Spark of Fire Page 3
As Rob walked us backward toward the set of double doors we’d used to enter the lab, keeping Franklin front and center, I crept closer to the scalpel until a quick sprint would get me there. I broke from Rob’s hold and rushed toward the tray.
“Katy, no!” He scrambled for me as I lunged for the scalpel and wrapped my fingers around it before swinging around, holding it up toward Franklin like it would totally defend me against a guy with the power to call air and literally throw someone across a room.
“Excellent.” Franklin waved his hand, and a solid wall of air shot up between us. “Now it’s just the two of us.”
“No!” Rob slammed his fist against the wall.
Franklin took a step back and proudly displayed his need of a dental plan. When he lifted his hand again, palm up, he waited for me to react, like I was supposed to know what it meant. I didn’t. Rob, however, pounded harder on the air wall.
And then a flame appeared by Franklin’s command, hovering and dancing just above his hand. Holy mother of what the hell? I did not see that coming. Fire too? Just how many elements did this guy control?
“Scared now, little girl?”
Terrified.
A deep and all-consuming heat sparked to life at the base of my neck. Sulfur blended in the air like a residual scent on the Fourth of July. I broke out in a sweat, despite the frigid temperature in the room, overheating like I had a fever. The charge deep inside me intensified.
Oh no. The meds weren’t working. I was heating up and fast. If I didn’t do something to calm down, I’d pass out. Or something. I didn’t really know since I’d never been this scared in my life.
He launched the fireball. Out of fear and instinct, I brought my hands up to cover my face, dropping the scalpel. Rob broke through the wall just in time and jumped in front of the fireball, stumbling back as the flames hit him square in the chest.
“Rob!”
I was too focused on making sure he wasn’t hurt to see the second ball of flames coming right at me.
Until it was too late.
3
The fireball slammed into me, and I braced myself for the pain.
But it never came.
I watched in amazement as the flame charred my shirt and melted into my skin. As disbelief rippled through me right along with the waves of flames, I stood there, stunned.
“Guess I’ll just have to up the heat.” Franklin conjured up another flame, this one bigger, more intense than the last. And then, just like that, he killed his call as the overwhelming scent of rot inside old copper pipes filled the air. Considering I was surrounded by dead bodies, it made sense, but this was more. Stronger.
Fresh.
Franklin’s eyes widened as his mouth fell open. Then he spun and ran. He didn’t make it more than a few steps when a fireball came from somewhere behind me and slammed into his back, knocking him to the floor. The flames covering him grew hotter, angrier, white in their intensity. I shaded my face and leaned away from the heat. Franklin let out a blood-chilling scream as the fire attacked him. He clawed at the air in a desperate attempt to fight off the flames.
And then he stopped moving. Still, the fire grew hotter, too hot for smoke, consuming its prey until there was nothing left. Franklin had been reduced to a pile of ash, and still the fire burned.
“Impossible,” Rob muttered. “He’s a fire elemental. Fire shouldn’t be able to burn him.”
“And yet…” I waved at the pile of ash that used to be Franklin the creep.
“You made a mess.”
“Me?” I shook my head vehemently. “I didn’t do this.” At least, I didn’t think I did.
Rob thrust both hands toward it, shaking as he fought against the heat. “I—I can’t control it. It’s too strong. Where the hell did it come from?”
I didn’t know what possessed me to do what I did next, God knew it wasn’t one of my brighter moves, but something deep inside me told me to call the flame. Cautiously, I lifted my hand as if offering it to a dog in the hope it wouldn’t bite me.
“No, don’t.” Rob tried to stop me, but I stepped out of his reach.
“Come to me.” The flame obeyed and jumped to my hand. I stared at it, amazed a fireball hovered over my palm. The heat immediately died down to a tolerable level.
“What the…” Rob trailed off as he stared at the fire.
As soon as I took my focus off the flame, it ate my hand and raced up my arm, across my shoulders, and down my other arm. Now both my arms were on fire, as were my hands. Fucking awesome.
