The Buick rumbled down the narrow street. It pulled dangerously to the right and the wheels connected with the rumble strip. A loud buzz sounded for a second before Sammy pulled the car back into her lane.
“Are you okay?” Abraxas asked, though she doubted he asked for anything more than concern for his own well-being.
“I’m fine,” she said. Her words were choked with emotion as she drove down the familiar streets.
“Good.”
She swallowed hard, trying to force down the ball of fear that was lodged firmly in her throat. “Why are we here?”
Abraxas grinned wickedly. “We’re hunting a rodent. It’s not always possible to chase a rodent, especially when they decide to hide from you. Therefore, if they won’t come to you, you bait them. Give them something worth chasing and then crush them when they’re in the open.”
Sammy looked up as they drove past the city limits sign. She saw the large painted sun and the broad white letters that read, Welcome to White Halls.
“If you’re out there, Xander,” she whispered quietly enough not to be overheard, “please come home. I can’t do this alone.”
She pulled the Buick over and parked against the curb. A few other cars passed the Fire Warriors as they sat in the car in silence.
A group of college students walked past on the sidewalk, laughing and teasing one another as they strolled toward the restaurant a few blocks away. In the front of the group, a guy and girl walked with their arms linked and broad smiles plastered across their faces. The sight caused a pang in Sammy’s chest. It hadn’t been that long ago in this town that she and Xander had walked into the spring formal, linked arm in arm like the college kids she now watched.
From the corner of her eye, she stole a glance to General Abraxas. The remorseful longing that she felt was nowhere to be seen on his face. He instead scowled at the kids, as though their happiness was a personal affront.
“What are we doing here?” she asked again.
He ignored her question and continued staring out the window. Reaching over, he rolled down his window and let the cool breeze wash over him. His nostrils flared as he took in the odor of the small town. After a brief smell, his brow furrowed in disgust and he spat out the window.
“This place stinks,” he said.
“It’s called fresh air.”
The General shook his head. “It’s not fresh. I can smell it, haunting just below the surface. It’s there, hanging like a poison cloud just below the breeze. It’s the toxin of humanity. It’s the smell of strip-mined mountains. It’s the smell of polluted rivers. It’s the smell of noxious clouds of smoke billowing out of their factories. It’s permeated everything they touch.”
Sammy huffed. “You’re just spouting the same rhetoric I’ve heard from my father since I was born. I’ve seen the surface world. It’s not nearly as bad as you seem to believe.”
“It doesn’t matter what you believe,” he said, smiling wickedly. “The Wind Caste will fall and we will ravage the world of man. Burn it back to the Earth. Nothing will stop us.”
“He’ll try,” the words slipped out before she could stop them. Sammy immediately flushed with embarrassment.
Rather than seeming upset, General Abraxas’ smile widened. “You mean the Wind Warrior. He’ll try. And he’ll die, just like all the rest of their kind. And when the last of them die by my hand, then the rest of the world will share their fate.”
Angrily, Sammy opened her door and climbed out of the car. She slammed it behind her and stormed across the street. As she walked, she heard the soft click of his door being opened as well.
She didn’t know what to do. Abraxas was right—the Wind Caste didn’t stand a chance against the Fire Warriors. Their power was created to feed the flames, meaning that it would take an exceptional amount of power to defeat a trained group of warriors. The fact that they defeated her warriors previously only proved that her warriors were inexperienced and overly confident—it hardly proved that the Wind Warriors were truly that powerful.
The General crossed the road and walked up behind her. “You can’t stop the inevitable.”
She kept her back to him, choosing instead to watch him through the reflection in the glass storefront. She watched him turn away from her and sniff the air once again. He smiled as he caught the scent of what he was looking for. Suddenly, she felt it as well. She felt the small twinge in her stomach, like something crawling across her skin. She had felt that sensation once before, when Xander first used his powers. Someone was using elemental powers nearby.
“There’s a Wind Warrior in town,” he whispered.
Sammy paled. She couldn’t imagine Xander would be foolish enough to come back home so soon after she tried to kill him but the General wasn’t wrong. Someone in the town had used elemental powers. It wasn’t one of the Fire Warriors; the power used had a different sensation, one to which she wasn’t accustomed. It had to be a Wind Warrior.
“Tell me, Lady Balor,” the General said as he smiled and showed his rows of sharpened teeth. “Where did your young Wind Warrior live?”
Sammy shook her head as beads of sweat broke out across her forehead. She suddenly knew what the General had in mind.
