The Fire Salamander Chronicles Series: Books 1 - 3: The Fire Salamander Chronicles Series Boxset Book 1

by N M Thorn

  “As soon as I found him, I knew that the time had come, and I needed to start working on my plan. At that time, I thought the only way to get through the veil was by forcing the Reapers to open it for me. As you probably know, the Reapers are the only creatures of magic who can walk freely through the veil. So, I killed a few people in different areas and captured a few Reapers. But by holding the Reapers captive, I soon realized that none of them would comply with my demands willingly. They would rather die than help me.

  “So, I started to experiment. I was killing people and infusing their souls with demonic energy. Every time when an infected spirit was moving through the veil, it was damaging it slightly. But the problem was, the Reapers could cleanse the soul before sending it through the veil.

  “This is when I understood that the only way my plan would work was, if I had hundreds of infected spirits moving through the veil at the same time. There was not enough Reapers left in this whole area to clean so many infected spirits. But I didn’t know how I could kill hundreds of people instantaneously. Using modern mundane weapons was messy and acquiring them would surely attract unwanted attention. I didn’t have the power I needed.

  “Still not sure how I would make my plan work, I kept following Aidan. I knew that the Hunter endowed him with the power of a god and I didn’t want him to stand in my way. Thinking about how to get rid of him, I found out that the boy was in love. So, without further ado, I sent a few demons after his little lover. I didn’t want to kill her, but I wanted to get Aidan’s attention. And this is when I met you—a wonderful Child of Fire. A Fire Salamander. Who knew? I thought your kind was extinct centuries ago. I watched you dealing with those worthless demons and my heart was singing.

  “So, the next day, I enchanted an upir and sent him after Tessa, hoping that you’d be there to protect her. Lo and behold I was lucky again, and you were there. Irish luck, wouldn’t you say? As expected, you killed the upir, but you still didn’t use your full power. Instead, you used your magic. Don’t get me wrong, your magic is impressive, but it’s not what I needed. I needed to see your full might, the Fire Salamander in action. Not the young and inexperienced wizard.”

  “You were the one who sent two packs of volkolaks after me,” whispered Gunz, feeling sicker by the moment.

  “Yes, I did,” confirmed Eve, a maniacal gleam in her eyes. “I watched you reverting into your natural state. And you were magnificent, child.” Eve sighed wistfully. “I wish you were on my side.”

  “When hell freezes over…” mumbled Gunz, shuddering.

  “Well, I’m watching a Fire Salamander suffering hypothermia. Who knows? One day hell may freeze over too.” She smirked at him and continued, “Anyway, once I saw you for the first time, I knew what I needed to do to make my plan work. I needed to capture you and get Aidan’s attention away from what I was doing. I approached this Russian mobster, ordering him to get rid of Aidan. But this idiot did a better service to me—he hired you to kill me.”

  She laughed, throwing her mass of blond hair to her back. By this time, Gunz was on the border with unconsciousness. His body was shaking uncontrollably, and his mind was swimming on and off, hardly registering what Eve was saying. The only thing that was clear to him was that Eve wanted to rip the veil, and he was the main weapon in her plan for revenge.

  As little as he knew about the world of magic and its rules, he knew that the veil was well protected for a reason. Ripping the veil could create a devastating effect by colliding the world of the living with the world of spirits and demons. If Eve would succeed in her plan, the world as he knew it would cease to exist.

  “Eve,” whispered Gunz, stuttering, “you can’t do it… you’ll… destroy this world…”

  “That’s the idea,” she replied with a light shrug. “The rest of the story you know. I abducted Tanya Karpenko, hoping that Anatoly would send you after his daughter. And when you didn’t come, I lost my patience and decided to use my dimwitted stepson. I took his lover and demanded your life in exchange for Tessa’s. Anyway, enough talking. Let’s take care of my frozen Fire Salamander here.”

