Water Shaper (World Aflame) (28 page)

Abraxas laughed again. He turned to the Fire Warriors, and his laughter spread like a contagion. Their laughter was a roar surrounding the group like a suffocating blanket.

Sean furrowed his brow as another noise crept through the thunderous sound of laughter. He heard a trickling, like a faucet left on and running a thin stream of water into a sink. Confusedly, he glanced over the railing beside him to the Thames below. His eyes widened in surprise and he snapped his head forward again, hoping that the Fire Warriors didn’t notice his random gaze.

Below the London Bridge, the Thames River was receding. The water level dropped slowly, revealing the mud and heavier debris that had poured into the river during the city’s siege. Fish that had survived the choking ash floundered on the muddy banks, gasping for air as the water disappeared from the riverbed.

“Laugh all you want,” Xander said. “There’s a part of you, deep inside, that’s afraid I just might be right.”

The laughter died away as Abraxas scowled at the overly confident man. “You’re only alive right now because I’ve let you live. I think, perhaps, you’ve overstayed your welcome.”

Sean stole a glance to the far side of the bridge and saw the rest of the river run dry. He didn’t know what it
meant, but he knew it was Xander’s doing. His throat felt suddenly parched, as though even the moisture from his mouth had been pulled away.

Xander’s mouth felt equally parched, though he knew his was from stress and worry. Wilkes had been right that Xander had never killed a Fire Warrior before. Even face to face with the demented Fire Warrior General, he wasn’t sure the first emotion he felt was a desire to kill the man. But Wilkes words stuck with him. If he wanted any of his friends to survive, he’d have to be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice of his morality. He’d have to be willing to kill.

The flames sheathed Abraxas’ arms, glowing first red, then orange, then yellow, before finally igniting a brilliant white. He snarled, revealing his sharpened teeth. His dark tattoos twisted as he furrowed his brow in anger.

A new sound filled the air; a mixture of thunder and crashing waves. Abraxas faltered as he stared at Xander in confusion. He turned his head to the
side, and his eyes shot open in disbelief.

“I told you I’ve learned a few new tricks, too,” Xander said.

A tidal wave rushed down the Thames’ riverbed, the entire force of the river having been released all at once. The wave towered over the bridge and it cast a long shadow over the small group and the one hundred Fire Warriors.

Abraxas looked at the solid wall of water rushing toward then and swallowed hard. The wave slammed into a bridge further upstream without faltering. In the depths of the translucent water, he could see logs and other rubble carried along in its wake.

“Xander?” Jessica asked. She clung to Sean nervously.

He didn’t reply; his eyes were completely consumed by the blue glow as he channeled the full might of the Water Elemental.

“No,” Abraxas said as he ignited his burning wings, his revenge temporarily forgotten. He jumped onto the railing and leapt off, in an attempt to outrun the churning surge.

The wave grew quickly closer. It was an unstoppable force of nature that was set to obliterate the wide bridge on which they stood.

The Fire Warriors saw their leader turn and flee, and they ran toward opposite ends of the bridge. Though they fled, they weren’t nearly fast enough to escape the wrath of the wave.

“Xander!” Jessica yelled as the wave reached the London Bridge. Xander threw his arms out
wide, and the wave parted down its middle. The two halves of it washed over the bridge, slamming into the two groups of Fire Warriors as they tried to escape. Their respective cries were drowned out by the thunderous crash. They were lifted from their feet and pulled into the churning depths of riptides and swirling madness just beneath the tidal wave’s surface. As one, the entire Fire Warrior ambush was washed over the side of the bridge and carried downstream.

Abraxas was barely clear of the bridge when the water washed over and around it. He pulled steeply upward in an attempt to
escape, but the wave struck his legs and sent him spinning wildly away. He disappeared into the nearby buildings in a crash of glass and steel.

In the middle of the bridge, the small group of survivors cringed, bracing themselves for a ravaging wave that never struck them. Water from the breaking waves sloshed across the surface of the bridge, soaking their boots and pants
legs, but the wave itself bypassed them completely.

They turned slowly to Xander as his eyes returned to normal. He staggered momentarily as the first signs of exhaustion settled over him but Wilkes was quickly at his side, supporting his weight.

“I should have never doubted you,” the Brit said.

Xander didn’t reply. He looked over the edge of the
now-twisted railing and watched the water settle back into its riverbed. It churned at first as it tried to settle back into its regular flow. Eventually, the surface resumed its regular, gentle, downstream flow.

Wood floated back to the surface as more debris flushed from upstream. Amidst the broken wood, he saw pale-skinned bodies emerge from the frigid depths. The Fire Warriors bobbed back up to the surface, floating facedown as the river carried them away.

Xander felt nauseated, watching the results of his tidal wave. There had been a line he hadn’t previously crossed. So much of his previous life had been stripped away with the loss of his family and the gaining of not just the wind power, but the water as well. Not killing the Fire Warriors was his last connection to his humanity. He felt as though a part of his soul had been torn away, no matter how necessary the killing had been.

Sean looked sadly at his friend. “It was either us or
—”

“Don’t you dare,” Xander snapped. “Don’t feed me some textbook answer about how I’m supposed to be okay with this.”

Wilkes placed his hand on Xander’s shoulder. The Wind Warrior tried to shake off his hand, but Wilkes tightened his grip. Slowly, Xander turned to the Brit.

