Wind Warrior (19 page)

Sammy sighed and turned her attention back
to the road. In the distance, between the wavering heat lines
coming off the road, she could see a few small structures and some
cars parked along the interstate. Abraxas noticed them immediately
after she did and he turned sharply toward her.

“
What is this? Did you
betray me?”

“
It’s nothing,” Sammy
replied. “Just a highway patrol checkpoint. They’re normal when you
leave California.”

“
If you or they try
anything,” he said, leaving the threat hanging in the
air.

“
That won’t be necessary.
Just let me do the talking.”

She slowed the car to a decelerating coast
as they approached the checkpoint. California Highway Patrol
officers stood beside the road, asking questions of the drivers as
they passed out of the state.

When waved forward, Sammy drove up beside
the officer.

“
Good morning, ma’am, sir.
We just need to ask you a couple questions before you go on your
way.”

“
No problem, Officer,”
Sammy said with a confident smile.

“
Are you transporting any
fruit?”

“
No.”

“
Are you transporting any
live animals?”

“
Nope.”

The officer tilted his hat back as he looked
at the low-cut half-shirt that Sammy was wearing. “Where are you
heading?”

Sammy smiled but her gut twisted.
“East.”

She was relieved when the officer smiled,
thinking her answer was a joke.

“
Really, now? What are you
and your father heading East for?”

General Abraxas leaned across the seat and
smiled his sharpened teeth at the officer. “The end of times,
Officer.”

Sean pulled back the curtain and glanced
outside the window for the hundredth time that day. Nothing
obscured his view of the parking lot and the road beyond. Despite
the densely parked cars in the lot, he saw no sign of the
blonde-haired fire wielders who had attacked him and Jessica. The
strangers seemed to have gone as they came.

He let go of the curtain and let it fall
back into place. Though it seemed as though the Fire Warriors
hadn’t followed him to his apartment, Sean refused to let go of the
nervous breath he was holding.

After all the time that had passed since the
fire in the park near Xander’s house, no one had heard from his
best friend. On the few rare occasions in which Sean ventured out
from his apartment, he had asked some of Xander’s former classmates
if they had seen him, which none had. He hadn’t been to the school
nor returned to his parent’s home. His friend had, for all intents
and purposed, vanished.

Pushing himself off the couch, Sean walked
toward the kitchen. His refrigerator was running dangerously low on
food but there was always enough to make into a decent snack. He
knew the jokes Xander would make about eating as a nervous habit
but Sean felt justified in being nervous.

As he opened the refrigerator and started
pulling out lunchmeat, he heard a gentle knock on the door. He
froze, his hand unmoving around the plastic turkey container.

“
Go away,” he whispered
into the room.

He didn’t know who was at the door but he
honestly didn’t care. He doubted Xander would knock so gingerly and
no one else would be bringing him good news.

Sean slid the turkey package out of the
refrigerator as quietly as possible and softly closed the door.
Logically, he knew that the person on the other side of the door
couldn’t hear his refrigerator closing. Normal people couldn’t hear
that, he had to remind himself. His best friend could control the
wind. The people that were hunting him could throw fire from their
hands. There was no telling if super hearing was another of their
hidden super powers.

As he reached toward the stack of bread, the
same person knocked again at the door. Glancing around nervously,
his eyes fell on the bottle opener magnet hanging from the fridge.
Sean pulled it off the fridge and held it in front of him
defensively. He left the kitchen and walked toward the door.

When the person knocked for the third time,
it seemed far more insistent.

“
Who’s there?” Sean asked,
trying to force some mock confidence into his voice.

“
It’s Jessica.”

Sean visibly sagged with disappointment. He
almost wished it were one of the Fire Warriors.

“
What do you
want?”

“
Can you open the door?”
she said pleadingly. “Please?”

Sean sighed as he reached out and unlocked
the door. As he pulled the door open, he was surprised to see a
fairly disheveled Jessica standing before him. Loose tendrils from
her shoddy ponytail hung over her face. She didn’t seem to be
wearing any makeup, aside from the obvious lip gloss that caused
the unnatural shine on her lips. She wore a loose-fitting blouse
that was heavily wrinkled. Sean couldn’t remember ever seeing her
looking anything less than fully composed. Despite her obviously
harried expression, she still found the reserve to frown at her
nemesis.

“
Sean,” she
said.

“
Wicked Witch of the
West.”

She opened her mouth to offer a sharp retort
but quickly thought better of it.

“
What are you doing here?”
he asked.

“
I didn’t know where else
to go,” she admitted sheepishly.

“
You don’t have GPS on your
broom?”

Jessica smiled humorlessly. “Are you
done?”

“
Not by a long shot,” he
replied.

“
Go ahead. Get them all out
of your system.”

“
You figured the inside of
my apartment would keep you out of the life-ending rain? Your
flying monkeys ran out of likely candidates to kidnap? You do
realize I don’t even have a dog named Toto, right?”

“
Can I please come in now?”
Something in her voice caught Sean off guard and the humor seemed
to bleed out of the situation. He nodded and stepped out of the
way.

As she entered the apartment, he closed and
locked the door behind her.

She walked a few steps inside before turning
toward him. Glancing down, she noticed the bottle opener in his
hand.

“
What’s that
for?”

