeah, but that slight chance existed. Ezra and Lock were, at least to Venus, expendable. Replacing a firebug? Not easy. Hiring new bartenders? Not really a problem.
My thoughts were interrupted by what can only be described as a fireball the size of a pony. My friends and I dove to our respective sides, making it out of the way before we got singed, but we landed in sharp, jagged rubble. At least Lock was wearing a leather jacket. Apparently it wasn’t as hard as I thought to find new firebugs, because Venus obviously had. Big and flashy, oddly enough, was not Owen’s style. When he threw flame, it was tightly controlled, small, and superhot. Despite all his other faults, Owen was a professional. He knew how to pace himself, something this newbie obviously hadn’t learned yet. Though with that kind of power, he probably wasn’t worried too much about finesse.
“What the hell was that?” Ezra yipped. “Can you do that? I’ve never seen you do that!”
It had been impressive. I was hoping that the new kid was all flash, but Venus had been too confident for that. No, he was just that powerful. Great.
I could only cross my fingers and wish that that he didn’t know how to pace himself and his body would start pulling from essentials—the energy usually used to run automatic systems like the heart, lungs, and so on.
The fact that Venus had found a prospective replacement for me changed the game. Of course she’d rather have three firebugs over two, but then again, replacing me with a lap dog might be enough for her. Doing so before he was fully trained, though, would be like trading a Jedi for a young Padawan. Darth Venus might not enjoy my lip, but at least I hit what what I was aiming for.
After picking myself up from where I’d fallen, I threw a few short bursts of flame, more to keep our opponents busy than anything else. What I needed was a precious second to think. If the Coterie had been training this kid, it hadn’t been for very long. People gossip, and even if it had been kept under wraps, the secret would probably have leaked. I was reluctant to hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it, and who knew why the kid was in the pool with me. Maybe he wanted to join the Coterie and we were looking at his initiation. Possibly he was like us—forced. Owen I would happily roast over a spit with an apple in his mouth while coating him in a glaze every thirty minutes, but the kid was a different story.
He threw another fireball, this time the size of a Volkswagen bus. Hard to dodge that. I hit the ground again, slicing my hand on a piece of broken glass. Lock also tried to move to the side but didn’t quite make it, though his leather jacket took the brunt of the assault. Smart wardrobe choice. Note to self: Wear more leather. Bikers might be on to something.
Ezra appeared to be snapping open a small collapsible crossbow. How had he hidden that in his tailored suit?
I couldn’t play dodge-the-fireball forever. The kid would probably get tired soon, but that left Owen. And if I avoided Owen, then Venus would send someone—or something—else in, because I needed to be taught a lesson.
A wave of fire arched toward me, like something out of a flamethrower. I got hit this time—not bad, but there was definitely a smell of burnt hair about me. Lock wasn’t as lucky. He was stopping, dropping, and rolling. It shouldn’t have worked with a firebug flame, but it did. The kid either had no endurance or didn’t care about seeing it through. He probably wasn’t used to killing with flame, like I was. Lock writhed on the ground, his jacket smoking.
I watched a wisp of smoke dissipate, and my high and lofty morals went with it. You don’t mess with my friends. Ever. Newbie was going to have to crawl out of this pool after I was done with him. I sent a volley of flaming orbs at Owen and the kid. I hit them both, but nothing happened of course. Venus may have had our wards removed, but she had no qualms about giving her side a leg up.
I watched a bolt fly from Ezra’s crossbow, but the shot went too far to the side. Lock was kneeling now, digging through the wood, his leather sleeve pulled down over his hand so he didn’t slice his fingers open on the glass.
“What are you doing?” I yelled.
“Looking for wood!”
“Um, try looking down?”
He shook his head. “It’s treated with chemicals.”
I shot another volley, this one at debris around our opponents’ feet. If I couldn’t hurt them directly, I’d try another way. The debris wasn’t warded.
