Forged of Fire (8 page)

“Vampires!” Kielyn pushed the tray off her lap so hard it crashed to the floor. Stefen merely crossed his legs to avoid putting his boot in egg. “I am not sure what sort of wacky weed you are smoking but I am…”

“Kielyn.” His one word stopped her. “Do you believe in God?” Her mind was still reeling but she tried to focus on the simple question.
Did she? And, why did that matter!
It should be an easy one to answer. It definitely fell within the folds of a normal conversation whereas, Vampires did not. If this were a normal conversation and she was not under some hypnotic spell that compelled her to process his words without running for the hills. “Let me ask you differently,” he sat forward. “Is it a preposterous idea to ask if you believe in Heaven and Hell, good and evil? Is that a ridiculous question?”

“No. A tad nosey but no, it’s not an unusual question. We are in the south after all.” She answered.

“So, to ask you about any religion where a man could walk on water, a single act could wipe out civilization with a forewarned flood, that the natural order of creation started with the universe and moved on to earth, sea, land then people, that we all were devised of one man and one woman, or that the Devil was once one of God’s most trusted Archangels…” Stefen looked deep into her eyes. “These would all be ideas that are considered ok to entertain? Because mortals have deemed them to be acceptable stories over the centuries?”

Kielyn absorbed the farfetched but widely accepted tales. When he laid them out, beliefs that intertwined multiple religions dating back to the beginning of time, they did sound just as preposterous as blood sucking creatures that could only live at night. Perhaps this is why she had never considered herself religious. Deep down, it all sounded like Halloween wrapped up in a book. Various literary works that held so much power, people had waged wars over them since the dawn of time. “You are wanting me to believe in Vampires when I am not even sure how I feel about God.” She shook her head, completely dumbfounded. “Pretending, for one second that I could believe all this, why would Vampires be looking for me?”

“You have a unique ability to bend, or manipulate to your will, two elements. Fire and water. In my world, Fire is an element that represents what you humans consider Hell whereas Heaven is governed by water.” Stefen said as calmly as Kielyn thought someone confessing he was not a human could possibly put it. “To have one of these traits is special but to have both…Let’s just say, there are many that will want to use you.”

“Do you want to use me?” Out of the myriad of questions running around in her head, this one suddenly seemed the most important.

“No.” Stefen stood and looked down at her. “I want those other element benders out there waiting on us to train you so you can stand up for yourself.”

“Are you a Vampire?” She asked, unsure if she wanted the answer.

“No dear, I am an Archangel.” He gave her a lopsided grin. “And, you’re the first being I have ever brought a tray of food to so do me a favor and get dressed. We have training to start and then later you will need to start reading that,” Stefen motioned with a nod of his head to her nightstand. Kieyln’s eyes followed his to a large leather bound book. “That is the alternative version to your traditional bible.” He said. “The one that talks about the creatures your human book chose to leave out.” With that he walked out and closed the door behind him.

****

Kielyn sat, staring at the intricately stamped lettering on the book for the better part of an hour.
Vampires, benders, and an Archangel
. What they were asking her to believe was insane. It was like she was in a dream that she would not wake up from. What was even more absurd, was the notion that she was one of these freaks.
Water and fire manipulator!
She scoffed. Sure, she was a good swimmer but that was a far cry from being able to bend it to her will. Hell, she had almost drown when she was seven. If they thought she could do magical things to liquid they were gravely mistaken. She would tell them the story of how she had gotten herself caught in an undertow in a river and nearly died. That would clear this whole debacle right up.

She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, noting the designer label “Gucci” running the length of her trendy grey sweatpants. Either they were all crazy or they had very low standards when it came to their recruits Kielyn mused as she reached for a matching hoodie folded neatly at the end of her bed.

A knock at the door made her look up with a start. “Er… Yes?” She answered.

The door creaked open and a man with a thick head of blonde hair peaked in. “Hello, I’m Kizer.” The good looking man said as he stepped into the room. “I was sent to get you.” He offered a smile.

“Just where are you supposed to take me?”

“We have a training facility,” he said. “We would like to demonstrate a bit of what we do and then see what you can do.”

“I can’t do anything,” Kielyn pushed to the edge of the bed. “I nearly got killed by water when I was a kid. Does that not tell you something?”

“What saved you?” He leaned back against the wall and folded his arms.

“Saved me?” Kielyn slipped into a pair of sneakers that looked to have been set out for her. “I guess I became untangled in the root system of the tree that was creating the undercurrent,” she shrugged, bending to tie the laces. “All I remember is gasping for air when I emerged on the other side,” she stood and wiggled her toes. The shoes fit perfectly, same as the clothing. “How did they know my size?”

“Skyler is a good judge of that sort of stuff.” Kizer held the door open as she walked past him. “So the tree had fallen in the river with its roots facing up stream with the current moving against it?”

“I guess. It was after a flood so it must have been swept into that position,” she followed him down a long hall. “I was foolish and swam too close.” She shuddered at the memory of realizing she was paralyzed in the rushing pull of volatile white water. She had fought it until her limbs had given out and the undertow had dragged her under. The roots had stabbed and slashed at her skin before wrapping her up in its underwater tomb. She had blacked out then, only to come to when her head broke the surface further downstream. “I got lucky.”

They made a turn and he opened a door that led into what seemed to be a large observation room. “Perhaps it was luck,” the blond man said. “Or perhaps it was self-preservation.”

