The formerly on fire female completely ignored a subservient Agent Brand. She strode around me, where I knelt, exhausted and annoyed upon the earth floor.

“You wanted the comfort of the cold earth. Its embrace of clarity that helped you stay calm. And I wanted you to fly away and set the world ablaze. And here we are.”

“Now isn’t the time,” I said.

“There is only now,” she responded while stepping slowly. “Especially with your kind.” Despite being on the soft earth of a tropical island, she still managed to click her heels.

“I didn’t call you here to argue.” I couldn’t even figure out what sort of fight we’d been having. Giving into the thought would send my mind careening into the past again, to a conversation at least a decade ago.

“No. Of course not. You called me, as you always do, for a woman. Another woman. Yet another woman.” Boss Wylde sighed theatrically and rolled her eyes. “In this now. When I can finally be me and talk to you. It’s not about us.”

I bit the inside of my lip hard. Among all the memories I couldn’t afford to focus on, there was a simple realization. Boss Wylde liked to be in charge. She assumed she knew best.

Arguing with her felt like talking to a brick wall. I couldn’t figure out how to convince the two of them to talk without a long-winded line of babbling, which would put me far over my quota for a lifetime of sharing.

I decided to put the effort onto Brand. “Here’s the best source of all knowledge about fire. Ask her about your youth thing.”

“She—” Agent Brand started with some nonsense excuse I didn’t want to hear.

“Start by standing up. She’s not a god. Bowing to her power is what she expects of kindling.”

That specific line came from a fantastic memory of Lacey explaining under no uncertain terms that I should be pulling her hair and taking what I wanted. It’s what she did. It’s what I did. It went into one of the mental boxes with a sigh.

Boss Wylde raised a thin eyebrow at me and smirked. She bent down and placed hands on both sides of Agent Brand’s face and puffed her cheeks like a little girl.

“Isn’t she though? Kindling?” Boss Wylde shoved her to one side and walked a circle. “And you’re hardly one to talk about standing up. You quit. Though there was hope when you laid one into Roy’s face.” She fanned herself briefly. “God that was hot.”

“Kindling?” Brand asked.

I wondered if she’d be so strangely demure with Muni. This might be a weird relationship between fire bird, fire elemental, and memory messing bird. Did birds of different feathers flock apart?

This wasn’t getting me closer to fighting a giant sea serpent. I mean, only one day had passed since being let out onto the wild side of the island, but we weren’t moving fast enough.

“Boss?” Leo said.

“Runt?” she said with a head bob and pure disrespect.

Right, there were three others here. Stacy was outright confused. Deborah still looked ready to punch people. I suspected she’d eventually try but punching an elemental would be as easy as fighting a White Woman.

And I had no clue if Leo had known Lacey could travel through fire. Probably not. Still, my involvement would only keep Lacey’s focus on everything but answering Brand’s questions. I decided on the wisest option available to me.

“I’m going to take a nap. If anyone wakes me, I may kill them.”

“Even me?” Lacey asked. I felt happy she didn’t push some lame offer to sleep with me or bring up the fact that we’d shared a bed in the past. Lacey loved to argue, not flirt.

“Yes,” I answered.

Leo and Stacy did most of the talking. Agent Brand took short gasps and kept darting her eyes around. I could feel hot breath spilling into the air. Lacey glared at my back as I found a spot to lie down.

They hadn’t sorted out whatever they needed to. I suspected that me being in the middle of the conversation wouldn’t help, but Brand still showed no signs of moving.

“If you’re brave enough to attack me, you’re brave enough to talk to Lacey! She doesn’t bite.” Though I equated bravery with foolishness.

Lacey smiled. Her lips puffed out creating a distinct pattern in the air. I drowned the thought out and rubbed dirt on the ground.

“You attacked him?” Deborah whispered. Her body was still taunt but Stacy pressed against her showed signs of being effective. I wished my other senses would mind their own business.

“You attacked Jay?” Lacey said at the same time. She turned to the still kneeling woman with a raised eyebrow.

They were talking. Hoping for more would be unreasonable. I closed my eyes and struggled to get my senses back inside a box. They were spread out all across the island. Nothing specific, they followed the tactile feedback as people traveled about on their routines. A boat cut across the water, slowly, hardly creating a wake. It carried food and new prisoners from the mainland.

