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As we stood there, staring at them, they moved toward us. Then one raised her hand, and a ball of fire lit up the air as she sent the orb heading in our direction.
“Holy fuck!” Camille yelled as she dove to the right. De-lilah dropped to the floor. I wasn’t sure what Bran and Shade were up to because, before I realized what I was doing, I raced forward toward the woman, and the next thing I knew, I had knocked her to the ground, trying to get hold of her.
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.
Fuck. I’d hoped maybe we could put out their flames. I turned to Camille and Delilah, who were watching the progression of our opponents.
“What the hell now?” Delilah shook her head. “Can you call Smoky?”
“I can send out a sense of distress but it would take too long. No, we need Iris, and we need her now. She’s the only one who can work ice magic besides Smoky. And I think ice magic is the only thing that will counter flame.” Camille grimaced, but the look she gave me told me she, too, knew it was our only option.
“Can she do this? So soon after having her babies?” Delilah sounded like she was choking on a hairball.
“She’ll have to. Because if those things get loose in the street, do you have any clue of what damage they could do?” I turned to Shade. “You can’t bring her via the Ionyc Seas, can you? Not with her nursing and being alive?”
Shade could easily carry the dead—including the undead like me—through the Ionyc Seas. They were vast currents of energy, oceans that connected all planes. But because he was from the Netherworld, he wasn’t easily able to safely ferry the living. They usually ended up sick.
“No, I can’t. And neither can Vanzir. But I’ll have him get her here ASAP.” And with that, the half–shadow dragon vanished.
Meanwhile, we had to somehow corral these creatures until she could get here. They’d be out of the building in minutes. I turned to the others, feeling unusually helpless. At that point, Bran sauntered forward.
“I know what they are,” he said, leaning against the nearest car. “I also know that without a sorcerer or witch who can work ice magic, you’re sunk.”
I wanted to smack him and ask him why he hadn’t spoken up earlier, but then again, we’d all been beating a retreat. “What are they?”
“Fyrun Fae. The Fiery Ones. They usually stick to warmer climes, near volcanoes mostly, but they also can enter through bonfires, house fires, or…” He motioned to the Utopia. “Through fires like that one. And ten to one, they were summoned via rune work planted on the walls before the arsonist torched the building. Probably an added little bonus in terms of causing confusion. Fire bugs tend to be more than a little anarchistic.”
It was one of the longest speeches I’d heard out of him, and even with that smirk on his face, the concern was evident in his eyes. He knew we were dealing with someone dangerous, and perhaps over the edge toward the loony bin.
“Daemons. Can daemons summon Fyrun Fae?”
He nodded. “Some can.”
“Ten to one they were in the Wayfarer, too.” I wondered just how we could find out if I was right, but then pushed the thought aside. Right now we needed to take care of our present unwelcome guests before I went hunting through the ruins of my bar.