Yet, it didn’t hurt. Quite the opposite. It felt like a hug, like the fire was trying to comfort me, protect me like an inferno shield. And it did. When the flames intensified in heat and size, turning from orange to purple, it energized me as if I’d just pounded a Red Bull.
“My, my, my. Look at you, all grown up and stealing elements.”
I whipped around as the flames died, blinking in shock at the sight. It was him, Onyx, close enough the evil seeped off him and oozed toward me like a low, menacing fog.
The image I’d drawn didn’t do justice to how creepy this guy really was. And he had on fingerless gloves just as I’d drawn them. A shudder ripped up my spine.
Ignoring the fact he’d just killed the asshole trying to kill me and quite possibly saved my life, I instead demanded, “Who are you?”
“Take my hand,” Rob said and reached for me. “We need to get out of here.”
I extended my arm, nearly touching him.
“No teleporting allowed. That would ruin the fun.” Onyx waved his hand, sending Rob flying through the double doors as Mr. Creepy had done to Ms. Wilkerson. A distinctive click echoed as he somehow locked the doors from twenty feet away. “Now, how about we have ourselves a little chat?”
I backed away, pushing against the doors and trying not to panic when they wouldn’t budge. “Look, buddy. If you’re looking for the Assassin’s Creed cosplay convention, you’re in the wrong place.”
“There are only a few of us quads in the world,” he went on as if we were having two completely separate conversations. “None as powerful as I am. No calls can kill me. I’m invincible.” He dropped his arms to his sides and widened his stance as he faced me. “Let’s see if the same applies to you, Katy Reed.”
When he called me by name—correction, when he called me by the wrong name, which every girl loved regardless of the situation—I paused. That was my mother’s maiden name. “Reed? That’s not my name.”
“It’s the name of your elemental lineage. It will be the name on your tombstone.” He lifted his arms, and all the medical instruments flew into the air, swirling around me as a spiral of wind erupted inside the room. It roared in my ears and whipped sharp weapons in every direction, making it impossible to hear or see. I used my arms to shield my face, wincing at every slice and dice of the scalpels and other sharp objects. I gasped when, through the chaos, I spotted a giant pair of rib cutters speeding right at me.
“Stop!” I screamed. The debris froze in the air. I stood there panting, shocked into a numb state, trying not to have a complete mental breakdown. Or maybe I was in the middle of one. I was under attack by a stranger with the power to incinerate his enemies. The room fell deathly silent as everything held perfectly still like someone had just taken a picture.
“Impressive use of air. Let’s see how you handle this.” He lifted his hands, and the windows behind him shattered as two giant tree branches broke through, reaching through the openings like skeletal arms.
And came right at me.
“Stop!” I wasn’t lucky enough for it to work again and dove out of the way just as the branches reached me. When I came back up, the tree branches had already adjusted and shot toward me like striking snakes.
I dodged another direct hit and crawled behind a stainless table holding some unfortunate resident of the MCU cadaver lab.
Think, Katy. Think! The tree wasn’t attacking me. Onyx controlled it, forcing it to do his bidding even though it tried to resist. I felt it.
A tingling swept over me, like I’d just walked into a million spiderwebs and every last spider now crawled all over me. I cringed and tried not to freak out. What the hell is happening to me?
Closing my eyes to focus, I whispered to the tree, hoping it heard me. “You’re free.”
“What the… Get back here!”
I peeked around from behind the table to see the branches retreat, knocking glass free from the window to crash to the tile floor on the way out. I win.
“You really think stealing my call will work?” His gravelly voice reverberated through the air and sent my pulse racing with uncertainty.
“Hold on!” Rob slammed his fist against the small round window. The doors shuddered as he called air to try to break through the lock again, but the guy I only knew as Onyx must have put up some sort of airfield at the threshold. When that didn’t work, Rob tried fire. Still, the field held, trapping me inside the meat locker with a maniacal elemental hell-bent on talking me to death.
