Fire Danger

by Claire Davon

  * * * * *

  Once Phoenix left, Rachel paced for a few moments. There were infinite possibilities. Then everything went still. Even JT seemed to make no sound. There was a silence filled with ominous nothingness, and then a rush of air. Suddenly, Rachel was no longer alone.

  Now there was a woman with her. She glided—there was no other word for it—into the room, looking around the open space as she moved.

  She wasn’t tall, maybe five feet, with one of those small forms that made men want to protect and care for her. The unknown person’s hair was black and her skin so fair it resembled porcelain. Her mouth didn’t quite close, and through her lips Rachel could see the tips of her canines.

  Rachel realized she was in the same room as a vampire.

  One that could walk in daylight. Foggy daylight, yes, but daylight nonetheless.

  A vampire. In daylight.

  And Phoenix wasn’t there.

  She shot a frantic beam to Phoenix while turning to the vampire, her face impassive. His reply was instantaneous.

  “I’m on my way. Stay calm but be careful. Arella is very powerful.”

  “Noted.”

  “Can I offer you a, um—” Rachel fumbled, realizing how her offer of a drink might sound. “What can I do for you, Arella?” She was pleased that her knowledge of the vampire’s name wiped the look of superiority off Arella’s face, if only briefly. Rachel’s dislike of Arella was instant, rage bubbling up from deep in her psyche. Her palms itched and she welcomed the sensation. Heat curled along her spine, radiating up and through her bones. Rachel let it come.

  The deceptively slender vampire picked up a wrapped chocolate from a bowl on an end table. Studying it, she frowned slightly and then shrugged and unwrapped it and slid it into her mouth. “I wanted to meet Phoenix’s secret weapon. His Ifrit.”

  There was a tendril of exploration, a foray against her shield. Without moving, Rachel visualized an impenetrable wall and felt Arella’s raid end when it reached that barrier.

  After a moment Arella laughed, a brittle, tinkling sound laced with an edge of menace. Rachel tried to look unaffected.

  “I thought that was you a few days ago trying to get me outside my apartment, but Aleric told me it was the shadow people. So hard to tell in the dark. Did you burn my place down?”

  Arella shuddered. Rachel realized that would be unlikely. She didn’t know what was true or not true about real-life vampires, but they couldn’t like fire.

  Good.

  Arella looked Rachel all the way up and all the way down, and her face said, You are nothing to me. “When you began manifesting, we saw the danger. The shadow people acted. The wolves acted. We waited. That was a mistake.” She made a gesture that spoke somehow of futility. “Now it’s too late.”

  Rachel found her wall was so thorough she couldn’t let Phoenix in either. The silence was complete. The only person in her mind was her. She’d gotten used to hearing a low level of mental noise and missed the ambient sound. Hoping he was already in the air, she backed away from the vampire. “I don’t trust you.”

  “You are not as dumb as I thought, then.”

  How had Arella known that Phoenix wouldn’t be there? How had she picked a time when the half Ifrit, half mortal would be alone? Rachel knew the answer to that. They were being watched. She searched for a conversational gambit, knowing she needed to delay the vampire. “I thought vampires couldn’t walk in daylight.”

  Her tinkling laugh came again, like glass down Rachel’s back. “Only very old vampires. Ones that have enough supernatural blood to change into something beyond vampire.”

  If Arella’s words were designed to remind Rachel that she was young, weak and mortal, they worked. JT meowed and lifted his head. Rachel willed the cat to stay quiet.

  “Why are you here? An all-powerful vampire shouldn’t bother with little me.”

  Arella crossed to the middle of the room, assessing the surroundings. The plate-glass door was closed and locked, but Rachel didn’t think that would stop much. Sunlight, muted by rolling fog, made a weak foray through the door, mottling the floor and furnishings with its narrow yellow beams. The computer was flickering, its LED screen showing the last country they had stopped on in their investigation.

  Rachel didn’t want Papua New Guinea to be the last place she thought of. Briefly, she dropped her shield and called to Phoenix again.

  “Hurry.”