“I don’t know,” she lied. Though she had never been to his house, she had seen his house after following him home after school.
General Abraxas’ smile disappeared and he glowered at Sammy. “Don’t lie to me, girl!”
He reached out and clenched her arm, his fingers searing against her skin. She screamed out in pain and her knees buckled as his grip tightened.
“Hey,” a voice called from behind the General. “Leave her alone!”
She looked over the General’s shoulder and saw a man standing on the curb behind Abraxas. He wore a White Halls College football jacket, which he filled out with his large physique. Under normal circumstances, he would have been a great champion to come to her aid. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a normal situation. He was in grave danger from the General and didn’t even know it. His attempt to be a knight in shining armor could easily cost him his life.
General Abraxas released her arm and turned toward the stranger. As he smiled, the football player backed away from his pointed teeth.
“Say it again,” the General hissed through his clenched teeth. Behind his back, a ball of flame began to form in his hand.
“Leave her alone,” the man repeated with significantly less bravado.
“Oh, I will. I’ve found a much better plaything now.”
The General whipped his hand around from his back. The ball of flame gripped in his palm burned a blindingly vibrant yellow. He reared back to throw the fireball at the young footballer.
Sammy lunged forward and struck the General’s wrist as the older Fire Warrior was preparing to release. The flying ball went askew as it flew, narrowly avoiding the brave stranger. Instead of burning the young man where he stood, the ball of flame crashed through the pane of glass beside him before exploding against the interior display wall. The windows all along the storefront exploded outward in a shower of broken glass and roaring flames.
The football player threw up his hands defensively as the glass poured over him. As quickly as it had begun, the sudden burst of flames died away and the glass fell to the ground in a glistening rain.
The young man looked up with bewilderment. His feet seemed affixed to the ground as he stared at the homicidal Fire Warrior.
“Run!” Sammy yelled.
Her words cut through his stupor and he turned and ran. His sneakered feet crunched the glass underneath as he quickly disappeared around a corner.
Sammy stared toward the man as he retreated but her mind was swirling with confusion. She didn’t know why she just saved that man’s life. She didn’t know him; hadn’t seen him before just now. Instinctually, she knew that the Fire Warriors were going to burn away humanity so that the Earth could begin anew. Yet when faced with taking the life of a single human stranger, she
couldn’t bring herself to do it. It was a mirror to her experience with Xander when they were alone in the abandoned house. Something within her overrode her common sense and upbringing.
The General spun on Sammy angrily. Reaching out, he grabbed her wrists painfully, squeezing until she swore the bones underneath her skin would break. She whimpered in pain but refrained from crying out again.
“No more games, you stupid girl! Tell me where he lived!”
Sammy shook her head softly. Despite knowing he wouldn’t think twice before killing her, she was beginning to accept that she couldn’t betray the Wind Warriors to such a megalomaniac.
The heat on her wrists increased until she could hear the sizzling of her flesh underneath. She groaned loudly and her knees grew weak. The General leaned forward, his eyes smoldering with hatred.
Just when she didn’t think she could take any more, she felt an invisible tugging on her gut. Like the butterfly feeling from before, this feeling was quite a bit stronger.
The General felt it too and quickly let her go. Sammy fell to the ground and curled into a ball, cradling her burned wrists against her chest. She knew the skin would heal; she always healed quickly from burns.
“He knows we’re here,” the General said. “I guess I won’t need you to lead the way to them after all.”
Reaching down, the General pulled her to her feet and shoved her ahead of him as they marched toward Xander’s house.
The street was quiet as the pair walked down the sidewalk. The air was filled with the lingering smell of soot and ash, a remnant of Xander and his grandfather’s battle against the Fire Warriors in the nearby park.
Though the feeling in their gut was gone, the Wind Warrior’s actions had done their damage. General Abraxas had been able to narrow down the location of Xander’s house by following the elemental power. Standing now on the same street as the young Wind Warrior’s home, the sly smile returned to the General’s face.
“I know you’re here,” Abraxas yelled into the cool air. “Come and face me, Wind Warrior. Come and meet your doom.”
Sammy held her breath, hoping the unseen Wind Warrior wouldn’t be foolish enough to show himself against such a powerful Fire Warrior. She wanted to wave him away; to warn him about the danger. Unfortunately, General Abraxas had seen fit to tie her wrists with a leather cord, the other end of which was attached to his belt. He had given her just enough length on the leather rope to walk ahead of him but not enough to raise her hands above her head.
