Baptism of Fire (Playing With Hellfire Book 1)

by Jessie Thomas

  I peered at him as if it would trigger something. “Should I?”

  “Damn.” He shook his head. “Not the response I was hoping for.”

  “Sorry.” I grimaced.

  “You were like eight years old the last time we saw each other, but I thought I’d—”

  “Wait.”

  And then, from somewhere buried deep in my shitty memory bank, it finally dawned on me. A boy I hadn’t seen in years, a name that always circled my thoughts in lonely, quiet moments. My fingers stilled and I squeezed my eyes shut, partly out of disbelief but also to keep those memories from slipping from my grasp.

  “Javier. Javier Santos? Holy shit. I thought you moved away.”

  “Nah, we just lost touch after all the…” He avoided my gaze, hanging his head with his hands clasped between his knees.

  “Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “I always wondered what happened to you.”

  “I might’ve seen you at an FD thing, but I wasn’t sure if—I don’t know. It never felt like the right time to talk.”

  My jaw dropped a little. “You’re a firefighter.”

  He rubbed at the back of his neck. “I take shifts wherever they need me now, but these days I’ve been helping out Lieutenant McGuire.”

  It made sense. I had enough brainpower to remember that his father and my parents worked in the same firehouse.

  Of course, it was only now that I realized exactly what that meant.

  The memories were blurry, some of them completely lost, but we had been in each other’s lives with enough frequency that I had pictures of us stowed away in my apartment.

  We were best friends once.

  And now we shared another secret.

  I swore Aunt Meg told me he’d moved somewhere far from the city. Maybe that had been just another lie meant to protect us.

  “Of course you know Jodi.”

  “She hunted me down,” he said. “We weren’t supposed to meet like this. Nobody really plans on being demon bait, yeah? Jodi had me patrolling The Raze, making sure incendiaries didn’t light up your building. Same stuff I’ve been doing since they pulled you outta that house. Lucky for you, setting fire to a hospital’s not their M.O.”

  “You…watched the hospital?”

  “Every day ‘til they let you out,” Javier answered. “The least I could do.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that, so I stared at him with my mouth open long enough to make things awkward. “And now we’re both here, thanks to me. A couple of lawbreaking pyromancers.”

  “Worse people to share a jail cell with,” he said. “Hell of a reunion, though.”

  I nodded, my fingers absently combing the last of the tangles. “I mean, if I’m remembering right. I can’t guarantee everything up there is intact, but I think we caused a bit of trouble back in the day.”

  “We were terrible.” Javier laughed. “Probably why they separated us. For the greater good and all that.”

  The smile slowly faded from my lips. “I wish they hadn’t.”

  I shifted on the bench, eliciting a new wave of pain in my side. There were other stabs of hurt: my shoulder, random muscle aches. I wasn’t quick enough to hide it.

  Javier sat up straighter. “You okay?”

  “I will be,” I assured. “Just feeling like shit. Again.”

  “I’m surprised you ran after that incendiary like you did,” he said. “I know how badly knocking down Hellfire can mess you up. Maybe it’s better this way, right? Working as a team.”

  My grimace slowly eased into a look of confusion.

  He nodded. “Yeah. I know about that, too. I thought we were alone, before,” Javier explained. “Me and my baby sister. The only ones who could put out Hellfire and even the playing field. And then Jodi told me about that house fire, and when I heard your name…” Javier trailed off, growing quiet. He swallowed hard and cleared his throat. “I knew you’d pull through.”

  You were at the hospital.

  It had been him, then; a nebulous presence at my bedside. Warm fingers laced between mine, rich notes of cologne against the antiseptic. A sweet, hushed plea in Spanish.

  He swept his thumb across his bottom lip. “This power scared the shit out of me, Nix.”

  “You’re not alone there.”

  His voice dropped to a rumbling whisper. “But I’m done being afraid of it. If this is what makes the demons start running, then let ‘em. They’re not used to having enemies who can kill ‘em—been a while since they’ve seen a real threat around here.”

