Winds of Fire (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #5)

by Malone Wright, Jennifer

  “Ha.” The guy I’d hit in the face laughed. “It’s her were after, you little punk, not you.”

  Dammit, I was hoping I could negotiate.

  “Now let’s go.” He stalked forward and poked me with the muzzle of his rifle.

  I turned away from the weapon. “Don’t touch me with that thing.” I spat the words out. I was so freakin’ angry that this was happening to us.

  “Then move, your friends are waiting for you.”

  Chloe’s eyes narrowed as her anger pulsed again. “What have you done with them?”

  The guy had the audacity to chuckle as they forced us to walk forward in front of them. “Don’t worry, you will get to see them again. Now shut up and walk.”

  “Why are you doing this?” she persisted.

  “You’ll get your answers soon enough,” he snapped. “Now, shut your mouth or I’m going to have to shoot your boyfriend.” I felt the barrel of his gun jab into my back and bit down on my lip to keep any nasty comments to myself.

  It felt like forever, as they walked us down the hall and into an elevator. The elevator took us down one level, till we were on the lowest floor of the Pentagon. The doors opened way to the shiny tile floors and the scent of pine cleaner.

  The soldiers prodded us out into the hallway. A quick glance at Chloe and I knew that she was fighting the urge to flame up again. They were so lucky that her hands had been restrained, she could light someone up with the simple toss of a fireball. I was pretty sure the only thing keeping her from doing it was that we knew now they had Zander, Gavin and Christina. How in the world they actually restrained the three of them was beyond me. They were three of our strongest fighters. It probably took quite few of those soldiers to do it. I think I actually smiled a little bit at the thought of that.

  We will get through this, I told myself. We will come out unharmed and alive.

  That was the crazy thing, we were Vampire Hunters, we fought demons every day and now we were being captured by a bunch of human soldiers. Too weird.

  We walked for several hallways until we came upon a checkpoint where a soldier was guarding an entrance. He saw us coming and immediately keyed in a code on the numbered pad by the door. The door whooshed open and we were guided through.

  Finally we arrived at the cells.

  Yeah, cells.

  Small square rooms with white walls and glass instead of bars. Dammit, once we were behind that glass, there wasn’t much we could do to get out. I considered putting up another fight, but I knew we wouldn’t get anywhere with that either. At least in the cafeteria there was the off chance that we would have been able to get out.

  The only thing we had going for us now was if we were gone too long, Luke would send more Hunter’s after us. They dragged us down the aisle of cells, which were all empty … until we reached the last ones.

  The last two cells held our friends. Gavin and Christina were in one while Zander stood by himself in another. Gavin and Christina saw us and rushed forward, pounding the glass with her fists. “Let us out of here, you douche bags!”

  “Shut up,” one of our captors snapped at her.

  “What?” She narrowed her eyes, anger flaming deep within them. “You actually think I’m going to just sit here and be quiet because you told me to, well fu…” Gavin pulled her back before she could finish her sentence, but she did manage to flash the soldier both middle fingers.

  “Enough, Christina,” Gavin ordered in a calm tone.

  “Bull crap,” she countered, “I’m going to rip that jerk’s spine out of his body and smack him with it. “We have done nothing. Nothing!” She punctuated the last word by tearing away from Gavin and thumping the glass again.

  Chloe looked like she was going to cry. Seeing our friends locked up was not something we were used to. We were used to being in danger, but not helpless, and right now that is what we were.

  Zander was pacing the floor of his cell when we passed. He stopped when we were led by the glass wall which held him captive. His face bore several bruises and a few cuts with blood dried up around them.

  Worry flashed briefly in his eyes when they settled on Chloe. Then, his gaze shifted to me and our eyes met. He shook his head, silently telling me that he tried to fight their way out. I nodded in return, insinuating that we had done the same.

  And then we were beyond the cells, unable to see our friends anymore. After passing through another door, we were led into a rather large room with a rectangular and metal folding chairs. General Ahlman was sitting at the head of the table, waiting for us.

