I raised my right hand, ready to summon my firesword. “What now?”
Gio paused just inside the corridor. “I’m glad you aren’t dead.” A brief smile flashed across his face, then he disappeared out the door again.
Gio the Kid, Jerome thought. Worst cowboy ever.
He did manage to shoot me, I thought back.
Hardly a big deal since virtually everyone you meet ends up injuring you, Jerome thought. You are in pretty bad shape, considering you haven’t even faced the fire sorcerer yet.
He’ll never suspect what I’m capable of.
You sure have me fooled.
Chapter 35
Thursday 19:50
I staggered through the door and into the main bar, my hand clutched to my chest.
Yarley was sitting by the bar, and he spun around on the high stool to face me when I walked in. “We heard a shot.” His gaze fell on my bloody chest. “Did Gio shoot you? Good for him.”
“I think he regretted it.” I put my arm against the wall to keep myself upright.
Yarley shrugged. “He wasn’t cut out for the line of work he was in. Perhaps now he’ll realize it. Jace?”
“Dead.”
“That’s a pity. I warned her not to underestimate you. I told her to leave you to me, but she insisted. Still.” He raised his glass up toward me. “This is about new life, not old. Share a drink with me. You know the tradition. Wet the baby’s head.”
“What baby?”
“And congratulations to you, of course, as the father.” He knocked back his drink.
“You mean the elemental inside Jo?”
“I mean what the combination of the two of them will become. New life. Neither one or the other, but something greater.”
Yarley pounded on the bar. “Another for me. And pour one for our friend here.”
Heff, his tattooed face looking as creepy as ever, stepped behind the bar. I glanced around. Other than Heff and Yarley, only three other men were there. One of them was Connor Duffy. I didn’t recognize the other two, but from the shapeless robes they wore I knew they were shifters. Five men, one of whom was a human. Harriet Ashley’s plan had worked to a degree.
Heff took a brandy bottle from a shelf and poured two glasses. He placed one glass in front of Yarley and another on the edge of the bar near me.
I wasn’t sure how long I had left to save Jo, but with a tearing pain inside my chest, and legs that shivered with the effort of keeping me upright, I figured it was best to keep Yarley talking while he was in a mood to.
I staggered across to a stool near the corner of the bar, my left leg dragging behind me, and sat. I lifted the glass of brandy, then snorted a laugh. “Do you know that I never drank hard liquor before.”
Yarley took a gulp of his. “It’s a day of firsts.”
“It is at that.” I touched the glass to my lips, then with a flick of my wrist tossed the drink back. It burned all the way down my throat. I gasped, then coughed several times.
Yarley grinned. “Attaboy.” His glass was half-full and he knocked back the rest. “To new life.”
I put down my glass. “I can’t drink to that.”
“Nevertheless, it will happen. One way or another. I envy you your ability. Your gifts are bringing one new shade to life here today, and you are capable of birthing many more.”
“Capable, but not willing.”
“You came to fight for your friend, right?” Yarley said. “That means more elementals.”
“I won’t be using magic.” I extended my left hand, let the firesword come into being, then disappear again.
“That supposed to scare me?” Yarley shrugged. “Maybe if it was bigger.”
That’s what she said. Jerome chuckled in my mind.
“Duffy described the fire that destroyed the Collier Mansion,” Yarley continued. “Sounded like a newly born fire sentinel burning itself out. That was a pity, though fire elementals do tend to be, as you’d expect, fiery. Smoke elementals like the one in your necklace are prepared to wait for their opportunity.”
Patient like a fox, Jerome thought.
“I’ve had an opportunity to talk with the elemental inside your friend a small bit,” Yarley said. “She’s as fiery as a fire elemental. The shade about to be born will be worth the wait.”
“Where is she?” I asked. “Where’s Jo?”
Yarley turned around. “Duffy.”
Duffy’s chair scraped back, and he got up and entered the office at the back.
I nodded at the empty room. “You find yourself lacking allies at this crucial moment.”