  Eve extended her hand and muttered a short spell. A large fireball manifested in the palm of her hand. She leaned forward, draping her free arm around Gunz’s shoulders and forcefully thrust the fireball through his chest. An overpowering wave of searing fire surged through his body. As his element spread through him, warming him from the inside, he cried out in joy, pulling against the chains that were binding him within his glass prison, slowly rising to his knees. His gray eyes got filled with flames and the wave of the fire energy expanded around him.

  “Oh God,” exhaled Eve, pressing her hand to her chest. Her lips parted, her breath quickened and for a quick moment her eyes darkened with lust. “You are a magnificent creature, Zane Burns. Almost as impressive as your legendary master, the Great Salamander.”

  Gunz sat down on his heels, breathing heavily, and scrutinized Eve with his burning eyes. “I will never do anything for you,” he said quietly. “You can torture me for as long as you wish, I will never give in to you.”

  Chuckling, Eve leaned forward and fixed his face between her hands. She leaned closer and planted a gentle kiss on his bleeding lips.

  “Who said anything about any torture? I don’t need you to give in to me, Child of Fire,” she said, raking him with a scornful stare. “All I need you to do is die. A human death, that is. And for that, I don’t need your obedience or your consent. Now you understand why you are so important to my plan?” Eve observed him, and he caught something resembling sympathy in her eyes. “Well, it’s almost time. Now, go to sleep.”

  She whispered a spell, softly touching his forehead with two fingers. His eyes closed, and the darkness softly embraced him. A last painful thought lingered in his mind a moment longer, the words that Jim said to him a while ago.

  You are a supernatural weapon of mass destruction.

  Chapter 38

  ~ Zane Burns, a.k.a. Gunz ~

  “Wake up!”

  Gunz felt someone shaking him roughly. An even noise filled his ears, and he forced himself to crack his eyes open. His vision was still a little blurry, and the dizziness made everything around him dance. As his eyes started to focus, he lifted his head and saw a large crowd of people standing in front of him. The mass of people seemed to extend to his sides and farther, outside his area of visibility. Some people were dressed in regular modern clothes, but some were wearing the strangest set of garments. He couldn’t help but wonder if he was on a set of some crazy mix of historical and fantasy movies. The people were chatting and laughing, pointing at him.

  Gunz moved to get up, just to realize that he couldn’t. He could hardly turn his head from left to right as his neck was secured by wooden stocks. He couldn’t see his body, but he was sure that he was lying on a horizontal platform and his body was bound to it with heavy chains. His arms were twisted behind his back at a most uncomfortable angle and shackled together. With his every move, the iron cuffs were painfully biting into the skin of his wrists.

  He looked from left to right and saw a wooden pole on either side of him. With an effort he turned his head as far to the side as he could and glanced up. Chills went through him and his heart thundered in his chest. He was lying down at the bottom of a tall wooden frame. At the top of the frame, he saw a large, angled blade. The edge of the blade was either bloody or rusty, but it still looked dangerously sharp.

  Holy shit! It’s a guillotine, he thought, struggling against his restraints, just to realize that he was bound in a way that was leaving him completely immobilized. He wanted to scream, but his jaw was sealed shut by some kind of leather straps, most likely a mouth harness. A cool evening breeze touched his skin and with aggravation, he noticed that on top of everything else he had no shirt on. A goddamn dominatrix nightmare!

  Gunz stopped struggling and took a few deep breaths through his nose, trying to calm down. Eve had him strapped to a guillotine, and he was sur
rounded by a huge crowd of humans. If this blade fell, decapitating him, all these people were as good as dead. Hundreds of people. Where was he? Why was he surrounded by so many people? And come to think of it, why were they dressed so strange?

  “Aw, look who is awake and back with us.”

  He heard Eve’s voice somewhere above him and the crowd responded to her words with a loud laughter and cheers. She strolled around the guillotine and squatted next to Gunz.

  “Welcome back, Child of Fire,” she said quietly, so except for him, no one could hear her. “How do you like the settings?” Gunz stared at her, breathing heavy as anger swept through him, but couldn’t say a word. “Aw, I’m sorry, I forgot that you’re a little inarticulate at this moment. Blink once for yes, blink twice for no. Do you understand me?”

