Read When He Found Her (#1) (The Fire Journal) Page 10
Chapter 10
“I can't believe you drank that much,” Uriz said, helping Evie to her feet. He became impressed by how good she was at doing the drunk girl walk. If his suspicions proved correct, she probably did this more than once in the past. He certainly didn’t plan on asking her at this point or any point in the future. He weighed the second notion in his mind. This was the only time. There wouldn’t be another. He shrugged it off.
She looked up at him, slapping the side of his face slightly rough. She did it twice. It felt nice to touch him and see him flinch a bit. He was the one who stuck her in this position after all. He could handle it. “And you’re just so cute. Look at you. I want to take you home and eat you with a spoon.”
He looked at her oddly for a moment. A few other people started taking notice of them, all of them starting to smile at him. Shows how much he knew. She used the right words any drunk girl would use. Place and time differences always threw him.
Making their way to the house, he stopped one of the men he saw wearing the same pin as the creature he killed earlier in the library. They were all members of the same frat so he’d probably be a Reacher as well. It was hard to tell immediately without the easily identifiable fish face. He could pull this off. He faked his way through worse situations.
“Hey, I have a willing host right here. I doubt anyone will miss her. Look at this dress – she probably slept in it last night under a bench,” he teased. He saw Evie glare at him briefly but ignored it.
The other man looked at him. It was evident he tried to place Uriz’s face but had difficulty doing so. Thankfully a lot of people showed up tonight and it became easy to blend into a crowd. “Did you talk to Harry about this?”
At least now he knew who was the real leader. “Yeah, he said having a backup was good. If not, we can work on bringing over the next one.” He felt braver now. If this man didn't report him already, there was a good chance he had no idea who he was. There were more Reachers over here than they could keep track of. After tonight, he doubted there would be any left in the world – all of them sent back into the depths of their murky domain.
With a laugh, the man said, “That sounds good. They all want to come play over here. Bring her upstairs. Make sure she doesn't throw up on anything. I don't feel like cleaning it.” He moved aside, letting the two continue up the stairs. His eyes took in every aspect of Evie as she passed.
Making their way up the stairs, Evie tripping a few times to make it believable, they eventually reached the top landing without incident. Walking a few more drunken miss-steps, they disappeared from downstairs view. She immediately straightened herself out, standing up normally. “I think I should add acting drunk to my list of skills. Maybe it might come in handy. How would you grade my performance?” She felt a sudden jolt of invincibility. She outwitted these creatures easily.
He rolled his eyes. “Worry about that later. For now, we need to find this host and get it out of here. Or if you happen to stumble upon an altar of some sort, let me know.”
“Altar?”
“Yep. Probably with flames around it. Maybe a few blood stains. You know, the typical altar fashion. Just imagine every one you've ever seen in a grapgram.”
She shrugged her shoulders.
“No? Wrong time. Let's see...early twentieth...movie. That's it. Imagine the ones you saw from the movies.” She'd learn about grapgrams before the end of the century.
“Ah.” He was going crazy. She wasn’t searching for an altar. If they happened to find it, she’d let him know. She didn't want to become the next person forced onto it to be killed. That’s another thing she learned from watching these movies as he said. The first one to spot it usually became the one killed.
They headed into the first room. “This looks so boring,” she remarked at first glance. Everything seemed bare – the room lacked any signs of someone living in it. She never saw a room this clean before.
“No one ever said the Reachers were much for creativity.” He started rooting through one of the drawers, searching for any sign of papers or other items of note he might use. There were still so many unknowns in his equation of why they came here, everything became important.
“Speaking of that,” she asked opening the closet to reveal it being devoid of everything, “How did you get into this business anyway?” She closed it shut carefully, holding the knob until she released it carefully back in its cradle.
“You can say I chose it.” He picked up the mattress, checking underneath it. Nothing was under there as well.
“That seems weird. Why would anyone choose to do this?” She remembered going into the large hall to see what professions were available to them when they graduated. Elemental hunter seemed to be missing.
“The alternative wasn’t pleasant. Next room.” He opened the door and ushered her out. Doing a quick check to make sure they remained alone, they crept along the wall and into the next room. He carefully opened the door and shut it without making a sound.
“What – so your family did it and you decided to do it too?” She once again opened the closet. It was the same as the one before save for a pair of slacks hanging from a coat wire.
He closed the desk empty handed. “I don't have one so I'll have to say no.”
“How can you not have a family? Oh are they dead?” She hoped she didn’t step across any boundaries.
“Nope. Just never had one.” He couldn't understand why this was suddenly becoming a priority of hers. If she wanted an in-depth analysis of his background, she would be waiting a long time. He lifted the mattress, passing his hand to make sure it was completely clean.
“I think you must've. Otherwise you wouldn't be here.”
He sighed. She wasn't going to ease up. “Fine. I'll tell you. But you have to keep an open mind and stop asking me questions once I tell you. Do we have a deal?” He didn't want to spend their entire time going over ridiculous questions about his past when there were more pressing issues.
She looked upwards for a moment, wondering if she could keep her end of the bargain. There remained so many questions she wanted to ask him. Most of them dealt with his elemental hunting but those might probably be answered later. In the end, she believed she could. Or at least until they got out of this house. “I'll do it.”
“I'm an elemental myself. One whose primary domain is reign over the plane of fire but I’m here now to track down these creatures before they bring about the end of the world. And I’m doing all of this because I’m sentenced to it.” It was the simplest, most concise way of putting who he was into terms she’d understand.
She laughed.
He looked at her hurt. “What was that for? This is a deep secret not many people know about.” He never revealed this to another person about his punishment.
“Oh come on. First off, people made of fire aren't real. Everyone knows that. They're something people made up thousands of years ago to keep people in line or to offer an explanation for something beyond their comprehension. Second, you’re just trying to make yourself sound cooler than you are. You don’t need to. And as for these fish creatures – the Reachers – they-”
He walked over to her with fire blazing in his eyes. She caught a quick glimpse into the eternal fires. Dark shadows hovered in the recesses of the red flames, twisted into otherworldly shapes. A few oddly shaped creatures wandered into her field of vision. Each one of them set ablaze. It appeared wonderful and terrifying at the same time. “Is that - ?”
He looked away, his eyes returning to their normal color once more. He shook his head, regaining his focus. It was always difficult switching back to his modified vision for this plane. “Yeah. That's exactly where you think it is. Now do you believe me or do I need to show you further proof?”
“I believe you. And these creatures want to bring that here?” She didn't know if she could stop them. It increased her resolve certainly.
“Well,” he said looking off to the side as he brought her in
to another sparsely filled room, “Not that one exactly. Theirs is more of watery depths of blackness from which one can never seem to gain air. Every moment feels like you're drowning over and over unless you’re a water elemental.” He only went to that particular area ten times in his travels. It wasn’t a place he liked visiting. In fact, there were very few watery places he enjoyed staying.
“Do you always come after these Reacher creatures?” Maybe he constantly fought against them. That could be why he knew how to handle them.
He laughed. “Trust me when I say there are far worse elementals out there. I wish most of them were as easy as these.” He feared what they wanted to bring over. Reachers never sacrificed people for fun. They also never worked alone.
“Like giant, evil water elementals?”
He laughed again, this one having a nervous overtone to it. “No. No. There’s some nice water ones. Some evil fire ones as well. It all depends on what their motives are. I’ve seen evil fire elementals want to destroy entire world and then you have me, stuck here trying to save some people from death.” His hand hit against one of the boards in the room as he stood up from inspecting the desk. He hit it again, the same echo as before. Lifting the board, he saw a girl lying on the ground. “Looks like we found our host.”