Breathe in the Embers

Part 15

Margaret stayed for the rest of the day, something that Martin found less than agreeable. It would have been fine, but his classmate spent all of her time hanging out with Lithuega. That on it’s own was worrisome. The fact that every time he ran past an open door, they were watching him, and that he had an audience whenever he lifted inside the warehouse, that was downright annoying.

Especially when the two of them kept giggling.

This continued for a week, Margaret meeting up with Martin on his way out every day. In a way, it was a relief. It meant he was no longer really lying to either his parents or his friends. He was with Margaret after all. So while their company sometimes wore on him, as all company eventually did, Martin was glad Lithuega and Margaret were there with him.

This was especially true when panicked shouts echoed through the complex, when smoke filled the sky, and the flickering light of fire stained the clouds overhead.

It was the smell that got him first. The industrial district always smelled, even tasted, a bit like burning rubber. He’d grown accustomed to it. Now though, even Martin was choking on it. He glanced up, coughing into an elbow, a pillar of filthy black smoke stretching into the sky. Flames belched periodically over nearby roofs, a sight which made his heart skip. The warehouses were nearly forty feet high… if he could see the flames, especially from this angle…

“Lithuega!” he shouted, the demoness hopping down from her perch upon a crossbeam, sprinting out to join him. Margaret was close behind the lithe demon.

“Martin, go. Margaret, stay here.” Lithuega ordered without hesitation, face going grim as she took in the shooting flames.

“No! This is what…” Martin protested.

“This is a fire. No matter how strong or fast, you can burn. And if you breathe too much of that,” she pointed to the greasy pillar, “you die. You die, our contract ends, I get your soul, no one gets saved.”

“I didn’t think you’d consider that a bad thing.”

Lithuega grinned, a cocky excitement shining in her sky blue eyes. “I like the idea of being a hero. Now get the hell out of here.” she waved a hand, and Martin felt the push to leave like a physical force. He resisted at first, sensing immediately that she couldn’t make him go, and then he relaxed. Martin fell backward, turning into wisps of shadow as he fell, and disappearing into the ground.

“I didn’t know that happened to him too.” Margaret muttered, staring in shock.

“Stay. Here.”

Margaret didn’t argue as Lithuega took off, marveling at the turn of speed the demon possessed. She’d never really seen Lithuega exert herself before, and it was astonishing how physically superior she was. She tore around the corner toward the fire with every sign of enjoyment, even letting out a cathartic whoop, fist raised, throwing a wink back at the human girl.

Lithuega didn’t lose her grin as she sprang toward what was clearly a burning factory. Tires perhaps? She wasn’t quite sure, she just recognized the smell of something horrifyingly artificial filling the air. It didn’t bother her of course, but humans would find the smell most unpleasant, and quite unhealthy. Were she well rested, this would be an utter cakewalk. However, she’d been manifested for several hours now, and her strength was waning.

Time to get some more.

Her grin turned predatory as she leaped across the street, the factory set down into the ground below her. Already curls of flame licked up, drawn in as she inhaled, her veins glowing through midnight skin, shining gold. Better than an adrenaline shot to the heart!

Tossing herself over the railing, Lithuega landed on one knee, fist to the ground, chuckling as she did. Superhero landing! Then the inferno really started to pour into her, and she braced against it as one would the wind.

It was a hurricane she’d tossed herself into, threatening to pick her up, blow her away. It swirled around the heart of the factory, a vortex of heat and light, and Lithuega became immediately wary. This was no natural fire, not the way it moved with an eerie intelligence, a malign purpose. Whatever it was doing, death didn’t seem to be the goal. Factory workers fled in every direction, the fire actually clearing paths for them.

But the factory itself, flames clung to machinery and structures like napalm, burning through them. Even steel girders warped and broke apart. No wonder a demon as accustomed to the fire as she still felt overwhelmed!

“Oh my, Martin, I’ll have quite a story to tell next time we speak.” she muttered, eyes gleaming with intensity. She walked calmly into the firestorm, veins burning, ripping the fire from the air and into her lungs. Slowly, distant eyes turned to her, drawn by a power it recognized as so similar to its own.

Another demon crouched in the middle of this catastrophe, another dweller of the Inferno, another Carcholith, and Lithuega intended to give them a stern talking to.

Nobody tried to burn her city to the ground and got away with it!