THE GLOW OF THE FIRE flickered nervously over the faces of Catty, Vanessa, and Jimena. The fear in their eyes mirrored the change they now saw in hers. Even Zahi, sprawled on the grass, looked afraid of her.
Serena smiled contemptuously. She gave them a little mental shove to demonstrate her new power.
Vanessa took a step backward, shocked, but Catty didn’t flinch. “I’m not impressed,” she said.
Jimena had a different look, one she couldn’t quite read. “We’ve got to get Serena back into the fire, quick before the firemen drag their hoses over here and put it out.”
“Why?” Vanessa asked with growing worry.
Jimena kept her eyes on Serena while she spoke to Vanessa. “So we can burn the immortality off her. You don’t get immortality without one big commitment to the Atrox.” She took a resolute step forward.
Serena laughed at the determination she saw on Jimena’s face.
“I don’t think she’s going to go.” Vanessa seemed apprehensive.
“We’ll make her,” Catty replied.
Serena taunted Jimena. “You still think you’re the tough goddess?”
Jimena didn’t answer.
Serena laughed and gave them another mental jab, but this time Jimena had prepared for it and it didn’t penetrate.
“So we’re battling now,” Serena said with glee.
Catty joined Jimena.
Vanessa stopped them. “Serena is a Lecta, a chosen one.”
“So what?” Jimena tossed her head impertinently.
“Serena was invited into the fire,” Vanessa explained. “Maggie said if you’re not invited into the fire, the flames cause a horrible death. If the fire touches either of you—any of us—”
There wasn’t the slightest hesitation on Jimena’s face. “I’m not afraid of her,” Jimena said. “She’s just a chump with an attitude and she’s going back in the fire.” With even more resolve, she strutted forward.
Serena hesitated for the slightest second, wondering what it was inside Jimena that made her willing to risk an excruciating death to save Serena. And then she let the power build inside her until the air rippled.
Jimena suddenly lunged through the thick air and grabbed Serena’s arm.
Serena let the force gather inside her mind, then she shoved it out at Jimena—one sharp invisible bolt of pure energy. Pain registered on Jimena’s face, but she didn’t drop her hold.
Then Catty broke through the waving air and took her other arm.
“No!” Serena yelled, and the scream scraped up her throat with wretched pain, the sound so deep and angry it frightened her. It wasn’t her voice.
Catty and Jimena pulled her toward the flames.
A fireman stopped them, his face in shadows cast from his helmet. “What the hell are you girls doing here?” he asked from behind his fire shield.
They ignored him and continued to pull Serena toward the flames.
“Get back,” he yelled and plunged ahead, dragging the hose. When he was only ten feet from the blaze, he lifted his fire shield, then stripped a glove from one hand and waved it in the air. A look of awe covered his face.
“Cold,” he said. “It’s cold!”
Before he could say more, two other firefighters ran up behind him and took their positions on the hose. Water charged through the hose with sudden force and shot into the flames.
The fire consumed the water, hissing violently, and grew into a billowing tower.
“We’ve got to act now.” Jimena reached for Serena again.
A policeman pushed them away from the shooting flames into the crowd that had gathered behind a barricade. Overhead a helicopter shot a column of light over the chaos. News vans set up their antennae and newscasters spoke rapidly into microphones.
“Firefighters have changed their approach,” the newscaster spoke into a microphone as kids behind her threw gang signs and waved at the camera’s eye. She continued, “At first fire officials thought the fire was set by an extreme group of punkers. Now they have determined it is a crude-oil fire, possibly caused by a methane gas explosion or seepage from the adjacent tar pits. They are now spraying a synthetic film-forming foam over the fire and do not anticipate any danger to the County Art Museum or the Page Museum.”
The camera turned to the firefighters covering the flames with foam. The flames dwindled. Smoke billowed gently into the air, gliding in and out of the bars of white-blue light cast from the police and television helicopters overhead.
Serena brushed her hands through her hair, then turned and looked at the Followers who had gathered around her. “You’re going to have to do better than you did tonight,” she scolded with a brazen smile. Then her eyes caught Zahi, standing next to Jimena. Was he trembling? She hissed at him. He backed away.
“I was worried about kissing you.” She laughed in disgust.
Her Followers laughed and the sound filled the night air with a chill.
“Goddesses,” she said. “Not tonight but soon—I’ll have the pleasure of destroying you.”
She started walking saucily away, and enjoyed the looks she saw in the faces of the men, old and young.
Then she turned back. “Be sure to tell Maggie thanks for all the extra time she spent training me to use my gift. I’m sure it will come in handy.”
Serena smiled maliciously and walked away.