The Burns Fire Read online

  As soon as Gunz walked inside the lobby, the secretary that was sitting behind the front desk got up and walked around to greet him. She looked young, no more than twenty in human years, but Gunz could sense her vampiric energy signature and he knew that looks could be deceiving.

  “Mr. Zane Burns?” she asked with a formal smile.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Ms. Ida is expecting you, sir,” she said, gesturing toward the hallway on her right. “Please follow me.”

  Gunz followed her through the long, well-lit hallway all the way to the end, where she stopped in front of a polished, light-maple door. She asked him to wait a moment and opened the door letting the queen know that Mr. Burns was here. Gunz felt slightly troubled by the fact that no one checked him for concealed weapons, and except for a slim vampire-secretary, there were no giant bodyguards in front of the door.

  He walked inside the queen’s office and stopped at the door. The office was large, decorated in the same modern style but with Japanese influence. At the far end of the office, he noticed a beautiful four-tier wall mount with four katana swords fitted inside. Gunz didn’t know much about Japanese swords. However, these four blades didn’t look like something you could buy at the local flea market, and he assumed that the queen wouldn’t keep a cheap “Made in China” knockoffs in her office. The swords had to be real-deal ancient samurai katanas.

  Out of the furniture, there was only an office desk and a couple of leather chairs. A few plants and decorative elements were placed sporadically around the office, but the rest of the space was unoccupied. The queen was sitting behind the office desk, but as soon as Gunz stepped inside her office, she rose and smiled. She was short and willowy, no more than five-foot-tall, and it was amazing to think that this tiny woman was holding in fear every single undead that was roaming the streets of Florida.

  Even dressed in a modern business suit with a tight pencil skirt, Akira had this unmistakable exotic charm of an oriental woman. Her face, a delicate oval, had a porcelain whiteness of vampire skin, deprived of sunlight. Her eyes were blue which was rare for Japanese women and had a sharp angular cut. She lifted her small hand with bright red nails and quickly fixed a lose strand of her long black hair that was pulled in a tight bun on the back of her head.

  “Mr. Burns, good evening,” she said gesturing at the leather chair in front of her desk, her lips forming a delicate smile that didn’t reflect in her glacial eyes. “Please come in, make yourself comfortable.”

  “Good evening, ma’am,” said Gunz, bending forward in a formal bow to show his respect. She arched her eyebrow, visibly surprised by his greeting style and lowered her head in a light nod as her eyes warmed up just a touch. He sat down in the chair and looked at her, expecting her to start the conversation.

  “Mr. Burns—,” she started to say but then sighed and smiled. “May I call you Zane? Sometimes all these formal salutations just don’t feel right to me.”

  “Yes, ma’am, of course,” replied Gunz, noticing that he was smiling back at her, mesmerized by her clear voice and sweet disposition. He couldn’t help but wonder if it was her vampire powers that had this effect on him or it was her natural charm.

  “Thank you. You don’t need to call me ma’am or your majesty either,” she said with a dismissive wave of her delicate hand. “Akira would be just fine. Every time someone calls me ma’am or your majesty, I feel extremely old.”

  She feels old. This is priceless coming from an ancient vampire who is a few thousand years old, thought Gunz.

  “Akira, yesterday you left me a message, asking me to visit you,” started Gunz. “I assume you have something to tell me?”

  “Yes, Zane. I know you have been looking for some answers and I think I have what you’ve been looking for,” she said, her blue eyes gazing calmly at him.

  “You know something about Eve?” asked Gunz before he could stop himself.

  The left corner of her lip twitched a little in a quick smirk and Gunz cursed himself in his mind. He had to be more careful. He can’t allow himself to get indebted to a vampire queen.

  “Yes, Zane. This is exactly why I invited you here,” she confirmed, lowering her head gracefully in a nod.

  Gunz didn’t reply right away, considering his every word. “What would this information cost to me?” he asked finally, holding her blue gaze.

