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Her skin burned my fingers, and I realized she truly was living flame. And that was when it dawned on me that I was in serious trouble. I tried to scramble away, but she caught hold of my wrist, and as my skin began to ignite, I realized I was about to die the final death.
Chapter 5
“Menolly!” Delilah’s scream cut through the night.
Before she could say anything else, Shade shot past her, and the next thing I knew, I was in some dark, veiled space. Shade held me tight against him. I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t think—it had all happened so fast. And then I realized we weren’t in the room with the fire creatures. And the flames on my arm were gone. Before I could wrap my head around this little fact, everything shifted again and we were back with the others, but in a different spot from where I’d been when he first grabbed me.
There wasn’t time to figure out what had happened. Instead, I leapt up, looking around to assess the situation.
Delilah had backed away, and Camille was shooting some sort of spell at the fire beings, who were still lobbing fireballs. Bran had moved around to the side, but even he looked confused, his sword at the ready. He was smart enough to know, as was Delilah, that physically engaging these creatures wasn’t going to do much good beyond getting a nasty third-degree burn.
Camille shouted in frustration. “We need Smoky! Or… Iris.” Her energy bolts were disrupting their progress but not stopping them. In fact, I had the nasty suspicion that the only reason they paused as she tossed bolt after bolt toward them, was to quite possibly absorb the energy into their own power.
“We can’t ask Iris—” Delilah started to say but then stopped.
“We have no choice. We have to have someone with her power because whatever these creatures are, we don’t seem to have the wherewithal to fight them.”
“Water! The fire hoses!” I didn’t know if it would work or not, but I raced back outside and frantically motioned to Chase. “We need fire hoses, at full force. Now!”
Chase barked out an order, and three of the firemen who were still stowing their gear pulled the hoses out again and, within sixty seconds flat, had coupled them back up and were following me.
By now, Camille and the others were backing away. The figures were still coming. In their wake, their bodies had started up the fires again as they passed through the still smoldering ruins. I shouted for everyone to get out of the way and we backed to the sides as the fireman pushed through into the building again.
As the fire creatures came through, two abreast, then two more, then one in the rear, I motioned to the firemen and they let loose with the hoses. The water struck them full force, and at first, they wavered. I thought they were going to be swept off their feet, but somehow, the fiery women managed to keep upright. Slowly, they began to make headway against the onslaught of pressure.>I pressed my lips together. I knew we had a serial arsonist running loose, but I didn’t know how much Shikra had actually told him. And I didn’t want to spill any secrets she might have kept secret, like the letter. But I had the feeling I was going to have to, if only to keep other businesses on high alert.
Chase stared at me for a moment. “You know something.”
“What could I possibly know?” I gave him a fangy grin.
“Yeah, right. Tell me another one. Okay, we’ll play it your way.”
“Just for now, Chase. We’ll talk soon.”
“So if you and your sisters could suss out the building when they’ve—” He stopped as the fire marshal approached.
He gave me a confused look, but then turned to Chase. “It’s out, for all intents and purposes. They’re just taking care of some of the embers. We got here in time to prevent any major structural damage, I think. Most of it’s cosmetic. Will cost a bit to repair, but it’s not like…” Pausing, he glanced at me.
I decided to save him the trouble. No use pussyfooting around, and it wasn’t like I didn’t know all too well what had gone down at my own bar. “The Utopia isn’t fully destroyed, like my bar was.”
“Right, ma’am. As to what caused the flames, well, we discovered something in one of the back rooms. Cloths still soaked in accelerant. The flames hadn’t reached them yet. If they had, this whole building would have gone up like a bomb. Pretty clear this was arson. I’m now thinking that’s what happened to the Wayfarer, only we didn’t find the cloths because they burned up. I’ll send someone over to your building, see if we can find traces of whatever this substance is.”
Ten to one, they wouldn’t. Because if Lowestar was behind this, he was smart enough to cover his butt. There was no way they were going to find the firebug who set this mess. Or mine either.
But all I said was, “Call in a tech from the FH-CSI, Chase. That may not be of Earthside design.” I turned to the fire marshal. “So is it safe for us to go in and have a look around? I know it’s still hot, but no roof going to collapse, or anything like that?”
He sighed. “Johnson, you think we need their input now?”
“Yeah, I think so.” Chase gave him a dark look. “I don’t think we’re dealing with a simple arsonist. First, I’m convinced he’s serial. Second… trust my judgment on this.”
As the fire marshal shrugged and turned away, he said over his shoulder, “Fine. Go in at your own risk. Try to avoid the hot spots that are still smoking. Don’t make my men come rescue you.” Sounding tired, he walked away.
“He’s in a good mood.” I stared at his retreating back.
“He’s seen too many fires where somebody didn’t make it out alive, Menolly. He’s seen children burned to a crisp because their mothers were smoking in bed and fell asleep. He’s seen his men devoured by the flames when they went in to rescue someone who had sparked the fire by a home-based Z-fen lab. He’s seen houses go up like matchsticks thanks to the hoarders who refused to get help… too many deaths, too much destruction. Don’t blame him for being weary. He’s seen too much over the years. And I’ve been there, seen it all with him.”
I glanced up at the detective. His jaw was set, and his dark eyes were glimmering. A year ago, he’d been given the Nectar of Life in order to save his ass, and it had—but it had given him a thousand years to look forward to, and to fill. And it had sparked off the latent powers that we’d faintly sensed before. Turned out, he had elf in his background—far distant elf.
A thought struck me. “Are you worried about Tristan? The elf who started your bloodline?” Tristan lived in Elqaneve. No one had thought how this might affect Chase.