Onyx sauntered toward me. “Why go through all this effort to hide you from our world? From me? I’m sure you’re the one now. I always knew it would be a Reed standing between me and my destiny.”
Again with the Reed. Was that the real reason my mom had left? Was I in some sort of witness protection program? “You’ve got the wrong person. My name isn’t Katy Reed. It’s Valentine. Katy Valentine.”
“No. That’s your Nelem name. Your true name, the name of all the elementals in your bloodline, is Reed,” he corrected like
I didn’t know my own name. I backed up until the double doors stopped me.
“Please,” I whispered, pleading with the air holding the doors closed. “Let them through. I need help.” The airfield weakened. I sensed it more than felt it.
Onyx didn’t seem to notice. He was too caught up trying to scare the shit out of me. “I am the prophecy, not you. It’s my destiny to rule our world, not yours. I can’t allow you to stand in the way of what’s mine. I am Alec von Leer.”
Like his name was supposed to mean something? I had to get away before he hit me with a fireball as intense as the one he’d hit Franklin with, or sicced another tree on me, or sent more medical instruments after me. Or, hell, killed me the Nelem way and snapped my neck. This guy was seriously delusional. The sooner I got away from him, the better. His evil seeped into me the longer we spent this quality time together. “Good luck with your world domination, man. Just leave me out of it.”
“I can’t do that. As with the Reeds before you, you are destined for greatness. Why, you’re practically royalty in the elemental world, as am I.”
“Then you should know how to protect the family jewels.” I charged and sent my knee into his groin, hoping to drop him and create enough of a distraction for Rob to break through.
Only, he didn’t drop. He bared his teeth through the pain, his snarl twisted, contorting his skeletal face. I staggered back. Instead of incapacitating him, I’d only managed to piss him off.
“How Nelem of you to resort to the physical when you have the power to control the elements at the tips of your fingers. You have no idea who you really are, do you? Do you believe in prophecy?”
I didn’t believe in anything other than finding a way out of the lab. “I make my own destiny.”
“This may alter your opinion.” He lifted his gaze to the ceiling and recited the words that would change my life forever. “Come the Ides of March, the elemental world as we know it will be no longer. Good and evil will be matched. Supremacy is certain.” He then rested a gleaming gaze on me. “Only one stands in the way.”
Why look at me? I couldn’t be the one standing in the way. I had nothing to do with his destiny. I just found out I was an elemental, for Christ’s sake. “You’re wrong. I’m not who you think I am.”
“You’re a Reed. That’s all I need to know. The best Reed is a dead one. That is, unless you join me.” He held out his hand. “Join me, Katy Reed. I’ll show you another world, the one selfishly denied you. You’d see your mother again.”
The best Reed is a dead one. He expected me to go with him after saying that? As much as I wanted to see my mom again, I knew better than to believe him. Alarms screamed inside my head. Kids were lured away with enticing presents like candy and balloons, only to become statistics.
If I really could call an element—any element—I needed that to happen. Now. I focused on the fear pushing the blood through my veins, at the turmoil coiling inside me like an angry tornado. I imagined releasing the storm, imagined the cyclone spinning around him and lifting him into the air, trapping him.
The wind kicked up—inside the room—and spun around him, ensnaring him. I dropped to the floor before it snagged me too. The tornado lifted him into the air, pulling him farther away from me. It then pulled the paper sheets from the dead bodies.
And kept going.
One by one, the bodies rose into the air and joined the tornado. Sharknado, nothing. Corpsenado was far more frightening. And here I thought the zombie apocalypse was the worst thing that could happen to dead bodies. Oh no. I was now witnessing a tornado of bodies trapping a man trying to kill me.
Corpsenado for the win.