  “Sit down,” he ordered, gesturing to the chairs. Yeah, like we had a choice in the matter. Strong hands pushed me down onto the cool metal.

  “I can do it.” Chloe, pulled away from the groping hands of the soldier and flopped down into one of the chairs so forcefully that the damn thing almost tipped over.

  “Why are we here?” Her demand was directed at General Ahlman.

  The older man tapped his fingertips on table as if he were contemplating what he was about to tell us. Then, he took a breath and looked at me, “It has come to our attention that your friend here, is a half vampire. Is this true?”

  Chloe gasped. “You were spying on us!”

  “That is my job.” He glared at her, not at all as friendly as he had when we met with him before. “It is also my job to make sure that we eradicate all vampires with come into contact with.”

  I lurched forward, “If you even touch her I will make sure you regret it.”

  “Yes, Andrew, I am sure you would try. This situation, however, is somewhat more difficult than just killing a vampire. Here we have something that I have been told was mythological, something that could not be. I was told that vampires could not procreate.”

  Neither Chloe or I volunteered any information on the matter, and he didn’t seem to want it anyway because he just continued to speak.

  “Because this is a very rare occurrence and this young lady obviously has abilities that no human could possibly possess, I want to investigate her a bit more.”

  “Investigate?” Chloe’s eyes widened with question.

  General Ahlman nodded. “Yes, we have some of the best scientists here and as long as you cooperate, you will not be harmed.”

  I started to stand and was quickly pushed down by a soldier behind me. “She is not staying here with you.”

  Ahlman eyeballed me dismissively. “I don’t really think that is up to you. In fact, it isn’t up to either of you. She is going to stay here whether she wants to or not. It will just be easier on all of you if she stays here willingly.”

  “Hell no!” I stomped my foot since I couldn’t really do anything else.

  Chloe lowered her eyes for a moment and I knew that defeat had clearly taken over. My Chloe didn’t accept defeat, so this was new. “I’ll stay,” she whispered.

  “What?” I practically screamed at her.

  She nodded. “I will stay here, willingly, if you let the rest of them go.”

  A noise that sounded eerily similar to a growl escaped from between my lips. “I am not leaving you here.”

  She nodded, staring at me with sad eyes. “You have to, Drew.”

  I knew what she meant. I had to get everyone else out of here and then go get a rescue team to come back and save her. Yeah, that is what I should agree to. It was what the Hunter in me told me I had to do. But, the man that loved the woman sitting in that chair could not leave her in this place. “I won’t leave her without you,” I told her more firmly this time.

  She sighed, knowing that I could be just as stubborn as she could sometimes.

  “As sweet as this is,” Ahlman interrupted, “I don’t recall giving you that option. I only said that if you cooperate, that you would not be harmed. I’m afraid your friends won’t be allowed to leave.”

  Well that plan wouldn’t have worked anyway. Awesome.

  “What are you going to do with them?” she asked.

  “That is to
be determined.”

  She shook her head. “Not good enough. I need answers.”

  “So do we,” he snapped at her. “Do you really think that we would have taken five Vampire Hunters into custody if we didn’t. You all are the best chance we have at figuring out a way to kill these bastards.”

  “Then let them go!” she cried out.

  “We can’t do that. I’m sure they would only run back and gather the rest of the Hunters to try and rescue you. So no, they will stay here.”

  I tried to keep my face expressionless. “They will come anyway. If we are gone long enough, they will come for us.”

  The old man jutted out his chin and pressed his lips together before responding with, “We will deal with that when the time comes.”

  I didn’t have anything to say to that and neither did Chloe, so the General waved his and in my direction. “All right, take him to the cells, I want to speak with our little dhampir alone, that’s what they call you isn’t it, dhampir?”

