Page 28

The man snatched up his car keys from the counter, his boots crunching over broken glass, and he slammed the door behind him. Bryan lay trembling on the floor, listening to the sound of the minister's car roaring away from the house. Slowly, he got to his feet. He'd managed to guard his stomach, but his arms and legs and side were welted and swelling. The fear slowly began to dissipate and was replaced with a calm fury. He would not be threatened.

Bryan moved with focused purpose born from an intense lust for revenge. He didn't care anymore. He went to the fireplace and knocked over the pile of wood onto the living room floor. There were a few bricks of fire starter there, and he broke one up and tossed it onto the pile. Then he opened a box of matches, lit one and touched it to the kindling. The material was designed for quick combustion. It flared up, quickly spreading to the wood. Bryan dropped the entire box of matches onto the flame and it shot up, sending the whole thing into a blaze. He was silent at first, but then a wild frenzy took him. He remembered every assault, every abuse, every day he'd had to endure. He turned the couch over onto the fire, screaming as he did, tears running down his face. He ran upstairs and ripped the sheets off Josef's bed and hauled them downstairs to the flames. He would’ve taken the whole mattress, but he couldn’t lift it. He wanted to see it burn.

Thick black smoke billowed across the ceiling, sending Bryan into a fit of coughs. He wanted to throw more of the things that reminded him of the transgressions against him onto the pyre, but it was becoming impossible. He rushed outside, watching as the fire spread quickly through the house. The windows exploded, allowing the smoke to pour out to the sky. Across town, the fireman's watch sounded their alarm, and it wasn't long before most of New Pixia was awake. People began to arrive, and by the time the fire spread to the outside of the house, Bryan's mother came running up the driveway. She shifted from her wolf form when she reached Bryan, who was staring blankly at the raging flames.

"Bryan!" she shouted. "Where's the minister? What happened?"

He turned to face her, and her hand flew up to her mouth when she saw his brutalized state. He was bruised, swollen, obviously beaten. It was finally enough for her to realize that he'd been telling the truth. She wrapped her arms around him, weeping. He didn't pull away.

Firemen arrived to try and stop the blaze, but their equipment wasn’t meant to handle dousing such a large structure. Then the New Pixia Military Police arrived, and when asked if the minister was alright, Bryan replied that he wasn't inside the house. He gestured to where his car was usually parked. "He left. He went to New Lykia."

A large crowd had gathered. It seemed like almost the entire town had come to watch the house burn down.

The heat was tremendous, but Bryan didn't seem to feel it. The crowd shuffled away from the raging inferno, squinting and turning their faces. Bryan's mother and two others pulled him back to safety, but his eyes never left the house. He couldn't believe what he'd just done, but he didn't regret it. Not one bit.

Soon the firefighters gave up trying to save the structure and stood back with the crowd to watch the thing go down. The second floor imploded and collapsed inwards with a thunderous cracking noise, like the sound of trees being taken down in the forest. An hour later, the mansion was a heap of smoldering timber. The crowd began to leave, murmuring their condolences for the poor minister and his mate. Then, headlights lit up the road. People shouted and leapt out of the way as Josef's car raced madly up to the house and screeched to a halt.

"Minister," one of the firefighters said. "I'm so sorry. We did the best we could."

The Minister pushed the man out of the way and stumbled towards the house in shock. He tore at his thinning hair and groaned curses of disbelief. Then he turned around, his frenzied gaze falling on Bryan.

"You... You did this..."

Bryan glared back at him, straightening up in defiance. He didn't say a word, but his eyes spoke volumes. "You're absolutely right," they said. "I burned your fucking house down."

The Minster charged in a blind rage and struck Bryan across the face with his fist. A gasp echoed out through the crowd. All eyes were on them. Bryan's mother screamed and covered him with her arms. "Stop!" she shouted. "Stop, he's pregnant!"

Josef ignored her. He had murder in his eyes, and he shifted into his wolf form. Bryan was ready to defend himself and the child growing inside of him. He began to shift too, his focus narrowed to nothing but the enemy standing in front of him.

Josef was stopped before he even had a chance to move. The police stepped in and restrained the Minister, knocking him to the ground. "Get off me!" he barked. "You don't dare touch me."

"Shift, Minister Zamgarg. We just got a call from New Lykia. We know what you did to Minister Whitetail. You're under arrest."

He struggled against them, snapping his jaws wildly. "He was a traitor to the Empire! He deserved what he received. I'm the minister! Stop this!"

One of the officers ignited a de-shifting rod from his belt and jammed the end into Josef's side. Purple sparks arced through the air as the man was forced back into his human form, and they easily pinned his arms behind his back and put him in handcuffs. The crowd watched, astounded and dumbstruck by the entire scene that'd unfolded in front of them.

The officers stuffed Josef into the back of their car just as another police car pulled up with its sirens blaring. Healer Fielding and an assistant emerged from the vehicle and ran up to check Bryan's injuries. Firefighters began to douse the remainder of the weakened flames. The onlookers slowly dispersed, realizing that nothing else interesting was going to happen but greatly satisfied with what they'd witnessed. Tonight would be the fuel for conversations for months.

"Are you alright?" Bryan's mother asked.

He nodded. "I'm fine."

A wave of exhaustion greeted him as everything caught up with him at once. He finally could let go and put his guard down. This was definitely not the outcome he expected from this evening, but it was more than he'd hoped for. He was beaten and bruised but he was alive, and he was free from Josef. He wouldn't have to worry about the man's threats or anything else from him ever again.