“I’m not going to feed you any rubbish,” he said. “I’m just going to tell you that Abraxas didn’t get caught in the wave. He’ll be back. We need to go.”

Xander looked around the relieved expressions of his friends. Without a reply, he drew a sharp breeze over the bridge. The wind lifted the group from their perch and carried them up into the air.

They passed quickly over London as they picked up speed. Xander’s eyes barely noticed the rest of the burning city; his eyes remained fixated on the Thames until they finally gained enough elevation to pass through the smoke cloud.

When Los Angeles was burning brightly across its full length, the Fire Elemental swooped back toward the skyscraper it had established as its throne room. The dragon didn’t turn its head and scan the streets below; they were filled with its Fire Warriors and now devoid of most of the human resistance. It focused solely on the tower and being done with the first part of its conquest.

As it approached the balcony protruding from the penthouse’s bay windows, its body began to shimmer and morph. The long claws of its scaled hands receded until they became dirty fingernails. The tail faded completely, leaving no semblance of it behind. The red scales turned alabaster and were absorbed into Sammy’s porcelain skin. Even the spiked ridge on its back became flowing blond locks. By the time its feet alighted on the balcony, only the wings remained, stretching widely from its back. With its feet comfortably on solid ground, the wings, too, disappeared. Standing before the shattered windows was a dirty-faced
, naked, blond woman who held none of the intimidation of the monster it had been moments before. Only its smoldering, red eyes gave any indication the woman was more than she appeared.

She stepped over the broken glass once more. The shards cut into her
feet, but the wounds healed almost as quickly as they appeared.

Within the warm interior of the building, the room was dark. The power had been out in the city since the assault began and only the natural sunlight illuminated the open room beyond. Despite the darkness, the Elemental saw perfectly fine. The room was cast in conflicting shades of blue and red. Standing in the middle of the room
—the only red in the otherwise cool interior—was General Kobal, who bowed deeply as he was recognized.

“I assume the war has gone well?” he asked. Even bowing, the man was nearly as tall as Sammy’s shorter frame.

“
The war is just beginning,
” the Elemental corrected. “
However, you are correct that the battle for Los Angeles has come to its inevitable close.
”

Kobal nodded as he stood to his full stature. He walked over to the Elemental’s side and opened a robe he held in his large hands. The Fire Elemental looked down at its nudity before slipping its arms into the sleeves of the plush robe.

Sammy looked at the man and grimaced. Kobal was yet another in a long line of Fire Warriors who took pleasure in the thought of eliminating humanity—of fulfilling their destiny by burning the world of man back down to the earth. Warriors like Abraxas and Kobal didn’t care about the humans they were killing. They didn’t realize that they had lives and families. No, Sammy corrected herself, they did know. They just didn’t care.

She had just witnessed the Fire Elemental end
hundreds, if not thousands of lives. It made her feel sick.

“And the elusive Wind Warrior?” Kobal asked. “Is he also dead now?”

Sammy could sense the Elemental’s hesitation and knew exactly why. When any other Wind Warrior had been killed, the world had nearly torn itself apart in mourning. The ground had shaken, volcanoes had erupted, and tsunamis poured over the coastline. The deaths of Robert, Bart, and Xander’s grandfather had been strong enough that the western side of Los Angeles was already partially submerged in the ocean.

During their battles in Los Angeles, however, there hadn’t been a single indication that anything was amiss. Sammy somehow doubted the world would ignore Xander’s passing.

“
I intend to find out shortly,
” the Elemental replied curtly. “
Return to your men, General. Claim this city as our stronghold and prepare your warriors to march toward the next city.
”

Kobal placed a fist on his chest in salute. He spun on his heel and walked out of the penthouse. Sammy waited until she could no longer hear his booted feet clicking on the tiled hallway floor before she allowed herself to exhale.

“General Abraxas failed you,” Sammy said bluntly. “You know as well as I do that this city would have broken in two if Xander had actually been killed.”

The Elemental scowled but didn’t reply. Sammy wished she could return to the mirror and talk to the Elemental face to face. Though she could sense the creature’s displeasure, she longed to see the confusion and disappointment cast in its expression.

Without a reply, the Elemental stretched its consciousness across the space between Los Angeles and London. In Sammy’s mind, she could hear the Elemental’s whisper to Abraxas on the far end.

“
General Abraxas,
” it said.

Sammy could immediately sense the barely bridled rage at what the Elemental found on the far end. Curious, Sammy hijacked the communication and rode it until her vision merged with that of the giant orb hovering over London.

The eye hovered above the Thames, staring down at a partially collapsed building. It didn’t look like one that had been ruined by fire, nor had it collapsed uniformly like she would have expected if it had fallen in an earthquake. Only the upper corner of the building had shattered and much of the building’s interior lay in rubble, confined within its four walls.

“
General Abraxas. Answer me!
”

“Are you sure you’re in the right place?” Sammy mocked. “Because it doesn’t look like he’s in any condition to answer you right now.”

Infuriated, the Elemental severed the connection and both their consciousnesses raced back to Sammy’s body in Los Angeles. The Elemental staggered as it returned to the body, its anger threatening to burn up even Sammy’s specially created figure. It stormed over to one of the upright bookcases and grabbed its edge, yanking the whole thing from where it had been affixed to the wall. Books scattered across the hardwood floor as the wooden bookcase shattered on the ground.