Despite the smoke swirling in the air, he breathed deeply, filling his mighty lungs to full capacity. Then, at the top of his voice, he sang.
It was not his finest work. The circumstances were hardly conducive to the reflective, calm state of mind required for truly great poetry. But what it lacked in finesse, it made up for in passion, and in desperation. And, of course, in volume.
And, in volume, the rain answered.
It fell like a hammer blow, shocking and brutal. Every cloud in the sky gladly came at his call, pouring out their hearts in the name of the Empress. The blazing house spat and fought against the downpour. Flame ran in rivers as still-burning oil was washed away.
Water slicked his scaled hide, soothing the pain of his burns. But more importantly than that, it ran over everything. Nothing could hide from it.
Here! sang the rain as it found his attackers, each individual raindrop a tiny, triumphant note as it struck their flesh. Here! Here! Here!
Now he knew where they were. There were ten of them, though two were already crumpled and dead. The eight remaining were spread out around him. They’d evidently been closing in, but the unexpected assault of the rain had shattered their formation.
John took advantage of their momentary distraction to shift back to human form. He caught Neridia in one hand, drawing his sword with the other. “Can you run?” he shouted over the din of the downpour.
“I twisted my ankle.” She clung to his side, struggling to stay upright on her injured foot. “What’s happening? Who are they?”
He very much wanted to know the answer to that question himself. With the rain’s assistance, John located the nearest one—a man crouching behind Neridia’s vehicle, separated from the main group.
John squeezed Neridia’s hand, silently sending her a mental image of his plan down their mate bond. She nodded in understanding. She moved behind him, holding onto the straps of his scabbard for support. Together, as quickly and silently as they could, they circled the vehicle, relying on the torrential rain to hide their movements.
As he crept up behind the lurking man, John saw that he had one hand outstretched. Liquid fuel gathered in a floating ball over the man’s palm, running out of the open cap of the car’s tank.
A hiss of disbelief escaped John’s throat. Only one group had the power to manipulate oil in that way…and they were meant to be dead.
The Brotherhood of Extinction!
They were an outlawed cult of plesiosaur shifters, who mourned their long-extinct kin and were filled with hatred for the humans that had inherited the world. They had an affinity for fossil fuels, thanks to their own prehistoric nature, and could manipulate oil the same way he himself could manipulate water. They were assassins and arsonists, happy to whore their skills out to the highest bidder…especially if it gave them the chance to spread destruction and chaos on land.
The Sea Council had finally authorized the Order of the First Water to exterminate them several years ago, on the advice of the Knight-Commander. John had gladly assisted in wiping the ocean clean of the honorless pond scum.
Evidently the Order of the First Water had missed some.
The plesiosaur shifter whipped round, eyes widening as he caught sight of them. He ignited the oil and flung it, but John dodged, spinning Neridia safely out of the way. Before the assassin could launch another fireball, John was on him. His blade passed through the plesiosaur shifter’s neck with barely a hint of resistance.
Neridia cried out as the body dropped, blood mingling with the mud. But there was no time to comfort her—they’d attracted attention. Six jets of fire lit up the rain, homing in on their position. John pulled Neridia down, covering her with his own body as the fireballs hit the car. Heat washed over his back as the vehicle ignited.
The remaining seven assassins were closing in fast, moving through the rain as smoothly as sharks. Tugging Neridia up again, John desperately tried to keep his armored form between her and the circling assassins, every sense alert for the next attack.
The odds were very bad. The Brotherhood of Extinction were vicious beasts who fought without honor, stopping to any low trick to ensure victory. Even without Neridia to protect, he would have been hard-pressed to take down this many of them sing
le-handed. Hampered by the need to shield her, he was badly outmatched.
*My brothers, assist me!* he called out reflexively in his mind. But his fellow firefighters were too far away to reach telepathically. And even if they had been closer…they thought he had returned to the sea. They would not be listening for his call.
He could not seek refuge in the lake; with Neridia still unable to shift, they would be even more at a disadvantage there. He would be constrained to stay on the surface while the assassins would be free to harry him in their agile plesiosaur forms.
I must rush them, he decided grimly. Force them all to focus their fire on me, and endure long enough to slay them all.
Neridia’s fingers dug into his arm as she sensed his intention down the mate bond. “John, no!”
He pushed her forcefully away, toward the ditch that ran alongside the road. “Hide! Find what cover you can!”
He spun on his heel, sword poised and ready. At his command, the rain lifted around him. The fierce light from the blazing car backlit his form, highlighting every edge of his pale armor. He was as exposed as a pearl in an opened oyster.
“Primitive throwbacks!” He hurled the taunt into the night, contempt and derision clear in every note. “I shall send you to join your pathetic kin in the oblivion of extinction!”
As he had hoped, his insults maddened the Brotherhood. Hissing in outrage, they closed in on him, flinging blazing balls of crude oil.