  It was hard for me to imagine a demon fearing a messy twenty-something.

  “We’re not invincible, Santos,” I said. “This thing makes us a target. I’m already attracting the weirdoes.”

  He leaned back against the wall. “C’mon, Nix. We run into burning buildings for a living. Danger’s always been the nature of the job. This isn’t much different.”

  I laughed. “Right. Because grease fires and the literal flames from Hell are totally one and the same.”

  Voices filled up the stairwell alongside a clatter of footsteps. Though I knew it was unrelated, an uneasy feeling bloomed in the pit of my stomach when the lights overhead flickered. Everyone stopped, as everyone usually did whenever the warning signs were there. Waiting to see if we’d all be plunged into darkness. And how long that darkness would last.

  “That’s the last thing we need.” I recognized Jodi’s voice.

  We’d all heard that phrase more times than we could count. Every time I was out in a public space and the lights blinked erratically, putting everyone on edge. A popular refrain to stave off the worst.

  “We’re overdue.” That was Detective Rashid. “It’s been a while since we had one, hasn’t it?”

  A wry laugh from the lieutenant, which I thought was probably a rare occurrence. “Don’t encourage it, Detective.”

  “All right, jail birds,” Rashid said, flashing a bright smile. “You’re free to go. I can’t have you taking up space while we have real troublemakers out there. I need my holding cell back.”

  “Gladly,” I said.

  While I wasn’t surprised to see Jodi still in uniform at this time of night, it shocked me to see her so unpolished: jacket gone, tight bun a bit disheveled, and blouse somewhat untucked.

  “You attract trouble like a magnet, Victoria,” Jodi said. “Thank you for keeping an eye on things, Santos. I guess we can skip the introductions and get right to work.”

  “I had a look at the residuals from the scene,” Rashid told us. “Strong, but they didn’t have the same signature as the house fire. No denying it was an incendiary, though. I apologize for Nowak and the others. As I said before, no one really has a spine when it comes to demons around here.”

  “Yeah, that’s obvious,” Javier remarked.

  “It wasn’t the same demon,” I confirmed. “But I don’t think they wanted to kill me. More like they were trying to challenge me. Taunt me.”

  “They could know about your power,” Jodi said. “Word travels fast among their ranks. We’ll have to be more careful.” She looked between me and Javier. “I take it the two of you have caught up?”

  “Yeah.” Javier and I spoke together.

  “That was a low-level nullification you got hit with. It’s standard procedure, so unfortunately there’s nothing I can do,” Rashid said, as we climbed the stairs out of the stifling Pit. “You’ll be back to normal in twenty four hours, give or take.”

  “Once it wears off,” Jodi said, her voice lowered when we reached the landing, “be ready to work.”

  10

  If I had to choose, night in The Raze was my preferred time for wandering. Once most of the hordes of overwhelmed, clammy tourists migrated back to their air conditioned hotel rooms and the sun went down, things got a lot more bearable.

  While the rest of downtown lowered the volume and tucked in for the night, The Raze didn’t shut up until dawn. A thrilling, borderline chaotic energy swept through as soon as the
old street lamps flickered on, the cobblestones awash in yellow. The day’s heat still lingered, radiating upward from slick pavement, though a nice breeze off the lake lessened the humidity.

  Maybe suffering through hot days were worth it, sometimes. For the frantic heartbeat of the bars and clubs and the lazy, surreal adventure that came with aimless drifting beneath faded stars and moonlight shimmering over the lake. Just to see what it would bring. The excitement, the possibilities that were endless before sunrise broke the hazy dream. It almost cancelled out the danger.

  The red glow at the end of someone’s lit cigarette beckoned my attention from the darkened corner of a back alley. My pulse sped up, on alert until I realized exactly what it was.

  Not a pyromancer. Not even a demon.

  My last encounter kept me on edge.

