Water Shaper (World Aflame) (22 page)

A jet of flames washed over the building, flowing into the open windows. The humans hiding within disappeared, engulfed in decimating fire. The incredible heat split the plaster on the walls and melted the metal beams supporting the structure. As the flames swirled within the building, the walls swelled outward. Without warning,
they exploded outward as the flames sought escape. Debris flew from the shattered walls, crushing the cars and the unsuspecting Fire Warriors alike. A plume of dust and smoke intermixed as it spread skyward.

Turning away without a second thought, the Fire Elemental sought out the next building in which the humans hid.

Wilkes climbed up onto the platform at the London Bridge station and peered up the stairwell leading to the street above. When everything appeared clear, he motioned for the others to follow. Unlike the Bond Street Station, the London Bridge station was an open maw leading out onto the wide street. The concrete was scorched with long, black marks that spread up the walls and even coated the ceiling.

A knot of nervousness grew in Xander’s stomach. He knew the area near the Thames had suffered far worse than the parts of the city further
away, but he was unprepared for seeing the destruction up close.

They emerged onto the broad road. It was still
nighttime, but Xander could already tell that the light of dawn was cresting somewhere nearby, gently illuminating the thick smoke cloud above them.

“How far do we have to go?” Xander asked as he looked around the corner.

Wilkes looked around the corner and stared down the road. “About five blocks all together. We live closer to the Tower Bridge than London Bridge. It won’t take us long, so long as we don’t run into trouble.”

“That’s asking a lot,” Sean said.

Wilkes led them around the corner. The road was quiet, oddly so. Though Oxford Street was relatively quiet too, it still had patrols of Fire Warriors roaming randomly through the area. There was a chance, Xander knew, that the area had been abandoned after the Fire Warriors destroyed the neighborhood. Most of the buildings around them were covered with burn marks, either from Fire Warrior attacks or from the flames that gutted most of the store’s interiors.

They walked the first block cautiously, anticipating an ambush. Despite their apprehension, they saw no signs of Fire Warriors. Xander let out a breath he’d been holding since they emerged on the street. For the first time since arriving in London, it seemed that they might go more than a few blocks without being attacked.

As they passed the second block, Xander felt a tightness in his gut—a telltale sign that Fire Warriors were using their powers nearby. He placed a warning hand on Wilkes’ shoulder, pulling the Brit back into the shadow of a building nearby.

“Our good fortune ran out?” Wilkes asked quietly. “You see something?”

Xander shook his head as another uncomfortable jab pierced his side. “I can sense when they’re near.”

“Of course you can. How many?” Wilkes asked. “Can you tell?”

“More than we want to deal with, if I had to guess.”

Wilkes frowned and looked around the corner, though he couldn’t see anything through the din of smoke.

“Come on,” he said. “We’ll take a roundabout way to the flat.”

The Brit rushed across the
road and entered a side street between two tall buildings. The road ended abruptly at the entrance of a hospital. The look of the abandoned hospital struck Xander as more depressing than anything else they’d seen in the city. Cars were parked haphazardly in front of the emergency room entrance. And ambulance was parked canted there as well, with its back open and a forgotten gurney setting behind its back bumper. Xander wanted to look longer, but the pain in his stomach intensified.

Turning away from the hospital, they ran through a labyrinth of alleys between the hospital and a once glass-lined office building before emerging on another street that ran parallel to the Thames. The further they ran, the less Xander felt the bite in his abdomen.

By the time they reached a pier jutting out over the Thames, he couldn’t feel the Fire Warriors any more.

“We can stop,” Xander said breathlessly. He stopped and rested his hands on his knees.

“That’s good,” Sean said. “I’m pretty smoked all—”

He paused as he saw the pillar of flames licking the sky above. The others turned and stared at the destruction across the river. The gray stonework of the keep was charred black from the flames that billowed from the building’s interior. The London landmark smoldered as the tower belched fire and sparks
flew high into the night’s sky.

“That’s the Tower of London, isn’t it
?” Jessica said sadly.

“And the Tower Bridge,” Wilkes said, pointing toward the tall suspension bridge. The towers on either end of the bridge were consumed with
flames, and the fire rolled down the length of the bridge’s core. Even from a distance, the group could hear the groaning of the metal supports as they were sheathed in the blaze.

“We need to go,” Xander said. He knew the longer they stood and watched the destruction, the less likely they’d be to ever leave.

Wilkes and Sean nodded and turned away, following Xander back toward the road. Jessica stood for a moment longer and covered her mouth with her hand. Her eyes glistened as she watched the landmarks burn. Sean came back for her and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her gently after them.

They cut east along the edge of the river
—trying their best not to look at the tower and bridge—until they found another road that led back toward the flat. Xander rubbed his belly, drawing a concerned look from Wilkes, who assumed Xander’s movements meant he sensed more of the Fire Warriors nearby. Xander shook his head and let his arm drop to his side.