“The attack on the warehouse. That was your doing.” Yarley shook his head. “No, of course it wasn’t, it was Harriet Ashley. I should have expected something like this as soon as the truce was suggested.” He shrugged. “You know what, I don’t really care.” Duffy came out of the office, pushing a wheelchair. “Today, I am only interested in good news. In rebirth.”
In the wheelchair, Jo had a blanket folded across her lap. Sweat stuck to her forehead, and her face was pale. She gave me a wink, though, to let me know it was still her inside.
My hand gripped the edge of the bar as a physical wave of relief washed through me. Until then, I hadn’t realized how much I’d dreaded being too late. “Hang in there, Jo,” I told her. “It’ll soon be over.”
“Soon be over. I’ll drink to that.” Yarley nodded to Heff, who poured him another drink. Heff came over to pour me one too.
I didn’t pick it up. Although my left leg still burned, my chest wasn’t feeling so bad anymore. It was a strange new world—I’d been stabbed in the gut and shot in the chest, but the scratch on my leg bothered me most. I was ready though. As ready as I was going to get. “You’d be wise to just let me take Jo out.”
“You realize this is a good thing for her, right?” Yarley tipped his drink back, then stood up. “Look at these two men.” He gestured Heff out from behind the bar, and called Duffy over until the two men stood on either side. Yarley put a hand on Duffy’s shoulder. “Not long ago this man was a kingpin. He would put a cigar to his lips and ten people would fight each other for the chance to light it. Now he’s just a water carrier. You know why?”
Duffy wasn’t able to restrain his scowl.
“Because he only ever gave a crap about himself,” I suggested.
Duffy’s scowl hardened into a thin smile aimed at me.
“No. Because he’s only human.” Yarley nodded “Only human.”
Yarley put his hand on Heff’s shoulder. “When he was a man, he lived on the street. A drug addict, hopping from hit to hit. An elemental took over his worthless human body and turned it into a shade of power and potential.” Yarley slapped him on the back. “He mightn’t always talk much but he’s now strong and purposeful. We make you humans better.”
“No. You are invaders, stealing our bodies.”
“Either way, it’s now inevitable. Uro has brought this world closer to Brimstone, and now sentinels like you are bringing more and more elementals across. That’s one reason why Ashley is helping you. After what Uro has done, sentinels have gone from being guardians of the humans to being the key to our coming dominance.”
No matter which way events turn, you always end up being the bad guy, Jerome thought, chuckling.
Shut up. “Who’s this Uro?” That was the second time Yarley had mentioned him.
“I’m disappointed in Ashley,” Yarley said. “If she really wanted to lead us and had support from above, I would have stepped aside. I could have been treated with more respect. I taught the shades in Lusteer to take our rightful place. I started our revolution. She thinks I’m simple-minded, stupid.” Yarley shook his head. “But I’m not. I’m just straightforward and don’t think in squiggly lines like she does.”
“You are right. Harriet Ashley helped me. But we don’t have to be the pawns who end up fighting for her amusement. Let me take Jo. I’m not your enemy. It’s them.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t
you? Shade on shade violence.” Yarley smiled. “No. That’s not how this will work. That’s not how I work.”
“What about everyone else here?” I asked. “I don’t want to kill them, but I will.”
Heff laughed, a harsh grating sound like a broken lawnmower. “He can’t even stand, and he talks of killing us.”
“No, he’s right,” Yarley said. “I didn’t want Jace to fight him, and now she’s dead. This should be me against him.” He nodded. “Yes. Shade against sentinel for the soul of one human. Very fitting.” He raised his voice. “Everyone out!”
Duffy and the two shifters at the back of the bar swiftly exited. Heff, however, shook his head. “I’m not leaving you.”
“Friend.” Yarley gripped Heff’s shoulder. “I love you for wanting to stay with me. But this is how I want it to be.”
“I’m not scared of him,” Heff said.
“Of course not. But I depend on you to keep my legacy alive if things go wrong here. Remember, we shades are one people. Don’t trust those like Harriet Ashley who are only interested in their own power.”
