Playing With Fire by Jordan Mendez Read Free Book Online Page B

was sitting on the stone
fountain that marked the center of the town. I flipped myself over and the
world was right side up again, allowing me to see the man at the fountain.
    My
breath was caught in my throat. The only thing I could focus on was the man’s
blood red eyes. I scrambled to my feet immediately. I really, really wished I hadn’t grabbed onto Vaze now. Standing before us, lounging on Laetus’s
heart, was Enzio. His arms were crossed casually and he almost seemed
human—almost.
    “Thirty
seconds; I think that’s a new record,” He said emotionlessly. “I knew you’d
come, but I didn’t think you’d make my job easier by bringing my next target to
me.” Vaze didn’t bother replying. He took out the dagger that the Bookworm had
given him. The assassin chuckled. “How cute, you think you can beat me.”
    Shrieks
that resembled a cat using glass a scratch post resonated behind us. I flipped
around to find an impossible number of Shadows streaming in through the streets
toward us. The same thing happened where-ever I looked, there were hundreds of
Shadows piling into the town square. My heart was beating so fast that I
thought it would burst out of my chest.
    In
less than a minute we were surrounded by a sea of Shadows. They made a ring
completely around us. I looked back to Enzio. As much as I was afraid of the
Shadows that surrounded us, I was more concerned about him. He was a bigger
threat than the uncountable Shadows. He seemed to read that from my expression,
and his eyes crinkled a bit, as though underneath his mask of red rags he was
smiling.
    Vaze
bolted for the assassin faster than I’ve ever seen anyone run. Though his speed
was impressive, it was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen somebody do. It
probably could have gone down into the history of dumbest things ever done, or
at least tied with something stupid that I’d done. Enzio didn’t move, nor did
he make any attempt to protect himself. He just looked completely relaxed.
    Vaze
was within inches of him with his dagger even closer to Enzio’s face, when
suddenly, Enzio was gone. Vaze stopped and looked to his right and left sides
with on-edge paranoia. Just as quickly as he had disappeared, Enzio appeared
out of the air behind Vaze. The assassin raised his arm to strike Vaze with a
black dagger, and Vaze was completely oblivious to the fact that Enzio was
behind him. But I wasn’t.
    I
concentrated on Enzio and with the flick of my hand his dagger caught fire.
Enzio yelped in pain and dropped the black dagger. Vaze whipped around and,
without missing a beat, slashed out at Enzio. Enzio jumped back, but the tip of
the dagger still caught his stomach. It tore through his shirt with ease, but
only managed to create a thin cut across his stomach.
    Enzio
shot an evil look at me and my blood froze. Fortunately for Vaze, when Enzio
momentarily stopped my heart, it also momentarily threw off his concentration
so Vaze was able to get in another shot, this time cutting a little deeper—this
time into his left shoulder. Enzio grunted but the sound was quickly drowned
out by the shrieks of the Shadows. I finally realized the Shadows were making
no attempt to attack us. It was more like they were just watching the fight as
if we were dogs they were betting on.
      
I shook it from my mind and continued to help Vaze. Whenever Enzio touched the
ground, I made fire spew out from beneath him. It may have been raining but, as
I have said before, water doesn’t affect my control over fire. In fact it
helped a little bit. Whenever Enzio was about to step into an especially large
puddle, instead of making the ground catch fire I used the fire to make the
water boil.
    There
was one flaw with my method. I had to make every trap Enzio disappear whenever
Vaze was about to step into it. It was hard to only hit Enzio without hitting
Vaze. If they had been going at a slow pace it would have been easy, but they
were moving so fast my eyes had trouble tracking