  The tendril shot forward, trying to seek an entry. Rachel slammed her shield back down and felt the silence. This time she embraced it.

  “We have never cared about the war between the Elementals and the Demonos. What happens to humans means little to us. Humans force us into the shadows, take away our dark and destroy our kind. This Challenge is different. We get to take our reward if you lose. In which case, we win.” She turned and faced Rachel fully, and Rachel saw the red tinting her eyes. Rachel didn’t see veins carrying blood under the skin. She hadn’t considered until that moment how unnatural it was not to see a jugular beating.

  Arella was in front of Rachel, so close they shared breath. Rachel hadn’t seen her move.

  “We have been promised things. A certain number of willing humans. Food. Control. We don’t need or want humans for anything other than blood. A plentiful supply means freedom.”

  “No half-Ifrit female is going to stop this.” She grabbed Rachel with a strength ten times that of a mortal. “I’ve never tried Ifrit blood. Your mortal blood will dilute it, but I am sure you will be delicious.”

  Rachel struggled. Arella held her with a grip that no amount of struggling could break. Arella’s eyes were fully red, and there was a dark compulsion in them that made Rachel want to give in. Power welled up in her, dancing along the edge of her consciousness. She reached for it, but it eluded her grasp. Frustrated, she struggled to calm her mind. The fire was there, but it shied away from her like a feral animal.

  Three things happened, almost at the same time.

  From his place on the carpet, JT screeched, a bloodcurdling howl she hadn’t known the cat was capable of. With ears flat, the small feline launched at the vampire holding his mistress, raking his claws across Arella’s arm.

  Arella shrieked but didn’t let go. JT’s trajectory landed him past the pair about three feet away, where he crouched, hissing fiercely, his eyes big and wild, his ears flat and fur up in a spike across his back.

  “Damn cat!”

  “JT, go!”

  Rachel’s attention was briefly divided between her pet and the vampire. JT fled, diving under the sofa, still hissing. Arella’s skin was open but there was no blood. Nothing oozed from the cut. The incongruity made Rachel shiver even as Arella turned her red eyes to Rachel again.

  The front door burst open and the plate-glass door shattered. Huge forms came through both the open door and shattered window.

  To her surprise, neither one of the beings was Phoenix. There was so much sensory overload that her fire fled again. Rachel tried to focus, struggling against the grip Arella still held her with.

  The form in the doorway resolved into one of the werewolves. Fenley, a numb Rachel decided, judging from the size. The wolf ran at Arella and knocked her off Rachel, sending Rachel to the floor. The hard wood hit her back, making her breath come out in a rush. The fire leaped inside her.

  Rachel saw the tableau unfolding. The fire ran in her blood like flames licking at wood. Flames. Wood. Oh, it would be so marvelous to light the wood on fire and watch it burn.

  An Ifrit, the one who had called her granddaughter in her memories, also went for Arella, swiping with a leather wing at the vampire. The thwack of connection was loud, and Arella staggered. She snarled, and her canines fully descended.

  The blow would have been enough to cause deep skin reddening and bruising on a human, but Arella had no blood. The lines of tendons and wing w
ere visible against her skin, telling Rachel how fierce a blow it had been.

  Rachel clambered backward and jumped to her feet. She looked at the scene, trying to determine how she could best help. Fire beat at her, suddenly wanting, needing to come out. She could feel it dance across her veins and redden her skin. Oh yes.

  Backed into a corner, Arella snarled again, crouched into a defensive position.

  Fenley snarled back, foam gathering in his huge canine jaws. The Ifrit, like something out of a fairy tale, joined him, forming a barrier between Arella and the rest of the room. Flames licked out from the Ifrit’s fingers, and Rachel saw that Arella had seen them as well, judging from the nervous way she moistened her lips.

  Arella feinted, but the Ifrit’s wings blocked her approach into the room. She appeared to study her options and then backed away.

  “Unfair odds,” the vampire said, her voice cool.

  There was a loud screeching sound, and another being came hurtling through the broken door.

