Read When He Found Her (#1) (The Fire Journal) Page 12

  Chapter 12

  Opening the door, Uriz saw the man from earlier who identified himself as Harry holding Kitty in his hands. His hand seemed to be embedded in her, his clasp using some otherworldly magic. It was created to drag people into the depths of the planer where they were to be held for all eternity. It seemed this elemental decided to use it for his own purpose. Perhaps he was slightly craftier than the other Reachers he dealt with.

  “Uriz,” Harry said, “Why am I not surprised to see you here?” He smiled devilishly, jerking Kitty more towards him. Her eyes remained shut – the drug he gave earlier enduring in effect.

  “Drop her. You know I'm not letting you bring Kelsak here.” He took a wild guess at who they would be working for. There were so many under rulers of the plane any one of them was fair game. He had to choose based on location and hope he chose right.

  Harry laughed. Uriz realized he chose wrong. “Kelsak's a fool. He barely understands how to run a proper world anymore. It's the same thing over and over. Predictability kills. We've become the laughing stock of the lesser elementals. No one takes us seriously. But after tonight – oh after tonight – everyone will respect us.” His eyes flashed red.

  Uriz moved closer, carefully watching his steps move ever closer. He didn't want Harry to notice this happening. The closer he got, the better chance he had of grabbing Kitty out of his claws. When Harry twitched, Uriz stopped. “I see. So who are you bringing then? Mirt? Inzariv?”

  Harry laughed once more. “Throwing out names of your former allies will do you no good. We all know how you turned on us. You chose to help people instead of taking over your own world. What happened? You used to be strong. Now you're nothing more than a pathetic shell of a creature.”

  “Better to be a 'used to be' than a 'never was'.” Uriz bit his tongue. He was supposed to be calming down the situation – not agitating it further.

  “That's the kind of talk that gets you in trouble.”

  “Already there. What else you got?” He hoped he could buy himself enough time to get closer. He needed to get Kitty out of his grips. If he did, then there was a chance he could kill Harry in the process. Knocking out the Reachers' leader would likely stop their plans if only momentarily. They would be disoriented for a while and unable to properly reform.

  Harry knew what was happening. He took a step back, shaking his head. “If you come any closer, her death will be blamed on you. I'm sure that's exactly what you want.”

  “One more won't tip me over.”

  “Exactly.” The two men glared at each other, hatred evident in both.

  A loud roar started coming from outside; the entire house began shaking. Evie and Uriz grabbed onto the walls to maintain their balance. Pictures toppled from the wall, crashing into the ground with broken glass littering the floor.

  Harry seemed content with his stance, barely moving at all. This must be something he did. His stance gave off the impression of confidence. Undeserved confidence. “You see Uriz, you can't do this alone. We outnumber you. You may have stopped us at some point but we're persistent. You took too long coming to this world's rescue. These poor, pathetic creatures shall bow before us before dawn's light. Isn't it exciting. Too bad you won't be around to see it.”

  “I plan on being around for long afterwards. After all, I destroyed some of your people today. I'd love to get my hands on a few more.” His eyes flashed red towards Harry. He wanted to slay him especially.

  “I figured that was you once I heard about it. A cowardly act to run away and hide. I guess we can't all be heroes. Well I'd love to stay and chat but someone's waiting. You'll just have to catch the show.” He jumped through the opened window behind him.

  Uriz and Evie rushed to the window, anxious to see where he went. Beneath them, they saw what appeared to be a river of water gushing past the house. Only it was much smaller and compact as compared to a normal one. Otherworldly magic was at work here. The water remained only in one spot, allowing Harry and Kitty to land on it before continuing to whisk away down the road. It disappeared down a side street, no one else seeming to notice the mysterious occurrence.

  “He's going to use her to bring his friend over here,” Evie stated, her attention drawn back to Uriz, “We need to move.” She couldn't let her roommate become sacrificed to bring an elemental lord over to their world.

  “I couldn't agree more.” Uriz rushed out of the house, followed at the heels by Evie. There wasn't much he saw left behind from the strange occurrence. He knew there must be something. He stooped down to the ground, crouching his way around the area for a moment.

  “Looking for something?” Evie asked. Her eyes already scanned the area. This was the street they saw the water vanish down but nothing seemed to be left behind.

  Uriz lowered his head closer towards the ground. “I'm looking for a trail. If you find anything, let me know. Wait.” He touched the street, bringing his fingers to his mouth and tasting. “Never mind. Found it.” He stood up and started walking down the street in the direction of the droplets.

  Evie kept up with him, scanning as they walked in case one of those Reachers appeared and wanted to attack them. The way seemed to snake through the multiple streets surrounding them, heading off in one direction and then another. More than once they found themselves backtracking to a previous location.