Heff nodded and reluctantly left, leaving only Yarley, Jo and me in the bar.
Jo leaned forward, her eyes wide and staring. “The moon will turn black, and rivers will run red. And we will rule over the ashes.” Then she slumped back in her chair.
“It’s so close now,” Yarley said. “They are so cute when they are young, aren’t they?”
Chapter 36
Thursday 20:05
I stood, stumbling as pain flared in my left leg. I gritted my teeth and held my two hands in front of me. The two fireswords flared into life, casting orange shadows across the bar. “Sentinel against shade, then.”
Yarley laughed. “Don’t think that because I’ve reduced this to the two of us, it will be a fair fight.”
I’ve a bad feeling about this, Jerome thought.
“It isn’t?” As I limped toward him, he backed away.
“No. First, the girl is too far gone, the elemental too firmly entrenched inside her. You won’t be able to get her back. Second, you are going to have to use your magic to get out of this. You will birth more elementals before this is over.” He threw his hands forward and fire shot out of them. I raised my swords to block, but the flame streaked above my head, crashing against the entrance door behind me. “Even if I lose, we win.” He laughed again.
The old maniacal villain laugh, Jerome thought. Just when I was starting to respect him. Harriet was right to want to be rid of him.
Yarley backed all the way to the office door, touched it with his palm. It burst into flame. He then moved across to Jo’s wheelchair.
“Get away from her!” I shouted but he simply rolled the wheelchair further away from the flames and into the center of the room. He then kissed Jo on the head. “Pleasant birth, my darling.” He stepped around the wheelchair and approached me. “Shall we?”
Without waiting for an answer, he thrust one hand straight out toward me. Fire burst from his hands. I crossed the swords and they absorbed the flames.
“Impressive,” he said. “I always wanted to know what fighting a sentinel would be like.”
“Sometimes it’s better not to get what you want.” I struck out with my left firesword.
He skipped away, forming a narrow pillar of flame that moved toward me.
I didn’t retreat, instead lifting the right firesword to block it. The pillar sizzled as fire met fire and sparks flew.
The pillar of fire began to bend outward from where it was blocked, with the top and bottom of it moving toward me. I ducked lower and used the left firesword to block it near the floor.
Even with both fireswords holding it back, the fire pillar strained forward, still trying to reach me. I planted my feet and shoved. My tired wrists ached, but I stopped the forward progress of the pillar, then started forcing it back. In an explosion of sparks, the pillar lost form. I jumped back out of the way as the flames from it spread outward, spreading smaller fires wherever it landed.
“Not bad,” Yarley said, leaping up on the bar. “How will you manage this?”
He held out his left hand, palm up, then hovered his right hand over the left. He twisted the two hands in opposite directions to each other, back and forth, faster and faster, until sparks of flame began to shoot out from between his hands. The tiny fireballs curved outward in unpredictable trajectories. Several hit the liquor bottles behind the bar, which smashed open and sprayed out alcohol, further feeding the fires. Flames leaped higher, and dark clouds of smoke billowed upward.
I slashed my left firesword in front of me, knocking aside two fireballs, then glanced behind me. Seeing Jo unprotected and these flying sparks becoming ever more numerous, I ran back to stand in front of her.
Yarley’s face was lit with a red glow as the fireballs continued to shoot from his hands. I swept both swords back and forth before me, absorbing the fire or sending them hurtling against the walls. One or two I sent directly back at Yarley, but they veered away from him.
“Rune!” Jo called out, and I turned to sweep aside a fireball that was coming toward us from behind. Just as that one fizzed out, two other ones curved close. I batted them away, then stepped around Jo to strike another. With the fireballs flying in every directions, for each one I had to deal with, many more simply careened straight into walls or ceiling.
The air shimmered as the fires blazed ever hotter. Hot sweat soaked my clothes. I didn't know how we were going to get out, couldn’t think beyond dealing with the next fireball. The pain in my left leg hadn’t gone away, but it had become distant. My arms grew weary, but stopping or even slowing down wasn’t an option. I scythed at the buzzing fireballs, clearing the air like a farmer shearing wheat, my fireswords flashing back and forth.
