Flame Caller (7 page)

“
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 rumble. 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.”