  “You’d owe me nothing,” she said rising sharply. She turned away and walked to the wall with the swords. Her fingers slowly followed the shape of one of the blades. After a moment she turned around. “I’ll do my best to answer all the questions you have, and I expect nothing in return. The only thing I want from you is to do your job and free our realm from Eve’s malignant presence, hopefully forever.”

  “Why?”

  The Scarlet Queen wasn’t known for her charitability and any favor she ever did had to be returned in kind.

  “Normally, we’re representing the opposite teams, but I believe the time has come for us to put aside our difference and start working together. Eve is our common adversary,” explained Akira calmly, but the thin arches of her dark eyebrows pulled together above her blazing eyes. “It’s the enemy-of-my-enemy situation.”

  “I was investigating a few homicides and I believe Eve killed these people, but all of them were humans,” said Gunz.

  “Eve doesn’t discriminate between the mundane and supernatural,” said the queen softly. “She does something to my children, forcing them to act in strange and unnatural ways. And not only upirs and vampires. I believe Queen Aisling had the same problem. Besides that, since Eve made her presence known in my territory, many of my loyal subjects have gone missing.”

  “Missing?” asked Gunz.

  “Yes, missing,” said Akira, shaking her head. “I had a report of two large packs of volkolaks. And a few of my spies reported that Eve enchanted my vampires, a few demons and even a couple of stray lycanthropes, turning them into volkolaks.”

  “That’s not possible,” muttered Gunz. “I thought that only humans could be turned into volkolaks.”

  She smiled at him kindly and walked toward a bonsai tree that was sitting on a small wall shelf. She touched its leaves, carefully adjusting them.

  “There are a lot of things that you think is impossible,” she murmured without looking at him. “You’re too young, Zane, and your knowledge of the world is limited. Of course, your youth is just a tiny disadvantage that will disappear with time…” She flicked her fingers over her shoulder at him.

  “This Eve must be an extremely powerful witch to pull something like this,” mumbled Gunz. He turned in his chair, following Akira’s progress across her office.

  “Powerful… Yes, that she is,” confirmed Akira airily. She remained calm and seemingly unconcerned. “But she’s not a witch. Not anymore…”

  “What is she?”

  “Her real name is Aoife and she is an ancient air demon with the powers of a war goddess,” stated Akira serenely. She walked back to her desk and sat on the edge in front of Gunz. “At some point in her life she was a witch, trained by druids. But for her evil deeds, an ancient Irish god, Bodb Derg, King of the Tuatha Dé Danann, cursed her by turning her into a terrible air demon, hoping that she would disappear forever.” The queen stopped talking and closed her eyes for a moment, looking like she was exploring the memories of those old days.

  “Seems like another case of good intentions gone wrong,” muttered Gunz. “The King was hoping that the evil witch would disappear, instead he armed her with dangerous power and magic… Anyway, what does she want? What is she doing here after all these years?”

  “Ah, that is a very good question,” said the queen. She glanced down, twisting a diamond ring on her right hand before continuing. “I’m not sure what she wants. But whatever it is, it’s not going to be good neither for humans nor for vampires. I like the balance we have on my territory right now, Zane. My children do not harm humans and your team does not exterminate my children just b
ecause their dental records are slightly different than yours.”

  “Speaking of dental records,” said Gunz. “A few days ago, an upir attacked people in a dental office. Was it one of yours?”

  “Yes, he was – Diego Vargas. He was abducted and enchanted by Eve,” she confirmed Gunz’s suspicions. “I was following Eve’s steps to try and guess her intentions, but nothing she does makes any sense. I followed all the breadcrumbs, but it seems like she keeps changing her directions, jumping from one end to the other… I’m not sure, but possibly she feels that someone is on her tail and it’s her deception technique… But whatever it is – it surely is working. I’m unmatched at the art of war, studying it for years, and I still can’t put two and two together.”

  “Someone told me that Eve wanted to force one person out of the state. I was never told who he was. The only information given to me was that this person was extremely powerful and influential,” said Gunz. “Do you know who this man is?”