A dozen washing machines cleaned clothes. Steam escaped through pipes back at the prison.

I needed to relax and let go. The last few months had been hell. Solitary confinement had been safe enough but there were so many damn people. Their footsteps grated on my nerves. Messed up memories and all were even worse.

It felt like I could finally relax. My mind had mostly sorted itself. All the smaller enemies were defeated. The people around me were safe enough. Leo wouldn’t attack me. Stacy had proven herself to at least be willing to cooperate. Lacey wouldn’t kill me. Brand might get violent but she’d behave.

Then my mind wandered to less wholesome thoughts. Ones triggering hundreds of memories of the past and left me longing for the safety of home and the comfort of a woman. That, too, jumbled. My breathing slowed as the world faded away into darkness.

Sleep, joyous undisturbed sleep. I dreamt of nothing. My thoughts, distant and unfocused, stayed that way until I felt nails sliding over my stomach.

They were warm beyond belief. Hot, like coals fresh from a fire. I enjoyed the heat like another person might value a hot stone massage. But at the same time, I didn’t want anything to do with Lacey’s amorous advances while out in the woods of a jail cell island.

“I told you not to wake me,” I said while fighting back a snarl.

The hands teased an annoying trail across my stomach. My abs clenched and brain tilted sideways. She wore nothing, or close enough to nothing that it was apparent on my bare back. I’d been in jail, reliving memories with startling realism and no release.

“Wake up? You’re already up,” she whispered. Her presence had its intended effect.

“I need sleep,” I groaned.

Lacey whispered in my ear, “Not even for sex?”

She had aggression. Lacey didn’t tease or flirt when she could take what she wanted. The fact that she hadn’t ventured the last few inches to grasp her goal set off alarm bells. If getting laid had been her goal, my pants would have been off.

“Do you know how hard it is to find a man who can take the heat?” she practically purred in my ear.

Then Lacey laughed and I felt warm. My eyes opened, and red flames danced in front of them. Her body scattered into flames that lit up the grass I’d been lying on.

I sighed, and slowed my breathing. It took a moment to put together what had happened. She’d been there, sure, but the moment I moved she reverted to flame.

“Princess!” Stacy shouted.

Water splashed me in the face. Air sizzled and there were pops from around me. Teeth nipped at my ear as the fire died out.

“Did I kill her?”

“No,” I answered.

“How do you know?” Stacy asked. “I mean, not that I wanted to kill her. A bit of an arrogant bitch for my tastes, but that dress was nice.”

I wondered briefly if Stacy had been this open with her admiration of the female form prior to going to a jail island. Julianne might have appreciated it. Maybe Stacy would have an absolute party at Bottom Pit, where the waitresses wore very little.

Never mind, that introduction would be for another time. I answered her question based on what little knowledge I could string together. “Elementals are forever. As long as there’s a flame in the world, she’ll survive.”

That included lava, fires spurting in deep dark caves, or people’s fireplaces. There were so many people in the world that Lacey would be impossible to get rid of. At least that’s what I was told.

Daniel once spouted long winded scientific words at me. I tuned him out. Lacey would be unkillable unless I tried really hard to grab her like I had with the killer White Lady creature. Despite the knowledge that they were hard to kill, we’d never found any other elementals besides Lacey.

There I lay, wet, naked, and annoyingly aroused. Worse, on an island filled with murderers, rapists, and monsters. Life conspired to make awkward situations even worse.

“I need pants,” I mumbled. The sky above had darkened and a fat moon hovered slightly out of reach.

“Well at least we know what your old lady saw in you,” Stacy said. “Not my type, but no reason to be shy.”

Fabric hit me in the face. I flinched, and grasped the object, realizing someone had thrown me another set of pants. I reached out to feel for the others and found most were half a mile away. Brand walked along with two people who moved in the same swaying motion.

“Fire’s out?” I asked calmly.

“Well. It sputtered. There’s some ash, but yeah I think it’s gone. Again,” Stacy offered.

“I’m surprised you’re taking this in your stride.” Stacy simply rolled with all this nonsense. She’d been so aggressive when we first met, then angry, combative. Now she was like, ‘Sure, we’re on an island, but there’s some fine eye candy around here. Never mind that one of them turns into a flying bird the size of a dinosaur.’

