Consuming Fire

Chapter 82

"Eli, please get out of here! He's dangerous and unstable and he'll kill you!!"

"Aww," said Jack as he looked back at her with pouty lips and the devil's eyes. "You guys are all re-united again, are you? Hey, how was the prom? I never got to ask you on account of ... well, what happened at the warehouse with Hunter's psycho guardian. Want to know where I spent my prom night?" With that, he reached out quicker than lightning and wrapped his huge hand around Eli's neck. "In a fucking freezer," he growled and picked Eli off his feet and launched him across the room.

Hunter screamed.

She was torn between running after Eli to see if he was hurt – and by the sound of the crack his body made as it fell against the wall, she didn't want to know – or attacking Jack. So full of emotions, Hunter did nothing as Jack turned on her next. Before he could throw a punch, she took hold of his thick wrist and forced the fire into his hands. It would have melted any normal human being, but there was something impenetrable about Jack's skin.

"I want to know-" He raised her up above him and held her by the neck. Hunter kept a grip on his arms to support herself, but she couldn't breathe properly. "Why you never came back for me."

"I did – come back," she gasped. Spots were dancing in her vision.

"LIAR!"

Hunter felt him tense up and then she was airborne. She hit the ground on her side, her hip jarring painfully and her head knocking against a cracked stone. Hot blood seeped from a cut on her lower skull. She coughed, turned over and saw Jack's body quiver with rage. He turned toward the front door of the White House and took two deep breaths before screaming loudly and throwing his fist into the ground, just as he'd done on the news report. The impact was so strong that the entire front wall cracked. The sound was deafening. Hunter watched in horror as it tipped outwards, coming down with a horrible bang on all the bodies of the dead lying on the steps outside.

As the dust cleared, Hunter could see the entire front garden of the White House. Every person who had their faces pressed against the gate could now see the fight between she and Jack. Onlookers, Federal agents, policemen, news crews, cameras. The world. She knew it would be just like the burning restaurant or the cabin, only now the fate of the country rested on her shoulders. What would happen if she couldn't beat Jack? What hope or belief in heroes would people have if she could not triumph over evil?

Hunter had already been on the news, and she couldn't hide the color of her hair so the mask was useless. She ripped it away from her eyes and dragged herself to her feet.

"I'm not lying, Jack," she said.

"Some friend you are," he growled. "I never did anything to you, and you took all of your little ICE friends and went skipping off to La La Land and left me there."

"I didn't," she said, trying to be firm and make him believe, but her voice was too shaky. "I swear to God Jack, I c-came back to get you but Dr. Wolfe locked me up and-"

"He locked me up too. But you still got out. And you rescued Will, right?"

"I never forgot you," she said as honestly as she could. "I kept hoping you were alive, and when I saw you in the Death Caves and Dr. Rosenthal shot you, I was so afraid to leave you there. Even though you were in a coma I s-still came back for you!"

"I don't believe you," he said. "I don't believe you ever cared about me. Ever."

Hunter looked up into Jack's demonic eyes, so consumed by hatred and darkness and evil that there was nothing, no sign of him at all. He really had become Destructo.

But if Hunter had learned anything about controlling the darkness in her, it was that light is always somewhere, even buried deep inside. There was still light in Jack. He could be saved from the darkness.

She just had to be brave.

Hunter pushed herself up onto her elbows and buried her fears. There was no time to be afraid. It was only Jack. It was only the guy who asked her for a pencil in the library, who discovered her powers before anyone else, who used to tell her with such innocence in his eyes that he wanted to be like her someday. It was only Jack.

"You're stronger than this darkness," she said to him in a voice she hoped was fierce. "You can beat it, I know you can."

Jack's hand reached out and grabbed a fistful of her hair, wrenching her head back.

"What did you say?" he growled.

She gazed up into his eyes, clenching her teeth from the agony, refusing to back down. So she didn't have enough power to match even his little finger. So she was weak and tired and emotionally drained, and she'd only been there for an hour. She had no other choice. For the sake of those she loved and for the sake of Jack, she had to do this.

"Think of ... Clare."

Jack's squinted eyes softened for just a millisecond. Even through her blurry vision, she saw a glimmer of humanity pass through them like a reflection of light in the black waters of the abyss. It was all Hunter needed to confirm that the Jack she used to know was still alive.

"She needs you, Jack."

Jack's grip on her throat strengthened. She saw spots in her vision. Death was creeping toward her. She was going under.

"She loves you."

Something happened in Jack's eyes. They softened, fading from black and manic to the kind, teddy-bear brown they used to be. The poisonous veins started to dissipate and his body began to shrink.

Then, Jack let go.