  Two soldiers lifted me up, one on each side, hauling me up by my arms. “I can walk, for crying out loud!” I tried to struggle out of the tight grip each of them had on my biceps but with the cuffs on, my attempt was ineffective.

  I stared at Chloe as they dragged me out of the room. God, please let her be all right.

  Christina, Gavin and Zander watched as I was thrown into a cell opposite of them. After removing my cuffs, the soldiers pushed me inside with so much force I stumbled and fell to my knees. The door was shut and sealed with a hiss and then the sound of a lock clicking into place.

  What now.

  Dammit.

  We were supposed to be coming home this morning, so the only hope I had was that they would realize we were in trouble. Until then, I was going to sit in this cell and figure out how to escape.

  I stayed on my knees for a while, not wanting to turn around and see the others in their cells. This was all my fault, if I hadn’t wanted to help the government, then none of us would even be here.

  I don’t know how long I sat there, staring at the shiny white tiles on the floor before I heard commotion coming from the hallway. I rose from my position and turned to see what was happening.

  Across the way, Christina, Gavin and Zander were doing the same. Only a second later, three soldiers arrived, pulling Chloe along with them. Her eyes were wide with fear and tears were fell from the corners, leaving wet streaks down her cheeks.

  Chloe still had her cuffs on, but she yanked her arm away from one soldier by turning sharply and tried to back up. In a flash, the soldier reached out and grabbed her again. “Let me go!” she screamed at her captors.

  “Shut up,” one of them growled, pushing her forward.

  Without another word, Chloe let it rip. Her entire body was suddenly consumed within the flaming heat that was her center. The soldiers scrambled away, covering their faces and trying not to get burnt.

  I rushed the glass. “Get away from her!”

  Then, suddenly, Chloe’s body straightened and her flames extinguished as one of the soldiers hit her with the Taser again. She roughly fell to the ground, having lost muscle control from all the volts rushing through her body.

  “Leave her alone! Stop that!” I kicked the glass, trying to get their attention on me. The others were doing the same thing, pounding their fists into the thick glass and yelling for them to leave her be.

  After a moment, she regained consciousness and control. A soldier grabbed her hair and lifted her off the ground. “Get up, let’s move.”

  She mumbled something that sounded like she told him to screw off and then that bastard in uniform raised his hand and slapped her across the face.

  Chloe fell to hard onto her knees and head twisted to the side, her hair whipping around in a black wave. When her hair fell back down over her shoulders, I saw the evidence of the soldier’s violence in a pink hand print which glowed brightly against her pale skin.

  I don’t know what happened next, I really don’t, but suddenly I felt a mixture of hot and cold encase my body. The air in the room felt like it was moving in, rushing toward me and trying to suffocate me.

  I backed off from the glass wall and paced the floor of the cell. How dare he hit her! He would pay, of that I was certain. He just made himself my number one enemy.

  “Get up,” I heard the bastard growl and I stopped my pacing to see what was happening. He grabbed her by the arm and forced her to stand. “I don’t play games, you little half breed.” He shook her as if trying to force her to hear the words.

  Chloe sniffed and looked up at him through a watery eye. “Neither do I,” she told him in a disturbingly calm whisper, “And I am more human than you will ever be.”

  This time, he struck her with the back of his hand on the opposite side of her face than he had previously hit. When his knuckles connected with her nose, her head whipped to the side and her body tipped over since she wasn’t able to use her hands to catch her fall. A small spatter of blood sprayed across the sterile white tile where she lay.

  “Go ahead!” she screamed. “Beat me all you want, I’m not going to do what you want without a fight! I will fight you until I’m dead if that’s what it takes. I will always fight.”

  My blood was boiling.

  “Noooooo!” Vaguely, I heard the cries of denial without realizing that it was me. The air continued to push around me, waves of heat and cold practically forcing into my shaking body. “Stop it,” I yelled at the top of my lungs, “Stop!”