“You’re a coward, like all the rest of your kind!” he yelled. “What is your plan? Stay out of sight until I leave? Rush off to warn the others? Your plan won’t work because I’m not leaving!”
General Abraxas drew back his hand and flames enveloped his arm. The flames flickered and swirled as he formed them into a stream. The jet of flame leapt from his hand and struck a parked car nearby. The glass windshield shattered as the interior of the car burst into flames. Fire rolled out the broken side windows, spilling putrid black smoke into the air.
“Take a good look, Wind Warrior! I’ll burn this entire street to the ground if you don’t come out and face me. I’ll kill every innocent person in this town until I flush you out! I’ll…”
He stopped in mid-sentence as a biting sensation spread in his gut. A man leapt nimbly from a tree in front of a two-story house. The rosy-cheeked man glided fluidly through the air before touching down lithely in front of Abraxas. A cyclone of wind struck the General in the chest, lifting the surprised man from his feet. The leather cord jerked on Sammy’s hands and she found herself jerked from her feet as Abraxas flew backward.
Before the Fire Warriors even hit the ground, the man had launched back into the air and disappeared into the nearby trees.
The General stood angrily and yanked Sammy back to her feet.
“Is this how you fight?” the General yelled. “You’re only delaying the inevitable!”
A rustle of leaves warned the General seconds before a second cyclone struck him in the back, knocking him face first into the concrete. Sammy was jerked forward but managed to keep her feet. She dropped to a knee as the leather bit into her wrists. Slamming his fist into the ground, Abraxas raised his head just in time to see the Wind Warrior disappear once again into the tree line.
“Coward!”
General Abraxas climbed back to his feet hastily and extended his hands toward the nearby trees. Flames leapt from his hands, igniting the leaf-laden branches. The vibrant green leaves curled and blackened quickly in the heat. The still-living wood sent pillars of white smoke into the air as the trees caught fire.
Turning, the General set tree after tree on fire. As he reached the end of the row of trees, the Wind Warrior emerged from the tree canopy. In his hand, the air shimmered as he prepared another air onslaught. Having prepared for the attack this time, the General held his ground and merely smiled at the confident Wind Warrior.
The floating Wind Warrior coalesced another miniature tornado in his hand and launched it at Abraxas. The General threw his arms out wide and let the cyclone hit him full force in the chest. Rather than staggering or falling like he had done before, General Abraxas absorbed the swirling air into his body.
The flames enveloping his arms burned even brighter as they were fed by the wind.
“Wind feeds the flame, or have you forgotten?” Abraxas laughed.
The Wind Warrior’s eyes widened in surprise and he turned to flee.
Abraxas summoned dozens of small flaming orbs around his arms. He launched them in rapid succession toward the fleeing man. The Wind Warrior danced nimbly through the air, avoiding shot after shot. As he touched down on the ground and prepared to launch skyward once again, his foot slid momentarily in the muddy earth. The pause was brief but more than enough time for General Abraxas.
A pair of flaming orbs shot out at blinding speeds. They struck the Wind Warrior along his ribs, burning quickly through the man’s thin shirt and scorching the skin beneath.
Sammy could smell the burned flesh from where she stood and her stomach soured. Despite her hands being bound, she managed to turn away so she wouldn’t have to look.
The Wind Warrior dropped his arm to his side, protecting his wounded and exposed skin. On unsteady legs, he pushed off and flew straight upward.
General Abraxas followed his ascent but dismissed the flame orbs rather than throw them at the retreating figure.
“That’s right,” Abraxas muttered to himself. “Run home. Warn the others that I’m coming for you all.”
The General’s gaze dropped from the Wind Warrior and he scanned the houses nearby. Despite the supernatural battle that took place on the public street, most of the homes were dark and their curtains drawn tight. As he turned toward the two-story house in front of which the Wind Warrior had been hiding, he saw a pair of figures silhouetted in the window, watching the battle transpire.
Abraxas smiled to himself. He knew it would take a special type of person to stand at the window and watch elemental wielders battle one another. The parental type, unless he was mistaken.
“You let him go?” Sammy said in surprise. “Why didn’t you just kill him?”
“Bait, dear Lady Balor,” he grinned in response.
“So that’s what the Wind Warrior and I am to you?” she replied insulted. “Bait?”
The General turned away from the window and the couple drew the curtains. “You misunderstand, my Lady. You and the Wind Warrior are the hook.”
He snarled wickedly as he pointed to Xander’s house. “They are the bait.”