When I looked around and saw no nearby fireballs, I directed my attention back toward Yarley. He was still twisting his hands back and forth in a circular motion, but few fireballs now emerged. His smile was long gone from his face. His forehead was furrowed in concentration, and sweat dripped from his chin.
I had to end it as quickly as possible. The roar of the fire drowned out all other sound. Smoke swirled through the air, ever-thickening, and the heat was barely tolerable.
I charged straight at the fire sorcerer, my left leg dragging behind as I tried to sprint. Yarley saw me coming and directed his fireballs straight at me. I slashed from the right and left as I ran, the fireswords blurring in front of me, absorbing some of the fireballs, and sending the rest skittering away.
I realized my fireswords were moving much faster than should have been possible, and I remembered the golf balls of Robert Bobbit disappearing into the horizon.
When I reached Yarley, I didn’t slow the speed of my strikes. My left firesword cut through his stomach, and the right one followed straight after, delving deep into his torso, both cutting into the flesh like it wasn’t there.
Yarley toppled backward, smashing into the wall of liquor bottles, spilling open those few still whole. The fire behind the bar area exploded upward. I had one brief view of Yarley’s burning body, then I was forced backward by the heat.
I coughed, then ran back to Jo, keeping my head low so I was out of the worst of the smoke.
“You okay?” I asked her, coughing.
She reached up and wrapped her arms around my neck. “I’m scared,” she whispered.
I knew it wasn’t just the fire that she meant, though that was plenty to be scared about. “I have this.”
She coughed as she nodded. I broke out of the embrace and looked around. The smoke was thickening and all four walls were on fire. The flames, crackling and howling, were beginning to creep along the ceiling and floor.
Sweat poured down my face.
It’s either two of you die or you draw on your magic, Jerome thought.
That’s what Yarley wanted. Will it make everything worse?
Do you have a choice?
Jerome was right for once. I
wasn’t going to let Jo die. Whatever about using magic to save myself, she was an innocent. I had gotten her into this, and I would get her out of it.
I ignored the external heat and concentrated on the heat within. For the third time in my life, I let it build. I embraced the magic, then paused.
Previously, I had released the magic in the form of fire; this time, more flames was the last thing needed.
Concentrate on what you need, Jerome thought.
What I needed was less heat. Protection. I closed my eyes, reached for the magic inside me, and I imagined a bubble around me and the heat and flames outside it. Immediately I felt cooler. I opened my eyes. A shimmering red and yellow shield surrounded me, keeping out both fire and smoke.
Wow!
Don’t stop to congratulate yourself, idiot, Jerome thought. Get the hell out of here!
I went to the back of the wheelchair and grabbed the handles, but that left Jo’s feet outside the bubble of protection. Beelzebub. I bent down and lifted Jo into my arms. My left leg screamed.
Oh God.
Move your pansy ass, Jerome thought.
Who died and made you sergeant major?
You’re just weak, maggot. Move.
I took a step, then another. I tried to keep as much weight on my right as I could, but even so, with each step, my left leg shuddered with weakness and pain.
Humans. You are all so weak. You wouldn’t survive a heartbeat in Brimstone.
I hobbled as far as the door then stopped. The fire raged with long flames reaching all the way from the floor to the ceiling. The shield couldn’t be strong enough to protect me from that.
Could it?
I looked behind me. None of the other walls were in better shape, and things would get hotter before they got cooler.
I took a step into the flames. Jo gave a yelp of fear and clutched me harder. When the two of us weren’t immediately burned to a crisp, I took another, further into the fire. It felt really weird to have flames all around and feel no heat.
I hesitated momentarily in front of the burning door then gave it a big kick with my left leg. The door swung open, then fell off its hinges. That works, I thought. I stepped on top of it and out into the corridor.
Fire Sorcerer (The Sentinels Book 1) Page 14
