Swarm of Fire

by John P. Logsdon

  “You got it, sweet tushy.”

  “Ugh,” said Rachel.

  “Brother,” The Admiral piped up, “it sure would be great if we could get Lydia put into the body of an android or something, wouldn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” I said after a few moments, “I’ll give you that one.”

  “It wouldn’t be cheating either, right? I mean, she’d be like a big vibrator. Vibrators are cool, right? Rachel has one and we don’t get all up in her face when she’s using it. Actually, I guess we do sometimes, but not in a complaining way, if you see what I mean.”

  I merely shook my head in response. Why did I have to have a dick that talked to me?

  We zoomed down the road until we got to the Flamingo.

  “Uh, Chief,” said Turbo, straining under the pressure of the belt against his chest, “that looks like one massive crowd.”

  I groaned.

  “Ian,” Rachel croaked through the connector, “we have injuries here. The wolves are snapping at people.”

  “Shit. Lydia—”

  “Already have Portman on the way, dear. Please be careful, love muffin.”

  “We will!” spat Rachel.

  Chapter 15

  I jumped out of the Aston Martin and took off toward the front entrance. There were a few bodies down, but it didn’t look like anyone was dead. Dying? Possibly. But not dead.

  “Warren,” I hollered as the lanky wizard caught up to me, panting like mad, “cast your spell on these wolves, quick.”

  “Okay,” he said, heaving. “One…sec…”

  Honestly, if a person on my squad couldn’t run a couple hundred feet without passing out, they needed to start an exercise program. This wasn’t some damn high school gym class, after all.

  “Dude,” yelled out a drunk guy who looked to be in his late twenties as he ran up to one of the wolves, “bite my arm!”

  The wolf obliged.

  The guy screamed.

  “Get him out of there,” I yelled at the security guard who was nearest him. Then I turned toward the crowd. “Everyone, listen to me. This is not a joke. These things are dangerous. The next person who steps out of line is going to be sent to jail. Are we clear?”

  They booed me.

  I have to say that it didn’t feel nearly as good as it felt being cheered.

  “Sorry,” Warren said as he slowly caught his breath. “Okay, I’m ready.”

  With a flick of his wand and some type of incantation that I couldn’t understand, though he sounded hilarious when he said it, a haze fell over the wolves.

  “They’re clean,” he said a moment later.

  “What’s that mean?” I asked.

  “No humans are inside of them. They’re just shells.”

  I gave him a hard stare. “You’re absolutely sure about that, Warren?”

  He swallowed, took a deep breath, and then nodded.

  “Okay,” I said to my crew. “You heard the man. Let’s light these fuckers up.”

  “Wait!” Serena stopped us. “I’m very close to finding a scent for the pixie who is doing this. I just need another…” She trailed off for a second. She was using some device against the wall that was behind the wolves. “Got him.”

  “Got him?” Chuck asked. “What do you mean?”

  “The uber pixie,” she explained. “I have his trail. I can track him.”

  As if our pal the pixie had just heard Serena’s claim, a flash of light shot down from the top of the Flamingo roof, striking the wolves. They all howled so loudly that I thought certain my ears were going to split.

  The crowd covered their ears, wincing.

  “Kill those fucking things,” I commanded, whipping out Boomy and firing round after round at them. “Now!”

  My mages started with the glowing-hands thing, but the wolves weren’t like the past pixie creations. These apparently had been given the ability to roam.

  And roam they did.

  Right into the Flamingo.

  “After them,” I said, taking the lead and running after the damn beasts. “Serena, take Turbo and Warren and stay on the pixie’s trail.”

  “On it,” she said.

  I could only hope Warren would be able to keep up with her. Good thing I knew Serena well enough to understand that she wouldn’t lose track of the pixie just to make sure that Warren kept pace with her.

  Priorities.

  We hit the casino floor, chasing the wolves with all we had. The damn things were fast, though.

  “Going into wolf form,” Felicia announced as she kept running.