  Gunz blinked one time, his chest locked with fury.

  “Hush, little one.” Eve chuckled, patting his cheek. “I can’t even imagine how angry you must be. But I’m sure by now you already appraised your situation and you know that you have no way to escape. My magic keeps the Fire Salamander in you under control and these wonderful iron chains are keeping the human in you immobilized. Do you agree that you can’t escape your destiny?”

  Gunz blinked once and a low growl escaped his tightly shut mouth.

  Eve laughed quietly, a carnivorous fire burning at the bottom of her eyes and waved her hand at the crowd. “Do you see all these people? I would say, there are at least a few hundred humans here surrounding you.” She tugged at the rope that was holding the blade suspended at the top of the frame. “As soon as I release this rope, the blade will fall. You’ll die a human death. Your wonderful fire energy will rush through this place like an atomic blast, in a heartbeat obliterating hundreds of humans. All I need to do is infect all these newly dead spirits with my demonic energy. With no Reapers to get in my way, it’ll be a piece of cake.”

  Gunz grunted, straining to break his restraints. Eve got up, her eyes sliding up and down his unobstructed torso.

  “I think I already told you how magnificent you are as the Fire Salamander.” She stroked his shoulders, brushing her fingers over the strained muscles of his arms and back. “I would love to tell you to stop struggling, but you have no idea how delectable your unclothed back and arms look when you’re straining to break these chains. So, keep fighting, boy. You are eye candy for this hungry mob. The more people you attract, the easier I’ll break the veil. So, please, don’t feel shy to show off your breathtaking physique to your adoring fans.”

  Gunz grunted and turned away from her. His stomach heaved, and the leather harness that was keeping his mouth shut didn’t help with the nausea. Eve was telling him the truth. As soon as the guillotine did its bloody job, all these people would be burnt to ashes. He wasn’t afraid to die. It wouldn’t be the first time for him. Back in Kendral, during his swordsmanship training, Kal decapitated him a couple of times, just to demonstrate what happens when he dies a human death. The agony of the sword slicing through his neck was something he could never forget. But as soon as his heart stopped beating, his magical fire energy exploded, immediately restoring his physical body and bringing him back to life.

  It wasn’t the prospect of his own death that terrified him. The idea that he would kill every single person around him was making his blood run cold. The understanding that there was nothing he could do to stop this massacre was sending him into an abyss of despair. He moaned softly, his hopeless situation making his eyes sting with angry tears.

  Eve walked around him and leaned down, wiping his eyes with a white handkerchief. “Aw, my sweet lad, is that a tear I see in your gorgeous eyes?” she said softly, but her face lit up with ravenous anticipation. “Don’t cry, Salamander. It’ll hurt just for a second. You know that guillotine was considered a more humane form of execution?”

  Gunz blinked once and then moved his eyes down, staring at the leather straps that kept his mouth sealed. Eve followed the movement of his eyes and snickered.

  “Are you trying to show me that you want to talk?”

  Gunz blinked once, staring at her pleadingly.

  “No, Salamander,” she objected icily, rising. “I’m one step away from getting my retribution. There is nothing you can say that would make me stop what I’m doing.”

  She glanced at her wristwatch and a monstrous smile stretched her lips, distorting her features, displaying a set of long sharp fangs that could rival the fangs of any vampire. For a moment, her eyes flooded with a yellow light and the true face of the air demon gaped at Gunz. He held his breath, shocked by the grotesque, repulsive sight. Finally, Eve’s horrid face was truly representing her vile insides. A split-second later, Eve’s human appearance was restored, and she smiled at him sweetly.

  “It’s time, Child of Fire,” she said, straightening and fixing the folds of her long medieval dress. “Let’s give these people a spectacle they will take with them to the other side.”

  Eve raised her arms up, requesting the attention of the crowd.

  “Welcome to the first day of the Florida Renaissance Festival!” she announced, going down in a deep, elegant curtsy. The crowd cheered loudly.

