Chapter nine: All Fired Up

"Next time, I should drive," said Abigail Chase. "If I had a dollar for how many laws you've broken in the last few minutes I could buy a textbook or something."

"You'll excuse me if I don't really care right now. At all," Dave Stutler did not look away from the road. Nor did he take his foot of the gas. Balthazar's car growled like a jungle cat as it navigated signs, partitions and less enthusiastic traffic. Dave drove like a person whose parents were being held hostage by a maniac, which wasn't a surprising reaction actually. Against all odds he managed to avoid any accidents, incidents, and police attention. It was amazing how far a little sorcery could go.

Dave was gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were white. Just a few more minutes, he thought. Just a few more minutes and I'll be there and I'll be able to fix it. Able to fix everything like I always do, like I always can. Right, who am I kidding, I am soooo scared right now.

"So, do you think Veronica will be able to bring Ben and your friend back from wherever they went?" Abigail said conversationally.

"I hope so," Dave took a sharp and illegal turn after missing his exit. "Veronica's powerful; she should be able to do it. She's better with complex spells than Balthazar actually."

"I hope she'll be alright, and Riley and your girlfriend too. Maybe Riley will come up with some information about Horvath, you never know. He is good at that kind of stuff."

"Yeah, not really my priority right now," said Dave. Just a couple more minutes.

"I've found that when everything around you is going to hell, everything is usually connected. You just have to find the patterns. Ben is good at patterns."

"Good for him. Right now the street pattern is occupying my attention." Dave turned onto a street of older middle class homes.

"Seems like a nice neighborhood," said Abigail.

"Okay," said Dave. He pulled up in front of a gray house halfway down the street. He'd spent most of his childhood in that house. He and Becky had been over to dinner here a week or so ago. It felt like so long ago now. If only the good times could last instead of the bad ones. The exterior didn't look out of the ordinary

Dave threw open the car door. "I'll just be a minute. Stay in the car." With that he bolted up the steps.

"Right," said Abigail, as the door at the top of the steps opened, "Like I'm going to stay in the car."

Dave was halfway across the yard when the door opened. It was his mother; she looked healthy enough, if a bit tired. "Good, you're finally here," she said. "She said she'd let us go when you came, that woman, and-"

She was interrupted when the house exploded. The ball of flame enveloped the home in an instant, Dave's mother was vaporized. Burning debris scattered across the yard and neighboring homes. A flaming beam slammed down on the hood of the ghost, cracks spread across the windshield on impact.

"Maybe I will stay in the car," Abigail whispered as she watched Dave Stutler plunge into the inferno.

Dave screamed, and the fire roiled around him. He could feel the heat, and the smoke stung his eyes, but a vacuum shield protected him from the worst of the injury.

It had taken a second, perhaps too. His home was gone and his mother was dead. Who could do something like that, who would dare do something like that.

"Hello David Stutler." It was the woman from the phone call. "I'm behind you, in case you were wondering. I assume you're looking for me, as I'm afraid your teddy bear perished in the blaze. Oh, and your mother too, now that I think about it."

She standing in a sort of bubble surrounded by flame, a surprisingly young and pretty woman with silvery hair. She wore black, and a stainless steel knife glinted in her hand. Her arms were folded, and Dave's father hung limp, unconscious, in the air behind her.

"Ysabelle," Dave hissed, stomping toward her as the frame of the house broke down around him.

"You think," she snorted. "Stay right there, I've got a few questions for you, or I kill your father. First, you really are the Prime Merlinian, yes?"

"Yes," Dave was shaking now, "And I am going to kill-"

"Sure you are," said Ysabelle. "Guess that explains why you're able to survive this heat without a sorcerer's ring. Very perceptive of you."

"Wait, you have no ring," Dave noticed.

"Well, not a ring exactly," Ysabelle reached for the chain at her neck and pulled out a black stone, set in silver, before letting it slip back out of sight between her breasts. "It works. Next question, the hourglass, it is at your old science laboratory haunt, is it not?"

"No."

"Really?" she tapped his father's nose with the knife.

"Alright, yes it is."

"Good."

"Is there anything else you want to ask before I tear you into pieces?" Dave growled. He had never really wanted to kill anyone before, not Drake Stone, not Horvath, not even Morgana, though he hadn't really known her. Not like he wanted to kill this woman now. He wanted to see her burn, the flesh scorched from her bones, just like she'd done to his mother.

"No," Ysabelle's brow furrowed in thought. "I think I'm done here." And with that she opened his father's throat with a flick of her wrist.

Ysabelle jumped as a plasma bolt shot the knife of her hand. She barely had time to blast Dave's father's corpse away into the flames before the Prime Merlinian slammed into her.

Her vacuum bubble collapsed as Dave's hands tightened around her throat. She didn't struggle as he rammed her into the ground, straddling her midsection. Keeping himself shielded, Dave reached out to influence the flames around him, focusing them on his quarry.