  The trail wasn't to the fraternity. No doubt that location was just a cover – somewhere to drop off the capsules without drawing a large amount of attention to them. No one would notice a place where people seemed to show up all the time. They needed somewhere better to bring one of the greater elementals down. Being brought back in the midst of partying college kids was not somewhere any of them wanted to be.

  Uriz noticed Evie being quiet. Likely she was dealing with the fact her friend remained serious danger. He decided it was time for him to start asking the questions. “Do you know anything about elemental lore?” He figured they had some time before reaching the destination and now might be the best to find out what she knew. Who knew – maybe she trained to be a professional elemental slayer when she was younger. Stranger things happened.

  She laughed. This was the oddest question she ever got asked. Given the current predicament they were in though, she expected it to eventually come up. “I think I told you everything I knew. I can tell you with absolute certainty you're the first one I ever met.” The Reachers would be the second. Or maybe it was a tie. Either way, he was the first one she talked to.

  “Not really the same thing.” He felt disrespected being compared to one of the Reachers. There was a vast difference.

  “Fire elemental. Water elemental. Same thing. You’re both just…,” she looked upwards for the right word but failed to find it, “Elementals.”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “What's the difference?”

  “These are lesser elementals which means they’re supposed to work for us.”

  “Us?” She wondered if she heard that correctly. 'Us' usually meant more than one.

  “Eons ago, if I have the date correct,” he joked but caught it slipping past her, “Anyway, a bunch of us decided there were too many elementals running around. You never knew who could do what and it would result in a lot of running around. Nothing was ever accomplished. We decided we needed some kind of system so the more important elementals, yours truly, wouldn’t be stuck doing the routine and tiring work.”

  Evie nodded. “I think I get what you’re talking about. These Reachers are supposed to be working for you, doing all the routine and tiring underling stuff.” She hoped she understood him correctly.

  He pointed at her cheerfully. “Ding ding. But one drawback was that now we had all kinds of free time. One thing led to another and…well, this is the bad part about me.” He hesitated mentioning it.

  “You’re certainly not making me want to hear about it,” she said sarcastically. She grinned at him.

  He grinned at her as well. “Alright then. I decide
d to join with some of the other elementals and attempt to take over a few worlds. We did. At least fifty worlds fell to us before it starting becoming tiring once more.”

  Evie exhaled deeply. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have fifty worlds under her control. She couldn’t even control an entire apartment with her roommates. “That’s pretty good. And you stopped doing all of this because you were bored?”

  “Tiring – not boring. Big difference. Boring will make you go crazy. Anyway, we decided it would be better to leave and maybe spice things up. So we did.”

  “What did you do on your planet I guess?”

  “I don’t think you need to know right now. Just know there’s not much that scares me anymore.” He looked off into the distance for a moment, remembering a few incidents from his past. He couldn't understand himself from then. Things changed drastically over the past few decades.

  She felt a sudden chill go through her spine. The way he closed up when talking about his past made her nervous. In her mind, there was only one thing she could imagine which would cause him not to be scared anymore. She had to know if she was right. “Are you going to kill me?”

  He laughed for a minute. Her expression when she asked was priceless. There was genuine fear in her eyes – something he rarely saw humans have when interacting with him lately. “Worried?”

  She cast him a hard glance.

  “I'll take that as a yes. And no. I've been working hard at being nice. Remember? It's much more difficult than when I trying to be bad. People tend to be more demanding. Besides, I have another solid reason not to kill anyone.”

  “That's why you kill elementals. That’s your punishment.” Things started making sense.

  “Right again.”

  “Well that kind of makes sense. In a really weird way.” She could see it in her mind how he might want to do it. After all, killing people wasn’t particularly something she’d like to do. “What made you change your mind?”

  His eyes shaded over. “I don't think I know you well enough to tell you. I don't think you want to hear anyway. Maybe some other time.” He preferred keeping the story to himself. It was convoluted and she might think the worse of him. He thought the worse of himself when he recalled it. It took time to push the thoughts back into the deep recesses of his mind. For now, he needed her to believe in his abilities and they would come out of this unscathed.

  She nodded to herself. She could tell when it was time to stop prying into someone's business. “Look – the tracks. They end right here,” Evie said pointing at the drops. They headed into the nearby river, dropping off the edge and into the murky depths below. The only sign of movement was the ripples bouncing from the edge of the embankment. They both looked at each other. “Can you swim?” He was from the plane of fire after all. Maybe he never learned.

  He laughed. “I know how to swim. I can do it pretty good too.”

  “Let's go. You can show me some of your moves.” She jumped into the water without hesitation. He followed soon afterwards, splashing in the water beside her.