She didn’t actually answer or provide a reason.

“What was that? We watched as the fire crawled over to you. I thought the Boss was going to come out again, but she didn’t,” Leo said. “But if fire could molest a sleeping guy…”

“It was revenge.” I picked at the crumbled remains of my sweatpants and shook my head. She’d have a hard time burning me with anything short of a lava flow. My clothes were nowhere near as durable. “Let that be a lesson, Leo, never tease a woman if you won’t deliver.”

“What?” he warbled.

Stacy snorted.

“And even if you’re in an open relationship”—I made air quotes—“you’re not.”

This time Stacy outright laughed. I groaned, and fumbled to put on the replacement pants Leo provided.

Branches snapped as people got closer. I took note of the size and shape of those moving through the woods. Two of them softly complained to each other while the third broke through the brush to our camp.

I stood slowly and dusted off ashes left over from Lacey’s entertainment. At the small clearing’s edge stood Agent Brand, still in a plain shirt. On either side of her stood the two cat, wolf, shifter whatevers, Don and Dee.

“You guys ready to go?” Brand asked while looking at the mess around my feet.

Deborah stepped in from the other direction. Stacy walked over slowly and sat down. I vaguely remembered how Tal had another wolf who followed him around for a time, a white furred man who’d been a fighter. Maybe they had some sort of racial bond going on.

“We’re ready.” Stacy didn’t look ready. She frowned slightly and shuffled her feet where she sat.

Deborah shook her head and crossed her arms. “You sure about this plan? There are many flaws in it. A battle leader should have better ideas on overcoming their enemy.”

The twins in suits also shuffled. They were far less controlled in their motions. In unison they shifted their gaze toward the ocean’s edge. They sniffed and swayed in a clearly feline way. At least, it was to me. In the same way wolves would twitch their scalps like canines.

“This plan is terrible,” Don said.

“The word should be horrific,” Dee responded. They shared a glance and nodded.

“Or idiotic?”

“Indeed,” Dee confirmed with a wide shrug. “Both and more. Killing a god?”

“It’s not a god,” I mumbled. These pants were tighter than the last pair. It probably wouldn’t matter. Sometime today I’d be in my other form battling for my life. However, right now, missing pants bothered me.

“Have you seen it? It’s very awe inspiring,” Don mentioned.

“Indeed. And hard to kill. Those make a god, right?”

“Well, and money.”

“We’ve had this discussion. Power matters more.” She clapped her hands together as if chiding a younger sibling. “That’s how you make a god. Mix awe, difficulty to kill, and power,” Dee corrected her twin.

“Money would help,” Don said.

“But not as much as power.”

Brand rubbed her face slowly with both hands. I glared at her, then shook my head in dismissal. At least we’d made progress and I felt vaguely rested.

I assumed events were headed in the right direction anyway. Lacey had gone. Brand acted like she, or the twins, were going to escort my small group of people back to the island’s “safer” side. Their talk must have gone well.

As to their critiques of my plan, I had no desire to rehash old nonsense. I’d done enough of that in these last few months to last a lifetime.

I tuned them out and stomped off for the tower. It would take time for them to get back to the safer side. Though if that creature and I thrashed about, the entire island would be at risk. Assuming I could even get the stupid thing to fight on land.

This plan was half baked. My life hadn’t amounted to much better. I wondered, while walking, if Father Thomas had been right. Maybe the world would be better off without creatures beyond the pale. Would this island exist without that large monster off the coast?

Maybe in another form. There were two other jails in the world for those performing race based crimes. They couldn’t also be based on sacrificing people to evil unkillable monsters of the deep. Right?

I mused and did my best to ignore the events going on all over the island. For example, I certainly didn’t pay attention to the people fighting out near the altar. My waking pile of potential sacrifices were upset, yelling, tearing at each other, and being stupid.

Stacy and Deborah headed off with Don and Dee. I certainly didn’t notice how well formed the females were. Lacey’s teasing had put me on edge and part of me wanted to bang holes into the trees simply to release some tension.

But since I thought of completely normal things like baseball and television shows, everything stayed peaceful until we reached the tower’s base. A giant white pillar jutting out of the forest with a control room at the top annoyed me too.

