Water Shaper (World Aflame) (32 page)

Sean kept the pistol pointed at them long after they were gone, sure that they were going to reappear at any second. When his hand started shaking uncontrollably, he lowered the pistol and turned, rushing to Jessica’s side.

The blood had already matted in her hair near the temple, and her skin looked ashen. Sean choked back a sob as he ran his fingers gently across her temple.

He tucked the pistol into the back of his pants and slid his arms underneath her. He lifted her with ease, surprised at how little she weighed.

“I’m going to get you inside. Just stay with me.”

He stumbled across the field to the red barn. Balancing her in his arms, he pulled the door open and stepped into the gloomy interior.

“Don’t worry, Jessica, you’re going to be okay. You have to be okay. Please be okay.”

Ice crystals began to form on Xander’s skin. The cold was
biting, but he did his best to ignore it. His eyes tried to drift downward again. He struggled against the urge, but they found their way to an unmarked spot in the Atlantic Ocean. No matter how much he struggled against it, the urge was an itch that was quickly becoming inconsolable.

“Leave me alone,” he said into the thin air of the upper atmosphere.

The ice crystals on his face seemed to sparkle with their own inner light. “
It’s time for you to return to me.
”

Xander shook his head, knowing the Water Elemental would sense the movement and understand his refusal.

“I already failed. Isn’t that enough for you? Can’t you just let me be?”

“
If you don’t return, you’ll freeze to death. The air is too thin to hold heat. The blood will eventually freeze in your veins
.”

Xander frowned. He wanted his heart to ache at the thought of his
death, but it didn’t. Instead, he just felt numb. “Maybe that’s what I deserve. Maybe dying up here is my fate.”

“
I won’t allow you to throw your life away. We had an arrangement, and it involves you returning to see me when you task is through.
”

Xander reached up with stiff limbs and wiped his eyes. “My mission isn’t through. I failed. I killed people. I took a hundred lives using your power. Can’t you understand that?”

He could practically hear the Water Elemental’s disapproving sigh of disgust in his mind. “
This is a war. Did you think a well-designed debate would convince the Fire Warriors to give up their crusade? Is there anything that they could say to you that would make you give up on the woman you love?
”

Xander had nothing to say.

“
Understand me, Xander Sirocco. We are the rebellion. Natural progression wants the Fire Caste to succeed in its quest to destroy humanity. Our kind has always believed that the flames will burn the world of man back down to the earth. We have become the uprising that’s trying to change the natural order. You couldn’t possibly expect a bloodless coup.
”

Her words felt hollow, despite the fact that Xander hadn’t considered himself the rebel. It seemed odd to believe that the Fire Warriors were in the right; that in the story of his life, they were the men in
white, while he was the villain in black.

“What difference does it make if I’m right or wrong? I didn’t get rid of the Fire Warriors in London. I had one chance to save
Sammy, and I blew it. Just leave me alone so I can die up here in peace.”

“
Your lover is still alive
,” the Water Elemental said. “
There is still a chance to save her but only if you return to me now.
”

Xander chewed on the inside of his lip to stifle the biting retorts he was considering.

“
If you don’t, I’ll turn the water in your body to ice and let you fall to the ground like a comet. Then any hope of saving your Fire Warrior woman will be lost forever.
”

Xander’s frown deepened. With a sigh, he tilted forward and began rocketing back down toward the ocean below.

Sean laid Jessica down in the soft hay of the barn’s upper loft. He gently pulled back her eyelid and saw mostly the white of her eyes.

“Come on, Jessica,” he said. “Please wake up. You have a
concussion, and you’re not supposed to fall asleep. I need you to wake up.”

He shook her shoulders
gently, and she groaned softly.

“There you are. Come on. Wake up. Wake up for me.”

Her body went limp again and slumped back into the hay. Sean ran his hand along the side of her head and felt the matted blood against her scalp. The cut on her head bled profusely as he carried her into the barn but had already clotted. Even so, she had lost more blood than he would have liked. He needed her to wake up.

Sean gently patted the side of her
cheek, but Jessica didn’t respond. He pulled back his hand further but froze.

“I’m really sorry about this. Please don’t hate me or beat the crap out of me when you wake up.”