  The address Jodi texted earlier this evening turned out to be a deserted warehouse on the edge of the Buffalo River. Gentle waves lapped against the grassy shore and the foundations of half-neglected buildings. Rust stains leached out of the cracks, trickling down the concrete, while a brackish wind lashed my stray hair into a frenzy. The sad-looking warehouse had no windows left to offer, only gaping metal frames where the glass used to be. Empty spray paint cans rattled back and forth over bumpy cobblestones. An artist’s half-finished mural—some of it highlighted with glow-in-the-dark paint, a favorite of the artists in The Raze—bordered the vast doorway.

  Artificial white light, bright enough to sting my eyes, illuminated the spider web cracks racing patterns across the concrete floor and rusted metal support beams that somehow held up the warehouse’s spacious interior. It wasn’t until my eyes had adjusted that I realized a path had been lit with camping lanterns.

  “You’re late.” Jodi’s voice ricocheted off the walls as my vision finally adjusted to the light piercing my eyeballs. I wasn’t a stranger to that tone. The lieutenant’s reprimand provoked a slight recoil, wrenching me back to my academy training.

  A violent, nostalgic tug.

  “Sorry.” I squinted. A silhouette stood next to her, haloed by one of the lanterns. Javier. “I fell asleep. It won’t happen again.”

  “You’re right it won’t.” Jodi was still in her crisp PFFD uniform minus the navy jacket. She seemed like one of those people who were rarely seen outside of their job, and if you came across them in the wild, so to speak, it would feel strange. Like running into your high school history teacher at the grocery store during summer vacation.

  “What’s with the sketchy locale?” I asked, gesturing broadly at the warehouse.

  “Not too many safe places to practice pyromancy here and remain fairly inconspicuous,” Jodi answered. “As I told you before, you need proper training. I can’t just let you loose on this incendiary once we catch his scent—figuratively speaking. I know how much you want to strangle him with your bare hands, but that’s not an approach that’ll win you any fights with their kind. I can’t have you getting yourself killed. That’d be irresponsible of me.”

  “You’d be surprised how many fights I could win with my fists.”

  “Oh, I’m well aware of your disciplinary record.” Jodi’s disapproval resurfaced. Javier snickered, or maybe it was a sharp exhale through his nose. “Trust me, Victoria. You’d be much more effective using pyromancy.”

  “Especially ours,” Javier said. His voice was warm and low and pleasantly rough. I was still getting used to the adult version of my long-lost childhood best friend. Last time I’d seen him, he’d had less teeth.

  “I’m not so sure I have anything left. I mean, I want to do this. There’s no way I can go back to firefighting. Not right now, anyway. But I think my tank is empty.”

  “You haven’t learned how to use it, that’s all,” Jodi said. “Frankly, I’m not surprised you were burnt out after that fire.”

  “Figuratively speaking,” Javier joked.

  “Powers coming out of dormancy, manifesting themselves, it can be unpredictable,” she said. “It’s even trickier to get a handle on them, at least in the beginning. Javier can help you with that. I don’t need any more late night calls from the PCU.”

  “I thought we cleared that up.”

  “It’s better if we stay out of their way,” Jodi explained. “The PCU has its own red tape we’d get tangled in, and they have enough trouble as it is keeping their activity discreet. As it stands, they like to keep their numbers small. Really small. They do good work—better than fire investigation. But we could, in theory, get it done in half the time it takes them.”

  “Jodi’s been trying to put together an Incendiary Task Force,” Javier said. “Cut out all the bullshit.”

  “Detective Rashid is the only one working for the PCU who knows about this,” Jodi said. “And the one person I trusted to help us out. I think she’s just as frustrated by the bureaucracy as we are.”

  “For an agency that went rogue from the PFFD, they really shot themselves in the foot worrying about protocol,” Javier mused.

  “They had their reasons. We may not agree with it,” Jodi answered, with a slight roll of her eyes that I definitely did catch, “but they needed to build a failsafe against corruption.”

  “Who else is on your task force?” I asked.

  “This is it,” Jodi said, sighing. “For now. We’re still in the recruiting stages.”

  I snorted. “Some team.”

  Her stare hardened. “You and Javier have a power that’s worth at least four people. So, yeah, some team.”