Lock stood up, his hands holding shards of wood that apparently met his standards. As I watched from the corner of my eye, he did something to the shards and then started hurling them across the pool. They fell far short but Lock didn’t seem bothered by this. He shouted, raising his arms as he did. There was a loud cracking sound, and the floor shuddered. A blur of brown and green shot toward the ceiling, moving almost too quickly for me to follow.
Trees. Lock was growing entire trees out of pieces of wood. Not seeds, wood. If we weren’t fighting for our lives, I would have high-fived him. Even I didn’t know he could do that. I bet Venus didn’t know he could do that either. Giant trunks split the ground. They started to break through the ceiling before Lock stopped them with a slashing motion of his hand. Then they grew outward, widening until we’d have had to all join hands to circle them. Some kind of oak trees, but I didn’t have time to figure out exactly what kind.
Ezra dropped his bow and ripped off his suit. Leave it to Ezra to have a high-end suit made into a tearaway. He hit the ground on four paws, scooped up the tiny bow with his mouth, and took off. I could barely track him as he dove in and out of debris, moving around the trees.
Owen was coming closer, smiling, his sidekick following in his wake. I could tell their attacks were going to get more serious. The new kid was powerful and flashy, which would please Venus and the crowd, but he wasn’t very effective. A few years of intense training and he would probably light circles around Owen and me. But Owen had decades of training—he was the one to watch. He would get creative. What I really needed to do was get creative first, and I needed to shut things down fast. Jumping into a firefight after my disastrous night in Heaven wasn’t the best idea. I could feel my energy flagging, and when I moved my head too fast, I got a little dizzy.
Owen raised his right hand in a fist, palm up. With a smirk, he splayed his fingers. One of the trees blew up at the base. It straight up exploded. I turned and dropped to the ground, trying to avoid the worst of the shrapnel. The air smelled like burnt sap. He’d used a little too much force, though. Without the base, the tree toppled, and it fell in his direction. For the first time our enemies had to scramble out of the way.
The ground trembled when the tree came down. I took a moment to glance at Lock, who was on the floor with me. I motioned to the trees. “Can you do more?” He shook his head with a grimace. I didn’t know how much energy it took to grow trees out of dead wood, but it had to be a lot. Well, I couldn’t stay balled up on the floor forever.
I looked around. Not much I could do in the pool, which was why Venus had put us in here. Jeering faces looked down at us from above. Someone yelled, “Play ‘Free Bird’!” and I wasn’t sure if he was yelling at me or the now-silent quartet. One drunk asshole threw his drink at us—the whole drink, glass and all. It shattered at my feet. The drink thrower waggled his ward from the end of a long chain, taunting me. He reached out to grab a martini from a waiter’s tray, but I set the alcohol on fire before he could touch it. He jumped back with a yelp.
The crowd laughed. So many pe
ople. A few enterprising souls were exchanging money, taking bets on the outcome. I wondered if they all had wards. Then I wondered if it mattered. I ducked, dodging another wildly thrown fireball from the new firebug. A flash of russet fur at the far end of the pool caught my eye. I didn’t know what Ezra was planning exactly, but we’d worked together so long that I knew what he needed from us.
“Lock,” I hissed. “Distraction.”
Instead of answering, he took off, leaping over debris, running full tilt at the younger guy. Surprised, his target didn’t move. No one ran at firebugs. That was just crazy. And while everyone was watching the crazy guy, I got to work.
The debris was getting in our way—I had to turn it into an asset. The tables had been made of wood and the linens were, well, linen. I set patches of them ablaze, the treated wood giving off toxic-smelling smoke, the flames lighting up the floor of the pool around Owen and the new firebug. Lock tussled with the newbie. Owen was trying to turn my sea of fire against me, not paying attention to his sidekick. That’s the funny thing about fire—it’s so hardwired into us as threat that we concentrate on it and ignore other dangers. So Lock was able to pick up the new kid and toss him well away from Owen, who was intent on my flames.