He swung hard. The sound of its impact with her cheek was sickening, and he could immediately see red finger marks across her pale skin. She groaned loudly, and her eyes fluttered open.

Sean laughed softly. “There you are.”

He rubbed the redness on her cheek as though it would make it fade away quicker. Jessica blinked hard, and her eyes struggled to focus.

“Can you hear me?” he asked. “Why don’t you try to sit up? Can you talk?”

“You ask too many questions,” she moaned. She placed a palm against her forehead and squeezed her eyes shut.

“No, no. No closing your eyes. I just got them open again.”

Jessica forced her eyes open and looked up at Sean. She immediately pressed her lips together, and her skin took on an odd shade of green. Pitching forward, Jessica threw up onto the floor and Sean’s shoes.

For a moment, Sean was frozen with disgust. He reached forward and gently patted her back.

“There, there. Let it all out.”

Jessica coughed a couple more times and ran the back of her hand across her mouth and nose.

“Oh God, I’m so sorry,” she said.

“
Don't worry. This isn’t the first time a pretty girl who isn't fully in control of her faculties threw up on my shoes.”

Jessica sat upright and chuckled.
“Aw, you think I’m pretty?”

Sean laughed and brushed her hair out of her face.

Jessica reached up and gingerly touched the side of her head. “What happened? My head is killing me.”

Sean cringed, not sure he wanted to be the one to tell her about the attack. He certainly didn’t want to tell her about beating the Frenchman with the rock. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“We were sitting around the campfire. After that… that’s it.”

“There was… you were…” He looked in her eyes and saw her obvious concern. Sean smiled softly and ran his hand down across her cheek. “You tripped when you were getting up and hit your head on a rock. I was worried about you.”

Jessica closed one eye and was glad not to be seeing double. “Would you mind too much if I lay down? It’s killing my head to be sitting up.”

“Just don’t fall asleep,” he said. Sean sat down in the hay and patted his lap. “Go ahead and lay your head on my lap.”

“That’s the weakest pick-up line I’ve heard,” she joked.

She laid her head down but immediately shifted as something firm pressed against her head.

“Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” she mumbled.

Sean blushed and pulled the pistol from his waistband, tossing it into the hay. “Strangely enough, both.”

He patted his lap again and invited her to lie down. She lied her head down on his rough jeans but still felt nauseated. Sean ran his hand through her hair, avoiding the matted blood caked near her temple.

“
Say something funny,” she said.

Sean frowned. His mind always froze when someone puts him on the spot.

“Come on, Sean. My head is killing me, and I don't want to think about Xander and his crazy war anymore.”

Sean cleared his throat.
“Sometimes I lie awake at night thinking about how much scarier the world would be if there were evil mimes.”

Jessica
laughed, but it quickly became a groan as she clutched the side of her head.

“
Sorry,” Sean said.

Jessica took a deep breath and placed her hand on his arm.
“Don’t be. Tell me more about these evil mimes.”

Sean brightened at her smile.
“Think about it. You’d never hear them coming. And if they did get caught by the cops, they’d never talk.”

“
But would they actually commit a crime, or would they just act it out?” she asked.

They both laughed, bringing a little bit of warmth back into their drafty barn. As their laughter died away, Sean looked down at the beautiful blond lying in his lap.

“I hope Xander hurries back,” he said.

Jessica smiled and reached up, brushing her hand across his cheek. “I don’t.”

They stayed up most of the rest of the night, talking and laughing.

The Fire Elemental drummed its fingers on the armrests of the recliner in irritation. Its host had been nothing but a bother. It couldn’t believe that she still existed at all, much less that she could assert her will onto their body.

The Elemental slammed its fist into the armrest. “
It’s not
our
body,
” it corrected. “
This is my body.
”

General Kobal looked up from his place across the room at the Elemental’s unmitigated outburst. He arched his eyebrow inquisitively but quickly looked away when he realized no explanation would be forthcoming.

It sat back and stared out the broken bay windows. The Elemental should have been savoring its victory, since the last vestiges of the human resistance in Los Angeles had been crushed. Instead, its mind drifted to Xander and his constant elusion. Sammy had said time and again that the Wind Warrior would defeat Abraxas, and she had clearly been correct. She had also said it was only a matter of time before he found the other Elementals and was finally ready to face the Fire Elemental in their final confrontation.