I studied the base and wondered how easily the entire building could be toppled. It was maybe forty or fifty feet around. Enough for a spiral staircase to be inside, assuming we could get past the reinforced door with signs of being clawed at by wolves. There were gouges that normal fingers couldn’t have made. The hinges were bent and twisted, perhaps from attempts to pull them off. Despite all the damage, the door remained firmly rooted.

What confused me was I couldn’t feel the inside of the building. It reminded me of a solid basin, filled to the brim with concrete.

“Come on,” Agent Brand said. She pointed up the tower’s side.

“What?”

“The first floor is all anchoring, along with two floors below it. If we want up to the control room, we’ve got to climb to a trick panel.” She pointed again. It made less sense the second time. “You’re not scared of heights are you?”

I snorted and followed after Brand, who was already pulling herself up using handholds I could feel but not really see. They were painted in such a way that they didn’t stand out.

We scaled to the second, then third floors and wind blew as we pierced the immediate tree line. My eyes drifted up, only once, to find she still hadn’t put much on in the way of clothes. The large loose flapping shirt left nothing to the imagination.

Images translated from tactile feelings repeatedly showed me females, felons, and final enemies. I worked to explore the larger creature’s body for weak points while keeping an eye out for handholds on the tower. Splitting my senses between those two tasks helped me stop acting lecherous to all the women. Something about determined and well-formed females kept dragging my mind back.

Climbing was easier than it looked. They were fairly solid spots to latch onto that showed signs of barely being used. The grooves for our fingers were undamaged and smaller. They were clearly from human-sized hands, not wolves or feral vampires.

Brand got to a small ledge, shuffled along it without pause, and put her fingers to a small keypad. The position looked, and felt, awkward. I could have memorized the numbers but decided it wouldn’t matter. A panel maybe two feet wide slid up and Brand dodged into the safety of the tower’s insides.

I stuffed myself into the gap with a grunt.

“Well. That was the first part. The layout states there’s a second door upstairs with another code. Luckily I memorized them.”

Agent Brand knew a disturbing amount about this island. I wondered how long she’d studied it, or maybe she and Daniel were closer than I’d thought in ability. Maybe she knew him. I pursed my lips and pretended the idea hadn’t crossed my mind. Being suspicious now would be utterly useless. What could I do, throw her off a cliff and watch her turn into a bird and fly away?

I’d have to chomp her in two. Despite our first meeting being in an alley I had lost my hostility toward the younger girl. Or older. It’d be easier to think of her as an elf, where physical appearance meant nothing to actual age and experience.

We walked up a round stairwell. There were no signs of food or other stores. I expected a bed but saw nothing. There were posters hanging on the walls and board games. A dozen books worn along their spines sat in one corner.

Layers of dust covered everything. No one had been here in years. Brand sniffed and walked slower through the tower. Her toes wiggled to shake off dirt.

At the top was a normal sized door. The keypad next to it had an old dial that Brand slid back and forth then pressed a button at the top. A dull green light popped on and once again I was struck by the sheer age of this place.

Inside the top floor were more materials that might have been high tech fifty years ago, but were now archaic. The room had two dozen devices, tons of camera parts, video feeds going into old monitors, and a single window about a foot wide facing west.

We stood there and stared. I’d expected another albino sort of vampire who spoke in distracted tones.

“There should be a Warden here,” Brand said.

I saw a pile of ash near the foiled up window. Clothes piled around the remains. It didn’t take a genius to figure out where Bennett’s “brother” had ended up. He’d died. It couldn’t be suicide. There were no signs of other creatures venturing this far into the tower.

How then, did they know to set up the alarm? I ignored the pile and followed wires around the room. It looked like there was a simple motion detector of some sort that blipped softly every time the large monster in the ocean wiggled.

Brand huffed and shook her head. “You know, they tell us during orientation that we’re expected to give everything for the peace. They just don’t tell you that the everything is literal. Bennett and his brothers are, were, over three hundred years old. Can you imagine that? Being a slave to other people’s happiness for that long?”

Brand walked over the machinery and flipped switches. One of the screens dimmed while two others came to life. There were signs of radar being used. I shook my head. This device did nothing useful for me.

“It must have worn on him. Sitting up here in a tower, day after day, watching a giant monster eat person after person. And all he could do was press the alarm button.”

“What else could he do?” I asked. “Leave? Vampires don’t change their habits easily. I doubt he noticed after the first fifty years.”