  With that, the air pushed away in a sudden burst, shooting outward from around and within my body. The rush of air hit the glass wall full force and suddenly a dull, but loud, bonging noise sounded. The noise was quickly followed by the shattering of glass. The entire wall shot outward, toward Chloe and the soldiers.

  Chloe had turned her face downward, facing the floor, so she probably escaped most of the shards as they shot forward, plunging themselves into the flesh of our current enemy. After the initial burst, sharp slivers continued to rain down like snowflakes on a winter day.

  I couldn’t move. Even though my mind was now clear since the pressure was finally gone, I couldn’t figure out what in the hell had happened. It was almost as if I had pushed the air away from me.

  No, it couldn’t have been that.

  The soldiers were in pretty rough shape. The guy who hit Chloe had a rather large piece of glass protruding from his left eye. Blood oozed from between the soldiers fingers as he grasped at the wound and screamed, staggering backward into the glass of the cell where Christina and Gavin stood gaping at the scene before them.

  All three of those scumbags had shards lodged into various parts of their bodies. They grunted and moaned painfully, while picking themselves up off the floor.

  Still stunned, I hadn’t moved an inch. My attention went back to Chloe, who still lay unmoving on the bloody white tile that was now shimmering in a sea of glass.

  That snapped me back to attention. I had no idea what in the hell was wrong with me. On any other day I would have jumped right into the action and never hesitated, but here I was standing around staring when I should have been rushing to get Chloe and the others.

  The fact that she wasn’t moving shot me into action. I propelled forward, crunching over the broken glass, trying to get to her as fast as I possibly could.

  In the few seconds it took me to get to her, she lifted her head and groaned. “What happened?”

  I skidded to a stop in front of her and knelt down. “Get up, baby, we’ve got to get out of here.” I silently cursed the cuffs restraining my arms. I wanted to lift her up and reassure her that everything was going to be fine. But, I didn’t know that for sure, because it was going to be a miracle if we made it out of there alive.

  “Get ‘em.” One of the soldiers muttered painfully and lunged toward us.

  I wasn’t about to let any of them get near Chloe, so I rose into a standing position and waited for him to come to me. He was coming at me quick
, but all I had to do was lift my boot and ram it into his knee cap. Something cracked and he went down, howling in pain.

  The other one was next. He didn’t seem deterred by his partner rolling around on the glass, screaming profanity at me, he kept coming. Although he appeared determined to pursue us, he was still in bad shape. I spotted a large piece of glass protruding from the front of his thigh and aimed for that.

  My boot connected and the soldier let out an ear piercing shout as the glass slid even deeper into his muscle. He bent down, but didn’t fall so I reared back and kicked him in the face with as much force as I could muster.

  He flipped backward and hit the floor. Blood spurted from his nose, which I probably broke, and it looked like he would be down for a little while.

  Hurriedly, I turned back to Chloe, who had already pulled herself up into a standing position, even though she had to lean on the wall to keep herself up. “The others,” she croaked. “We can’t leave them.”

  Holy crap, she was right. What the hell was wrong with me? She had been my only focus and somehow the fact that Gavin, Christina and Zander were in the cells watching us had escaped me.

  I bolted for Christina and Gavin’s cell and checked out the lock. It required a key card to be swiped through like a credit card machine. Dammit. My arms were still cuffed behind my back. I glanced over at the soldiers writhing around on the floor and inwardly cursed. Even if I was able to get one of their cards into my hand, it would be hard to slide through there.

  But, we had to try.

  Turning, I ran back to the guy who’d had his eye impaled by the glass. He sat up against the glass, his key card was an ID badge attached to his breast pocket. “Give me your badge,” I ordered.

  His response was a garbled, “Go to hell.”

  Yeah, I didn’t think he was going to cooperate that easily, so I kneed him in the stomach. A shout burst from between his lips and he bent forward. “Take off the badge and put it in my hands.”

  “Just go!” I heard the shout from the cells and glanced over at them. Christina was waving her hands frantically. “Take Chloe and get out of here. She’s who they want.”