  Akira laughed, her laughter sounding like little silver bells. “I figured she would want him out of the way. She’s afraid that he has become powerful enough to stop her. And I didn’t think that she would attempt to kill him, again. After all, it is for cursing this man and his three siblings she got punished in the first place.”

  “Who is he?”

  “I can’t tell you that, Zane, as I’m bound to protect his true identity.” She sighed, softly patting his hand. “You need to talk to your frenemy Aidan McGrath about it. He can tell you everything there is to know about this person.”

  As soon as Akira called Aidan his frenemy, a few red flags went up in Gunz’s mind. Akira knew about his disagreements with Aidan. It could mean only one thing – the Scarlet Queen was well informed about all his moves and he didn’t like the idea of the vampire queen keeping tabs on him.

  “I’m not Aidan’s most favorite person at the moment,” he said dryly, “I doubt he would talk to me at all. Can you tell me anything else about this person?”

  “All I can tell you is that this highly influential and powerful person is Eve’s stepson. Aidan will have to give you more details.”

  “Fine,” agreed Gunz, understanding that Akira wouldn’t say anything else. “How do I kill Eve?”

  “You can’t. She is an immortal air demon. And when I say immortal – I mean it. There are no known ways to kill her,” explained Akira with a light shrug. “But if you join with Aidan McGrath, between the two of you, you may find a way to defeat her and vanquish her from this realm. Unfortunately, this is all the information I can give you on Eve. If I come across any new information, I will contact you.”

  “Understood, ma’am. Thank you for your help,” he replied, forgetting that she asked him to use her first name. Assuming that the meeting was over, he got up ready to leave but she gestured at him to wait.

  “One more question,” she said, walking toward the wall and pulling one of katanas off the rack. “How good are you at the swordplay? Do you know how to wield a sword?”

  “A sword?” He stared at her incredulous. “Why?”

  “I understand that with your fire power, you are the ultimate weapon against any vampire. But I do not believe for one second that you showed up for the meeting with the Scarlet Queen otherwise unarmed.” She smirked down at him, and when he didn’t move, she laughed and put her sword on top of her desk. “Zane, at the moment, I believe you’re my ally and as such you have no reason to worry. I just wanted to see your blade. Indulge my curiosity. Please.”

  Akira said “please”, but even this humble word sounded like an order, coming from her. Gunz sighed and reached into his pocket. He pulled out his Swiss army knife and touched it, turning it into a long medieval sword. She gasped and stretched her hands toward the blade but halted an inch short of it.

  “May I?” she asked breathlessly.

  He nodded and held out the sword in his both hands, offering it to her with a light bow. Akira took the sword and brushed her fingers over the blade, turning it to check the balance and weight. She made a few moves, the heavy blade in her delicate hands cutting through the air with a soft swoosh.

  “What a beautiful weapon,” she whispered. “A little too heavy like all medieval blades. I still prefer my katanas. But it’s perfect for a strong man like yourself.” She gave him the sword back and picked up her katana from the desk. “Care for a little exercise?”

  Gunz glanced around the room, wondering if she wanted to spar with him right here, inside the office. His eyes shifted to her tight business skirt and high heels, and he wondered how she was planning to spar dressed like this.

  “There is more than enough space here,” she confirmed. “I want to see how good a modern man can be with an ancient weapon. Are you game?”

  “No vampire’s speed and glamor?”

  “No Salamander’s fire?”

  “Deal.” Gunz chuckled and assumed the guarding stance, holding his sword to his shoulder.

  Akira winked at him and raised her katana. True to her word, she wasn’t using her vampire speed or strength, but even her uncomfortable attire didn’t help Gunz to win. She was light and fluid, dancing circles around him and during the course of a few minutes, her sword found its way to his neck a few times.

  After three five-minute rounds, she stopped him, lowering her sword. While Gunz was breathing faster, his forehead covered in beads of sweat, the fifteen-minute sparring match had no effect on Akira. Her skin remained porcelain-white and her cold face carried no traces of perspiration.