The young firebug got up slowly, clearly injured. His eyes were on Lock. He seemed to have forgotten that there were three of us. And that was his downfall. Ezra stepped out from behind a tree, naked as a jaybird, his crossbow a flash in the light. He unloaded it with three quick taps, the sound so quiet, I might have been imagining it. The kid just stared at the bolts sprouting in a cluster around his heart. Then he fell to his knees.
They’d been prepared for fire. Everyone had been so worried about me, so used to the firebug being the big gun, that they’d discounted my backup. But I worked with Lock and Ezra all the time. I knew better.
The kid screamed. And then he totally lost control. Things in the room started to burst into flames. That fancy red curtain. Venus’s table. I knew what was coming next—I could feel it.
“Lock! Ezra!” I shouted. “Hit the deck!” I threw myself down, heedless of the broken glass and nails, my jacket pulled over my head. I heard chunks of the wall start to explode as if someone had laced the pool with tiny detonators. The walls were getting hit with such intensity that they were becoming unstable and collapsing. As soon as I could I got up, my jacket still draped over my head, and ran for Lock. Ezra was a red blur through the rubble, his tiny fox form darting here and there. We had to get out before the new guy went completely supernova. The crowd panicked above us.
The onlookers may have been warded, but wards don’t protect your mind. Fear of fire is instinctual. It takes a lot of willpower to repress that response. Unless you’ve had intense training, like firefighters, the urge to bolt always prevails. Suddenly the jeering crowd was standing in a flaming box and everyone reacted like I thought they would—they panicked and flew for the exits. All at once. If someone got in their way, well, that was what a right hook was made for. Clearly Venus had thought she didn’t need to safeguard the drapes. She was used to people in control of their powers—Venus knows I’m careful not to risk unnecessary injury, and Owen wasn’t stupid enough to set fire to the room—unlike the kid she’d thrown at me. She’d made a mistake, and if she’d had more experience with firebugs other than just my family and Owen, she would have known better. She’d have realized too much can go wrong in a situation like this, too many people can get hurt. But Venus always thinks she knows best.
Right now, Venus was shouting and trying to maintain order. She’d get it too. Eventually. Already, a few level heads were breaking out fire extinguishers. The sprinklers came on, adding to the chaos. That was fine with me—I didn’t actually want the building to burn down, at least not while I was in it. Besides, there were a lot of people upstairs whose only crime was wanting a fun night. My main goal had been a chance to get out of there. So I encouraged the dying firebug’s flame, keeping it controlled but burning. I shouted to Lock as I got closer. At my shout, he tossed part of a smoldering chair at Owen. Then he started running like I was.
We climbed the ladder quickly, a naked Ezra trailing behind. I paused halfway to blow up the rest of the trees, creating more confusion.
Once at the top, the three of us tried to go in different directions. Lock grabbed on to Ezra and me. “Don’t just bolt like spooked cattle. Think. Best way to get out of here?”
“What about the way we came?” I shouted over the din. The sprinklers were doing their job, but I was fighting them. Keeping fires going, starting new ones, trying to maximize the pandemonium. I wouldn’t be able to keep it up forever. When I moved my head, the emergency lights left a trail and things blurred. My mouth was dry and I was getting a major headache. It had taken a lot out of me to blow up trees. Good to know.
Lock shook his head. “Elevators automatically stop working during a fire alarm.”
“Back hallway,” Ezra said, pointing to the other side of the room. “There are stairs.”
“We go for the stairs.” Lock let go of Ezra but shifted his grip on me, sliding his hand down my arm until he had a hold of my hand, pulling me close. Lock took point while Ez went behind me, putting one hand on my shoulder to keep from getting separated.
“Venus is going to lock down the building, if she hasn’t already.” Lock swerved around a table that was miraculously still standing. “We’ve got to get while the getting is still possible.”