“I don’t sense anything,” Xander whispered.

As they reached the stonework buildings at the next intersection, the group noticed all the broken and charred windows. It seemed that every window was blackened and the stonework marred with smoke from where the buildings burned uninhibited. As a testament to the power of the Fire Caste, they passed a fire truck parked abandoned on the side of the street. The single fire truck hadn’t been nearly enough to stave off the flames that spread eagerly from building to building.

They turned onto Tooley Street, and Wilkes pointed excitedly a block ahead, where
—barely visible in the early glow of morning—a side street angled off to the right.

“Our flat is down that road,” he said. “Just a couple more blocks until we’re there.”

The group felt invigorated, knowing they were nearly there. As Xander glanced back toward Sean and Jessica, a sharp stab of pain rolled through his core. He clutched his gut as the pain intensified.

Before he could say anything, a blast of fire exploded on the ground in front of them. Xander threw up his arms defensively and glanced upward, spotting the Fire Warrior on the rooftop of the building nearby. His hands glowed brightly as he summoned more flames.

“On the rooftop,” Xander warned.

Wilkes crouched behind a car and raised his rifle, using the hood of the car to steady his aim. He pulled the trigger and the Fire Warrior disappeared. Xander couldn’t tell if Wilkes hit him or
not, but it was effective.

As he tried to celebrate their minor victory, two more balls of flame struck the car behind
where Wilkes was hiding. The flames washed over the car, flickering just above the Brit’s head.

Looking down the road, Xander could see spots of flames emerging from the darkness like
glowing, demonic eyes. The flames at street level were joined by more on the nearby rooftops.

“It’s an ambush!” Xander yelled. “Go back the way we came.”

He turned away from the advancing Fire Warriors only to see more flames emerging from the other direction. The Fire Warriors had waited until they were back on the main street before springing their trap. Now, it seemed like they were stuck.

Flames seemed to come from all directions at once. Instinctively, Xander threw up his hands and an invisible wall of air appeared. The flames shattered on the wall, leaving the neighborhood bathed in
fire, but the four people in its core unharmed.

Wilkes stood up behind his car and began firing indiscriminately into the approaching Fire Warriors in one direction. Xander heard the officer’s rifle click as he quickly emptied an entire magazine. The man deftly dropped the empty magazine onto the asphalt before replacing it with a full one from his vest.

Xander immediately regretted using his powers. It hadn’t been his intent to summon the shield. He had been far more of a conduit for the power within him than a willing participant. Despite the fact that these warriors knew where they were located, using his power would alert dozens, if not hundreds more, on this side of the river.

Having already used his powers, however, it hardly made sense to hold back any more. He glanced over to Sean and Jessica, while the sound of gunfire intermixed with the sounds of exploding fireballs striking his defensive wind wall.

“Get out of here, you two,” he said to his friends. “There’s nothing you can do here. We’ll cover you guys.”

Jessica
turned, but Sean shook his head. In a twist of fates, it was Jessica who grabbed Sean’s arm, pulling him back onto the side street from which they’d emerged. Xander lowered the wind wall in that direction, allowing his friends to escape his enormous bubble.

Satisfied that his friends were out of harm’s way, Xander turned his attention back to the Fire Warriors who were congregating around the edge of his protective barrier. Though they couldn’t get to Xander and Wilkes directly, the warriors skirted the edge of the barrier and began filtering down the side street down which Sean and Jessica were running. He saw one of the Fire Warriors glance toward his two friends and flames engulfed the man’s arms.

Fearing for his friends, Xander shifted the current of the wind wall. Before the Fire Warrior could release his flames, he was lifted from his feet and tossed through a broken window, disappearing into the shattered interior of the store.

Only after he threw the warrior did he realize his mistake. Shifting the wind dropped the barrier long enough for the other Fire Caste to get closer. Flames now exploded around the two men.

“I’m already running low on ammo,” Wilkes yelled, his voice barely carrying over the din of battle.

Xander lifted another pair of Fire Warriors, tossing them high into the air. They both crashed down on rooftops nearby and didn’t reappear. Glancing around, he saw a few warriors sprawled on the ground unmoving
, but far too many were still advancing. His technique of attacking one or two at a time wouldn’t be good enough to save them from this ambush.

Closing his eyes, he summoned a much smaller protective barrier just around the two of them as he concentrated. Aside from the heat that washed over them both, he barely noticed the unrelenting Fire Warrior assault going on just inches from his protected face. Instead, his mind reached out to the clean air high above the smoke cover over London. There, in the
clean air, dark clouds began to gather. The clouds crashed into one another as they swelled in size, forming the general shape of an anvil hanging in the morning air. Within the dark cloud, a single brilliant flash of lightning crashed.

General Abraxas raised his head at the sound of rolling thunder. His lips spread into a crooked smile that revealed deadly, jagged teeth. The flaming wings on his back spread as he leapt from the top of the building and soared over the Thames.