  The transition was pretty incredible to watch. She ran faster and faster and then leaped through the air, switching from human to wolf while flying in a large arc until she landed on all fours.

  She jumped again, crashing into the back of one of the three pixie wolves we were chasing. While the thing was made of dust, that just made it easier for Felicia to tear a hole through its neck. It also gave Rachel, Griff, and Jasmine enough time to launch a stream of flames at the fallen wolf as Felicia rolled and took off toward the next in the batch.

  “Griff and Chuck,” I said as I kept running, “finish that one up and then follow us. Rachel and Jasmine, come on!”

  The dogs bolted toward the east entrance. While I was no wolf, I had elements of wolf in me. That gave me speed and strength, so I was having a decent time of keeping up with them, but Rachel and Jasmine were lagging farther and farther behind.

  I got to the entrance and saw the two wolves facing in. They were staring down Felicia, who had taken to stalking forward like she was getting ready to pounce.

  “Felicia,” I called through the connector. She hesitated. “You can’t take on two of them.”

  There was no response to that, but I could sense she disagreed with me.

  “There is no point in you getting killed. Wait for backup.”

  She growled.

  Suddenly, one of the pixie wolves barked at the other. In response, the second wolf barked back and then sped out of the casino. I went to take off after it, but his pal lunged at me.

  Fortunately for me, Felicia intercepted his attack, knocking him off-path as I continued after the wolf that had left the scene.

  “Jasmine,” I said, “flame that damn wolf that Felicia is fighting as soon as you can. Chuck—”

  “We’ve already destroyed the first wolf, Chief,” he replied before I could say anything more. “And we’ll be at the east entrance in fifteen seconds to kill the second one.”

  “Good. Rachel, get your ass in gear!”

  “I’m coming! I’m coming!”

  “Okay,” The Admiral stated, nearly causing me to lose my footing, “I do have to say that I rather like it when Rachel yells that particular phrase.”

  Unbelievable.

  Chapter 16

  The wolf ran like the wind, not tiring in the least. I, on the other hand, was starting to wheeze like Warren after he climbed a small flight of stairs. If it weren’t for the fact that my body healed so quickly, the burning in my legs would have locked me up faster than a succubus at a nudie bar.

  “Now you’re talkin’.”

  Everyone would be able to track me without a problem, so I just kept churning my legs. The connector system allowed us to know where each PPD officer was at all times, unless we turned off the tracking system for personal reasons, or, like in the case of when Rachel had been kidnapped, if the signal got cut off. We typically didn’t employ this system unless we needed to, though, because it took some effort to engage. It wasn’t like I could just say, “Track Rachel” and my legs would just start running in that direction. Though, that would be cool. Then again, my legs would probably force me to take off across a busy intersection and that would make for a bad day.

  The wolf turned a corner and something told me to slow down.

  I listened.

  “We’re on our way, Chief,” Chuck said through the connector. “Two puppies down.”

  “I’d prefer you not
use that terminology,” Felicia admonished. Obviously, she’d returned to her human form. “So unless you’d like me to start referring to vampires as itty bitty bats, I suggest you not do that.”

  “You’re right,” Chuck said. “Sorry.”

  I creeped up to the corner of the building where the pixie wolf had turned and peered around the edge.

  “Yikes,” I said, fighting to keep my cool. “Guys, there are ten wolves here.”

  “Ten?” said Jasmine.

  “Yeah, and I don’t know if any of them are normals or not.”

  “Where are you, Chief?” asked Warren.

  “Track me,” I replied.

  “Oh, right.” A couple of seconds later, he said, “You’re not far from us at all. I can be there in about thirty seconds, if I run.”

  “Make it a minute and walk,” I stated. “Won’t do us any good if you’re out of breath.”

  “I’ll be on the other side of the building from you.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” I replied as Rachel approached. “We just need you to do your stuff so we know what we’re dealing with.”

