Chapter four

Chapter four

Of course he planned to make his rule exciting. But there were just some duties as inevitable as death; something like making peace between pesky mortals. How exciting was that supposed to be?

Abraham leaned his head on his open palm, forcing his eyes to stay open as the men before him kept on barking at each other about who was supposed to own some damned acres of their father's land.

In his usual mode, he would have set each one of them ablaze the moment they stepped before him to deprive him of fun with an issue of this sort. But then, his Aunt's words of advice had been lingering in his mind lately.

"Do not forget your purpose of reincarnation..."

Now he yawned a smoky breath. Seemed his mood was also tempering with his powers, "So now who is the rightful owner?"

"I am," both men chorused in unison. Simultaneously, they glared daggers at each other and resumed their ranting.

The King leaned backwards in his throne and turned his attention to find anything more exciting.

Ahhhh...,his ashtray!

Tracing his hand along the edges, he pulled out a brown stub of cheroot and fixed it between his lips. With a snap of two fingers, Abraham formed fire from nothing, turning his smallest finger to some kind of candle.

Slowly, he took it to the cheroot butt, lit it and smoked a few puffs before he returned his attention to the boring men.

They were gawking at him, mouth open, eyes wide, body trembling.

"Your Majesty," muttered the older, "your hand...fire..."

The King ignored their rattling and said his mind, "I will only settle a conflict how I would settle one personally. To make a fair deal, you two will fight in the ring at dawn of the morrow..."

"But Your Majesty..."

" To your deaths, " the King continued." It'll be a survival match. The one who kills the other gets to keep your damned land. "

" But he's my brother..."

Abraham twisted his brows in a humorous frown, took a long drag of smoke and blurted," Did you come to seek my wisdom for advice just so you could counter me later on? "

The younger of both men bowed submissively, trembling and obviously regretting what he'd dreadfully participated in," No my King. But do reconsider. I cannot kill my brother over a piece of land. "

" But I'm sure he can kill you. Am I right, " he turned to the other man. " Or do you plan to counter the King's orders as well? "

The answer to the question did not come immediately. While the King studied the man think intently, he whirled his hand around, playing with the fire he formed, displaying his inhumanity carelessly.

Obviously it was a move to break the confidence of his preys, something he'd been doing to mortals since he was born. Now, he sucked on his cheroot once more and waited.

"Your wish is my command Your Majesty," the older one finally replied with a bow. Although he knew he shocked the day of light out of his brother, the look on his face remained stern and discerning.

"Very well," Abraham sucked one last mouth of smoke before he smouldered the cheroot to ashes.

***

"Lothaire is back as Abraham," the thunder djinn should have been disturbed by the news. But he didn't seem surprised at the possibility.

Now he took his eyes to his allies around him, rubbing his stubbled jaw as he nodded, "Well that is a scary sort of reincarnation. What else do you have for us Martha?"

Martha...demon of knowledge sucked one long and thoughtful breath before replying," He came back as his brother's last son. It doesn't make any sense to me, but it does explain why Diabolus came back. "

In the far east of the courtroom, the blond demon...gifted with music as his element to control, was rumoured to make anyone, anything dance to his tunes by playing a captivating flute. That was one power anyone would relish. With an outstretched arm, he snarled, " What was the use of his first death if he didn't learn his lesson. He's back with his pranks."

The thunder djinn rose from his seat at the head of the stone table, consequently commanding attention, " His reincarnation came with some sort of upgrade to his abilities. Unfortunately for us, he didn't come back as the same demon you kill with a stab in the spine."

" Exactly," Martha added, the alto of her voice echoing within the cave, " He's back as a djinn. And somehow he's now one of Lucifer's favourites."

There were six other immortals in the courtroom. Out of them, a dark haired, menacing male barked out in near rage, "If Lothaire lives on, then what's the fate of the plan to wipe out mortality?"

He was the demon of creation, capable of forming and diminishing in a nick of time.

"Water," Martha finally announced with a satisfied smile, although succeeding to confuse the others. She looked around, waved her hair in demonic grace and said, "The best element we could use against a fire djinn is water. And I have just the demon."

***

The horse's hooves walked upon the path, lined by a thick wooded forest on either side of them.

While Sam Singh was still busy stating a million ways their father's death was not her fault, Razia was sure her enhanced senses had picked up a scent.

It was putrid, having the smell of a long dead corpse getting closer and closer.

But now, it was more than the smell.

A new sound came with it; predator growls.

She concluded it was a faraway lone wolf...except these growls sounded deeper, deadlier. Supernatural?

She never thought something was wrong until a dark figure dashed past with the speed of light...once, then twice.

Her brother was still blabbering when the chirping of night insects suddenly stopped. Now the total silence was uncomfortable. One even the generous light of the moon could not compensate for.

"Get behind me now," she whispered to Sam as she took the lead, sniffing, listening until the dead smell was right before her.

The water demon knew it was smarter not to wait till their stalker was in sight.

Because it might be too late.

Cautiously, her hands began to move with that flawless rhythmic whirl that always pulled surrounding water to her.

Sam just watched in excitement spiced with a little bit of fear. Then he realized... if he was going to live with her from now on, there were just some things he needed to start getting used to.

Like the spiraling water flowing up from the stream down the east hill and how it moved closer to them according to the command of his sister's hands.

Or the white light replacing her eyes that matched the silver lining down her previously dark hair.

Or even the overly aggressive looking wolves that presently surrounded them.

When did wolves have red eyes, or even fangs longer than his fingers?

Leaving her brother to drown in confusion, Razia jumped down her horse with flawless speed, moving her arms in a pattern that confused her brother.

She wanted to defeat the mutated animals by fisting the air?

But what he saw next went a long way to clear that confusion.

A fraction of the water she'd drawn froze apart from the whole into what looked like an ice spear that jabbed through the heart of the first creature.

With a twirl of her hand, she melted it, drew the water to herself until it took its previous frozen form again...just so she could attack the others one by one.

Along with her blue cloak, Razia swayed water about her, freezing and melting to suit her every thought.

With the same speed and numbers they came in, they received the deathly stabs of ice through them, ending their lives in a matter of seconds.

But at some point...they became too many.

The Indian stopped her freezing actions and gasped at the swarm of God knows what. They were angry...and determined to kill.

"What now," her brother stammered from behind her, "You know how to stop them right? With your uhh...water?"

She ignored, seemingly concentrating as her white eyes narrowed.

The creatures were closing in, surrounding, baring long, sharp teeth in wide growls. Their red eyes glittered in the new found joy of victory, so bright they didn't see what was coming.

A new predominant sound drowned their growls; and it was the sound from a wild waterfall. Except there was none around.

Slowly, all eyes turned to the source of sound. As much as they were sure what they saw was not a waterfall, they wished it was.

What stood before them was a wall of water, enormous enough it felt like an entire ocean was drained.

The roaring fluid stretched high and wide, anchored like a side of the parted red sea.

Even the animals gawked.

"Grab your reins," Razia said to her brother.

Before he could make sense of her words, he saw the wall of water come splashing down upon them. That was when her words made true sense.

He waited no longer, pulling the reins and setting the horse into full throttle away from the mighty flow of incoming water.

With a smirk, Razia followed. Having accomplished drowning the swarm of wolves, her features returned to normal and she mounted her white filly, riding just behind her brother.

But the water was catching up.

Rolling down the hill with them, it splashed violently past rocks, gushing with a speed so threatening that it neared them.

Both horses sped down with every muscle they had, on and on.

Until the water met their hooves.

And swallowed them...