  Jodi headed toward the entranceway where the doors had long since disappeared, her words once again echoing, surrounding us. “You kids have fun. And do me a favor? Don’t burn this place down. It’s the only training spot we have.”

  I waited until I knew she’d left. “She’s always pleasant.”

  Javier definitely snickered this time. “You get used to it.”

  I kicked at a loose piece of concrete and sighed. “Last time…that was an accident. I had no idea what was happening. And it was a mess. I don’t see how you could control something like that.”

  “Your power manifesting in the middle of an active scene, after losing one of your own? Can’t imagine the stress that’d put you under, Nix. It’ll get easier the more you use it—think of it as your extra muscle. You’ve got understand it before it controls you. Can’t have you passing out on the job again.”

  I settled a hand on my hip. “It didn’t feel too great for me, either.”

  Javier laughed. “Don’t worry about that yet,” he said. He walked the path lit by the lanterns, each one going dark when he bent over to turn them off. “We’ll start with the easier stuff.”

  “Is the complete and total darkness necessary?” I asked. It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust again.

  “Nah.” He backed away until he became a moving shape in the city light that filtered through the empty windows. “I just think it looks cool.”

  An explosion of sparks later, and a handful of flames appeared in his palm. Orange rippled against his face, his elongated shadow thrown onto the floor. The flames illuminated the ends of his hair in gold, where it was once jet black. Slightly longer on top and cut closer on the sides, it hung a little over his forehead. The humidity toyed with it, gave it waves.

  “Creating fire is a lot easier than putting one out. And Hellfire is another monster entirely.” I noticed the way his hands glowed a reddish-orange, long fingers gathering a storm of embers under his skin. They didn’t seem to move past his wrist. “Jodi’ll want us on incendiary firefighting duty, but it’s always good to have some defensive skills in your arsenal. Never know when you’ll need it.”

  “Can you kill an incendiary with it?”

  “Might sting ‘em a little,” Javier said. “It’s a good distraction. But it’s only temporary, doesn’t leave burns on them. You won’t be taking out incendiaries with this. That’s what your other power’s for.”

  I nodded.

  “Can’t burn yourself with your
own fire, either, obviously,” he continued. “Nature’s way of protecting our dumb asses. Most of the time, anyway.” He tossed the flaming ball into the air and caught it. “Other pyromancers’ fire is fair game. And that shit stings, so watch yourself.”

  The flames bounced back and forth between his palms a few times before he launched it over my head. I watched it sail through the air, hitting the floor several yards behind me, spitting out a line of embers. It left a trail of fire along the floor as it rolled. With an indifferent wave of his hand, Javier snuffed it out, the scorch marks on the concrete and the rising smoke the only evidence of his handiwork.

  “Showoff,” I teased.

  “That’s nothing. You’ll catch on quick. Before you know it, you’ll be showing me up.”

  “Prepare to be disappointed, Santos.”

  I’d had no idea that I could generate fire itself without the usual tools and accelerants. I just thought I’d been made to put them out.

  He walked back over to me. My eyes had adjusted to the dark now, to the pale remnants of city lights visible from the windows above. Javier stood beside me, one arm extended in front of him with his palm facing up. I could already feel the warmth radiating off his skin.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  Even though he hadn’t asked me to, I mimicked his stance.

  “Clear your head first,” Javier instructed. “Stress, emotions, everything. Stuff like that, it can affect your fire. Control yourself, control your power.”

  I sucked in a deep breath and released it slowly. Tension still sat in my muscles. I doubted I’d be able to completely let go of everything. But I forced it down, locked it away for the time being, and hoped it would stay put.

  “You good?”

  Another slow breath through my nose. “Think so.”

  I saw the first of the tiny, dark orange embers spark to life beneath Javier’s skin, drawing trails down his fingers. They moved, shifting, gaining energy and bringing it to his fingertips. His fingers curled as he embraced it, and I watched, mesmerized, as a burst of flame sprang from nothing but the ether. It crackled softly, and emitted a sizzle every now and then despite it not blistering Javier’s flesh.