Wind Warrior by Jon Messenger Page B

Wait here,” she said,
placing a hand gently on his chest.
    The room was empty, aside from the pair of
young lovers. A set of windows was cut into the far wall but
plywood had been placed over the glass ages ago. Only faint slivers
of light from the streetlamps outside filtered around the edges of
the wood and softly illuminated the room.
    Sammy walked to the center of the room
before stopping, her back facing him. Her shoulders rose and fell
as she took deep breaths. Xander looked around, wondering what all
this was about. He was so consumed with his curiosity that he
almost missed her gentle whisper.
    “ I’m sorry, Xander,” she
said in a barely audible voice. “I’m really sorry.”
    She spun on her heel and the room suddenly
illuminated with vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows. With a flick
of her wrist, a ball of flame leapt from her hand and flew across
the room.
    Her aim was slightly off and the ball struck
the wall just beside Xander, showering him and the room in a
blossom of sparks. He could smell the pungent aroma of sulfur mixed
with the toxic scent of melting wallpaper and plaster.
    Her hands were sheathed in flames and the
flickering colors were reflected in her smoldering eyes.
    Reflexively, Xander raised his hand and the
room was filled with swirling wind. The flames on her arms danced
wildly in the wind, alternating growing smaller against the breeze
before flaring even brighter as it burned away the oxygen in the
room.
    Sammy raised an arm defensively in front of
her face. The power swelled inside Xander, seeming to feed off his
fear and adrenaline. As the wind flowed through him, he felt it
pressurizing around her. He closed his hands into a sphere in front
of him as he squinted against the gale-force winds.
    As quickly as they had begun, the winds
died. The glow from the fires diminished as well as Xander realized
that Sammy was completely encased in an air bubble.
    She stared at him through the shimmering
bubble but it wasn’t with animosity like he had expected. Her
expression was deeply colored with sadness.
    “ What is going on?” Xander
yelled as he approached the bubble.
    “ I’m sorry, Xander,” she
cried. Tears rolled down her cheek. “I don’t have a
choice.”
    Pockets of flame began to ignite around her
arms again but she had to cough as smoke began filling the
bubble.
    “ I wouldn’t do that,” he
said, feeling horribly deflated. “If you don’t burn all the oxygen
out of the bubble, I’ll pull all the air out and let you
suffocate.”
    She looked at him again and bit back a
body-wracking sob. The flames on her arms were reabsorbed into her
skin, leaving them both in relative darkness.
    He wanted to rail against her but all he
could hear were her continued sobs. His mind fell time and time
again to the flames that had engulfed her, seemingly without
harm.
    “ Why?” he asked
quietly.
    She reached up and wiped away her tears with
the back of her hand. “I don’t have a choice. I’m a Fire Warrior. I
had to do this.”
    “ I don’t understand. What
is a Fire Warrior? Why did you have to attack me?” He felt his ire
growing. “You could have killed me!”
    “ I couldn’t,” she blurted
out in the darkness. “I was supposed to. I was supposed to bring
you here and kill you but I couldn’t. Please, you have to believe
me. I couldn’t do it!”
    Xander felt crestfallen, like he had been
stabbed in the chest. This woman who he had fallen for so
completely was his assassin.
    “ So this was all a lie. You
toyed with me just to get me here?”
    “ Yes. No,” she cried out in
the darkness and it took her a long moment to regain her composure.
“I was supposed to get close enough to you to get you here. That
was it. But we have a real connection. I know you feel it too and
it’s way more than just love at first sight.”
    “ Stop,” he
demanded.
    “ There’s something tangible
and unnatural between us. I know you can feel it!”
    “ Just stop!”
    He wanted her