“Impressive,” he growled. “But it’s time to finish this before your little boyfriend crashes the party.” The wind immediately died, and everything caught up in the storm went crashing to the floor. Bodies upended tables when they slammed into them, sending metal trays flying. What instruments had landed back on trays flew into the air. Again. I dodged what I could and endured one more slice from a rogue scalpel before it too dropped to the tile floor and slid to a stop, leaving a faint streak of red from the blade.
“Stand back!” Rob shouted from the other side of the doors. I jumped out of the way as the doors exploded off their hinges. He ran into the room and over to me, but Alec sent him flying back before he reached me.
“Rob!” I weaved around the destruction to get to him. Bodies lay strewn around the room in every position. Tables were upturned. Trays lay scattered all over the tile floor, as did the instruments.
Only a few more feet. I reached for him. Our hands were inches apart when Alec blasted us again, sending us in opposite directions. He did not want us touching.
“The last watcher died failing to protect his charge.” Alec froze Rob like a statue. “Watchers are no match for the supreme ruler.”
“Good thing you’re not a supreme ruler on any level.” Rob bared his teeth as he fought the invisible hold Alec had on him.
“Let’s test that theory.” He conjured up a fireball. Although Rob was a fire elemental, I didn’t know what would happen if that flame hit him. Franklin had the power to call fire, and Alec had reduced him to a pile of ash. I couldn’t let him do the same to Rob.
Time to fight fire with fire.
Focusing on the burning sensation throughout my body when I consumed the fireball, I pushed away from the wall and faced the man trying to kill me. I imagined flames crawling up his arms, engulfing him, scorching his skin.
And that was exactly what happened. Purple flames hotter than the ones he’d used on Franklin spread across his body.
“You’re good, Reed.” Alec cringed, clearly in pain. He closed his hands into fists, and the flames flickered down before reluctantly disappearing, leaving him standing there, smoldering, though his duster seemed untouched. Leather jackets really did protect the wearer. Good to know. I might just invest in one. “The elements seem to be on your side today. That won’t always be the case.”
Then he literally disappeared into thin air with an audible pop.
“Wh-Wh-Wh—”
Rob grabbed my hand and pulled me to the other side of the lab, not slowing until we stood in front of the door to the warded room. He waved his hand, and it swung open. He cupped my face in his hands, forcing me to look at him. “Stay inside the room. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“You’re leaving me?” I whimpered, not ashamed to admit to my fear. Fuck pride. Some serious shit just went down. I had the right to be afraid.
Ms. Wilkerson staggered into the lab holding her head. She made her way over to us and nodded to Rob. “I got this. We’ll be safe inside the room. Just hurry back.”
I looked at her before returning my gaze to Rob, not wanting him to go. He’d been the one to protect me, not my watcher. “Rob, I’m scared.”
“I won’t let anything happen to you. Go with your watcher. When I come back, I’ll bring friends just as badass as me.” He dropped his hands and stepped back. And then, just like Alec, he popped out of sight, leaving me standing there, wondering what the hell just happened.
4
Ms. Wilkerson and I were in the warded room only a few minutes before a tall blonde woman in a fancy black suit rushed in. My memory thrust me back to that cold, dark morning a week before my sixteenth birthday, when my dad had informed me that my mom had left and kept reciting the same six words over and over—“We knew this day would come.” I remembered not being able to breathe as I’d tried to make sense of it. He might have known the day would come, but for a sixteen-year-old girl who’d just lost her mom, that day should never have come. He’d worn the same type of fancy black suit while he’d shattered my world. Funny how that’d been one of the takeaways from that day—the fact he’d worn a fancy fucking suit.
My breath hitched, and I struggled to fill my lungs. Why she was here, this stranger in a fancy black suit? Was she with the academy? Was she one of the badass friends Rob had promised he’d return with? I studied the woman, memorizing everything about her. She was pretty, even with a crooked nose and cool blue eyes and a less than sincere expression. I immediately didn’t like her.
Exhausted from my battle with Alec, I demanded, “Who are you?”