  Fire glowing around his skin, Phoenix flew in, in a smaller bird form Rachel had only seen in visions. He swept across the coffee table, knocking the few small ornaments from their resting places. They crashed to the ground. He went for Arella, ducking around the two huge beings, and latched on to her shoulders, pulling her up with his talons. His wings beat at her, smacking into Arella’s back.

  His strength was astonishing for a large bird. The flames that flickered around his edges didn’t seem to burn, but they danced over him and onto Arella. She shrieked, her eyes widening in the kind of primal fear that neither of the other beings had inspired. The fire left black marks where it touched the vampire.

  Phoenix pulled her off the floor, his wings beating, the weight seemingly nothing to him. His orange-and-red coloring was darker than Rachel had seen, and his small bird eyes were wild.

  Arella shot a glance at the other beings, as if for help. Fenley and the Ifrit simply stepped back, relinquishing the fight to Phoenix. He began changing, lengthening, turning into his human form without losing his hold on Arella. With gratitude, Rachel saw his familiar features emerge. Then he dropped Arella.

  Phoenix also landed, his now-human feet making contact with the polished wood of his living-room floor. His wings slowed as her Ifrit grandfather cornered Arella. Fenley snarled, once, when Arella tried to move.

  The flames retreated but didn’t vanish, shimmering around Phoenix’s body. His eyes were still wild. Rachel focused, yearning for her fire, trying to draw the power forward.

  After a moment, she smiled. “Glad you’re here.”

  * * * * *

  Phoenix didn’t take his eyes off Arella.

  The vampire had risen from being dumped on the floor and now held herself regal again, pointedly dusting herself off. She stood as high as her small stature would allow, her expression haughty.

  Phoenix wanted to rip her apart. He wanted to summon massive flames, set the vampire on fire and watch her burn into ashes. It would be satisfying to tear her limb from limb, or use a broadsword from his mortal time and take her apart in sections. He visualized the severed limbs, the separation of her head from her body, her eyes losing focus and going blank. It would have been more rewarding if there had been gouts of blood darkening the landscape. A mental shove shot the whole dark vision at Arella.

  Phoenix turned to Rachel. Flames licked over her fingers and spread up her arm. As with his fire, it didn’t burn her. Arella tried for the door again. The Ifrit cut her off and she snarled but stopped moving.

  “I think she would look good caged in flames, don’t you, my Elemental?” Rachel asked.

  Arella cried out, and Phoenix smiled without warmth.

  “I’ll start.” He flung out both hands, fingers splayed. Flame shot from his fingers and surrounded Arella in a rough circle. He waited. Rachel opened her palms, her movements less certain. Flames, lighter in color than his, joined his fire and also circled Arella until she had bars of fire around her. She turned in all directions quickly, trying to avoid the flames.

  It gave Phoenix satisfaction to see Arella shudder, her body rippling. If a vampire could have paled, she would have. It made the warrior in him glad. Rachel smiled. There was little human in that smile.

  Phoenix waited. Rachel studied Arella appraisingly and then looked down at her fingers.

  Fenley had shifted to human and stood blocking the door, his giant form filling the frame. His face was impassive, but his arms were folded, and he was standing on the balls of his feet, clearly ready to move again.

  The unknown Ifrit, who had to be a relative of Rachel’s, folded his wings behind him. He bore little resemblance to Rachel, but something in the way he held himself reminded Phoenix of his woman.

  “Where are your friends?” Phoenix jerked his chin at Arella. “You don’t travel without your posse, especially in daylight.”

  Arella sniffed. “I didn’t need reinforcements to take her.” She stood still now, her eyes wide as she made her body as small as possible, recoiling from the fire. Phoenix felt her terror and he wanted to amplify it, make her cringe and cower. Part of that desire was coming from Rachel. The warrior in him gloried at the thought.

  There was a taint of falsehood over Arella’s statement. She lifted a hand as if to test the cage and drew back when she touched the flame, yelping as her finger blackened.

  “You would risk all of us,” Fenley rumbled, a hint of wolf growl still in his voice. “The vampires want the humans gone.”

  Phoenix cocked his head at the man/wolf. “And the wolves?” Rachel frowned, clearly remembering the harsh words exchanged in the park.