Sean looked down and seemed equally
surprised to see it still clutched in his hand. “I don’t know. I
figured I could stab someone with it if I had to.”

“
You got that from the
kitchen?” she asked. “Why didn’t you just get a knife?”

Sean was genuinely dumbfounded by the
question, especially since he didn’t have a logical answer. He
tossed the bottle opener onto the couch angrily.

“
Shut up. You still haven’t
even told me why you’re here.”

“
I told you, I didn’t know
where else to go. I’ve been totally freaked out ever since the
other night. I’ve barely slept. I’ve barely eaten.” Her voice
lowered to a soft whisper. “I think one of those blonde guys has
been following me.”

“
And you came here?” Sean
yelled before throwing a hand over his mouth to silence
himself.

“
You came here?” he said
again in a harsh whisper.

“
I told you. I didn’t know
where else to go. No one else would believe me if I told them some
guy set my car on fire using only his hands. You have no idea how
hard it was to explain what happened to my car to my dad. I had to
give him some totally crazy story about a drunk homeless
guy.”

Sean stormed past her before pausing in the
doorway to the kitchen. “Did you even stop to consider what would
happen if you really were being followed? You could have led them
right to me!”

“
Oh, yeah Sean. You’re
practically 007. Everyone’s trying to hunt…”

The words faded from her lips as someone
knocked on the door. The stern knock was the complete antithesis to
Jessica’s soft knocking from earlier.

Jessica started to whimper but Sean stepped
forward and clamped his hand down over her mouth.

“
Stay quiet,” he
whispered.

Sean slipped past her and eased his way to
the door. Leaning forward, he glanced out the peephole. The man on
the other side of the door was unmistakable. His close-cropped
blonde hair and dark leather tunic looked identical to the man that
tried to kill Sean at Xander’s house.

“
Is it?” Jessica asked,
leaving the end of question hanging.

Sean nodded as he inched his way back to
her. The Fire Warrior banged loudly again on the door.

“
Let’s just not answer,”
she offered. “He’ll go away eventually, right?”

“
He followed you here,
remember? If he wants in, he’ll just burn the door
down.”

“
Then what to do we
do?”

Sean stroked his hairless chin. “You’re
going to open the door.”

“
Oh no, I’m not!” she
replied sternly. Jessica placed her hands on her hips and flipped
the few hanging tendrils of her blonde hair out of her face. “If
you want the door open, you’ll have to be a big boy and do it
yourself.”

Sean frowned. “You’re going to open the door
so that I can attack him. Unless you want to attack him, that
is.”

Jessica quickly shook her head. “No, that’s
fine. I’ll get the door.”

Sean disappeared into the kitchen as Jessica
moved to the door.

“
Ready?” she
asked.

Sean leaned around the corner and nodded.
She held up three fingers and silently counted down. When she
dropped the last finger, she unlocked the door and threw it
open.

The Fire Warrior on the other side seemed
temporarily startled. He quickly overcame his surprise and stepped
into the room, chasing after the retreating Jessica.

She stumbled backward and fell into the
middle of the room. The tears already threatened to fall down her
face as she stared at the frightening warrior entering the
room.

The Fire Warrior smiled wickedly and
extended his hand. The tips of his fingers ignited as flames danced
over his hand.

“
Sean?” Jessica
sobbed.

“
Here I am,” he replied,
stepping through the kitchen door. He held up the large red
cylinder in his hands and pointed the nozzle at the confused Fire
Warrior.

“
Suck on this,
dude.”

Sean squeezed the handle to the fire
extinguisher and the far end of the room was consumed in white
powder. The cloud sprayed over the Fire Warrior, extinguishing the
flames on his hand, as he was covered from head to toe in white
foam. Sean held down the handle until the small extinguisher ran
dry and sputtered in his hand. As the cloud settled, the entire
room was coated in white foam, to include an undignified Jessica
who sat sputtering on the floor.

The Fire Warrior coughed loudly as he seemed
frozen in confusion. Sean paused, realizing that he hadn’t thought
through his plan beyond spraying the man with the extinguisher.
Despite him being coated in inflammable foam, Sean was still facing
a vastly physically superior man.

“
I really didn’t think this
through,” he muttered as the Fire Warrior reclaimed his wits and
stormed toward Sean.

Sean gulped and dropped the extinguisher, as
though releasing the weapon would alleviate him of the blame.

The warrior reached Sean in a few large
strides and grabbed him by his shirt. Despite Sean’s weight, the
Fire Warrior lifted him from his feet and pinned him against the
wall.

“
Can’t we talk about this?”
Sean said meekly.

The blonde warrior merely growled at him.
The Fire Warrior leaned in, his nose mere inches away from Sean’s
face. Sean could practically see the fire burning behind his dark
eyes.

A hollow thud suddenly echoed through the
room. The smoldering glare in the warrior’s eyes disappeared as his
eyes rolled up into his head. The Fire Warrior pitched to the side,
his arms going limp and releasing Sean in the process.

Jessica stood behind the warrior, clinging
to the extinguisher like a club. She looked nervously at the
unconscious Fire Warrior.

“
You think he’s going to be
okay?” she asked.

“
Who cares?” Sean replied,
laughing nervously.

Jessica dropped the extinguisher and smiled
weakly. Sean returned the smile before spreading his arms and
motioning her forward.

“
You did great,” he said as
they hugged one another in relief.