  “And so you can protect any normals that may be encased in those things,” Rachel added.

  “Right.”

  By the time the rest of my crew arrived, I saw a fog falling over the heads of the wolves who were stoically waiting to destroy us. They didn’t seem bothered by this magical invasion, and since Serena was hot on the trail of the uber pixie who created them, I wasn’t so worried that he’d cast some naughty spell on them.

  “No normals,” Warren said. “You’re all clear.”

  “Thanks, Warren. Get back to Serena and help her find that damn pixie.”

  “She’s already found him,” Warren replied.

  “Oh?”

  “I have,” Serena interrupted, whispering. “He’s moving slowly at this point. I don’t know if he’s tired or simply not worried that we’ll catch up to him, but he’s taking his time.”

  That was probably because he assumed his pack of wolves were going to make minced meat out of us. Another glance around the corner made me concede the possibility.

  “Can’t we just sneak around the other way?” suggested Rachel aloud.

  “You mean attack them from the rear?”

  “No, Ian, I mean bypass them completely and just get after the pixie.”

  I gave her an appraising look.

  “Actually, that’s a great—”

  “Uh…” she said, pointing. “Never mind.”

  I turned and saw the drooling jaw of a wolf peeking around the corner at me. Then another stepped up beside that one. And another, and another, and…well, you get the idea.

  It seemed they’d become impatient with waiting on us.

  Now, one or two wolves wouldn’t be so bad to deal with in a situation like this, but ten was a little much, at least without a proper plan.

  But my years of leading this team told me there was always one tactic that stood the test of time. It had saved us from the brink of ruin on more occasions than I could recall. In fact, it was probably the single most important strategy we had ever employed.

  “Run!”

  We took off back the way we came, but cut to the left at the other side of the building we were hugging so we could catch up to Serena.

  There was no way we were going to be able to outrun these things. I could make a show of it, as could Felicia if she turned again, but everyone else would get caught eventually.

  “Drop some flames or something,” I cried while firing Boomy over my shoulder. “Chuck and Felicia, shoot at the damn things to slow them down.”

  Griff started launching fireballs backwards without even looking. Of all the people on my crew, he was the oldest. He was still in far better shape than Warren, but his pace was slowing enough to demonstrate his age. Of course, with age comes experience. As a testament to that fact, Griff’s fireballs were accurately striking targets left and right. Best of all, they were hitting legs.

  “Fire at their legs, Charles,” he called to his partner.

  Chuck did and the beasts wailed in response.

  That would give us some more time while they had to repair and rebuild themselves.

  “I have an idea,” Rachel said. “Jasmine and Griff, just throw a sea of flame at the ground. All you’ve got.”

  A wolf was within striking range of Jasmine, but Felicia shot its front paw off, causing it to bellow in rage.

  Rachel yelled, “Everyone, jump!”

  We didn’t have to be told twice.

  A split-second later, the ground directly under us and them turned into fire. We all cleared it upon landing, but the wolves weren’t so lucky. Only one of them had been in mid-flight when the spell got launched.

  It crashed into Griff and ripped into his side.

  The rest of the wolves stopped instantly as their legs turned to glass. Jasmine and Rachel flamed the rest of their bodies as Felicia and I commenced blowing them to bits.

  Chuck went after the wolf who was attacking his partner.

  Honestly, that wolf didn’t have a chance. Chuck was so incensed that he lifted the thing off the ground and carried it to the pool of fire. It was clawing and chomping at him the entire time, but hate was on Chuck’s side. He dumped it into the fire and then shattered it with three perfectly placed shots.

  Griff was groaning and blood was pooling around him.

  His eyes rolled up into his head.

  Chapter 17

  Rachel and Jasmine began channeling energy into Griff, doing what they could to keep him alive. Mages were notoriously resilient, but they weren’t dead-proof.

  “Come on, Griff,” Chuck said with desperation in his voice, “you gotta hang on, man.”

