Yep, called that.
Smoke. I coughed, looking for the source... Ah, on my pants! I patted out the smoking fabric frantically.
"Aww, you’re no fun.” The ringleader shot two jets of flames on either side of me. A tattoo near his neck turned red and glowed as his powers really came to life.
“There’s only one true way to appreciate the fire.” As flame flickered to light above his fingers, the fire reflected in his eyes, heightening the manic adoration he wore. “Let it burn."
The leg of my pants caught fire too quickly, aided by their magic. I struggled to beat out the flames, fire stinging my palms. Sparks erupted over my head. I ducked, but it didn’t save me. They fired the sparks at my body next, aiming for exposed skin and making me twitch and writhe as they tormented me.
With a heartbeat like a frightened rabbit, helpless fear clawed at my chest and made it hard to breathe. But pure terror only lasted for a few moments as something else ignited inside me. Anger. No,fury.
These people sucked. I hated them. Not just because they were tormenting me now or because hurting a total stranger counted as a good time for them. We’d never met before and yet I knew them all too well. Jerks who thought having the upper hand and having a bit of power meant they had free reign to harm others. They thought hurting people who couldn’t fight back made them strong.
Assholes like these were small, ridiculous, and so incredibly wrong. I was so angry at them, angry at my former captors, angry ateveryonewho bullied people with unnecessary cruelty. I was so angry that I forgot to be scared anymore. If only I weren’t so powerless. If only I could show them. If only—
A horrible whining noise echoed in the street, all the streetlights suddenly becoming impossibly bright and screeching, unable to adjust to the energy overload. Loud pops came from everywhere as the lights blew out, casting the street in darkness.
Too dark. Even the fire the coven created had been snuffed out.
Everything went quiet for one second, two, then roaring engines sounded in the distance, heading right for us. Lights from the incoming vehicles found him, showing me the ringleader frozen in midair above me.
His mouth trapped in an ‘o’ as he hovered there, the position looked painful because he grunted and groaned, sweat landing in droplets on the asphalt as he struggled with his invisible bonds. Our eyes locked, the fear in his eyes turning to hatred, and then his paralysis ended with a brutal jolt and he flew backwards down the street.
Commotion erupted after that. Vehicles screeching to a halt, voices and bodies pouring out. All of it seemed strangely distant as I tried to move, get up, run. My body refused to move, locked in place. The scent of smoke coated the air once more.
A man appeared in front of me. He offered me his hand. A blast of flame behind him lit up his outline, creating a halo effect over the soft black hair falling onto his forehead.
"Are you alright?"
For a fleeting moment I consider seizing this stranger’s offered hand and holding on tight. Then sanity returned and reminded me of current events. More shouting followed and the stranger glanced away. I scrambled up, nearly falling several times when searching for the nearest hideout.
The moral of the story here was clear. Don’t trust strangers.
3.Not the kind of pickup Chase had in mind
Lysander
Back in the DSA all of five minutes and already thrown right from the frying pan into the fire, literally.
“Call the water forward…ready energy…now!”
The foul scent of trash burning lessened as a trio of mage officers worked together, shooting jets of water from their palms to douse the flames.
The assailants scattered in all directions, casting fireballs at random along with walls of flame to block any pursuit and cause enough chaos to facilitate their escape.
A pretty effective strategy. Our first priority was on preventing injury and property damage by extinguishing the flames and ensuring the housing units and currently closed shops—all close together and packed tightly—didn’t catch fire.
Officers fanned out and dealt with the pursuit and controlling the scene while my temporary partner and I focused on our missing person. Huddled there in the dark behind a dumpster, he seemingly hoped we’d forget him entirely.
“Dammit. I think…” Chase sniffed, trying to identify the figure shrouded in shadows. All the smoke in the air complicated matters.
He partially shifted, eyes flashing yellow and face changing to something in between wolf and human. Vaguely resembling something from a haunted house, it never looked right on his face since he always struck me as closer to an overgrown puppy than fearsome predator.
His more sensitive canine nose sniffed the air…he sneezed. Chase shook his head as he transformed again, back to human.
“Not to criticize your whole escape plan,” he told the darkness. “‘Cause you were doing alright until the homicidal coven, but is it really smart to hang around out here while we’re still putting out some of the fires?”
A coven? Did Chase know something I didn’t? I needed to familiarize myself with the department’s open cases when back at the office. I made a mental note as Chase’s last comment landed and our ‘fugitive’ crept from the shadows, still putting space between us and him.
