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.
Shade reappeared then. “Iris is on her way. Bruce’s driver is bringing her. I didn’t want to leave the house unguarded, so Vanzir is still there.”
“Fall back! Fall back!” The firemen stumbled back out of the building, running to the sides.
They were still carrying the hoses, but in another moment, a rumble echoed into a freight train as there was an explosion by the entrance of the building. Flaming shrapnel—wood and debris—went flying as everyone dove for the nearest cover.
Where the doors had been, there now existed a large hole. Stepping through the soot-filled and burning maw of the club, came the Fyrun Fae. They paused as soon as they exited the Utopia, looking around the parking lot as if they were pinpointing their next target. It felt a lot like watching a pack of hyenas scanning the horizon for food-on-the-hoof.
Delilah scrambled over to my side, and Camille followed her. “What are they looking for? Do they eat people?”
“Probably after they roast us,” Camille grumbled.
Bran slowly stood from where he’d crouched behind a car and sauntered over to stand between us. He slipped his hands in his pockets and stared at the Fae.
“Eat people? No. No, they do not. Kill people? Yes. But what they’re looking for now is more food.”
“If they don’t eat people, what do they eat? Steak?” De-lilah’s gaze was fastened on the Fyrun Fae as if she could stop them via wishful thinking.
“Think about it.” Bran sounded a little exasperated. “If you were made of fire, what would you eat?”
“Oh crap. Wood. Trees. Grass… anything that burns.” I pushed past them and ran over to Chase. “We have to move anything combustible out of their way. Including all the cars. Gasoline? Fyrun Fae? Bad combination!”
Chase motioned for the other firemen to join us and we formed a semicircle around the Fyrun Fae. As we slowly backed away, we began to toss aside any debris that might be flammable. Three of the cops started to break into all the cars in the nearby area, hotwiring them and driving them to the other end of the parking lot. As we cleared the path in front of them, the fiery women spread out, their heads swiveling slowly as they searched for fuel.
I shouted at Bran. “Hey, Unicorn Boy, how long can they last without refilling their flames once they’re out of the portal and in our world?”
He didn’t even look my way. “Long enough to cause havoc. And when they finally get tired of our game here, you can bet they’re going to be speeding up and then we’ll see how long it takes them to break through our lines, considering they can firebomb us and crisp us to toast. How do you like that for an answer, Bloody Mary?”
The women glowed, like sunlight captured within the framework of a body. While we could see vague impressions of their faces, mostly they were encapsulated flame, living pillars of fire. They were so alien I knew we could never reason with them, and yet they were not Elementals. They were a Fae so far from our own natures that I couldn’t see how we could ever even hope to communicate.
I darted to the side, grabbing a pile of loose boards that had once been a signboard. I tossed them as far away as I could. We’d do it again, once we reached where they landed.
Camille was scrambling to rip out a bush that was in a narrow island of grass. There was nothing we could do about the lawn itself—or was there?
Shade motioned for Camille to move aside. He knelt down, examining the grass. With a single glance at Delilah and me, he lightly placed his hand on the blades and closed his eyes. A flare of lightning moved over him, then down his arm—the purple crackle of his magic working deep and dark as it spread through the ground. A moment later, the grass began to wilt and vanish in a whiff of dust. Within another moment, only barren dirt remained, and the bush had also vanished, so much ash in the wind.