“Any chance Ryan and his friends are still here? Maybe they didn’t leave-leave but came down here instead?”
“If that’s the case, I’m especially not going to take the risk of seeking them out,” Lock said, dragging me through the crowd.
“Comeuppance,” Ezra said, shaking off the water from the sprinklers.
“Guys, they’re in totally over their heads, and they don’t even know—”
Lock cut me off. “Look, I understand you don’t want to believe that Ryan had anything to do with tonight’s misery, but if we stay, we’re not going to get anyone out of here. We’ll just be stuck under Venus’s very unhappy boot. If we escape, we have possibilities. If we stay?” He shook his head.
I didn’t like it, but he was right. Still, the idea of leaving Ryan behind …
“I’ll carry you out of here if I have to. Toss you over my shoulder and run.” Lock’s features were stern, the water from the sprinklers running down his face, flattening his bleached hair against his skull. It would have been comical if we weren’t in danger. Okay, it was still comical.
I nodded at him in defeat because I didn’t relish being carried out of there like a sack of flour, and I knew Lock would do just that. He hauled me toward one of the exits, Ezra behind us like a naked caboose.
The various doorways were packed with people stampeding their way out. It wasn’t going to be easy. Lock leaned his head back so I could hear him shout, “I think you’re going to need to intervene.”
It’s hard to aim accurately while you’re running, and the crowd was making me slow down anyway, so I stopped in my tracks, yanking Lock back. I concentrated, making two throwing gestures with my hand. Strictly speaking, the gestures weren’t necessary, but they helped with focus and aim. Two large fireballs shot out—one enveloped the door we were headed for, which exploded noisily, leaving a gaping hole. The other one did something similar to the opposite wall, creating a door where there wasn’t one before. I didn’t want it to be immediately obvious which way I was going. This way, either Venus would have to pick between the two or divide her forces. It might buy us a little time. Sometimes a few more minutes could make the difference between survival and ruin.
Lock grabbed my hand again. “This building is going to have serious structural issues when we’re done.” Ezra gave a yip, pushing us along, obviously anxious to get out of there.
After the explosions, people either jumped out of the way and hit the ground or they ran back in the other direction. The path was now clear enough that
we were able to push our way through and into the outer hallway.
Lock, his hand still firmly gripping mine, led me down a series of corridors. I was already lost.
“Is there an exit this way?” I asked, gasping for breath. Between the sprinting, the adrenaline, and all the fires, I was feeling shaky, my headache now a raging monster. My mouth was so dry, I was this close to licking Ezra just to get some moisture. But I didn’t, because I knew where he’d been.
“You think Venus would spend her time somewhere that didn’t have escape routes?” Ezra asked.
Of course she wouldn’t. If I had been thinking clearly, I would have realized that, but my brain was feeling foggy. I was keeping the flames in the ballroom going as long as I could, which was hard without being in there. Soon I would be far enough removed that the connection would break on its own. In the meantime I had to try to maintain it.
Lock pulled me through a door that led to some stairs. He headed up, and as I tried to follow, missing a few steps as I did, I suddenly wondered why no one was on our tail.
“We need to stop by the locker room,” Ezra said, examining the hall behind us. “Eventually, we’ll have to go outside, and people will be stunned by my amazing physique. We don’t need that attention.”
“Yeah, but the attention won’t be because there’s a naked man running around Boston, freezing his—”
Lock cut me off. “That’s a good idea. We also need your car keys. I bet my car is being watched, so yours is the better bet.”
Ezra didn’t trust the open lot by the Inferno, so he always parked a block away at a garage with an attendant. Nothing was too good for his “baby.” Since Lock usually drove us around, I’m not sure anyone at the Inferno would remember that Ez even had a car.
We headed for the employee area. With the kind of costume changes Venus required, people had to have somewhere to put their regular clothing and swap out their wards if they were for physical glamour. Can you imagine the staff from Heaven trying to ride the bus to work in their uniforms?