  Oh, no, thought Gunz, feeling numb on the inside, I’m in the Quiet Waters Park. God damn it all! There are thousands of people here, not hundreds.

  The Florida Renaissance Festival had grown into one of the biggest in the country, with the attendance record of nearly a hundred thousand people. As far as he could see, the first day of the Festival drew a hefty crowd.

  “For the opening of our beloved Festival, we prepared an unusual spectacle for you,” continued Eve. She walked toward the guillotine and waved her hand up and down in a fluid gesture, like a model demonstrating the latest prototype of an iron. “Even though this particular guillotine was built after the Renaissance era, during the Reign of Terror in France, and it still remembers the taste of the blood of its famous victims—King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, the true reign of this spectacular machine began a lot earlier.

  “The proud ancestors of this guillotine were the Italian ‘mannaia’ that was popular during the Renaissance era and the ‘Scottish Maiden’. Both of them claimed hundreds of lives way ahead of the French Revolution.”

  I wonder if she witnessed “the proud ancestors” at work, thought Gunz, attempting to reach his fire. It was unavailable, and he switched his attention back to Eve’s historical lecture.

  “Let me introduce my wonderful assistant, Zane,” said Eve to the crowd, ruffling Gunz’s hair with her hand. “Normally, he is extremely obedient, but yesterday he decided to be a bit nutty. Well, I thought he needed to learn his lesson and today I volunteered him for this demo.”

  She slapped Gunz playfully on his shoulder and the audience responded with giggles and laughter. Sick of her cheesy jokes and humiliation, he growled and jerked in his restraints, earning the next wave of titters and chuckles.

  “So, Kings and Queens, noble Knights and beautiful Ladies, and other creatures of the unknown realms, are you ready to see this terrifying device in action?” Eve raised her arms up and the crowd exploded with applause, cheers, and laughter. “And don’t you worry, after all said and done, Zane will still have his head firmly attached to his shoulders.”

  She squatted in front of his face and whispered into his ear, “As I release the blade, I will also free the Fire Salamander in you. Brace yourself, Child of Fire, for death is eminent, and it’s coming for you now.”

  At a funeral pace, Eve rose and sauntered toward the place where the raising rope that was supporting the blade was tied up. Gunz watched her, his heart beating slower with her every move. She untied the knot and held the rope with her both hands, keeping the blade at the top of the frame. Her cold eyes found his and he silently pleaded with her for the life of all these innocent people.

  In response to his desperate plea, her eyes gleamed yellow and the revolting face of the air demon emerged again. Her blood-stained thin lips separated, flas
hing the terrifying set of fangs.

  There was no reasoning with her.

  No one was coming to help.

  There was no hope.

  Gunz moaned and turned his head to the opposite side, staring up at the blade. Like through a thick wall, he heard the crowd shouting something and then a collective gasp flew through the field as Eve released the rope.

  Time slowed down, all sounds disappeared, and the blade started to descend.

  Chapter 39

  ~ Zane Burns, a.k.a. Gunz ~

  The time was almost at a standstill and Gunz had no idea why he was counting as the blade was slowly progressing down. Once it passed the halfway mark, he closed his eyes and braced himself for the excruciating pain. The pain never came. Instead, he heard a light popping sound and a powerful impact crushed the stocks into dust and slivers of wood.

  Time resumed its full speed. The noise of the crowd, shouting and applauding, hit him like a sledgehammer. He turned his head to the side and raised his eyes to see the sharp edge of the blade lingering within an inch off his neck. Eve was shrilling and chanting somewhere behind his back. He was still bound to the platform and couldn’t move a muscle. Gunz growled and pushed with all his strength against the chains.

  Slowly, the blade was pulled all the way up to the top of the frame, and Aidan stepped forward where Gunz could see him. He snapped his fingers and all the restraints were gone, including the leather mouth harness. Gunz inhaled a deep breath through his mouth and tried to sit up, fighting the dizziness. Aidan helped him up and tapped him on his shoulder.

  “Zane, you wanted me to stand and fight?” he asked, a ferocious smile on his lips. “So, here I am.”