Ysabelle's flesh skin blackened and and cracked, tearing away, her hair flared, her clothing smoldered. Dave couldn't look away as the flesh melted away under his hands. Tears evaporated on his cheeks. It sickened him, and yet he couldn't, wouldn't make himself stop. Not till he stopped seeing his parents murdered in his mind's eye. Not until there was nothing left.

He didn't get the chance.

Ysabelle opened her lipless mouth. "Well," her voice was slurred by her injuries, "That's enough of that." She brought her hands together in a clap.

Dave was thrown off her and through what remained of the wall, which promptly collapsed on top of him. Clambering out of the debris, Dave was unable to glimpse anything through the firestorm. Except for a particularly large plasma bolt headed right for his face.

Though his shield managed to keep it from harming him, the impact hurled Dave through another wall and into the yard, where he slammed into the earth.

As Dave got to his feet, a burning spear of wood arched toward him. He ducked, knocking it aside magically, and blasted away a wider board that had also been hurled at him.

Ysabelle emerged from the flames, her hair growing out to its original length before his eyes. Her skin was pure, unharmed, and almost entirely visible. Dave summoned a ball of plasma, but it exploded in his face, as the ground below him shifted, the soft earth swallowing his right leg up to the knee, while the grass curled around him like small, and surprisingly strong, fingers.

"I'll be with you in a minute," Ysabelle bit her lip in concentration, looking down at herself. The scraps of her burnt clothing stretched, shifted and knitted together to better preserve her modesty. "That'll do. Now where were we?"

"How…" Dave had never seen a magical healing like that. "What are you?"

"Fine, thanks," said Ysabelle, "If a little underdressed. I just killed your parents; it's the least you can to offer a little more stimulating conversation."

Dave roared, as he tore free of the yard. His energy blast broke against Ysabelle's shield, but his swinging punch caught her right in the side of the face, sending her stumbling back. "Yes," she said, spitting out a tooth even as an identical canine pushed from her gum to fill its void, "That's more like it."

Ysabelle's jab went in under Dave's chin, and he felt as he'd never be able to breathe again. Gasping, he saw her fist in the corner of his eye, and rolled with the punch, taking it on the side of the head. Like all sorcerers, she was far stronger than she looked.

Dave threw a punch, but Ysabelle caught his wrist, slammed her palm into elbow, and twisted. There was a sound like a gunshot as Dave let off a small sonic blast in her face, and he pulled free.

The ground exploded upward in front of Ysabelle, showering her with dirt and gravel. "Ooh, that's intimidating. Ergo, not," she coughed. Ysabelle ducked as Dave swung a flaming piece of wood at her head.

Dave stabbed the torch, the jagged burning wood went into the meat of Ysabelle's shoulder, and she twisted, yanking the torch out of his hands. Her bare foot jabbed into his gut with more force than he would have thought possible.

As Dave crumpled, Ysabelle grabbed him the shoulders and threw him over her hip. Dave hit the ground and rolled into the street.

Ysabelle pulled the torch from her shoulder and blew on the embers. Dave shielded himself as flames crackled around him.

He could here emergency sirens; he would have to finish this quickly if he wanted to avoid any unpleasant memory modification. As if finishing this quickly was even an option, he could tell Ysabelle's shoulder was already healing. Dave reached out and telekinetically seized a manhole cover, hurling it at his enemy. Ysabelle stepped to the side, allowing the metal discuss to crash into the remains of the house behind her.

A plasma bolt crashed into Dave's shield. Then another, and another. He was pressed back by relentless onslaught, as Ysabelle strode toward him, hurling fistful after fistful of energy.

There was a horrible screech followed by a dull thud. Dave opened his eyes to see Rolls halfway up on the lawn, its hood crumpled in. Abigail Chase clambered out of the driver's seat. "I told you I should drive." The car behind her promptly exploded.

Abigail seemed alright when Dave helped her up. She was bleeding from multiple scrapes and slightly singed, but she'd be alright. The car, however, was a burning wreck. A fire engine turned the corner at the far end of the street. "Who was that?" she asked, dazed.

"She's like nobody I've ever fought before?" Dave admitted. He looked around for Ysabelle, but she seemed to have disappeared.

"Where'd she go?" Abigail asked. There was a muffled explosion from somewhere nearby, and the emergency sirens petered out. "Oh, that's where."

Abigail's phone vibrated, she pulled it out of her pocket. "It's Riley," she said. She answered.

Dave stood still, the flames of his parent's home reflected in his eyes. He realized as Abigail hung up that he could have listened to the phone call, he just hadn't been paying attention. "Good news?" He could use some of that right now.

"Some of it, yes," said Abigail. "But they broke into your lab. The hourglass is gone. Your girlfriend is gone and Veronica is dying."

"Let's get back there, then," said Dave quietly.

"I'd have figured you for going after that witch-person."

"What's the point," said Dave. "It's not like I can even beat her anyway."

First Balthazar, then his parents, not even their house or car was left. Now Becky and Veronica. It was as if he no longer had any emotion, he could only watch everyone he loved torn away.

The mailbox's splintered post gave way, and it slammed down on his foot.