  Fenley’s shrug was eloquent. “I have rethought my position, Elemental. We need humans. Without our interaction, we become only wolves. One generation, maybe two, and there would be no werewolves. It’s not an easy life, but it’s our life. The younglings…they got a little overzealous.”

  “Haures will have something to say about that,” Phoenix said, keeping his tone neutral.

  Fenley’s smile showed a hint of muzzle before it became human again.

  “Haures does not rule the wolves. We thought your Rachel was a threat, and we acted. Whether she is or not remains to be seen, but I believe that we were wrong. Our actions will not be dictated by the Demonos.” He inclined his head to Phoenix.

  “Does that mean you’re on our side?” Rachel asked. He wanted to wrap this woman in thick cotton and put her somewhere safe at the same time he wanted her to stand by his side and rain down fire on their enemies.

  The wolf made a gesture that could be taken for assent. “Paranormals usually stay neutral,” he replied. “However, I do not believe that is an option anymore. I will aid your Elemental, as much as I am able.”

  “Take a message back to your clan.” Phoenix walked to Arella. The cage of flame faded. The vampire cowered, her eyes darting between the three huge paranormals. Her gaze landed on Rachel. Phoenix saw deep hatred there mixed with fear. She had underestimated his half Ifrit.

  Summoning his fire again, Phoenix concentrated, focusing on a spot two feet in front of Arella. Judging the space between the ceiling and the ground, he created a firenado, stopping it a foot before either surface. It hovered there, a whirl of tightly coiled fire, small flames licking out.

  Arella’s eyes widened in fear again. Her head turned, taking in first the fire tornado and then Phoenix’s implacable face. “I could summon more of these and send them into your den, daywalker.” Phoenix’s voice was conversational. “I could burn you out so no evidence of your kind remained.” He shifted, and the firenado moved fractionally toward the vampire.

  The room was heating up from the intensity of the firenado, but nobody moved. Except JT, who meowed and ran for the other side of the room, where it was cooler.

  Everyone studied the tight spiral of fire death. The fury that beat through Phoenix
made him want to turn the power on Arella and burn her to a cinder.

  “Tell the other vampires there is to be no interference. Don’t side with us; don’t side with the Demonos. Whatever happens, happens. But that is between us and the other side.”

  “You will lose,” she shouted, her voice harsh and raw. She paused, and it seemed as if she collected herself with an effort. Her face smoothed out and she pulled herself straight, still eyeing the red gleam of the fire column.

  “We may lose,” Phoenix agreed. “We may win. It is between us. Don’t try to interfere again or there will be a reckoning.”

  Arella locked eyes with Rachel, and her expression was ugly. “I hate halflings.”

  Phoenix waited. When she said nothing else, Phoenix moved the firenado still closer. “Your choice, vampire.”

  Rachel opened her mouth and then shrugged. She cocked her head at Arella, whose expression was disdainful. “It might hurt to be called a halfling if I didn’t know you had to have been ‘made’ at some point,” Rachel said. “However long ago, you were once human. Essentially, you are a halfling too. At least I have fire. You only have fangs.” Her lips curled, her desire to strike again clear.

  Arella frowned at that, seeming to be taken by surprise. There was a long silence. Finally, her chest heaved in annoyance. “We will stay out of your business for now. You will lose. Then your fire powers will mean nothing.” Phoenix waited until Arella shifted, looking down at her feet. “We will leave you alone.” Still, he waited. Arella’s face twisted. “And we will leave your woman alone.” The words were a rasp, as if torn from her throat.

  With a clap of Phoenix’s broad hands, the firenado vanished.

  Arella breathed a sigh of relief before she smoothed her face out. She pushed past Phoenix, and he let her go.

  His voice stopped her when she reached the shattered plate-glass door. “When I say char and burn, there are times when I mean it literally. Whether we win or lose Challenge, Arella, if you come after Rachel again, you are a dead vampire. Your entire clan will die if you lay a hand on her. That is a guarantee. I will incinerate it all until nothing is left of you but ashes on the wind.”