  One thing was for sure, I was going to fuck that pixie up, once I got hold of his tiny-winged ass, anyway.

  “Lydia,” I called to base, “I need you to get a portal authorization right now. Let the hospital know that we have an officer down.”

  “On it,” she replied, keeping her response business-like this time. Not even thirty seconds went by before she said, “Authorization is complete for both Officers Benchley and Taylor. Code is 1-3-8-8-7.”

  “And the hospital?”

  “They’ve been notified and have a team rushing to the null ward.”

  “Thank you, Lydia.” I knelt beside Chuck and put my arm on his shoulder. “Hey, buddy, you both have immediate portal authorization.” I gave him the code. “Doctors are waiting. Go, now. We’ll manage the pixie.”

  He looked up at me with fury in his eyes. “Make him pay, Ian.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” I replied. “Take care of Griff.”

  They blinked from view, leaving just the remnants of blood from where Griff had been lying. Rachel, Jasmine, and Felicia were doing their best to keep the tears at bay. As I said, we were like family.

  “Serena, Turbo, and Warren,” I announced while starting to run purposefully toward her location, “Griff has been sent back to the hospital with serious injuries. Chuck went with him.”

  “Damn it,” Serena hissed.

  “Is he going to be okay?” asked Warren.

  “I hope so,” I answered. “He looked pretty rough. Right now, though, we need to focus on making sure that pixie doesn’t do any more damage than he already has.”

  “Agreed,” said Turbo. “This guy is a blight on my community, and if you have met any pixies, you’ll know that’s really saying something.”

  After spending over five years dealing with the constant barrage of insults from EQK, I found that difficult to argue. Not all pixies were like him, obviously—a case in point being Turbo— but most were.

  “Tell me you’re still on the guy’s tail,” I said as we neared Serena’s position. “We see you guys.”

  They turned toward us and then pointed up ahead. The pixie was flying merrily along, no doubt unaware that he had us on his trail. That was perfect.

  Felicia must have thought s
o, too, because she had her Desert Eagle out and was aiming it right at the little fucker’s back.

  I put my hand on her arm to stop her.

  “We can’t afford a missed shot, Felicia,” I said gently, “and even if you’re on target, we don’t know if he’ll have a shield up. He looks to be exceedingly confident, but I doubt he’s stupid.”

  She sighed irritably, but nodded and stuck her Eagle back in its holster.

  “Let’s just stay on his tail until he gets back to whatever he’s using as a lair.”

  I started moving quickly enough to keep the pixie in sight, but not so fast that we’d be noticed.

  Serena was by my side, looking down at a device she was holding. It looked like some kind of instrument you’d see in Star Trek.

  “What’s that do?”

  “Hmmm?” she murmured and then glanced over at me. “Oh, it’s keeping track of his energy signature. Kind of like what we do with our connectors, but since we don’t have one for him, I’m using this. I had to first get his signature on it, which was why I needed to get to the scene immediately after he set up his last creation.”

  “But we can see him just fine now,” I noted.

  “Until we can’t.” She kept her eyes on the unit. “As you said, he’s probably heading to his lair. I doubt that it’ll be visible to us.”

  “Good point.”

  Suddenly, the pixie stopped.

  I motioned everyone to get back against the building we were standing beside. We pressed against the bricks just as our prey spun around and started studying the area. He flew back toward our position a little bit, but not close enough that he could have easily spotted us.

  “Do you—” started Warren with a whisper.

  “Shhh,” I growled through the connector. “What the fuck, dude?”

  Warren clamped his mouth shut and hung his head slightly.

  “Sorry,” he said, this time using the connector.

  The pixie spun again and continued along, but this time he was moving quicker. Either he knew we were on to him or he just had one of those feelings like he was being watched. I doubted he’d heard Warren speaking.

  “Let’s go,” I said, pushing off the wall and moving to a full jog after the little turd. “Stick as close to the walls as possible, and no talking unless it’s through the connector.”