Burned

Chapter One

     Anger filled my body. Every inch from top to bottom. It was all consuming and only propelled my body further as I raced after Valin and Ryan who were already a good distance from me. I’d spent too much time with her. With Clarity.

     “Dammit,” I spat, thrusting my arms back to gain more speed. I kind of wished that I was able to use my fire to propel my body forward but my powers didn’t work like that, unfortunately.

     I rounded a sharp corner of the Earthen Queen’s palace and shot into the outside world, my body rocketing into the air a few hundred feet and spotted Valin closing in on Ryan not too far from the place.

     My body twisted of its own accord, angling itself to shoot closer to my goal. My feet connected with the thick shingles of a roof top and I leapt from building to building, never faltering.

     “Not this time,” I growled lowly.

     The vast expanse of the Earthen land spilled before me, stretching for miles with tightly compacted mud houses and shops. The blue sky was lit with the lack of sun. None of the fey lands had a sun. All save the Spiriten Lands were lands of eternal day. But there was something very off with the town.

      Normally, the streets were jammed back with large, bulky bodies all moving through but there was not a soul in sight. I guessed that even the lack-of-insight Earthen people were able to tell when something bad had happened.

      They’d lost their Queen and I couldn’t even think about hanging around here after they realized that. They were known for being calm and it was a very well known fact that the calmest people were always the scariest when angered.

     Valin had cornered Ryan in a dead-end alley way a house or teo from my position but I could still see the vampire’s dark brown eyes searchingfor a route of escape—and his only escape was up. Lucky me.

     Ryan crouched to the ground, poised to attack but I knew better—and so did Valin—as he thrust up and put himself on the roof top. His dark hair was disheveled and he was paler than normal. Judging from the pretty serious wound in his chest, it looked like he’d lost a lot of blood. It looked like Valin got the lucky first shot.

     “You alright?” I asked, my hand clapping on his shoulder. “Or do you need a hand?”

     I thrust my narrowed hand into his side, gripping his ribs and ripping them up. Ryan let out a howl of pain and I glared viciously, smiling at the cracking of his bones. None of his injuries would be enough to kill him—but he sure wouldn’t be moving any time soon.

     My hand jerked out sharply, blood splashing over the shingles and spilling down the roof in a small waterfall. I tightened my hand and punched him as hard as I could, satisfied with the cracking of his jaw as he hit the rooftop.

     “You used her as shield, you coward,” I growled, gripping his hair and dragging him on his feet once more. “You could’ve taken a hit like that just fine. Did your master tell you to do that?”

     “She isn’t my master,” he spat, spitting blood onto my face. “I thought it would be funny if you killed her.”

     I didn’t need a mirror to know that my crimson eyes were glacial at that moment. I didn’t need any sort of reflective surface because I could tell the immediate change of the vampire as he tried to scramble away.

     Pathetic, I thought, disgusted.

     My free hand gripped his throat and I dragged him closer. His instincts kicked in and I smiled mercilessly. He’d be easy now. Vampires who lost their senses were always easily killed. It was the reason the hunters would wear them down and drain them out. They were like animals then.