“Kielyn,” the pretty woman from last night rushed forward. “Come, come.”

Kielyn recognized the older man, Walter, standing by a large glass window beside Stefen who looked over his shoulder and smiled. “Kielyn,” Stefen waved her over. “I want you to see what a bender can do.”

She walked beside Kizer and Skyler to the viewing glass. On the other side of the glass was a large room that was set up to look like a dark and seedy street at night. It looked like a connecting back ally off Bourbon Street in the Quarter. “Is this a stage?” She asked.

“Sort of,” Walter said. “It’s one of many training simulations,” he nodded towards the room. “Just watch.”

She turned her face to the glass just as the dark, mysterious man from last night appeared on the stage. He was bare footed, wearing lose fitted sweatpants and was shirtless. His back muscles rippled and lengthened under his tan skin with each step he took as he walked to the middle of the room. “I don’t see what…” A person holding a gun leapt down from the ceiling and fired two shots at him. The dark haired man with the blue eyes moved so quick that his image all but blurred. Kielyn’s heart hammered in her chest as the handsome one manifested on the other side of the room, an orange glow lifting from his palm. In one graceful move, the glow morphed into a blade of fire and severed the head from the dummy. Before she could ask what was going on, the opposite wall began to rotate, exposing hundreds of knives and throwing stars. The man squared his shoulders as the deadly weapons began to shoot out from the wall, one after another with blinding speed. He spun and dodged, twisted and turned out of the way of each would be assailant with the stealth of a cat. At last he jumped straight up and flipped backwards, clipping a devise with the heel of his foot that halted the throwing contraption on the wall.

Slowly he lowered his seemingly weightless body back to the floor and turned to face the glass. His piercing blue eyes danced with a confidence Kielyn had never seen in another human before. He tilted his head and smirked at them before raising a hand. Without warning flames hurtled from his fingers and raced towards where they were all standing in the observation deck. Kielyn threw herself backwards as the fire collided with the protective glass and climbed the wall like rabid attack dogs. “What the hell!” She stared as the angry, red hot embers on the window turned to black ash and fell away in the training room, leaving nothing but smoke in their place. The mysterious man from last night was gone.

Stefen leaned down and offered his hand. “It’s time Kielyn,” he pulled her to her feet. “Time to learn who you are.”

****

“My, my, she is a stunner, is she not?” Marsala said from behind Ash.

“It’s unfortunate.” Ash kept his eyes trained on the young bender behind the observation glass. He had been watching Bane and Kizer with her for the better part of three hours now. She was a quick study. After an initial meeting with all of them and a solid understanding of what they were there to do, the two Water-benders had wasted no time in starting their leg of her training. “You know that beauty gets us nowhere good.” Ash continued to study the balancing act Kielyn was currently trying to master by holding a single drop of water suspended in air. If her mind shifted too much from right to left, emotion to logic, the drop rolled to the most dominant side. Just like with fire, that delicate balance of one’s inner thoughts could mean the difference in life and death. “Beauty only gets you noticed and in our world, that’s never a good thing. She will be only that much more of a prize. Just as I was for Dante. A beautiful trophy.” The words were void of emotion. “Or so he intended.”

Marsala’s reflection joined him in the glass. “I dare say you sound unusually chipper today,” she teased. “Must be the thought of the kingdom they wish to bestow on you.”

“Feel free to steal it from me. I promise I won’t put up much of a fight.” He grinned, unable as usual to resist her carefree spirit. If not for Marsala, Ash would have probably ended up in a cave stewing for the last thousand years.

Marsala laughed. “Yea right. You forget how long I have known you. You have never backed down from a challenge. Or a fight.” Her eyes fixed on the fiery headed bender. “She is good.”

“She is quick. And smart. But lacks discipline. I am not sure that at her age she will master the necessary mindset in time. Not to mention, she has been safe in the mortal world. Until last night that is.” He glanced over at Marsala. “Obviously that was the first fear she has ever felt that was actually strong enough to trigger her natural self-defense mechanisms. And what did she do with it?” He put both hands on the railing in front of him and looked down at the fragile bender. “She had zero control.”

“As you said, she has never been trained and tested. You will teach her. I have full faith.” Marsala said.

“If she does not kill me.” He chuckled. “She is as wild as a baby pit viper. So much venom and not enough self-discipline to control injecting it all at once.”

“I think she is beautiful. Not just physically but spiritually. Such an interesting aura she possesses.”

Ash turned to face Marsala. He had never been gifted with the ability to see auras. He often teased Marsala that it was just hippy dippy air bending hocus pocus. For some unknown reason he felt the need to indulge her. “Oh yea? What’s hers?”

“Clear red and soft blue are the strongest ones but there is also a gorgeous gold.”

“Clear red?” Ash lifted a skeptical brow. “Like watered down blood?” He chuckled. “Would that not be pink?”

Marsala slapped his arm playfully. “Geeze, not letting you near Crayola marketing. Here kids,” She mocked. “Your new color, watered down blood.”

“I would color with it.” He shrugged.

“No.” She went on. “Clear means that the essence is pure. Red is passion. To combine those means it is not angry or lustful but pure. The strongest kind. Blue is calm and the gold is the rarest, it’s the color of enlightenment and divine protection. When seen in an aura it shows that the person is guided by their highest good.”