Brand shot me a disapproving look. I shrugged it off by fingering a streak of dust. It almost bothered me to think this could be a man’s remains. Maybe Bennett’s brother had noticed and it simply took centuries to wear on him. The question still stood, what else could he have done?

Luring the giant monster to another country might have bought time by making it someone else’s problem. Letting it venture into the deeper oceans would have meant leaving a beast capable of rolling over any coastal city alive and unchecked. Killing it proved too difficult.

I nodded to myself. “All right. Then we do this. Watch for the beast.”

“We’ve still got to get it grounded, if we can. Even if we see it rising, even if I get myself dosed beyond sanity, and let it devour me, then I die over and over—”

“Giving it the worst case of stomach indigestion ever. And hopefully turning its insides into cinders while I drag it out of the water and gut it.”

“I saw the size differences. The thing weighs more than you do by a mile.”

Our only option while waiting was to discuss strategy. Brand really wasn’t my type, at all, so other options were out. Plus, she had grandchildren. That struck me as weird. Being part bird also confused me.

“You zoning out again?” she asked.

“If Lacey’s feeling in the mood she can help me get enough power to be on equal footing. I think. We’ve never tried it.”

“Then how do you know?”

I wrinkled my forehead. Knowing something was possible, and understanding how the knowledge had come to me were two different tasks. It was the same feeling as correcting Roy and Tal on their stances. These imprinted memories held too many secrets.

Like, how the hell had they survived that other space with the chime noise?

“I know the Ryuujin could take thirty minutes or days to surface for the next quelling, but I’m cranky and hungry. So answer the question.”

“I doubt it’ll be that long,” I responded to stall for time.

“Regale me,” she said. It reminded me of the gruff police officer I’d first seen upon waking up. I pictured Brand with a heavy cigarette smoking up a storm. In only a shirt. After sex.

The mental imagery didn’t get better. She flicked a hand and flame came forth briefly, then sputtered out. The ability caused part of her hair to twist with red feathers dripping flames. Muni’s powers might operate the same way.

Was her ability hereditary? Is that why Muni wanted her brother so badly? There were too many loose ends on that front so I brought myself back to the shorter woman’s question.

“I just know. The same way you know how to fly. The same way we change into those other forms.”

“So it’s part of your race. I can see how your nephew Leo got so upset. That’s a lot for one person. Transforming, durability. That weird thing where you know more about others than you should. Now you’re saying you can channel a fire elemental?”

“I haven’t said that.”

“I may look like I’m a dumb ten-year-old.” She looked like a late teen. With a heated face and angry pouting stomp. “But I can put together two and two. Your other form has something to do with heat. Remember? You tried to burn me, before.”

I had. How she got from there to using Lacey was beyond me. The entire logic leap felt farfetched.

“You have fire. You know a fire elemental. She is—intense.” Agent Brand glared at the ceiling for a moment and seemed to be carefully picking her next few words. “And very friendly toward you?”

I chuckled.

“And if you can call her from fire, she could probably power you up, right? I thought about asking her to do it for me, but the side effect may be me losing even more years in one go.”

That made sense. I didn’t know for sure what would happen if I used Lacey’s power. It might make it easier for me to change. I’d certainly have more command of the element of flame, perhaps even being able to pull it up from the earth’s depths.

The repercussions, once I let go, would be more powerful than normal. I resolved to at least fly to someplace safe before letting go. Assuming Lacey wouldn’t simply set my clothes on fire and say no.

She should understand the desire to fight. She loved battle, the conflict, watching two people tear at each other like giants from a lost age. That’s why Lacey agreed to watch over Bottom Pit during my absence.

“I’ll be risking my life. And passing this curse on to someone else. You owe me if we’re going to do this together. Tell me what to expect.”

I rubbed my head slowly and sorted through a dozen bits of information. My father’s words were suppressed and the images with them torn into for more details.

“Come sunrise, just after the sun crests the island—” I was fairly sure that’d be when Lacey was at her most powerful, when the sun could hit us in full during the fight. Why, or how her powers worked I didn’t know. “I’ll call Boss Wylde. And if she’s feeling generous, she’ll let me pull upon a purer form of the flame than I normally use.”