  “Your swordsmanship is not terrible, Zane,” said the Scarlet Queen. She walked toward the rack with the swords and carefully sheathed her katana, placing it back on the rack. “But you’re lacking the finesse and strategic thinking of an experienced swordsman.”

  Gunz nodded at her. He transformed his sword into the Swiss army knife and put it back into his pants pocket. He had no illusions about his swordsmanship and was positive that Akira with her perfect manners was trying to make him feel better by complimenting him.

  Akira smiled. It wasn’t even a smile, just a tiny twitch of her small puffy lips. “I’m sure you’ve heard this one before… Probably from your master or whoever trained you.” She walked around her desk and sat down, pointing with her hand at the chair across from her.

  “Yes, ma’am,” replied Gunz, sitting down. “I was trained by Kal and the Ancient Master of Power. But I don’t think I had learned enough. The Ancient Master told me once that I use my sword like a woodcutter and I would be better off with an axe.”

  Gunz smiled sadly thinking that he should have stayed longer in Kendral and got more training, not only in his swordsmanship and martial arts but also in magic and Dragon tongue. His fiasco with the Demonic Queen made him realize that he needed to learn a lot more about his power and magic and how to use them effectively.

  “Aw, that’s not true, Zane. The Ancient Master was teasing you. He’s famous for his mean tongue.” She laughed exposing her small, perfectly straight teeth. Gunz cringed inwardly reminded of the second set of teeth she had that wasn’t visible at this moment, thinking how many thousands of people she ripped apart with her fangs. “If you wish, I can give you a few lessons in swordsmanship myself. That’s if you promise not to turn your sword against me, of course.”

  Gunz chuckled, shaking his head. “With all due respect, Akira, I can’t promise you that. If you step outside the line, it’s my duty to this city to stop you.”

  “I like you, Zane, you’re respectful and honest, unlike most of the modern youth.” Her eyes narrowed at him, turning into two thin angled slits. “And you have the makings of a great Bushido warrior. What you failed to understand is that there are no clear lines between good and bad. At the best, they are faded, blurry, sometimes even nonexistent.” She fell silent for a few moments. “It’s nice to be young, when everything is so simple – black is always black and white is always white, and there are no grey territories… As a Fire Salamander, you will forever keep
your youthful appearance, but your soul will get older and you will grow wiser. And when we meet a few hundred years from now, I’ll remind you of this conversation.”

  “Maybe you’re right, Akira, and there is no well-defined border between what’s right and what’s wrong,” said Gunz. “But Kal taught me the old code of honor and I embraced it. Based on that, I created my own lines and I prefer to stay within these lines as much as I can. So, as much as I’d like to take a few lessons from you, ma’am, I can’t promise you complete immunity. If you or your children hurt any people on my watch, I will turn this sword against you. That I can promise.”

  The queen pulled back in her chair and gazed at him, slightly tilting her head to the side.

  “Child of Fire,” she said finally, “you have the fire in you in more ways than you know. But also, you’re very human. With time Fire Salamanders become more Fire than human, tired of loss, pain and the burden of human emotions… Immortality has its drawbacks. You’ll learn… with time.

  “Anyway, I believe you are a man of honor and I respect it. Your honesty must be rewarded. So, I will give you the swordsmanship lessons. Once a week. Until I believe that you are ready to face the Ancient Master in single combat, without living through the shame of defeat. No strings attached. No debt involved, if that’s what you’re worried about. Assuming, we are both still alive.”

  Gunz got up and bowed to her. “Thank you, ma’am. I gratefully accept your offer.”

  She rose and gave him back a light bow. “I will teach you the ancient kenjutsu, the art of swordsmanship. The one that wasn’t tainted by the modern western civilization. I haven’t taught anyone for many years and I think I’ll enjoy teaching you, Zane. Just remember one thing. For two hours once a week, you’re not a Fire Salamander and I’m not a Scarlet Queen. I’m your master and you’re my student. And for these two hours of training, you belong to me, body and soul.”

  “And during these two hours, there will be nothing but training?” asked Gunz carefully. “Akira, you will never demand of me doing something against my beliefs, would you?”