“How much? Purer, I mean. My own flames are, closer to water in how they act.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never done this before. I’ve never had to fight something insanely big.”

Huge wasn’t the word to describe it. In my other form, I felt large and powerful. This creature dwarfed the fire breathing version of myself.

Leviathan

“It’s a leviathan,” I repeated the name my primal mind used. It’d called the creatures in vampire shadows, Night Shades, and Warden Bennett agreed. Leviathan might be this creature’s name.

“What the hell is a leviathan?” Agent Brand asked. She pointed at the video feeds which faced west. “It’s a Ryuujin.”

“You have your stories. I have mine. If you want me to answer your question, stop talking.”

Brand sighed, and pantomimed buttoning her lips. I had never seen anyone do that before in real life.

“If she says no, that thing eats you and you die, I probably die, and maybe it goes wild enough from a tummy ache to create a tidal wave.”

“And if she says yes?”

“The extra power should help me increase in size.” The elements were our gifts. That’s what the voice of my father had said. “And if I take in only one, well.”

“Well what? Can you take in more than one? Are there more elementals? Like metal. Or forest. Or gold?”

“No.” I squinted then shook my head.

Agent Brand shrugged. Her elements were nonsense sounding. I only knew of four, but the world had been filled with strange creatures. The various sector governments had been too effective during The Purge.

One of the screens started beeping. Brand stood and stared at the monitor. She sighed and blew out air slowly.

“Whatever. You still ready for this?”

I shrugged. It wasn’t sunrise yet.

“No,” I answered. “It’s not sunrise.”

“You need flame, right? Not the actual sun?”

“It’ll work. But the bigger the flame, the more power she’ll be able to channel.” Hopefully. It wasn’t like Lacey sat down and said, “Here’s how all of my powers work.” When alone we passed time by watching the fights below, or engaged in more adult activities.

Oddly, it wasn’t too different from Kahina. We had talked in public a bit, but not about anything major. I fought off the umpteenth sigh for the night and resolved to be more interesting for the next woman. Assuming I ever found another person I could risk getting close to.

“I can shift pretty fast. You go to the platform. Keep that thing distracted from the normal people. I’ll get a fire started then dose myself.” She pressed the button and an alarm sounded. The siren carried all over the island. I could feel it embedding into every tree, rock, and cutting across the air until it faded near the island’s far side.

“If we time it right, I’ll look like an unwilling sacrifice that you’re keeping it from, and it’ll get mad, irate, and snap me up without thought.”

“Then I use the fire.” I nodded. It made sense. Then I had to pray to whatever Gods Daniel’s kind had murdered, that Wylde would be willing to assist.

“Let’s go,” she said. “If I help you survive, Miss Wylde has promised to seek an answer to my curse.”

“Did she?”

Brand nodded. “She said you’d want to fight the Ryuujin.”

“Did she say she’d help me?” Here we’d been talking about me borrowing Wylde’s power and it sounded like Brand already had the answer. I’d been worried over nothing.

“I did ask. She said it would depend on if you were nice to her or not.”

Fuck me sideways. I hadn’t been nice at all. She’d bathed me in flame by way of revenge. This plan was already going to pieces.

Annoying Mistress of Flame. Plays power games. Unwelcome. Untimely. A distraction.

“Come on.” Agent Brand reached for a small ladder set into the wall. She yanked a thick latch and slid it to one side. The lock had partially rusted and the grinding on my senses made my teeth hurt.

By the time I looked up again, Brand was out the escape hatch and soaring through the air. Her wings burned the night air. A wave of wind blasted into the lookout tower by her wings stirred up the Warden’s ashes.

I didn’t know where she planned to dose herself on hemlock. Her knowledge of the secret layout to this tower was beyond normal. She simply adapted to crazy situations and plowed ahead.

We were both risking our lives over a stupid and easily avoided fight. Yet, we sought answers to our personal problems while putting others first. For Brand it was preventing the curse which ruined her life from destroying her descendants. For me, it had been getting Leo and Stacy off the island and keeping those close to me safe.

On the way out of the ceiling hatch, as the Warden’s ashes drifted above, it occurred to me the Wardens, Brand, and I shared another trait in common. We continued giving of ourselves to keep the world ticking by.

Until the day we came up short. I may not have been an official sector agent, but their motto made sense. Everything for the peace.